21 swings (video)

Yes, this is good reinforcement of community and collaboration!




Hat tip to Upworthy for sharing this!
http://www.upworthy.com/your-favorite-childhood-pastime-has-been-upgraded-for-maximum-awesomeness-2?c=ufb1

Twitter - The Musical (video)

cute, catchy, it covers the highlights of Twitter.



There is so much more to Twitter. It is what you make of it. You can build your profile, your brand, and even your business with what you do and share. Be careful to stay within yourself. If you stray too far, that likely won't help your message.

Clothes have changed

but they are still greeting folks to the Comfort Inn outside of Montpelier, VT. When we pulled up to check in this week, I said to myself I have seen these bears before. After hiking Mt Mansfield in the rain, I went into the photo archives to show Dolores what the views could have been as I was here in August 2006. Among the hike photos, I also found this photo. The clothes have changed but the bears are still greeting folks!

2006

bears in 2006

2013

bears in 2013

a father's great advice

What do you want to do?

The question can challenge some folks to answer it. Jonathan Fields interviews Tommy Bahler and even if you only listen to the first 5 minutes to hear what Tommy's father told him, it should be worth it.




Of course, once you go that far, you might as well listen to the rest of the 45 minute interview.

Adam Alter - Drunk Tank Pink

I listen to Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation podcast regularly and caught his episode with Adam Alter. Shortly after finishing the episode, the email notification from Jonathan Field's Good Life Project came in also  with an interview of Adam.

You can listen to Adam and Mitch here
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/how-does-influence-work/

You can watch Adam and Jonathan here
http://www.goodlifeproject.com/adam-alter-drunk-tank-pink/


You can find Adam's website here  http://adamalterauthor.com/

I did purchase Adam's book "Drunk Tank Pink" via audible and will be listening to the book shortly.

Microwave only teased us then

and really did died recently. I wrote in Aug 2010 about getting a new microwave. The new one started dying in Oct 2012 and finally kicked the last bucket a couple of weeks ago. The ordeal to find and get a new one installed started ominously and ended nicely.

We had purchased the Samsung at Lowe's and returned there to look for the next one. They had very few black models on the floor. The sales person explained that stainless steel is the look everyone wants these days. She recommended using their website to find additional options for black models as that would be more expansive that what they had on the showroom floor. That made sense so I left to let my fingers do the rest of the walking.

I did find a couple of models that would be good replacements but the order and delivery time was going to be two or more weeks. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I turned to other websites and Home Depot came to the rescue. Their website was slick and easy to use. As I selected the model for the price I wanted, they provided options for home installation (yes) and removal of the old unit (yes) and better yet, allowed for a selection of installation dates. I was able to select a Saturday only a week away from the ordering and the order was processed. The total installation and removal of the old unit was less than Lowe's as well as sooner. That was definitely good. Now could they deliver?

new Maytag microwave from Home Depot

I received the usual order confirmation email and then a follow up confirming the delivery date. On the day before delivery we received an automated voice message with instructions on the delivery window, confirming the delivery address, etc. On the day of delivery, we received another confirmation voice message with word that we would be receiving the final notification a half hour before they actually arrived. I was liking this notification process!

The final confirmation came in, they arrived 25 minutes later and 15 minutes after that were out the door with the old unit and packing materials leaving behind the new unit installed and operational.

Hurray! That is the kind of service delivery I can go for.

What's the best advice on starting college?

Franklin High School sent its senior class into the new life on Friday. This event is happening in many high schools around the US. It is a challenge for high schoolers to face their future. What will it be? Will they follow the advice of family and friends? Will they follow their own desires and needs?

Ze Frank has this rambling but poignant video providing advice on starting college.



What would you add to this advice?

It is about time to Ctrl Alt Delete

During the course of this wonderful conversation, Match says:

"I don't get a world where people go to the gym everyday to fine tune their body and spend zero time on anything that happens above the neck."

That shows the passion for life long learning that drives Mitch. Any reader here should recognize I share that life long learning passion as well.

There are so many points to take off on this conversation between Jonathan Fields and Mitch Joel, I probably could do a series of posts to cover a month. However, it is not my takeaway that matters. It is up to you to do something. Start by spending about 45 minutes with Jonathan and Mitch here.




Listen to more of Jonathan's The Good Life Project  http://www.goodlifeproject.com/

Follow Mitch  on Twitter, or his Twist Image blog and podcast http://www.twistimage.com/en


You can find out more about Mitch's book here http://www.ctrlaltdeletebook.com/

This is water

This is water. "The capital T Truth!"




A good video for any day but maybe the best video to spend ten minutes with as this work week ends!

from the 'failure bow' to inviting happiness (video)

Let's start the new week by stepping out of 'cringe mode' and open the gate to happiness.

Spend a little over a dozen minutes as Matt Smith tells us about the 'failure bow' and how we can celebrate failure in order to achieve happiness!



Do I see you standing with arms raised and "that dumb ass grin"?

Do I see you applauding someone who has done this?

Not yet... okay. Take it slow but take it!



This was also posted to Franklin Matters.


Thanks to +John Haydon  for sharing this

what do you leave behind?

Businesses tend to open with fanfare, signs, balloons, celebrations... When they go away, they tend to go away quietly.

One local business has apparently gone away. It is spring time and instead of seeing all kinds of plants to take home for the yard and garden, the lot is empty.

what was Peter D's

Which got me to thinking about what we leave behind when we go.. Not that I plan on leaving anytime soon but that is not completely in my control anyway.

What will you leave behind?  An empty lot or???

Bert Jacobs "takers may eat well, but givers sleep well"

"Optimism Can Take You Anywhere" was the title of the presentation and talk that Bert Jacobs gave at Dean College on Thursday evening. This was the 8th in the series by the Dean Leadership Institute. Dr. Paula Rooney thanked the Robert Kraft and the Kraft Group, last year's speaker for helping to make the connection with the Life is Good founder.

Dr Paula Rooney introduction

Bert wasn't going to talk about t-shirts. He was going to talk about how to approach life as an optimist and how that makes a difference. He touted one of the key factors in his own development as having a family dinner. "Half the world's problems would be solved if people sat down regularly to a family dinner." He father had told him he could be part of the problem or part of the solution.

He downplayed the "6:00 news" as really the "6:00 violence report." When you look around there is a whole lot of good in the world. Longevity is up. Wealth is better distributed. There is no active war at this time. Is life perfect, no. But it is not as bad as it is reported to be.

Bert Jacobs at Dean College

He touted persistence. he and his brother had five and a half years of bad ideas before they hit upon a good one. The good one being the first smiling face t-shirt who image eventually got the name "Jake." What told him that had hit on a good idea. That they had sold 48 t-shirts in an hour in Cambridge to 48 different people. They recognized they had found their market with "life is good."

They focused on finding an element of life and celebrating it. He told of his first t-shirt shop on Cape Cod. They were next to an ice cream parlor. The owner called him to order more shirts and asked if "Jake" could be eating ice cream? Sure, why not. Another idea came from a store owner in Vermont who wanted Jake riding a mountain bike. Sure, why not.

Some ideas didn't work as well as others. Oddly, they had trouble with Jake in a wheel chair. Folks were not getting the real 'life is good' message. "Takers may eat well, but givers sleep well." "Life can hurt, but play can heal."

Bert Jacobs at Dean

He told the story of how they developed their Halloween pumpkin celebrations, how they eveloved to focus on sharing their wealth and doing fund raising for kids. Life is Good Playmakers is part of the overall company. He told of their plans to expand their product lines beyond t-shirts. Hallmark is selling life is good cards. Life is good will have coffee come July. He wouldn't reveal their partner in the coffee business.  They are in talks with an auto manufacturer for a Life is good vehicle.

Bert said "authenticity builds business." "The only ones who can build a brand are your customers." Life is good does not do advertising, everything they do is by word of mouth. Satisfied customers telling their friends and spreading the word.

He closed asking the students to find their positive purpose. He said 'life is good' is spreading the power of optimism. He said, "We can't stop the waves, we need to learn to surf."


This was also posted to Franklin Matters

"We" Cycle Times: Viral This Week

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From: "Michael R. Drew" <michael@penduluminaction.com>
Date: Apr 2, 2013 4:32 PM
Subject: "We" Cycle Times: Viral This Week

"WE" CYCLE TIMES GET STARTED CURRENT PROMOTION BLOG CONTACT US

Red Box with 2 Pink Rectangles: The Facebook Profile Pic Sweeping Across Social Media You might have noticed some of your Facebook Friends changing their profile picture over to the last couple of days to something that looks like the image above. Discover what it is and why celebrities and hundreds of thousands of people are adopting it as their Facebook profile picture… Click to Continue Reading >> Crowd-ing: "We" Strategies for Business Success   Human connection. A touch. A glance. Their power is irrefutable. These are things that every human seeks. We are hardwired biologically to reach out and be a part of something greater than ourselves, to have someone see us, really see us. You may be wondering, "I can see how this affects my personal and home life, but how does a need for connection affect my business?" But how does it not affect your business? Read on to learn more… Click to Continue Reading >> "I'm Google" - A Visual Exploration of Google Image Search Discover this online art exhibition by Dina Kelberman that takes seemingly random and mundane photos from Google Image Search and compiles them into such a way that truly conveys an awe-inspiring display of the power of community… Click to Continue Reading >> Fast Fashion - So Last Season? As the "We" cycle progresses, consumers no longer want "fast fashion" - cheap and plentiful clothing with origins that no one asked about, as was the case in the "Me" cycle. Brands are adapting to this change with the introduction of eco-friendly clothing lines. Check out how the red carpet is turning "green"…! Click to Continue Reading >> Staying In Touch With Social Culture Social culture is a trend you need to follow to stay ahead in today's fast moving world of communication. Building a community means you need to use powerful words and images to make people think differently. If you're an active message spreader, it's your duty to do your best to get your message across and communicate with the social culture of now. Discover how… Click to Continue Reading >> Dear Gorilla - I Quit! All is fair in love and photography? Well according to Thomas Hawk it isn't. He and other photographers have taken a stand against Getty Images with its "Me" Cycle ways. See how the drama unfolded… Click to Continue Reading >> Societal Values During The "Me" and "We" cycles of the Pendulum Check out these brilliant images that simply and concisely convey the prevalent social values during each cycle (100% Creative Commons so please share and use freely!) Click to Continue Reading >> Get a FREE Copy of Pendulum NETWORK WITH US 1 year coaching LIVE online trainings with Roy H. Williams Find out more

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"a patch of sky"

From the interview Kritsa Tippett has with Natalie Batalha:

Ms. Batalha: So what we're doing is we're measuring the brightnesses of stars. We're not actually taking pictures of stars and planets. We're measuring their brightnesses. And in this one patch of sky that we're looking at, like you said, there are millions of stars, literally 4.5 million stars near the Milky Way, the plain of the Milky Way, a patch of sky that's about the size of my open hand, you know, stretched out in front of me. 

And we've chosen about 150,000 that we're monitoring. So we collect the light through a space telescope and that light is sent down to a detector, which is just an array of CCDs. It's exactly what you have in your digital camera when you take a picture. And those detectors are measuring the amount of light that falls on them from these 150,000 stars. So we take a measurement of all these stars simultaneously once every 30 minutes, and we've been doing that for three and half years [laugh]. 

And the point is, you take these measurements and you want to do it without blinking because eventually some of those stars are going to have planetary systems that are orbiting and aligned in such a way that the planet will pass directly between our telescope and the star. And when it does that, that planet is going to cast its shadow out into space and that shadow is going to sweep across our telescope and our detectors are going to perceive that as a dimming of light. So that's how we're inferring the existence of the planets. Those signals are tiny and they last, you know, a couple of hours and they repeat once every year. So you really do need patience. You need to stare at these things consistently without blinking waiting for these signals to occur.

So that is "a patch of sky that's about the size of my open hand"
Yes, your hand, stretch it out and see how big it is.

Listen to the whole interview here:  http://www.onbeing.org/program/on-exoplanets-and-love/5029

Compass Lite

From my RSS Feed from TechCocktail I find this

Compass Lite is a free web app that asks users to choose between  “Me?” or “Not Me?” by way of a visual slider that presents a set of character traits and/or tasks. This winnowing down leads users to an interactive display of career opportunities that match the user’s personality, organized by education level.  Detailed information about careers, salary ranges, career outlook, and academic programs are offered as well. 

This is a far cry from searching through lists of majors and careers, or making career decisions based on projected salary. It’s easy to lose track of time choosing between “Me?” or “Not Me?” and before you know it, you’re presented with an interactive dashboard tailored to your answers – with actionable recommendations.

As an experiment of one, I tried the survey answering me or not me for each photo. Quick and easy, it seemed to peg me pretty well.

How does this work for you?

Note: it seems to require a login via your Facebook account. I didn't find a way other than that. It does let you select how you'll broadcast the updates (and for the trial I selected "only me").

You can try Compass Lite here   https://compasslite.woofound.com/sign_in

Detail signals good service

I recall a story by Danny Meyer, owner of several restaurants in NYC noted for good food and excellent service. He told of a signal set by the person who seated a party at their table. If they had been told of the daily specials, the salt and pepper shakers were positioned with the sugar dispenser in one way, if they hadn't been, they were positioned in the other way. A simple device, it depends upon consistency and discipline but can pay big dividends when the next person to the table doesn't have to repeat what has already been said.

At a family wedding, a similar device was used by the serving staff. As they distributed coffee cups to the table, people ask if they wanted coffee and if they wanted regular or decaf. If they wanted coffee, they got a cup and saucer and were then told to keep it upside down until the coffee server came around.

upside down cup indicates decaf coffee

The coffee servers when they came to each table were able to carry one carafe of coffee at a time. Better to serve easily without spilling, and they still saved time as they did not need to ask if the person wanted regular or decaf. That decision was already made and indicated by the position of the cup.

The coffee when it was served was both good and Hot!

What kind of signal can you set for your service delivery to help the delivery process?

It may take some time to work out but should provide you (and your customers) some lasting benefits!


For more on Danny Meyer, consider visiting the wikipedia page which is rich with links to follow

Grand Central Lights (video)

I have followed the exploits of ImprovEverywhere for several years. This event they conducted recently in Grand Central Station is creative, simple and well executed.




What can you think of doing in your area?



For additional ImprovEverywhere adventures http://improveverywhere.com/

Amaryllis - Day 34

The blossoms continue to expand. You can detect that while there were two distinct blossoms, there is now also a third fitting in there too!

amaryllis - day 34

what are you doing today to blossom?

"I have a dream"

In a world where injustice still exists, where inequality still thrives, we must remember why this day is a holiday.

"To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction."

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., The Purpose of Education


Spend less than 20 minutes to listen (or listen again) to "I have a dream"




How can you help to make this dream come true?

mindfullness

There is so much happening and it is so early in the new year.

Aunt Martina's wake is later today, funeral tomorrow
http://jerrysherlockstory.blogspot.com/2013/01/martina-b-sherlock-higgins.html

One of the classmates of my daughters died suddenly on Sunday
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/01/kaitlyn-b-schlegel.html

Preparations for Allison's wedding continue to make progress. My quick line is I don't have to do much; just walk down the aisle and write the check. Can't really get away from all the rest of the preparations though!

Hence, in the middle of all of this, it was refreshing to spend time listening to

Opening to Our Lives: Jon Kabat-Zinn's Science of Mindfulness (Dec 27, 2012) [encore]Jon Kabat-Zinn has learned, through science and experience, about mindfulness as a way of life. This is wisdom with immediate relevance to the ordinary and extreme stresses of our time -- from economic peril, to parenting, to life in a digital age.