A Few Not So Obvious Ways To Save Money

Harley wants to be washed?
 

What kind of laundry basket do you use? Round, rectangular, well whatever type it is I’m sure it has hundreds of tiny windows for your clothes to peek out.  It will be brittle and broken within a year. Instead, you should use storage totes for your laundry like I do. I’ve been using a couple Rubbermaid and Sterilite brand storage totes that have no holes in the sides (sans lids of course), and haven’t had to replace them for over a decade. Really, the holes only make sense if you’re going to put clothes in the laundry basket when they aren’t fully dry and then forget about them.

The clothes get folded, and anything not fully dry goes on top for hanging in the bathroom at home.

While we’re on the subject of laundry, I don’t use fabric softener. It’s a scam, full of scents I’m likely allergic to (I’m allergic to whatever smellification chemical they put in perfumes/air fresheners), and many chemicals we really don’t need touching our skin. Opt out of the b.s. I haven’t noticed my nipples chafing or any other ill effects from this either. So give it a try, go three weeks/three washes without the needless additives and see if you notice any difference. If your really MUST have softening action, I think I read somewhere that 1/3 cup or so of white vinegar added during rinse cycle can have much of the same effect.

 

Another thing I’ve noticed that makes no sense is dish towels. If these thin, crappy cloths were supposed to dry more than 3 or 4 dishes at a go, I sure as hell can’t figure out how to do it! Which is why I bought fluffy bathroom hand towels for kitchen use. If you’re wiping grime off the stove, or cleaning out the microwave, you’re using a sponge, scrubber, or good old dish rag, not the thin dish towels. Really, the only things dish towels come into contact with is wet hands and wet (clean) dishes, so they should last almost forever! Why fall into the trap of buying thin, cheap, annoying dish towels that just smear water around and you have to give up and let them air-dry.. Maybe they have roosters or apples or a sunflower pattern, but are they for show or for WORK?

 

Well, that’s it for now. I’ve got a few more things I could add to this, but maybe they deserve their own post at a later date. Thanks for reading.

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Pro Ductivity

Delicious Dead Bee and Hungry Ants

‘m a lazy bastard. I’d rather soak up entertainment and read most of what passes in front of me than actually making stuff. Content. Pictures, words, video. Well, I decided I’m going to update at least one thing every day. To keep myself honest I’m hoping you’ll hold me accountable for this. Give me loads of shite if I don’t actually make something, post something, or accomplish something each day.

I’ve been posting over at my design blog http://wwww.sexcpotatotesdesigns.com with a bunch of awesome t-shirt designs I’ve come up with on http://www.bluecotton.com . I wrote a bit on my novel the other day at work, on breaks, so I’m probably going to start posting parts of that on my writing blog which I’ll link later sometime or it’s down in some corner of this page.

I plan on increasing my workload each day if possible and seeing how much good stuff I can produce. I’m also sort of tired of seeing all this stuff that gets put out and knowing ‘it could be done better.’

Thursday, April 28th, 2011 Rant, Things you cannot find, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Pain Obsession Today

I feel the aches and pains of getting older, even at a mere 29 years of age.

So how does the pain stack up against pain throughout history? I mean, our pains are probably relatively weak sauce compared to what people had to deal with not 100 years ago.

The problem is that now everyone feels they have a license to complain about every splinter and now every stubbed toe is the end of the world.

Of course back before the regulation of hard drugs such as Opiates and such, one could buy liquid cough syrup with Opium in it, and give it to your kids to keep them doped out of their minds. Coke had cocaine in it, and as long as you had that 10 extra cents you could get rip-snorting high and wired off as many bottles as you could drink (at least I imagine, I’m too lazy to link or do any research at the moment).

In the past, most of America were farmers. They shut the fuck up and got the job done, regardless of if the backbreaking work of the previous day made them hurt in every joint and walk a little slow.

Back in the old west days, you could self-medicate with Alcohol. Of course if that made you short-tempered and hasty to duel, so be it. Get up, have a large snort from the whiskey bottle to steady yourself. Couple shots with breakfast. Go to work shoe-ing horses or whatever, finish the flask your wife packed with your lunch. Get off work, go home for dinner with a couple drinks, then head out to the saloon for some hell-raising with the boys and the serious drinking.

In further history, Beer was the safest thing to drink because they would boil the water used to make it. Water got you sick, beer was a health drink.

As things have gotten easier with the advances we have made as society, harder drugs have become criminalized and more controlled, and people have become less and less likely to lose life and limb at work. But we still do things our bodies were not designed to do, sitting in an office chair all day. As we age our bodies decline, we lose the cartilidge used to cushion our joints. Gravity bears down on us daily, and our spines try to decompress at night while we sleep.

So, too, has it gotten easier and more socially acceptable to complain about our ailments. From the beginnings of human commerce, it’s been potions and chemicals and foods and pills sold to cure what ails ye.

Fraud and quackery are alive and well today, and there’s plenty of gullible souls that buy into stupid crap and pyramid schemes such as Amway and Quixtar (whatever they are called this week).

Eventually, you’ll get to some serious pain, but no one will take you seriously because you’ve been complaining for so long and so hard. Hurting means you’re alive. So be glad for it because 1. It’s not near as bad as your ancestors had it. & 2. All that suffering you do sitting through church services doesn’t guarantee that there actually is any ‘life after death.’

Is your belly full? Do you have safe shelter for the night? Then you’re ahead of many people in the world.

Friday, September 24th, 2010 Uncategorized 1 Comment

The Coolest Thing Ever

The Coolest Thing Ever is what I’m here to share with you today. With super warm weather fast approaching, it’s important to stay cool and hydrated. What better way than with a Slush Puppie!? I’ve never been a fan of Icees, give me a Slush Puppie with squirt-in flavor any day of the summer.

Now, you need to go track down the nearest Slush Puppie machine. I’ll wait.

Mmm-hmm-mm-hmmm.

Got it? Great!

Now, go buy yourselves a nice, big box of Fruit Rollups. They look like this:

or this:

Any flavor will do.

Now, you have your Fruit Rollup (TM) and your favorite flavor Slush Puppie (TM), so go ahead and tear off a good size piece of the fruit rollup, and dip it in the Slush Puppie!

Hold it there for a count of 10 seconds.

I’ll wait.

….

Now, quick! Give it two shakes to remove the excess slush, and pop it in your mouth!

Chew!

If you’ve done this right, the Fruit Rollup will shatter in your mouth, then slowly melt and stick to your teeth and let you chew it until it dissolves and makes your tummy VERY happy.

It’s a perfect warm weather culinary delight! The changing texture, flavors, temperature, and behaviour of this method of consumption is a superb experience!

I discovered this while in Junior High, as they had both small Slush Puppies, as well as Fruit Rollups for sale in the a la carte lunch line. And now I’m releasing the secret of the coolest thing ever to you, dear readers, on the internet.

What spurred this magnanimity?

Why, this post on Lifehacker.com of course!

A science experiment has shown that a slushie before exercise on a hot day can boost your endurance. Taking this to its logical conclusion, you should make sure to consume a slushie before having sex on a really hot day. Boost your stamina!

Plus this will help you stay hydrated through this brutal summer, dear readers. Stay cool. ;P

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Thursday, April 29th, 2010 Rant, Things you cannot find No Comments

I get the GOP & Tea Party now.

I finally get the GOP & Tea Party (your grassroots movement can’t have corporate sponsorship!).

I was puzzled at first.

Could people really be protesting even though taxes were being lowered for 90% or more of the population?

Tea Party members live in an echo chamber, hearing only the fabricated Faux News they want to hear over and over, and they actually are that ignorant about tax facts

Flat Tax is a TRAP!

What about a flat tax? That sounds fair. Well, a ‘flat tax’ would shift a huge tax burden of high earners onto low earners, those who can least afford it. People quote rates as high as 14% for a flat tax, but if you earn up to $75,000, you could be paying as little as 5% of your income in taxes (depending on your deductions, see the link above about Tea Party not knowing about tax facts).

There is NO reasoning with the GOP

This guy GETS it. Look, it’s a conservative (little c) that calls out the GOP for its sins. And there are MANY. You may not like having a party in power, that while, far from perfect, has shown itself to be MUCH MORE adept at looking out for YOUR interests and trying to protect them.

Thank You SIR! May I Have Another!?

Why do people insist on being so self-damaging? I mean, I guess if they want to cut their noses off, that’s fine, but you’re inflicting your personal opinions on other people, codifying them through rule of law. Ours was founded to be a free country, not the cowardly freedom to seek to make people live the way YOU say so. If others are doing something that harms you, that’s bad. If it annoys or offends you, you have every right to complain, but don’t advocate violence against them!

Everyone Wants to be Rich.

I guess people buy into this Tea Party rhetoric as simple wish-fulfillment or delusion. They somehow think they are rich, despite evidence to the contrary, or assume they will be rich some day, so they had better start fighting so ‘the poor’ don’t steal all their money! This is the only rationalization I can see for such behaviour, supporting representatives who never had your interests at heart in the first place. Maybe the representatives lie really well, but they eventually out themselves after they get into office, and most of them have some history you can look at.

The Crazies.

You rail against this oppressive government that’s obviously keeping you down. That’s crazy talk. Period.

Insurance. Health or otherwise.

The Insurance situation is soooo hairy. If you don’t want to buy health insurance fine, pay the fine, but do you have car insurance as required by law? OMG GUMMINT CONSPIRACY, HOW DARE THEY REQUIRE YOU TO CARRY INSURANCE ON SOMETHING THAT CAN EASILY KILL/Injure/damage property. Coverage that is designed to MAKE YOU WHOLE should a disaster occur (if you carry full coverage) or cover you and/or the other party should you get into an accident with some self-important anti-government nut who doesn’t carry insurance on his two-tonne, metal death-missile. Cancel your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Also, refuse all Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc, benefits forever, as those are a form of insurance too. Please, start whingeing about something important, like Obama continuing the Bush Era Policy of Allowing Warrantless Wiretapping.

The Moral:

If I’ve learned one thing from the Tea Party Movement, it’s that: Yes, people are that stupid.

Thursday, April 15th, 2010 Politico, Rant No Comments

The Super Bowl Disappointment 2010

I can’t bring myself to root for either Superbowl team this year, neither the Saints, nor Colts. The reason why I can’t is because the refs decide the games regardless of actual penalties or plays that have occurred.

My prediction is that the Saints will win the big game this year, only because it supposedly “makes a good story.” It’s a damn shame that we can’t see an untainted NFL game anymore. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia speaking, but I could have sworn that the penalties and decisions handed out in the past weren’t as horrific. There will always be bad calls, and people will always feel you screwed over their team, but it’s not just the bad calls, it’s the blatant IGNORING of illegal hits, and the like that seem to be heightened these days.

I remember reading two things somewhere in a certain diatribe against the NFL: 1. You can call a holding penalty against either side every play in any modern NFL game; and 2. The eye can’t track more than a certain number of moving objects (7 I think), at a time. So of course the Refs are going to miss some calls at times, because of the chaos on the field. All this aside, I still believe there is some sort of an unspoken order to call penalties against the leading team, just to supposedly make the games “better” and keep the scores closer together. Either that or penalties are disproportionately inflated on the leading team, or too soft on the underdogs.

I’m tired of seeing bad calls & questionable rulings endlessly tainting “the sport.” It’s not a “sport” unless the rules get followed, all of them. As of today, there is no way of telling who is the winner or loser in any NFL game, because of biased play-calling and penalties. The unspoken rule of every sport should be “make it as fair as possible.” Calling penalties & plays just to keep scores near parity is abominable!

What kind of credentials do these Referees have? Is it as simple as passing a written certification test? Do they even receive ANY continuing training? They can’t be making enough money each year to ensure they can’t be bribed.

So, I say we need enforceable penalties for the REFS! 3 bad calls in a season and you’re banned from refereeing for 5 years. Maybe more than that should be forgivable, but I’d really, really like to see a statistical analysis of the historic penalty rate per NFL game through the years. What kind of correlations could we draw between penalty frequency, contesting of penalties and calls, and score variance or game outcome? I understand that there are no completely impartial judges anywhere, but where is the accountability?

Do I just misremember? Or were the NFL games of the past more fair? Someone who is a complete sports geek, please get on this soonest. Thanks.

I questioned putting this on my New Media/Design Blog, but decided to post it here because what is more social than sports? Could it be more contentious, mythic, glorious, disappointing, hopeful, crazy, and fun? Maybe if we held those who hold the ultimate powers accountable.

Friday, January 29th, 2010 Rant No Comments

Of course you know, this means NERF WAR!

When my brother and I were growing up, we kind of invented the best game ever, NERF WAR!

Now it wasn’t necessary to have the ultra-expensive nerf GUNS to play this game, any foam football or playground or inflatable ball would do.

Basically, the entire game was running around in the yard pummeling the hell out of each other (and all the other kids) all day.

See, my mom was kind of the neighborhood babysitter, and even the kids she didn’t watch for money were always at our house to play outside.  So we always had a stash of balls to choose from.

The rules of the game were simple:

1. You can only use your weapon (ball).  No touching, kicking, etc, balls lying on the ground.

2. You can only attack someone who is armed.

3. No ganging up on someone, nor “guarding” their weapon (ball lying on ground) and waiting for them to go to pick it up and then nailing them.

4. Stay in the yard.

With these simple rules in place, we had the most fun ever, running dodging and smacking the hell out of each other with foam/inflatable balls.  Nerf footballs were the most versatile of the bunch, but I had my favorite, a medium sized pinkish marbled playball that stung if you threw it hard enough.  The blue Nerf Football was also a good choice when I wanted more accuracy, but only one weapon per person.

Anyway, as kids will be kids, I quickly developed this ‘uncanny ability’ or if you want to call it, a destructive aim to (not on purpose, I swear!) nail my brother in the balls.  Let me just say that “center mass” was the juiciest target, and maybe I subconsciously left my release a little late.

So the ball would fly true, and smack him right in the cojones, and he’d crumple to the ground with tears forming in his eyes.  Then I’d run.  Because as soon as he recovered enough, he was after me to chase me down and get some payback, of the hitting kind.  So he’d run me down, and I’d cringe/hunch over, knowing what was coming, and he’d THUMP! me right in the back.

Decades later and my brother has three gorgeous kids, which my sister-in-law says are a miracle because of all the hits my brother took to the groin.  But could claim I was just killing all the ugly kid making swimmy cells.  Seriously, these kids are C-U-T-E.

I kind of want to introduce the kids to the joys of “NERF War” soon, but I think it can wait until I buy a cup.

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Friday, January 15th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Spider Jerusalem

I’ve been working on my Spider Jerusalem Quote Page(s), which there’s a list of over to the right.  I’m being more discerning on quotes and trying not to just copy descriptions of the action and dialogue in the TPBs.  The only thing I have to worry about is a C&D, so I’m trying to limit them a bit and hopefully it will spur interest in the Transmetropolitan comic book series.

Friday, January 15th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Webcomic Ho!

matpaste

Just started updating my webcomic in earnest, which is what you see when you go to SexCpotatoes.com.

I will do my best to update it whenever I get a day off, and I will soon begin work on more fun drawing and design that will be put up at SexCpotatoes Designs.

I’ve been drawing a lot of shoes lately.

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Thursday, October 15th, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments

Attention Please

Last Plane To Jakarta, the music review blog run by The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle, had a very interesting post this week.  Within it he mused upon the subject of attention, saying:

I’ve been listening to, not ready yet – never! never ready for that! – to just link to the artists or songs in question without saying something, anything, about why I think they’re worth your attention. Because: your attention is more valuable than the present age would have you believe. It’s the one thing you brought to this world that it didn’t have before, and it’s the only thing of consequence that you’ll permanently remove from this world when you leave. You know? So when somebody sort of cavalierly directs your attention someplace without so much as a tossed-off phrase indicating why you should bother, then you ought, in my opinion, to regard such people/sources/tweets as emissaries of the dark Lord. To say that something “has to earn your attention” is false; one of the miracles of attention is that it sometimes yields the biggest dividends when it’s given weightlessly, unmerited, on a one-way street. But that’s not to say that attention is so light a thing that one can afford to shed it like dandruff. Our supply of attention is finite. That’s worth remembering.

He was recommending Tiny VIpers , but let’s just take some time and ponder how valuable your attention is, and what you do with it.

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Friday, August 21st, 2009 Things you cannot find No Comments