How to be Witty and Clever

OK, here's how you start. First of all, understand that being "witty" isn't a stand-in or a replacement for basic social skills. Something I always say is, "You have to be able to fit in, before you can learn to stand out." You want to stand out, to become (at least somewhat) extraordinary. Well, the thing to remember about "extraordinary" is just like they say, it's ordinary with a little extra.

People who are socially savvy don't stand out because they have some bag of secret tricks. Their "secret" is that they mastered the fundamentals. That's really the key to greatness in any endeavor, and it's what puts you ahead of others. Most people do not see the fundamental aspects of an activity or skill as being profound. They just take the basics for granted, and as a result, they only get good at them by circumstance. And because they don't appreciate this idea of mastering the fundamentals, they come to believe that "some people are just born with natural skill". It's not the case though. A baby doesn't know jack shit. People who are good at something aren't "naturals"; they just started practicing at an early enough age that, by the time people began to notice their skill, it seemed like those people were naturally gifted. Understand?

Wit and charm and charisma are not mysterious personality traits that some people just have and others don't. Those traits don't actually exist; they simply come from the culmination of a well developed social skillset. Master the fundamentals of social skills, and it will become much easier to get a feel for these extra x-factor type traits.

That said, here's a way you can start to develop a sense of wit:

First, as you know, a huge part of being witty is having a sense of timing. There's a French expression known as "staircase wit", which is when you think of the perfect thing to say when it's way too late. To avoid that, remember 2 things:

1. "Witty" is not the same as "clever". Often, we come up with these awesome things to say in our heads, that flop if we say them out loud. The reason is, we were trying too hard to be clever. Wit arises by understanding the nuance and subtext of a social situation, and injecting just the right statement at the right time. A witty statement isn't try-hard, it's just the right amount of clever but no more. It comes from practice.
   
   
2. Brevity is the soul of wit. The words in a witty statement aren't what causes that feeling of "damn, that's such a clever/funny/true statement." That feeling occurs a second or two after you read or hear it. In other words, "witty" is the reaction you have in your brain, not a quality of the statement itself. If a statement drones on and on, people won't be able to have that "how droll" reaction to what you said, because their brains keep being fed new information (words) to process. You need to make your witticisms short-ish and punchy, and there needs to be a sudden drop at the end, so your audience can have a moment to process what you just said.That's when they can/will have that reaction of thinking you've said something witty.
   
   

All this takes practice, but it's not as hard as it sounds. What you need to do is to start by using yourself as an audience. At various points in the day, make a mental observation of a person or an occurence or general facts of your environment, etc. Then see if you can think of something humorous or witty about that person or thing you observed. Remember that it's only in your head, so don't feel bad if what you think of is mean spirited. The point is to NOT filter yourself at all, this is simply a mental exercise to sharpen your skill.

Do that as regularly as you can. Next, make a list of short but multipurposed things to say in response to daily conversation and events. These are NOT meant to be witty or clever. In fact I recommend you use worn out cliches and catch phrases such as "It is what it is", "Shit happens", "Sucks to be them", "Cool beans"... you get the idea. Stuff that's short and simple enough to remember. The point with this is, to learn to use the right catchphrase in the proper circumstances, with the right timing. Like if someone tells you they just got their tax refund in the mail, you wouldn't say "shit happens" or "it is what it is"; neither of those fit the situation. You'd say "cool beans". If someone showed up with a cast, then you'd nod sympathetically and say "shit happens". And obviously, you won't necessarily want to use my example phrases, and you don't want to do this for years and make people think you're a weirdo.

The purpose is to get a sense for that timing and contextual calibration that you need to be witty. Eventually, with these excercises, you'll begin to get a more intuitive sense of when and how to be witty, and how to make it seem fluid and perhaps even effortless. Give it a try.

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Why Corporations are like Sociopaths

It's not even that corporations may be run by a sociopath - it's that corporations are inherently sociopathic.

Even in a corporation run by intelligent, reasonable, empathic human beings the board members and management typically operate at at least one remove from the people most affected by the negative consequences of their decisions - lower-level employees, consumers, people in third-world countries, etc.

Common psychological mechanisms like deindividuation, diffusion of responsibility and groupthink set in, and the individuals concerned are immersed in a business, economic and legislative environment which prioritises and promotes profit at the expense of all other considerations - often even prioritising short-term profit over greater long-term profit.

Even if boards of public corporations are/were able to resist these influences en-masse, they'd still have to contend with problems like the fact they're legally obliged to maximise company profits, so if company's profits and ethical behaviour come into conflict (and let's be honest, that's a virtually omnipresent situation in the world of business), if the board of a public company chooses the more moral but less profitable course of action they can actually be sued by their own shareholders.

Publicly-traded corporations are inherently sociopathic entities - they fail to conform to social norms expected of individuals (inasmuch as that's applicable to a collective group), they exhibit a myopic fixation on their own agenda and priorities, an insatiable fixation on profits at the expense of all other considerations, routine irresponsibility and a complete lack of remorse, a callous disregard for how their actions affect others, often a fixation with short-term gains over longer-term, sustainable advantage (a synonym for impulsivity or failure to plan ahead) and routine employment of deception.

If the average corporation was a human being we'd lock them up in a secure ward and throw away the key.

So we have an economy primarily composed of sociopathic entities with no functioning sense of empathy or remorse, and a hard-coded predisposition to chase profits at all costs. Given that the only way to make them reliably conform to social norms and exhibit socially-acceptable behaviours is by tweaking the economic environment such that it's in their own best interests to act the way we'd wish... which we've historically done mainly by enacting laws and regulationsthat mandate punishments for transgressions that outweigh any perceived benefit of those transgressions.

(Of course that fails miserably when we start resorting to slap-on-the-wrist punishments for multi-billion-dollar pollution or financial fraud cases because the incentives get all out of whack and it makes more sense for companies to just commit crimes then pay the fines than it does for them to act morally and legally... but that's a whole other discussion.)

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Batman vs Joker: Behind the Masks

They are fighting an ideological battle for each other's soul. They are both two sides of the same coin:

Two individuals who, because of a horrible day in their lives, became insane and decided to take on the world and make it in their image.

The joker was a shitty comedian with a pregnant wife, a nice guy. On the day his wife died in a random accident he was bullied by mobsters into committing a crime, fell into a vat of chemicals and ended up alone, in pain, and scarred for life. The overall pain was such that he snapped.... realized that the world is cruel, unjust and random and decided he was going to destroy all fabric of the attempted, false, self-delusional order of the world and break everyone down to his level.

He believes morals, ethics, are hypocritical nonsense. You can refer to the Dark Knight movie, in which he says "I'm just ahead of the curve." He spends the entire movie putting everyone in front of him in situations where, to survive, they will have to break their moral code. Even the henchmen of the black guy... there are two. For no reason other than to break them, he says he will hire the one who will kill the other.

This is what the Joker does, he lives to prove to people that he is the avatar of who they really are : he just refuses to lie to himself.

Batman watched his parents be murdered, went insane also and developed several obsessions, he fights to bring justice to a world he feels is essentially good and plagued by the unnatural disease of crime and evil. He believes in justice above everything else, he does not kill.

So what happens when these two men face each other? The Joker's ultimate victory is for the Batman, the strongest enemy of his world view, a person who refuses no matter what to break down to his level, to kill him. He wants the Batman to kill him. He can't wait for Batman to do it. It will prove his point: anyone can be broken into evil, just like him, if their pain or their reasons are strong enough.

Meanwhile the Batman is facing someone who is the epitome of cruelty and senseless crime.

He HAS to beat the Joker according to his rules, to prove to himself that his rules mean something, that they are absolute. And this is a decision he has to face every time he catches the Joker: do I kill him? How many lives will I save if I just kill him? He always escapes Arkham.... I will be doing a good thing by ridding this world of this supremely deranged psychopath. If only he could break his morals in this one case.... this one time... for the greater good....

The Joker knows this. And he laughs. And he hopes.

But he also has to deal with the temptation... without the Batman he would be virtually unstoppable. Even in the world of DC Comics where there is Super Man, other supervillains fear him. They steer clear of him. He is too unpredictable, chaotic, and cruel. If only he were to kill the Batman, there is nobody out there who understands him enough to be able to stop him. If only he could kill the Batman... everything would be so simple.

They are fighting a deeply personal, deeply ideological war. They each represent what the other one hates the most, and they each depend on the other to stay alive until the other bends to his will.

The last each one of them wants is to kill the other.

It is poetic.

EDIT: Don't be mistaken, though. Even though the Joker hasn't killed the Batman he has done quite a few vicious things, including flat out killing Jason Todd ( the second Robin) and paralyzing and raping Barbara Gordon ( commissioner Gordon's daughter, who was also Batgirl). He is one... cruel... vicious... villain.

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Guide to Men's Cologne

I work in a department store and sell fragrance pretty regularly. The three colognes you listed are solid, however they aren't the same type of smells and I would use each of those for a different occasion.

Cologne is more complicated than you might think. There are certain colognes that smell better on men of different ethnicity, and some that pair better with a season or time of day. Darker and muskier colognes are better for evening wear, in my opinion. Lighter and and flowery/citrusy colognes are best for day. Your age plays a big role in what colognes are best for you. There's a reason Old Spice smells like your great-grandpa and Polo Black smells like your grandpa with money.

HIGH SCHOOL

You probably don't need to be throwing much money at high-end colognes at this point in your life. Most of the females around you are going to enjoy sweeter musky smells, which is why Abercrombie Fierce, Curve, and Pac Sun colognes are popular. The problem with these scents is that they're usually weak in fragrant oils, so they don't last long. After high school, it's time to toss that stuff in the garbage and move on to some better smells.

COLLEGE

It's university time, bitches. If you're college age, stay away from some of the "classics", such as most Polo colors, Drakaar Noir, Cool Water, etc. If you remember your dad using it when you were little, steer clear of it. Don't argue with me on this. You will smell like shit, and younger women won't like it.

Go for names like Lacoste, Diesel (Only the Brave), Versace, Gucci, Calvin Klein (Euphoria is great), Kenneth Cole (Mankind is their newest and best, IMO), Dior, etc. Names you probably recognize and would probably wear clothing from. These brands have insane amounts of money, and typically end up producing some really great smelling fragrances. Even if you don't particularly like Diesel, they're going to have a lot of money to make something that appeals to the nose.

There are plenty of other good ones too, just naming some off the top of my head that are popular among men, and very popular with women. Mont Blanc Legend is also a great cologne, as others have pointed out.

The reason I dislike some of the "classic" colognes for this age group is because they came from a different time when certain smells were popular. They usually end up being too sharp on the nose for younger females, heavy with tobacco, leather, and bitter wood scents, and not really practical for daily use. That, and it will remind most girls of their dads, which is not a good thing. Scent is powerful. Use it to your advantage.

If you're looking for a good, versatile, everyday cologne that can be worn both day and night, I recommend Aqua De Gio. Marketing aside, there's a reason it's so popular. It's citrusy but still warm and masculine, making it good for year-round wear. It smells good no matter what you're wearing or what time of day it is. Incredibly versatile fragrance that can be worn by young college guys and it can carry you clear into your forties.

Armani Code is also a huge seller, and I recommend this for evening events or formal wear. It's darker but very smooth with hints of vanilla and cedar. In my opinion, you can't go wrong as a man by having Aqua De Gio and Armani Code. Both of those colognes will make you smell great to the majority of women, and they tend to have a higher concentration of fragrant oils, which means the cologne will last longer without fading away. This is important when you're spending good money on a fragrance.

Gucci is spicy and darker, which tends to be their thing with colognes. Black pepper comes to mind when I smell Gucci stuff. I would wear it if I were throwing on a suit, or going out for dinner in a nice restaurant. I probably wouldn't wear Gucci during the day or to the office or something, simply because it's bold and strong. Get this if you don't wear cologne often, only for special occasions. They're trying hard to appeal to the guy in his thirties who's a little classier and dresses up more.

Don't buy Chrome. I don't recommend it. I haven't had a woman under forty that hasn't wrinkled her nose at the smell. I've been getting a lot of the "women say they like it" argument when it comes to their cologne of choice. That's totally fine. I'm glad that the women in your life like the smell of whatever cologne you're wearing. My opinion is this: there aren't a whole lot of colognes that are absolutely foul and offensive smelling. Sure, your girlfriend might say she likes Chrome. But has she ever smelled anything else on you to compare it to? Are you sure she isn't just happy you don't smell like BO and pasta sauce like you usually do?

I also recommend Clinique Happy for Men to guys that don't like strong smells or most colognes. It's light, very citrusy, and makes you happy when you wear it.

MY COLOGNES

I have a few, which I alternate between. Use this as a guide or a starting point if everything seems overwhelming.

Light, citrus. Daytime and everyday use, year-round

• Lacose Essential. Really solid cologne choice, especially if you're just getting into colognes. It's got a slightly woodsy smell, but it's not pungent or overpowering. Very smooth and women tend to like it. Versatile enough to wear at all times of the day due to the darker undertones. This cologne is really Essential.
  
• Clinique Happy. For those days that you don't want to smell like cologne, but you want to smell pleasant. Very citrusy and smooth, so you don't smell like cleaning supplies.
  
• Dior Homme Sport. This cologne isn't light and citrusy, but it's not dark or really warm. Very spicy but still light and bright. I wear this during the day when I need to impress or dress up. Great, versatile cologne. I highly recommend it if you have a little more money to spend.

Warm, mellow. Daytime/evening use, nicer clothing, fall

• Calvin Klein Euphoria. Great warm smell, slightly woodsy and romantic smelling. I wear this when I know a woman is going to be close to me, as it's not strong enough to really smell from a few feet away. It's definitely one of my favorites.

• Kenneth Cole Mankind. The best scent this company has ever put out, in my opinion. It's manly smelling, but appeals to women. I highly recommend this as a starting place if you're looking for something darker.
  
• Armani Code. Great cologne, like I described above. Smooth and velvety, pairs great with suits. It's my go-to suit cologne.

Dark, sweet, musky, woodsy. Used for dates, nights out, or suits. Fall and winter, or special nights out during summer

• Diesel Only the Brave. Women go nuts for this cologne, and I use it when I really want to grab their attention. However, it's a young man's cologne, and if you're over thirty something else would probably be a better choice. The reason for that is the sweetness, which is very present on the nose. It's woodsy, but sweet. One of my favorites, and women usually get that wide-eyed look when they just meet you and get a whiff. It's a strong cologne, so use sparingly.

• Gucci (dark bottle). A nice change if I'm getting tired of my other scents. Black pepper comes to mind with this cologne. In my opinion, this is not a seductive cologne that will make women swoon. It's more manly/power cologne. I use it when meeting clients, giving presentations, and anywhere where the male presence is strong.

Note that you don't need all of this shit. Two colognes should suffice for your needs.

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Why Higher Taxes are Good for the Economy

Firstly, it's important to note that money is nothing more than a symbol, an idea. It might sound strange, but one dollar is not worth one dollar - that dollar bill you're holding is nothing more than a piece of paper, virtually worthless. It only has worth because we, as a people, give it worth. We say that that piece of paper is worth one "dollar", a universal unit in trade, to save us the hassle of bartering. The important part being, that piece of paper is nothing, other than what we as a society decide it will be, for the benefit of our society. That's how money works.

Secondly, and I know this sounds like double-speak, but one dollar does not equal a hundred cents. Mathematically, it absolutely is, but effectively, it couldn't be farther from the truth. Walk into a dollar store with a penny and try to buy 1/100th of a candy bar. Go into McDonald's with a dime and try to get 1/10th of one of their dollar menu items.

Basically, the less money you have, the less effectively you can use it, and this scales all the way up. If you make enough money to afford a car, you don't have to go to the shitty grocery store across the street, and can head to one with better prices that's out of walking distance. If you make more, you might be able to afford a Costco membership, and buy your groceries in bulk sizes, which is a lot cheaper. And maybe you can trade in that shitty used car that was all you could afford before for something that gets more MPG and doesn't require costly repairs every six months. And instead of buying a cheap pair of sneakers you'll have to replace in a half a year, you might be able to buy yourself a decent pair of shoes that'll last you a few years. In many cases, you end up paying less in the long-run by paying more in the short-run.

So having more money means you can use it more effectively, giving you more bang for your buck. But it also gives you more opportunity, and not just opportunity to lead a better life, but more opportunity for upward-mobility.

Think of the costs associated with getting a job. To work in fast food, you presumably need some clean clothes, maybe a bus pass. To be able to shop around for a better employer, you'll need decent, reliable transportation. To get a better job, you might need better clothes, a cell phone, a computer with an internet connection... and moving up the scale, you need a college education... and for that, you're looking at tuition, books, and the costs associated with spending the amount of time it takes to get through college without a well-paying job.

If you can barely afford the clothes on your back, you'll be lucky to be earning minimum wage... and maybe after a few years of scrimping and saving, you'll be able to get a car, and have some slightly better options. If you have a decent income, you have a much better opportunity to get a college degree in a high-paying field, or work your way up the corporate ladder.

That's not even getting into the facets of your life that indirectly affect your job opportunities. If you're wealthier, you have better legal options, which means that you're less likely to be convicted or spend time in prison, even for committing the exact same crime as a poor person. You have better medical coverage, which means less time spent having to call in sick to work, and being more fit also makes you a more appealing job candidate. There are even some ties between level of income and access to a nutritional diet - low-income folks generally eat shittier food because they can't afford to buy healthier food.

This isn't a fluke. It's how money works - the more of it there is, the more powerful a force it is, even proportionally, and the easier it is to get more of it.

However, there's another side to this too. The more money you have, the more expendable any portion of it becomes, even proportionally-speaking. Let's look at three guys, Allen, Billy, and Charlie. Allen makes $20K a year, Bill makes $200K a year, and Charlie makes $2 Million a year. Each is taxed at 10% of their income... but as need to happen sometimes, the taxes need to go up.

Let's say they double, so it's 20% now - the same for all three, right? Hell, it's harder on the richer, because they're paying more money than the poor guy! But in actuality, it's the poor guy who's sacrificing the most because of this, because so little of his income is expendable. Now Allen needs to decide between paying the rent and paying for food. Bill needs to hold off on that family vacation to Europe he's been planning. And Charlie... well, Charlie will gripe about the number in his bank account being less than he'd like, and then he'll go and buy his twelfth Ferrari anyway.

Remember how I said "money only has worth because we, as a people, give it worth, for the benefit of our society". That money you supposedly "own" isn't even really property, it's an idea used to facilitate the operation of a healthy society, and it does so by making an easy, simple conversion of property into a common exchange value. But since its very nature is uneven and broken, it needs to be addressed as such. And since a 10% tax hike on someone earning $20K is not the same as a 10% tax hike on someone earning $2 Million, for the many reasons I've just stated, we have progressive taxation, where the wealthier you are, the greater a portion of your income you contribute in taxes.

To take this to an extreme, if there was an across-the-board tax of 50%, with wages in America what they are now, the wealthy would still be living comfortably, the middle class would be scraping by... and the poor would starve to death. Treating everyone the same is not fair.

Republicans and those aligned with them like to paint this in a way that's essentially "ganging up on the rich people", "punishing" them for "success". However, if you treat everyone the same, make everyone pay a flat tax rate, then you are punishing the poor, who are less able to afford it. And it's easy to point at the numbers and turn them into a picture that shows the terrible burden the wealthy have to pay thanks to progressive taxation... but the truth of it is, the reality those numbers translate into is one where the wealthy can afford to contribute more, without any noticeable change to their lifestyle, and it's not just because they have more to give, it's because the fact that they have more makes them less dependent on it, better-able to acquire more of it, and less affected by its loss (again, even by proportion).

That is why any reasonable capitalist society taxes the rich progressively more than the poor. It's not to "punish" anyone for success, it's because the nature of money makes it far more invaluable by proportion to the poor than it is to the rich.

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How to Make Homemade Butterfinger Candy

Butterfinger Recipe

• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 1/4 cup smooth style peanut butter
• 16 oz milk chocolate.
• Cooking spray (like Pam)
• 1 tsp margarine or butter
• Salt

1. In a clean sauce pan combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Heat and stir gently until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and cover the pan with a lid for one minute. Condensation will wash any stray sugar crystals from the sides of the pan. If sugar falls into your mix it will act as seed and your mixture will crystallize—not good. Remove lid and attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Make sure that the bulb does not touch the bottom or you'll end up with false readings -also not good. While your mixture is cooking heat the peanut butter, margarine and a pinch of salt in a separate pan or in the microwave to emulsify. Take care not to burn or scorch -another bad thing. You should do this when the candy thermometer reaches 280 degrees so that it doesn't have time to cool down and thicken.
2. Continue cooking until the thermometer reaches 290 degrees. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter. Pour mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Tilt the sheet to allow the hot candy to spread out evenly. The stuff that you're working with is close to 300 degrees, that's HOT! Candy burns are very unpleasant. Not only do they hurt but the hot candy sticks to skin.
3. Allow the candy to cool.
4. If the candy is oily blot with a paper towel. You can dust it lightly with corn starch to help the chocolate adhere better in the next step.
5. Use a double boiler or a Pyrex type bowl on top of a simmering pot of water to melt half of the chocolate. Remove from heat and stir in the other half of the chocolate to temper. (There are better ways of tempering chocolate but this works.). If you choose not to temper the chocolate you'll end up with something that melts in your hand far too quickly.
6. You can spread the chocolate over the candy or break the candy into pieces and dip them in chocolate. Whatever floats your boat.
7. Other hints. I mentioned that the candy coming off the stove is hot—right? Keep an eye on children while making this stuff. Temperature is all important in candy making. It takes a little while for the temperature to rise but once it hits 285 or so it skyrockets quickly because the water has evaporated. It's a good idea to have everything ready to go from the very start. Burned candy is bad candy. Most confectioners will tell you that it's best not to make candy on cold rainy days because of the moisture in the air. I've done it with no baleful results but it's probably a good idea to follow this advice.

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The Benefits of Increasing Minimum Wage

Do you want some real data on how the benefits of minimum wage increases are not cancelled out by increases in cost of living?

Take this OECD source that lists the comparative price level of each country (Measures PPP). Countries with high minimum wages, like Australia, Denmark, and Sweden dominate the upper end of the list. Countries with low minimum wages like the United States are much lower. Seems obvious no? Sure if you just "cherry pick this data".

Let's look at Australia as our first example. The minimum wage in Australia is $13.85 USD per hour ($16.87 AUD) (Source can be found here). The minimum wage for a casual worker in Australia (no sick or annual leave) is $18.08 USD per hour. All calculations will be performed with the $13.85 rate. The minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 per hour. This means that the Australian wage is 1.91 times greater than the U.S wage. Similarly, according to this TIL the minimum wage (for McDonald's workers as example - Denmark doesn't have an 'official' minimum wage) in Denmark is 2.89 times greater than in the U.S.

The OECD comparative price level for Australia is $136 USD. In the U.S the comparative price level is $100 (As it is the baseline comparison country for this measurement). This means that the cost of living, and prices for general goods, is only 1.36 times more in Australia than in the U.S. However to reiterate the minimum wage is 1.91 times greater.

The OECD comparative price level for Denmark, the fifth most expensive country world, is a staggering $140 USD. Hence this means the cost of living in Denmark is 1.40 times greater than in the U.S. But the minimum wage in Denmark, as demonstrated by this TIL, is a whopping 2.89 times greater than in the U.S. Additionally the same website demonstrates Denmark having a grocery price index of 88.59 and the U.S at 81.81; the Danish minimum wage McDonald's worker could afford almost 3 times as many groceries as a U.S minimum wage worker.

So in reality the McDonalds workers of Denmark possess far more purchasing power than their counterparts in the U.S. Combined with their free healthcare, and cheap education; they're leaps and bounds ahead.

But then what's the other argument against minimum wage? "Minimum wage harms businesses and impairs growth". From the data of GDP growth between countries the GDP growth in high minimum wage countries like Australia is 2.50%. Whilst in the U.S GDP growth was only 1.60%. However Denmark's GDP growth in the same period was only 0.10%. So perhaps minimum wage is not considerably accountable for a countries growth or collapse.

So why are we in U.S still faced with a pauper's minimum wage? Well maybe it's because, as you said, the facts are hushed and all the data has been cherry picked.

Edit Denmark has no 'official' minimum wage: After research it seems that Denmark does not have an official minimum wage. The higher wages are a result of union bargaining. Which occurs across the industries in Denmark.Sorry for the mistake.

Edit "You haven't accounted for Exhange Rates: Also in my laziness I forgot to adjust the dollar values for Australia according to the U.S exchange rate. I have done this now. Apologies again.

Edit "You haven't accounted for tax. The Americans would make much more if you did" This source shows that a minimum wage worker in the U.S would take home about $13,328 after tax. This source shows that a minimum wage worker in Australia would take home $27,760 USD after tax. And this source shows that the Danish McDonald's worker would take home $26,776 after tax. The Australian and Dane will take home 2.08 and 2.01 times more salary than the U.S minimum wage worker after tax. The increase is still greater than the increase in cost of living between these countries. However tax money in Australia and Denmark goes toward subsidised tertiary education, free healthcare, subsidised pharmaceuticals, and welfare (money for the unemployed/disabled/retired). So that should theoretically further increase the income of Australians and Danes, if isolated and factored out.

Edit "CPI is not an appropriate measurement to compare cost of living": Regarding user complaints that I used the CPI index instead of a more appropriate PPP based comparison. I have changed the CPI comparisons with the OECD sourced "comparative price levels" data. This is naturally more reliable. After doing so the comparisons in cost of living between Australia and Denmark and the U.S changed only slightly; by about 0.1 times. So the comparisons still stand. Apologies.

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What to do if you Win the Lottery

Congratulations! You just won millions of dollars in the lottery! That's great.

Now you're screwed.

No really.

You are.

You're screwed.

If you just want to skip the biographical tales of woe of some of the math-tax protagonists, skip on down to the next comment, to see what to do in the event you win the lottery.

You see, it's something of an open secret that winners of obnoxiously large jackpots tend to end up badly with alarming regularity. Not the $1 million dollar winners. But anyone in the nine-figure range is at high risk. Eight-figures? Pretty likely to be screwed. Seven-figures? Yep. Painful. Perhaps this is a consequence of the sample. The demographics of lottery players might be exactly the wrong people to win large sums of money. Or perhaps money is the root of all evil. Either way, you are going to have to be careful. Don't believe me? Consider this:

Large jackpot winners face double digit multiples of probability versus the general population to be the victim of:

• Homicide (something like 20x more likely)
• Drug overdose
• Bankruptcy (how's that for irony?)
• Kidnapping

And triple digit multiples of probability versus the general population rate to be:

• Convicted of drunk driving
• The victim of Homicide (at the hands of a family member) 120x more likely in this case, ain't love grand?
• A defendant in a civil lawsuit
• A defendant in felony criminal proceedings

Believe it or not, your biggest enemy if you suddenly become possessed of large sums of money is... you. At least you will have the consolation of meeting your fate by your own hand. But if you can't manage it on your own, don't worry. There are any number of willing participants ready to help you start your vicious downward spiral for you. Mind you, many of these will be "friends," "friendly neighbors," or "family." Often, they won't even have evil intentions. But, as I'm sure you know, that makes little difference in the end. Most aren't evil. Most aren't malicious. Some are. None are good for you.

Jack Whittaker, a Johnny Cash attired, West Virginia native, is the poster boy for the dangers of a lump sum award. In 2002 Mr. Whittaker (55 years old at the time) won what was, also at the time, the largest single award jackpot in U.S. history. $315 million. At the time, he planned to live as if nothing had changed, or so he said. He was remarkably modest and decent before the jackpot, and his ship sure came in, right? Wrong.

Mr. Whittaker became the subject of a number of personal challenges, escalating into personal tragedies, complicated by a number of legal troubles.

Whittaker wasn't a typical lottery winner either. His net worth at the time of his winnings was in excess of $15 million, owing to his ownership of a successful contracting firm in West Virginia. His claim to want to live "as if nothing had changed" actually seemed plausible. He should have been well equipped for wealth. He was already quite wealthy, after all. By all accounts he was somewhat modest, low profile, generous and good natured. He should have coasted off into the sunset. Yeah. Not exactly.

Whittaker took the all-cash option, $170 million, instead of the annuity option, and took possession of $114 million in cash after $56 million in taxes. After that, things went south.

Whittaker quickly became the subject of a number of financial stalkers, who would lurk at his regular breakfast hideout and accost him with suggestions for how to spend his money. They were unemployed. No, an interview tomorrow morning wasn't good enough. They needed cash NOW. Perhaps they had a sure-fire business plan. Their daughter had cancer. A niece needed dialysis. Needless to say, Whittaker stopped going to his breakfast haunt. Eventually, they began ringing his doorbell. Sometimes in the early morning. Before long he was paying off-duty deputies to protect his family. He was accused of being heartless. Cold. Stingy.

Letters poured in. Children with cancer. Diabetes. MS. You name it. He hired three people to sort the mail. A detective to filter out the false claims and the con men (and women) was retained.

Brenda, the clerk who had sold Whittaker the ticket, was a victim of collateral damage. Whittaker had written her a check for $44,000 and bought her house, but she was by no means a millionaire. Rumors that the state routinely paid the clerk who had sold the ticket 10% of the jackpot winnings hounded her. She was followed home from work. Threatened. Assaulted.

Whittaker's car was twice broken into, by trusted acquaintances who watched him leave large amounts of cash in it. $500,000 and $200,000 were stolen in two separate instances. The thieves spiked Whittaker's drink with prescription drugs in the first instance. The second incident was the handiwork of his granddaughter's friends, who had been probing the girl for details on Whittaker's cash for weeks.

Even Whittaker's good-faith generosity was questioned. When he offered $10,000 to improve the city's water park so that it was more handicap accessible, locals complained that he spent more money at the strip club. (Amusingly this was true).

Whittaker invested quite a bit in his own businesses, tripled the number of people his businesses employed (making him one of the larger employers in the area) and eventually had given away $14 million to charity through a foundation he set up for the purpose. This is, of course, what you are "supposed" to do. Set up a foundation. Be careful about your charity giving. It made no difference in the end.

To top it all off, Whittaker had been accused of ruining a number of marriages. His money made other men look inferior, they said, wherever he went in the small West Virginia town he called home. Resentment grew quickly. And festered. Whittaker paid four settlements related to this sort of claim. Yes, you read that right. Four.

His family and their immediate circle were quickly the victims of odds-defying numbers of overdoses, emergency room visits and even fatalities. His granddaughter, the eighteen year old "Brandi" (who Whittaker had been giving a $2100.00 per week allowance) was found dead after having been missing for several weeks. Her death was, apparently, from a drug overdose, but Whittaker suspected foul play. Her body had been wrapped in a tarp and hidden behind a rusted-out van. Her seventeen year old boyfriend had expired three months earlier in Whittaker's vacation house, also from an overdose. Some of his friends had robbed the house after his overdose, stepping over his body to make their escape and then returning for more before stepping over his body again to leave. His parents sued for wrongful death claiming that Whittaker's loose purse strings contributed to their son's death. Amazingly, juries are prone to award damages in cases such as these. Whittaker settled. Again.

Even before the deaths, the local and state police had taken a special interest in Whittaker after his new-found fame. He was arrested for minor and less minor offenses many times after his winnings, despite having had a nearly spotless record before the award. Whittaker's high profile couldn't have helped him much in this regard.

In 18 months Whittaker had been cited for over 250 violations ranging from broken tail lights on every one of his five new cars, to improper display of renewal stickers. A lawsuit charging various police organizations with harassment went nowhere and Whittaker was hit with court costs instead.

Whittaker's wife filed for divorce, and in the process froze a number of his assets and the accounts of his operating companies. Caesars in Atlantic City sued him for $1.5 million to cover bounced checks, caused by the asset freeze.

Today Whittaker is badly in debt, and bankruptcy looms large in his future.

But, hey, that's just one example, right?

Wrong.

Nearly one third of multi-million dollar jackpot winners eventually declare bankruptcy. Some end up worse. To give you just a taste of the possibilities, consider the fates of:

• Billie Bob Harrell, Jr.: $31 million. Texas, 1997. As of 1999: Committed suicide in the wake of incessant requests for money from friends and family. “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.
• William "Bud" Post: $16.2 million. Pennsylvania. 1988. In 1989: Brother hires a contract murderer to kill him and his sixth wife. Landlady sued for portion of the jackpot. Convicted of assault for firing a gun at a debt collector. Declared bankruptcy. Dead in 2006.
• Evelyn Adams: $5.4 million (won TWICE 1985, 1986). As of 2001: Poor and living in a trailer gave away and gambled most of her fortune.
• Suzanne Mullins: $4.2 million. Virginia. 1993. As of 2004: No assets left.
• Shefik Tallmadge: $6.7 million. Arizona. 1988. As of 2005: Declared bankruptcy.
• Thomas Strong: $3 million. Texas. 1993. As of 2006: Died in a shoot-out with police.
• Victoria Zell: $11 million. 2001. Minnesota. As of 2006: Broke. Serving seven year sentence for vehicular manslaughter.
• Karen Cohen: $1 million. Illinois. 1984. As of 2000: Filed for bankruptcy. As of 2006: Sentenced to 22 months for lying to federal bankruptcy court.
• Jeffrey Dampier: $20 million. Illinois. 1996. As of 2006: Kidnapped and murdered by own sister-in-law.
• Ed Gildein: $8.8 million. Texas. 1993. As of 2003: Dead. Wife saddled with his debts. As of 2005: Wife sued by her own daughter who claimed that she was taking money from a trust fund and squandering cash in Las Vegas.
• Willie Hurt: $3.1 million. Michigan. 1989. As of 1991: Addicted to cocaine. Divorced. Broke. Indicted for murder.
• Michael Klingebiel: $2 million. As of 1998 sued by own mother claiming he failed to share the jackpot with her.
• Janite Lee: $18 million. 1993. Missouri. As of 2001: Filed for bankruptcy with $700 in assets.

So, what the hell DO you do if you are unlucky enough to win the lottery?

This is the absolutely most important thing you can do right away: NOTHING.

Yes. Nothing.

DO NOT DECLARE YOURSELF THE WINNER

Yet.

Do NOT tell anyone. The urge is going to be nearly irresistible. Resist it.

1. IMMEDIATELY retain an attorney.

Get a partner from a larger, NATIONAL firm. Don't let them pawn off junior partners or associates on you. They might try, all law firms might, but insist instead that your lead be a partner who has been with the firm for awhile. Do NOT use your local attorney. Yes, I mean your long-standing family attorney who did your mother's will. Do not use the guy who fought your dry-cleaner bill. Do not use the guy you have trusted your entire life because of his long and faithful service to your family. In fact, do not use any firm that has any connection to family or friends or community. TRUST me. This is bad. You want someone who has never heard of you, any of your friends, or any member of your family. Go the closest big city and walk into one of the national firms asking for one of the "Trust and Estates" partners you have previously looked up
on http://www.martindale.com from one of the largest 50 firms in the United States which has an office near you. You can look up attorneys by practice area and firm on Martindale.

2. Decide to take the lump sum.

Most lotteries pay a really pathetic rate for the annuity. It usually hovers around 4.5% annual return or less, depending. It doesn't take much to do better than this, and if you have the money already in cash, rather than leaving it in the hands of the state, you can pull from the capital whenever you like. If you take the annuity you won't have access to that cash. That could be good. It could be bad. It's probably bad unless you have a very addictive personality. If you need an allowance managed by the state, it is because you didn't listen to point #1 above.

Why not let the state just handle it for you and give you your allowance?

Many state lotteries pay you your "allowance" (the annuity option) by buying U.S. treasury instruments and running the interest payments through their bureaucracy before sending it to you along with a hunk of the principal every month. You will not be beating inflation by much, if at all. There is no reason you couldn't do this yourself, if a low single-digit return is acceptable to you.

You aren't going to get even remotely the amount of the actual jackpot. Take our old friend Mr. Whittaker. Using Whittaker is a good model both because of the reminder of his ignominious decline, and the fact that his winning ticket was one of the larger ones on record. If his situation looks less than stellar to you, you might have a better perspective on how "large" your winnings aren't. Whittaker's "jackpot" was $315 million. He selected the lump-sum cash up-front option, which knocked off $145 million (or 46% of the total) leaving him with $170 million. That was then subject to withholding for taxes of $56 million (33%) leaving him with $114 million.

In general, you should expect to get about half of the original jackpot if you elect a lump sum (maybe better, it depends). After that, you should expect to lose around 33% of your already pruned figure to state and federal taxes. (Your mileage may vary, particularly if you live in a state with aggressive taxation schemes).

3. Decide right now, how much you plan to give to family and friends.

This really shouldn't be more than 20% or so. Figure it out right now. Pick your number. Tell your lawyer. That's it. Don't change it. 20% of $114 million is $22.8 million. That leaves you with $91.2 million. DO NOT CONSULT WITH FAMILY when deciding how much to give to family. You are going to get advice that is badly tainted by conflict of interest, and if other family members find out that Aunt Flo was consulted and they weren't you will never hear the end of it. Neither will Aunt Flo. This might later form the basis for an allegation that Aunt Flo unduly influenced you and a lawsuit might magically appear on this basis. No, I'm not kidding. I know of one circumstance (related to a business windfall, not a lottery) where the plaintiffs WON this case.

Do NOT give anyone cash. Ever. Period. Just don't. Do not buy them houses. Do not buy them cars. Tell your attorney that you want to provide for your family, and that you want to set up a series of trusts for them that will total 20% of your after tax winnings. Tell him you want the trust empowered to fund higher education, some help (not a total) purchase of their first home, some provision for weddings and the like, whatever. Do NOT put yourself in the position of handing out cash. Once you do, if you stop, you will be accused of being a heartless bastard (or bitch). Trust me. It won't go well.

It will be easy to lose perspective. It is now the duty of your friends, family, relatives, hangers-on and their inner circle to skew your perspective, and they take this job quite seriously. Setting up a trust, a managed fund for your family that is in the double digit millions is AMAZINGLY generous. You need never have trouble sleeping because you didn't lend Uncle Jerry $20,000 in small denomination unmarked bills to start his chain of deep-fried peanut butter pancake restaurants. ("Deep'n 'nutter Restaurants") Your attorney will have a number of good ideas how to parse this wealth out without turning your siblings/spouse/children/grandchildren/cousins/waitresses into the latest Paris Hilton.

4. You will be encouraged to hire an investment manager. Considerable pressure will be applied. Don't.

Investment managers charge fees, usually a percentage of assets. Consider this: If they charge 1% (which is low, I doubt you could find this deal, actually) they have to beat the market by 1% every year just to break even with a general market index fund. It is not worth it, and you don't need the extra return or the extra risk. Go for the index fund instead if you must invest in stocks. This is a hard rule to follow. They will come recommended by friends. They will come recommended by family. They will be your second cousin on your mother's side. Investment managers will sound smart. They will have lots of cool acronyms. They will have nice PowerPoint presentations. They might (MIGHT) pay for your shrimp cocktail lunch at TGI Friday's while reminding you how poor their side of the family is. They live for this stuff.

You should smile, thank them for their time, and then tell them you will get back to them next week. Don't sign ANYTHING. Don't write it on a cocktail napkin (lottery lawsuit cases have been won and lost over drunkenly scrawled cocktail napkin addition and subtraction figures with lots of zeros on them). Never call them back. Trust me. You will thank me later. This tactic, smiling, thanking people for their time, and promising to get back to people, is going to have to become familiar. You will have to learn to say no gently, without saying the word "no." It sounds underhanded. Sneaky. It is. And its part of your new survival strategy. I mean the word "survival" quite literally.

Get all this figured out BEFORE you claim your winnings. They aren't going anywhere. Just relax.

5. If you elect to be more global about your paranoia, use between 20.00% and 33.00% of what you have not decided to commit to a family fund IMMEDIATELY to purchase a combination of longer term U.S. treasuries (5 or 10 year are a good idea) and perhaps even another G7 treasury instrument. This is your safety net. You will be protected... from yourself.

You are going to be really tempted to starting being a big investor. You are going to be convinced that you can double your money in Vegas with your awesome Roulette system/by funding your friend's amazing idea to sell Lemming dung/buying land for oil drilling/by shorting the North Pole Ice market (global warming, you know). This all sounds tempting because "Even if I lose it all I still have $XX million left! Anyone could live on that comfortably for the rest of their life." Yeah, except for 33% of everyone who won the lottery.

You're not going to double your money, so cool it. Let me say that again. You're not going to double your money, so cool it. Right now, you'll get around 3.5% on the 10 year U.S. treasury. With $18.2 million (20% of $91.2 mil after your absurdly generous family gift) invested in those you will pull down $638,400 per year. If everything else blows up, you still have that, and you will be in the top 1% of income in the United States. So how about you not fuck with it. Eh? And that's income that is damn safe. If we get to the point where the United States defaults on those instruments, we are in far worse shape than worrying about money.

If you are really paranoid, you might consider picking another G7 or otherwise mainstream country other than the U.S. according to where you want to live if the United States dissolves into anarchy or Britney Spears is elected to the United States Senate. Put some fraction in something like Swiss Government Bonds at 3%. If the Swiss stop paying on their government debt, well, then you know money really means nothing anywhere on the globe anymore. I'd study small field sustainable agriculture if you think this is a possibility. You might have to start feeding yourself.

6. That leaves, say, 80% of $91.2 million or $72.9 million.

Here is where things start to get less clear. Personally, I think you should dump half of this, or $36.4 million, into a boring S&P 500 index fund. Find something with low fees. You are going to be constantly tempted to retain "sophisticated" advisers who charge "nominal fees." Don't. Period. Even if you lose every other dime, you have $638,400 per year you didn't have before that will keep coming in until the United States falls into chaos. Fuck advisers and their fees. Instead, drop your $36.4 million in the market in a low fee vehicle. Unless we have an unprecedented downturn the likes of which the United States has never seen, should return around 7.00% or so over the next 10 years. You should expect to touch not even a dime of this money for 10 or 15 or even 20 years. In 20 years $36.4 million could easily become $115 million.

7. So you have put a safety net in place.

You have provided for your family beyond your wildest dreams. And you still have $36.4 million in "cash." You know you will be getting $638,400 per year unless the capital building is burning, you don't ever need to give anyone you care about cash, since they are provided for generously and responsibly (and can't blow it in Vegas) and you have a HUGE nest egg that is growing at market rates. (Given the recent dip, you'll be buying in at great prices for the market).

What now?

Whatever you want. Go ahead and burn through $36.4 million in hookers and blow if you want. You've got more security than 99% of the country. A lot of it is in trusts so even if you are sued your family will live well, and progress across generations. If your lawyer is worth his salt (I bet he is) then you will be insulated from most lawsuits anyhow. Buy a nice house or two, make sure they aren't stupid investments though. Go ahead and be an angel investor and fund some startups, but REFUSE to do it for anyone you know. (Friends and money, oil and water - Michael Corleone)

Play. Have fun. You earned it by putting together the shoe sizes of your whole family on one ticket and winning the jackpot.

SOURCE

The Truth About Welfare Fraud

With welfare fraud and abuse such a hot-button issue, there has been intense investigation and study to determine who is committing fraud and how much people are stealing.

According to the Department of Labor, the average amount of fraud in the system is around 3%. It's different in different states, but nowhere is it much above 5%. That means that even in the worst states, for every 100 people getting checks, 95 of them are honest people who actually need temporary assistance.

Temporary? Yeah, temporary assistance. Most people don't know that cash payments for welfare are time-limited in almost every state, the most common limit is 5 years, and usually this comes with strings attached, like attending job training, or things like that. Unemployment insurance typically runs out much sooner.

Because not many people are aware of that, it's a great way to spot someone who is either inventing anecdotes to make a point, is operating on bad information, or who has had their recollections colored by their own preconceived notions. For instance, the poster I'm replying to knows someone who has been collecting welfare checks for 7 years in the same apartment. In another thread, he says he's in Ohio. Only way for someone to collect benefits for that long in OH is if he was getting Social Security or disability payments (which have to go through a court and require a doctor to certify the disability). This makes fraud rather unlikely, and legally risky to the fraudster.

Another way to spot a truth stretcher, or someone who is operating on incorrect information or assumptions is that they talk about checks arriving in the mail. All Federal and most state benefit programs pay in one of two ways, via direct deposits made to debit cards (which is most common) or direct deposits made to bank accounts. For instance, the poster I'm replying to mentions in another post that he knows the color of SSI checks, which is unusual, since the only way to get SSI payments is electronically.

For what it's worth, in Ohio where the poster I'm replying to says he's from, the time limit for welfare is 3 years,Unemployment insurance is 26 weeks, and the only method of payment for all welfare payments is the Ohio Pathway card, which is a direct deposit debit card. Source

As for people having XBoxes, etc- I get that. From when I was about 5 till I was about 12, my mom was one of the 97% of honest people who collected welfare (no limits on time back then). She worked, and from time to time, saved enough cash to do something nice for us. I had an Atari, and we almost never went out in Goodwill clothes.

Despite minimum wage income, we were below the line for a family of three, so we got healthcare, checks, and were eligible for food stamps, but we never used the stamps unless times were extremely tough, because mom said she could just feel the judging coming off people who have never had literally no idea how they were going to provide for their families. One time when we were using the stamps, I successfully begged her into getting peanut butter captain crunch because it had a awesome toy, and when we were checking out, a cashier asked her if she really needed name brand cereal. I'm pushing 40 and I still feel guilty about that- my mom crying in the car because I had to have a fancy box of cereal.

So in closing, as a former poor person who gladly pays his taxes and is happy to have a tiny portion of it go to those less fortunate than me, the vast majority of whom are completely honest, I'd like to apologize on behalf of poor people everywhere who have the bad taste and audacity to make life as nice as possible for themselves and their children.

Frank Sinatra on God

From a 1963 Playboy interview by Joe Hymas

Sinatra: Well, that’ll do for openers. I think I can sum up my religious feelings in a couple of paragraphs. First: I believe in you and me. I’m like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life — in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God. But  I don’t believe in a personal God to whom I look for comfort or for a natural on the next roll of the dice.  I’m not unmindful of man’s seeming need for faith; I’m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle. The witch doctor tries to convince us that we have to ask God for help, to spell out to him what we need, even to bribe him with prayer or cash on the line. Well, I believe that God knows what each of us wants and needs. It’s not necessary for us to make it to church on Sunday to reach Him. You can find Him anyplace. And if that sounds heretical, my source is pretty good: Matthew, Five to Seven, The Sermon on the Mount .

Hyams: You haven’t found any answers for yourself in organized religion?

Sinatra: There are things about organized religion which I resent.  Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion and I’ll show you a hundred retrogressions. Remember, they were men of God who destroyed the educational treasures at Alexandria, who perpetrated the Inquisition in Spain, who burned the witches at Salem . Over 25,000 organized religions flourish on this planet, but the followers of each think all the others are miserably misguided and probably evil as well. In India they worship white cows, monkeys and a dip in the Ganges.  The Moslems accept slavery and prepare for Allah, who promises wine and revirginated women. And witch doctors aren't just in Africa. If you look in the L.A. papers of a Sunday morning, you’ll see the local variety advertising their wares like suits with two pairs of pants .

Hyams: Hasn’t religious faith just as often served as a civilizing influence?

Sinatra: Remember that leering, cursing lynch mob in Little Rock reviling a meek, innocent little 12-year-old Negro girl as she tried to enroll in public school? Weren't they — or most of them — devout churchgoers?  I detest the two-faced who pretend liberality but are practiced bigots in their own mean little spheres. I didn't tell my daughter whom to marry, but I’d have broken her back if she had had big eyes for a bigot. As I see it, man is a product of his conditioning, and the social forces which mold his morality and conduct — including racial prejudice — are influenced more by material things like food and economic necessities than by the fear and awe and bigotry generated by the high priests of commercialized superstition.  Now don’t get me wrong. I’m for decency — period. I’m for anything and everything that bodes love and consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday — cash me out.

Hyams: But aren't such spiritual hypocrites in a minority? Aren’t most Americans fairly consistent in their conduct within the precepts of religious doctrine?

Sinatra: I've got no quarrel with men of decency at any level. But  I can’t believe that decency stems only from religion. And I can’t help wondering how many public figures make avowals of religious faith to maintain an aura of respectability. Our civilization, such as it is, was shaped by religion, and the men who aspire to public office anyplace in the free world must make obeisance to God or risk immediate opprobrium.  Our press accurately reflects the religious nature of our society, but you’ll notice that it also carries the articles and advertisements of astrology and hokey Elmer Gantry revivalists. We in America pride ourselves on freedom of the press, but every day I see, and so do you, this kind of dishonesty and distortion not only in this area but in reporting — about guys like me, for instance, which is of minor importance except to me; but also in reporting world news. How can a free people make decisions without facts? If the press reports world news as they report about me, we’re in trouble.

Hyams: Are you saying that . . .

Sinatra: No, wait, let me finish. Have you thought of the chance I’m taking by speaking out this way? Can you imagine the deluge of crank letters, curses, threats and obscenities I’ll receive after these remarks gain general circulation? Worse, the boycott of my records, my films, maybe a picket line at my opening at the Sands. Why? Because I’ve dared to say that love and decency are not necessarily concomitants of religious fervor.

Hyams: If you think you’re stepping over the line, offending your public or perhaps risking economic suicide, shall we cut this off now, erase the tape and start over along more antiseptic lines?

Sinatra: No, let’s let it run. I've thought this way for years, ached to say these things. Whom have I harmed by what I've said? What moral defection have I suggested? No, I don’t want to chicken out now. Come on, pal, the clock’s running .

SOURCE

Inkjet Printer Buying Guide

Disclaimer: My day job is currently working for a marketing company contracted by HP. My past experience was working in a retail store, and currently I also have a 2nd job working in IT as a consultant and software dev for a local company. The opinions described in this comment do not reflect those of any of my employers or their affiliates and/or partners, and are solely my own.

I've almost always maintained two printers at home: a large, heavy-duty printer for everyone's prints in the family, and a smaller one for my own use. Our family had inkjet printers back in the day, from every imaginable brand, and we were spending an insane amount on our ink, so we ended up switching to laser at home. However, while lasers are certainly a great way to go, they aren't without their own problems.

My last Brother (an HL-4570CDW), at about 6-7 months into its use, started printing specks throughout the page. I cleaned the transfer belt and corona wires on the drums to no avail. Eventually I learned from my job at the time, working at a computer store, that there was a category of customers that showed up, who encountered the same or similar issue with their Brother lasers. Lastly, I found out that the color toner wasn't very cheap, costing around $90 or so for 3,500 prints. The black was decent, though, at 6,000 prints for roughly $80. Over the life of that printer, I spent a decent amount of time on its maintenance and less so using it. The HL-4570CDW (and apparently, from what I understand, every Brother laser) has a separate drum as well, but thankfully unlike some other Brother color lasers, it only had one drum for all the cartridges and not a separate drum for each cartridge. The thing was supposed to last for 25,000 pages (a lot) and cost $130 or so.

My smaller printer at the time was a Brother HL-2170W. It ran alright, and I never ran into any difficult issues with it. The toner was roughly $50 for 2,600 prints, and the quality was good enough for basic schoolwork. I wasn't very happy with the drum being a separate purchase, as it ran for about $80 and lasted 12,000 prints (I print a decent amount).

Between my two lasers, I was the happiest with my HL-2170W. I wasn't very happy with how much power each one of the lasers would suck up (far more than my PC ever has), and sometimes the light would dim as they printed. Page curl was a pain, but a relatively minor one. However, compared to the inkjets I was buying before, it was a much cheaper choice, and so I didn't complain much.

Then, I found business-class inkjets. These are inkjets that are supposed to deliver yields comparable to that of a laser printer, but cost less on ink. I was very skeptical at first. I had complete doubt that any of these printers would be even remotely reliable, or that the print quality would be terrible. But, after my HL-4570CDW finally took a dump on me, I was in the market for new options, so I decided to give it a go.

I ended up replacing the Brother HL-4570CDW with an HP Officejet Pro x576dw. This is an interesting printer, as it has print heads that are the width of the page, so it doesn't need to move a carriage back and forth. This lets this printer print enormously fast: 42 ppm ISO with its peak speeds at 70 ppm ISO. Now, speed aside, the cartridges were where I was impressed:

Cartridge	HP x576dw	Price	Yield	Cost	Brother HL-4570CDW	Price	Yield	Cost
Black	970XL	$120	9,200	1.30 ¢/page	TN-315BK	$80	6,000	1.33 ¢/page
Cyan	971XL Cyan	$110	6,600	1.67 ¢/page	TN-315C	$90	3,500	2.57 ¢/page
Magenta	971XL Magenta	$110	6,600	1.67 ¢/page	TN-315M	$90	3,500	2.57 ¢/page
Yellow	971XL Yellow	$110	6,600	1.67 ¢/page	TN-315Y	$90	3,500	2.57 ¢/page

Granted, I was still worried about reliability and print quality, in addition to being concerned with the ink drying up. However, having used the thing now for almost a year, I haven't had a single issue with it. It's been extremely reliable, extremely fast, and runs on less than a 1/5th of the power my Brother used when printing.

After that lovely experience, I was much more open to considering a different printer in place of my Brother upstairs. Its wireless support was fairly cruddy, and I ended up wiring it over the network, but even so its ethernet port was made rather cheaply, so I had to tape the cable in. It wasn't pretty. Plus, it'd be nice to be able to scan. The printer I personally settled on was the HP Officejet Pro 8630, but to try and avoid bias, I'm also showing the stats for similar printers from HP's competitors compared to a laser with similar features and capabilities, as well as the laser I replaced. I'm using the highest capacity cartridges that each manufacturer sells.

	Brother HL-2170W	Brother MFC-9130CW	HP Officejet Pro 8630	Epson Workforce WF-4630	Canon MAXIFY MB5320
Black	TN-360	TN-221BK	950XL	786XL Black	PGI-2200XL BK
Price	$50	$60	$38	$42	$37
Yield	2,600	2,500	2,300	2,600	2,500
Cost	1.92 ¢/page	2.40 ¢/page	1.65 ¢/page	1.62 ¢/page	1.48 ¢/page
Cyan	-	TN-225C	951XL Cyan	786XL Cyan	PGI-2200XL C
Price	-	$70	$28	$40	$28
Yield	-	2,200	1,500	2,000	1,755
Cost	-	3.18 ¢/page	1.87 ¢/page	2.00 ¢/page	1.60 ¢/page
Magenta	-	TN-225M	951XL Magenta	786XL Magenta	PGI-2200XL M
Price	-	$70	$28	$40	$28
Yield	-	2,200	1,500	2,000	1,295
Cost	-	3.18 ¢/page	1.87 ¢/page	2.00 ¢/page	2.16 ¢/page
Yellow	-	TN-225Y	951XL Yellow	786XL Yellow	PGI-2200XL Y
Price	-	$70	$28	$40	$28
Yield	-	2,200	1,500	2,000	1,520
Cost	-	3.18 ¢/page	1.87 ¢/page	2.00 ¢/page	1.84 ¢/page
Ink Type	Toner	Toner	Pigment Ink	Pigment Ink	Pigment Ink
Black ISO Print Speed	22 ppm	19 ppm	21 ppm	20 ppm	23 ppm
Colour ISO Print Speed	-	19 ppm	16.5 ppm	20 ppm	15 ppm
Input Trays	1 x 250 sheet	1 x 250 sheet	2 x 250 sheet	2 x 250 sheet	2 x 250 sheet
Duplex (Double-Sided Prints)	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manual/Specialty Feed	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Flatbed Scanner	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ADF Scanner	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Duplex ADF Scans	No	No	2 pass	2 pass	1 pass
Power Usage (Standby)	80 watts	70 watts	6.8 watts	7.5 watts	2.9 watts
Power Usage (Printing)	460 watts	380 watts	35 watts	20 watts	22 watts

Another thing to note is that many of these models have similar printers in their line, give or take a number of features, but with the same ink yields. They are worth looking into if the printers above are a bit pricey.

Each brand also has their own quirks:

• Brother: High-maintenance if you want your printer to last. Cleaning is mostly manual, and the software isn't the most user-friendly.
• HP: Forget about ICC profiles. HP doesn't provide them for anything but their professional-class printers.
• Epson: Not very user-friendly; menu options are poorly organized, worded, and take a long time to navigate. Additionally, their paper trays are very picky about how far you push the paper in, and prone to misfeeds.
• Canon: Similar to Epson with user-friendliness, but marginally better. Their MAXIFY printers will not let you change the cartridges until the printer decides its time (why they did this I have no idea).

And pros:

• Brother: Of all the laser printers I've seen, these seem to generate the least noise.
• HP: Extremely user friendly and easy to set up; takes the least time to use. Large 4.33" touchscreen on their 8620 and 8630, a 3" touchscreen on their 8610.
• Epson: Provide ICC profiles on their website with easy access. Lots of controls over your print.
• Canon: Single-pass two-sided scanning on the 5320 is remarkable. Fairly sturdy construction.

At my second job (IT), I convinced my boss to tear out all the laser printers they were using and replace them with business-grade inkjets. Currently they're using 2 of the HP x576dw's (one more on order), and 3 of the HP 8620s. Their costs have gone down significantly, and under heavy usage, no one's had an issue.

Before settling on a laser printer, typically I'd recommend looking at business-class inkjets and seeing if any of them will fit your needs. Many times they cost you less on ink, are just as reliable, use less power, and often times are much more user-friendly.

Picking just any inkjet, though, is a gamble. Many times manufacturers will make similar models in the same line that are significantly less reliable. For HP, I know this to be the 6830. While the 8600 series printers almost never require cleaning (I've printed after 3 months of no use, and the print quality was just like new on my 8630), the 6830 may require cleanings for infrequent use. Another example: Epson has a similar model, the WF-3640, with tiny ink cartridges compared to the WF-4630.

Last note: Much of the problem with wet ink and dried up cartridges when it comes to color prints is due to the cheap dye ink found in a lot of cheaper inkjets. This stuff has inconsistent print results, runs, fades in UV light, and dries up much more often in a cartridge. These business-class inkjets use pigment ink, essentially a powder suspended in liquid, that has none of the problems dye ink has, along with providing near-instant dry times and water-resistance. I've never had a problem with my printer ruining a highlighter, either.

EDIT: Accidentally overshot the 950 XL's page yield, changed from 2,500 to 2,300 and updated cost per page to reflect change; found out that the WF-4630 does do two-sided scans, it's just poorly documented

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Intelligence: Critical Thinkers versus List People

After a while I ended up categorizing people into two simple groups so I could approach the job training from their way and get the knowledge in their head as quickly and easily as possible.

Group 1 I call critical thinkers, self empowered types. Show them the concept, talk about the goal and they'll pick up the pieces and run with it. Show someone from this group how to use a mouse in windows (pre tablet era) like this: left click is take an action, right click is give me choices (context menu), double left click is take the default (bold) action from the context menu. After that short explanation I could walk away and come back in an hour or two and they had pretty much figured out windows and become a 'competent user'.

Group 2 I call list people. The didn't want to hear about concepts. They didn't want to have too many choices. Too many choices frustrates and confuses them. They will actually tell you that YOU are the stupid one because you made it too complicated by having too many ways to do the same thing or you are drowning people in too many choices. These people you would have to approach training as a list. Step one, click start ("double click or single click?"..."uh, this list is all single click"... "ok good."), click the DatabaseEntryApp Icon, When window opens move cursor to first fill in the blank, put in appropriate data in blank, etc.

If the data entry screen changes, most of these folks would instantly become stuck and unproductive until we also updated them with the new list and gave them time to absorb it. And during that process that group would call us stupid and laugh at the 'idiot IT guys' who can't leave well enough alone. They didn't want to hear about explanations about the client signed a new contract and now we were obligated to collect more or different data. Or that the auditors required it. Or new tax laws made it so. "blah blah blah. You guys are so dumb. Why do you make our jobs so hard. Everything was perfect, why'd you change it?" Any answer to that question would just get frowns and ridicule.

In IT, the List People outnumber the Critical Thinkers by about 10 to 1 at the "I at least have a high school diploma or GED" level. When you get out numbered like that. They gang up and call everyone else stupid. A great example is the people in the future in the movie Idiocracy. When you move into a more 'professional' environment, more college diplomas in the room, people who run their own successful businesses or investments, the scale starts to tip more towards the Critical Thinkers, but there are still List People in those high ranks. I have never seen a group of humans where it was all Critical Thinkers. If a List Person is in charge and you are a Critical Thinker, beware and be careful how you phrase things.

There's nothing wrong with the List People, just different kinds of people. Both groups have pro's and con's.

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What to Look For when Buying Glasses and Frames

Optician here. You're all getting screwed. Luxottica makes medium-grade products that we charge more for because of the name on the side. A $300 pair is easily $80-$100 wholesale. Prescription lenses are even worse, sometimes with a 90% markup.

To be clear, there are some products that are expensive for good reasons. But luxottica makes a lot of junk. So does Bvlgari, Tiffany, Persol, and all their lame brand names.

I'm going to give you some tidbits I've learned:

• Never buy spring hinges. The fit sucks and they are always the first thing to break.
• If your lenses scratch then odds are that you're not cleaning them correctly. You're probably just moving gunk from one part of the lens to another. Hard stuff gets caught up in the gunk and scratches the lenses when you try to clean it again.
• Never buy polycarbonate. It scratches easily and has poor optics. Plastic (CR39) is fine. It's not shatter resistant, but if you're not wearing them while practicing MMA then you'll be OK. If you need shatter resistance then get trivex. (Kids should have poly though).
• Want rimless glasses? Cool. Stay away from silhouettes and swissflex. They are ill-fitting dog crap.
• Have a high RX? Never go to a chain store. Odds are, you'll pay a lot of money for a jacked up pair of glasses. They hire people based on sales, not knowledge.
• In the US you cannot be charged for a copy of your RX.
• Always visit twice to make sure you like a pair. Good opticians will want to make sure you're happy.
• Polarized lenses are an amazing piece of technology. But you still like the tinted look, huh? Ask for a polarized "a" lens so that you can get it tinted.
• If you have single vision lenses, don't let anybody charge you more for "digital" lenses. They're not noticeably better.
• Transition lenses are garbage.
• Maui Jim is awesome.
• 1.74 lenses are not much thinner for the price and they are much more brittle than 1.67. If you can find a place that sells 1.70 (Hoya product) then go with that.

Overcoming Negativity

Replacing negativity with positive beliefs can be a challenge. Here’s a plan:

1. I Said Positive Things To Myself

I began to replace my negatives with positive affirmations. Before I would say things like; I'm never going to graduate, school is so hard, my girlfriends suck, I hate my life, I’m broke, I hate my job, why me, and the list went on. Eventually I learned to replace my words with; I can and I will, I will have a better life, I will buy my mother her dream home, I will be successful, I will become better so my relationships are better, I am Successful.

What I did was feed my subconscious mind with positive affirmations that created positive thoughts, which made positive feelings that caused a positive action, which finally gave me a positive result. Do I need to repeat that again? In others words, keep your words safe from negativity and your actions will produce positive results.

1. I had Positive Visualization

The obstructions in my life didn't matter. I was certain it would get better. I was upset to have end another relationship, I was bitter in restoring a relationship where there wasn't one with my mother, I hated the idea of forgiving my father for not being part of my life and being broke just made it worse.

In those moments, I had to see the future and how better it was going to be. I had to live my dreams in the present. That’s how goals get accomplished. I wanted to change so I confessed and saw myself as a better person. What I was physically seeing was controlling me. Until I saw the future with a positive visualization, my life began to change.

1. I Surrounded Myself With Positive People

This part was difficult. I enjoyed the company of my friends and had fun with them. There was a problem, when my desire to change happened it caused a bit of friction. I wanted a positive environment that will help me succeed; that force me to choose between success and my friends.

I realize that my association with negative friends was affecting my desire to achieve my dreams. I had to disassociate myself from them and seek positive people. If you have friends that are negative, don’t feel bad if you have to replace them. It might seem a bit rude and selfish, but when you think about it, your actions reflect on the people you spend the most time with.

You have to surround yourself with success in order to your life to be a success. Network and meet people that make more money than you, that know more about the career you have chosen and find a partner that inspires you, not demoralizes you. It might be hard in the beginning, but finding positive friends will not be difficult. The difficulty is letting go of the old ones.

• I Stopped Eating Mental Fast Foods

There was nothing productive or educational from a PS4, TV, smoking pot and watching sports all day. I would get home from work sit on my couch and play games or watch TV for hours. I was feeding my mind mental fast foods that created a mental Fat Albert.

If you want to make improvements in your life, you must let go of all the mental fast foods. Read books, listen to educational programs, listen to audio books, read blogs related to your career or business and participate in a success, or self-development seminars. The fact is, negativity in your life will always have control of your actions and produce negative outcomes. Feed your mind the proper mental nutrition so that you can live a prosperous life.

• I Trained and Developed Myself Positively

One thing that you start to develop when you set your life on a positive note is hunger for success. A feeling of succeeding started to dwell deep within my gut. Partying was no longer appealing (for the moment), girls became less interesting (I still love them), and distractions were irrelevant. The only thing I could do was educate, train and develop myself positively in order to achieve success.

The same can happen to you. Take positive training and development into your life.

Make a shift in the things that you listen to, read or talk about. Talking all day about the latest episode of Walking Dead will not add an extra buck into the bank. You’re self-education and training will set you apart from the average minds. I love how Jim Rohn puts it, “Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune.” You choose.

• I Adopted Positive Healthy Habits

Care for some Doritos, pizza, chocolate chip cookies, Coke, breaded chicken wings and a bacon triple cheeseburger with extra mayo? Good god, that sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen. Honestly, that is exactly what is going to happen if you continue stuff your face with these food choices.

I know it can be difficult to let go of these delightful items, but to created positivity in your life, we must learn how to adopt healthy eating habits. When I made this choice, I found tons of energy, I was more focus at my duties of the day and felt great about myself. Don’t worry on what you can't eat; be thankful for the things you can eat.

Aside from eating right, adequate sleep is important. Now adequate does not mean 12 hrs a day. Your body can function well by sleeping 5-8 hours. Take the time to lay and allow your body and mind to recharge. A life full of work and very little rest is not healthy. For my entrepreneurs, I understand sometimes sleep must be suspended. But even then, this times happens in phases. When I need to sleep, trust me, I am going all in.

• I Had Positive Expectation About My Life

What point are you trying to make by thinking low about your accomplishments? What purpose do you have if you expect to be broke, depress, unsuccessful, lonely and full of misery? Your life has no purpose when you are in living with those expectations. I used to believe that I was destine to live in poverty and in sorrow. I seriously thought that the rich were born rich or had special powers that made them rich.

I had to expect being successful, I had to expect to achieve more, I had to expect leaving the hood (Projects) and most of all I had to expect myself achieving all this when no one else would. That is the only way through this. There’s no exception to the game. Have high expectations of your life and you will have high accomplishments to be thankful for.

Taking a negative perspective and replacing it with positivity is the most difficult challenge I've faced. It was not easy, and even till this day I still work hard to improve and grow. I might be positive, but there is still some negativity lingering around. I don’t pay much attention to it, what I do is bring the greater positivity within and all becomes irrelevant. Don’t be afraid to make a change in your life; it's better for you relationships, your career, and for your growth. When you really think about it, there’s no point in being negative. What good feeling do you produce in being negative? Exactly, so stop being negative!

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Plan for Overcoming Depression

Ouch. Sounds like you're having a tough time max. That sucks. I've been there, so I kinda know what you're talking about. I've been in the ever circling vortex of self doubt, frustration, and loathing. It's no bueno. I know. If you don't mind lemme tell you a couple things. You can read em if you want, read em again later if you feel like it. But honestly man, if I spend all this time typing this out to you and you don't let it be a little tinder for your fire, well, you're just letting us both down. And you don't HAVE to do that. You don't HAVE to do anything. But you get to choose.

(Who am I? My name’s Ryan and I live in Canada. Just moved to a new city for a dream job that I got because of the rules below. I owe a lot of my success to people much cooler, kinder, more loving and greater than me. When I get the chance to maybe let a little bit of help out, it’s a way of thanking them. )

Rule number 1. There are no more zero days. What's a zero day? A zero day is when you don't do a single fucking thing towards whatever dream or goal or want or whatever that you got going on. No more zeros. I'm not saying you gotta bust an essay out everyday, that's not the point. The point I'm trying to make is that you have to make yourself, promise yourself, that the new SYSTEM you live in is a NON-ZERO system. Didnt' do anything all fucking day and it's 11:58 PM? Write one sentence. One pushup. Read one page of that chapter. One. Because one is non zero. You feel me? When you're in the super vortex of being bummed your pattern of behaviour is keeping the vortex goin, that's what you're used to. Turning into productivity ultimate master of the universe doesn't happen from the vortex. It happens from a massive string of CONSISTENT NON ZEROS. That's rule number one. Do not forget.

Rule number 2. BE GRATEFUL TO THE 3 YOU'S. Uh what? 3 me's? That sounds like mumbo jumbo bullshit. News flash, there are three you's. There's the past you, the present you, and the future you. If you wanna love someone and have someone love you back, you gotta learn to love yourself, and the 3 you's are the key. Be GRATEFUL to the past you for the positive things you've done. And do favors for the future you like you would for your best bro. Feeling like shit today? Stop a second, think of a good decision you made yesterday. Salad and tuna instead of Big Mac? THANK YOU YOUNGER ME. Was yesterday a nonzero day because you wrote 200 words (hey, that's all you could muster)? THANK YOU YOUNGER ME. Saved up some coin over time to buy that sweet thing you wanted? THANK YOU. Second part of the 3 me's is you gotta do your future self a favor, just like you would for your best fucking friend (no best friend? you do now. You got 2. It's future and past you). Tired as hell? Fuck you present self, this one's for future me, i'm gonna rock out p90x Ab Ripper X for 17 minutes. I'm doing this one for future me. Alarm clock goes off and bed is too comfy? fuck you present self, this one's for my best friend, the future me. I'm up and going for a 5 km run (or 25 meter run, it's gotta be non zero). MAKE SURE YOU THANK YOUR OLD SELF for rocking out at the end of every.single.thing. that makes your life better. The cycle of doing something for someone else (future you) and thanking someone for the good in your life (past you) is key to building gratitude and productivity. Do not doubt me. Over time you should spread the gratitude to others who help you on your path.

Rule number 3- don't worry I'm gonna too long didn't read this bad boy at the bottom (get a pencil and piece of paper to write it down. seriously. you physically need to scratch marks on paper) FORGIVE YOURSELF. I mean it. Maybe you got all the know-how, money, ability, strength and talent to do whatever is you wanna do. But lets say you still didn't do it. Now you're giving yourself shit for not doing what you need to, to be who you want to. Heads up champion, being disappointed in yourself causes you to be less productive. Tried your best to have a nonzero day yesterday and it failed? so what. I forgive you previous self. I forgive you. But today? Today is a nonzero masterpiece to the best of my ability for future self. This one's for you future homes. Forgiveness man, use it. I forgive you. Say it out loud.

Last rule. Rule number 4, is the easiest and its three words. exercise and books. that's it. Pretty standard advice but when you exercise daily you actually get smarter. when you exercise you get high from endorphins (thanks body). when you exercise you clear your mind. when you exercise you are doing your future self a huge favor. Exercise is a leg on a three legged stool. Feel me? As for books, almost every fucking thing we've all ever thought of, or felt, or gone through, or wanted, or wanted to know how to do, or whatever, has been figured out by someone else. Get some books max. Post online about not caring about yourself? Good first step! (nonzero day, thanks younger me for typing it out) You know what else you could do? Read 7 habits of highly successful people. Read "emotional intelligence". Read "From good to great". Read “thinking fast and slow”. Read books that will help you understand. Read about bodyweight fitness and incorporate it into your workouts. (how's them pullups coming?) Reading is the warp whistle from Super Mario 3. It gets you to the next level that much faster.

That’s about it man. There’s so much more when it comes to how to turn nonzero days into hugely nonzero days, but that’s not your mission right now. Your mission is nonzero and forgiveness and favors. You got 36 essays due in 24 minutes and its impossible to pull off? Your past self let you down big time, but hey… I forgive you. Do as much as you can in those 24 minutes and then move on.

I hope I helped a little bit max. I could write about this forever, but I promised myself I would go do a 15 minute run while listening to A. Skillz Beats Working Vol. 3. Gotta jet. One last piece of advice though. Regardless of whether or not reading this for the first time helps make your day better, if you wake up tomorrow, and you can’t remember the 4 rules I just laid out, please, please. Read this again.

Have an awesome fucking day ☺

tldr; 1. Nonzero days as much as you can. 2. The three you’s, gratitude and favours. 3. Forgiveness 4. Exercise and books (which is a sneaky way of saying self improvement, both physical, emotional and mental)

The long and short of it is a simple truth, but it's tough to TOTALLY UNDERSTAND AND PRACTICE. It's this: you become what you think. This doesnt mean if I think of a tree, I'll be oakin' it by august. It means that the WAY you think, the THINGS you think of, and the IDEAS YOU HOLD IN YOUR MIND defines the sum total that is you. You procrastinate all the time and got fear and worry going on for something? You are becoming a procrastinator. You keep thinking about how much you want to run that 5 k race in the spring and finish a champion? Are ya keeping it in mind all the time? Is it something that is defining your ACTIONS and influencing you DECISIONS? If it is, then you're becoming the champion you're dreaming about. Dreaming about it makes it. Think and it shall be. But do not forget that action is thought's son. Thoughts without actions are nothing. Have faith in whatever it is you've steeled your mind to. Have faith and follow through with action.

Ok, that's a bunch of nice words, but how does that help me turn slightly nonzero days into hugely nonzero days. Do you believe all these words you just read? Does it makes sense to you that you BECOME WHAT YOU THINK OF? Ask yourself: What do I think of? When you get home and walk in the door. (how quickly did you turn that laptop on? Did turning it on make you closer to your dreams? What would?) At the bus stop. Lunch break. What direction are you focusing your intentions on? If you're like I was a few years ago, the answer was either No direction, or whatever caught my eye at the moment. But no stress, forgive yourself. You know the truth now. And knowing the truth means you can watch your habits, read books on how you think and act, and finally start changing your behavior. Here's an example: Feeling like bunk cause you had zero days or barely nonzero days?

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOURE DOING. and change just a little bit more. in whatever positive direction you are choosing to go.

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