It’s the middle of the week and you may be struggling to make it over that increasingly challenging hump. Thankfully, Beyond the Rhetoric is here to lift your spirits with another speedy tour of the blogosphere. I’ve scoured the web yet once again to find some good reading for you, so take a few moments out of your busy day, sit back, and enjoy. 🙂

Derek Semmler and I had a bet over the Canucks-Blackhawks playoff series where the loser had to donate $100 to the charity of the winner’s choosing. Well, you know how that turned out. I just sent in my donation to Oxfam Canada. In some not as related news, Derek also explains how you can feature recently popular posts on your WordPress blog. Nice customization!

John Chow really is the root of all evil. It’s his birthday today, so he asked for money on Twitter. And he got it. Quite a bit of it, actually, giving him enough cash for a nice night on the town. Do you know how else you can wish him a happy birthday? How about buying our book?

Amber Weinberg is a freelance web developer, so she knows a thing or two about the work-from-home lifestyle. She is also all too familiar with feeling guilty about taking time off from her job. As a freelancer, you have the opportunity to work at just about any hour of the day… so you feel like you should be working every hour of every day. That can’t be healthy.

The Simple Dollar is a great blog for learning how to save your money. It’s also good for learning how to spend your money, as is the case with the blog post on how to organize your coupons. Saving an extra dollar at the grocery store is just as good as earning an extra dollar at work.

Rebecca Bollwitt takes a moment to discuss the Vancouver Transit Adspace Re-Appropriation Project, or V-TARP for short. Basically, artists are going around placing anti-commercial banners where regular advertising would normally go inside buses and Skytrains. I think it’s pretty clever, reclaiming that “mindspace” for something greater than capitalistic endeavors.