Three to fifteen years in jail.  Think about it.  That’s a long time, a really long time!  Even “just” the minimum of three years is a really long time.

And for what?

As far as anyone knows, Plaxico did not intend to harm anyone.  The gun wasn’t out and it wasn’t pointed at anyone.  But even though there was a lack of criminal intent, Plaxico still faces three or more years in prison.

 Doesn’t this make you think?  What is the point of sending people to jail?  I thought it was to protect society from dangerous people.  Is Plaxico dangerous?  Besides to his own foot, I’d have to say no.  But they still have to lock him away for three years or more???

Now I must tell you, I don’t approve of people bringing loaded guns with them to public places.  And Plaxico probably should have used his better judgment on this one.  But punishing him with three years of jail time just seems… unnecessary.

I thought in America you’re supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty.  Well it seems like they’re jumping the gun with Plaxico.  Putting someone in jail for having a gun definitely sounds to me like considering them guilty before innocent.

You may just think I am biased and do not want Plaxico to go to jail.  While it is true that I don’t want Plaxico to go to jail, I also want this to apply to other people who are being locked up for dumb reasons.  It just took the publicity of NFL star Plaxico Burress to let me see what is going on in this country’s whack criminal justice system.

In European countries like England, they try to punish more crimes with fines rather than jail time, reserving jail sentences for dangerous criminals.  They even adjust the fines so that they are proportional to the crime committed and the offender’s income.  A fine seems like a much better way to punish someone who didn’t cause harm to anyone than jail time.

And let me tell you this - the salesman who sold my parents the Wii thought that he was brilliant, too!  When he found out that my parents wanted the Wii Fit, he pretty much loaded up a cart full of things they “absolutely needed” in order to properly enjoy their new Wii Fit.  Coming from a generation that didn’t grow up with video games the way ours did, they happily took the salesman’s “helpful” advice, and bought all of the things he was so very “generous” to point out to them.

When they got home, they suddenly realized they didn’t actually need that yoga mat, yoga mat bag, Wii Fit board softening cover, and so forth.  Fortunately they had no trouble returning the unnecessary extras.  For the salesman’s sake, I hope he wasn’t there when they came back to the store.

Just thought I’d share that silly story with you!  I wonder how many other people out there have parents who own their own Wii…

 My fiance and I love books.  We love reading together to learn and just for fun.  And we like to keep the books we’ve read - it’s sort of a collection.  But a visit to Barnes & Noble can easily leave you broke with only one or two books in hand in exchange for the entire contents of your wallet.

That’s why when we go to Barnes & Noble, we don’t leave with any books!  We enjoy a nice outing together, browsing through the aisles and reading parts of the books that catch our eye.  And the ones that shout “bring me home” …we snap quick pictures of them with our cell phones so we remember the title and author.

When we get home, that’s when the magic begins.  Half.com is the website that makes it happen.  Half.com is an Ebay relative but focuses on things like books, movies and video games.  And unlike Ebay, there’s no worrying about placing a winning bid - the price listed is the price you pay.  For the same 4 books that would have cost us $50-$60, we can usually spend about $5-10 for them on half.com.  And most of the time the books are in new or like-new condition.  It’s a great way to do your book shopping!

 And students, half.com is also a great place to shop for your text books.  Why pay $100+ per book at your college book store when you can get the same exact thing for $40?  Just remember to ask your teachers for the names of the books a couple weeks before your classes start to allow for shipping time.  With all the money you save from books you’ll be able to buy a snazzy new outfit for your first day of classes - and still have money to spare!

Yes, that’s right.  I was responsible for a portion of the academic dishonesty that teachers and schools around the world are trying to combat.

Almost every day I logged on to a database full of requests for customized essays on almost every topic you could imagine.  By writing essays and doing schoolwork for other people I was able to pull in six to thirteen dollars a page.  It was so easy for me, it allowed me a flexible schedule, and I made big bucks.  As a matter of fact, the more I did assignments for other people, the better I became at writing.  There was a lot to gain from that industry.

 But I also knew it was wrong, terribly wrong.

And here’s what I have to say to all of the people still involved in the papermill business:

1. To the students in grade school using mommy and daddy’s credit card to buy homework: Knock it off!  You think you are cheating the system, but you are only cheating yourself!  The assignments you get in school are designed not only to help you learn challenging subject matter but also to give you practice solving problems and writing in a world whose careers require both of these essential skills.  Getting a good grade isn’t everything -what is really important is that you learn.  And most of the time, when you start to learn things, the good grade comes almost effortlessly.

2. To the students in an undergraduate or even graduate program who are relying on papermills instead of applying themselves: Let me get this straight… you’re spending thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars to go to a school to become an expert in a certain field or perhaps strengthen your career area of experise - and you’re just going to have someone else learn for you instead of getting what you paid for?  That just makes no sense!  If you’re really going to cheat your way to a degree like that, then you may as well just have bought a really expensive counterfeit degree.  A dissertation is meant to be your own original work of research, not the product of a ghostwriter.

3. To the many people still writing essays for students and assisting with academic dishonesty: You can’t tell me you don’t know it’s wrong.  Listen to that nagging feeling inside of you that is trying to remind you of your morals.  I know that like an addiction, it can be hard to stop once you’ve seen the big bucks adding up in your bank account.  But you need to do it for the sake of the good in society.  It’s like drug use.  Cops can go after the kids using drugs, but to really stop the problem, they have to go after the people supplying the drugs, so that the kids can’t even get drugs if they want them.  If the people writing for paper mills all listened to their morals and stopped writing for students, students would have less options to sway them away from writing their own papers.  If you’re really having trouble with the idea of quitting writing, put your writing skills to use in a good way.  For example, start your own blog - or perhaps write a novel!

4. To the people running papermill businesses: What do you tell people you do for a living?  Seriously… I want to know.  You should be more ashamed of yourself than any of the other groups of people I previously addressed.  You have exploited on the fact that academic dishonesty happens.  If you can’t beat ‘em, make money from them???  Congratulations on being a completely immoral and unethical businessman!  Go find yourself an honest job!

It is hard for me to admit in such a public way that I was involved with a papermill.  But I am willing to put myself out there if it has the potential to affect even one person.  If I could stop just one person from being involved with a papermill, than I will know this blog was worth it.

Oh, and here’s an interesting fact you might like to know: Attempts have been made to take papermill companies to court for assisting in academic dishonesty.  To this day no case has been won against them, because they claim that they are merely providing students with high-quality examples for them to see what a good essay might look like.  That doesn’t seem to explain why in my experience I saw students requesting things like “Please don’t plagiarize my teacher will take off points,” and “Try not to use complicated words I am not a native english speaker and my teacher will know I didn’t write it.”  Hmm… examples… right…

Yesterday, as I was driving home from lunch with my fiance, my check engine light came on.  I pulled over on the side of a small road so we could pop the hood and see what was going on under there.  Not ten seconds passed and we were offered help from some people driving by.  They asked if we needed a jump or any other kind of assistance.  We politely declined since my car still seemed to be working just fine, but we were touched by their quick willingness to help out.

 It’s a rare thing these days to find people who aren’t so wrapped up in themselves and are willing to spare a couple minutes out of their busy lives to help others.

 This random act of kindness reminded me of a man who came through my check-out lane when I used to be a cashier at a grocery store.  After paying for his own groceries, he put down a heap of cash in front of me and asked me to use it to contribute to the bill of whatever customer came to my lane next.  There were no other customers in my lane at the time, so he didn’t care to know who or what kind of person he was helping - he didn’t even stay to see the reaction of the next customer.  He also trusted that I would not pocket the money for myself - which he was right in doing.  It was just a completely random, selfless act of kindness.

It kind of makes me want to do more nice things for people… kind of reminds me of the movie Pay it Forward.

Last Wednesday, I sealed the envelope of my absentee ballot and inserted it into a slot in my apartment complex’s mailbox.  What if five days wasn’t enough for it to get there in time?  What if it got lost in the mail?  What if someone saw the label on the outside of the envelope that lists my name and party affiliation, and decided to help it get lost?  What if it is still sitting in the mailbox just fifty feet from where I am right now, as votes across the nation are being tallied without it?

I will never know if my vote counted.

And even if your vote was not in the form of an absentee ballot, you will never know if your vote was counted.  There could have been a malfunction with the machine you used so that your information could not be transmitted correctly.  You’ll never know.

Some call it paranoia, but I call it reality.  And in reality, something has got to give!

Imagine this: what would happen if they contacted every voter whose vote was not able to be counted, whether it was because there was a pregnant chad or because the absentee ballot came too late?  There would be a massive uproar of angry citizens who thought they lived in a democracy where there voice was heard.  And then things would change.

Until then, we can just go on crossing our fingers that the one million or so ballots that have to be thrown out belonged to someone else.

1. Leave 5-10 minutes earlier than you think you need to.  Worrying about being late the whole time in your car can lead to a lot of unnecessary stress.  Leaving earlier can also lead to safer driving habits; if you’re not going to be late, you don’t need to weave in between traffic to pass people who are going 1 or 2 miles above the speed limit instead of 5.
2. Don’t be quick to criticize other drivers.  Whenever you do something like speed around a slower vehicle or speed up to a four-way stop sign intersection so you get to go first, you know that it’s because you’re in a hurry and have important things to do.  Whenever someone else does it, you ignore all possible reasons they might have and call them a __________ (fill in the blank with the worst word you can possibly imagine).  I’m not trying to call you a bad guy – what you’re doing is just a natural part of social psychology.  But for your own good, you should really try to stop the habit.  Some people think that saying bad things about other people makes them feel better, but it can also put you in a negative mind-set and get you stressed out for no good reason at all.
3. Find yourself getting frustrated when you can’t find anything good on the radio?  Make a CD of your favorite play list on ITunes and bring it with you in the car.  No more commercials!  And now you’ll have both hands on the wheel instead of one on the tuning dial.

Remember these tips.  Happy driving to all!

 BRIDAL GOWNS: Alfred Angelo wins!  I tried on dress after dress at David’s Bridal and was always left less than impressed.  At Alfred Angelo, on the other hand, I fell in love with every single dress I tried on.  While the dresses at David’s Bridal were affordable, I noticed that Alfred Angelo offered a higher quality for a lower price.

BRIDESMAID DRESSES: It’s a tie.  Both David’s Bridal and Alfred Angelo have a wide variety of bridesmaid dresses at affordable prices.  They both offer dresses of different lengths and styles, separates, and lots of trendy colors.

MEN’S FORMALWEAR: David’s Bridal wins!  David’s Bridal partners with a number of different men’s formalwear company to bring their customers closer to finding all of their bridal party’s needs.  Alfred Angelo, on the contrary, only covers the women’s looks.  You will find no men’s formalwear there.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Alfred Angelo wins!  Everyone there was friendly, smiling, and extremely helpful.  The lady working with me helped me put on those tricky undergarments and dresses, took notes about what I liked or disliked about each dress, made suggestions, explained about the different types of fabrics, and encouraged my mom to take pictures.  My experience at David’s Bridal was a disaster.  I was sent around a corner to pick out shoes, then was shown to my dressing room where they expected me to figure out how to put on the bustier and dress.  The lady working with me hardly had any suggestions, other than, “Well… are you in love with it, or not?”  Then some other lady came over and started arguing with her about which dresses she thought would look good on me.  Lady #2 told me she would get me a certain dress but never came back with it.  Every time I was ready to move on to another dress, I had to wait 10 minutes for them to go get one.  Ridiculous.

LOCATION: David’s Bridal wins!  There’s more of them, so most of the time you’ll be able to find one much closer than Alfred Angelo.  If you’re lucky enough to live at least somewhat close to both, it’s probably worth the extra effort to go to both.

ONLINE SHOPPING: David’s Bridal wins, but Alfred Angelo still rates highly.  The feature that puts David’s Bridal over the top is something called “Dress Your Wedding.”  You get to create the people in your wedding, line them up next to each other, and pick out the exact outfits you think you would like them to wear.  You can change the dresses, the tuxes, the hairdos, the accessories, the shoes, and the colors.  It’s really helpful to see it all together before you make your final decision.

 So who wins overall?  That’s up for you to decide!  I will forever be inclined toward Alfred Angelo, where I found my perfect wedding dress… but for you, it might be different.

It’s time to learn how to calculate a tip using nothing more than the power of your brain.  And once you try it a few times, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to do.

Let’s start simple: the bill for dinner is $20.00.  Here’s what we do to get to 15%:

1. 10% of $20.00 can be found by moving the decimal one place to the left, which makes $2.00.
2. 5% is half of 10%, and half of $2.00 is $1.00.  Therefore, 5% of $20.00 is $1.00.
3. We’ve found 5% and 10%, so add them together to get your 15% tip!  $2.00 and $1.00 added together makes $3.00, which is a 15% tip on a $20.00 bill.

Let’s try something a little harder: the bill for dinner is $136.45.  Here’s what we do to get to 15%:

1. To get 10% of $136.45, just move the decimal one place to the left.  That makes $13.64… (you can ignore any numbers after the second one right to the decimal because that’s all we need for money terms).
2. 5% is half of 10%, so we need to find half of $13.64.  Instead of trying to figure out what this is, round up to $14.00.  Half of $14.00 is $7.00, so we can say that 5% of $136.45 is about $7.00.  (Just so don’t feel too cheated about rounding up, doing this increased the total by less than 20 cents.)
3. Now that we know 5% and 10%, just add them together to get the 15% tip.  Adding $7.00 to $13.64 is $20.64.  $20.64 is a 15% tip on a bill of $136.45.

Does 15% sound stingy to you?  If so, you’re lucky, because finding 20% is even easier.  Just find 10% by moving the decimal of the total bill one place to the left.  Take that number and add it to itself; that’s 20%.

This may all seem very complicated at first, but just try it a couple of times and you will get the hang of it!  I know you won’t mind leaving your calculator at home.