Public speaking can be a daunting thing. I used to get really nervous. I don’t do a whole lot of public speaking, but when I do, it isn’t nearly as intimidating as it used to be. I’d say that is primarily due to one simple piece of advice I got a long time ago.

That advice is:
Before you stand up to speak, know 40 times more than you need to know on the subject that you are speaking about.

So, if you are going to talk for 5 minutes about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, know what the difference between crunchy and smooth peanut butter is. Know the difference between jelly, jam and preserves. Know the difference between whole grain and white bread. Know what brands of peanut butter separate and how to prevent it (you put it in the refrigerator, btw) and then know what happens to peanut butter when you put it in the refrigerator (it gets hard and doesn’t spread easily). Then be sure you think of any other aspects of making that sandwich and variations on that sandwich that you can think of. When you’re all done, you could probably speak on the various aspects of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for at least 20 minutes if not an hour. Now, when you stand up to give your 5 minute presentation not only will you not be as nervous, you’ll have so much information that you will be able to pull the high-points and easily fill the 5 minute presentation without much effort at all.

I just signed up for Technorati. This blog is currently ranked: 3,900,162. Looks like I've got a little ways to go before I hit the top 100.

Here's my technorati profile:
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I don't know why, but I thought Bob Parson's was a Christian. It must have been the fact that Parsons Technology marketed QuickVerse, among other Christian software. So, when I found out a couple of years ago that GoDaddy.com was owned by Bob Parsons, I was down right excited. Not only was GoDaddy.com a top-notch company, but there was a solid man of integrity at the wheel... or so it seemed.

Not long after I transferred my first domain over to GoDaddy.com I started to suspect that my first impressions of Bob Parsons were wrong. I began to see conscious decision on GoDaddy.com's part to use women in most of their advertisments and site design. I'm ashamed to say I turned a blind eye to that and have supported GoDaddy.com for several years now with about a dozen domains that are registered there. I've even recommended the company to others, but not any more.

In an email I got today from GoDaddy.com I read about their latest TV commercials. So I clicked on the link to to see, only to hastily scramble for the close button on my browser when I realized they are completely inappropriate and defilling. DO NOT go check them out for yourself. You can get all the information you need by reading Bob's personal blog.

So, I've learned my lesson. I won't turn a blind eye any longer. I don't want any of my domains associated with an organization who blatantly promotes the filth that GoDaddy.com peddles. I'm not exactly sure where to go, but I'm looking and once I find a registrar with integrity, morals and high standards I'll gladly pay 3 times the cost if I have to to support them. So if you know of such a registrar, please let me know. I'm interested.

With that, bye, bye Bob. I'm taking my business elsewhere... and if you by chance run across this low-traffic, low-profile blog, please take the time to read this. My prayer is that reading it will truly change your life... forever.

I read a very interesting post on Brydon's blog this morning. His post addresses an aspect of business that is very near to my heart. That is: life. When I graduated from high school and began working fulltime, one of the first reality checks I had was that there are no more summer vacations. It had never really occurred to me before my first real job that once you're out of school you don't get any significant time off. The second big reality check for me was the realization that I never was "going to arrive."

What I mean is this; without consciously thinking about it, I was always working toward sometime in the future when I wouldn't have to work again. My guess is most people are that way. Some may not even realize it until it's too late, but for most of us, we’re not going to ever “arrive.” For us, the journey is it’s own reward.

I realized this one beautiful spring evening as I drove home from work. The sun was just starting to cast late afternoon shadows and the temperature was perfect. As I drove home with my windows down I passed through what is known as restaurant corridor. The smell of various foods cooking all blended together with the perfect temperature and gorgeous sunset to provide one of those perfect moments. I immediately started dreaming of how nice it was going to be when I could experience this all the time.

That's when it hit me. This was a moment, not a lifestyle. The Lord gives you moments in life that are to be treasured. Instead of always looking for that time in the future when life will be perfect, I realized that I need to treasure 30 seconds here, 5 minutes there, whenever they come.

Work is like this. Unfortunately, no matter how much you like your job, for most people it is just that; a job. Either outwardly or secretly they’re looking for that time when they can do what they really want to do.

For instance, I *love* to write code. I still sit back sometimes and think "I can't believe I get paid to do this." On the other hand, there are many days I hate what I do. It's monotonous. It's frustrating. It sucks the life right out of me. On those days I want to quite and do something else. That's why I love Brydon's article so much. It addresses this reality of work being part of life.

Everybody needs change at some time. It doesn't matter how comfortable a chair is, you've got to get up and stretch after a while. It doesn't matter how much you like to sleep, you're going to get sore after being the bed for too long. Work is the same way. No matter how much you love what you do, you just need to give your brain a break sometime and do something different.

I really hope I can create an environment for the people who work with me that is like this. Whether it is my family in our home based business or others who come to work with us; I want to be able to provide an environment that breathes life into people not suck it right out of them.

Furthermore, I want to figure out how to extend this concept to our family. Surely there is a lesson to be learned here about encouraging our children to get the most out of life while at the same time being the most productive and helpful that they can be in their daily lives.

Thanks for the article Brydon. You've motivated me.

Today I didn't bill for my time. I couldn't. I finally hit the wall on hard drive space; a problem I've been ignoring for way too long.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely irresponsible on this front. I do run backup software and keep an up-to-the-hour image of everything that happens on my drive each day. The problem I'm talking about has more to do with the shear volume of digital stuff we keep these days. Mail, pictures, music, documents, code, notes, recipes you name it, seems like everything we do these days is stored digitally and the delima of what to do with it all is catching up with me.

On our last trip to Canada my children averaged 1 GB pictures per week. In and of itself that's not too much data, but what do you do with years of this stuff? I'm putting the temporary solution in place today: 400 GB drives installed in a Windows 2000 machine mirrored as one drive. In theory this should give me roughly 400 GB of storage with a redundant, always up-to-date, backup. However, we lost two drives in one machine last summer due to a power surge. Hmmmm... it's on a UPS now, but... still makes we wonder. So, my plan is to add one more 400 GB external drive via USB 2.0 and back up my storage drive at least once a week. I figure that's the best I can do, at least in my price range.

However, all of this still does not solve the long term problem; it just delays it. Whether it's a year from now or five years from now we are eventually going to run out of space on this 400 GB drive. Then what? Hopefully there will be larger drives at an affordable price, but this all seems somewhat absurd, not to mention volitile.

Thus the delima: how do we cope in a digital world? What are the right solutions? What are the wrong solutions? What do we do with all this digital stuff?