Each time I to to enter a competition with a fee, I wonder if that fee couldn’t be put to better use in another “competition”, as in the lottery. That is, what might I be losing out on, or what economists call opportunity costs, in not having spent that money on lottery tickets that could really change my life if I won a jackpot or even secondary prize? After all, few competitions I enter would either change my life as much as a decent lottery prize. Nor would I have better odds of winning or placing well in those competitions, in many but not most cases, like the Boston Marathon. In some small races or other competitions, like writing, I have done well enough to merit some recognition. However, the prizes have always been essentially negligible. That is, there were some value to them, just not much value to me. Well, at least not material value. Moral value like confidence and social value like perception in the eyes of others, also known as bragging rights without the bragging, are another matter, though. Still, as “priceless” as they may be, I can’t help thinking what chances at winning a jackpot I would deprive myself of in putting money towards these competitions rather than to a lottery, for which I don’t often buy tickets. So what to do?
Writing
The Benjamin Franklin Daily Do Good Routine
On New Year’s Day, by chance of a feed item Facebook fed me, I found out that each day, after he woke up, Benjamin Franklin asked himself:
What good shall I do this day?
Then, at night, before he went to sleep, he asked himself:
What good have I done today?
What Tattoo Would I Get If I Were to Get One?
Unlike many people I know, quite possibly most people I know, I don’t have a single or fractional tattoo on my body. The latter would be for people who either changed their minds part way through or maybe ran out of money. I only know of one such person, but I’m neither saying who it is, nor why they didn’t complete it. I only include them because if I did the actual counting, they may tip the balance between whether it’s many people I know that have tattoos, or most people I know that have tattoos. As for me, I have no tattoo, despite possibly having the greatest percentage of skin surface area able to support a tattoo among anyone I know, women included, while still having a full head of hair and no wrinkles. I am that smooth and, um, dermy?
The Many Benefits of Buying Discounted Old Groceries
When I’m enter my local groceries store, the first place I head is the breads, fruits, and vegetables sections, where I look for items on 50% discount because they have to be consumed “soon”. I head there first because pending what is on discount for almost immediate consumption, that will influence what else I will or won’t be buying to a large extent. I might as well know what my new shopping parameters are rather than having to put things back later when I discover these discounted items and give them priority. It’s a system that has worked well for me, and for many reasons far beyond the obvious savings.
Thumbnail Branding My Blog Posts
From my experience, when you share a WordPress blog post on social media, the icon that appears with the preview (when there is one), is a thumbnail of a graphic in the following priority order, pending what you have or don’t have with your post:
- Designated featured image; then
- First or only image embedded within post; then
- Blog profile icon that is also the blogger’s profile icon.
Digital Citizen 