Salem Craft and Vendor Show Goers and You!

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Short Version:

  • One month free at the $1 level at our Patreon.
  • Use this link.

Longer Version:

As part of our visit to the Salem Craft and Vendor Show on March, 29, 2025, I thought I would invite everyone who saw us at the show, who was not a member of our Patreon, a chance to see what we offer. Then I asked why should I limit it to just people at the show. So, if you wanted to see what happens with our Patreon every month but you just haven’t had the courage or spare dollar to join, use this link to get one month free at the $1 level.

What Do You Get?

It’s a dollar, so we’re not giving you the world. However, the $1 level allows you to access all of our posts and almost all of our past freebies. I say “almost” because I’m not sure if it is actually “all.” Generally, I think if you’re willing to support us monetarily, you should get access to everything, but there may have been a time when I thought something was more important for those who subscribe for more. You’ll see the posts for Advent Calendars and Penguin Christmas Train.

Every month I try to write a post about what happened the last month. However, for the next three months, I have creativity posts written, including The Eureka Moment, the Myth of the Muse, and Where Do Ideas Come From? More may follow as I have time.

Every Patreon member at the dollar level or higher gets their name in my latest book if they are a member when that book is uploaded to Amazon.

What Do You Have to Lose?

Nothing as far as I can tell. You help us move forward creatively. You get access to exclusive content, like the Advance Reader Copy of my next book. And if you don’t like what you see on our Patreon, it didn’t cost you anything. We hope you’ll stick around. But in order to stick around, you have to take that first step and join our Patreon. Thank you.

Fine Print: Limited to the first 300 people who sign up. Current Penguinators are ineligible for this promotion; however, we would love for you to comment on why you support us at Patreon. Without you, we couldn’t do half of what we do.

‘Spellsinger’ Weaves Novel Song of Creativity

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Editor’s Note: This article uses affiliate links. If you click them and buy something, our website gets a small amount from each sale. It will not cost you anything extra.

I found a copies of the first two books in the Spellsinger series and got caught up in it. An American college student, who takes the name Jon-Tom, finds himself transported into a fantasy world. The animals dress in clothes, talk and form the basis of society. There are some humans, too, but (at least in the first two books) almost every being is smaller than the over six-foot tall man. Humans typically top out at about five feet tall. There’s a dragon. There’s magic; that’s how he got there after all. There is also some adult words and situations. I’ve been reading about 50 pages a day in the series.

The best part of the story is that Jon-Tom is a Spellsinger, which means he can only cast spells through his music. These spells rarely turn out the way he thinks they should, especially since modern concepts, like cars, need to be translated into the place and time where he is. While reading, I keep thinking about all the songs that he could use for certain situations.

When I’m not reading the book, I often think about what songs would do what if they triggered magic. Of course, I take my cues from the book. A song about the aforementioned car summoned a snake to ride on.

Jon-Tom’s troubles include not being able to control the magic. He is a newbie after all. More importantly, he often can’t think of what songs to sing. His music tastes before arriving in this new world were heavy metal though he knows other genres as well.

Jon-Tom is told several times that the lyrics aren’t necessarily important. He needs to concentrate on what he wants from the magic. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

If it were me, once I finally had time, I would write down the lyrics to the songs I knew and study them for possible effects. Disco Inferno seems like it would be a good song for burning things down, or you could go with Burning down the House. We Didn’t Start the Fire would be interesting. It could keep people from starting fires; it could summon some of the things it mentions. I fear Elvis’ Burnin’ Love would create the wrong kind of conflagration.

Money is always an issue, and most songs are about how it’s bad. Money Makes the World Go ‘Round might be one to use. If you needed nickels, you might be able to go with Playground in My Mind. Weird Al’s Eat It should be enough to conjure a feast, and his Fat might help in a fighting scenario.

I’d probably have to rely heavily on Huey Lewis and the News, Disney, and Golden Oldies. It’s the possibilities that make the Spellsinger series so intriguing.

What would you do if you found yourself in the same situation? Which songs would be you goto music? Leave a comment below.

Blog Posts and Web Consultations: How Can I Help You?

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Are you a small business that has difficulty keeping its web content up to date? Are you looking for someone you can trust to help you mold your web presence into something better? I offer blog posts and web consultations to help move you to the next level in Internet presence.

Blog Posts

Everyone talks about AI, and people are using it to build their web footprint. However, this may not be the best way to go about getting your blogs seen. Some sources say that Google prioritizes good content regardless of how it was written. Others have said that search engines demote AI-written blog posts and prefer organic written posts. Either way, I can help.

You likely don’t have the time to commit to writing your own blog posts on a timely basis. To keep your audience engaged, you need to have a schedule that you can follow. Posting the same day on a weekly or bi-weekly basis will keep your blog relevant and in front of your audience. I can help with that. I can write one post or several throughout the year.

These posts will be informative, researched, and optimized for search engines. I have written thousands of SEO posts over the years, and now, I am ready to provide that expertise to you. If you would like to see some samples of my writing, check out the archive at Asgard Alaska. The articles with Ivar in the by-line are the ones I wrote.

Web Consultations

If you have several websites or social media that you use, and you want to improve their synergistic performance, I can help with that. Sometimes, it’s as simple as building links between your YouTube channel and your website. Sometimes, it’s a little more complicated.

I have worked with Paul Draper and Armin Hirmer to improve their web footprints. Let’s see how I can help you with your web metrics.

Not a Quick Fix

Blog posts and web consultations aren’t a quick fix. Instead, they offer a way to slowly grow your business while presenting a better face to the public. If you want organic traffic that builds on your pay-per-click ads, you need to have great content. That’s where I can help.

Contact Info

Contact me if you’re interested in moving forward with blog posts or web consultations. Leave a comment below. Thank you. If you aren’t looking for a writer or web consultant, find out how you can help us. (This article has been optimized for the words “blog posts and web consultations.”)

How Can You Help Us?

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Since I got laid off one month after paying to relocate for a “promotion,” people have asked how they can help. I don’t have a real answer for that because I’m still in the middle of trying to figure out what the hell happened. I have a couple of smaller answers that could help, though.

Contacts in Eugene, Oregon

If you know a business owner or a hiring manager for a business in Eugene, put them in touch with me. I’m not sure that any of my friends live I Eugene, but if you do, or you have in the past, and you still have contacts, now is the time to help me network. My last two jobs came because I knew someone who knew someone who worked there.

Outside of Oregon

Alternatively, if you know of a job that is remote or would be willing to pay moving expenses, I would be willing to consider that as well. I already have a couple of people step up and offer me remote writing jobs for blog posts and website organization. For physical locations, we’d prefer some place with a beach, and possibly, some place outside the U.S.

Purchase from Amazon through Penguinate

If you’re already buying from Amazon, use one of our affiliate links to make the purchase. It doesn’t cost you anything other than a little additional time, and it could make a huge difference depending on how many people make their purchases through the links on our website.

Join Our Patreon

Mom said I should think about setting up a GoFundMe, but Patreon is my version thereof. We currently have 10 members! When you join at any paid level, you get some benefits – the most recent instructions on how to fold a cootie catcher and a Viking Cootie Catcher template. The last two Decembers, I’ve done Virtual Advent Calendars, though this year’s calendar did have a physical component for those of my members who requested one. Other benefits include 10% off any purchase at our live events. The next one is scheduled for Mar. 29, 2025 in Salem, Oregon.

Adopt a Penguin or Bear

We have a lot of penguins and a couple of bears for adoption. They are available at Etsy, or send me a message. They will also be available at our Salem gig in March 2025.

Buy a Book

I’ve written 15 books. If you haven’t completed your collection, now would be a fantastic time. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can even read them for free and I still get a little bit of a boost.

Join and Use InboxDollars

A couple of people I know have joined InboxDollars using one of my links, but they never actually used the site. The thing is, we get 10% of whatever you earn. It doesn’t come out of your earnings, so you still get the full amount. I wrote a handy little guide to try to get the most of the program. In January 2025, I was hitting it hard, and I made $40.

Bookmark, Visit and Share Penguinate.com

The mere act of you showing up and reading this page is helpful. I have monetized the content as well as I can, given my resources. If I get a lot of people reading articles, making comments and sharing content, it would help improve the viability of this website as a possible revenue stream. I also write for Asgard Alaska; a visit to the website and share of their Viking content would be greatly appreciated.

I appreciate everyone and the outpouring of support on Facebook and through other contact points. I am sorry I don’t have a better way for you to help at the moment, but maybe, if we all pull together, we can help each other by changing the system that allows people to be thrown away like used trash any time a company isn’t making “enough” of a profit. I have been trying to come up with a story that would illustrate such a society, but there’s no conflict or profit in utopian literature unless I can somehow juxtapose it with the current reality while still showing that utopia could be attainable. Of course, we don’t have to go full utopia, just moving toward a more caring society that doesn’t allow bullies, sociopaths and idiots to run things would be an improvement.

False Wisdom: Teach Man to Fish

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One of the items that was damaged in the move was our toaster. If we want to toast anything, we have to hold the toaster handle down until the item is the right degree of toasted. It’s not convenient, but it works.

One Saturday, a little while ago, I told Jenya we could go get donuts from Cal’s, we could try Black Rock Coffee Bar, or we could get a toaster. We opted for Black Rock Coffee Bar and spent the last of our credit reserves. The coffee was good, but the total for drinks, breakfast sandwiches, and tip was close to $30. A toaster would’ve been $35 at Bi-Mart.

When we got home, Jenya said, “Rather than buying a fishing pole, we bought fish. Well, we don’t have any frozen waffles anyway.”

Wisdom of Our Ancestors

That got me to thinking about the wisdom of our ancestors, and I’m beginning to believe they were deliberately dense and obtuse or they preferred pithy sayings over the truth. In this case, “Give a man a fish and eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime” is demonstrably false.

First, you need to understand when the saying is generally employed. There’s some theoretical discussion about what to do with the hungry, as if they were a group made up of the same-type of individuals, and someone will say the best way to deal with them is to give them the means to feed themselves, which sounds great because “teach a man to fish and he eats for e lifetime.” Unfortunately, what sounds good and what works in reality are two different things.

It isn’t enough to learn to fish, the person must also learn to clean and prepare the fish. When people are hungry, they don’t learn as well. That’s why school food programs exist. Depending on the amount of time it takes for someone to learn how to fish before they actually catch a fish, they could starve to death.

Catching a fish requires resources. You must have a rod, reel, fishing line, hook, bait, bobbers, a fishing license, and a place to fish, often in the form of a boat, or waders to get into a river. These things aren’t free. Even if you reduce it to the bare minimum, you’ll still need a hook, line, and sinker (which inspired another pithy saying about gullibility). You can dig your own bait, find used dental floss left by some scofflaw camper, but you still need a hook.

There are other ways to catch fish, but they all involve getting wet: weave a Native American fish trap, tickle a fish into biting your hand, or just being fast enough to grab the fish and throw it on shore. These will still require proper clothing.

However, education isn’t enough. Even the most experienced fishers come up empty on their fishing trips. A man might eat for a lifetime after learning to fish, but he has to be in the right area – a place where there are fish all year round.  And he won’t eat reliably every day.

Compassion of Today

If you want people to not be hungry you have to do both: feed them when they are hungry and teach them the skills they need to feed themselves. Unfortunately, those skills are no longer the skills of our ancestors. Some people have had the skills to feed themselves, but circumstances have conspired against them. They were laid off, so their company could be more profitable. They had medical bills that bankrupted them. They went through a rough patch and were never able to recover. The list for hunger is infinite, but the cure is easy. After all, there’s a story about loaves and fishes that many people believe, and for those that do, that story should serve as the example of what to do with the hungry.

The Holiday Fix Up Movie

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On the Holiday Fix Up (affiliate link), Sam is the host of her own renovation television show, but a new face at her studio is taking the limelight of the yearly Christmas show. Sam’s producer tells her she needs to show her more personal side, and she can do so this Christmas while she has time off from her normal hosting duties. Sam doesn’t know what she should do, but news from her hometown brings her back to where the show started and where her heart was broken before she left for the big time. The news? The Inn where Sam grew up had a tree fall on it, and it won’t be able to hold the Harbor Fest this year. Unless Sam saves the day… and works with her ex.

Sam arrives in town with 10 days to complete the renovation. She goes to her friend’s bakery. She alienates the only other person working on the renovation (her ex). They participate in a snowball fight and a pie judging contest. I was concerned and a little stressed. When are they going to get the renovations done. Then they had an argument about whether they should use the “okay” builder’s material or whether they should use better materials that would take more time.

I’m no builder. I have no idea how long a job like that should have taken, and then they added on an arbor and a special made mantel piece while also talking about their past relationship I very emotional, walk away terms. Seriously, the only way this renovation could’ve been finished was with some Christmas magic and maybe some elves who worked while the humans were off doing human things.

Of course, the movie has some of its own ideas about what makes Christmas great – the connections that people when they put down their phones, but this gets undermined when they also make connections through their phones. Still, in spite of the stress, it was a fine Christmas romance as far as those types of movies are concerned.

Now, you’ve probably already judged me, and that’s okay. I can watch whatever movies I feel like whenever I want. If I want to watch “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on Easter, it’s well within my rights. But if it makes you feel better, Orthodox Christmas is on Jan. 7. We chose the Holiday Fix Up because it has Maria Menounos of Noovie fame, she plays the friend with the bakery.

How to Make Money with InboxDollars – 2025 Edition

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I looked at my most recent blog post on InboxDollars, and it was woefully out of date. This is an updated post with information that was correct as of Dec. 29, 2024.

InboxDollars is a website that pays its users based on what they do on the site. You can make money with games, magic receipt redemptions, surveys, offers, web searches, Bingo and other promotions. Through December 29, 2024, I had made $199.69. For the time I’ve been on InboxDollars, I made $1009.00. It’s not riches, but it’s not chump change. But how can you make the same or more than I have?

The Daily List

The easiest way to make some small coins is to look at your daily list and complete it. I usually just made it through the first level of completion, which on some days included Answer and Learn, Add a Magic Receipts Deal, Deal of the Day, Daily Games, and Attempt a Survey. Some days, Daily Games is replaced by Earn from Offers. If you complete these five activities, you get the Scratch and Win boost from Answer and Learn, the attempt at a survey, and the Daily Games, and you get the two or three cent bonus from completing those first five objectives. It doesn’t take long to do these activities, and over the course of a month if you do these every day, you’ll have at least 60 cents if nothing else went right.

Answer and Learn is one, multiple choice poll question. Click on the appropriate bubble and you’re done. Click on Deal of the Day from the Daily List; visiting that page is all you have to do.

Magic Receipt Deal

The Magic Receipt Deal is also one click after you get to the appropriate page. Just select one of the deals, any one of the deals, and you’re done as far as the Daily List is concerned.

However, Magic Receipts can offer you much more than just the completion of your Daily List. If you save your receipts from places where you normally shop, you can earn cash back on the things you buy. The store has to be registered with InboxDollars, so most independent shops are out. However, chain grocery stores like Safeway are available.

You’ll need to take a picture of the receipt and upload it to the site. Look for the possible deals available, and choose them. Some deals are so good, you might be able to get the items for free. Just be sure to read the fine print. One year near Halloween, I got paid to get One Hundred Grand chocolate bars from Walgreens. Walgreens had them on sale and the redemption prize for two bars was about two cents more than the bars cost. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s nice when it does.

Daily and Free Games

I usually choose Solitaire for the Daily Games. They have some other choices, and they’re in the QuickPlay section on the Games page. Basically, you can play until the Scratch and Earn line has flashed and registered your play or until the game tells you that you’ve earned as much Scratch and Earn progress as you’re going to get that day. I usually stop in the shortest time possible, but I have played until I go the warning when I was trying to get through the Scratch and Earn faster.

The other games on this page will allow you to earn money, too. They are time sinks, so you’ll have to grind it out if you want to make any serious coin. Just make sure you’re choosing games that have a bonus with them and that you will enjoy. Also, watch for the time limits involving the various awards.

Earn from Offers

There are a lot of offers on this page, including the game offers. When I’m trying to make a quick cent, I go to the Content Discovery where I find something that allows me to look at an article for one cent. This is the easiest way to fulfill the Daily List requirement. It usually involves three or four clicks and a little time on the web page. Make sure to read the conditions and be ready to click on a second choice if the first one doesn’t pay out.

Attempt a Survey

The surveys are the bugaboo of the entire system because you never know what you’re going to get. Attempting a survey is easy. Find a survey you like and click on the link. The survey gets registered as attempted as soon as you get to the new website.

Completing a survey is much more difficult. You are likely to qualify for one in five surveys or fewer, which means that you’ve spent the time to look at four surveys and answer their preliminary questions only to get kicked back to the InboxDollars site. This will give you more Scratch and Win progress, but it will take up your time. Most surveys don’t pay minimum wage, so it’s important to understand how much time you’re willing to put into getting a $1 and whether 20 cents for five minutes is better than 75 cents for 20 minutes. If you’re just burning daylight, and can do them, it’s mostly no harm no foul.

Scratch and Earn

The Scratch and Win bar across the top is probably the most exciting thing about InboxDollars. As it progresses, it gives you the opportunity to win bonuses (not so great unless you use them) or up to $100. I haven’t won the $100, yet, but I have gotten 12 cents. It’s important not to miss this bar because it will only accumulate to the end, so you need to scratch the card before you earn more progress. I always let this fill up because it seems the best way to win $100. I haven’t done the math, though.

Billy Button

The Billy Button is a search engine add-on that will direct you to possible InboxDollars deals when you are on other web sites. I resisted adding this until a couple of days ago because I don’t want anyone tracking my wed browser history. But the Billy Button is needed if you’re going to complete your Daily task list to the fullest. It’s also useful for the Bingo game.

Web Searches

This is where I stack up the progress bar. There’s a limit to the number of searches you can do a day, but that’s okay. Searches not only fill up the Scratch and Win progress bar, they also can give you a bonus if you complete enough days in a row. If I need to search something, I go to InboxDollars first.

Bingo Game

Every month or so, InboxDollars has a Bingo game. It’s listed under the More tab. You’ll get a small amount of money for visiting sites from the InboxDollars Bingo board page and completing that line. You’ll get more money the more squares you fill. Another line is activating the Billy Button at certain websites. Completing a search, redeeming offers, and logging into the InboxDollars App are some of the other items that get listed.

Get Others to Join

Another way to earn money is to get others to join using your Refer Friends code. You’ll get a bonus if they make a certain amount of money in a short time frame, and you’ll get a 10 percent stipend based on what they make. Obviously, if you could 100 active people to make $10 a month, you’d get $100 a month. I haven’t gotten there, yet, but maybe you will!

Why He-Man is Essential for Gen-X and Beyond

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The person, who created the meme with He-Man, M.A.S.K., The Transformers, and Thundercats captioning it with “Two have to go,” doesn’t understand the history of cartoons and children’s television. (This article uses affiliate leads. If you order from an affiliate lead, our website gets a tiny stipend. But it doesn’t cost you anything.) Brian C. Baer’s book “How He-Man Mastered the Universe” makes it clear that without He-Man, none of the others exist. In fact, there are whole series that would never exist.

The difference between He-Man and every show that came before it was that He-Man was designed to sell toys. Other children’s shows had toys made because the show was successful. He-Man was successful because it sold toys.

In the early 1980s and before, Action for Children’s Television (ACT) fought to keep advertising out of children’s television. They wanted TV for kids that was wholesome, educational, non-violent, and non-commercial. When Reagan became president in 1980s, children’s television was deregulated, and ACT’s work during the 12 years before was undone. Still, they were a powerful group that the networks didn’t want to upset. He-Man would be the first take them on.

He-Man’s first concession was its lack of real violence. For a sword and sorcery show, there is a surprising lack of death. There are some punching scenes, mostly when He-Man punches his fist at the screen and the character he is punching falls down. Much of the violence is directed against robots and creatures rather than humanoids. The larger concession was the moral at the end of every episode. The networks wouldn’t bite on the show, so it was sold to independent stations and became a huge hit.

With all the talk of a new He-Man movie and its casting choices, it’s important to understand just what He-Man is, how it came about, and how it absolutely destroyed the rules of children’s television. You might even want to learn more about the movie that went bankrupt before it could be finished and how it became a cult classic despite its flaws. Brian C. Baer’s “How He-Man Mastered the Universe” is an essential read for any Gen Xer and He-Man enthusiast.

More than a Merry Christmas Wish

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I want to write something for this Christmas that will make everything better. A fiction, a feel-good story, a joke, even… But I realize that there is nothing I can do or say to make anything better, not for the majority of people, anyway. My message would never reach them. Even if they were able to access it, find it through the mass of Internet mis/information, it wouldn’t penetrate their hardened hearts and wispy souls on the verge of being sucked out by the incoming tide.

Even for my small circle, making things better is little more than a pipe dream. I tried to spread some joy at the beginning of the month but was then stifled by time and lack of financial resources.

Still, with much of my heart, because I recognize my own darkness, my own inability to overcome my human failings, and my own very real wishes for the people who make life harder for the rest of us (and it isn’t the homeless guy on the street, the undocumented, or the poor), I want to make life easier for all of us. I’ve specifically avoided writing things that were dystopian in nature. I’ve tried to keep things positive, and I’ve tried to dwell on my mixed blessings. When a seemingly good thing ends up being a sucker punch, it can be difficult maintaining the sense that the good win and we all get our just desserts, especially when viewing those who make the news.

So here I am, at the end of the Christmas holiday, a day I love for its secular glory and its myths of kindness, Santa, and the redemption of the truly deplorable Scrooge. And I’m writing my Christmas wish to you, for you, and for the everyone else. I hope that the holiday has been more about those around you than it has been about you. I hope that the ghost, past present and future, have nurtured their lessons in your heart, and I hope, beyond all common sense, that the next year will be extravagantly successful, beautifully joyous, and so full of prosperity that your over-flowing cup will allow you to share your good fortune and happiness without thought to the consequences of your own position.

In short, I wish you more than the best that you can conceive. I wish you the best life here on Earth that any being can conceive. With love and dread parceled out to keep life spicy, merry Christmas and happy new year.

Red One: Can the Rock and Captain America Save Christmas?

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In Red One, Santa Claus is kidnapped, and it’s up to Santa’s bodyguard, Callum Drift played by Dwayne Johnson, and the hacker who tracked Santa to the North Pole, Jack O’Malley played by Chris Evans, to save Santa and Christmas. The plot outline is cliché among Christmas films involving Santa. Santa gets kidnapped, thrown in jail, or lost, and someone from the North Pole must team with a non-believer to save him. Jack O’Malley is no Captain America, but Evans is charming and still gets to fight.

The power of this film lies in its message. Callum has lost his ability to see the child, and therefore the good, in adults. All he sees is their selfishness, anger, and pettiness. He hands in his resignation, effective after Christmas.

Santa says it isn’t about getting people to do right. It is instead about helping them to see that every decision, big or small, is an opportunity to do good. The choices people make become who they are.

Callum doesn’t see it anymore. He sees people being mean for no reason and feels like people may not need Santa anymore because nothing matters.

Santa says now, they need us more than ever.

Red One has action, quips, and fun. It also has something the world is missing – a positive message without any baggage.

With a stellar cast, including J.K. Simmons as an athletic Santa, Bonnie Hunt as Mrs. Claus, and Lucy Liu as Zoe, the head of MORA (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), Red One provides an entertaining couple of hours. More importantly, it is the kind of movie we need right now.

Red One is an Amazon/MGM film in theaters. Check out this affiliate link for more information (when you purchase something from Amazon with this link, we receive a small finder’s fee.)