1. When purchasing entertainment, determine how many hours of fun you’ll get out of that particular entertainment.
2. Multiply that number of hours by five bucks.
3. Determine if the cost of the entertainment is below that amount. If so, purchase it. If not, consider it more carefully or just walk away.

For instance, when I want to purchase a video game, I decide about how many hours will be played. I don’t mean how many hours the game says it has. I mean how many hours will definitely be played. An example would be the more recent Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Over the years, I’ve loved open-world games and have played many hours in each. So I figured, at the least, I’d spend 20 hours in the game. 20 times five bucks is $100. Was the price of $60.00 worth it? Yes, although I got it for free as a gift.

Another example would be a board game. Let’s consider Cranium. It costs around $30. I figure my family and I will play at least three hours of it. Now here is where it gets a little different. My family consists of four people who regularly game together. Four times three hours is 12 hours. Five bucks an hour would be $60. Is $30 worth it? Yes. I count the total hours of fun had by each person.

I even used this method for considering my Xbox 360 purchase a couple of years ago. My daughter and I would definitely play it. We would get at least 50 hours a piece with all of the future game purchases, video watching, etc. That is 100 hours times five bucks. I paid much less than $500, so it was definitely worth it. If you have deeper pockets, feel free to up the amount.

What do you think of this idea? Do you have your own method of determining entertainment purchases? Feel free to share in the comments.

No related posts.

Well, yeah. Here are five simple facts about how reading makes your writing better:

1. Reading increases your vocabulary. That should speak for itself. But if it doesn’t, let me explain. If you increase your vocabulary you can begin to sound like all of those other authors that seem to write with a thesaurus in hand. But that just sounds pompous and arrogant, right? Yes. It can. But when done right, what it does is adds a little flavor to your work. You might also want to pay particular attention to the metaphors used in their writing. Those things can work wonders.
2. Reading allows you to see how the published guys do it. They’re doing something right. What better way to learn from them than reading what they write? I mentioned the metaphors. But what about all the other little tricks you might learn while reading? There’s the rule of “three.” There’s the correct placement of alliteration and what it can do for your words. There are tons of things to learn from other authors.
3. Reading sparks ideas. Heck, I was sitting here reading “The Law of Nines” by Terry Goodkind and it sparked the idea to write this post. I was wanting a topic and while I was reading, I noticed a really good metaphor in the book. That made me think of how reading has improved my writing and made me decide to share with you guys.
4. Reading improves your grammar. You read it when it is right and it sticks. Repetition of anything, also known as practice, helps you get better at just about anything. The problem is how do you repeat something like grammar and know you’re getting it right? You read. You read published books that have already been checked by editors. Sure, they sometimes miss stuff, but it’s a decent education that is much more fun than some of the grammar books out there. Of course, those serve their purposes also, but reading a good fiction novel trumps them in many ways.
5. Finally, reading reminds you of what made you want to write to begin with. The love of writing cannot exist unless you’ve read something and enjoyed it. When you first heard “The Cat in the Hat,” you either loved it or hated it, but you couldn’t hate the melody of those words. When you read that first novel that had you gripped form the beginning to the end, you have to remember how exhilarating it was being in the minds of those characters. Reading shows us what made us fall in love with writing. And it makes us want to write even more.

There you go. 5 great reasons to read if you want to get better at writing. Can you think of anymore? Let me know in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Writing Tips: Commit.
2. Writing Tips: The Conversational Style
3. Writing Tips: Topics, Topics, Topics.

• Give yourself a schedule for your writing projects. Write a blog post every day or week. Write an essay every week. Write a short story every month.
• Be held accountable. Tell your audience when you will write. Tell your significant other when you will write.
• And here’s one I’m doing this year: NaNoWriMo
• NEW: Write a blog post every week. Project 52.

With National Novel Writing Month, you basically sign up to say, “I’m going to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.” And here’s the great part: It doesn’t matter if it’s good or not. It’s just about the writing. Of course, you can always edit it afterwards and maybe turn it into a best seller, but November is about getting words on paper.

Sorry I’m a little late mentioning this one, as it started yesterday, but you can still sign up. You’ll just have to write a few more words each day.

As to the original concept behind this post, commit, it’s a very simple tip. If you want to get better at writing, you have to write more. If you want your writing to get noticed, you have to write more. If you want more ideas, you have to write more. Commit to writing and writing will commit to you.

Related posts:

1. Writing Tips: Read.
2. Writing Tips: The Conversational Style
3. Writing Tips: Topics, Topics, Topics.

I know. I’m spamming my own post with the word “topics.” No, I’m not trying to get rated highly in the Google search engines for the word “topics.” I’m just trying to make a point about “topics.”

I’m one of those people who can write just about anything as long as I have a topic. I can research topics if I don’t know anything about them. If I do know about them, I’ll write about them without as much research. Either way, they normally get written quickly. It’s just the way I am. But here’s my problem:

“Topics.”

I know. I used that word again. But to write about something, you must have a topic in mind. I can sit there and think for hours and never come up with a topic. So the rest of this post is dedicated to the top 5 ways I know of finding good topics.

1. Read. Read the news. Read other blogs. Let those topics start creating themselves in your brain as you look around. Don’t steal ideas of course. But feel free to use what you read as a jumping off point to start your own discussion. Here’s a few different things you can read for ideas:
   • Novels
   • Newspapers
   • News Websites
   • Blogs

   You get the idea.

2. Watch. Again. Feel free to watch movies and television shows and write what you think about them. Let them kick start your mind. Movie reviews are a great way to share your opinions. Maybe the nightly news sparked an idea for a topic.
3. Speak. Have a conversation with your friends. During that conversation, topics are bound to come up. Kind of hard to have a conversation without topics. Use those topics in your writing. Feel free to quote your friends.
4. Listen. Television and books aren’t the only media out there. Listen to your favorite radio shows. Even listening to music, especially lyrics, can help you come up with a topic.
5. Ask. This one is not as obvious, but it gives great results. For example, I asked at some forums for some topic ideas and got plenty. I’ve already written quite a few posts using those sources. Asking has got to be one of the best methods of coming up with topics I’ve ever used. Why? Because a lot of people already read your words. They have preferences of what they want to read from you. So let them tell you those preferences.

Ok. So you now have topics. Or do you? See, the important thing to do is get those ideas for topics on “paper.” Grab pen and paper, PDA, or handheld digital/tape recorder and start keeping track of all of those ideas. Then use them. No use in having topics to write about if you’re not going to write about them, right?

Hope this helps you guys who seem to get stuck with “writer’s block.” Don’t forget: Topics.

Do you have any other methods of finding topics that you use? Feel free to share in the comments. Would love to hear them. Even specific shows, newspapers, etc. would be great to list.

Related posts:

1. Writing Tips: Read.
2. Writing Tips: The Conversational Style
3. Writing Tips: Commit.

To explain what I mean, I’ll go through a few “A real husband…” statements. I don’t know how many I’ll do, but hopefully you’ll get my point. In the comments, feel free to add more. So without further ado…

A real husband…

• … does not use his wife as a punching bag. And I mean this in every metaphorical way also. No hitting your wife. No screaming at your wife. No abuse of your wife in any way. It’s wrong. Pure and simple.
• … takes the headset out of his ear and listens to his wife instead. Phone conversations are a necessary part of today’s world. But communication in a marriage is extremely important.
• … buys feminine products at the drug store without whining about it. They also know which products to buy.
• … carries his wife’s purse when she needs him to.
• … holds his wife’s hair when she’s puking in the toilet. He also gets a wash cloth and wipes her face for her.
• … doesn’t complain about the money spent on a woman’s hair unless a) he actually notices the new hair and b) he learns to do it himself for her. If you’ve never done your wife’s hair, then you’ve never experienced a truly personal experience.
• … learns more about his wife than he knows about sports.
• … puts down the game controller and does the dishes and laundry every once in a while.
• … doesn’t get upset if his wife makes more money than he does.
• … compromises and shares with his wife.
• … trusts his wife and makes darn sure he is trustworthy. Without trust, there is no relationship.
• … actually thinks before buying a gift for his wife. May even do handmade gifts that have had tons of thought put into them.

Now, to be fair to the husbands who do these things, I have to say this:

A real wife does not get spoiled or take advantage of their husband when they do things like this for them.

So, does anyone have any others they’d like to add? Maybe the guys out there feel left out and want to do some “A real wife…” comments. Feel free to reply and add as many as you’d like.

Related posts:

1. Accept Me As I Am
2. The Secret to a Good Marriage

Recently, WordPress 2.8 came out. Almost immediately, there were over 100 posts, if not more, announcing the release. When a popular blogger ad service changed their pricing system, the same thing happened. Those little nuggets of news were the sugar cubes and the bloggers rushed all over it. It’s great that you want people to know these things. It really is. But, and I’ll try and ask this as nicely as possible, don’t you think the people who read your blog that actually care about that information… don’t you think… they already know?! Heck, I got that neat little yellow stripe in my WordPress dashboard telling me to update. My price changed dramatically and the blog and forums told me all about it.

You want to know which blogs I read every day? The ones with original content. The ones that make me laugh. The ones that make me have some form of emotions. The ones that tell me something I didn’t already know. If CNN already said it on their front page, it’s likely you don’t need to say it on yours.

Don’t get me wrong. When a celebrity dies and you want to pay tribute to them, that’s perfectly ok. If you want to do an opinion post on the latest headlines, I’ll be happy to read it. But if I see one more post that basically repeats what the news has been saying all day, I think I’ll… well… nothing too drastic… I’ll just stop reading that blog.

Now, see, snowflakes are awesome. Each and every one is different from all of the others in some way. That’s what you should be. In some small or big way, your posts need to be different than all the others. For example, if your blog is about WordPress and 2.8 has just launched, don’t tell me that it just launched, instead, tell me about the obscure new feature and the original way in which you managed to use it. Or another example, if the news announces that the world is about to be forced to go vegan, don’t tell me about the obvious stuff like food, tell me about the vegan shoes. That would be original, especially if you posted pictures of yourself standing on top of the bookshelf at the local library with a pair of them on.

Don’t be an ant. Be a snowflake… wearing vegan shoes and eating spaghetti with a spoon. Oh, and blogging about something original, which was the point of this post to begin with.

Related posts:

1. Writing Tips: The Conversational Style
2. Writing Tips: Commit.
3. Writing Tips: Read.

The way it works is first you need to have the basic number images memorized. You will always use the same images to represent those numbers. The reason why the images listed below were chosen is because they look like or represent the numbers really well. So make sure to have the first list in your mind to begin with. Once you have them, you have them for good. I haven’t used them much in the last few years, yet I was still able to easily recall them for this post.

Here are the images for the numbers:

1 – A candle. Have it burn whatever the item is.
2 – A swan. Have it biting the item.
3 – A sideways W. Have it act like a handle on the item.
4 – A sailboat. Have the item balancing on the mast
5 – A hand. Have it grabbing the item.
6 – Golf club. Hit the item with it.
7 – A garden hoe. Have it chopping the item.
8 – Two links of a chain. Have the item going into and out of the links over and over.
9 – A balloon on a stick. Have the item pop the balloon.
10 – A martini. Stir the martini with the item.

Now, in your mind, imagine those pictures for the numbers interacting with the items you’re trying to memorize. Here is an example list that you might try to memorize for this “lesson”:

1. Tire - The candle burns the tire. Could even mention the burning rubber.
2. A book - The swan has taken a bite out of the book and is chewing it.
3. Pencils - The W is attached to the side of the pencil. But now there’s more pencils. You now have a suitcase made of pencils.
4. A computer - The computer is plugged into a socket in the sky and is balancing on the mast. It falls over and shorts out in the water.
5. A mountain - Your hand is holding the mountain. You must be a giant.
6. A water melon - The golf club hits the melon and gets embedded into it. Now you could hit a soccer ball with that club.
7. Homework - Chop up those papers like you mean it!
8. Phone - The phone has sprouted legs and is running through the links of the chain.
9. A spoon - Actually it’s now a spork so it has pointy tips and you pop the balloon with it.
10. A broom - Must be a really large martini if it requires a broom to stir it.

Now close your eyes and try and list the items in your mind. You’ll find that you remember this entire list. Not only that, but if you get someone to call out random numbers, you should be able to tell them the specific item for that number. And finally, get them to call out about 5 or 6 items/numbers, and you’ll not only be able to tell them the item or number that goes with it, but also the items and numbers they did not call from the list.

Try coming up with your own lists. Give your brain time to “forget” between lists though or you’ll end up getting them confused. Oh, and for this to be useful, you might want to make up useful lists. Works great for short shopping lists.

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When I write, I just let the words flow and put down the ideas as fast as I possibly can. I don’t take many pauses and I don’t do much editing like people would say needs to be done. I fix spelling mistakes and such as I find them because I tend to type in a dyslexic manner, but otherwise I let the language stay natural. I also tend to put my thoughts in wherever they may show up. One example would be the quick dialogue I put in the middle of my explanation in the previous paragraph. Another would be (and this happens often with me sometimes) when I put things in parentheses right in the middle of my sentences. That last sentence was an example of this. Those are the “asides” that my brain may branch off to while I’m typing. I don’t think about it, I just put them there. I think it feels more “natural” to do so.

Sometimes I also put words in a visual manner to make the pauses and necessary inflections. For example, I could type, “That was incredible!” or, I could type “That was in-cred-i-ble!” There is emphasis on the different syllables in the word and the reader tends to read it that way with the dashes. I like to make the words look the way they sound in my head. My creative writing professors have always loved that style. Grammar professors, not so much.

So, as an exercise, as you comment on this post, type exactly what you’re thinking. It makes it feel more like a conversation instead of a “formal typing experience” which sounds much less fun.

Related posts:

1. Writing Tips: Commit.
2. Writing Tips: Read.
3. Writing Tips: Topics, Topics, Topics.

• Share everything.
  As bloggers, this is something we should do. Seriously. Stumble, Digg, etc. Those are ways of sharing the great posts you come across on other blogs, right? Or even sharing your own post if it’s something you truly believe in.
• Play fair.
  There are tons of sites out there that do “black hat” stuff. Well, guess what? Your readers aren’t as stupid as you may believe they are anymore. Most people are becoming cynics. In a way, that’s bad. But in another way it’s also good because people do research and think before they fall for scams nowadays.
• Don’t hit people.
  Another term for this could be “Don’t flame people.” Don’t go to other blogs and start yelling at people. That’s just wrong.
• Put things back where you found them.
  Be organized in your blogging life. Make a schedule so you don’t feel overworked. Keep your notes all in one place. Do whatever it takes so you’re not stressing out over what to do next. To-do lists are your friends.
• Clean up your own mess.
  I don’t think this one really needs a description, but basically, own up to your mistakes.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
  Ever found your blog post reprinted elsewhere without any kind of credit to you? That’s where it fits. If you use someone else’s material, ask first and give them credit. Normally it’s better to just put a link. That’ll make them happy and might gain you a loyal reader.
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
  This one relates to a few above, but if you do make a mistake or flame someone, tell them you’re sorry and, here’s the kicker, mean it.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
  That also goes for washing your brain before you make a post. Think first. If you’re mad, clear your head and think first.
• Flush.
  If it’s a bad post but took you a long time to create it, don’t be scared to scrap it.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  It’s good to do something for yourself every once in a while. Take a break from blogging if you need to. Or as I’ve learned in dieting, treat yourself when you’ve followed your diet. It actually does shock the body into causing you to lose even more weight. Sounds silly, but it’s true.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  This one is fine just like it is.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
  This goes along with the milk and cookies. Take a break. Enjoy life. Then blog about it.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  Make friends with other bloggers. It’ll benefit both of you.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  There’s wonder found everywhere in the blogging world too. It’s easy to stumble upon jewels and see new things happening every day. Ever made a post that got huge traffic but you couldn’t recreate it on purpose?
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
  So do blogs and ideas for posts. Sometimes there’s just an end to things.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.
  READ too.

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In a marriage, communication is important for the obvious reasons. When making decisions that effect the family, communication is needed with the family and especially between spouses. Compromise, as I mentioned before, can only be done with communication. I could preach communication all day, but I know you guys have heard it all before.

What about with parenting? Well, yes, commercials tell you over and over that it’s important to talk to your child about drugs and that it’s important to know about your child’s friends, which is accomplished by communication. So again, you’ve heard it all before.

However, I’m going to present an example of communication to you that you may not have heard before, and this one is important for parents. When my daughter was less than 2-years-old, she asked me that very cliche question of why the sky is blue. I proceeded to explain:

“Gas in the sky lets light through. However, some light, such as blue light, gets absorbed by the gas and scattered. So it’s coming from every direction. Since blue is all over the place, that’s why the sky looks blue on a cloudless day.”

My mother-in-law looked at me like I was stupid.

“How can you expect her to understand that?” she asked.

“I don’t expect her to understand it. Yet,” I responded.

About a week ago my daughter was on the phone with one of her cousins. He asked her why the sky was blue. Remember, she’s 7 right now. We haven’t had this discussion since she was less than 2. Here’s what she said:

“My daddy says that there’s stuff in the sky that bounces the light all over the place. Blue light gets bounced more so you see it more.”

I smiled of course.

So my point is that you should NEVER talk to your child like he/she is a child. Always give your full knowledge. They soak it in like a sponge. Which means it’s also ok to start early with the drug discussions. Don’t put it off because “he won’t understand that right now.” Maybe not, but later they’ll remember and they WILL understand.

Related posts:

1. White is Not the Cow
2. A Real Husband

See? Told you. So throughout my searching, I always tried to conform to what the girl I liked wanted me to be. “Lose a couple of pounds and I’ll be your girlfriend.” That was an odd one now that I think about it. But throughout my relationships I always put the woman on a pedestal and believed that I had to do and bee exactly what they wanted or else I wasn’t good enough for them. Guess what. That’s a lie. Don’t tell yourself that lie.

See, for a true relationship to form, you have to be accepting of the other person, and they have to accept you for who you are. When I met my wife it was right after I had given up. I had just come out of a bad relationship, like all my other ones, and I told myself not to even bother. If someone didn’t like me, so what. I stopped looking for love at that point. I just decided to start being myself and having fun. Then I met my wife and we’ve been together for over 11 years. We’ve accepted each other for everything that we are and love each other for it.

That’s a true relationship. If you’re trying to be something you’re not, you’re lying to your significant other in a way that will only hurt you and may hurt them.

Related posts:

1. A Real Husband

There is one major secret to staying married that long. The secret is compromise. “What?! Compromise?! That’s all you have for me after this big long introduction!?” Well, yeah. That’s the secret. But let me explain with some examples:

• Stealing the covers – Couples sometimes complain about the other always stealing their covers. My wife and I use separate covers. this also helps with the temperature issue because she can cover up in a blanket or two and I’ll just cover in a sheet.
• Where/What to eat? – Some couples argue over where they are going to eat. We either take turns picking places or we pick places that have something that both of us will enjoy. I know it sounds simple, but I’ve seen many arguments over this exact thing from other couples. As for what to eat at home, I really like my pizza. She doesn’t like having the same thing over and over. So we make separate pizzas. She sometimes has beef and cheese and sometimes has spinach and artichokes. She’s tried many different things. I stick with my beef and cheese. We have two different tastes as most people do, but we never argue over food.
• What to watch on television? – We have a digital video recorder. It records the shows we both like and the great thing is it’s a dual tuner, meaning it can record two different shows at the same time. She watches “her” shows when she has free time. I watch “my” shows when I have free time. We watch “our” shows when we want to hang out and watch television.
• The toilet seat – You know, I’ve tried this argument before: “If guys should put the seat down for women, then women should put the seat up for men.” It didn’t work. I’m outnumbered anyway. Guys, put the seat down so you don’t have to hear it. If you put the seat down, she won’t yell at you about the seat anymore. That’s a good compromise in my opinion.

Seriously, I know these seem like small things. But we also compromise when it comes to major decisions about the family and our daughter. We work things out together and talk about stuff until we can agree on a feasible solution to problems. In our over 13 years of marriage, we have never once had an argument. We’ve always talked things out. And although those are small things I mention as examples, remember that small things add up. Be willing to compromise with the little stuff and anger just won’t build up for the big stuff.

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It all began with a portable Nintendo DS game system. I was looking for a screen protector for it. Looked on eBay, looked on Froogle.com, etc. I couldn’t find one that was reasonably priced, and since I have an original DS instead of the “Lite” version, could barely even find one at all.

So a couple of weeks pass. I’m in Wal-Mart looking around in the craft section because I like to browse, and I wander over to the fabric area. I see rolls of clear stuff. I go look closer and find out they are clear vinyl rolls. I start messing with them and try to figure out what they would be good for. They say they’re for covering patio furniture and the like, but as I stare at them something “dings” in my head.

“Screen Protectors!” I shout. People looked at me weird. The lady that runs fabrics looked like she might call security. So after assuring her I was completely sane, I told her why I got so excited. She got excited too because she had a DS. This time I had to reassure the customers around us that the fabric lady was quite sane. However, I decided not to tell them why we were so excited as this might have caused a relapse that would have spread.

So, that’s how I found the stuff. It’s the second thinnest clear vinyl covering they carry. One is paper thin. You don’t want that. You want the next one.

Now, I know you may be wondering what this has to do with “Screen Protectors for Life,” well, I’ll tell ya: Screen protectors for any device run from $10 to $30. This stuff is able to be custom fit. But the really great part, an entire YARD of this stuff only cost me $1.77. Yeah, you read that right: $1.77. And I have enough to probably cover all the portable devices in the city. So, I’m figuring I’m not gonna run out of this stuff until portable devices are installed in your brain and screen protectors aren’t needed anymore.

Oh, this stuff goes on without any glue, liquids, etc. Just press to the screen and rub it with something until it looks good. You could put a tiny drop of water underneath it to make it look even better, but I don’t. I’m fine with it the way it is.

Quick Recap

For cheap screen protectors:

1. Go to a Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, etc.
2. Buy some clear vinyl. Not the paper thin stuff, but the next thickest one.
3. Measure the screen you want to protect (great for cell phones too).
4. Measure the vinyl.
5. Cut the vinyl.
6. Clean your screen carefully and completely.
7. Place vinyl on screen (Add a drop of water under it to make it look nicer if ya want).
8. Rub until the air bubbles are gone and it looks nice and clear.

That’s it. You’re done. Enjoy.

This material can actually be used for crafts too. Multiple uses. Go figure. Oh! Oh! What if you attach some to your refrigerator and then use a write-on-wipe-off marker? Or, what if you cover one of your walls with a large piece of it and let the kids paint it with t-shirt paint? It could be rolled up and stored after everyone gets a good look. Hmmm… Let’s see… what else is there? *walks off talking to himself about more ideas for clear vinyl*

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