my shitlist

I'd like this for my office. Don't laugh; you may very well be on it.

Guy again

Good find on perception. It's obvious that many successful businessmen are extremely confident, but this article sort of brings about the causal relationship question of whether they're confident because they're effective or visa versa. It's likely circumstantial, but fun to think about.

Thanks, Guy.

disappointment.

Very few [non-romantic] emotions are as powerful as disappointment.

Twice in my life I've been disappointed by an individual of whom I had extremely high expectations; one being fairly recent, I'm still sorting through my thoughts. Although there's really no way to prevent life from happening, I think it's a good idea to really reflect on the things that significantly affect you. The best thing you can do at that point is to be sure that you turn it into a learning experience; so here is my effort.

If you're going to build yourself up, be certain that the platform you've installed is capable of supporting you.


bk

TravelSkoot

TravelSkoot is GoogleMaps' latest creation. It allows you to build your own "skoot" -- a trip of unlimited length that has sub-points of destination. Although it's basically limited to the usual NYC and LA at this point, it's only a matter of time before everyone catches on.

Looks pretty cool in the short range, don't know that I'd go searching for a vacation based on what someone else thought was fun. Barriers are very minimal; you can search without creating an account, but to build your own they ask for some info. Sure, it stunts creativity, but if you didn't have any to begin with it doesn't really matter.

Look out travel agents -- a large chunk of your job just became free.

bk

to be clear...

• intensity does not directly translate into effectiveness, nor does intimidation for that matter
• respect cannot be justifiably earned via facade [if this is your means, step slowly so as not to break the egg shells]
• falling short because you've focused so intently on building yourself up is worse than being less grand but meeting your quota
• "unapproachable" is not as far away as many businessmen think

go to work every morning thinking...

"If you are willing to satisfy people with good enough, you can make just about everybody happy. If you delight people and create change that lasts, you're going to offend those that hate change in all its forms."

- Seth Godin

i don't want any more email!

Why are you sending me an email to tell me that you understand that I don't want emails? And why does it take 10 days for your outsourced employee to search my address in a likely well-organized database and press the 'delete' key? I was under the impression India could also receive email in real time.

the ridiculousness of society never ceases to amaze me.

Jane, Author of Dear Jane Sample, posted some extremely disturbing / curious / phenomenally absurd book reviews found on Amazon. Normally, this wouldn't be noteworthy at all, except for the fact that the book they were criticizing is THE BIBLE! Don't jump to conclusions -- I realize many people criticize the Bible -- however, the blurbs are not based on the point of the book or religious disbelief, they are strictly on content. I kid you not. Here they are, for your enjoyment.

3 out of 5 stars - A decent sophomore effort. by W. Christan

For those of you who don’t know, this is God’s second novel after the Old Testament. It’s a marked improvement, in my opinion. He got rid of a lot of his previous angst and scorn, and has really begun to show some of the maturity present in his later works. He’s become a much more loving and kind God, and, noticeably, he doesn’t throw nearly as many tantrums as he did in the first book.

That said, there is still vast room for improvement. Plot wise, there isn’t really much suspense, and the story can be incredibly repetitive. In like four chapters, he just rewords the same basic story over and over again. To top that off, he puts those chapters one right after the other. Like we wouldn’t notice! I like the whole Jesus character, but let’s face it, the whole good guy martyr thing has been done before. There was no need to devote so much of the book to that guy.

If you’re really looking for a good God read, check out the Koran or the Book of Mormon. They’re much more polished. Plus, the storytelling in the Book of Mormon is wild. Some people say it goes too far and point to it as evidence that God’s over the hill, but I beg to differ. Just read it. God’s like a genius or something. I mean, magic spectacles! Tell me that isn’t awesome. I don’t know how he dreams up some of this crap

4 out of 5 stars - get it straight people by BLUE “BluThorn”

For all you people in stupid-ville out there, get it strraight that the events in the Bible are 100% real. You can check up on Egyptian history, the Queen from Cush came to visit King Solomon who really WAS the son of King David and even today people in Israel know their family descent as 1 of the 12 tribes. Ammonites, Hittites, etc all existed. There really WAS a man names Jesus of Nazereth who was nailed unto a T shaped crossas it was written in the Roman Chronicles. And a man named Saul (Paul) of Tarsus killed hundreds of Christians.

the REASON that the language in the King James Version Bible seems so odd with “begat” “hath” “thou” and stuff like that is because it was written in 1769 by the scholars of KING JAMES. You dumb people out there who think that it talks in a “wierd dialect” because it doesn’t sound “english” make me sick enough to puke.

So whether you want to believe it or the events in the Bible are historical fact as the same events are written by other civilizations that the Israelites and the Jewish people interacted with. As any Jew who IS really a Jew as in lineage to Israel and they will tell you which house/tribe they are from. And for those Jews who don’t know, shame on you go find out.

For all you Christians out there, give a pig a pearl and it will attack you for it. Understand? Don’t take it personally.

Watch out for 2 versions or more of the King James Version that is out. A few are from the corrupted text of Wescott and Hort, the CODEX VATICANUS and CODEX SINAITICUS. How do we know these are corrupt? Well Wescott and Hort who “found” these two had ties to several cults and when the texts are compared to the four gospels, the GOD and way of life does not match up.

Get the King James and not these other “revised” versions. Most of them take out from the Word and other add in. You want the Word directly from it’s scriptures without this transliteration stuff, then learn Aramaic and get the original scriptures.

Wow.

bk

knocked-off

eBay lost the case with Louis Vuitton and now owes the French handbag and accessories company $63 million in 'losses' stemming from the sale of counterfeit merchandise. The more well known case is between Tiffany & Co. and the online auctioner as it resides in the US, while the LVMH case is sitting in a French court.

It seems that the argument holds some of the characteristics of the ongoing debate over whether parents should pay for their children's mistakes; in a court of law it's much easier to punish eBay for not enforcing stricter regulations in order to directly combat the sale of counterfeit goods than it is to tackle each of those sellers individually. However, when you look at the bigger picture, what is the real problem, the portal or the seller? I think, specific to this occurrance, that the seller of said goods is the root of the issue, and should therefore be the brunt of the justice. Shutting down the means by which bootleggers sell will only result in an alternate outlet; attacking those same bootleggers with confiscation, fines or even jail time shuts down the operation and sets an example for others.

In the seller's defense -- a 900% mark-up on your product is merely asking for a clone. Scale down your pricing, since there's nothing spectacular about your bag anyway but you somehow managed to create a cultural obsession using only a name and perhaps some feaux animal part, and we wouldn't have nearly the issues. As for claiming $63M in losses, I think the judge should have based this number on production costs alone, which are likely closer to $6300.

Just another example of a misguided effort. At least the French are along for the ride.

bk