Best Man

Here is my best man speech from this weekend:

10) Toilet Seat down

9) Always make time for the two of you as a couple

8) Never bring up the past.

7) Arguments happen, resolve quickly

6) Make up Sex

5) Never be too proud to say I am sorry

4) Allow her to buy all the shoes she wants... Video game

3) Tell her she is beautiful and that you love her every day.

2) Never go to bed angry.

1) Carmen is always right.

If I could have your attention.

Please take a moment to join me in congratulating Zack and Carmen on their very special day.

I have known Zack and Carmen for many years and am honored to be the best man at their wedding.

Marriage is a major life changing event. It is very rewarding and sometimes challenging. I put together a list of the top ten things you should do to keep your marriage happy.

10) No matter how you feel about this, it is always better to leave the toilet seat down than up.

9) Always make time for the two of you as a couple. Even when you have kids in the future, plan to have time with just the two of you. This marriage forms the foundation for your family and it must be the focus of your lives.

8) Never bring up the past. You have to move on from mistakes made in the past that cannot be changed. Only the present and future matter.

7) Occasionally, you are going to have disagreements. Arguments happen. Be respectful when this happens, try not to yell or call each other names. Focus on resolving the argument. Which leads me to number six on the top ten list…

6) Make up sex.

5) Never be too proud to say I am sorry. An apology goes a long way towards a resolution.

4) Allow her to buy all the shoes she wants, this way you won’t have to feel guilty about your extensive video game collection.

3) Remember to tell her she is beautiful and that you love her everyday. Even though you know it, and she knows you know it, it is important to remind her how you feel each day.

2) Never go to bed angry. When an argument happens, it is never a good thing to sleep on it.

1) Which brings me to number one. I think this is the most important thing to have a long and successful marriage. It is often overlooked by many couples out there, but it is definitely the key to staying happy. And that is, Zack, Carmen is always right.

Pause

Congratulations

Inflation and your "Raise"

One of the things you want to take note of when your job is giving you a raise is the annual rate of inflation.

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2009	0	0.2	-0.4	-0.7	-1.3	-1.4	-2.1
2008	4.3	4	4	3.9	4.2	5.0	5.6	5.4	4.9	3.7	1.1	0.1	3.8
2007	2.1	2.4	2.8	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.4	2	2.8	3.5	4.3	4.1	2.8
2006	4	3.6	3.4	3.5	4.2	4.3	4.1	3.8	2.1	1.3	2	2.5	3.2
2005	3	3	3.1	3.5	2.8	2.5	3.2	3.6	4.7	4.3	3.5	3.4	3.4
2004	1.9	1.7	1.7	2.3	3.1	3.3	3	2.7	2.5	3.2	3.5	3.3	2.7
2003	2.6	3	3	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.2	2.3	2	1.8	1.9	2.3
2002	1.1	1.1	1.5	1.6	1.2	1.1	1.5	1.8	1.5	2	2.2	2.4	1.6
2001	3.7	3.5	2.9	3.3	3.6	3.2	2.7	2.7	2.6	2.1	1.9	1.6	2.8
2000	2.7	3.2	3.8	3.1	3.2	3.7	3.7	3.4	3.5	3.4	3.4	3.4	3.4
1999	1.7	1.6	1.7	2.3	2.1	2	2.1	2.3	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.2

Now a lot of jobs offer you the standard 3% raise annually. The average rate of inflation over the past 10 years is 2.82%. This means that the items you buy at the end of the year cost 2.82% more than they did at the start of the year. With a 3% raise your buying power only increased .18%. or to put it into words eighteen hundredths of a percent.

For those of you that did not get a raise last year, myself included, we actually took a 3.8% pay cut.

We all know that times are tough and we should be thankful to have gainful employment. However, let's not lose sight of the fact that even during far better times we still only increased our buying power by less than half of a percent.

Madden Curse

I found it interesting that for the most part, being on the cover of John Madden football is a bad career move. Quoting Wikipedia:

Prior to 1999, every annual installment of the Madden NFL series primarily featured John Madden on its cover. In 1999, Electronic Arts selected Garrison Hearst to appear on the PAL version's cover, and has since featured one of the league’s top players on every annual installment. Since then, certain players have experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury. For example, quarterback Michael Vick appeared on the cover of Madden NFL 2004, and suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for most of the 2003 season. Donovan McNabb was featured on the cover of Madden 06, on November 19th, 2006 in a game against Tennessee, McNabb tore his ACL while attempting to scramble out of bounds which left him sidelined for the remainder of the season. Running back Shaun Alexander, then the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player, was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 2007, and sustained a foot injury that caused him to miss six starts As a result, Alexander’s rushing statistics were substantially less than those from the previous season, and he never returned to true form.^[23] Madden 08's cover featured Vince Young, the starting quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. On September 7th 2008 Vince Young sustained a knee injury which put him out of the game. He would never regain his starting quarterback position after he was relieved by backup quarterback Kerry Collins.^[24] Brett Favre was on the cover of Madden 09 and he was subsequently injured with a torn biceps ligament and his performance declined during the last six games of the 2008 NFL Season.^[25] On September 10th 2009, Strong Safety Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers sprained his MCL in the season opener against the Tennessee Titans.^[26] Polamalu shares the cover of Madden 10 with Larry Fitzgerald.

In 2007, GameSpot and CNBC reported that a large number of LaDainian Tomlinson's fans, who believed in the Madden Curse, were strongly opposed to EA Sports' initial decision to feature him on the 2008 cover, so much that a fan created SaveLTfromMadden.com to voice their disdain.^[30][31][32] Tomlinson eventually declined the offer, but stated it was solely due to contract negotiations.^[32]

GameFly Explanantion

Some of you are wondering about this whole GameFly service and how it works. Thought I would shed some light on it for you in case you are interested.

Essentially Gamefly is just like Netflix, you pay a monthly service fee and receive unlimited rentals. Based on the subscription you choose, you can have one to four games out at a time.

You create a queue just like Netflix and place games in it. You can place games from every single system, even previous generation systems like Nintendo Game Cube, in the queue. You can also place games that have not been released.

My concerns at starting this service might match yours so here is my list and my experience after 90 days as a member:

1) What is the likelyhood of obtaining games that are new releases?

I was concerned about this. I wanted to make sure that the company didn't purchase one copy of Madden 10 and then dole it out to a 100 subscribers making them wait months.

My experience was that I had three new releases that I wanted to try, Madden 10, NCAA 10, and Batman Arkum Aslym. In each instance I had the game the day of or the day after it was released.

2) Is there a buy option for games you decide you might want to keep?

I could see myself falling in love with a game, then mailing it back and purchasing it from another vendor. Who wants to go to that trouble when the game is already at my house?

Yes, you can buy games that you rented that you want to keep permanently.

3) Is that option a scam or are the games a decent price?

Brand new releases are $48.99, free shipping. You rent Madden 10, decide you want to keep it, it's yours for 49 bucks. That's 11 cheaper than anywhere else. Since you got it the day it came out, it's technically not even used.

Previous releases vary greatly, but I have picked up 3 games over 90 days for under 17 a piece.

4) Do the entire contents of the item come with the game when you buy it?

Yes, they send you the game and instructions and you do not pay for shipping. The contents are brand new because they don't mail the cases or instructions to renters so you actually receive a brand new case and instructions for the game.

5) How long does it take for discs to arrive?

My discs take 2 days to arrive.

6) Will I save money by renting as opposed to buying and trading in at a local store?

Yes, In the last 45 days I have tried out two games that weren't worth $60 by a long shot, and beat another $60 game in less than a week. I would have spent $180 for them all, and would have received 75 - 90 in trade for store credit, making it a net loss of $90, which is far less than my current monthly subscription rate.

Bonus:

Gamefly offers a rewards program, sales, and more for subscribers. I receive a coupon every 3 months for $5 off any used game. After 6 months I will automatically get 5% off used games as long as I am a member, which increases to 10% off at 9 months.

Gamefly offers a trade in program which in my experience has superior margins than Gamestop, even with my Gamestop edge card. I use the mailers they send games I purchase from them to mail back games I no longer need.

Of course, these are only my experiences, but the trial period is very cheap (See the link at the top right) and you can see for yourself.

I have changed my buying habits completely and have saved a bundle using this service.