Excuse #1: "It's just an excuse for card and candy companies to take your money."
Excuse #2: "Why do one day what you should be doing the other 364 days a year?"
Sound familiar? I know I've said these in the past as reasons to not celebrate Valentine's Day. I too was once a Valentine's Curmudgeon. There was a time, even in my married life, when the whole holiday seemed silly to me, for reason #2 more than anything else. (In my defense I did live up to my words and made some effort throughout the year.) I feel you friends. I understand where you're coming from.
However, a few years ago, at the gentle prompting from my longsuffering wife (whom I honestly believed felt the same as me) suggested that she would appreciate just a little Valentine's Day celebration. At that moment I realized that I had been a complete idiot about the whole holiday. I immediately repented of my purposeful neglect and began restitution in the form of surprise delivery of flowers on or about Feb 14th.
I'd like to make a suggestion to anyone that is feeling a little curmudgeonly on this holiday. (I'm speaking more to my fellow males than anyone else.) Try it out. Surprise your significant other with a little something on V Day. I guarantee they'll appreciate it.
The "excuses" seem valid but the problem is that they are really just that, excuses. Excuses, because you've been hurt in the past, or romance makes you uncomfortable, or you're lazy, or a cheapskate. It's time to get over your hangups. When given an explicit opportunity to celebrate your relationship and shower love and romance on someone you love and care for deeply, why would you be so foolish as to neglect that?
1. You don't need to spend much, if any, money to make a special effort. In love, unlike so many other things, honest effort and intentions count for a lot.
2. It's entirely possible to make a big deal of Valentine's Day AND still make an honest effort throughout the year to romance your beloved. In fact, once you start finding ways to romance you will find that the whole process is not: silly, a chore, a waste of money, or hard. It is in fact a lot of fun with real and tangible benefits to yourself, your partner, and your relationship.
There's no better time than now to start. It may be uncomfortable at first, but with a little practice you'll get into the swing of things and find out just how awesome Valentine's Day can be.
Go forth and sweep them off their feet.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Rhapsody in Amy
How do you quantify a person? It isn't possible. There is so much that goes into a human being. (This is why stereotypes kind of work on large groups but tend to fall pretty flat on an individual basis.)
My wife, Amy, is having another birthday today which is fine and normal. What's a little different is that this year I find myself contemplating her and all the many things that make her who she is.
I am constantly impressed with the dilligence, love, and care she puts in to being a mother. Being responsible for the emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of four small boys is no small task. (Especially when her only sibling was a sister. This means she gets the "joy" of learning "boy" on the job.) She cares and worries so very much for her children and the stress can bring her to tears and anguish of soul and mind. I hate to see the pain and anguish it brings her but if it didn't then she wouldn't be doing her job so damn well.
I love her mind and how it works. I love her logic (even when it differs from mine). I love how smart she is. She's funny too. Really funny. (Perhaps even more impressive, is that she still thinks I'm funny.) Her artistic abilities are expansive and the skill and detail she puts into her profession as a costume designer have always been impressive to me.
She's beautiful. She's always had a slightly unconventional beauty (one of the things that initially attracted me to her) and it's gotten better with age. I mean that. She gets just a little bit more beautiful every day.
If I take anything away from this moment of reverie, it's how lucky I truly am to be with someone with so many facets and depths. I know this year I'm going to do my level best to make sure she has a birthday worth what she means to me.
My wife, Amy, is having another birthday today which is fine and normal. What's a little different is that this year I find myself contemplating her and all the many things that make her who she is.
I am constantly impressed with the dilligence, love, and care she puts in to being a mother. Being responsible for the emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of four small boys is no small task. (Especially when her only sibling was a sister. This means she gets the "joy" of learning "boy" on the job.) She cares and worries so very much for her children and the stress can bring her to tears and anguish of soul and mind. I hate to see the pain and anguish it brings her but if it didn't then she wouldn't be doing her job so damn well.
I love her mind and how it works. I love her logic (even when it differs from mine). I love how smart she is. She's funny too. Really funny. (Perhaps even more impressive, is that she still thinks I'm funny.) Her artistic abilities are expansive and the skill and detail she puts into her profession as a costume designer have always been impressive to me.
She's beautiful. She's always had a slightly unconventional beauty (one of the things that initially attracted me to her) and it's gotten better with age. I mean that. She gets just a little bit more beautiful every day.
If I take anything away from this moment of reverie, it's how lucky I truly am to be with someone with so many facets and depths. I know this year I'm going to do my level best to make sure she has a birthday worth what she means to me.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Reason # 2 I'm Glad We Dumped The Dish
Our last Dish Network bill was $62 for one month. Multiply that by twelve and that's $744 per year.
What, not reason enough yet?
Here's how we kicked the Dish to the curb:
-We already had a high speed internet connection.
-We purchased an inexpensive 32" HDTV (1080p) that was also web-enabled. ($370) Since our wireless router and the TV share the same room I simply plugged the TV into the router with a network cable. The TV uses a special menu and apps for things like Netflix, Hulu, youtube, Amazon Instant Video etc and accessing them is a breeze.
-For our bedroom we moved the old analog TV upstairs and purchased the Roku XDS box ($99) that gave our old TV the same functionality that was built into our new HDTV. (The Roku connects wirelessly to our wifi router for internet connectivity.)
-Just to test the reception I purchased a $10 set of rabbit ears for the HDTV and we get two networks, NBC and CBS, in full and glorious uncompressed 1080p HD. (Suck on that Dish Network and your compressed HD signal) If we get two networks with just rabbit ears the next step is to purchase and install an outdoor antenna. To continue flipping the bird in Dish Network's general direction, I'll be using the same mounting post and coaxial cable Dish Network installed. The outdoor aerial should cost in the $35-$50 range.
For Programming:
-Hulu+ is $7.99 a month and acts as the DVR we we're paying the dish people almost as much for on top of our regular programming fees. Plus it has a LARGE selection of entire show seasons, a whole section of Criterion movies and they're now dabbling in exclusive show content by importing and showing exclusively TV shows from Britain and Canada.
-Netflix Watch Instantly. They have a great selection of TV shows, documentaries, British TV, martial arts, foreign, art house movies, kids TV shows, etc. In other words, stuff my family and I love to watch already. Again, $7.99 a month.
-For those networks that refuse to do Hulu and the few that we can't access through our TV interfaces we acquired a $14 cable that connects from the video card in my computer to one of the HDMI ports on the HDTV. The computer sees it as a second monitor and we can view anything available either on the web or downloaded from the web on our HDTV now too.
-For new and recent movie releases, pay services like VUDU, and Amazon Instant Video allow us to stream full HD (1080p) versions of the movies directly to our TV, usually in the $5-8 range.
Total up front costs:
$533
Monthly Reoccurring Costs:
$15.98 x 12 = $191.76
Total costs our first year: $533+$191.76=$724.76
Still cheaper than a whole year of Dish Network by a few bucks.
Considering that the $533 were all one time costs our next year savings are going to be $552.24.
Suck on that Dish.
What, not reason enough yet?
Here's how we kicked the Dish to the curb:
-We already had a high speed internet connection.
-We purchased an inexpensive 32" HDTV (1080p) that was also web-enabled. ($370) Since our wireless router and the TV share the same room I simply plugged the TV into the router with a network cable. The TV uses a special menu and apps for things like Netflix, Hulu, youtube, Amazon Instant Video etc and accessing them is a breeze.
-For our bedroom we moved the old analog TV upstairs and purchased the Roku XDS box ($99) that gave our old TV the same functionality that was built into our new HDTV. (The Roku connects wirelessly to our wifi router for internet connectivity.)
-Just to test the reception I purchased a $10 set of rabbit ears for the HDTV and we get two networks, NBC and CBS, in full and glorious uncompressed 1080p HD. (Suck on that Dish Network and your compressed HD signal) If we get two networks with just rabbit ears the next step is to purchase and install an outdoor antenna. To continue flipping the bird in Dish Network's general direction, I'll be using the same mounting post and coaxial cable Dish Network installed. The outdoor aerial should cost in the $35-$50 range.
For Programming:
-Hulu+ is $7.99 a month and acts as the DVR we we're paying the dish people almost as much for on top of our regular programming fees. Plus it has a LARGE selection of entire show seasons, a whole section of Criterion movies and they're now dabbling in exclusive show content by importing and showing exclusively TV shows from Britain and Canada.
-Netflix Watch Instantly. They have a great selection of TV shows, documentaries, British TV, martial arts, foreign, art house movies, kids TV shows, etc. In other words, stuff my family and I love to watch already. Again, $7.99 a month.
-For those networks that refuse to do Hulu and the few that we can't access through our TV interfaces we acquired a $14 cable that connects from the video card in my computer to one of the HDMI ports on the HDTV. The computer sees it as a second monitor and we can view anything available either on the web or downloaded from the web on our HDTV now too.
-For new and recent movie releases, pay services like VUDU, and Amazon Instant Video allow us to stream full HD (1080p) versions of the movies directly to our TV, usually in the $5-8 range.
Total up front costs:
$533
Monthly Reoccurring Costs:
$15.98 x 12 = $191.76
Total costs our first year: $533+$191.76=$724.76
Still cheaper than a whole year of Dish Network by a few bucks.
Considering that the $533 were all one time costs our next year savings are going to be $552.24.
Suck on that Dish.
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