October 21, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Ahhh, Cheap fun...
Going up to the SAN on Monday morning just before everyone starts needing to crank out work and hotswapping one drive in every RAID 5 array... just to hear the cries of pain.
Very Cheap. Very fun. 🙂
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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October 21, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Craig Farrell (10/21/2010)
Ahhh, Cheap fun...Going up to the SAN on Monday morning just before everyone starts needing to crank out work and hotswapping one drive in every RAID 5 array... just to hear the cries of pain.
Very Cheap. Very fun. 🙂
There's a difference between having fun, and being sadistic.
.... then again, on second thought, maybe not... :w00t:
Wayne
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October 21, 2010 at 5:44 pm
WayneS (10/21/2010)
Craig Farrell (10/21/2010)
Ahhh, Cheap fun...Going up to the SAN on Monday morning just before everyone starts needing to crank out work and hotswapping one drive in every RAID 5 array... just to hear the cries of pain.
Very Cheap. Very fun. 🙂
There's a difference between having fun, and being sadistic.
.... then again, on second thought, maybe not... :w00t:
Nah nah, see, sadistic would be not letting the Network guys in on the joke when they get in ten minutes later to the now massive trouble ticket queue... and unplugging a hub.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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For index/tuning help, follow these directions.[/url] |Tally Tables[/url]
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October 21, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Bob, that's a good list. We do hide and seek some already, and you're right on not finding them too soon!
October 21, 2010 at 10:27 pm
You have hit a subject near and dear to my heart -- we homeschool and have 6 children, with essentially a single income.
As suggested by others, camping is a real money saving vacation. Kids love the adventure of camping and the hardships (yes, there will be mixups, smashups and bug bites) will bring everyone together. Think about the stories you talk about from your childhood.
If you are fortunate enough to have a yard with a tree, let your kids build a tree house. Scrap lumber can be found for free or cheap. Teach them the basics of hammering and sawing. Grab a book about building wood projects with kids or tree houses. Regularly inspect and fortify.
The library. Many libraries have activities that are great fun and usually free or extremely cheap. Reading a book together as a family may be on the endangered list, but it is great fun to get everyone together, read a chapter -- allow interruptions, discussion afterward, talk to key points, etc.
One of our ongoing activities is Martial Arts. We have found a great program that values family involvement and offers a family rate of $40 per month -- that allows anyone of age to participate. It is fantastic exercise and benefits confidence, strength, agility, mental focus and has the added bonus of teaching your family to defend themselves. Look for the Martial Arts programs that cater to families and you will see a marked difference in focus from those that do not.
I try to have a "date" with each of my children by themselves on a regular basis -- if funds are good, we'll go to a restaurant (which will break your $ limit). If funds are low, I'll make breakfast and we'll head off to a different part of the house. Being connected will matter more than any gift I give them.
A great resource for our kids has been Adventures In Odyssey (http://www.whitsend.org/). We all enjoy the radio theatre and the Christian-based story lines.
Thanks for the great topic!
Roman
October 22, 2010 at 7:41 am
Roman, I'm a fan of the library and individual time as you mention. Especially for me, I'm trying to work harder to get books at the library rather than buying them, though I wish the library software was a little better - why can't it be more like Amazon!
Book stores are a frequent destination, browse and teach the reading habit, and long the way never know what you'll find. Last year we went by our local camping/outdoor store and they had a make shift pool set up outside so you could try a kayak, kicked off my shoes and waded in so I could push my little one around - hard to beat!
October 22, 2010 at 8:30 am
tim.kay (10/21/2010)
. . . a tour of local swings and slides. We took some snacks and drinks. All it cost me was a little bit of petrol. The kids had a great time as they took this as a little adventure.
This is a wonderful idea!
Actually come to think of it, when my children were between 5-10, we used to ride our bikes on area bike paths, and more often than not, there would be a playground somewhere along the route. But I love the idea of making the tour of playgrounds as the goal - sort of like a treasure map!
October 22, 2010 at 8:35 am
Anye Mercy (10/21/2010)
Last year my honey bought me a Kindle with his holiday bonus from work. (This wasn't the cheap part.)Since then I've spent countless hours reading the books available for free download from Amazon. They are many and varied, and some are better than others - but it's been on the whole entertaining to read random books that I would not have otherwise chosen.
The only caveat / warning to this is occasionally the free books are religious books that aren't marketed as such - and if you aren't in the mood to be proselytized to this could be annoying. (Case in point, I recently read a horror book that ended up being a description of what happens to the "Bad People who don't believe in Jesus"... which really wasn't what I was looking for in my daily pleasure read.)
However one of my friends sent me a query which can be used to avoid downloading religious books and free "samples", so now I am less wary.
Did you know that you can do Kindle for free? You can download "Kindle for PC" onto your laptop, etc. and then search through the huge list of classic books that can all be downloaded for free. Plus all the small novels (by authors trying to break into the field?).
I would be interested in a list of "new" free novels that others have read and enjoyed. I have read a few that left me disappointed.
October 22, 2010 at 8:51 am
I forgot to mention Home Depot -- depending upon the age of your kids, this is a fun and free deal the first Saturday of every month. Local times vary, but it runs 9am - 11am and they have small wood projects. Search for "Kids Workshop Home Depot". You should find a link for your Home Depot with details about the next project.
You show up with kids ages 6ish - 12, they provide the kits, hammers, glue and you assemble the kit there. They also pass out aprons for first-timers (that you keep) and metal pins for completing the project. Each project usually takes 35 - 50 min. to complete (this is based on my having 3 kids under 9 with me, running parallel).
And since November is just around the corner, I'll leave with one more idea that has revitalized and transformed Thanksgiving for our family - we volunteer at a free Thanksgiving dinner. Even our youngest can take part by just smiling and saying "Hi" and there is always plenty of prep and cleanup work. Being able to give to others is a vital part of life and living that out in a hands-on way as a family is another great way of connecting / spending time / building memories.
I applaud your seeking to keep connected with your kids. That connection is not severed in a quick moment at age 15, it is lost way before then by a slow decay of choosing to not spend time together.
Roman
October 26, 2010 at 12:54 pm
This one has an initial cost - you need to have a mobile GPS.
Once you have a mobile GPS, check out http://www.geocaching.com. It's doing treasure hunting with a GPS. You put in a location and the site returns caches near that location. You then use your GPS to find them. Some are tiny and just have a log, but others have tradeable items in them. You can carry small items with you to trade for ones in the cache. Then once you get familiar with geo-caching, you can hide your own cache.
-SQLBill
October 26, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Small college sports are a very cheap day out.
I went to a football game a couple of weeks ago at a local college:
1. No change for admission or parking.
2. Tailgating about 100 feet from the stands.
3. Hotdogs, soda, coffee, and hot chocolate were a dollar each at the snack stand.
4. At halftime of the football game, we walked over and watched the soccer team's game on the next field.
5. You could walk down right next to the field, as long as you didn't go out on it.
6. No traffic jam coming or going.
October 26, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Michael Valentine Jones (10/26/2010)
4. At halftime of the football game, we walked over and watched the soccer team's game on the next field.
Speaking as someone who has collegiate marching band experience . . . you didn't stay to listen to the band? 😉
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October 26, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Partly due to the season some of the fun things we like to do that are cheap overall and that can take up a good amount of time.
1. Carving pumpkins. Each of the kids gets to carve their own pumpkin. Clean the pumpkin, pick a pattern and help to light it up and/or carve it.
2. Gingerbread houses. We bake our own gingerbread houses from scratch. We buy the necessary candies to decorate the house. Sometimes this is replaced by trains.
Doing these things is great fun for the children. Helping them and seeing their joy and excitement is also fun for the adults.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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October 26, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Ray K (10/26/2010)
Michael Valentine Jones (10/26/2010)
4. At halftime of the football game, we walked over and watched the soccer team's game on the next field.Speaking as someone who has collegiate marching band experience . . . you didn't stay to listen to the band? 😉
There was no marching band there. It's a small college, so they might not have one.
Thye did have lots of cute cheerleaders that I forgot to mention.
October 28, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Michael Valentine Jones (10/26/2010)
Ray K (10/26/2010)
Michael Valentine Jones (10/26/2010)
4. At halftime of the football game, we walked over and watched the soccer team's game on the next field.Speaking as someone who has collegiate marching band experience . . . you didn't stay to listen to the band? 😉
There was no marching band there. It's a small college, so they might not have one.
Thye did have lots of cute cheerleaders that I forgot to mention.
Did they at least have a pep band? I did my Master's degree at a school which was about a quarter of the size of my undergraduate institution, and they had a small pep band, not a marching band.
Of course, there are a lot of schools that don't even have pep bands.
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