Now, That’s Interesting!!

A while ago, I tried to observe people who are interesting – they are all present themselves well and able to talk within any situation. I found they have one common trait – they know broad areas of topics. It strikes me though how the earth can they learn all those stuff? Here are ways to do it:

1. Take at least one picture everyday. Post it to flickr.
2. Start a blog. Write at least one sentence every week.
3. Keep a scrapbook
4. Every week, read a magazine you’ve never read before
5. Once a month interview someone for 20 minutes, work out how to make them interesting. Podcast it.
6. Collect something
7. Once a week sit in a coffee-shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people’s conversations. Take notes. Blog about it. (Carefully)
8. Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can. Blog about it
9. Make something
10. Read

The similarity of all those ways are to increase your scope of thinking and knowledge, by jumping out from your comfort zone of knowledge.

Just Show Up!

One of the biggest reasons people have problems succeeding in life is they don’t show up. You can’t complain about a party, if you didn’t even go. They get an invitation every day to this party, but instead of showing up, they complain from afar on how they’ll never be able to go.

Success is what happens when you stumble on an opportunity, and your 100% there to catch it. Floundering through life, never really showing up, is a sure-fire way to stay trapped in the doldrums of an unfulfilling life. Making a half-assed attempt at really living, returns half-assed results.

You have a unique gift and genius that not one of the other 6 billion people on the planet have. You are here to contribute that gift, and in doing so, you get unimaginable returns.

Make a deal with yourself to show up more…

Show up with your tools – begin using your gifts at least a small amount each day. It’s incredibly empowering.

Show up with your energy – put 100% of your effort in everything you do for one day and see what kind of results you get.

Show up with your words – try using only positive words for one day and complement others.

Show up with your blinders on – for one day, let the dumb mistakes of others go unseen.

Show up with your pallet – eat only good food, anything you want for one day, registered dieticians, VLCC and killjoys be damned.

Show up with a gift – give a small token gift to someone you know for no reason.

Sure, these might be hokey, but so what? If it’s not your style, show up some other way. Just stop letting the invitation go unanswered while complaining that you never get invited anywhere. Show up today, in your own way, and join the party of life.

How will you show up today…?

A Thought for Today

68% of all statistics are simply made up!

Pluto-nic

Sometimes there is nothing more painful than a news story that demands an obvious joke. Everybody piles on and it gets ugly fast. Example:

“If Pluto isn’t a planet, that’s Goofy! HAHAHAHAHAHA-SNORT!”

“Pluto isn’t a planet – he’s a DOG! WHAAHAHAAHAHAAA!!!”

“Pluto is a dwarf? I guess Disney put him in the wrong cartoon! HOOHAAHAHAHAHA!!!”

You see? Painful.

At the recent nerdfest where it was decided Pluto wasn’t a real planet, one of the scientists held up a stuffed Pluto (the Walt Disney kind) and an umbrella and wittily pointed out that Pluto was under the umbrella of planets that include “dwarf planets.” The scientists all laughed and snorted and wondered why they don’t get laid more often.

Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think Pluto should be the funniest planet – or even the funniest non-planet. That distinction belongs to another. Uranus, 8th celestial body from the sun, is part miracle of gravity and part bung hole. It has earned its status as the funny man of the cosmos.

Despite anything you have heard, Uranus is not a black hole and there are no Klingons circling it. Nor does it have Venus envy. It is simply the funniest of all planets, be they dwarf or regular. Some things should never change.

Unlike Pluto, I believe there is life on the one true funny planet. I believe there are primates and I believe they have evolved the power of flight. But you probably won’t believe that until winged monkeys fly out of Uranus.

The Answer is 42

Well known cartoonist Scott Adams wanted to know what would happen if aliens landed in your backyard and gave you one minute to describe everything there is to know about human behavior, what would you say?

He found an answer to that question today as he was looking through his old e-mails. This story was sent to him by a Dilbert reader.

— start —

The maintenance man is moving the thermostat in our office today. I started talking with him about the “Thermostat Wars” [from Dilbert comics]. He told me about one office with 30 women where they could never get the temperature to an agreeable level. At his suggestion they installed 20 dummy thermostats around the office. Everyone was told that each thermostat controlled the zone around itself.

Problem solved. Now that everyone has “control” of their own thermostat there is no problem.

— end —

Flying Safe

Have you seen the new security procedure on flights when the pilot has to use the toilet? According to people reports, they watched a 5’3” 50 kilo flight attendant block the galley with a beverage cart and a menacing expression. I guess that’s to slow down any hijackers.

I can imagine the hijackers planning their precision attack for two years, only to be thwarted by ‘Connie’ and the beverage cart.

“Wait Akbar! They have a beverage cart! Abort! Abort!”

I have to think that even your lesser skilled terrorists – say the Shoe Bomber guy – could scale a 42” barrier and overcome a waif while simultaneously eating a sandwich and listening to an iPod. But I appreciate any attempt to keep me safe.

On the way to the States in 2004, I unwisely packed a nail cutter in my back-pack. As you might imagine, this caused a delay. It says something when you’re the only brown chap in the line and are constantly being pulled out for bag searches as part of ‘a random selection’. So even though the it was a part of my medical kit (don’t get me started on the prices of meds in the states…), the nice 250 kilo, hairy, 6 foot 3″ security official explained why I couldn’t take it:

“People can take these on the plane and use them in a terrorist attack.”

Me: Really!?

Security Man: Yes. It can be done.

Me: Couldn’t you also build your own nun chucks with two cans of soda and a shoelace?

Security Man: That would be much harder.

Me: Oooookay.

I didn’t get the option of checking the nail cutter with the cargo luggage. And no one stopped me from taking the swiss army knife I had in the other bag compartment. I guess they didn’t cover that in the training.

A Thought for Today

” The beginning of wisdom is definition of terms.”

- Socrates

Worst Activists Ever

 

Every year in Pamplona, Spain, over a million people watch and/or participate in the Running of the Bulls. People – and by that I mean idiots – try to run ahead of a stampede of bulls in the narrow streets. The bulls have killed 15 idiots since 1924. I think you can appreciate the valuable service the bulls are performing.

Later that day, Matadors torture and kill the bulls for entertainment. It’s a popular vacation destination for the whole family.

The part that got my attention is that hundreds of animal rights activists always attend to protest. Many of the female activists protest by going topless and running with the bulls. That’s right: In order to make this event LESS popular, the female activists take off their tops and jog in front of onlookers.

Keep in mind that this is a crowd of people who hope to see bystanders get gored before the animals are all stabbed to death. I hate to categorize people, but which of these items do you think would have the best chance of discouraging folks that enjoy watching bulls get stabbed?

1. Classical music
2. Poetry reading
3. Tits

The thing that frustrates me most is that when I make people mad with my blog or my comments, all they ever do is send angry e-mails. I never get the naked female activists jogging in front of my office/room. Apparently you have to stab animals to get the VIP treatment. This is the sort of thing that no one tells you before you become a vegetarian.

For the record, as far as you know, I am stabbing the neighbour’s cat with a pen right now. Bring it on!

Indian Govt. Blocks Bloggers

There’s news on the web to the effect that our beloved but extremely mis-guided government is clamping down on popular blogging sites. At the moment ‘blogger.com’ ‘typepad.com’ among others are on the ‘Do Not Let Through’ list being handed out to major ISPs. Make sure you read this blog in it’s awe-inspiring completeness before I have to join the ranks of blogger refugees worldwide.

My take on this whole censorship issue:

Not wanting to be outdone, India has decided to give the US and China a run for their money. Said one Indian official, who spoke on condition of not being quoted, “If there’s any country in the world that can avoid getting a useful benefit out of the internet, it’s certainly us. Not those other silly countries.”

Reportedly, the US government was outraged by this news, and threatened to disable all telephone lines and cable lines in their own country. “The thing you have to understand,” said a Senator from Alaska, “is that these series of tubes are bad for the truck business.” One thing is clear, the US will not take this challenge to its bureaucratic ineffectiveness lightly.

The Chinese government responded in turn by making a public proclamation that fire, and all technology derived from it, has now been banned by the government. Said one Chinese official, “Top that!”

Edit: WordPress is not the list…so I won’t have to build that underground railroad afterall

A Thought for Today

“Aaaaaay!”

- Henry Winkler (As ‘The Fonz’. TV Series: Happy Days)