He ended up throwing up most of the night and ended up back at the hospital emergency room in the middle of the night.  Again thankfully it turned out to be only a 24 hour virus and he was back on his feet soon.  Unfortunately the stomach virus continued on to the rest of the family.  It hit me on Friday and made its way to Mia on Sunday.  It was not a pretty weekend but we recovered.  It has not hit Christine yet but she has been battling a cold no doubt caused by lack of sleep and stress.

No parent enjoys seeing their child in pain and hospitals are not fun.  I hope you and your family continue to experience good health, but if you have young kids chances are you will end up facing medical issues at least once or twice.  As we enter October I hope our medical adventures are over.  We have had enough hospital, emergency room, and doctor visits for awhile.  Being in a hospital setting has given me a new appreciation for our health which we often take for granted.  Thankfully our time in the hospital was short, but many of the kids there spend much of their youth in the hospital which must be hard for them and their families.

Take a moment to appreciate and enjoy the good health you and your family have.  Don’t take it for granted. It will put the all the disturbing financial news into its proper perspective.  Just a few deep thoughts today.  I’ll be returning to blogging about Facebook and fantasy football shortly.

1. They are cheap and will under tip at any restaurant.
2. Because they can get away with it at a Chinese restaurant.

I have a friend who always tips below the standard 15% at Chinese restaurants. He does so because of a combination of the above reasons. I on the other had always try to be as generous as possible when tipping at a Chinese restaurant typically in the 20%+ range. I do so not because I am normally a generous tipper. I believe you should tip according to service and if the service is sub par I will not hesitate to tip accordingly. Still, I try to tip as much as possible at a Chinese restaurant. I do so for the following reasons:

• It is Fair: If a waiter works at a popular high end restaurant where meals can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to even thousands with a big party and wine a waiter can make a very good living on tips alone. Even at a more moderately price but popular restaurants waiters can still make out very well. A waiter at a Chinese restaurant will work just as hard but will only receive pennies in tips in comparison to a waiter at a high end restaurant. Not only that a waiter in a Chinese restaurant will work under much worse conditions such as no heat or air conditioning for pennies in wages and tips.
• Good Karma: A lunch at a Chinese restaurant will typically cost you $5 or $6 dollars. Spend $15 dollars and you can have a feast. Its a cheap and filling meal. A sandwich, chips and drink at Subway will cost you $8 or more. The difference between tipping 10% or 20% is only about 50 cents. Not a significant amount for most of us and your meal would still cost less than you would have paid for a cold sandwich, chips and drink at Subways. However to a waiter making minimum wage or less with no health benefits an extra 50 cents from each customer would be a significant boost to their income so why not create some good karma?
• These are my own people: Not only is tipping well at a Chinese restaurant the fair thing to do, creates good positive energy and makes a financial difference in a waiter’s income, I am also taking care of my own people. Most waiters and waitresses at Chinese restaurants are Chinese like myself. I know of many people in my family who is working or has worked at Chinese restaurants in the past. I know of the low wages, hard work and poor working conditions. Conditions have improved in recent years but labor laws mean very little in Chinatown. So why would I stiff my own people over 50 cents?

Under tipping is the accepted norm in Chinese restaurants. If you tip 10% or less you won’t be faced with indignation from the waiter or questions of “Was the service okay?” in oder to guilt you into tipping more. A waiter at a Chinese restaurant will accept whatever you tip without question. However just because you can does not mean you should or it is fair. Consider this next time you eat at a Chinese restaurant. An extra 50 cents won’t kill you.

Whenever possible I try to take assignments that I know at least a little about to minimize the amount of research required.  Obviously I would like to be able to do the least amount of research as possible so I can complete my assignment quickly and take another one job.  My writing jobs pays decently but only if I am able to do it fairly quickly.  If I have to spend a lot of time on research before writing its not worth my time.

I have written nearly 200 articles on the website Ehow on a wide range of subjects, some I know a bit about and others not so much.  Here are two articles I recently wrote that I seemingly know nothing about.

• How to Approach Beautiful Women

• How to Be Irresistible To Women

On the surface I certainly would be unqualified to write on such subjects, let alone have someone pay me to offer advice on these topics.   Yet with a little Internet research anyone can be an expert on anything in a short time.  As they say those who can’t do teach.  Drawing upon my personal experiences I already know what not to do.  With help from Google I have an idea of what to do and I am now an expert on the subject.  Not only an expert but a published expert.  If you search Google for the term “How to Be Irresistible To Women” my article is on the first page.

I was invited to join a league this year, but I declined because of the time demands of being in a fantasy football league.  Instead I joined a Survivor football pool.  Survivor pool also called a Knock out pool is a very simple football pool.  All you have to do is pick the winner of one game per week.  Straight up with point spreads.  If you win you survive and move on.  If your team loses you are eliminated.  You can only pick a team once.  After you pick a team you cannot pick them again.  Sounds easy but it is harder than it seems.  I am in a pool f 400 entries and about a third was eliminated in the first week.  It will get harder as the season goes on if I survive since there will fewer good teams to pick from.  It is a good alternative to fantasy football.

I enjoy watching all live sporting events whenever I can. There is nothing like watching a game in person. Braving the elements and seeing your team up close while sharing the joys and disappointment with your fellow fans. Experiencing the tension and flow of the game collectively with 70,000 other fans can not be duplicated at home, even in High Definition.

While I enjoy watching all sporting events I particularly enjoy watching college football. Unlike other sports fans of college football share a stronger bond through their affiliation of attending the same school at one time. So on certain Saturdays in the Fall fans of all ages come together and join in cheering on their alma mater. College football also has the a rich history of traditions unique to each team.

I enjoy walking through the campus each Saturday with my son on the way to the game reminiscing about my glory days of college. Its also fun to run into old friends and renew acquaintances at the game. I used to have season tickets to the Raider games until the demands of fatherhood made it impossible to go to football games all weekend. So I choose to continue to watch college football games with my son instead. Its a much more family friendly environment and kids can also have a good time. I started going to the Cal games with my son when he was only 3 and now he has come to enjoy the games and our time together.

Last week we went to our first game of the year against Michigan State. It was a 5 o’ clock game so we had time to make our way leisurely to our seat and soak in the ambiance of the campus. With a new season comes excitement and hope in the air. The Bears started off the season right with a 38-31 victory. While its great to be 1-0, our enthusiasm is tempered by the fact we started well last year too before things fell apart. Still it is a new year and I look forward toward to Saturdays at Berkeley this fall.

I now enjoy the familiarity of being in familiar surroundings and renewing old relationships. The job is new so that is a change. There are also many benefits of being a contract worker that I enjoy.

Temporary Status: Being a “temp” has its advantages.  It also has its drawbacks such as lack of job security and benefits but there are advantages to being a temp.  First any job is more bearable knowing that it is only temporary.  You know that there is an end to it.  Even though I enjoy it so far,  having a temporary job still gives me flexibility later on.

Hired help: Being a temp means you are hired to do a specific job in a certain way.  Basically you do as you are told.  You don’t have to go to staff meetings or worry about office politics.  Just do your job and go home.  If someone questions why you do things a certain way you just say “Hey I’m just a temp.  I did it the way you told me to do it”.

So for now it is enjoyable being a “temp” and being among old friends again.  I’m starting to get back into the old routine and hope to have time to blog more soon.

Now with the Olympics over, school started and getting used to my work routine, I hope to have more time to post.   Even though I have not posted anything in awhile I have several posts that I have started that need to be finished and many more in my head that needs to come out when I have the time and energy.  I may be posting shorter, more random posts but more frequently.

Thanks to all my faithful readers who continue to check in to hear what I have to say.  Just a reminder that you can subscribe to this blog on this page either by RSS reader or by email.  By subscribing you will be notified whenever the blog is updated and you won’t have to keep checking in and be disappointed.

I was watching a news report on the struggles of the airline industry last week.  Fuel now accounts for more than half of an airline’s expense and they are losing money on each flight.  The loss ranges from a few hundred dollars per short flights to several thousand on longer cross country flights.  Obviously an airline cannot stay in business for long if is losing money on every flight.  They need to either increase revenue or reduce expenses or both.  Expenses are already being curbed.  On a recent flight I was not even given a bag of peanuts.  Everything cost money including a meal, pillow or blanket and checking in an extra bag.  Some airlines have eliminated the in flight movie system in order to save fuel.  Fares are also being raised in order for the airlines to squeeze out a profit on each flight.

We will be taking 2 long drives by car this summer instead of flying.  Even with the high price of gas it is still much cheaper than flying especially with a family.  Not only are fares rising, there will be less flights as airlines are going out of business and existing airlines reducing their schedule to stop the losses.  All these factors means you will soon be paying a lot for the privilege of being packed into a plane like sardines without any snacks.  That is if you are the few who can afford the luxury of air travel