[tireater]

After I decant my starter I add a couple qts of cooled wort from the boil and put it back on the stirplate...
By the time the batch is cooled...the starter is usually going crazy and starts fermenting quickly...

[stout_fan]

Just add 1/2 volume of your starter as boiled/ cooled water. Mix and you should be about 1.040.
Don't Bogart that starter!

Any gravity over 1.040 makes alcohol, some new yeast. Dropping it will increase yeast production.
Stirring and oxygenating it will increase your rate.
My setup:

Variac runs aquarium pump through HEPA filter and down pipe right into center of vortex.
Wort is 1.040 OG with 5 drops of foam control. ( 15 oz DME to 1 gal water in a 5l Erlenmeyer )

I since dumped the Variac and went to a blowoff jar

[akr71]

An even easier way is to go metric.  1 gram of DME for every 10 mL of water gets you right around 1.035.

I'm Canadian and grew up with the metric system (sort of - we did the 'official switch' when I was in early grade school) - I don't find that easy at all!  I'd have to go buy a scale that measures in grams and turn the measuring cup around to see the metric side and pour left handed!

"The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!"
Grandpa Simpson

Editted to give credit where credit is due...

[a10t2]

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!

Uh, that's about 0.002 MPG. 

[akr71]

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!

Uh, that's about 0.002 MPG. 

I'm sure Grandpa Simpson would still like it that way.  See my edit above.

[a10t2]

D'oh! Guess I missed that episode.