Archive for June, 2007

Who remembers AllAdvantage or FreePC?

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

I’ve been a member of both. AllAdvantage had one of those deals where you downloaded a tool that showed you ads while you used your computer and paid you for looking. I remember that my co-workers and I all got it and we figured out that it was paying attention to mouse movement to decide if you were active or not. So of course one of my friends wrote a script that would move his pointer every few seconds so he could hit his max of “active” time (10-20 hours or something) in the first day of every month and then he could disable the ad banner until the following month. We made some change, but of course they eventually failed.

Then there was FreePC, where they offered you a Free PC and free dial-up Internet service (more…)

I walk the air with winged feet

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

My life is good. It always has been. I’ve been surprised about the way it’s gone a number of times, and I’ve lived through plenty of difficult times, but it’s good.

I’ve always felt lucky. My upbringing has taught me to be rational, but my one major exception has been a nagging belief in luck. I remember, as a teenager, saying that I wouldn’t believe in luck except that I always seemed to be so lucky. Maybe it’s just optimism and a positive outlook…if you have a good attitude about whatever happens to you then you will tend to feel that positive things happen to you.

Regardless, life has been good. I went to good schools, I have known some really exceptional and wonderful people, I have had great jobs, and I’m married to an angel.

I mention all of that so you will understand my full meaning when I say that I feel as if the path I have been walking has led to a place where my feet leave the ground, where each step takes me farther and farther until I skip from peak to ridge to jungle in as many steps, the landscape changing around me almost faster than I can believe. And yet I feel unhurried and more peaceful than I have ever been, as if I am still and the landscape streaks past.

My relationship with my wife Em has become so deep and close that I almost feel like it’s the fault of my eyes that I can’t see the bright light that must be shining around us and between us.

I made a leap to change careers and have found myself in my dream job with a bright future.

I’m becoming more involved in my family.

I’ve become acquainted with the concept of spirituality.

Life has become so easy…there are no problems, only bends and twists in the path that I can’t see past. But just because I can’t see around the next bend doesn’t mean it’s hard to walk around it.

And, of course, as all of this happens, I keep encountering influences that accelerate it.

Luck? I don’t believe in luck. ;-)

I’ll be writing about some of those influences in the coming weeks. If any of this resonates with you, then perhaps you might benefit from them as well.

Buying for Dummies

Monday, June 11th, 2007

I have come to the conclusion that many Americans don’t know how to buy things. Ok, that may be a stretch for those who look around and see the Land of Consumerism, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say that many Americans aren’t very good at buying things.

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Zen and the Art of Ballroom Dancing

Monday, June 11th, 2007

Dan and Em competing in Smooth

As often happens when teaching, the teacher ends up learning. In the years that I’ve been teaching dance, I’ve learned a lot myself. The most significant thing I’ve learned is that ballroom dance is a rather zen activity, meaning the philosophy that pervades dance is generally applicable to living life, as well.

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Microlending with a heart

Friday, June 8th, 2007

So I found out about microlending and have signed up with prosper.com to lend money to people in increments of $50. So far I’ve just gotten as far as registering with the site (a somewhat complex process) and transferring $100 that I’ll lend out to two people once I pick two worthy loans.

I pointed Em to Prosper.com and she then pointed me to an article entitled Microlending: An Anti-Poverty Success Story and then to www.kiva.org where you can loan money (no interest…this isn’t a money-maker) to someone in the developing world via credit card or PayPal. (more…)

Living consciously

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

I’ve been working my way to this for a long time, and, in many ways, I’m already doing this. Nonetheless I hereby formally announce my intention to live consciously.