Monday Inspiration: Smile On

Motivating yourself is not just a Monday thing, but an everyday thing.

I think I found my daily motivation anthem. Humorously enough, it's by a band called Anthems. You may know it from a commercial advertising San Diego. It's called "Smile On."

You're in the place you're in. You can change that place if it's bad. You can be that place, if it's good. Either way, it will be wonder or misery.

You make your place in life. You make your reality. You make your joy or feed your pity. The only difference is how you decide to see it.

Make it good.

Make it your own.

Enjoy the song. Think on it. And smile!

Twitter Today! Dalai, Irish, Not English?

I'd love to say this week that there's a whole buzz over some Twitter news, but after filtering out the useless celeb noise (like Adam Lambert's musings on hottest 12 guys), I'm not left with much this week.

Excitingly and somehow not-so-celeb, the Dalai Lama has opened a Twitter account - and is apparently using it. Founder Evan Williams suggested it and it was laughed off, but the next day, Here's Dalai! You can follow him at the verified account of the Dalai Lama.


And I don't usually toss out my differing projects, but my wife and I have been very involved as of late in helping get the Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati up and running for their theater opening this weekend. If you've got a few minutes, take a look at the IHC website, follow them on Twitter, and even join the Facebook Group. Thanks!


And, finally, what language you tweeting?

According to Semiocast, which examined 2.8 million tweets over two days in February, 50% of all messages sent on Twitter are in English. Japanese, Portuguese, Malay, and Spanish follow English with 14%, 9%, 6%, and 4% of tweet share, respectively. Several other languages, including Arabic and Italian, make up the remaining 17% of non-English tweets.

Very interesting that Twitter is garnering an international following. I actually picked up on the Japanese aspect a month or two ago when looking for tweets having to do with Xbox 360 game Fallout 3 and was answered with almost solidly foreign language tweets. Which raises an interesting question: Related to video games, how do the percentages fall?


Yeah folks, sorry. That's all this week. If you're really hurting for celeb news on Twitter, feel free to comment. I might be persuaded to add a "Celeb box" to each weeks' Twitter blog post if I get some comments on the subject. Cheers!

Binary Numbers in 60 Seconds

Just in case you didn't know...

Astronauts: Inspiration

There are some things that are above words:



There is something about being outside of the world, outside Earth, that can - possibly - make us take pause.

Let us - all of us - take another look. Just one more. And build a world where we look at things a little differently, a little more objectively. Be bigger than our differences. Be bigger than our qualms.

Just be bigger. Drive the conversation, don't be driven by it.

Guide the wisdom. Don't be sucked in with easy outs.


Being stronger means working harder. Being wiser means thinking longer. The easy path is no path at all; everyone's already doing that one.

If you want to make a difference, you need to make it different.

So make it different. Change the angle. Change the outlook. Make that difference.

The hard part is that that will be your day. And tomorrow, you'll have to do it again.

But that's also the beauty in it.

Be that.

Friday Video: Google FTW, Media Crank, Raptors!

Google "Responds" to Buzz Feedback

(NSFW language bleeped)




CNN Jersey Prank




Raptor Devours Cheerleader




Have a great weekend!

Monday Inspiration: Digging Out

If you live in the Cincinnati area, you need no reminder that there is going to be between 6 and 8 inches of the white stuff out there later today. We've already earned about 5 in the southeast by 2:30.

Turns out I had to get out on the road for a necessary grocery stop a little while ago and as I was preparing to step outside to dig out the car and shovel the drive, I paused as I opened the door. "This is going to be misery," I thought. Another piece of my mind immediately followed it with "Why?" It occurred to me that this task (and the subsequent driving) was either going to suck or it was going to be enjoyable. And that both were possible.

Letting it suck was the easy choice. Simply let go of hope and allow physical discomfort bleed into your emotional state. Before you know it, you'll be a grump, loudly cursing every strain of your back, every heap of snow you push off the drive, every chill under your clothes. That doesn't sound fun at all.

I wasn't entirely certain how to make it enjoyable, so I started with my standby: At the risk of appearing mad to my neighbors, I put on the biggest grin I could muster. I smiled and shoveled. I thought about the mailman and what a relief it would be to him to tread on a cleared, salted walkway. I thought about my wife effortlessly making it from her car into the house. I thought about how my shoveling was giving the car time to heat and that my drive would be nice and toasty. My smile grew and by the end I was genuinely enjoying myself.

Two lessons here:

Whistle in the Dark
Your actions and attitude will directly translate into emotional state. If you approach a task already discouraged, how do you think it's going to go if you encounter even the least bit of resistance? Smile before a physical task. Mentally smile before a non-physical one. The alternative is not pretty and will drain you.

Little Now, Little Later
I went outside today knowing that maybe half of the snow had fallen. There would be more snow. There would be more work. But instead of allowing that to frustrate me, I took comfort in the fact that now I'm half done and later today or tomorrow I'll be shoveling another 4 or 5 inches while others are hefting 10 at a time.

So let me know: how do you mentally and physically approach challenges? What works for you?

It's going to be a great week!

Friday Video: Sand Animation, Betty White, T-Shirt War, & FAIL

This past week just blew by; I can't believe we're at Friday already. Here's some entertainment to end the week:

Kseniya Simonova's Amazing Sand Drawing

Also referred to as "sand animation," if you haven't seen the winner of Ukraine's Got Talent in action, you owe it to yourself to do so. Now.




Superbowl

This was one of my favorites from last week. You can't beat Betty White and Abe Vigoda.




T-Shirt War

Especially clever stop-motion clip, also worth your time.




Slide FAIL

I'm sorry. What was I thinking? I'm sure you're in the mood to get the weekend started with something a little more mindless. Here you are.



Have a great weekend!