Nov 30

Standardized Parts

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Planning and living your life around standardized stuff is one of the best things you can do.   Erika and I have found it really useful and efficient in our married life.  One of our early examples was when we bought our Kirkham tents.  We decided to get the same size dinning/shade tent as the one we sleep in.  Both tents use the same number of stakes, as well as the same size.  Both have the same pole set, same tarpaulin, and have interchangeable interior parts.  When we go camping it is really easy to set them up, as they are relatively the same, even though one is a screen house, and the other a deluxe tent.

As we buy stuff, we have been mindful of what other functions it will do, and how that can be useful for us.  Our new PS3 was purchased because we did not want to have a box for blueray, a box for online tv, a gaming console, and a audio setup.  We can watch Hulu, Netflix, play mp3, buy online games and online movies from it too.  We can simply use the one box, with all the features instead of many purchases.

We bought the boy’s Christmas presents this weekend.  They have been hustling us for some skateboards, as they only have cheap $25 boards from some department store.  We know that they will continue to have the interest, so it will be an investment, not a short-lived hobby.   So we went down to the local skate shop and had them pick out a stock deck, trucks, wheels and hardware.  All the parts are standard skate parts, and can easily be upgraded, traded, or replaced.  This was impossible with the cheap boards we got them earlier.  It is always wise to purchase like this, when you know it will be a purchase that you want to last a long time.

I think this is part of living a simplified life too.  For instance, if I go take one tent out camping, I only have to grab one stake bag, any pole set and a tent.  No digging and hunting for the right gear.  The  boys have great, long lasting equipment in their boards, and will be able to enjoy them much longer, and the investment will have a longer payback than if we kept purchasing cheap crap.

Nov 29

My Thanksgiving

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I had a great Thanksgiving because we went to my aunt and uncle’s house for Thanksgiving.  I also liked it because we ate good turkey and turkey gravy.  Besides the turkey gravy I think everything else was home made.  I played with Jacob, Makayla, Jacob (The baby version.), Kaylee, Dad, Mom and Ben.  I also played with basically everyone there.

Nov 29

Thanksgiving 2009

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My Thanksgiving was fun!!  I went to my uncle and aunts house.   I played pool, hand-pool and darts.  I ate potatoes, turkey, finger- jello, jello, rolls and celery.

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Nov 26

Cranberry a la bart

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Nov 26

Thanks

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Things I’m Grateful For:

1.  Great wife, kids and family.

2. Gospel, Priesthood and a Testimony.

3.  Simple house, in a simple neighborhood.

4.  Great responsibility to help YM.

5.  Great job, with great employees.

6.  Always have sufficient for our needs.

7.  Education, experiences and friends.

Nov 25

Apache Benchmark

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I found this nice little utility to benchmark apache.  Here is my example:

ab -c 10 -n 100 http://www.flippinsweetdude.com/

It will run 100 tests on the domain, and return the results.

Nov 24

Minimalist Gmail Reviewed

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A few weeks ago I ran across this nice firefox plugin to give your GMail a minimalist feel.  I’ve given it a try for some time, and thought it time for a review.

First, the install, like all firefox plugins, was really easy.  Just a couple clicks and a quick restart of firefox and your up and running.  Once you sign into gmail, you get a one time popup saying that the pluging is installed and ready to go.

Once configured ( how-to below) you can have your GMail look like this, with all the unneeded stuff gone:

base

Two simple features are, ‘A’ toggles on/off the header that has the links to documents, rss reader and calendar.  ‘B’ opens the menu option, that lets you pick and choose what to hide:

options

I’ve really liked the plugin, especially hiding the ads and buttons that I never use.  I like it more when I changed my theme to be a custom white and light blue theme.  If you think you’ll like this little plugin, you should give it a try.

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Nov 23

Paper Knife

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We attended a local play at a nearby High School this weekend.  It was so good that I created this paper knife to try to put me out of my misery.

photo(2)

Nov 22

Modular Arithmetic

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Modular Arithmetic is a pretty basic concept that we use all the time and just don’t know it.  Basically it is what the remainder is when division occurs.  Simplest case is the clock and its 12 hours.  We quickly realize that 13 O’clock does not exist, and we divide by 12 and the remainder 1, so it’s 1 O’clock.  ( 13 mod 12 = 1 )   We also use it with money, especially if you where calculating what change to give back.  First you divide the change by quarters, use mod to get the remainder, then pay out dimes, use mod to get the remainder and so on.

Either way, I had an interesting experience with Benjamin this week at the local tire store, that I found fascinating.  He went outside the store and counted all the tires piled up, as we were bored as could be.  He came back and said there were 103 tires.  I asked how many cars worth ( 4 tires ) of tires that was, and how many left over tires would there be.  Instantly he told me that their where 3 left over, and then had to compute the number of cars, which took a little while.  Next question was how many Jeeps ( 5 tires ) could get new tires.  Once again, instant that it would be 3 remaining tires, and a few seconds for the count on the Jeeps.

I tried this with other values, like 23, 36 and 54.  Same experience with each, near instant on the remainder, a few seconds on the count.  For some reason, little Benjamin’s mind must be wired to calculate modular arithmetic faster that regular division.  I’m sure it will only be of value at parties and game shows, but interesting none the least.

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Nov 21

Allowance For Kids

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Erika and I were discussing how great it is that our kids know more about managing money than we did at that age.  In fact dare say that our boys are 10+ years ahead in money management compared to what I had experienced.

We don’t use the fixed allowance method, rather we have a weekly chore list, that when all work is completed, it comes with a nice $5 pay day.  $1 saved, $1 to the missionary fund, and 50 cents to the bishop’s truck payment.  We are on year 3-4 of this routine and have found that it works great for a number of reasons.

First, this allowance test was all started to get rid of those crappy crying sessions at the store.  The old, “Can you please buy this? It’s only $8″, are all a thing of the past.  The boys know that we will take care of basic need (food, shelter, cloths, education, etc… ) but for other stuff, they are mostly on their own.  Candybars, treats and toys are all from their own money, and that is fine by me.

Next, both our boys know how to save.  The single saved dollar a week has turned into hundreds in the bank.  They save their birthday money, and usually divide up that money the same as their weekly $5.  It is a small competition between Nathan and Benjamin to see how much cash they can have on hand, while saving what is expected.   Believe it or not, the boys have about 60 bucks each for their spending pleasure.  We ( Erika and I ) would not have ever saved money like that in our youth, it would be long gone, the moment we had it.

Also, since it is expected that they serve a mission, and that they are to pay a significant portion of the expense, it is great that they have started early.  Just like when your kids pay for their own bike, they take care of it better.  Hopefully, they will have a more meaningful experience serving, knowing that it is their money being used.

Last, they get to learn to give.  Paying tithing, or some other kind of giving is a great thing to learn at an early age.  It helps keep selfishness in check, and give them the opportunity to see their contributions help others.  Often they are helping each other cover some expense too, and are willing to share when needed.

Just to be clear, we do pay for things outside the normal base necessities. However there usually is a ‘Meet me half way’ type agreement.  For instance, Nathan wants to go take some skiing lessons next month, he will pay half, and mom and dad the other.  Ben wanted a new bike this summer, we met half way on that too.  It really does go a long way, having your kids save, earn and spend money on a regular basis.

I found this interesting article today on the subject, and found the comments on the post just as interesting as the article.

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