Chris Bliss - Juggling Finale

Chris Bliss juggles to the Beatles' songs "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight".

Bianca Ryan - 11-Year-old Singing Sensation

Bianca Ryan (born 1994) is a singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who is a finalist on NBC's America's Got Talent.

When she auditioned she sang Jennifer Holliday's "And I'm Telling You (I'm Not Going)", surprising the crowd and the judges with her impressive voice, unusual for an 11-year old child.

After performing "Piece of My Heart", barefoot a la Janis Joplin, at the semi-finals, Bianca was announced the viewers' choice that week on America's Got Talent, and went on to win the million dollar finale.

Our Founding Illegals

A Trip Through Costco - with Jimmy Kimmel

Google 411

Google's new 411 service is free, fast and easy to use. Give it a try now and see how simple it is to find and connect with local businesses for free.

21 Tips for Today

Sent by Lauren:

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't:

• ...believe all you hear;
• ...spend all you have; or
• ...sleep all you want.
  

FOUR. When you say, 'I love you ,' mean it.

FIVE. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.

SIX . Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dream.. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN.. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know? '

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN.. Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson!

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's:

• Respect for self;
• Respect for others; and
• responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

What Chefs do when they are bored

A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure

Brett Kelly

• Do your weekly review when you’re damn good and ready - Make sure to never even attempt to schedule a regular time for your weekly review. Friday afternoon, Saturday night, Wednesday during lunch. You’re a busy person with a dynamic life - you clearly can’t be expected to block out 1-2 hours per week!
• Give your projects really ambiguous, confusing names - A few good examples might be “kitchen” or “make more money”. After all, you’ll look at “kitchen” and clearly know exactly what that means and what you need to do about it. All this stuff about how your brain is unreliable is a bunch of bull! I don’t recall hearing about how Einstein did GTD, do you?
• Make sure your never know when a project is done - Because you’ll know when you can fill in the checkbox next to “Be a better person”, right? I mean, come on, there has to be some little contentedness switch in my head once I’ve crossed this line.
• Don’t practice GTD at home - Your work is serious business. That’s where you make your money, that’s where the advancement, hell it’s the source of most of what makes your life work! What do I care if my house looks like a toy factory and a book factory got into an Epic Battle right in the middle of it? My personal life is a snap compared to work, I don’t need any help there, thanks… sheesh…
• Make sure your filing system consists of unholy amounts of papers and crap strewn around your entire physical life - My office is too full of stuff to make room for a filing cabinet! I’ve had this “unorthodox” filing system for years and it’s only let me down… well, a couple of times. But who has the time to organize when you have as much stuff as I do!
• Never keep a pen and paper on your person - If I get stopped in the hallway by a coworker, they need to realize that I can’t be expected to take serious note of those types of conversations. I have a desk, email, voicemail and an (overflowing) in-basket for a reason. What, should I take out my hipster PDA while I’m taking a leak just because I happen to have an idea?
• “My email inbox is my to-do list” - I’m perfectly fine having an email from my wife about cupcakes right along side an email from my boss about a new acquisition. They’re all projects, right? I know what to do with them when I see them - and if I have time, I do it! Besides, every single thing I’m responsible for comes through my email! Well, except for phone calls. Oh, and voicemails. Oh, and…

Stay Efficient

"It's easy to overestimate how much you can do in a year but underestimate how much you can do in five."

National Geographic's "Amazing Eats"

Nasty...just nasty.

My Next Set of "Wheels"

Driving's Do's & Don'ts

FedEx "on the road" marketing

click for full version

Popcorn Chicken

Salsa Dancing

You Might Be Floridian if...

• "Down South" means Key West.
• "Panhandling" means going to Pensacola.
• You think no one over 70 should be allowed to drive.
  
• Flip-flops are everyday wear.
  
• Shoes are for business meetings and church.
  
• No, wait -- flip-flops are good for church, too, unless it's Easter or Christmas.
  
• Sweet tea can be served at any meal.
  
• An alligator once walked through your neighborhood.
  
• You smirk when a game show's "Grand Prize" is a trip or cruise to Florida.
  
• You measure distance in minutes.
  
• You have a drawer full of bathing suits, and one sweatshirt.
  
• You get annoyed at the tourists who feed seagulls.
  
• All the local festivals are named after a fruit.
  
• A mountain is any hill 100 feet above sea level.
  
• You think everyone from a bigger city has a northern accent.
  
• You know the four seasons really are: almost summer, summer, not summer but really hot, and Christmas.
  
• It's not soda, cola, or pop -- it's coke, regardless of brand or flavor: "What kinda coke you want?"
  
• Anything under 95 is just warm.
  
• You've hosted a hurricane party.
  
• You go to a theme park for an afternoon and know when to get on the best rides.
  
• You pass on the right and honk at the elderly.
  
• You understand the futility of exterminating cockroaches.
  
• You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee, and Withlacoochee.
  
• You understand why it's better to have a friend with a boat than have a boat yourself.
  
• Bumper stickers on the pickup in front of you include:
• various fish
  
• NRA
  
• a confederate flag
  
• You were eight years old before you realized they made houses without pools.
  
• You were 12 when you first met someone who couldn't swim.
  
• You get angry when people say, "Florida isn't really part of the SOUTH."
  
• You've worn shorts and used the A/C on Christmas.
  
• You know what the "stingray shuffle" is and why it's important!
  
• You recognize Miami-Dade as "Northern Cuba." The south ends in the Ocala/Gainesville area, and then North Cuba begins.

Farting Fish

Husbands Of The Year

Need a Hobby?

Just being able to ride on these things is a challenge, but then somebody decided to take it to another level

Talking Cats

"I'm Reacting As Fast As I Can!" Four Sanity-Saving Tips

BECK ON CALL
I'm Reacting As Fast As I Can!

Ahem: Martha Beck wants your attention at once. No time? Then attend to her four sanity-rescuing techniques.


Remember the phrase "Knowledge is power?" Ah, those were the days. One Sunday edition of The New York Times contains more information than all the written documents in the world during the 15th century. These days, the average office worker receives more than 200 messages a day via snail mail, e-mail, express mail, cell phone, landline, wireless Web, bicycle messenger, singing telegram, you name it. Taking in information these days is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

The problem is that while information has no limits, human attention does. Our brains are designed to filter out most stimuli, focusing on just a few things at once. If we try to multi-task in too many directions, our brains begin to act exactly like what they are: overloaded electrical circuits. In extreme situations we may "blank out," literally becoming unable to perceive whatever is yammering for our attention.

Attention Management 101
As noted in The Attention Economy, (Harvard Business School Press) analysts at a major business research institute recently conducted an in-depth study of attention and developed strategies for managing the attention of a corporate staff. The same principles apply to managing your own attention, both at work and at home.

1. Accept that you can't pay attention to everything you "should."
Because the information explosion is so recent, we still have beliefs left over from a time when there was much less competition for our attention. We believe we should be able to stay on top of everything. Your first step in effective attention management is to jettison this exaggerated sense of what you should be able to process. Get it through your head: There is too much information for you to handle! Good. Now that we've cleared that up, you can relax and deal with the reality of living in a world packed with attention demands.

2. Make prioritizing a priority.
If you start a day without a clear plan about how you're going to spend your attention, you'll end up wasting most of it. Your first priority should be to take a little undisturbed time each day to evaluate the various demands on your attention before they show up. Do your prioritizing whenever you typically think most clearly (most people do best in the morning, but I like to take five minutes before I go to bed to preview the upcoming day). Rank tasks in order of importance and write them down. That way, when you're being hounded for attention you'll have a visual cue to help you focus on the most significant task first, leaving less necessary items for later—or for never.

3. Plan with eagle vision.
In some American Indian cultures, the eagle symbolizes a way of seeing that stays above ordinary life, considering everything in terms of the big picture. This is the way you should think during your daily attention-management planning sessions. It helps to begin a session by asking yourself these two questions: (1) What experiences do I want to have during my time on this Earth? and (2) How do I want the world to be different (because in large ways or small, it will be different) because I have lived?

Consider each task on your to-do list in light of these two questions. If a to-do item doesn't serve either purpose, it's got to go.

4. Work with mouse vision.
Once your eagle-vision plan is in place, it's time to play mouse. Mouse vision is an American Indian metaphor for adopting a mind-set focused directly and completely on whatever is in front of you. Choose what is most important, shut out distractions, and give all your attention to the activity at hand.

To get into a mousy frame of mind, designate a period of time during which you will focus entirely on a given activity. The session shouldn't be long—half an hour is a good start. Now, set a timer to go off when your work session is finished. Put the clock where you can't see it, and then devote all your attention to the task at hand. You'll immediately notice a jump in productivity.

Creating Hardworking Idiots

The German World War II general Erich von Manstein is said to have categorized his officers into four types. The first type, he said, is lazy and stupid. His advice was to leave them alone because they don’t do any harm. The second type is hard-working and clever. He said that they make great officers because they ensure everything runs smoothly. The third group is composed of hardworking idiots. Von Manstein claims that you must immediately get rid of these, as they force everyone around them to perform pointless tasks. The fourth category are officers who are lazy and clever. These, he says, should be your generals. Discovering this information set me to wondering how General von Manstein’s categories might apply to business organizations today.

Lazy and Stupid

Most organizations have some managers within them who are lazy and stupid—at least, that has been my experience. Would you agree with the general that you can leave them alone, because they do no harm? I doubt it. Most organizations claim they try to get rid of any employee who is found to be lazy, let alone stupid as well. Maybe they try, but they don’t seem to be so successful, judging by the number who are left, some even in fairly exalted positions. Maybe one reason for this is that lazy and stupid people rarely do much active harm. The harm they do is more often based on missing opportunities and stifling the creativity of those who report to them. Bad enough, but not always easy to turn into clear grounds for dismissal—especially if the person in question is protected by someone powerful. Still, my guess is that even lazy and stupid people today realize that the best route to self-preservation is at least to appear busy and active.

Hardworking and Clever

Von Manstein’s next group is made up of hardworking, clever people. Organizations mostly want as many of these as they can get, for obvious reasons. But you’ll notice that the general seems to confine them to the military equivalent of middle management: jobs that are aimed at making everything run smoothly. I suspect one reason is that such people do make excellent administrators. They can take orders from above and turn them into practical ways of achieving the desired results. Some are so useful in these roles that they are never allowed to rise higher. Others maybe want to progress, but lack something that—at least in von Manstein’s view—is essential to become a good general. That something, it seems, is laziness. He wants the choice of generals to be made from people who are clever, naturally, but also lazy. Why should that make them better top executives?

Lazy and Clever

One reason might be that laziness is the principal spur to creativity. Lazy people are always looking for easier, simpler, and less arduous ways to do things. If they are also clever, the chances are that they will find them, and make them available to everyone else. Lazy people are also natural delegators, and find it very attractive to let their subordinates get on with their work without interference from above. Lazy, but bright, generals would be likely to make sure they focused on the essentials and ignored anything that might make for unnecessary work, whether for themselves or other people. In fact, it’s hard to see why you would not want your top managers to be as lazy as they are clever. It would indeed make them great strategists and leaders of people.

Hardworking Idiots

Now to the last group: the ones von Manstein said that you should get rid of immediately. That group is made up of people who are hardworking idiots, in his words. He says such people force those around them into pointless activities. I don’t know about you, but I suffered from several bosses I would unhesitatingly put into precisely that category. They were extremely hardworking—and demanded the same from their subordinates—but what they set others to work on (and what they spent their own time in doing) was mostly worthless. Maybe they were actually lazy and stupid people trying hard to seem busy, but too stupid to choose the right things to be busy about. It certainly felt like busyness for its own sake, and it was hateful. Or were they naturally hardworking idiots? Some probably were, but it’s my opinion that most such people are clever enough. It is the organization that makes them function like morons.

Today’s fast-paced, macho style of organizational culture creates, and then fosters, the hardworking idiot. Indeed, I think it takes a great many sound, useful, hardworking, and clever people and turns them into idiots by denying them the time or the opportunity to think or use their brains. If you don’t look busy all the time, you’re virtually asking for a pink slip, never mind what it is that you are doing—or whether it is actually of any use to the organization or its customers. It’s all so rushed and frenetic. If all that matters is “meeting the numbers” and getting things done (whatever those things are), managers will be forced into working hard at projects that they know make no sense.

The dumbing down of organizations isn’t caused by poor educational standards or faulty recruitment. It’s due mostly to the crazy pace that is set, and the obsessive focus on the most obvious, rigidly short-term objectives. The result is a sharp increase in hardworking idiots: people who are coerced into long hours and constant busyness, while being systematically forced to act like idiots by the culture around them. Don’t ask questions. Don’t cause problems by thinking, or waste time on coming up with new ideas. Don’t think about the future, or try to anticipate problems before they arise. Just keep at it, do exactly what is expected of you, and always get the most done in the least amount of time and at the lowest cost. If von Manstein is correct, the result will be that more and more employees will be used to perform essentially pointless tasks. Isn’t that exactly what we see?

I think that even a fairly cursory look around most organizations today would confirm the accuracy of this observation. Consider all the time wasted in unnecessary meetings. The obsessive emphasis on staying in touch, regardless of need. The torrents of e-mails, most of which are simply copies of documents of no direct relevance to the people to whom they are sent. The constant collecting of data for no clear reason. Management by numbers and motivation by numerically-based performance measures. Trust replaced by obsessive control and leadership by forced ranking of subordinates against vague criteria determined by committees with no idea of the specific circumstances.

You do not need ethical insight or human understanding to operate a machine, and machines are how many of today’s leaders see their organization: machines for making quick profits, not civilized communities of people working together to a common end. We can only hope some organizations at least see the error of their ways before the hardworking idiot becomes the commonest creature in the hierarchy. We are well on the way to that point, which is probably why so many people cherish dreams of getting out of the corporate rat race. It’s no fun to be forced to deny your own intelligence on a daily basis. We can still reverse the trend, but only by dropping the current out-dated dogmas, dangerous half truths, and total nonsense that disfigure management thinking. Let’s do it before it is too late.

Adrian Savage is a writer, an Englishman, and a retired business executive, in that order. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. You can read his posts most days at Slow Leadership, the site for everyone who wants to build a civilized place to work and bring back the taste, zest and satisfaction to leadership.

Talk To The Hand!

Feline Pillow Talk

Why I Won't Eat In Asia

Pilots reportedly slept during overnight flight

Two commercial pilots allegedly fell asleep on a flight between Baltimore and Denver, with one pilot waking up to "frantic" calls from air traffic controllers warning them they were approaching the airport at twice the speed allowed.

View article...

Flow Chart

Traits of Stress-Hardy, Resilient People

From Craig Childs

Stress shouldn't be something that takes control of your life, or even affect it. I'm of the school of thought that stress is a choice, and you have complete control.

The idea is to take your worries and what makes you stressed and turn them into positive reactions. For instance, if you're 'stressed' about how little money you have, you have two choices:

1. Stress about it.
2. Do something about it.

StressToPower.com writes something similar. This is about character traits of people who are stress-resilient - or essentially stress free. See how many you relate to:

They know how to mourn the inevitable losses in life. They know how to let go of things they have no control over.

Traits of Stress-Hardy, Resilient People - [StressToPower]

Dog Playing Dead ...but one small giveaway

Nine Minutes of Pure Medicine

You Will Never See Me Here...

How to Impress Your Boss

How to make giant soap bubbles

There are four things you cannot recover...

Lil' LJ - Down Wit Dat

Woman's Letter to Tide

Dear Tide:

I am writing to say what an excellent product you have! I've used it all of my married life, as my mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties I find it even better! In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse. My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to belittle me about how clumsy I was, and generally started becoming a pain in the neck. One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with his blood on my new white blouse! I grabbed my bottle of Tide with bleach alternative, and to my surprise and satisfaction, all of the stains came out! In fact, the stains came out so well the detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse were negative and then my attorney called and said that I was no longer considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband.

What a relief! Going through menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect! I thank you, once again, for having a great product.

Well, gotta go... have to write to the Hefty bag people.

Chocolate Calories

A good piece of chocolate has about 200 calories. As I enjoy two servings per night, and a few more on weekends, I consume 3,500 calories of chocolate in a week, which equals one pound of weight per week.

Therefore...

In the last 3 1/2 years, I have had a chocolate caloric intake of about 180 pounds. I weigh only 165 pounds, so without chocolate, I would have wasted away to nothing about three months ago!

I owe my life to chocolate.

Hurricane Dean update

As of August 19, 9:43 AM CDT

• Location: About 130 miles, 210 km, east-southeast of Kingston Jamaica and about 215 miles, 345 km, West-Southwest of Port Au Prince Haiti.
• Lat/Long: 17.0N, 75.1W
• Max Winds: 145 mph
• Category: 4
• Heading: West
• Speed: 18 mph
• Pressure: 27.34 inches

Live Tracking

Real Men of Genius - Mr. Really Really Bad Dancer

Real Men of Genius - Houston Traffic

The Real Men of Genius guys have been wildly popular since 2000. In this clip from Fox 26 morning show, they rant about the traffic in Houston. While we don't recommend having a bud light while driving, we can relate to congestion on Houston streets (Katy Freeway over the past weekend comes to mind).

Dinner with the dung beetles

Get Energized! - The Natural Way

Do you often complain of being tired or don't seem to have enough energy to do what you need to do or what you want to do? If so, you're not alone. A lack of energy is a major problem and one of the biggest complaints doctors hear from their patients. It's a very, very encompassing subject because so many people suffer from energy problems. And not just in this country, but around the world. But there are natural treatments to help you deal with this - and they're amazing. What are some of these treatments?

The number one treatment for fatigue and for increasing your energy is ginseng. In fact, ginseng tops the list around the world - both American ginseng and also Siberian ginseng that's in the same family as the Asian ginseng but probably a little better.

Other herbs that can help boost your energy level include guarana and maté, which are extensively cultivated and used in South America; rhodiola, a not-so-common herb used in countries from Scandinavia to Siberia to Asia, but particularly in Tibet as an energy and stamina booster; and finally, cordyceps, which is a mushroom that is grown on soybean cultures and widely used in Asia. It's quite a fascinating fact that all around the world people face the same identical problem of not having enough energy to simply do the things they want or need to do.

Of course, you don't want to take just anything to boost your energy level or to drive your body to a high energy level. You also want to enable your body to use energy more efficiently. There are certain herbs, particularly guarana and maté, that have a caffeine-like compound that can help you do just that. They are called isomers and they function similar to caffeine but don't cause any of the jitteriness that caffeine can cause.

When looking to boost your energy level, don't just take something to speed your body up. You need to also make your body more efficient by helping your body utilize more oxygen. Some of the ingredients I listed here can actually help your cells take up and use oxygen more efficiently - and that's one of the real keys to increasing your energy so that you can accomplish what God has called you to do.

For more information on Dr. Cherry's ministry, visit his Web site: http://www.AbundantNutrition.com

Monkeying Around

A heating and cooling technician trained a small chimpanzee to help him. The chimp was the perfect assistant. He wasn’t afraid of heights. And because he was small, he could squeeze into ducts to work on them. Best of all, the technician didn’t need to pay him. One day, a customer called because his air conditioning was running and running. But the house didn’t seem to be cooling down. The technician examined the cooling system and found a problem in the ducts. The customer asked if it would be difficult to fix. “Nope,” said the technician. “I have a little duct ape that will fix the problem.”

Penguin Breakdown

A truck driver had to deliver five hundred penguins to the state zoo, but while driving through the desert the truck breaks down. After waiting by the side of the road for about three hours he waves a second truck down , offering the driver $500 to take the penguins to the state zoo for him.

The next day the first truck driver arrives in town and sees the second truck driver crossing the road with 500 penguins walking in single file behind him. The first truck driver jumps out of his truck and says, "What's going on? I gave you $500 to take these penguins to the zoo!"

The second truck driver replies, "I did take them to the zoo. And I had enough money left over so now we're going to see a movie."

Top Ten Silliest Questions Asked on a Cruise Ship

10. Do these steps go up or down?

9. What do you do with the beautiful ice carvings after they melt?

8. Which elevator do I take to get to the front of the ship?

7. Does the crew sleep on the ship?

6. Is this island completely surrounded by water?

5. Does the ship make its own electricity?

4. Is it salt water in the toilets?

3. What elevation are we at?

2. [To the onboard photographer who takes photos and displays them the next day]:
If the pictures aren't marked, how will I know which ones are mine?

1. What time is the Midnight Buffet being served?

FREE CONCERT! Todd Agnew - Live at SugarLand Town Square

Grace Like Rain
My Jesus
Unchanging One
This Fragile Breath

Also catch Todd live (acoustic) on the KSBJ Morning Show with Mike & Susan Wed morning starting at 7am.

Jul 18 2007 6:30PM - 8:30PM

Sugar Land Town Square Plaza

2711 Town Center Boulevard North, Sugar Land, TX 77479
www.toddagnew.com