“Please speak up. I’m taping this entire conversation.“
No, this is not Court TV, or one of my favorite TV shows, Shark. This is a statement I would like to be making to every individual I converse with in the near future.
You see, I have a HUGE problem with gossiping and would like to see it eradicated.
In the February issued of Wired Magazine a man turned on GPS in his life, and shared his location constantly.
I would like to share the conversations in my life.
Now, is anyone going to talk to me after the microphones are turned on?
I don’t know.
Would you?
It’s well thought of that in each Greek hamlet every resident voted on issues concerning the populus.
Archeologists have uncovered many of the meeting areas these votes were thought to be cast at.
However, with an American population of over 305 million people, spanning 2.3 billion acres that’s not tough, it’s impossible.
In this, our digital world of online social networking, would it then not be possible to have every citizen vote on nearly everything concerning us through one such social network?
I understand the legitimacy and security issues. The website could be hacked, etc.
BUT: it could be possible.
Instead of this Representational Democracy Government we have, where lobbyist have jobs at all and we hear screaming about special interests groups daily, let every person vote, on everything.
Thoughts?
My wife and I went to a friend’s house one night and we were thinking about some fun stuff to do. Normally I always keep a deck or two of cards and an Ultimate Frisbee in my vehicle no matter where I go. But you can do a lot better by creating your own Entertainment Grab Bag.
The following is a short list of activities which could occupy anywhere from 2 to 20 people. You never know how many are going to show up, so plan ahead.
Everything mentioned will fit into one regular sized bag. Whether it’s a back pack, cloth sack, or duffel bag is up to you. I prefer a duffel bag or back pack. You can zip everything up, and they are easy to carry. Just leave everything in your bag and whenever you leave the house, throw it in the trunk or back seat. You’ll always be ready for a good time.
Ultimate Frisbee ($10.00 at Wal Mart)
Anybody can throw a frisbee, and if you have enough people you can play a real game of Ultimate Frisbee! My favorite sport.
2 – 4 decks of regular playing cards ($5.00 anywhere)
There is almost no end to what can be done with cards. Google the rules to any card game you want to play, there are thousands! Or have everyone help build a huge card castle!
Uno ($10 at Wal Mart)
Come on! Who doesn’t like Uno?
Twister ($20 at Wal Mart)
Take it out of the box, roll up the board and put it in your own bag.
Scene It DVD Game ($30 – $50)
You can buy any of the Scene Its: Friends, Disney, Nickelodeon, etc… Again, remove the board, pieces and cards from the box. Put the pieces and cards in a zip lock bag, or small box, and put them in your Entertainment Grab Bag.
6x Washers ($3 at hardware store)
Play the regular game of washers without having to lug around the huge wooden boxes. Just use a can or Tupperware from the house you’re visiting, and put it in the middle of any square you can make. Use duct tape, or a cookie sheet. You can even chalk one on concrete, or spray paint one on the grass!
5 or 10 Good Movies ($10-$20 per DVD)
You might want to rotate this selection. It’s always a good idea to keep old favorites around, but keep some new-releases handy too. To save space and organize, get a small CD wallet and put your DVD’s in here instead of lugging around the jewel cases.
Any Other games that can be used for multiple people.
Be creative. Just think about what will easily fit in your grab bag, and go from there. If you start having to carry extra stuff, or even more than one bag, it will quickly become too much to manage. Just one bag will give you plenty to do.
Add in new games as you think of them. Print off a few new card game rules and carry with you. Change the movies you carry. Most importantly, ALWAYS keep your Ultimate Entertainment Grab Bag with you and enjoy the fun!
GM Says Driverless Vehicles May Be On Market In 10 Years. And if it’s on TV, or GM says it, then it MUST be true!
We have BMW’s that can parallel park. We have Volkswagens that will slam on the brakes if something moves in front of us. We have backup sensors to ensure we don’t hit that other car or the back of our own garage. We have rear view mirror cameras. We have side view cameras. We have night vision cameras which look left and right at intersections. We have infrared cameras with overlays on windshields to identify heat signatures of animals and people at night. All of this helps people drive better, but it seems to me that it should help a computer drive our cars!
WHOOPS! Too late, you already do! If you go to a hospital, computers monitor your status and IV fluids, adjusting as necessary. Anything financial is computer ran and monitored. Your business information is all on a computer’s hard drive. You primarily communicate via email. Even if you use a phone, computer’s run the phone system. The military and government all use high level computing to run their most expensive equipment, monitor threats, direct troops and so much more. I hate to surprise you with this, but computers already control your life. Have you watched Live Free or Die Hard?
When NASA launches a space shuttle, the only “piloting” a human does is press the start sequence button. Computer’s take care of the rest. And if we’re trusting a computer to guide a multi-billion dollar rocket into space, why can’t we trust them to handle our commute? A computer does not get distrated with the radio. A computer does not have to put on makeup, or adjust it’s hair. A computer does not talk on a cell phone and ignore the road. A computer does not get tired or fall asleep at the wheel. A computer cannot become inebriated (drunk!) and kill innocent people. But people can… Why do you trust them to drive?
Were a computer driving a car it’s reaction times could be instantaneous. No more worrying about slamming on the gas instead of the brake, or calculating the time it takes to lift you foot from the accelerator to the brake. Instantaneous reaction to whatever situation. If a child runs in front of a new Volkswagon SUV, it stops the vehicle for you. Let the computer go forward, left and right as well.
A person can see, hear, and feel. However, we are limited on how many of those we can do at one time. A computer has no such limitation. There are no blind spots for a computer. Imagine a machine that has a 360 degree view of your vehicle at all times. It can “sense” via proximity detection any other vehicle or object withing a hundred feet, or more, of your car. This machine would not attempt to make a lane change when it knows there is another car right next to it. A deer runs in front of the car, the machine noticed it one hundred feet into the woods because of it’s heat signature and immediately slowed when the deer dashed onto the road. All this time, you’re sitting in the drivers seat, reading a book or watching the news.
A stoplight turns green. The first 10 vehicles accellerate at exactly the same time and speed. Three times as many cars can make it through a stoplight each cycle. Your vehicle is driving you to work this morning and receives a message for a car 5 miles ahead that a traffic accident has occured and you should immediately detour. The car makes the necessary adjustments, and you keep sipping your coffee. All this would be possible if computers drove instead of us.
It’s time to relieve your lead foot and the control freak, white knuckle grip on the wheel. Computers already handle and control every aspect of our lives. It’s not going to change. Having a computer drive is a far better idea than a person. Hopefully GM delivers sooner, and I would love to be reading instead of driving!
Digg just served this up to my viewer and I was horrified,
until it was Reversed.
Bottom line, right now I see people treating work as more important than family.
Bottom line, I don’t want to be like this.
Bottom line, I cannot stand the way we treat our habitat and want to change things.
Bottom line, Change is Hard, and It’s up to US. Now.
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life.
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
this is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No long can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.
Once or Twice a week you drag bags, boxes, or cans full of material thought to be useless to the curb or dumpster. Unfortunately, this material does not just disappear, it piles up in land fills nationwide. You can do something about this.
Get a group of people together who would be willing to recycle, setup compost piles, and possibly even garden. You can do it yourself, but the added accountability will help.
All of you could cancel your trash service and recycle all paper, plastic, glass, metal and other recyclable materials (view a full list here).
Then everyone could compost what could not be recycled. Egg shells, rotten foods, and more (view a full list here).
Finally, the pile left which cannot be recycled or composted is tiny in comparison to the plethora of “trash” you started with. Thus, instead of several bags bursting, waiting for the landfill, you might have a small Wal-Mart sack of truly useless trash, if you have anything at all.
You might not be able to cancel your trash service, as it’s usually not optional if you live in any kind of city. But you could definitely help the environment. The compost pile could really help with your garden. If you don’t have a garden, starting one is a great idea. Working with your hands and the earth to grow something is a wonderful, relaxing experience.
For those apartment dwellers, or renters who cannot till the soil, small flowerpots might be an option for tomato plants or other smaller above ground vegitables.
You do not have to be the first to come up with a great idea.
You do have to implement that idea better than any one else.
You are already above average, most likely in the top 10% of the U.S.
You are an avid reader, likely of both blogs and off line material.
Ideas come to you as you see things in life.
Unfortunately, if you’re anything like me then you just figure someone else who is smarter, richer, or faster than you has already thought of and completed the idea.
Timothy Ferris in his book The Four Hour Work Week made a great observation.
To paraphrase him: You don’t have to be the smartest, richest or fastest. Most of the time you just have to show up.
Whatever that idea of yours is, you just have to show up to get it off the ground. If it’s a great website you want to create or the next generation automobile fossil-fuel slayer, just working on it consistently will get you somewhere!
To get your ideas realized into the tangible you need to “Just Do It!”
Timothy Ferris also talks about how people are quick to stop someone starting a new project/idea/goal, however, people will seldom get in the way of a locomotive. Be that fast moving vehicle on unyielding tracks. People will get, and stay, out of your way right up to the point of completion. Then they will say they had confidence in you all along. You know better, but you don’t care now, because you “Just Did It!”
Dave Ramsey’s plan to tackle debt starts off with killing the smallest debts then working up to the largest ones. You need to do the same thing with your ideas/goals/dreams. Find the lowest hanging fruit and “Just Do It!” Then, when your confidence is soaring move onto the next, larger and harder, project. Continue with these “highs” of completion and watch your train steam forever forward!
Have you wanted to write a blog article and have been waiting? “Just Do It!”
Have you been delaying a phone call? “Just Do It!”
Have you been waiting to send an email? “Just Do It!”
Have you wanted to learn something? “Just Do It!”
Don’t ask permission (unless it’s illegal or immoral then don’t do it!)
Just go do it right now.
People will be amazed at your accomplishments and will hinder you less and less.
Enjoy the Fruits of your Labor!
p.s. If you’ve got an idea you want a sounding board for, email me at eb@ellisbenus.com or leave something in the comments. I would welcome a guest post for the Idea category on this blog to share it with hundreds of people! Don’t question whether you will be mocked if you share your idea here, or anywhere else. “Just Do It!” and send it in!
A friend, and co-worker, of mine wrote about how people think he’s left handed because he uses his mouse “left handed.” However, he is not left handed but rather uses the mouse as a lefty to increase productivity.
As a programmer, it’s faster for him to move his left hand from mouse to keyboard than his right.
Intrigued by this different approach, and desiring increased productivity (aside from using the keyboard for almost everything, including mouse-less browsing) I gave this a shot. While it took a while to get used to, and I’m not as proficient left handed as right, the productivity is noticeable.
As a web designer I am required to do a lot of both coding and Photoshop work. Every gain in speed from left handed mousing was nullified the moment I entered Photoshop. The detailed edits and keyboard shortcut intense environment forced me to move the mouse back and forth from left to right. What to do?!
The answer came to me in a New Egg sale: the beautiful Kensington, Four Button, Trackball mouse.
Instead of being traditional and using only one standard mouse for all computer related tasks, I would purchase this gorgeous mouse for Photoshop tasks, and utilize my standard mouse for all else (when I can’t use the keyboard). Gaining the productivity gains of left handed browsing while also having a wicked mouse for my dominant hand on the right. 100% perfect scenario.
Unfortunately, I have yet to purchase the $100 mouse but am planning to in the near future.
If this is something else you struggle with, or are currently using two pointing devices (mice) please let us all know of your success/failure in the comments.
This is my first post in the Ideas category after sharing how to Get Famous by Sharing All Your Ideas.
I present to you, my idea for a website which is the exact opposite of Stumble Upon.
Looking at what most people find interesting is great, but seeing the same article highlighting on 20 blogs is not that intriguing, and it makes you realize everyone is looking at the same content.
Just like the Compensation article from that obscure BlogSpot page, good content is out there but not being looked at.
My idea would be to create a Stumble Upon site that finds, watches, and shows lesser, or never, looked at web pages.
When you would Anti-Stumble, the sites you visit would be seldom seen, have few links coming to them, and might not post very often, but should have some good content. How would this crawler find good content? I’m not sure, it’s just an idea right now.
However, my reasoning for something like this is that Stumble Upon, Digg, del.icio.us, and the 80,000 other social bookmarking sites allow you to find what everyone else has already found.
Anti-Stumble Upon would allow you to find what no one else has, like an early day explorer! And who doesn’t like finding buried treasure.
Regardless, this is one of many ideas I’ve had, which I know I cannot act upon or create so here I am crowdsourcing it.
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” – George Bernard Shaw
The big G. B. W. has a ton of great quotes. The one above is a favorite of mine.
Striving to simplify and minimize my life has lead me to the realization that I have far too many ideas to ever act on all of them. Completing even a fraction of the projects my imagination churns out on a daily basis would be impossible.
However, through Crowdsourcing and following Shaw’s quote might lead to greater accomplishments than what my imagination has conceptualized.
My goal follows along with David Allen’s GTD idea of offloading stuff we cannot think about. I will be offloading the plethora of ideas permeating my conscious using this blog.
Daily ideas assault me for money making websites, design ideas, productivity processes, software development, architecture, home design, and so much more.
Any of these which I cannot immediately act upon, or do not have a plan to develop later, will be shared here.
Any other bloggers who would be interested in this, or that have ideas I should read about, leave a comment and I will read your post and be happy to give a link if interesting enough.
Thank You!