Staycation Planning

My employer shuts down its production line for two weeks every summer.  Ordinarily I continue to do my design work during this time, and I sell back my unused vacation time. The money I get from unused vacation helps pay semiannual bills such as home, auto and life insurance.  Besides I don't have air conditioning at home, so I prefer to work in the office during this hot and humid period. Finally, it's quiet at work during "shutdown," so I can concentrate on my most difficult work assignments without worrying about interruptions.

Unfortunately this year my boss insisted that I take my vacation during shutdown.  Taking a trip somewhere is out-of-the-question.  First, there's the cost.  Second, our daughter is signed up for a day camp during the shutdown.  Third, the animals will need pet sitters, which will cost additional money.  So I've decided on a Staycation.  I'm in the midst of thinking of activities that could bring in the lost income, or at least DIY projects that I can tackle to avoid paying someone else to do them.  The second class of activity would also include taking classes that could lead to better job opportunities.

So here's what I've come up with...

1. Get a job consulting.  This would be ideal, especially if I can charge at least as much as my gross full time salary, and perform the work in the cool comfort of the client's office.  But it's unlikely that I could find the right client(s) with a simple-enough assignment that could be completed in two weeks.
2. Home maintenance and repair.  Merely getting someone like a plumber to enter your home and tell you that you need a new washer for the faucet used to cost over $100 fifteen years ago.  By now I imagine it's much more, and the transaction might even require an attorney to act as a fiduciary.  So one can save a huge amount of money with "DIY" if one knows how.  Here are the projects I have in mind:
1. Interior painting, walls & ceilings, especially the bathroom ceiling.  (But if it's too hot and humid, it shouldn't be done.)
2. Roof repair.  I have some shingles that are starting to curl, and nails have popped up in a few spots.  I would hammer down the nails, staking them with RTV.  But how crazy do you have to be to go onto a black asphalt roof in Summer?  I think the soles of my sneakers would melt!
3. Repair / replace the car speaker.  One of the rear speakers in my car is buzzing quite loudly, and I think it's blown.  I'm hoping I can just patch it with special glue and cardboard.  If not, I might just disconnect it.  Right now, I have the fader adjusted so that only the front speakers play, and the system sounds weak.  Having just one rear speaker playing would be better than neither one playing.
4. Gardening / Landscaping.
1. We pay to have our lawn mowed each week.  If I were to buy and use a cheap push mower just for the smaller front yard, I might get the guys to  skip our place every other week, and I'd get some exercise.
2. Growing our own vegetables would save us from buying them.
3. Install a drip irrigation system for the vegetable garden.  One reason the vegetables haven't been planted yet is because I don't think I'll be able to water them.  So I don't want to spend time and effort to produce dead vegetables.  A drip irrigation system would make it easy to water the garden, so I'd be more willing to plant it.
4. The shrubs are blocking the entrance to our home, so they need pruning for good Feng Shui.
5. I'm guessing there might be a law against this: Grow and sell tobacco.  Tobacco is in high demand and would grow well here.  I don't smoke, but if I could sell it legally, it would be a most lucrative crop.  Selling stuff on which the state imposes a "sin tax" and prohibits minors from buying, probably is not legal.
6. Install rain barrels.  These are essentially 55 gallon drums that you position under the downspouts of the home's gutter system in order to collect the water for later use.  Right now we use our well water for watering the garden, and the cost is the electricity that's needed to run the well pump.
3. Buy groceries that are incorrectly priced specifically in order to take advantage of Connecticut's "Get One Free Law".  I always pay attention to the prices that appear when the cashier scans our items.  I've gotten a few things for free.  The latest was a 12oz bag of gourmet, ground Arabica coffee.  Of course I don't know beforehand whether the scanner will proffer the incorrect price, so this is more miss than hit.  Still, I once saw a one-pound package of butter that was obviously mis-marked.  The price was $3.98 but the unit price was only $1.98 per pound.  So I pounced on it like a seasoned flea market shopper on a genuine Tiffany lamp. When I was charged the $3.98, I complained that it should be only $1.98, according to the unit price, and I did get it for free.
4. Volunteer.  Well, this won't offset the loss of vacation income, but it might get me into an air conditioned environment.  And according to the Dalai Lama, the path to true happiness is through service to others, so it will bring me happiness.  A really cool idea would be a "VolunteerCation" in which you take a vacation (or sabbatical) in order to travel to some place where volunteers are needed.  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing travel expenses may be tax deductible under such an arrangement.  If you can get an organization to transport you somewhere, that would be even better.
5. Hang out at the local Maker Space.  Nothing's guaranteed with this idea.  But I imagine if I went to the Maker Space, I might meet some interesting artists, craftspersons or inventors and learn something by watching them.  I might even offer my own expertise to them or collaborate on something with them.  And I'm pretty sure the place is air conditioned. 
6. Hype my affiliates' products.  In particular, the Blood Type Diet products and the iHerb referral code bring in "coffee money."  But I don't advertise very much.
7. Hype my online storage accounts.  For example..
1. Join Dropbox for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 500MB of storage space.
2. Join Copy for free using this link, and we'll both receive an additional 5GB of storage space.
3. Join Box....  Well, you can join, but I don't use it, and I forgot my login credentials, so I can't promote it right now.
8. Cat Dentistry.  The plaque build-up on our first cat's teeth makes it seem as though barnacles live along his gums.  The vet quoted us a cost of over $300 to have his (the cat's) teeth cleaned.  The vet's procedure would involve putting the cat under anesthesia, a lot of stress, and possible exposure to an infectious organism.  Would I actually attempt to clean the cat's teeth myself?  Yes.  And it's not as far-fetched as it seems.  Of course, I wouldn't be fooling around with anesthesia.  But the cat sleeps so soundly that I can poke my fingers into and around his mouth without bothering him.  Nor do I plan to use any kind of abrasive or motorized tool.  I might not need to.  One day, I actually used my fingernail to pick a barnacle off his teeth.
9. Learn stuff.  How to write Android Apps, Working with Linux, Programming with Ruby are all great topics for career growth.
10. Get all my medical checkups done.  The eye doctor, dentist, primary care physician (PCP) and Naturopathic Doctor are all overdo for a visit.  Those visits would take place in an air conditioned environment, but at the expense of a few co-pays.
11. Cat Photo Exhibit.  This falls under the category of volunteering because the Cat Photo Exhibit would promote our favorite cat shelter.  If I were to sell any framed photos, I'd forward the proceeds to the shelter.  So I wouldn't made any profits, but I could recoup the expense of the frames I already bought.  The only additional expense would be to have the 8 x 10 prints made and perhaps business cards printed.
12. Write really clever blog posts, provide a PayPal Donate Button, and watch the money pour in!  (I can't belief I managed to write that with a straight face.)  No, but seriously folks, I don't want to subject you to a "Beg Button."

It will be fun to review my Staycation Activities in a subsequent post.  Stay tuned!  In the meantime, do you have any suggestions about what I should do on my staycation?

Children With Empty Minds

A few years ago there was a blogger who called herself Azalea Faye, who just gave birth to a girl.  She was one of about 10 million mommy bloggers.

In one post¹ she railed against Disney, vowing that she'd never let her daughter be exposed to the gaggle of Disney princesses.  The gist of it was that she wanted her daughter's mind to be empty rather than filled with ridiculous fairy tales.  I was intrigued by this idea.  My daughter was already five years old or so, and I wondered what she'd be like if her mind were empty.  And I was glad it wasn't.

Classic Disney movies such as "Cinderella" and "Snow White" expose children to many advanced themes such as jealousy and unfairness, providing a foundation for understanding moral issues.  They teach children patience and honesty.  The settings inspire wonder in the child, and the issues tend to be black and white, which make the stories better suited for a child's developmental level.

Unfortunately, that post, and the blog it was featured on, is no longer available.  But I wonder how that girl is faring.  By now she must've entered elementary school, and she's probably hearing about Disney princesses from her friends.  Or is she having trouble making friends, because she has less in common with the typical girl than her peers?

What do you think about Disney princesses?  What should you fill a child's mind with?

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¹ "Disney and My Opinion" whose URL once was http://azaleafaye.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/disney-and-my-opinion/

Panic of the Parent of the Soon-To-Be Fledgling

What do you call the shock that new parents experience when they realize their son or daughter will be moving away to college in less than three years?  Perhaps the term could be "Panic of the Parent of the Soon-To-Be Fledgling."  Hmmm, that's unwieldy.

Whatever it's called, that's what I got.  It's like you're hiking briskly on an easy trail, and then you look back and notice zombies lumbering along behind you, in relentless pursuit.  You suddenly turn a corner and see a steep, daunting, rocky ascent.  The weather turns cold, and dark storm clouds devour the sun.  And you suddenly realize that you didn't pack rain gear or a hearty snack.

This particular type of panic, of some fearful thing that looms in the future, is ideal for getting my heart racing -- much better than a jolt of "red-eye" coffee.  I can rouse myself out of bed with it in the morning to kick-start the day.

The panic started suddenly over the weekend while we attended our very first college fair with our grade ten daughter.  We joked with her to tell the representatives of far off colleges that the primary reason she's interested in their school is because she wants to move as far away as possible from her parents.

Usually panic arises when one is unprepared.  That's true in this case, too.  We haven't prepared our daughter to be self-sufficient.  We have about two-and-a-half years to encourage our daughter to:

• Shop for her own groceries, supplies and toiletries.
• Manage her own bank account and finances.
• Do her own laundry.
• Remind her about appointments.
• Eat and drink and take supplements on a fixed schedule.
• Get herself ready for the day.

On top of that, I'm the one she turns to for night-before-the-big-scary-test help sessions in math and science.

But the worst part is we haven't put any money into a college savings account.  I've put any extra money into the 401(k) plan that my employer manages.  We also didn't count on my wife becoming partly disabled, so not only does my wife not earn money, we spend money on her multiple doctors and medication.

Well, that's the good thing about panic -- it gives you the energy to prepare.  And if my wife and I are clever about it, we'll have our daughter soon doing the laundry.

My Road to College

The folks on NPR are interviewing guests to talk about their college experiences.  The guests are those who were the first in their families to attend college.  It made me recall how I eventually started to take college classes and ultimately finish.

I was the youngest of three, and both my brother and sister went to college right after high school.  Yet my path to college was not so straightforward.  That's because my brother was disillusioned with college.

He was seven years older than me, so he got his B.A. degree in education before I  started to think about college.  He really wanted to be an artist, but he didn't think it would be a good career.  So he majored in education.  It wasn't until he started student teaching that he realized he didn't want to be a teacher.

One problem was that the student teaching program involved both teaching and observing.  Each student was paired with another.  While one taught, the other observed.  The observer was also tasked with providing an evaluation of his student teacher partner.  Well, the evaluation that my brother wrote of his partner was honest and fair, which got the partner angry.  "I gave you a good evaluation, why didn't you give me a good one, too!" was the complaint.  Yet he finished the program.

He decided to pursue a career in commercial art, specifically drafting.  He attended a technical school for several months and got a job right away as a drafter.  He could have gotten the same job four years earlier had he skipped college and went to the technical school right after high school.

So that's what I did.  I had no desire to commit to any kind of career when I was close to completing high school. I put off going to college by instead enrolling in a nine-month technical school for certification as an electronic technician. This was 1981, when electronics was booming and demand for technicians was high.  I got a job right away as an engineering aide in the R&D department of an innovative medical device company.

We were doing very interesting "cutting edge" work, but I felt under utilized.  They had me "breadboarding" prototypes most of the time.  I'd fend off the tedium of that manual labor by understanding the designs I was building and sometimes noticing a mistake.  Occasionally I was allowed to design something.

The VP of the department encouraged me to take college classes part time to pursue an engineering degree.  I was ready, so I soaked up the Calculus and Physics courses with relish.  I tolerated the Chemistry courses.  I was still living at home with mom and dad, so I had plenty of time and money for school.

After I completed two full years' worth of college at the local state university, I left with an A.S. degree (Associates of Science) in engineering, and I transferred to a university that specialized in science and engineering. I enrolled as a full time student and received ample scholarship funds, too.  I completed the program in two years, and I worked over the summers as a designer of printed circuit boards.

The intensity of each school year wore me down, and I was glad to go back to an easy, slow-paced job in the summers.  (I took no vacation.)  But by the end of each summer, I'd be bored with the job and anxious to start school again.  So it worked out as a sort of perpetual, self-motivational cycle.

At the end of those two years, I had no clear idea of what to do next.  The US economy was in a downturn and engineers were in low demand (except for the foreign ones who could be hired on an H1-b visa).  Acting on the advice of a few professors, I took the GRE¹ and applied to graduate school, just in case I got an offer I couldn't refuse.  But by this time, every topic in engineering seemed exceedingly dull -- I couldn't bear to even think about studying anything further.

So when a colleague of one of my professors invited me in for an interview at his (boring) company, I figured I'd go.  One thing led to another.  I relocated to take the job offer and I've been there (here) ever since.

So what was your educational experience like?

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¹ I did not study for the GRE.  I figured if I was meant to go to graduate school, I'd perform astoundingly well on the test regardless of any preparation.  As it turned out, my results were at about the 50th percentile for the engineering portion and within the top 10% for the English portion.  Most of my fellow test takers were Asian.

Free Online Education

This blog post on "Marc and Angel Hack Life" lists 12 dozen sites on the Internet that offer free online learning:

12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free

Wow!

Resources for "Your Brain at Work"

Here are links to online resources that are cited in "Your Brain at Work," by David Rock.

For research behind the book: http://www.your-brain-at-work.com/

Neuroscience of leadership: http://www.neuroleadership.org/

Information on brain-based coaching programs: www.ResultsCoaches.com

School for children K - 5: www.TheBlueSchool.org

Online tests and training exercises: www.MyBrainSolutions.com

Author's website: www.DavidRock.net

The Long-Term Benefits of High School English

At our daughter's Open House, the English teacher presented us parents with an Assignment: What was your favorite poem, short story, book from high shcool English?  Describe how English helped you in real life.

(Can you imagine a similar assignment from an algebra teacher -- how much bullshit that would have generated?)

We were limited to only ten minutes, and I had to listen to the teacher's open house spiel while thinking and writing, and I had to wait for a pencil to become available.  At first I couldn't even remember anything that I read in High School -- I'm such an avid reader on my own I wasn't sure if anything noteworthy was assigned by a teacher.

So I wrote simply that I built a large vocabulary, and that I learned the difference between "affect" and "effect" and "lay" and "lie."

Then I remembered having to present William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow," so I mentioned that.  And then I remembered more.  I remembered reading Grendel, which was wonderful.  So I mentioned that.  I also wrote that my 12th grade English teacher was an actual  comedian who would perform at comedy clubs in the evenings.

Ultimately, I had trouble ascribing any benefits to the English I studied in High School.  I feel that it was my natural inclinations toward writing and reading that built my vocabulary and established my (above average among engineers) facility with writing.

Did the subject of High School English benefit you at all?  Did any subject?  How?