And that's why I want one of these...

Thanks to Mz. Pocket for the link.

Posted by James at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One week after ordering them, I received my mini-cards from Moo all the way from London. As advertised, they are awesome. Here’s a picture of some of them; I used pictures that I took with my Holga camera…

Seriously, if you need cards, get ‘em from Moo…they’re my new best friends.

Posted by James at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was my sister Laura’s 31st birthday and we celebrated by having a mini Mini Cooper rally up Mt. Evans. Thanks to my father’s stable of Mini Coopers, my sister, parents and I all got to race our way up the 14,300 foot mountain in two suped-up Mini Cooper Ss.

Here is a time-lapse video from the drive:

Here are just a couple of the photos we took...

You can see the full photo set here.

What an AWESOME day!

Posted by James at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So good...

Posted by James at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not sure if you have seen the transcript from a conversation between a US Navy ship and Canadian authorities, but if you haven't, give it a read.

Another funny thanks to StumbleUpon.

Posted by James at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally put my money where my mouth is and gave my first loan through Kiva.org. Yeah, it’s just $25, but my hope is to make a $25 loan every paycheck I get, and I figure every little bit helps.

My first loan was to a young man named Abdul Sabor Abdul Gafor. Here’s Abdul’s story…

Abdul Sabor lives in district 15 of Kabul, Afghanistan. He has the responsibility for supporting his family because his father and mother died in an explosion in Kabul 4 years ago. He is the youngest of his brothers.

He sells cosmetics on the street in the city. He took his 5th cycle group loan and bought shirts, clothes for children, and some extra things and is doing a good business. He wants to take anther loan to rent a shop and expand his business to support his family better than now. He would like to thank AFSG for helping him.

If you want to give a loan to Abdul, you can do it here. And if you want to learn more about Kiva and their other potential loan recipients, go here.

[Update: About two hours after posting this Abdul's loan was fully funded. I never realized how fast these loans are getting made...amazing!]

Posted by James at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thought #1

In a world where “Brand You” is a lot more important than the brand you work for, does it make sense that the only time you have a business card is when you work for a company?

Thought #2

When I come back from conferences with a pile of business cards the ones I always remember are the ones that are out of the ordinary. Odd shapes, unexpected pictures, etc. always make for a remarkable business card.

Recommendation

If you don’t have a personal business card, it might be time to get some made up. And if you want to have something both personal and remarkable, check out the mini-cards from Moo.com. Moo let’s you make business cards from your photos on different photo sharing sites like Flickr – and the Moo site will actually connect to your account, making the card creation process a cinch. For $19.99 you can get 100 cards made up, and the amazing thing is that you can get your 100 cards made with up to 100 different pictures.

So what’s stopping you – get some cards made up for yourself. I promise they will be a lot more memorable than the ones the give you at work.

Big up to Copyblogger for showing me Moo...

Posted by James at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So far Kristi and I have been doing a really good job enjoying the summer. Tonight we rode our bikes to Cheesman Park here in Denver and had a little picnic. Here are a couple of pictures from this great summer night…

Posted by James at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Had a fun time watching the US Grand Prix and eating lunch with my dad and the rest of my family today. As always, my dad had some fun new toys for us to play with...

Posted by James at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hated business writing classes in college. My professors were a little less than connected to the real world. I remember explaining to one of them that if I wrote a one page long email to ask my boss to a meeting (no joke, that’s what he was telling me to do), I would be fired in a second. I also recall a time when I got into a wildly heated yelling match with that same professor that made him go catatonic…but that’s another story.

Anyway, in college I always thought that business writing was some stupid hoop they made you jump through with no real application for most business people. But times have changed my friends. Steve Rubel’s post, Writing is a Part of Everyone’s Job, really points out that the digital age has made writing one of the most important skills any business person must possess.

Make sure you read the post...and find a way to practice your writing.

Posted by James at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is tasteless and hilarious. Make sure you watch at least the first 3/4 of it - and enjoy the floating head.

Posted by James at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My family went rafting this weekend. If you ever thought I was a silly person, I'd like you all to meet my father, Clarke. I'll let you guess which one he is...

Posted by James at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this picture that was taken yesterday at the Canadian Gran Prix. The driver was Robert Kubica, you can see him there with the orange helmet. This is what the car looked like once it came to rest after rolling a couple of times.

The unbelievable part is that after that crash Robert was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion and a sprained ankle.

Posted by James at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mz. Pocket found this video on YouTube today. Not sure how many of you remember the TV show 3-2-1 Contact, but it seems that the people on the show might have a little problem with the ganja. Watch now as they explore the amazing technological breakthrough they call a synthesizer…

Also, since there seems to be a marijuana theme here, take a look at the story about a cop and his brownies:

Posted by James at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

#1

#2

Enjoy.

Posted by James at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I read Seth Godin’s new book The Dip and one thing that really stuck out was the idea of being the best in the world at what you do. As one of the first pages in the book says:

Being the Best in the World is Seriously Underrated

Today Kristi and I had the pleasure of enjoying a Colorado Rockies baseball game with my sister Laura and then got to have dinner with her friend Ryan who is the best in the world at what he does. You see, Ryan is a remarkable member of the Rockies baseball team. Ryan’s not a pitcher or outfielder, but he is the famous Rockies’ “jacket guy.”

What is a jacket guy? It sound simple enough – the jacket guy takes the pitcher’s jacket (which keeps the pitcher’s arm warm) from the bullpen to the batboy in the dugout. Ryan has taken a job that might not sound so exciting to most and turn it into something that regular Rockies fans (and the US media) has turned into something of a phenomenon. You see, Ryan doesn’t just take the jacket to the batboy, he runs like (as a Denver newspaper says) “he is being chased by a wild animal” on and off the field. In the process he gives the fans and players something to watch, cheer for, and enjoy.

Does Ryan have to run? No.
Does Ryan run every time he gets on the field? Hell yes.

Now Ryan doesn’t run because it’s in his job description. Ryan runs because that’s what Ryan does. And in the process, he has become the best damn jacket guy in the world.

If you’re not the best in the world at something yet, maybe you just haven’t tried running yet.

Posted by James at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)