Systems Overload

The 2009 Holiday Spirt Blog Carnival 2nd Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:41:00 +0000

Welcome to the Second Edition of The 2009 Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival. I've enjoyed this time of year for as long as I can remember. First there was all the excitement of the kid wondering what he'd get for Christmas and how much fun you could have in this time of year. Later on this time of year become more about connecting with family and friends and letting them know how much they meant to me. After becoming a parent there was of coursed the excitement of seeing the holidays through their eyes and getting all excited again. Over the course of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, I hope that you'll join me in getting excited and spreading some holiday cheer. I plan to do one more edition before Christmas so I hope to share with you all stories about how different people celebrate this time of year, family traditions, gift ideas. Last year when I chose the title for the blog carnival, I purposely choose Holiday Spirit because I didn't want to only focus on Christmas, and in fact I'd love to see some submissions on how other faiths celebrate holidays that are meaningful to them that occur this time of year. I'd love to hear how Jewish and Muslim people celebrate their holidays, it would be great if we can use this time of year to bring people closer together.

Billeater presents Save Money This Holiday Shopping Season posted at Billeater.

The Smarter Wallet presents Hot Holiday Gift Ideas For The Shopping Season posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Grazyna presents Decorating Your Kitchen for Christmas posted at Christmas Ideas.

Jen from windy ridge presents Christmas Day posted at The Chronicles Of Windy Ridge, saying, "Christmas at Windy Ridge"

Ella Moss presents 2 MORE LIGHTS « Zodiac Times posted at Zodiac Times. A little soul-searching at Christmas

Silicon Valley Blogger presents A Collection of Money Tips For The Holidays posted at The Digerati Life.

Carm presents Xmas Party Games posted at Party Supply News, saying, "Holiday party's are great fun. Try out this quick thinking holiday party game."

Kristen Ellis presents Holiday Planning Made Easy For the Unorganized posted at Frugality In the Making.

Alex presents Christmas Cards Designs posted at Home Life Weekly, saying, "I have put together a great selection of Christmas Card designs they are really easy to make all you need to do is download the free Christmas Card design of you choice then print and fold."

Kerry Fletcher presents How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree Like a Professional Designer posted at Interior Design Info.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past and future editions can be found on our
blog carnival index page. I hope that you've enjoyed this edition and we look forward to your next visit. Feel free to submit an article, give us your comments, and spread the Holiday Spirit to others.

Photo Credit: A Christmas picture drawn by my daughter Sarah. It is posted at Flickr.

Technorati tags:

the holiday spirit, blog carnival.

What Is Social Media?

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:15:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what Social Media was or how you might be able to explain it to someone that didn't already have any knowledge of the subject or perhaps someone that had only heard some of the buzz words? Since a picture is worth a thousand words and can be so much better in getting our point across, I created the mind map above to try to make things clearer.

What Does Social Media Mean to You?

When explaining social media to someone it is good to get an idea of where they're coming from and what it means to them. Maybe they have a good idea of what it is already and only need to have some minor things explained or maybe you need to start a square one.

The Old Media And The New Media

Have you ever bought or read a newspaper, watched television, listened to the radio, or read a book or magazine article? These are all what could be considered "the Old Media". Newspapers are going out of business at an alarming rate, and there are lots of reports that suggest that more and more people are getting their news from the internet. This is where social media comes in. Almost anything that you want to "sell" or communicate is already being done on the internet via social media. The New Media makes use of many social media tools and will hopefully become a little clearer after reading this article and looking at the picture above. Social Media allows you get your message out in ways not even imagined even five years ago. I created the mind map based on an article that I saw in wikipedia on social media, so my structure started from there and I branched out a little. I used FreeMind to create the mind map. The mind map does not include every facet or tool available because there are many but it does give you a good picture of social media. I put a cloud around things that I use or are more famaliar to myself and possibly others. These are also areas where people might wish to start when there are lots of other options in any one area.

Communication

Communication is at the core of social media and all media for that matter. In the mind map it is one of the branches that includes:

Blogs- A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. (according to Wikipedia). You're in fact looking at a blog now. For the mind map this is referring to various blogging platforms like Blogger, LiveJournal, Open Diary, WordPress, Vox, ExpressionalEngine.
Micro blogging- This is a smaller version of a blog that is easy to do and maintain. While Twitter is probably the most recognizable member of this category, it also includes: Plurk, Tumblr(I use this to share links and other things from my blogs), Jaiku, and fmylife.
Social Networking- There is a good chance that you're already using one or more of these sites that include: Bebo, Big Tent, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkutt, Skyrock, Hi5, Ning, Elgg, and Drupal.
Social Network aggregation- These are sites that aggregate or consolidate your various social network activities into one location. FriendFeed and NutshellMail are two examples.
Events- These allow you to promote and share events with others and include: Upcoming, Eventful, and Meetup.com.
Social Networking Tools- These are tools that can be used to update one or more of your social networks and they all allow you to update Twitter (which as been listed under Micro blogging). Ping allows you to update several sites without having to log into each one individually. TweetDeck is an Adobe Air based tool that allows you to do all sorts of things with Twitter and is quite amazing. HootSuite is very powerful because you can use it to do a lot of things in Twitter but you can integrate it with Ping so that you can update several sites at once and you can schedule when your updates appear.

Multimedia

Multimedia is probably as you'd imagine it and includes:

Photo sharing- Flickr, Zoomer, Photobucket, SmugMug, and Picasa.
Video sharing- YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, and sevenload.
Livecasting- These allow you to broadcast an event live over the internet and include: Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, Stickam, and Skype
Audio and Music Sharing- imeem, The Hype Machine, Last.fm, ccMixter, and Blip.fm

Collaboration

Collaboration allows you to work with other people and includes:

Wikis- According to Wikipedia a wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor; are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, used in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems. Wikipedia is by far the best recognized within this category but it also includes PBwiki, and wetpaint
Social bookmarking- Is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them (according to Wikipedia). Some sites include: Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Google Reader.
Social news- Refers to websites where users submit and vote on news stories or other links, thus determining which links are presented (according to Wikipedia). Digg is probably the most recognisable of this type of site but it also includes: Mixx, Reddit, and Now Public. When an article or link reaches the front page of Digg, there is the potential for a lot of web traffic to it, something most people putting content on the web want.
Opinion sites- inludes: epinions, and Yelp.

Reviews and Opinions

Reviews and Opinions focus on reviews, opinions, and getting answers to questions that you might have and include:

Product Reviews- Includes: epinions and MouthShut.com.
Business Review- yelp.com is an example.
Community Q&A- These sites allow users to submit questions and get other uses to answer them. Yahoo! Answers, WikiAnswers, AskVille, Google Answers are examples.

Other

Other here is referring only to...

Information aggregators- These are typically sites that collect information from a variety of sites and sources and include NetVibes and Twine (website).

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)- is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format
(according to Wikipedia). This allows publishers to easily notify subscribers when there is new content or something has been updated or changed and it allows people to easily follow their favorite blogs and websites without have to check all the time if there is anything new or updated. RSS Readers allow collect the "feeds" from the sites and blogs you've subscribed to and include: Google Reader, NewsGator, FeedDemon, NetVibes, Sage (Firefox extension), and Bloglines. RSS Publishers allow websites and blogs to "publish" when there is new content or something has changed, one of the most widely used RSS Publishers is FeedBurner.

Entertainment

Entertainment includes:

Media & Entertainment Platforms- Cisco Eos.
Virtual Worlds- According to Wikipedia a virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations. You might have heard of Second Life, The Sims Online, or Forterra.
Game Sharing- sites allow multiple users to play each other in various games are becoming more and more popular all the time. Miniclip and Kongregate are a couple of game sharing sites.

Podcasts

Podcasts is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication (according to Wikipedia). There are a thousands (if not millions) of different podcasts about a variety of subjects. More and more companies and people are seeing podcasts as a way of marketing themselves. In my mind map I broke podcasts down to:

Search- These sites allow you to search for podcasts and include: Podcast Alley and iTunes.
Subscribe- Allows users to download new podcasts that they're subscribed to. One of the more famous is iTunes.

Conclusion

Social Media is at its heart, social and provides a variety of channels in which you can communicate ("sell" and "market") your product, service, or idea. Unlike the "Old Media", you have a lot of possibilities of doing it yourself and aren't dependent upon the old networks to distribute your message. You have a message that you wish to get out and you want to find an audience that wants to "hear" your message, with Social Media you can find these people and they can find you, and better still is that it happens 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Social Media allows communication and conversations that never existed with the Old Media and people that receive your message can let you know what they think about it, maybe how you can improve it or what they like about it. Reaching an audience with Social Media is way easier than via the Old Media and getting your message out is a lot less costly to do than via the Old Media and you have a better chance of reaching your target audience. Because everyone has some sort of message that they wish to get out (regardless of if they realize it or not yet) the people making use of it and those that become active in the field will only grow. I've embedded a video put together by Common Craft that gives an even higher level simple view of Social Media below and I've written (and will continue to write) about several social media topics at this blog, so why not subscribe in your rss reader of choice or via email.

Social Media In Plain English

Other Articles that you might be interested in...

3 Good Twitter Tools

Follow Me On Twitter

Are You Using Ping to Update Your Social Networks?

Having Fun on Blip.fm

So You Got an iPod for Christmas

You Don't Have to Have an iPod to Use iTunes

Wiki Basics

RSS for the Net Impaired

More About RSS

Are You Managing Your Digital Photos With Picasa?

Our Tumblr is Up And Running

Credits: Social Media mind map created by myself. The Social Media in Plain English video is part of a series of video tutorials that make complex subjects easier to understand visit the Common Craft YouTube channel to see other In Plain English videos or visit their website.

Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival 2009- 1st Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Welcome to the First Edition of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival. I've enjoyed this time of year for as long as I can remember. First there was all the excitement of the kid wondering what he'd get for Christmas and how much fun you could have in this time of year. Later on this time of year become more about connecting with family and friends and letting them know how much they meant to me. After becoming a parent there was of coursed the excitement of seeing the holidays through their eyes and getting all excited again. Over the course of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, I hope that you'll join me in getting excited and spreading some holiday cheer. In the coming issues (between now and shortly before Christmas) I hope to share with you all stories about how different people celebrate this time of year, family traditions, gift ideas. Last year when I chose the title for the blog carnival, I purposely choose Holiday Spirit because I didn't want to only focus on Christmas, and in fact I'd love to see some submissions on how other faiths celebrate holidays that are meaningful to them that occur this time of year. I'd love to hear how Jewish and Muslim people celebrate their holidays, it would be great if we can use this time of year to bring people closer together.

The Smarter Wallet presents Best Gift Ideas for the Holiday Season posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Carlos Sera presents A Coffee Tale posted at Financial Tales, saying, "In December of 2006 my two oldest children came home from college for their winter break. My son, Carl, was a senior and my daughter, Veronica, was a sophomore. For those parents out there that don’t know this yet, college-age children are not early-risers."

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Ms. Legal Person Answers Your Holiday Questions posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog, saying, "holiday humor"

SpendOnLife.com presents 10 Steps to Avoid Christmas Credit Card Debt posted at SpendOnLife.

Matthew Paulson presents Consumer Confusion Spikes Over Gift Cards posted at American Consumer News.

Wise_Bread presents Start Stockpiling Now: Four Cheap Christmas Gifts to Make posted at Wisebread.

Carole DeJarnatt presents Gifts for the Backyard Chicken Keeper or Birding Lover in Your Family posted at Fowl Visions.

Kevin Poulis presents Sees.com – An Old Time Favorite Treat | SiteTally.com posted at SiteTally.com.

Kerry Fletcher presents Favorite interior design gifts posted at Examiner.

Andrea Jackson presents A Good Christmas gift for a girlfriend posted at BestGiftBasketsForMen, saying, "A workable answer to a tricky question. What's a good Christmas gift for a girlfriend?"

Byteful Travel presents New Widescreen Wallpaper - Snowy Sight Indigo posted at Byteful Blog, saying, "I've released a new Snowy Sight wallpaper to help get you into the holiday spirit."

NAOMI presents Diary From England: MERRY XMAS! (WAR IS OVER) posted at Diary From England.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past and future editions can be found on our
blog carnival index page. I hope that you've enjoyed this edition and we look forward to your next visit. Feel free to submit an article, give us your comments, and spread the Holiday Spirit to others.

Photo Credit: A Christmas picture drawn by my daughter Anna. It is posted at Flickr.

Technorati tags:

the holiday spirit, blog carnival.

November Editon of The Family Life Blog Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:48:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Welcome to the November 2009 edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival. While many people in the U.S. will be thinking about turkey (and various other traditional Thanksgiving dinner items) and football, there is now doubt that being with family, extended family, and friends plays a big part in the festivities. Now matter how hard times may be for some of us, we can be grateful for the family and friends that we have. I've always liked Thanksgiving because I've thought of it as a time when we can be grateful for the many blessings that we've all have. It is a uniting holiday as well, because people will be dinning at dinner tables all over America with people of all sort of denominations, with atheists, with agnostics, and our differences don't really matter so much today, its almost as if they don't exist. People travel from far and wide to be with people they care about. While the American version of Thanksgiving is held on the forth Thursday of every November, other countries have their own version of Thanksgiving, held at various times throughout the year and it is nice to think that this is something else that can unite us all, a time that we can all give thanks for the blessings we've received.

The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival will be starting shortly. I plan to run it every other week from around Thanksgiving through right before Christmas. With the idea being to put us all in that "Holiday Spirit" During this time the other blog carnivals run here (The Better Life Carnival, The Carnival of Productivity And GTD, and The Family Life Blog Carnival) will take their Winter Break, appearing again in 2010. This is the last "normal", non-Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, that I plan to run in 2009. Thank you to everyone that has submitted articles for all of the blog carnivals! I hope that you'll continue to submit articles, read my blog carnivals (others as they meet your interests) as well as continue reading my blog posts. You can also subscribe via email or by RSS Feed so that you don't miss a blog carnival or any of the other posts. If you have ideas for topics or subjects that you'd like to see in future editions feel free to post them in the comments section at the end of this post. If you have any other comments, feel free to leave them as well. You can submit your blog article(s) to the next edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Links to past posts and the dates of future scheduled editions can be found on our blog carnival index page. You can also check out The Better Life Carnival and The Carnival of Productivity And GTD (also appearing at this blog) and look for the HolidaySpirit Blog Carnival (coming soon). Without further adieu, here is the November Edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival....

Keith Tusing presents Top Ten Fun & Free (or almost free) Things to Do This Weekend posted at CM Buzz.

Billeater presents Tips for Trimming Your Grocery bill up to 50% posted at Billeater.

Mommy's Life presents Fun Alphabet Learning posted at Mommy's Life.

KidsYogaOnline presents Animal yoga for kids: the hiss of the serpent posted at Kids Yoga Online, saying, "Get slithery with kids yoga when you slide into the cobra yoga pose. As one of the most animated kids yoga exercises, the cobra posture brings flexibility to your spine and strength to your back. Best of all, you get to hisss, just like a real snake!"

Sonja Stewart presents Life with Lots of Kids posted at Parenting Squad.

Leah Aharoni presents Mothers' Guilt posted at Ingathered.

Debt Kid presents Following up on Zero-Based Budgeting posted at Debt Kid.

ReliableWriters presents 4 Of the Most Common Personal Finance Mistakes posted at Deposit Accounts.

Wise_Bread presents Recession Journal VI: It's OVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Any Questions? posted at Wisebread.

I hope that you've enjoyed this edition the Family Life Blog Carnival. Stay tuned for future blog carnival editions as well as the other regular posts found here. You can submit your blog article(s) to the next edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Links to past posts and the dates of future scheduled editions can be found on our blog carnival index page. starts. Don't forget about the other blog carnivals run here (The Better Life Carnival, The Carnival of Productivity And GTD, and coming soon the 2009 HolidaySpirit Blog Carnival, as well as the normal articles appearing here and my other blog. I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving.

3 Good Twitter Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:37:00 +0000

I don't know about you but sometimes it is hard to manage everything in the Twitter universe (Twitterverse as some refer to it) that is why I'm happy to have discovered three tools that you can use to keep things in order.

Twitter Lists

If you're using Twitter, I'm sure that you've heard about Twitter lists already, if not you should definitely use them. Here is a good video that gives a high-level overview of Twitter Lists...

Twitter Lists In A Nutshell

Facebook has had a listing function that you can apply to your friends for a while, so it is great to see Twitter put this into production. This can come in real handy to group people by whatever keyword you might wish to assign to them. It is also a good way to be able to quickly see if anybody on that list has tweeted something that you might be looking for and it provides you with a quicker way of finding things from people that you follow.

Another great thing about lists is that you can see the "public" lists of other tweeters that you follow. This can give you a peak into why people are followed. If you're following someone you can see the lists that they've created, so if there are key words in their lists that you're interested in, you might want to follow the people on their list or the list itself. This is another great way to meet people with similar interests to yourself or to meet people knowledgeable about topics you wish to learn more about. Further more you can look at the lists containing various tweeters and see other possible connections and people that you might want to follow based on the key words of the lists that they're in. You can also create "private" lists, if you don't want the world to see tweeters on a special list of yours.

Lists are also another way for people to market themselves on Twitter. If you get a reputation as in expert on a certain topic than people will be interested to see who is in your list for that topic.

Listorious

Listorious is a site dedicated to Twitter lists. They have all kinds of interesting lists from Twitter that you can check out. If you're into sports you might want to find out what players are twitting from the NFL or the NBA. If there is a celebrity that you're a fan of and would like to follow, you're likely to find them in some list here. In the technology and worlds of social media there are various lists from Pete Cashmore and Robert Scoble to be found here. There are also lists about charities, nonprofits, and a whole host of everything under the sun. This site can help you add a little more fun and focus to your twitter experience. And of course you can follow Listorious on Twitter too.

Friend or Follow

Friend or Follow is really handy for getting an overview of who you're following on Twitter that isn't following you, as well as who is following you that you're not following, and those that you follow that also follow you. I've read all kinds of articles about people's strategy on who they will or won't follow, and because there are so many people on twitter you'll eventually want to come up with some kind of strategy for how you handle the who you follow topic. Personally, I don't wish to follow spammers and people that are overly obscene or offensive. I will sometimes follow people that have different and even opposite beliefs to my own because you never know when you might learn something and I know that I don't own the market on anything, so it is good to be open. There are various programs out there that will auto-follow people that are following you, theoretically cutting down on your administration in Twitter, but I don't do this because I've seen spammers, would be 'porn stars', and other people that I would just assume not follow. Because I don't always follow people right back, I find that there are a lot of people that will follow me and drop me before I've had a chance to see if I want to follow them or not. Then there are those that follow you, wait for you to follow them and then they drop you, so it can come in handy to see who is all three of your groups on twitter.

With Friend or Follow you can get a csv file of...

People that you follow that don't follow you back
People that follow you that you don't follow back
People that follow you that follow you back

This can give you a snapshot that you can use to compare where you were when you took the snapshot to where you are at some other point in time. If you're someone trying to build a twitter following this could be very useful. With the files being in csv format, you can slice and dice like you would with any other Excel file and use them in all kinds of creative ways. If you're tweeting for business purposes and are using some kind of Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) there is probably some way that you can import/export the files for use in your software. Those of you marketers out there can probably see the potential if you think about it for a moment or so.

Well, I hope that you find all three of these tools useful. They can really help you to try to keep some kind of order in the chaos that is twitter.

The November Edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:33:00 +0000

Welcome to the November edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival. As I prepare for The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, I thought that I'd publish one more edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival. This will be the last edition of this blog carnival that I will publish this year. I enjoyed publishing The Better Life Blog Carnivall over the year and look forward to seeing all the great submissions next year. This edition includes over 30 articles all to help you live a Better Life, so there is bound to be something for everyone.

Boredom

Tisha Tolar presents Getting Bored With Yourself? posted at Empowering Mom.

Travel

Edan presents Park City Ski Resorts posted at Park City Condo Lodging, saying, "Find out all about Ski Resorts in beautiful Park City, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics."

Alvina Lopez presents Traveling Cheap When You’re a Student – Here’s How You Do It posted at MasterDegreeOnline.

Kristen Garcia presents Make The Most Out Of Any Vacation posted at The Happy Mother, saying, "In our current high stressed world, it is more important than ever to have a nice, relaxing vacation."

Personal Development

Cody Butler presents Personal Development Success posted at Dream Life Coaching Blog. Ask your questions., saying, "Article detailing the basic principles of personal development success."

Mike King presents The Key to Personal Development. Belief posted at Learn This.

Tiffany Colter presents
Balance, Not Deprivation posted at Hidden Leaks, saying, "A balanced life comes not from depriving yourself financially, but finding the middle ground that allows spending AND saving on a reasonable basis. This article shows you how."

Broderick Durisseau presents Overwhelmed? posted at Broderick Allen - Personal Growth and Enjoying Life's Journey.

Relax presents Knowledge can become your enemy if you are not careful (The Curse of Knowledge) posted at The Wise Curve, saying, "Common sense tells us that knowledge brings power. But do you know that knowing too much might do you harm?"
Arin Vahanian presents Why Life is About Choice posted at Super State.

Lucky Balaraman presents How To Find Happiness, Step 1: posted at Calm and Cool.

Relationships

lkodanko presents How to Still Be Newlyweds...no matter how long it's been! posted at Words On Wendhurst.

Weight Loss

Lucky Balaraman presents Get the Weight Off Your Mind in 10 Minutes a Day posted at Calm and Cool, saying, "If that title has the ring of a typical fitness course to it, there's a good reason. There are a lot of similarities between mental fitness and physical fitness. A mind burdened with useless attitudes is as unhealthy as a body blanketed with layers of fat. And wouldn't you know, just like there are guaranteed prescriptions for bodily fitness, there are indeed several foolproof prescriptions for mental fitness. It's two of those mental fitness prescriptions that I am going to touch upon now. They are uncannily similar to certain prescriptions for physical fitness. You'll see..."

Productivity And Focus

SpiKe presents The 80/20 Rule And The Importance Of Value posted at Organize IT.
Tisha Tolar presents You Must Be Able to Say No posted at Empowering Mom.

Erick Simpson presents Disconnecting - Time to Quiet the Noise and Refocus posted at Managed Services.

Sue presents Abraham Hicks Says "There Are No Wrong Choices" posted at Helping Your Entrepreneurial Spirit Create Self, Create Health and Create Wealth.

Customer Service

Ben presents Eight Ways to Beat Bad Customer Service posted at Money Smart Life.

Health

Erika Collin presents How to Prepare for a Pandemic: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources posted at Masters in Health Care.

Joel Gray presents Healthy Cooking for Special Diets posted at Health Tips 101.

Tips

Billeater presents
You want Tips? You Can't Handle These Tips! posted at Billeater.

Yoga

Mike Batey presents Jivamukti Yoga posted at Yoga Mad, saying, "Created by David Life and Sharon Gannon, Jivamukti yoga is a yoga style that combines physical, spiritual and philosophical aspects of traditional yoga. The Jivamukti method of yoga is one of the nine internationally recognized styles of Hatha yoga, the other eight being Ashtanga, Iyengar, Viniyoga, Sivananda, Integral, Bikram, Kripalu, and Kundalini."

Career

Matthew Paulson presents How to Stay Relevant on the Job and Reduce Your Layoff Risk posted at American Consumer News.

Money And Finance

debt kid presents 3 Books that Changed my Financial Life Forever posted at DebtKid.

Jack Schmidt presents 7 Tools For Your Money Belt posted at SectorMatic Money Journal.

Frugal Living

MoneyNing presents Inheriting Generations of Frugal Living posted at Money Ning saying, "Think ahead and do something for your future generations. Start saving."

MoneyNing presents How to Deal with Frugal Advice posted at Money Ning saying, "Don't just skip the article if you think it doesn't apply to you as it might be useful later on in life."

Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice) presents Are Frugal Sacrifices Worthwhile? posted at saying, "Are Frugal Sacrifices Worthwhile? It is important to look at your large goals and make sure that the way you live now is helping you to get your money to be meaningful for you."

Andrew Cowan presents Moving to a smaller apartment - Personal development - frugal living posted at Andrew Cowan, saying, "I recently moved to a smaller apartment which has been beneficial in more ways than just the financial. That said, I am "making" $300/month from my decision to downgrade my apartment. Money in the bank!"

Other

Jack Schmidt presents 10 Ways to Fuel Your Own Economy posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "SectorMatic Money Journal: Personal Finance - Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget. Now you can live like a fat cat, even if you're on a money diet. Laugh all the way to the bank with Jack Schmidt and SectorMatic. It's for you!"

Sonja Stewart presents The Casserole Club Makes a Comeback! posted at Parenting Squad.

That concludes the November edition of The Better Life Carnival. You can submit your blog article to the next edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival using our "Submit an entry to “The Better Life Carnival” carnival submission form. Past posts and future editions can be found on our "Blog Carnival index for “The Better Life Carnival”blog carnival index page. We hope that you'll stay with us through the Holidays and check out or other posts as well.

Photo Credit: Ponta de Areia courtesy of rsocar

Technorati tags:

the better life carnival, blog carnival.

Bertone Beatle Bonanza

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:28:00 +0000

I'd like to say congratulations to Bertone Beatle Bonanza on the podcast's 5th anniversary. A few years ago this was one of the first podcasts that I listened to and have been listening to ever since.

On Halloween the 5th Birthday show was uploaded, a real treat at over 3 hours and 19 minutes for fans of the show and Beatles fans! Guest on this special episode include:

Eric Parashos- a former administrator of the "Shabby Road" message board and writer for a Beatles parody website, and occasional co-host

Steve Marinucci- writer for the "Beatles Examiner" and news contributor for the Bertone Beatle Bonaza blog.

Chris O'Dell- the inspiration for the George Harrison "Miss O'Dell" song, and author of "Miss O'Dell", a former Apple (the Beatles record label) employee and Beatles friend.

Woody Lifton- a former host of "Pop Goes The Beatles", organizer for the "Beatles Tribute Cruise" and administrator for "Best Beatles History"

Joe Johnson- a host of "Beatles Brunch".

To eliminate any confusion upfront if you go to the podcast site you won't find five years of podcasts. This is because the show started out as a college radio broadcast and later evolved into an early podcast. Jousha started doing a Beatles broadcast when he was in his early twenties. He has an amazing knowledge about the Beatles, especially when you consider he wasn't even alive when the Beatles were together!

A semi-regular segment on the show are episodes called "Wednesdays With Wings" where all the Wings songs are being played from the beginning onward. in each segment one Wings song is play before or after Joshua gives some commentary about it. As with most of us, life happens and there have been times when there were no Wednesdays with Wings but episode 49 was recently released. Since Paul McCartney has released the most material of any of the Beatles, I wonder how long it will take to get to his last CD?

The first episode that you can find at the site has a date of October 17, 2006 and included an interview with Pete Best (the drummer before Ringo). You might enjoy some Beatles Christmas in July in September, which includes Christmas messages that were recorded for Beatles fans over the years. The show has interviewed some interesting people so far talking to Denny Seiwell, Rod Davis (from the Quarrymen, John's band before the Beatles), May Pang (famous for "the lost weekend" with John), Laurence Juber (from Wings), Nancy Andrews (one-time fiancee of Ringo), and others. September 9, 2009 was a big day for Beatles fans and Bertone Beatle Bonaza did three different episodes related to this special date. On 999 Beatles remasters were released along with a Beatles version of Rock Band.

I'm a huge Beatles fan and have really enjoyed my journey with Bertone Beatle Bonaza. If you have the time and the money you can take a cruise with Joshua and other Beatles fans in March 2010. May Pang and Nancy Andrews are both scheduled to be there. By the way Joshua did manage to dig up the first episode (which was broadcast on October 30, 2004). Congratulations to Joshua on five years of shows. Here is hoping that the next five are just as great, if not better.

Photo Credit: My iPod

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:15:00 +0000

I just wanted to wish a Happy and Safe Halloween to everyone that will be trick or treating or partaking in some of the various other festivities this weekend.

If you have kids, you're probably already doing or have done some things to help them enjoy this time of year. We had a pumpkin craving party yesterday, inviting a couple of my daughters friends over along with their parents to carve up pumpkins (Jack O'Lanterns). The kids all used markers to make their design and the grown-ups did the carving. The kids were excited about taking out most of the pumpkin insides. Later on we had baked pumpkin seeds made with some olive oil and a little salt (a nice tasty and easy to make snack). When the kids were off playing, the grown ups watched "Its The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", a classic Peanuts Halloween special.

We're taking the kids to a local American base later today so that they can "trick or treat" in more American style. We've taken the kids trick or treating (house to house as they refer to it locally) for several years now, but this will be the first time that we've gone to a base to trick or treat, so I'm excited to see how this will turn out. I was really surprised to see how Halloween is growing in popularity in Germany. While not all of the houses or apartments have treats for the kids, many that are decorated do. A lot of the people do give out treats to the kids get a kick out of seeing the kids in all their cute costumes.

I hope that you'll all use a little safety and enjoy yourselves this Halloween by following the follow advise...

If you have concerns about some candy or other treat that your kid has received, discard it if in doubt
Maybe you can take the kids to a local party put on by friends or some other publicly organized party or trick or treating, to avoid taking bad or unsafe treats. This can also add a little more fun to the festivities
If going trick or treating be sure to dress appropriately (I remember that it often rained, sometimes snowed, but more often than not was just plain cold!)
Do trick or treating in groups, for your kids safety (the parents can also enjoy the company of other parents this way)
If throwing a party where alcohol is served, make sure that nobody drinks too much and drives home. Designated drivers would be a good thing
Show some respect for people that don't like Halloween for religious reasons, you can choose costumes that aren't demeaning to other religions

I hope that everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween.

Photo Credit: The pumpkins that we carved up at our little party last night. Unfortunately, my flash didn't allow me to get the whole effect with the darkness outside.

October Edition of the Carnival of Productivity And GTD

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Welcome to the October 2009 edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. There have been some really great submissions since the last edition that we ran of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. and so we're excited about sharing them with you. This is the last edition of this Blog Carnival for 2009, look for the next edition in 2010 . If you have any suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in future editions, feel free to leave a comment. If you have a post that you'd like to submit, please do so via the submission from link. Thank you to everyone that submitted posts! Remember that by subscribing via your RSS reader or via email, that you won't miss the next blog carnival hosted here and you'll know when new material has been posted. Enjoy.

Productivity

Wise_Bread presents Awesome Accomplishments: 50+ Questions to Ask Yourself and Figure Out What You've Done posted at Wisebread.

Kristie Lewis presents 99 Awesome iPhone Apps for Busy Business Travelers posted at Career Overview.

Verena Fischer presents Getting things done without a deadline posted at selfdev. self-development for a new generation.

MoneyNing presents How to Get Out of a Rut and Out of a Slump posted at Money Ning, saying, "Ever in a rut? Here's how to get out."

OPTED Magazine presents Batch tasks to save time and achieve maximum efficiency posted at OPTED Magazine.

Scientific Living presents Concentration Brings Happiness (Why People Think They Can Actually Sing) posted at Scientific Living, saying, "Why concentration brings happiness, and how to get it."

Rose King presents 100 All-Time Best Ways to Hack Your Workday posted at Career Overview.

Self-Development And Goals

Yetti Chiu presents Goal Attainment posted at Michael A. Podolinsky's Success Series Blog, saying, "Goal Attainment. How to set goals you will attain?"

Carolyn Friedman presents How to Build Self Confidence posted at Hospitality Management Schools, saying, "Self confidence is something you gain naturally with success, but you must know how to build this asset even when you have seen more failure than tasted success."

Ralph Jean-Paul presents A Bugs Life: Applying the Success Principles of Ants posted at Potential 2 Success, saying, "Even though ants are responsible for so many tasks, they always seem to accomplish everything they set out to do. Because of their success principles, if ants were human, they would be the most successful group of people on the planet. Learn their productivity habits and apply them to your own life."

Karl Raats presents 5 ways of dealing with your inner critic posted at Pinching the Ostrich.

Steven Handel presents Criticism and Goal Achieving posted at The Emotion Machine.

Broderick Durisseau presents Persistence Without Consistent Action = Long Road to Achievement posted at Personal Growth From the Bottom Up.

Barbara Williams presents 100+ Places to Get a Free Business Education Online posted at Online Degree Programs.org.

Finance And Inve$ting

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Investment Tools, Software and Resources You Can Get For Free posted at The Digerati Life, saying, "Improve your investing efforts with these tools!"

The Smarter Wallet presents Develop Skills For Managing Your Life So You Can Save Money posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Other

Joshua Seth presents How To Self Publish Your Own Book – Day 3 | Joshua Seth posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying, "Self publishing your book is a lot easier than it used to be. You can use dictation software to eliminate much of the actual writing, outsource the layout and design work over the internet, and use Amazon for worldwide distribution. As a result of helping my coaching clients to write and self publish their own books over at www.YourBookInAMonth.com I’ve actually gotten better at this process myself. They say the teacher learns the most and I’ve found this to be true."

Suzane Smith presents Top 100 IT Industry Blogs posted at Online IT Degrees, saying, "Blogging would not even exist if it were not for IT professionals collaborating, reviewing, and outdoing each other on a constant basis. Before, it was a behind the scenes process.To get the best in information technology blogs, stop by the below top 100 IT industry blogs by companies, corporations, professionals, and those who just outright love the business."

Rose King presents 50 Great Games to Sharpen Your Business Skills posted at online classes.org.

That concludes the October edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD this is the last edition for 2009. You can submit your blog article to the next edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD in 2010, using our "Submit an entry to “The Carnival of Productivity And GTD” submission form". Links to past editions, as well as the current scheduling of future editions can be found on our The Carnival of Productivity And GTD index page. Thank you to everyone that submitted articles for this edition! If you have any topics that you'd like to see covered in a future edition, or any feedback in general, feel free to leave a comment. Be sure to stay tuned for the other two Blog Carnivals hosted here (The Better Life Carnival and The Family Life) as well as the normal articles that are posted here. Look for The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival returning in November. Thank you.

Photo credit: Old Time courtesy of benkersey.

Technorati tags:

the carnival of productivity and gtd, blog carnival.

Systems-Overload's Second Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:19:00 +0000

The Systems-Overload Blog had its second birthday last month, I didn't want to let this ocassion pass by without saying a word or two.

Ok, my first post on this blog was a welcome to the blog post dated September 16th and a GTD Overview followed shortly after on September 19th, so going by either date as the birthday, it is obviously a little later. Steeling a concept from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", life has happened this past year and it can sometimes throw the best laid plans of mice mice and men off track, if not in a totally different direction. A lot has happened in the second year at Systems-Overload and I thought that I'd take a moment or two to talk about some it.

I was privileged enough to go to Copenhagen several times. I did a post about Copenhagen at the DC Heron Family Blog as well as uploading several pictures to Flickr. With traveling and other things associated with work, I wasn't able to blog as often as I had planned but life often provides us experiences that we wouldn't change for anything.

Besides going to Copenhagen, I did some other traveling this past year. The family and I made a nice trip to the Center Prac in Erperheide. I also took my first trip to East Germany. I also suggested that readers consider using the train in their travel plans. I even had some suggestions for the Airline Industry.

The world has been through a lot in the past year with the Financial Crisis and all. America made history by electing Barack Obama, irregardless of if you like him or not, an African-American has been elected President of the U.S. and maybe in the future we can look more at the candidates than race or gender (this is my hope anyways). I suggested new rules for CEOs before all the news broke about all the perks and privileges some of these people are getting and all the fervor erupted. I wrote about Us and Them and how religious differences seem to be tearing us apart instead of uniting us.

When I started the Systems-Overload Blog, one of the topics that interested me and that I wanted to write about was Social Media and Social Networking. I asked if readers were using ping to update the social network s? I wrote an article about Twitter giving an explanation of how it works and some of the people that are using it. I became a big fan of Blip.fm, I've had a lot of fun on Blip.fm, reached 2000 listeners, announced an 80's party and had it. I plan to write more on Social Media and Social Networks, so be sure to stay tuned (why not subscribe via email or add the blog to your RSS reader?)

In January I wrote about green cars at the 2009 NAIS (Detroit Autoshow) and in September I went to the 2009 IAA (Frankfurt Autoshow). I applied for and got my first press pass, so I was able to see the vehicles there like I never had before and I took over 800 pictures which are available in Set 1 and Set 2 at Flickr. There was a lot activity on the pictures at Flickr and a request to use some of the pictures in a publication in Eygpt! Mini is celebrating 50 years and put together a video in honor of the occasion as well as other cars that were on display at the autoshow.

This has been a big year in Germany. Angela Merkel was re-elected and Germany celebrated 19 years of being united after the Cold War finally ended.

I've written a few articles for some good causes this year. I participated in Project 2996 for the second time, writing about a few of the victims of September Eleventh this time. I feel deeply connect to this project as my mother lost a battle to cancer as the world shook with this tragedy, so whenever the subject is brought up I think of here. I'm still hoping to start a foundation to honor her memory (this is a big one currently on my Someday/Maybe list!). Not long after the start of Systems-Overload's second year, I wrote a piece for the 2008 Blog Action Day and published my 2009 efforts last week. I enjoy these collaborative efforts that make you feel connected to others and make you feel like part of something bigger than yourself.

We celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Moon-landing this year and not long after the we lost Michael Jackson, who gave us his "Moonwalk". I didn't write a specific post about Walter Cronkite, but I did mention his passing in the moon-landing article, I know that he'll be missed and I wonder who, if anyone, will be stepping forward to fill his shoes? Controversial former Big Brother star Jade Goody lost her battle with Cancer and she brought media attention to cancer living much of her final days before the camera.

I got into hosting Blog Carnivals this past year. I started by announcing the Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, which I host during the Christmas season. After that experience I decided to add three more semi-regular Blog Carnivals. In November, the Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival will be running again and my three others will be taking a break till next year. While I'd love to hear stories about how people celebrate Christmas, I'd also like to hear how people celebrate non-Christian holidays that occur in this time of the year. I always like the Christmas time of the year because of all the hope that it can give people. When I started the three Blog Carnivals this year I thought that it would be a good way to share interesting articles with my readers and thought that it would be a good way for other bloggers to get some exposure (because I know how hard that can be!) Some of the "life events" have caused me to shift the publication dates around a little but I'm pleased to see all the submissions that I've received, all in all I've received over 1000 submissions between the various carnivals. Please keep those submissions coming.

Looking at what I've written so far, I did write a lot more than I realized! I'm currently thinking about what directions I want to go in my third year and beyond. I'd sure welcome your input. Comments are always welcome and encouraged. Speaking of comments, I do wonder why I have so many oriental comments to one post that I wrote? I'd really like to know what is being said! I'm looking forward to year three of Systems-Overload and hope that you'll all join me and spread the word.

Photo Credit: Hobbit and I taken in December 2008

Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Systems-Overload is pleased to take part in the 2009 Blog Action Day where the focus is on Climate Change this year. This is the third year that we've participated (here are our posts from 2008 and 2007). Climate Change has become quite a popular topic over the last several years and many companies are trying to brand themselves as green and world leaders are at least paying lip service to the subject but so much more needs to be done and can be done.

In the area of climate change I see several issues that have encroached into this space, making it more complicated and seemingly unmanageable.

Many global/multinational corporations have expanded at alarming rates into emerging markets.

Easier and hire and fire workers and less worker protections
Less environmental regulations to deal with

The governments in these emerging markets don't have the necessary infrastructure

Additional costs borne by the new localities
Tax subsidies/abatements provided to lure in new business
Don't have experience writing environmental and labor regulations to be enforced upon global companies
Don't have proper agencies with proper personnel to keep companies in line

Governments in the areas that are losing plants and jobs don't have the necessary international cooperation needed to enforce "good corporate citizenship responsibility" on companies

They have lost tax dollars and the budget necessary to enforce the laws that are already on the books
They're too distracted by the Global Financial Crisis to stop job losses
Corporations have too much lobby power and can easily impact pending legislation via a variety of means
It is too easy for corporations to move

Too much focus on "maximizing shareholder value" and executive profit, without regard for long-term impacts on health and viability of the company's clients, employees, and the communities that they do business in

Having identified some of the problems that are making climate change unmanageable what can be done? What can you do?

Let your elected and corporate leaders know that you don't approve of this any longer.

Write to your elected and corporate leaders, be sure to include company boards, CEOs, congressmen, and senators, as well as presidents, and so on

Let businesses know that you won't buy their products as long as they act irresponsibly

Let your government know that any contracts that they sign with such businesses need to impose some form of responsibility on those that they do business with. When you're paying the bill, you can set some conditions!

Let business that you do business with know that if they have contracts with irresponsible vendors that you won't do business with them any longer. Supply chains can be very long today and you'd be amazed at how many vendors your average business has dealings with

Make your family and friends aware of things that you've found out and encourage them to join in on any boycotts

Before buying a product or service check to make sure that the company is truly an ethical company as well as being environmentally responsible

A well known IT company is a poster child for what is wrong with companies today

They paid its CEO over $107 million dollars over the past four years and six top executives (including the CEO) combined for compensation totaling over $140 million dollars in 2008.
This CEO saw his compensation grow from $25 million in 2007 to over $42 million dollars in 2008, a 68% increase.
This company has laid off 40,000+ employees during the current CEO's tenure with most of those jobs being moved into emerging markets (off-shoring)
This CEO requested a "voluntary" 5% may cut from the employees earlier this year and told the employees that he was taking a 20% pay cut (but this is off his base salary, before all his bonuses) and for most normal employees 5% can make the difference between making mortgage and car payments and have a huge impact. The company has made billions in profit the last few quarters, so the pay cut wasn't necessary for the company's survival (unlike some more notable companies that have really been fighting for their very existence).
Many IT companies are moving more and more jobs to off-shore locations. If this companies want to continue to do this type of activity, they should have to make sure that all employees that have been made redundant have "comparable" positions, or pay until they find such positions! Business needs to work more with government to make sure that local education meets their needs, not that this is used as an excuse to move more positions off shore.

Give some serious thought to where you buy your stuff, not just what you buy

One well known and very large retail company is known for not paying their employees very well, many of this company's employees are making wages that put them just above the poverty line and some aren't able to pay for health care coverage. This should not be allowed

Buy from and support local companies and products whenever possible. The company mentioned above has a reputation for going into a community and forcing several local businesses into closure because they can't compete on price and volume. It is the local companies that are more likely to be active in the community and do the things that used to make our towns nice places to live in

Let your corporate and government leaders know that you want to see more international cooperation. Corporations should not be above the law. If companies move headquarters to avoid their tax and other responsibilities, they should not be permitted to do business in your area. Can you imagine a company today that doesn't want to be able to see its goods and services in America, if they couldn't sell in this market, they might not be in business for long

America has the largest economy in the world and has a huge impact on the rest of the world. The financial crisis has shown how interconnected things have become in the last few years. It is time for consumers and taxpayers to "encourage" our businesses to be the responsible enterprises that they should be.

Photo credit: Industrial 4 courtesy of kkiser.

The October Edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:01:00 +0000

Welcome to the October edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival. It has been a while since I published and edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival, so the submissions piled up. There were over 400 submissions! As I prepare for The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, I hope to publish a few more of our various blog carnivals before then, we'll see what time permits. This edition includes over 40 articles all to help you live a Better Life, so there is bound to be something for everyone.

Self-Improvement/Development

William Womack presents Obstacles vs. Obstuckles posted at Conscious Growth, saying, "An article for helping you get through obstacles faster, with less stress, and with your life goals in mind."

Cody Butler presents OverComing fear And Overwhelm. posted at Dream Life Coaching Blog. Ask your questions, saying, "5 tips of dealing with and overcoming fear and overwhelm."

Douglas Spencer presents Confidence and Self Esteem posted at The Life Centre, saying, "Here are self improvement articles about principles and practices related to areas of my personal development expertise and interests. Words and phrases that describe this expertise include self improvement, self development, personal growth, self growth, personal change, inspiration, and empowerment."

Finance Tips 101 presents Scholarships Come In All Shapes And Sizes posted at Finance Tips 101.

Emma Taylor presents Online Journal Tools for Your Self Improvement & Discovery Psychology Degrees posted at Psychology Degrees.

Lucky Balaraman presents Finding Unshakable Happiness: The 5 Pristine Pillars posted at Calm and Cool.

Jirel presents Reviewing the day positively posted at
Positive and Successful Lifestyle tips.

Matthew Paulson presents New Lifestyles Don't Need New Purchases posted at American Consumer News.

Lisa Taylor presents 50 Best Productivity Blogs for Students posted at Online Degree.

Arswino Sonata presents 85 Ways to Motivate Yourself posted at Inspiration & Motivation Blog.

Jon Beebe presents Quick-Start Guide to Overcoming Fear and Developing Courage posted at DevelopMinds.com Blog, saying,
"How to overcome fear and develop courage for a better life."

Health And Diet

Cory presents Overview Of Yoga. Basics Of Yoga. Eat Healthy, Live Healthy posted at Eating Healthy, saying, "The basics of yoga."

KarenE presents Low Carb Diets posted at at Loss 4 Idiots Review.

Nate McGraw presents Fit-Life Online > Articles > 10 Nutrition Tips posted at Fit-Life Online, saying, "10 Easy Nutrition Tips for Everyone to Follow".

Vegefood presents Spicy Chicken with Green Chillies Vegetarian Culinary Recipes posted at Vegetarian Culinary, saying, "Great vegetarian culinary recipe for spicy chicken with the delicious green chillies. Mmm!"

$Your Budget$

MoneyNing presents 25 Debt Reduction Tips For Your Immediate Action Plan posted at Money Ning, saying, "There's no time to waste. Get your act together and fix your debt right away."

Debbie Ducker presents Your Children and Grandchildren Must Learn to Save Money posted at Ducker Promotion Ezine, saying, "Teach your children how to save money at an early age and you will save them a lifetime of heartache."

Jack Schmidt presents How to Save Money on Your Food Bill posted at NSectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "Saving money on groceries can be one tough task. Let's face it: you have to eat. Food ranks right up there with oxygen, but unlike air, free food is tough to come by... unless you're still living with your folks. If you want to manage to have money left over after a trip to the market, you need to plan exactly how to use what you've got. Some people think budgeting is a real pain in the neck. If you're one of those people, why not just give over? Loosen up... smile more. Let's have some fun with this. After all, you're the one holding your purse strings, right?"

Leave Debt Behind presents Helping Family Change Their Spending Habits posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Condo Blues presents How I Slashed my Electric Bills without Moving into a Yurt posted at Condo Blues, saying, "My goal was to reduce the amount of electricity in my 1500 square foot free standing Condo used for 2008 by 20%. I wanted to do it without alternative energy generators, by keeping of my current non-Energy Star appliances, and as inexpensively as possible. I didn't meet my goal - I beat it. Here's how I did what I did."

Leave Debt Behind presents What is the Envelope Budget Method posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Careers

Katy Unitek presents Boots on the Roof posted at Boots On The Roof, saying,
"Boots on the Roof is the Green Degree training and certification division of Unitek, a long-running private school with a proven track record of certification-based and degree-based education programs in various technical and health care fields. Having successfully partnered with professional organizations nationwide to train tens of thousands of students, Unitek opened the Boots on the Roof division specifically to cater to the immense training demands in the Renewable Energy sector. To get a better grasp of our business, and to learn more about us, you can visit http://www.bootsontheroof.com. We have partnered with other “Green” businesses to spread the word on Boots."

Jack Schmidt presents Here's Your Stress-free Job Hunting Guide posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "Hunting for the perfect job takes time, effort and knowledge. For a painless job search, first consider the following pointers before starting your job hunt".

Rose King presents 100 Great Social Sites to Boost Your Career and Brand posted at JobProfiles.org - Job Descriptions and Online Schools to Start Your Career.

Travel

Sean Reynolds presents European Motorcycle Trip posted at Creativity. What a trip!

America001 presents Visiting Wine Country in Beautiful Traverse City, MI America 001 posted at Traveling In America, saying, "If you happen to be in the Midwest, a nice trip to take is to the wine country in Traverse City, Michigan."

Caterina Christakos presents German Wine Grades - Becoming an Expert posted at Wine Clubs Worldwide.

Jack Schmidt presents There's No Bear Statue On Wall Street posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "You probably know that in terms of market trends, the Bull is the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, and the Bear stands for the lean times."

Jack Schmidt presents Can You Really Travel For Free? posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "Getting away from it all should be a breeze, not a source of tension. You work hard, and you mind your money. Yet somehow there's not much left over for the fun stuff. Hey, even machines need regular maintenance. Have you ever stopped to think that you could get away to a glamorous tropic locale, dance the night away shipboard, or jet to a suave European city without paying a dime? Sure you have! There are ways of doing exactly this - efficiently, morally - and all you need is a little planning and the right kind of footwork. With a little activity, you really could travel for free, or even get paid while doing it."

Jack Schmidt presents Be Roadtrip Ready With These Great Online Tools posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "let me take you on a scenic cruise. Let's say you're planning to take a quick trip, and you're not sure if you should fly or drive. You think driving would be cheaper, but you're just not sure. A 5-hour jaunt could lead you through some unknown territory, and the price of gas could really cut into your hotel budget. Next thing you know, you're on the edge of town with some buzzing neon for a nightlight and a curler-bedecked smoker named Madge handing you a greasy key. Take heart, wary Traveler, and check out the tool below."

$Money & Finance$

CreditCardAssist presents Protecting Seniors Against Credit Card Fraud posted at Credit Card Assist.

Cody Butler presents What Is A Money Market Account And How Does It work? posted at Investment-For-Beginners Blog, saying,
"An introduction to money market accounts, what they are and how they work."

Apply4-credit presents How to Keep Credit Card Charges LowE posted at Apply4-Credit.

Cody Butler presents How Do Mutual Funds work? posted at Investment-For-Beginners Blog, saying, "Article on the basics of Mutual Funds, what they are and how they work."

Debbie Ducker presents Baby Boomer And Retirement Age posted at Ducker Promotion Ezine, saying, "baby boomers and retirement age, money generation tips, instant businesses, budget marketing tips and more..."

Cody Butler presents What Is A Traditional IRA posted at Investment-For-Beginners Blog, saying, "What is a traditional IRA and who is it for?"

Debt Freedom Fighter presents Looking for a Quick Way to Reduce Personal Debt? posted at Discover Debt Freedom!.

Leave Debt Behind presents Quick and Easy Ways Your Teen Can Make Money posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Sylvia Dickens presents How To Live Off The Grid - By Building Solar & Wind Options posted at Product Review in Real Time.

Environment

GrrlScientist presents Meme: My Earth Day Resolution posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, "Frugal living is earth-friendly living. This is a list of Earth Day Resolutions made by a former country girl who lives in one of the biggest cities in the world."

Relationships

Nui Loa presents 67 Cheap Date Ideas for the Recession-Era Romantic posted at Love Hacks.

Other

Jack Schmidt presents 10 Really Fun Things You Can Do Today on the Cheap posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "Personal Finance Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget. Now you can live like a fat cat, even if you're on a moeny diet. Laugh all the way to the bank with Jack Schmidt and SectorMatic Money Journal. It's for you!"

Kerry Fletcher presents City or suburbs posted at Houston Interior Decorating Examiner.

Kerry Fletcher presents How to archive your children's art posted at Houston Interior Decorating Examiner.

Farrar presents Win at fantasy football and all football realated dept posted at Fantasy football.

Jack Schmidt presents Change Is Inevitable - Spending Money Is Optional posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, "SectorMatic Money Site - Personal Finance Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget."

Wise_Bread presents Cost of Rearranging the Furniture - $0. New Living Room - Priceless posted at Wisebread.

Margaret Garcia presents 100 Awesome iPhone Apps to Organize Your School Life posted at Online Bible Colleges.

Jay Pavlina presents Intro to Conscious Homelessness posted at Freedom Artistry, saying, "I was homeless for about three weeks, and I wrote about my experiences."

That concludes the October Edition of The Better Life Carnival. Be sure to stay tuned for upcoming blog carnivals in addition to normal articles found here. You can submit your blog article to the next edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival using our "Submit an entry to “The Better Life Carnival” carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our "Blog Carnival index for “The Better Life Carnival”blog carnival index page.

Photo credit: Venise courtesy of sundstrom.

Technorati tags:

the better life carnival, blog carnival.

Family Life Blog Carnival- September Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:27:00 +0000

Welcome to the September 2009 edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival. We have a variety of topics in this edition, all with the intent of making your family life better. Even if you're a family of one or a couple of with no kids, you're likely to find something useful.

It won't be long till the HolidaySpirit Blog Carnival starts. I plan to run it every other week from around Thanksgiving through right before Christmas. With the idea being to put us all in that "Holiday Spirit" During this time the other blog carnivals run here (The Better Life Carnival, The Carnival of Productivity And GTD, and The Family Life Blog Carnival) will take their Winter Break, appearing again in 2010. I'm still very swamped with submissions (a good situation to be in indeed) so I've published some of the submissions in this edition and hope to have a bigger edition in October. Thank you to everyone that has submitted articles for all of the blog carnivals! I hope that you'll continue to submit articles, read my blog carnivals (others as they meet your interests) as well as continue reading my blog posts. You can also subscribe via email or by RSS Feed so that you don't miss a blog carnival or any of the other posts. If you have ideas for topics or subjects that you'd like to see in future editions feel free to post them in the comments section at the end of this post. If you have any other comments, feel free to leave them as well. You can submit your blog article(s) to the next edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Links to past posts and the dates of future scheduled editions can be found on our blog carnival index page. You can also check out The Better Life Carnival and The Carnival of Productivity And GTD (also appearing at this blog) and look for the HolidaySpirit Blog Carnival (coming soon). Without further adieu, here is the September Edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival....

Vacations And Travel

Billeater presents Enjoying Vacation Without Big Expenses posted at Billeater.

Health

Dietetic boy presents The Advantage That you Will Find From the Many Vegetarian Menus | Vegetarian Culinary Recipes posted at Vegetarian Culinary, saying, "see why its worth to eat vegan and vegetarian food!"

Cooking And Recipes

Myscha Theriault presents Cooking for Kids: A Survival Guide | Wise Bread posted at Wise Bread, saying, "An article on cooking for children within the nuclear, extended and blended family."

Cuisine master presents Indian Vegetarian Gourmet | Vegetarian Culinary Recipes posted at Vegetarian Culinary, saying, "video tutorial showing how to make vegetarian gourmet. reallty nice dish!"

Mangoz presents RAW VEGAN NORI SUSHI ROLL DEMONSTRATION posted at Vegetarian Culinary, saying, "Easy guide on how to make vegan sushi rolls!"

Safety And Security

Chris Morris presents Home Security Cameras - Protect Your Loved Ones posted at Home Security Systems, Home Security Products, Home Alarm Systems, saying, "Home Security Systems, Home Security Products, Home Alarm Systems"

Family And Relationships

Tisha Tolar presents Strengthening The Family Bonds posted at Empowering Mom.

Dr. Alan Singer presents Taking Responsibility Trumps Sibling Rivalry in Biblical Brothers Story by Dr. Alan Singer posted at FamilyThinking.com, saying, "When raising children, sibling rivalry can surely test your patience. But after reviewing the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers, I realized there is much more to the story"

Family Activities

Margaret Garcia presents 100 Fun, Healthy and (Mostly) Free Family Activities posted at Ultrasound Technician Schools.

Mobility

Steve Parkinson presents Mobility Scooters can give you freedom posted at Mobility Scooters Birmingham.

Steve Norris presents Scooter vs Wheelchair Power - by Lala B. | Mobility Scooters Bradford posted at Mobility Scooters Bradford.

Money And Finance

Destroy Debt presents Good Til The Last Drop: Use it Before You Throw it In the Trash posted at Destroy Debt.

Leave Debt Behind presents Are Pay As You Go Cell Phones Worth It? posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Leave Debt Behind presents Are You Responsible for Your Deceased Parents Debt? posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Debt Freedom Fighter presents Simple and Easy Methods to Reduce Your Debt Significantly posted at Discover Debt Freedom!.

Other

Ben presents Eight Ways to Beat Bad Customer Service posted at Money Smart Life.

Mikkal Travvis presents How To Start An Organic Garden posted at Organic Health.

Margaret Garcia presents Top 100 Blogs on Christian Families posted at Becoming A Radiologist. Note: it isn't the policy here to endorse a specific religion, for those wishing to live a Christian lifestyle, there might be some nice blogs to check out and think about adding to your reading list. Also, being open to what people of different faiths have to say can sometimes be a valuable experience (you never know where and when you'll learn something valuable).

Picture credit: A drawing by my daughter Anna currently hanging near our front doorway.

Technorati tags:

the family life, blog carnival.

2009 Frankfurt Autoshow

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:30:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of visiting the IAA 2009 (Frankfurt Autoshow) last week. The show runs through September 27th (visit the IAA website for details), if you'll be in the Frankfurt, Germany area in this time, it is worth a look. Even with lots of bad news in the auto industry for what seems like an eternity now, the show was a ray of hope with lots of exhibitors, some interesting concept vehicles, and an overall view the future that seems brighter than today's gloomy days. I took over 800 pictures, many of which I've uploaded to Flickr, and put them in set 1 and set 2.

BB1 concept from Peugeot is an electric vehicle.

Environmentally Friendly

Being green and environmentally friendly was a theme that was seen throughout the auto show. Most major manufacturers (and some minor ones too) seemed to have some kind of offering that was electric, hybrid, low emissions, or something that is a departure from the past. Toyota is on its third generation of the Prius (look for picture further down in this post) and they had a hybrid concept on display as well. Renault had several concepts on display including the Twizy Z.E. (Zero Emission) Concept pictured at the top of this post. Peugeot's BB1 concept is an electric vehicle (displayed further down). It is about the size of a Smart and can fit four. You might not want to take it on a long road trip, but would be handy for driving around cities where parking is hard to find. Fisker Automotive bills itself as the "World's First Luxury Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle". With a range of 480 kilometers between gas and electric power, you can actually drive somewhere. If you drive short distances their website contends that it drive less than 50 miles a day that it would be possible to average 100 mpg per year. The Karma S (displayed below as well as a charging unit immediately below it) is a very attractive car, not what you think of when you think of a hybrid. Smart had a few electric cars on display (I've posted one getting charged up below). Even Porsche is offering a hybrid version of its big Cayenne SUV (I've posted pictures of it at Flickr)!

Hybrid Karma from Fisker proves that hybrids don't have to be dull!

Here's a charing unit from Fisker

A plugged in Smart

The current Toyota Prius hybrid

A hybrid concept from Toyota

Customization: Make Your Vehicle Very Unique

Another trend that I couldn't help but notice this year was a wide variety of companies that do customization and some specialty manufactures. Weismann has several luxurious sports cars on display including the black M5F (shown below), which I thought could have been the batmobile! Brabus does all kinds of customization from Smarts to vans and everything in between. I was told that they recently sold a Smart for nearly 70,000 euros! I've displayed a couple of pictures of one of the Smarts that they had on display.
Mansory does high-end customization and had several cars on display including a pink Bentley (shown further down). I was told that there was a very limited production of the pink Bentleys and all of them were sold. Hamann had several vehicles of their high-end customizations on display (I've posted several pictures of them at Flickr).

The M5F from Weismann looks like it could be the batmobile

A highly customized Smart from Brabus

This interior is a lot more luxurious than your normal Smart!

Would you want to buy a pink Bentley?

Opel Lives

Here in the Frankfurt, Germany area there has been a lot of talk about Opel, with it's headquarters in Rüsselsheim it is a big part of the local economy, its future has been a topic of the local news very often in the last several months. Opel has been a big part of GM's European operations. Its car sales have been actually been pretty good the last couple of years. They introduced the Insignia, which received several automotive awards and accolades last year. I was looking forward to seeing the new Opel Astra and I wasn't disappointed. The Astra carries on much of what has been done with the Insigna but on a slightly smaller scale. While we don't know if and how the whole Magna thing will play out, Opel has another winner with the Astra (shown below).

The new Opel Astra

GM, other than what was displayed for Opel and Saab, didn't have too much on display. They had a few Chevys but based on a strategic move a few years ago, Chevys in much of the world aren't American Chevys but more like their Koren cousins (I've posted some of these pictures at Flickr). Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep all had some vehicles on display. Geiger Cars based out of Munich, sells American vehicles. They had several vehicles on display throughout the autoshow (including the Hummer H2 displayed below, with a price tag of over 170,000 euros!) Geiger had Corvettes, Mustangs, a Camaro, a Challenger, a couple of H2s and some others.

Hummer H2

Motorcycles Have A Strong Presence at the IAA

The Frankfurt Autoshow had a large representation of motorcycles. There were quite a few Harley Davisons on display (I've posted a picture of "Captain America" below). There were a few other displays including some three-wheels, atvs, and some real nice choppers (I've posted several more motorcycle pictures at Flickr).

Doesn't "Captain America" from Harley Davison make you want to go for a ride?

Mini Is Having a Birthday

Mini is celebrating its 50th birthday in grand style. They have an early Mini on display (posted at Flickr) and two nice concepts (both pictured below). In addition, they had several Minis with various customizations done (I've posted several pictures of the various Minis at Flickr).

One of two Mini concepts on display at the show

The second Mini concept on display at the show

Attention to Set Design

While the vehicles are the "stars" of all the autoshows, there has been more and more significance paid by the manufacturers over the years to sets and how their vehicles are displayed. I've seen some pretty impressive showcases in the past and there have been some pretty grand entrances by some of the vehicles being displayed. This year I'd give a best set award to Fiat for its colorful city background, that has a nice appearance as though colored by young children, helping to provide Fiat with a family feeling (a picture of part of Fiat set is shown below). Also, in the set area I was able to see some people painting the wall behind Mercedes vehicles displayed on the second floor of their exhibit (pictures of this have been posted at Flickr).

Part of the backdrop in the Fiat display

Nostalgia

There was a certain feeling of nostalgia at the Autoshow. Mercedes have some of its proud history on display as well as some of their past Smart brand history. Then there is the older Mini mentioned above. Opel had an old Cadet on display. I saw a really nice Coca Cola van and trailor that were probably going to be some kind of concession stand but that wasn't open to the public yet (pictured below).

Have a Coke and a smile (maybe a trip down memory lane as well)

Some Other Interesting Cars

Audi's R8 5.2 liter quattro looks like it could have been driven by the Terminator in T2 (Pictured below). Mercedez and AMG displayed the new SLS. There is something special about a Mercedez with gull-wing doors. Rolls Royce, Maybach, Jaguar, BMW and Land Rover all had some nice displays (you can find several pictures posted at Flickr).

The R8 5.2 liter quattro from Audi

The New SLS from Mercedes and AMG

I really had a blast at the show. There are some really interesting prototypes being displayed. The use of hybrids and customization makes you think that the auto manufacturers are looking towards the future. If you get a chance to check it out I think that you'll find it interesting. Be sure to check out the pictures that I've posted at Flicker (set 1 and set 2) it might take you a few minutes but it is the next best thing to being there! You can read about Going Green at the Detroit Autoshow here. If you liked this post, why not subscribe via your RSS reader or via email? You can also find me at Twitter, Facebook, StumbpleUpon, Flickr, and various other places online. Feel free to check out my other blog.

August 2009 Edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Welcome to the August 2009 edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival. We have a variety of topics in this edition, all with the intent of making your family life better. Even if you're a family of one or a couple of with no kids, you're likely to find something useful.

Several months ago I decided to run three different blog carnivals (The Better Life Carnival, The Carnival of Productivity And GTD, and The Family Life Blog Carnival) with the HolidaySpirit Blog Carnival being run towards the end of the year. I started with an very aggressive schedule that wasn't realistic and needed to be adjusted (as those things tend to happen) and some other life events came along that influenced me to move some publication dates. This is a smaller edition than I would have planned but I was determined to get an edition out in August. With nearly 1000 submissions I just don't have the bandwidth to review them all in time for this edition. I am really happy to see that the submissions have grown for all the blog carnivals that I run and have been surprised to see that the HolidaySpirit Blog Carnival continues to get regular submission even though the next edition wasn't scheduled until November! I do like blog carnivals for a variety of reasons including the exposure to varying ideas, opinions, authors, and writing styles and the exposure that it can bring to the writers, so I hope that you'll continue to submit articles, read my blog carnivals (others as they meet your interests) as well as continue reading my blogs. You can also subscribe via email or by RSS Feed so that you don't miss a blog carnival or other post. If you have ideas for topics or subjects that you'd like to see in future editions feel free to post them in the comments section at the end of this post. If you have any other comments, feel free to leave them as well. You can submit your blog article(s) to the next edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Links to past posts and the dates of future scheduled editions can be found on our blog carnival index page. So without further adieu, here is the August Edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival....

Family & Parenting

Debbie Dragon presents US Moms Guiltier Than Moms in France posted at Empowering Mom.

Matthew Paulson presents Childs Play Keeping Your Kids Safe posted at American Consumer News. Some toy hazards to keep your eyes open for.

School Problems

Concerning Kids presents How To Handle A School Yard Bully posted at Concerning Kids. Are you concerned that your child is being bullied or maybe even hurting other kids at school? Here are some things to consider in this post.

Saving For College

Savings Toolbox presents The UnTruths About Saving For College posted at Savings Toolbox. Here are some things to consider about saving for your children's college education.

Health

Concerning Kids presents Tips For Parents Of Picky Eaters | Concerning Kids posted at Concerning Kids. I'm a picky eater myself, so here is some good advice for parents with one ore more kids that are picky eaters!

Goals & Self-development

Deposit Accounts presents A Wish is a Goal Unfulfilled posted at Deposit Accounts. Why wish, why not set a goal?

Travel

mom & dad presents Disney Cruise, Take Two posted at raising4boys.com.

Safety

Professor presents The Last Zebra posted at Professor of Protection. Parents can use this safety tip to keep kids close in crowds.

Money & Finance

KCLau presents Save money the stupid way posted at KCLau's Money Tips, saying, "Simple ways to save money".

Leave Debt Behind presents Helping Family Change Their Spending Habits posted at Leave Debt Behind. Advice on how to change your family's spending habits.

Ben presents Alternative Minimum Tax and Federal Income Tax Withholding Changes posted at Money Smart Life.

Savings Toolbox presents Money Saving Tips from the Grocer posted at Savings Toolbox. Some tips to save you some money at the grocery store.

Leave Debt Behind presents Facts About Debt Consolidation Loans posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Other

nickel presents Save on Healthcare: Cheap Immunizations at the Health Department posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Photo credit: Gosling... courtesy of 13dede.

Technorati tags:

the family life, blog carnival.

2000 Listeners on Blip.fm

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:33:00 +0000

I recently paced 2,000 listeners at Blip.fm and thought that I'd take a moment or two to thank the DJ/listeners that helped me get there.

While my twitter numbers fluctuate and I'll see a lot of adds and drops shortly afterwards (I attribute this to the get 5 million followers on Twitter in one week type of programs that are all over the place at the moment) my listeners @Blip.fm have consistently grown. I've enjoyed Blip.fm since joining in February this year. I did an 80's Party and have written about Having Fun On Blip.fm between my blogs. I've played a bunch of different themed music from time to time including a tribute to the 40th Anniversary of the Moonwalk, Michael Jackson's death, a tribute the electric guitar creator Les Paul featuring some guitar greats, and many other themes. Last weekend I went to Dresden, Erfurt, Weimar, and Meissen and I created a couple of slideshows of my pictures but didn't post the slideshows to Youtube because of concerns that the music or the slideshows might get yanked, but I thought that I'd blip the songs played with the slide shows so you can get an idea of what the slideshows look and sound like. Look for a post about the trip and more information about this Blip event at the DC Heron Family Blog.

I want to thank all those people that have decided to become listeners and all those who have rebipped me or given me props. Twitter has its #followfriday, so here are some of my listeners/my favorite djs that you might want to check out and think about adding.

I discovered Dave_Malby tweeting his blips on twitter. He had a lot of followers on twitter and he has a lot of listeners on Blip.fm. BarbieRay is a huge Stevie Ray Vaughn and blues fan. Of course, 1980s, likes to blip a lot of 80's songs. BLUESBOOGIE is another blues fan. DeAnn is a big Rolling Stones fan. Here are some other Blip DJs that I've had a lot of interaction with over the past few months ugogirl, Unfinishedperson1, Lysander, TopicsZ4. realtyman, sweetlilmzmia, ICEGIRL152, polarkat, sandraew, tygerbaby, McBud, Rella, DORKVADER, redskyy, UncleBallcoach, crispast, and MusicIsMySou l. There are lots of great other DJs on Blip.fm.

I generally will become a listener of anyone that is listening to me. I receive notifications when I have new listeners so I try to check out everyone and if you've blipped some music that I like (and I like a lot of music) I'll become a listener of yours. There are some people that join and don't ever blip anything, so I generally don't add those people. I'm not able to go to Blip everyday, but I'm there pretty often.

Thank you to everyone that helped me reach 2,000 listeners. I might not ever reach the stratosphere status of some of the top blippers but it is nice to see that I reached this milestone. Hope to meet you at Blip.fm.

Photo credit: Burst Collage 5 courtesy of ba1969.

August Edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:57:00 +0000

Welcome to the August 2009 edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. This carnival, along with the other two blog carnivals that I periodically run, have been delayed a few times in the last few months, my apologies for this but various things in my life prevented me from having the time necessary to publish them with my past regularity. At the moment, I still have a lot of other things going that keep me from spending more time blogging than I'd like, but I wanted to get another edition out. There have been some really great submissions and I really wanted to share them with you without too much more delay. If you have any suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in future editions, feel free to leave a comment. If you have a post that you'd like to submit, please do so via the submission from link. Thank you to everyone that submitted posts! Remember that by subscribing via your RSS reader or via email, that you won't miss the next blog carnival hosted here and you'll know when new material has been posted. Enjoy.

Education

John presents Is an Online Degree for You? The Pros and Cons of Online Classes posted at Ace Online Schools.

PicktheBrain presents 20+ Must Read Education Technology Blogs for Teachers, Students, and e-Learners posted at Online Schools.

Relax presents How to learn new software posted at The Wise Curve, saying "Learning new software can be challenging, depending on how steep the learning curve is"

Alvina Lopez presents 100 Free Ivy-League Courses for Aspiring CEOs posted at Clear View Education Blog.

Nancy Miller presents Top 25 Mining Engineering Blogs posted at Online Engineering Degree.

JoeDale presents Davenport University Online now offers Online Degrees posted at Online Accelerated Colleges, saying "Davenport University offers accredited, accelerated degree programs that are completed in 7 week terms and have 6 convenient start times per year. Earn a degree in a cutting-edge field without ever leaving the comfort of your own home."

Dan Miller presents Student Loan posted at Student Consolidation, saying "Student loan consolidation is a great way to get a lower interest rate, as a reputable consolidation company will buy each loan off of the original lenders, lump it into one loan and offer lower interest and even deferment plans. Consolidate student loans to get them paid off more quickly with financial advice from a guidance counselor in this free video on student loans"

Self-Improvement And Productivity

Broderick Allen presents The Different Areas of Life Support Each Other posted at Broderick Allen - Personal Growth and Enjoying Life's Journey.

Lionel Ebrahim presents Overwhelmed By Real Life Problems posted at lionel-ebrahim.com.

Daryl Furuyama presents How to Hack Behaviors posted at WhiteHatBlackBox.com.

Paul Dickinson presents 5 Bloggers give their top 3 tips on Productivitity posted at Live Without Work.

GeekMBA360 presents You must be a lazy man if it takes you ten hours to do a day?s work posted at GeekMBA360.

MoneyNing presents A Little Post on Leverage posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

Matt Goldenberg presents Avoid Burnout, Stay Energized, Harness the Power of The Recharge! posted at Life of Matt.

Joshua Seth presents Time Management Tips posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying "Before I give you these three powerful time management tips, have you thought about why people need to manage their time effectively in the first place? Why can’t we just get everything done that we need to do on a daily basis instead of letting things pile up and get out of control?"

g presents A Housewife on Steroids « Manely Montana posted at Manely Montana, saying "a day in the life of an innkeeper"

Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Terrific Productivity Tools for the Bored or Unemployed posted at Online College.org.

Anne Siomne presents 100 Essential Web Tools for Any Side Business posted at Management Degree.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Book Announcement: The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness posted at SharpBrains, saying "While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few understand what “it” means, or how to properly “use it” in order to maintain brain function and fitness. Here's the story on how my interest turned into a blog and now a book!"

Travis presents Getting Stuck in Negative Patterns posted at Personal Web Guide, saying "Nothing can shut down productivity faster than being stuck in a monotonous routine"

Flea presents Simplify For Less Stress posted at Be A Survivor.

Broderick Allen presents Overwhelmed? posted at Personal Growth From the Bottom Up.

Stephen Martile presents How To Set The Right Goals posted at FreedomEducation.ca by Stephen Martile, saying "I think goal setting is one of the more important elements of personal growth. If you’re going to set goals, you want to make sure they are the “right” goals. When I say the “right” goals I don’t mean that I’m right and you’re wrong. There is no right and wrong, there is only what works and what doesn’t work. You want to set goals that work."

Craig Harper presents Taking Back Your Personal Power (Part 1) posted at Life Coach - Craig Harper, saying "Perhaps you feel like you’re trapped in some kind of on-going poker game where you’re never dealt any decent cards. As a result you feel like you have no real power or leverage… just the occasional bluff."

Randy Cantrell presents Effort & Focus (And Their Enemies) posted at Bula! Life Is Good. Note: the first link ( Effort & Focus (And Their Enemies)) is to a video hosted outside of the blog, the link submitted gave me a 404 error message so I replaced it with the first one mentioned here, the video is also viewable within the blog mentioned in the second link (Bula! Life Is Good).

Scientific Living presents Fearlessness posted at Scientific Living.

Mindi Lyons presents Trashing Your Future posted at Mindi Lyons Life Makeover Blog.

Fitz Villafuerte presents How To Stop Being Lazy posted at Ready To Be Rich, saying "Feeling lazy to work? Here are some tips on how to combat laziness and become more productive."

OPTED Magazine presents Identify high energy times for maximum productivity posted at OPTED Magazine.

Ralph Jean-Paul presents A Bugs Life: Applying the Success Principles of Ants posted at Potential 2 Success, saying " Even though ants are responsible for so many tasks, they always seem to accomplish everything they set out to do. Because of their success principles, if ants were human, they would be the most successful group of people on the planet. Learn their productivity habits and apply them to your own life."

The Smarter Wallet presents Develop Skills For Managing Your Life So You Can Save Money posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Investment Tools, Software and Resources You Can Get For Free posted at The Digerati Life, saying "Improve your investing efforts with these tools!"

Managing Email

Celes presents 9 Steps To Email Management posted at Embrace Living - Personal Development Blog, saying "Is managing your emails killing your productivity? Here are 9 easy steps you can use to manage your emails and increase your productivity."

Simple Llama presents Consolidate labels in Gmail posted at Simple Llama, saying "Gmail is the best online email service. Don't let clutter overrun it!"

Organizing

Tamlyn presents 3 simple steps: clear out your wardrobe posted at Simply Blissful.

Twitter

Jacques presents Twitter Tips And Abbreviations posted at Monkeyprofit.

Jacques presents Making Money On Twitter posted at Monkeyprofit.

Alvina Lopez presents 100 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow and Learn From on Twitter posted at Associate Degree Blog.

Career

nissim ziv presents How to Decide on a Career? How to Choose a Career Path? posted at Job Interview & Career Guide, saying "This article covers the main aspects you should take in mind for deciding on your career and also provides examples on how to choose your career path."

Nissim ziv presents Preparing for a Job Interview – Tips for Job Interviews posted at Job Interview Guide, saying "Each of us have experienced this question sometime or the other in our lives – how to prepare for a job interview? Whether we are novices or even experienced employees, there come this particular job opportunity, and therefore an interview, that is quite different and lucrative than other job offers. For that reason, make sure you are ready and well prepared for the interview."

nissim ziv presents What to say in an interview & What not to say in an interview posted at Job Interview Guide, saying "Interviews are short, crisp, and very important part of your lifetime. A good interview can make your career and a bad interview can either offer you progress at the best and seriously hamper your progress at worst."

MoneyNing presents Side Hustle, Self Employed, Entrepreneurship posted at Money Ning, saying "There's really not many overnight success. Work hard and take it one step at a time!"

Carl Bond presents Want to Get a Job? Be willing to Work. posted at First Job Blog.

Other

Ruoall Chapman presents Online Spyware Removal posted at Online Spyware Removal.

Nissim ziv presents How to start eBay business from scratch posted at eBay Business Guide, saying "Starting an eBay business requires commerce planning and handling many business aspects. This article provides essential list of do’s for those who want to learn how to start an eBay business from scratch."

Ben presents Eight Ways to Beat Bad Customer Service posted at Money Smart Life.

EE presents 5 Things I’ve Learnt About Making Money on the Internet posted at Web Career Girl, saying "A few important lessons learnt on my road to making money online through writing and blogging."

Matthew Paulson presents A Resource for Getting Debt Free posted at American Consumer News.

Leave Debt Behind presents Quick and Easy Ways Your Teen Can Make Money posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Apply4-credit presents Are Credit Card Protection Plans Worth the Money? posted at Apply4-Credit.com.

GP presents Murphy’s Visit is Just Part of Life « Manely Montana posted at Manely Montana.

Erick Simpson presents MSP University Selected as Strategic Training Partner for HTG Groups posted at Managed Services Blog.

Craig Fenton presents Next To Your Dog This Powerful Tool For Writing And Speaking Can Be Priceless! posted at Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Starship Take Me To A Circus Tent New book by Craig Fenton, saying "Craig Fenton is the creator of the ultimate speaking and writing course with written, audio, email, and phone coaching. He is the author of books on the Jefferson Airplane/Starship. Craig lectures with a one time member of the Greatful Dead and a legendary American Rock & Roll Photographer (http://www.learnpublicspeakingskills.com)

Rick Foreman presents The Virtue of Laziness posted at Waiting for the Singularity.

Caterina Christakos presents USA Telephone Directory ? How to Find Anyone in the US posted at People Finder Pro.

Jacques Groenewald presents Make Easy Money On Ebay posted at Monkeyprofit.

Jacques presents Millionare Mindset- How to think like a millionare posted at Monkeyprofit, saying "A guide to understanding how you should think if you wish to become a millionare and prosper in life"

Ruoall Chapman presents Everything you need to know about how to Make Online Beats posted at Make Online Beats. Note: beats mentioned in thes title of this article is referring to making music online.

Joshua Seth presents Book Writing and Self Publishing Teleseminar posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying "This month’s teleseminar training on how to write and self publish your book in a month went great. Lots of positive feedback on the content and lots of eyes opened as to just how easy and fun this whole process can be when you understand how it really works."

Joshua Seth presents How to outline your book posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying "Sometimes you just need a little push to get started. That’s what I’ve found with my coaching clients in the “Your Book In A Month” program. Every single one of them had wanted to write a book for years but never knew how to get started. Now that they have, they’re flying through the process with relative ease."

Name SJ presents Ruling Number 7 - Numerology - Your Ruling Number posted at Free Horoscopes, saying "What does it mean if you were born on the 7th, 16th, or 25th of the month?"

Mary young presents Environment Friendly DVD Cases: The Greening of Music and Film posted at Security DVD Cases.

Deborah davis presents Thing You Should Know About the Modern Ways to Keep Your Store Safe posted at Anti theft security systems.

Jacques presents Effective Email Marketing posted at Monkeyprofit, saying "Effective email marketing tips and tricks to increase conversion and email subscribers"

Edan presents Park City Ski Resorts posted at Park City Condo Lodging, saying "Find out all about Ski Resorts in beautiful Park City, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics."

Rod Presnell presents Best Fishing Net Born Of Frustration posted at mybasslasso.com, saying "Are you tired of reaching for a fishing net and finding it entangled in hooks, line, and other things found in your boat? You are not the only one, and now there is a solution to this fish-losing, fun-ending problem. Rod Presnell, of Tallahassee, Florida has developed a product that solves the issue."

Mikkal Travvis presents Ron Paul And The Federal Reserve posted at The Truth.

That concludes the August edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. You can submit your blog article to the next edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD using our "Submit an entry to “The Carnival of Productivity And GTD” submission form". Links to past editions, as well as the current scheduling of future editions can be found on our The Carnival of Productivity And GTD index page. Thank you to everyone that submitted articles for this edition! If you have any topics that you'd like to see covered in a future edition, or any feedback in general, feel free to leave a comment. Thank you.

Photo credit: Jump for Joy courtesy of susiet.

Technorati tags:

the carnival of productivity and gtd, blog carnival.

Don't Overlook The Train In Your Summer Travel Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:03:00 +0000

Have you already made your Summer Travel Plans? If you haven't don't overlook the possibility of using trains to get there.

With wife and daughter getting ready to embark upon a trip to Zürich to visit friends, my wife was thinking about driving from Frankfurt to Zürich and hadn't thought about the other possibilities. She jokingly said that they could take the train and I said why not. The logic had been that for one person the train might be cheaper than driving by car but for a trip with multiple people, going by car was bound to be the cheaper way to go, especially after you buy all the tickets for everyone.

Since we're now in the middle of Summer Vacation in our region of Germany, many other families are on vacation and so the various autobahns are busier with people going here and there and what was going to be a simple simple leisurely drive could now turn in to a traffic nightmare where you're parked on the autobahn wondering when you'll be able to drive a few feet, let alone actually get there. Then there comes the next course of how much longer till we get there. All the fun can quickly disappear on such a drive. This was also forgetting that while I have often enjoyed some of the longer car trips that I've taken, my wife isn't very fond of them. I can't blame her. She's joked about it being an American thing, I don't know maybe it is. I do remember coming back from a trip to Austria that took us about four hours longer than it should have due to holiday traffic that I now try not to underestimate it.

Another factor that is sometimes overlooked in the planning/calculations is the wear and tear on your car. For my wife she was thinking that the cost of the trip would have been a couple of tanks of gas there and a couple more on the way back, end of story. Since our cars are getting older, we need to consider the wear and tear on our vehicles. Also, if your someone that is leasing a vehicle with definite mileage restrictions, that trip might very well cost you more than the price of the gas to get there and back.

In the U.S. I didn't travel by train very often, but since moving to Germany I've traveled in them from time to time, taking one daily to downtown Frankfurt for almost a year. While some trains are nicer than others, they're a definite means of getting places. A few years ago I did two different train trips in Switzerland and found that that the Swiss take pride in their trains and they can be very enjoyable. The scenery can take your breath away. In one one trip we went from Zürich to Jungfraujoch- The Top of Europe (the highest point in Europe that you can get to by train) and you go by this one church from three different points of elevation, if a friend hadn't told us about it, I might have thought that I was seeing things. Once you're at the top, you can go into a glacier and be warned it is very cold, even in the Summer (burrrr!). To contrast this trip, we went to Lugano, which borders Italy, so the temperature is more tropical. Both trips were a blast by train and while driving them would most likely not taken us along the same path anyways, the driver can't really enjoy the scenery.

The trains oftentimes offer family packages or other promotions, so it might just be cheaper than you think to go by train. My wife looked online and found that the price was about the same as she had figured for gas, so she booked a couple of train tickets. I'm sure that our daughter will enjoy the trip. Hopefully you can use the train for some of your Summer travels. I hope that you all are able to have a happy and safe Summer vacation.

Photocredit: Lakeside Retreat courtesy of davidpound.Technorati Tags: travel, europe, Italy, Switzerland, Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe, Lugano

Happy Birthday, America

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:51:00 +0000

As America celebrates it birthday, I've given some thought to the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address and the impact that they've had on Democracy throughout the world and on history.

Within the Declaration of Independence you'll find the following text...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." The text used here can be found in Declaration of Independence at the ushistory.org website.

Within the Constitution it is introduced with "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The text noted here can be found within the Constitution at the house.gov website.

In his famous speech at Gettysburg, President Lincoln concluded "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The text note here can be found in Gettysburg Address at historyplace website.

A quick survey of some of Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address do not expressly mention corporations and in fact the development of the modern corporation ocured much later than these documents, although you could argue that corporations have existed prior to the founding of America and did wield some influence, but certainly not the influence that they've wielded since the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution.

I find it hard to believe that the great men that founded and forged America and died for her very existence, would be happy with CEOs making $42 million in a year while planning to layoff thousands of workers and moving more and more work to cheaper labor market where workers have little protections and it is easier to fire them. To these men I didn't believe that "the people" were corporations but the overall population of America. The large corporations and their leaders have become modern day aristocracy, controlling and influencing much of what happens in American government (as well as governments around the world). Much like colonial America overthrew British aristocracy, it is time to overthrow our American aristocracy. Because corporations have grown beyond the reach of the various governments around the world, it is time for cooperation amongst the various world governments to reign them back in. The Declaration of Independence lays the ground work for changing governments when they don't server the needs of the people any longer, by logical extension we should apply this to corporations that are looking after "maximizing shareholder value" all else be damned.

Capitalism and Communism are at opposite ends of the economic spectrum and can be seen as ying and yang. When much of the world headed down the road to Communism, the pendulum shifted back towards Capitalism. At the moment the pendulum has shifted too much in the direction of Capitalism and forces will eventually swing things in the other direction as the focus of various social issues will move things that way. Debates are being held about health care, retirement benefits, and so on. People will eventually realize that there are some basic benefits that if not provided by employers, can't be paid by the employees (because they don't have the needed extra money to fund such things) and therefore will need to be provided by the government. It should be noted that Health Care and Retirement are complicated items that require more discussion and explanation that I can give them at this point, maybe I can go further into them at a different time.

I'm not arguing that corporations shouldn't exist, but that corporate laws need to be revised to make them more responsible. Corporations should have a feeling of responsibility to the communities that they do business in. While this should be common sense, it seems to be often forgotten. Most businesses work hard to develop some sort of brand image through advertising, marketing, and so on, but by doing harm to the communities that they do business, they can do harm to their brand image. The people in the communities that have been harmed by these companies can and should start publicly boycotting goods and services of these companies and make the companies aware of why they're doing so.

Corporations should have a feeling of responsibility to their employees. Employees are typically one of the greatest resources that they have, but now a days management keeps trying to eliminate benefits, move jobs to cheap labor countries where the employees are easier to fire, and in general demoralize and demotivate the employees. While employees don't need to be given everything under the sun, most of them would like to earn a decent wage with some sense of security that their jobs will be there next year. Employees know their companies products and services, have lots of idea about how they can be improved, and even how sales could be increased, and possibly ideas about getting into new market areas where additional profit could be made. Employees can give management a sort of sanity check on ideas, policies, and so that should be discussed further before being implemented, but these need to happen in an environment where employees are respected, not loathed.

The tenet of maximizing shareholder value needs to be reviewed as well as compensation that top executives receive. When someone starts a company, most people will do so for a variety of reasons, but most people want to see their company exist for the long-run, they're willing to invest their own blood, sweat, and tears to grow their companies and are willing to make investments in programs that shareholders might view as costly and not providing return quickly enough. Many of the IPOs (Initial Public Offering) that have gone public are on companies that have already made a name for themselves, but how many of the people that got in on the IPO would have invested any money into the company at initial start up, when the risk was a lot higher, probably not. The point here is that a mechanism needs to be in place where the long-term health and viability of companies is looked after. Would companies be so willing to off-shore so many jobs if they knew that there'd be a public backlash in a few years with irerupuble damage done to their company image, possibly even making the company's position weak and ripe for takeover or failure? Executives are rewarded for driving up the share price, but this is so often a game today. Stock prices can and often are manipulated, so that executives get their bonuses and Wall Street rewards them for cutting jobs. Since most executives don't plan on staying at their current jobs for the long term, they have a short time horizon and aren't concerned so much about the long term health and viability of the company, in fact many exectutives receive bonuses if they "sell" their company. So they can play some games to get the stock price up, sell the company, get their bonus and leave with a nice "golden handshake". One departing CEO from a company received $50 million for "selling" his company to another and leaving by the end of last year. This same CEO was only CEO for a year, if that.

Revolution did happen in America in 1776 and can happen again. If enough people lose their jobs and aren't able to find good ones to replace them and enough people lose their homes, companies doing business in America (and since America is the biggest economy in the world, this is a lot of companies) should worry. Companies need to see the writing on the wall and make the necessary changes before changes are forced on them.

Photo credit: American Pinwheel courtesy of reznor70.

Your Support Needed!

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:35:00 +0000

I just wanted to do a post to show that I'm still alive. I've been very busy on the work front and haven't had time to do any posts. I hope that this will change soon but I don't have line of sight at the moment.

I did want to take a few minutes to tell you about some friends of mine that need your help. EDS (Electronic Data Systems) was bought by HP (Hewlett Packard) last year. HP has planned to cut over 30,000 people around the world. Now what makes this so important is that HP (nor EDS) is not a company struggling for its very existence (unlike some notable companies of late) but a very profitable one with billions earned in the last quarters. At the same time six top executives earned over $142 million usd last year and saw an average increase in compensation between 2007 and 2008 of 114%. In Germany every third person is planned to lose their job. How can it be that we as a society continue to let companies off-shore jobs like crazy without any regard for the employees that they already have? Many of our big corporations have gotten caught up in "maximizing share holder value" and executive bonuses and forgotten that they have obligations to the communities in which they do business, to their employees, and to the world in general.

I have to think that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and other founding fathers of America's past would be outraged at the rise of global corporations that are beyond the law because they can afford to move from one country to another at will and don't have to show the responsibility that your normal citizens and taxpayers have too. They also have so many lobyists on their payroll that their voice is heard louder than normal citizens around the world. Corporate laws were written by people and can be changed, we need to do so.

The EDSers held a protest at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange yesterday that was covered by at least two German television networks. The audio is in German but you get the general idea about how big the action was.

They delivered a letter to the Frankfurt Consulate to President Obama asking for his help. The audio is German but you can see the coverage and get an idea of what is going on.

Here is a letter from the son of a striking employee to HP CEO Mark Hurd. The audio is in German but has subtitles that you can easily follow along with.

What Can I Do?

Let your politicians and leaders know that you won't accept this kind of behavior any longer
Let HP know that you will consider the behavior and concern for employees in your personal and business purchases
Let the people that you do business with know about the situation and encourage them to get involved
Join them online in their social media campaign (links follow later)

Striking employees at EDS OS in Germany are wagging a social media campaign to bring awareness to their situation and convince HP to cut all the crazy job cuts and act more responsibly...

Their homepage can be found at http://www.edsser.de
There over 50 videos on YouTube and there is a chanel that you can subscribe to.
There is a Facebook group called "EDS Employees Say Yes To HP, But For Us All"
There is a webcam that is broadcasting from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm(Central European Time)daily on strike days
They're on Twitter
They're on MySpace
They're on Digg
They're on Delicious
They're on StumbledUpon
They're on Flickr
They're on Mashable

Here are some articles that you might want to read:

href="http://www.damiansaunders.net/2009/02/26/commentary/hp-pay-cuts-an-unfair-act-of-economic-opportunism-and-greed/">HP Pay Cuts – an unfair act of economic opportunism and greed Note there are over 1000 comments on this article!HP contributes another 6000 unemployed people to the global recession!
Too much: Have You 'Hurd'? Greed Still Living Large
Mercury News: Are layoffs wrong? We should at least be asking the question
Wikipedia: HP Acquistions
Toppling Corporate Aristocracy

I do hope that you'll help my friends as well as the other people that are woried about their jobs being shipped off to the next cheap labor market. Consumers and taxpayers do have power, maybe not individually but you would be surprised what one person can do and a group starts with one person.

Changing Corporate Royalty

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:52:00 +0000

In the 90’s management realized it was more profitable to screw the employees than to sell more product- Scott Adams ”The Joy of Work”

Employee happiness and the company’s stock price are inversely related- Scott Adams “The Joy of Work”

I don’t know about you but I’m tired of today’s heartless multinational/global corporations that don’t seem to care about anything other than generating profit that is largely unsustainable and unrealistic. Companies seem to be running on Dilbert logic and common sense seems to have been thrown out the door with the bathwater. In an era where General Motors and its one-time subsidiaries are taking drastic actions in their fight for their very survival, we have other companies laying off workers (and moving the work to cheaper off-shore locations) when they’re making decent profits and it isn’t necessary for the company’s survival, but only to make profit look better this quarter. The larger the companies get, the less innovative they become and the more focused they get on gobbling up competition.

Remember back when the Berlin Wall and communism fell? I was probably naive back then to think that the world had evolved into a better place. While I never really thought that one of the two super powers would push the “button”, it was a big relief to know that the U.S.S.R was no longer trying to “bury” us. The euphoria of the demise of Communism (Soviet style anyways) has given way to panic induced by globalization and the quest for profit at any cost and a quest to “maximize shareholder value” no matter the cost and long term ramifications and Wall Street speculation has shown that it needs more regulation or at least regulators that are doing their “jobs”.

For a while now I have felt that there is more to life than the functional economic terms that we’re all labeled with. After all, don’t we all feel that we’re more than “consumers”, “workers”, and “tax payers”? Don’t we all want to be more than “users”? Before drug use permeated our society, being a “dealer” wasn’t a bad thing. People could argue that Communism as practiced by the Soviets and Chinese was not what Marx had in mind, but Communism minimizes the role of capital and without people willing to take a chance and invest their capital in the hopes of being rewarded for their investment, many of the things that we’ve taken for granted over the years might not have come to fruition (or would they?) But Capitalism tends to belittle the contribution of the “worker”, who is largely responsible for the creation of many of the products and services that we all need and use. The system largely creates an “us” and “them” between management and the employees, with management more and more focused on reducing the cost of employee compensation and benefits, more and more moving work to “off shore” locations where labor is generally cheaper and there are less protections and rights for such workers, in an effort to “maximize profits” and “reduce the bottom line”. Management seems to have forgotten what an “asset” their employees can be and tends to look at them solely as a resource or a commodity needed to create their product or service, one of the largest expenditures on the cost side of the ledger.

Capitalism is largely Darwinism (survival of the fittest) applied to economics and largely an aristocracy based on the divine right of kings, where the king has the largest say in government. At the center of today’s economic aristocracy is the corporation, whose authority is based on the divine right of capital. Shareholders are king and their interests dictate and control all (along with the greed of top executives). The primary goal for sometime has been to pay shareholders (and executives) as much as possible while paying employees as little as possible, moving work to cheaper and cheaper labor markets (whenever possible, regardless if it is truly a good idea or not and if it is even in the long-term interest of the company) and all the while the public good is ignored. Stepping outside of the forest, it can be seen as quite a departure from democracy and often at odds with it.

There has been a lot of discussion about executive compensation in the last several months. Dirty deeds…done by chiefs discusses how the Government requirement to disclose CEO pay has resulted in more comparisons between CEO pay and more and more CEOs comparing up and driving up the compensation. It also pointed out how shareholder votes held over CEO compensation packages are non-binding and it is hard to get a no vote among the institutional investors. Malcolm Turnbull has suggested that the shareholder vote be binding and that over turning it would require a special (and expensive) shareholder session where the directors come back with a more acceptable package. This would act as a deterrent, making directors present something more acceptable the first time. New CEOs would be hired on what the previous made pending shareholder approval. The article also mentioned that governments could voice their community’s disapproval for excessive pay by removing the company's tax deduction for salaries in excess of (the desired limit) or salaries in excess of (set limit) could be taxed in the executive's hands at the penalty rate (the desired rate).

A problem that I’ve noticed at many of the publicly traded companies is that the CEO and Board of Directors are only looking to “maximize shareholder value” but this means that nobody is really looking after the long-term interests of the company. In companies where an owner or owners exist, the owners care about the long-term success of their companies because they’ve invested their lives into the company. But in publicly traded companies, the CEO and other top executives are compensated for driving up the company’s stock price (often this is done on a short term basis); where investments, research and development, and the company’s long term health are often stymied. Companies also don’t seem to care for the communities where they’re located and do business as well as their customers and clients. Many companies don’t even think twice about off-shoring thousands of jobs and what effect that will have back home (and the families that can be devastated by those lost jobs). They also don’t seem to take into account the quality of service that they provide to their customers will likely be degraded, at least while the new location gets the necessary experience to do the job. Many of these companies have squeezed their communities for tax brakes, only to move the workforce away when the tax breaks and other incentives were near expiration and the community might actually see a return on those tax breaks. Never mind, that the communities needed to find their tax revenue elsewhere while waiting for the tax breaks and incentives to end and now they need to find other revenue (something more and more challenging for communities today).

Toppling the Corporate Aristocracy is an interview with Marjorie Kelly, author of the “Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy” as well as the cofounder and publisher of the bimonthly Business Ethics publication (http://www.business-ethics.com/), in it she explains how she believes that corporate law will be changed and Democratizing economics is inevitable. Kelly says that corporations exist today only because we have passed laws that allow them to. The Declaration of Independence asserted America’s right to change or eliminate government that doesn’t serve the public interest any longer and that this same right can and should be applied to corporations: to change the rules governing the corporate form itself, making corporate governance more democratic rather than aristocratic.

Marjorie Kelly indicates that there can be a difference between publicly traded companies and private companies, saying “I prefer to make the distinction between private companies and public companies. When an individual or a family own all the shares of a company they have the option of managing in a humane way, putting quality of life for employees or the good of the community ahead of shareholder gain. But when a company goes public and its shares are widely held, managers don't have this option. Managers reluctant to make layoffs, for example, can be forced out in a hostile takeover or fired by the board. Public companies often pursue profits even if at the expense of the public interest and employee interests. Private companies can do the same, but at least they have the option of something else.”

When talking about socially responsible business, Marjorie Kelly says, “Over and over again I've seen the failure of voluntary change by individual companies. They might announce family-friendly policies only to turn around and lay off tens of thousands of workers. They pursue environmental stewardship, but only to the extent that it enhances their bottom line. Companies become generous corporate citizens, but then demand far more in tax breaks. I had hoped socially responsible business would have caught fire by now, but in fact, the reverse is happening. Companies are becoming more ruthless, more focused on the bottom line. After more than a decade of seeing the promise of socially responsible business thwarted, I came to ask myself, "What is blocking this change?" I believe there is one obstacle-the legal mandate to maximize returns to shareholders. When the interests of capital are primary, it's wealth discrimination. Until we turn and challenge this premise as illegitimate, and change the institutions that support this premise, all our efforts of social responsibility will fail.”

When asked how legally mandating maximizing shareholder profit stopped companies from being socially responsible, Marjorie Kelly says “Corporate law as enforced by state courts dictates that corporations maximize profits for shareholders. This law requires directors and officers to put shareholders' interests before all others. The law says nothing about companies protecting the public interest, the health of the environment, employees or the community. Executives who want to manage responsibly can find themselves fired or subject to hostile takeover-so the idea that enlightened CEOs can really manage in a responsible way is a fantasy. It's a system-design issue, and we are all caught in it…The premise is that good people using the tools of ethical analysis will make socially responsible decisions. But moral individuals only take us so far when the rules they are legally bound to follow say they must put shareholder interests above all others. At some point you have to look at system ethics: what behavior does the system encourage or require? To rest our hope with ethical leaders is like waiting for the philosopher king. At some point you wake up and realize aristocracy itself is the problem-and you move to democracy-you don't wait for justice and equality to show up in some noble leader, you build them into social structures.”

When asked how the law could be changed to allow corporations to be more socially responsible, Marjorie Kelly said “Ultimately, we must design a corporate system in which all economic rights are equally protected, not only the rights of shareholders. In keeping with genuine free market principles, we should put wealth in the hands of those who create it, which is employees, and we need a new economic principle that says corporations have a responsibility to the public good. Ironically, our system now discourages public corporations from service to the common welfare. In the future we must require such service. At the very least we must require that the public good not be harmed. As for how we accomplish this, our laws need not prohibit every possible means of harm-pollution, relocation, unfair termination, and so forth. Instead, they can stipulate broad loyalty to sets of interests and subject corporations that violate those interests to lawsuits. That's how shareholders enforce their rights, and we could extend the same tool to others.”

When asked what people can do to make corporations more responsible, Marjorie Kelly said, “We start by changing our minds, by changing our internal pictures of reality that tell us shareholder primacy is normal and legitimate. The way to do that is with pranks. How did the American Revolution start? Not with writing laws, but with folks dressing up like Indians and throwing tea off ships. It started with a prank. Same with the feminist revolution, where women crashed the Miss America pageant, and did a sit-in at The Ladies' Home Journal. We need some great pranks. I'd love to see some folks stage a sit-in at Business Week or Fortune, and refuse to leave until they put out a special issue on economic democracy. Or, in the spirit of Rosa Parks, refusing to sit in the back of the bus. How about employees running John Q. Employee for the board of directors? They could put up bogus campaign posters all over the company and wear sandwich-boards at the stockholders meeting: "No Governance Without Representation." It might lead to some interesting conversations with the press: why can't employees run for the board? Aren't employees part of the corporation? We can think of these as Tea Parties, like the Boston Tea Party. At our web site, DivineRightofCapital.com, we're hoping to encourage Tea Parties like these around the country. I would encourage your readers to visit the site and share their ideas. Pranks help us wake up. And they allow us to have fun along the way-which is the only way to do things, when you are a marginalized group fighting a huge entrenched power. You've got to be light-hearted. You need esprit-de-corps, so you don't feel overwhelmed. The aim is to educate people that the problem isn't greedy executives or evil individual corporations like Exxon. The problem is the system design. The problem is state law that says corporations exist only to maximize gains for shareholders. In the end, we need to get activists focused like lasers on these laws. Most of all, we need hope. We need to know in our heart that economic democracy will prevail, because it will.”

Marjorie Kelly is optimistic about business being able to evolve and be more socially responsible saying “I am optimistic, because democracy is an unstoppable historical force. To quote Alexis de Tocqueville, ‘Can it be believed that the democracy which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?’ It may seem that financial powers are omnipotent today, but the power of kings was once as great. The monarchy was a nearly universal form of government for two millennia, until a tiny band of revolutionaries in America dared to stand up and speak of equality. They created an unlikely and visionary new form of government which has since spread throughout the world, and today the power of kings can be measured in a thimble. Democratizing economics is no more unlikely a task than democratizing government-in a sense it's only finishing the task. It won't happen overnight, but it's a good bet it will happen. Major system-wide change is possible. It happened when the monarchy fell, and it can happen again. The lesson of history is clear: democracy always wins in the end.”

Like Marjorie Kelly, I too hope that we can see more economic democracy and that we can see some common sense and a focus on the long-term health of our companies and concern for the communities they exist in as well as the people that employ and the companies’ customers. Companies that don’t care about their employees (paying outrageous bonuses to their top executives while getting ride of or off-shoring their workforce en masse) and don’t care about their customers need to be given the message that we won’t stand for this any longer.

Photo Credit: New York courtesy of createsima.

Alcoholics Anonymous- The Original 12 Step Program

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:59:00 +0000

Amy Winehouse made a hit out going to rehab and loads of celebrities and famous people have almost made it almost fashionable to do it. In our society today there seems to be a twelve step program for everything, and some of them are pretty bizarre. But before all of the current 12 step programs there was AA (Alcoholics Anonymous).

Why I Decided to Write This Post

My grandfather is the reason that I choose to write about AA. He is the first person that I knew was an alcoholic and as his birthday is in May, I wanted to take the time to post this in May. My grandfather died 12 years ago, but he did have quite an influence on many people (myself included). Before he died he celebrated 36 years of sobriety and I was proud to have been there when he got his 36 year pin.

What Is AA Anyways?

Maybe you've managed to make it this far into life without hearing anything about AA and wonder what it is? Their creed says it pretty nicely "Alcoholics Anonymous® is a fellowship of men and women who share their
experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their
common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only
requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no
dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own
contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics,
organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any
controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary
purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety." (from the AA website)

What Are The Twelve Steps?

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become
unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with
God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to
carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.

The Twelve Steps are available in pdf format at the AA website.

Many People Are Never "Cured"

Not wishing to preach or pass judgment but I believe one of the failures of many of the rehab programs is that they don't take the view that whatever its clients are there for is probably not something that they can be "cured" of. It is not like those with whatever addiction can just "take" an aspirin and be cured of their "headache". Many people might have a short term problem that can be "cured" by some sort of detox but for many people their problem goes much deeper than alcohol, drugs, gambling, or whatever their affliction is. The stated affliction becomes a sort of escapism, a way of dealing with problems, so unless this is realized the clients will often not ever really be cured, maybe they then channel this escapism into something else that can be nearly as harmful as the "original problem". The fallacy with the "cured" belief is that many of the people that have been "cured" will take a drink (or whatever the affliction was) with the belief that they've been "cured" so they can now drink but they won't get drunk this time. My grandfather used to always say that he was "recovering alcoholic" and not a "recovered alcoholic", even after 36 years of sobriety, because he believed it would be easy to slip back into drinking. When you think about it, why tempt yourself, if you believe that your an alcoholic or addicted to gambling (or whatever) why put yourself in a position where there is a good chance of failure.

One Day At a Time

One of the key principles of AA is that you should live your life one day at a time. Alcoholics must go day to day without taking a drink. This applies to so many other problems. Beating whatever affliction might seem like an insurmountable task, but if you break it up into one day at a time (or even perhaps smaller chunks of time if necessary), you're more likely to be able to manage to get through one day of not taking a drink than trying to just quit forever. If your window is small enough, you can do it and this builds further confidence in your ability to keep on going.

A Support Group Is Needed

One of the things that has made AA so successful over the years with its 12 steps adopted and/or modified by so many other groups, is the realization that you need a support group. In AA everyone needs a sponsor and is encouraged to sponsor others. That is to say that a sponsor is someone that you can talk to when you are tempted to drink and feel that you need support. There are AA meetings in all kinds of locations around the world, so it is possible to get the support of other "alcoholics", people that have probably been where you are now and have dealt with what you're going through. We tend to think that our problems and challenges are unique and that noboby has them but when you look at it, the circumstances maybe different but often the problem is not really new or so unique. Grouping up together can make the individual alcoholics strong enough to overcome to take on their continous desire to take a drink.

The Serenity Prayer

Another key principle of AA that has found its way into my life is the Serentiy Prayer. It really says a lot about the challenges that we all face in our lives.

"God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,

courage to change the things we can,

and wisdom to know the difference."

The Serenity Pray has an interesting history, you can read more about it at the AA website.

I can't really praise AA enough. It certainly helped my grandfather become the man he was and has helped so many others. If you find yourself being out of control in any area of your life, there is a good chance that there is some sort of support group to deal with it, be it gambling, shopping, and so on. A word of caution, you'll want to make sure that the support organization is legitimate and that someone doesn't try to take advantage of you. Be on the look out for cults that try to pray on people when they're at their weakest. Finally, remember that you can do almost anything one day at a time.

Photo Credit: Scotch courtesy of jlumbv.

April Edition of The Family Life Blog Carnival Moved to May

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:04:00 +0000

I had planned to publish the April edition of The Family Life Blog Carnival today but as I'm at a very busy stage of my project at work I don't have the time to get this edition out this month. Any articles that were submitted for the April edition will be considered for the May edition unless told otherwise by the submitters.

Due to my current workload and planned travel I'll be reducing my posts and online activities through the end of the month. I hope to return to more regular posting in May. I hope that everyone can take some time to enjoy some of the lovely spring days we're bound to have over the next couple of weeks.

Photo Credit: I thought that this picture was a great "gone fishing" picture. Holiday Azure courtesy of wernerbrau

Follow Me On Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:07:00 +0000

Twitter homepage

Are you on Twitter? Given recent surges in users and all of the recent press coverage there is a good chance that you are or will be.

A lot of famous people have decided to start using twitter in the last couple of years. Barack Obama got a lot of publicity using twitter during his presidential campaign and he was the most followed user on twitter for quite a while. When I looked other day he had been passed up by 5 other users but still had 749,682 Followers! CNN Breaking News had the most followers @897,969. After CNN, came Britney Spears with 873,333 followers, Ashton Kutcher with 869,604 followers, and The Ellen Show with 767,527 followers. Musical acts are using twitter more and more, John Mayer, Coldplay, Dave Matthews and Britney Spears (already mentioned as the 2nd most followed user) all are within the top 100 followed twitterers. Politicians have seen a way of connecting with their supporters and would be supporters with Al Gore, Senator John McCain, Downing Street (the famous street where of the British Prime Minister lives and the official twitter site for the Prime Minister's office), George Stephanopouls along with the previously mentioned Barak Obama are all among the top 100 followed twitters as well. Star Trek fans are probably not surprised to see Wil Wheaton, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner are all among the top 100 most followed twitters and William Shatner (Captain Kirk, himself) isn't so far off back in the top 300. Other noteable twitterers in the top 100 include Jimmy Fallon; famous 7 time Tour de Francer winner Lance Armstrong; American Top 40 host Ryan Seacrest; actress Demi More (her user name is Mrs. Kutcher, by the way); Kevin Rose from Digg; motivation author and speaker Tony Robbins; Penn Jilltte from Penn & Teller; Martha Stewart; and GTD creator David Allen. Note I found the above users listed on April 15th at 7:55 Central European Time at Twitterholic, which ranks twitter users, I've mentioned them below in a section of helpful tools, services, and websites related to twitter.

Since twitter has been generating a lot of publicity with its famous users and media coverage in general, a lot of people are seeing it as a good way to promote themselves, their products, reaching out to customers and potential customers. Many of the media outlets are tweeting (a term used for the micro blogging updates/posts made by twitter users, I've included this in some of the terms defined below) news and twitter useage has spiked during events like the January inaguration of President Obama and the Superbowl, it allows a form of interactivity not possible before. Twitpic had pictures of the Hudson River Crash before most of the news organizations did. A search on the "Hudson River Crash" in SearchTwitter, yields five pages of tweets associated with the now famous crash landing on the Hudson River. Twitter is allowing and fueling more citizen journalism than ever before.

My Twitter Homepage

Close up of some of my twitter basic statistics

For those of you not familar with Twitter, I thought that I give you a quick explanation of some of the terms that you'll see on Twitter, you'll see most of these terms in the two screenshots directly above.

following are people that you subscribe to their updates, so you'll see their updates as they post them.

followers are people that subscribe to your updates, they'll see your updates after you post them.

updates are posts by yourself or other users.

@"your user name" shows tweets or updates where @"your user name" are mentioned.

Direct Messages are similar to email but they're limited to 140 characters. Depending upon your settings anyone or only selected people can send you direct messages. Direct Messages are often abbreviated as DM.

Favorites are tweets/updates that you have "favorited" to be able to find easily in the future.

Everyone are tweets/updates from the entire twitter population (sometimes referred to as the Twitterverse), these would include people that you aren't following as well as those that you are.

Some other terms that you might see on Twitter include:

Tweet: another term for the microbloging that twitter users do when they post updates. Tweets are limited to 140 characters.

RT: refers to retweeting, or rebroadcasting of someone else's tweet. This is generally encouraged because it can help your tweet go viral (or be wildly promoted).

#: hashtags are used around terms that help to identify them in search and there is an service that I've listed below that searches hashtags.

Because Twitter has made its API (Application Programming Interface) publicly available there are more and more services and applications cropping up everyday. I've put together some twitter related services/applications as well as some websites that you might find useful below...

TwiTip is a blog edited by ProBlogger Darren Rowse. They publish a variety of wide ranging articles on the use of Twitter that is widely read.

MoMB is the Museum of Modern Betas lists 100 twitter related applications and services.

TweetDeck is a popular twitter client using Adobe Air

Twhirl is another popular twitter client also using Adobe Air

Twitdom lists most all of the applications and services associated with Twitter

search.twitter allows you to search twitter

Twitterholic ranks global users based on the number of followers. I ran my user id through (April 15, 5am local time) and ranked 30,224th globally and 7th in the Frankfurt, Germany area.

Twitt (url)ly shows popular links that are being tweeted

Twitpic allows you to share pictures on twitter

#hastags shows popular hastags on twitter. A search on "#followfriday" (a practice where twitter users recommend people that they follow that they think others should follow, a popular promotional tool) yielded 30 different variations of the hashtag.

You can tweet via twitter directly, typing your update into the box below "What are you doing?" on the twitter website (see my second screenshot) , through one of the twitter clients (I've mentioned a couple of popular ones above), or through a variety of websites and applications now available. I often use Ping (I recently wrote about it here)

Of the celebrity twitterers listed above, many won't follow you back, but some do, at anyrate it can be interesting to see what they're up to. I hope that you've found this post useful. If you're not already using Twitter, why not give it a try? Feel free to follow me, but please send me a DM with some reference so that I know who you are. I've embedded a Twitter in Plain English video below for some further explanation.

Easter Greetings...Us And Them

noreply@blogger.com (Systems Overload) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:01:00 +0000

As today is Good Friday and we're now into Easter weekend 2009, I wanted to take this moment to wish those of you celebrating it a Happy Easter and those of you that aren't I hope that you have a nice enjoyable and meaningful weekend! Last Easter I wrote Easter Greetings...14 Principles For Dealing With People, which is every bit as applicable this year (or any other year for that matter) but it conveys some principles that we should all apply in our lives regardless of what religion we follow, or even if we don't follow a religion at all, that can make life on this planet more enjoyable and meaningful for everyone.

Religion can be such polarizing force that often divides people into us and them and often gives its followers a form of tunnel vision. We've seen so many examples where extremism pops up resulting in death, torture, and mistreatment of non-believers, there have been so many wars that had some cause based on religious differences. So often religion seems to be an exclusive club, with one group driving for power,trying to control another group. So many of the various religions share some common principles but they so often focus on where they're different with each group believing that only they know the "true way" and others will be damned in the afterlife (or non afterlife). If we were to step outside of our human existence, maybe arriving at our planet from another planet, somewhere else with "intelligent life" we might be appalled, confused, and mystified by the things done in the name of religion. Not that we can all become aliens but we can step out of box and try to see ourselves from outside in and think about some of the things that we're doing.

Religion can be such a good force as well. There have been a lot of good things done by religious groups and they continue to happen every day. Religion often tapes into a basic human desire to want to help others and of compassion for others that is necessary in order for charities to exist and do the work that they do. There are so many schools and hospitals that owe their very existence to various religious groups, that just go to show that religion is not as bad as it might be painted up to be.

Missionary zeal has further fueled religious division. So often various relgions focus so much on recruiting which is often not welcome by people that don't want to be converted because they already have a religion that they're happy with or because they've made a decission that they don't wish to follow any religion, but they have made a decission that should be respected. This missionay zeal often causes arguments about which religion is correct and why one is better than the other and often these people will never be "freely" converted. Certainly espousure to new ideas will cause people to adopt the new religion from time to time but there needs to be less of a combative attitude adopted and practiced. If you ever get to really travel and mingle with people that don't share the same faith that you do, you'll find that most of them don't really want to be "converted". If we can open our minds and really listen, you'd be surprised at some of the things we can learn from each other. It is commendable that you wish to share your beliefs with others, but do respect their right to have different beliefs and to think differently than you do.

Religion is also so often at the heart of mankind's desire to know who we are and why we're here. It helps up to somehow make sense of things that can't be explained away with science and common sense. When you think about it there are leaps of faith that are needed by all of those "believe" because as much as people have tried over the years to prove the existence of one or more supreme beings, the proof has never been universally accepted by everyone and in the life that we all live now, it doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. Baring a Judgment Day, our world won't be able to say with absolute certainty that religion is right or wrong.

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity share some tenants that bring them closer than many of the Eastern religions (i.e. Buddhism) but we can look to bring the religious (and even non-religious) groups together by looking for commonality and realizing that we all share the same planet and can adversely or positively affect each other. We need to avoid the groupthink mentality that has led to so many of the religious conflicts over the course of human history and avoid focusing on our differences. We need to respect other people's right to believe differently and think differently than ours. By harnessing the different experiences and thoughts that the different groups' members have, you might be surprised by the diverse ideas and solutions that can be generated. No one person has a monopoly on great ideas, they can come and do come from everywhere.

If we have a debate with someone that believes that others that don't believe as they do must die, we probably stand little chance of "convincing" them, but I would ask what kind of god would ask you to kill other people that have not done anything to harm you. We've all been given the gift of life and should not put ourselves in the position of deciding who should live and die based on their religious beliefs. Many of us have families to raise and we should raise our kids to respect the individuality of others and many of the other positive aspects of religion. There are many great people in all the religious groups that would be good friends or just good people to know, if you can not focus on the differences in religion. Those that give their lives for their religious cause, are depriving their families and friends of their existence. I can't think of too many reasons why I want to give my life and not know my daughters as they grow up and watch the people that they become and the grandkids that I might one day have. I can't imagine giving that all up. For myself and my kids, I have to think that any god would not really want their followers killing others that didn't believe as they did, and certainly I don't wish to follow any such god.

Lastly, look at the actions of your religion and persoal beliefs. Are you doing anything that purposely excludes others or trys to dominate or hurt others? If so, why do you think that those people in the "them" group would want to be part of the "us" group and how would you feel and act if you were in the "them" group? It is great if you attend your service on Sunday (or whenever it is) but then if the rest of your time you're mean and inconsidderate of others, do you think that your religion and life might be out of balance? Many of the religious groups do proport to believe that you should "do onto other as you would have them do onto you", so why not treat others the way that you'd like to be treated (hopefully you're not someone that is really into pain). While you can be religious, why not look at other people as all trying to live their lives just like you, that have families, friends, and dreams of making their lives better. We're all in this planet together so lets see if we can make it better for our grandkids and future generations. Respect other peoples right to live differently and believe differently than you.

Photo credit: spring flowers courtesy of hirekatsu.