If you are reading this post from the United States, one of two things must be true. Either you have decided to opt out of the Black Friday mayhem or you have already endured it this morning and now you’re finding your reprieve back home. Whatever the case, I congratulate you and reward you with some good blog reading. Enjoy!

Jeff Kee is very much a fan of his Apple products, but he’s not afraid to take an objective viewpoint on the company’s business practices. He dissects Apple’s official position statement against the FCC. The maker of the iPhone tends to block any app, like Google Voice, that may bite into the revenue of Apple (and AT&T).

Shelly Tucker is just as interested in herself as you may be in yourself. There is certainly value in introspection, so perhaps you should try defining yourself with Wordle. This fun tool helps to describe who you are with a word cloud, not unlike the tag clouds you see on blogs.

Debbie Dragon recently contributed an article to Consumerism Commentary. In it, she works on the arithmetic to determine whether a college degree is worth the investment. College graduates tend to earn more money, but they also typically graduate with debt and they sacrifice up to five years of income while in school.

John Biehler knows as well as anyone that a picture is worth a thousand words. As such, one of his most recent posts is a collection of random photos that he has taken. The fisheye shots of the dogs are positively adorable, but there is a certain former captain who steals the show.

Deb Ng received an email from one of her readers. The reader works as a freelance writer online and her friend works at a trade publication. They entered a competition to see who could earn more in 2009 and the reader earned $52,000. The friend? $37,000. The friend says that the places where the reader works are “not good for writers.” What do you think?