The power of "but"

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We've all done it. We've all said something like, "I'd like to exercise more, but I don't have the time." Or, "I'd love to get a new car, but I don't have the money." Or, "I'd like to make it to the next level of my career, but I'm afraid of having to pay my dues again, or I might fail."

'But' is a powerful word. It cancels out what comes before it. Why not put the power of that word to use for you?

A minor update on what's going on around here

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I just updated my TrueFacts about Lacey Chabert page with several new items I just discovered. Click on the link to check it out, and show a little support for my friend, Lacey! One day, she's going to be an actress! She promised me she would be, and she never ever breaks her promises! Nope, never! You can help her (and me) by linking up this page. I've even included a handy picture at the bottom of that page for you to use! Then one day, she'll be world famous, and she'll thank you for it! (She won't thank me for it, though, because that's just the way she rolls.)

You Say Piracy Like It’s a Bad Thing

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In my occasional wandering around the publishing blogosphere, I encountered this post:

You Say Piracy Like It’s a Bad Thing

And I commented on it. Should be obvious which one is me. What's your opinion? Add it here, I could use a good debate. Unless you're chicken. Don't worry, you can post anonymously.

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Flash Fiction is all the Rage

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In my quest to become a writer, I've discovered a lot of interesting things about the industry. One of the avenues of learning I've come across is something known as a writer's group, or a critique group. The one I discovered today introduced me to something really interesting called Flash Fiction. Essentially, you're given 10 random words and 15 minutes in which to write a coherent story that incorporates as many of those words as possible. I thought it was a pretty interesting exercise, and it got my creative juices flowing immediately.

Want to participate?

Here are the 10 words I was given:

Working out is finally working out

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As I just said in my previous post, me and working out aren't exactly best friends. I started working out a little over the past year, and for a while, I was seeing some results. Hard to work out while you're driving a truck all day every day, but I found a few inventive ways to do it, which I'll tell you about in a while in the Health series. But a few weeks ago, I made an exciting discovery that I've been waiting until I got home until I could test it out. Essentially, I found a shortcut to strength-building that really works! At least, in the very limited time in which I've been putting it to the test, it's worked.

Let me give you an idea: 6 days ago, I started performing my new rapid strength-building exercises. Today, I performed them again. I got increases in performance ranging from 10% to 40%! Let me tell you, gains like that are pretty much unprecedented in pretty much anyone's routine!

Now, I'm not saying that in a couple weeks I'm going to be bench-pressing cars. Lifting 675 pounds and holding it off the ground for 2 minutes can be painful, even if you're more than strong enough to do it, so I imagine that bench-pressing a car isn't something I'm going to do on a whim. Maybe if you want to bet me a lot of money.

Once I've tested this routine out more, I'll let you know more about it. Watch out, Arnie, here I come!

To Your Health - Part 1

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Too many times, especially at the beginning of the year, we say to ourselves something like, "I resolve to get fit," and then we do just a little bit (if that much) and within a week, we've broken our resolution. On top of that, it's very hard to tell what's going to help you nowadays and what's not. Seems like every day the news is on about something that used to be healthy that now isn't, and occasionally, the reverse is true. (And then we find out who paid for the study and we're back to square one.)

Is there anything out there which can help us? Is there anyone we can trust to tell us the straight dope, give us what we need to get healthy and stay that way?

I'm not going to promise to have all the answers, but over the past year, I went from about 260 to 210 pounds - I lost at least 50 pounds of fat, and I'll tell you how I did it. It was pretty easy, and considering I'm a long-distance truck driver, it's rather incredible too! In this post, I'll reveal two of my secrets today, and then in future posts I'll reveal more, and each one is going to build on the previous ones, impacting your life in a positive way, until before you know it, people will be noticing how much better you look and feel.

Secret #1 is: take it a step at a time. Don't try to do everything at once, for in doing so, you feel overwhelmed and then fail to follow through. That's why I'm going to reveal these secrets one at a time over the coming months.

Amazon Deal Event

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Amazon.com sells just about everything nowadays, and now, those masters of online selling are running a wide-ranging sale on movies and TV shows for the next couple weeks, and I thought I'd get you in on it while it's still going on.

Here's what they say:



Amazon Movies & TV is pleased to announce our first 2010 Deals Event which will run through January 24, 2010, while supplies last. This event will feature DVDs and Blu-ray discs with savings of up to 50% off, including:

• Over 200 Fitness DVDs including yoga, pregnancy, and dance workouts, and featuring celebrity trainers such as Jillian Michaels and Denise Austin
• Hundreds of hit movies including some the biggest new releases from Q4, 2009
• Over 400 indie and art house films including Oscar® winners Juno, Milk, and Lost in Translation
• Over 450 TV shows including HBO favorites, NBC comedy, and more

 Click here to take advantage of this great deal, and don't forget, everything you buy through the links I've provided helps keep this site improving. Thanks!

(BTW, they've also got some kind of Kindle deal going on. Click here to check it out.)

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Good Thing these People aren't in Charge of our Economy

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A couple days ago, I received what I initially thought was an interesting proposal that might actually work. I occasionally get puzzles that other people can't figure out, like the triangle rearranging puzzle and the missing card magic trick and various math-based puzzles. And then I did the math on this one.

Solar System - Mars

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Things you don't know about the Solar System

I've always found space fascinating, and among my first books was a book about astronomy. It was just a small, general guide that had a number of interesting facts about the solar system and the stars and galaxies. This was 1980 or before, and we've made a LOT of discoveries since then, and I've kept up on it, partly thanks to Ars Technica, the Science Channel, and NASA.

Today's topic: the Red Planet, Mars.

Maps Maps Everywhere!!

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I've had a love-affair with maps for pretty much all my life. I've been able to read road maps since before I could read. (To give you an idea, my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Mays, gave me a book because I was the best reader in her class at age 5. I still have it somewhere.) I've spent many an hour poring over them. So you could say I like maps.

As most of you know, the more of the world that a map shows, the more distorted it becomes. The only way to show an accurate representation of a sphere is to use a sphere! Not much help when you're on a computer screen.

Several years back, when I was a regular player of the RPG Traveller, I had need to draw maps of entire planets, yet I didn't like all the available projections. None of them did a good job of showing the world I was creating. Then I discovered a wonderful little tool called an icosahedral map. It was awesome! It allowed me to make whole maps with a minimum of distortion, and as a bonus, I could print it out, cut up the page, and fold it into a sphere-like object (an icosahedron) and see what the whole planet looked like! Miraculous!

Free Wifi Hotspots Accessible to Truckers (Updated)

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Do you drive a truck? Would you like to be able to access the internet for free? Are you sick and tired of the obscenely overpriced options that the big-chain truckstops offer? Then I've got good news for you!

In my travels about the country over the past 4 years, I've gathered together every location I could find that offered free WIFI access to truck drivers. This list has every truckstop and rest area with free wifi that I have encountered, plus a few I got from doing searches on the internet. There are probably still several I haven't found - in 2009 alone I discovered about 20 new ones, and I'm sure more and more of the small-timer truckstops are seeing the value in offering for free something that doesn't really cost them anything to provide. Contrast that with the exorbitant rates the major chains charge - several dollars an hour! - and it's easy to see why the small-timers are still in business.

Best of all, I'm posting this list for free! That's right, I did a ton of work, and I'm giving it away because I'm just that awesome!