AntSaint

Giving Up the Lottery Fantasy

Do you play the lottery? Why? I don't, and it's based on my two main memories of the lottery...

• Virginia set up a scratch-off system when I was about 9 or 10 years old (I think). My dad bought me a ticket with $1 of my allowance. I won $3, and bought 3 more lottery tickets. I lost. It hit me - this is just a way to get you to throw away money on false hope. Well, I probably didn't think of it exactly that way. But it was pretty close. I haven't bothered with the lottery since.
• A family comic strip called "Hi and Lois". Their oldest plays the lottery and says, "Dad, this is going to change my finances!" "It already has," his dad says. "You're down $1."

And that brings us to this great post: The Art of Nonconformity � Giving Up the Lottery Fantasy.

"I am now anti-lottery for reasons that have nothing to do with moral qualms. My reasons are even more personal: I am thrilled with the life I am building. I do not want the state of Washington, or any other government entity, to give me my ticket to happiness. I want to earn it"

Indeed, why play the lottery? Why bother? You can save minuscule amounts per week, and still come out farther ahead than you ever will by plunking down dollar and after on lottery tickets.

Oh wait. Unless you hit it big.

But here's the short and simple: You won't.

Save your money instead.

Video Poll Results for Email Marketing

Polls like this are good because they remind email marketers what not to do. Want to put a form in your email? Go for it... just don't expect it to work. Same with video. And that really cool javascript thing you got coded up. Don't put that stuff in email, it just doesn't work consistently. Put it on your website, and have the email get people to go there:

Link: EmailKarma.net: Video Poll Results.

"The results are in... with a limited number of respondents I'm not sure how scientific this is, but the results did show a number of very strong trends"

$15 Every Two Weeks - Getting Started in Saving & Investing

Think you can't save for the short-term or long-term? Baloney. Think you could set aside the equivalent of a couple of lattes (or a couple of pints of microbrew, or a few gallons of PBR), once every 2 weeks? If this guy could do it, so can you.

Link: Vanguard − Saving for retirement: One investor's success story.

"He started small, contributing 1% of his salary. "$15 every two weeks," he recalled."

Preserving the Summer - Canning 101

Enjoying all that summer harvest goodness? What's that? So much produce you can't eat it all? Time to start canning. Here are some basics:

Link: Canning 101: The Basics | Lehman's Country Life.

"What do you plan to do with the extra that you can’t eat or enjoy at the moment? Preserve your extra produce for use in the fall and winter! Whether you freeze, can or dry your food depends upon the space and equipment you have available and what your personal preferences happen to be. This article will focus on the safety issues and canning basics."

Cafe Maroc Open in Downtown Eugene

A Moroccan/African-themed restaurant in Eugene? Sure, why not. And when it comes from Adam Bernstein of Adam's Place, hey, it's going to be a neat concept. We're looking forward to trying the place out:

Link: Eatery serves taste ofNorth Africa: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Cuisine remains the bottom line for Adam Bernstein, but the Eugene restaurateur wants his latest venture to be known for something more.“It’s more than just dinner; we try to make it as much of an experience as we can,” says Bernstein, who opened Cafe Maroc this month, next-door to his Adam’s Place restaurant at 30 E. Broadway in downtown Eugene"

Think You Understand Lane County?

You might be surprised. R-G colunnist Bob Welch has put together some thought-provoking factoids that give some great perspective on the beauty and quirks of Oregon's Lane County:

Link: Take time to explore Lane County’s beauty, quirkiness: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Some perspective: Lane County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined but only Oregon’s fifth-largest county. And stretches from sea level to ski level."

Get Ready for Berry Harvests

Oh. Yeah. Berries galore. Coming to farmer's markets, CSA shares, U-pick farms and your friendly neighborhood blackberry patch soon.

Link: A fruitful harvest: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Early blueberries will be ready the first or second week in July; raspberries in the second week in July and blackberries in the latter part of July"

50s-style Diner DickieJo’s Coming to 13th & Pearl

Seems like every restaureur in the city is going after Eugene's 13th and Pearl area all of a sudden. First La Perla, the near Neapolitan pizzeria from the Beppe & Gianni's whizzes, and now DickieJo's, a new 50s-style diner:

Link: DickieJo’s will have a 1950s flair: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Jim and Phil West of Eugene, whose growing portfolio of restaurants has been based on Mexican themes, are indulging in a half-century time warp for their latest venture. The Wests’ DickieJo’s Burgers — “definitely a ’50s diner type of concept,” Jim West says — is expected to open its initial location late this year in a former Cougill & Hansen real estate office on 13th Avenue near Pearl Street"

Meat as Accent, Not as Main

With the exception of a steak on the grill, our focus in cooking is to have meat be part of the dish, not the entirely of the dish. I got this in large part from my love of Asian cooking. Foods such as Thai food focus on a combination of ingredients and flavors. Meat is part of that combination, not the sole focus of the dish. Same for us. The textures and flavors of meat work in tandem with the rest of the dish, so we can use less meat (and therefore save a bit more dosh).

Link: The Minimalist - The Minimalist - Putting Meat in Its Place - NYTimes.com.

The arguments for eating less meat are myriad and well-publicized, but at the moment they’re irrelevant, because what I want to address here is (almost) purely pragmatic: How do you do it?

Via Lifehacker's Food: Change your Cooking Style to Cut Back on Meat

By the way, before it's mentioned, we also don't eat meat every meal or every day. We vary our diet with meats, eggs, beans, tofu, nuts and other protein sources. It keeps our food more interesting, and it's better for our budget too.

flyEUG.com - New Eugene Airport Website

The new flyeug.com site is a welcome improvement for travel planning in and out of Eugene. I've recently used its flight status features to keep track of one of Jodie's flights, for example. The site is fast and easy to use:

Link: New Web site for Eugene Airport caters to customers: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

Air travelers heading to or from Eugene can search for fares, check the status of flights, and learn about the region at a new Web site, www.flyEUG.com

Happy Fourth of July!

To the Eight Readers who are in the U.S., Happy Fourth of July! I hope you had a great weekend of fun, grilling and more grilling. As for me and Jodie, we'll be out and about. Posts will resume on July 7.

Growing Strawberries

Jodie and I – well, really more Jodie – have begun this adventure as well. We have a long, narrow south-facing bed that runs along our outside bedroom wall, and Jodie has packed it out with strawberry plants. So far, they are growing and happy and looking like we can look forward to many years of strawberry goodness.

Link: In My Kitchen Garden - Growing Strawberries.

in January of 2007 I ordered 30 Cavendish strawberry plants (which are actually more like little bundles of roots with a crown and maybe a leaf or two than actual plants) for $9.95 from my beloved Pinetree Garden Seeds, tucked them in the ground (not too deep, not too shallow) on May 7th (they don't ship you your plants until after the danger of frost), watered them regularly, and snipped off every single blossom that dared to make an appearance. That's right - no berries the first year means much bigger and healthier plants the next. It isn't easy, but it's worth it, trust me

Why You Shouldn't Blog

You can't help but check out something with a title like that — "Why You Shouldn't Blog". Indeed. And there are many good reasons. You don't know what to say, you don't know who's going to take care of the writing, upgrading, maintaining, fixing, community response, all that sort of thing. There are a lot of good reasons for anyone, from an individual to an organization, not to blog. Or, at least, not to blog yet — these video tips are also good food for thought for what anyone needs to consider before doing a blog for the long run:

Link: Online Marketing Tips Video: Why You Shouldn't Blog from Search Marketing Gurus | Search Marketing Tips, Advice, Strategies & Tactics From Internet Marketing Professionals.

"There is a lot of excitement around launching a blog or the idea of a blog, but sometimes companies need a bit of a reality check before setting foot into the blogosphere"