So I'm filling out 401(K) paperwork. I don't like everything I see, but can live with it. I guess it's what I don't like that's important. Or why I don't like some things I see, that is.

Then again, some people may be wondering why I'm even investing at all.

I spent a few hours last night with an HP Mini 110 1012NR. It's a model with a 16 GB solid state drive (no spinning mechanical hard drive) and Windows XP.

My biggest beef is the keyboard. It's undersized, and I can't touch type on it. Try it out before you buy one.

The rest of the system isn't bad, but there are some things you'll want to do with it.

Web browsers take entirely too much room on the screen. I've seen tips for putting Firefox on a diet, but nothing that frees up as much space as my bag-o-tricks.

So let's go.

I started my professional career doing network administration at the University of Missouri. (I generally don't count my stint selling low-quality PCs at the last surviving national consumer electronics chain towards my professional experience anymore.)

The University had its own IT department, but some of the larger departments, particularly Journalism, had their own IT departments as well. I worked for the School of Journalism.

Today, some 10 years and 11 months since the last time I did it, I left a job on my own terms. I called my boss, asked to see him, and walked to his office with a single-page letter in hand.

It's not something I'm especially good at, and, being a fixer by nature, it's not something I'm usually inclined to do. And while there are several things about this job that I won't miss at all, my main reason for leaving is health care.

I found a very long and comprehensive guide for using Nlite to reduce the size of a Windows installation.

The guide is geared towards an Asus Eee. But it should work well on pretty much anything that has an Intel CPU in it.

Scratch one investment property.

Running the numbers, it might have still been possible to make it work. But a lot would have to go right, and this particular property didn't have an especially good track record.

Honeymoon's over. The purchase is getting rocky. I'll tell you about my troubles so you hopefully don't repeat them.

I sure wish I'd seen Wintoflash a few weeks ago.

It's simple. Insert a Windows CD or DVD (anything from XP to Windows 7). Plug in a blank USB flash drive (or one you don't mind erasing). Answer a couple of questions, and after a few minutes, you have a bootable USB stick that installs Windows. It will be much faster than CD or DVD because flash media has much faster seek times.

So what could be better? Well, slipstreamed and customized Windows of course.

You're not going to believe this. This week my wife and I applied for a mortgage.

Not on our primary house. We're buying an investment property. I'm still struggling with the mortgage bit.