Print Edition: July 26, 2008
HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH?
Outta the Zone…Have you ever wondered how much you are worth? According to the U.S. government’s Environmental Protection Agency your life isn’t worth as much as it used to be. In today’s dollars, a U.S. statistical life is now worth $6.9 million, a drop of nearly $1 million from five years ago. That figure is based on what people are willing to pay to avoid certain risks and how much extra employers pay their workers to take on additional risks. Okay, but this seems a bit tricky to me. I mean, how many guys, without thinking, answer the question, "Do I look fat in this?" Any answer guarantees your life is not worth a plug nickel, so wouldn’t that alone throw off the statistics?
I think the guy in Perth, Australia who put his life up for sale on eBay had a better idea. He auctioned off his house, motorcycle, jet ski, job, and introductions to his friends. The winning bid was $384,000. That’s a tad less than $6.9 million but at least the guy has the cash in his pocket and can now buy a whole new life. I thought about doing this myself but I couldn’t come up with the want-ad. "For sale: Life of an old, short, bald guy with chicken legs and fading eyesight." Somehow I’m guessing that’s a package that would not be in high demand.
The good news is that according to Medicare provider Humana there are some things you can do to add to your value. Researchers discovered that senior citizens who exercise (or go to a gym) two or more times per week over the course of two years averaged at least $1,252 less in health care expenses than those who exercised less than once a week. Having an additional $1200 smackers in your pocket has to be nothing but good.
One simple way to exercise is to walk every day, something you can do wherever you may be. A website, www.walkscore.com, has ranked the most walkable cities and neighborhoods in the country (San Francisco is at the top of the list). You can also go onto the website, put in your home address and it will calculate a "walkability" score specifically for your location.
If you walk enough you may even qualify to become a Scuppie. As you know, the hot new thing to be is "green" and walking fits in perfectly with that goal. Strictly defined, Scuppie stands for Socially Conscious Upwardly-mobile Person. A Scuppie: 1) Desires all the best life can offer and strives for those goals in a socially conscious manner, 2) Is dedicated to the pursuit of peace, happiness and cash (not necessarily in that order), and 3) Understands the love of money does not preclude the love of nature …and vise-versa. You can learn all of this in the Scuppie Handbook at www.scuppie.com.
Of course, with all that walking you might want to just sit down and read at the end of the day and if you’re a sports fan do I have a website for you. Just launched last Wednesday, Sporting News Today is a brand new daily sports electronic newspaper that is just too cool for words. It’s an expansion of the venerable Sporting News tabloid that used to come out bi-weekly, something that has been an American icon for decades. To see this in action, go to www.sportingnewstoday.com and noodle around. The "Wow Factor" for this thing is off the charts.
Finally, a tech note. Several columns ago I recommended Open Office www.openoffice.org, a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Essentially, this free, downloadable software looks and operates just like MS Office, which saves you more than $300 in software costs.
Several readers have thanked me for pointing them to Open Office, but there has been one persistent question: "Can I save my Open Office documents so they can be opened by Microsoft Word?"
Here’s the scoop. The Open Office Writer (which is the same as Microsoft Word) saves documents with a .odt file extension (like myfile.odt). Word saves its files with a .doc file extension (myfile.doc). Because Bill Gates hates Open Office if you try to open a .odt file using Word it won’t open.
To get around that minor annoyance here’s what to do. For individual documents, when you go to save an Open Office file first name the file and then underneath that field you’ll see the "Save as" field. Click the dropdown arrow and you’ll see a whole range of other choices, one of which will be Microsoft Word. Choose that option and your document will be saved as a Word file, meaning anyone else with MS Word will be able to open your file.
If you’ve already saved an Open Office file as .odt, just open it up, click File, Save as, and then go through the same steps to save a second copy as a .doc file.
Now, if you want to save all your documents as .doc (Word) files and avoid the .odt extension completely, do this. In Open Office Writer click Tools at the top of the screen. Then click Options, click the plus sign next to Load/Save, click General and then look on that window for the Default file format, There will be a field called "Always save as." Click the arrow and from the list choose Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP. Click OK. Now all your documents will be saved as Microsoft Word documents. In essence, you now have Microsoft Word and it didn’t cost you a dime.
Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.
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