I’m back to my speedlinking ways, as is the case every Wednesday here on Beyond the Rhetoric. To get the most of the blogosphere, you need to be an active participating, sharing and engaging with everyone else. This is my little way of giving back to the online community that has given me so much. If you want to be featured here in the future, follow me on Twitter and send a note on Tuesday evening.

John Biehler is about to turn the big four-oh. Partly in anticipation of its celebration, he’s gone on an impromptu to California and he’s doing it without a laptop. Instead, he’s relying on his iPad and iPhone for all his communication needs. It’s been quite a while since I’ve traveled without a computer, but we’re about as geeky as it gets.

Robert Park offers a very compelling article on the nature of dropping out of school. People like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates found monumental success after dropping out of school, but they dropped out of Harvard. They are exceptional people and their career paths are anything but typical. Depending on your career choice, school may be an absolute prerequisite.

Grant Dobbins sees that the end of the year is just around the corner, so he’s helping us out by describing twenty tax deductions for freelancers. This mirrors a post that I did a couple years ago on tax writeoffs, but it’s definitely worth revisiting. There’s money to be saved with very little additional effort on your part.

Ariane Khachatourians, who some of you may know better as West End Girl, happened to have a very awesome summer and she’s more than glad to share a few of its moments with you. For starters, she’s not a West End girl anymore, having moved to her new home in East Vancouver. She also took a trip to Copenhagen, Berlin, and Paris. That does sound like a great summer!

Buzz Bishop may have been living in Calgary for some time now, but he’s not quite prepared for a true Albertan winter just yet. After all, what we consider “winter” in Vancouver pales in comparison to what they get in Cowtown. So, Buzz turns to the online community to ask what kind of winter coat he needs to survive the freezing months in Calgary. I’d just stay indoors.