Alarming Alarm Clock

#FridayFun

“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.” ― Glen Cook, Sweet Silver Blues

If you need a new way to wake up in the morning.

If getting up in the morning just isn't your thing.

Or if you have some extra time...a lot of extra time...check out this new alarm clock.



Good morning sunshine!

Stay inspired my friends!

Music To Our Heart

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
― Albert Einstein

Volkswagen created a site called The Fun Theory dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better.

In this video, what if would take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator and feel better? It is something we often tell ourselves but few of us follow the advice to so. What if walking the stairs were more fun than riding an escalator?

What would happen?

Notice how many people took the stairs as opposed to the escalator.

If we hear the music in all that we do, what other great things could we do besides just taking the stairs?

Stay inspired my friends!

You Silly Goose

“Do a loony-goony dance 'cross the kitchen floor, put something silly in the world that ain't been there before.”
― Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

There are days when we simply need to be just a little bit silly. What could you do to liven up the day and those around you? Well, for your summer amusement, the following ideas were passed along to me.

1. Sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars.
....See if they slow down.

2. Page yourself over the intercom.
.....Don't disguise your voice!

3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
.....And then ask them again.

4. Finish all your sentences with 'In Accordance With The Prophecy.'
.....Be sure to look reverent.

5. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.
.....humming "To My Lou, my darling."

6. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat.
.....With a serious face of course.

7. Specify that your drive-through order is 'To Go.'
.....Maybe it will get served on a tray!

8. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.
.....Bug zapper noise only enhances the experience.

9. Tell your children over dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

It is called having fun. Some may call it therapy but I chose the former.

Take time to smile and relax.

Stay inspired my friends!

A Good Friend

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ― Helen Keller

Recently we visited the new home of some very good friends. It had been a while since we were able to sit and enjoy the company of each other. It reminded me of just how lucky and privileged we are to have friends in life. If you have no friends, it would seem a lonely and dull life one lives. Friends when gathered represent a strong bond with life itself.

It helps to reflect upon those friendships from time to time. So here are a few quotes to help you with that. When done, give your friends a call and get on with being friends again.

"The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had." ~ Author Unknown

"Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend." ~ Plautus

"Strangers are just friends waiting to happen." ~ Rod McKuen

"Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends." ~ Shirley Maclaine

"A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." ~ Lois Wyse

"The best time to make friends is before you need them." ~ Ethel Barrymore

"A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should." ~ Author Unknown

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive." ~ Anäis Nin

"A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world." ~ Thomas A. Edison

"The essence of true friendship is to make allowance for another's little lapses." ~ David Storey

"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Turn those strangers into friends and develop a great life time of friendship.

Stay inspired my friends!

Our Enthusiasm

"If you are not getting as much from life as you want to, then examine the state of your enthusiasm." - Norman Vincent Peale

Enthusiasm is what could be referred to as "that rare and wonderful fire in the chest feeling, which can be explained biologically." When we experience emotions, both negative and positive; there are neurotransmitters released by specific parts of our brain into the central nervous system.

Every emotion we are capable of and our reaction to any situation we may encounter, causes this release of chemicals specific to the stimuli encountered. Any previous experience we have had including instinctive reactions, add to the mix of what the brain eventually decides to release.

The brain can produce several mixes of both stress hormones and what could be termed "happy" ones. This combination can really excite cells within many of the areas affected, especially your stomach, heart, lungs, skin, (even intestines, at times) creating a wonderful feeling of a fire burning within.

So you may ask what this has to do with getting more out of life. When you are seemingly just not getting anywhere with your life. When you perceive that things just don't seem to be happening, it could mean it is time to charge up that biological enthusiasm.

How can you do that?

By making a change in your life of some kind. To stir those biological mixtures, bringing change will cause a range of emotions that can generate enthusiasm. About now you are wondering, "what the heck does he mean?"

If you are doing the same thing, over and over...the stimuli becomes common place. You just do not get any excitement from doing the same over and over again. But changing the pattern can cause a bit of excitement or 'danger' into the scheme. This causes the rush of chemicals that can get you moving again.

Maybe it is simple as rearranging your desk at work, a different route home or exercising instead of watching television. At the extreme end, maybe it is a new job, a different home or changing your goals.

The big thing about pulling yourself out of a lack of enthusiasm is that 'change' will have to happen. With change, a new range of emotions and feelings will occur. Within that cloud of new feelings, find the ones which motivate you towards something greater. In this new found enthusiasm you will reach out for more and find greater satisfaction in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

What Stays In Vegas Doesn't

"It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong." —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Here we are, home from a week long convention in Las Vegas called EMCWorld 2013. There were nearly 15,000 people in attendance and it really was a great week filled with technical presentations, product demonstrations and some really good people connections.

This completes the third year in a row that this event has been held in Las Vegas. In saying so, I am always amused at the Las Vegas tourism catch-phrase "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." It is meant to convey a free-spirited notion that you can let loose a bit, that anything goes while you are in Las Vegas. You can spend your money (which is really want any tourism board wants), have any and all kinds of fun and that when you leave, no one else will know what you did.

Another way of putting it would be to say "mum's the word" because everyone will keep quiet about what you did. So let loose, do as you want, no consequences. But that really isn't what happens in real life, outside of the commercials you may see on television.

In one respect, I really do hope that everyone in attendance to EMCWorld learned something about our company, our products and what we can do to help your business. I also really do hope you do not leave that learned experience in Las Vegas. We want you to take home that information to your colleagues, so please don't leave that piece of it in Vegas.

But on a broader look, beyond just Las Vegas, we do many things that we would just as soon stay there. The point being that everything we do in life has consequence of one sort or another. You can binge on drinking, gambling, eating and playing in Las Vegas, but you really can't leave those things behind. What we do, how we act, the impressions we leave with other people will last a very long time.

When you have the opportunity to choose between doing something that might not be the correct or proper thing to do, choose the right thing. Make your choice as if your wife, children, boss or grandmother will get a front page story about the choice made.

Stay inspired my friends and please don't leave that behind in Vegas.

Enjoy More

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." -Dr. Seuss

The office area in which I work has a pretty open floor plan. Low cubicle walls grace our desks enabling interaction among people. It allows for easy communication and collaboration while building great connection between these same people.

At times, the conversations can get lively with a lot of jocularity. The laughing and general good nature relieves the stress of the work. I normally take the opportunity during these times to jump into the fun. I will pronounce that everyone should quit laughing...work is supposed to be serious. They will stop, realize its me and then gleefully continue.

The point to be taken is that everything we do should have some level of fun attached to it. The same holds true for school-work, our work-work, along with our non-work, and just about any type of work. Life is work and it should be interrupted with moments of fun.

There is enough stress and seriousness in life, so take some time to relax a bit with laughter. Enjoy everything you do just a little more. Enjoy your life a little more.