Jason Calacanis is an entrepreneur who started a blog publishing company in the early days of blogging. He started the company with nothing and eventually sold it to AOL and made millions of dollars. One of his blogs, Engadget, is a hugely popular tech blog. He has since started several other businesses himself and he works to help others start companies.
Jason appears on several podcasts that I listen to and I have always found him an interesting speaker. He recently gave a talk to a group of college students about the importance of choosing your own path and “being responsible for your own destiny”. His message is that you should be a Samurai and not a rice picker. Jason reminds me of my Uncle Bill who was also a successful entrepreneur. He always said that you cannot get rich if you work for someone else.
While this video is a little long, I think it is really worth the time. Now I just need to go out and find my Sword.
Jamie Oliver delivered a powerful talk at the 2010 TED Conference. He is a dynamic speaker, and his message is something we should all be concerned about. If his view is right, all of the current panic about health care is a little like trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. If we don’t deal with the cultural problems that lead to bad health, we will never be able to afford health care. We should also be concerned that our school lunch rooms are run by the same government that wants to run health care. Think about that as you watch this video.
My obsession with technology is fueled by seeing how people use it so solve everyday problems in amazing and unexpected ways. I especially love it when the solution is simple, straightforward and easy to understand. I am in awe of this tiny little device from Square. It will change the way we do business and how we view cash. It’s a really great video to boot.
I wanted to share some of the pictures from our recent Christmas vacation trip to Disney World. I took over 600 pictures, so this is only a small sampling. I will be posting additional pictures and I am also working on a trip report to give you the good, the bad and the ugly of the trip.
Everyone in the Carroll family is looking forward to the usual joys of Christmas, but this year we are especially excited because after all of our presents are opened we will be hopping a plane for our annual visit to Disney. Last year we went to Disneyland so it has been two years since our last trip to Disney World. We leave knowing that the park will be more crowded during the holidays, but we are well prepared to employ our proven crowd avoidance techniques.
One of the things that I look forward to with every Disney trip is all of the great food and fun restaurants. This year I got up at 4:00 a.m., 90 days prior to our visit, to make all of our reservations and to ensure that we got the times and places we wanted. We reserved some of our old favorites but also selected a few new places.
Our first day will be spent at Hollywood Studios where we will have dinner at Mama Melrose. As part of our reservation we purchased the Fantasmic dinner package. Fantasmic is our favorite show at Disney World and the dinner package gives you access to special reserved seating and means you don’t have to fight the crowds. To us this is always worth the extra expense.
The next day will take us to Animal Kingdom, where we will enjoy lunch at Tusker House. We have not eaten at Tusker House since it was converted to table service. We are not sure what to expect here.
Day 3 will be spent at Epcot where we will have my favorite counter service meal, Fish and Chips (and beer) at the Rose and Crown Pub. It requires no reservation and it is perfect for a picnic lunch in the small park located at rear of the England pavilion. If we are lucky we will be able to listen to British Invasion while we eat.
Day 4 we finally make it to Magic Kingdom. Here we will dine on a traditional turkey dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. This is always one of our favorites.
Day 5 we will return to Epcot and eat at the Biergarten Restaurant in the Germany pavilion. We have been to the Biergarten in the past but it has been quite a few years. The German music and dancing along with some pretty good food always makes this an enjoyable experience.
Day 6 is New Years Eve, and we have decided to make it a flexible day. This means that we will float around to different parks and resorts in order to avoid the most crowded spots. We might try to check out the holiday food selections at some of the resort hotels.
New Years Day is also scheduled as a flexible day, but we plan to start with breakfast at the Cape May Cafe at our home resort, the Beach Club.
We will kick off our last day with breakfast at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort. While the kids are a little beyond the target age group here we are just not ready to give up this traditional stop. We also enjoy taking the monorail to the Magic Kingdom after breakfast.
By the time we return to the real world I am sure we will have put on a few extra pounds, but I am also sure we will have smiles on our faces.
In the last few years I have developed a love of comic books. As a kid a good chunk of my paper route money went to buying issues of Batman, Superman and Dark Rider. This was before I discovered video games and computers. My interest in comic books was rekindled a few years ago when I saw the movie American Splendor, the story of Harvey Pekar, a underground comic book writer.
As I started to look into comics, I quickly discovered that the target audience for modern comics is geeks my age. Over time I have become a regular reader of several books that I look forward to picking up every month. I have also developed a pretty impressive collection of trade paper backs (monthly issues collected into books) and graphic novels.
One of my first purchases was “Wizzywig Vol. 1: Phreak” written and illustrated by Ed Piskor. Piskor just happened to be one of the artists that worked on American Splendor. Wizzywig is a graphic novel that tells the tale of Kevin “BoingThump” Phenkil growing up in the early days of personal computers. Many of BoingThump’s adventures are based on stories of famous hackers and geeks of the day like Kevin Mitnick, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. I loved the book because it captured the feeling of excitement and adventure that I remember from growing up as me and my friends started to discover computers.
I am glad that this is one of the first books I picked up as it inspired me to dig into comics and led me to discover some of the great artists and writers working on comics today. I have since bought the second volume of Wizzywig and I am waiting patiently for the third volume which will be available in a few months. When I received volume 2, as a gift from my wife, I was thrilled to discover that Ed Piskor had drawn a personalized picture inside of the front cover. That made this book one of my prized possessions.
Rather than write a detailed review of the book myself, I thought I would post a video from iFanboy that does a good job of describing what it is all about.
Aaron started riding four years ago at Helping Hands Therapeutic Riding Center (HHTRC). He went from being led around on a lead rope, to riding on his own, to competing in the show ring. Every Monday night for four years we have driven one hour both ways for a one hour lesson. During these four years Aaron got to know and love Scooter, Skippy, and many of the other great horses at HHTRC. The highlight of the last two years was having the opportunity to work with a truly wonderful horse trainer, Lacie Robinson. Lacie gave her all to helping Aaron improve and she pushed and inspired him to achieve things that he never thought possible.
Sadly, our time at HHTRC must come to an end. In August, Lacie had a falling out with the program manager, and had to leave HHTRC. Since Lacie left, Aaron has worked with other trainers, but it is just not the same. One night as we were riding home from a lesson Aaron told me that he really wants to continue to improve his riding skills and to work on some of the more advanced showmanship skills that Lacie had taught him. I was thinking the same thing, but I was glad that he came to that decision on his own.
So, we started looking in earnest for another trainer. To my surprise it has been very difficult to find a barn that specializes in western pleasure (as opposed to english). After an extended search I finally found a trainer that could work with Aaron. The best part is that the barn is only 20 minutes from our house.
We had our first lesson tonight. I was very impressed with the trainer, Sarah. Aaron really seemed to click with her. Aaron got to ride a retired show horse named Buggs, and he did very well on him. We have agreed to start riding with Sarah twice a week.
While we will miss HHTRC, I really have a good feeling about our decision and I am excited to see Aaron take this next step.
Here is a short video that I took at the new barn.
Aaron had the opportunity recently to ride a beautiful quarter horse by the name of Boo. Boo is only seven years old, but he has had a lot of experience and success showing. I took some video of Aaron at two riding sessions. For those of you with riding experience you will recognize a few problems with Aaron’s form. This is mostly because Aaron is not used to riding a horse with as much get up and go. But, Aaron got the hang of it rather quickly and by his second session he was able to get Boo up to a canter in the arena. This is no small feat given a small arena and a big horse. I was very proud of Aaron, he showed a lot of confidence and control.
Boo is available for sale. I have to say I have not been this interested in a horse yet. Unfortunately, the owner knows what Boo is worth and is asking a premium. Aaron wants to start increasing his training and start showing a little more. So, we might consider getting a horse for him if he continues to progress.
One parents thoughts, ideas and experiences while raising two wonderful children, one of which has Asperger's syndrome.
Our family loves to travel. I will use this blog to share our many adventures.
Please feel free to share your thoughts by adding comments to any of my posts.
