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	<title>RYAN D. SULLIVAN</title>
	
	<link>http://www.ryandsullivan.com</link>
	<description>Musings on the glorious life of an awkward dad.</description>
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		<title>This Is How Thirty I Am</title>
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		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/this-is-how-thirty-i-am/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:53:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=901</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>For some reason Labor Day this year made me feel very &#8220;thirty.&#8221; My birthday was last November but as I reflected on the events of Monday morning I couldn&#8217;t help but realize that I&#8217;ve become the sober Frank the Tank. Here&#8217;s a quick recap of yesterday&#8217;s events so you can get a feel for what [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/this-is-how-thirty-i-am/">This Is How Thirty I Am</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/frank-the-tank-photo.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-902" title="frank-the-tank-photo" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/frank-the-tank-photo-e1346757659213.jpg" alt="" width="263" height="329" /></a>For some reason Labor Day this year made me feel very &#8220;thirty.&#8221; My birthday was last November but as I reflected on the events of Monday morning I couldn&#8217;t help but realize that I&#8217;ve become the sober Frank the Tank.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a quick recap of yesterday&#8217;s events so you can get a feel for what &#8216;m talking about.</p>
<p>5:30am &#8211; Wake up and watch Phineas and Ferb. Also, do all the parenty stuff like make sure the kids get food outside of Disney-themed fruit snacks.</p>
<p>8:30am &#8211; Step outside for some fresh air and a healthy dose of yard work. Celebrate the day of Labor!</p>
<p>11:30am &#8211; Load up the family in the white minivan and head out for an exciting day at the outdoor mall. While there we visited American institutions like the Cheesecake Factory and the Disney Store (It&#8217;s like Vegas with zero possibility of winning). If this isn&#8217;t partying I don&#8217;t know what is! We also let Patrick try his first lime! (This is pretty entertaining if you have an extra 28 seconds).</p>
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<p>5:00pm &#8211; Return home and begin to settle down so we can be rested for a new week of adventure! I took some time to do a little work but nothing major. The day was officially starting to wind down at this point.</p>
<p>8:00pm &#8211; Realize we&#8217;re out of milk and run to the store to get some. Being without milk for any length of time in this house will result in guaranteed mutiny.</p>
<p>8:45pm &#8211; Get a haircut.</p>
<p>9:30pm &#8211; Go to bed.</p>
<p>Now, this is where the excitement really starts! As we laid watching 48 Hours Mystery (like I said, I&#8217;m SO thirty), Jackie cuddled up next to me. Then, out of the corner of my eye I spotted something as I fast forwarded through the commercials. I had to rewind it once or twice just to make sure I wasn&#8217;t seeing things.</p>
<p><strong>Macys.com was having a Labor Day Sale!!!</strong></p>
<p>It was 50% off all their luggage with an ADDITIONAL 10% off until Midnight EST. Suddenly my heart started to race as I realized we had exactly 28 minutes to place an order or miss out on these amazing saving forever. And we really needed luggage!</p>
<p>I leaped out of bed and headed for the office. As I quickly scoured reviews of each luggage set I felt as thought the &#8220;Add to Cart&#8221; button had become my version of the green, red, or blue wires. What if I click the wrong one? Will we all be doomed?</p>
<p>AND DID I MENTION FREE SHIPPING? FOR LUGGAGE!</p>
<p>As the minutes ticked away I knew that the moment of truth was near. What would we choose? Would we buy anything at all?</p>
<p>We found a few pieces of luggage and checked out at 9:52pm. We didn&#8217;t want a botched order to ruin our chances at such massive savings, so we left an 8 minute buffer.</p>
<p>We received the order confirmation and were able to breathe a sigh of relief. The final receipt said we had saved $501.24 on our purchase.</p>
<p>A sense of overwhelming accomplishment came over me.</p>
<p>I did it. I saved us all from overpaying for luggage.</p>
<p>This is how thirty I am. And honestly? It&#8217;s not too bad <img src='http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/this-is-how-thirty-i-am/">This Is How Thirty I Am</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/wB9qWBJJIUM" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Teaching Is Hard, So We Rant Instead</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/_1gqHldc3kc/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/teaching-is-hard-so-we-rant-instead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:07:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=896</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I was at a marketing meeting this morning for a whole bunch of local small businesses. It was supposed to be for &#8220;networking&#8221; and to learn about some advertising mediums like television and radio. I haven&#8217;t ventured into those mediums a whole lot so I decided to go and get me some learnin&#8217;. Toward the [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/teaching-is-hard-so-we-rant-instead/">Teaching Is Hard, So We Rant Instead</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was at a marketing meeting this morning for a whole bunch of local small businesses. It was supposed to be for &#8220;networking&#8221; and to learn about some advertising mediums like television and radio. I haven&#8217;t ventured into those mediums a whole lot so I decided to go and get me some learnin&#8217;. Toward the end of the meeting a &#8220;social media expert&#8221; was given the opportunity to pitch his company to all of the other businesses who were in attendance.</p>
<p>If I had a snake oil allergy I would have been dead on the spot.</p>
<p><span id="more-896"></span></p>
<p>As I sat and listened to him explain his business model I got uncomfortable in my chair. I wanted to yell out things like &#8220;his company is a fraud&#8221; or &#8220;he&#8217;s a witch,&#8221; but I held back to try and keep the level of awkward and insane asylum admittance to a minimum. I watched the looks on the faces of some of the other small business owners and they were eating up every word. This guy was going to solve all of their marketing woes with a measly investment of $500 and a Costco Gift Card. <strong>We&#8217;re gonna be rich!</strong></p>
<p>What the company does isn&#8217;t all that important. I can tell you that their model directly violates Facebook&#8217;s terms and they charge exorbitant prices for the amount of work actually involved in what they do. The whole pitch rubbed me completely the wrong way. I could have started my morning by putting on a pair of underpants made of 80 grit sandpaper and it would have been more enjoyable. The thing that bothered me the most was how many people were walking up to him and getting more information after the meeting. I knew they were getting ready to throw their money into an endless pit of fire but what was I supposed to do? Walk up and call him a fraud right there in front of everyone?</p>
<p>I decided to take to Twitter instead.</p>
<p>As I was leaving the meeting I was ready to fire up Twitter on my phone and unload to my followers. It seemed like the logical thing to do. I mean, there are a lot of dishonest people on the internet, some of my followers would have been able to relate, right? But the more I thought about it the more I realized three things.</p>
<ol>
<li>99.999% of my followers will never encounter this Joe Cool Facebook Guru.</li>
<li>Instantaneous reactions are what cause 99.999% of &#8220;controversy&#8221; in social media and marketing world.</li>
<li>The battery on my phone sucks and the energy needed to send the tweet wasn&#8217;t worth wasting my valuable resource.</li>
</ol>
<p>What&#8217;s the percentage of daily tweets that are linked directly to complaints that could immediately be labeled with the #firstworldproblems hashtag? Yet, we complain about it anyway. I&#8217;m as guilty as the next guy, but I think we&#8217;re stumbling into dangerous territory when our first action is always a reaction.</p>
<p>Life&#8217;s too short to get pissed off about chicken sandwiches, six hour TV delays, or having to pack for a conference that somebody else is paying for (yes, I saw this just recently and yes they were serious).</p>
<p>If we spent half the time and energy listening that we do trying to be heard, we&#8217;d be able to get off that pesky blood pressure medication once and for all.</p>
<p><strong>Even more effective would be to educate.</strong></p>
<p>I can&#8217;t email everyone who was in that meeting this morning and tell them they&#8217;d be throwing their money away by working with Joe Cool marketer, but I probably can send them some information on WildFire apps for marketing or building a facebook page with very little coding knowledge. Not only does doing that promote learning and conversation, it also builds actual relationships that mean something.</p>
<p>Do people have the right to voice their opinions? Absofreakinglutely. I&#8217;d never want that taken away from anybody <del datetime="2012-08-02T22:47:13+00:00">except for Jerry Sandusky and a few other horrible, awful people in this world</del>. However, that doesn&#8217;t mean that people spouting off the first thing that comes to their brain is helpful or productive. In a lot of cases people do more to damage their voice or opinion when they try to force it on to others. I know I go straight into armadillo mode (ya know, defensive, curled up in the fetal position? It made sense in my mind. This parenthetical shouldn&#8217;t have made it into this post) when people start telling me I&#8217;m wrong or the way I think needs to change. I respond a whole heck of a lot better to thoughtful questions, good conversation, and bacon.</p>
<p>Educating and teaching take time, and we&#8217;re lazy so we rant instead. Here&#8217;s my plea to take a few minutes and try and have an attitude of helping out, instead of one of identifying what we believe are problems. Finding problems is easy if we&#8217;re looking for them. Heck, sometimes it&#8217;s easy to find them when we&#8217;re not.</p>
<p>Am I ranting about ranting? Your thoughts on our knee-jerk reaction society?</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/teaching-is-hard-so-we-rant-instead/">Teaching Is Hard, So We Rant Instead</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/_1gqHldc3kc" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>When a Blog Goes Silent…</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/W4Lazg22GOg/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/when-a-blog-goes-silent/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:48:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Whenever a blog goes quiet the rumor mill starts working: &#8220;Maybe he has a rare disease?&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;ll bet he finally had that nervous breakdown we&#8217;ve all been expecting.&#8221; &#8220;Utah probably blocked the internet.&#8221; &#8220;I CAN&#8217;T BELIEVE HE STOPPED BLOGGING!! Oh well, what are the Kardashian&#8217;s up to?&#8221; *click* This post is going to play the role [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/when-a-blog-goes-silent/">When a Blog Goes Silent&#8230;</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Whenever a blog goes quiet the rumor mill starts working:</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="line-height: 26px;">&#8220;Maybe he has a rare disease?&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 26px;">&#8220;I&#8217;ll bet he <em>finally</em> had that nervous breakdown we&#8217;ve all been expecting.&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 26px;">&#8220;Utah probably blocked the internet.&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 26px;">&#8220;I CAN&#8217;T BELIEVE HE STOPPED BLOGGING!! Oh well, what are the Kardashian&#8217;s up to?&#8221; *click*</span></li>
</ol>
<p><span id="more-883"></span><br />
This post is going to play the role of a) letting you know I&#8217;m alive, and b) letting you know that I have no idea when I&#8217;ll be back.</p>
<p>The reason for my blog absence is honestly too boring to even mention, but for those of you who&#8217;d really like to know, here it is: I&#8217;ve been busy.</p>
<p>Told you it was boring.</p>
<p>I would have loved to report that I&#8217;ve been on the set of some Reality TV show without internet access where a father of three switches his own children to take care of three out-of-work child stars, but I&#8217;ve just been working a lot. And by working a lot I mean I&#8217;ve been buried in code, marketing stuff, and a bunch of other non-glamorous work. Any breaks I get from that are spent with my family at Costco or the Home Depot. I sleep sometimes too. Rarely.</p>
<p>If it were as simple as falling out of the routine of blogging, I&#8217;d probably jump right back in and go crazy. But this is the first time since I started blogging that I truly don&#8217;t have time to write.</p>
<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll never have enough time! You have to MAKE time!&#8221; says the peanut gallery.</p>
<p>And the peanuts do have some wisdom. But I also know that I&#8217;ve made time for stuff that matters a lot more to me than blogging for the time being, and that by the time that&#8217;s scheduled, I don&#8217;t even have five minutes to scribble down my thoughts and hit publish.</p>
<p>My twitter and facebook usage has also suffered greatly. If you&#8217;ve appreciated the break from my ramblings, please don&#8217;t tell me. I have an ego to protect.</p>
<p>I love to write and I plan to write a lot. Currently it&#8217;s not in the cards, so I just take quick notes about things that happen or random thoughts I ponder, and when life starts giving me an extra 30 minutes in a day, I&#8217;ll start turning those notes into something worth reading.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t goodbye, or even farewell; it&#8217;s a quick message to let you know that I&#8217;m not dead. Not even close.</p>
<p>More later&#8230;</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/when-a-blog-goes-silent/">When a Blog Goes Silent&#8230;</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/W4Lazg22GOg" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Now is The Time to Raise Awareness: Light it Up Blue for Autism</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/tkSvdv7PiVI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/now-is-the-time-to-raise-awareness-light-it-up-blue-for-autism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Autism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=864</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve had this post in the editorial calendar for a while because Monday is Worldwide Autism Awareness Day. What I didn&#8217;t know when I scheduled this post is that the CDC was going to release a new report showing that the number of autistic children has increased over 78% in the last 10 years. I [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/now-is-the-time-to-raise-awareness-light-it-up-blue-for-autism/">Now is The Time to Raise Awareness: Light it Up Blue for Autism</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve had this post in the editorial calendar for a while because Monday is <a title="Light It Up Blue" href="http://lightitupblue.org/Markslist/home.do" target="_blank">Worldwide Autism Awareness Day</a>.</p>
<p>What I didn&#8217;t know when I scheduled this post is that the CDC was going to release a new report showing that <a title="78% increase in kids with autism" href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/29/health/autism/index.html?iref=allsearch" target="_blank">the number of autistic children has increased over 78% in the last 10 years</a>.</p>
<p><span id="more-864"></span></p>
<p>I pretty much fell off my chair when I read that.</p>
<p><strong>1 in 54 boys will be diagnosed with autism.</strong></p>
<p>More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes &amp; cancer combined.</p>
<p>That pretty much means that if you&#8217;ve never met anyone with autism, then you will. Very soon.</p>
<p>The number of increased cases of autism over the last dedicated is definitely attributed to more awareness of the disease and better screening,  but there are also environmental factors in play that scientists haven&#8217;t been able to identify yet. That&#8217;s the tricky part about finding a cure, or even what causes autism. It&#8217;s not 100% genetic and it&#8217;s not 100% environmental. It&#8217;s a cocktail of both and we haven&#8217;t discovered the recipe yet.</p>
<p><strong>But we will.</strong></p>
<p>On Monday the world is going to &#8220;Light it Up Blue&#8221; for autism awareness. All sorts of awesome things are going to happen. Landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House are going to be lit up with blue lights. Certain retailers will be giving people the opportunity to donate money for research at the cash register. It&#8217;s also likely that there&#8217;s going to be some intense press coverage about the day as well. Probably not anything quite as big as my blog (pfft. USA TODAY) but you get the point.</p>
<p><strong>The point is that people are going to be talking about autism.</strong></p>
<p>I love it when people talk about autism. It has to be talked about. People need to know that it&#8217;s ok to ask questions if they think their children aren&#8217;t meeting all of the milestones.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that at the first signs of any type of delay, children should start receiving specialized treatment and therapies. Some may say that&#8217;s overkill, but what&#8217;s it going to hurt if it turns out the child was just a little bit behind in their development and not actually autistic?</p>
<p>*Steps off soapbox*</p>
<h2>Blue is way better than green</h2>
<p>I like to think of World Autism Awareness Day as St. Patrick&#8217;s Day with a purpose and less alcoholism. It&#8217;s our excuse to cover everything in blue. We wear blue. We buy blue lightbulbs from Home Depot. We even grub on blue eggs and ham.</p>
<p><a title="Light it up blue" href="http://lightitupblue.org/" target="_blank">Lightitupblue.org</a> is full of ideas for how to help on Autism Awareness Day. Here are a few of my favorites</p>
<ol>
<li><strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">Take your efforts online</span></strong><span style="line-height: 21px;"> - some of you may have already noticed that my blog is throwing up blue and that I&#8217;m using the Light it up Blue logo for my Twitter and Facebook pictures. Now do I think that&#8217;s going to make a huge impact? Maybe? But it&#8217;s really simple to do so why not, right? You can get the artwork <a title="Online" href="http://lightitupblue.org/Markslist/tools-and-resources.do" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></li>
<li><strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">Dress in blue</span></strong><span style="line-height: 21px;"> - I want you guys thinking Smurfs on Monday. I plan on wearing a blue body suit to the office. It&#8217;s not going to be good for anyone, but no one is going to forget it&#8217;s Autism Awareness Day.</span></li>
<li><strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">Swim in the Ocean</span></strong><span style="line-height: 21px;"> - because it&#8217;s blue. This means if you have to take a vacation you have my permission. It&#8217;s for a good cause.</span></li>
<li><strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">Hug someone with autism </span></strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">- NOTE: Make sure the don&#8217;t hate hugging first <img src='http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  If they don&#8217;t, then give them a giant squeeze and let them know you care.</span></li>
<li><strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">Send a donation request letter to the winner of the Mega Millions jackpot</span></strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">: If all of us do this, there&#8217;s no reason whoever wins can&#8217;t donate a cool million. If that doesn&#8217;t work we could always pitch in 10 bucks at the Autism Speaks donation page <a title="Donate to Autism Speaks" href="http://lightitupblue.org/Markslist/charityAffiliate/startOrder.do?charityId=42051" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></li>
<li><strong><span style="line-height: 21px;">Learn more about autism and talk about it</span></strong><span style="line-height: 21px;"> - Taking the time to learn about autism or teach someone else about it is time extremely well spent.  It&#8217;s like G.I. Joe always said: &#8220;Knowing is half the battle.&#8221;</span></li>
</ol>
<p>Collin has taught us so much as parents and as people. He has this unique ability to push us to our limit, and then ease off before we break.</p>
<p>There are days when raising Collin is freaking hard. However, despite any challenges we&#8217;ve ever had with him, we&#8217;ve always been extremely lucky that the situation isn&#8217;t much much worse. Others aren&#8217;t as fortunate.</p>
<p>Finding the cause of autism is more important than it&#8217;s ever been. At the rate things are going, something has to be done <strong>NOW.</strong> We don&#8217;t have time to wait any longer.</p>
<p>Our kids deserve our best effort.</p>
<p><strong>Will you join me on Monday as we Light it up Blue?</strong></p>
<p>P.S. The blue body suit was just a sick joke (I&#8217;m wearing a blue leotard).</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/now-is-the-time-to-raise-awareness-light-it-up-blue-for-autism/">Now is The Time to Raise Awareness: Light it Up Blue for Autism</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/tkSvdv7PiVI" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Is Autistic The New “R-Word”?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/5d_uc40IyGA/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/is-autistic-the-new-r-word/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Autism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=860</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The video clip above is from the new movie 21 Jump Street. In the clip, Jonah Hill shows Ice Cube a chart that looks like it was made by a first grader. Ice Cube says: This chart looks like sh*t. Are you autistic? A lot of people in the autism community are up in arms [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/is-autistic-the-new-r-word/">Is Autistic The New &#8220;R-Word&#8221;?</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/t2ihNNaGrx0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p>The video clip above is from the new movie <em><strong>21 Jump Street</strong></em>. In the clip, Jonah Hill shows Ice Cube a chart that looks like it was made by a first grader. Ice Cube says:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>This chart looks like sh*t. Are you autistic?</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>A lot of people in the autism community are up in arms because of the slant. Many feel like it&#8217;s become a substitute for the nearly-taboo &#8220;R Word.&#8221; There&#8217;s a good chance that&#8217;s the case.</p>
<p>However, I&#8217;m upset for an entirely different reason.</p>
<p>You see, movies like <em><strong>Superbad</strong></em> and <em><strong>21 Jump Street</strong></em> don&#8217;t exactly become box office hits for their political correctness. That&#8217;s part of what makes them funny. They have a certain shock value that, in the right context, is funny. Sure, sometimes it crosses a line, but in the moment, the jokes can be pretty hilarious.</p>
<p>My problem isn&#8217;t that they made fun of autism. People with autism can be super eccentric and some of their behaviors are funny. What bugs me is that they didn&#8217;t bother to educate themselves enough to make fun of autism &#8220;correctly&#8221;.</p>
<p>Anybody who has ever known a kid with autism knows that the chart in the video clip wouldn&#8217;t even pass as a rough draft. Maybe if Jonah Hill would have presented a computer generated 3D rendering of all of the possible suspects with full biographies, known aliases, tax histories, favorite action figures, and preferred brand of underwear, then the makers of the film would have been on to something.</p>
<p>Instead, they made themselves look like complete idiots by associating sloppiness and poor quality work with autism. Actually, that&#8217;s not fair. I&#8217;m making the same mistake they did. Because, you see, according to dictionary.com, an idiot is <em>an utterly foolish or senseless person</em>, and that seems to be giving the filmmakers a little too much credit for their lazy joke.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not even asking for political correctness like a lot of people are (although that would be ideal). All that I&#8217;m asking is that they do one google search about the punchline of their joke. <a href="http://lmgtfy.com/?q=autism+characteristics" target="_blank">Here, I&#8217;ll help.</a></p>
<p>0.2 seconds could have saved those Hollywood execs from looking like morons. I mean dolts. I mean half-wits. I mean numskulls. I mean imbeciles.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sorry. I can&#8217;t seem to find the right word. I&#8217;ll bet <a title="Dear Pixar, Thank You" href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/dear-pixar-thank-you/">Collin</a> can help me out&#8230;</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/is-autistic-the-new-r-word/">Is Autistic The New &#8220;R-Word&#8221;?</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/5d_uc40IyGA" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>The Rookie’s Guide to Being Your Best</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/1eTFwhwZqik/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/the-rookies-guide-to-being-yourbest/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#Sports]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=857</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Did you know that rookies could qualify as expert life coaches? It&#8217;s true. You see, up until this year I put so much focus on the inexperience of a rookie, that I was missing out on some of their most powerful traits. Now before the non-sports fans start yawning or yelling things like &#8220;I HATE [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/the-rookies-guide-to-being-yourbest/">The Rookie&#8217;s Guide to Being Your Best</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Did you know that rookies could qualify as expert life coaches?</p>
<p>It&#8217;s true. You see, up until this year I put so much focus on the inexperience of a rookie, that I was missing out on some of their most powerful traits.</p>
<p>Now before the non-sports fans start yawning or yelling things like &#8220;I HATE SPORTS BALL!&#8221;, hear me out for a minute. These lessons aren&#8217;t just good for sports fans. They&#8217;re good for all of us.</p>
<p><span id="more-857"></span></p>
<p>Many of you know that I&#8217;m a huge Utah Jazz fan. Like, if they were a breakfast cereal I&#8217;d use a motorized spoon to shovel it into my mouth for every meal. This year the Jazz are a very young team, and although there have been some serious growing pains, there have been some real shining moments too &#8212; especially from some of the young guns.</p>
<p>Here are four life lessons I&#8217;ve picked up as I&#8217;ve watched the rookies develop this season.</p>
<h2>Lesson 1: Smile</h2>
<p>One of the traditions for the Jazz players is that they buy the pinkest, most tween backpacks they can find and make the rookies use them as their carry-on luggage for the entire season. Some popular choices include Hannah Montana, Hello Kitty, and iCarly. Few things are funnier than a seven foot tall pro athlete wearing a pink backup that could potentially double as a coin purse.</p>
<p>It would be really easy for guys who make millions of dollars a year to think they&#8217;re too cool or let their egos get in the way and refuse to wear the packs, but every rookie on the team carries his stuff in style with a smile.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s like my grandma always used to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Smile, it will make people wonder what you&#8217;ve been up to.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h2>Lesson 2: Get Educated</h2>
<p>Whether you study at Oxford or the School of Hard Knocks, it&#8217;s important to pick up some new information every single day. The movement I want to be involved in is Occupy My Brain, and I want to invite all sorts of cool information to the party.</p>
<p>Rookies spend an awful lot of time in the film room learning complex systems simply because at some point they <em>might </em>get a chance for some playing time. Every day they let pass without a study session, is another day that a competitor can gain an advantage.</p>
<p>More importantly than that, rookies understand that even if the knowledge they gain today doesn&#8217;t give them an edge right now, sometime down the line their time spent studying will pay off in a big way.</p>
<h2>Lesson 3: Be Patient</h2>
<p>Rookies know that there&#8217;s a waiting period before they get a chance to be on the ESPN Top 10. Even so, they work hard every day. A mature rookie doesn&#8217;t complain. He &#8220;Does Work&#8221; as <a title="Rob and Big" href="http://www.mtv.com/shows/rob_and_big/season_3/series.jhtml" target="_blank">Rob and Big</a> would say, even though he knows in the back of his mind that his opportunity probably won&#8217;t arrive tomorrow, or even the next day.</p>
<blockquote><p>Patience is a virtue. Patience brings good luck. It is often so found in humans, but, never in a duck. &#8211; The Well in Daffy Duck&#8217;s Fantastic Island</p></blockquote>
<p>Rookies are the part of the human population that this quote talks about. I know it&#8217;s not talking about me. Maybe I&#8217;m part duck?</p>
<p>Few things are more frustrating than feeling like I&#8217;m doing everything in my power to succeed, and not getting the results that I want. I&#8217;ve felt that way with weight loss, business, and even raising a family. We&#8217;re an &#8220;On Demand&#8221; society and waiting for the payoff is harder than it ever has been (but oh so worth it). And let&#8217;s not forget that sometimes the journey itself is the reward.</p>
<p>A solid rookie is anxious to get into the game, but has enough confidence in his own ability to know that it&#8217;s only a matter of time before he get in the game.</p>
<h2>Lesson 4: Make Your Minutes Count</h2>
<p>Here&#8217;s your chance. You&#8217;ve been sitting on the bench for the last 30 games and one of the starters just went down with a nasty injury. How do you respond?</p>
<p>When a rookie finally does get to show what he&#8217;s made of, he has to take advantage of that opportunity. The young guys for the Jazz are doing just that this season.</p>
<p>Time is the one thing that we can&#8217;t get more of. Every day we have a chance to come off the bench and make an impact. We can influence people in more ways than we&#8217;ll ever know. If we do all the ground work, we&#8217;ll be blowing away the home crowd in no time.</p>
<p>Sometimes making our minutes count isn&#8217;t always about closing that business deal or fitting into those fancy jeggings. Sometimes making our minutes count means making the things we <em>choose</em> to do a priority, rather than the things we&#8217;re <em>supposed</em> to do.</p>
<p><strong>Read <a title="Priorities" href="http://mizfitonline.com/2012/03/17/its-this-simple-and-its-this-scary/" target="_blank">this post from MizFitonline</a> for some more insight on priorities.</strong></p>
<h2>Overtime</h2>
<p>Because I can remember when I was 18, a group of 18 year old kids is the last place I&#8217;d think to look for inspiration to be my best self. Yet, we were able to find it. Apparently kids are growing up faster than they used to. Or college is so boring that kids are choosing to mature independently instead of going to classes? Whatever the case, we can find lessons about life literally anywhere if we&#8217;re looking hard enough. Except for maybe clowns. Although clowns do make me feel better about myself immediately when I see them. Hmmm&#8230;</p>
<p>Have a great weekend everybody! Enjoy it with the people you like most.</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/the-rookies-guide-to-being-yourbest/">The Rookie&#8217;s Guide to Being Your Best</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/1eTFwhwZqik" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Warning: Potentially the Most Anticlimactic Story You’ll Ever Hear</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/NZMiEVfzTxY/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/warning-potentially-the-most-anticlimactic-story-youll-ever-hear/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=852</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>In yesterday&#8217;s post I mentioned that I had the opportunity to help a stranger in need. I figured the best way to tell you how things went down was through a video. I&#8217;ll tell you this: it was so weird. I&#8217;ve decided that I&#8217;m a magnet for the unexpected. Strangeness flocks to me. Even though the story [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/warning-potentially-the-most-anticlimactic-story-youll-ever-hear/">Warning: Potentially the Most Anticlimactic Story You&#8217;ll Ever Hear</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In <a title="Would You Clean Up Vomit for a Stranger?" href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/what-would-you-clean-up-vomit-for-a-stranger/">yesterday&#8217;s post</a> I mentioned that I had the opportunity to help a stranger in need. I figured the best way to tell you how things went down was through a video. I&#8217;ll tell you this: <strong>it was so weird. </strong>I&#8217;ve decided that I&#8217;m a magnet for the unexpected. Strangeness flocks to me. Even though the story doesn&#8217;t end in a car chase, the way it ends makes it so much funnier to me. Whether or not it&#8217;s funny to you will be decided after viewing. Oh, and hopefully there&#8217;s a good reminder in there somewhere too&#8230;</p>
<p><a title="The Chance to Help a Stranger" href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/warning-potentially-the-most-anticlimactic-story-youll-ever-hear/" target="_blank">Click here to watch the video if you don&#8217;t see it below.</a></p>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/2TtKmUGC6D0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p><strong>Are you just as baffled as I <del>was</del> am? </strong></p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/warning-potentially-the-most-anticlimactic-story-youll-ever-hear/">Warning: Potentially the Most Anticlimactic Story You&#8217;ll Ever Hear</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/NZMiEVfzTxY" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Would You Clean Up Vomit for a Stranger?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/-vaRHWxvyAI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/what-would-you-clean-up-vomit-for-a-stranger/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Inspiration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#Parenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=847</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I sat in church on Sunday watching the minutes on the clock slowly tick away. The clock wasn&#8217;t moving fast enough. Having three kids, any of whom could erupt into a tirade at any moment in a setting like church, that is supposed to have some level of reverence, is anything but relaxing for me [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/what-would-you-clean-up-vomit-for-a-stranger/">Would You Clean Up Vomit for a Stranger?</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I sat in church on Sunday watching the minutes on the clock slowly tick away. The clock wasn&#8217;t moving fast enough. Having three kids, any of whom could erupt into a tirade at any moment in a setting like church, that is supposed to have some level of reverence, is anything but relaxing for me and Jackie. I couldn&#8217;t focus on the message. How could I? There were way too many things that could go wrong at any second.</p>
<p>A dad on the other side of the aisle stood up to take his kid to the bathroom. He had an orange Skittle stuck to his crotch. Maybe it was an M&amp;M? I&#8217;m not sure. I didn&#8217;t ask. The timing didn&#8217;t seem quite right.</p>
<p><span id="more-847"></span></p>
<p>The more I tried to focus on what I&#8217;m sure was a great message, the more my mind started to wander. I started to think about 2 months earlier when we were sitting on that very same bench as a family. It was Christmas Day. Christmas Day is the one church day of the year where absolutely everything has to go perfectly, right? It&#8217;s like an unwritten rule or something.</p>
<p>As we sat there listening to the good word, I got the sense that Collin wasn&#8217;t feeling too hot. One of the exciting things about having a child that can&#8217;t talk, is that we frequently get to play a rousing game of &#8220;Guess That Diagnosis.&#8221;</p>
<p>On this particular day I lost that game in a bad way.</p>
<p>I should have seen the signs. He kept sprawling out on the bench. He&#8217;d take my hand and put it on his stomach. His complexion wasn&#8217;t quite right. But in my defense, it wasn&#8217;t terrible either. Jackie had just taken Brady to the bathroom and as they sat back down, I mentioned that I thought Collin was acting like he might throw up.</p>
<p><strong>&#8220;Hurry and take him to the bathroom!&#8221; she said.</strong></p>
<p>In hindsight that seemed like a really smart thing to do. Jackie usually has all the answers.</p>
<p>I grabbed him by the hand and just as we stood up he made the first gagging sound.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no way this is happening,&#8221; I thought. &#8220;Not on Christmas. This kind of stuff only happens on holidays like St. Patrick&#8217;s Day or the Super Bowl. Or National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. Don&#8217;t these people know the rules?&#8221;</p>
<p>We started walking quickly toward the back of the chapel but it was too late. Just as we turned toward the hall, it happened.</p>
<p>Pretty much everything he had eaten since his third birthday was right there on the floor of the church. On Christmas.</p>
<p>I was mortified.</p>
<p>I mean, what&#8217;s the next step? The probability that he tosses his cookies again are high. But, there&#8217;s puke&#8230; ON THE FLOOR OF THE CHURCH. ON CHRISTMAS!</p>
<p>Do I stay and clean it up or do I keep rushing him to the bathroom and ignore the giant pool of grossness that&#8217;s rapidly working its way into the fibers of the carpet?</p>
<p>In the moment, as far as I was concerned, one toddler with a tummyache had single-handedly ruined Christmas Day for everybody. This would go down as &#8220;The Great Grocery Tossing Incident of 2012.&#8221;</p>
<p>It would be our family&#8217;s Watergate.</p>
<p><strong>What happened next blew me away.</strong></p>
<p>People with whom I had rarely interacted stood up out of their seats to help. Some helped me take Collin to the bathroom so we could clean him up. Others ran to the custodial closet for cleaning supplies. By the time I had cleaned up his clothes and regained a semblance of my composure, everything had been cleaned up. There wasn&#8217;t even a hiccup in the meeting. In fact, because of the way it was handled, I&#8217;ll bet 90% of the people there didn&#8217;t even know something had gone awry. In a matter of moments everyone was back in their seats enjoying the message like nothing had happened.</p>
<p>No one batted an eye.</p>
<p>No one waited for acknowledgement.</p>
<p>It was charity in its purest form.</p>
<p>I couldn&#8217;t help but ask myself if I would have done the same. I&#8217;d like to think that I would have, but it was definitely a gut check (another truly awful pun. I&#8217;m so so sorry!).</p>
<p><strong>Would I clean up vomit for a stranger without thinking twice?</strong></p>
<p>Yesterday I discovered that I <em>would</em> help a stranger in need if the situation presented itself. I wasn&#8217;t fully tested with a pukestravaganza, but I feel like I responded in a way my mom would have been proud of given the circumstances.</p>
<p>Check out tomorrow&#8217;s post about the chance I had to share a little kindness with a stranger and how it ended in a seriously bizarre way.</p>
<p><strong>When was the last time you were on the receiving end of a good deed? How did it impact you?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Protip: </strong>When searching for images for this post I used the phrase &#8220;sick kid.&#8221; Never ever do that! I&#8217;ve never had the internet give me the sads so quickly in all my life. And I&#8217;ve see <a title="Friday" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0" target="_blank">the Friday video</a>.</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/what-would-you-clean-up-vomit-for-a-stranger/">Would You Clean Up Vomit for a Stranger?</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/-vaRHWxvyAI" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>How to Remember Your Next Great Idea</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/w4Whxqz45JQ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/how-to-remember-your-next-great-idea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:36:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#Productivity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=843</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>If I&#8217;ve said it once, I&#8217;ve said it a thousand times: if my rear end weren&#8217;t permanently attached with gorilla glue (don&#8217;t ask), I&#8217;d never remember to bring it with me. I remember completely ridiculous stuff like every single lyric to Baby Got Back, but when it comes to remembering my wedding anniversary, I resort [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/how-to-remember-your-next-great-idea/">How to Remember Your Next Great Idea</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If I&#8217;ve said it once, I&#8217;ve said it a thousand times: if my rear end weren&#8217;t permanently attached with gorilla glue (don&#8217;t ask), I&#8217;d never remember to bring it with me. I remember completely ridiculous stuff like every single lyric to <a title="Baby Got Back" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v9at5RlFu4" target="_blank">Baby Got Back</a>, but when it comes to remembering my wedding anniversary, I resort to getting married on Tax Day so I have a reminder. Yeah, I&#8217;m that lame. (And no, that&#8217;s not really why we got married on tax day&#8230; entirely).</p>
<p>My brain is constantly racing, and once in every 150,000 or so thoughts, I have one that&#8217;s worth keeping. The problem is, that if I don&#8217;t record it RIGHT NOW, it&#8217;s gone for good. I don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;re like me, but letting the idea go stagnant for even 10 seconds without tracking it somehow, and it&#8217;s gone forever. No matter how hard I try to bring the idea back from whatever black hole it&#8217;s been sucked into, my efforts fall short.</p>
<p><span id="more-843"></span></p>
<p>I feel like this diagram illustrates the problem I face every day quite well:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/makeup-of-a-male-brain.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-845" title="makeup-of-a-male-brain" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/makeup-of-a-male-brain.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="303" /></a></p>
<p>Because I have the attention span of <a title="Dug" href="http://pixar.wikia.com/Dug" target="_blank">Dug</a> (SQUIRREL!), I&#8217;ve had to put methods into place to ensure my ideas don&#8217;t ride off into the sunset and disappear forever. I&#8217;ve used variations of all these methods to some extent, but sometimes I don&#8217;t remember to use them at all (see what I did there?). Maybe I need to develop a method for remembering to use these methods to remember?</p>
<p>Mind. Blown.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you try any of these and they work for you, I&#8217;d love to know!</p>
<h2>Tips for remembering ideas</h2>
<ol>
<ol>
<li><strong>Use a digital voice recorder - </strong>Better yet, for those of you with smart phones, add the voice recording app to the home screen of your phone. I&#8217;m absolutely terrible about remembering (ha!) to carry a notebook around, but I always have my phone with me. Once I got in the habit of blurting out the idea to my phone whenever a great idea came to me, not only did I have a record of my ideas, but I feel like my memory actually started to improve. If you don&#8217;t have a smart phone you can get a digital recorder for pretty cheap at <a title="Digital Voice Recorders" href="http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Voice-Recorders-Audio-Video/b?ie=UTF8&amp;node=227758" target="_blank">Amazon</a>. It&#8217;s also a good idea to check your phone for a voice recording function even if you don&#8217;t have a smart phone. I had a super ghetto phone for a while and even it could record my voice. The biggest drawback was audio quality and storage space, but it did the trick.</li>
<li><strong>Take longer showers</strong> - This is going to sound really strange, but my absolute best thinking happens while I&#8217;m taking a shower. I&#8217;ll figure out coding problems that have been stumping me for days while I&#8217;m lathering up with a bar of Dove. The only downside to good shower thinking is that you have to remember the idea until you&#8217;re completely clean. For some of us that could take hours. I wouldn&#8217;t recommend showering with your smartphone &#8212; electronics are so anti-water &#8212; but they do make <a title="Waterproof white board." href="http://www.etravelergear.com/ershownottab.html" target="_blank">erasable white boards that are waterproof</a>. I haven&#8217;t purchased one myself but I will soon. If nothing else my kids can use it for art time!</li>
<li><strong>Carry a notepad</strong> - Even though I have a hard time remembering to carry a notepad, they definitely have their advantages. If you really need to get an idea down in a hurry, like at a conference or in a meeting, it&#8217;s quicker for me to jot it down than it is to thumbtype it. Besides, in meetings it can seem rude if your head is buried in your phone while someone else is talking. The other HUGE advantage to a notepad is the ability to draw. Sometimes us creative types visualize things as opposed to generating a new idea and it&#8217;s definitely simple to draw a quick something on a notepad. Lots of people are big proponents of <a title="Moleskine" href="http://www.moleskine.com/" target="_blank">Moleskine</a> notebooks, but I can&#8217;t really justify the cost for my needs. 79 cents at Staples usually does the trick.</li>
<li><strong>Use Evernote &#8211; </strong><a title="Evernote" href="http://evernote.com" target="_blank">Evernote</a> is an app that can be used with any browser, smartphone, etc. Essentially what you do is you &#8220;clip&#8221; things that you read or see and then Evernote catalogs everything for you. Somehow it can even read text from photos or graphics. It clearly a devil tool! I started using Evernote a few years ago and due to some bugs in the software or the fact that I may not have known what I was doing, I gave up on it. Just recently I started using it again and it is GOOD! You can catalog any type of file like text, a photo, audio clip, etc. and reference it later so you can turn your quick idea into something amazing. <a title="Evernote" href="http://youtu.be/zHom6bgqg9Y" target="_blank">This video</a> is a quick overview of how Evernote works if it seems like something you&#8217;d like to try out.</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/zHom6bgqg9Y?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<h2>Get it all out of your head</h2>
<p>David Allen of <a title="Get it all out of your head" href="http://www.gtdtimes.com/2012/01/17/get-it-all-out-of-your-head/" target="_blank">Getting Things Done</a> has the following advice for us:</p>
<blockquote><p>If you’re still trying to keep track of too many things in your mind, you won’t likely be motivated to use and empty your inboxes with integrity.  Most people are relatively careless about having seamless collection tools because they know they don’t represent discrete, whole systems anyway: there’s an incomplete set of things in their inboxes and an incomplete set in their mind, and they’re not getting any payoff from either one, so the thinking goes.  It’s like trying to play pinball on a machine that has big holes in the table, so the balls keep falling out: there’s little motivation to keep playing the game.</p>
<p>So what can you do to improve upon this? Make collection tools a part of your lifestyle. Keep them close by so no matter where you are you can collect a potentially valuable thought. Think of them as being indispensable as your toothbrush or your driver’s license or your glasses.</p></blockquote>
<p>I guess what he&#8217;s saying is that the tool is a tool. Different tools and methods are going to work differently for all of us, but the important thing is that we find what works for us and we keep doing it. We need to make sure that our ideas have the opportunity to get out of our brains so they can be used for something cool. Otherwise our ideas will be gone for good &#8212; and as Mr. Allen puts it &#8212; our balls will keep falling out.</p>
<p>And none of us want that!</p>
<p><strong>What your favor or most effective way to remember an idea? </strong></p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/how-to-remember-your-next-great-idea/">How to Remember Your Next Great Idea</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/w4Whxqz45JQ" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>10 Quotes That Drive Me to Be My Best</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~3/BYinAQCtYJw/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ryandsullivan.com/10-quotes-that-drive-me-to-be-my-best-self/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:09:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ryan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#Inspiration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ryandsullivan.com/?p=829</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Today&#8217;s post is a little bit different than anything I&#8217;ve done in a while. My posts have become increasingly wordy as I&#8217;ve practiced a few different writing techniques in an attempt to sharpen my skillz (yes, with a z); so today I wanted to let you relax your brains and your eyeballs for a quick [...]</p><p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/10-quotes-that-drive-me-to-be-my-best-self/">10 Quotes That Drive Me to Be My Best</a></p></p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today&#8217;s post is a little bit different than anything I&#8217;ve done in a while. My posts have become increasingly wordy as I&#8217;ve practiced a few different writing techniques in an attempt to sharpen my skillz (yes, with a z); so today I wanted to let you relax your brains and your eyeballs for a quick minute. Below is a list of quotes that help keep me in check and actively trying to be my best. I also made them pretty instead of using plain text. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful photography while you grab some inspiration on this hump day.</p>
<p><span id="more-829"></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/storm.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-836" title="storm" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/storm.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="428" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/vision.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-838" title="vision" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/vision.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/beauty.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-830" title="beauty" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/beauty.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="264" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dream.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-832" title="dream" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dream.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/discovery.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-831" title="discovery" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/discovery.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="441" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/great-hopes.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-834" title="great-hopes" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/great-hopes.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/time.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-837" title="time" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/time.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="424" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/happiness.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-835" title="happiness" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/happiness.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/failure-is-success.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-833" title="failure-is-success" src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/failure-is-success.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="428" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/work1.jpg"><img src="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/work1.jpg" alt="" title="work" width="640" height="428" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-841" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Do you have a favorite quote that helps keep you moving forward?</strong></p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------
<p>This post brought to you by <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com">RYAN D. SULLIVAN</a></p>
<p>Post permalink <a href="http://www.ryandsullivan.com/10-quotes-that-drive-me-to-be-my-best-self/">10 Quotes That Drive Me to Be My Best</a></p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RyanDSullivan/~4/BYinAQCtYJw" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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