5 rules

Your Blog Won’t Make A Year

Published on September 30, 2010 in 5 rules, Created, Observations, Reviews, Stories and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Get excited! Powerogre.com is now a year old, a year wiser, and statistically past the blog failure zone (most blogs die after 6 months, I have no source, go Google it). There have been some ups and some downs (literally, powerogre.com was 404 over a week in September 2010). Through it all, the article’s kept coming and so did the readers (all 15 of you).

It’s really not easy to blog consistently. To write even a short article usually takes an hour, and a longer article takes…longer. Writing is important to me however, if it weren’t, I wouldn’t spend my precious time doing it. The best way for me to understand/comprehend something is to write it in my own words. This is not to say that when I write about something here on Powerogre.com, I don’t understand it until I write it (If this were the case, it would be a particularly embarrassing revelation considering some of the stuff I have written about in the past), rather I mean that writing is a way for me to organize my thoughts, to see things in a different light, to express what is difficult to express except through written words.

So what does the future of Powerogre.com hold? It will make me rich beyond my wildest dreams (or poorer), it will solve the global climate change conundrum (or contribute to it), it might make you smarter (but certainly not stupider), and it will entertain you at the most opportune moments (or at least provide you with toilet paper if you are so inclined to print it out for bathroom reading material).

Thanks for reading,

Josh

5 Rules For The Weekend

Published on September 25, 2010 in 5 rules. 1 Comment

Should there really be rules for the weekend? It’s debatable, but I’m not going to let that stop me. The weekend is a special time; it’s a 2 day holiday that happens every week. It’s a time to relax, to get stuff done you were not able to accomplish during the week. The weekend should not be wasted, but neither should it be used as just another Tuesday or Wednesday. With that in mind, let’s get to the rules.

1) If you have a job like most people, you wake up with an alarm, a loud, shrill, obnoxious alarm. Forget the alarm on the weekend, sleep in at least a little.

2) All week you get things done. Business from dusk till dawn. Your relaxation consists of mowing the lawn and helping with your kid’s homework. When the weekend hits, do something totally unproductive, at least for an hour on one day.


3) These days, everyone knows they should eat healthy, or at least they do if they have access to the internet. All week you battle with eating what you should and avoiding the donuts. Forget that on the weekend; eat at least one thing you know you shouldn’t. Ignore this rule if you are dangerously overweight.

4) Rule number 3 begets rule number 4. Exercise like it’s going out of style. It can be hard to exercise during the work week, on the weekend there should be no excuses for not getting in two solid days of exercise. Run, ride, row, and….do something else that starts with R, I can’t think of anything.


5) During the work week you may not have time to see people or talk with them on the phone. Talk with at least one person who you didn’t see during the week. Posting “What’s up dude?” on their Facebook wall does not count.


There you have it, 5 rules for the weekend. As always, feel free to add your own rules in the comments.

5 Rules For The Movie Theater

Published on July 21, 2010 in 5 rules. 6 Comments

I have been known to take in a movie in the theater on occasion, and when I do, I invariably end up paying more attention to the people around me than to the actual movie. Maybe this is due to the fact that people act like they are home on their couch watching a movie, instead of in a theater with several hundred other people. I had some free time so I came up with a list of 5 rules for the movie theater.

1) Arrive early. You don’t want to miss the 45 minutes of previews and commercials that they play prior to the feature presentation.

2) Chew your popcorn as quietly as possible. I have been in movies where even the ear bleeding volume levels of the theater sound system was not loud enough to drown out the guy behind me stuffing fistful after fistful of crunchy popcorn into his mouth. Better yet, don’t buy popcorn, it’s not part of a balanced 2,000 calorie diet.

3)  Go to the bathroom before the movie starts. If you have a small bladder, don’t sit in the middle of the row.

4) When you have reached the bottom of your “barrel o’soda”, sucking on the straw and generating loud slurping noises is not going to magically refill your drink, only the guy at the “refreshment” stand can do that for the small fee of 8 dollars.

5) Don’t actively engage in the movie by yelling at the villain or cheering when the hot guy takes off his shirt. No one goes to the movies to listen to your ad-libbed soundtrack.

This list may or may not have been created after watching the latest Twilight movie in the theater. Have a rule you feel should be added to this list? Let me know in the comments.

5 Rules For Talking On The Phone In Public

Published on March 5, 2010 in 5 rules. 4 Comments

In case you have not noticed, cell phones have reached the saturation point in today’s society. Everyone who wants a phone has a phone, and some people have two or three phones. People talk on them in every place imaginable, from doctor’s offices to the bathroom. There is not a place with a cell signal in which people won’t use their phone. Sometimes it just gets to be too much, especially in a public area where the conversation is affecting those around the user. Here is a list of 5 rules for talking on the phone in a public area.

What?!?!? I can't hear you now!!

1) Don’t use your phone in a situation where doing so would be disrespectful to others. Answering the phone during a funeral service, or your kids piano recital are two places where phone talking is a no-no. Even texting is rude at such a function.

2) Do not discuss deeply personal matters over the phone when surrounded by others. There is nothing like being packed in an elevator with 10 other people, while one person is carrying on a phone conversation about the big fight they just had with their husband. Even worse is discussing personal hygiene or medical conditions. Save the personal topics for a time when you are not surrounded by other people

3) Stop shouting into your phone. In days gone by, shouting on a cell phone was sometimes necessary due to the poor quality of most networks, and the archaic technology of the phones in use. This is no longer the case. Speaking at a normal volume is adequate in 99% of call situations. No one likes sitting in a waiting room, and listening to someone shouting into their cell phone.

4) Hang up the phone when interacting with people. We have all been behind someone in line at Starbucks who won’t hang up the call, and tries to order a latte while talking with their lawyer about a potential injury they received at the gym, and whether or not they should sue.

5) Don’t ask total strangers to ‘keep it down’ because you can’t hear what your mom is saying over the phone. Call mom back at a time when you are not in a restaurant, or the bus, or worse yet, at the movie theater.

The best approach to talking on the phone in a public area is to keep it short, keep it quiet, and keep it generic. Have a rule you feel should be added to this list? Let me know in the comments.

5 Rules For Driving A Manual Shift Vehicle

Published on February 24, 2010 in 5 rules. 16 Comments

Driving a manual or stick shift vehicle requires a little something extra. Once upon a time, all vehicles were manual shift. Those were the days of “3 on the tree” and “4 on the floor”, a reference to the location, and number of gears. Today, there are many people who have never heard those terms, they think “4 on the floor” means ‘don’t lean back in your chair at the dinner table’. The number of stick shift vehicles being manufactured is dropping, and there are many drivers on the road that never learned to drive a stick. For the experts and the novices among us, here is a list of 5 rules for driving a stick shift vehicle. (While they still exist)

4 on the floor (or the console)

1) Always drive with one hand on the shifter. It will better prepare you for split second shifting; also, it looks really cool to drive with one hand on the wheel, and one hand on the stick.

2) Never ever let the clutch out without stepping on the gas, especially if the vehicle is in gear, and the emergency brake is fully engaged. Be prepared for a trip to the emergency room if the aforementioned scenario occurs, because you will have a case of whiplash. (For those of you who cannot drive a stick, this made no sense.)

3) Always rev your engine at stop lights while the vehicle is in neutral. Other drivers will be intimidated, and get out of your way so you can cut across 2 lanes of traffic, and make it into the Home Depot parking lot.

4) Don’t try to learn how to drive a stick in a 1976 VW bus.

5) Get rid of your manual shift vehicle if you drive in traffic constantly. Shifting back and forth between 1st and 2nd gear gets tiresome as you crawl down the freeway in bumper to bumper traffic.

Stick shifts are not for everyone; however they are for anyone who wants extra power, and a whole different level of cool. Have a rule you feel should be added to this list? Let me know in the comments.