Are Board Games Coming Back?
Posted by Mitch on Mar 31, 2008
When I was a kid, board games were a big deal. It was the 60’s, and there were only 3 real channels on TV (PBS was just starting), radio was mostly AM, and parents kicked kids out of the house whenever they could. So we played board games of all types; Candyland was one of my favorites, along with Life.
As I got older, it seemed board games were going out of vogue. I’m not sure if chess counts, but its heyday seemed to have come and gone. No one was playing checkers anymore. We were moving towards video games; I had the original Odyssey pong game, which we replaced later on with the Atari version because it not only had sound, but it was in color.
So, in my mind, I pretty much figured board games were going to the wayside like many other things. Oh sure, Trivial Pursuit had its moment, but you don’t hear much about that these days.
Then I was invited to play Scrabulous on Facebook, and realized just how much that game had taken off. It’s so popular that the creators, who obviously stole it from Scrabble, are trying to exact multi millions of dollars from the company for something I didn’t think they had any licensing rights for to begin with. But I also noticed that many other games that were only board games are being played, and in turn, suddenly there’s a hot market for these games that aren’t online, so that families and friends can get together and just have fun.
Well, never let me be one to try to fight trends; look below:
Publish Your Own Book
Posted by Mitch on Mar 28, 2008
I’ve written one book, and ended up self publishing it. Personally, I think most ways are easy to do it, but many people seem to freak when thinking about giving it a shot.
A friend of mine sent this link from the Online Education Database’s blog iLibrarian titled How To Publish Your Own Book that was pretty good, and gives one way of doing it, along with some writing tips. It’s only abou5 five minutes long, so it’s well worth watching.
Another article you can look at that might give a little bit of insight on book publishing was written by a guy named Shawn Fawcett, titled Book Publishing: Problems With The Traditional Model, as he talks about problems people sometimes have with publishers if they’re hoping to make money from their books.
What I did with my book was, after multiple edits, take it to a professional printing company and told them I wanted it to look like a paperback. I gave them a pdf copy, selected a white cover with dark blue printing, which kept the cover simple, and for around $1,200 I got 300 copies of my book. Now, let’s think about this for a quick moment. True, I didn’t get a fancy cover with colors and images, but because of that I got 300 books that are mine, that I can sell for whatever I want (ever give a couple away for free every once in awhile as promotional material), and I even have an ISBN number which means I can list it on Amazon or wherever and call myself a publisher.
Options are always nice, and information on how to do it is pretty nice also, isn’t it? I’m not going to hawk my book now, but I am going to hawk the one below:
Series On Leaders
Posted by Mitch on Mar 28, 2008
On Mitch’s Blog, there’s a new series that’s based on 5 interview questions of entrepreneurs. Some are sole proprietors, others own their own companies. It’s interesting seeing how different people answer the same questions on being in business for themselves. The first one is here, and then you can look for the rest of them.
It’s not easy trying to do your own thing, especially when you have to make a living at it. Trying to make money online is even harder because you don’t get to talk to your potential customers, and there’s a lot of people in the game. Some have better or worse products; some are better or worse at marketing. Still, one does what one can, and in a sense, it becomes its own community.
Anyway, check out the leader series; you might find it interesting.
Nutraloaf; A Prison’s Best Friend
Posted by Mitch on Mar 25, 2008
My politics are fairly liberal, but I’ve always been a big proponent of prison, for violent criminals, being tougher than they seem to be. I mean, many of these guys get out of prison stronger and more criminally educated than when they went in. They get to watch cable shows, have Playboy, play basketball and all other sports including weight lifting, and get their three squares a day.
And of course they misbehave, because even in prison they don’t feel they have a right to be disrespected by anyone else, whether it’s other prisoners or guards, and some of the behavior is downright disgusting.
So, it was with some, well, I’m not sure I want to say glee specifically, but something along those lines, that I read this story online about a nutritional meal “glob” of some sort called nutraloaf that’s given to some of these guys when they misbehave in certain ways. What is nutraloaf? It’s a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes. And it looks horrible, I’d have to admit.
It’s used in many states across the country for modifying the behavior of prisoners that act up, but now, in Vermont, the Supreme Court is about to take up the case as to whether it constitutes as punishment or not, because, I guess, if it’s truly “punishment”, then prisoners are allowed to have a hearing to determine if the “punishment” is too severe for what they’ve done.
Man, prisoners seem to have more rights that most other people have in this country. No wonder so many of them are ready to exhibit such bad behavior; outside of worrying about getting shanked or raped, prison sounds like a country club. No bills, free food, free clothing, free cable, free books, free movies, free music, 3 square meals a day,… and even if you don’t behave, you get to have a hearing; sheesh.
I’m thinking nutraloaf needs to become a staple in prison, along with cutting out some of the other amenities. I’m not looking to shackle these folks, or torture them. I want them kept clean, but man, I want them softened up also. I want their spirit broken, and I want them educated by teachers, so that when they do get out they have some skills that may help them get jobs and stay out of trouble; who’s heard the recidivism rate lately?
As for the nutraloaf? I know it’s supposed to be eaten without utensils, but maybe some butter and salt would help it out. Couldn’t hurt.
It’s Spring And I Did My Cleaning Already
Posted by Mitch on Mar 24, 2008
It’s officially spring, but here in central New York it’s actually been colder the last couple of days than it was the final days of winter.
My major project before spring actually hit was to get my entire office straightened out. It took me four days, but I finally got it all just the way I wanted it to be. Just to share a little bit, this is what my desk looked like after it was totally clean:
Yeah, my desk needs some physical work, because I’ve had it for a very long time, but otherwise I felt really good about my workspace, the entire office, once I was done. I still want bigger in my long range dreams, but for the moment, I’ve been able to keep my room clean for the past two weeks; proud of myself.
Every once in awhile, though, I look at where my office supplies and papers are and wish I could always change up to the latest and greatest bit of storage. Great storage helps make your home office usable and enjoyable. I have some nice stuff, but there’s always something else that I’d like. Below is one of those things I’d love to have; it comes in three sizes, and this is actually the smallest, and therefore the least expensive. Still, I’d love to have it myself.
Ultra Diamonds Follow Up
Posted by Mitch on Mar 19, 2008
Well, I did what I said I’d do a few posts back. I went online and did some research into Ultra Diamonds to see if I could find a bunch of complaints about them.
And I found something; only one online complaint. It’s at this site, where people can log complaints or positive statements about companies of all sorts. This page is for Ultra Diamonds.
I did learn some things about Ultra Diamonds the company. Seems they’re actually a chain of stores in the western part of the United States, with stores in, at least, California and Nevada. It seems that, overall, the company has a very nice reputation for quality merchandise.
Unfortunately, like every other company, they’re not perfect, and they don’t always hire perfect people. If there were more complaints about the company, I’m sure they’d be out of business, or at least on the ropes, ala Comp USA (don’t get me started with them). One would expect a complaint here and there (believe it or not, I have at least one client who’s not happy with me; yeah, I’m shocked also!), and I’m sorry for those of you who have had issues with them. The link above will give you an outlet if you do have a complaint you’d like to log against them, or anyone else.
So, please don’t hate me, or stay mad at me, for highlighting some Ultra Diamonds products at my other site, Services and Stuff, or for showing a product off their site every once in awhile, like the one below. I’m only the messenger, trying to make a buck.
Wash Your Hands After Going To The Bathroom!
Posted by Mitch on Mar 15, 2008
Did you know Eddie Murphy supposedly washes his hands 15-20 times a day? Many thought he was obsessive compulsive until he explained that he shakes a lot of hands in a day and knows many men don’t wash their hands, and since he doesn’t want to take any chances with his health he’s constantly washing his hands.
I don’t blame Eddie one bit. I always wash my hands after I’ve gone, no matter which way, and I always cringe when I see men leave without doing so themselves. I always imagine that I’m going to walk out the door and one of them is going to want to shake my hand, and I’m going to cringe when they come near me. There’s presently a commercial on TV where you see a guy walking around with a toilet attached to his arm to indicate he hasn’t washed his hands, and people are shirking to get away from him whenever he puts his hand out.
It’s been proven that many diseases are spread by bad hygiene as it concerns the hands. The spread of hepatitis in my county many years ago by people not washing their hands in restaurants led to us passing a plastic gloves law for anyone handling food. Studies have come out recently saying that most colds are passed by hand-to-hand contact and could be eliminated if people used soap and water on their hands. And don’t let me get started about the recent news story about lemons; ick.
So, please, men and women, wash your hands when you come out of the bathroom. If you’d like to see more, take a look at this link from the Straight Dope people.
I Found My Diabetes Solution,… Unfortunately :-)
Posted by Mitch on Mar 15, 2008
You might find this interesting. I just did a six day eating experiment, as it relates to my diabetes, and it seems that it’s all tied in with my diet, unfortunately for me because I was ready to talk some serious smack with my wife.
I had been averaging around 205; not good. I’ve owned up to having kind of a sugar addiction; it’s more chocolate than anything else, but it’s all sweet stuff. I decided to give up sweets for six days, which also included eliminating a bunch of carbs for that time period because carbs promote the cravings, as I’d been on a bad roll, and wasn’t feeling all that well physically because of it. I decided to do Sunday through Friday, so I’d be starting the first day while my wife was still home with me.
Sunday through Tuesday my numbers started coming down slightly. By Wednesday afternoon, I was in the 130’s, and Thursday morning I was at 117; I’d never had a morning number that low in all the years I’d been diagnosed. Friday morning it was 107; stunned! Meanwhile, Tuesday was the only day where I had some serious cravings, and I barely made it through that day. Seems many folks who talk about other addictions say the third day is the worst; well, it was for me.
This was all through diet. We purchased some chicken breasts, some alfredo sauce, and vegetables. I ate that for most of my meals after breakfast (breakfast was eggs with ham or Spam; yeah, I like Spam), with my treats, so to speak, either being popcorn, carrots and dip, or oatmeal. The decrease in my glucose level was amazing, so amazing I had to decrease the amount of insulin I was using.
This morning it was back up to 168. That’s because last night, for dinner, we went to a fish fry place, where I had fried shrimp and french fries, and the meal was much more in one sitting than I’d been eating lately, not to mention the fried part; lots of carbs (and I forgot to take last night’s pill; oops). And that’s before having any dessert today, as today is my free day; heck!
So, it proves that it really is all about diet; that’s depressing, but enlightening, because now I know what to do and how to act. I didn’t lose any weight this week, mainly because I hurt my back so I didn’t work out. But I’ll get back to that next week. Anyway, I say depressing because I thought my glucose wouldn’t come down much at all, and I’d be able to say “see, it’s not me, it’s the diabetes taking over”. Now I know I’ll really have to watch the diet, which means my wife wins, Mom wins, and, well, I guess I win in the end also; heck! 
Anniversary Of The Big Blizzard of ‘93
Posted by Mitch on Mar 12, 2008
I live in central New York, where we’re fairly used to snow. Some areas get more than others, but all of us get more snow than pretty much anywhere else. Syracuse is the annual leader in snowfall for cities with more than 100,000 people, yet with our 115 per year average we don’t come close to some of our neighbors a few miles further north that average over 300 inches a year.
However, one thing we really don’t get all that often are blizzards. When everyone else gets pounded, quite often we only end up with remnants of those storms. I’m not sure why, but it’s probably a consequence of our usually getting at least a little bit of snow every day during the winter; at least it seems like that.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the worst storm in our history, the Blizzard of ‘93. How bad was it? Where I live, a suburb of Syracuse, we got 43 inches in 24 hours, and another 18 the next day; that’s pretty bad. Thing is, we already had 4 or 5 feet of snow on the ground, so when that came, there was literally nowhere to put it. At the time I lived in an apartment complex, and I decided to get out of town to stay with my parents in the Rochester area; they ended up getting 26 inches out of the same storm. When I did finally come back home, I couldn’t pull into my complex because every car was buried, people were pretty much trapped, and they had only been able to plow out the middle of the complex and nothing else; that was something else.
Of course, come spring we had the worst flooding the area had seen until 2002, when the rainstorm of all rainstorms came through, but that tale is for another day.
Yeah, we’re nuts around here, because we celebrate the snow and curse the snow at the same time. But it gives us something to talk about.
CreditCardSolutions.com
Posted by Mitch on Mar 12, 2008
A friend of mine sent me a link to some videos created by the lawyers who set up the site CreditCardSolutions.com. It’s very good stuff, especially the videos on third party debt collectors, of which there are two. In a previous post I talked about the Fair Debt and Credit Collections Act, and the guy in these videos takes it even further. It’s something important for everyone to hear, so here’s the link to their video page. Great stuff; thanks guys!
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