Thinking out loud.

As I think some of you know, I have had some challenges with work lately and am wondering if I am starting to get a little restless and really I think realizing that what I do now is not probably what I want to do for the rest of my life. It is what I want to do this very moment still, but I think all of that has gotten me really thinking and asking the ‘$64,000 Question’… “What do I want from life”.

I think a big part of finding what brings happiness to your life is just staying in motion (career wise, with personal interests, etc.) and seeing what comes up along the way. But that doesn’t help me figure out really what’s next. So I started reading about the topic of figuring out “What I want?”. After much search I came across some interesting psychological research from a Stanford Ph.D psychology student that basically went into how the thing to do is really create a list of things you want to do in your life that is 43 things in length. Why 43? Because its not too many to think about and its not too few to meet your full potential. Some should be something you can definitively accomplish, while some other should be goals you can really work on forever.

I really thought it was cool… so I found website, www.43things.com. It is a social internet site where you post and comment on the progress of your work toward your 43 things. I thought this was soooo cool. Intellecatual solution and supported by the social internet! So I did it, I spent the time to come with my 43 things. These will change over time, but for right now these are my life goals. Big step huh?! So, from now on, I am going to make a point to make sure everything I do is aimed at making progress toward one of my 43 things. I highly suggest trying this yourself!

And without further a due… here are my 43 things! If click on any given one you see entries (more details) I have made for that particular thing. Let me know what you think and what I forgot.

Lately I hear the question a lot, “Is privacy dead?” In such a connected world, many people argue it is. Well, I happen to think its not entirely dead if you don’t want it to be, but with new blog layout I launched here a few weeks back, I am trying to kill off the last bit of mine (half joking)!

Anyway, wanted to do a quick run down of “all the Dan you can get” with the new blog. I feel kind of sorry for anyone who does read the blog but it turns out there are quite a few of you. Don’t know why but there are. Long story short, I want the blog to become kind of the “table of contents” of my presence on the internet. The new layout is my first attempt and here are the features.

So on the main page, we of course have Shannon and I’s blog posts. In the blue column immediately to the right, there is first a rectangular picture grid that shows my most recent digital pics pulled from my Flickr account so you can see the latest pictures (click on them to go over to Flickr and see larger size ones). Next, below that is the Categories links where you can click to get just posts from me or just posts from Shannon. Next, below that is a Digg widget which shows all of the stories I “Dugg” on digg.com. It is a good way to see what interesting stories I have come across on the internets lately. Next, below that are where you can see who has been commenting on blog posts. I love the comments, I wish more people left more of them! Below that are my recent running stats, as previously discussed. Finally, below that is the black Last.fm widget which shows what music and/or podcasts I have been listening to the most over the past week.

The next column to the right is the very dark blue one. In this column you can see what I have been up to lately under “What Dan’s Doing”. These are the little one liners I post to Twitter every so often. Below that is “Dan’s shared items” which lists interesting stories, article, or blog posts that I mark in Google Reader (which is like how I read the newspaper). Finally, below that are links to other websites of mine and other “social” internet sites I can be found on.

Finally, across top are the links “About”, “Contact”, “Software”, and “43 Things”. Pretty self explanatory except for “43 Things”. My 43 Things will be the topic of my next post… so catch you next time for that. Hope you like (or at least don’t totally dislike) all the new stuff and as always, thanks for coming by.

So I know that was a lot of Ron Paul RAH RAH to put up with yesterday, thank you for that. And especially thank you to everyone who has taken the time to listen to me on this one. A few donors came out yesterday and many are emailing and Facebook-ing me about Dr. Paul. Overall I am very proud of what happened yesterday. Below is the message of thanks that Ron sent out as well.

December 17, 2007

What a day! I am humbled and inspired, grateful and thrilled for this vast outpouring of support.

On just one day, in honor of the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the new American revolutionaries brought in $6.04 million, another one-day record. The average donation was $102; we had 58,407 individual contributors, of whom an astounding 24,915 were first-time donors. And it was an entirely voluntary, self-organized, decentralized, independent effort on the internet. Must be the “spammers” I keep hearing about!

The establishment is baffled and worried, and well they should be. They keep asking me who runs our internet fundraising and controls our volunteers. To these top-down central planners, a spontaneous order like our movement is science-fiction. But you and I know it’s real: as real as the American people’s yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity, as real as all the men and women who have sacrificed for our ideals, in the past and today.

And how neat to see celebrations all across the world, with Tea Parties from France to New Zealand. This is how we can spread the ideals of our country, through voluntary emulation, not bombs and bribes. Of course, there were hundreds in America.

As I dropped in on a cheering, laughing crowd of about 600 near my home in Freeport, Texas, I noted that they call us “angry.” Well, we are the happiest, most optimistic “angry” movement ever, and the most diverse. What unites us is a love of liberty, and a determination to fix what is wrong with our country, from the Fed to the IRS, from warfare to welfare. But otherwise we are a big tent.

Said the local newspaper (http://www.thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=36475b4d132fc0a1): “The elderly sat with teens barely old enough to vote. The faces were black, Hispanic, Asian and white. There was no fear in their voices as they spoke boldly with each other about the way the country should be. Held close like a deeply held secret, Paul has brought them out of the disconnect they feel between what they know to be true and where the country has been led.”

Thanks also to the 500 or so who braved the blizzard in Boston to go to Faneuil Hall. My son Rand told me what a great time he had with you.

A few mornings ago on LewRockwell.com, I saw a YouTube of a 14-year-old boy that summed up our whole movement for me. This well-spoken young man, who could have passed in knowledge for a college graduate, told how he heard our ideas being denounced. So he decided to Google. He read some of my speeches, and thought, these make sense. Then he studied US foreign policy of recent years, and came to the conclusion that we are right. So he persuaded his father to drop Rudy Giuliani and join our movement.

All over America, all over the world, we are inspiring real change. With the wars and the spying, the spending and the taxing, the inflation and the credit crisis, our ideas have never been more needed. Please help me spread them https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate in all 50 states. Victory for liberty! That is our goal, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

Ron

The fourth quarter fundraising goals WAS 12,000,000. Everyone said it was impossible. Here he is now, and Tea Party 2007 is just half over. Go Ron GO!!

On December 16, 1773 Americans dumped tea into Boston Harbor starting the American Revolution. NOW, 234 years later we desperately need another revolution. The Tea Party is happening again today. Please go to www.teaparty07.com and consider donating all you can. I am so proud to be a suppoter of Dr. Paul. It is now 11:30 AM and we’ve hit $3 million for the day so far. I made a donation. My third one, and it was substantial. I truly believe, right now, this is the most important thing I can do support my country.

My hero, R. Buckminster Fuller once famously said that integrity is the essence of everything successful. This is the man to return integrity and the essence of what made America the greatest country in the world, back to the White House, to Washington, and to America. Viva le rEVOLution!!

I know I am driving all of you crazy… but the revolution will not be televised! (That’s a line from a song in case you didn’t know). Anyway, I feel like the media won’t do it so we in the grassroots do. The Tea Party is tomorrow! I am ambitiously hoping it is the largest one day fund raiser in political history. We will again average like $100 per donation, no big corporate money, and again try to get the country’s attention. This is a great video, my be the best yet. Please watch it, its like 9 minutes long.

Oh my gosh!!! I found another video too… great one on the issues of the economy and the Federal Reserve. THIS ISSUE IS CRITICAL. I hate Jim Cramer, I love this interview of him questioning Ron Paul. Maybe the rEVOLution will be televised!

I know I have beat this to death, and I’m sure this won’t be the last Ron Paul post, but it may be the most important. I would like to ask that everyone to spend like 20 minutes and explore the entire post.

It is crunch time. The Iowa and New Hampshire primary events are right around the corner. I have followed the candidates, all of them, very closely through the race so far. I have changed my position on Ron Paul. I feel so strongly about him, (I can’t believe I am going to say this out loud but you should always be honest about what you think right?) that I am changing my position from “he is the best candidate”, to “if you truly support freedom and the constitution, you are still somewhat misinformed or betraying that belief by voting for any other candidate”. I am not belittling if you vote for someone else, that is your right, but please take the time to learn about Dr. Paul first. I think there are definitely positives about Mitt Romney and Barack Obama also, but they are the runners up to Ron Paul by such a huge margin that I cannot even consider one of them getting elected anything but a huge disappointment.

I initially said he had no chance of winning. I was wrong. I, like everyone else, DRASTICALLY underestimated what kind of a grassroots movement it was possible to make. Despite having no major insitutional backing, he has raised more money than all but two other candidates. The internet is crawling with the Ron Paul army and the local meetup groups are congregating all over the country in huge numbers. One person (who I consider a true patriot) even felt so strongly he (alone, a private citizen) took out a full page ad in the USA today to the tune of over a hundred thousand dollars, to help make America aware of the Ron Paul message. It is beautiful… please click on the link below to check out the ad if you didn’t see it.

USA Today Ron Paul Ad

Whats more, a group of private citizens, in no way affiliated with the campaign, have come together to raise money to launch a Ron Paul BLIMP!! That’s what I said, a BLIMP. They successfuly have raised $265,000, enough to fly the blimp to several important events and they are looking to get to 400,000 to keep it in the air through the New Hampshire primaries. More information can be found at the www.ronpaulblimp.com.

So if you are still not convinced, may I suggest another video. This is Dr. Paul on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It is a little long (15 minutes), but is a very nice summary of what Dr. Paul believes in and enthusiasm of people around the country for his message.

Now in other news you didn’t hear about… the SAFE (Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online) Act. How great does this bill sound? Obivously pretty good right, congress thought so voting for 409-2 a couple of days ago. You read that right, 409-2!! Well this is what the SAFE Act requires: Anyone providing an “electronic communication service” or “remote computing service” to the public who learns about the transmission or storage of information about certain illegal activities or an illegal image must (a) register their name, mailing address, phone number, and fax number with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s “CyberTipline” and (b) “make a report” to the CyberTipline that (c) must include any information about the person or Internet address behind the suspect activity and (d) the illegal images themselves. (By the way, “electronic communications service” and “remote computing service” providers already have some reporting requirements under existing law too.) TRANSLATION: If I own a coffee shop and want to give my customers free wireless internet while they drink their coffee, I have to find some way to monitor everyone using that service for any potentially questionable child abuse content (which is very expensive) and report them, or risk up to $300,000 fines. Obviously it won’t likely be enforced that strictly but is it not both an invasion of privacy as well as totally unfair to the business owner who is in no way supporting child pornography. It is punishing a provider for someone else’s misbehavior. Totally unconcstituational, yet only 2 out of 411 congress people voted against it. RON PAUL was one of the two who supported the constitution, despite the fact that this will of course result in a smear against his presidential campaign. Here is a link to an article on this story.

As you can see, at least there is one candidate who you can trust. Whether you like his views or not, he clearly does what he believes is right, acts in accordance with the constitution, and is open and honest. How refreshing is that? HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART. If there is anyone out there I have conviced (and for those I haven’t, please let me know what it would take and I’ll see if I can do it), it is time to make difference.

On December 16th, 1773, American colonists dumped tea into the Boston Harbor to protest an oppressive tax (The Boston Tea Party). This December 16th, American citizens will dump millions of dollars into the Ron Paul presidential campaign to protest the oppressive and unconstitutional inflation tax – which has enabled a flawed foreign policy, a costly war, and the sacrificing of our liberties here at home. Please, PLEASE join me this December 16th 2007 for what will hopefully be the largest one-day political donation event in history. The goal is to bring together 100,000 people to donate $100 each, creating a one day donation total of $10,000,000. It doesn’t look we will hit the goal, but maybe, and we will be making headlines with the huge support that is going to roll in. To join, go to www.teaparty07.com and sign up. You can also go directly to www.ronpaul2008.com and donate today.

This is so cool. Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across. It is empty of both normal matter – such as galaxies and stars – and the mysterious “dark matter” that cannot be seen directly with telescopes.

The “hole” is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths. Previous sky surveys that have traced the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe have long shown, for example, how the clustering of galaxies is strung into vast filaments and sheets that are separated by great gaps. But this void is about 1,000 times the volume of what would be expected in typical cosmic gaps. If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take you several years to get to the nearest stars in our own Milky Way galaxy; but if you were to go to this hole and enter one side, you’d have to travel for a billion years before you would get to the other side.

Carzy part is that a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill physics Professor, Laura Mersini-Houghton, made a staggering claim. She says, “Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole” and goes further with the ground-breaking hypothesis that the huge void is “… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own“.

Click through to read on if you want but this is crazy cool. Like Einstein discussing relativity early on, it could maybe be crazy science fiction coming true!

read more | digg story

Back in the day when I was working in the hardware store, I had a boss who had an excellent approach to dealing with really difficult customers. That approach was as follows, and I quote, “They can be unpleasant. Hell, they can be a total asshole… but at the end of the day, if we get their money, we won.” And he was right.

I spent the better part of 10 years in that hardware store doing exactly that… putting up with people’s shit a lot of the time. One time it was even pushed to the extreme of a customer throwing merchandise at me and asking what time I got off work cause he wanted to meet in the parking lot! But was it even really just a matter of gritting and putting up with their shit? No. In fact, when you really examine the situation, I would say it is a careful negotiation executed with someone who has chosen to position themselves as the enemy. That boss I mentioned earlier had an unmatched ability to strategically and successfully execute this negotiation and ultimately reach the objective of monetary extraction from the enemy’s pocketbook. At the end of the day, we had every right to tell a bunch of these people to “go to hell” because we didn’t need them to keep the store open. However by negotiating, we were able to improve our situation, regardless of whether they really improved their situation or not.

So if that is the right way to deal with such situations on a small scale, why is not the way to do so with matters as important as national security? It doesn’t seem to make a hell of a lot of sense to me that we “refuse to negotiate with terrorist nations” like Iran, Syria, North Korea, and others. If you refuse to negotiate, exactly how do you expect to ever, metaphorically speaking, “get their money“. Instead, we don’t even tell them just to leave the store (ignore them), but step up and slap them in the face with a name like “axis of evil”. What kind of a deeply flawed theory are we living under?

What if I had, instead of apologizing and negotiating DESPITE being dead right, told that guy “F*** you, I’m off at 6, see you in the parking lot!!” I’m guessing we wouldn’t have gotten his money (which we did, $26.27), and might have just ended up being dead right with a big black eye.

I recently had a rather interesting conversation with a direct superior of mine at work. His premise was basically that my generation, generation Y, is causing my company great concern at the top levels of the company. They just don’t understand the “me generation”. And this is what annoys the hell out of me to be honest. I am sick of the rap we get for being self-centered, disloyal, only caring about money, not having respect for “the company”, and on and on.

First of all, why doesn’t the generation above me ever take a look at themselves and then reconsider these allegations. Weren’t the baby boomers the generation that were going to change it all? Stop the wars, protect individual liberty, stop corporate abuse, and all the rest? I think in a very small way we were already betrayed them in that respect. Then lets discuss what we see going on Corporate America today and see if that might have some effect on why we don’t immediately run out and pledge the next 40 years of our working lives to our companies.

I grew up in Northern Colorado on the Front Range where Hewlett Packard WAS the major employer. Many of the baby boomer generation I knew growing up, including 4-5 people right on my block, spent 25-30 years working for that organization. It was by all accounts a great company, that treated its people right, and all these people just fell in line because of it. Then, in a matter of a couple years as a result of an economic hiccup in the tech sector and a change management, all of those 25-30 year employees woke up laid off. And where exactly do you go work at 50 years old if you have spent 30 years doing the same thing and ever get even half the salary you are used to again? With treatment like that as an example, why would I want to run out into the workforce to commit my whole life to one company?

Yet we still get this rap. But it seems to me all companies need to do is figure out that the environment has changed and that they must change to leverage that and succeed. Well finally I found someone else who believes this apparently. Widely considered one of the greatest CEOs in American history, Jack Welch of GE fame seems to believe in us… have a listen.

I think Jack and Susie are right on and very much appreciate the commentary. I strongly suggest that baby-boomer led organizations stop wondering what’s wrong with Generation Y and instead work to understand us, figure out how to get the best ones of us, and then go win in the market. And no… just running out and starting a cheesy Facebook group is not the way to do it.