The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.

In this context, “almost surely” is a mathematical term with a precise meaning, and the “monkey” is not an actual monkey; rather, it is a metaphor for an abstract device that produces a random sequence of letters ad infinitum. The theorem illustrates the perils of reasoning about infinity by imagining a vast but finite number, and vice versa. The probability of a monkey typing a given string of text as long as, say, Hamlet, is so tiny that, were the experiment conducted, the chance of it actually occurring during a span of time of the order of the age of the universe is minuscule but not zero.

Ok, there is no Shakespeare (as far as I know), no monkeys, Bob is in Texas, probability of Bob reaching 100 submitters is high (not minuscule or zero), and no monkeys were harmed in the making of this blog post that promotes the 2nd ever BLOGAPOLOOZA over at Middle Zone Musings happening all month long. Want to participate? Read this and/or ping Bob by email or by Twitter. Oh, and yes, thanks to Wiki, we now know that the above image does not contain a monkey but a Chimpanzee, and Chimps should be regarded as apes and not monkeys.

P.S. My glorious post gets published today at 6pm!

4 Jobs I’ve had:

1. Truck Driver – used to deliver an insane number of woodstoves and gas fireplaces for my parent’s company over the years. The best driving were the long hauls through Algonquin Park at sunrise, late night departures after a fresh snowfall with a full moon, or simply the days where the weather turned ugly and presented a significant challenge…
2. Security Guard - yeah, not one of my more shining moments in life… Got canned from a job, ran out of money and picked up this one because it paid and I didn’t need a degree. Little did I know was that there would be NO on-the-job training, and I’d be dumped into a shit-hole strip-mall that backed onto a welfare housing compound. It was essentially me, my fast talking, and a hefty Mag-Lite, out to take on the crazies. The lightshow from the police cars in the welfare compound, and the police helicopter overhead was always a bonus at night. *shudder*
3. Technology Consultant – yup, did some technology consulting for small businesses when a good friend opened up shop.
4. Pet Store Slave – yeah, back in the early, early, days I worked at a local pet store for gas money. Didn’t mind the fish, the puppies, the kittens, the rodents – just HATED the live crickets we sold for lizzard food.. God I hate bugs.

4 Places I’ve been:

1. Philippines - went there to visit my best friend and his new fiancee, however, by the time I landed, they were both back here in Canada. A rather interesting 10 day trip to say the least…
2. Morehead City, NC – AMAZING dive trip, May 2007.
3. Montreal, QC – Colleen and I took off in Feb 2007 for an anniversary weekend away. We went by VIA One, which I must say, is the ONLY way to travel! Oh, yeah, it was my first trip by train (subways don’t count).
4. Nanaimo, BC – My father and I did some great diving there a couple years ago. Just the two of us, our own charter, and the ocean – one of the top 3 trips for sure.

4 Music Artists I’m currently listening to (aside from MG, I’ve been on an electronic kick lately):

1. Matthew Good – I think at this point it just plays on a subconscious level at all times..
2. VNV Nation – Got thinking about some great live shows I’ve seen and the first one and the latest one by these guys were by far the best. Can’t wait for them to come back!
3. Chicane – yeah, I know, but Saltwater is just a fantastic song!
4. Tiesto - I guess he dropped the “DJ” part.. He’s got an hour long podcast which is extremely good and it’s generally on throughout the day. 32 episodes down, just 16 more to go and I’m caught up!

4 Foods where life becomes questionable if they were taken away:

1. Pizza - can I put it 4 times?
2. Club Sandwiches – I rate restaurants on their ability to build this sandwich as it’s likely the first thing I will order when visiting an establishment for the first time. If they do a poor job I will never return. If they do a good job I’ll return and likely order something else off their menu. Weird, I know.
3. Pad Thai – why is it never served in bucket quantities?!
4. Brownies served with a tall glass of frigid milk – good moist brownies with perhaps some nuts or even dare I say – raisins! None of that cheesecake crap, white chocolate, or any bizzare variation. Chocolate, more chocolate, and perhaps some crunchy bits.

So there we have it, more insights into yours truly.

It would seem that people I don’t know are reading this blog… We all know it happens, yet when you’re reminded of it, it really stops you in your tracks..

Ok, enough about that and onto 8 “random” facts about, well, me.

1. I’m licensed: Pilot, SCUBA instructor, car, truck, radio operator, and boat
2. My drink of choice is Root Beer.
3. I would very much like to write a 25 year later follow up book to Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine’s Last Chance To See
4. I have never physically met another blogger
5. I have a tattoo on my arm which reads DESTINY, and when turned upside down, it reads CHOICE. The artwork for it was used in the header graphic of my first blog template… actually, it is still in use on the index page for this domain..
6. I don’t trust ladders.
7. Thanks to the Dave Matthews Band, I found (and later married), my soul mate, Colleen.
8. My unique ability is being able to disassemble complex concepts, plans, processes, layouts, etc., and reassemble them in a more logical and efficient structure.

Hopefully those are random enough bits about me, and the more I think about it, the only one in the world who is aware of all 8, is Colleen. Interesting..

Ok, so in keeping with the meme, it is time to ‘tag’ 8 fellow bloggers and hope that they will participate and share a bit about themselves.

• Steli Efti
• Purposeful Growth
• No Limit Success
• Middle Zone Musings (more memes Bob!)
• HELLO, my name is Blog!
• Greg’s Brain
• From Where I Sit
• Steve Olson

(side note: I have only linked the blogs here and have not contacted these authors directly. I know, kind of outside the rules of the game, however, I have always wondered if others are aware of their inbound links like I am and so this is my small test. Each of the blogs listed is WELL worth the time to visit and I hope that the authors will not hold this test against the meme and will participate. As each one does, I will update the link with their actual blog post.)

Colleen and I don’t watch a lot of TV because, well, we don’t have anything on it but static. We don’t have the old rabbit-ears, we don’t have cable, and we don’t have satellite. We do however watch shows on DVD, and we do watch quite a few movies.

Some of the great parts about watching entire seasons of a show on DVD is that you don’t have to wait a week between episodes, you don’t have to sit through commercials, you don’t have to try and find it when it’s been bumped for hockey, AND, you can watch it during the “off season” when they decide to make fewer episodes now that the show is a success..

Having said that, one of the best features of the DVDs is that you have the option of watching the previous seasons recap in case you are not able to rent season 4, of The Soppranos, at your local Rogers Video, for reasons which escape you.. ?

By Providing a recap of the previous season, you get to hit all the high points of what has happened so far, and it puts everything going forward into context.

Sounds like we need something like that for blogs!

And thus we have the entire purpose of this post, and yes, it’s meme time!

What if we had a meme where the title of the post was something like:

“Last Time On *insert your blog name here*”

where you listed the posts that have been lost over time, yet are the best ones so far that would put everything into context moving forward for your readership?

For this blog, I am currently up to 27 pages of blog posts, and I don’t even post every single day… What about those that post daily, and have been known to post a couple times per day? I don’t know about you, but 27 pages is quite a few to go through when trying to get the ‘gist’ of what this sucker is about. Sure, we do have the required ‘About’ page, yet people still want post examples (ok, I do) for a better understanding of what the blog is about.

Think of it this way: if you were to pull out no more than 10 existing posts from your blog which hit the high points of your blog SO FAR, and put all your future writings into better context, which posts would they be? It’s not your ‘top 10 posts’ – ok, well it is, but with the specific intent that your blog will be DEFINED by these posts and it will establish a framework going forward. Sure you might have a top post that generated quite a bit of traffic and accolades but really wasn’t 100% on topic, it would fit into the ‘Top 10′ list, but not this meme… Make sense?

The best way to figure that out is when you’re looking at one of your old posts, imagine someone asking you “Is that what your blog is about?” – YES answers go into the meme, NO answers you can save for another time…

So, without further wait, I give you:

Last Time On LOGICal eMOTIONs

What about FINITE capacity?
A look at the choice for infinite capacity for ‘good’ in our lives, and the choice for finite capacity for ‘not good’ in our lives. It’s a matter of choice and it must be understood.

Writing – Good vs. Bad
Don’t shoot your readers in the foot and expect them to run a marathon with you – coach them through the tricky parts first, your point will make more sense.

Judging books by their cover?
It happens every day and that there are times where we can use it to our advantage.

Commitment is Crap.
A look at commitment through prioritization. Your priorities will determine your commitment.

Self Image – Part 1
If our life revolves around our self-image, our mind works ceaselessly to maintain our self-image, what is bound to happen if we have a poor self-image? Is our life or our world around us going to get better, or likely worse?

A Self-Correcting World Of Information
The importance and growth of credibility in a world of rapidly expanding information.

The Peaks & Valleys
I think it’s called life. The only difference between the two, is 3lb of grey matter.

Failure Vs. Success
Failure is ONLY relevant in it’s relativity to ‘goal’ – nothing more, nothing less.

Appreciation Of Value
The relationship between value of self, and expectation of self.

Ok, so that is my… um.. 9 posts that help put the rest into context. Now, the added bonus of this little exercise, at least for me, was that I discovered a few things: the current theme messes up older posts (now looking for a new theme – any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated), I have some great stuff back there, and that I’m heading off course (again) and need to get back into my own game.

Now, I’m going to tag 5 people who will hopefully join and I can’t wait to see what develops. The five are:

• Robert @ Middle Zone Musings
• Troy @ Orbit Now!
• Valeria @ Conversation Agent
• Pete @ Freaked Out Fathers
• Theresa @ Sleeping Kitten – Dancing Dog!

Meme Rules:

1. Please try to limit your post to 10 items or less
2. Tag 5
3. Take your time. Do some digging in the archives and find the perfect ones – it’s to your advantage more than anything else.
4. Please if possible, link to this post for meme info, and please link to the post that you were tagged in. Memes go on for quite a long time and when trying to follow one backwards to see some of the other posts, it gets quite difficult when only the blog URL is used.. Just a request.
5. The people you tag, please let them know by email, contact form or some other efficient method.

Enjoy!

Photo by jovivebo

P.S. Like the meme? Want to participate but haven’t been tagged? Great – take it and run with it! (there are no meme police)

UPDATE: Where there is a meme, there is a plugin/widget for WordPress…

Summer is quickly approaching, the apartment is starting to bake in the sun, and it’s the time of year when the great weather is far more important than the computer… Sit over the waffle iron and plug away at the keyboard, OR drink a cold beer outside in the sunshine with a barbecue in close proximity…. Tough choices I know!

So, to kick off the slower blog season (statistically proven), we shall begin with a fun post.

I grew up in a time where country music was country music, the big ‘hair bands’ were overdosing for the last times on hairspray, technology was quickly improving, and early electronica had escaped Detroit.

It was an age of ‘computer-based’ music with synthesized sounds, and the ability to quickly and effectively sample bits from other sources, and incorporate them on the fly. I was in heaven.

My earliest memory in terms of music is my mother holding me in her arms, dancing about the living room while the Bee Gees cranked out through the Hi-Fi. I can also tell you this, that when it wasn’t the Bee Gees, it was the king himself, Elvis.

It is my firm belief that exposure to bass and a fast tempo is the reason why electronica music is my main staple.

Ok, so the blog title is called ‘The Great 180′ – so does this mean that I’ve done a 180 on electronica and now hate it? Um, no. What I have completely come about on is a band called Led Zeppelin. Now remember, when I was growing up through adolescence, I had latched onto electronica music, and you’ll also remember that while while journeying through those teenage years, when we find the right genre, everything else is absolute, crap. We’ve found our music, and come hell or high water, it will see us through that time!

It’s only afterwards do we get a chance to stick our head up and take a quick look around to see what else is going on. Our music collection expands rapidly and more genres enter and exist like they’ve always been there somehow….

Back in late 2000 when things for me personally took a great 180, a good friend of mine introduced me to a phenomenal group called the Dave Matthews Band. Right place, right time, or whatever, this definitely-not-synthesized band stuck a chord (pun intended) with me and I’ve been a big fan ever since (it’s also how I re-met my wife – sounds odd but it’s a great story).

From the incredible styling of Dave Matthews, I was eventually lead down the path to Led Zeppelin, which previously, I detested more than say, oh I don’t know…. Country music.

When electronic music was on it’s way in, Zeppelin was on it’s way out (there were still many in denial which was holding up it’s death), which was the exact opposite of what rebellious teenage youth was craving. It was music from a different generation that we didn’t understand and frankly, scared us a bit.

Time passes, knowledge, experience, and outlook changes, and we find ourselves looking around to see what we might have missed.

For me, I missed Zeppelin. Floyd I could still could care less about (it’s down there with country music), but Zeppelin was something completely overlooked. It really wasn’t until I was away on my North Carolina trip that I truly realized how much I had missed.

Now the trip I was on was a SCUBA diving trip to North Carolina, and the shipwrecks we would be diving on are a 2.5h boat ride straight out into the Atlantic Ocean. With a total runtime of 5h for a round trip, there was a lot of time to kill, and even 6 Canadians can only talk about the weather for so long…

Thankfully, back a couple years ago I had won an iPod from McAffee Antivirus which was perfect for killing large amounts of time. It was bursting at the seams with music, novels, and various talks by great leaders. For this particular voyage back to port after some extremely successful diving, I opted for the Led Zeppelin 4 disc box set due to it’s long runtime and consistent flow.

What I hadn’t been expecting was the auditory and cognitive stimulation one gets when listening to Zeppelin though headphones! I had been listening to LZ for a few years now, but never once had I ever listened with headphones, which means, I WAS MISSING OUT! Again….

Ok, so what, right? Well, when I look at it, sure, it’s a simple example and this type of thing happens all the time. But why? What is it that has changed? Yes, we can slap on a convenience label such as “Maturity”, but there must be something tangible. Do we go for the convenience label most often, or do we actually say “Wait a minute!”, stop, and have a look?

For me, it was an appreciation of one the greatest bands ever which is completely 180 degrees from a point in time previous. The big one-eight-zero. Opposite. Not just moving up from worse than country to slightly better – no, right to the medals podium with complimentary flowers!

The lesson in this 180? Understanding that lessons have been missed on previous 180s that were simply labeled out of convenience.

Now, we’re not done quite yet. See, it’s been quite a while since I’ve talked with Bob, and it’s been even longer since we’ve had a good meme to poke with a stick and see how it floats – I now liken memes to paper sailboats – yeah, they’re going to sink at some point, but making, and casting into the water is the fun part!

So, in my attempt to prove my previous theory that a single-tag meme can actually work… I am tagging Robert Hruzek over at Middle Zone Musings:

Bob, what is the most significant 180 you have experienced in your life?

With a single-tag meme (or at least this one), it follows the One Question/One Answer rules and regulations. One person is tagged, and they are tagged with a single question that they must answer as their post. At the end of their answer to your question, they get to ask absolutely anyone they want, ANYTHING they want, and tag that person with the question. There is no specific topic, or theme – the theme of the meme is that you get one question of one person on anything you want to know from them (the more detailed guide is HERE – it has more specifics on things like post titles and such).

So, there we have it, a fun little post down memory lane, and a MEME to kick off the summer!

Time for a beer….

Photo by zen?

Now, the most memorable title was: “Another Bullshit Night In Suck City” by Nick Flynn which was listed on Amazon as “A homeless man’s assessment of life on the streets”. Possibly quite riveting, however, I decided to pass on the $4 book and continue the rummaging. I mean really, it was found on the bottom shelf of the bin, in a drawer that was definitely not an integral part of the overall storage system – if you’re not in the ‘upper crust’ of the bargain bin, I’m likely to pass. Standards people! Standards.

Ok, so back to the rummaging and really coming up with very little except old outdated Microsoft MySQL manuals and even older Photoshop how-to picture books designed for the 10 year old in your life (it’s the only way I could explain the pop-ups), I looked down directly in front of me and recognized a name!

TED BARRIS

Ted Barris?! What the heck is Ted’s book doing in the ‘Last Copies’ section?

Now, before going any further, it should be mentioned that I have quite a bit of knowledge of Ted and what he does… For never having actually met the man. When my wife started the journalism program at Centennial College here in Toronto, Ted Barris was one of the esteemed educators. What I didn’t know then, but soon found out, was that Ted is a bit of a war history enthusiast and we actually belong to the same organization: Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association (CHAA). Myself, I came into the organization through a sub-group of CHAA titled “The Recovery Team” (you can read about it here), and although we are quite aware of each other, we can’t decide if we have actually met… Weird, I know.

Anyways, the part that struck me about finding Ted’s book in the ‘Last Copies’ is that at some point, a piece of our life’s work will eventually end up in the same bin.

Quite the slightly morbid thought for all writers as we develop our craft and work diligently on our great writing works. Have we accepted the fact that our book will find it’s way to the ‘Last Copies’ bin? Now alternately, this IS in itself, a great accomplishment! You can’t actually start in the bin!

Even by eventually landing in the bin, at some point you made a decision, chased a passion, had a great run, and have all the memories of the journey. To end up in ‘the bin’, at some point your work was a SKU in a major book reseller, at least one person purchased your wisdom, and for all you know, you actually changed someone’s life.

How many authors don’t even make it to the shelves?

It’s always sad to see books in the ‘Last Copies’ section, yet if we step back for a second, and look at more than the bin in the back of the store, there is a victory, and someone was able to celebrate it.

Shoot for the stars because at least you have the option of landing on the moon.

Photo by.. ME!

This post has been possible thanks to Robert Hruzek’s writing project.

UPDATE: Here is the list of all the entries complied thanks to Bob:

Here is the complete list of entries, each one finishing the phrase “What I Learned From…”

“… Teen Girl Squad”, by Markk at My Opinions Are Important

“… the Mt. Pinatubo Eruption”, by Ronald Huerca at Ronalfy.com

“… Drugs”, by Sam Brougher at Forest Azuaran

“… a Mesquite Tree”, by Mike DeWitt at Spooky Action

“… Drinking Starbucks Coffee”, by George Manty at Can I Make Big Money Online

“… My Wife!”, by Rajaram Sethuraman at Thoughts of a Rambler

“… Having a Daughter”, by Marco Richter at FitForFreedom

“… Norm”, by Joe Raasch at The Happy Burro

“… my mentors”, by Karin H. at The Kiss Business Too

“… Procrastinating”, by Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business

“… a Squirrel”, by G.L. Hoffman at What Would Dad Say

“… Blogging”, by Gayla McCord at Mom Gadget

“… a Weight Problem”, by Monique Attinger at Insurance Guide 101

“… Taking Out the Garbage”, by Michael Chantrel at Mortgage Guide 101 Blog

“… RUMMAGING!” by William Tully at LOGICal eMOTIONs

“… A Light Switch”, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be mentioned in a list post by our friend Bob. Now, this list is, as far as I understand (which isn’t far), a list/post designed to enlighten readers as to some great blogs, and it’s also designed to bump up one’s Technorati ranking.

*insert crossroads here*

1. happy to be included
2. opportunity to ‘discover’ some more great blogs
3. do I care about my Technorati ranking?
4. does a post like this add value to my blog, my readership, or me?

I will admit that I still have yet to figure out the true power of Technorati, not to mention why it is held in such regard. On the other hand, it could be that I have yet to figure this out simply because my ranking is so low…

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that my blog is extremely unique. My readership is small, yet remarkably loyal, and it is growing consistently each week. It is my hallucination that my readership visits this blog for a unique perspective, some clever wit, a weekly image find that has been carefully chosen, and a lack of ‘blog stuff’ that gets covered everywhere else.

Sure, I am a HUGE fan of memes for a variety of reasons: fascination of propagation within a community, unique perspectives and insights to the same topic, and it allows one to step out into the pure creativity realm where abstract thoughts can be triggered and explored. Now, not everyone enjoys memes and prefer to think of them as chain-letters of the blog world – which is fine, and I learned a lot from the last one…

Ok, so what is this link list/post thing I’m obviously stalling on participating in while I figure out whether or not it falls into a meme, or even if I should be participating…

It’s not a meme. There are no personal insights (conveniently forgetting I just wrote the above), there are no direct requests from others to do anything, and the value-add is for the promotion of one’s blog.

Now, do we miss an opportunity to promote our blog? See, now that is a tough one simply because I understand that there are likely readers who would very much like to know of my blog (let’s be realistic, take the number of people on the net and tell me that there isn’t at least a couple who will become your biggest fan), yet the last thing I want to do is fill my blog with ‘blog promotion stuff’. I don’t post a lot each week, simply because it takes me FOREVER to finish a post, and usually, the stuff in ‘draft’ isn’t worth posting yet. The easiest posts are these types of posts which can quickly fill a blog, clog the cause, and back up all over your site, which means you’re left with a big mess that needs to be cleaned up before you can get back on task…

So do I participate? Yes. I am a part of a community, and a good friend was kind enough to include me. I’m not about to let him down or make him think he made a bad choice, and of course I will honour other inclusions sent my way. I think that by setting a personal rule that I must have two posts (minimum) on topic before I can participate in the next inclusion (list or meme), it should keep the blog on track, and still allow for some promo-posts along the way.

Right then, now that it’s all converted to clear mud, on with the list-thingy:

***Start Copying Here:***

Here are the rules:

1) Write a short introduction paragraph about how you found the list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.

2) COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

3) Take the three blogs listed under “My New Faves” and move them to the bottom of “The Original Faves” list.

4) Add 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Technorati Favorites to the “My New Faves” section. Remember to also add the “Fave Me” link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=

http://www.yourfavesdomain.com)

5) Add everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” Those who want to respond will fave you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of faves from the bloggers who continue this list after you.

My New Faves

1. Conversation Agent – Fave the Site
2. HELLO, My Name Is BLOG – Fave the Site
3. Digital Digressions – Fave the Site

The Original List

• Chips Quips – Fave the Site
• Creative Think – Fave the Site
• LOGICal eMOTIONs – Fave the Site
• Dawud Miracle – Fave the Site
• Gary Lee – Fave the Site *
• Dosh Dosh – Fave the Site
• Nate Whitehill – Fave the Site
• Jeff Kee – Fave the Site
• Scribble on the Wall – Fave the Site
• Jimi Morrisons Head – Fave the Site
• Jon Lee – Fave the Site
• Samanathon – Fave the Site
• Eat Drink & Be Merry - Fave the Site
• The Man of Silver – Fave the Site
• Hannes Johnson – Fave the Site
• My Dandelion Patch – Fave the Site
• Nathan Drach – Fave the Site
• SiteLogic – Fave the Site
• Julies Journal – Fave the Site
• Tea & Slippers – Fave the Site
• The Thinking Blog – Fave the Site
• Pencil Thin – Fave the Site
• Essential Keystrokes – Fave the Site
• Mom Gadget – Fave the Site
• Engaging the Disquiet – Fave the Site
• Monk at Work – Fave the Site
• Converstations – Fave the Site
• The Kiss Business Too – Fave the Site
• HomeMom3 – Fave the Site
• Grow Your Writing Business – Fave the Site
• Quartz Mountain – Fave the Site
• Prime Advertising Blog – Fave the Site

***End Copying Here***

Photo by ryancr

“TAG!” – I think I have to run faster…

Ok, so we’re back again with another MEME, and no, I didn’t start this one too. The topic for this one is simply “What are 5 things you obsess about?”.

Obsess: be preoccupied with something
Passion: an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action

In Bob’s post, he mentions that he feels that ‘to obsess’ is negative and would rather use the more positive ‘passion’, which I think fits a bit better simply because I see obsessing about something (or 5 things) as a short-term preoccupation, whereas passion is a long-term motive. Yes, I will agree that there are examples of both the opposite for each, however, the end result is typically not the… desired one…

(well that was nicely done Tully, you’ve now completely painted yourself into a corner and are now unsure how to exactly answer the question….)

HEY! Ok, I’ve got it: “What are the 5 things you passionately obsess about regularly?”

Technology
“Hello, my name is Tully, and…. I am a technology junkie.” I love new technology and all the shiny, blinky, logical bliss that comes with it, whether it’s as simple as my new SuperLooper Loopback Jack, or my Dad’s new 007 Limited Edition Sony Vaio (two most recent acquisitions), I’m like the kid who just got locked in the toy store overnight! Why? Not sure, however, my suspicions are that it’s the potential for doing new things that new technology brings. New gadget? I can now do something new, or at the very least, more efficiently…

Efficiency
I have always said: “Laziness drives efficiency.”, and it does. The only reason we have wonderful and fantastic things to do tasks more efficiently is because someone, at some point decided that they were putting in WAY too much effort, and developed something to do it for them. On the creative side of it, for me, I derive great pleasure in looking at a task and exploring the “What if we did it this way”… Whether it works or not then becomes a process of, um, process and logic.

Logic
Could I really not mention this given my blog title? Well I could not have, except I know there are at least a couple keeners who would pounce on me.. So yes, I am both passionate and OBSESSED with logic. A + B = C, each time and every time. Sure, I have this laid-back writing and teaching style, a sharp wit paired with a desert-like dry sense of humor (did I mention sarcasm too?), yet seething deep within is my personal quest to bring logic and order to the world… Too bad I’m being ambushed by emotion (HA! got the other part of the blog title in there!)..

Moving Pictures (with sound)
Television and movies are my Achilles… Possibly (and likely) due to the alpha waves, however, I like to be entertained by something other than my own brain for a while. I respect the writers for their creativity, and the directors for brining it to ‘reality’. The more complex the show or movie, the more I become engrossed.

Purpose
Call it passion, call it obsession, or call it whatever you like, this is the big one currently and has been for the past couple significant portion of my life. In high school I had no idea what I was to do with my life, thought I had it in college – didn’t. And so, I’ve been on the hunt for quite a few years now. I can now honestly say that I am SO much closer to being able to (logically) define it than ever before, however, it is still the all-consuming ‘thing’ in my life. I have been learning about business the last couple years, I’ve discovered my ability to teach, write, and most recently, I’ve discovered this hidden love of philosophy… Can I define what my purpose is yet? Not quite, however, I’ve got some great pieces being added which are beginning to make sense, and THAT, is exciting!

So, there we have it. 5 items, fresh from my brain… NOW it’s someone else’s turn!

First, the rules:

1. Link back to the person who ‘tagged’ you (that would be me)
2. List your 5
3. Tag 5 bloggers of your choice (email them too to let them know)

Ok, the five which I would like to tag are: Ben, Mel, Cody, Steli, and of course, Chris.

Photo by Zulpha

We will start from the point where you have been tagged by someone and you’re wondering what to do next.

1. Decide if you are ABLE to participate. There is a time limit of 7 days from when you are asked a question to your response. If you are unable to participate, PLEASE notify the TAGer so that they may re-direct or change their question to someone else.
2. Title your post: One Question, One Answer
3. Please reference the originating post so your readership can flow back along the trail.
4. Answer the question asked to the best of your abilities. Whoever asked you, asked for your opinion/adivice – not a list of other websites, blogs, reference material – they want to hear it from you, as you see it, based on your life experience/knowledge to date. Whether you like it or not, you are the expert right here, right now.
5. Think of ONE blogger and ONE question that you would like to ask of them.
6. Search their blog for ‘One Question, One Answer’ to see if they have been tagged already or not. Loopback is not good.
7. Ask your question in the same post as your answer and TAG the person you would like to have answer it. (Give me a tag Vasili, one tag only please)
8. Notify the sucker TAGee (blogger) of your post via email.

Special Note: You may ask a question on any topic you wish and the person you have asked to answer it should be the ideal person to actually answer it. Also, if the person you tag is unable to participate for whatever reason, feel free to change people and even the question if you desire.

You get ONE question – make it count!

.

Photo by drp

I started a post back about a week ago with the title: Herding Cats. I use this phrase quite a bit simply because it works so well in many instances and it really works well when trying to explain what happens when you set forth a meme.

Some, take off like wild fire (example 1), and then, some become something odd that you never really intended – but still work (example 2). The biggest challenge is that most meme’s ‘tag’ 5 people in each post, which means that from the first post you will now have 5 people also posting, and they add 5 friends, and so on, and so on, and *BOOM* – the internet explodes. Ok, well, perhaps not, but it is a MASSIVE challenge trying to follow what is going on – and you want to because there is some great stuff!

So what if there was a single-tag meme? Hrm, well, seems good at the outset with the real challenges only being:

1. Loopback. With tagging 5 people in each post, sure there will be some overlap, however, there is plenty to keep it going. With one tag per post there could be an overlap if someone doesn’t do a simple ‘search’ to see if they’ve been tagged before or not. Not a big issue, but perhaps a critical one.
2. Time. Bloggers are busy and as we all know, sudden ‘extras’ can fall by the way side and get lost and forgotten. With a 5-tagger, again, not really a problem, yet with a single-tagger it could spell disaster.

Alright, so what would happen if we set forth a meme, that involved only a SINGLE tag, the TAGer must search their intended TAGee’s blog for an existing meme post (to ensure no loopback), and the TAGee must post within 7 days of being tagged (or at least notify the TAGer that they do not wish to or unable to participate so that the TAGer can modify and re-tag). That might just solve the two issues and leave us with a single-tag meme….

So what is this elusive meme? After my last post, and when I received Liz’s comment, it triggered this simple meme idea – The Advice Meme. What about a meme where you simply have one question that you would like to have answered, and the person you tag is the one you would like to receive the answer from?

For example, in reference to my last post, the question I came up with was:

Liz, as a full-time/professional blogger, a great deal of your day is spent reading other blogs (direct or via RSS feed), commenting, and blogging – you no doubt have a system that you have been developing for some time now that works well for you.

What ADVICE would you give to relatively new bloggers who are feeling swamped yet only have limited time to read, comment, and blog?

Now, it’s a simple SINGLE question that I would love to have answered, and there is a specific person in mind who I would love to have answer it (keeping in mind that Liz does have a consulting business, the last thing I would want to do is pepper her with 100 questions that she could be billing for). One question – one answer. Also keep in mind that the question can be about anything you want – the key is to ask the person who you think has the answer. This question fits into the ‘blogging’ category, yet if I had a question about marketing I might ask someone else, and the same with a question on personal/professional development.

Liz gets to post the answer on her own blog (thus providing content/value to her readership), I get the straight goods from the person I would like to hear it from, Liz now gets to ask a question of someone she admires and respects, and thus it grows. Also, with there being only a single tag in each post, we can actually track this sucker through and see some of the greatest questions and answers available in the community.

So Liz Strauss, Truffle Queen of Chicago, I tag thee in hopes that you can answer the question I have put forth (above), and if you choose to decline, I fully understand.

Tully.

P.S. To facilitate searching blogs to see if they have been tagged or not, I think a standard post title is needed… My thought (although completely open to suggestion) is: One Question, One Answer.

Photo by Pixel Packing Mama

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