How to shop for mortgages and pay your mortgage off early. Noelle Asks: Hey Ben! Do you have any resources/advice for finding a good mortgage lender? Hi, Noelle. Here are 9 Tips for finding mortgage lenders 1. Compare Mortgage Options Even if you don’t use them, the AimLoan.com website will let you compare various scenarios without you … Read more
This post is an unscientific spot test I did of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile providers in the greater Sandpoint, Idaho area. What’s the best mobile provider in North Idaho? Verizon, by far, has the best network coverage, but it is oversold and slows to a crawl at times. T-Mobile is the only network with usable … Read more
Out of prudence, I switched my family from Android to iPhone due to Google Killing off Gmail Legacy. Of course, at the last second, Google decided to let us keep our Gmail accounts and phone numbers after all, but I was already past the point of no return. I had moved us to iPhone and … Read more
When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. – Proverbs 21:15 ESV What a way to close out Pride month. I never thought the reversal of Roe V Wade possible. While we are not there yet, the right for babies to live is something towards which I strive. … Read more
My favorite method of server power reserve is a flywheel. It’s also the best way to have completely air-gapped protection from lightning strikes and surges. I was about to get one but realized I don’t have the space for it in the garage. When you have limited space, a Battery UPS will do in a … Read more
One casualty of Google Killing off Legacy GSuite is we risk losing our Google Voice phone numbers. I estimate I’d need to waste two weeks of vacation to spend on the phone updating my number with every contact, vendor, organization, and government agency. I think it would be best to not lose our phone numbers. … Read more
The Year of the Dogs If I could sum up the entire 2021 it is this: We got dogs, and now we’re behind on everything else (including this post, this is the most time-slipped retrospect ever). I expected dogs would be work. But I didn’t expect: The amount of energy a puppy must exert is … Read more
Update 2022-05-16: Google has relented (for now), you can use this self-transition link to see the option to stay on the no-cost Legacy G Suite. Google is killing off my free Gmail accounts. All of them. Sixteen years ago, I moved b3n.org to Google Apps for your domain. Now it is known as GSuite and … Read more
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. – Luke 2:14 KJV When I was a child, I assumed the angels in Luke 2:14 referred to peace between nations. The quote was often used on TV shows in the context of war around Christmas. So it made sense to … Read more
Monday before last, Kris tried to make hamburgers for lunch but couldn’t get the pellet grill to light. We decided to save hamburgers for dinner. In the afternoon, I had a small break between meetings, so Kris and I were out walking the dogs, and a freak storm came our way. We were walking through … Read more