The Freedom Net

You have to take time for recreation, did you know that? Yep, it’s a proven, scientific, medical fact that your body needs recreation to deal with stress. If you’re all work and no play, then let’s consider a recreational sport that I’ve always wanted to get into.

Ever heard of paintball? Yes, that “game” where you and possibly a team take on another team … with paintball guns shooting paint pellets. Next to being in the military and playing real war games, I can’t think of anything quite as exciting as this sport. In fact, in some ways, it’s more exciting than in the military, because half the time the MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System) didn’t work right. Okay, it actually sucked. With paintball, there’s no denying if you’ve been clobbered!

While doing research into this great pasttime, I found what could be the ultimate resource for paintball materials and supplies. The name of the site is Ultimate Paintball, and it looks like they carry everything you would ever need, and then some. From Smart Parts to Draxxus paintball gear and spyder paintball guns, this site is loaded. Let’s put it this way: when I get ready to gear up for paintball, I know where I’m going for my supplies!

We recently took a family trip out of town to visit some relatives. Usually this is the type of trip that you would get all worked up about because of time constraint issues. Being a real man (read: stay-at-home-dad) has some distinct advantages, as we discovered on this particular trip.

Vacationing or traveling out of town for the normal 8 to 5, Monday thru Friday worker is hard enough. Most people out there rarely have a schedule that is as accommodating as those banker’s hours. However, when you don’t have to report to work on Monday morning, and you don’t really have to feel pressured on Friday to leave as soon as possible, a whole new world of possibilities opens up to you!

This is what we discovered on this particular trip. It occurred to us as we left town on Sunday rather than Friday how nice it was not to have to compete with weekend traffic. There was no rush to get out of town on Friday night so we could make the most of our weekend. As people were leaving the state park where we stayed, we were arriving. OK, so there were some retirees and summer students that showed up on our second day there, but I’m betting that’s pretty atypical and probably a result of the recent flooding at other larger area attractions (we were at the Meridian state park in Texas).

It was comforting to realize on Tuesday when we left, that I didn’t have to ‘get some rest’ just because of work in the morning. In fact, if we all stayed up late and were bushed, we could all sleep in. How gratifying is that? Not having a regular work schedule to worry about has definitely had an impact on our recreation. Although this trip cost us more than we bargained for (with car troubles I will elaborate more on later), it was still a nice thing to come to terms with.

Recreation is an important part of life, even more so for the entrepreneurial in spirit.  When we work for someone else, we have a little benefit called ‘vacation’.  This concept is marvelous, as it actually encourages us to take time off from work for recreation.  Heck, your company will even pay you for your time off!

Unfortunately, when you work for yourself, the boss can get pretty demanding.  It’s hard to force yourself to take some time off, especially since there is no ‘vacation pay’.  When you’re not working, you usually don’t earn money when you work for yourself from home.  It’s almost a catch-22.  Working from home is freedom, right?  Perhaps it is, but only if we allow ourselves to have it.

I always thought that coming home would be some grand thing.  I always thought that bliss and peace and harmony would somehow overtake our fair haven once I got to come home from my job.  Well, let me tell you, that just ain’t the case.

It has been a hard transition for everyone.  I’m simply just not used to being home all day with the kids.  They are not used to seeing me home all day, and they want my attention all day.  I’m also not used to being in the house all day, instead of having some quiet travel time to and from work.  My wife isn’t used to me being home all day either, sharing the time on the computer and asking for help at lunch, and dinner, and just pretty much being a pain in the rear.

Yes, coming home is nice.  I don’t have to worry about a schedule anymore.  I don’t have to worry about getting up at a certain time (at least not during the summer, while the kids are my alarm clock).  We can go out of town on a trip, and return with no regrets on time.  We can leave on a Sunday and come back on a Tuesday, without asking somebody if it is OK.  How nice is that?

Overall, it is a good thing.  I think it will just take time to work out the kinks.

Well, football season is upon us. It’s the time of year when football fans come out of the woodwork like you wouldn’t believe. As a Pay-Per-Post blogger, I’ve been presented with a great opportunity, to review a full-blown football calendar free of charge from Doc’s Sports. The calendar is a full-color, 120-page booklet with the complete schedules for college and professional football this season. In addition, it has some statistics like last year’s match-ups and results. This was quite impressive. As a football fan, I found it very interesting and a wealth of information.

Then, I began to read the articles. Slowly (it takes a while for me sometimes), I realized that this was no ordinary sports ‘calendar’. I noticed advertisements with scantily clad females … and for places online to do sports gambling! Then it dawned on me why the calendar has a place for all of the scores .. and also list the ‘odds’, as it were, for each team to take their division and league championships!

Well, as my ‘luck’ would have it, this PPP opportunity is a neutral one, which means I am free to express my review as positive or negative and still be paid! (Chalk one up for PPP, PPP - 1, skeptics - 0) So this is it. This post is my review.

I guess the bottom line is that if you like football alot, you might find some useful facts that you didn’t know and information from last season. Other than that, you will only find temptation to enter into gambling - an addiction that causes thousands each year to lose homes, hope, and families. Sorry, I can’t give this a positive review … poor marketing, sneaky tactics, and catering to ‘football fans’. Just because I am a football fan doesn’t mean that I am a fan of gambling.
PS - Oh yeah, and BTW, I am one of those conservative religious zealots who despises the big ‘G’ as almost as bad as one of the seven deadly sins, and NO, I doubt that gambling is going mainstream anytime soon.

EDITED 9/12/06 - Just for the record, PPP did not approve this post, since my blog is not specifically sports related. I don’t remember that being one of the initial qualifications, but that’s ok. I decided to go ahead and leave the post up, as pertinent and vital info for anyone checking out Doc’s stuff … but I did take the liberty to remove the gratuitous link to their site. After all, this is my blog, and on here, I’m the one who makes the calls.