Rethink how you replate your meals.

Think about the routine you go thru to prepare, cook and eat a meal and its affect on how many dishes you use.

1. Cook meal. - uses 3 pans and 3 utensils.
2. Put meal onto serving dishes. - uses 4 dishes
3. Put the meal on plates. - uses 4 plates, 4 forks and 4 cups.
4. Put leftovers in storage containers. - uses 2 containers and 2 lids.
5. Put leftovers onto plates. - uses 2 plates, 2 forks and 2 cups.
6. Wash pots, wash plates, wash storage containers. - 32 different dishes.

That's 32 different dishes for one prepared meal and one leftover meal. If you repeat this process 200 times in a year, that's over 6400 dishes you will have to wash and rinse. At 10 seconds a rinse that over a 1000 minutes a year rinsing. At 20 seconds a wash that's over 2100 minutes a year.

Here are two ideas for saving yourself time and water over the course of the next year.

1. Serve your meal directly from the pots and pans you cooked them in. By doing this you save yourself 800 washes and rinses, which equals about 400 minutes a year.

2. Eat your leftovers directly from the storage containers. By doing this you will save yourself 800 washes and rinses, which equals about 400 minutes a year.

Not only do you save time by not having to wash and rinse as much, you also save time by not having to replate as often. The savings will also be found in the amount of water you use a year.

This isn't a monumental life changing idea, but I'm sure there are a large population of folks out there who repeat this process everyday. Best of luck.

Comedian Scott Gregory made Saturday Night funny.

Ever heard of Scott Gregory? No? What about Scott Gregory, the comedian? Still nothing? What about Scott Gregory, the christian comedian? Come on, still? What about Scott Gregory, the Christian comedian that makes you laugh about hockey players holding hands and squeezing toothpaste from the bottom? Okay, okay, okay, so you haven't heard of him. I hadn't either until Saturday night, when Scott came to MDL Coffee on the south side of the square.

Scott's original brand of comedy gave the intimate crowd of 25 a great show. He mixed into his routine stories about family life, a little marketing and a twist of potty humor, and every bit of it was funny. He was very quiet at times during the show, but there were moments he delivered his message like we were all sitting on the other side of the square...which made it even more fun.

In the past, Scott has opened for acts like Jeff Foxworthy, Tim Allen and Paula Poundstone...but if you ask him what he most appreciates out of that time in his life, I'd bet their names wouldn't come a close second. During a personal moment in his act, Scott shared about the struggles and temptations of the comedy life and how it left him...well, I tell you what...this part you should ask him about. Here's his website http://www.scottgregorycomedy.com/.

I love this city, but everyone knows that the sidewalks get "pulled up" after 6pm. Last night, though, was a clear exception to this description. I left MDL last night very pleased that I'd had a good cup of coffee and an evening of laughter. It was one of those nights that surprised me!

If I could make a trade with God, #1

...I would ask him to take away my ability to be nauseated and puke ever again. I hate puking, vomiting, up-chucking...whatever you want to call it. To me, nearly getting my thumb cut off in high school, was less painful to endure than hurling. So, along those lines, I would ask to trade my left pinky finger. He could cut it off, make it go limp, I don't care...I just don't want to have to puke ever again.

There I said it.

Tough garbage meets tough dog food bags.

Ever so often, my family and I undertake a small project in our home that requires the tearing out of the old lathe and plaster. Lathe and plaster was used before drywall became the norm. It consisted of wooden slats run horizontally across stud walls and plaster puddied between and over the slats. If you've ever dealt with lathe and plaster, you know the perils of old nails and the heaviness of the plaster. To rid yourself of that mess, you cannot just pick some everyday hefty bag to dispose of the refuse. The nails will tear the bag and the weight will stretch it. For these kinds of disposals, you need a strong bag or a box.

The best solution to this refuse problem, I think, are old dog food bags. You know, the plastic ones that have a little weaving, built in, to give the bag its strength...typically the ones that hold 30lbs of food or more. You can shove lathe with nails sticking out and plaster by the pounds in these bags, and typically you're still good to go. I don't think the paper based ones would work as well, but I haven't tried those.

Good luck and happy reusing.

Switch hands to un-tangle a coiled cord.

Ever had trouble with chords becoming tangled? Maybe it the hair dryer, maybe its the electric razor or maybe its phone charger. You know what happens, you try to unwind it and it immediately coils up like a snake. My nemisis is my beard trimmer. After wopping off a 3 day stubble, I wind the chord up so that the appliance fits nicely back into the plastic box. After a while the coils create a mess inside the box. This coiling affect also happens often with extension cords.

Here's a simple solution to aleviating that coiling affect that I happened upon partly by chance. It does require a little patience.

Take the cord and make a conscious effort to understand how you normally wind it up. Now uncoil it and switch hands. The hand you normally wind the cord up with becomes the holder, and the hand you normally hold with becomes the winder. Now wind it up.

The next time you go to unwind the cord, you'll notice some of the coiling has left. Why? Because you wound it in the opposite direction, loosening the effect of only coiling in one direction. Do this several times and you'll notice it starts to coil the other way!

Boosting kid's imaginations, one room at a time.

I've always wanted to experience my enviroment from a different vantage point. I remember as a kid always turning my bedroom into some sort of fort or maze. I used boxes and bedsheets to create, what I thought, were new rooms and spaces. I wish I had a few pictures of those forts, but really I know the pictures would never do justice to what I imagined them to be. Anyway, this has led me to another business idea.

I've always wondered if creating custom kids' bedrooms could be shaped into a profitable business. I'm not talking about extravagant museum quality kids spaces, but maybe a lofted bed, or a perch, maybe a slide, possibly a lofted creative painting space. How about a porthole to get into the bedroom?

Cost would be the most obvious hindrance to this type of business. I'd bet, though, if we add up all the money that we spend on toys each year, a custom kid's room would probably not be too far from that price range.

All kids are different obviously, and so are their rooms. So the customization would be endless if you found the right clients.

I wouldn't want to jump in front of the kid's imaginations by creating a fully detailed space, but I think by adding a few "new experiences" in a room, it could spark an already wonderful imagination. I don't know, what do you think?

Blogger or Blogspot post links into Twitter

Want to be able to quickly add your Blogger Post Links to your Twitter status? Want your visitors to have the ability to quickly add your Blogger Post Links to their Twitter status? Its surprisingly simple.

Click on LAYOUT > EDIT HTML > EXPAND WIDGET TEMPLATES

Find the line that says...
<a expr:href='data:post.emailPostUrl' expr:title='data:top.emailPostMsg'>

Add this just after it...
<a expr:href='&quot;http://twitter.com/home?status=&quot; + data:post.url' target='_blank'>Change this link text</a>

Click SAVE TEMPLATE. That's all there it to it.

Click "Twit It" below to test it out.

The only caveat to keeping this functionality simple is to make sure you're logged into Twitter first.

The English Language Sucks - Part 2

Uv cors wii luv to eet ise creem.

Nope that spelling just won't do.

Of course we love to eat ice-cream.

see other English Sucks examples

Have mercy on my bowl

Here's an idea for a plumbing company, janitorial service company or a toilet bowl manufacturer.

You've heard the saying, "Have mercy on my soul." Why not a company and website called, "Have mercy on my bowl?" Its kinda catchy, a little bit cheesy, but I think effective to communicate a message. 

havemercyonmybowl.com is available as of 3/8/2010.

Here is the company I've used for a couple of years to purchase domains and hosting.  By clicking the banner you'll be using my affiliate number. 

Quickest, easiest, ugly but good birthday cake that kids will love.

In honor of my son's birthday that we had yesterday, I'd like to share this little idea I had about 2 years ago.

Not everyone likes cake! WHAT? WHAT'S YOU TALKEN 'BOUT WILLIS? I know, I know, I'm going to get hate mail for that one, but its true. Not everyone likes cake. Sometimes its the icing, sometimes its the mess that needs cleaned after a crazy birthday party.

Whether you like cake or not, next year try this idea and see how it goes over. Pick up 2 bags of those little donuts. You know, the one's you can eat a dozen or so and still be hungry. In our house, we pick up one bag of chocolate and one bag of powdered. Stack them in the shape of a cake with however you want to layer your varieties. If you're having a birthday, the little candles will fit nicely in the donut centers.

We like this cake for a couple of reasons. Its good. Its quick. Its easy to clean up. The kids can get as many as they want, by themselves without making an icing mess. Plus, its good. Oh, wait, I said that already.

Bye-Bye: City officials sending tax dollars to other cities.

Which do you think is better for your community...having your local government spend $10000 in your community or having them spend it in some other community? Seems like a pretty basic concept, right? If local money stays local, it should be more beneficial locally.

Here's an example. Let's say your city government receives a pamphlet or a phonecall from a "health screening" company 100 miles away and it toutes the longterm savings of getting "health screenings" for all your city employees. Sounds good, right? So your city government agrees to have them come and they do a great job of finding any potential problems. They, then leave and your city government pays the $2000 fee.

Doesn't seem like such an unbeneficial decision until you realize that there was the option of hiring another local company that could have performed the exact same service. So, would you rather your local government spend $2000 with a local company or $2000 on an outside company?

I think one of the best ways to stabilize and encourage a local economy is to ensure that city officials and local governments are spending your tax dollars as close to home as possible.

Boring Man's Sweet Salsa

So I don't cook anymore. I focus a lot of time and energy into my websites and my family. But when my wife and I got married we tried different recipes and came up with a few of our own. Here's one of our favorties for a quick salsa.

1 can of kidney or black beans (undrained)
1 can of cream or sweet corn (drained if sweet)
1 small green pepper (chopped)
1 small red bell pepper (chopped)
1 can of diced tomatoes (drained)
Maybe just a little salt and pepper.

I prefer to use kidney beans in my salsa. And you don't want to drain the kidney beans because the liquid becomes a good base for the entire salsa. My wife like a little onion in hers as well, but I could do without it.

Let me know what you think of the sweet of the salsa with the salt of the scoops.

If you don't read this, you'll get herpa-gono-syphil-aids.

You know one of my biggest peeves in marketing is the use of "fear" as a tool to make people make impulse decisions.

"EVERY 3 SECONDS SOMEONE STEALS AN IDENTITY."
"THE PLANET WILL DIE IF WE DON'T DRIVE A CERTAIN KIND OF CAR."
"YOUR CHILDREN ARE AT RISK OF A DEVELOPING SOMETHING, IF YOU DON'T..."

These kinds of statements have become the norm in marketing. Watch 4 out of 5 commercials on television and tell me how what they are using as motivation. Is it the benefits of their product or is the lack of using it? I think there are a lot of great products out there and they should focus on how they can improve our lives, rather than creating this fear if we don't use them.

I recognize some people are more motivated by fear than by any other means. I also recognize that some fear is necessary, but to market every product in the world on the basis of fear I think contributes to the kind of economy we're experiencing now.

And don't think I singling out the capitalist market. There used to be a sign on I-70 that read..."Fear Hell, turn to Jesus" or something very similar. This sign always struck me square in the face, not because I fear HELL, but because I've always known that Jesus had a better message. Jesus has so much more to offer by way of example, but in this instance, whoever put this sign up would rather use fear as their motivator. Come on, let's all use our "Lurch-from-the-Adams-Family" voice...."FEARRRRRRR HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLL."

So, are you marketing your business or product on the basis of fear? Maybe your product really isn't that good, if your only marketing message is based on fear. And to you consumers out there...maybe you should consider whether fear is your prime motivator.

Ps. Never fear...Herpa-Gono-Syphil-Aids was a made up disease my late brother came up with about 10 years ago.