After college, my wife took a job in New Jersey and spent a year living is Piscataway, a little town in Middlesex County that is thirty-five miles away from New York City. That put it about two and a half hours away from me, a quaint 180 miles through about every single highway bottleneck and toll between Washington D.C. and New York City. I once estimated that the round trip cost of each drive, after fuel and tolls, was easily like $60-70 and we each made this trip nearly every weekend (either me driving up to NJ or her driving down here). So, when put to the decision of whether I’d ever drive home, home being out about mid-way on Long Island, I always chose to fly Southwest from BWI to Islip (MacArthur Airport) and that ticket could be found for only $80 (not anymore though!)

Having that as a baseline, isn’t it amazing that Chinatown buses sell tickets for practically nothing to essentially make that trip? DC/Baltimore to NYC for often less than twenty bucks each way? Some places offer them for less than ten if you take low demand rides (or even $1 if you’re the first ticket!). I’d always known about them but when Megabus started offering free Wi-Fi (reports are that it’s a little slow and depends on how many people are using the bandwidth with you), it really started to catch people’s attention.

The three most popular ones, based on my empirical evidence driving around I-95 and the NJ Turnpike, are:

• Megabus
• ApexBus
• BoltBus

I’m glad that their gaining in popularity because mass transportation is something that needs to be more established in this country. The first thought should always be to try rail or bus, rather than jumping into a car. I always try to find a rail or bus option because I like the flexibility of being able to do something else, rather than just drive.

Has anyone ever taken one and care to share their experiences? I’ve never tried them but they are really tempting given the price (and the trip time isn’t that much longer than driving yourself). My only concern about them is what happens if they break down?

Ben Popken of The Consumerist shared a tip from Janice on how she talks herself out of purchases:

If you find yourself in one of those moods where you just “have to have it”, and end up in the store staring at it, talk to yourself about it. List all the reasons you want it (want, not need), and all the reasons you don’t want or need it…

How do I talk myself out of purchases? I think of the Big Thing I’m saving for and whether I’d rather have the item right in front of me right now or the Big Thing sooner.

A few years ago, the Big Thing was a house. Do I want to go to the bar and have a few beers with my friends or do I want to be able to buy my house sooner? Do I want to buy a new shirt or buy slightly more house? Do I want to buy a new computer or do I want a house in a better neighborhood? The house always won out.

I think that we will always have a Big Thing to save for. If not a house, then for a wedding. If not for a wedding, then for children. If not for children, then it’s for their education or something else they need. There is always something that qualifies as a Big Thing, something that is far more important than an impulsive purchase and that’s how I save money.

How do you talk yourself out of purchases?

I had heard of a suggestion that you could save quite a bit of money by butchering your own chicken, so I thought I’d give it a try. Last week a Purdue Oven Roaster whole chicken was on sale for $0.99, so we picked up a 6.73 lb. chicken for $6.66 (ooooh, creepy!). This was the first time I butchered a chicken, so it took a little longer than it will in the future, and it took me about a half an hour to complete.

Here’s what I got out of a 6.73 lb. oven roaster chicken:

• 10.8 oz. - Wings
• 30.2 oz. - Drumsticks & Sides
• 30.4 oz. - Breasts
• 22.0 oz. - Carcass
• 8.0 oz. - Innards Sack (neck, gizzards, etc.)
• 3.7 oz. - Skin

The total weight of all that was 105.1 oz, meaning the package had 2.58 oz. of plastic wrapping and liquid. So, was it worth it? If we peg the price of chicken breast at $2.99 and the wings, drumsticks, and sides at $1.79 (those are typical prices here), we get a total value of $5.68 for the chicken breast and $4.59 for the wings, drumsticks & sides. On that meat alone, we have a total value of $10.27 - or we saved $3.61 and that’s not even counting everything else. I tossed the skin but used the carcass and the sack of innards to make chicken stock.

$3.61 on $6.66? That’s a return of 54%. Not bad right?

In the end though, the process did take a half hour so from a strictly time is money perspective, it may or may not be worth it to you. Personally, I thought it was a fun experiment.

(Photo: protohiro)

This Devil’s Advocate post attacks one of the of the hallmark money saving ideas for the working professional: bring in your own lunch. The money you save by not buying a $5 - $10 lunch every day amounts to over a thousand dollars a year in savings ($5 x 48 weeks x 5 days = $1200). It’s hardly bad advice and practically unassailable from a financial standpoint, but there are many reasons why you shouldn’t bring in your lunch every day and eat it at your desk.

Socialize & Network

Lunch is one of the best ways to efficiently spend time socializing with your co-workers without sacrificing any productivity. While you can certainly chat over your morning coffee or tea, nothing beats a solid half hour (or hour or more!) of spirited discussion over some sandwiches. Also, while you’re off-site eating lunch, you and your co-workers can drop your guard a little as there’s a smaller chance one of the big wigs is going to wander on by as you discuss the latest presidential debate or the recent bailout bill failure.

Socializing with your co-workers is crucial in today’s working environment. Your demeanor and how well you get along with other people is just as important as the skills you bring to the table. A really qualified worker isn’t going to get the job if he’s difficult to work with and get along with. By networking with your coworkers, you may find yourself being asked to join teams you otherwise wouldn’t have even heard of.

Get Up & Move Around

Sitting at your computer all day isn’t great for you. Have you ever heard of thrombophlebitis?

Thrombo means “clot.” Phlebitis is inflammation of a vein. Thrombophlebitis (throm-bo-fluh-BI-tis) occurs when a blood clot causes inflammation in one or more of your veins, typically in your legs. On rare occasions, thrombophlebitis (often shortened to phlebitis) can affect veins in your arms.

The affected vein may be near the surface of your skin (superficial thrombophlebitis) or deep within a muscle (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT). A clot in a deep vein increases your risk of serious health problems, including a dislodged clot traveling to your lungs and blocking an artery (pulmonary embolism)

In other words, it’s a blood clot in one of your veins that, when dislodged, could go to your heart and give you a heart attack. It happens when you have a prolonged period of inactivity, such as when you’re sitting on a long airplane flight, and experts advise that you take little walks on the plane so that you don’t develop these things in your legs.

You probably don’t sit on a plane much differently than you do at your desk, huh?

You Need A Break

One of the great lessons I learned at college was that it didn’t matter how much time you spent on a project, it was whether or not you could complete it by the deadline. In learning that lesson, I learned the corollary which was you shouldn’t put long continuous hours on a project because you had diminishing returns. The fifth straight hour you spend on a project is never going to be better than your first and your fifteenth hour is going to be far worse than your fifth. After a certain point, you get better returns by simply taking a break (or a nap) and restarting the clock.

Work is the same exact way. You will be far more effective if you take a mid-day break to chat with your friends than if you work straight through. Heck, you don’t even need to go out to lunch, just take a walk around the office (literally around the building, if you can, not just through the hallways) and mull over the problem in your head. Studies have shown that light physical activity stimulates the mind!

There you have it, three entirely legitimate reasons why bringing in your lunch is a horrible horrible idea. Plus, think of the economy, it needs your lunch money more than you do.

(Photo wwny)

As you not doubt have heard or read, the bailout bill never made it out of the House yesterday. The Dow was down seven hundred and seventy-seven points. 777. No very lucky. That’s a lot of points (single largest point loss ever and fourth larges percentage-wise). If you missed the roller-coaster ride, count yourself lucky because you and I and probably everyone you know (certainly most of the people I know anyway), none of us have any control over the matter. So rather than sweat the stuff we can’t control, start concentrating with something you can - being smart with your money.

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting once again with Lynnae of BeingFrugal.net, Steve over at Brip Blap, and Tess Vigeland of Marketplace Money in this interview. In our little discussion, Tess asked us what we thought the future would bring and Lynnae had a great answer. She said that she hopes this will bring out a new era of frugality as people ratchet back their consumer spending and boost their savings. She thinks that our years of excess are coming back to haunt us and hopes this will spur more people to save, rather than spend their last dollar.

Steve responded by saying that while frugality is important, looking to generate more income is another component of wealth management that we shouldn’t forget. While I agree with Steve, I think that we’re in an era where it’ll be far easier to spend less than it is to earn more. While you need to do all things in moderation and in balance (you can’t just be frugal, just as you can’t just focus on earning more money), right now frugality is the easier thing to focus on.

Being frugal is something that anyone can do and it can help you manage your fear of the economic unknown. No one can say where the stock market will go tomorrow, but you have all the say in where your next dollar will go. Will it go to your bank account where you can earn interest or will it go to your favorite store in the mall?

You don’t have to make your detergent or bake your bread or split two-ply toilet paper or buy a toothpaste roller to squeeze out ever last ounce, there are plenty of simple and fun things you can do to save money. Try cooking more meals and eating out less. Try line drying your clothes rather than using the dryer. Heck, if you need tips, check out Lynnae’s blog because it’s chock full of them! Or read the Festival of Frugality every week for great tips from all of the blogosphere’s frugal bloggers.

Control what you can, let the rest go where they’ll go.

It’s been quite a while since the last garden update and I’m happy to report that our total haul of vegetables is now a respectable 174.5 oz. according to our trust free Stamps.com postage scale.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 22 oz. Roma Tomatoes
• 3.9 oz Patio Tomatoes
• 73.9 oz. Beefsteak Tomatoes
• 1.4 oz Green Peppers
• 8.8 oz. Red Peppers
• 61.5 oz. Eggplants
• 3 oz. Cayenne

The total value, according to recent vegetable prices, is about $20 compared to about $98 spent on planters, plants, and soil (this doesn’t include labor or water).At first, when I saw how many ounces we’d gotten, I thought we would easily break even… obviously I don’t know how much stuff costs at the per ounce level because we’re only about a quarter of the way there. 174.5 ounces sounds very impressive but it’s really not a lot compared to the hauls I’ve seen others get.

I think the biggest handicap for us is the fact that everything is in planters. The tomato plants have a tremendous amount of potential that simply is wasted on pots. While the pots are pretty big, nothing beats the ground and letting tomatoes grow to their full potential.

But, you play the cards you’re dealt and so far we’re doing pretty good as novice gardeners. (There are plenty of everything hanging off the plants, so we haven’t finished harvesting yet)

If you’ve ever walked through your grocery store’s meat aisle, you’ve probably seen those “Save $2.00″ or “Save $1.00) (or more) stickers on packages of meat. Those are typically put on by the butcher for quick sale because the product is nearing or at the Sell By date. Take advantage of those quick sale discounts by stopping by your grocery store on the way home and having a few standard recipes handy.

Our Standby Recipes

Chicken: Our standby chicken recipe, when we don’t feel like grilling it, is either a chicken stir-fry or chicken marsala. Chicken stir-fry is a cinch, simply cut it up, grab some veggies, and stir it all up with some rice or noodles into some yummy goodness. Chicken marsala requires a little more work - lightly bread the chicken and hope you have some marsala wine handy. If it’s summer time, you can always just put on some BBQ sauce and grill that sucker.

Beef: The cut of beef will dictate what you can do with it but we typically buy the more tender cuts that require less cooking time if we plan on eating it that day. If not, a great route is to buy the tougher cuts and make use of a slow cooker (if you have one) the next day. Slow cookers can turn even the toughest meats into a nice tender bite after 5 hours of stewing. Also, shish kabobs are always a fan favorite.

Pork: The first meal my wife ever made for me was a recipe she absolutely loved, it was BBQ pork chops. The BBQ sauce is a homemade recipe and you essentially grill the pork chops with garlic and onions and then slather on the sauce to finish. Very tasty. If the meat on sale are ribs or southern style ribs (they look like ribs but have no bones), put on some BBQ sauce and pop them in the over. Ribs are easy.

Most people will have standby recipes after a few years of cooking on their own, but if you don’t, check the internet. Our favorite site for recipes is allrecipes.com, chances are you can just buy the meat, come home, and figure out what to turn it into afterwards.

Eww Brown Beef!

One thing that turns people off to buying “old” beef is that it may no longer have that beautiful pink color. If the beef is brown, rather than a bright pink, that’s not necessarily a bad thing and not an indicator of spoilage. It’s the result of a pigment known as myoglobin. On freshly cut beef, it’s deoxymyoglobin (deoxy, no oxygen) and a dark purplish/red color. After a little while of air exposure, it forms oxymyoglobin, which is that typical bright red color. If air isn’t available or if it sits for a few days, it becomes metmyoglobin which is grayish brown. This is why you’ll find ground beef is bright red on the outside and that grayish brown on the inside, that inside part doesn’t get enough air to form oxymyoglobin.

Brown meat is perfectly fine. (Brown meat with spots? not fine.) If you’re concerned, ask the butcher.

Use Immediately

Finally, one word of advice, you’ll want to use that meat either that night or the next. Every day after that and you run the risk of spoilage because that particular cut has been “out in the open” already for quite some time. We always use the meat within a day and have never had a problem.

(Photo: suviko)

Melinda Fulmer and her family of four went from a $250/wk grocery bill down to a $105.03 bill when they tried to spend only $100 a week on food. They had some really good lessons learned from their little test, as well some advice if you’re looking to do the same, but there were a few thoughts I had after reading the article that they didn’t mention.

Here are some lessons I learned from her challenge:

• It doesn’t hurt to try. $100 a week for four amounts to $1.19 per meal per person. Anyone with an elementary grasp of math knows that $1.19 is not a lot and you might be tempted to give up right there. For Melinda and her family, that was less than half of what they normally spent. They were able to do it, why can’t you?
• They saved $150 that week. She was able to get within spitting distance of $100 a week but it was clear that wasn’t sustainable week after week, given her ground rules. If you were to take those away, perhaps she could’ve by growing some of her own vegetables and shopping at bulk discount stores. However, she saved $150 that week and that’s something she could do every month - that’s a savings of $1,800 a year. Granted, it does simply shift some expenses from a $100/wk to a $250/wk, but you still would save a large percentage of that $1,800 a year.
• $100/wk is too restricting, a rolling monthly limit makes more sense. In this experiment, they went with an artificial $100/week limit when food often lasts longer than that. If you truly wanted to save money, using a rolling four week limit of $400 is probably more realistic than a weekly limit. They made mention of this in the later parts of the article when discussing stockpiling.
• Use canned goods when the entree isn’t a single piece of something. I wasn’t sure how to title this lesson but it refers to the idea of using canned fish or chicken if the fish or chicken isn’t the headline entree, as in a casserole. It’d be tough to use canned chicken or tuna if you just wanted to prepare a piece of the stuff, but if you are integrating it into a dish then it’s not a bad idea.

If you’re seriously considering doing this, The Hill Billy Housewife has two menus that can provide much needed inspiration. The first is her $45 menu, which is a weekly menu of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks that will cost you $45 a week. The list includes a scheduled menu, along with nutritional information, as well as a full shopping list. The menu doesn’t assume you have something already, which makes it great, and the nutritional information is a great touch. There is also a $70 version.

The menu doesn’t strike me as something you can eat every since week for a year, but it can be a good source of inspiration if you’re looking to trim from your food budget. Also, the prices were gathered in Feb 2006 so it’s likely a little pricer than $45 or $70 week now.

(Photo: benjaminkrause)

One of the most fascinating stories I read in Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely, was that of Tahitian Black Pearls. It’s amazing because what happened with black pearls has happened with so many other products through the ages, you’d think we’d learn to recognize it… but we don’t! While I won’t reveal the whole tale, Emily Bobrow’s review, which appeared in the New York Observer, remarked that in Predictably Irrational…

We learn that James Assael, a postwar ‘pearl king,’ had little luck in unloading the gunmetal fruits of black-lipped oysters when he first introduced them to America in the 1970’s. But then he convinced his buddy Harry Winston to display a string of these lovelies in his Fifth Avenue window, together with an outrageous price tag. The rest is history.

For those who don’t know, black pearls are supposed to be very expensive.

The story of the rise of the black pearl is an example of an idea Ariely hits upon frequently in the book. Again, from that review:

“We don’t have an internal value meter that tells us how much things are worth,” Mr. Ariely explains. Instead, we rely on context and relativity (is this scarf better or worse than the scarf sitting next to it?), which makes us gullible consumers.

Are there more examples out in the wild? There are plenty.

Bottled Water

This is by far my favorite example because it’s one that only recently became popular. Bottled water is one of the most ridiculous marketing inventions of the last ten years, even more ridiculous than a Pet Rock. Bottled water, in blind taste tests, is no better than tap water despite the ridiculous price difference. You can buy a thousand gallons of tap for the price of a single bottle. Americans spend $30 billion a year on bottled water, according to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

In countries where you cannot drink tap water, bottled water is more reasonably priced. My wife and I recently went to China and found that bottled water was mere cents compared to dollars here in the US. While you have to account for cost of living, the main reason bottled water was cheaper there was because it’s a necessity rather than a perk or status symbol. You couldn’t drink the tap water, you had to buy bottled water. Americans overpay significantly for bottled water.

If you buy bottled water, I’m sorry but you’re a fool. If you like the convenience, buy a reusable bottle. You save yourself some money and you help out the earth.

“Enhanced/Fortified” Water

If bottled water was the first listed, enhanced water has to be close behind it. These are bottle waters fortified or enhanced with something special, like 50 Cent’s vitamin sweat or Michael Phelps’ pool water. Unfortunately, they’re also nearly all marketing hype. Check this out from the Consumerist.

Diamonds

Okay enough with the water, after water comes one of the biggest scams ever - Diamonds. Diamonds are forever and they’re rare, at least that’s what DeBeers would like you to believe. The reason they are rare is because the DeBeers diamond cartel owns practically all the mines and has inflated their prices by restricting supply (they recently settled a diamond class action lawsuit regarding this).

We can make perfect diamonds in a lab, so why are nature-made diamonds so expensive? DeBeers & Marketing FTW!

Wines & Spirits

Wines and spirits, and the beverage market as a whole, is just one big marketing machine churning out one brand after another. It’s been shown that the more expensive the bottle and the fancier the label, the more we end up enjoying it and the more likely we will pay. We have been conditioned to believe, especially in wine and spirits, that the more expensive bottle is the better one because many of us aren’t wine experts. Price is thus our proxy.

Dr Rangel gave his volunteers sips of what he said were five different wines made from cabernet sauvignon grapes, priced at between $5 and $90 a bottle. He told each of them the price of the wine in question as he did so. Except, of course, that he was fibbing. He actually used only three wines. He served up two of them twice at different prices.

The scanner [it was a functional magnetic-resonance imaging device that showed blood flow to parts of the brain] showed that the activity of the medial orbitofrontal cortices [an area of the brain that previous experiments have shown is responsible for registering pleasant experiences] of the volunteers increased in line with the stated price of the wine.

The pricier the wine, the more we enjoyed it. Crazy huh?

Coffee

For the longest time, Starbucks was the darling of many an MBA case study as being able to take a commodity type good, coffee, and turn it into a rich experience people would be willing to pay $4 a cup for. You can make coffee at home for a few cents per cup but people were willing to drive to a Starbucks in order to enjoy a $4 cup of coffee given a fancy name… all because of marketing.

How did they do it? They made Starbucks a brand about coffeehouse experience, rather than the coffee, and people bought into it. Don’t get me wrong, I have much respect for Starbucks and what they’ve been able to accomplish but the people paying for coffee each morning on their way to work are buying into the experience and not the coffee. You could argue that Starbucks coffee is better, but is it 100x better? 50x better? They successfully made the purchase more about the experience than the commodity good they were selling. When a business does that, they win.

Any Others?

Do you know of anything that comes to mind that fits this list? It seems as though everything on here was either jewelry (pearls, diamonds) or beverages (water, coffee, liquor), are there any others that I missed? I thought about throwing the iPhone on here, because that certainly benefited from marketing, but electronic components are expensive and their business plan is to profit from the recurring monthly service fees. Let me know!

(Photo: Black Pearls by jacbt, Diamond Ring by salreus, Wine Aisle by pgoyette)

Every few months, about a dozen friends of mine get together for an event we aptly called Scotch Night. The idea behind scotch night is that it offers us the opportunity to try a variety of premium scotches on the cheap. Rather than paying $60-$100 a bottle on something you may or may not like based on its region, you pay into a pot or bring your own bottle and sample others. You in effect pay $60 - $100 to try as many scotches as there are people; all the while hanging out with friends.

There are really only two rules to our scotch nights. Either you bring your own bottle to share or you chip in about $20 to pay for a communal bottle of something we’ve never had. The point of the Scotch Nights isn’t to save money and get wrecked (a sign we are getting older!), it’s to sample premium Scotches without breaking the bank in doing so.

15-Second Primer on Scotch

If you’re planning your own scotch night and know little about scotch, here’s a quick primer. Scotch is whisky that’s made in Scotland, whisky is a generic term for alcoholic beverages distilled from fermented grain mash and aged in wooden (oak) casks. In order for it to be called a Scotch, it has to be distilled in a Scottish distillery, the grain used has to be malted barley, it must mature in Scotland in oak casks for at least three years and one day, and finally it cannot be bottled at less than 40% alcohol by volume. Scotch can come in four types as well - single malt, vatted/pure malt, blended and single grain. Single means the malt came from one distillery, the blended/vatted/pure designation means the malt came from multiple distilleries.

6 Classic Single Malts

Ok, now you have the chemistry (sort of), where do you start? I think you start with single malts and with some of the “6 Classic Single Malts.” According to the United Distillers and Vintners (which is a subsidiary of a spirits company Diageo and not an independent trade organization), there are 6 Classic Single Malts (their names are preceded by the region they come from and they all appear to be Diageo brands):

• Islands - Talisker
• Islay - Lagavulin
• Highland - Dalwhinnie
• Lowland - Glenkinchie
• Speyside - Cragganmore
• West Highland - Oban

From here, I would find some options from those regions (you don’t have to necessarily go with Lagavulin if you want an Islay, there are several options to chose from (Ardbeg, Bowmore, Caol Ila, Laphroaig). Each region will have different characteristics (Islays are known to have a stronger peaty component and also a bit of salt and iodine).

How important is age? The older a scotch is, the smoother and less “bity” it will be. Younger scotches will seem a bit rougher and the alcohol component will be sharp. If you’ve ever let wine “breathe,” it’s a similar idea. It’s the reason why some prefer their scotch on the rocks (with ice) or with a splash of water, it’s to get that heat to open up a little. Also, the age refers to the time spent in the cask so you’ll get a stronger flavor as the years go by. I think the best option is to try them all in their earliest years (or a few steps up) to get a good basis for comparison. You may find that the flavor components of an 18 year Macallan is too strong for you and you prefer the 8 year; you won’t know unless you try it.

Lessons Learned

Scotches, like wines, have different subtleties and flavors and you often have to sample a few to get a feel for the types you like. I prefer to drink peatier & smokier scotches in the beginning of the night and then transition to smoother, crisper scotch towards the end. My favorites are Islays (Lagavulin) start (smokier and peatier scotches) and transitioning to Macallan and Glenlivit (both are Speyside scotches) towards the end of the night.

Like wine, scotches go well with chocolate. I’m not an expert but I know that darker chocolates work better with smokier, peatier scotches (see this article on chocolate and Laphroaig, another scotch I’m a fan of).

Skip anything cask strength unless you’re going to put it on the rocks or splash some water in it, it just tastes like burning. I bought a bottle of Macallan Cask Strength and while it was pretty good, the high alcohol content pretty much dominated a lot of the flavors. It looks cool (comes in a fancy red box and all), but go with one that’s been pulled down out of the stratosphere.

It helps to keep notes, as dorky as it might sound. The problem with trying a bunch of scotches in one night is that your memory begins to fade. While you might remember broader preferences (you like peatier scotches, don’t like sherry casks, etc.), it’ll be harder to remember specifics. Of the Islays, do you prefer Bowmore, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, or Caol Ila? Did you try Bruichladdich or Bunnahabhain?

When keeping notes, don’t stick to the terms you think fancy schmancy scotch drinkers use to describe scotch. I’ve used the term peaty, smoky, iodine, salty, etc., you don’t have to. While those may be scotch-describing terms, describe them in a way that makes sense to you. Part of the popularity of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV is in how he describes wines in plain English. I’ve seen an episode where a wine was described as having a component of “Hello Kitty eraser.” Snooty wine people don’t know what Hello Kitty eraser smells like. Use whatever terms make sense to you and will evoke the same response. If a scotch tastes like the smell of honey the moment you burn it, then write that down.

If it weren’t for these scotch nights, I wouldn’t have tried as many scotches as I’ve had. I wouldn’t have developed as much of an interest in it either because, frankly, paying $60-$80 a bottle isn’t something that’s in my genes. I recognize that the bottle can last a long time but it’s a significant up-front cost to “try out” something, you know? With these scotch nights, I’ve been able to try out a bunch of different scotches and find the ones I enjoy.

(Photo: batcave13)