“Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers.”
Ken Robinson is right up our alley. This 20 minute talk is terrific…and quite funny.
Introducing Jackson Davis, the newest staffer here at Family Hack. It was 8:09 A.M. on May 22nd, when we decided to make his 9 lb. butt a permanent fixture here. He’ll be in charge of articles pertaining to drooling, high finance and Philippino psychic surgery. Mom and baby are doing fine…no…strike that…they rock!
Top 10 Amazon Power Shopper Tools
A great list of tools for you Amazon nuts. We especially like “Subscribe & Save”. We use this service for items like laundry detergent and diapers. Amazon.com waives the shipping fee, gives us 15% off their regular price, emails us before each shipment (with an option to cancel), and charges us only when they ship. Plus we get to see our favorite man in brown on a regular basis. Which leads us to our next link.
OK…here’s the deal. We haven’t abandoned you. In fact, we love you all deeply. Really…especially you in the thong. That’ a good look for any guy.
But Hannah is knocked up again and for the past several weeks we’ve been scrambling around trying to get our crap in some reasonable order before she explodes. Which, according to people who know about such things, will be in about a month.
Now on to more important matters…TESTICLES! The new baby has a pair, so my world will be less pink and whiny…thank God! In fact, with the additional set of danglers, I’m declaring victory over these frilly broads. Sure, there may be three women in the family, but soon there will be FOUR glorious testicles. Clearly, the men win!
So, what does this mean to you, the loyal and sometimes drunken FamilyHack readers? Well, you’ll have to make do without our brand of internet pablum for a little while longer. After all, Hannah is busy building a mini-me and then I’ll be spending several weeks just staring at my new sons enormous package.
Of course, we’ll be back after the baby dust has cleared. In the meantime you’ll just have to focus on your heroin habit and that fancy new mullet you’ve been working on. It’ll go great with that thong you look so luscious in.
I’m a sucker for a really good singer. The fact that Madonna is rich and famous and this guy is playing at the Temple Bar for a $5.00 cover charge is clear proof that life is unfair.
One of our brilliant readers, Jeanie Mellick, has some great car tips:
With each new car I buy the car it’s own set of “towels” that match the interior. I always keep one laid out covering the trunk area (large bath size) and then if any groceries spill, it just gets tossed in the laundry.
I put hand towels on the floor for the kids muddy shoes/sports equipment/etc. They are very handy, and so much less costly than getting your upholstery cleaned.
Another trick I use is to just throw the Windex and paper towel roll in the car, and then clean windows, doors, etc. while waiting in the car pool line, etc.
You can also keep a bag of “food stash” in the trunk to keep drive-through trips to a minimum. I keep packs of goldfish crackers, Gatorade, etc. so I can just give the kids something healthy rather than hit up McD’s for fat filled fake chicken!!
Finally, home schooling is saving $$$ big time on gas!
Do any of you have some good tricks to keep that damned car from gobbling up our time and money? Get your lazy butt to comment below or shoot us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
I’ve washed our car once in the last 3 years. It didn’t make any difference so I stopped. It turns out, we stumbled upon the holy grail of all car paint colors…”dirt”. Ok, technically, it’s called “Sahara Sand” but that’s just some marketing asshole’s name for “dirt”.
We owned the car for about a year when I began feeling guilty that I hadn’t washed it. I took it to the nearest car wash, spent $10.00 and an hour getting it cleaned up and no one noticed…not even me.
The lesson here is I bought a dirt colored car and accidentally found out it NEVER needs to be washed. It always looks the same…pretty good.
Granted, it’s not the sexiest beast on the road. But, I want to dry hump it every time I think of the hours and dollars it has saved me. Now, I just squeegee the windows when I fill it up with gas. That’s it…I’m done.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with Dan Clements about his terrific new book, “Escape 101: Sabbaticals Made Simple” It’s an inspiring and practical guide to taking a career break without losing your money or your mind. Here’s our interview with Dan.
Family Hack: Some jobs seem easier to “escape” from than others. What jobs would you choose to put in your Top 10 for easy escapism?
Dan Clements:I honestly don’t believe that it’s about the job – it’s about the mindset of the person doing the job that determines how easy it is to get away.
That being said, there are some jobs that lend themselves to portability, or to periodic downtimes:
Jobs with structured extended leave programs
Teachers
Career jobs at a companies with established sabbatical programs
Jobs with global demand
Doctors
Nurses
Portable work
Writing
Design
Programming
Any other web-based freelancing
Jobs with a defined end
Temp work
Contract work
There are many others, but these are the ones that always strike me as the easiest. A lot of these are easy because they let you take your work with you. Many people will prefer the idea of taking a complete break from work, but the trend towards mobile work lifestyles is definitely worth considering as an alternative way to escape. Continue reading ‘Escape 101: Sabbaticals Made Simple An Interview with Author Dan Clements‘
In this video I show you how I use a brilliantly designed and dirt cheap file holderto keep my active projects organized, in view and easy to retrieve. The system also makes working while traveling a breeze.
We are a family with three small kids figuring out how to travel the world, work from anywhere while home schooling our kids. We also blather on about life hacks, saving money and cool stuff we love. Snarky bios of each cast member are here.