mesmerizing?

Is It Anti-American to Eat Turkeys for Thanksgiving?

The clever turkeys in the cartoon above made me think of the story I’ve heard about how Benjamin Franklin wished that the turkey, instead of the American Bald Eagle, had been chosen as the animal representative of our country.

I did a Google search & dug this up:

Franklin’s Letter to His Daughter (excerpt)

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

“With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .

“I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Benjamin Franklin was a helluvaguy!

May your Thanksgiving be filled with joy, magic and fun!

How to get really, really high… naturally

These are not the natural highs i'm talking about

Pssst… Hey blog reader… wanna get high?

I found a list of Natural Highs on a Q&A forum at student resource website for Columbia University students. This is way cool.

Although there are times I indulge in consuming alcholol, there are times when I’m offered a drink and decline because it would just kill my natural high.

This list is great for you if you have either chosen to stop using drugs or alcohol or is battling depression, heartache, or boredom. Or if you just want to feel good for no good reason!

Falling in love. Laughing so hard your face hurts. A hot shower. No lines at the store. A special glance. Getting mail. Taking a drive on a pretty road. Hearing your favorite song on the radio. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside. Hot towels out of the dryer. Walking out of your last final. Finding the sweater you want is on sale for half price. Chocolate milkshake. A long distance phone call. Getting invited to a dance. A bubble bath. Giggling. A good conversation. A care package. The beach. Finding a $20 bill in your coat from last winter. Laughing at yourself. Midnight phone calls that last for hours. Running through sprinklers. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all. Having someone tell you that you’re beautiful. Laughing at an inside joke. Friends. Falling in love for the first time. Slumber parties. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep. Your first kiss. Being part of a team. Making new friends or spending time with old ones.

Playing with a new puppy. Late night talks with your roommate that keep you from sleeping. Having someone play with your hair. Sweet dreams. Hot chocolate. Road trips with friends. Swinging on swings. Watching a good movie cuddled up on a couch with someone you love. Wrapping presents under the Christmas tree while eating cookies and drinking eggnog. Song lyrics printed inside your new CD so you can sing along without feeling stupid. Going to a really good concert. Getting butterflies in your stomach every time you see that one person. Making eye contact with a cute stranger. Winning a really competitive game. Making chocolate chip cookies! Having your friends send you homemade cookies! Spending time with close friends! Running through the fountains with your friends. Riding a bike downhill. The feeling after running a few miles — an accomplishment! The feeling you get the first time you step on stage. Seeing smiles and hearing laughter from your friends. Holding hands with someone you care about. Wearing your boyfriend’s shirt that still smells like his cologne. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change. Discovering that love is unconditional and stronger than time. Riding the best roller coasters over and over. Hugging the person you love. Watching the expression on someone’s face as they open a much-desired present from you. Kisses on your forehead from the first and only boy you have ever loved. Watching the sunrise.

If you want to check out the Columbia student website, you can click here.

Now, go & do your best to get really high today!

Stress: good AND bad… at the same time?

When you take molten liquid (SUPER HOT) glass and let it drip into ice-cold water it cools so rapidly that the stress is compressed into the core of the glass, making it virtually indestructible… UNLESS you find it’s weak spot!

When you flick their ‘tail’… KA! BOOM! they explode.

This process, called tempering, is what makes car windshields so strong, yet safe when they finally do break.  Why safe?  Well this way they break into lots of small pieces instead of big sharp, knife-like pieces which can sever an arm or other important body-part.

By the way, these ‘explosive’ drops are called Prince Rupert’s drops (named after a 17th-century amateur scientist.

Watch this video and feel free to show it to someone who has pent up stress that needs to be released safely… before their weak spot is accidentally (or purposefully) tapped.

Graffiti that moves… literally!

Whoa! I found some of the wildest art I have ever seen in my life.

It’s grafitti… and I’m not a big fan of graffiti (in general).  But this– this is different!  Waaay different.  It is animation (as in cartoon or clay-mation or stop-motion photography).  Meaning, this is graffiti that is re-painted thousands of times to create motion with video.

All I can say is… Watch it!  Not only does this graffiti move… it will probably move you:

Mancrush? Is it weird if I have a ‘robocrush’!?

If you don’t know what Twitter is… well, ummm… that’s NOT cool. So go find out (Twitter explained in plain English). Then come back and read this post.

Turns out NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory decided to use Twitter to keep anyone interested in the Phoenix rover on Mars up to date with its MarsPhoenix Twitter.

The MarsPhoenix Twitter sends tweets in the first person! It’s really cool, interesting, and at times HILARIOUS! Here are some of my favorite tweets from @MarsPhoenix:

I know it LOOKS easy, but you try following instructions sent from 182 million miles away! Next sample goes to microscope, poss Wednesday. 10:49 AM June 10, 2008

Mars orbiter MRO took this pic of Earth and the moon with its HiRISE camera/telescope in 2007: http://tinyurl.com/36kkjj How beautiful! 07:51 PM June 08, 2008

Tonight, go outside and look up at the crescent moon. That “star” just above the moon isn’t a star, it’s Mars. I’ll be waving 05:04 PM June 07, 2008

2nd most common Q: Microbes hitchhiking from Earth always a big concern. I was cleaned per Int’l protocols to protect Mars and other planets 10:12 PM June 06, 2008

So go “follow” @MarsPhoenix and post your own favorites in the comments below! Have Fun!

By the way, special thanks to Lee LeFever @ CommonCraft for ‘turning me on to’ @MarsPhoenix!

It’s True! A Real-Life Unicorn!

I don’t necessarily think unicorns are that cool, but I do have a 6-year-old daughter and she loves unicorns (so does my wife). So I do have an appreciation for Unicorns as ‘cool things’.

With that in mind, today while I was about to write a post about what I believe is one of the coolest consumer-product sites on the internet, I found a very cool image of a real-life Unicorn in Florence, Italy.

It’s actually a unicorn deer. If you like Unicorns, you’ll LOVE this…

More details here: http://www.productwiki.com/home/image/unicorn-deer.html

Treehugger – quite cool

I would not consider myself a “treehugger”. In fact I believe that Humans have always displayed the ability to solve problems when they absolutely NEED to. (Somewhat sad but true.)

So with that caveat out of the way, I want to “turn you on” to a very cool website that you will probably enjoy too whether or not you consider yourself a “treehugger”.

And if you haven’t already guessed, it’s called: http://www.treehugger.com/

They’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of very cool articles on everything from:

Gardens On Barges For the Nautically Minded

to

Los Angeles Approves Plan to Seed Clouds for Rain with Silver Iodide

to

Energy Harvesting Rolling Sneaker Recharges Your Routine

Go check it out because even if you don’t think it’s cool to know about what TreeHuggers are thinking, it’s cool to keep up with creative, innovative and modern-day thinking.

How many people can you call & ask to buy YOU to lunch?

I have a great friend and mentor (I’ll call him Mr. T) who has been telling me for years to call people up and say, “Hey, why don’t you buy me lunch?”

Let me explain… He doesn’t suggest doing this with just anybody, but someone who either has knowledge, experience, skills or connection that I want– or am interested in for some reason. Although it should be noted that he does definitely believe (as do I) that everyone has something valuable to learn from.

So the point is, how many people can you call right now that you respect, admire or want so spend time with and say, “Hey! why don’t you buy me lunch sometime this week?” The catch is to actually have them say YES.

Oh! and friends and/or family that you are already comfortable with don’t count.

You might be asking yourself… “What’s the point?” Well, I just realized it a few minutes ago!

If your skills, knowledge, experience and connections aren’t high enough quality, most people will not think it worth their time (or money) to say yes… and you’ll probably be embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask if you don’t value yourself accordingly.

So, how many people can you call? If this makes you uncomfortable… time to get busy (improving your skills and worth)!

Why “I’m Broke” May Be The Best Affirmation (if it’s true)

I was reading Leading An Inspired Life by Jim Rohn (Anthony Robbins’ first mentor) and discovered that he proposes the best affirmations are the ones that will apply the GOYA technique.

In case you’ve never heard of the GOYA technique, it’s an acronym… Here let me spell it out for you:

G – Get

O – Off

Y – Your

A – Ass

So if you are broke, don’t be affirming that you are rich. Affirm clearly and powerfully that you are BROKE! And if you have any conviction whatsoever, you will be so disgusted that you will take massive action, add value to the world and not until THEN will you become rich. And remember, the more value you add to your customers, industry and community, the more money you will make.

By the way, if you have been applying “Law of Attraction” techniques with no action (and wondering why it ain’t workin’), this message ESPECIALLY applies to you!