Snow riding without a lift ticket, snowcat or helicopter

Not sure why someone didn't think of it sooner,. They've been doing it on surfboards for a while now. Snowkiting.
Here's a NYT piece on it.

I imagine you could get in a heck of a lot of trouble really quick if the wind and terrain conspire against you. Trees, cravasses, cliffs. power lines. Oh my!

On the plus side, you prbably don't get cold like you do at a traditional hill because you never have to chill in the chair.

DALMAC 2005

Beleive it or not, I've got photographical evidence that I road the DALMAC 2005. This is a shot of Max and I. I'm in the yellow. If you care, to you can see more pictures here. Thanks to Bob Barrie for inviting me to rid ethe DALMAC, and for taking these pictures.

The bummer about doing a tour like this is that it's so hard to take the pictures that do this justice. Four days of fresh air and sunshine, with near perfect temperatures. You have to experience it.

Crossing the Mighty Mac on a bike was special but not nearly as fun as the rest of the ride. It was downright chilly up on the bridge with all that wind blowing over all that cool lake water. Plus you have to ride in a massive group at a relatively slow pace. The wide open spaces, far from the maddening crowds were the best part of the tour.

It's these dark, wet, icy, cold days of winter that make me savor the 4 warm summer days od DALMAC, or even a warm summer training ride for that matter. I may be crazy but a 95 degree day on a bike (it wasn't 95 on DALMAC, only 75) is better than 33 degree day stuck inside. Riding indoor has it's benefits . . . watching football, or a movie, listening to tunes . . . but nothing beats being out on the road miles away from anywhere.

I invite you to join me and 1,500 of my closest friends on DALMAC 2006. You can get all of the details here. Registration opens around the end of January.

13 things that do not make sense

I came across this article via reddit.com

13 things that do not make sense

What strikes me about this list is that for all that we believe we understand and have figured out, there still big enough gaps remaining in our knowledge that we may discover that we really don't have things so figured out.

What will they look back on in 100 or 500 years and say, "I can't believe they thought (insert current scientific knowledge here). What were they thinking? Those ignorant slobs!"

Steve Jobs movie posters

I found this link through a blog I enjoy, Creating Passionate Users.

The 30+ Steve Jobs posters, in the comment section of the page. Enjoy!

Stuff Doesn't Make You Happy . . .

I know, I know, you've already heard this before. . . a million times, but this post I discovered through reddit.com, makes the point in a very different way. The Happiness plateau on the graph.

Food for thought.

Stuff Doesn't Make You Happy . . .

Monstrous Snow Fort

My brother, Andrew built this monstrosity in thier front yard.

Interesting Facts (from Andrew):

*Yep, that's Jacob standing next to it.

*All of the tunnels connect.

*It took most of the snow in our front yard.

*We think we may make it look like King Kong (In the spirit of Christmas?). We'll put a doll in one hand.

*It will probably melt in a couple of days.

Ebert's Best 10 Movies of 2005

Check out Ebert's Best 10 Movies of 2005 This list caught my attention because the top films are completely unknown to me. I think I need to get out more? hmmm?

Here's the list:
1. Crash
2. Syriana
3. Munich
4. Junebug
5. Brokeback Mountain
6. Me and You and Everyone We Know
7. Nine Lives
8. King Kong
9. Yes
10. Millions

I've only heard of three and seen zero.

Hitchcock quote

"Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house."
- Alfred Hitchcock

If you want to be funny

Scott Adams blogs on how to be funny. Makes a lot a sense to me. I especially liked this "Pearls Before Swine" strip.. It's got the cruel, cute, bizarre, clever, and recognizable variables all working for it. Maybe part of what humor does is get us past the watchful dragons that C.S. Lewis talks about.

It seems we're not really laughing at the caricatures in Saved or The Simpson,s or anything else for that matter, purely because they are recognizable but also because they're cruel, naughty, cute, bizarre or clever. Being recognizable is only one way to be funny. I've got to do some humor analysis to test this idea.

I have always admired peole who are funny, never knew it was a science. Now, if I can come up with as hypothesis and test it. hmmmmm.

Really Cool IKEA images

If these really Cool IKEA images were supposed to cause people to spread the word about IKEA and impress you with what their products. well, consider it done.

Be patient for the Flash download to get to 100%. It's worth the wait.

Project Managment

Check out this cartoon on project management. It hasn;t changes much since my dad sahowed me a black and white photocopy in the 70's.

Skier's Dictionary

Snowboarding - Am activity that is popular with the people who do not feel that regular skiing is lethal enough; usually fearless people who can hurtle down a mountainside and knock a tree down with their faces and then spring up and shout, "Cool!"

Which super-hero are you?

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Turns out the aluminum hat doesn't work.

Check out this piece by some MIT researchers on the government mind control plot. They tested aluminum hats to see if they indeed protect the brain from goverment mind control transmissions.

It turns out instead of blocking frequencies, the hats actually improve reception for some government-controlled frequency ranges.

Hmmm? . . . I wonder? . . . Did governmet operatives spread the idea of putting on the aluminum hats, so they could control us? Dang. You just can't keep the conspiracy theories from continuing to spin.

A Frenchman on gluttony

"Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself, and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use."
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
This reminds me I should eBay all of the old junk piling up in my basement. Anyone want some old Mac software?

Ski Groaner

Skier's Dictionary

Thor - The Scandanavian god of acheth and paineth.

Gee, my head is reallly Thor.

Ouch, on so many levels.

(Once again, compliments of Amazing But True Ski Stories daily calendar)

Clientcopia

Eric told me about this site. It's got thousands of designer and tech tales of stupidity. Some will get you laughing out loud.

Here's a sample post:
2 a_j_dalton #1609 | Rating: 4.59

HelpDesk (answering phone): "Help Desk' Client: "What's this funny thing on my computer screen?' HelpDesk: 'What's it look like' (Tapping Sound) Client: 'Dammit, it's right here' HelpDesk: 'Uh... are you tapping your screen?' Client: 'Well, duh!' HelpDesk: 'I can't see your finger over the phone.' Client: 'Well then, how the Hell do you expect to help me?' (sad, but absolutely true)

For those who want to fight back

If you've had enough of Napoleon Dynamite and his political chum, Pedro, now you can make your own statement.

We're just too small

Small can sting, from 37 Signals Blog

“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” —Betty Reese

If you dig a hole straight through the earth . . .

If you've ever wondered where you'd come out of the earth if you dug a hole straight through the earth, now you can see wher you'll come out.

This site is a Google Maps "mash up". It's fun to see what people can create when companies open up thier tools for others to play with.

Tip: If you zoom in to precisely select your starting point, you'll want to zoom back out to see your finishing point.

Literal Sk8er Boy

This kid thinks he's a sk8board.

Let's go as iPod commercials this year

Predicts your Birth Order in Five Questions

You Are Likely a Second Born

At your darkest moments, you feel inadequate. At work and school. you do best when you're evaluating. When you love someone, you offer them constructive criticism. In friendship, you tend to give a lot of feedback - positive and negative. Your ideal careers are: accounting, banking, art, carpentry, decorating, teaching, and writing novels. You will leave your mark on the world with art and creative projects.

The Birth Order Predictor

Moving in the right direction

Good to see that things are moving in the right direction.

The Survey Says . . .
70+% of people now approve of interracial dating. I wonder what the responses would be for interracial marriage?

If Noel's experience is any kind of a barometer, I hope the church can get with it on this one.

What is the deal with Halloween anyway? Is it evil?

According to Wikipedia , its sort of a mixed bag. I hope of something sweet!

I personally observe it as the day I get to collect the candies my girls don't like and don't want to bother bartering for other treats with thier pals. Oh, I know, I know . . . I'm so deep.

Who knew there was an open source brew?

Check it out. They even have open source beer now.

For those of you who don't know what open source is read about it here
.

One more award winner

I left out this important Ig Noble prize winner.

LITERATURE: The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.

I know I have been touched by their efforts. I bet you have, too.

Ig Noble Prize Winners

In case you missed it, the Ig Noble prize cermony took place on October 6, 2005.

Here is a listing of the 2005 Winners

Check out the winner in the Economics Category.

ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.

Clever.

or this important research breakthrough.

FLUID DYNAMICS: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu , Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation."

I din't think I want to know how you measure that.

Identity 2.0

Here's a link to a unique presentation on Identity 2.0 by Dick Hardt of Sxip Identity. He's got an itchy trigger finger, so be warned. Heck, you might even learn something.

Great skiing adviced

"If you're going to try to cross-country ski, start with a very small country."

Compliments of "Amazing But True Ski Stories Calendar" 9/23/05 entry

Serious bikers, seats are still dangerous

If your putting in serious time on your bike, your ergonomic seat may still hurt you. This New York Times piece gives all the details.

If you spend a lot of time on a traditional bike seat, read it, and if necessary get a new seat. I am currently using a Specialized Body Geometry seat, compliments of my buddy, Bob, and though it doesn't go as far as the article recommends, it has been tons better than my old arched top seat. You can see Specialized seats here.

Happy trails . . . or roads.

Twisty Word tricks

These are always fun. Thanks to Dan Miller of 48days.com for bringing them to my attention.

-----
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are a few of this year's winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer,
unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
5. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
6. Glibido: All talk and no action.
7. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
8. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
9. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

10. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and a pain in the rear.

Quote of the Day

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." -- – Mulla Nasrudin

Viral flavoring

I've been reading and listening to Seth Godin for quite some time now. I read his post on What Makes an Idea Viral and then went out and experienced it yesterday.

I was driving my daughter to a meeting and we were listening to the radio . . . I know, I know, radio is so 90's . . . and the DJ and sidekick were talking about Jones Soda because they had done something remarkable (worth talking about).

Apparently, last Thanksgiving Jones Soda produced holiday flavors including Turkey & Gravy Soda, Mashed Potato & Butter. Green Bean Casserole sodas in honor of the holiday, The DJ assured us that thier flavors were indeed quite accurate to thier labels. Now, they've added two new flavors for Halloween 2005, Candy Corn and Caramel Apple.

I was so entertained by the flavors I had to go home and tell the rest of the family about them. We'll probably have to try them.

The idea was easy to understand, rewarding to spread (helped maintain my flagging coolness factor), and easy for me to spread. Now I'm spreading it further via this blog.

Is your favorite food killing you?

California Wants to Serve a Warning With Fries - New York Times If you don't have a log-in you can go to bugmenot.com to "borrow"one.

Apparently fries and potato chips are "packed with acrylamide", a chemical proven to cause cancer in mice and rats. Add to that the high level of trans-fats and you've got a formula for . . .a ban, no, just a warning label.

No matter how long or how healthy you live, everyone will eventually die. The papers never write about that, and it will impact 100% of their readers.

Certain words should never be engraved on your iPod . . like Nigel.

Check out this piece over at TheRegister.com on forbidden words for iPod engraving.

This is insane.

This photo was taken at the Southern-most point in the Continental US in Key West, Florida. I've been there. It was much sunnier and drier that day.

Where the object of insanity is standing, there is no fence or any other barrier keeping him from being swept out to sea. Certifiably insane!

Buy my PowerMac

If anyone cares, I'm selling a PowerMac over at eBay. Click here to see it.

If your interested, let me know directly or comment below. Comments get e-mailed to me.

Also, you NO LONGER have to be a Blogger member to post comments, so go ahead Andrew, post away.

Inside joke for my 80's roomies

New age musician Vollenweider to appear in Apple stores

I found Vollenweedie, our households pet name for him, on the ITunes Music Store and you know what. All of his songs sound the same. I guess that makes him the 80's equivalent to Jack Johnson. The beauty of listening to Vollenweedie was that Geo's sister got us promotional copies of his album for free. The down side was actually listening to it. I guess if he won a few Grammy's someone must like his music.

What is a skier?

Skier's Dictionary

Skier - One who pays an arm and a leg for the opportunity to break them.

This definition compliments of the daily
"Amazing But True Ski Stories" daily calendar 9/13/05

Old jokes

A friend forwarded some "old" jokes to me and these were some of the best.

"It's scary when you start making the same noises as your coffeemaker."

A reporter interviewing a 104-year-old woman asked: "And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?" the reporter asked. She simply replied, "No peer pressure."

Science & God

There's a piece on God & Science in the New York Times today.

Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science. (If you aren't registered with them, you can go to bugmenot.com and get a user ID and password to log in.)

It doesn't delve too deeply. If you prefer a more humorous take on God v. science debate, you have to go here to read about the Giant Spaghetti Monster. Thanks to Noel for pointing it out.

"An idea is a point of departure . . . "

"An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought."
- Pablo Picasso
There's a lot more work to do to make the idea reality.

Using Virtual Reality to treat war trauma

Wired posted an interesting article on how they are starting totreat battle induced psychological trauma.. Unfortunately, they don't explain the precise role the software plays in the recovery process, so we will have to speculate about that.

My impression is that the psychological trauma has more to do with what you think about what happened to you than what actually happened to you. REvisiting it in VR and developing a different perspective, may be the secret of the treatment. Since they don't tell us, the secret remains a secret.

The soul of genius - W.A. Mozart

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Procrastination

This one is also one of my favorites.

Achievment

Someone reminded me of this is ths weekend. Funny.

High School LT silence broken

I spent a week in Myrtle Beach with 400 high schoolers a couple weeks ago. The conference was supposed to be for them, but it really was great for me. I took notes, I'll have to share more details later.

It was cool to see the next generation learning, working, and playing together. I had the priviledge of going out to talk with stangers about God with Jeremy and Marissa. Both of them did a great job and were really natural talking with them.

More on LT later, I hope.

Snow Sports Injuries

OK, August is a stran=ge time to bring it up but I saw this link and had to pass it on. A site dedicated to snow sports injuries.

Ski-Injury.com also has useful information on injury prevention. For example, expeirence is a great thing for reducing your probability of getting hurt. Just like on motorcycles, snow riders age 16 to 25 are more likely to be injured. Check it out. Maybe you can keep from hurting yourself out on the slopes.

Think snow. Or go to Argentina, Chile, New Zealand or Australia to ski this month.

Truman Capote, a skier, who knew?

"I don't like to ski with other people around because I don't want to be conscious of them. Skiing gives me a terrific sense of freedom. I would define freedom as not having to be around other people."

- Truman Capote

from Amazing but True Ski Stories

How crazy are Tour fans?

As you follow the Tour de France, you see all kinds of pictures. I'd want this set-up if I was waiting on the course for the riders to fly past.

I'd add a beach umbrella, a black box to surround the screen, and a cooler. Then this set-up would be perfect!

This guy is really quite bright.

You can see more sparkler fun here.

Camping thought for the day

How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire,
but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

An updated truism

"Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use
the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks"

. . . unless they're on a Windows PC without virus protection. Then they'll be calling you quite soon to fix it.

WiFi Mooching Ethics and Law

After finally getting my first laptop with WiFi capabilities (a sweet little 12" PowerBook with as much horsepower as my old PowerMac) I had to wait a few days for my refurbed Airport Express WiFi hub to arrive. While I was waiting, I thought I'd check and see what, if any, WiFi networks I could detect from my home.

Well it turns out there are two networks out there. This begged a second question. What are the ethics of accessing someone else's WiFi network? I asked Geo for his expert opinion and he indicated it is a no-no. Even if the network is as wide open as a barn door sans cows.

A few days later I was excited to receive my Airport Express and get connected. It was quite easy to and securing my network was simple, too. Noone will have to resist the temptation to access my network. Thanks Apple! And now thanks, to Mike Potter's timely advice, noone wil be able to see it either.

Well, I bring this whole story up because this topic is covered in a CNet article today, FAQ: WiFi Mooching and the Law . Apparently, there are still a lot of questions that are yet to be answered.

For now, I will steer clear of the mooching and stick to the using the office, home, coffeeshop & hotel WiFi. Or mooching from friends.

Enjoying Mars . . .

I've discovered Mars . . .

. . . Mars Hill Church, that is, podcasts in the iTunes Podcast directory. The messages on Genesis 37 & 38, are quite apropos to the current chapter of moi. Food for action.

Go for a boring trestimony. (You'll have to listen to the Genesis 36 message to get it).

If you don't use iTunes, you can get their Podcast feed here.

If that doesn't work for you, try going here.

Crazy Armstrong stats

Can you tell that I'm getting stoked for the Tour de France?

Discovery Channel has several vignettes called "Chasing #7" and the mention that Lance's resting heart rate is 35 BPM, that's 20 lower thank most people's and and his heart is 1/3 larger than the average man's. That's nuts! No wonder he can crank those pedals!

See the vignettes here. (If you click on the pictures at the top you can avoid repeating the advertisement over and over.)

Pros and cons to competitiveness

Lance Armstrong's three axioms:
1. Evaluate everything on a binary scale.
2. Attack rather than defend.
3. Block out the negative.

While these principles make Armstrong a fearsome competitor, they make him an exceedingly difficult human being. Armstrong divides the world into friends and enemies, and while he is brutal toward his enemies (a trait many Americans saw for the first time when, in a meaningless stage of the Tour de France, Armstrong vindictively chased down an Italian rider who was suing Armstrong for defamation), he can be even nastier to his friends."
The complete review of "Lance Armstrong's War".

Shark Attack

Another excellent post by Seth Godin.

Executive summary: The bad news is, we aren't concerned about things in proportion to thier true significance.
For example, more poeple are killed in deer accidents than shark attacks. The worse news is, it's difficult ot change perceptions, too.

Read the enire post here.

Apple's latest innovation

Check out this write up by David Pogue at the New York Times on the latest iPod innovation from Apple.

The iPod you'll be itching to get.

Top 100 Movie quotes

Check out this list of top 100 movie quotes.

American Film Institute's Top 100 Quotes From U.S. Films

You may know them even if you never saw the movie. One in that category for me was:

36. "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," 1948.

Another note on forwarding e-mails.

If you do not go to this site and tell 10 friends about it, you will have bad luck and indigestion for the next 3 month.

Tee hee!

A doll geeks will enjoy.

Barbie USB drive

You have to see it to appreciate it.

Another reason I love being on a Mac.

After switching to Windows for a few years, three years ago I switched back to Apple first using an iBook, and now a PowerMac. It's easier to solve problems, when they do occur, and easier to get answers when you don't know what to do. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Consumer Reports: Which manufacturers did the best job of answering questions quickly and correctly

Reversing the declining interest in the performing arts

There is a great post on Seth Godin's blog about an orchestra in a town of 50,000 that is experiencing tremendous growth.

Thinking Outside the Bachs

These ideas apply to the arts in Lansing. Children's Ballet Theatre, and the dance community in general can invite more people into our world?

Prearrange your tombstone message.

Check out this site wher you can generate your own tombstone, All those authoritative deep thinking types tell you to reflect on what your's will say. Forget that. Don't rely on an untrustworthy second party. Write it yourself.

Tombstone Generator

Fear: Good or bad motivator?

Is it or isn't it.

Last week I posted a link to an article that pointed out fear was a poor motivator for change. Now. Seth points out that fear of loss is the best motivator for change. Which is it?

Here are the two pieces and my original post.

Stagnation is Easy, Change is Hard, Seth Godin

Fast Company - Change or Die .

How's fear as a change agent?.


Could it be both. Fear works to maintain the status quo. Thus if you want to get change from others, make an ultimatum that threatens the status quo. If you want to change yourself, get help dealing with your fears and leap forward.

Never, ever, under any circumstances buy anything from Primus.

Those of you who know me, excluding my family, know I am a calm person. Well one telecommunications company seems to have the gift of working past all of that,

Never, ever, under any circumstances buy anything from Primus. They are a telecommunications company that bought out an Iowa company I originally signed up with fir long distance years ago. In my experience, they are at best politely incompetent and at worst, crooks. I don't want to relive all of my experience with them here, but basically they have overcharged me for years, fail to make promised corrections to problems and seem incapable of stopping billing after we cancelled services withe them a month and a half ago.

If your ever bored and want to watch me turn red, and raise my voice sometime, you can ask me for the details.

I'm off to see who takes complaints about telecommunications service providers to. The FCC, the President, The head of the UN?

Learn the ways of the grape, he must.

I'm no wine snob, but while traveling through New York a couple summers ago we happened upon a little winery in the finger lakes region on Cayuga Lake, just up the road from Cornell University. Much to my suprise, I discovered three wines there that I actually liked. You see, shortly before this my doctor advised me to start having a glass a day for medicinal purposes. Well I was suprised to find some medicine that I liked. We bought a few bottles. Consumed some myself and shared others with friends.

Unfortunately, when my small supply ran out I came to the realization I could not order more from the winery. Michigan lawe prohibited it. Until now, that is. Today the Supreme Court ruled that Michigan and New York laws that prohibit purchasing wines from other states were a no-no. This good news for those of us who want to order wines from out of state.

Supreme Court sides with wineries.

I'm off now to see if GooseWatch Winery is going to register to ship to Michigan.

For any who are concerned about this new habit of mine, you can relax, because for budgetary readons I have converted to grape juice. Supposedly, the unfermented grape has similar benefits and costs less.

A monkey could paint that

Have you ever said or thought that when you were viewing a piece of modern art. Well, in fact, monkeys have done some paintings . . . and you can buy them at an art auction in London.

Here's the Yahoo story and the art

Someday I hope my art is more valuable than chimps, that's my goal.

How's fear as a change agent?

Fast Company has a great piece on change. They open with this.

What if you were given that choice? For real. What if it weren't just the hyperbolic rhetoric that conflates corporate performance with life and death? Not the overblown exhortations of a rabid boss, or a slick motivational speaker, or a self-dramatizing CEO. We're talking actual life or death now. Your own life or death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon -- a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change really mattered? When it mattered most?

Yes, you say?

Try again.

Yes?

You're probably deluding yourself.

You wouldn't change.

Don't believe it? You want odds? Here are the odds, the scientifically studied odds: nine to one. That's nine to one against you. How do you like those odds?

<a href=http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/94/open_change-or-die.html />Fast Company - Change or Die>.
---------
Contrary to what we believe, facts don't have the raw power to change us. They are dependent on our frame of reference. We filter and process facts though our frame. If things don't fit in our frame, we discount or discard them.

Making radical changes is more likely to aid our change than little changes. Small changes don't work very well because they usually have little or no payoff. It's too close to the old way to produce any significant benefits.

And here's the good news, 77% of 333 high-risk heart disease participants in a radical change program, involving a vegetarian low-fat diet, support groups, and meditation, relaxation, yoga, and aerobic exercise kept their new healthier lifestyles for three years after the study and didn't require any medical procedures. Of course, the program focused on the joy of living,

I highly recommend reading the whole article.

Here is Dan Miller's (48days.com) Summary of the article:

        •         Crisis is not a powerful motivator for change
        •          Change is not motivated by fear
        •          Knowing the facts does not cause us to change
        •          It's easier to make drastic changes than small ones

Friends don't let friends forward hoax e-mails.

In recent weeks I've received copies of the same hoax e-mail from 32 different friends, and in fact, I have received variations of the same one many times.

Instead of just deleting the hoax e-mail I like to respond and let the sender know that they are forwarding a hoax e-mail and send them to snopes.com, and the specific address for the history of the particular hoax they are forwarding. Here is an example and in my experience the most popular one:

Bill Gates, Intel, Some other rich person or corporation will send you larg sums of money if you forward this e-mail

People can't resist the offer of large sums of EASY money.

Davin suggested the following as a pre-emptive strike e-mail to send to your friends. Sort of an upstream anti-hoax idea virus.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Are you destroying our trust in email?

Top sign of being an email neophyte:
1. You naively forward hoax emails to everyone you know.
You know those emails that seem too good to be true? They usually start with a claim like, "My older brother is a lawyer for Microsoft and he said this email is totally legit." Then they go on to explain how if you forward the email to so many people, some company will track it and you'll get an easy $50. Or some other silly scheme.

Now, stop yourselves and listen: IT IS A LIE. Do not believe it.

Here are the two easy steps you must take if you want to stop being seen as an email newbie:
1. Highlight the offending email message.
2. Delete the email message before it does further damage.

Good. Remember those steps.

Now, educate yourself. Whenever you feel an urge to forward a seemingly serious email to anyone, especially when there are numerous Fwd: Fwd: Fwd:'s in the subject line, go to a web site that researches these kinds of hoaxes.

Here's a web site that lists a few hoaxes. There are many others.
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

Go forth and forward hoaxes no more.

Now, forward this to 7,000 of your closest friends.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you think this would get people to stop? Probably some, but not all.

'You keep your F; I'm keeping my dream.'

Read this today in a Dan Miller 48days.com e-mail:

When Monty Roberts was in high school, his teacher gave the class the assignment of writing about what they wanted to do when they grew up. Monty wrote that he wanted to own a ranch and raise thoroughbred racehorses. His teacher gave him an 'F' and explained that the dream was unrealistic for a boy living in a camper in the back of a pickup truck. He would never be able to make this a reality. When he offered Monty the chance to rewrite his paper for a higher grade, Monty told him, 'You keep your F; I'm keeping my dream.'

Today, Monty's 154-acre ranch in Solvang, CA is home to world class thoroughbred racehorses and his gentle 'Join Up' methods of training horses (and kids) is the inspiration of companies around the world. He and his wife Pat have raised their own three children as well as 47 foster children, who return regularly to spend time on the ranch. As the 'Horse Whisperer' he inspired the Robert Redford movie that propelled Monty to fame and fortune beyond his wildest boyhood dreams. www.montyroberts.com

Now, who's been trying to talk you out of your dream? Who's been telling you you're crazy and it can't be done? What level of success is that person experiencing? Do you notice that most naysayers and dream kickers are at the bottom themselves? Find people who are already performing at the level at which you'd like to be. You will find they will encourage and inspire you even more.

Unique DUI

Check out this DUI stop. I don't think it's standard police procedure.

Open the Windows Media File here.

Beer ad

Is it just me or are the beer ads some of the best television has to offer. See it here.

Do people drink more. or stay loyal to "their" brand. because of these ads?

Few artists

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist."

- Louis Nizer

Lost in Translation

Something got lost in translation. At a ski lodge in Romania, a sign read:

THE LIFT IS BEING FIXED FOR THE NEXT DAY.
DURING THAT TIME WE REGRET
THAT YOU WILL BE UNBEARABLE.

from Amazing But True Ski Stories daily calendar

Gordon Moore on the current state of software

"As people make improvements in the interface, the complexity seems to grow, and I think if anything we're losing ground a bit in general purpose computing," Moore said. "They want to offer so many new functions in applications, it's difficult to simplify everything at the same time."

from a MacWorld news article 4/13/05

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Using the familiar to do something original

"The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships."

- Leo Burnet

Physics lesson on skis

Two objects of greatly different mass zooming down a slope side by side will have the same rate of descent, but the lighter one will have the larger hospital bill.

from "Amazing But True Ski Stores" daily calendar, April, 8, 2005

As you can see, I don't look at this every day.

Turn your back on the crowd

"If you want to conduct the orchestra, you need to turn your back on the crowd." Unknown

"For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ". Gal. 1:10

Moving quotes . . . as in "Get moving!"

'Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very, long time.' Chinese proverb

'Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.' Thomas Edison

'If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never plant anything and never harvest anything.' Ecclesiastes 11:4

'Don't wait. The time will never be just right.' Napoleon Hill

'There is no more miserable human being than the one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.' William James

Compliments of Dan Miller of 48days.com

Fitness humor

Dan Miller had these in his e-newsletter today. 48Days.com.

These are my two faves.

"My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now & we don't know where she is!"

"If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country."

Top Puns Pun Contest ?

Have you seen the top 10 winners in the International Pun Contest ?

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead
raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm
sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns
to the other and says: "DAM."

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so
they lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly, it
sank, proving once again that you can't have your
kayak and heat it too.

4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says "I've lost my
electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first
replies "Yes, I'm positive."

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused
Novocain during a root canal? His goal? Transcend
dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel
and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent
tournament victories.

After about an hour, the manager came out of the
office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they
asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I
can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

7. A woman has identical twins and places them for
adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and
is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain;
they name him "Juan."

Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his
birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells
her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of
Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If
you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

8. These friars were behind on their belfry payments,
so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds.
Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of
God, a rival florist across town thought the
competition was unfair.

He asked the good fathers to close down, but they
would not. He went back and begged the friars to
close. They ignored him.

So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the
roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade"
them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed
their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close
up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that
Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most
of the time, which produced an impressive set of
calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which
made him rather frail, and with his odd diet, he
suffered from bad breath.

This made him... A super callused fragile mystic
plagued by halitosis.

10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten
different puns to his friends, with the hope that at
least one of the puns would make them laugh.

"No pun in ten did."

Big Fat Waste of time . . . with laughter on the side

The viral Numa Numa dance video

A Numa Numa classroom

The Original Dragostea Din Tei music video isn't as good as this one.

Warning it does get stuck in your head. I had moved on and Eddie brought me back to it. Thanks . . .
. . . thanks, a lot, Eddie! with your help I can waste more time faster.

Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload

Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload

An Excerpt:
The problem is that readers now bear the burden
Before e-mail, senders shouldered the burden of mail. Writing, stamping, and mailing a letter was a lot of work. Plus, each new addressee meant more postage, so we thought hard about whom to send things to. (Is it worth spending thirty-two cents for Loren to read this letter? Nah….)

E-mail bludgeoned that system in no time. With free sending to an infinite number of people now a reality, every little thought and impulse becomes instant communication. Our most pathetic meanderings become deep thoughts that we happily blast to six dozen colleagues who surely can't wait. On the receiving end, we collect these gems of wisdom from the dozens around us. The result: Inbox overload.

And here are the bullet points.
You really have to read the entire piece to comprehend some of these points. If you sned and receive a lot of e-mail it's worth it.
How you can send better e-mail:
Use a subject line to summarize, not describe.

Give your reader full context at the start of your message.

When you copy lots of people (a heinous practice that should
be used sparingly), mark out why each person should care.

Make action requests clear.

Separate topics into separate e-mails … up to a point.

Combine separate points into one message.

Edit forwarded messages.

When scheduling a call or conference, include the topic in the invitation.
It helps people prioritize and manage their calendar more effectively.

Make your e-mail one page or less.

Understand how people prefer to be reached, and how quickly they respond.

How to read and receive e-mail:

Check e-mail at defined times each day.

Use a paper "response list" to triage messages before you do any follow-up.

Charge people for sending you messages.

Train people to be relevant.

Answer briefly.

Send out delayed responses.

Ignore it.

Our eyes to seem to be drawn to faces

I posted previously on how your eyes move around on Google. focusing on the top left triangle. Well compliments of Seth Godin's second blog entry on the topic, I have nosed around a little more. The interesting thing is when images are presented, the eyes tend to go to the faces of people in the pictures. Interesting.

Other example news pages tested.

Is this unique to news or do we do this with all images of faces? Does this happen across cultures? I'm guessing it does. There is something meaningful here, no?

Addendum: My daughters tell me this is how everyone is. It must be so.

Where you want to be . . .

. . . besides in the tropics or the mountains. Check out this graphic presenting where surfer's eyes look when they're looking at a Google page. Not much room for the guy in 5th place.

Eye scan image

Style is not to be trusted.

Excerpt from Milton Glaser's 10 Things I Have Learned

Number 6
Style is not ot be trusted..
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. Incidentally, it’s popular for designers to claim they have no style but this is generally not true. Most good designers have developed a vocabulary, a form that is their own. It is one of the ways that they distinguish themselves from their peers, and establish their identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. As a career progresses the question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide. But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t violate your sense of integrity and purpose.

This made me think of how people from different culture and sub-cultures paint God differently. They use their distinct style to paint a picture of God. Where we go wrong is falling in love with our particular style rather than the subject of the art.

Learn to paint well. Know your subject. Study it. With the image of God their are so many ways his image is defaced in our world. Twisted around to where people get confused or misled about what he really is like.

Get moving!

'Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps, if you are not willing to move your feet.' Author Unknown

No, I've never done that.

Liar!

Got to get moving. Later.

Controlling the culture

"Whoever controls the media--the images--controls the culture." - Allen Ginsberg

Does controlling the culture really matter? Many Christians are concerned with where the cultures is going? Should we be? Jesus wasn't so up in arms about the culture of his day, with one exception. The religious culture. The Sadducees and Pharisees turned a relationship with God into a bunch of rule keeping. Jesus didn't like that much.

I just read a piece from & Arnold Fruchtenbaum's Newsletter yesterday that goes through the Sermon on the Mount. (Unfortunately it is not available online). Basically Jesus was refuting the teachings of the Pharisees about how to obtain righteousness.

Jesus says, For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5:20 In our language "Sorry folks, not good enough".

And boy could these guys, and yes people, they were all guys, keep a lot of rules. They had the 600+ from Moses plus a bunch of traditions piled on top of that. Leaves you wondering. . . who could ever be good enough to be considered righteous and enter heaven? Which is the point, isn't it?

A brand to die for . . .

OK. Are some purses worth fighting for? This lady seemed to think so.

We can always get you another purse. We can't get another you.

I didn't know . . .

I didn't know I could post via e-mail. Next thing you know I'll be
blogging while driving down the road looking out the sun roof open,
like Noel.

Am I stupid for doing tis will someone hack my e-mail address and start
spamming my blog? Your thoughts?

Adding something to get that dad-blamed map off my links.

Don't know
why
it does
this
but
the map
in my
last post overflows
onto
my links.

I'm hoping
this
clears it up.

I can't believe I've visited . . .

I can't believe I've visited all of these states. I'm not sure about Rhode isalnd so I left it out and i actually haven't been to Louisiana, I'm going there next week for the first time. Just a few more to hit and then I can start on the Canadian provinces or Central America.



create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourFlorida travel guide

Firefox?

I sort of like Firefox but I havn't really made it my home browser yet. I like the RSS subscription tool. Easy. I also like the promise of open source software. I'm not worried I will end up locked into the software with no escape route, which brings me to my next point.

Firefox lacks the dot mac bookmark sync feature of Safari and I can't figure out how to get my bookmarks out of Safari and into Firefox. If anyone is reading AND they know how to get bookmarks transferred or any other cool features I am missing out on, comment now or forever hold your mouse.

Refining your message

"If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now."

- Woodrow Wilson

Funny Cat Video

This is just too funny.
Can it be real?

"Intimacy doesn't scale".

"Intimacy doesn't scale." This got me thinking. Technology lets us talk to more people, advertise to more people, get audio, video and written content to thousands, even millions. In spite of all this technology that gives us the ability to communicate, we are still left to develop relationships in our "primitive" ways.

You can grow a business customer base or a community of common interest, but in the end, we all come down to our need for and ability to maintain personal one-to-one or one-to-few relationships.

Here's an ancient example of intimacy scaling poorly. King Solomon with his hundreds of wives. Do you think he had a close relationship with all of them? NOT! Geez, he couldn't have given each one but one day a year to talk personally. That was completely nuts! For the wisest man who ever lived, this is a character flaw you could fly a plane through. It certainly wasn't what God wanted for him. Maybe he thought, “If I just marry one more, I’ll finally understand women.”

If you want to be close, stop spreading yourself around so thin. Don't expect technology to allow you to scale your relationships in any dramatic multiple of what your "primitive” abilities allow. Even Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, couldn’t get around this limitation. He had 12 close friends and of those only 3 were his tightest buds.

How does intimacy get created? What destroys it? What advances it? Maybe I should ask MJ. What are your thoughts?

======================
Here is the inspiration for this entry, From Hugh McLeod's blog, Gaping Void :

More thoughts on "How To Be Creative" from Hugh here.

If you like exaggerated stories of good versus evil . .

. . . then you like Macs and . . .
. . . you'll get a kick out of As The Apple Turns.

This piece got me going today. Pay More, Get Less, & Like It

Here's an excerpt:

Maybe we're not so much deep-down incredulous that anyone could really sink to such depths as to try to jack up prices on something that's essentially all profit in the first place, but rather that they could really stay down there in the slime for ten or eleven months without coming up for air. That's purely a gut reaction, of course, since our rational selves are fully aware that record execs breathe slime, and if they ever took a gillful of clean, fresh air, they'd burst into flames. (Fire: the Biblical Cleanser™!)

I must confess I read it far too regularly. The good news is, it takes many repeat doses to come fully under it's mind altering powers, I think.

Bon Apetit!