Mind Blockage Will Kill Your Time

Writers block is a wall that can be destroyed with effort.

All of us have been there before. A major paper due in college, last minute report for the boss, and the ever dreaded meeting time change. All these items cause a major blockage to our minds. Then we head home to our families trying to keep an upbeat mind. Our minds try to keep us going all day long and then we finally get a chance to sit down and write or game and BOOM!!! The Wall hits us. You might have noticed I said game in there too. As the wall can also stop us gamer's from enjoying our favorite game.

I myself find this happening a lot not only has the wall come and crashed down on my mind when I am trying to write a blog post, a YouTube video, the new Tech tutorials I am working on but also into my gaming lately. I have found that after coming home from working my 10 hour days as of late, I help the wife with dinner and goof off with the kids for a bit then off to my desk for and hour or two of work. I have been trying to write something for this blog, a video and clean up around my area the first hour and half, then mess with a game for the last half before I go and watch a movie or show with the wife. I find that in the first hour I have been spending more time looking at my notes of what I want to write about, or a website way too much. This causes me to cut down big time  on my gaming or cleaning up around the desk. Not a good thing, I need to use my time wisely, what little of it I have as a full time working man/husband/father of four that wants to veg out a bit in the world of gaming. So I created a quick little list for myself to crush this wall of stoppage before things get too bad.

1) 15 Minutes of Prep setup (gathering all materials, sites, links)
2) 25 Minutes writing article (no spell check, or grammar that is done later)
3) 15 Minutes adding graphic, spell checking, grammar check)
4) Take 5 minutes to re-read over then post or save article.

Yeah its quick and a lot of errors can be made with this method. But here is the key, if you are sitting down every night doing some writing then you should have a ton of saved items or even things you are building on in the back ground. What this does is create a back log of things for you to post down the road and always keeping the creative thoughts going, can't get the new items written go back to an old item you haven't posted and add more to that and clean it up.

There is no wall you can't over come as long as you have a little effort you can crush anything in your path.

Rebuilding a Home

Creating something new is always good, but rebuilding something that was once great takes even more effort then you would ever know. 

So over the weekend I went back out to my in-laws which is a huge farm, and my kids love it out there. So much room to run around and different things to do unlike in the city where we live. They can walk over to the lake and fish, shoot off guns and bows. This time of year is great because my older two boys get to go hunting with their Pap and Great Uncle Gene. I think this is great because it helps then learn patience waiting for a deer and learning how to use the bow and gun correctly and always with parental supervision.

Now in the last four years the farm has gone down hill a bit, but that is bound to happen due to the age of not only Gram (now 83) and my in laws are both in their 50's so their age has slowed them down doing things. Since my kids love being out there so much, I have spoken to my wife and the in-laws that I will be helping out some more on some projects out there. I will also be having the kids help, its a big part of my wife's memories being out there and how it was when she was a girl, and I want my kids to have some of the same memories.

Now being the gamer I am, I have decided to look at things from a different point of view. Knowing the funds available and the items around the place for resources we can create not only a farm that produces something to use but a place to re-use a lot of the items laying around. Yep, that's right folks time to use all those hours and hours of RTS (real time strategy) game play to my advantage. But it wont be just a simple lets try this and go, I will also be using my memory of standard business management to make sure we will not be wasting our time and money on things. I will be making plans and doing a lot of small testing of things here at my own home before I try to ramp anything up to help out there. My over all goal is to make life easier for my in-laws and to teach my kids something new; and you can apply what you learn in not only books, school but in video games too.
Some of the ideas I am looking into is recycling of the items out there, water storage, some basic house weatherization, and plant control around the house for Gram. Those weeds are taking over the yard and the colder months are a good time to remove their area before the next year.

Here is my starting list which you all will see updates on and a break down of how I did it:

1. Weatherization of house
2. Plant control
3. Water Storage
4. Recycling of Material around

Its a short list but I think it will be a good project for the boys and I this winter, not to mention they will be seeing a lot of their Gram with me being out there doing these things. Creating a home is easy, but rebuilding one that has been left out in the cold brings more memories then ever.

Mess of a Mad man

Oh the mess of a mad man can be seen here, good thing I can't show you whats in my mind. 

When most people think of a working area, you think of the normal TV show or movie desk. An all clean area with all stock of items you would normally find in an office. Well this here shows you what a real person desk is, a mess of work an ideas. I am not alone, even great men of the past have left a mess of work behind when they move on. As you can see from the pic of Albert Einstein desk was always a mess even up to his death. There have been many test showing a messy desk is a sign of brilliance or even madness.

Now I have to say I have been trying to keep things in a neater order. Now you might think, just how Dark?  Well I have been spending a few hours a night on Pinterest looking at ideas from a lot of cleaver people. Yes, that right I'm on Pinterest there are thousands on there, its not just a site for ladies to show of their crafts, I have found a lot of men posting home make over ideas, man cave changes, desk hacks to make things cleaner, and so much more.

I know this isn't a blog to talk about arts and crafts, but it is a place to talk about what to do with the gaming, consoles and all the fun stuff that comes w
ith them.  All this stuff takes up tons of space so much that I have over six 40 gallon storage totes of all my gaming stuff in them. not to mention my four pcs that I use, and the two laptops that are mine(yes I'm a pc hoarder.) Then there is the green screen for videos, the kids pc, and the tv with all the game consoles that I have around me, and this is just one room of the house. Now you can see on why I have started to look into creative storage solutions. As you can see I have a lot to take in and start sorting. This winter I plan to clean this all up and create a move pretty area for the kids and I to game/create new videos in.

Yep quiet a mess I have on my hands, but in the next few weeks, this gaming dad will be cleaning it all up and creating a whole new area of gaming.

1. Clean up the area
2. Create a new storage setup
3. Create a roll-up setup for Green Screen
4. Proper cable management around PCs & Consoles. 

Kids and Game time

How much time is too much time in gaming for kids?

I know many parents run into this question in today's world. There are tons of web pages out there talking about this. I myself has asked this question on my Twitter feed this past week and was not shocked on what was said back to me. Seems that people with kids under the age of 10 only give their kids only about 2 hours of screen time for gaming. I myself am in this boat during the warmer days of the year. Since I live in the Northeast we only get about eight good months of warm weather, during the fall and winter I will allow my younger kids about an other hour of screen time but it has to be a creative game, not your point click, or a family game in which they are playing with others.
With reading all these sites and talking to people here is the break down I have gathered.

1 - 3 years old about 30 minutes a day
4 - 7 years old about 1 hour a day
8 - 11 years old about 2 hours a day
12 and older seems to be 2 hours or more depending on school work.

Now you will notice that at 12 I mentioned school work. My older son is now 11 and I do agree that two hours is a good amount, but if he focuses on his school work and gets above grades I don't mind giving him some extra time in game. You all can see that I am a huge believer of hard work should be rewarded. That is why when he does really well at his school work or chores he gets more time. I do a lot of work not only at my job, but on YouTube, Twitch, and here. I might not be the best at all of these, but its trying something new that shows I am working for something new down the road.
This all ties into how much time we let our kids play games, yes games are good to relax and have kids work on different parts of their mind. But too much screen time and its a waste.

How do you all feel about screen time for kids, or even your selfs? Is too much a waste?