2 Questions?
What should our bet be?
How are you watching the Tournament?

*kyle

Please help make this post, March Madness and My Sisters a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

Sometimes ideas come to me at the strangest times. Tuesday night I was at the St. Louis Blues game enjoying a very close and intense game. Hockey is one of the greatest sports to watch in person. Part of the entertainment of hockey is the fast paced unpredictability of what is going to happen. Another part of seeing a hockey game live is being a part of the crowd. This is always fun until about the 3rd period when you start to separate the drunk fans from the coherent fans. This is fun for a few laughs but after a while it just gets annoying hearing a  guy scream cuss words at players with a bunch of 8 year old kids sitting two rows ahead of you. In this moment of frustration and embarrassment I had an idea that could change all of this. Controlling Alcohol consumption. How will I do this, find out more after clicking that little button below.

Controlling anything is not the American way. We like freedom of speech, choice, and religion. The only thing Americans really like to control is our women (that was a joke). Therefore this idea will probably fly in the face of freedom. But, this idea could be one that would save lives and keep drunk drivers off the streets. I am now stepping to the podium to deliver my speech that could land me a bid to be President in 2012.

In my new plan when a Man or Women turns 21 they have to sign up for a Alcohol ID. This ID will contain your picture, name, address, all that good stuff (much like your license) but it will also contain a bar code. This bar code will be your designated driver or the sign of the end times. Upon arriving at a restaurant bar or sporting event you will present this Alcohol ID to purchase a beer. Upon your purchase your card will be scanned and your alcohol consumption will be tracked for the rest of the evening.
The limit is up for negotiation. There could be a height/weight restriction which would judge how many 16 oz of alcohol you can consume based off your height/weight. There could be a strict 3 beer policy that says after 3 beers you are done. These can all be discussed. Lets go with the 3 beer policy for arguments sake. The limit is 3 beers, after your card has been scanned 3 times you are done for the evening. If you go back for a fourth and you are served there will be record of where you bought it and who served it to you.

You might be like my friend David who is shaking his head right now and calling me names, but this new Alcohol ID will cut drunk driving deaths down by 75% and will cut crime by 10% in all cities and suburbs. How you might ask? Because of the 3 beer limit you will not be able to achieve drunk status and therefore will be unable to drive while intoxicated. Along with this crime will be reduced because Cops will now be freed from patrolling the streets to find drunk drives and will now have the time to actually do their jobs of protecting against crime.

Though this goes against freedom of choice you cannot argue the lives that will be saved because of the ability to limit the amount of alcohol that is consumed.

I know that this idea seems very far fetched, and in all reality I am really just thinking out loud here. But I wonder sometimes if this would not be a bad idea at all? I will say that I do consume alcohol on occasion and am not against it, but responsibility comes along with the ability to drink.

I mainly write this post to bring up a conversation about control.
Maybe, like me, you are a control freak and want to control everything around you. Maybe you have no control over yourself and give into all kinds of temptations. Maybe you are in between. Unfortunately this law would never be passed because of one thing, money. Business would take a big hit in the money books and therefore fight this to take control themselves.

What are the implications of control?

*kyle

Please help make this post, I Could Run For President With This Idea a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

:)

For the longest time I was against any type of emoticons (or whatever you want to call them, how about just smiles). I was annoyed when I would see smiley faces, fishes, what seemed to be someone raising their hands and anything else you could do with a keyboard to make a face. They just seemed like something a 12 year old girl would do. Here is the funny thing, lately I have been using the smiley face. :) The main use for me is signaling that what I am saying is said with a smile on my face. It is my form of sarcasm online. I do this because I am a sarcastic person, but one I cannot read how you are taking what I am saying and you cannot hear how I am saying it so things can really be taken out of context.

What is your reaction to Social Media Smiley Faces?

*kyle

Please help make this post, When You See This a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

I can understand the need to make an urgent appeal, and to be honest I think this is a huge need. But (and there is always a but) when I cannot get out of this urgent appeal and advertisement to read the blog there is a problem. I have been noticing a trend of pulling up advertisements over the content of what you are reading to get you to pay attention. Its like that kid that keeps yelling “look at me, look at me.”

All this to say, this kind of advertising really overwhelms me.
To the point of me just clicking X and moving on.

What about you, is this effective or is there a better way?

*kyle

Please help make this post, Overwhelming Advertising a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

This year my friend Greg Darley has decided to take a very fun competition and use it for good. Greg has announced a Pick’em to End Slavery. It is very simple. Go to Greg’s site here and sign up your bracket. A fee of $10 is what is required to get into the competition. The proceeds donated will go to the Free Chains Campaign to End Slavery.

Most of us are either going into pools and spending some money on these competitions, what better way to have some fun with friends and also help end Slavery in Nepal?
Whether you pick teams by mascot or color or you sit there and pick teams with hours of precision, this year partner with the Free Chains Campaign and the International Justice Mission to end Slavery.

For more information on how to sign up here
For more info on the ministries supported check out Free Chains Campaign and the International Justice Mission

Let me know who has signed up so I know who I will be beating

*kyle

Please help make this post, Pick’em to End Slavery a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

The doctors where presented with a typical case, well at least it was typical for the show. For an hour they tried to figure out what was wrong with this lady. That was not what interest me, what interest me about this episode was the patient. She was a “well known blogger” at least that was how they described her, who seemed to be dying of cancer. Throughout the show tension was rising between her and her boyfriend on how much she blogged about her life. Like most bloggers she held nothing back (well except for one thing which actually was the reason for her problems, watch the episode to find out what I am talking about) and this bothered her boyfriend (or maybe husband). This tension was spreading to the doctors as well as they dealt with identity issues and this idea of community. The question that was continued to be asked was how much can we learn from someone based off their blog?

House (Greg House, the main character) was also dealing with this issue and trying to learn more about someone, his biological father. He decided to partake in this way of learning about others and started to read a collection of sermons written by his father to learn more about who he was. Interesting enough the question was brought up to house, “why don’t you just call your dad?” Which seems to be the logical answer to this. But House seemed to be more interested in studying his dad then connecting with him.

I would encourage you to watch the whole episode. It had a lot of thought provoking situations. You can watch it here

There was one situation that stuck out to me as I watched the show. It was a dialogue between the doctors as they tried to figure out what was wrong with this lady.

Check out this clip from the show:

The point at the end was very interesting. I think it brings up a couple of questions:

1) Is privacy a modern invention?
AND
2) Can community and connection come when we take off our mask and reveal who we truly are?

*kyle

Please help make this post, What House has taught me about Blogging a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

You can answer them all or just one….

1) Are you a Morning or Night person?

2) I am really excited about the start of the week because….?

3) Your Mens NCAA National Basketball Champion is?

Answer them all or just one….these are questions for you.

*kyle

Please help make this post, Question(s) for You a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

Mine: Down Hill Both Ways
http://downhillbothways.com

This is Abraham Pipers second blog project (he still has twentytwowords.com which is a great idea as well).

In DHBW, Abraham takes us on a journey through the streets of Minneapolis and writes about his experience along the way. If you want a great introduction to his writing, check out this post. If you want to be completely inspired, check out this post.
I love the way he writes, his stories are very clever, and he has a very unique way of engaging his content.
You should definitely check this blog out right now.

What say you? Currently: What is your favorite blog?

*kyle

Please help make this post, Currently: What is your favorite Blog a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

Today I am changing the name of this blog to Umbrella of Grace, because today I need you to lend me that umbrella and have it cover this post.
First off you have to understand that I am not married, and for that matter am very single (dangit) and so I do not claim to have any of this figured out. You will see why this is important in a minute. Mainly I just like to ask questions, prime the pump a little bit, and then stoke the fire.

Let me muse with you a little bit here…Twitter is powerful, there are some really cool people that I have met, that you have met, and that we will continue to meet. I mean pretty much everyone that is reading this now has come to find out about this blog through twitter. You literally can have friends in every state and even out of the country.

There are some downsides of twitter. One of the biggest is spam. Porn spam, Phishing spams, and even tuna spam (that stuff is nasty tasting) have all hit us at one time or another through DM’s and followers. This is an obvious flaw of twitter, but there is also another thing that I find interesting/concerning about twitter: Inappropriate Relationships.

This is not coming from personal experience, more through observation. I can see twitter being used as a new tool of relationships that move to far. Maybe it is through DM’s or how others are perceiving these relationships on twitter. This seems to be a big gray area and I have not heard a lot of people talk about it. You do hear the discussion about the dangers of inappropriate emails or even facebook messages, but twitter seems to fly under the radar (pun intended).

For me I do not think twice about who I am talking with. But the more I started to think about this the more I realized that if I was married would my wife have a problem with me caring on a conversation through DM’s or through @ replies with a lady, and for that matter a lady that she does not know. I let the situation run even further and thought about how easy it would be for me to hide this. Knowing that I have my own account and have my own little world on twitter things could get out of control pretty quickly, and yet everything started out so innocent.

Couple of things that I would like to hear from you on:

Have you noticed this as an issue?

Is this a big deal?

What is the line of appropriate Twitter Relations?

*kyle

Please help make this post, Cheating with Twitter a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.

Check out Tony’s post here

What would it mean for you to unplug from things that zappppp your energy?

*kyle

Please help make this post, I feel like the Weather a whole lot better by adding some value to the conversation by leaving a comment. This is a post from: Thoughts about Nothing*com - A blog that claims to have nothing figured out.