My co-host Zach has been quite busy in the recent month or so and though this is no excuse, we have been unable to do a podcast for quite some time. Fortunately, this dark period of audio silence might soon be coming to and end. The school year is almost over and that means a little breathing room for both of us.
We’ll see how full force the podcast returns, but at the least you can expect one this summer. Lately, we’ve been talking about finances and I’m sure that conversation will continue. We’ll chat about Dave Ramsey and Debt, mutual funds and student loans. Hopefully it’ll be something you’ll enjoy. Stay tuned…
Monthly Archives: May 2006
I like free stuff. Music downloads are a treat.
Call me a frugal or call me a scrooge, I don’t like spending money often, and thus I always like getting things for free. One thing I like collecting, and don’t seem to use very often is free song downloads. So there are two recent findings that have made me particularly happy.
First, This website is giving away ten free song downloads from Sony Connect. 10 Songs are quite a bit and might be worth it to some of you to download the SonicStage program and get the free songs. If your interested I’ve already got three codes to get the free songs, just let me know your email.
Second, My friend Zach just told me that Napster.com now let’s you listen to full songs for free. Next time your sitting around trying to remember how that song goes, or wanting to hear the most talked about album, you can do it all completely for free. The only limitations is you can only listen to a song five times. Sounds pretty free to me.
Statcounter doesn’t seem to be working…
I’m not sure why, but I’m sure some folks are stopping by the site. Currently though I have no stats, nor comments to prove it. Somethings not right…
Landmines: More serious then you might think
The New Iraq
a Biblical and Christian Approach to Immigration
My good friend, and amazing writer, Melissa Duncan just published her first article at Relevantmagazine.com about Immigration. Please stop by and check it out.
Save Darfur
Thanks to your efforts and the efforts of many others working to create a lasting peace in Darfur, I am pleased to report we have seen significant progress in recent weeks.
On May 5, the Sudanese government and Darfur’s largest rebel faction signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, laying out a plan to end three years of violence and raising hopes for a lasting peace in Darfur. There is a much more to do, however, before that hope is realized.
In the next two weeks, the Sudanese government and the two remaining rebel factions must come to terms in order to ensure a strong building block for a lasting peace. With or without additional signers, it is imperative that the parties live up to their commitments to end the genocide and rebuild Darfur.
Another significant step forward was taken just yesterday, as the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding strict observance of the peace agreement, and calling for a quick transition from the current African Union peacekeeping force to a stronger UN force. Prior to the signing of the peace agreement, Sudanese President Bashir opposed a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur by saying that there was no peace to keep. With this peace agreement, however, that argument has been rendered moot.
Soon there will be a joint UN-African Union assessment mission dispatched to Darfur to assess the situation. Following their return, the stage will be set for UN Security Council consideration of a second resolution to actually authorize the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.
These are real, substantive steps forward, and you helped make them happen.
In fact, just one day after over 50,000 rallied on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and thousands more rallied at events across the country, President Bush dispatched Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick to the peace talks to make sure that an agreement was reached.
Upon his return, Deputy Secretary Zoellick personally called the Save Darfur Coalition to express his thanks for the level of U.S. activism which helped make the peace deal possible. In an interview last week, he said that “of all I’ve dealt with in foreign policy over some 20 years that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen as much broad support from churches, from communities and universities.”
Your collective voices have helped accomplish amazing results thus far!
But much more still remains to be done. Work at the UN is far from over, funding for humanitarian aid and peacekeeping falls short and puts millions of lives at risk. And above all, the people of Darfur still must contend with the dual threats of violence and starvation every day.
As we continue the fight, there will be many more opportunities for you take action and help make a difference.
Best regards,
David Rubenstein
Save Darfur Coalition
More at Savedarfur.org
The “What if?” of Cinderella Man
I watched Cinderella Man a while ago with my wife. It’s a touching story based on the real life events of James Braddock. It’s a heartwarmer and a true fairytale story. But I couldn’t help thinking about the “what if?”
This interaction between Braddock and his wife, Mae, will give you an idea of what I’m talking about:
And when they took your license away, even scared as I was… I went to the church and I thanked God for it.
Cause I always knew… a day might come when it could kill you. I just knew it, Jimmy. And now it’s here.You just got the jitters, that’s all.
He’s killed two men, Jimmy! What’s worth it?
I have to believe I got some kind of say over our lives. Okay?
You know, that if things are bad, that we can change them… we can make things better for our family. But I need you to be safe…
If you’ve seen the movie, and even if you haven’t (slight movie spoiler ahead), Braddock goes on to fight the guy, against his wife’s pleas (though she gives some approval in the end), and he wins the fight. But, the whole time I was thinking… What If?
What if his wife’s fears proved true and he was killed in the fight? Or more likely he was hit so hard he became disabled or permanently disabled. Then what say would he have over their lives?
I understand why this movie touches us, this man lays it all on the line and he motivates millions through his actions. And we all know people don’t pay to see some one turn in their gloves at their wife’s request so as to be there for their family, it just doesn’t make a good Hollywood ending.
Now, for a minute let’s lay Hollywood and our machoism aside for a moment and consider the options. Men, it’s time to stop drooling over Braveheart and Gladiator, shut-up for a moment, and listen to your wives (or someone else with some common sense). If you love your family, if you want to care for them and provide for them, then do it in a way that shows them and has their interest in mind.
GTD: The first step is getting to Ready
I’ve browsed/read through the entire book and system of Getting Things Done and realize there is a crucial first step I really need to make. David Allen, the author, suggests that you set aside two full days to do this step, and though I’ve planned on using a full weekend, I don’t think it’s going to happen (especially not at work).
The 1st step to really being able to fully implement the system is getting to Ready. Allen suggests taking literally everything on or in your desk and putting it in your inbox (exceptions are: supplies, reference material, decorations and equipment). Then, you take everything out of your head and place it in your inbox by simple writing down each item and putting it in your inbox. He’s even got a four page list of trigger words that might help you think of other incomplete items to write down.
After placing everything in your inbox, you must then process it, one item at a time, through your new system, into an appropriate place (you’ll have to read the book more, or watch for future post to learn more of the system) where you’ll be able to Get Things Done. And the stickler is that you must go through your entire inbox until it’s empty (He said a lot of people have stacks and stacks of stuff).
If you can manage getting through those two steps, putting it all in and then processing all of it, then you’ve gotten to Ready. For those, like me with less time to do this all in one sitting, I’d suggest putting in and processing as you go, but make it your top priority to do it until you’ve gone through everything.
Google Notebook: you clip the web
Google has been rolling out new ideas like crazy at their labs. The one I’m mosted interested and excited about is Google Notebook. When all the social bookmarking sites started coming out I wanted one that allowed me to clip only the section of sites I wanted and be able to lay those out in an easy format. Clipmarks was the first one I found, but for some reason it conflicted with the other extensions I used on firefox and so I wasn’t able to use it very much. And now Google Notebook.
Basically the Notebook simply allows you to highlight some text on a page and copy it to your notebook to keep track of. This is GREAT for research projects (like planning a summer schedule for work) because you can grab just the text that’s important to you and still easily have the link to get more info if necessary. It also allows me to print it all off in an easy to view format without a lot of copying and pasting.
Here’s an example page of clips from Trying to Follow.
Sign up for Google Notebook