Mementos

Tagged as: Tip-For-Life Sep 24

In the journey of life, we have our ups and we have our downs. How insightful of me to say, huh? But along the way we each have the chance to collect little mementos that remind us of the stops along the way.

While some people don’t have a care in the world for things that remind them of the past, others like to keep them for those occasional times when they’d like to wax nostalgic. Some like to show them off to everyone, and others enjoy the opportunity to pull out ugly pictures, sappy love notes, and the like in order to have a chuckle or two even if it’s just by themselves.

I bet you can guess which I like to do. Because oh do I do enjoy it.

Anyways whatever the reason, I like to tell people to at least keep a box of the good stuff. Even for those that want to clean up everything, the chance to look back on the path that you’ve traveled is a chance that you don’t want to miss. Trust me, it’s fun.

Tips For Saving Gas

Tagged as: Learn, Money, Tip-For-Life Jul 16

In these current days of high gas prices (currently around $4.50/gallon where I live), it pays to do as much as possible out of what you have. And while I am not ever going to be a hyper-miler, I can at least do as well as I can. (It’s hard to get superb gas mileage when you drive a truck.)

While I do drive a less than ideal automobile, I am still able to get 20 MPG. And that might not sound too impressive to most people, but for trucks that’s not bad. But besides that, the tips are still good. They’re by no means new, though. But I didn’t just read it on some other site and paste them here. And remember, sometimes it’s just fine to be Coming Up With It Yourself.

1. Minimize Braking – This is of the utmost concern. Some of the other tips could also be generalized to this. Why is braking bad? Well every moment of braking is a moment where energy that was expended by gas is being needlessly lost. That is, you get the most use out of your gas when you’re not braking at all because all of the energy from the gas is being used to power the vehicle. And while this is not feasible with the traffic laws that we have, it’s still a true fact.
2. Coast Into Red Lights – When you see a red light up ahead, don’t continue with your foot on the accelerator! Why are you in a rush to sit at a red light? Instead, take it easy on the accelerator and ride out your momentum.
3. Cruise Control Is Your Friend – For periods of driving that are going to be stop-free, utilize that cruise control. The car will consistently apply gas to continue at the speed that the cruise control is set at. And the car will probably do it better than your attempts at keeping your foot steady.
4. Coast Down Hills – Gravity will accelerate your vehicle down the hill. So put your transmission into neutral (this is more normal with a manual transmission) and let gravity work its magic.
5. Turn Off The Car – Instead of idling, turn the car off when you know that you’re going to be sitting for awhile. While most modern cars are not built to constantly be turned on and off (like at every red light), it’s probably best to turn it off if you’re waiting for someone to run into the store.
6. Proper Maintenance – It’s hard to do your best when your vehicle isn’t up to snuff. So keep up with those oil changes, regularly inflate those tires, and make sure everything is as the manufacturer intended.
7. Slow Down – Probably one of the most important, this has numerous benefits besides gas savings including (but not limited to) overall safety.

These seem simple enough. An added bonus for doing all of this is decreased road rage. You’ll care more about what’s going on with you and your vehicle than you will about how that jerk cut you off. Save a headache, save some money.

My Reminder System

Tagged as: Idea, Learn, Tip-For-Life, Useful Mar 14

Remembering something is usually a case of you did or you didn’t. I’ve often found it amusing for things like birthdays when people will say that they remembered, but they just didn’t say anything about it. Really…well that’s hard to imagine.

The thing is, some people have better memories than others. Everyone is different and is able to remember things in different ways. Laugh if you must, but I remember wanting a photographic memory like Cam Jansen when I was a kid. Then I could rapidly flip through books and not need to study! How wonderful that would have been! But alas, my dreams did not come true. Even now I often wish for a better memory.

But just as remembering something is pretty binary (i.e. you did or you didn’t), those of us lacking in the memory department have to make do with what we have. Otherwise we will be mocked. Who will mock, I do not know. All I know is that mocking will occur.

3 Memory Aids That I Use:

1. Remember The Milk

   (RTM for short)

   Besides having a pretty amusing name, this is a website whose sole purpose is to create TODO lists. It’s refreshing for a website to be so singular in its purpose in this day of do-everything-until-we-take-over-your-life websites. In any case, I initially signed up for an account on the site, thought it was cool, and promptly did not hardly ever use it because visiting another site everyday wasn’t too practical.

   But then they developed a Firefox extension that changed that up! They developed an extension for placing an RTM pane whenever a Gmail tab is opened! It maintains the overall look and feel of gmail so you (or at least I) don’t feel like it’s out of place at all. Since I much more often have a browser tab open for Gmail, I was much more able to use the service. And I have. And it’s great!

   The concept is nothing new, you just put in due dates. But since it’s in front of my face at least once a day (since I check my e-mail once a day), it’s actually useful. And it’s on a remote server so I don’t need to worry about losing it or keeping different lists in sync.

   So there are 2 ways to use this baby:

   • Gmail for RTM extension
   • RTM website

   Either will do, just do.

2. Phone calendar

   Okay so I don’t have a smart phone. But that doesn’t mean that my phone is dumb! (Ha…ha…)

   But almost all phones nowadays have some sort of calendar feature. And that’s fine and dandy for checking what the date is. But there is often also the ability to schedule events. So I use my phone (a Motorola, by the way) and put in reminders for certain things that I need to get done.

   This is especially useful when I’m out and about. Often my phone is one of the few things that I’ll carry with me. I could actually text message a reminder to RTM which is cool. But I’ll be honest, I’m cheap when it comes to text messaging. And Verizon charges $.15 per message. For the amount of reminders that I put in for myself, that could get pricey. Haha laugh if you want, but the calendar reminders are free.

3. Google Calendar

   Calendars have been around for ages. The print versions are still quite popular and understandably so. But as computer usage becomes more and more prevalent, we are transferring much of the things that we do in tangible form to things that we can do through using the computer.

   Personally I use the Google calendar, but really there are many such applications floating around. I figure that I already have a Gmail account, so why not. (Of course, this line of reasoning sounds that in my post Google’s Taking Over The World…And I Don’t Like It.)

   Anyways, a nice feature of Google calendar is that I can have it e-mail me before the event occurs. I don’t use the application everyday, but awhile back I input all of my friends’ birthdays. Now it will e-mail me the day before someone’s birthday, so I’ll never egregiously forget a friend’s birthday!

   Granted, it’d be better if I just remembered. It would show that I care more. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that I don’t want to make a mistake! It’s my failsafe, if you will.

   • Google Calendar website

Do you have other tips for fellow forgetful fellows (or gals)?

Lock The Stall Door

Tagged as: Gross, Seen-Around, Tip-For-Life, Work Jan 31

There are some things that happen in life that cause you to become speechless. For some, this happens more often than for others. For me, it just happened. What in the world do you say when you walk into a stall and someone is sitting on the toilet doing their business?

Wait a second, something is not right. Oh yeah, I’m not supposed to go into a stall when another person is already in there.

1. “You forgot to lock the door, you ninny.”
2. “Surprise! I’m here!”
3. “How are those TPS reports going?”
4. “Ah ha, THAT’S where the smell was coming from!”
5. “How’s that crossword puzzle going for you?”
6. “Whoa…you know that’s not normal.”
7. “Room in here for another?”

Really, how do you respond to that? You can’t. You’re speechless. This is one for the scrapbook (i.e. the blog). It’s even better when this person is from work and you see them around but don’t actually know them. Super!

Tip for life #2340987: Lock the little latch on the door when you are in a stall

3 Little Tips To Save

Tagged as: Idea, Money, Tip-For-Life Sep 18

Here are some small things that you can do that might just save your more than you’d think. They’re easy to do, so give ‘em a shot! It’s not a huge list of tips, but these are simply ones that I’ve thought of/started using recently.

1. Navy Shower
   Directions:
   1. Turn on water
   2. Rinse
   3. Turn off water
   4. Lather and scrub
   5. Turn on water
   6. Rinse off
   7. Turn off water
   8. Enjoy the moment of the day that you will be the cleanest

   Save yourself water like the sailors had to do on ships. You’ll realize it’s not bad at all. I mean do you really need to have water being wasted while you scrub? I doubt it.

2. Coasting in the car – When you’re driving around, think about the fact that only having two action options, accelerate and brake, could not be the most efficient. There is room for some other option: do nothing and let the laws of physics propel you. The momentum that you’ve previously gained can be utilized. All you need to do is be more aware of things going on around you. If there is a red light up ahead, take your foot off of both pedals and just let your car glide along. Positives while doing this are
   1. Less stress – Coasting, as in life, will let you relax
   2. Save money – Not pressing the gas pedal will obviously not use gas and that is an obvious monetary savings
   3. Have fun (and stay awake) – It’s like a game to accurately figure out when to let off the gas in order to coast such that you won’t have to brake at all. Great for when you’re falling asleep, huh?
   4. Eliminate congestion – I should write about this sometime, but coasting at a constant speed in congestion will not only get you to your destination in the same time, but it will actually start the elimination of said congestion! For those not totally self-centered, this can be seen as a huge positive.
3. Always turn off the light when you leave a room. No matter how long you’re gone, it has been verified (okay okay, by the great Mythbusters) that it’s more worthwhile to just turn off the light if you leave the room for ~20 seconds (I don’t remember the actual number).

Pretty simple and straightforward, huh? Let me know what you think about ‘em in the comments. Or even better, give me some other tips.

Edit: I totally forgot that when I was thinking of this post I actually meant to also say that these things will save you money but will also help save the environment! Take that into account, why don’t you?