Link
If you don't already know about factcheck.org, you should. It goes and checks all the facts and lets you know what the actual truth is. This link takes you to the facts of the first debate. As usual, both candidates made 'misstatements'.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Rest in Peace: Paul Newman
Link
I think Paul Newman was an amazing guy. Not because of the films he starred in, but because of his incredible philanthropy.
This link is a statement from Newman's Own Foundation.
I think Paul Newman was an amazing guy. Not because of the films he starred in, but because of his incredible philanthropy.
This link is a statement from Newman's Own Foundation.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Great Schlep
Link
Hysterical. Sarah Silverman urges Jewish people to go to Florida and convince their Jewish grandparents to vote Obama.
Foul language.
Hysterical. Sarah Silverman urges Jewish people to go to Florida and convince their Jewish grandparents to vote Obama.
Foul language.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Transportation from JFK to Maplewood, NJ
I am looking for cheap-ish and reliable transportation from JFK to Maplewood, NJ. Any recommendations appreciated (car service, timely shuttle, etc...). Thanks.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Ideablob: where ideas grow
http://www.ideablob.com/
I saw a demo by this company over the weekend at Blog World and New Media Expo. I thought it was interesting- you post an idea or concept you came up with, your network can vote on it, and the idea that has the most votes at the end of the month (and they do it every month) gets awarded $10,000 to develop their idea/concept/product.
but my biggest question was, what prevents people from stealing your idea. The answer was 'nothing'.
thoughts? check out the site.
I saw a demo by this company over the weekend at Blog World and New Media Expo. I thought it was interesting- you post an idea or concept you came up with, your network can vote on it, and the idea that has the most votes at the end of the month (and they do it every month) gets awarded $10,000 to develop their idea/concept/product.
but my biggest question was, what prevents people from stealing your idea. The answer was 'nothing'.
thoughts? check out the site.
Do you know what the "Ownership Society" is?
I read the wiki on it, but I would like to hear from some of you intelligent multipliers. I want to hear a non-partisan view, and whether or not you feel it caused (somewhat or completely) our current financial situation. Thanks.
Friday, September 19, 2008
PickTheBrain | 5 Questions That Will Change Your Life
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/change-your-life/print/
By Tim Brownson
If I could offer you free of charge 5 questions guaranteed to improve the quality of your life, make you happier, less likely to get into arguments, more likely to reach your goals and be more popular with other people, would you be interested in hearing them?
Of course you would, who wouldn’t? After all, they’re free and it doesn’t get much cheaper than that.
Well actually there is a slight catch. Yes they’re free and yes they’ll do all I claim and more, but only if you commit to embedding them so deeply into your neurology by constant and conscious repetition that they become second nature.
Then and only then, will they allow you to make the kind of quantum shift in your life that has your friends thinking your body has been invaded by a very clever, charismatic and slightly easier to get along with space alien.
1. What Else Can This Mean?
As a human being you have developed your own way of looking at things. You see the world through a filter or lens built up and fine-tuned on your beliefs and values. As such you only ever see your own reality, never reality itself.
It’s taken you years to build up your own filter and because of that you’ll often try and hang on to it for grim death, sometimes in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.
It’s not that you’re an unreasonable person because everybody is the same to a greater or lesser degree. Every single person has their own filter and has their own difficulties accepting that they are one of over 6 billion realities.
You can separate yourself from your automatic repetitive way of thinking though by asking yourself with a genuine sense of curiosity, one simple question.
“What else can this mean?”
That one question forces you to look for alternate ways of viewing things.
Your partner being late for a date may mean he hates you and doesn’t respect you, or it may mean he got stuck in traffic. That headache you’ve had for 2 days may be a tumor the size of a grapefruit, or it may mean you’ve been overdoing the caffeine. That abuse that your boss just hurled at you may mean you’re a worthless piece of garbage, or it may mean his wife has just left him and he’s taking it out on you.
Often we don’t know what the reality of the situation is. Think of how many times in your life what seemed like a terrible event turned out to be a huge blessing in the fullness of time. What if we treated everything (within reason) like that and kept asking, “What else can this mean?” “What else can this mean?” “What else can this mean?” until we find an answer that makes us feel good?
Some people say that’s not realistic. I say what’s realism and if you can set your own, why on earth wouldn’t you want to?
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” ~ Albert Einstein
2. Who Can Help Me?
In terms of setting and achieving goals, too many people get wrapped up in the “How can I do this?” mode of thinking. That can be useful and I know many people have reached their goals by purely taking that approach.
However, there is an easier and quicker way and that’s to ask yourself, “Who can help me?”
Whatever it is you want to do, it’s almost certain that somebody has done it before (or at least something very similar). Find out how they accomplished it and model them. Speak to them if possible and learn from their successes and their mistakes. If there is no option to speak directly (always tricky with dead people), read up on them and talk to people that may have known them.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel just remember, the quickest route to success is to follow a beaten path.
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” ~ Douglas Adams
3. What Am I Grateful For?
Try and stifle that eye roll and yawn for just one moment. I know the whole attitude of gratitude thing has become more clichéd than a drunken Oscar winners acceptance speech, but there is a reason for that. It’s because it’s incredibly, awesomely, stunningly (insert over the top adjective of your choice here) powerful.
I once requested a client’s wife to ask her husband at least 10 times a day the question “What are you grateful for?” He was to reply with a different answer every time. “How long should we do it for” she asked me. “For at least 40 years” I replied.
I was being a bit glib, but not that much because there was a serious message behind what I was saying. If you can’t think of 10 new things each day to be grateful for you’re not looking hard enough because they’re out there.
The act of searching our minds for things that we’re grateful for is a brilliant state changer. It will improve your mood, make you feel more resourceful and stop any thoughts of self-pity that can lead toward developing a victim mindset creeping in
“He who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” ~ Estonian Proverb
4. What’s My End Game?
Would you set off in your car with no idea where you were going, why you were going there or when you were likely to get back?
I suppose you may do that once in a while for a bit of spontaneity, but it’s not something many people this side of sane do on a regular basis.
Yet we often get drawn into situations with absolutely no idea of what we want to achieve. For example, have you ever been in an argument intent on proving the other person wrong? Did it ever pan out like you hoped it would? Did they thank you afterwards for making them look like a complete idiot? Did they go on to compliment you on your dazzling intellect, rapier like wit and mention how lucky they were to know you? I suspect not.
I have been a soccer for fan for almost 40 years. In that time I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of games either live or on TV. More times than I care to remember I have seen players surround a referee after a penalty kick has been awarded. They jostle, intimidate and harass in an attempt to get him to change his mind.
The really weird thing is that I have NEVER seen a referee do a volte-face. Never heard of one saying, “Thanks for pointing out that I have the visual acuity of a mole guys. Now I think about it I think you may be right and the ball was out of play before the tackle. Let me change my mind and award a goal kick instead”
Yet even bearing that in mind, the protests go on. If each one of those players asked themselves what their end game was (to get the penalty overruled) and then realized they would never achieve it, they might save some breath and get on with the game. On the other hand, these are soccer players we’re talking about and not chess grandmasters, so may be not.
Next time you find yourself about to get involved in a disagreement, ask yourself “What’s my end game?” You’ll probably realize it isn’t to spend 2 hours quarrelling about who invited the in-laws round for dinner, resulting in you saying lots of things you don’t really mean, the net result of which is you spending a night on the couch.
“If you wouldn’t write it and sign it, don’t say it.” ~ Earl Wilson
5. What Can I Learn From This?
In my experience one of the things that separates the super-successful from the rest of us mere mortals, is the ability of the former group to learn from their mistakes. In fact I’d go further than that and say it’s not just to learn from them, but also to embrace them.
They see a failure as feedback. They know that it’s impossible to be really successful without failing a lot, so they want to fail and fail fast.
Think of any negative situation you have been in recently that didn’t go your way. Now ask yourself “What can I learn from it?”
In any situations there will be something that you can learn and if you can take those lessons forward and avoid replicating them in the future then you have extracted a positive from a negative.
Never leave the scene of a ‘failure’ without taking a positive from it and the good news is, they are always in there if you look hard enough.
“You always pass failure on your way to success.” ~Mickey Rooney
By Tim Brownson
If I could offer you free of charge 5 questions guaranteed to improve the quality of your life, make you happier, less likely to get into arguments, more likely to reach your goals and be more popular with other people, would you be interested in hearing them?
Of course you would, who wouldn’t? After all, they’re free and it doesn’t get much cheaper than that.
Well actually there is a slight catch. Yes they’re free and yes they’ll do all I claim and more, but only if you commit to embedding them so deeply into your neurology by constant and conscious repetition that they become second nature.
Then and only then, will they allow you to make the kind of quantum shift in your life that has your friends thinking your body has been invaded by a very clever, charismatic and slightly easier to get along with space alien.
1. What Else Can This Mean?
As a human being you have developed your own way of looking at things. You see the world through a filter or lens built up and fine-tuned on your beliefs and values. As such you only ever see your own reality, never reality itself.
It’s taken you years to build up your own filter and because of that you’ll often try and hang on to it for grim death, sometimes in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.
It’s not that you’re an unreasonable person because everybody is the same to a greater or lesser degree. Every single person has their own filter and has their own difficulties accepting that they are one of over 6 billion realities.
You can separate yourself from your automatic repetitive way of thinking though by asking yourself with a genuine sense of curiosity, one simple question.
“What else can this mean?”
That one question forces you to look for alternate ways of viewing things.
Your partner being late for a date may mean he hates you and doesn’t respect you, or it may mean he got stuck in traffic. That headache you’ve had for 2 days may be a tumor the size of a grapefruit, or it may mean you’ve been overdoing the caffeine. That abuse that your boss just hurled at you may mean you’re a worthless piece of garbage, or it may mean his wife has just left him and he’s taking it out on you.
Often we don’t know what the reality of the situation is. Think of how many times in your life what seemed like a terrible event turned out to be a huge blessing in the fullness of time. What if we treated everything (within reason) like that and kept asking, “What else can this mean?” “What else can this mean?” “What else can this mean?” until we find an answer that makes us feel good?
Some people say that’s not realistic. I say what’s realism and if you can set your own, why on earth wouldn’t you want to?
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” ~ Albert Einstein
2. Who Can Help Me?
In terms of setting and achieving goals, too many people get wrapped up in the “How can I do this?” mode of thinking. That can be useful and I know many people have reached their goals by purely taking that approach.
However, there is an easier and quicker way and that’s to ask yourself, “Who can help me?”
Whatever it is you want to do, it’s almost certain that somebody has done it before (or at least something very similar). Find out how they accomplished it and model them. Speak to them if possible and learn from their successes and their mistakes. If there is no option to speak directly (always tricky with dead people), read up on them and talk to people that may have known them.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel just remember, the quickest route to success is to follow a beaten path.
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” ~ Douglas Adams
3. What Am I Grateful For?
Try and stifle that eye roll and yawn for just one moment. I know the whole attitude of gratitude thing has become more clichéd than a drunken Oscar winners acceptance speech, but there is a reason for that. It’s because it’s incredibly, awesomely, stunningly (insert over the top adjective of your choice here) powerful.
I once requested a client’s wife to ask her husband at least 10 times a day the question “What are you grateful for?” He was to reply with a different answer every time. “How long should we do it for” she asked me. “For at least 40 years” I replied.
I was being a bit glib, but not that much because there was a serious message behind what I was saying. If you can’t think of 10 new things each day to be grateful for you’re not looking hard enough because they’re out there.
The act of searching our minds for things that we’re grateful for is a brilliant state changer. It will improve your mood, make you feel more resourceful and stop any thoughts of self-pity that can lead toward developing a victim mindset creeping in
“He who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” ~ Estonian Proverb
4. What’s My End Game?
Would you set off in your car with no idea where you were going, why you were going there or when you were likely to get back?
I suppose you may do that once in a while for a bit of spontaneity, but it’s not something many people this side of sane do on a regular basis.
Yet we often get drawn into situations with absolutely no idea of what we want to achieve. For example, have you ever been in an argument intent on proving the other person wrong? Did it ever pan out like you hoped it would? Did they thank you afterwards for making them look like a complete idiot? Did they go on to compliment you on your dazzling intellect, rapier like wit and mention how lucky they were to know you? I suspect not.
I have been a soccer for fan for almost 40 years. In that time I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of games either live or on TV. More times than I care to remember I have seen players surround a referee after a penalty kick has been awarded. They jostle, intimidate and harass in an attempt to get him to change his mind.
The really weird thing is that I have NEVER seen a referee do a volte-face. Never heard of one saying, “Thanks for pointing out that I have the visual acuity of a mole guys. Now I think about it I think you may be right and the ball was out of play before the tackle. Let me change my mind and award a goal kick instead”
Yet even bearing that in mind, the protests go on. If each one of those players asked themselves what their end game was (to get the penalty overruled) and then realized they would never achieve it, they might save some breath and get on with the game. On the other hand, these are soccer players we’re talking about and not chess grandmasters, so may be not.
Next time you find yourself about to get involved in a disagreement, ask yourself “What’s my end game?” You’ll probably realize it isn’t to spend 2 hours quarrelling about who invited the in-laws round for dinner, resulting in you saying lots of things you don’t really mean, the net result of which is you spending a night on the couch.
“If you wouldn’t write it and sign it, don’t say it.” ~ Earl Wilson
5. What Can I Learn From This?
In my experience one of the things that separates the super-successful from the rest of us mere mortals, is the ability of the former group to learn from their mistakes. In fact I’d go further than that and say it’s not just to learn from them, but also to embrace them.
They see a failure as feedback. They know that it’s impossible to be really successful without failing a lot, so they want to fail and fail fast.
Think of any negative situation you have been in recently that didn’t go your way. Now ask yourself “What can I learn from it?”
In any situations there will be something that you can learn and if you can take those lessons forward and avoid replicating them in the future then you have extracted a positive from a negative.
Never leave the scene of a ‘failure’ without taking a positive from it and the good news is, they are always in there if you look hard enough.
“You always pass failure on your way to success.” ~Mickey Rooney
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
garfield minus garfield
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
this is too silly. who comes up with stuff like this?
this is too silly. who comes up with stuff like this?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
On Anxiety: 9/11 and beyond
Everyone’s got their story. Here’s mine.
I have experienced anxiety. I knew it at the time. It’s pretty obvious; at least it was to me. It wasn’t right away, it took a few events spanning over a year to really throw me into the throws of panic, but it finally did happen.
I should start this story at the beginning. I was at work. It was a beautiful fall day in the DC metro area. I was on the 30th floor of my building, in a meeting with my boss. Someone walked by the door and said “a plane hit the twin towers”. It seemed like such a strange statement, although I don’t know why, but we only paused from our business briefly. A quick search on a news site didn’t tell us anything, so we continued with our meeting. “Two planes hit the twin towers”. Well that will stop you in your tracks. Off to a nearby office with a TV, we watched the horror unfold. Like the rest of the world. But soon our experiences were very different than the rest of the world.
“Oh my god, the Pentagon is on fire” screams my coworker. Our building in Roslyn, VA was about 2 miles from the Pentagon. We did not see that unfold on TV. We saw it out our window. My boss, the patriarch of our business unit, realized this was an ‘event’ and calmly directed everyone to leave the 30th floor. Soon after, the Arlington Fire Department, over the speaker system, asked everyone to evacuate the building.
Some things are blurry at this point. I know I didn’t leave. I went to my office on the 6th floor. I tried to call my family in NY, but obviously the lines weren’t working. I shot an email out to every relative I have that had email, saying if you speak to my family, I am fine, if they speak to you, please let me know they are fine… I was most concerned about my brother and sister in law in Manhattan. I was also beginning to worry about my colleagues in our mid town office as well as my friends who had friends and family at the Pentagon. Then worrying about everyone.
Of course, being the IT Manager I went into business continuity mode and began making sure our disaster recovery systems would kick into affect if we could not get back into this office the next day. I would take brief peeks at the TV in the Production room, where all the managers and directors were piled in. But once the first tower fell, I couldn’t watch anymore. I remembered a drawing I made my mother when I was a kid, it was of the twin towers and other buildings in NYC, and it said something like “Nothing beats the New York skyline”. I wondered where that picture was. I still do. When I finally did leave the building, somewhat by force by the FD, there were soldiers in the streets with automatic weapons, and fighter jets flew over head. This was 1 of the 2 most surreal moments I would experience over the next 12 months. The next couple days were stressful. But this is not when I started to have anxiety. Not even close.
My everyone was ok. Everyone had there stories. My cousin walked through the city from downtown to Brooklyn, some people were evacuated from their homes b/c of possible contamination, one acquaintance from college lost her fiancé on flight 93.
That is my 9/11 story. But that is not where this story ends.
In the spring of 2002, things were different. Security at our building, b/c USA TODAY was considered a potential target, was ramped up. I didn’t mind. I was attending a conference at our building. I was over in Tower 1, having dinner with the other conference attendees. I decided to go to my office and shut down my computer,etc, so I could leave straight after the meetings were done. It was probably around 6pm. I walked over to Tower 2, where my office was. It was located on the 6th floor, which was actually the ground level. I never really minded the location, although others complained. It was back in a dingy part of the building, near the mailroom and shipping bay.
Anyway, I went through security, used my badge to open the double doors and I walk almost smack into a man wearing full hazmat gear. He was covered head to toe, even with duct tape around his ankles and wrists. I was stopped in my tracks. I ask, “Can I be here?” He looked at me, somewhat carelessly and said, “yeah, you’re fine.” Huh. I didn’t feel fine. I definitely did not feel fine. This was quite possibly the most unfine I ever felt. A day or so after this I found out there was a suspicious envelope of white powdery substance sent to an editor at USA TODAY. It was not anthrax. Um, good. Without a doubt in my mind I can say that was the scariest moment, as in I felt in personal danger, I had ever, and still to this day have ever experienced. But surprisingly- still wasn’t having anxiety attacks.
October 2002, over a year after 9/11, the straw that broke my panic attack free back- a little thing we fondly refer to now as the DC Sniper. Yeah, that guy (or guys as it turned out). I know people heard stories. The press really did make it sound worse then it was. We weren’t afraid to go outside. That is silly. Getting gasoline though, hmm, that was a little scary. One afternoon I was heading to work, Route 50 around Bailey’s Crossroads (yes- where that one woman was shot in the Home Depot parking lot). I was looking around the streets and noticed a white van (that was what we were supposed to be on the look out for) in the turn lane to my left. It wasn’t turning though; it was just sitting there. I freaked out. I didn’t know if I should drive on, if it had a bomb on it, if the guy was gonna pull out his rifle and shoot someone. The traffic was bad, so I continued to sit, staring at this van. More and more, deep in me some horrible feeling. What is this feeling… oh, it’s anxiety. Huh. Well the van put its signal on and pulled back into the main road. I guess that wasn’t his street. I know he doesn’t know what he triggered in me…. But that was the event.
They weren’t panic attacks, per se. Just full time anxiety. Hard to function anxiety. I made my little emergency kit in my house (a milk crate full of essentials). I taped up my windows and all the other ridiculously silly things the government was telling us to do. I had no rational thoughts left about the imminent danger I was in. I was scared. All the time.
Finally drugs took care of it. And it’s gone now. Drug and anxiety free is me. At least that kind of anxiety. And in retrospect, I don’t feel like there was any way I wasn’t going to have that happen to me, mentally. Those were crazy days. Times are still insane in a lot of respects, but I am glad I made it through that storm.
My story, on anxiety.
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