Chatsquatch

Recently I was part of… let’s see, how did Josh put it… an adventure from HELL! It was supposed to be a fun afternoon of hiking down stream to do some climbing in a cave we discovered on the internet. The site stated that cave was easily accessible by stream, but you could hike to it. We got the map, grabbed our gear, and headed toward the river. The plan was simple; my wife was going to drop us off and then meet us at another drop off point further down the river.

We quickly realized that it was more than we bargained for. A short adventure turned out to be an overnight disaster. Most of the area was too overgrown to hike through so we had to swim through the river; we encountered poisonous snakes, coyotes, and lots of other critters (including crazy hillbilly campers); we only had our climbing shoes, a couple flashlights, a knife, a 2-way radio (that did not work for sh__), a small bit of rope, and a dry sack to put it all in. At one point (we estimated that it was 3:00AM), it was so dark that we could not go on. We had to just find the nearest rock bed and sleep. We were too tired to start a fire using the “Castaway” method, so we just laid on the rocks to sleep.

We only got 30 minutes of sleep because we were in wet clothes, by the cold river, and coyotes decided to meet up and howl in the woods next to us. Luckily it started getting light enough to travel onward at 5:30AM. We were able to hike most of the way and only get into deep waters once. When we reached the drop-off point, we began hiking to the highway.

The hike was long, dehydration was setting in, and we were tired. Then I saw the greatest thing ever coming up over the hill; my father’s Jeep. We quickly loaded into the Jeep and met up with the others involved in the search team. After showers, food, water, and lots of sleep in my warm bed, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience with the website.

Here are the top 10 things I really recommend you take with you on your next adventure. I hope you don’t need them, but you will thank me if you find yourself in a survival situation.

Well, that’s my list. If you have some suggestions or additions, I would love to hear them!

Bob Barker made a special appearance on The Tonight Show with David Letterman to read off his top 10 things he will do now that he is retiring from The Price is Right.

Is being tall a good thing? I guess that depends on whether you are shopping for slacks or looking for a job. Data from a recent survey states being tall is a good thing in the business world.

” A survey of Fortune 500 CEO height in 2005 revealed that they were on average 6 feet tall, which is 3 inches taller than the average American man. Fully 30% of these CEOs were 6 foot 2 inches tall or more; in comparison only 3.9% of the overall United States population is of this height. Equally significantly, similar surveys have uncovered that less than 3% of CEOs were below 5′7″ in height, and that 90% of CEOs are of above average height.”

Being tall might get you ahead in the business world, but I will guarantee you have some interesting comments headed your way. Being a man of significant height (6′7″) I have heard my fair share of height related comments. Here are my top five things you will hear as a tall person:

5. How is the weather up there?
Ahhhhh yes, what a great question! Why do people ask this? Do they like to sound ignorant? I don’t want to get into a whole metrological lecture here but I understand that heat rises, so my weather might be a fraction warmer than a shorter person. What are people expecting to hear? “It’s a tornado! Run for your life!

4. What size shoe do you wear?
I understand that most tall people do have larger feet to carry around their bodies and maintain their balance. But is this an appropriate question to ask? Do all people have a foot fetish? The last thing I want to know about someone is their shoe size. Bra size maybe, but why must they go for the feet?

3. Wow, you are tall!
Yes I am and you are ugly, thanks for noticing.

2. How tall are you?
Yet another appropriate question… Why are you asking? Do you work for Guinness? Why does no one else of large size get asked this question? Have you ever seen an overweight person be approached and asked, “Gosh how fat are you?” I doubt it! But for some reason it is OK to ask tall people to spout off their measurements like they are reporting for duty. And it never fails when you answer this question you always get the repeat. “How tall are you?” “I’m 6 foot seven.” “Wow, six foot seven!” Maybe this is to make sure us tall guys know our message has successfully reached the lower part of the atmosphere…..whatever the reason, knock it off!

1. Do you play basketball?
This one is my favorite. I used to be very nice and respond with a, “well yes I did in high school”. But as I have heard this question some 1 million times I have become a little more cynical in my responses. Question “Do you play basketball?” Answer: “No do you jockey a horse?” or “No were you in Willy Wonka?” Once again you don’t see people approaching obese people and asking them if they sumo, or approaching Kenyans and asking when they are running their next marathon.

Though I thoroughly enjoy being a tall man, I do get tired of the pointless questions. So next time you are out in public and see one of my kind, remember to not ask one of these questions, you might get crushed by a unbelievably large foot!

I am sure most of us are not financial experts, but I bet everyone knows what debt is. Credit card bills, mortgage, student loans… the list goes on and on. I have been trying to pay off a tremendous debt that was accumulated because of medical bills. It’s been a tough road, but the end is in sight. I thought I would share some things that really helped me through this rough time.

10. Create a budget
This was hard for me because I was used to having the bank cards available any time I needed to pay for something. This created a lot of problems for me, mainly overdraft charges. To start, I gave myself a cash allowance. I kept the bank cards on me for a while in case I really needed them, but I tried to live on just the cash in my pocket. After about a month I found out that I not only did not need the cards, but I did not need as much cash as I originally planned. More money to pay off debt - HOORAY!

9. Track your expenses
Since I had to re-evaluate how much my cash allowance was, it was obvious that I had no clue where my money was going. I decided to start tracking my expenses. Part of this was for pure accounting nerdy-ness, but most of it was out of curiosity. I have used a few programs out there and have recently started using Expensr. It’s free and (so far) works pretty well. After I started tracking every purchase, it became very clear that I need to make some adjustments…

8. Learn from your mistakes - or - Time to get frugal
I saw how much I was spending; now it was time to fine-tune things. The first thing I did was stop going out to eat all the time. It was so easy to just grab a meal at my favorite fast food place for lunch, but it was costing me $5.00 or $6.00 per day. So I started making my lunch which saved me about $3.00 to $5.00 per day! There were some other cutbacks made… they were difficult, but it had to be done.

7. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses
I know people who must have the best house, the fastest cars, the biggest television… that will only lead to one thing; the biggest debt. If you are trying to eliminate debt, you are going to have to focus your income on more important things than a new flat screen television. I am not saying that you need to stop spending money, just stop spending it frivolously.

6. Make your debt easy to manage
If you are paying bills to several different companies, you need to think about consolidating your debt. However, avoid debt consolidation and debt management companies. You can do the same thing they can for free. The first thing you need to do is stop using store credit cards. It might get you 10% off your purchase today, but they will charge you 24% tomorrow. Plus, consolidating cards makes it easier to pay bills and avoid late fees.

5. Plan a reward system
You must reward yourself for doing this. If there is no reward, the end will seem to drag on and on. You can choose to reward yourself after small accomplishments, but you have to keep the rewards small. For example, if you want to reward yourself every time you pay off one of your 8 credit cards, make it something small like a new video game or a trip out to a fancy restaurant. If you plan for a monster kegger party that will cost you hundreds of dollars every time you pay off a credit card, then you are going to stay in debt longer. Use that money to pay more cards off. And make sure you pay cash when you reward yourself!

The reward system that works best for me is giving me the amount of money I usually put towards debt once I am debt-free. Let’ say I pay $1000 per month toward debt and it will take me 6 months to be debt-free. I planned for 7 months of paying $1000 and give myself the last $1000 as a reward.

4. Decrease your interest rates
You need to get your credit card interest down as much as possible. After you have consolidated all your credit card debt onto one card, call the company to see if you can get a lower interest rate. If not, switch to a card that will. I promise you that when you call your credit card company back and let them know you are switching, they will offer up a lower interest rate. Some more ideas for lower rates:

• Switch to cheaper car insurance plans
• Refinance your student / college loans
• Refinance your mortgage / home loan

Low interest rates do not last forever! Once you find some terms that you are comfortable with (we were lucky enough to find 6 months at 0%), make it your goal to pay off as much as you can during that time. Try not to be a card-hopper. These are the people that switch from card-to-card trying to keep the interest rates as low as possible.

3. Earn extra income
You don’t have to take a full-time second job, but you need to work a little harder to rid yourself of debt. Do some odd-jobs when you can to bring in some extra income. Mow lawns, fix computers, babysit… whatever you can find. If you need to, go get a part-time job. Be sure to tell your current employer that you are getting a 2nd job and also tell your new employer that the job is just to help pay the bills (and is not a permanent job). If a part-time job is not an option and you just need a little more extra income, try asking your current employer for a raise.

2. Pay extra towards debt
This is a big one. It almost made number one for me, but I think number one is more important. You cannot pay the minimum and expect to get out of debt anytime soon, especially if you are paying on high-interest credit cards. If you are one of the lucky ones to have 0% interest, you still have to pay more than the minimum required amount! Don’t run yourself into the poor-house by paying more toward debt than you can afford, but pay as much as possible.

1. Be committed to your goal!
This means you and everyone that is affected by your debt! Everyone has to be 100% committed to getting rid of debt. You cannot be paying more to your credit card debt at the same time your spouse is going on expensive shopping sprees. Don’t blame other people for racking up debt. I am sure you are just as responsible for it as they are (I know I was). This is a team effort and you need to treat it very delicately. It’s tough now, but how great it will be when you have all of that cash freed up after your debt is gone!

This was all taken from my own, personal experience in lowering debt. If you have some more suggestions I would love to hear them. Send me a comment and let me know what helped you get out of debt.

With the recent number of storms in my area, occasionally I have had to make do without power. Sometimes I am lucky and it’s in the middle of the night when I am asleep. However, there are times when the power fails and I just have to deal with it. Here is a list of things to do the next time you find yourself wandering around in the dark.

10: Call your friends
The power is out, but you (may) still have access to use your land-line phone. If not, pick up the cell phone and call a friend. I am sure they will be glad to hear from you. Heck, they might even have power and invite you over to play video games or something.

9: Do some paper craft or other project
Paper craft is quickly gaining popularity. It’s really fun, but you will need to access the internet to download some of the patterns and the PePaKuRa software. If you did not plan ahead for this one, you might want to purchase a book and try some origami.

Wes has a great article posted on the Chatsquatch.net site:
There are more fun projects over at Instructables.

8: Read a book
I’ll admit, I am not much of a reader. However, you can read magazines, comic books, or whatever you can get your hands on that will entertain you.

If you do not have anything that you would like to read, take some time and prepare now. Use the link below and purchase some books from Amazon.com

7: Play a musical instrument (sorry Guitar Heroes)
Play that acoustic guitar that has been sitting in the closet for so long. If you don’t have an instrument to play, now is the time to purchase one.

6: Play a board game or card games
Invite some friends over and play Texas Hold’em. If you do not like playing card games, pull out a board game. A game of Monopoly will last for hours. Some of my favorite games are:

5. Go out
If your power is out because there is a storm outside, you might want to skip this one and go on to the next. Just because you do not have power may not mean that the whole city has lost power. Go out to see a movie or stop by your local gaming store to see if you can join in on the LAN party action.

4. Watch a movie or listen to music on your portable player
Let’s hope you left your iPod, Zune, or even your laptop on the charger. If so, then fire that bad-boy up for some movie viewing or music listening pleasure. If you do not have a portable media player get one now! They are inexpensive and very user friendly these days.

3. Break out the GameBoy or PSP
Again, I hope they are charged. If so, you are good to go. True, you cannot play multiplayer over the net, but there are games out there that do not need multiplayer to be fun. Brain Age, Castlevania, and New Super Mario Bros. just to name a few.

2. Drink
It’s so obvious. The power is out, which means the fridge is out. You better not let that beer get warm! Start drinking now! In fact, this one is so good that you can do it along with most of the other items on the list. I would not tell you to drink and drive (#5) unless you have a DD. Also, I don’t recommend drinking and reading… it just sucks.

1. Have sex
You were thinking it, but I said it. Have fun with your significant other. The power is out, so have lots and LOTS of fun. Take your time, the lights might not come back on for a while. For an added bonus, keep the light switch turned on so you get a surprise when the power comes back on.

So there is the list. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. Please post comments below and tell me what you like doing when the power is out.