Hey passengers, what do near-fatal incidents, self reflection and death all have in common? They all (having personally experienced), for me at least, help to put life into perspective. Each of these offered me a different view point, for example my close encounter helped me to realize what really matters to me and what isn’t worth the stress. Similarly, self reflection help ed me to see where I was wasting time or opportunities and how I could improve on that.
I don’t know if it is just me, but when somebody I’m close to passes away, I cease worrying about all my little problems and stop thinking that the world owes me a favor. Instead, I feel inspired to make the most of this opportunity, because it can disappear at any time.
It is as if the illusion and distorted view I have of reality starts to sink away and things start to become clear.
Over the last year, quite a few people have passed away and moved on to some other place. Yet, up until very recently I never realized quite what it was about death that inspired me to take action in life and stop taking the things that matter to me for granted. The effects of this inspiration never seemed to last very long, but I was always curious about what it was.
After sitting down and pondering over this for a while, the answer hit me. I came across a very simple, yet elegant understanding for what was happening: I was aligning myself with truth.
Having just hit the Five O…I am starting to understand what those OLD folks meant by saying “fifty gives one a sense of freedom”. Heck, I almost bought some CROCKS (those things are mad comfortable) the other day…Nah…I still have a little cool left!
Although baby Boomers aren’t the only ones that ride this here Train, a large proportion of my “LIL FRAINS!” are either Boomers or just missed the opportunity to be called boomers.
Anyway, just in case you weren’t feeling too old today here’s a few morsels to chew on that will keep it all in perspective…Can you believe:
The people who are starting college this fall were born after 1991.
They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up..
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
The CD was introduced two years before they were born. Ask them what a 45 is and give them a hint, “IT’S NOT A GUN!”.
They have always had an answering machine. …And it probabky wasn’t a seprate unit attached to a Land Line! WHAT!!! You mean you still have a land line? I still get a few folks (very few) that ask me why I only U$e a cellphone…Holla @ me if you still don’t get it…
Anyway…They have always had cable..
Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.
Popcorn has always been microwaved.
They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
They don’t know who Mork was or where he was from.
They never heard: ‘Where’s the Beef?’, ‘I’d walk a mile for a Camel ‘, or ‘de plane Boss, de plane’.
McDonald’s never came in Styrofoam containers.
They don’t have a clue how to use a typewriter.
Pass this on to the other old fogies on your list.
Hey passenger’s, well…we made it. As we close out the week let me share this story with you in case you missed it being passed around the net. Get some rest this weekend and ponder the following:
Embracing Imperfection
When I was a little girl, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his toast, smile at my mom, and ask me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I’ll never forget what he said. ‘Baby, I love burned toast.’
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night, and I asked him if he really liked his toast burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, ‘Debbie, your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she’s real tired. And besides-a little burnt toast never hurt anyone! You know, life is full of imperfect things…and imperfect people.. I’m not the best housekeeper or cook.’
What I’ve learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults – and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences – is the one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. And that’s my prayer for you today – that you will learn to take the good, the bad and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of GOD. Because in the end, He’s the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where burnt toast isn’t a deal-breaker! We could extend this to any relationship in fact – as understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!!”
Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket – but into your own.
See through God’s eyes and feel through God’s heart, and you will appreciate the value of every soul including yourself.
People will always forget what you do, and they will always forget what you say, but they will never, ever forget the way you make them feel.
Google Chrome cometh…and why you should care. It could be a savings of a lot of buck$!
I don’t often write about true tech issues here on the train, but so much is being written about the Google Chrome OS announcement I thought I’d weigh in.
On the surface, the announcement of a Google operating system seems to any like a shot at rival Microsoft, an attack at MS’s core business. But those who have been following Google’s moves know that it’s more than that — it’s an (expected) evolution in Google’s long-term strategy.
Google is moving everything online, and I really believe this is the future of computing. The desktop model of computing — the Microsoft era — is coming to an end. It’ll take a few years, but it will happen.
The Old Model
For years, the OS has used the desktop analogy, with folders and files, all stored in a big file cabinet (your hard drive). And applications such as Word have run from the hard drive.
What this has meant is that, in order to insure against computer crashes (which are eventually inevitable), you’ve had to back up your files to a remote disk (another drive, a CD-ROM, etc.). It also has meant a headache when it comes to accessing your files and programs from multiple computers — you have to save and sync files all the time, and buy and install multiple copies of applications.
It’s also meant a lot of headaches when it comes to filing and finding your files, and sharing them with other people (this had to be done using floppy disks/CDs, or more recently, email attachments).
Finally, operating systems, trying to do everything, have become bloated and slow, taking up a lot of your computer’s processing power, memory and storage. That’s why you have to buy a new computer every 2 or 3 years to keep up properly.
The New Model
Google’s model is based on connectivity to the Internet, a model that was unthinkable a decade ago and has only been really viable in the last few years as almost everyone has high-speed connections and wi-fi or mobile access.
Google has moved applications, and increasingly, our files, to the web (or cloud). It started with Gmail’s success — a fast, powerful online email app that beats desktop email apps hands down. It expanded with a suite of simple web apps: Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Reader, Picasa for photos, eventually YouTube for video, Blogger for writing for the web, and more.
These apps are lightweight but powerful. They aren’t as feature rich as desktop apps, but here’s what many critics don’t understand: in today’s (and tomorrow’s) computing world, they don’t have to be.
While the business world has long used Microsoft Word to create rich documents full of formatting and charts, the increasingly mobile world doesn’t care about any of that. We send emails and text messages and tweets and messages on Facebook and forums and other social media — with no formatting at all. We do blog posts that have bold and italics and links and photos and videos and not much more in terms of formatting text.
We don’t need feature-bloated Microsoft Word anymore. Nor Excel, with its 2 million features, nor PowerPoint (who likes to watch slides?). Sure, there are still some great desktop apps that people use, for photo and video editing and much more … but the majority of us don’t need those. We need to communicate simply and quickly, without hassle.
Web apps don’t match up with desktop apps … but that’s a good thing for most of us who use the new computing model.
Web apps are lightweight and fast. They store all your files online, so you don’t need to worry about syncing them or carrying around CDs or flash drives, or backing up. You can share with anyone you like, or everyone, with a click.
This is what the computing world is becoming, and will be for many years. Google has driven these changes, and when it announced the Chrome browser last year, that was an obvious move to make the browser handle web apps better.
The Chrome OS is an obvious move to make computers bypass the old model of desktop apps and files and folders, and go straight to the web, web apps, and online files. Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast (like the Chrome browser), it will feature web apps and not much else, and it will be perfectly aligned with how more and more of us are using the web — with mobility, speed, sharing, and connecting in mind.
Why Google Music is the Next Logical Step
If you read the Google Chrome OS announcement carefully, you’ll see an interesting item:
“[People] want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files.”
This obviously means Google OS will store all its files online — then people don’t need to worry about backing up the files, and if they lose their computer, nothing will really be lost.
And that makes sense, considering that Google has moved almost all your files online if you use its web apps: emails, photos (in Picasa), videos (in YouTube), documents (Google Docs & Spreadsheets), even pdfs now.
Almost all of your files.
The average user has one other type of file, though: mp3s. Sure, I know there are many other types of files, but I’m only concerned with what most people use computers for these days — email, online reading and social stuff, video, photos, music. And Google has not moved music online yet.
There are already sites that do this, but they’re not Google. So either Google will buy one of the online sites (like it did with YouTube and Blogger and Writely, which became Google Docs), or it will create its own.
Your mp3s will be stored online, and you’ll be able to play them from anywhere. This will complete Google’s goal of keeping all your files online.
Concerns: Connectivity and Privacy
There are two main concerns that people have when cloud computing or web apps are brought up, so we should talk about them briefly:
1. What if you’re not connected to the cloud? You might lose your Internet connection and lose access to your files. This is not a concern for most of us, as we’re almost always connected, more and more each year, especially with data plans on mobile devices (ala the iPhone). However, Google is already addressing this issue with Google Gears and HTML5 — you’ll be able to access your files and use web apps even when offline.
2. Do I really want Google to have all my files and info? This is a valid privacy concern, and I don’t have an answer. My personal feeling is that I don’t have any data that I’m incredibly worried about losing or that might become public. I highly doubt Google would be interested in browsing through my files, as they’re not very interesting. And if Google uses my data to serve up better ads … what do I care? I don’t look at their ads anyway.
However, I understand the privacy concern. It may turn out to be an important issue, or it might just be something we learn to live with, as we have with many other privacy issues (government having access to our financial data, Microsoft getting info from our computers, etc.).
Update: More info on Chrome.
—
For those interested in creating powerful web video: Check out a toolkit at WebWarriorTools on Making Web Video That Sells. Essentially, it’s a comprehensive learning tool on everything everything you need to create video that makes an impact. It’s a great resource for people with blogs or products that want to learn how to start using video to increase subscribers or sales.
So…there you go Passengers…a true tech tip on Tuesday.
All Aboard, The LiFeTrain!
I don’t often write about tech issues, but so much is being written about the Google Chrome OS announcement I thought I’d weigh in.
On the surface, the announcement of a Google operating system seems to many like a shot at rival Microsoft, an attack at MS’s core business. But those who have been following Google’s moves know that it’s more than that — it’s an (expected) evolution in Google’s long-term strategy.
Google is moving everything online, and I really believe this is the future of computing. The desktop model of computing — the Microsoft era — is coming to an end. It’ll take a few years, but it will happen.
The Old Model
For years, the OS has used the desktop analogy, with folders and files, all stored in a big file cabinet (your hard drive). And applications such as Word have run from the hard drive.
What this has meant is that, in order to insure against computer crashes (which are eventually inevitable), you’ve had to back up your files to a remote disk (another drive, a CD-ROM, etc.). It also has meant a headache when it comes to accessing your files and programs from multiple computers — you have to save and sync files all the time, and buy and install multiple copies of applications.
It’s also meant a lot of headaches when it comes to filing and finding your files, and sharing them with other people (this had to be done using floppy disks/CDs, or more recently, email attachments).
Finally, operating systems, trying to do everything, have become bloated and slow, taking up a lot of your computer’s processing power, memory and storage.
The New Model
Google’s model is based on connectivity to the Internet, a model that was unthinkable a decade ago and has only been really viable in the last few years as almost everyone has high-speed connections and wi-fi or mobile access.
Google has moved applications, and increasingly, our files, to the web (or cloud). It started with Gmail’s success — a fast, powerful online email app that beats desktop email apps hands down. It expanded with a suite of simple web apps: Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Reader, Picasa for photos, eventually YouTube for video, Blogger for writing for the web, and more.
These apps are lightweight but powerful. They aren’t as feature rich as desktop apps, but here’s what many critics don’t understand: in today’s (and tomorrow’s) computing world, they don’t have to be.
While the business world has long used Microsoft Word to create rich documents full of formatting and charts, the increasingly mobile world doesn’t care about any of that. We send emails and text messages and tweets and messages on Facebook and forums and other social media — with no formatting at all. We do blog posts that have bold and italics and links and photos and videos and not much more in terms of formatting text.
We don’t need feature-bloated Microsoft Word anymore. Nor Excel, with its 2 million features, nor PowerPoint (who likes to watch slides?). Sure, there are still some great desktop apps that people use, for photo and video editing and much more … but the majority of us don’t need those. We need to communicate simply and quickly, without hassle.
Web apps don’t match up with desktop apps … but that’s a good thing for most of us who use the new computing model.
Web apps are lightweight and fast. They store all your files online, so you don’t need to worry about syncing them or carrying around CDs or flash drives, or backing up. You can share with anyone you like, or everyone, with a click.
This is what the computing world is becoming, and will be for many years. Google has driven these changes, and when it announced the Chrome browser last year, that was an obvious move to make the browser handle web apps better.
The Chrome OS is an obvious move to make computers bypass the old model of desktop apps and files and folders, and go straight to the web, web apps, and online files. Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast (like the Chrome browser), it will feature web apps and not much else, and it will be perfectly aligned with how more and more of us are using the web — with mobility, speed, sharing, and connecting in mind.
Why Google Music is the Next Logical Step
If you read the Google Chrome OS announcement carefully, you’ll see an interesting item:
“[People] want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files.”
This obviously means Google OS will store all its files online — then people don’t need to worry about backing up the files, and if they lose their computer, nothing will really be lost.
And that makes sense, considering that Google has moved almost all your files online if you use its web apps: emails, photos (in Picasa), videos (in YouTube), documents (Google Docs & Spreadsheets), even pdfs now.
Almost all of your files.
The average user has one other type of file, though: mp3s. Sure, I know there are many other types of files, but I’m only concerned with what most people use computers for these days — email, online reading and social stuff, video, photos, music. And Google has not moved music online yet.
There are already sites that do this, but they’re not Google. So either Google will buy one of the online sites (like it did with YouTube and Blogger and Writely, which became Google Docs), or it will create its own.
Your mp3s will be stored online, and you’ll be able to play them from anywhere. This will complete Google’s goal of keeping all your files online.
Concerns: Connectivity and Privacy
There are two main concerns that people have when cloud computing or web apps are brought up, so we should talk about them briefly:
1. What if you’re not connected to the cloud? You might lose your Internet connection and lose access to your files. This is not a concern for most of us, as we’re almost always connected, more and more each year, especially with data plans on mobile devices (ala the iPhone). However, Google is already addressing this issue with Google Gears and HTML5 — you’ll be able to access your files and use web apps even when offline.
2. Do I really want Google to have all my files and info? This is a valid privacy concern, and I don’t have an answer. My personal feeling is that I don’t have any data that I’m incredibly worried about losing or that might become public. I highly doubt Google would be interested in browsing through my files, as they’re not very interesting. And if Google uses my data to serve up better ads … what do I care? I don’t look at their ads anyway.
However, I understand the privacy concern. It may turn out to be an important issue, or it might just be something we learn to live with, as we have with many other privacy issues (government having access to our financial data, Microsoft getting info from our computers, etc.).
Update: More info on Chrome.
—
For those interested in creating powerful web video: Check out a toolkit at WebWarriorTools on Making Web Video That Sells. Essentially, it’s a comprehensive learning tool on everything everything you need to create video that makes an impact. It’s a great resource for people with blogs or products that want to learn how to start using video to increase subscribers or sales.
Hey passenger’s as we kick-off another week, here’s a couple of things to keep in mind:
1. No matter what you face this week, you are top side of six feet under!
2.”You can only discover new ocean if you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
3.”The level of your commitment, determines the level of your success.”
4.”The happiness of ur life depends on the quality of ur thoughts.”
5.”Wisdom isn’t the acquisition of knowledge but rather knowing which knowledge is worth acquiring.”
6.”The tongue weighs practically nothing but only a few people are able to hold it.”
7.”If you put only a small value on your life bet your life the world will not raise it.”
8.”When you are busy rowing the boat, you don’t have time to rock it.”
9.”When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!”
10.”Don’t go digging where God has buried your sins.”
To my fellow passengers, this IS an order! As another week comes to a close…Leave those worries behind…This weekend, the train is on the…
Listen, we may not have all the money we want. We may not live in a fancy house or drive an expensive car. Maybe we’ve yet to find the right man or woman. Maybe we have a few extra pounds on our thighs or belly. This does not mean life is over. Actually, it may not have begun. What we must do is live from the inside so the outside will become more fun. Give what you have in order to get what you need. Take what you get with an open heart. Let’s begin (if you aren’t already) to trust God to bring for the desires of our heart, forgive all people for what you believe they have done. Begin each day with a prayer of gratitude, love all people for who they are. Possess no things or person; speak only of the things that you want. Life is willing to cooperate with you, but you must know where to start.
A quote from Donald Curtis: In order to cooperate with life you must learn how to forgive, how to pray, how to give, how to receive, how to adjust; seeking nothing, giving everything, loving all people, trusting God, living each moment fully.
Well guys, It’s a wrap…TGIF and ….ALL ABOARD! The LiFeTrain!
A suggestion for fixing America ’s economy:
Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the
money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:
There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. – Pay
them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following
stipulations:
1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.
2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.
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some other place. Yet, up until very recently I never realized quite what it was about death that inspired me to take action in life and stop taking the things that matter to me for granted. The effects of this inspiration never seemed to last very long, but I was always curious about what it was.
Google Chrome cometh…and why you should care. It could be a savings of a lot of buck$!
A suggestion for fixing America ’s economy: