Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Ready, Aim, Connect


Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories.” ― Laurie Anderson

I have this thing for technology and what it can do in our lives. It can help us find our way to Grandmother's home, provide instructions to repair a leaking faucet or measure the steps we take each day.

The possibilities seem endless to how much we can do today.

Our lives are also about connection and technology can help us with that on a daily, hourly and even minute-by-minute basis. We have the ability for instantaneous connection regardless of where we are in the world.

Connections crossing the globe connecting each of us.

Telegraph and then the simple use of a phone allowed us to move from sending a message to actually conversing with other people miles away. Some may say we have converted the smart phone of today into a modern day telegraph.

As we send text messages back and forth instead of actually talking.

When I travel either here in the U.S. or abroad, my smart phone provides an ability to connect with family and friends at any time. My parents would get a special thrill whenever I called from overseas. They were simply in awe of what communication could do. Once I called them from inside St. Paul's Basilica at the Vatican.

Just think of what you can do with technology.

I was walking and describing everything I could see, relating my experience to what they had only seen in pictures. That is until the Vatican folks caught me and asked me to put away the phone. I gave an excuse about having once been Catholic and forgetting my Catholicism of 'thou shalt not talk in Church'.

The Vatican folks were nice enough to let me stay.

It is also interesting when friends call me on my cell phone. Think about it. Fifteen or twenty years ago, the one thing you never heard someone ask was the question "where are you?" Back then you were located at the place where the phone was tethered.

With cell phones, you can be almost anywhere.

Not long ago, I was in London working and did the tourist thing. I went to Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles recorded much of their best work. Knowing web cams exist everywhere in the city, I knew Abbey Road would have one. In the picture above people can watch you strut across the famous street crossing made famous of course by The Beatles album cover artwork.

Making new friends by stopping local traffic while taking pictures.

So I called my wife Laura, had her get online and watch me real time walk across the street. Sure, geeky cool is all I can say. But today one can do this with something such as FaceTime on the iPhone.

Technology advances faster than we can sometimes grasp.

You can and should us the available technologies we have today and the ones we will have tomorrow. Use them to stay connected with family; use them to stay connected with friends.

It is a great world we live in.

Life can only get better as we take it all in as you connect and grow your life to greater levels with everyone around you. All of those folks are waiting to hear and see you. So ready, aim, and connect.

Stay inspired my friends.

Monday, August 03, 2015

Remember And Learn


But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget.” ― Tim O'Brien

Just a reminder that we should ensure to learn from the past in order not to repeat the mistakes.


Keep watch on all that happens and ask questions.

Stay inspired my friends!

Friday, July 31, 2015

One More Degree To 212

#FridayFavorite


"It takes only one person with one match to light one candle to fill an entire room with hope." - Joseph Primm

There is a success principle called "212" or sometimes "211 to 212". It is a simple concept to grasp and has to do with the boiling temperature point of water. As we all learned in school, water reaches a boiling point at 212 degrees Farenheit.

The point at which water begins to change form.

One degree less and the water is just very hot. Nothing more than that. Certainly not at a point in which water is transformed. The change from a liquid to a vapor is 212 degrees. A boiling point creates the ability to sterilize, ward off bacteria and other very good fundamental things occur.

It is a point where everything can change.

Stop short at 211 degrees and nothing happens.

Go one more degree in life, that is the principle of 212. To go one extra step, to go where change will happen in your life. The significance is in that one degree.

One degree, one more step, one more person.

That one degree is you.

You can make the difference between nothing and something. You can make the difference that changes everything. You can be that one degree.

Stay inspired my friends!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

School Bus Stop Arm - Do The Right Thing


"Just do good, don't worry about the road ahead." - Monk Wansong

August 10 marks the start of another school year in Gwinnett County, Georgia where I live. The county educates over 173,000 students and every year that number grows. With a school system this large, it also involves transporting quite a few students to and from school.

Gwinnett County Schools Transportation Department operates more than 1,900 school buses, which transport more than 127,000 students twice daily. Along with other activities, the GCPS buses travel more than 23.3 million miles annually. One can imagine this means quite a few bus stops five days out of the week.

This means watching out for those flashing red stop signs on those buses.

A 2014 study by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, statistics from 29 states found that almost 86,000 vehicles illegally passed 97,000 school buses in one day. Put in broader terms, nearly 13 million illegal passes nationally in a typical 180-day school year.

- Those kids getting on and off the bus are your kids.
- Those kids are your grand-daughters and grand-sons.
- Those kids are your nieces and nephews.
- Those kids are your friends kids.

Do you get the picture?

Please be safe out there when driving. Be patient and obey the laws. If you do not know or understand the law when coming upon a school bus stop arm, make the safe choice and stop. You might have a few car horns irritated if you got it wrong.

Better to suffer a car horn than injuring a child.

Stay inspired my friends.