That Was Then - This Is Now

I was thinking about some of the books that I've read over the years and one in particular was memorable from my childhood. The author was S.E. Hinton, and the book was titled "That Was Then - This Is Now" . I remember my teacher, Ms. Langelle, had assigned us this book to read as part of our classwork in Grade 9 at St John's Jr High. I also remember being reluctant to pick it up and read it, but then once I did start turning the pages, it was hard to put down. I'm not sure why I enjoyed this particular story so much but it did leave an impression on me.

To give you a bit of background on Hinton's novel:

It is a story about best friends - Byron and Mark - and their time growing up together as teens. Byron and Mark were inseparable until they were 16, sharing many nefarious deeds and enjoying the thrill ride that life offered them. Byron started to grow in a different direction though, maturing, finding love, and not being so reckless. Mark, however, still lived for the moment. One day Byron would discover a secret about Mark that would change their friendship forever.

The story has all the classic elements of teen angst - juvenile delinquency, drugs, sex, and rebelling against authority. Perhaps that's what captured my interest, given that I was such a nerd in Junior High (and still am in many respects). I suspect that in some way, I wish that I had done a bit more rebelling in my youth, and enjoyed life more when I was a kid. I wonder how relevant this book is today? It was first printed in 1971 almost 40 years ago. I was probably about 15 when I read it, and it was already on the shelves for over a dozen years by that time. When we studied this book in our English class, it still had moments of truth and revelation for us even back then. I suspect that it is still being taught in English classes today.

Did you read any books in your youth that has left an impact on your life even now? I'm curious to know... feel free to leave a comment. :)

A Key to Happiness...

There is more to this life than having everything. - Maurice Sendak

I read this quote today looking for inspiration and something positive to focus on. I try to see the good around me before I succumb to the gloom that so many others are willing to embrace. I'm sure this quote means many things to different people, but when I read it, I found that it reminds me of the similarity that it has to things both Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy have said. For those of you not familiar with these individuals, they are both motivational speakers.

Reading a book by Tony Robbins, called "Awaken the Giant Within", he takes time to talk about what makes people truly happy. He observed that people can have a ton of money and still not be truly happy in their lives. We often see celebrities that seem to have it all, and yet resort to drugs, alcohol or other substances to escape their reality. Some even resort to suicide to try to escape their lives. Yet, we also see people that are dirt poor, struggling to reach up beyond their means, and always unhappy too. They are upset with the way the "system" holds them back, or that someone else is responsible for their lot in life (which may even be true). So unhappiness is not limited to the Rich, nor is it the exclusive domain of those that are poor either.

Still, we know that people exist that are actually happy. They come from both sides of the spectrum - rich and poor. What enables them to be happy? When I read or Listen to Tony's material, he hints that the key is in being able to appreciate what you have now, while you continue to pursue your dreams. Perhaps that is why an underprivileged family knows how to have fun with simple means - a stick, a pile of small stones or even just the friends around them. So too is it with someone who is wealthy perhaps. Maybe they understand that they are greatly blessed and truly appreciate all they have. Being happy with what you have - being thankful - maybe that is the secret?

I also took a course called the Phoenix Seminar - with content from Brian Tracey. His message was about having a Positive Mental Attitude. Expect positive things and positive things will happen to you. If you seek the negative, then it will surely find you as well. From this course I was given an exercise to reinforce positive expectation. After each day ended, the instructor coached that we should identify at least 3 good things that happened to us during the day. In this way it would reinforce that there is something good even from the worst days. The more you look for the positive, the more you will find it. When you're being positive, it's hard to be unhappy.

So now, when I look back at the original Quote, I think the message here is that we don't have to pursue material wealth as the end objective, but instead to be appreciative of what we already posses. Being thankful is the message I take from that quote. As Tony says, it's hard to be unhappy when you're in a "thankful" frame of mind.

I do believe I have many things to be thankful for. I feel a smile coming on now as I write this.

Thanks Maurice for your words of inspiration.

Tiny URL

Now that I'm "twittering", I find it increasingly useful to be concise so that I can keep my "tweets" under 140 characters. It's not as easy as you'd think it is. One of the activities you might find yourself doing often when you "twitter" is to post links to interesting articles or pictures. Well, as you can imagine, there are tons of websites out there that don't have Twitter-friendly addresses. So to help yourself out, you can dig up a URL shortening service like tinyurl.com or bit.ly both of which do an excellent job of shrinking a lengthy web address. Then today I stumbled upon an article that recommends against using TinyUrl on Twitter. Admittedly there are plenty of good moments to use a service like this, but the author of this article suggests that if you're trying to build your "brand" or - online presence - then you need to make sure you keep your name in your URL so people remember it and visit you often. A shortened address will only keep you in anonymity. You can read the article here for more insights on this topic. Well, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Hope you find it useful information! :)

Interesting iPhone Apps

So I thought I would see if anyone else has found any interesting iPhone apps that they’d like to share or talk about. Here's a few that I thought I would share with those that read my blog…

• Evernote: A cool little note taking app that allows you to capture text, photo’s, and voice recordings to a note. There is an online component that will sync your notes to a database and allow you to use a full featured client on a desktop to edit or tweak

• Zenbe Lists: Another nifty little note taking app. This one is mostly just for making lists which is fairly simple and straight forward. You can even assign a deadline or calendar date to your item so that you have a ‘due-date’ to work towards. Comes with an online sync feature as well, but doesn’t require a ‘fat’ client to work with when you’re not using your iPhone.

• Corus Radio: For those of us that want to listen to Canadian radio stations via our iPhone, this gets you part way there. I haven’t played with it much, but as you can probably guess, it only has radio stations that Corus Media is responsible for.

• TwitterFon: A great twitter client for the iPhone.

• Bejeweled 2: A game to distract yourself with. Bonus – just like the online version

• Sudoku: A great little app for getting your Sudoku fix in with.

• Night Stand: This little gadget turns your iPhone into a night stand clock (as the name implies). Nice when you’re staying over somewhere when you don’t have an alarm clock. Unfortunately sucks the battery dry, so make sure you use this in conjunction with a charger.

• Converter: Very handy tool. Ever needed to figure out how many km’s in a mile? Or what your fuel consumption was? Or what your shoe size translates to in the UK? This is the app for you

• Shush: This is something that I just installed today. This nifty little guy produces white noise. Yup, that’s it. Could be handy though, when you’re at work and don’t want to be distracted by music, but don’t like listening to the colleague in the cube across from you. Or when you’re on a plane and just want to drown out the baby in the next seat so that you can get a few zzz’s before your plane lands. Maybe you just need it to help you sleep at night. Or even if you’re on the bus and just want to be alone with your thoughts.

• ShoppingList: Yes… I’m *that* guy. I like to have a list with me when I go shopping. This app will allow you to input your own grocery items or pick from a pre-defined list. You can choose weights, amounts, quantities etc. It remembers the items you’ve shopped for on previous outings and lets you re-list them if you need them again. Nifty

• Shazam: Ever wanted to know what the name of that song was during the end credits of a movie? Well this little guy will sample an audio source for 15 secs, compare it to an online database and shoot back a match for you. You could be listening to the radio and hear a song you really like, but couldn’t catch the name of it, or maybe you just want to sing a few notes yourself to a song that is driving you nuts. Shazam is your tool!

• iScopes: An app that is mostly fluff. This one just gives you horoscope readings. I would love to find something like this but for the Eastern Zodiac signs.

• Magic 8 Ball: As the name suggests – it’s a magic 8 ball. Cool little time waster. Ask a question and hopefully you don’t get “Signs murky, ask again later”. ;)

• Genius Typing: Want to enable Emojicons for your iPhone? This app is the one for you. Install, and then make your way to your iPhone settings and look for your international keyboard options. Check under Japan and enable Emojicon. SMS texting is fun once again!! ;)

Ok… so there are some of my favorites…. What apps would you recommend?? What are your top 3 that you can't live without? Do you even own an iPhone or are you a BlackBerry Supporter? ;)

Taken

Yesterday was a pretty good day actually. I had the day off and managed to visit with some good friends of mine from Ft McMurray (Lee and Verlayne) who were down in Calgary for the day. It's nice to catch up with people you grew up with, and some friendships seem to pick up so easily from where they left off. It's too bad we only had a couple of hours, but it was still great to see them. Good Luck Lee & Layne! I hope you get good news! :)

The rest of my day went pretty smoothly too. I didn't get all the chores done that I wanted but I still had fun. I managed to get in some 8 ball coaching from my good friend Darren. Later we went off to dinner and were joined by his wife, Lori. The night was capped off with a movie and we watched "Taken" at the 730 show. Wow what a great movie!

If you haven't seen Taken yet... go see it! Liam Neeson is a great actor and did an awesome job in his role as an ex-cia agent. For those who are curious what this movie is about, here's a quick summary:

An ex CIA agent (Neeson) is trying to rebuild a relationship with his daughter whom he neglected during his career with the government. He's divorced, and his daughter lives with his ex wife and her new, rich husband. His daughter travels to Europe with a fellow 17 year old friend and is abducted. They are then sold into slavery and prostitution. Neeson spends the rest of the movie getting his daughter back using "a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you." as he says in the movie.

The action is believable and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire movie. There are a few twists and turns which makes it fun to go along for the ride. If you have kids though, this might bring up a lot of emotion for you. The idea of having your daughter taken into slavery and prostitution will make your stomach do flip flops, and you'll want to see the hero exact his revenge without mercy. They movie shows you just enough of the "reality" of this type of crime, that your imagination has no trouble filling in the rest of the gruesome details. It also makes you think twice about letting your kids travel abroad without a good chaperon.

It was a great film though, and well worth the $12.50 they bend you over for to see it. As my friend Ron pointed out... "Taken" is gonna look great on Blu-Ray high def!!

Twittering

I just recently discovered the wonderful world of Twitter (visit me at smudged on Twitter.com) and thought I would post a quick blog note about it. I was invited by a colleague of mine jedinite and I have to admit that at first I was a little underwhelmed by the whole experience.

With only one person following me, and only one person to follow, I thought... "This is stupid, I can just go over to his desk and tell him what I'm doing". Of course the whole purpose of Twitter is to share with your friends the mundane things that are going on in your life in 140 characters or less. It is non-intrusive, and they only get updates if they want to know "what's shakin'". It occurred to me that using Twitter was the same as using the status part of Facebook. So if I'm already using facebook, then twitter seemed kind of redundant.

The more I thought about it, the more I reconsidered my position. On Facebook, if I want to know what someone is up to, I have to visit their profile for a specific status update, or I have to wait for a notice that gives me the latest change in their status. Now if I want to check the status of several friends, I need to go to each one, which can get time consuming. However, with Twitter, I could follow multiple friends, and their status updates are collected for me in one spot! Neat! Now all I need are some friends to join Twitter and I can really take advantage of the "All in one status location".

*twiddling my thumbs* .... ok.... so this is where things slow down a bit for me.... none of my friends are on Twitter besides the colleage that invited me in the first place. Hmmmmm, so in the meantime, I check out the public feed on Twitter and check into what your every day person is doing.... *Yawn*.... ok that's a little boring too. drat.

Then I discovered that there are minor celebrities that "twitter". Ashton Kutcher for example (aplusk) and his wife Demi (mrskutcher). Cool!!! I quickly added them to the list of people that I follow (grand total of 3 now), and there I am, catching up on the mundane lives of minor celebrities. Very cool. Of course you can see who other people are following when you visit their pages, and eventually I found my way to William Shatner ( WilliamShatner) and Levar Burton (levarburton). They were quickly added to the list of the people I'm following and the next thing you know, I'm checking out 40+ people on Twitter!

Soon after that, people began to follow me!!

I KNOW!!!! That's what I said too.... "Shut the hell up! no one would voluntarily follow me!!".

This is quickly becoming addictive! So people who had read my posts in the "general" area thought I might be interesting enough to follow and started adding me. Others discovered that I was following someone else and wanted to know more about me as a result of the person I added to my own list. The coolest moment, was when MC Hammer (MCHammer) decided to follow ME!!!

I KNOW!!!!!! :)

Ok, so the guy has tons of people he follows, so I'm sure that I'm just automatically added to his list as a result of following him, but still.... I'm on HAMMER'S follow list!!!

Well, at least now I have something to do on Twitter, and it has definitely captured my interest. Hopefully some of my friends start to join Twitter so that I can follow them too! Ok, I'm off to check out all the shiny Tweeple!! ;)

Drop me Tweet if you sign up!!
Ciao.