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So I just posted on how to remember which hotel room you are in. Yesterday, after 28 hours of traveling and 2 hours of waiting for my room, I finally checked into my room in Melbourne. I took the room key, got in the elevator, went to the 8th floor and realized I had no idea what room I was in! I had to take the elevator back down to the lobby ...
If you don't travel a lot, this may seem stupid, but if you've ever stood in the hall and wondered which room you are staying in this time, this tip from SignOnSanDiego is awesome:
Frequent business travelers use phone cameras to help remember which ubiquitous rental car they're driving and the number of the night's hotel room.
Take a picture of your room number or car!
According to the New York Times, 8% of us read a book a week - 27% don't read books and 27% read 15 or more books a year.
If you are interested in digital photography and have wondered just what those digital SLR cameras are all about, then A Rookie Guide to Digital SLR Cameras is a must read! I learned a lot. But beware. The article managed to do what Frank has not been able to do for years now: it convinced me that we need a digital SLR camera. The author even recommended the camera and the equipment, so when I have a spare $1600, I know what I'll do with it. (After I buy my Kindle and iPod Touch.)
One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much on My Man's Man about Frank's awesome meals is because I can't take good pictures of the food. The exposure and the flash mess them up. With a digital SLR camera I could get some much better shots. (I won't say awesome, but much better for sure.) So here's what I added to my wishlist (at the recommendation of Mike, the author of the article above.) The links are his:
From gapingvoid:
6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
[...]
They're only crayons. You didn't fear them in kindergarten, why fear them now?
I think that's so true. We are all sure our art won't be good enough. Like it'll be judged. We're afraid to draw! Did it happen in first grade or fifth?
If you ever worked for or with a big company, you'll find this book Company
Company
I read an opinion piece yesterday that speculated that Google should buy the New York Times. My first thought was outrage that a newspaper would have an agenda. My second thought was wow, I'm naive, newspapers are businesses and businesses can be companies and companies can be bought. (Strangely enough though a company can't own a newspaper and a television station in the same market.) My third thought was would it be cool if Google owned the New York Times, what could they do? My fourth thought was why not Amazon?
Google and Amazon may be in different businesses but there's a lot of overlap.
Amazon |
||
| Why you use them | buy books, store data | look for information |
| Looking in books | look inside books you are interested in | search inside books for information that you are looking for |
| Search | search for books that have information or stories you want | search for information |
| Publishing | publishes author's blogs pushes news content and books to Kindle shows indexes and chapters |
serves up all sorts of content, mostly summarized publishes your documents and email |
| User data | allows you store your own data and search it (S3 storage business) stores your ratings, reviews and wish lists |
allows you to search your data that you've stored stored on the web or on your computer stores your email, contacts, and documents |
| How they make money | makes money from selling things (like books) and content (like newspaper feeds) | makes money from selling things (like books) and content (like newspaper feeds) |
| How they allow users to make money | gives referral fees for book sales | gives ad money for selling ads on user content pages |
So what would owning the New York Times buy them? They'd be buying a brand. People respect the New York Times and trust the news it brings them (some people trust it more than others) - it also has a dedicated readership, so they'd be buying readers. So they'd buy brand, trust, influence and readers.
What would Amazon do with that? What would Google do with that? The scary thing they could do is influence the news and therefore what we know, think and believe, but they already do that. Getting past that, what cool new things could a Google or Amazon do if they owned the New York Times? Both could do cool things with old content. Speaking of which, somebody should put all the New York Times photos on Flickr like the Library of Congress photos. That would be cool. I think Google would be more likely to do something like that than Amazon.
What else could they do with it? They both could help me find news stories I'm interested in but Google already does that and I have my own cool ways of doing that (primarily del.icio.us.) I keep getting back to seeing Amazon as a content seller so they'd just be investing in the content they sell (not a business they are in) whereas Google is an information finder so they'd have more information for you to find but I feel like I'm missing something bigger.
There's an a-hah, big opportunity moment waiting for the person that sees it ...
Caleb talks a lot and we try hard to understand - but our lack of understanding leads to a lot of meltdowns.
Yesterday Caleb walked over to me, jabbered away and then lifted up his arms to be picked up. I picked him up and went to sit down and Caleb screamed! So I took a sniff, made a guess and said, "do you need a clean diaper?" Caleb was so excited he did the happy dance! He stuck out his chin, bent at the waist, moved his arms like he was running while twisting back and forth at the waist.
I felt so proud I got it! I also felt stupid that I so obviously don't understand him so much of the time that when I do understand, it's cause for celebration!
Of course, this story could be seen from a whole different point of view. Instead of "Mommy got it," Caleb could be singing, "I co-mu-ni-ca-ted! I can talk to peo-ple!" The happy dance might really have nothing to do with me at all!
I ordered a book on Amazon
Before 1965, you had to pass a literacy test to vote in Alabama. (The primary purpose was to keep minorities from voting.) There seem to be multiple variations of the test here, here and here. Supposedly you had 8 minutes and were allowed only 2 wrong answers. Frank and I took the 30 question version in Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader
It wasn't a literacy test - it was a "do you know the constitution and US government" test.
If you haven't seen the Library of Congress photos on Flickr yet, you need to check them out now! They are very cool - I've spent quite a bit of time exploring them. You can also check out the Library of Congress blog.
Some people collect stuff, some hoard stuff, I control stuff. I'm not talking about events and people - I'm talking about all those things, clothes, knickknacks, cars, etc, that you collect in life. I'm usually happy to lend stuff out or let people use my stuff (reluctantly at times, I'll admit) if they ask. But take my stuff without asking and my brain screams "thief" and if anything goes wrong, it's not an accident, it's your fault.
I still haven't forgiven a roommate ten years ago for borrowing my brand new shirt (with tags) without asking, washing it and shrinking it. If she'd asked I might have said yes (I can't really tell now), and I wouldn't have blamed her for the shrinking. Now it's totally her fault. Even 10 years later. (She didn't apologize - ever. Probably because I was so mad.)
Take my power cord at work without asking? And not even offer to give it back that day, so I'm stuck scrounging for a spare so that I can use my laptop that day? I may act nice but my brain is screaming "thief" and my internal image of you is forever tainted.
And if you borrowed something from me and haven't given it back yet, I know.
So obviously this is my issue. I say obviously, because while you could argue that the people in the stories above - one ten years ago, one last week - were rude, I think the anger I feel towards them is way out of proportion with the crime. But I haven't had to deal with how I feel about people borrowing without asking because usually the people around me figure it out pretty quick and are very careful to ask before borrowing. I've only ever had one roommate issue (the one above.) But now I live with someone who lends and borrows freely without asking. (I thought for sure his parents would kill us the first time they were out of town and we "borrowed" something but they seemed quite ok with it when they got back. For the record guys, I still feel like a thief!) And he's someone I'm supposed to share all my stuff with. And I've got this issue.
So the way I understand psychology, you are supposed to think back to some childhood event that caused this. Did someone borrow something precious to me without asking and never return it? I can't think of one. I do know that I never would have borrowed my parents' stuff without asking. And I never wore any of my sister's clothes or even listened to her music. (She never wore my mine either.)
Hmm. Maybe it's a sibling thing. If you have siblings are you more likely to want to "control" your stuff than if you are an only child? My dad always talks about defending the food on his plate - he had ten brothers and sisters. On the other hand, the guy I live with is an only child. And my stepson was an only kid for six years and he's got no issues with anyone borrowing any of his stuff. To the point that I wonder if he's got issues. But he's healthy and I'm the one with issues!
So I've got this issue with controlling stuff and I'm trying to work on it ... (Does that count as an apology, Frank? :)
Reading The Bookman's Wake I stumbled across this passage where the main character is talking about a hand printing press:
Here he had practiced his voodoo, making wonderful things on quaint-looking equipment, just like this. I felt a strange sense of loss knowing that someday we would attain technological perfection at the expense of individualism.
Just the opposite is true. Technology enables more people to practice "their voodoo." A hundred years ago, if I was interested in publishing I would have had to find a publisher, one willing to teach, travel to them, give up my life, apprentice to them, ... just to learn one trade! Now if I'm interested in publishing, I just google it on the web and in a few minutes I have a ton of information and a lot of free tools to try my hand at it. Most of us who are interested in publishing and typesetting will probably remain mediocre - mostly because we aren't interested enough in it to pursue it. But a few will be great. Same with photography. Because of cheap digital cameras and photo editing software, we can all try our hand at photography. Most of us will be mediocre, but many will be good and a few will be great. Just look at Flickr. In the days of film and manual photo developing, few could afford to dedicate enough money and time to photography to see if they like it. Technology enables people to explore lots of art worlds, to try them out and for those that love it, it enables them, it doesn't hold them back. Technology opens the doors to more potential artists.
Part of my dream computer is becoming reality. (I really want a computer that's part of me like Peter Hamilton
Today researchers have shown that you can add an electronic display to contact lenses.
In the future people will be able to see a display hanging in the air - just like in the science fiction books. Nobody else would see it. Although it will first be used for things like cell phone caller id but could eventually be used for everything you normally see on a computer screen.
You can read more about the initial research on the University of Washington website.
Are you interested in traveling cheap and meeting new people? Here are 8 ways you can travel cheap by house sitting, sleeping on some one's couch, staying with local families, and so on. Probably not for the faint of heart!
From Seth Godin's Workaholics:
A new class of jobs (and workers) is creating a different sort of worker, though. This is the person who works out of passion and curiosity, not fear.
The passionate worker doesn't show up because she's afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it's a hobby that pays.
Is the passionate worker new? Or is it just there's a new type of web related job that people are now passionate about? I'm guessing the latter. I think there has always been people passionate about their jobs. There may be more creative type jobs these days though ... more jobs for people to be passionate about.
For those of you that use my favorite online book trading website, Paperbackswap, I discovered two things today:
. I'm number 60 in the list of 337 people wishing to get the latest Harry Potter book.From Polly, one of the Mavericks at Work
Old version: work hard (for a very long time), achieve success, earn freedom (to retire and do all the things you missed out on while you were working)
New version: find work that affords you freedom = success
I would argue that the organizations and leaders that find a way to build freedom (freedom from the time clock, freedom from the cube, freedom from the org chart, freedom to create) into work will be the winners in the future.
There is no point in doing something that makes you miserable all day so you can be happy later. We (including me) spend too much time planning our retirement. We should be planning our life today. Find work you enjoy! Work that gives you freedom, not work that will give you a retirement.
Did you know that many of our top officials from the US Attorney General to ambassadors to other countries hold Israeli passports as well as American passports? Nothing against Israel, but what if Israeli and American interests are ever in conflict? How will they honor both? Will they pick America over Israel? Do they know? Can we know?
We are all global citizens - country lines and even family lines are blurring. For example, my stepson belongs to two families - it's not hard to imagine people belonging to two countries. However, while countries still go to war, I think having people in positions of power who have this conflict of interest can cause problems. We wouldn't ask our son to take sides in a disagreement between families. I don't want our diplomats to be torn like that. Who knows whose side they will take? They represent America but what if they decide they need to defend the other side? Can we trust them to resign? Should we even ask them to be in that position?
The Smithsonian just published a list of 28 places to see in your lifetime. It's a good list. Here's the ones that they had that are on my list to see:
One of my problems is I like revisiting the places I like such as the British Virgin Islands and Barcelona!
What's on your list?
Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, says that we are terrible at predicting what makes us happy. In Stumbling on Happiness
There's a very cool diary of a World War I veteran created from his journal and pictures by his grandson. If anybody would like to do something like this with any of my family members, I'd be happy to help out on the technical side!
On a similar note, my grandmother had a blog. She wrote out all the stories long hand and mailed them to my mom who typed them in and posted them. Then my aunt would print them out and take them over to my grandmother's for her to see. She was very proud of being an author - she loved sharing stories.
I don't usually recommend too many movies but I have to say I thought Home of the Brave
Frank also thought it was good although he was quick to point out that not everyone that comes home from Iraq is that messed up! As I've told him before, I think it's amazing they aren't all more messed up. If I got mugged or witnessed a shooting, people would recommend I go to counseling. We send people to Iraq to shoot people and get shot at and they lose friends and when they come home - with no counseling - we're surprised that they might not find life at home just like they left it?
Frank also suggested that reservists might have the toughest transition of all. They go straight from Iraq to home. He thinks they'd do better if they served state side for a few months as a transition state - with a peer group who's been in Iraq.
Home of the Brave
We've been trying to eat low carb and while that means lots of veggies, it means not much fruit. So it's been strange to see all the pictures of Steve Pavlina's raw food diet. He's trying to eat healthy and eating only fruits and vegetables (that look yummy but very unsatisfying) and we are trying to eat healthy and eating lots of (very yummy) chicken, pork, cheese, elk, deer, asparagus, lobster, green beans, steak, ...
It just goes to show you not only are their different tastes for different people but we also have no idea what the healthiest diet for a human being is! (I do assume there is more than one type of healthy diet. People have survived in many different places in the world.)
According to an Illinois judge, you must have religion to adopt:
In an extraordinary decision, Judge Camarata denied the Burkes' right to the child because of their lack of belief in a Supreme Being. Despite the Burkes' "high moral and ethical standards," he said, the New Jersey state constitution declares that "no person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience."
I find that ridiculous. Any human being can have a child regardless of their religion but if you don't believe in some religion, you can't adopt one. Sounds like lack of religious freedom to me! If you are free to choose a religion, you should be able to feel free to choose no religion.
Psychology Today has a really interesting article about a theory of dreaming that's gaining populartiy. We dream to prepare for dangerous situations. When you have a nightmare, you are rehearsing, in case it ever happens in real life.
The dreaming brain, explains Revonsuo, scans emotional memories. When it detects a memory trace with a strong negative emotion, it constructs a nightmare around that theme. The more traumatic the event, the more intense the nightmare. The brain's system for detecting threats is sensitive and flexible: Anything the brain tags with a strong negative charge gets thrown into the threat bin and dredged up at night.
And if you watch horror movies, your brain will also help you prepare for that happening to you in real life. Interesting. I quit reading those best selling horror books because they gave me nightmares. Guess I won't be prepared for being stalked, kidnapped and tortured!
I just read an excellent article about the difference between a high achieving student, a gifted student and a creative student. Our schools tend to treat high achievers and gifted students the same and they are not. Although a student may be both a high achiever and gifted. For example:
the teacher announces an assignment, and the high achiever quickly tries to determine what the teacher most wants so he can please and satisfy the teacher's intentions: "What do you really want?" The gifted learner ponders what to do that would most interest her as she learns: "What I would like to do is..." Simultaneously, the creative thinker's mind begins to race with all of the diverse and varied possibilities that could be explored.
The comparison table in the article is also really interesting. I'm not sure the classifications are right and I might add more than the three he has, but it is really interesting food for thought.
Did you know that there are islands of floating trash in the Pacific Ocean that are bigger than the state of Texas? There are.
Did you know that birds in Hawaii and the North Sea are routinely found with over a pound of garbage in their stomaches? There are and it kills them.
The solution to this problem is given as reuse, recycle. While I think reuse and recycling are important, I think that's trying to put a band aid on the problem. We need to invest in figuring out what to do with our trash. When you throw a plastic bag in the trash, you should feel confident that the right thing is done with it and it doesn't end up as litter in the ocean. (Right now you should not feel confident of that!) We need better garbage disposal, better laws and regulations around garbage and ultimately better technology that can create biodegradable waste instead of the plastics we currently use.
So do your part: reuse, recycle, vote and invest in the right technologies.
... would you like to hire him? He's quite good at redecorating the kitchen.
From NPR's Student's View of Intelligence Can Help Grades:
The students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."
...
By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.
You can get smarter. So pass it on!
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