Biking Question

I frequently get asked why I ride my mountain bike in either flip flips or bare foot.

The answer is…

…comfort. Mostly.

If my feet do not feel good, I don’t feel good. It’s the end of summer and I don’t see any reason why I should ride my mountain bike wearing sneakers. It’s stupid and it’s uncomfortable.

I had someone ask me yesterday about hitting curbs while wearing flip flops. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll hit a curb?”

My answer…what curbs?

This is where suburbia goes to see if its doing suburbia right.

Shoes while mountain biking? Don’t be silly.

Pork Watch: Ticket to Ride?

via the AP…

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On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.

Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107.

Just imagine how many other programs like this exist that you and I pay for.

Who doesn’t think Washington is corrupt now?

Top 10 Signs That Your Employees Think You Are A Jerk

via BNET…

Mad

1. You don’t know the difference between managing and micromanaging:

A good small business owner knows about more than just how to run his or her business and make a profit. Good bosses manage their employees, allowing them to do their jobs the best they can. Jerk bosses try and tell their staff how to do their jobs, down to ridiculous detail. If you spend more of your time on silly minutiae and less on the big picture, your employees probably don’t like working for you.

Follow the link above for the rest of them.

A Challenge to Myself

I couldn’t help but notice that I haven’t been writing a lot in the last year or so.

The truth is that I have been writing but not writing on my personal website nor have I really been doing much tweeting. Due to this observation I have decided to set a short term goal of writing 3 to 5 articles per day for the next week.

Will they be of use? I hope so.

As I make my way through Mac OS X Lion and all of the small issues that are coming up, I should have plenty to write about. (see the post below)

For example…

The first change I made after upgrading to Lion? I reversed the direction of scrolling. Honestly Apple? Really? Getting everyone used to a single direction of scrolling after a few years of everyday use and then deciding to change the direction was a disaster of a decision. Did you try that out on any everyday hardcore users? I’m guessing no.

I have read this morning that you will notice a speed increase after spotlight creates a searchable index file. If your system seems slow after the upgrade just wait a few hours and you should notice an increase in speed.

Three to five articles a day is a lot to someone who works two full time jobs. We’ll see how this goes.

How to Fix Your Skype Mic Problem in Lion

This was one of the first problems I encountered in Lion. The Skype “I want to automatically control your microphone input” problem that we’ve seen before. In the past, we would refer to the following via MacWorld…

Go there and bookmark the page…

The problem in Lion is that your Application Support library under your home directory is missing. Well, it’s not really missing. It’s just hidden from view.

To fix this problem, open up your Terminal (under Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and paste in the following statement and hit return.

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Next, you’ll need to restart your finder. I would recommend just rebooting your computer.

You should now be able to see all hidden files. Now you should be able to disable the automatic gain as instructed above. (I would recommend removing the MicVolume statement all together as it is simply not needed.)

Now when you run Skype you should have complete control of your microphone input level.

The Problems With Lion

Yes. I have upgraded to Mac OS X Lion.I’m a geek. Don’t be silly.

Here is a small list of things that broke when I upgraded.

My timer for recording podcasts. (got a new one)

My seriously old version of Photoshop. (I have a newer version that I’ve been waiting to install)

My recording software as a whole. (I have a backup that I just NOW got to work)

Is it enough to make me regret the upgrade?

Not in your life.

I expected things to break so no surprise there. The operating system is working great for everything else. I love “Mission Control” and think they finally got “Spaces” right.

The Ideal Candidate for President

I agree with Jimmie Bise on this one.

The ideal candidate for President is someone that loves America and it shows. It’s all they talk about. Their position on America’s place in the world is crystal clear and no one who ever hears a speech that they give will doubt that.

The ideal candidate will not attack any other candidate. They will not use phrases such as “well Bob, unlike my friend here, I believe that…” or “that Chuck, boy what a nutcase he is.” You get the idea. This candidate will not have a derogatory thing to say about their opponents because he/she will be focusing on other things, as it should be.

The ideal candidate will outline what our immediate problems are and outline what he/she will do to fix them. Not “pie in the sky” fixes based on a whole bunch of variables that they really have no control over. Instead of saying “the unemployment rate will never get above 8%” the ideal candidate will outline the steps they will do within the perview of the office to affect change.

The ideal candidate will not be big on social media. I would rather have the president tending the daily business of running a country and really don’t care if they tweet about what they had for lunch. Seriously.

The ideal candidate will be wise enough to realize that neither they nor anyone who works with them is smart enough to tell me how to live my life.

The ideal candidate will not tell me what to eat, how to eat, or ban things that I like to eat. It’s none of their business and the ideal candidate is smart enough to know that.

The ideal candidate will not talk about things that he/she doesn’t know.

The ideal candidate will realize that it’s “your” money and act accordingly.

It’s a shame that the ideal candidate no longer exists.

The ideal candidate sounds a lot like Ronald Reagan…

On Organization…

I actually never thought I’d ever write anything about organizing. Quite frankly, I only recently got my shit together when it comes to organizing not only my daily schedule but my entire life.

I thought I’d pass along something it took me years to learn.

Wanting to organize your life will not make it so. You actually will need to participate in a process that will involve doing certain things certain ways. It involves changing habits (mostly bad ones) into good habits and habits that will help you achieve your goals.

1. Get a planner and learn how to use it. I recommend Franklin-Covey. Life is a set of goals. You need goals in everything you do in order to be successful. Why? Why would you start a race without knowing where the finish line is? Life is no different. What are your goals? What would you like to achieve today? Would you rather write your marching orders or have someone else do it for you? A planner puts you in control of your life. It’s the difference between living “proactively” versus “reactively.”

2. Learn to set your work area in a certain way and then make sure that when you leave the area, everything is in it’s place. You should be able to spot when something is out of place by a quick glance. Keep your work area clean and clear of distractions. Do you know where your stapler is? Spare pens? The less time you spend on finding things the more time you can spend on the important things, whatever that happens to be for you.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as needed.

I have a friend who “cleans” and “organizes” his office only to have it fall back into the mess it was before he “cleaned” it a week later. His problem? Self discipline is missing. He continues to use the same bad habits such as leaving things sit where they obviously don’t belong with the philosophy of “I’ll get that later.” The problem is that by the time “later” rolls around the entire office looks like shit again. Without self discipline, you fight a losing battle.

Step 2 is vital to controlling this problem. Do you realize how much time you waste when you can’t find something in your office? Have you ever spent more than 10 minutes trying to find something? If your office was organized that 10 minutes turns into 10 secs or less and those minutes and seconds can really add up.

These things may seem simple but simple works. Keep it simple stupid is a philosophy I live by. While some may argue that I excel at the “stupid” part, I’d like to point out that as simple as I may be, I still know where my freaking calculator is.

Clearing Out Instapaper Links – Volume 1

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Photo of the week.

I’ll collected a few interesting stories in the last several weeks.

Here’s my list (with links) of some stories worth looking at.

10 Time-Savers That Aren’t Saving You Anything

Foreclosure Threatened if Homeowner Doesn’t Cough up $0.00, right damn now.

Culprits that Block Writers from Reaching a Pro Level

How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?

See Through LCD Displays Like They Have in Star Trek

While The Strong Survive, The Weak Sit On Twitter As If It Were Nintendo

Vegetable Diet Gives You Daughters

News Anchor Tricked Into Licking an iPad. Sorry, it never gets old.

Mac Yuppie or PC Nerd?

The Big June Update

It’s not really a “Big” update but I thought the title sounded good.

Being A Mac Whore…

I’ve had my iMac about 8 months now. With a 21″ screen, Core i3 processor (duo), and 8 gigs of RAM what is not to love? It was my first brand new iMac and the first Mac that I actually custom ordered.

8 months have gone by and now we have Thunderbolt (formally codenamed Light Peak) and I couldn’t wait any longer. I ordered another Mac. Why? Thunderbolt is a new kind of interface unlike USB or even firewire. Thunderbolt taps directly into the backbone of your computer making it “super” fast. What’s more interesting is the fact that this interface can be used by virtually any kind of peripheral you have. Printers, flat screens, external hard drives, and even controls for your home can all be used by the same interface.

No more searching around for the “right” cable. You have a Thunderbolt cable and it will work. Sweet.

The new iMac arrived this past weekend and it IS awesome! This time I opted for the 27″ model. Core i7 (quad 3.4 Gigahertz processors). 8 Gigs of RAM (the sweet spot). The speed of this thing is absolutely incredible.

As with USB when it was first introduced, I’ll have to wait for the Thunderbolt accessories. Not a problem. At the end of this month, we’ll be getting a RAID-5 cage which we’ll use to backup the Mac Server and our massive movie library and my Take That! Media files. I keep every show I’ve ever produced. Not sure if that’s a good thing…

The Day Job Chronicles

Last November, we lost an employee in one of our facilities and I was asked to assume that position. The problem had always been distance. I currently live 3 miles from our corporate office and this other facility is about 15 miles away. I haven’t been able to mountain bike in because of the distance and the fact that it’s a bit dangerous.

Well, it looks like I’ll be moving back to the corporate office in a few weeks. The mountain biking can continue and that makes me extremely happy.

In Conclusion…

As always, I search for ways to make the best use of my time and am continuing to utilize my Franklin Planner. I have backed away from producing podcasts over the weekend. After several years, I have come to realize that I seem to be the only one working 6 or 7 days a week on podcasting. My writing “to-do” list isn’t getting any smaller and I write my best stuff over the weekend. Therefore, I have made the command decision to spend my weekends on other things. Oh, yeah. There is the “spending time with the kids” thing too.

My current project list…

1. Day Job
2. Podcast Production (Take That! Media)
3. Radio Production (Premiere Radio Networks)
4. Writing Screenplay (about a year off and on to write this movie)
5. Writing Short Stories (I have about 10 really good stories to tell when I get the time)
6. Writing Novel (Sci-Fi, of course. Is there any other?)

Final Political Thought

As far as 2012 goes, my prediction is that Obama will win a second term. Why? Is it because he is soooo great and wonderful? Is it because he commands respect? Is it because he is sooo much smarter than you or I?

No.

The reason the Obama will get re-elected is because the opposition is a complete and total cluster fuck. Another military term that might also apply would be “goat fuck.” If there has ever been a time in history when the GOP is running around flailing its arms, this would be it.

You cannot win simply claiming that you should lead because of your moral superiority. That is pretty much all the Republicans have right now. In the last presidential election, John McCain was afraid to confront Obama on issues of his citizenship and it took Donald Trump to finally resolve the issue. The Republican leadership is either unable or unwilling to tackle the big things. Don’t try to play the game on the left’s terms. You define the terms. It’s time the GOP started putting the left up on the ropes. Make them define who they are and keep doing it so much that they don’t have time for anything else but defense. Pretty much what they are doing to the right as we speak (or type).

Thanks all I have right now.

Latest Audiobook & iBook

Two recommended books…

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me has got to be one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. I didn’t see an audio version but it is available in the iBook store. It’s the first full book I’ve read on the iPad.

I have to admit, I’ve never even heard of Chelsea Handler before I read this book.

Live Free or Die: Troy Rising by John Ringo is available at audible.com and has to be one of the best thought out sci-fi books I’ve listened to in a long time.

More from the Fringe…

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted something here on my older blog.

I find myself writing on my official “writer” blog more often these days. Perhaps, we are heading into the most optimum writing season?

The latest audible book is called “Primary Inversion” by Catherine Asaro. A very interesting read and a bit more technical than most things I listen to.

Writing software has hit a fever pitch as we attempt to create some cool new iPad apps. I find writing Apple software to be a bunch of fun and having said that, it certainly doesn’t feel like work.

This week, a few friends of mine have birthdays. Paul Croteau of FTR Radio, Karen Walker, and Amy Ross.

My ex-wife also has a birthday this week so a big “Happy Happy” to her.

Work has been a bit out of control lately with more on the way. Two full time jobs with a 3rd part time gig thrown in for good measure leaves me with about 30 minutes a day of just enough time to do the things I want to do.

I have the core podcasting group that I think I’ll have for a while and I’m grateful for that. It’s hard to find good people that you enjoy working with but I’m really blessed in that regard.

That’s all I can think of for now.

I’ll “check” in a bit later…