Google = killing dreams since 1996

I'm pretty sure that everyone has had those random get rich quick ideas in the middle of the night ... the ones where you say to yourself, "Man. I bet I could make a million bucks if I could figure out a way to produce and sell those half popped popcorn kernels that I love so much." And then you fall asleep, forgetting about your ingenious idea only to have it pop back in your brain three years later.

So, last week I finally got around to Googling this idea of mine about the half popped kernals.
http://www.popnots.com/
Darn. Beaten to the punch. Haven't seen them in the stores (perhaps for good reason?). But might have to order a bag or two just to try 'em out.

And then today while driving in the car I thought, "What if I made a put together a website where you could submit your own photo, and it would be checked against a database of other user submitted photos ... to find your twin(s) across the globe! How cool would that be!". And so tonight I go back to Googling and find:
http://ilooklikeyou.com
Drat.

Google! Why do you do this to me? Must all my dreams be squashed so quickly?!

Are we this simple minded?

Without fail, the CNN.com "Most Popular Articles" list leaves me scratching my head.

Hugh Hefner's breakup with a Playboy bunny beats out all articles related to our economy. And a piece on Saturday Night Life comes way before anything on either the Russian or Arab conflicts.

I mean, ... really?
With whats happening in our world right now, THOSE are the most popular articles?

Wow.

http://www.cnn.com/mostpopular/

On a day like today...

After being holed up in bed all weekend with a cold ...
I came in to the office to find that the market tumbled further and further ...
And my 'to-do' list at the office seemed to grow instead of shrink.
Exhausted, I head home to find my wife heading out the door to a parent participation pre-school meeting. Just me and the kids tonight.

But, before she left, I grabbed our son Samuel and headed outside for our third bike riding lesson in the past three weeks. The previous sessions were no more than five minutes long. He has yet to demonstrate a strong inclination towards athletics, so its always a bit of an effort with this sort of stuff.

Today, on the first try ... he rode alone.

Wow. My heart just about popped out of my chest with pride as he soared with uncertainty down the street. The market's woes, the uncertainty of our collective future, my long day at the office, ... none of it mattered. Today, October 7th 2008 will be forever defined as the day I taught my son how to ride his bike.

Suzie gets it.

An earlier post of mine was a bit of a political rant asking our politicians to lead our country by helping all of us learn how to take responsibility instead of fingerpoint. Unfortunately, ... another day, another disaster, ... and more fingerpointing.

I just finished up reading a blog entry by Suzie Orman about personal finances and I can tell that she GETS IT. A small excerpt from the entry:

They ['people' that is] should be worried about everything. And they should be so worried, not that we should start a panic, that they really start to truthfully change their behaviors.
They have to realize that nobody is joking here. They can’t continue to go out to eat, charge it on a credit card and then just pay the minimum at the end of the month. They have got to go into a different type of financial mentality, I have to tell you, I don’t think that has sunk into them yet. so a few more days like this a few more things coming down the pike, they may go ‘oh, my God, we may be in serious trouble here.

Green Dirt Makin'

What a great invention found by Levi over at LJUrban. A machine about the size of a trash compactor takes your leftover food scraps and turns them in to composte right in your kitchen. Way cool! I might just have to get one.

Check out the story at the LJUrban blog here.

Our next president ...

Its all but decided now. Our country will be bailed out.

There's not much sense denying that some level of government intervention is needed at this point. The voices of opposition of a large-scale bailout form a very short list.

Every time I turn on check the news to get a feel for how our next president is going to lead our country through these difficult times, I'm dissapointed in what I hear. It often seems that neither Obama nor McCain are doing anything other than pointing fingers of blame at the opposition's failures.

To be sure, there is plenty of blame to go around. But am I the only one who wishes a little more blame was being spread my way? Yes, ... OUR WAY. Isn't it us ... we, the people ... that have borrowed and spent and lived so far outside of our budgets? Isn't it us that flushed the equities of our homes down the toilet when we refinanced away all our cares and troubles and brand new cars and credit card debts and fancy clothes? Isn't it us that lived as though we earned twice what we do? Isn't it us who spent as though our homes were neverending sources of free money?

And don't get me wrong here. I'm plenty educated to understand the failings of both our government and our corporations. But how about facing the cold hard facts that the American people have been just as greedy, selfish, and short sighted in our financial affairs as the larger power players? The reality is that we all have created this problem. Through apathy, overspending, and arrogance we've put our country at its highest level of dependence on other nations than ever before. We have historically low levels of savings, and historically high levels of debt. 'They' didn't really force us to spend all that money away ... did they?

Its time for our next leader to step up to the plate and deliver something that rises above the obnoxioius sound of desperate politicians.

Give me something compelling like JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you...". Something confrontational and clear like Reagan's "A time for choosing...".

Give me something that relates the economic and international failures of the country to the failures of my family's heart and home.

Give me something more than blame.