Doug Boude (rhymes with 'loud')

My Top 20 Life Lessons for Boys and Young Men

2010-05-06T09:30:00-05:00

Life Lessons for Boys, Young Men, and Men

Things i've learned over the years that, if taken to heart by a young man, will save him immense amounts of grief. If you are a father or mentor to young men and/or boys, make it a point to help instill these things into them. By example is always best, but weaving such things into daily conversation and situations can have a positive affect as well. <

My Top 20 Life Lessons for Husbands and Fathers

2010-04-22T01:45:00-05:00

Following are the top 20 things that I have come to learn over the years that I feel, if implemented, taught, embraced, and adhered to, will be the keys to maintaining a happy and efficient home, as well as a posterity fully prepared to go forth and do likewise.
Feel free to add to this list in the comments! :)

(note: the followi

HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT CUP OF COFFEE

2010-04-17T10:47:00-05:00

PROLOGUE

All the world's a coffee drinker. If you're not, it would behoove you to at least take the time to explore this little side of heaven in the manner I describe in the rest of this post. I know, you may have tried 'coffee' before and didn't like it; but I say to you that every cup of coffee is not created equal, and as with every meal you've ever eaten, the end product is

The Death of an Anarchist

2010-02-18T14:44:10-05:00
Editor's Note: This letter was copied from the Austin American Statesman's web site, and is purported to be from the web site of Joe Stack, who crashed an airplane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas on the morning of February 18th, 2010. Though I can't condone Mr. Stack's actions, I can absolutely comprehend and empathize with his point of view, line of thinking, rationale, logic, and frustrat

The Joys of Arachnids!

2009-11-09T08:36:47-05:00

For the past four years I've had the privilege of caring for and learning about several tarantulas and a scorpion. Today I donated them to a local Montessori school so that other people can benefit from them as much as me and my kiddos have. To help the teachers, I created a short document on the care of these guys and some of the fun facts that we have learned about them. It is no way intended to be comprehensive, but will definitely give you

Buying a New Home is Easy! Part 2 of 2

2009-09-07T23:18:00-05:00

Just before completing the process of moving into my wife and I's new home, I did a blog post covering what I consider to be a lot of good tips, info, and ideas. Now that we've been in the home for a full week, there are a few more things regarding this process I'd like to share as well.

If you haven't read the fi

Buying a New Home is EASY! Part 1 of 2

2009-08-24T22:50:00-05:00

(I shared more details prior to this post in a previous post)

Tomorrow morning at 9 am, my wife and I go to close on our new home. Just to make sure we come prepared, we called the builder today to find out what the specific amount of closing costs would be. To our surprise, I was told that the only t

Assurant Health (NYSE:AIZ) Denies Coverage Because Young Man is Autistic

2009-07-15T16:42:00-05:00

I have spent the majority of today shopping around for medical benefits for myself and my family. Only it wasn't very much like shopping; not at all. It was more like going through a divorce, or a death, or some other traumatic event that causes the rest of life to be put on hold while you do lots of typing, talking, researching, worrying, counseling, fretting, waiting anxiously, and spending money you didn't have to begin with.

Employers: Save Yourself And Your Employees Some Healthcare Cash!

2009-07-15T14:18:00-05:00

Health Benefits and the costs thereof. I won't even pretend to be anal enough to have managed to have wrapped my head around the unnecessarily over-complicated subject of health benefits, but I did just go through an experience regarding that topic that I feel is worthy of sharing.

The Scenario
I am the non-custodial parent of several children for which I provide support and me

Buying a New Home in San Antonio

2009-06-26T12:16:00-05:00

My wife and I have recently been involved in the search for and procurement of a new home. It started one Saturday this past April when we were driving down the hiway and on a whim decided to stop in at the Centex office in a newly developed subdivision, just to "check it out". By Sunday afternoon we had already selected the model and all of the upgrades for our new home, and were embarked upon the journey of havi

Hey, Did You Catch South Park Last Night?

2009-03-13T10:53:00-05:00

I can't tell you how excited I was last night when I saw the previews for South Park and saw that the Disney Channel and the Jonas Brothers had found their way into the crosshairs of the South Park writers! I myself have been a long time HATER of the Disney Channel, despising its infinitely flowing pre-pubescent stream of sickening, mind numbing garbage that's as incoherent and directionless as the pre-pubescent kids who are add

Gotta Give Adobe Kudos for Persistence!

2009-03-02T18:53:00-05:00
My trial version of Fireworks CS4 expired yesterday, so I went to the Adobe store to explore upgrade possibilities from version MX2004. I was greeted by a very nice (but suspiciously semi-robotic) sales associate named (also suspiciously based on some of the english) "Randy". I found some humor in Randy's blatant insistence that I make my purchase RIGHT NOW, so thought I'd share the short thread. In t

My Yoke is Easy and My Burden is Light

2009-01-15T08:03:15-05:00

For twelve years I dedicated myself to Christianity. Not the casual, “add it to your collection of good things you lay claim to” style of Christianity; I rather gave myself to it, immersed myself in it, surrounded myself with it, and spent every waking moment working hard in one fashion or another trying desperately to achieve my understanding of what it meant to “b

A Look at Male Enhancement

2008-12-16T04:03:00-05:00

Allow me to preface by saying that I am well aware that NO MALE reading this post has ever considered, imagined, entertained the remotest thought of, or especially TRIED any of the seemingly popular and wildly successful (according to Ron Jeremy) male enhancement nutraceuticals. I know this is the case...we're all fantastically pleased with our packages just the way they are; no room for improvement there. Lend me your imaginati

Movie Review: The Day The Earth Stood Still

2008-12-13T01:45:00-05:00

Okay, I did what I try NEVER to do and that is to read a movie's reviews before I go to see it. I know, that's what ratings are for, right? To help you make an informed decision about whether or not to invest the time in a particular work. But I prefer to be completely unbiased, aside from whatever impressions the previews tended to give me, before I give myself to a new film. So I did a quick google scan of some of the rev

Multi-Worksite Productivity Configuration

2008-11-23T16:20:02-05:00

I am a self-employed individual. It wasn't until just last month, however, that I actually procured an "away from home" office space. It was at that point that I began to ponder the logistics of working at an office AND being able to work from home as well. How would I keep files in sync? How would I be able to do a day's work from home and then do a couple more hours at night without accidentally overwriting something

I Have a Dream....

2008-11-22T12:41:53-05:00

The collective abilities of the many always surpass the few. This is common knowledge, and pervades every aspect of life so much so that we probably don't even take note of it. A pride of lions takes more game than one hunting solo; the most correct answer is the distillation of many people's opinions rather than that of a single individual; the list could go on ad finitum. So why then is it that so many people who catch the ent

The 42 Year Old (Political) Virgin

2008-10-05T17:14:00-05:00

I can't help but relate to the 40 Year Old Virgin, as I myself am 42 and for whatever reason (I have no good explanation for it), THIS year is the VERY FIRST TIME politics has ever attracted my interest. It's almost like I've just now hit political puberty or something (I mean, I KNEW that changes were taking place inside of me but I was confused about them and didn't know what they meant!). Every single election year, I've turn

On Being Sorry...

2008-10-04T12:34:00-05:00
"Sorry", the word itself, is so very often misused and abused. 99% of the time, "sorry" is thrown out in the midst of a disagreement more as a mockery and gesture of pure loathing for the other person rather than the healing, fulfilling word that it was intended to be. Though no expert on the subject, living life and being observant along the way has resulted in some relevant insight, so I&n

DON'T GET SICK IN ARKANSAS!

2008-09-26T19:14:00-05:00

Let me begin this post by telling you the moral of the story you are about to read: DON'T GET SICK IN ARKANSAS.

That is not to target ALL Arkansans (because I haven't met every single one of them), but the ones I and others I know HAVE encountered have convinced me that the Arkansan stereotype came AFTER the Arkansan, not before. The following account is further substantiation of that stereotype. It

The Perfect Alternative to Gas Powered Vehicles

2008-05-09T11:56:36-05:00
I'm sure by now we're all of the opinion that we have GOT to find an alternative to gas powered vehicles. I was musing on this very topic last weekend while sunning myself on the banks of the Guadalupe river, and came up with what I think is a GENIUS idea (though my wife whole heartedly disagrees for some reason):

A giant wind up car.

We know how the little wind up cars work...wind up a spring, then utilize th

Promoting Family Unity: Lowering Your Utility Bills!

2008-05-07T15:20:00-05:00
Okay, I just have to boast a little bit about the great success my family and I had this past month with our energy conservation, evidence being our electric bill. Grand total for the month of April: $96.

For context's sake, here's the scenario:

We live in a two story, 2500 sq foot home that is half brick. It is situated east-west, so our back porch area sees the sun all day long (thus making the southe

The Little Red Rooster

2008-04-18T13:15:00-05:00
Once upon a time, there was a little red rooster and his three friends Mr. and Mrs. Armadillo and Miss Tortoise. One day, the little red rooster had a wonderful idea for a business that would both benefit the town they all lived in, the deaf community as a whole, AND enable them all to provide for themselves and their families. So, the little red rooster gathered Mr. and Mrs. Armadillo and Miss Tortoise together and told them all a

Letter from a Frustrated Patron to their Bank

2008-03-11T11:10:22-05:00
Just wondering, but has anybody else ever gotten to the point in their banking experiences where they felt like trying to deposit a third party check was like rolling the dice or shaking the magic 8 ball as to whether or not they were going to hold or release your funds to you? Well, it's been that way for me for some time now at my bank, and last Friday morning was the last straw. The experience was so frustrating that I wrote a f

Missouri Issues Official Proclamation - That I Drafted!

2008-03-11T11:00:00-05:00

I just wanted to share the latest on the efforts to establish the country's first truly Deaf Friendly Certified city: Branson, Missouri.

Signed Entertainment Enterprises engaged Missouri Governor Matt Blunt in a dialogue regarding their efforts to make Branson deaf and hard of hearing friendly, and what resulted was the invitation to submit a proclamation for the Governor to review. Signed Entertainment then asked lit

Making Your Home a Pleasant Place to Be: Project Birdbath

2008-02-26T13:11:00-05:00
My lovely lady and I love to nest. That is, we are always looking for ways to make our home our favorite place to be. Lately, (since we south Texans are privileged to an early onset of GORGEOUS weather), our attention has been on the backyard. We have several projects in the works, all of them on a shoestring budget, so I thought I'd share one with you all in the hope that it will inspire you, too; a little bit of effort goes a lon

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Friendliness in Branson: Let Your Opinion Count

2008-02-05T11:19:00-05:00
(OT to the technical aggregators)

As some of you may have read in my previous post on the efforts being made in Branson, Missouri to make that city the country's first "Certified Deaf and Hard of Hearing Friendly" vacation destination, Signed Entertainment Enterpris

Diary of a 'Work From Home' Man - Part I

2008-02-01T20:45:42-05:00
Okay, it's been exactly 14 business days since I became a free agent, and by my estimation, I have officially been working ten times harder than I ever did at a "real" job...at least it feels like that. For some reason I had it in my head that I would have eight hours a day now to purely dedicate to coding; my bubble has been burst, however, as I find that, unless I'm willing to put in extra hours in the evening as well (

Movie Review; Dan In Real Life

2008-01-23T14:56:00-05:00

It was a blustery day in the Hundred Acre Woods…no, wait. It was actually a gray, cold, rainy, overcast Sunday afternoon in San Antonio. Well, cold for us south Texans, anyway. I had five of my children with me and we were looking for an economical way to entertain ourselves, so we settled on one of our “old reliables&rdqu

Branson, Missouri to Become Deaf and Hard of Hearing Friendly

2008-01-11T18:58:00-05:00
(This is slightly off topic to those readers arriving from the technical aggregators, but nevertheless is an item of interest to all, I believe)

Okay i've been holding off on sharing this information for a little while now until things really began to materialize, but the time is now right to let the world know about S.E.E. ... Signed Entertainment Enterpris