Stuff Every Guy Needs to Know 2.0

So this my second posting for The Balanced Guy. In my first installment, there was an entry for every one of the broad topics listed below; I wanted to give you a taste of what to expect as we saunter down the path. So, sauntering along and keeping your valuable time in mind, I'm going to post more often but just covering a few of the topics in any given day - the ones in red are covered this time around. Most likely it will be because I've run across something interesting or an idea hits me at 3 AM.

1. The Competitor - Sports
2. Mr. Muscle - Fitness and Health
   
3. Your Ride- Cars
4. Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance
5. Toys - Gadgets (i.e. boys toys)
6. Tasty Licks- Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment
   
7. Arguing - Politics
8. The Great Outdoors - hunting, camping, extreme sports
   
9. WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) - Family
10. Black Socks - Personal Appearance
    
11. Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools
12. The Wide World - Travel/Vacation
13. Eye Candy

The Competitor - If you golf, most likely you've got a Big Bertha Diablo driver or some similar high-tech alloy stick in your golf bag. Here's something you might not know. The Thumper, a persimmon driver (yes! a wood made of REAL wood!), made by Louisville Golf, when tested by Iron Byron, consistently out-drives a Big Bertha driver. I came across this somewhat startling fact in a really interesting book called A Splintered History of Wood by Spike Carlsen. At $369.99 the Thumper is not cheap but right in the price range of most high-tech drivers. Made of gorgeous, polished persimmon it's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. And just imagine as the chuckles you hear when you pull it out of your bag turn into "holy sh*t" when you out-drive everyone else from the tee box.







Tasty Licks - I mentioned it above so I'll give it a few more props here. If you're a reader or even if you're not, I highly recommend picking up A Splintered History of Wood (Harper Collins Publishers, 2009). I know, I know, it sounds incredibly boring but I swear to you it's not - well at least it wasn't for me. Hey, after reading a few excerpts to them, even my wife and kids thought it was pretty neat. It covers, well, the history of wood and it's many uses by man from furniture, to sports, musical instruments, houses, weapons & war, and many, many other uses. How about belt sander races? Or baseball bats from the well-known Louisville Slugger to the newcomer on the scene with its maple bats, MaxBats? Or maybe you want a conversation piece desk made from some seriously old wood? Check out AncientWood and it's 50,000 year old logs from New Zealand.






WWWD? - If you're like me, nothing makes you feel better than seeing your children happy. Yesterday, I spent a relatively short period of time raking leaves into a huge pile for my kids before they got home from school. I knew they had been wanting to jump in leaves since this is their first fall in the northeast since growing up in Florida. I seriously underestimated how much fun they were going to get out of it. Total cost? $0.00 You know the "priceless" tv ads from Mastercard? Well this was one of those moments.









Black Socks - Look, if you want to save a bit of money and aren't obsessive about having perfect hair, buy a set of Wahl clippers. And I seriously mean that brand name. Most others I've tried just don't cut it (pun intended) - although, not being a hair care professional, no doubt there are other brands that work well too; I've just not found them. For about $30 at Walmart (or a little more if you want the deluxe set) you can get yourself an at home hair care kit that'll last for years. I bought one about 8 years ago and have literally saved thousands of dollars in hair cuts for myself and three boys.

Here's the conservative math. Assume a once-a-month $12 cut at one of the chain hair cutting places or your local barber shop. So for my family that's $48 a month x 12 months x 8 years = $4,608. Knock that down to every 2 months and it's still $2,304. Bump the price up a bit and you're still talking about $5,000. How about if you pay $30/month just for yourself? $30 x 12 months = $360 year x 8 years = $2,880. Back when I bought my clippers I think I paid a little over $20 for the kit. Probably one of the best returns on investment I've ever made. With a little practice you can give your kids (probably just your boys) and yourself a decent haircut. If nothing else, you can give yourself a touch-up between visits to the barber and maybe cut your visits in half.

Honeydew - Have you ever seen a room that was painted a fairly vibrant color and wondered "how in the hell did they get such a straight line along the ceiling and trimwork?" Chances are if you use masking tape or one of those funky edging pad things you've wound up with a cut line that looks like it was painted by a blind monkey. The paint often bleeds under the tape or the wheels of the pad thingy get paint on them and make a nice track along the ceiling. I'll let you in on a secret I learned when I was working as a construction superintendent - professional painters don't use tape or special gadgets; instead all they use is a paint brush. Albeit a special brush and they don't use cheap ones but the results you get are worth the small extra amount you pay and the amount of time saved is quite a bit. If you've ever noticed those funny-looking angled brushes when you're at the hardware store, that's the secret.

Called a cut brush, it makes all the difference in the world. Most recently, I've been buying brushes made by Purdy, usually their 2 1/2" Nylox Dale; they call it an angular trim brush. I also prefer a brush with a long, wooden handle. Even though you mostly hold the ferrule (the metal part around the bristles) the long handle rests against your hand and helps to steady the brush. I also highly recommend you buy one of the better brushes regardless of the brand (Purdy makes several lines. The one I buy is just below their top-shelf line). And the extra cost is not really that much, maybe double the price: $14 or so instead of $7 or $8...but well worth the few extra bucks with respect to the quality of finish you get.

So to paint a straight edge - First thing. Don't drink a lot the night before since you'll need a steady hand. Second. You have to realize that you are pulling a line, not painting it. What I mean is that you pull your whole arm toward yourself instead of using your wrist. If you use your wrist you'll paint an arc not a line. Bend your wrist back-and-forth and you'll see what I mean.

Next. Wet the brush with water, shake out the excess and using your hand, shape the bristles into a razor edge. Now comes the counter-intuitive part. You have to load the brush edge with paint, even more than you think. Here's the reason why - you can't paint a sharp line with a dry brush because it will be streaky. You want to be able to lay all the paint down you need for a section of line in one pass, which is usually about 8" or 9" before you'll need to reload the brush. But be careful! Don't dip your brush any more than 1/4" or so into the paint.

Now comes time to put paint on the wall. But don't put the brush right to the line you want to paint! Instead, start below the edge and pull up to it at gradual angle then along the edge you want to paint. Once you see the paint starting to fade out it's time to reload. Take your time, don't rush it. Sometimes I'll stick out my pinky like a little old lady drinking tea and use it to steady my hand as I pull the paint line.

It takes some practice but the final results are worth it. The lines are sharper and it saves a lot of set up and clean up time (no need to put up or pull off tape!)