Finding Spare Time

I have talked about this time and time again, trying to get things back on track every chance I can; But with kids those plans always side to the side. In today's world there is a lot of things to get your kids into after school programs, sports, library programs and so much more. With all this and work its hard to get free time in order to do some hobbies. So what is one to do? Well time management is a major thing to learn and use once you get things going more and more can get done, its like having a very organized work area.
I myself have been watching my how I spend my time, and looking to change some thing up in order to get more done. One big thing I have noticed is that since I commute to work I have a a good bit of spare time. My bus ride in is about fifty minutes one way there is a good bit of time to write or work on planning things out. So what I need to do is get my laptop back up and working now I don't have a very new laptop so you all know that I will be using a version of Linux on it in which will help with power management in which will make sure I have enough battery power for the ride in, lately there has been many delays and the commute making the ride on the bus over an hour and half. Now most newer laptops can last for up to four hours, now I will be reusing my old HP DV5 in which the battery only last about an hour and half on full running, with using the lowest display brightness and having the wi-fi turned off I should be able to get about two hours or a bit more. Since I am using blog spot using a free app for writing a word doc or even an HTML document then come home and copy the article from the freeware app into the website and upload.

Now that helps use up time for about two of my hours in the day were I am stuck unable to do anything else but wait for the driver to get where I am heading. Knowing where to get a spare thirty minutes in your day to help out with task you want to do is key to getting more done. Even waking up 30 minutes earlier in the morning in order to do something might seem like nothing will get done and in the first week there would be nothing until your body and mind get into the habit. Even getting up early and reading a book while you eat your breakfast can help you get more done. Its all about getting your mind going and onto the task at hand using this spare time to clear up your want to do list with just little tweak to your daily list of things to do.

Health

Alright folks, sorry for the delay had some health issues a rise but I'm back now and trying to get on track. Which brings me to this great item. Holidays and health, something that all people tend to skip over during this time of year. With all the running around getting gifts for family and friends we over look whats going on in our own lives and health. People always talk about the stress of the holidays with out thinking that we our selves make most of the stress. So we need to step back and take a few minutes to rest before we take on the next task, and when we see that person in front of us in line totally stressed out and yelling remember to give him a kind smile. The power of a smile can turn someones day around and remind them that even tho things are going bad and stress full but the next turn they make may be a brighter one.
Sorry again for not making a longer post, I am working on new content and will be getting more up, but with the holidays it will be slow.

Month of Craziness

This month has been nuts. I'm not sure how but this blog is starting off on a very good start. I can see that I get plenty of hit a day, but not that many comments.. well we have none at the moment. This could be from a lot of different things that I have thought about.

1.) People are shy: Yep in one way or another we all are shy. Lets face it it's hard to let your thoughts flow free on the web even tho you are hidden behind a screen name and no one really knows who you are unless you're like me and show a picture of your face along with the post. It takes a lot to let yourself be out there and talk freely not knowing who is reading. It takes some time to warm up to new things and post on this blog but we all have run into some of the things I am writing about, and if your searching around the web and have come along to this site then we are all friends here.

2.) My writing sucks: This I know, I have been working on better gramor and sentences on this site as I go. This site is not only a place for us to explore the fun of being a gaming dad, but a place for me to improve my writing while telling you all the crazy stories I run into. In everything we do in life we can learn or improve on things. I'm just not going to be shy about it and will keep working on it all.

3.) Login needed: I am looking into different ways for this. Sometimes people don't like creating logins for sites they don't use much. I know myself that I have logins for millions of sites that I don't access anymore and my email is on so many list that i have to use the filter on the mess that comes in every day. So I am looking into getting some type of quick comment system going that does not need a login and is mobile friendly, since I see so many of my views use mobile devices to access this site.

I hope this clears up some of the readers minds when they think, do I really want to reply or comment this post? I will be trying to make it easier for everyone in the end, because lets face it. I am sure we all have run into something like this in what we do everyday. Plus I am sure you all can add to the conversation down the road.

Extra Hardware - Plex Media Server

If you're a PC-Gamer/computer person then you are a lot like me and have a tons of extra hardware laying around. So with all this you try to find uses for the older hardware and trust me there are many uses for it. Just because its no longer the top of the line super fast machine to play the latest greatest games you can still do a lot with it. I am going to be writing some articles about what to use this old hardware for and some of the software I use around my house. 

Lets be truthful, kids can be very hard on today's media formats for video entertainment. DVDs are the most common, and don't hold us well to scratches. So with this I decided to create a media center machine out of some of my old hardware laying around, and when we buy the kids a new movie I encode it into a stream able video format that my Amazon Fire TV can view. Cutting down on the destruction of the DVDs yeah they maybe a cheap format but lets face it, your sick of buying another copy of Frozen for the sixth time at ten bucks a pop which is getting pricey ($10 x 6 = $60) and that just one DVD the kids are breaking, you will go broke by the time the kid hits second grade if you haven't gotten them to put the movie back correctly and lets face it my 11 and 9 year old still have issues with getting that right. 

So a new media setup is needed just what do I use well... Plex (view features)

Plex is a multi media server system, with very little technical knowledge needed. Plex allows you to share you media anywhere you want across the Internet to your own devices you allow using an account you create. So you can share you media be it movies, music, and photos to your phone, TV, tablet, and even your game console. 

So lets get the technical break down out of the way. Plex minimum requirement have two settings, with trans-coding or w/o trans-coding. Since you want to be able to watch your videos on any item I recommend with trans-coding. These specs are at least a Duel core 2.4 processor, if you are going to have a lot of devices on at once I recommend a quad core, at least 2 GB of ram, Windows Vista or newer, OS:X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or newer, or you can have to following versions of Linux running(Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux) You can read more about it here. 


My server specs are the following:(white case)

• AMD Athlon II X2 2.9 GHz
• 4 GB Ram
• Windows 7 Pro x86
• Network is a Wired 10/100 Ethernet
• Seagate 80 gig 7200 rpm (boot drive)
• Western Digital 500 Gig 7200 rpm (videos, photo, music; ex Plex drive)

The fist thing I would so with my server is make sure my OS is fully setup and any virus scanner is loaded and ready and everything is up to date. If using an older machine, I would do a full reload of the software, if restoring from a big box supplier (HP, Dell, or so forth) I would go threw and remove any software not needed for basic PC usage as the machine will just sit some where and not be used by a user. Next set would be to setup where my media is stored. I would recommend creating a folder named Plex, then do a break down from there. One folder for each item Photos, Videos, Music. This give the software a clear place to find the files and also helps for saving the items to a simple location. Once this is all done you can download the Server Software. Follow all the steps from the installer. It will ask you to create an account this is key as you will use this log in to connect any device you are using with Plex. 
Once this is all done, you can go to your device you want to connect. We use the Amazon Fire TV in our living room so I use Plex to stream all my media to that. Each device has its own setup the software will cost you five bucks but once you have bought it on one account you can load it to all your devices you have that account on. So our two Fire boxes both have it. Now that you have it loaded on the device just log in with your account and boom if you followed all the steps in the setup you should see all your files from your server. 

This wasn't a major break down of how to setup a new Plex server, but I hope it gave you some ideas of what to do and how to think about sharing your media with kids around. 

Have you built a media center for your home?  What software did you use? or even the hardware you used?

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?

Moving

Ok folks, I am going to be moving all my items from WordPress to here. The reason why, is because having one item to access all the places I need in one place saves my mind a bit.