The 2010 Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival 2nd Edition

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and welcome to the Second Edition (and final edition) of The 2010 Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival (for this year). I'm glad that you've taken time out of your busy holiday schedule to spend a little of it with us!

For a lot of people this has been a hard year (maybe even the past few years) so many people will be happy to see it go and look forward to the next year with anticipation but now is a good time to also look back at the year and think about the good things that have happened (as well as the things that you might want to change). I've lost two uncles this years, so I'm reminded that all our lives on this planet are temporary and that we do need to let our loved ones know how much they mean to us.

I hope that you're able to spend the holidays with family and friends. Maybe you can even invite that lonely colleague that you know will be spending the holidays by him/herself to spend some of the holidays with you and your celebrations. Having been that colleague once in my life, I can tell you that you can sure make someone feel great if you invite them (even if it turns out that the already have plans and can't join you).

I've been happy with many of the submissions for this year's Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival and look forward to seeing all the great entries next year. My wife wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving this year within some of the holiday dishes she is preparing since I had to work on the American Thanksgiving this year (I have taken it off several times in the past) she wanted to make a pecan pie yesterday but had to settle for walnuts, but boy was it good! That reminds me that there were entries on Mexican food blogs and Pizza blogs. I'd love to see more recipes for those holiday favorites of yours. In the first issue this year there was an entry that talked about blogs on Kosher living, so hopefully I can learn a little more about Jewish living and I hope that next year we can learn more about Muslim and other holidays that we can include in the holiday spirit. It would be great if we can use this time of year to bring people closer together.


This year there are even more ways to celebrate the holidays. Globaljammerz.com is celebrating the holidays from December 1st right up till the new year breaking around the globe. They're holding a Happy Holidays event sponsored by the "If Music Be The Food Of Love....Play on!" group. Why not take a break from your holiday shopping and craziness and stop by? Have thoughts of a snow covered castle gone through your mind? Then maybe you might want to check out their "Castles of the World" group. Do you have a favorite holiday recipe, then why not share it with the Holiday Spirit and Globaljammez's "International Recipe Exchange" group?

Go grab a beverage of choice (warm or cold), enjoy the fire, and lets celebrate the holidays!

Big Cajun Man presents Gifts You Shouldn’t Get Your Kids (ever) posted at Canadian Personal Finance Blog, saying, "Some last minute gift ideas to completely MISS!"


Nancy Smith presents Advice On Choosing Ideal Child Gifts posted at Mothers Day 2009, saying, "Presents for kids are often obvious but at times you might need some extra ideas."


Kerry Fletcher presents How to decorate for a New Year's Eve party posted at Examiner.


Jennifer Miner presents Fun Things to Do NYC Christmas — The Vacation Gals posted at The Vacation Gals - Family travel, girlfriend getaways, romantic getaways, destinations, things to do, travel tips, saying, "We love to see our extended family every Christmas, so we always travel during the holidays. For anyone vacationing in New York City over Christmas, here are some of my favorite, fun, kid-friendly holiday activities in that city."

Steve presents Decorating for a Victorian Christmas Theme | Christmas 2010 Shop posted at Christmas 2010 Shop, saying, "Decorating in Victorian style is great for Christmas when you can afford the items."

MacKenna Stevens presents 39 Awesome Charities to Support This Holiday Season posted at Masters in Social Work, saying, "If you’re stumped for a gift to give loved ones who have everything they need (and then some), think about donating to a charity in their name this holiday season. Many charities have online access for donating and will mail you a small card or allow you to print out a flyer saying you’ve donated to them. Put this in a holiday card and give the gift of giving back to a cause you believe in."

Evelyn Dugan presents 15 Smart-Shopper Tips for Post-Holiday Shopping posted at Earn A Degree Online, saying, "Both online and in-store shopping offer additional markdowns the day after Christmas and well into January and February, so keep this guide handy to help you score during post-holiday shopping."

Tara Snyder presents 40 Tips for Doing All of Your Holiday Shopping Online posted at Online Training, saying, "The holiday season has arrived and stores are already blasting the Christmas tunes and giving us Black Friday-worthy deals in early November. While there’s a lot on your plate during the holidays, shopping for gifts doesn’t have to be one of them. You still have to do a little thinking and planning, but shopping online is worlds easier than trucking it out the store every time you realize you have someone else on your gift list."


Jaybot presents Xmas Holidays in Japan posted at Jaybot7 : Jason Surguine : Music : Audio : Design : Games, saying, "How I recently spent my Christmas holidays in Tokyo and Nagoya Japan. It's split into two parts, so you can choose which one"


Wise Bread presents 8 Gifts the Man in Your Life Really Wants posted at Wisebread.


Katie Sorene presents 7 Most Incredible Department Stores in the World posted at Travel Blog - Tripbase.


HtF presents How to Fix Up Your Christmas Tree to Keep It Fresh posted at How To Fix.



That concludes the final edition this year. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival next year using our carnival submission form. Past and future editions can be found on our
blog carnival index page. I hope that you've enjoyed this edition and we look forward to your next visit. Feel free to submit an article, give us your comments, and spread the Holiday Spirit to others. Look for The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival to return around Thanksgiving 2011. Be sure to check out our other blog carnivals as well as our other posts. Happy Holidays everyone and I hope that 2011 is a great year for you and your family.

Photo credit: "fireplace 2" courtesy of michalina.

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The 2010 Holiday Spirt Blog Carnival 1st Edition

Welcome to the First Edition of The 2010 Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival. I've enjoyed this time of year for as long as I can remember. First there was all the excitement of the kid wondering what he'd get for Christmas and how much fun you could have in this time of year. Later on this time of year became more about connecting with family and friends and letting them know how much they meant to me. After becoming a parent there was of course the excitement of seeing the holidays through your childrens' eyes and getting all excited again. Over the course of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival, I hope that you'll join me in getting excited and spreading some holiday cheer. Two years when I chose the title for the blog carnival, I purposely choose Holiday Spirit because I didn't want to only focus on Christmas, and in fact I'd love to see some submissions on how other faiths celebrate holidays that are meaningful to them that occur this time of year. I'd love to hear how Jewish and Muslim people celebrate their holidays, it would be great if we can use this time of year to bring people closer together.


The first editon of the Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival for 2010 was delayed due to how unbelieveably busy I've been the past couple of months. There should be at least one or two more editions between now and Christmas.

This year there are even more ways to celebrate the holidays. Globaljammerz.com is celebrating the holidays from December 1st right up till the new year breaking around the globe. They're holding a Happy Holidays event sponsored by the "If Music Be The Food Of Love....Play on!" group. Why not take a break from your holiday shopping and craziness and stop by? Have thoughts of a snow covered castle gone through your mind? Then maybe you might want to check out their "Castles of the World" group. Do you have a favorite holiday recipe, then why not share it with the Holiday Spirit and Globaljammez's "International Recipe Exchange" group?

Without further adieau, let the holiday season begin!


Elizabeth Wright presents 50-Point Checklist To Perfect Your Holiday Hosting posted at Education Degrees.


Tim Dalton presents 50 Best Blogs for Kosher Living posted at Theology Degrees Online, saying "Keeping kosher is not always easy, but finding some support online can help enormously. Whether you already know lots about this lifestyle or are just starting out, you will need some kosher recipes, restaurant reviews, gift ideas, knowledge about food and wine, and much more..." I'd imagine that there are probably some good blogs there for people interested in finding out more about how Jewish people live.

Cindy Cullen presents Top 49 Mexican Cooking Blogs posted at Culinary Arts College, saying "Mexican food is delicious, but bringing the recipes to your own kitchen may be tricky. We all love hitting a Mexican restaurant, big or small, and noshing on enchiladas and fajitas and washing it all down with a margarita. These blogs will help you gather the right ingredients and perfect your technique when cooking up something spicy." I have fond memories of how the Tristan family always made Tamales for Christmas. I spent quite a few holidays with good friends in Dallas and think about them all often this time of year.

Cindy Cullen presents Top 24 Pizza Blogs posted at Culinary Arts College, saying "Nearly everyone, young and old, flock to the classic Italian dish that is accessible and easy to make at home. While we don’t all like the same toppings, learning more about pizza is something we all enjoy." A while back when visiting some friends that made a really neat pizza with apples and mustard, so how about a nice Christmas themed pizza?

Carrie Oakley presents 50 Time-Tested Recipes to Create the Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner posted at Online Colleges, saying "Thanksgiving brings memories of fun or horror, depending on who you’re talking to. If the job’s yours this year, check out this list of time-tested recipes that will be a hit with almost any crowd. While you can’t keep up with every guests’s eating habits or preferences, you can strive to create simple dishes that are full of flavor and easy to pull off without breaking a sweat in the kitchen..." Thanksgiving is behind us this year but lots of people make some of the Thanksgiving dishes for Christmas or maybe you can use this to get ready for next year.

Wise Bread presents 5 Rules for Planning Your Most Affordable Christmas Ever posted at Wise Bread. With Christmas being only days away don't let your Christmas shopping carry you away and take you beyond your budget.

Tash presents Christmas spirit of giving posted at Love Santa, saying "Christmas is about giving, not fancy wrappings and expensive gifts as such."

Hans Hallanger presents 22 Christmas Organizing Ideas for a less stressed holiday. posted at Organized Way Blog, saying " Ideas to help make the Christmas season be more organized, less stressful and more enjoyable."

Stretching the One Income Dollar presents Stretching the One Income Dollar: Christmas on a Shoestring posted at Stretching the One Income Dollar.

PT presents Christmas Gift Ideas Under $25 posted at PT Money, saying "A huge list of unique Christmas gift ideas under $25, perfect for a more frugal Christmas."

Wenchypoo presents The 12 Cyber-Scams of Christmas posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket. Watch out when you do your holiday shopping.

Wenchypoo presents The One Gift Card Worth Giving...and It's Free! posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket. A great and inexpensive gift idea.

Jerry Rogers presents 12 Great Gadget Blogs for the Smart Holiday Shopper posted at College Crunch.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past and future editions can be found on our
blog carnival index page. I hope that you've enjoyed this edition and we look forward to your next visit. Feel free to submit an article, give us your comments, and spread the Holiday Spirit to others.

Photo credit: "Snowman Ornament 1" courtesy of pronoya.

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John Lennon- IMAGINE

December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed in New York. I woke up the next morning and turned on the radio and was totally shocked to hear this. This was the first thing that I heard on this day that should have normally be a happy day for me, as it was my 14th birthday, but now it is really the only thing that I remember from that day. In a short period of time following John Lennon's murder, there were attempts on the the lives of the Pope and President Reagan (both unsuccessful). I wasn't arround when President Kennedy was assiginated, but I know that I was so shocked that someone would kill John Lennon and I think that people were probably as shocked when President Kennedy was killed.

In 1980, John released his "Double Fantasy" album. This marked his return after taking a few years off from the music world to be a stay at home father and raise Sean. The album signaled that he was back, it had a lot of promise and gave us a glimpse of where his music might have gone. Looking at the promise that was there after the release of "Double Fantasy", this makes his death that much more traggic.

Being shot down seems like a very ironic way to die for someone that was so peace oriented. It doesn't really seem fitting for someone known for wanting to "give peace a chance" and for saying that "War is Over, if we want it", should die in such a way.

There have been very few song writting teams that have come even close to matching the success fo Lennon/McCartney. Few bands or artists have been nearly as popular and loved as the Beatles. John's post Beatles musical career was pretty fruitful and you have to wonder if he had lived today, if Paul would have had the most successful post Beatles career or if John would have been more successful? You also have to wonder where he would have gone with his music? What projects would he have done? I also wonder, if he was such a controversial person that he was bound to be killed, if not on December 8, 1980 than another time?

I've really enjoyed working on the JOHN LENNON - IMAGINE event at Globaljammerz.com, putting together the daily online radio shows and telling people about the event. I hope that you'll check out my shows that are running at 9 pm (U.S. Central time) through December 12th. I also hope that you'll share what John and the Beatles have meant to you, what your favorite songs are, what your favorite memories and stories are, and I hope that you'll join the other Beatles fans at the Fab Four group at Globaljammerz. It doesn't cost anything to join, so why not check it out. With the remaining shows I'd like to do a couple of requests shows, so I've been collecting songs requests at various places along the web. I'd also like to do a couple of shows of people covering the Beatles and John Lennon songs, so your input is most welcome.

I remember making a vow on the day that I heard about John's death, that his death wouldn't be in vain and that I would someday find meaning in his loss (our loss). Thirty years later I'm still trying to find the meaning and make something out of my life. Who knows, maybe I'll find it by the the 60th Anniversary! I think that John would have loved our social web today and being able to connect with his fans in a totally different way than musicians did in the past would be something he'd appreciate. John, thank you for all the great music. Thanks to you, I can imagine all the people living for today and I can picture myself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies and so much more.

Photocredit: The John Lennon collage is posted in the Fab Four group at Globaljammerz.

Coming: John Lennon- Imagine

December 8th, marks the 30th Anniversary of John Lennon's Death. How do you pay tribute to John Lennon? If your Globaljammerz.com you host a week plus of onlne radio shows honoring the memory of this musical great and since Globaljammerz.com is a social network for music lovers, they'll be sharing their thoughts and memories about John Lennon and you can join in on the conversation sharing your thoughts and memories about John. You can join us in the chatroom when we're hosting the online shows. Of, course you can also play your favorite John Lennon and Beatles songs right along with Globaljammerz on Blip.fm @IMAGINE.

Be sure to check out the Fab Four, the Globaljammerz group for Bealtes fans, where you can connect with other Beatles fans and share your thoughts and memories about John Lennon. You can join us at the Globaljammerz Events page for more details about the various things that we have planned. In Facebook you can join us at the Globaljammerz Facebook group.

If you're you're a member of any kind of Beatles fan club or organization we'd love to have you join us, be sure to let your friends that are Beatles fans know as well. It doesn't cost anything to join Globaljammerz, so why not check them out? If you do decide to join be sure to mention that Darryl Heron sent you.

Globaljammerz is running the John Lennon Imagine event from December 3rd through December 12th, Just imagine the life that was and the life that could have been. We hope to see you there.

Photo credit: The John Lennon photo that appears above is part of a discussion at the Fab Four group at Globalammerz and can be found along with some other John Lennon photos here.

My New Position

I recently became the Community and Group Manager at Globaljammerz and thought that I'd share this with our readers. Globaljammerz is a social network for music lovers of all shapes, sizes, and varieties. I've written about it a couple of times, so hopefully this isn't new to you all.

I'm really excited about this opportunity for many reasons. One of the biggest being that I've had a love for music as long as I can remember and see this as a great opportunity to interact with other music lovers. Music can be such a unifying and uniting force. If you go to a concert of a band that you really like and look around you can immediately see that you're not alone in your appreciation for the band you're seeing and you can see the diversity in other people that like the same band.

As the Community and Group Manager, I plan to see that we have an active section of groups that represent our members and look after the interests of the community in general. Lastly, I hope that Globaljammerz will continue to be a fun place to hang out with other music lovers. If you're already a member at Globaljammerz, feel free to contact me and let me know you ideas. If you're not a member why don't you come check it out.

Here are some other posts that you might like to check out...

• Globaljammerz
• Drive to 1000

Photo credit: "Note" courtesy of kjsz.

Blog Action Day 2010 Recap

Blog Action Day 2010 is now history and thought that some of you might be interested in reading a little bit about how it went, so I thought that I share some information about it with you all.

I received an email teling me that the main event on Friday had more than 5,600 bloggers from 143 countries participating, reaching more than 40 million readers. This definitely shows that blogging and Social Media have reached a whole another level, think about how many tradtional television shows and traditional publications reach that many people!

Blip.fm and Globaljammerz had an event to go along with Blog Action Day 2010, that I told you about in my post on Blog Action Day. The event ran all weekend long so that it could allow people in all the time zones to participate. Trying to get statistics about Blip.fm has proven more challenging that I had first thought, so my numbers aren't as complete or as in dept as I'd like but I wanted to report on a few things anyways.

First of all, thank you to everyone who participated in Blog Action Day, in whatever form that you might have done so. I also wanted to thank those people that participated on the Blip.fm/Globaljammerz Blog Action Day 2010 Event. As far as I know this is the firs time that something like this was organized on Blip.fm and Globaljammerz, so I have big hope for this to grow in the future.

Over the course of the past weekend I played 31 songs on Blip.fm. I received 20 different reblips, or people replaying songs that I played, often restating part or all of the message that I wrote along with the blip. All of the 31 songs that I blipped were also tweeted on my Twitter account. I received 38 props or kind of a thumbs up from other Blippers for songs that I played and/or the messages that I blipped

What I'm not able to determine is how many songs were played with "#BAD10" in the blip, as was one of the ideas behind having the event, so I'd be curious of someon Blip.fm can find out for me. Looking in Twitter, 8 tweets mentioned me and Blog Action Day and songs that I blipped Using the search on Twitter doesn't seem to pull up any of the blips that I know should be there, I'm not sure why.

I wanted to take a moment and recognize some of the people that participated in the Blip.fm/Globaljammerz event.

• "indyh"gave me the most props for songs played as well as being the first to reblip or replay one of the songs that I played for the event.
  
• The first prop or thumbs up that one of my blips got goes to "sandraew".
• 3 different blips of mine were reblipped by at least 3 people
• "Danimelocoton" reblipped me several times and gave me several props
• "MCDEIBEM" and "DeAnn" reblipped multiple songs of mine
• "indyh", "mairsplaylist", "Loba_Negra", "DeAnn", and "Globaljammerz" gave me multiple props

The idea of having a Blip.fm/Globaljammerz event tied to Blog Action Day only occured to me with a little more than a week before the big day, so there wasn't a whole lot of time to organize and promote the event. Overall, I'm happy with the event that we had on Blip.fm and Globaljammerz. I've learned some lessons on things that can be done differently in the future and see big potential in other events that can be organized in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do for Blog Action Day 2011. If you participated in the Blip.fm/Globaljammerz Blog Action Day, I'd love to get your feedback and some statistics from you to help round out my evaluation of the event.

Photo credit: "Eurasian Coot" courtesy of soikha.

Drive to 1000

Globalammerz.com is having a membership drive with the goal of reaching over 1000 members by the end of this year.

What is Globaljammerz? It is a social network for DJs, Musicians, and Music lovers. A large number of members are also members on Blip.fm. While there is a lot of communication going on at Blip, as a social network I've thought for a while that it needed a lot more functionality and now with Globaljammerz you have much of what I was looking for. Also, membership is free.

If you go to the groups section, you'll find over 40 different groups covering a wide variety of musical tastes and themes where you can meet other people with similar tastes and interests to yourself. If you're into the Beatles, they have a group for you. If you're a Disco Freak, they have a group for you. If you've got the Blues or are into the Blues, they have a group for you. If you're a Soul Man (or Woman), they have a group for you. They have Hard Rock, Punk, and a variety of other groups all waiting for you to join them.

Several of the DJs at Globaljammerz have regular shows on Blip.fm. You can start the week "Mayer Mondays with Mary", where music from John Mayer is featured. "Flowapowa with Deann", plays flower powered music from the 60's and 70's. "German Rock House with Petra" focuses on popular German music (and we're not talking about the folk music from Oktoberfest that most people think of either). "Sountracks with Daniela" plays music froma wide variety of famous (and sometimes not so famous) movie soundtracks and television shows. "Texas Blues Power Hour" features famous (and not so famous) guitarists from Texas. These are a few of the regularly occuring shows and there are also several special shows that are scheduled on more of an ad hoc basis, so it is a good idea to check out the events to see what shows are on the horizon.

There is a chatroom built into the network, so you can see if any of your friends are online or if they'll join you online. It is also a good way to communicate with the DJs doing shows, to let them know what you think about the songs they're playing or maybe you can give the requests live duing their shows.

Globaljammerz is a social network hosted on Ning.com. Ning is probably the most famous site where you can build your own social network, so Globaljammerz can harness the experience of Ning for the benefit of its memembers. Look for new features and funtionaliy as Globaljammerz grows and matures.

If Globaljammerz reaches the target of 1000 memebers by the end of 2010...

• The first prize winner of the contest who brings in the most members will win $150, 2 concert tickets, or virtual shares of Globaljammerz
• The second prize winner who brings in the second most new members will win $100
• The third prize winner who bings in the third most new members will win $50

To qualify, the new members need to mention that you referred them when they apply.


I'm excited about Globaljammerz because I see that it can become "the" social music network. It isn't nearly as complicated at Ping and there are already tons of people already on Blip.fm that could really benefit and enjoy the site. I hope to see and hear you at Globaljammerz and Blip.fm. Why not give them a spin and join them, membership is free. By the way don't forget to tell them that Darryl Heron sent you.

You might also be interested in...

• Here's a post that I recently wrote about Globaljammerz
  

Blog Action Day 2010- What Can I Do?

I was really excited when I read that this year's Blog Action Day theme was water. Water is something that we can all relate to and shouldn't lead us off into some ivory tower discussion about if it exists or not (at lease I hope that some of the spinmasters out there haven't found an angle on this, but I have little doubt that they'll try). Water is such a basic and simple item, but it is central to our existance in this life, we cannot live with out it. When we, as people, are presented with a problem there is a natural reaction and desire to want to help and to ask "What can I do?"

First off I thought that I bring up some of the topics that were raised on the Blog Action Day homepage, water is way more far-reaching that you might first think. All of the things that I mention are worth further investigation and you owe it to yourself to have a look into them (if not today or tomorrow, in the near future, while we still have a future) Education is almost always a good thing. Take some time to learn what the problem is and you'll be amazed at some of the possibilitie that will open up. Be sure to check out the Blog Action Day homepage because they have some real good resources there. If you're running out of time or just wish to skip to the "What Can I Do?" (try doing "contrl F" and pasting "What Can I Do?", it'll the the 3rd instance of that phrase). Here you'll find some suggestons of some things that you and your family and friends can do, along with some information about the Blip.fm/Globaljammerz Blog Action Day Event that we've planned....

Water as a Human Right

The UN General Assembly declares access to clean water and sanitation is a human right. 122 countries votes yes on the resolution while 41 nations "absentained". You have to wonder what the reasons were of those countries that didn't vote. You can sign a petition to let the UN and other world leaderss know you support water as a Human Right...

"Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

I support the UN's life-saving efforts to accomplish MDG seven: By 2015, halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities are basic necessities required for health and for success in the fight against poverty, hunger, child deaths and gender inequality around the world.

It is also central to the human rights and personal dignity of every woman, man and child on earth."

Effects on Women And Children

Charitywater.org reports that water collection and unsafe and unsanitary water have an extreme effect upon women and children who spend 40 billion hours every year just collecting the water that is available. "Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses." "Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions."

Polluted Oceans

According to Savethesea.org "Not only is pollution bad for the environment, it’s also expensive! Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year."

Unsafe Rivers

According to Dosomething.org "Today, 40% of America’s rivers and 46% of America’s lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. That’s not surprising considering the fact that 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually."

Food Footprint

You might have heard about our Carbon Footprint but have you heard about our Food Footprint? From Waterfoodprint.org, "Do you know the water footprint of your food? For example, 75 liters of water are required to make a glass of beer and 15,500 liters to make a kilogram of beef."

Water Wars

According to Finalcall.com "Many scholar, researchers and political analysts attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. In fact, a report commissioned by the UN Development Program found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa."

Water And Poverty

According to Endpovertynow, "A lack of water contributes to poverty, with parents and children too ill or too busy collecting water to go to school and work. Water poverty also undermines progress poor countries are making on health - with half of hospital beds taken by people suffering with diarrhoea and dysentery." Further more "Currently, a staggering 2.6 billion people live without a safe toilet and 884 million people lack access to clean water. These problems combine to make a massive crisis for developing countries - undermining health, education, economic and gender equality progress."

Technology Footprint

According to Spectrum.ieee.org "On an average day, 500 billion liters of water travel through US power plants to power all the technology that we use every day. For example, that shiny new iPhone in your pocket requires half a liter of water to charge. That may not seem like much, but with approximately 6.4 million active iPhones in the US, that’s 3.2 million liters to charge those alone."

Bottled Water

According to Envronment.change.org "Even though people in the US have access to clean water from their taps, they drink an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled."

Farmers vs. Animals

According to Desertelephant.org "As water becomes scarcer in Africa, farmers not only compete with each other but also with other animals, including elephants. Forced into close contact with farmers, elephants destroy crops and wreak havoc on agriculture, causing farmers in turn to resort to violence in order to protect their crops and water sources."

Fashion Footprint

According to Treehugger.com, "That cotton t-shirt you’re wearing right now took 400 gallons of water to produce, and your jeans required an extra 1800 gallons. Not wearing cotton? The dyes and synthetic fibers used to make your clothes create waste that’s among the many contributors to water pollution."

Water Celebrities

On a brighter note some celebrities are using their star power and influence to champion the cause of water and water rights, including...

• Matt Damon is working with Water.org
  

• Leonardo DiCaprio has started the Lenoardo DiCaprio Foundation

• Will and Jada Smith decided to raise money for Charitywater.org as part of a birthday celebration
  

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What Can I Do?

I've you've read all or most of my post to this point, thank you for doing so. Did you find out along the way that water is way more complex and far-reaching than you first thought too?

• Tell Others about Blog Action Day and this year's theme Water.

Let's start off by discussing it with people you know, especially your family and friends. One person by themselves might think that they can do anything but when you add more people you get a snowball efffect and momentum and motivation, so amazing things can happen.

• Share any good articles or ideas that you find. You can "like", "tweet", "bookmark", "favorite" and any number of other terms to get the word out. Also don't be affraid to add a comment or two, but do be constructive, there are plenty of trolls out there today just waiting to jump on you, don't be one of them.
  

• You can write something of your own. You don't have to be Dickens or Shakespear. Don't be affraid to speak up or that you might make a mistake, or that nobody will like what you write (or worse yet, nobody will read it).

• Below is a Mindmap of things that you can do that I created based on 10 things you can do to save the sea posted in my Flickr account

• Below is a video about Playpumps that I found a couple of years ago, I think that it is a great idea and certainly something positive that is being done about water availability.

Waterforpeople.org & playpumps at work

• Feel free to check out the Non-profit partners metioned at Blog Action Day. Why not join one that is doing things that you'd like to support?

• If you're on Twitter, you can follow Blog Action Day there.
  

• One last thing before I get to the event, there are lots of things that we can do as people about Water availability and the items mentioned above. First of all we should not accept the status quo and give up. As consummers and taxpayers we need to be more that those two functions. We need to let out political leaders and businesses know that we expect more out of them than they've been giving us. We can also choose what we buy and use. If you decide to not buy a good or service because the company isn't acting responsibly, let the company know what you're doing and why you're doing it and tell everyone you know about what you're doing.

The Blip.fm/Globaljammerz Blog Action Day Event

The idea: People on Blip.fm and Globaljammerz will play songs to raise awareness for Blog Action Day and this year's theme of Water (and have fun doing it).

What: If you're not already signed up at either one, then sign up. Blip.fm allows you to be a DJ and share music online with other DJs. Globaljammerz is a social network built to complement Blip.fm which allows you to do all kinds of social things that aren't built into Blip. Play songs around this years theme, maybe you can search for "water" to get you started. You can also look for "#BAD10" and see what songs come up that other people might have already played.

How: When you find a song that you want to play, you'll want to Blip it, which is like publishing a post or a tweet because all of Blip.fm has the ability to see what you've "Blipped". When you blip songs be sure to include "#BAD10" in what you blip, so that we know you're taking part in the event. Its really that simple.

More: Because you have the interation of other DJs on Blip.fm, you'll be able to discover new songs and artists (or be reintroduced to ones that you might have forgotten). You can show other DJs that you like what they've played by giving them "Props" and you can "Re-blip" songs that you like or have a conversation with them via your blips.

The Challenge: To make things more interesting, the Giving Back Group at Globaljammerz has issued a challenge to the other groups at Globaljammerz to see which group has the highest percentage participation in the event, the most members participating, and a variety of other challenges that you can read about here.

You can also: Join the Globaljammerz group at Facebook or any of the groups at Globaljammerz. Feel free to check out my blips at Blip.fm and my profile at Globaljammerz. I hope that you'll join us. Although Blog Action Day is "offically" only October 15th, we'll be blipping songs all weekend long. Hope to hear and see you at Blip.fm and Globaljammerz. I'm also looking forward to seeing what great things people will do for Blog Action Day.

Photo credit: Pictured is a Mindmap that I created based on post ideas listed on the Blog Action Day homepage and it is posted in my Flickr account.

What Are You Doing for Blog Action Day 2010?

What are you doing for Blog Action Day 2010? The question has crossed my mind a lot in the past few weeks. A more pressing question is, What can I do? Or you might even be asking, What is Blog Action Day?

Blog Action Day is day where people around the world, from many different languages and cultures write about one topic to raise awareness and to see that the theme of that year has many voices and reaches as many people as possible. This year's theme of water is both basic and simple enough and very complex, all from the same word.

In the past bloggers, writers, and people just plain passionate about the theme and wanting to be a part of something bigger than themselves have participated and the event has grown. I certainly wish to encourage people to take this route of participation and remember that while you might not be Dickens, Shakespear, or any author whose name rolls of the tongues of people when they think of great writers, but you're welcome and encouraged to join along. I've given a lot of thought of how to expand the event and reach a wider audience that it already has. I came up with the idea of extending the event out to the music world and have created an event within Blip.fm and Globaljammerz to coincide with Blog Action Day 2010.

If you're already a DJ at Blip.fm, you can play (blip) songs along with us all day on October 15th in whatever time zone you happen to live. Heck, how about if we blip songs all weekend long! The songs that you play should be arround the Blog Action Day theme of water but I personaly think that you have quite a bit of room for personal interpetation. For example, maybe you might decide to play songs from artiists that you know are active in a variety of causes and you believe would support Blog Action Day, if the could, or if they knew about it. Blip.fm allows you to post text along with the songs that you blip, so you can add a message to all or some of the songs that you play. So that the world can see how many people are participating on Blip.fm, you should be sure to include "#BAD10" in the text you include. If you have Twitter integrated with Blip.fm, your blips will be broadcast into the Twitterverse for even more people to see. You can reblip (or replay) songs that other people have blipped for Blog Action Day and you can give the DJs that are playing songs (or have played songs) props (a thumbs up or sign of approval at Blipfm).

If you're not a Blip.fm DJ, it isn't too hard to join and you'll have lots of fun and meet all kinds of people from all over the world if you do join, why not suggest songs that the Blip DJs can play. If you're in Facebook or Twitter you can make your suggestions in your status area, just be sure to use "#BAD10", so that the world can tell your suggestion is part of Bog Action Day. You can also suggest songs in the comments section following this post, or send them in via a Tweet by using "@darrylheron", so that I see it in Twitter. You can also join "the event" that has been set up at Facebook or Globaljammerz. You can also tweet about or "like" any Blog Action Day article or post that you believe is worth promoting, as well as any song.

If you're already a member of Globaljammerz, the social network that complements Blip.fm, you can participate there in a variety of ways. This event is being sponsored by the Giving Back group at Globaljammerz, so why not join there and tell us how you're going to participate or tell us about the set list that you're going play on Blip or that you'd like to see played on Blip. You can tell us how you feel about the topic or what it matters to you. You can also become friends with the people that are participating. If you're not a member of Globaljammerz, why not join? Membership doesn't cost you anything and you can meet other music fans with similar tastes to yours (as well as people with different musical tastes) and you can join one of the many groups there where you're bound to find other people with some similar interests to you.

Whatever you do, I do hope that you'll participate in Blog Action Day 2010, in some form or fashion. What are you doing for Blog Action Day 2010? I'd love to hear what creative and interesting things people are doing and have planned. Whatever you do, be sure to tell as many people as possible about Blog Action Day 2010.

Other articles that you might find of interest.

• An article that I wrote recently about Globaljammerz
• Having Fun on Blip.fm
• 2000 listeners on Blip.fm
• 80's Party
• Blog Action Day 2010 Is Coming
  

Photo credit: "Heart Melody 2" courtesy of fangol.

Blog Action Day 2010 Is Coming

The 2010 Blog Action Day is coming. On October 15th, bloggers, writers, and other people from around the world will all write about one topic, to raise awareness. This year the theme is water. Why water you might ask, from the Blog Action Day homepage...

"Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us who are subject to preventable disease and even death because of something that many of us take for granted. Access to clean water is not just a human rights issue. It’s an environmental issue. An animal welfare issue. A sustainability issue. Water is a global issue, and it affects all of us."

When I looked at the Blog Action Day homepage, before writing this, they already had over 1,500 blogs registered to participate, from 98 countries, with over 12,000,000 readers. So, already the reach is pretty good. In honor of this years event, I created an event at Globaljammerz and am encouraging all of you on Blip.fm and Globaljammerz to play songs around the theme of Blog Action Day on October 15th. Since not everyone can or wants to write, this opens things up for more people to participate in the event. Any song that you wish to play related to Blog Action Day should have #BAD, #BAD2010, or #2010BAD in them so that they can be found by the various tracking programs. For people that have Twitter integrated with Blip.fm, your blips show up like tweets, so these would show up in the various Twitter trends and searchs.

If you're already on Blip.fm and Globaljammerz, why not participate. If you're not a member, why not check it out and join us for the event. By the way, you're more than welcome to write for Blog Action Day as well. For more information about Blog Action Day and things you can do, be sure to visit their homepage. You can share artilces that you like via Twitter, Facebook and a host of other methods. I'm looking forward to seeing what all we do for Blog Action Day this year and hope that you'll join us.

Photo credit: "water being poured into a glass" courtesy of straymuse.

September Edition of the Carnival of Productivity And GTD

Welcome to the September 2010 edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. We're really impressed with the submissions that we've seen for this edition. We would, however, like to see more GTD related submissions.

As we posted in the last edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD, we've decided to put the Better Life Blog Carnival on hold for a while to see what changes we might make or how we can bring it back into the line up. We've scheduled the next edition of the Family Life Blog Carnival towards the end of October. The Carnival of Productivity and GTD will return in 2011. The Holiday Spirit Blog Carnival for 2010 will be kicking off towards the end of November. We're thinking about adding a couple of more themes to the blog carnivals that we host, possibly one on Social Media topics and charity, possibly in 2011. As always, we'll need to see about our bandwidth! We're pleased with the number of entries that we're receiving for all of the carnivals, we do wish to challenge you all to look at things from different angles and perspectives. We love to see useful articles that can really help people. If you have any suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in future editions, feel free to leave a comment. If you have a post that you'd like to submit, please do so via the submission from link. Thank you to everyone that submitted posts! Remember that by subscribing via your RSS reader or via email, that you won't miss the next blog carnival hosted here and you'll know when new material has been posted. Without further adieu, here is the September 2010 Edition of the Carnival of Productivity And GTD....

Time Management And Productivity

Debbie Dragon presents How Work at Home Moms Can Make Room for Me Time posted at Empowering Mom.

Eliza Fayle presents A trick for making life manageable | Silver and Grace posted at Silver and Grace.


Charles Chua C K presents 10 Advantages of a To-Do List posted at All About Living with Life.

Chris presents Why Wise Men Abandon Their Goals posted at Martial Development.

Charles Chua C K presents 30 Productive Things You Can Do at Home in the Evening When You Stop Watching TV (First of a two-part list series) posted at All About Living with Life.

Organizing

Wise Bread presents Organize a Room for $10 With No Extra Effort posted at Wisebread.

Handling Email

Khalid J Hosein presents Inbox Zero – Whip Your e-Mail Habits into Shape posted at KJH World, saying, "Start checking your e-mail less. Once an hour or less is where you should start. Your goal - an Inbox with zero e-mails!"

Learning

Victoria Kennedy presents Open Courseware & Public Domain Books on the iPad ? The Ultimate Guide posted at Masters Degrees, saying, "The iPad has an optional iBooks application that can be downloaded from the App Store, which displays books and other ePub-format content downloaded from the iBookstore. But, how does the iPad fare in the e-book department, and is it friendly to open courseware and public domain books?"

Joey Bishop presents Top 50 Free Open Source Classes on Computer Science posted at Masters in Computer Science, saying, "Computer science is both an interesting and growing field to get into. Here are 50 free opencourseware classes that can help you learn more about computer science."

Motivation And Inspiration

Bobbie Walker presents 50 Amazingly Motivational Speeches On YouTube posted at BSN Degrees, saying, "The listed speeches – representing a broad spectrum of political, national, religious, racial, social, economic and sexual perspectives – may tread familiar territory, but still seek to promote action and innovation in viewers."

Carrie Oakley presents Top 10 Commencement Speeches on YouTube posted at Online Colleges, saying, "Often driping with overused clichés regarding never giving up, never letting people down, reaching for the stars, achieving dreams, maintaining integrity, and other overused, overly broad “inspirations” that end up dismissed the second the speaker steps away from the podium. Unsurprisingly, more daring types who choose to use their time to go completely against expectations and leave an impact using humor or frank discussions of tough subject matter such as death, cancer, and the dire state of the economy."

Monte Stonewall presents 10 Amazing Female Firefighters posted at Fire Science Colleges.

Must Have Applications

John Laugherton presents 25 iPad Apps Every Engineer Needs posted at Masters in Engineering, saying, "The following 25 iPad apps that every engineer needs includes a broad range of generic tools, productivity apps and references that can provide engineers from all fields with support with a single tap of a finger."

stanya16 presents 10 Killer Online Tools for Web Designers posted at Web Design Colleges, saying, "What are administrator jobs like, what are their salaries and how can you prepare yourself for a job as a health administrator? This ultimate guide to health administration careers can help you learn the answers to those questions."

Roger Elmore presents Top 10 Must-Have iPhone Applications for Travelers posted at Hospitality Management Schools.

Hoven Keith presents Top 25 Little-Known Web Startups Revolutionizing the Way We Communicate posted at Masters in Communication, saying, "The information age has changed the way we all communicate. This is a list of 25 little-known startups leading the charge."

Family And the Environment

Graham Alice presents Going Green While Pregnant: 100 Ways to Help Your Baby & the Earth posted at MedicalCodingCertification.com.

Other

Mazarine presents Wild Woman Fundraising Lean Fundraising posted at Wild Woman Fundraising, saying, "This post details how to apply lean manufacturing processes to your office, to make yourself even more efficient and productive."


That concludes the September 2010 edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD. You can submit your blog article to the next edition of The Carnival of Productivity And GTD using our "Submit an entry to “The Carnival of Productivity And GTD” submission form". Links to past editions, as well as the current scheduling of future editions can be found on our The Carnival of Productivity And GTD index page. Thank you to everyone that submitted articles for this edition! If you have any topics that you'd like to see covered in a future edition, or any feedback in general, feel free to leave a comment. Be sure to stay tuned for the Family Life Blog Carnival, as well as the normal articles that are posted here. Thank you.

Photo credit: "Hourglass" courtesy of iprole.

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Global Jammerz

There has been a lot of press about Ping, the new social network built around iTunes, but at the moment I'm having fun with Globalhjammerz. GlobalJammerz is a social network built around Blip.fm.

The site is a ning based social network started by DeAnn. I think it greatly complements Blip.fm, allowing more social aspects that aren't built into Blip. I've often seen various blips (songs played by Blippers) and wanted to know more about the DJs but didn't really feel like clicking on their homepage (if they even have a homepage) to find out more about them. With GlobalJammerz you can see the profiles of various Blippers and find out more about them.

They have some groups set up that you can join. This is nice because you can easliy find other people that like the same kind of music you do. Some of the groups are even doing weekly broadcasts over Blip and you can make requests, chat with the people putting on the show, and so on.

GlobalJammerz allows you to upload pictures and videos, as well as having music players at the various groups that allow you to listen to some songs of the various genres. It also allows you to blog and post in forums.

I'm really happy to see this complementary social network for Blip. Since I'm still a newbie there, I'm sure that I have a lot to learn but am looking forward to it!

Here are som other articles that I wrote about Blip.fm

• 2000 Listeners on Blip.fm
  

• Having Fun on Blip.fm
  

• 80's Party
  

100+ People I'd Like to Meet Series

Have you ever given any thought to people that you'd like to meet? If you could meet any living person in the world who would you meet? I decided to put together a list of people that I'd like to meet.

My forth grade teacher, Mr. Hammond, had my class do some creative thinking and I remember him asking us to think about who we'd like to meet and why? This was limited to one person and actually he didn't put the limitation that the person had to be living (in fact he even encouraged us to pick a historical figure for one of the creative assignments, but that is a different post). A colleague of mine at work has a Tim Ferris quote from his 4 Hour Workweek book and in the chapter that it comes from, Tim Ferris talks about how he challenged some students that heard him speak to seek out some celebrity to interview. Thinking about these events motivated me to put together a list of people that I'd like to meet and my hope is that by publishing my list that it would help faciliate me meeting many of them.

Guidelines for my list

Everyone on the list has excelled at one thing or another and I believe that there is something that I could learn from them. The goal with every person is to meet them in person where I could talk to them for at least 5 minutes (of course longer would be better but they're all busy people so they probably won't have a day or a week to spend with me to give me their insights on life!) This means that I'm looking for more than a handshake or a photo opportunity. I'm looking for the chance to ask some questions and to be able to interact with them. The list is not by any means everone that I'd like to meet, nor is everyone that I admire on this list (that would be another post) and although I have done some categorization, I didn't put any real priority into the order that the names appear.

Stay Tuned

Look in this space for the rest of the series. I'll post links to the articles below as they're published.

• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8
• Part 9
• Part 10
  

Photo credit: "Mount Rushmore 02" courtesy of rweller

100+ People- Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of 100+ People That I'd Like to Meet. Today I'm going to focus on some "Internet Stars" that I'd like to meet

Internet Stars

These are a collection of Web personalities that I'd like to meet. Some of them are writers/bloggers and many have become good at marketing, promotion and other entrepreneur skills.

• Pete Cashmere- Founder of Mashable, he has an insight in to emerging social media companies and trends that many people dream about having. He's on Twitter @ mashable, Facebook, MySpace, and just about any and every Social Media and Social Networking site that exists
  

• Leo Babauta- Is the man behind Zenhabbits. He also started the Write to Done and the mnmlist and seems to have new projects coming out of the woodwork all the time., I've written a Spotlight on him and was fortunate enough to interview him for this blog but it would still be great to be able to meet him. His about page is worth checking out. He's on Twitter @ zen_habits. He even has a Wikipedia entry
  

• Tina Su- Is the women behind ThinkSimpleNow. She introduced me to blog carnivals. She decided to follow the Tim Ferris idea of a mini retirement and spent several months touring India. Her about page is also an interesting read. She's on Twitter @ thinksimplenow, she is also in Facebook and several other Social Media/Networking sites
  

• Merlin Mann- Is the creator of 43 Folders. 43 Folders was one of the first websites to embrace GTD (Getting Things Done) and run with it. He's done tons of podcasts and is a big Mac fan. I wrote a spotlight on 43folders wrote about him returning to 43folders after a period of absence. He's on Twitter @ hotdogsladies. There is a fan site for him on Facebook and he has a Wikpedia entry
  

• Tim Ferris- Author of The Four Hour Workweek. Lots of great ideas in his book. I mentioned him earlier in this post. He's on Twitter @ tferriss and has a Wikipedia entry
  

• Arianna Huffington- The women behind The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post might not be the first internet newspaper, but it has certainly been groundbreaking. There are several twitter accounts for The Huffington Post, but the main one is huffingtonpost. She and the Huffington post have are active in Facebook and made it easy for you to "like" one of their stories and to comment on it via Facebook. There is a Wikipedia entry about her and one about the Huffington Post
  

• Darren Rowse- The creator of ProBlogger and Twitips. He has to be one of the most successful bloggers out there! He is on Twitter @ problogger he is active in Facebook and other Social Media/Neworking sites (basically anywhere he can interact with his audience and readers) and he has a Wikipedia entry
  

• Chris Brogan- Is one of those Social Media stars that many aspire to be. His blog is very popular. He is on Twitter @ chrisbrogan and he has a Wikipedia entry
  

• Guy Kawasaki- Co-founder of the popular news aggregator site AllTop. He is on Twitter @ GuyKawasaki and he has a Wikipedia entry
  

• Jeremiah Owyang- He is a partner at the Altimeter Group. His blog is widely followed within Social Media circles. He is on Twitter @ jowyang

• Seth Godin- Is another of those Social Media stars that many aspire to be. He has a widely read blog. Seth recenty created a lot of buzz when he stated in an interview that he has given up on traditional book publishing because he doesn't believe it is worth the effort when he can reach more poeple via electronic means. He is on Twitter @ ThisIsSethsBlog and he has a Wikipedia entry
  

• Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer- Are the women behind SocialFish.org. They have a lot of knowledge of Social Media within the world of Non-Profits and Charities. They're on Twitter @ maddiegrant & lindydreyer

Stay Tunned...

Be sure to look for 100+ People That I Want to Meet Part 3 and the rest of the series and you can read the intro here. Feel free to subscribe to this blog via email or your rss reader, there are several options available in the upper righthand corner of this blog.


Photo credit: "Cosmic" courtesy of ba1969.

100+ People- Part 3

In Part 3 of the 100+ People That I'd Lket to Meet, I wanted to cover people that inspire and motivate us as well as authors.

Inspiration And Motivation

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you're properly motivated and inspired. I like to think that anything is possible and generally have a positive outlook, but don't we all need some motivation and inspiration from time to time!

• David Allen- Is the legendary creator of GTD (Getting Things Done). He has a couple of websites Davidco and GTDTimes. There are millions of GTD fans around the world that would love to spend some quality time with him. He is on Twitter @ gtdguy

• Tony Robbins- He's an motivational and inspirational great. His website is here. He regularly tweets nuggets you might find useful. He is on Twitter @ tonyrobbins

• Stephen Covey- Author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". His website is here. He is on twitter @ StephenRCovey

• Brian Tracy- Motivational author and speaker, author of numerous books and tape series. His blog is here. He is on Twitter @ briantracy

• Zig Ziggler- Legendary motivational author and speaker. His website is here. His son is on Twitter sharing his insights @ TomZiglar

• Oprah- How can you describe Oprah. She has been a positive force and has an incredible network. The mention of a book on her show is enough to put in on the New York Times Best-Seller List! Here website is here. She is on Twitter @ Oprah

Authors

"the story" has to be one of the oldest forms of communication that we have. Before people were capturing history and stories down in written form, they were verbally passing them from person to person and generation to generation. Literature is full of wonderful authors through the ages (probably the reason that we have libraries!) Good writers can get a message accross to readers in different places and in different times, they can inspire people to take action. For as long as I can remember I've wanted to write, in fact writing the great American novel is one of the goals that I have listed at 43 Things.

• J.K. Rowling- She created the world of Harry Potter. All the stars seemed to collide and the series has become one of the most read and discussed of all time. How many kids have been inspired to read because of Harry Potter? Her official website is here. Although she doesn't tweet much, her official Twitter account is @ jk_rowling

• Dan Brown- Author of the Di Vinci Code, as well as Angels & Demons, both of which have been turned into movies. His website is here. I didn't find him on Twitter, but there are a lot of "Dan Brown"s there so who knows.

• Stephen King- Chances are that you've probably read one of his books or seen a movie made from one of them, and no, they aren't all horror stories. He has written so many things about such a wide variety of topics, it would be great to get some of his insights into writing, ideas, and inspiration. His website can be found here. When I was on his website, the FAQ section says that he isn't in an social networks nor does he plan to be.

Stay Tuned

So far we've met some Internet Stars, Leaders in Motivation & Inspiration, and Authors, who'll be next? Be sure to look for 100+ People That I Want to Meet Part 4 and the rest of the series and you can read the intro here. Feel free to subscribe to this blog via email or your rss reader, there are several options available in the upper righthand corner of this blog.

Photo credit: "New York City skyline 3" courtesy of davidlat.