See you soon!

So I decided to give my red tape scissors a little exercise at the local VA.  I plan to get inside the forms and paper laden area where I can be buried for my volunteer time and listen to an ipod (maybe) while I figure out why an application for a new leg has been on someone’s desk for too long.

I’m not picking on the VA.  I guess I could work at the DMV for free, but what fun would that be?

Scratch that.

The DMV could/would be fun.  Especially since I could turn down all those fake handicap plate applications.  You know who you are.

Never the less, if you know ANYONE associated with the VA, please forward them my email.  I am on a track right now to get some volunteer time in the LA office, but I want to fast track all major forms so I can do this pro-bono outside the actual entity at some point.  I am not trying to skirt any laws or make anyone seem inept.  I know those people are doing all they can with the little they have.

If I can get one returning soldier or veteran into some sort of “better”, I’ll be better.  Period.

Kapeesh?

Really.

Please send this to ANYone related to the military that may know a person in need or a Cally VA office less a few helpful bodies.

~~

You’re not off the hook so quickly.

Ever thought of just blindly taking the time you don’t already have and giving it to someone else?  I’d be real interested in speaking with you about what volunteering opportunities I think would fit your bucket.  In fact, if you’re in that rut I mentioned, you’ll find that this will be a great rut-changer.

Forget the time problem. It’s a given.  So what?  Whomever you spend time with, will have no time to die, no time to wait on the phone for a new leg, or no time to make a meal you could deliver.

This isn’t for babies.

It’s for you and me.

We rock.

• Change morning routine completely.  Feed the cat backwards.  Delay the first coffee.  Not check my bank balance before 8. Read the daily business digest and reflect on how it works into my future.
• Choose and complete my fourth marathon. Maybe with Johnny Lassig?
• Break PR of 3:58 and make it 3:43.
• See Jamie Cullum in concert.
• Kiss my wife more.
• Kiss my kids more.
• See Pat more.
• Hug people more.  Even the stranger.
• Say I love you all the time.  Even to the mailman.
• Shed some lb’s.  [see marathon note]
• Increase my net worth by 15%.
• Increase my true friend base by 100%
• Shed friends that aren’t true but be available to them.
• Live by Charles’s rules all the time and admonish myself when I don’t.
• See Lars hit a homer over the fence this year.
• See Auge find his athletic prowess and where it will serve him best – for now.
• Build an Advisor List.  The outer edge of my inner circle. Have a secret motion or handshake.  We’ll go places afterward.
• Attend a perfect wedding in May.  Where else?  Maui.  …Perfect.
• Buy a junk car to undo and rebuild with Lars.  Yes, put in my driveway under my carport.  Yes, who cares.
• Take boys to Washington.  Pull strings so we meet Obama.
• Eat less sugar.
• Eat more good stuff.
• Drink way more water. [see marathon note]
• Drink less Stella.  [sorry girl]
• Go on set with @bcbcbc and have a meaningful job when I’m there.
• Finish my plan for the biggest, baddest family “event” and execute it in Summer 10.

Stay tuned.

Happy new year everyone!  Your readership is very much appreciated and not without notice.

I’m noticing that my Pandora station list is starting to look like a large Arkansas family with different teeth missing but still the same gene mapping.  I have found that what Pandora purports to do — find your melody sweet spot — it sort of does too well.

I mean, I try to even put up some heavy metal only to find I like softer heavy metal.  What gives?

I put up classical alongside my Coldplay and Sia, but turns out it starts playing more melodies like my other stations.  Could it be that Pandora is dipping into my psyche without me knowing it?  I realize that they have a quick mix function but this isn’t what I’m speaking of.

My station line up says I’m a puss.  Oh well.  At least I can sing the entire Hotel California without missing a beat.

Here’s an idea.  Pre-interview or pre-sales call… if we were able to out-load our PSL or Pandora Station List to someone, then you might find that your musical synergies work with your perspective clients or bosses (or girlfriends).  In fact, I am working on a project right now where we take the Pandora model and apply it to matching you with good child care.  I believe this is just the beginning of us finding more overlapping synergies with our day-to-day partners.  After all, everything you do in life can be melted down to a few digits of science.

Doesn’t that make you all fuzzy and paranoid?

And btw, if you saw my tweet, I am in for $36 on the Pandora One.  That, along with the Boxee hack for APTV and I’m one Pandora fool.

Agree all around.

Sales guys rule.

We’ve always known we’re in the catbird seat.

We suffer the pain for a company in wait.  We live the crush of a never-ending sales cycle that basically ends on our funeral day regardless of when we actually retire.  In other words, we’re always selling and the good ones sell ’til the death.

Once again, the new economy will depend on our engines to complete the circle.  Obama should have a national sales day for us.

Go gettem’.

AT&T is looking to extend its exclusive deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in the U.S. from 2010 to 2011, per the WSJ. AT&T has reported adding 4.3 million iPhone customers in the second half of 2008, some 40% of which were new to AT&T.

An excerpt:

Twin Peaks

David Beim, a former banker who is now a professor at the Columbia Business School, has something to say for people who want to pin this whole thing on the banks.

He has a chart illustrating how much debt American citizens owe, how much we all owe — with our mortgages and credit cards — compared to the economy as a whole. For most of American history, that consumer debt level represented less than 50 percent of the total U.S. economy, as measured by gross domestic product.

And then …

“From 2000 to 2008, it’s almost a hockey stick. It just goes dramatically upward,” Beim says. “It hits 100 percent of GDP. That is to say, currently, consumers owe $13 trillion when GDP is $13 trillion. That is a ton.”

This has happened before. The chart shows two peaks when consumer debt levels equaled the GDP: One occurred in 2007, the other in 1929.

And that scares Beim…. MORE on the link.

Love = Virtue of the heart
Sincerity = Virtue of the mind
Courage = Virtue of the spirit
Decision = Virtue of the will

Think about it.