We had a car go down this week.  Since my family lives in car-dependent Tennessee, we had to replace it.  Fun.  My wife and I had already been looking for a good deal.  We were able to find a ten year old car to replace the twenty year old car that broke down.  I...

I often make mistake when I type.  After all, I have Type-O blood.  Heh, heh. But, I recently found a web extension that reads pages aloud. It's a great way to catch errors you might miss.  Whether you are writing for work or school, before hitting publish or before...

I tend to be a bit scatterbrained.  I misplace things often.  Wallet, keys, phone, kids, students, pens, lego bricks.  You know, the usual stuff.    Years ago, I learned a trick from a book.  (I cannot remember the name of the book, as it turns out.)   Whenever I put...

My Favorite Search Engines   These days, I do not rely on Google.  I learned the hard way. Twice Google shut my website down. The second time the company shut my site down, they locked me out until I signed up for a monthly subscription. I wish I had that kind of...

After sending an email last Saturday, many of you wrote to wish me luck opening a new store.  I received this note from Erik: Mr. Dwane,  Just wanted to quickly thank you for all the great tips throughout all these years, and wish you all the best with the opening of...

It’s election season in America.   Soooo… I recommend turning off all social media, all news, and all talk radio.  The 24 hour news cycle is negative by nature.  Negativity sells.  Fear sells. All advertisers know this.  In the newspaper business years ago, there was...

I am running on empty these days.  Pretty tired quite often.  Even now, as I type this tip of the week.  As most of you know, I decided to open a Lego store (Bricks and Minifigs) in Birmingham, Alabama.  Vestavia Hills, actually.  A little south of Birmingham. Long...

If you travel much, even for short trips, it is smart to keep a travel-only toiletry kit.  This is one you never unpack.   Have one set of toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, and so on, in your bathroom at home.  Keep a separate set exclusively for travel. When you...

If you're trying to practice a new language, you can read Wikipedia articles in your target language. You’ll pick up relevant, real-world vocabulary across all kinds of topics. Another bonus: Wiki articles are generally clear and well-structured.  It's a great way to...

To register for classes on my site, you will need an email address.  Sometimes, younger students share a family email address.  Since many sites (mine included) often require unique email addresses, this creates a problem.    There is an easy solution.  You can create...