Life Optimization

Along with some of the things that have interested me over the week, I think it is important to also supply you with a few lifehacks that have helped us out along the way.  For example, while I wait on Lindsey to finish up her part of the blog post, I provided you with something we use to help us with our mail when living abroad.  I thought I would provide you with another little trick that has helped my life tremendously this past week

A small confession

I have a small confession to make.  I am horrible at spelling and grammar.  This is hard to admit as a teacher who is supposed to be educated, but I will admit that when I am at the whiteboard, I have butchered the English language.

Normally this has not been a problem.  With the joys of autocorrect and spell checker, I have been able to mask my deficiency; however, two recent events have made it harder to hide.  First, writing reports, and second, writing this blog.  Without the aide of spell-checker, I have had to count on my rusty skills of proofreading to help me out.

Enter Grammarly

Luckily I found a Grammarly.  Grammarly is a writing app that helps you check grammar and spelling.  While it works with Microsoft Office and has its own dashboard much like Google Docs, the best feature, in my opinion, is that it has its own Google Chrome Plugin.

And the best part of it is that it is free!

Yes, I know that I could write things in Microsoft Office first and then cut and paste into the screen for my blog, but why waste the extra time when you can get a free plugin.  Grammarly has a paid service as well.  I will be looking into it to see if it is worth your while.  Hopefully, you will see fewer mistakes in further posts!

Grammarly hard at work as we speak!

click on the banner below to try Grammarly for free!

Other woolgatherings

I have been a big proponent of taking care of our own finances rather than paying someone to do it for us.  I am constantly worrying if I am doing the right thing.  This article from the American Enterprise Institute has allayed my fears a bit.  It states that 95% of financial professionals cannot beat the market.  This means that instead of paying a financial advisor an exorbitant fee, I am better off investing in low-cost index funds, in my opinion.

We are big fans of the TV show Black Mirror (you can find it on Netflix).  This article from wired seems like an episode in real life! The Chinese government is going to create a national trust score for each of its citizens.  Crazy stuff!

This final article hits close to home.  It is about college students complaining about writing after their professors ban laptops in their lectures.  We are currently at a BYOD (bring your own device) laptop school, and while the technology is great, it is distracting to the students much of the time.

On Our Bookshelf

Only Simon has found time to read this week.  Lindsey and I are both currently in the middle of books, and hopefully, next week we can write a review.

Mommy got A Squash and a Squeeze when she went away to Dubai.  I have to read it at least 4 or 5 times in a row.  Mommy memorizd it already! I particularly like how ‘Squash’ sounds like ‘Squeeze’!