New Blog

Just an FYI, my new blog is at www.7scorpions.com, which is the web site for my new book!

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

That is my quote of the day today on Facebook. It reminds me of an issue that I've seen plaguing a lot of people, just in my own observation. I hear all of the time "Oh, I'll do it when I have more money" or "I'll get to it when there's more time" or whatever else. People make excuses not to follow their dreams. Those who wait for the most opportune times to take action usually never find that time. How about this new year and new decade, instead of simply coming up with resolutions that stand a high chance of disappearing after January, make a new year commitment. Commit yourself to those things that you've always talked or thought about. After all, if you're wondering how people evaluate you, go back to the above mentioned quote, it's what you've done, not what you feel as though you're capable of doing or intentions.

I'll close this post with another quote: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Don't just intend, do.

More Haiti Hoaxes

Okay, I get annoyed at these hoaxes about donating to Haiti relief, but I'm getting more annoyed when people perpetuate these e-rumors without bothering to check them out. Case in point, I see this status posted on Facebook:

"This status is being tracked, the owners of facebook have confirmed they will send $1 to the rescue fund for the Haiti earthquake disaster for everytime this is cut and paste as a status. You only have to leave it for a minimum of 1 hour. Lets all do our bit."

The internal spam flag went up so I entered the simple search terms "Facebook Haiti Donation". The first link that I got was this:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2010/01/16/hoax-facebook-donates-1-per-status-update-to-haiti-relief.htm

It took me 3 seconds to do this. 3 seconds to save my friends and family from spreading ridiculous stuff. Please people, don't believe everything that people post in their statuses and forward to your email. Check it out first. Here are two awesome sites that are quite up to date on what's real and what's not.

http://www.truthorfiction.com

http://www.snopes.com

Quotes of the Day

Well, on Facebook I tend to post a different quote everyday that is meant to motivate people. I started doing that a few months ago because I felt that there were too many negative status updates flying around. I wanted to do something positive. So here's one for today that I actually took from a friend:

“Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.”

Cold = Negativity

So today I was bringing my son to gymnastics and I was really early so I decided to take a little ride. We passed by this HVAC place and they posted a sign outside that said: "Don't Complain, We're Warmer Than Texas!"

First of all, I almost veered off of the road I was laughing so hard. It did strike me though. It was a reminder of how much complaining and negativity is around, especially in the winter. Just look at it this way, cold is another way of saying absence of heat and since absolute zero is somewhere around -460 degrees, the coldest it gets in Connecticut is still quite warm in the grand scheme of things.

I'm guilty of it too, especially lately since my layer of insulation (my body fat) is significantly less than it used to be so I get cold a little easier. It doesn't stop me from wearing shorts, that's my trademark, but I have been finding over the last year that I have more and more of a tolerance for the warmer temperatures that I used to dread. Despite all of this, I try to remind myself of what I just wrote above, no matter how cold it gets, there's still warmth. Try and remember that in all areas of your life.

Haiti Earthquake Tragic, Scammers Even More-so

A friend of mine posted the following text as his status in Facebook:

Text 'HAITI' to 90999: This service was set up by the U.S. State Department. Texting "HAITI" to the number will donate $10 to the International Red Cross, and will appear as a charge on your wireless bill.

I decided to check it out since I already saw another posting like this that was a hoax (the UPS Free Shipping under 50 lbs to Haiti). I actually came across this link:

http://www.totalbankruptcy.com/blog/is-texting-haiti-to-90999-a-scam/

If you check it out, you'll see that there are two different text donation methods. They are legit, one of them is to the Red Cross, the other is to Yele Haiti.

Now, I came across this article also:

http://mashable.com/2010/01/14/haiti-disaster-scams/

I won't re-invent the wheel, I just wanted to say that there are plenty of legitimate ways to make money in this world, the fact that people feel the need to scam generous people defies words. Well, I just want to say this to those who feel the need to use a large disaster such as this to rip people off: Karma is real, and it will come back and bite you. We're not talking a little mosquito bite either. Enjoy your ill gotten gains while you can, it won't last.

Kids Say the Craziest Things

So, it's funny. I always said I'd never setup a blog. I also said that about getting onto Twitter and MySpace, yet now I have managed to do all three.

Kids will make you laugh, they will make you cry. Most importantly, kids make sure that life is NEVER boring. Today, my wife and I went to pick my son up from school. We drove, even though the school is right around the corner because she wanted to make sure she could get to her hair appointment. Funny enough, I thought she was going to drop us off at the house while she went to the hair stylist, but then she drove straight to her appointment.

Anyway, back to the point. She got her hair cut, the shortest it's ever been. We got into the car and my son asked her, "Mommy, are you a boy now?"

I'm glad I wasn't driving, I probably would've gone off the road and her car is beat up enough as it is from living on college campuses.