How I plan to make 1 million dollars in 2011

Well as we ring in the New Year, I have a new goal; to make a million dollars (after taxes of course because if it was before taxes, I would only end up with about 100 bucks). I have a few ideas:
1. Cult leader- I have always wanted to be a cult leader. Let’s face it; they get their follows top give up all of their belongings to you, in most cases they even give up the women to you! Cult leaders get all the chicks and all the money. However, they are usually from India or are some type of hippy looking dude, and that’s not me. Not many people would follow a fat, hairy, French guy from Rhode Island. Unless -----
2. Cult Leader in India- We always seem to follow cult leaders from India believing they have some type of deep spiritual meaning. So I could convince them that Rhode Island is the Spiritual Mecca of North America! That the TV show Family Guy is not meant to be funny but is actually about religion in Rhode Island. That might work; however, the majority of the people are still somewhat poor, I would have to establish myself in China to make any serious money and everyone there knew Bruce Lee and they could kick my ass.
3. Fallen from Grace Political Leader- I could pick up a small political office, have an affair with a prostitute, kill an intern, then after everything is exposed, go on Oprah, cry and beg for forgiveness. After that happens; sign a multimillion dollar book deal and get a talk show on CNN. That could work, but man my wife and kids would be pissed! (I also think this is so 2008).
4. Fight the TSA- Instead of doing like the Ruby Ridge incident where a messed up family fought off the ATF and then sued the US government. I will fight the TSA. I will go through airport screening and make a huge scene, start crying and hitting myself. When I get arrested, I will disclose that I was molested as a child by some religious leader (maybe a cult leader, see number 1) and that the TSA and the US government made these repressed memories come forward. I could no longer work or be a member of society due to these memories and therefore have to sue the government for lost wages.
5. Buy ocean front Property in the Arctic- With all of the talk about global warming, we should be able to get some good ocean front property in the arctic. I should be able to buy all of this up with this cold winter we are having then sell it to everyone at a very high price once global warming occurs. Why hasn’t anyone else thought of this?
Well I guess my ideas aren’t too good. My wife would be really made if I became a cult leader or any of the other ideas I have. I guess I’ll just have to go back to work on Monday and pray for the lottery.

The gardening bug is hitting early!

So here it is the first major snow fall in New England (we only received a few inches, but the winds was horrific), and the gardening bug has hit me something hard. Lynne got me my first bee hive for Christmas which I am supper excited about and I am starting to cruise the seed catalogs. the next few days I am going to make a workbench in the basement which can double as a seed starter. I have to do lots of work to get the outside garden ready. The trees just block too much sun.
If anyone wants to coordinate seed purchases, please let me know. I plan on all of the staples. But I will be planting blueberries, asparagus, and rhubarb. Those are always cheaper if we buy bulk.

Christmas

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We were very busy preparing for Santa. Jaiden woke up at 0100 to let us know that Santa visited our home. Needlass to say, when she got up at 0100, Anna and Hailee were already awake. So we were busy. However, I did have enought time in my few days off to make some chairs for the deck. Not Norm Abram quality, but I made them with everything I already had, so I only had to buy bolts and screws.

Karate Belt Testing!

Here's Anna, Hailee and Jaiden belt testing at Northeast Karate Last night! Excellent job!!!

Christmas in the Office

The girls at work have been busy decorating the Office for Christmas! Here are a few pictures. The tube down the middle is for the Cristmas mini golf challenge!

My 2004 F150 Laredo

In 2006 I bought a 2004 Ford F150 Laredo from a car dealership in Mystic CT. It is a two wheel drive model (I’ll never make that mistake again). The Truck about 20,000 miles on it and I got a decent price I was happy with.

Since my purchase of the truck, it has been my daily driver and now, almost 5 years later, I have 120,000 miles on it.

Luckily I have not had any major mechanical issues with it. However, the design of the wheel bearings on this particular F150 model is particularly bad. The front when bearings are part of the brake rotor. There is no way (that I know of) to remove the wheel bearings and pack them with grease. The design does not allow for the bearing casement to be removed by press either. Therefore if the wheel bearings go bad, you have to replace the whole rotor. Each rotor is about $280 US.

Since owning the truck I have had to replace the rotors about every 40,000 miles! You can tell as soon as they start to fail, when you turn the wheel at a slow speed and you hear a clicking, they will fail soon. The sound is much worse than the look. The grinding of these bearings is painful to hear. But don’t risk it, they need to be replaced. You do not want to do any spindle damage which would be very costly.
My experience has been to replace both front rotors if one fails, because if one fails, the other will also very soon afterwards. It is also a good time to check your disk brakes on the front also.

I have spoken with other F150 Laredo owners, and they do not have this problem. However, most of them do not have the wheel bearings like I do, they have the bearings separate from the rotor. Even other owners of 2004 2 wheel drive models have bearings and rotor separate design. Some of my friends that have trucks from other manufactures have the wheel-bearing one piece design like I do. So I can’t figure out what the installation criterion is.

Overall the truck has been very good. It is light in the back so in the snow I need some added weight. It is comfortable and roomy. I would recommend when you purchase a truck, take a close look at the mechanical configuration of the rotors and under carriage. The salesman generally will not be able to give you the mechanical details, but this is important and may ended up costing you a lot of money I the long term.

writing for Triond

Triond

Triond is a peer contributing we site that writers/ photographers/ videographers can get paid for by the views their content shows. contributors can post video, photos, articles, drawings, etc. Triond requires submissions to be original and not be copied from other sites.

contributors are paid a few ways: by the views their content receives, by their referrals, and by the views adsense receives. because of this, it would be very wise to have an adsense account if you are going to start contributing to Triond.

Why should you contribute to Triond? Because you be amazed at the unique knowledge that each person holds. for instance my Muay Thai kickboxing friends, wouldn't it be nice to have more resources available on Thai combinations? How about more videos for shorinryu karate weapons kata? How about more teaching techniques for androgogical learners? This knowledge is out there, but not on the Internet in any quantity. we have an unlimited amount of knowledge that we need to share with others, why not receive some money for it.

Now writing for Triond will not allow you to retire early. I look at it this way, any money that is made just goes into your pay pal account. so currently it helps to support my eBay habit. When I do get to finally retire, hopefully the income from my writing from various writing sites throughout the years will help to off set the lose of regular salary. I wish I started to contribute to Triond earlier, especially when I was in the navy traveling around the globe.

Triond is like many other writing sites in that after you write an article you an advertise it on facebook, digg, or other search engines. It does seem that most of you traffic comes from other Triond members, therefore, it is wise to establish a large base of friends in other Triond members.

Here is my federal link if you would like to sign up and give it a try http://www.Triond.com/rw/24707

The Repeal of DADT

The Senate just voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell allowing Homosexuals in the military.

If anyone read the survey results on www.DOD.gov the majority of military members said that the repeal would have minimal or no impact on mission accomplishment or their jobs.

One thing that was in the analysis that the media did not notice (shows they did not do their research - again) is that sexual orientation would not be a protected class. that means no separate housing, no separate barracks, no separate bathing facilities, etc. Everyone has the same allotted facilities and has to follow the same existing military policies. Let's face it fraternization and harassment is fraternization and harassment regardless of sexual orientation.

I was just watching the news (Fox and CNN) and they were already stating that housing facilities and barracks will be worked on at a later date. Well that was never the plan, and it was very clear in the reports.

Where's Cousin It?

No it's not the Adams family, its the Kardashian's Christmas card!

Just really freaky!

Does anyone actually watch that show?

My personnel hell

When I die and if I end up in total damnation, I know Lucifer will meet me with boxes of Christmas lights and will then order me to find which one was burnt out!

I totally spaced it

So a few years ago I Set up this blog. It was used mainly to send pictures and information to family that have moved away. At that time Facebook was still something new (hard to believe that within 2 years facebook grew to the size it is).

So anyway........

I totally forgot that I somehow linked my blog with facebook. So whenever I type something on my blog, it will go as a note on my facebook. Not a bad thing, just not getting any adsense revenue from people not visiting the blog (that would be 10s of people!).

But I like my little tidbits of useless data going to people I know on facebook. Seeing that I'm such an introverted person, I guess this is the only way I get to communicate effectively. Writing also keeps my mind sharp.

If only I could write like Kurt Vonnegut! BTW download his last book on Itunes
-2BRO2B. He always had a unique way at looking at human nature.

So anyhoooo....... Here's the bog address www.djplouffe.blogspot.com

I would love to get some feedback and also get with some of my submariner buddies to perhaps build another blog. I think we need a submarine blog and I would also love to do a Rhode Island music scene blog.

Any ideas?

The major difference between men and women- SOAP

OK so we all know that men and women are different.

But the major difference between us is –SOAP.

Women have soaps with logical names, cucumber, melon passion, lavender, etc. We can tell what these are going to smell like without opening the containers. We just have to read the name and know that it will smell like a hibiscus flower in the summer morning dew.

But men’s soaps are totally different. We have soaps like; hurricane, thunder, sport, extreme sport, super extreme sports dry. I can figure out what any of these smell like by reading the names. I can’t even figure out what they are supposed to smell like when I do open the containers and give them a whiff. I actually have a soap whose sent is “snake peel.” I don’t even know what that means. Anyone that has picked up a garter snake before knows they don’t smell good at all. I also wonder if the smells like Hurricane and Tornado are pre or post storms, which could make a huge difference.

Perhaps the funniest thing is the man’s buff sponge. Have you seen these? They are part rubber, part sponge, and they may have a rough side to get the tough grim off. What did our fathers do in those days of old? After a tough day of working on the Studebaker I never once heard my father say “hey Barbara can you go to the store and get me a new luffa sponge?”

I think that would be funny. I would have a totally new opinion of my father if I ever heard him say “honey can you get me a new buff sponge I ruined this one with roof tar and deer blood.”

OK I admit I do have one of these sponges and some of these men’s scented soaps. I do like them even though I can figure out the smell psychology.

I am Dave Plouffe, yes that Dave Plouffe

it's kind of funny. since Obama started campaigning for President, I have always been asked if I was the David Plouffe from Chicago that was his campaign manager. well needless to say, I am not that David Plouffe.

I have actually received people's resumes, opinions, and emails mention for Obama. If you look at some of the comments on my blog, you can see some people have thought they were posting comments to Obama. I can tell how some people might have gotten confused since my blog is so professional (not!).

Now remember that I am a government employee, a federal worker for the US Coast Guard Academy. So I end emails all the time to people all over the world. SO, some people have still thought my emails were coming from the David Plouffe that was with Obama, now the Commander in Chief. I should take this and run with it "the Commander in Chief said he needs your TPS report now!" However, I don't think this would fly for very long.

But if anyone wants to give a "campaign contribution" please contact me and it can be deposited to my pay pal account.

cell phones

So my family has finally entered the world of cell phones.

It is one step closer to becoming the Borg. We have been assimilated in the culture of convenience. Is it really convenient though? Having to learn this new technology and having to keep up with the updates? Lets face the only thing we use Adobe for is to get updates and restart our computers. Now I have a mobile device that will be updated all the time, and I'm being billed for it.

I am just trying to keep up with the Jones'.

If the pen was invented after the computer we would be praising the pen's mobility, personalization, it's ability to quickly adapt, it's efficiency and it's affordability.

I just would be able to rant to such a large audience.

Please Vote for ME!

As many of you know, I like to write on Associated Content (AC).

Well AC has been purchased by Yahoo and Yahoo and AC are have a contest for top contributor and top content. Please check out my site and content and if you like it, please nominate me.

Thanks

http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/121316/dave_plouffe.html

Two months without any alcohol!

Well it has been two months without alcohol. I have not had a beer, wine or anything else for the last two months. I made it through thanksgiving without a social drink, and Christmas should not be a problem either.

My cravings for beer went away after a few weeks. That was the hardest part. The increased sugar and carbohydrates my blood system was used to really would scream out for a beer. But after a few weeks, it seemed my body went back to normal.

The benefit of no alcohol I noticed first was my ability to sleep better. When I used to drink I would wake in the middle of the night, or when I woke I would still feel tired and exhausted. This stopped almost instantaneously when I removed alcohol from my diet. I now woke feeling like I slept all night and refreshed. I can't explain why this is, but WOW it felt nice.

Now I was never a drunk (at least I didn't think so). I can't remember that many times in my life that I was ever drunk. However, I always seemed to have a drink. I would have beer while I was working around the house, relaxing in front of the TV, or doing whatever. I slowly became a habitual drinker.

This is why in my opinion it was even harder to stop drinking. None of my friends thought "I had a problem." many people looked at me strange or have started to treat me a little differently since I stopped drinking. Even people close to me that have commented in the past about drinking, have said "well you can have beer once and a while." I am really surprised at the reactions of some people. Giving up alcohol for the benefit of yourself and your family is almost treated like a communicable disease. I have to go cold turkey and stop for good, or nothing would have happened.

I have also noticed an increase in my productivity. I am able to focus on more tasks and complete more things than I used to. Also I notice is a more positive relationship with my children. They look up to me more since my decision, and that is what matters most.

New Laundry!

It's funny how the small things in life can increase your quality of life so much.

At the new house the laundry was right off the kitchen in a hallway in a closet. Well this house has cathedral ceilings and the hallway is used all the time. So that meant there was always piles of laundry in the hallway and we could hear the laundry all throughout the house. It was terrible.

So I moved the laundry into the basement and I am pretty proud of myself because I did all of the plumbing (copper which had to be moved across the basement, drains), the woodwork (building the platform and putting the wood on the concrete), and the electrical (adding a breaker and moving the 220) all by my lonesome. Of course I had my father in law over to guide me in some things (my soldering sucks sometimes and where we tapped into the plumbing was the low spot of the house).

Overall we are very please with the finish product. I even added another drain for a sink or another washer.

Our experience buying a short sales house

My wife and I have recently bought a home through a short sale. While it proved to be a financial gain for us, it was a long process that created much stress on us. We initially placed our bid in January 2009 and received acceptance of our bid in June 2009. We are closing July 2009.
A short sale is when the occupant of a house gets a financial offer for less than they owe on the mortgage. They then present this offer to their mortgage company and the mortgage company either rejects the offer or accepts the offer. Bank would accept a short sale offer in order to get the seller out of the house and to avoid foreclosure.
Since it took such a long time for the bank to accept our offer, we thought that we would not get the house for what we offered. We had to keep extended our purchase and sale agreement, re-applying for another mortgage and did multiple viewings of the property. We viewed many other homes in this price range, but nothing compared to the short sale house we placed our bid on.
This period of time was extremely trying on my wife and mine’s patience. We have excellent credit, great jobs and enough money for a substantial down payment. In a period of a down housing market, why was the seller’s bank taking so long? It would be beneficial to the bank to get us into the house and get the mortgage stream going again. However, we had to remember that the seller’s bank wasn’t analyzing us, it was only analyzing their asset (the house). Still our patience was getting thin.
We finally got notification that the bank has accepted our offer and now it was time for the home inspections. We had all of the typical inspection completed (septic, well water, building, pests, etc.) . However, I had a complete radon test order since the previous owner mentioned that the house is built on bedrock. Sure enough, the radon in the house and in the water was extremely high and needed to be addressed before we purchased. But since this is a short sale and the owner has no money, how would this get done? The seller’s bank ended up paying for the install of the equipment and the post monitoring.
The human factor of buying a short sale is very trying. In this particular case it is a divorce situation. The woman is living in this house with her children, her husband has moved out. She is no longer able to pay the mortgage. Her life seems destroyed. She and her children are forced to move back in with her parents at 40 years old. Since she is perceived as a deadbeat by her mortgage company and real estate agent, she is not given the proper respect a normal client would receive. For instance her real estate agent never notified her of the closing date; I happened to run into her boyfriend and told him we were closing in 6 days. Even a renter gets 15 days (sometimes 30 days) to vacate a property! This person’s mortgage company gave her 6 days.
It has been a long road to buy this short sale house. It has been a great financial move for my wife and I. We have purchased this house at 120K less than it is assessed at. But it was a long road and we had to be ready within a moment’s notice to close. As soon as the bank accepts the offer, they want to close and get the liability (house) off their record books. If you have the option of buying a short sale house, I recommend it, but remain flexible. Don’t try to buy one if you need to move right away. And always remember that no matter what the seller’s situation is, you are helping them out also and they too are humans.

Cirque Dream Jungle Fantasy review

On Sunday Aug 12th, I took my family to see Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy at the Foxwoods MGM Theater in Connecticut. This show is advertised as “direct from Broadway”. The advertisement states spectacular costumes and striking visual effects. This was supposed to be fun for the whole family.
Well……. The show stars 1980’s one hit wonder Debbie Gibson. I can’t even remember what song it was that she sang back the 80s. But I think we might have roller skated to it. The show starts off with her singing, as a matter of fact, whenever there was a change in the acts, she sang. Which was extremely annoying since it was too loud and distorted and we could understand what she was signing. Also if the show is supposed to be for the family, why is her dress cut up to her privates and the Violin player a muscle dude with no shirt? They both showed that they were really in shape. Maybe since the show was 15 minutes late to open, they were still working out?
The acrobats are always amazing. There were ballerinas that amazed me. When a girl can stand in a ballerina pose on top of a man’s head that’s amazing for both the girl and the man. She then stood in this pose on his bicep which I was in awe about. Very strong people indeed.
There were the tight rope walkers, the girls on bikes doing tricks, the trapeze artists, and every kind of circus act you could think of. That being said, that what it was, a bunch of circus acts with fancy costumes. All of the costumes were jungle themed. Some of them were very cool, kids that looked like frogs, iguanas, butterflies, etc. But at one time there were four large neon people costumes that came out, I thought they were cool, but my children thought they were scary.
Overall the show was interesting. It would have been much better if it wasn’t for the singing. This was just a normal acrobat show you could see at any county fair or circus. We had discount tickets and I believe almost everyone else did too. I’m glad not too many people paid full price, because it wasn’t worth over $10 a ticket.

Basic Flag Etiquette

Ever wonder the U.S. flag is called in different situations? Ever wonder why some people salute during the national anthem while others just hold their hat? Well hopefully this short article will help. Keep in mind that we are just going to scratch the surface of flag etiquette. Much more precise etiquette can be found with the Veterans of Foreign War or the American legion.
When the flag is raised and lowered: there are two important times in the day when the flag is to be raised and lowered. At 0800 (8 AM) is when the flag is raised, and at sunset the flag is lowered. This is called ‘colors.’ On military bases you hear a bugle call announcing first call to colors (this is 5 minutes before raising and lowering the colors). Then at 0800 you’ll hear a bugle announcing attention to colors and the National Anthem played. After the national anthem is played, a bugle sounds the carry on. At sunset it is the same with the exception of the national anthem.
When colors is being held, all personal will stop what they are doing and turn in the direction of the flag and salute. Civilian personal will place their right hand on their heart during the national anthem. If you are driving in a car, you will stop your car and return driving when the bugle call to carry on is played.
That brings me to another point, placing your hand on your heart and removing your hat. You only place your hand on your heart and remove your hat when the national anthem is played. You do not place it on your heart if “America the beautiful” or “Our Country tis of thee” is played. Only when the national anthem is played. This is according to military protocol. (This makes me wonder what song was playing when all of those anti-Obama pictures were floating around when he didn’t have his hand on his heart). Military members will salute at the first note of the national anthem (not when attention to colors is called).
If you are somewhere that a visiting country is present, then protocol will us play the visiting country’s national anthem while their flag is raised. It is appropriate for us to remain standing with our hand over our hearts while their national anthem is play. If on a military base when this happens, military members will remain saluting and civilians will remain at attention. This is common courtesy and we would expect the same respect.
If a flag is ordered to be at half mast (the Governor or the President can make this order for his / her jurisdiction) , then the flag is raised fully (fast), then lowered (slowly) to half mast. If you are taking the flag down at sunset, the half masted flag is fully raised then lowered fully.
The flag is called many things. If the flag is on a vessel such as a ship, car or plane, it is called the National Ensign and is located on the aft end of the vessel. If the flag is being carried, such as in a parade, it is called the Colors. If the flag is painted on a car or plane, it is called the Standard.
Have you ever wondered why the flag appears backward on some uniforms or vehicles? For instance on the right arm sleeve of an astronaut the blue field with stars is on the forward part of the arm? This is because the flag will always flow with movement and with the wind. Therefore a flag cannot purposely be positioned to flow against the wind. The star filled blue field will always lead the way of the rest of the flag.
I know that this may seem a little nit-picking for some. But remember many of our brothers and sisters have died for this flag and we should take this very seriously. When you see veterans walking in the parade with Colors, please stand up and give them the respect they deserve. When you see children doing the Pledge or Allegiance in school, lets lead by example and do the pledge with them!

OK OK

Ok I know it has been a while since I wrote anything on the blog.

But I've been writing alot on Associated content. Here's my home page, please vote for me as a top yahoo contributer: https://contributor.yahoo.com/account.shtml

lasallette is still the best Christmas Lights in New England

The best Christmas light display in southern New England is by far the Lasallette Shrine located in Attleboro Mass. The Shrine displays thousands of lights over many acres of land. The shrine is located on Park St. From interstate 95, take exit 3 and follow the signs for Lasallette on RT 123 to RT 118.

If you go on a clear night, on Friday of Saturday, be prepared to wait in traffic.

The display starts on Thanksgiving and continues to New Year's Day. The lights turn on at 5pm. be sure to be there to observe the lights being turned on. It is well worth it.

There are various small attractions for the family. This year there was a merry go round, nativity displays from around the world, and some small farm animals for the nativity scene. There are food stands throughout the display. Some of the food is very regional. There are French meat pies, blade meat sandwiches, hot apple cider, hot chocolate, and other great winter treats.

Lasallette has a beautiful life size ceramic nativity scene. Baby Jesus arrives on Christmas. There are small live animal cages on the sides of the nativity. Walk around the rosary pond and climb the lasallette hill to maximize your viewing of the lights.

The cost is free for admittance but donations are greatly appreciated. Be sure to show proper respect. It is a catholic shrine so dress appropriately, no swearing, no littering, and respect religion.

Below are some links to view the Christmas lights and get some information on Lasallette:
http://www.picable.com/Events/Christmas/The-Christmas-Pond.1858569 http://www.lasalette-shrine.org/

It is very much worth the trip and will take about 2 hours to walk around all of the lights.