Weekend Reading: “OMG, Twitter Went Down” Edition

The world was shocked yesterday, when Twitter ruthlessly ripped it’s servers down for what they called “scheduled maintenance.”  Scheduled maintenance, my ass. What in the world was I suppose to do for the 90 minutes I was not able to access my followers thoughts, hope, dreams, and spam?  Did Twitter even think about how this would effect me?

Sigh, actually I had a nice dinner with my family.  It was weird. Afterward, I was even super-productive for the 30 minutes I worked.  I completely cleaned my desktop, bookmarks, and working space.  I felt awesome, refreshed, and focused.  All that aside, Twitter was lucky they had everything back up after a short time.  I had prepared a 2000 word rant to convince you all to boycott them permanently, but that’ll have to wait for another day.

By the way, there are some of you who either do not know what Twitter is or simply have been avoiding it on purpose.  You are our civilizations only hope. Run, don’t walk, away from any mention or sight of Twitter.  The future of our race depends on it.

Here’s some awesome links to get you through your weekend personal finance fix:

My Favorite 3 Posts…

• Five Cent Nickel was on fire this week.  Seriously, I had 4 articles bookmarked from that site.  In the interest of only choosing one, I will have to go with a post by Matt Jabs entitled Off the Grid and Into the Future.  This post lead to a serious discussion between my wife and I on how we could do this as well.  That’s what a good post should do.

• Frugal Dad was right on their heels with 3 posts bookmarked this week.  This is actually pretty rare for me, but both these sites are really starting to grow on me.  I’ve chosen the following post due to the fact that it is just crammed full of useful information.  Check out The Ultimate Collection of Money Saving Tips:  122 Ways To Trim Your Budget!

• The Wisdom Journal created an awesome list of random things he has survived in his life.  It’s an ‘ode to the panic spread by both the swine flue and this recession as a whole.  It’s a great list that I guarantee will make you laugh at least once.  I personally could relate to most of them in one way or another.

Man Vs. Debt Around The Web…

This week was a big honor for me as I was given exposure by my two favorite blogs over the last two years.

• First, Leo from Zen Habits added me to his Tumble Log, where he links a few sites a day from around the web (it was last Saturday, so it’s on page 2 now).

• Second, J.D. from Get Rich Slowly included me in his most recent link round-up.  Once again, an awesome honor as GRS was one of the first personal finance blogs I followed.

• I was honored to be included in way too many link round-ups to mention them all.  Some of the larger ones included Free Money Finance, Christian Personal Finance, and Moolanomy.  Thanks to everyone who included me!

Personal Finance Carnivals…

• Weakonomics hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance.

• Man Vs. Debt (that’s me) hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction.

Best Of The Rest…

• Debt Free Adventure created his own Financial Network Map, which admittedly is much more complicated, but much better looking than mine!

• Budgets Are Sexy posed an interesting question, I Grant You One Free Luxury – Which Shall You Pick? He outlines several options, but for me it’s not even close!

• Bargaineering featured an interesting and detailed piece on How To Properly Destroy A Credit Card.  I don’t go nearly as far as Jim, but in the future I just might!

• Free Money Finance looks into an option that is near and dear to our hearts, How To Afford Retirement:  Move To A Foreign Country.

• The Simple Dollar looks at reasons for choosing to earn less money.  It really got me thinking about the choices we’ve made.

• Bad Money Advice took a detailed and thoughtful look into the cost/reward of student degrees.  There are a lot of different issue that are touched on and the comments have gotten particularly interesting.

• WiseBread lists 7 Ways To Monitor and Protect Your Credit For Less.  This is a great list of cheap/free methods of keeping an eye on your credit.  My wife and I froze our reports recently (free in Indiana)!

• That One Caveman had an insightful article on 8 Things New Parents Don’t Need.  He’s gotten a ton of much deserved press from MSN and StumbleUpon!

• Paid Twice discussed Adopt These Four Mindsets To Break Free From Debt.  My favorite is “Debt is not an option.”  That has worked wonders for our family.

• Weakonomist featured a great article that brings out the inner geek in us all.  If you enjoy 6 Lessons Star Wars Can Teach Us About Money, be sure to look into his older post comparing political figures to Star Wars characters.

Be sure to answer the most important questions of the weekend when you comment!  What did you do while Twitter was down?