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.
Look — I know that swine flu is serious, but I am sick and tired of the 24-hour coverage of it. Not that I listen to or watch any of the news coverage — but everyone else does. Then, they feel compelled to talk about it at every opportunity. I guess I should look at it as a brief diversion from talk about the bad economy.
When the subject comes up I feel the need to remind everyone that from a historical perspective this flu outbreak is nothing, at least not yet. In fact, the people of Kansas know a thing or two about a real flu epidemic.
Check out these excerpts from the Wikipedia article about the 1918 Pandemic Flu.
It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide, or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe, more than double the number killed in World War I.
Some scholars have theorized that the flu probably originated in the Far East. While historian Alfred Crosby observed that the flu seems to have originated in Kansas…….Popular writer John Barry echoed Crosby in proposing that Haskell County, Kansas was the location of the first outbreak of flu. In the United States the disease was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas, United States, on March 4, 1918…..
I had a great time at Planet Comicon last weekend. I met a lot of comic book artists and writers, got a some autographs and even had one of the artists draw an original sketch for me. I also picked up some hard to find comics for my collection. This was the first Comicon I have been to, but it will not be my last. What a great time!
I hope you enjoy the movie that I put together from my clips of the show.
We decided to check out the Tales of Desperaux yesterday. This is a G-rated movie based on the books by Kate DiCamillo. Even before the movie started the family behind us was being a little loud, kicking the backs of our seats, talking, moving around, etc. They had two small children, probably too young to even get what was going on in the movie. I did not think too much about it. I figured once the movie started they would quiet down.
Well, the noise persisted during the previews and continued as the movie started. The parents were doing nothing to get the kids to be quiet. Every 30 seconds or so the kid behind Aaron and I would kick our seats. Aaron was starting to get upset.
Then, some guy about two rows back gets a cell phone call. The phone rings about 10 times and the guy picks up. I’m thinking, boy he must be embarrassed that he forgot to silence his phone. Well, the guy takes the call!!. In a full voice he starts talking to someone on the phone. Everyone in the theater can here his booming voice. He talks for about two minutes. At this point I am thinking I must be in the twilight zone.
Then the kid behind us starts to mimic every line of the movie. He is doing it in a full voice. People around us are turning around and looking at the family behind us. The parents are munching their pop corn and acting like nothing is happening.
Well at this point Aaron is getting really upset. I am trying to get him to calm down and trying to figure out a strategic place to move far away from the annoying family. I am not sure we could get far enough away. Before I can take evasive action, Aaron has a complete melt down. I had to get him out of the theater as fast as possible. Now Aaron is creating a disruption. Once we got out of the theater and got him calmed down we had missed about 20-minutes of the movie. Aaron and I decided to just go to the car an wait for Becca and Mom to finish the movie.
When we met up after the movie they were steaming. Apparently the kids behind us got worse. At one point one of the kids threw a sippy cup and it flew into the chair that I had occupied. The mom reached over and said “sorry that just slipped off our chair”. What? It slipped off her chair and bounced over the back of my chair? What planet is she from!? Leigh Ann politely handed the cup back. I think I would had a different response. Anyway, the movie was a complete bust.
Oh and what about the movie review? What I saw of the first 15 minutes looked great. I guess I will have wait for the video.
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.
