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.

Stunning Pictures and Photos from Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is one of my favorite online publications. And this post, from Monday, contains some of the most breathtaking photos I've ever seen.

Link: (Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine.

"Below you’ll find 50 brilliant photos and stunning pictures — some pictures tell stories, some are incredibly beautiful, some are funny and some are very sad"

Build a Better To-do List (hint: do it now)

I wound up trying this today. There were a few tasks, none of them necessarily time-consuming, that I'd simply not been doing. I would note that they still needed to be done, and then skip right along to something else. You know how somethings would take less energy to just knock out and have done, instead of constantly going, "yup, that still needs doing"? These were all like that. So I finally did them. And yes, it was good.

Link: The Renegade Writer Blog � Blog Archive � Build a Better To-do List.

Rather than list tasks that you know you’ll get done today because you have the flames of hell toasting your buttocks or just adding stuff like “do laundry,” “buy new file folders,” and “organize paperclips,” write down the three tasks you’ve been putting off. Go on, try it. The tasks can be anything, personal or business-related, as long as they’re creating even the vaguest sense of dread in your stomach

Instead of working harder, how about thinking harder first?

Yes, there's "the daily grind", and yes there are always lots of things to get done — but you know what? Since there are so many things to get done, how about recognizing that, and pushing off some of them to make sure you have time to think about some of the others? Who knows, you may just come up with some good ideas to help you get through the other stuff faster.

Link: From Where I Sit: Finding More “Head Time”.

The problems we face will not likely be solved by working harder. New gadgets won’t really help either. In fact, I sometimes fear that our many gadgets have only added unnecessary clutter to our lives. What we need is better, more profound thinking. But how can we find more time?

Via Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done

Exotic places do not a well-lived life make

"I used to think that going to the jungle made my life an adventure. However, after years of unusual work in exotic places, I realize that it is not how far off I go, or how deep into the forest I walk that gives my life meaning. I see that living life fully is what makes life – anyone’s life, no matter where they do or do not go – an adventure."

-- Maria Fadiman, Geographer, ethnobotanist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer. (Thanks Jon Meyers!)

The Dilbert Blog Roundup - Some favorite posts

• The Dilbert Blog: The Meaning of Meaning
• The Dilbert Blog: Happiness Formula
• The Dilbert Blog: Top Ten Things I Worry About
• The Dilbert Blog: Bill Gates for President

And, far and away my favorite:

The Dilbert Blog: Disturbing Developments
[note: about the discovery a while back that female chimps were making spears to go hunt cute wee tree-napping primates called bushbabies. I'm filing this where I can quickly grab it the next time some Eugene hippie starts ranting about the perfect passive harmony of Mama Nature and how only humans are violent]

Yarn Harlot: Love is all you need

The Yarn Harlot is a wise (and funny) woman. Jodie sent me this post, which matches my sentiments exactly. I dig romance. It has its moments. But it matters far more to me that Jodie and I support each other, and share the housework, and aren't just always gah-gah-gagging lovey-dovey at each other (though there's plenty of that too). Love isn't some sappy, pink idiocy. Love is tough. Love is honest. Love is dirty jobs and chores, just as love is back rubs, lovemaking, kissing, dark chocolate and waking up next to each other. Happy Valentine's Day.

Link: Yarn Harlot: Love is all you need.

I wholeheartedly agree with love. Especially love of family, love of friends and love of ethics and fairness, but on careful reflection it seems to me that romantic love, given completely free rein and allowed to run wild through civilization, has been responsible for more poor decision making, wars, kidnapping, obsession, suicide, low self-esteem and generalized rack and ruin than any other human emotion in the whole world...and this belief has led me to a significant level of caution around the sort of love that Valentines day sells wholesale

The Antsaint Review: The Guide to Getting It On! (5th edition, 2006)

Get The Guide: @ Amazon | @ Powells | @ abebooks.com

"This book is 854 pages long, and it still can't define sex. Hopefully you will be able to define it on your own, or at least have a beautiful time trying. And always, try to remember that there are many dimensions to sex besides just huffing and puffing while the bedsprings squeak." — The Guide to Getting It On!, 5th edition, p. 792

A Book So Hot, Who the Hell Wants to Sit Down and Write a Review About It?
Please forgive me for the brevity of this review. After reading through a book as fun, funny and stimulating as The Guide to Getting It On!, it's not that this review is short. It's that the night is so long — and there are so many better things than typing to do with one's time.

Yet Read & Review I Must, for I Am a Virgin... to The Guide!
For years I've heard about The Guide to Getting It On!, but had never read it myself. And sure, hearing about The Guide! was nice, but until you try it for yourself, you don't know how amazing it really is.

Humor Is the Best Turn-on to Get You in Deep
Sex guides vary as much as sex itself. Some sex books are very matter-of-fact (think a lot of Dr. Ruth). Some are written in a deep, flowery prose-cum-poetry (The Kama Sutra). But of all the guides out there, I could chuck all of them and spend the rest of my... ahem, recreational life going solely by The Guide to Getting It On!

It's not that The Guide! is an all-encompassing, encyclopedic page-turner (though it is). It's not that it covers everything from kissing to kink, oral sex to what to do if you or your lover (or both) have a disability (though it does). It's that The Guide! is so damn funny doing it, while also being so matter-of-fact that some of the best zingers nearly fly by you:

• "Define orgasm? It's somewhere between a hand grenade and a sunset."
• "Romance is something thoughtful that you do for someone you love. It's the Gorilla Glue that holds a relationship together. It's lube for above the belt instead of below."
• "This chapter is about kissing on the upper body as opposed to kissing on the genitals, although one often leads to the other."

In Da Mood... Da Mood to Review

• Lights: Low
• Written Naked? Sorry, that information is limited access
• Music? Um, duh. What else do you listen to while reviewing The Guide to Getting It On!, but Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On? Duh. Honestly.

To review this book is pretty simple, really. The Guide! is for every lover and every person aspiring to be a lover. It's for the couple looking for some spice — or just some affirmation — and for the yearning soul looking for a bit of theory in advance of some practice. If you have even the tiniest twinge of blushing interest in sex, this is the book you want to keep under the mattress.

Updated Info & New Chapters Covering the Fun, Embarrassment, and Challenges of Sex
You'll find updated information — from the latest studies to the most lately thought-up one-liners — in your favorite chapters, along with new chapters  dedicated to...

• Losing Your Virginity, p. 339
• Sex & Breast Cancer, p. 401
• Snoring & Gas, p. 429
• Good Sex After Bad — Rape & Abuse, p. 457
• The Horny Pill & Patch, p. 699
• And lots more!

Stats:

• Title: The Guide to Getting It On!
• Author: Paul Joannides
• Publisher: Goofy Foot Press
• 5th edition, 2006
• Translated into 14 languages from Czech and Korean to Hebrew and U.K. English (and yes, I'm counting British English — at the least, they need to understand why we Yanks snicker when they ask to "borrow a rubber")
• ISBN: 1-885535-69-4
• Price (U.S.D.) $21.95
• 854 pages
• Publisher: Goofy Foot Press

"Cool As Hell" Tidbit for the Publishing, Mac and/or Typography Geeks
Wanna get your geek on before you get it on? Check out this Mac-only, foreplay-for-Mac-geeks publishing note in the front of the book:

"We are proud to announce that the Guide to Getting It On! is the first book in the country to go to press on a Mac Mini Intel Core Duo. Having been born on an SE-30, The Guide continues to thrive in an Apple Macintosh environment"

Get Your Copy of The Guide to Getting It On!
What are you waiting for, a nibble on the earlobe? If you want to get it on, then get on it:

• amazon.com - The Guide to Getting It On!
• Powells.com - The Guide to Getting It On!
• abebooks.com - The Guide to Getting It On!
• Or cruise down to your favorite local book store

9/11, redefined

The birth of Sam and Taylor's baby on Sept. 11 got me thinking about 9-11. It's a baby - an honorary nephew, for me. A new life. And a new meaning for that day. Life goes on. And starts anew.

Baby Rutledge, you've got a heap of people who can't wait to show you this world.

Welcome Baby Rutledge

Link: Samuel Rutledge - "He's Here".

Congrats, Sam & Taylor!