I have a secret...

I have an alternate blogging life that I've been living lately. I'm using Tumblr to blog thoughts and re-blog content that I find interesting. I do have a feed from this blog to my tumblr but I felt it was time to come clean with you all about my alternate blogging life. I hope you like it. I will keep this blog but I do find the tumblr platform easier to some degree... and I will admit it can be kind of like blogging for the lazy person although I like to think of it as blogging for the person who is very busy... ;)

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And now for something completely different...

Here's a great video clip that I have to say is fricken brilliant and true...



I love the part where he says:

Everybody on every plane should constantly be going

"OH MY GOD! WOW!"

You're sitting in a chair in.the.sky.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

WotM

Profligate:

• extravagant: recklessly wasteful; "prodigal in their expenditures"
• rake: a dissolute man in fashionable society
• debauched: unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women"
• prodigal: a recklessly extravagant consumer

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

In honour of...

Paul Newman's passing, I bought some of his mango salsa at the store yesterday and let me tell you, it was delectable. Everyone that was over enjoyed it (except those that don't like tomatoes).

You should try some.

Yes, I know what you're saying....

"Not another effin WotM post... damn, get some content ffs!"

Sorry.

Vapid:

• bland: lacking taste or flavor or tang; "a bland diet"; "insipid hospital food"; "flavorless supermarket tomatoes"; "vapid beer"; "vapid tea"
  
• lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest; "a vapid conversation"; "a vapid smile"; "a bunch of vapid schoolgirls"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

WotM x 2

Apoplectic:

• pertaining to or characteristic of apoplexy; "apoplectic seizure"

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Apoplexy:

• stroke: a sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

WotM

Disonance:

• disagreement: a conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters
• noise: the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience; "modern music is just noise to me"
• disagreeable sounds

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

In light of my new WotM "thing"...

it was interesting to see this guy's rule 132:

132. If you don't know what a word means, ask. Before it's too late.

WotM

Affectation:

• An attempt to assume or exhibit what is not natural or real; false display; artificial show; An unusual mannerism

In case you were wondering how I came across this word, I was reading a tumblr called 1001 rules for my unborn son. The author says "Let's get some things straight before I get old and uncool." Some are really neat. The one that I got this word from was:

135. Avoid affectations, lest they become habits.

We need your help!

*** Update... I jumped the gun here... actual voting starts October 4th. You can sign on and rate it now so that it gets to the top of the list and more people will hear... we'd still appreciate that!. Anyway, I'll bug y'all again in October. :) ***

Marie wrote a piece to submit to the Hockey Night In Canada anthem competition. We'd really appreciate it if you logged on and cast a vote for her. I wish I could have done it justice with regards to the production quality but I have no skills with that stuff. We did the best with what we had and I think the spirit of the piece comes through.

For those of you that may not be aware of the competition, the winner will win $100,000 CDN and their music will be used by CBC for Hockey Night In Canada. There are also royalties paid every time it's played - half are paid to the songwriter(s) and half goes to support minor hockey leagues.

Anyway, have a listen and most importantly, cast a vote for Marie's entry please!



You can sign up here to cast your vote and if you're already signed up you click the login to the right of the player (below the rating scale) to cast your vote.

Thanks everyone for you help!

g.

WotM

Misanthrope:

• someone who dislikes people in general

Maybe I should start saving some of these for days I don't have a word.

Nah. We all know I'd never come back and look it up.

Stuff it... I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

WotM

Eviscerate:

• resect: surgically remove a part of a structure or an organ
• remove the contents of; "eviscerate the stomach"
• disembowel: remove the entrails of; "draw a chicken"
• take away a vital or essential part of; "the compromise among the parties eviscerated the bill that had been proposed"
• having been disembowelled

I heard this word (actually eviscerated) in Keith Olberman's reaction to the 9-11 themed video that was shown at the RNC.

Word of the moment (WotM)

Elucidate:

• clarify: make clear and (more) comprehensible; "clarify the mystery surrounding her death"
• clear: make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear; "Could you clarify these remarks?"; "Clear up the question of who is at fault"

This is something I feared...

with Marie and her health issues when she gave birth to Gracie.

Take a read of Matt's account of what happened to his wife.

I can't imagine how it was to feel such joy and grief at the same time.

I think I'm going to start a word of the moment thing...

I find myself running into words that are new to me as I read online so I thought I might start a word of the day post.

Today's word:

Fugue:

• dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who they are and leaves home to creates a new life; during the fugue there is no memory of the ...
• a dreamlike state of altered consciousness that may last for hours or days
• a musical form consisting of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below its first statement

- source

I'm trying a new comment tool...

I've added Disqus to my blog. Here's a description of Disqus:

Disqus, pronounced "discuss", is a service and tool for web comments and discussions. The Disqus comment system can be plugged into any website, blog, or application. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community.

Disqus is a free service to the general public with absolutely no inline advertisements.

I think I like the idea of what they're going for but we'll see what the reality is... if it lives up to my expectations it should be pretty neat. I almost like this as much as the reblog feature on tumblr. I learned about that one in a lifehacker.com article.

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PMS sucks

Women think they have it bad when it comes to PMS... try being a husband when your wife's world is imploding every 28-32 days. :o

Marie did an extreme act today in response to how she's feeling... she committed facebook suicide by deleting her facebook account. She said she was getting sick of all the BS that she had to wade through every time she logged on. She also muttered something about it being a full of self-absorbed people, many of whom were no longer relevant in her life... she continued "if they really cared about me, they would call me to talk". She said she didn't even think that anyone would notice she was gone off facebook... I think her words were "I've been gone from facebook for 2 hours now and NO ONE has called me yet!"

I suggested that she may want to give it a little more time... just a little.

It was at that point that the cordless phone died... well, at least that's what I think happened 'cause line went dead and all I heard was dial tone.

Anyway, I've gotta get going, I need to to leave early and stop by the flower shop on the way home. I think I'll get a big ol' load of chocolate too. For no reason really... only self preservation. :)

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My musical taste is very eclectic

I had seen a documentary on TV about the Buena Vista Social Club in Cuba and it had performances by some of the artists that performed there in its golden years (I think it was the 1940's-1950's) and this one is one that I really liked... again, thanks to yootoob you can find almost any music you want. This one is called Chan Chan and I really love it... I hope you do too.



Let me know what you think of it.

The documentary made me want to visit Cuba... maybe one day I'll get there.

g.

I love my Sirius satellite radio

I get to hear artists that I may not come across when I listen to local radio. Here's one that I like called Shine On by the Kooks... first heard it while listening to BBC Radio One, specifically The Chris Moyles Show which is the morning drive show that is time shifted to be on during the morning drive here... cool eh?

Anyways, here's the song on youtube:




Another one that had grown on me is Shut up and Let Me Go by the Ting Tings. They won't allow embedding so here's the link.

Let me know what you think.

g.

I had to share something from Randy Pausch

He said this in his last lecture that I'm watching and I wanted to put this here... more as a reminder to me but perhaps it'll have some impact with others out there too.

The brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things

- Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008)

I was reading Jill's blog...

and it had a picture of a puglsey (and it's rider) in a precarious position that I couldn't stop laughing at... it was originally on another blog called Mrs. North of 60 which I've never read but thought I should credit her directly for the pic.

Now for the pic... wait, before I show it to you, you have to look how the guy is still holding on to the handle bars! I mean, it's like he doesn't even realize that no good can come from the position he is in... I can't stop laughin' even now so here's the pic...

Because I HAD to share this

I hear Stewie when I read this.

So I talked with Jim today

and our trip is off for this year. He's training for his tri up in Orillia and he's gunning for 1st in his group. He was able to get 3rd for his first tri so now he's stepping it up and the trip would interfere with his training schedule. It also makes things easier for me since I've burned up extra vacation days with some stuff I'm doing and I only have (I think) 2 days left for the rest of the year. I'm disappointed but at the same time I'm very supportive of Jim and his goal for the Orillia Tri.

I also talked to Jim about the post I did the other day and I feel better about things. I guess I'm struggling to get organized to a point where I am able to fit everything in that I want to, which includes hanging out with Jim more. I've resolved today to get my sh!t together and stop wasting time. I think I got into a bit a funk with my ankle injury and I let that get the better of me. I'm feeling better and will be going to the gym to try and run on the treadmill. I figured that was a good place to test the ankle out since there would be less impact running on the treadmill deck versus the road.

Along the "getting together with Jim" lines, we're going to get together this Saturday to watch a few fights. I haven't watched a fight in a while and this Saturday is supposed to a great lineup.

In light of the fact that Jim and I are not doing our trip I am thinking I should plan a trip with my boys for the August long weekend if I can get in anywhere. I would like to do a similar trip to the one Jim did with his daughter but I don't know that I can put that together at this last minute (getting a reservation, planning, etc). I'll have to talk to Jim and pick his brain for information. It's great having a friend like Jim with the knowledge he's accumulated about Algonquin... it's almost like have a personal Algonquin Park Ranger! LOL! It's kinda funny when you think that I sort of introduced Jim to north Algonquin and now he knows more about it than I do!

Well, I talked to Jim for a while today and I've been doing some reading online so I had better get a few things accomplished from my to do list here at work so that I don't go home feeling guilty.

Have a great day everyone!

g.

So I'm trying a little "experiment"...

which is not really an experiment per se. I've been trying to drive slower in to work so that I save fuel. I have to say that after 20 years of driving on the fast side it's really hard to slow down. It's like the muscle memory in my right leg makes it difficult to keep the pedal at a position that keeps my speed at 105-110km/h. I think I'm saving fuel but I haven't really approached it in a manner that allows me to quantify the savings so I think I may start tracking this a little closer so I know what the impact is.

I know I haven't posted much in a long time, mostly just giving links to things I come across that I find interesting so it doesn't surprise me that I don't have the same number of visitors that I once had. In fact, I believe I may be talking to myself at this point. :)

So by way of letting some of my thoughts out for a change... I'm sure Jim is not too happy with me... we haven't talked in a long time. Some weird things happened there and things feel different. It's weird, I never thought there would be anything that would change our relationship in a negative way but it may have turned out that way. I'm sad about that. I mean, I always felt that we were like long lost brothers but it seems to have lost some of it's luster. I have a tendency to withdraw at times when my life becomes hectic and that doesn't go over well with some people. I like to cut it down to the basics... work and family while I get things sorted out and figure out how I'm going to fit everything in. There are two people in my life that it works with and the rest seem to struggle with that habit. I guess that means I should change, eh? (especially if I

I also have a bad habit of thinking I can fit more into a day than is humanly possible. :} Marie has often said that to me and I think that's what sometimes gets me into the situations I find myself in. I commit to too much and then feel the need to pare it down to basics to recover. This is never a personal knock against anyone, it's just me "recycling" my system. It's something I have to work on I guess.

I'm not sure where I was going with this... it was a bit of a GeWilli mind dump kinda thing (although he has focus more often than not lately compared to his early posting days) but I feel better for having done it. Not completely satisfied but a little better.

Perhaps I need to do this a few more times to get things out but for now, I should get some work done before I have a job hunt to worry about. (kidding)

Have a good day.

g.

Who knew?

Not me.

There's a Canadian Canoe Museum and it's just up the road from my town in Peterborough. That's less than an hour drive north from us. Apparently it's North America's only canoe museum... cool. It has more than 600 canoes and kayaks and 1,000 related artifacts.

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A few months back someone hit my car...

and I never posted pics here for you to see. I was clearing the SD card from my camera to make room for more pictures and I saw the pics of the car the morning after it was hit and I thought I'd post them for you to take a look at.







Just a few pics. The car looks like new now so I'm happy about that.

Anyway, that's all for tonight.

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Weightloss motivation and a great interview

Losing weight might just be the greenest thing you can do: Losing 20 pounds would help the average American save 18 gallons of gas per year. And that's more than good for the world— it's good for your wallet. At $4 per gallon, that's $72 in your pocket, meaning healthy living can help fix your retirement fund, too.

- Men's Health

Here's a good interview with Mike Rowe about the green movement... it's a refreshing honest take on the issue with his usual humour thrown in for good measure. :)

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Robert Newman's History of Oil

This is an interesting video that I think is worth a look at... actually you can just listen to it if you like but there are some visual bits that are funny.

Robert Newman's History of Oil

Don't worry about the length, I'm pretty sure you'll find it interesting to listen to. Let me know what you think, I'd really like to hear you thoughts.

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May 10, 2008 is Pangea Day

Here's an interesting event that came in my TED e-mail...



From the pangeaday youtube page: and pangeaday.org

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that -- to help people see themselves in others -- through the power of film.

On May 10, 2008 -- Pangea Day -- sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked to produce a 4-hour program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music. The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

Pangea is the name of the original super-continent which contained all the world's land mass before the continents started splitting apart 250 million years ago. We're launching Pangea Day with the vision that the people of the world can begin to overcome their divisions, and that the power of film can help make it possible.

Movies can't change the world. But the people who watch them can.

On May 10, we want the whole world to be watching the Pangea Day program. Join an extraordinary community of people who are coming together to do just that by hosting an event.

You can host a Pangea Day event in your home, school, town square, or wherever you want to gather your friends, family, and community.

Visit www.pangeaday.org/events.php and plot your event on our map today! And check out our website www.pangeaday.org for more information.

For those of us in the Eastern time zone, the event is taking place at 14:00 (2:00PM) on Saturday May 10, 2008.

demand is outstripping supply... there is not shortage... What?

Here's an article that I found interesting. It may look long but it's an easy read. I'll quote it here and then provide a link.

There Is No Gas Shortage
But Washington, Wall Street, and ethanol and oil and gas companies want you to think there is, says automotive expert Ed Wallace

by Ed Wallace

"They see speculation in the market, I see decline in global inventories. I don't think this is a big surprise, that we've had a jump in price when there has been a decrease in crude inventories."— Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, Bloomberg News, Mar. 5, 2008

"It should be obvious to you all that the [gasoline] demand is outstripping supply, which causes prices to go up." — President George W. Bush, Associated Press, Mar. 5, 2008

One wonders if verifiable facts ever get in the way of this administration's statements on issues that are critical to the average American's wellbeing. After all, last time I checked, when politicians are elected to public office, or appointed, as is Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, they must take an oath to the American people before assuming their new positions. How can they forget a sacred oath so quickly? Were they daydreaming when they took it, so it never meant anything to begin with? Maybe it's just another promise you have to make to get into office: When you're securely incumbent you can ignore even solemn oaths you took.

Obviously, the two quotes that led this article came from discussions concerning the current high price for oil on the futures market. Bodman appears to be protecting the speculators in oil, as opposed to looking after the interests of all Americans. President Bush, apparently, has never talked to the Energy Dept.'s Energy Information Agency to see whether gasoline demand is actually up. More troubling, the writer of that particular Associated Press article obviously didn't look up the EIA's numbers to verify the President's assertions. They weren't accurate.

1. There Is No Shortage

Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early 1990s, which is remarkable considering the nation's refineries have been cutting back on the production of gasoline because their margins have declined. In fact, average gasoline reserves on hand have risen since this past October, while oil reserves in this country have gone up virtually every week this year—and only fog in the Houston Ship Channel that kept oil tankers from unloading their crude one week kept it from being every week.

In the same Bloomberg article that quotes from Bodman's CNBC appearance on Mar. 4, he also said that it was thanks to ethanol that the gasoline problem isn't even worse. He then added that the fact that making ethanol is forcing up prices of other farm commodities, including hog and chicken feed, is "nowhere near as important as trying to relieve pressure on [gasoline] supplies."

Of course, there is no pressure on gasoline supplies in this country as of today, but Bodman's statement must have made eyes roll among the executives at Pilgrim's Pride PPC; the Pittsburg, (Tex.) poultry producer announced 1,100 layoffs on Mar. 13, closing one processing plant and 6 of their 13 distribution centers because their company's outlay for chicken feed went up $600 million last fiscal year and was on track to increase by another $700 million this year.

Here's the scorecard, in case you missed it. There's no shortage of gasoline or oil in the U.S. today, and we have near-record reserves on hand. Meanwhile the Congressional mandate for ethanol has jacked up the price of chicken feed for Pilgrim's Pride, which is the U.S.'s largest processor of chickens and turkeys—by $1.3 billion. And that's for just one company processing chicken. This is what passes for acceptable to our Energy Secretary?

2. Demand Is DOWN, Yet Prices Are UP

Just so we can all get on the same page, here are the verifiable facts on oil supplies, production, and gasoline demand.

In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year. Ronald Bailey of Reason Online has pointed out that worldwide production of oil has risen 2.5% in the first quarter, while worldwide demand has grown by only 2%. Production is expected to increase by 3.3% in the second quarter, and by as much as 4.1% by the third quarter. The net result is that the U.S. daily buffer for oil production against demand, which was a paltry 1.5 million barrels as recently as 2005, is now up to 3 million barrels in excess capacity today.

So what is going on here? Why would our Energy Secretary say there's a supply and demand problem when none exists? Why would he say that speculators have little or nothing to do with the incredibly high price of oil and gasoline, when it's clear they do? President Bush—a former oilman—gives the ever-growing demand for gasoline as the primary reason prices are so high, yet that notion can be dispelled with one minute of research. That's the problem with rhetoric; it rarely matches the facts.

3. Speculation is Up, and the Dollar Is Down

On the same day the President and our Energy Secretary made those foolish comments, no less an authority than ExxonMobil (XOM) Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson was quoted by Marketwatch as saying, "The record run in oil prices is related more to speculation and a weakening dollar than supply and demand in the market." He added, "In terms of fundamentals, fear of supply reliability is overblown."

As for the speculators, in 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion. Now, if any publicly traded company had an additional $241 billion put into its stock in the same period, its stock would rise out of sight too—even if the company was not worth anywhere near that amount of market capitalization.

Moving on to the weak U.S. dollar as a primary cause for skyrocketing oil prices—there is "some" truth in that statement. But consider this: The dollar has depreciated 30% against the world's currencies since 2002, while the price of oil has gone up 500%. So is it the weak dollar that has caused a 500% increase in the price of oil, or is it the extra $241 billion worth of speculation? You can make the call on that one.

Possibly just to ensure oil prices don't respond to real-world market conditions, Goldman Sachs (GS) forecast on Mar. 7 that turbulence in the oil market could cause oil to spike as high as $200 a barrel. This flies in the face of all known information—but then again, Goldman Sachs is the world's biggest trader of energy derivatives, and its Goldman Sachs Commodities Index is a widely watched barometer of energy and commodities prices.

What Is Washington Thinking?

Rounding out the list of experts discussing our oil and gasoline situation is Bill Klesse, head of San Antonio (Tex.) Valero Energy (VLO). He spoke in San Diego a week after those comments from Goldman Sachs, the President, and Secretary Bodman. Believe it or not, Klesse said poor margins may cause Valero to sell one-third of its refinery operations; he stated that poor margins in recent months had caused planned refinery expansions—which would have produced 500,000 more barrels per day—to be canceled. Moreover, according to a report from Reuters on Mar. 11, 2008, Klesse recently released the information that gasoline production has been curtailed in response to slowing demand.

Imagine that: Refiners cut gasoline production, yet gasoline reserves have grown to their largest since late 1992. So much for "surging demand."

Klesse also called for the government to start imposing a tariff on imported gasoline to protect U.S. refiners' profits. Protectionism? As famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith correctly said, "In America, the only respectable form of socialism is socialism for the rich."

Which takes us back to the original question: Why is Washington doing everything it can to convince us there is a shortage when there isn't one? After all, the only people they're protecting are those heavily invested in oil futures—and that's to the detriment of all other Americans.

We're Paying for What?

When it became undeniable that poor decision-making by company executives had put a respected 85-year-old U.S. institution in financial peril, why did the Federal Reserve rush in to save investment bank Bear Stearns (BSC)? Of course, we need to restore confidence in our financial institutions, but why protect the personal assets of those who were responsible for the mess? Both the corporation's officers and its board members should contribute their personal assets toward saving the bank they put in the ditch—the bank all of us are going to pay to bail out.

Instead, the Bush administration is protecting those responsible for creating yet another speculative bubble in oil futures, and is protecting investors in the ethanol industry—much to the detriment of food-processing companies such as Pilgrim's Pride. And the net result of all this is that the prices of crude and gasoline rise ever higher thanks to a "shortage" that does not exist, while food costs are soaring thanks in part to the ethanol mandate.

The Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, but the cost of mortgages goes up six weeks in a row—and last month Bank of America (BAC) credit-card holders started being charged more than 24% interest on new purchases.

This is what they call "Republican Prosperity?" Ronald Reagan was both right and wrong when he said, "Government is not the solution, government is the problem." And government is still the problem. Instead of a fair and open market they gave us a free-for-all marketplace with no regulations at all, which lately these "bubble boys" have sent south for all of us.

One would guess that Washington missed the obvious: Protect all U.S. consumers and you're also protecting business expansion.

Ed Wallace holds a Gerald R. Loeb Award for business journalism, bestowed by the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. His column heads the Sunday Drive section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and he is a member of the American Historical Society. The automotive expert for KDFW Fox 4 in Dallas, Wallace hosts the top-rated talk show Wheels, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 570 KLIF AM in Dallas.

As read on BusinessWeek.com

Hit and run in Newcastle!

Friday is garbage day for my street so I proceeded to take out the garbage last Friday when I noticed that there were some pieces of brake light lens on the road at the end of my driveway. It took a second or two for the amount of debris to register in my mind so after turning back towards the house to go and get the second garbage can I did a double take and realized that it was a lot of debris. I looked over at my car (which had spent the night on the road) and had a short-lived feeling of relief as it looked okay which quickly came to an end as I walked around to the road side of the vehicle where I was confronted with the sight of my rear rim being bent, the rear quarter panel crumpled and the rear bumper cover hanging low like a battle weary soldier.

Oh my friggin' God!

Well, I finished putting the garbage out (prolly in a little shock from the sight) and then put the call out to the police. While I was waiting for them to come put, I decided to see if there was anything that would help identify the vehicle that hit me. I ended up finding a part with the "PONT" of "Pontiac" and a part number. I immediately called the dealership that we leased our van from and they said that it was off a 2005 Montana.

wow.

No wonder my car had been shifted 2 feet from the impact. That's a fair sized vehicle. I then started to ask a few neighbours that were out if they had heard anything... no one heard anything. Eventually I did hear from one neighbour that they heard something between 3 and 4 in the morning.

After the police had taken the report I called the insurance company and filed the claim and arrange a tow out to a body shop just east of us. I have since spent a few hours calling around to all the towing companies and body shop east, west and north of town asking if they had seen a montana with damage to the passenger side front. I also asked them if they would let me know if they did see something in the next little while and they all agreed to call me so I can get the police out to look at the vehicle. I figure that since it's a minivan, the person can't sit on it too long since it most likely the main people mover for the family that owns it. We'll see what happens.

And your total comes too...

The body shop has estimated the repairs to be just south of $4000 which puts me in a precarious position since my car is 9 years old with 378,000km on it. It's worth more to me as a working vehicle than the cash settlement is bound to be from the insurance company so I hope they don't write it off. I'll have to see what my options are if they do write it off.

Well, it's just a waiting game right now so I'll get some of the pics up for you to see and once I hear what they're gonna do, I'll update my blog.

Have a good day everyone.

g.

Making Change

Take at least one action every day that moves you towards your goals. It may seem a bit obvious, but too many people plan their success, dream of success, but never get started. It is very important to get into action. Today and every day do at least one thing that is part of making your dreams come true.

This may be obvious but it's something I read today that really struck a chord with me for some reason. It's simple... just start.

Kinda reminds me of something Jim would say... "Just start with something... anything... as long as it moves you towards your goal."

Nothing deep here, just something that I wanted to take note of.

Have a good day everyone.

g.

Has anyone read...

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson?

Happy Discardia!

March 19 marks the start of Discardia... the time of year you clean out and make room for the new. From lifehacker.com:

Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas you no longer need. It's about letting go, abdicating from obligation and guilt, being true to the self you are now. Discardia is the time to get rid of things that no longer add value to your life, shed bad habits, let go of emotional baggage and generally lighten your load.

Actually, I'm in the mood lately where I want to clean out but not bring in any new. Kinda fed up with the push to consume that big business relentlessly pushes on us at every turn. (check out the story of stuff)

Anyway, Happy Discardia everyone!

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Too much bacn?

from lifehacker.com

Bacn is:

Email you receive that isn't spam... And isn't personal mail. It's the middle class of email. It's notifications of a new post to your Facebook wall or a new follower on Twitter. It's the Google alert for your name and the newsletter from your favorite company.

I think I have too much bacn. I'm going to have to start being more aggressive with using the delete key.

Now if only the "unsubscribe" option really worked...

Mungo says BAH...

Some of you may have already wandered over to Mungo's blog from Jim's. If not, take a look, you may find some things that interest you over there.

Have a great day everyone!

g.

5 dangerous things you should let your kids do...

I gotta say, I believe that we've gone too far... we don't let our kids do anything, we sanitize everything... we don't let our kids be, um, kids.

Okay, by "we" I'm referring to society at large, not necessarily some of you reading this right now. Anyway, if you have 10 minutes, watch this video for some very good and interesting points that the speaker, Gever Tulley, makes.



Have a great day everyone!

g.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Okay, so this may seem silly but I joined a website called TED.com because it had some really good talks that were available for free on-line. (okay, that's not what should seem silly to you... keep reading) When I was signing up I was presented with the usual "terms or use" and "privacy policy" links and I thought, "If these people are as smart as they seem, I wonder if they've figured out a way to present those two policies in a simple format that is easy for people around the globe to understand?"

So I click on the links.

Check.this.out.

Terms of Use

* 1. This website is provided as a public service to promote the spread of good ideas. It welcomes anyone willing to join us in this pursuit.

* 2. You are encouraged to view as many talks as you wish for free, and to share what you learn with others both online and offline.

* 3. Anyone can join TED.com by providing basic contact information (name, email address, country of residence). Once registered, please feel free to set up a profile and add comments and ratings to talks.

* 4. TED is seeking to foster a grown-up conversation about ideas that matter. Please engage in a reasoned exchange of ideas, avoiding flaming, name-calling, obscenities and insults. Humor, of course, is welcome. ;-)

* 5. Please respect our members' requests. Do not pester them, game them or spam them in any way.

* 6. Please respect the law. Do not post copyrighted material (unless you own the copyright) or attempt to engage in illegal behavior of any sort.

* 7. TED reserves the right to remove any comments or content from the site, for any reason and without prior warning.

* 8. If you violate these terms, or otherwise act disrespectfully, disruptively or illegally on TED.com, we reserve the right to terminate your membership, at any time, and without prior warning.

* 9. Please help spread TED.

* 10. Thank you. And now, please enjoy.

I know, right? It's about time!

And how's this for a privacy policy:

Privacy Policy

* 1. We respect your privacy.

* 2. We want to encourage connection between TED members, but not if it violates the above principle.

* 3. We will never sell your data to any third party.

* 4. We will never provide any of your data to a third party without your written permission.

* 5. We will ensure that you can determine which pieces of the information you provide us are shown to other people (in your member profile or other parts of TED.com).

* 6. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that any financial information you provide us, including credit card numbers, is stored securely.

* 7. We ask you to respect the privacy preferences of other TED members.

* 8. We ask you to remember that any information you choose to post publicly (comments, photos, videos) on this site is, of course, public.

* 9. If you have any concern about privacy violations, please contact us.

I know, it's a thing of beauty, isn't it?

Anyway, check out their site and have a listen to and watch the talks on many different topics. I think there's something for everyone on there.

Gotta run.

Have a GREAT day everyone!

g.

A bumper sticker for GeWilli

I was doing my drive home last night and for a while I was behind a car that had a bumper sticker that made me think of GeWilli... it said:

TV SUCKS!
Get out and RIDE you BIKE

I need some Rupert Holmes, STAT!

So you just *need* to hear Rupert Holmes sing Escape (the Pina Colada song) and you don't have the mp3 on your iPod or laptop?

Problem solved... surf over to songerize.com , enter Escape (or Pina Colada) in the song name box and Rupert Holmes in the artist box, click play and crank it up!



Cool site for gettin' that musical fix just when you need it.

g.

Got 20 minutes?

Here's something I think you should take the time to watch:





It's very well done and I think it communicates the message in terms that my kids can understand. I'm gonna show it to them and see what they have to say.