Cell Phone Jerk

Please don't be a cell phone jerk.  


Cell phones allow us to be constantly available but it is important to know when to 'hang up' the phone.  It seems that most people recognize the importance of "netiquette" in the digital realm--such as using respectful language, NOT WRITING WITH CAPS LOCK ON and not writing anything that you would not be willing to say to someone face to face--but I've noticed that many are failing to understand the importance of cell phone etiquette with respect to those around you.


The following video will explain more thoroughly:   

Cell Phone Etiquette 

What can we learn from this video: 

1. Bluetooth is fine, just make sure that those around you don't think that you are talking to them.
2. Business meetings, bathrooms (awkward), and restaurants are not appropriate places to carry on cell phone conversations.
3. Do not text, check your email, or play Angry Birds while driving--beating level 25 is not worth killing someone or crashing your car.
4. Learn to unplug (every once in a while)
5. Those who drive while talking have the reflexes of a senior citizen (no offense Grandma).
6. Lastly, try not to let your phone take priority over / annoy the person right next to you!
7. In fact, the National Safety Council reported that phone conversations cause drivers to become "more emotionally engaged" and "less attentive to safety signals" ("Unsafe Driving in,").  Furthermore, according to Nationwide, "distractions from cell phones" reduce reaction time to that of a person driving with a "blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent" (Nationwide).  In short, be smart and don't goof around with your phone while driving.

Remember, children mimic their parents--so be careful!

Note: this was an assignment for class--thanks for reading!

References: 
Nationwide. (n.d.). Driving while distracted: Statistics to know. Retrieved from http://www.nationwide.com/newsroom/dwd-facts-figures.jsp
Unsafe driving in the cell phone era. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cellphonesafety.org/vehicular/era.htm

So You Think You Know Chocolate?

Here is a fun little game for anyone who's interested.  The following are four popular chocolate treats (all of them name brand chocolates).  Can you name them all?  Be Specific!

Are you ready for the answers?
...
...
...
Are you sure?
...
...
...
Okay, from left to right they are:

1. Snickers
2. Hershey's Dark Chocolate (we had to turn it over to hide the logo)
3. Andes Mints
4. Milky Way Dark Chocolate!

How many did you get right?  

If you liked this, try out this other candy quiz at: Sporcle.com

How to Become a Millionaire with Only $10,000

So I am taking FIN 300 (Intro to Finance for all non-finance majors) right now.  The other day, my professor told us that there are three ways to get rich:

1. Marry Money
2. Inherit Money
3. Invest Money slowly over time

So how does that work for me: 

1. Marry Money--Since I'm already married and have merged bank accounts with my wife, I've pretty much maxed out this option.  
2. Inherit Money--Being the youngest child, my claim on the "birthright" is pretty non-existent.
3. Invest Money slowly over time--This seems to be my best shot at becoming a millionaire so I found a website that will show me how to do it.

To see how it's done, click the link and then enter the information below: How to Make a Million with Only $10,000

Enter the Following: 

• Ending Value: 1000000
• Beginning Value: 10000
• Number of Periods: 40 
• *A period is generally considered to be a year

Thus, with a principal investment of $10,000 at age 25, with compounding interest, I should be a millionaire by 65!

Anyone see a hole in my plan?  Help me out you finance majors.

Dog for Dinner

Alexis and I, being the poor college students that we are, frequently go to the various malls in our area (primarily Arizona Mills but occasionally we visit Chandler Fashion and Fiesta, as well).

"Poor people going to malls?" you say.  Certainly!  Although we hardly ever buy anything except the occasional DQ Blizzard (now that we're part of the Blizzard Fan Club--very exclusive--it makes us feel quite elitist).  We mainly just go to get out of the house and walk around.  While we're there, we always make a point of stopping in the pet shop to look at the puppies 'on display.'

Occasionally, we get to see the employees feeding the dogs their dinner (not feeding the dogs for dinner, of course)--which is quite entertaining, to say the least.  This is a cute little Husky (I believe) that seems quite suspicious of his dinner--the little red thing that keeps frightening him.

Now, I have a question for all of you.  Alexis and I really liked the "Puggle" (blend of Pug and Beagle) but weren't such big fans of its price tag (about $1000--although there was an option to Finance the dog!).  Do you think this is a cute dog?

  What kind of dog do you have / or wish you had?  What's the most you've ever paid (or heard someone pay) for a dog?  Feel free to comment below.

What are Blogs for Anyway?

That is a good question and, partly because it is an assignment for my technology class--and partly because I know you want to know--I am going to tell you.


How Could A Blog Help You

1. Find a good place to eat in Tempe (could be anywhere, depending on where you live)
• http://www.azfoodreview.com/category/tempe-az/
2. Learn about how to invest in the stock market
• http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/12/16/how-much-does-the-stock-market-actually-return/
• This is actually a great website for a lot of financial advice--not just the stock market.
3. Learn more about social media tools
• http://socialmediaclub.org/blogs/social-media-journal
4. Learn more about new video games
• http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2012/01/16/new-video-game-releases-week-3-2012.htm 
5. Find / Read movie reviews
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/marshall-fine-movie-review
6. Find out where your favorite band/musician (say, Elton John and Billy Joel) was playing
• http://www.rockconcertsnow.com/elton-john-and-billy-joel-2009-tour/

All of those were found through a simple Google Search with "Blogs" as the search parameter (you just click "blogs" on the side after you input your search).  

Blogs to Check Out (to see some variety)

• Boy Genius Report: 
• Reviews technology ranging from social media to mobile phones to gaming (and some random stuff like celebrities).
• Gadling:
• An interesting travel blog that discusses topics ranging from airlines to use to budgeting tips to locations to visit.  It is a pretty comprehensive site in terms of travel.
• Failblog:
• As far as I can tell, this website just finds people 'failing' at different things (or just making fools of themselves) and then people vote on them.
• Rotten Tomatoes: 
• A useful site with movie reviews, user ratings, trailers, etc.  I didn't realize that it merged with Flixster some time ago.  I guess imdb.com is the only other big competitor these days.
• Grantland:
• It seems like this website occasionally covers other things but generally focuses on sports news, highlights, etc.
• Gawker:
• I'll be perfectly honest, I think that gawker is an enormous waste of time and, for that reason, I am not even going to link to it.  Basically, it is a website completely devoted to gossip, sleazy news, etc.

And a Few FAQs: 

1. What is the difference between a blog and a micro-blog?
• With some variation, a blog is an online journal produced by a single individual on a specific theme--like "The Hobbit", Crafts, Social Commentary or sometimes as broad as someone's life (like the blog you are reading!).  The posts are generally somewhere between 300-500 words, in my experience and often include pictures and sometimes even video clips.  The blogs listed above could be considered "blogs" and not "micro-blogs".
• A micro-blog, on the other hand, is a condensed version of a blog--as the name would suggest--with much shorter posts (sometimes no more than a link or a one-liner).  Wikipedia describes it as more of a "broadcast medium" for things like status updates and sales promotions (in the case of businesses).  Twitter is a good example of a micro-blog.
2. Is Wordpress a blog or a micro-blog?
• Wordpress is both a platform for blogging and a hosting service (like Blogger) that allows you to create your own blog.  Although I have seen a few mentions of micro-blog plug-ins for Wordpress, it is primarily a normal blog.
3. What is an "Enterprise Micro-blog"?

• It is a service offered to organizations that allows them to share information quickly through RSS Feeds, threaded replies, and photo and file sharing.  This kind of service helps to enhance collaboration throughout the organization.  One of the most highly respected Enterprise micro-blogging services out there is Yammer.

Well, out of all the blog sites that I visited, I would probably say that GetRichSlowly.org was my favorite because it had some great practical advice on reducing expenses, investing and developing an effective long-term get-rich strategy!

I'd love to hear what you have to say about blogs.  What do you use them for?  Have you found any really good ones that help you to find what you're looking for?  


Please, comment below. 

Rockets and Christmas Gifts

Lexie and I just finished our Family Christmas Tour the other day.  It was a lot of fun but exhausting, nonetheless.  Friday night after I got off work at UPS, we drove up to Jason and Kim's place in Litchfield Park to hang out with them and Ryan and Kathrin.  We stayed the night and by the next morning, Jared and his family (including the adorable newborn Anna Jean Bates) and Amy and Cory arrived.

Caleb proving what a good big brother he will be.

We spent the morning hanging out and eating--two of the greatest reasons to get together as a family, in my opinion.  We also happen to have a "Rocketeer" in our family named Cory McDowell who brought his rocket collection to shoot off.

The boys were pretty into watching the rockets go off.  They even had a lot of fun chasing them down once they landed/crashed!

His rockets were pretty sweet--the biggest one was my favorite because it had a slower take-off (kind of like a space shuttle).

Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa (Mom and Dad) Bates' house for a great Christmas Eve Dinner!  We really had to discipline ourselves not to overeat because there was so much good food there--not to mention the desserts!

The next morning, we went to church and then had our own little Christmas celebration.

Gotta Love Amazon.com (cheap used movies!)

Then we went over to the Longs to open our gifts there (more movies!) and see what everyone had gotten.  After that (my fingers are getting tired just writing all of this), we went to Grandma and Grandpa Longs to see them and exchange gifts.  Then we went back to the Longs (Lexie's parents) and hung out for the rest of the night.  

The next day, we hung out at Jason and Kim's again, drove around their new Polaris Ranger and went to the  mall.

By the end of the weekend, we had definitely enjoyed ourselves but were ready to be home!

A Young Married Couple's Christmas!

So Alexis and I finally got our Christmas decorations up this last week and they look stupendous, if I do say so myself.

The downside to that beautiful display of lights is that it is wrapped around the track for the blinds--so we can't actually close them!  Oh well.

It is hard to believe that we have almost been married for an entire year--we were married the 29 December 2010.  I just keep thinking how weird it will be when we look back 50 years from now to say, "Do you remember that first Christmas 50 years ago with the 2ft tree and window stickies?"  I can't wait!

It was trickier than you might think to decorate the Christmas tree--not because there was a lot of space to fill but because there were so many ornaments and so few places to put them.  We ultimately decided that 'less is more' and just put a few things on there.

We received a nice, early Christmas present from the Longs in order to continue their annual tradition of giving each child an ornament.

We decided that, since it is probably too heavy for the tree, we would combine it with each of our individual baby ornaments to form a little Traditionary Trifecta of Holiday Cheer.  That's right, that's what we're calling it.