Small Things

The good news is that the mission in Oklahoma was a complete success. The better news is that I was able to leave ahead of schedule and even though I can barely keep my eyes open I made it almost half way home tonight and I should be home for 4th of July parties tomorrow night.

I had a neat experience the other night that I thought I'd share before I go to sleep. A couple nights ago I went out to the local Wally World in Lawton to get a couple groceries. In one of the isles they had one of those giant bins full of DVD's for $5 a piece. Since I was in town by myself with no plans I figured I'd take a gander. I bought Sideways and some Jack Black movie I'd never heard of. I knew a little bit about Sideways and I had heard that you have to watch it with a glass of Pinot Noir. Next stop, wine store. Next stop, dollar store to purchase wine bottle opener. I was next in line at the dollar general when the elderly woman in front of me told the cashier that she wanted to buy one of the 40 lb bags of water softener that they had on display outside the store on the sidewalk. I had to wait. The cashier told the lady that she had to go out and bring a bag in so that she could scan the price. Clearly this just wasn't safe so I put my bottle opener down on the counter and carried the bag in, got it scanned, then put it in the back of her car. When I got back to the counter she had gone ahead and paid for my bottle opener for me. I thanked her for her generosity and proudly walked out with my new opener.

Like the title implies, this was just a small little thing, but just the night before I had started working on a new affirmation/visualization around abundance that I had been studying in Bob Proctor's book. Coincidence? Possibly. :-)

Good Old Wayne

I've had a very busy and somewhat intense day so there's not much of my own thinking in this post. At least, I don't feel like thinking any more. Luckily, Wayne Dyer has offered to let me copy some of his quotes so that I can just go to bed having still done a new post and you can have a few ideas (perhaps some of them will be new to you) that will help you to have a better day, week, or life.

1. "There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there's only scarcity of resolve to make it happen."
   
   
2. "Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into."
   
   
3. "There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way."
   
   
4. "Within you is the divine capacity to manifest and attract all that you need or desire."
   
   
5. "We are Divine enough to ask and we are important enough to receive."
   
   
6. "You are always a valuable, worthwhile human being, not because anybody says so, not because you're successful, not because you make a lot of money, but because you decide to believe it and for no other reason."
   
   
7. "When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous."
   
   
8. "The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away."
   
   
9. "Successful people make money. It's not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do."
   
   
10. "Self-worth comes from one thing -- thinking that you are worthy."
    
    
11. "Prosperity in the form of wealth works exactly the same as everything else. You will see it coming into your life when you are unattached to needing it. "
    
    
12. "Our intention creates our reality."
    
    
13. "Love what you do."
    
    
14. "Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life."
    
    
15. "It's never crowded along the extra mile."
    
    
16. "I will grow. I will become something new and grand, but no grander than I now am. Just as the sky will be different in a few hours, its present perfection and completeness is not deficient, so am I presently perfect and not deficient because I will be different tomorrow. I will grow and I am not deficient."
    
    
17. "Heaven on Earth is a choice you must make, not a place we must find."
    
    
18. "A non-doer is very often a critic-that is, someone who sits back and watches doers, and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It's easy to be a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk, and change."
    
    
19. "Anything that has been accomplished by any other human being in the physical realm is within the field of possibility."
    
    
20. "Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it."

Have Stress?

During my travels over the last couple days I found myself sitting in a terminal with a cup of great coffee while I was checking emails and returning phone calls. All of a sudden this wonderful music started coming from the piano sitting about 10 feet away. I hadn't noticed it earlier since it was covered up with a big "do not put anything on this piano" sign.

I listened for 20 minutes or so and then had to head off to my next task, but before I did I told the pianist how much I had enjoyed her music so she gave me her card. I think the company name is appropriate. Her name is Nancy Lamka and you can listen to some of her stuff here.

Some Pics From Bend

There's plenty of hotels in the Bend area, but our meeting was actually in Sunriver, which is some sort of master planned community in the middle of the woods about 20 minutes south of Bend. Almost all of the homes and condos in Sunriver are either second homes or vacation rentals or both. We had a few cancellations from some people who got sick so there ended up being 3 of us in this house. Not bad, though if I had known ahead of time I might have tried to sublet a couple rooms for the weekend. I wonder how much someone would pay to rent a hot tub?


The place had a huge upper deck...


And an even bigger lower deck.

With hot tub.


But most of the time we were in meetings. One of the members of our team actually lives in Bend, and she hosted a dinner at her house before we left. Here's a picture of her view from the back yard and me on her friend's all terrain segway.


And here is some sort of tree replicator...


And a car with no door we saw on the way to the airport. It really has no relevance to the rest of this post, but I thought it was funny.

Focus - Count The Passes

There's no question that focus is an important skill that we need to utilize in order to get some things done.

This is a pretty neat video that will test your ability to focus. First, make sure you have a good high speed connection. You will see two teams of people each passing a basketball between the team members. There is a team wearing white shirts and a team wearing black shirts. You're challenge is to count exactly how many passes the white team makes during the video. (it's short, about 1 minute long).



How many passes did you count?

Did you notice anything else about the video?

If you didn't, watch it again make sure you didn't miss something.

Imagination

The second intellectual factor is the imagination. 

 

Just to review, our lives can be thought of as a 4 step process of Thoughtà Feelingsà  Actionà Results.  Our thoughts are usually triggered by some sort of stimulus from our physical senses, but we can filter that input through our intellectual factors.  All of this of course is permeated by our existing paradigms of how the world works but that is another post.

 

Our imagination is the real creative force in the universe.  If you’ve ever seen things like The Secret or What The Bleep Do We Know, you’ll remember that a few of the people on there talk about how we are the creators, that we constantly create our physical world around us by our thoughts and imagination.  There’s some dicey or even heretical issues there about calling ourselves God, but I’ll just say that I believe that we have been blessed with amazing and incredible creative powers.  Imagination is our ability to think thoughts that are not restricted by the physical laws of the universe nor confined to logic.  It is absolute freedom to think any thoughts we want.  We all have imagination but most people don’t realize the power that can be harnessed by it.

 

Remember that after the thought comes feeling.  Just imagining your future is effective.  Imagining the sights, smells, feelings and sounds of that vision is effective multiplied.  Having a strong emotional feeling when you are envisioning your future is effective multiplied plus plus.  Einstein noted (huge paraphrase) that when our thoughts and logic have come to a standstill it is only our imagination that will enable us to go farther.  At a press conference marking the official opening of Disney World in Orlando a reporter asked Walt Disney’s brother “Isn’t it a shame that Walt did not live to see the construction of this park?”  “If Walt hadn’t seen it, none of you would be seeing it today,” he answered.  So true.

 

So you have a wild imagination?  Great!  Use it to your advantage.  Imagine sitting on that beach during the vacation of your dreams, or cutting that huge check to help feed thousands of starving children, or breaking in the leather on that new exotic sports car, or having breakfast in the sunroom of that dream house, or enjoying that perfect relationship, or whatever it is.  Just remember to focus on the positive feeling that you are feeling.   Imagine that it has already happened and concentrate on the emotions that you are experiencing.  You’re not quite done yet, but you’re well on your way. 

A New Superhero...Plus More On Yesterday's Thought

Part of the outcome from today’s meeting is a list of information that needs to be gathered and tasks that need to be accomplished in the next couple days, preferably Monday.  All of these items were named to be absolutely critical.  Because I am traveling back to the source where this information can be gathered I have been assigned responsibility for about 90% of these absolutely critical tasks.  I am now Critical Man.  I may not show up for some of the more run-of-the-mill super hero duties, but if it is absolutely critical, I’ll be there.  Efficiency at it’s best.

 

Also, coming back to my thoughts about yesterday and the science of personal achievement I just wanted to emphasize how important some of this stuff is to your life.  One of the 6 intellectual factors that we discussed was Perception.  It is our perception of the problem that can really make a HUGE DIFFERENCE in the quality of our life and the outcomes/results of our business dealings.  First off, things will happen to you.  Obstacles may present themselves, challenges will appear, and commitments may not be fulfilled.   At the same time expectations will sometimes be exceeded, obstacles will be overcome, and goals will be achieved.   None of what actually happens is really that important!  These are just the facts and they do not change.  What is important is our perception of what we see, hear, touch, feel, and smell and how we process that information and the paradigms we process with.  Two people can see or hear the exact same words and have totally different opinions.

 

Imagine I’m working on a new door in a house I’m renovating.  There’s a little child watching me work.  I’m messing with a screw driver trying to secure a new deadbolt to the door.  I’m having a really hard time with it as the door is made of some kind of plastic and I’m grimacing and grunting and I try to turn the screwdriver.   The innocent kid watches what I’m doing and looks at my face and says, “Did you know that you smile when you screw?”

 

That’s just a joke, but you get the point.  Everything that happens in life is open to interpretation.  It’s your choice to have whatever interpretation you want, but no matter what you choose there will be a consequence.   Ever heard people say things like…”oh, well, that’s just my luck.  If something bad is going to happen it will happen to me.”  They’re right.  Something bad will happen….and it will happen to them.

 

I myself tend to have very good luck.  I usually win games, succeed in business, am saved by the bell, get the girl, get picked for the promotion, find a good parking space, get to the post office in time, make my connecting flight, etc. etc.   Does that mean that bad stuff has never happened?   Absolutely not.  I’ve made some bonehead mistakes that have cost me years of time and lots of money.  But it’s a good thing I made those mistakes so that I could learn those lessons.   Have I had unfortunate events happen to me that were out of my control?  Absolutely yes.  But again it’s a good thing because I needed to learn lessons of letting go of what I can’t control.  It’s more than just having a positive mental attitude.  It’s taking control of your physical world.  It’s making sure your endeavors are as profitable as possible.  It making your relationships work.  It’s having whatever you want in life….anything can be yours…..but it depends on your perception.  Some people think that all this is just “positive thinking” crap and that all you’re doing is burying your head in the sand against the reality of life.  Again….the facts don’t change.  The fact may be that you have $3000 worth of bills this month and only $2000 to pay it with.   If you get really upset and depressed and talk about how bad the situation is I can almost guaranty that next month will be WORSE for you.  However, if you say this is exciting and you’re grateful that you’re in this situation so that you can learn how to get out, change your habits that got you into this mess and start listing ways you can fix it today and get started today, don’t you think that this approach will lead to a better result next month?

Thought Of The Day

The reason we’re here in Bend is for our quarterly meeting of principals for REITeam LLC, the investment company Liz and I helped found.

 

I don’t normally talk/write about our business dealings on this blog, but today’s opening meeting was something worth sharing.  Rick O’Bill is a distinguished personal success coach and trainer.  He has taught seminars on the subject of achievement and the science of getting what you want out of life for over 30 years.  He is buddy buddy as well as a business partner with people like Bob Proctor and Mark Victor Hansen.   Anyway, he came and gave a talk just to our meeting this morning for about 2 hours.  I couldn’t imagine a better way to start off a board meeting.  We discussed the importance of controlling what we think, the power of our paradigms, the effect of our vibrations on our results, as well as some practical step-by-step procedures that we could use to get the same positive results every time.

 

I’ll just mention one thing here, but I’m going to write more about it in future posts.  Our lives and our progress towards improvement can be thought of as a four step process.

 

1. Think   2.  Feel    3. Act    4 Result

 

Our thoughts start everything off.  They come to us primarily though the Physical Factors of sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound.   However, being blessed as we are, we can also filter this input through our Intellectual Factors.  They are 1. Perception  2. Imagination  3. Memory  4 The Will  5. Intuition  6.  Reason    It is once we can learn to master and control these 6 Intellectual Factors that we can really start to control and create the lives we want for ourselves.  Remember, everything starts as a thought.  As Andrew Carnegie said (I’ll paraphrase) “Any thought that we hold in our concentration, whether we fear it or desire it, will become physical reality though the most efficient and sensible means available.” 

 

Somewhere in this process I must have been thinking of a good bottle of wine and a delicious steak because that’s what we’re off to do right now. 

 

Beards And Frozen Climbers

I flew today from Lawton, Oklahoma to Portland, Oregon where Liz and I met up for a weekend meeting we have in Bend, Oregon.  I got to Portland first and I could help but notice the difference in the amount of facial hair between the two regions among other things.

 

Lawton = military town, conservative, patriotic, Bush fans, clean shaven, short haircuts, buffets, barbecued beef brisket.

 

Portland = fish market town, liberal, conservation, democratic, beards, pony tails, coffee shops, healthy food.

 

Anyway, the drive to Bend was beautiful.  We drove right past Mt. Hood where there are still 2 climbers frozen under the ice that got stranded last year.  Creepy, I know, but that’s exactly what the rental car shuttle driver told us at the airport.   I guess that’s one way to greet people to your city.  “Welcome to Portland, Home of the Frozen Climbers!”

Taser The Gnome Game

O, how I miss the days in cube city.

You have to wait till the end then click on the word "Work" to play. Gotta get me some more Cheatware.

Click Here to play.

How To Make Money With Google Adsense

Today was a very important day for me. Diligent work, pain staking article writing, many hours up late programming, and constant attention and focus have all culminated in this wonderful day and its most excellent news....

My Google Adsense account has now earned over $100!

I should be receiving a check sometime in August.

How did I do it? Forget all that stuff at the top. That's just an excitement building intro.

First, about 90% of that revenue came from MLMAchiever.com It's a site that I created just so I could test out some of the things I had heard on one of those "internet marketing" cds. Specifically, it was from Tom Antion, but I think a lot of them are the same material.

All I did was write about 20 short articles (500 words) about any kind of aspect of network marketing. Then I distributed them to different article directories, but mostly through ezinearticles. That's it. There's not even good articles. I just cranked them out to see if I could actually make money. The other 10% comes from this blog, but blog readers don't click on ads evidently. I guess it's like the 80/20 rule for pay-per-click advertising.

I don't actually write a newsletter anymore, but I do still send out an inspirational quote of the day which you can sign up for on the homepage.

In other news, I'm off to Bend, Oregon for a couple days for a meeting and some rafting, and then back to Lawton. I got the internet situation figured out in my apartment here so I can finally catch up on all things happening on the internets that I've been missing for the last couple days. Phew....I'm going through Onion withdraw.

I did have some excellent barbecue yesterday from John And Cooks BBQ. Evidently it is the best that Lawton has to offer (in terms of barbecue). I was impressed. The chopped brisket was very good as well as the beans. They had a hot barbecue sauce that'll really clear you up and their mild was delicious.

Work Day

Not much to write about today as it was a work day. But I did add pictures to yesterday's post. Just scroll down to see them.

Arrival in Lawton

Made it safely to Oklahoma today. Drove another 700 miles. Got a better start this morning and was on the road by 7:00. Drove through the rest of Tennessee , all the way through Arkansas to Oklahoma City and then down to Lawton. I'm pretty tired now though and the internet here at the Quality Inn is pretty spotty so I won't bother with pictures or any more complete sentences. Highlights today:

-Saw a couple crop dusting planes in Arkansas. At first I thought they were going to crash into the highway. Close one.

-Ate lunch at the Old South Restaurant in Russellville, Arkansas. It was very old....and very southern. I asked for blue cheese on my salad and the waitress warned me that it was "old southern style" which mean loaded with garlic. It tasted weird.



-Oklahoma has the nicest "Welcome Center" of the whole trip down. Free Coffee! Perfect.




-Passed a bunch of Indian Casinos here in Oklahoma. I guess the trail of tears ends up in a big slot machine.



-Saw a bunch of funny things on the road. Took pictures of most of it. Will post some other time.



-Got to Lawton and had to go to 3 hotels before I found a room. I asked the nice woman at the registration desk if she had any recommendations for dinner. "Do you like buffets?" she asks me. I like this woman.

It's off to bed now as I have an early morning at the apartments tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll actually be staying in one of the units we've decorated as a model although I think I have to actually get DSL installed in the apartment. We'll see if phone companies are as responsive in Oklahoma as they are in West Virginia.

ARY's Cousin, Barbecue, And 700 Miles

All in all it was a great day of travelling. I set off a little later than I wanted, but still busted out almost 700 miles. I'm now somewhere in between Nashville and Memphis. Not much around here but at least the Days Inn has free internet in the rooms. (I realized 150 miles into the trip that I forgot my sprint internet card at home...d'oh.)

Saw some funny stuff today and ate some incredible barbecue.

First of all, somewhere in Virginia I found that the ARY has a cousin. The CAMR!


I didn't make many stops except for gas, but by about 6:00pm I was starting to think about dinner. Suddenly my Dad called. He was hanging out with my brother and grandfather and they wanted to say hi. Ends up my dad had been doing some consulting recently in Knoxville, TN which was about 20 minutes further up the road. He said there was a really great barbecue joint, but he didn't know if they were open on Sundays or not. He gave me directions and I just smelled my way there.

Chandler's Deli Restaurant Bone Sucking BBQ

When I first saw the sign I was a little skeptical. Was it a deli? Was it an ice cream shop? There were even cones on the side of the building.

Not to worry, this place was all Que. I parked the car and started to walk in and a lady pokes her head out of the carry-out window and informs me that the restaurant is closed but I can still order from the window.."oh, and there's no more meat left except ribs."

"Do you have any sides left?"
"Oh yeah, we have all the sides."
"Works for me."

So I back the car up and pull in front of the window. The lady takes my order, but I'm having a really hard time understanding her. She had some kind of inner city Knoxville accent that I just wasn't getting. I do manage to communicate that I want ribs, with green beans and potato salad.

"How many ribs do you want?"
"Uh, I don't know. A bunch..a whole rack or slab or whatever it's called?"
"You want a whole [words I couldn't understand]?"
"Yeah, I'll take that."

The good news is I ended up with about 3 pounds of tender, fall-off-the-bone, slow smoked ribs.

There is no bad news.

Copious amounts of barbecue having been procured I got back on the highway. I didn't want to park the car there and eat because the neighborhood seemed pretty sketchy. Especially the gangsta pimp midget guy that was pumping gas across the street.


Off I headed westward again, to the peaceful tranquility of the great smokey mountains wilderness.....rest stop.


And now for the main event. Never mind the fact that I forgot to make sure I had any silverware or wet naps. I did have a few napkins left over from lunch. That and my fingers would have to do. Drumroll.......



I couldn't finish them, so I have more to eat tomorrow. Sweet.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Dad! Thank you so much for all you've been to me. I really can't wait to start working together in the coming weeks!

Letters between son and dad
Dear Dad,
$chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and $tudying very hard. With all my $tuff, I $imply can't think of anything I need, $o if you would like, you can ju$t $end me a card, a$ I would love to hear from you.
Love,
Your $on

The Reply:
Dear Son,
I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are eNOugh to keep even an hoNOr student busy. Do NOt forget that the pursuit of kNOwledge is a NOble task, and you can never study eNOugh.
Dad

Oklahoma!

I think my car, aka "The ARY", must have read my blog post yesterday and gotten upset about it. In case you don't know it's actually a CAMRY, but the C and the M have fallen off the back. I have to go to Lawton, Oklahoma for two weeks and I've really been wanting to drive. I actually want to drive cross country, but Oklahoma is just about half way. I guess I was always envious of my friends in college who took off the week we graduated and drove all around the country doing and seeing random stuff. Me? I got straight to work so I could pay the rent for my apartment.

I was planning on taking the ARY so yesterday I was cleaning it out. It's been sitting in front of my house for a couple months and desperately needed some TLC. I drove it down to the car wash and as I'm pulling out the engine stalls and won't restart. The good news is that it stalled exactly 2 blocks from my house. There's no bad news as I'm sure the guys down at the car shop will call me and say it is something really simple that will cost me less than $20 to fix.

So now I have to rent a car. No worries. As Liz pointed out to me the cost to the company will actually be less since a 2600 mile trip at $0.45/mile is $1170. I can probably rent a car for 3 weeks with gas and spend less than $800. I suppose it was meant to be.

If anyone know of some really great barbecue restaurants between here and Lawton, Oklahoma make sure to let me know. I'm taking off on Sunday. Also, having never hung out in Oklahoma before let me know if there's anything special that I'll need to fit in. Like big belt buckles, cowboy hats, etc. I usually a flip flops and Hawaiian shirt type of dresser, but Lawton is a military town. Not sure that look goes over real well there.

Counterfeit What? A Top 10 Guide

This is a serious warning. Right now, before you spend hours and hours reading this blog, go to your medicine cabinet. You may be the next unsuspecting victim..... of..... counterfeit..... TOOTHPASTE!

Are you kidding me! Someone is going to bother going through all the trouble and risk to counterfeit something and sell it in America... and what do you decide to make? Toothpaste? Can you imagine the round table discussion in the evil headquarters of a mysterious counterfeit ring located in the base of a volcano of a secret island discussing how they will make millions of dollars and take over the world... using toothpaste? This is straight up Austin Powers type of stuff, but I don't think even the likes of Dr. Evil would push something so dumb.

Let's look at the alternatives. In fact, let's look at 10 things that would be much better to counterfeit than toothpaste.

10. Anything in the world that sells for more than a buck at the dollar store.

9. Celebrities. Make robots that look like movie stars. Take over world, etc.

8. Fancy cars. Most people don't look under the hood anyway. They just want other people to see that they drive a beamer or benz. In fact I even own one, but it's a reverse counterfeit. I actually drive a 2007 BMW M5 that's been made to look like a 1995 Camry with 2 missing hubcaps. Otherwise I would be so overcome with ladies trying to get my phone number that I wouldn't be able to write any of these blog posts.

7. Beer. If it's cold and cheap people will buy it. Even if it misspells common English words on the label. "This refescing ber is madde in Afrca"

6. Sell counterfeit stuff in Second Life. It's all fake anyway. It's like one giant counterfeit world...except it's legal.

5. Watches /jewelry / luxury goods. This is an easy one. Evil ring leader: "Yes, but how will we distribute our fake goods throughout the West?" Evil but smart helper guy: "Through Wal-Mart!" Think I'm kidding? Check it out.

4. Open up a restaurant that looks and feels like a restaurant you know....but there's something a little off.....do I smell......Soul Glo?

3. Cute fuzzy anythings. Especially if it makes some kind of stupid noise.

2. Blogs that actually make money.

1. Money. Isn't that the whole point of counterfeiting anyway?

Movie Night

We rented two incredible films last night. Emotion, adventure, adversity, heroes, action and true drama were all encapsulated in both of these amazing movies.

Beerfest. I actually didn't know anything about this movie, but Seth Godin mentions it in one of his new books, The Dip. He doesn't talk about the movie being good or anything, but he does talk about how it didn't make much money. In any case, the seed was planted and I harvested when I saw it on the shelf. Not a good date movie...unless your date really likes to chug beers, play quarters and beer pong. Come to think of it that may not be too rare depending on where you are.



Borat. It hard to watch and I had seen most of the scenes from video clips on the Internet, but it was good to see the whole thing. Very funny....and yet very disturbing....but then funny again. A real emotional roller coaster.

Ok, so I lied. Neither one of these movies were incredible. In fact, they're the kind of movies that you might hide away when company comes over. But we did laugh a lot and isn't that the whole point?

Physics Guy Rap

Well done.

Enemy Combatants And Weird Indian Music

In case you haven't seen or read, a U.S. court has determined that the military can no longer hold this guy in detention on the main land without charging him with a crime. He's a Qatar citizen who got scooped up in post 9-11 operations and is being held in South Carolina. I couldn't help but notice that it appears he is sporting a mullet. I wonder if that was a current fashion in Qatari stock car/camel racing, or if that was something he picked up while being incarcerated in South Carolina? Also, it must be one of the first times in history that any kind of judge panel has agreed with someone called "enemy combatant." I suppose they have to change it to "guy who is screwed" or something.

Anyway, I couldn't help but think of the similarity between his picture, and the Indian Michael Jackson guy I saw a couple months ago. (I know, they don't look that similar, but this is just how my brain associates things.) I just noticed that the view count on this is now over 2.6 MILLION! I wonder if they knew they'd be such a Web 2.0 musical sensation?

Cruise Ship Innovation

This could possibly the coolest ship ever created. Although a short cruise for a couple hours would probably be better than a week long trip.

Fun Things To Do With Microwave Ovens

Last night we were out the farm for a nice quiet dinner on the porch with the family. Liz and I were in charge of bringing desert so we carried over a frozen Razzleberry Pie which had been in the freezer for a few days. When we got to the farm I realized that it actually needed to be baked for an hour. No worries, we had time.

The funny thing to me were the cooking instructions. If you go and grab something in your pantry that needs to be cooked in the oven you'll notice that the instructions sometimes list it under "conventional oven instructions."

Louise: "Do you know how to bake the pie you brought?"
Me: "Do you have a conventional oven? Then Yes, I do know how."

Which of course really got me thinking about some important stuff...like what would be an "unconventional oven" ?

This is a direct quote from the number one google search result homepage:
Click Here to go directly to Fun things To Do With Microwave Ovens

Disclaimer

I have tried most of these things, and still live. However your experience may vary. I do not take any responsibility for any dammed stupid thing you may do to yourself, and am presenting this information solely for entertainment purposes. Understand that high power microwaves are definitely dangerous, and behave in very non-intuitive ways (unless you are an RF engineer.) Microwave ovens are carefully designed to keep the microwaves inside, and the operator outside during use. Keep it that way. See the list of Cautions.

Never forget that YOU are at all times responsible for your own actions and safety, despite what your political masters would have you believe.

Children should NEVER attempt these things. Watch an adult do them, kids.



It kind of reminds me of the warning label that came right on top of my big turkey deep fryer when I opened the box. WARNING - FOR SOBER ADULT USE ONLY.

The Power Of A Mandate

First off, congrats to Mike for finally winning his city council election. We were joking last night about his "Mandate" of 5 votes (his margin of victory) so this morning I noticed on Fred Smith's site an article about mandates so I decided to post it. I think I might make it a regular deal to post something education/inspirational on Sundays. Besides, I usually don't feel like writing much on Sunday mornings.

The Power Of A Mandate

Creating a mandate that is larger than the leader

By Fred Smith

Leadership ultimately is synergizing effort so that you get extraordinary effort out of ordinary people.
Berle, in his book on power, said that “power is personal – it needs an organization for amplification and must be disciplined by a mandate.” That’s true whether we’re leading a corporation or a church. Establishing a mandate helps us to define that reality and to lead with integrity. Leaders need to ask, “Why are we operating? What are we about? What are we dedicated to?” Once these questions have been addressed and consensus around their answers developed, a leader has a mandate, a foundation on which to determine programs, recruit leadership, establish organizational culture, and figure out what and what not to do.
One critical function of a mandate is that it separates loyalty to the leader from loyalty to the cause. The leader has to say, “I am subservient to this mandate. You don’t serve me. You don’t make me happy. And don’t keep me in charge unless I fulfill the mandate.”
I was talking to ten pastors who were highly educated and leading large churches. One asked, "How can I get my church to do my program?" I responded by asking him two questions. The first was, "Did you found the church?" No, he didn't. The second was, "Would you leave if you got a better offer?" Yes, he would leave. "Then what right do you have to call it 'my' church?" I replied. "You'd be better off saying 'our' church."
While the leader is responsible for the initiation of the mandate, he has to build a consensus for it among people—first, that they buy into the mandate, and second, that they are willing to dedicate themselves to carrying it out. Many current business authors and consultants talk about “taking ownership.” This phrase simply means having their people dedicated to the mandate.
There are two dangers in carrying out the mission:
1) Often leaders will put their friends, their associates, their politically loyal people into key positions, whether or not they belong there. It's easy to fall into this double agenda, this popularity contest. But we're not in leadership to become popular; we're there to advance the mandate. Personal loyalty is dangerous because you are tied to the leader’s success rather than the organization;.
2) An organization centered on a leader rather than a mission is threatened by the possibility that when the leader leaves, his people may follow and leave no effective group vested in the cause and dedicated to carrying on the mission. William Fenton, the German band master, made it imminently clear to each band member that the cause was greater than the person by saying, “You cannot play like that and play in this band because we are a championship band.”
Great leaders of the past have always worked from a mandate.
Three examples are Hitler who said “we are a superior race”, Roosevelt whose mandated action was for the poor and the power of Mother Theresa’s mandate to give dignity to the dying. Coach John Wooden’s coaching philosophy was that each player do his best. In so doing the player was fulfilling his responsibility to the team. The coach never used the word “win” in his team talks – just hammered home that each player was to do his best. Of course, he recruited players whose best had winning potential, but he didn’t focus on the win but the individual best efforts. Wooden’s strategy was to build individuals as well as a team.
As Peter Drucker says, “Mission defines strategy, and strategy defines structure.”

© 2003 Fred Smith

Hurtissimo

It was supposed to be a quiet dinner last night but it ended up being about 10 people. It was sort of like this:

How To Send A Text Message To ANY Cell Phone From Your Email

I found out about this nifty little company a couple weeks ago when I was looking for a way to send a broadcast email to a cell phone. I knew that you could go to the service providers website and send the text message that way, but I was looking for a single source that could be used to send a text message from my computer to any cell phone no matter who the provider is. I found out about Teleflip.

Just send an email to [any U.S. cell phone]@teleflip.com That's it! For example if your phone number is (123) - 456-7890 send the email to 1234567890@teleflip.com It's a totally free service but if your cell phone provider charges you to receive text messages (most do) then those fees will apply.

Superheroes Coming To The North East!

I finally talked to Pierce the other day. We'd been playing a game of phone tag but it was the really really slow kind where I called him a month ago, he called me two weeks ago and I just called him back.

Anyway, it was good to catch up with an old friend. We talked about getting together sometime, either us going into the city, or them coming out to the Dub-V, and told him that the Aquabats were going to be in NYC in August. "I'll go" he said without even thinking about it. I just checked their website. Looks like they are still adding dates to the tour. Philadelphia and Boston weren't on there a couple days ago. I hope they come to Charles Town. Anyway, it looks like a Super Rad Road Trip may be in effect for August in case anyone wants to join.

Old Rectory Project # 128

The basement here at my house (Old Rectory) has lots of things going for it, but accessibility for people over 6' 5" is not one of them. There are 2 stairwells that go down there from the inside. One requires a pretty good limbo dance maneuver and the other is an old wooden spiral that require more of a hunch and tip toe technique. The only other option is a side entrance from the outside which would be perfect except for the fact that the 150 - 200 year old brick walls had caved in and there was only one wobbly step where there should be 3 or 4 solid steps.

So we started digging. And digging. And stacking. And more more stacking. And ripping out old rotten wood. The good news is we've gotten a great start on the whole thing. Also, because we are replacing the bricks with cinder block I'm going to have plenty of bricks to repave the sidewalk and create a nice patio area. The cost? My back has had better mornings.

Tribute

This is the greatest and best blog post in the world... Tribute.

Long time ago me and my cousin K here,
we was hitchhikin' down a long and lonesome road.
All of a sudden, there shined a shiny demon laptop... in the middle... of the road.
And he said:

"Write the best post in the world, or I'll eat your soul." (soul)

Well me and K, we looked at each other,
and we each said... "Okay."

And we wrote the first thing that came to our heads,
Just so happened to be,
The Best Post in the World, it had The Best Pics in the World.


Look into my blog and it's easy to see
Some posts are very true, and others witty,
It was destiny.
Once every hundred-million blogs or so,
You and me link there, he and she link here,
And the ranking doth grow...

Needless to say, the beast was stunned.
Whip-crack went his schwumpy tail,
And the beast was done.
He asked us: "(snort) Be you A-listers?"
And we said, "Nay. We are but men (and women)."
Post!
Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh-ah-ah,
Ohhh, whoah, ah-whoah-oh!


This is not The Greatest Post in the World, no.
This is just a tribute.
I forgot to save The Greatest Post in the World, no, no.
This is a tribute, oh, to The Greatest Blog in the World,
All right! It was The Greatest Post in the World,
All right! It was the best muthafuckin' blog the greatest post in the world.

And the peculiar thing is this my readers:
the post we wrote on that fateful night it didn't actually look
anything like this post.

This is just a tribute! You gotta believe me!
And I wish you had read it! Just a matter of opinion.
Ah, fudge! Good God, God lovin',
So surprised to find you can't stop it.

All right! All right!

Questions For The Convenient Psychic

Here in Charles Town we have a large horse track with a slot machine casino. It's a huge place with an entrance that you might see at an amusement park. Yesterday I was driving by it with a friend of mine from down the street. We were stopped at a traffic light and noticed the big yellow building across the street from the track with a huge "Psychic" sign and the picture of a big hand.

The Psychic actually shares the building with a pawn shop which I suppose is appropriate given that it's across the street from the gambling bonanza. I wonder if the two businesses ever work together. "Can you tell me which piece of electronics I should sell so that I can gamble it across the street?"

There's some other strange things about it that I found amusing. For example, the "Psychic" is open 7 days/week from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. Do psychics ever take vacations? Is it really necessary for them to be open 84 hours/week?

Person 1: Oh darn! It's Sunday. It's 9:00 at night. Where on earth am I going to find a psychic that is open!?!

Person 2: Don't worry, I know just the place.

Person 1: How convenient!

I also wonder if anyone goes into those places and asks more mundane or real life kinds of questions. I figure most people go in there and ask about finding their future soul mate, or future riches, or which horse to bet on. They probably get those requests so often they're bored with them. I think I would try to shake things up. My questions would be....

1. I'm driving to Ohio later this summer. Are there going to be any unexpected construction delays on I-70?

2. Today I can buy a round trip ticket to Bend, Oregon on orbitz.com for $587. Is that the best price or should I try again tomorrow?

3. The weatherman says there is a 30% chance of rain this weekend. What do you think?

4. Will McDonalds ever bring back the 2 Big Macs for $2 promotion?

5. Will Google ever crush Microsoft? Or vice versa?

What else would you ask the 7 days/week Psychic?

Success Vitamins

Success Vitamins
by Napoleon Hill

Anyone can stand poverty, but few can stand success and riches.

Happiness is found in doing – not merely in possessing.

Remember that every time you go the extra mile you place someone under obligation to you.

Pick out some person whom you admire and imitate him or her as closely as you can. This is hero-worship, but it improves character.

If you must be deceitful, be sure you never try to deceive your best friend – yourself.

You will find time for all your needs if you have your time properly organized.

You might discover how to save enough time and materials in your department to insure you an increase in pay and add a better job. Why don’t you try?

It is better to let a man earn something he deserves than to give it to him.

Making life “easy” for children usually makes life “hard” for them in adulthood.

Eat right, think right, sleep right, and play right and you can save the doctor’s bill for your vacation money.

Source: The Science of Personal Achievement. Vol. II. Pg. 17. 1963.

--Napoleon Hill

Top 10 Signs You've Turned 30 Years Old

A couple weeks ago I turned 30, but it's only now that I'm starting to think about what that actually means to me. ....Well, actually it doesn't mean that much to me, but I woke up this morning and wanted to do a Top 10 list so here it is...

10. Slight tinge of guilt appears the morning after playing in a beer pong tournament.

9. Official identification documents start to say you were born 30 years ago.

8. Frequency of telling old college stories drops 10%. Frequency of telling "early in my career" stories creeps up 10%.

7. All of a sudden equal numbers of people start telling you "You're still young!" or "You're old!"

6. Old list of life goals has mysteriously disappeared. New list of life goals include words like "time to grow up" or "need to be focused."

5. Sleeping till 11:00 in the morning now biologically impossible.

4. No earrings, no tattoos, no funky haircuts, no paraphernalia on the coffee table.....basically nothing about your appearance says cool anymore. "Rebel without a cause" has now become "Responsible person with an appointment at noon and another meeting at 2.....and make sure my Outlook is getting backed up!"

3. You are completely invisible to 21 year-old girls. (I only mention girls because no-one is invisible to men from the time they are 14 through 90)

2. You start to really hate Bruce Springsteen's song "Glory Days."

1. Global warming? That's important, but did you see my heating bill last month?!?! We need to do something!

Pirates 3

YARRRRR!

I get out of the theatre and Will and I look at each other....we'll actually we were completely blinded by the sun after sitting in the dark for almost 3 hours. Eventually our sight returns and we pump our fists and yell "Raise the Colors!" I then proceed to say everything as if I was Barbossa for the next hour.

Only this morning I get online to figure out how to spell Barbossa and I see that almost every critic in the land thinks this movies sucks. I guess I can see both sides of the story. What the critics say:

"Ho, ho, ho and my bum is sore" - True, it's long.
"Confusing plot" -- True, I didn't always know what was going on.
"Incomprehensible love story." -- True, it was never clear who was in love with who.
"Too many characters." -- Who's life doesn't have too many characters? Sounds like my house.

I liked it anyway.