Category Archives: inspiration

Quote of the Day – Lord of the Shrugged

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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

😉

-C

Media companies rise to the S&P 500

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Netflix and Cablevision are taking seats at the table of the influential S&P 500, one of the standards by which we (macro) measure American progress in general and day-to-day transactional news.

To free these seats, the following companies are being asked to quietly pick up their chips and move to a less infamous table.

  • Office Depot Inc
  • New York Times Co
  • Eastman Kodak Co

Newspapers giving way to cable distribution, no surprise given people have shown a definite preference for entertainment-news rather than traditional journalism.

And Netflix, one of my own darlings, taking the seat from an office supply chain that, I guess, can’t match Quill and Staples.

Or is Staples not long for the S&P either…

Doing good should always be recognized

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When kids want to be musicians, they might dream of adoring fans, incredible talent to move crowds of thousands or even the rowdy lifestyle of a rock band or hip-hop group.

(note: Links above contain images of rock not suitable for those who have recently had heart surgery or whose children are watching.)

But I want to recognize the band Jars of Clay for reaching their goal to bring clean water to 1,000 African villages.

Doing good should always be recognized, and when we achieve wealth and status to enable us to advocate good works, I hope each of us remember to put our money towards doing good works that benefits our community, our cities, our states and country and our world.

Happy Friday!

A Little Christmas Story

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When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn’t this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?’

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays!

Craig Boudria in Catch a New Rising Star Comedy Contest

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Cast your Vote for CRAIG BOUDRIA!

Instructions per the Contest Rules:

Another contestant in Round 10 of the Catch A New Rising Star Contest at Catch A Rising Star Comedy Club, inside Twin River Casino in Lincoln, RI. To vote for this contestant in our Video Wild Card contest, send an email to canrs9@cox.net with this contestant’s name [CRAIG BOUDRIA] in the subject line. One vote per person, please. The two contestants with the most votes will enter the semi-finals of the contest on December 2 or December 9.

Craig’s stand-up/Set video:

Why are social behaviors plateauing?

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Interesting summary from Forrester:

blogs.forrester.com/augie_ray/10-09-28-why_are_social_behaviors_plateauing

I like the categories for social network behavior they use here, particularly Creators and Joiners. It is true that with the simplification of online publication, more people than ever are saying more of what they think, or what others think, on a consistent basis.

Their messages are also read by more people and archived in myriad manners, forcing us to recognize that the traditional reality of gateways of information to not exist as they once did.

Instead the gateways to information are defined by a coupling of which networks people are involved in and to whom they “connect” themselves within those networks.

So for those not so interested in sharing or Creating, there are added the Joiners, those who setup their profiles on the networks they deem indispensable simply so they are availed of the chatter of those more prone to create.

From these grow services that help Joiners aggregate their various profiles so that they can more quickly read and digest the Created “content”.

The main problem that I’ll mention here with this paradigm is that all of these services thrive because they are essentially free. This is also a root of the trouble we have with “news”, specifically that when all content is free, facts take a distant backseat to entertaining and gripping eyeballs.

Makes you wonder what’s really out there anymore. For us here in Connecticut, today, it’s rain, baby!

Stay dry folks!

Names for anniversary events

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Question from Aardvark this morning, first one in a while actually…

can anyone suggest some creative name for the entertainment event on the anniversary of a company?
– Janaki Manohar P. 23 / M / Lawrence, KS

Without knowing the company, audience, or year of anniversary, I think you’ll get less relevant responses.

Nonetheless:

  • Gazing with Inspired Eyes
  • Lemons from Lemonade (What we’ve done in the past year)
  • Fruits of our Labor

Great Minds, Great Sentiment, Great People

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Mohandas Ghandi, in a list of 7 of the Worlds Greatest Blunders he made for his grandson, included among the list the following maxim as one of the great blunders of our world:

Commerce without Morality

Warren Buffet, IMHO, is a living example to the world what it means to exercise morality with commerce:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-16/buffett-says-wildly-capricious-economy-inspires-his-charity.html

-C