Hawgwash Ideas & Thoughts

Motivational Monday - January 30

2012-01-30T19:56:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday one and all! Welcome to another edition of Motivational Monday. I am willing to bet that not all of you are feeling too "chipper" today. No surprise, today is Monday, and traditionally, Mondays are not all that much fun. Granted, some of you do enjoy Mondays, but for the person who has a great weekend, going back to work on Monday is not always enjoyable. Today we are going to review some more points on how to get through Mondays and how to not just survive the work-week.

One tip to remaining motivated is to let go of your past. Before you all get angry, please let me explain. There are a few ways you can let go of the past, but I am not suggesting that you let go and FORGET the past. The key here is to not DWELL on the past.

History (the "past") provides many great lessons for us, but if continued to dwell on what happened in the past, you will never be able to more forward. It is very important that we learn from both our past mistakes and our past failures. How many people have you encountered that seem to live in the past? They tell you how great things USED to be, and how much better their life was. Or they may tell you about the time they made that mistake and nothing has ever gone right for them since? It is that kind of thought processes that you need to get rid of.

If you continue to re-live the past, you will never find the motivation to make changes and improve your present. I learned one very important piece of advice many, many years ago that has stuck with me...you cannot change the past, you can only change YOUR ATTITUDE towards the past. This is extremely important if you want to keep your motivation for the future.

You need to acknowledge that the past occurred. If you made mistakes, you need to accept that you made those mistakes and learn from what you did wrong. By making mistakes, you are forcing yourself to learn. If you didn't make any mistakes, you probably would not be where you are now. Heck, the sticky note (that little yellow post-it note that 3M makes?) was actually a mistake by one of 3M's developers. They were trying to make a type of glue, only to make a glue that didn't stick very well. You all now probably know how successful the 'sticky note' is for many of us, especially those of us in an office.

Making mistakes opens up new avenues for us to try new things. Now that you know this doesn't work, you can try a different path. But, if you constantly lived that same mistake, you will never have the desire or motivation to try anything new.

How many people have you talked to that constantly relived their greatest successes? This is almost as bad, if not worse than reliving your mistakes. Constantly reliving your success could prevent you from going out and becoming even more successful. Like the mistakes of the past, if you learn from your successes, then you can become even more successful in the future. Also, realistically, how many of you want to hear for the 100th time how Joe made that one awesome sale and brought home a six-digit paycheck the next month? Wouldn't you rather hear about how Joe made that sale, and then has continued to make better sales up through today? Then, you can learn from Joe's successes and possibly apply his techniques to your business.

So, in a nutshell, if you want to build a successful future and maintain your motivation, let go of the past, both the pain and the successes. Use the past as a building block and a tool to motivate you to do even better in the future.

Have a wonderful Motivational Monday. Until this Wednesday...

Finding your Passion in Business

2012-01-24T19:25:00.001-07:00

Last week we discussed reviewing where we were in business and setting goals for where we want to be by the end of this year. While we were discussing goal-setting, I mentioned that it was not only important to set obtainable goals, but to set goals that you were passionate about.

This week we are going to explore a some possible ways that you can find your passion in business. Let's first define Passion: "Passion is a term that is often applied to a very strong feeling about a person or a thing. It is an intense emotion, compelling feeling, enthusiasm or a desire for something." - Wikipedia definition

If you are in a home-based business, or are managing a small business. it is highly likely that you were extremely passionate about the business you got involved in. The problem is that running a business, especially a home-based business, can be very time consuming and tiring. After a while, you may start to wonder why you ever thought you wanted to be in business for yourself in the first place.

If you are still working your business, you may need to rediscover the passion in your business. It could be helpful to sit down and write down all the reasons WHY you got involved in that business originally. Sometimes, when you go back to the beginning, you can rediscover the passion that inspired you to start your own business. As you rediscover your passion, write down the points that you feel very strongly about. You want to remember those aspects of your business when times start getting difficult again. Do not focus on the negative aspect of your business, everyone has tough times, and focusing on the negative will not allow you to capture the passion (positive passion) that you were hoping to discover.

Once you are able to rekindle the passion you had at the outset, now would be the time to start setting goals for the future. If you had focused on the negatives of your business, odds are that your goals would not be all that they should be and you could very well start a downward spiral of your business. As you start defining your goals, always be sure to verify that you are passionate about the goals you are setting. You should be very passionate about all of your big, long-term goals because if you are not, there is a very high likelihood that you will not achieve those goals.

Make sure your goals are realistic, but that they are also designed to push you and your business to greater heights. If you can set long-term goals that you feel very strongly about, then it will be so much easier to remain motivated and passionate as you work towards those goals. After your "big" goals are set, then you can start designing those smaller, stepping-stone goals, that will help you to attain your "big" goal. Again, if you are passionate about the end result, you will find a much stronger motivation to continue working towards that goal, despite any road-blocks that will appear.

Sometimes you may discover that you cannot recapture the passion you once had. If you feel you are in that position, before you do anything rash, talk to some other small business owners. Ask them how they managed to work through their challenges. As we discussed last week, talk to successful people. Do not waste your precious time and energy talking to people who feel your passion is misplaced or misguided.

Continue to strive to be passionate in your business, and strive to provide the best services to your customers. By providing the best for everyone, in the long run, your business will prosper. One critical key to success in business is finding your passion in business.

If you are looking for some business opportunity to get involved with, perhaps we can be of assistance. If you do not see anything that triggers your passion, perhaps you can use some of the ideas from the website to discover what you are truly passionate about. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Until next week...keep the passion...

Motivational Monday - January 23rd

2012-01-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first Motivational Monday of 2012. It has been quite some time since we had a Motivational Monday, so let's get started.

Since this is still the first month of the new year, I'd like to let you in on my New Year's resolution. I don't usually believe in resolutions, but this one is not really a "normal" resolution. No, I am not going to resolve to lose weight (I should and am working on losing weight, it is a promise, not a resolution), nor am I going to resolve to quit smoking (because I have NEVER smoked in my life). My resolution this year is to NOT be MOTIVATED by negative people or negative situations.

Granted, that may sound a tad odd, but if you really think about it, the concept makes sense. If you want to lose motivation fast, start hanging around people who believe nothing good can ever come of anything. If you start feeling sick, you don't hang around sick people, right? This is the same concept. I am making a resolution to only associate with positive, up-beat people.

Sometimes you may be motivated by negativity, more along the lines of "I won't be THAT way", but if you are exposed to negative situations continuously, then you stand a very strong likelihood of also displaying that same type of behavior.

Keep in mind, positive, up-beat people are not always happy, but they do not bring you down or tell you how horrible the world is on a regular basis. Positive people will also have bad days, depressed days, but on the whole, they look at any set-backs in their progress as not insurmountable situations, but as a learning lesson. They will look at the positives of a negative issue and then work to overcome the current setback.

These are the type of people who are successful. They are the ones that many may envy because it seems that no matter what happens, they always end up on top. The reason they end up on top is because they maintain a positive attitude and most likely surround themselves with other positive people.

If you want to stay depressed, hang around with people who are always complaining. Even if you started the day in a good mood, how many times do you wonder where your good mood vanished if you constantly hear people complaining about everything from how horrible the weather is, to how bad their kids are? Sometimes you may discover that negative people surround you because they are trying to capture your positive attitude. These people are like sponges, sucking your good attitude out of your body. The key is to not let this happen to you. If someone is in need of positive reinforcement, definitely provide it, but do not continue to support someone who refuses to stand on their own and work on their own positive attitude.

Life is tough. There is no denying it. The important thing to remember though is that you may not be able to change the circumstances, but you are able to change your attitude about the circumstances. You cannot change your past, but you can change your attitude about what happened in the past and turn it into a learning experience. Learn from your mistakes, use the problems as a spring-board to a better future.

We would not have the light bulb if Thomas Edison quit after the first few attempts. Many of your self-made millionaires did hit rock bottom more than once in their careers. The failures just motivated them to do better and work harder for the next effort.

I will leave you with this thought for tonight from Anne Morrow Lindbergh, "It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded."

Until Wednesday...

If you are looking for second income opportunities, check out www.hawgwash.net. There may be something there that could work for you. If you don't see anything, but would like to discuss ideas, please feel free to contact us at hawgwash1@yahoo.com.

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits - 2012

2012-01-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits for 2012. It has been quite a while since this mid-week entertainment has been posted, so without further adeu, let's get started. Since we have begun a new year, perhaps it would be good to see what happened to us 100 years ago:

For you runners out there, did you know that January 1st, 1912 was the first running of San Francisco's "Bay to Breakers" race?

On January 6th, 1912 New Mexico became the 47th state admitted to the United States.
On February 14th, 1912 Arizona became the 48th state to join the United States.
May 11, 1912 Alaska is organized as a US Territory. By August 24th the Territory of Alaska organizes

It looks like our US Marines were very busy in 1912:
On January 9th, 1912 the US Marines invaded Honduras
May 30, 1912 the US Marines are sent to Nicaragua, on August 14th of this year 2,500 more Marines were added and they stayed until 1925.
June 5, 1912 the US Marines invade Cuba

In January 18th, British Naval Captain and explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition arrive at the South Pole only to discover hat the Norwegian explorer Roland Amundsen had preceded them by just over a month. By March 30th while storm-bound in a tent near the South Pole, he makes the last entry in his diary, "the end cannot be far". Captain Robert F. Scott and 4 others in his expedition died in Antartica. Captian Scott's body and diary are finally located by November 12th of this year.

April 2nd, 1912 the Titanic undergoes sea trial under it's own power. After successful trials, the Titanic leaves Queesntown, Irland with final passengers and mail, headed for New York. On April 14th, on route from Southampton to New York, "Unsinkable" Titanic strikes an iceberg 453 miles southeast of Newfoundland. Six of the 15 watertight compartments are breached by a 300-foot gash. Just after midnight on April 15th Captain Smith of the Titanic orders lifeboats to be uncovered and for passengers to be assembled in preparation to abandon the ship. By approximately 2:30 AM the RMS Titanic sinks into the North Atlantic, an estimated 1,522 people of the 2,200 passengers and crew aboard perish.

On a lighter note, on August 27th, 1912 Edgar Rice Burrough's publishes the book, "Tarzan of the Apes".

March 1, 1912 Captain Albert Berry made the first successful parachute jump from an aeroplane over Saint Louis, MO.

Mrs. William Howard Taft plants the first cherry tree in Washington, D.C. on March 16th, 1912

On March 23rd, the Dixie Cup was invented.

In 1912, Casimir Funk, a Polish biochemist, then 28, published his discovery of substances in the body which he classified as "vitamines" (vitamins). He proved that some diseases are caused by vitamin deficiency.

Did you know that 1912 was a leap year and a U.S election, as 2012 is also a leap year and election year?
November 5th, 1912 Woodrow Wilson (D) defeated Theodore (Teddy) Roosewvelt (Prog) and President Taft (R). Who will win in the 2012 election...? Only time will tell...

Hopefully you enjoyed the initial 2012 mid-week installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits.

Until Monday...

Being in Balance, or am I?

2012-01-17T18:49:00.003-07:00

As much as I would like to "cheat" and provide you a blog on Motivational Monday, or Trivial Tips and Tidbits, I believe I owe you all some version of an explanation for why I disappeared for a few months. As you know, I had been working on my Motivational Monday blogs along with my Trivial Tips and Tidbits blog on Wednesdays...and then...poof, I stopped posting. Well, just because I thought I had everything balanced... I didn't.

How many times have you thought that you had your life under control only to discover that you have been juggling one too many balls? Once you drop one of those balls, all the others just come tumbling down. I write these blogs in part to keep everyone looking at the positive side of life. My mother always taught me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. That is in part why I stopped writing. You all don't need to hear any more of the woes of the world, nor do you need to hear someone else jabber on about how tough life is.

My life got just a tad out of balance and I had a very difficult time getting that balance back. The way I chose to maintain balance, was to take a break from writing. I felt very guilty about not updating you all, but on the other hand, I discovered that I cannot juggle a dozen balls at the same time. I discovered that I had bitten off more tasks than I could chew and was getting so buried in all the things that "needed" to be done, I started burning out.

Along with work, weekend shows, I decided it would be good to get involved and become a foster parent in dog rescues. I had absolutely no idea how much of an emotional toll that took. For those of you who may not really know me, I am always open to helping hurt and abandoned animals. It doesn't really matter which ones, but I always end up getting involved in some kind of animal rescue, be it a baby bird that couldn't fly, a duck that got hurt, a dog that was found wandering along the side of a road, a cat that got hurt. I have always been there to help when I can. So, fostering dogs until they got adopted out seemed a great way for me to help.

Theoretically, the idea was great. In actuality, fostering took a major bite out of my spare time and made a huge dent in my emotional resources. I will go into my adventures with fostering on a future blog, but suffice it to say, that by the time I finished working, doing chores and then taking care of frightened dogs (yes, plural...heaven forbid if I do ANYTHING in small amounts..) and cleaning up after dogs that don't understand the term "housebroken". Well, let's just say that my life got more than a little out of balance.

Things have somewhat calmed down now, and with luck, I will be back in the blogosphere keeping you entertained, perhaps educated, or just curious. I still plan on blogging Mondays and Wednesdays with additional blogs when I have extra stuff to offer you.

Take care and we shall be talking once again, shortly.

Until Wednesday (i.e. tomorrow...)

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits - Wednesday Edition

2011-09-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Wednesday Edition of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. As mentioned on the Monday blog, we are mixing things up a bit to see if we can add more spark to your work week. Mondays are usually blue, and we had been striving to make them less so. But Wednesdays have been so very tough lately, so for "Hump-Day" we are going to have some fun so you can get an early jump anticipating the weekend.

Do any of you remember when the earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet at 9:30 PM GMT February 9, 1986? Did you know that on April 19, 1910 Halley's Comet made it's first appearance since 1759. Many people stayed home with their families expecting Doomsday the moment the earth passed through Halley's Comet's tail. Glad to know we are still doing OK (really???). The next expected appearance of Halley's Comet should be July 28, 2061...some of us may still be hanging around...

In 1910, auto racer Barney Oldfield, 32, set a new speed record at Daytona Beach, FL, traveling a whopping 131.724 mph. I can do that now on my bike on the freeway...(but I didn't....really...don't you believe me???)

Do you know what a spoonerism is? It is switching letters in a sentence... for instance, saying "jag of Flapan" instead of "flag of Japan".

Here are some fun facts regarding the English language - there are only three words in the English language that contain two 'U's' back to back. They are vacuum, residuum and continuum.

The only word in the English language that contains 3 back to back double letter combinations is Bookkeeper....

A novel with 50,000 words, none of which contained the letter 'E' was written by Ernest Wright. I wonder what the title of that tome was?

The letter 'Q' is the only letter in the English alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.

For you scientists out there - Do you know what the science of Anthroppmetry is? It is the measurement of the human body. This science allowed factory-made ready-to-wear clothing to be bought by people for the first time in the mid-1800's due to the need to mass-produce soldiers uniforms in different sizes for the Civil War in the United States.

How much do you fly? Are you concerned about the safety of flying in an aeroplane? Did you know that Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes? So, if you are afraid to fly for fear of being in a plane crash, go ride a donkey. If you survive that, odds are that you will survive a plane flight. (we won't discuss the groping involved with flying now though..)

Keeping along the lines of planes for a moment - a Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than teh Wright brother's first flight. That makes you sit up and think for a moment...

Lastly, for those of you who do minor home repairs, I bet you all have at least one can of WD-40 in your house to quiet those squeaky hinges, or to otherwise help loosen rusted screws. Do you know what the "WD" in the name actually stands for? It is an abbreviation for Water Displacer...

Hopefully you enjoyed your Wednesday Edition of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Monday will bring a return of some motivational ideas, and perhaps we will throw in an additional article next week, just for the fun of it.

Continue to stay tuned... Until next week...

Motivational Monday

2011-09-19T20:43:00.004-07:00

Well, this week we are going to mix it up a bit. I have been posting the Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits on or around the first of the week for quite some time now. I thought I would try Motivational Monday, (versus my Motivational Wednesday - rolls off the tongue easier...) for a week or two and see how it goes. No, Fun Facts is not being preempted, it is just moving to Wednesdays. Please feel free to let me know which you would ultimately prefer, fun on Mondays or motivation on Mondays....

On to the motivation....

Last week we covered more tips on how to either get motivated to accomplish a task or how to stay motivated to keep working towards a goal. This week we are going to continue to explore how to remain motivated as you work towards your goals.

Many of you work for a living, you go to a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke), trade your time for their money, come home and just collapse. Well, doing that day after day, year after year, will seriously wear you out. Do you remember the first day you landed your first job? You were MOTIVATED. You had PLANS. You were GOING PLACES and TAKING NO PRISONERS. Now, most likely, you are just grateful to have a job, but it takes so much out of you that you have no more to give once you get home.

This is where the motivational tips I have been offering come into play. No matter how tired you may be, in order to improve your circumstances or work towards financial freedom, you need to not only define your goals, but really believe in your goals. Defining goals is relatively simple, the critical point it to not only believe in those defined goals, but to EMBRACE those same goals. The goals you define should be what you wake up thinking about and should also be what you think about as you are falling asleep at night.

By embracing these goals, you will discover you are as motivated as you were when you got your first job. But even with clearly defined goals, and you celebrating milestones towards those same goals, you will find over time that your motivation does begin to flag. This does not mean that your goals are no longer worthy. All it means is that you may need to find additional methods of motivation. Every new idea creates excitement, but as you continue to work towards your long-term goals, you will find times where you are still lacking motivation. This is natural and not a bad thing, all you have to do is to devise some additional motivational methods to keep moving through your 'slow' time.

One thing that will help keep your motivation fresh is to be sure that you ALWAYS make time for yourself. If you do not take care of yourself, no matter how supportive your friends and family may be, nobody else will take care of you. Remember to take time out for YOU. Do not lose yourself in your goal, your goal may be a part of you, but you still need to take some time to rest. Your mind and body do need this rest, even if you believe that you have to push through and continue to work. Spend some quiet time each day with yourself.   This does not need to be hours at a time, it could only be 15 minutes to an hour, but remember to take time for yourself and keep in touch with who you are and why you are working for these goals.   You may not feel like you have to do this daily, and if so, at least make an effort once a week to take time out for you. You don't have to sit in a tub with candles all over, it just means that you should do what YOU want to do for a little period of time. It is amazing how rejuvenating it is to do something that YOU want instead of constantly working to do stuff for everyone else.

After you have rejuvenated, do not forget to spend time with your friends and family. After you have taken care of yourself, you may also find it is easier to help your friends and family with their desires. It is critical to maintain a balance between work, goals, family and friends. Without a good balance, you will lose motivation very quickly.   Strive to remember that your friends and family may not always be around for you to spend time with. Hopefully your friends and family are also motivated and excited about the goals that you have set, and perhaps part of spending time with them includes you all working towards the same goal.

Time is that commodity that once spent, cannot be taken back, so spend your time wisely. Avoid those who may 'suck' time away from you, they don't have enough motivation of their own, and would rather use you and your energy to get them motivated. This is personally draining, and you will find yourself losing that motivational drive again. Try to align yourself with other motivated people, because their energy will help keep you going. Then, if they start losing motivation, you are there to help them continue on.

Again, it is always very motivating to see your goals clearly written and posted in a public place. That way, not only you, but your friends and family can continue to see what you are working towards. As your motivation periodically lags, all you need to do is to catch a glimpse of your plans, and you will find that your motivation is rekindled.

These are a few more tips to keep you driving toward your goals. These tips may help keep you motivated even after a 10 hour work day, with dinner yet to be made and kids that still need help with their homework. After getting all that done, you may still be able to keep that tiny little spark of motivation alive so that you can do one more thing that will bring you closer to your goals. You will be amazed about how quickly you can get motivated when you can take tiny little steps toward your goal. By doing just one little task before you call it a day, you can go to bed enthused because you are now one step closer to your goal. It is a wonderful feeling to know that no matter how rough your day may have been, you still took one more step toward your dream. That should always keep your spark of motivation alive.

Hopefully you found some of these tips and suggestions helpful to stay motivated. Perhaps it will allow you to get through this week a little easier too. Have a great Motivational Monday. Wednesday we will pick it up and have some fun with the weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits.

If you are looking for other income opportunities, please feel free to check out our website for ideas. We are always available for questions and even for bouncing ideas for other ways to find financial freedom.

Until Wednesday...

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits - Midweek

2011-09-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Hump-Day one and all! Tonight we are going to hopefully brighten your week up with some fun facts and trivial tidbits. The focus here is to provide some fun, silly and sometimes useful trivia information to amaze or torment your friends and co-workers. Wednesdays are typically difficult, it is the middle of the week, you may have managed to struggle through the first two days of the work week, and you are now looking at two more days to work through before you can relax (supposedly) and enjoy the weekend.

Last week we mentioned that September 9th is National Teddy Bear Day. Initially it was a U.S. specific holiday, but is becoming more celebrated by bear lovers around the world. That being said, how many of you know the origins of the name "Teddy Bear"?

The name "Teddy" bear was based on U.S. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. More interestingly, do you know the story of WHY the bear ended up being named "Teddy"? The name came about after a 1902 hunting expedition. At the time, no game was found, so by the end of the day, someone brought out a baby bear and suggested that Theodore Roosevelt might like to shoot at it instead. Roosevelt (understandably) felt that this was not sporting and refused the offer. This was illustrated in a newspaper cartoon entitled "Drawing the Line". A New York toymaker saw an opportunity and brought out a cute stuffed bear named "Teddy's Bear" and the rest became history.

Now on to some fun statistics - did you know that 81% of people say a "harmless lie" every day?
- Most people lie 3 time in 10 minutes of conversation (makes you really think about what you are talking about...)
- 2% of people think that lying is sometimes necessary (I can see that...)
- 65% of people think that it is often or sometimes OK to lie so as to not hurt someone else's feelings.
- 44% of people think that it is often possible to exaggerate the events of the story to make it more interesting (I know a LOT of people who do that....)

Along the lines of lying, did you know that 35% of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married? YUCH!!!

Did you know that Walt Disney was afraid of mice? Kinda funny, guess he worked this phobia out...

Do you know how they made the sound of E.T. (from the movie E.T. the Extra Terrestrial) walking? It was made by a woman squishing her hands in jelly - makes you want to go out and try that....yeah, right...

Lastly, do you know who the voice of E.T. was? Debra Winger. Never would have guessed that... Now I have to go rent the movie again and take a good hard look and listen...

Hopefully this weekly edition of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits was as much for you as it was for me. Have a wonderful rest of the week, and we will chat more on Monday (or perhaps this Friday if I am feeling chatty...

Until later...

Procrastination -

2011-09-12T20:00:00.003-07:00

Tonight is more a night for procrastination than for real work. We finally have another break from painful high temperatures, and I would rather be enjoying the cool evening air than sitting in front of the computer finding more obscure facts to entertain. You will get your Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits this week...just not tonight...perhaps...

Horses

Tonight I should be helping you all laugh by providing my weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Well, I am not entirely thrilled with that prospect tonight, and have been procrastinating writing this weekly article tonight. Granted, I have loads of silly bits of information to entertain you with, but for some reason, I do not feel that this weekly installment is going to be that much fun, I am not feeling inspiration.

Let's discuss procrastination instead... one of my favorite ways to procrastinate is to decide it is time to organize my desk. My desk periodically looks like a bomb hit it, even though I know exactly (well, almost) where every piece of paper really is. But, when I am not in a very inspired mood to do what I should do, that is the best time for me to straighten my desk.

I guess you could say that my desk usually doesn't look too bad, but if it is consistently neat, then you know I am procrastinating....kind of like tonight...

My next best method of procrastinating is to decide it is time to mend shirts, re-apply buttons, and darn socks...now really, how many people really darn socks anymore...if you are into procrastination...well, count me in...

Lastly my best method of procrastination is to play with all the animals around the house. That includes the two dogs that keep me company, but lately, I have been spending quality time with my neighbor's horses...not for any particular reason except that it has been pretty evenings, and I didn't want to go inside and get any work done...

I know, for those of you who read last week's Motivational blog on Wednesday, I talked about ways to get things done even when you don't want to do it. Well, as you can see, even though I have been procrastinating, I do still get done what needs to be done...just later than usual. Procrastination can be fun, so don't dismiss it out-of-hand.

Think of all the mischief you can get into by procrastinating, especially if others would RATHER you get your chores/tasks done... Procrastination does have it's benefits, heck, my desk does get regularly cleaned, the animals get played with, and over-all, I have fun. After I get the procrastination out of the way, I find I become more motivated to complete the tasks that I had been putting off.

So, the upshot is, some procrastination is good, but too much of it will get you in trouble. Since I don't feel like getting into too much trouble, I better start working on the weekly Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits segment for either tomorrow or Wednesday. Stay tuned to see which day I end up posting...

Until tomorrow....

Another Motivational Wednesday

2011-09-07T21:33:00.002-07:00

Well, here we are again, Hump Day. Except that today for many of us is only the second day of the work week, not the third. For many, we only have two more days left of work before the weekend, and we only had to work two days to get here. Even still, after a 3-day weekend, you may already start feeling a tad less motivated than you did yesterday. We are going to try to rectify that lagging feeling with another Motivational Wednesday.

Today is one of my less than great motivation days, I am tired, even though it is the second day of a 4-day work week, it has been a loooong 2 days. Many of you are probably feeling the same way too. Here are some things that I have done to get motivation back into my day:

Goal setting is very important. If I hadn't told you all that I would be posting a blog tonight, odds are very high that I would NOT have posted anything tonight. I set that goal yesterday because I KNEW I would need the motivation to get this weeks blog done. There are days when writing is easy, the words just flow off my fingertips and onto the page. Then, there are other days, like today, where it feels like you are fighting to put even one word on the page, let alone a cohesive sentence. Knowing that I promised to write and especially publishing the goal made it a lot easier to be motivated to achieve the goal.

Keep your goals simple. This is the next step to remaining motivated to work on your goals. If you have a goal that is virtually impossible to achieve in a day, week, or month, your initial goal is far to complex. That is not to say you need to have simple goals, but what is important is to have relatively easy to achieve small goals that will ultimately bring you to your biggest goal. If you are standing at the bottom of a very large mountain and know that you have to get to the top quickly, it can be very disheartening. A way to achieve your larger goals is to set many smaller, simple goals that will guide you on your way to achieving your main goal. A great quote I have heard several times is: "How do you eat an elephant? ... One bite at a time".

Set a date to complete the simple goals. Set a specific date that you want to achieve these smaller goals. Do not set dates for all your goals, it could very easily demotivate you again. Set one or two dates for one or two of your simple goals, and focus on getting those completed. Once you succeed in completing those goals on time, you could easily become naturally motivated to start completing the other goals. Be sure not to try to complete all your goals at one time, it will not work, and then once you stop, you will not be motivated to start again. How many times have you gone to the gym to work out after a long absence, only to end up doing far too much on your first workout? You may feel OK that first day, but boy, on that second day, you may not want to look at a gym again.

Lastly, celebrate when you do achieve a goal. Get excited about your successes, no matter how small you may think they are. The fact is that you did succeed, celebrate that. Don't focus on the fact that you may not have achieved your whole goal, that will come with time and practice. Start small, celebrate each small step. You celebrate your child's first step, why not celebrate your own personal first step toward your goals. Rewarding yourself can be as simple as lighting a scented candle, taking a bubble bath, or even treating yourself to a cookie, but reward yourself for a job well done. If you don't do it, nobody else will. Don't let others bring you down, surround yourself with positive people and you will find your own attitude will also improve.

If you want to find motivation to achieve something it is critical to define your goals, keep your goals simple, set reasonable dates and then to celebrate each accomplishment. Once you do it, you will be amazed at how easy it is to remain motivated to complete the remainder of your tasks.

The hardest part is getting started. If you are not sure what your goals are, start writing down everything that you may want to do. Then from there focus on one item that really gets you excited. You will find then that setting smaller goals to achieve that one task becomes easier. Heck, your first motivational task might be to list what goals you would like to achieve. Set a date to begin that task, and limit how long you will spend writing down goals. By keeping your time short, you won't be overwhelmed with the task and you may be amazed at how motivated you become after you put just one goal down on a piece of paper.

So, stop reading and start your own motivational practices.

Until next week...

Fun facts and trivial tidbits

2011-09-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday everyone!!! Hopefully you had a good Labor Day weekend. Probably some of you did work, but hopefully you were paid well to labor on Labor Day. This week's installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits will center around the month of September. How much do you know about this month? Some of us used to associate September with going back to school (yeah, really dated myself there..), and others probably associate early September (especially right after Labor Day) with the end of summer and summer vacation.

Did you know the origin of the word "September"? It's root is in the Roman word "septem" which means seven. This came about because in the Roman calendar, September was actually the seventh month of the year, not the ninth month as it is in our Gregorian Calenders. The Anglo Saxons called this month "Gerst monath (Barley month) because this was when they harvested barley.

Another interesting fact about September, is when Britain changed from the Julian Calendar (which is 365.25 days long) to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, we lost 11 days. So, September 3rd immediately became September 14th. Therefore time between September 3, 1752 and September 14, 1752 is the only time in British history where NOTHING happened... Pretty cool information?

Did you know that September 17th is Constitution Day (also Citizenship Day) in the United States of America? The United States Constitution was ratified by the US Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Now that we have the serious facts covered, let's have some fun with September - did you know that September is National Chicken Month? It is also Cholesterol Awareness Month right here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

The poem, "Mary had a Little Lamb" was published September 1, 1830

September also has a National Teddy Bear Day and a National Play-Doh Day. It seems like September is a great month to play in...

To wander off the subject of September for a moment, the interesting item about National Teddy Bear Day is that the United States has TWO National Teddy Bear Days, one in September and then another one in November. The November event was created by the Vermont Teddy Bear Company in 2000 to celebrate the contribution the teddy bear has made to popular culture....Perhaps in November we will discuss how the Teddy Bear got it's name...

The U.S. Supreme Court was established in September 1789 as was the U.S. Treasury Department.

In Medieval times, September 24th is traditionally the start of harvesting and Michaelmas Day (September 29th) is traditionally the last day of the harvest season.

Hopefully you enjoyed these fun facts and trivial tidbits about the month of September. There are a large number of celebrations and odd events that occur during the month of September. Have fun with them.

Tomorrow being hump day, we will re-introduce our Motivational Wednesday information. This way, you will stay motivated through the day tomorrow and then we can keep you motivated the remainder of the week.

Until tomorrow...

Labor Day and other interesting things

2011-09-01T21:06:00.003-07:00

Well, as you all are probably aware, I messed up on my days at the beginning of this week and I have yet to get re-calibrated. I was going to bring more motivational tips up, but realized that with tomorrow being Friday, you have more than enough motivation to make it the remainder of the week.

That being said, lets have some more fun. Since this upcoming Monday is Labor Day, I thought it might be interesting to cover some more facts about the origins of Labor Day and any other interesting things regarding this holiday.

Labor Day is currently celebrated in the United States as the first Monday in September. It was designed to celebrate the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of America.

It was first celebrated on September 5, 1882. On that day, some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City to participate in America's first Labor Day parade. The participants marched from City Hall, past the reviewing stands on Union Square, and then turned uptown to 42nd Street. At the end of the parade, the workers and their families gathered in Wendel's Elm Park for a picnic, concert, and speeches. This first Labor Day celebration was eagerly organized and executed by New York’s Central Labor Union, an umbrella group made up of representatives from many local unions. Debate continues to this day as to who originated the idea of a workers' holiday, but it definitely emerged from the ranks of organized labor at a time when they wanted to demonstrate the strength of their burgeoning movement and inspire improvements in their working conditions.

These celebrations in New York then spread across the country. It was the State of Oregon that became the first state to grant legal status to this holiday. In 1894, Congress passed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday.

Believe it or not, over 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers. Depending on where you research, some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co founder of the American Federation of Labor, first suggested a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

Labor Day has also been unofficially designated the end of summer. In some fashion circles, after Labor Day you can no longer wear white (shoes, purses, clothes) except for weddings.

Hopefully you all will partake of this long weekend, the last of the summer holidays and have fun. For many, this weekend represents the last "official" time for backyard barbeque's, summer clothes and the end of summer vacation from school. For others, this holiday could allow them to finish chores that were put off all summer long. For me, it will be a time to relax and enjoy some much-needed time off.

However you spend your Labor Day and weekend prior, have a great time and we will chat again on TUESDAY...yup, Monday is a HOLIDAY. Enjoy

Until Tuesday...

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits - Late

2011-08-30T20:47:00.004-07:00

Sorry guys, I lost track of time, forgot that YESTERDAY was MONDAY, not today. All the same, welcome to your weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits, even though it is a day late...

Let's get right into the fun... tonight we are going to find fun facts about places around the world:

The smallest "country" in the world to have its own top-level domain name is Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia.

If you love traveling and monkeys, Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where you can find wild monkeys (we are not looking at elementary schools...)

For those of you who believe that we are Always at war, it is interesting to note that the shortest war ever recorded lasted only 38 minutes (Britain versus Zanzibar, in 1896). Don't know why we can't have short wars like that again...heck, I have have known couples to have arguments longer than 38 minutes...

In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to a whopping 12 years old...wow, old maids...

In light of all the news regarding the latest hurricane, did you know that New York City has 570 miles of shoreline? That is one of the reasons why there was such concern about the hurricane hitting New York City straight on.

If you have ever traveled to the Amazon jungle, there are up to 3,000 species of trees that have been cataloged within on square mile. That is a major amount of diversity...

Do you know what the original purpose of the (now) leaning tower of Pisa? It was originally designed as a bell tower. Guess that got thrown out when the tower started leaning....hard to ring a bell that is almost sideways.

Did you know that more Siberian tigers live in zoos than in the wild?

Brazoria County in Southeast Texas is the only county in the United States and Canada to have every kind of poisonous snake found in those two countries.

And lastly, for those of you who HATE snakes and all those cold-blooded critters, the only continent without any reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.

Have a wonderful week. Hopefully you enjoyed this weekly update of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Until Thursday (since I am off by a day, might as well continue to be off this week...)

Take care...

Motivational Wednesdays

2011-08-24T20:47:00.003-07:00

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!! Bet you thought I wouldn't be here tonight...HA had you fooled didn't I? Since I have been seriously challenged lately, I thought that tonight would provide a great opportunity to talk about some motivational techniques so that you too can possibly get more things done. Welcome to my Motivational Wednesday...

Since Wednesdays are typically the middle of a "standard" work week, many people have also called Wednesday's "hump-days". Wednesdays are a bit tough because you have struggled for two days to get here, but then the good news is that you only have 2 more days to the weekend. Since I personally do have trouble with motivation on Wednesdays (in particular...) I have started once again to pick up some motivational techniques so that I can get through the day and accomplish all the tasks I do have on my list, that I REALLY didn't want to finish. You all know THOSE tasks, the ones that NEED to be done, but you don't want to do them? (that is not to say I don't enjoy writing this Blog, I just noticed that I am seriously lacking in motivation all day on Wednesdays...)

One way to stay motivated is to reduce boredom and to understand what it is you do that may make you particularly bored. Being bored is a great way to lose motivation.... Being bored makes the day appear to go slower, being bored can easily lead to over-eating and being bored can make you grumpy. Identify what makes you bored and strive to eliminate that boredom. The real challenge comes when there is a task or core that you MUST do but it is supremely boring. The key here is to identify that task, and get it done as quickly as possible, because the more you put it off (because it is soooo darned boring) the more you will not get anything else done either. Boredom can really kill any motivation. If you know what your triggers are for boring tasks, find ways to avoid those triggers, even while completing that task. This is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but once you master it, you can make those boring chores a lot easier to deal with. They may still be boring, but you have learned to cope with that. Personally, I strive to get the really boring tasks done as fast as possible...sort of like taking nasty medicine. Get it done fast and then reward yourself for a job well done....works for me.

Another trick to keep motivation up is to switch tasks so you don't get too bored doing one task. Strive to work on a few small, easy tasks and use them to break up what could be a long, drawn-out and possibly boring task. Pick up those small tasks when you are almost at your wits end when working on that big project. The little tasks completed will provide you a great sense of accomplishment and will help to keep you motivated to finish that large project you were working on. Also, buy taking a break from one project, and completing another, when you return to the original project at hand, you may find solutions that you didn't realized existed. Taking a break provides you with the opportunity to take a fresh look at an old task.

Lastly, to stay motivated and on task, remember to reward yourself for a job well done. You don't need to go to extremes, but if there is something small that you really like doing, reward yourself with whatever that is after you complete a task, even a boring task. By rewarding yourself for a job well done, you create a positive habit that will assist you in staying motivated and completing other projects. You could even look forward to completing tasks so that you can gather your own personal reward. This small reward could be as simple as a small cup of ice cream, or playing a quick game, or even taking a relaxing shower or swim. You can then be motivated to quickly complete your project so that you can reap your reward.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you to stay on task, remain motivated and finish those projects that have been dogging you for the longest time.

If I don't talk to you on Friday, have a great weekend and we will chat again on Monday.

Until then...

More Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits

2011-08-22T20:30:00.003-07:00

HA!!! Bet you thought that I wouldn't be posting again...HA, HA. Well I even surprised myself with this post. I made a promise to all of you and myself, and I am working very, very hard to maintain that promise. Granted, I have been physically unable to post daily since last week, but at least I am getting Mondays down. I will post again this Wednesday, since I really believe I will not have time to post tomorrow....

Anyway, tonight is the weekly update for Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. As you are aware, I started tracking these silly little items over a year ago to help resolve some of the Monday doldrums. Hopefully these little known factoids are fun to share with friends and family, or better yet, you can use them to torment others who HATE trivia!! Oh what fun!!!

Especially on Mondays, do you find that you have a terrible time waking up or staying awake? How many cups of coffee did you drink to even start to get those heavy eye-lids up and that sluggish brain to start plodding along? Did you know that apples are better at waking a person up than even caffeine? Something to think about when you don't want your stomach torn up with all that acid from the coffee...

Now that we are starting to consider autumn in some parts of the country (not here, but somewhere...) did you know that oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years old or older? And you thought waiting until you were 21 to drink took a long time...

For those of you who are still celebrating summer and the requisite mosquitoes.... did you know that mosquito repellent really doesn't "repel" mosquitoes? The repellents actually hid you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you are there (that is until you find one and squish it...)

Do you know the origins of the name of the soda drink, 7-Up? When this citrus soda was created in 1929, the original containers were on 7 ounces. The word 'UP' indicated the direction the bubbles went....

Do you ever wonder why the radio operators were called Ham radio operators? It is not because they "hammed" it up on the radio. The term "ham" was derived from the "ham-fisted" operators", which described the early radio users who sent Morse code (they pounded their fists when hitting all those dots and dashes...)

Here is something to bother your friends with - only one-third of the people that can twitch their ears, can twitch only one at a time.

Did you know that the term "the Boogey Man will get you" comes from the Boogey people, who still inhabit an area of Indonesia? These people still act as pirates today and attack ships that pass. Therefore, the phrase spread, "if you don't watch out, the Boogey man will get you."

Lastly, for those of you still wishing for the weekend, and really wanting a beer - in medieval England, beer was often served with breakfast. Now that could really put a good spin on your day... ;-)

Hopefully you have enjoyed yet another installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. I will be posting again this Wednesday, so in the meantime, have a wonderful Tuesday and don't forget to torment your friends and family with some of these useless tidbits of useless trivia.

Until Wednesday...

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits

2011-08-15T20:19:00.003-07:00

Welcome again to the weekly (not weakly) edition of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Granted, it has been some time since our last installment, this week's information should keep you generally entertained.

How many of you, while at work, may wander by the vending machine to either get something out of it, or to stare at it wistfully hoping something in there will not make you gain weight? Well, did you know that more than 10 people a year are killed by vending machines? Really... so don't get too close to that machine, you might be one of those 10 for this year...

Thinking about losing weight? Talking about those killer vending machines didn't do the trick? Did you know that if you smell (not eat) bananas or green apples (or both it the mood strikes) can help you to lose weight? Try it, and don't eat the banana or green apple...

For some of you women out there, have you ever commented on your 'guy' spending soooo much time in the bathroom? Did you ever take note of HOW much time is spent in there? For some reason, it seems that guys like to spend a lot of time in the bathroom. If asked, some of them claim it is the only place they can get peace and quiet. Some believe it is a great reading room. Well, someone with a bunch of time on their hands has calculated that the average person spends 3 years of their life on the toilet. Geezz...my legs would have fallen asleep long before then...

In light of that little trivial tidbit, did you know that each year there are more than 40,000 toilet related injuries in the U.S. Most likely from all those numb legs after spending so much time sitting on the toilet...

Do you have a friend whose sole goal in life is to get as many shoes as possible? Did you know that almost 29% of women spend more time looking for shoes than looking for a life partner? Heck, at least shoes don't talk back and if you get tired of them, you can throw them in a box and give them to a charity. Can't do that (legally) with a life partner.... go figure.

Therefore it makes sense that 40% of women have hurled footwear at men.

While at work, how many times does that darned copier break down? For us, it happens quite a bit. I think we have now figured out why the copier mis-behaves... 23% of all copier faults are caused by people sitting on them and copying their rear-ends. And you wondered why the glass was smudged...

And lastly, you know we have come a long way. If you wanted your picture taken (not on a copy machine) by the very first camera, you would have had to sit still for 8 hours. Makes copy machines a little better to deal with (even if they do break often...)

Hopefully you enjoyed your weekly edition of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits...

Until tomorrow...

I am ALIVE!!!

2011-08-14T20:49:00.003-07:00

Hello one and all. Bet you thought I would never poke my head out of my hidey hole... Well, here I am, almost back in the saddle. Tonight is going to be a brief, wandering chat, nothing too difficult and really, I do promise to get back to regular posting...

I realize I don't have to explain myself, but feel it is the right thing to do... Since the economy has been SOOOO stinky, I did go out and get a short-term job. The problem is that this "short-term" job turned into a major job that then turned into major hours and weekend work. Not quite what I had originally signed on for. The problem has been that I have had to drag my tired butt home every day after 10-12 hours working both in a warehouse and on a computer. Needless to say, I had zero energy to even want to eat dinner let alone talk to you guys about anything.

My mother taught me a great lesson, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. So...three guesses why you haven't heard from me in a Looonnng time? I have now re-screwed my head back on straight and will carve time out of my evenings to at least chat with you all again. I truly have missed talking with you and after reviewing my old posts, needed to take my own commentary and advice to heart.

So, here I am talking once again and hopefully you all can forgive my disappearance and allow me to redeem myself by writing more consistently.

Tonight, I was sitting on the back porch, enjoying the lightning show in the distance. It has cooled down a bit here, all the way down to 102. A nice breeze has kicked up and it was overall a pleasant evening until I happened to look down. As I was sitting comfortably in my outside chair, what did I see, but a BIG BLACK HAIRY thing skulking around right under my chair. My first reaction was to get all body parts as high in the air as possible. Then I looked again to see this SPIDER slowly wandering around under my chair.

I then realized I was trying to fly, feet, and hands were waving around in the air, but it did nothing to lift me any higher from that BIG SPIDER. After my initial shock though, I realized it was most likely a tarantula (still not sure because my eyes were not adjusted too well to the dark, I was watching lightning, so I was still somewhat night-blind. After my eyes adjusted to the dark better, I did confirm I was looking at a tarantula. Then I carefully watched where it was walking and was able to put my sandeled feet back on the ground. I quickly ran to the back door, flung it open grabbed the dogs and locked them in the bedroom. I then flicked on the back porch light, verified the tarantula was still there and ran to get my camera.

So now you see what I saw, and you have a pretty good idea how big this male Arizona Blonde Tarantula is... the tiles are 6"x6". Pretty cool.

Anyway, this guy was subsequently picked up and placed on a bush OUTSIDE the fenceline so the dogs would not hurt or bother it. So all's well that end's well.

That's all the fun for tonight. I will be back tomorrow for a brief chat...PROMISE!!!

Until tomorrow...

More Fun Facts and Tantalizing Tidbits

2011-05-23T20:45:00.003-07:00

Hi all, welcome to yet another installment of Fun Facts and Tantalizing Tidbits. Hopefully this little tastes of fun will brighten your day and keep you a little happier about your week.

Tonight we will pick on the chef's out there:

For all those water conservative people out there, it takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni (really good...) but it takes about a gallon to clean the pot once you are done cooking the macaroni. (not so good...)

The wheat that produces a one-pound loaf of bread requires two tons of water to grow...

Only 30% of the famous Maryland Blue Crabs are actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia...

Did you ever wonder where some of our slang phrases came from? Did you know the origin of the term "the whole 9 yards"? This phrase was coined by World War II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards".

Did you know the origins of the phrase, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye"? It came from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "no eye gouging". Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someones eye out....ewwwww...

Here is a really interesting bit of history - If you were born in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), your birth place was listed as a post office box in Albuquerque, NM.

Have you ever wondered if there was a better way to lace your shoe and get a better fit? If you lace your shoes from the inside to the outside, the fit will be snugger around your big toe.

Lastly, for you advertising and marketing types - have you ever noticed in most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on an analog watch is 10:10 because then the hands of the watch frame the brand name on the watch face?

Hopefully you have enjoyed this week's installment of Fun Facts and Tantalizing Tidbits. Stay tuned for this upcoming Wednesday. It will be an interesting article...for sure...hehehehe...

Until Wednesday...

Run for the Wall is Near

2011-05-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

Tonight's brief discussion is on the upcoming event called Run for the Wall. This is an annual event that begins in Rancho Cucomonga, Californa and ends the Friday before Memorial Day in Washington, D.C. It is a 10-day motorcycle trip across this wonderful country of ours that takes you through either the Southern or Central parts of the United States. It is an event that I have personally particpated in for the last 6 consecutive years and all of those years I went "all the way" to Washington, D.C.

Some of you may think that this is just like any other motorcycle rally, but this is an Event, it is not a club, it is not a rally. The mission statement for Run for the Wall (RFTW) is "To promote healing among ALL veterans and their families and friends, to call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action (POW/MIA), to honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA) from all wars, and to support our military personnel all over the world."

They strive to maintain a safe, supportive and private atmosphere in which all participants can reflect and heal on their journey to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. in the hope that they can return home to a new beginning. It is very difficult to explain the feelings you experience while participating in RFTW, but talk to anyone who has participated, and you will see a misty look in their eyes. Once you participate in RFTW, you become part of a wonderful, extended family that will not forget you and truly cares about your personal well-being.

I am not a veteran, but have found that you do not need to be a veteran to be involved with RFTW. Anyone who believes in and supports our Troops is welcome. As RFTW travels across either the Central or Southern United States, they have planned stops at various elementary schools, memorials, veterans hospitals, Legion Halls, veteran centers, etc. At many of the stops, we spend time and talk with the people in the area, usually they are lining the roads and waving flags as we arrive. There is nothing more awe-inspring as after a long day in the motorcycle saddle, than to pull into an area to stop, and have both sides of the street lined with people waving, clapping, taking photographs, holding signs and pictures and just having a wonderful time, because we are there.

By participating in Run for the Wall, even if not for the full legnth of the trip, you get a true view of America and her people. We have seen many, many people in uniform standing at attention as we pass by. We have met people who have not just served in Vietnam, but also World War II, Korea, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. We have had the opportunity to talk with some Navajo Code Talkers, Baatan Death March survivors, Pearl Harbor Survivors, POW's and those who survived the Battle of the Bulge (not the battle around your wasteband...). It is inspiring and humbling to hear their first-hand accounts of what they endured.

If you have an opportunity to even ride for a day with RFTW, the specific itinerary is listed on their website - www.rftw.org. You can quickly see where each route goes, and the itinerary is very specific. Even if you are unable to ride, you may have the opportunity to watch us ride by, again the itinerary is very accurate for dates and times. Please wave if you see us wander by, we will wave back. This is an event that anyone who supports our Troops should try at least once in their lifetime. It will change your view of the world.

We hope to see you along the road.

Until Friday...

Back to Blogging - and a few fun tidbits

2011-05-09T20:20:00.003-07:00

Well Hello one and all... it has been a VERY long time, but I am back to blogging. If you couldn't guess, life got just a tad hectic leading up to April 15th, and I needed to focus on the tasks at hand and had to put my conversations on the back burner.

Life has not become any less hectic, but I am learning to carve a little bit of time out of this insane schedule to chat again. For this week, our conversations will be for tonight, Wed and probably Thursday. Again, I do not want to over-promise and under-deliver. Assuming I can keep to chatting 3x a week, I will see if I can carve out more time to chat, but we are going to start with baby steps first.

I have thought long and hard about talking with all of you, but with as hectic a schedule as I have had in the last almost 2 months, I honestly didn't have any time to talk. When I did have the time, my eyeballs were so tired, I couldn't see to type. For those of you on Facebook, you also know I have been putting in pretty rare appearances.

With luck, all of that insanity is now behind me. Tonight, let's warm up again on a few of our Fun tidbits -

Did you know that the word, "Google" is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros?

Here are some fun factoids for the animal lovers out there:
A group of larks is called an exaltation
A group of humming birds is called a charm
Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink" (never heard a farmer call them that....many other names, not a Flink though...)
An ant lion is neither an ant nor a lion. (see picture below...yuch...)

Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two..

And the last animal bit of trivial tidbits for the night - Spider Monkeys like banana daiquiris...

Thanks for being patient with me as I get my hectic life back in order. Look forward to chatting again this Wednesday.

Until Wednesday...

Off the week of March 21st

2011-03-22T21:04:00.002-07:00

No, I am not on vacation, far from it. As you probably have noticed, things have been a bit hectic around here with a little critter to care for almost around the clock. This little guy requires feedings every 2-3 hours and it looks like he won't be weaned for another week or so.

Along with that new obligation, I am striving to complete my company and personal taxes before the end of this month, so I need to focus on that in my limited evening time.

With luck, buy next week, I will be happily giving you all more tidbits and information. I will continue to keep you all posted on my progress.

Until next week...

Wink Zing is now HERE

2011-03-17T21:19:00.004-07:00

Hello one and all. In case you were wondering where I wandered off to last night, I was busy working on Wink Zing™ and helping to get the appropriate information posted to the correct places.

I have briefly mentioned a new product was on it's way to release, but never really shared with you what it was...now I have the ability to let you know that we have just released the next generation of Energy product - Wink Zing™.

Wink is an idea that evolved into a healthy way to enhance your attention to life. More is not always better, in fact when it comes to ingesting any type of food or supplement for the reason of wanting better focus, and to be more alert, we have found less is best. Wink Energy Powders give great healthy results with tiny amounts of product.

Wink Zing™ is our flagship product. Wink Zing™ was developed as a convenient canister of mint flavored product that may naturally enable an individual to renew their energetic momentum and stay alert and motivated in their tasks. "Come alive after FIVE!" This product contains an amazing herb called HYDROCOTYLE and is combined with caffeine, in a tiny but effective combination.

We find a "pinch" of Wink products last for a short duration of about 20 minutes to one half hour. Some people find that the "alert" can last for up to an hour, and others (particularly heavy coffee drinkers) find the effect to be as short as ten minutes. One of the remarkable aspects is that there is no "crash" of any kind that has been reported with Wink usage.

If you would like to order a canister, or even a box of 12, you can order here. If you have any questions regarding Wink Zing™, please feel free to e-mail us at hawgwash1@yahoo.com.

Until tomorrow...

Little Critter Update

2011-03-15T20:50:00.005-07:00

Well, as you may have noted on previous blogs, I lost my beloved companion (Double-Yellow Headed Parrot) of 29 years last Friday. Interestingly enough, last night the dogs were acting strangely at one point near the house. Upon investigation, a little bitty creature, a new born, was found, making all kinds of little noises. Luckily, the dogs listened to their commands (very unwillingly) and let the little critter alone.

Hoping against hope that the mother would come back to collect her lost baby, we left the mouse/gopher/rat (wasn't sure since we didn't want to get too close) alone for a few hours. Before heading off to bed for the evening, we went out again to verify that the mother did indeed collect her baby. Unfortunately, the little critter was still basically where we had found it earlier in the evening, except now it wasn't making any noise.

Since there is no way in this life that I can ever let a little helpless creature just stay exposed to the elements and sure death, we collected the little critter and brought it into the house. Now, under the bright lights in the kitchen we could see that this critter was either a mouse or rat (gophers don't have tails). Despite the rodent status, we were now committed to helping this helpless creature. So... time to figure out what to feed this little one...

Ended up creating a concoction of powdered milk, honey and ST-5 (a nutritional product), heating it up and using a little syringe (without needle) fed the little fellow. After much coaxing, the little one did swallow some of our mix. We did this a few more times last night, then found a warm towel, some tissue paper (aka toilet paper) and an empty ice cream container to create a safe place. This was then placed on a heating pad to try to keep the little guy warm.

I wasn't sure how it would survive the night, since we didn't have the proper foods for a mouse/rat baby, but there was a little bit of fur, it wasn't all pink, so I knew we had a chance. Waking up in the morning, we still found the little critter alive and more hungry. Fed him/her more of our strange mixture until the pet stores opened.

We have subsequently purchased kitten milk (for abandoned newborn kittens, and apparently mice...strange...feeding a mouse kitten milk) and the little guy is feeding much better this evening. It is now warm, and drinking almost 0.20 cc of the milk mixture every two hours. Hopefully the little critter will continue to get stronger and start to open it's eyes. Still not sure on gender, from what I have read, it is hard to determine if a mouse (best guess that we have a mouse) is a boy or girl at this age.

Anyway, there is now a new little critter in the house needing attention. The dogs are not entirely thrilled, especially since Yorkshire Terriers were originally bred to be ratters...., but this too shall pass. Hopefully this little critter will continue to eat and grow. I will keep you posted on the new Little Critter Update.

Proof positive, that no matter how busy your day can be, you can always find the time to be kind and helpful to God's creatures. The little critter has been named ZeeZee and I have been christened by ZeeZee (at least I know his bowels work well...), so I guess he/she is happy where he/she currently is.

Until tomorrow...

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits - Week 11

2011-03-14T21:23:00.004-07:00

Welcome to this weeks installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. This week will have an eclectic combination of trivial facts...which really is no different than any other week. One of these weeks, we will have an "X" rated series of Trivial tidbits...I will forewarn you prior to posting.... so stay tuned to this weekly funny page for the 'dirty' stuff coming soon...

For those of you who watch death tolls and such, did you know that the St. Louis Gateway Arch actually had a projected death toll? Guess what...no one died... so much for a dangerous job...

The world's largest wine cask is in Heidleberg, Germany. Don't know if there is wine in the cask, but it may be worth a trip to go find out...

Since we are so fuel conscious this decade, did you know that the cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns? And you thought your SUV burned a lot of fuel.

I am not fond of mushrooms at all, but did you know the name of the smallest mushroom?... how about "Hop-low"...no, really...

For those of you focused on hygiene in general; Dentist's recommend that a toothbrush is kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. Ewwwww...

If you are bored sometime, try this - no piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.

Did you know that in a standard deck of cards, the King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache?

There is a reason why old firehouses had circular stairways - in the days when the fire engines were pulled by horses, the horses that were stabled on the ground floor had figured out how to walk up straight staircases. And you thought a dog in your bed was a bit uncomfortable.

Here is a question for you Morse Code types - Do you know what S.O.S. stands for? It doesn't stand for "Save Our Ship" or even "Save Our Souls", it was just chosen by an 1908 international conference on Morse Code because the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could key it and read it... S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash.

And for you stamp collectors - Great Britain was the first country to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead.

The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

Every time you lick a stamp, you are consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this week's installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Have a wonderful week and we will talk to you tomorrow.

Until tomorrow...

Parrot update

2011-03-11T18:53:00.004-07:00

It is with great sadness that I am reporting my favorite companion of 29 years has passed on to better places. Hopefully she is now flying (well, actually walking, she never REALLY liked to fly) all over the place and getting into all kinds of mischief. At least now she can chew to her heart's content, knowing I won't be there to take away her latest discovery.

I used to give her the run of the house when I went to work. Normally she would stay on or around her cage. If she wandered, there was very little evidence of it...until.. the time she ate a whole bag of almonds...they were in the shells, on the kitchen counter where she shouldn't have been (since she never liked to fly). She must have had a grand time munching away on about 4-5 pounds of those almonds... Then there was the time she decided the bag of lemons was a great delicacy. I came home from work and found just an empty plastic bag and lots of lemon juice all over the kitchen table.

The funniest time that she got in trouble was when I came home from work and found a pile of splintered wood on the sofa table in the living room. It took me a few days to finally figure out what that pile of splintered wood was.... Apparently, I had left a wooden spoon on the sofa table (no...don't ask...) and when Zardoz was feeling a little rambunctious, she got on the table and completely destroyed the spoon. All that was left of the spoon was a pile of splinters. Never did find the rest of the spoon. It was shortly after that episode and more specifically when she ate half of my window sill that I decided giving her the run of the house was not a great thing..more for me than for her...

She loved to play with toys, she loved to fight with paper towels, and overall, she just loved to have fun. I would come home from work tired, and she would be sitting on her perch waiting for me to let her out. If she did not get out, she would hang upside down on the cage and spin her head around like she was going to spin it off... I usually laughed so hard that I had to let her out of the cage. She loved to play a lot.

She also loved her food. She was not overweight, but she LOVED carrots, so much so that one day, when I opened the refrigerator door and told her I was going for carrots, that she got so excited, she fell off the couch. Again, I couldn't stop laughing. She would do almost anything for carrots, corn, chicken (she ALWAYS KNEW when I was cooking chicken) and french fries. Well, she loved loads of other stuff too, and if what you were eating wasn't shared with her...watch out. She used to grab my juice glass from my mouth and pull it over to her so she could drink juice from my cup. She would not let you take the cup back until she had her fill, or you gave her a cup of her own juice to drink.

She was a real character, and will be missed by many. In the last 6 years she has traveled through more than 30 states in this great Union of ours, and she has entertained many people with her silly antics. She cannot be replaced, but her memory will always bring a smile.

Since I always thought she would live forever, I did not take too many pictures of her. I will continue to dig through my old photographs and periodically post the pictures I find. She enriched my life and I am glad that she is now in a more comfortable place.

Until tomorrow...

Very Sick Parrot update

2011-03-10T21:44:00.005-07:00

Well, so much for being on schedule again. My parrot has had another stroke. This one appears far more severe than the last one. She is currently so weak that she can only roll her head from side to side. I am not taking her to a vet because I don't want to stress her out any more than she currently is.

Right now, when she does open her eyes, she gets startled easily, so things are pretty quiet and calm around here (at least on the outside). Instead of rushing her to a vet to have her looked at (still can't say the other word...) I have chosen to keep her here and allow her the dignity to pick the time she wants to fly away from all this earthly mess. All I am doing is comforting her, letting her know she is loved and that if she needs to leave, not to feel stressed about it. This parrot is a real fighter, for those that have met her, you know what I mean. She is tough, and it appears she is still not ready to leave me here without her.

She has been my companion for the last 29 years and has been there through the thick and the thin of my life. She has seen me married and divorced, and has happily moved with me from Southern California to Arizona. In the last 6 years she has traveled through much of this wonderful country with me and no matter what, she will always be with me. I wish her the best in whichever path she chooses, so, if not much is done in a blog tomorrow, you will have a pretty good idea why.

Until tomorrow...

A Fortunate Failure

2011-03-09T19:48:00.002-07:00

Many times we have tried and failed at projects. Some people view those failures as the end, but the majority of failures are actually blessings in disguise.

Webster's Dictionary defines Failure as an "omission of occurrence or performance; specifically: a failing to perform a duty or expected action." A second definition for Failure is "lack of success".

There have been many times in my lifetime that I have failed at something I hoped to do. Each time after the failure, when looking back at the entire specific situation, it was determined that the failure was actually a blessing in disguise. Failures are really just temporary. Depending on how you view "failures" each failure can be a blessing.

If you talk to a door-to-door salesman, every time someone says "No" to them, that can be construed as a failure, but the successful salesman looks at that 'failure' as a blessing, because now he can move onto the next person who will listen and possibly accept his offer. If you don't fail at something, then how are you going to learn to do it better in the future. We all didn't start walking the minute we put our minds to it. We all failed in our first attempts at walking. The blessing is that as we try and fail at something, we have learned not to do that particular thing again because it doesn't work...

So much for generalities, let's get specific. A very recent event for me was interviewing for a particular project. I did not get the project, so you could say that I failed at the interview. The failure was a major blessing for me though. What has come to light is that the project I would have been involved in would have only worked for a month or two at most before it imploded. If I had quit my current direction, I would have worked at another task, and essentially wasted a lot of my time working at something that was ultimately doomed to fail. The blessing is that I did not uproot and did not change what I was doing for this new project. If I had not failed at first, I would have lost momentum in my current set of projects and may not have been able to get back on track with everything else that I have been working on.

After watching others suffer in the project that I didn't get, I am very pleased that I failed to land the project in the first place. It was a major blessing to have failed at that.

Even business failures are usually blessings in disguise. I have met many business owners who attempted new product lines that ultimately failed. In the long run, these same business owners looked back over their failures and successes and actually believe that it was the failures they made that ultimately caused them to become the successful business people they are now. Even Thomas Alva refined the prior failures of the incandescent light to create the early commercial version of the light bulb. Those early failures became blessings for us.

In a nutshell, even if you fail at something you are currently working on, do not take that failure as the virtual 'end of the world'. It is my belief that the majority of the failures (both in business and in our personal life) we encounter turn out to be blessings in disguise. Each failure is one more step closer toward that success you continue to drive for.

Until tomorrow...

Fun facts and Trivial Tidbits

2011-03-08T21:06:00.003-07:00

Welcome to the weekly update of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Granted, this update was SUPPOSED to occur yesterday (Monday) since Monday's are typically tough to deal with, but this week has started with a bang. Without further ado, let's have some fun:

Did you know what a deltiologist is? A deltiologist is someone who collects postcards.

People descended from the Scottish clan of Kerr are ore likely to be left handed than any other ancestral group.

In 1789, Dr. Guillontin invented the guillotine. The Guillotine was designed to be a more humane way to decapitate rather than hacking off the head by an executioner.

During the late 1700's it was fashionable for ladies to wear thin red cords around their necks to symbolize the beheadings.

In the 1920's a new type of music called Jazz came straight out of Harlem. This "jazz baby" sound created naughty dances like The Charleston, The Black Bottom and The Shimmy. It was fast, wild and damn perfect for those speakeasies.

Did you know that slugs have 4 noses?

Here are some more fun animal facts:

Camels have 3 eyelids

A bee has 5 eyes

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backward whereas shrimp can only swim backward.

Did you know that Dalmatians are the only breed of dog that can get gout?

Dalmatian dogs are born pure white. They don't start getting spots until they are 3 or 4 days old.

Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.

Contrary to popular belief, animals are not all color-blind. Many species, including dogs, horses and sheep can distinguish some colors. Primates, especially chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys, have color vision equal to that of humans.

It has been determined that bulls cannot see the color red. It appears that the swirling movement of the cape is what excites the bull and inspires it to attack.

An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.

For you couch potatoes - did you know that you can burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television?

If you have problems waking up in the morning, apples are more efficient at waking you up in the morning than caffeine.

If you were in the space shuttle looking down at the earth, the brightest man-made place is Las Vegas, Nevada.

The last Trivial Tidbit for the week - for you weekend mechanics, or general fix-it-people - do you know what the WD in WD-40 stands for? The WD is an abbreviation for Water Displacer.

Hopefully you enjoyed this week's installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. We should be back on schedule the remainder of this week.

Until tomorrow...

Trival Tidbits and Fun Facts

2011-02-28T21:16:00.004-07:00

Happy MONDAY! Welcome to this week's installment of Trivial Tidbits and Fun Facts. As you may know, we are striving to make the work week just a tad more palatable. Many of these facts may be useless, but can be fun to pull out when you find the stress of the day gets to you. So, without any further ado, let's have some fun...

If you have a pearl necklace and want do clean it, DO NOT put it in vinegar. Vinegar melts pearls.

For you aeronautics buffs, did you know that the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the Wright brother's first flight?

Do you ever remember playing Chinese checkers? Remember all the marbles and holes? Did you know that the Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes? All I remember about Chinese checkers is that our "game" degraded into a more fun game of flicking marbles all over the place... I missed my calling.

For the food buffs of this reading group: Did you know that Worcestershire sauce was originally created from fermented (aka - spoiled) anchovies? The basics of Worcestershire sauce can be found during the Roman Empire.

Did you know that A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins?

Did you know that ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States? In the 1830's it was sold as Dr. Miles' Compound Extract of Tomato.

How many of you think that bananas grow on trees? HA! Bananas do not grow on trees but on rhizomes. Next logical question - what, exactly is a rhizome? Per Wikipedia, a rhizome is typically a horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, and usually sends out roots or shoots from it's nodes. The banana fruit is actually what grows from those shoots. Wow, some serious information to baffle your friends, coworkers and family with...

Did you also know that bananas are slightly radioactive because of their high potassium content?

Have you ever counted how many kernels are on an average ear of corn? Better yet, did you ever stop to count how many rows were on a "regular" ear of corn? The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows. Bet you won't look at an ear of corn the same again.

For you candy nuts out there, do you remember that Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space? They went up with the astronauts in the June 21, 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Challenger.

More on Jelly Belly jelly beans - did you remember that President Ronald Reagan kept a jar of them on his desk in the White House and on Air Force One?

So that M&M's fans don't get upset - M&M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.

The estimated umber of M&M's sold each day in the United States is 200,000,000. That is a LOT of candy.

Do you know what the letters M&M stand for? The letters stand for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr. (the candymaker) and his associate Bruce Murrie.

Clans of bygone days that wanted to get rid of unwanted people without killing them would burn down their homes. That is most likely where the expression "to get fired" came from...

For those of you who are dealing with the new legalization of medical marijuana - one of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 1930's lobbied against hemp farmers. The cotton farmers saw the hemp farmers as competition (you have seen hemp clothing...). Marijuana is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol or caffeine.

So, now that you have had your Trivial Tidbit and Fun Facts "fix" for the week, go out there and baffle your friends and family with your new-found knowledge. Have fun and don't forget to laugh. Life is always tough, laughing will help make it just a little less difficult to deal with.

Until tomorrow...

Waking Dreams

2011-02-26T13:18:00.001-07:00

The other day we talked about why do we dream. In that post we were discussing dreams while we sleep. Today we are going to briefly cover our "waking dreams". I am not sure how others define "waking dreams" but my interpretation of a waking dream is basically day dreaming...

As children you may have done a whole bunch of day dreaming. As we got older, our day dreaming may have either taken on a more practical aspect, or we may have stopped day dreaming entirely. As children, our day dreams may have been about us being super heroes, or astronauts or firemen or policemen or ballerinas. As we became adults, those dreams were put aside and probably replaced with dreams of finishing school, getting a good job, settling down, or traveling the world.

It is important to hold on to the ability to day dream. I do not mean to say that we should spend all of our waking time dreaming about what we want, but we do need to dedicate some time on a regular basis to day dreaming. If we don't dream now about what we want, then how are we going to develop and grow as people? Our "waking dreams" should be what pushes us to be better, or do more than what we currently are. Our waking dreams could be the fuel that fires our desire to achieve bigger goals. The really neat thing about day dreaming is that we can dream about absolutely outlandish ideas or situations, but as we continue to dream, perhaps that outlandish dream may have a kernel of something that we would really want to pursue.

From that kernel of an idea, a dream to achieve something new and innovative may be born. Many of your successful entrepreneurs probably started their business idea based on a waking dream. New ideas, new products, and new approaches to current issues may have also come from someone day dreaming. It may not be a bad idea to have a "dream book" where you record your dreams, aspirations, and even wild ideas. It is a lot of fun to go back through your ideas and see what you have done and what you have discarded. It is even more fun to read some of the wild thoughts you had.

So, do not discard waking dreams or day dreams as a childish idea. Everyone should hold onto their dreams and strive for what they truly believe in. Perhaps one of your waking dreams will be the next biggest invention or will solve a world problem.

If you are looking for a business opportunity and don't know what you might want to do, check out our website, we may have something that would interest you. If we do not have anything that interests you on the website, please feel free to e-mail us, we have other ideas and opportunities that are not posted. We may be able to help you to refine your waking dreams and turn them into reality.

Until tomorrow...

Why do we dream?

2011-02-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Many people dream, many people have no idea if they dream. Dreaming can be a blessing to some, and dreaded by others. Why do we dream is a question that has probably plagued humans from the beginning of time. Tonight we are merely talking about dreams while sleeping...tomorrow we will talk about actual waking dreams (like dreams of becoming financially free...)

Do You Still Dream?

What is really cool about dreams is that you can interpret them any way you wish. Some people will go to books on dreams, and find key parts of their dreams that are sort of analyzed in the books. Other people may go to "dream translators" to find out what their dreams may mean.

In reality, if you think about it, dreams are a reflection from your unique perspective of your world. I am not sure others can realistically translate what your dreams "mean" if these same people do not know you, your history, your background, and how you process information. If these "analysts" don't understand you, how can they effectively or accurately interpret your dreams?

I believe we dream as our brain basically downloads data collected from possibly hours, days, weeks or months. As we live our lives, we observe and not everything we see we may consciously recognize. I suspect that when we dream, our minds are processing other data that we did not immediately notice. Our brains then take that data and perhaps blend it in with some of our other fears, concerns or issues that we may not have fully come to grips with consciously.

So, yes, we should consider what we dream about, and more importantly, put those dreams in context of what else we have seen, experienced or know. Sometimes I dream about TV shows that affected me more than originally expected. Sometimes I may dream about my current daily experiences and perhaps, the reactions in my dreams are my mind's way of trying out "alternative" endings or solutions to the problems that were faced during the days.

Sometimes it is good to talk to others (specifically friends, family or someone who really cares about YOU) about what you were dreaming, especially if you had found that dream to be disturbing. Perhaps that other person could answer some of your questions about interpreting your dream because they know you, they understand you, and they may even have an objective view of you. They may see things you describe in your dream that you would never have thought of. This could be very helpful and perhaps even healing, especially if you are dreaming about a problem you are currently dealing with.

Dreams can be fun, and if not, you do have the ability to change your dreams. It takes work and practice, but if you are not happy with how you are currently dreaming, there are ways that you can change the direction of your dreams. We can discuss that method in a separate post down the road.

Until then,have a wonderful sleep and strive to enjoy your dreams. They can be helpful, informative, possibly provide inspiration or even help you solve what you thought was an insolvable problem.

Until tomorrow...

New Installment of Weekly Fun Facts

2011-02-22T20:48:00.003-07:00

HA! Bet you guys thought I wasn't going to do another week of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits...Fooled YOU! Granted, today isn't Monday, so we can't blame the Monday blues, but since today is Tuesday, and perhaps a theoretical Monday for those of you lucky people who got Presidents' Day off yesterday... here is your weekly installment of fun facts and trivial tidbits...

For those of you animal lovers out there...did you know that when hippos become upset or agitated, their sweat turns red? That must be pretty scary for anybody witnessing the event...

Granted, this is dating me, but do you know the name of the lion in the MGM logo? Did you know the lion in the logo was an actual lion? Well, the waiting is over, the lion's name was Volney.

Rhinos are in the same family as horses (except I would NOT ride a rhino...). It is believed that the myth of the unicorn was born from seeing rhinos...

For those of you who might keep cows in your home, don't keep cows in a multi-story home... it is possible to lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs. The reason is that a cow's knees can't bend properly to walk down the stairs...

For those of you a little older than I (hehehehe...) do you remember in 1977 when George Willig climbed the World Trade Center Building? Do you know what his ultimate fine was??? Can you believe he was fined $1.10 for that stunt? Bet you couldn't get away with that today (on any other building)

Have you ever wondered how the famed wax museum, Madame Tussaud's, got started? During the French Revolution (1789-1799) wax working became a popular art form. When the French chopped off the heads of King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette, they paraded the decapitated heads around on sticks. Later on, the rioting crowds showed up at the door of Madame Tussaud and demanded that she sculpt exact duplicates of the decapitated heads out of wax. Hence the start of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museums...

Continuing on with the creepy wax theme, some church ceilings could also be seen with wax body parts such as arms and legs dangling from them. During the French Revolution, it was believed that if a person wanted an ailing family member to heal, they should construct a wax duplicate of the disease-infected body part and hang it in a church. At least they were wax renderings....

Hopefully these light-hearted ramblings helped brighten your day. Enjoy your Tuesday, or virtual Monday or whatever evening you wish to label it tonight.

Until tomorrow...

How are you Surviving? - Part 2

2011-02-21T20:17:00.001-07:00

Last week we briefly questioned how you were surviving. We also identified the difference between a job and enjoying what you do to earn an income. Tonight we are going to cover some places you can go to find other business opportunities you can get involved in without having to give up your current working job.

As we talked about before, working for someone else is not necessarily the most lucrative thing you can do and usually not the best way to make your money work for you. You have most likely heard many people talk about having your money work for you, not you work for your money. In Robert Kiyosaki's book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", he talks at length about how most people who work for someone else will not really be able to acquire wealth of their own. Once you have learned what he terms "financial literacy" you then begin to understand how to make money work for you.

The key though, is to not always work for someone else and expect to become wealthy. A job will keep your bills paid (mostly) and a roof over your head (most of the time), but you need to find other means to make money work for you. One way to make money work for you, according to Robert Kiyosaki, is in learning and working the real estate market. Even in this current economy and the massive foreclosures that have been going on, there can be money to be made in the real estate market. Just now, you really need to know what you are doing and when to purchase.

Some other ways that you can possibly earn additional income without picking up a second, or third job is to find a home based business. The start-up costs for many home based businesses is much less than the cost of purchasing your first real estate transaction. Some home based businesses can have you up and running for around $200 (not monthly, a one-time investment). The key here is not necessarily the start-up costs for a home based business, but your desire to work in that particular area.

If you look around, there is a myriad of different home based businesses that you can get involved in. If you have a large group of friends who love to get together for informal parties, there are businesses that cater to that type of socializing. There are also businesses that can be run predominantly from your computer. What you have to decide, is if you believe in the product you are to be selling or providing, and if you believe in the compensation plan.

It is wise to investigate as much as you can into the home based business opportunity before getting involved. You have most likely heard many horror stories about some business opportunities that took people for all they had. It is critical, when looking at small home based business opportunities to do as much homework on both the product and the company as you can. You do not want to get involved in a company that may be "the next best thing" only to discover that they are closing their doors after the first 6 months of being in business. Looking into business opportunities may sound like a daunting task, but, if you have figured out what you want to do (basically what niche you want to be in) and why you want to do this new opportunity, you will discover that the research can be exciting and fun, especially once you have found a company and product that you are happy with.

If you have wanted to be in business for yourself, but are wondering where to begin, the best thing to do is to find a small business person you can trust and start asking questions. You may be surprised by how many people you know at your work that are actually in some form of home based business outside of work.

If you are not sure who to turn to, we may have some ideas on our website, www.hawgwash.net. The opportunities on our website do not represent anywhere close to the depth and breadth of opportunities out there, these are just opportunities that we have first-hand knowledge of and have found to be very reliable. You can also e-mail us with your questions, even if we do not have the opportunity on our site that you are interested in, we have a considerable database of other opportunities that may be more along the lines of what you are looking for. (P.S. - if you are wondering, we do not charge for any advice or suggestions for other business opportunities - we want to see everyone become successful). Our goal is to help people become more financially independent. The logic behind this concept is that if more people are financially independent, this great country of ours will become stronger and healthier so we all end up winning. So, the question tonight is, how are you surviving? Are you happy with where you are headed? If not, start asking yourself, what do you want and how badly do you want it.

Tomorrow we will bring more fun trivial facts to light so you can continue to amaze and frighten your friends.

Until tomorrow...

How are you surviving?

2011-02-17T21:40:00.003-07:00

Tonight's topic is on various methods you may take to survive in this economy. Even though it looks like there may be some improvement in the current economy, the job market is not following very well. The million dollar question is, how are you surviving?

Many people are still unemployed, many more are seriously underemployed. Some are employed and earning what they should and most likely the remainder of working people are working at something they don't like, but it pays the bills. How do you stay sane when you are working a job you don't like, but have to work? You know the bills have to be paid, you may have even looked at the prospect of bankruptcy, but don't want or can't go that route. Working just to pay the bills is no way to live your life. Most likely, for those of you who are working because you have to, not because you want to, you come home from work just exhausted and not looking forward to your next day of work.

The key is to find something else you LIKE to do. Even if you come home from a killer day at your J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) and you don't think you could put one foot in front of the other, doesn't mean that there is not something out there that will re-energize you. No, the energizer bunny will not be of assistance here. You need to take a serious look at what you really want out of life. This will help you to start building towards that goal.

Just because you may think you know what you want to do, that will not be your driving force. You need to identify your "why"...why are you working so hard, why do you want to change what you do? Those kinds of "why"s will help you to identify the true goals you want from your personal life. Everyone wants more money, but WHY do you want more money. If it is just to pay the bills, what will you do when all those bills are paid off? Quite honestly, you will not work hard toward a goal if you are not absolutely, positively SURE of why you want to work hard...

Identifying your "why" will be your first step towards building your goals to obtain your dream. What may be helpful is to create a "dream board". This may just be a cork board, or wall in your house where you post pictures of things you really want, places you really want to see. Basically this "dream board" will be the visualization of all the things you talked about WANTING to do, but never got around to doing those things. By posting pictures on your "dream board" and placing your "dream board" in a place that you look at many times a day, you will continue to keep focused on your goal.

When things start getting tough, or you are getting tired, just take a look at your "dream board" to refresh WHY you are driving so hard. Just working will not get you there, you need to make extra effort to get to your real goals. That extra effort is not easy, and it will not be without it's setbacks. Reminding yourself several times a day as to WHY you are doing this will keep you focused enough to work past the obstacles that appear.

Now that you have your "why" identified, and perhaps are building your "dream board", you need to figure out how you are going to earn that extra income that will ultimately provide you the path to your goals...

Tomorrow we will cover ideas on how to earn that extra income and where you can look for ideas.... Hopefully soon you won't be just surviving, but thriving...

Until tomorrow...

My Sense of Humor

2011-02-15T22:26:00.002-07:00

Some say I have a very strange sense of humor. I strive to find humor in everything I do. Many things make me laugh, and it doesn't take much to find my funny-bone. More importantly, because I enjoy life so much, it is relatively easy to find humor in much around e. By enjoying life in general (granted there are things that are just not fun or funny) people around you will tend to be happier too. I get my most fun when I see others around me having fun too. Smile and the whole world will smile with you...(or ... the corollary - smile and the whole world will wonder what you are up to...)

Living life to the fullest makes me laugh. If that didn't make me laugh, it would make me cry, so I choose to laugh. If you look hard enough, there is humor everywhere. Have you ever looked at a 3-toed sloth? Please...tell me that isn't the funniest animal you have ever seen...or at least one of the funniest animals you have ever seen.

My sense of humor can be best defined as eclectic... I will strive to find the humor in life, because life is far too short for it not to be funny. Granted there are many, many times where life is not funny, but it is most important to look for the brighter side. If you really think about it, if you didn't have contrast, how could you enjoy life. If the sun always shone down on you, wouldn't life get pretty darned boring? A little rain sometimes makes for a much more interesting story.

Here is another way to look at the humorous side of life. Let's talk to the fishermen of your life. How many "fish stories" have you heard about the one HUGE fish that got away? Originally, if you took the story at face value, the fisherman lost a huge fish. He should be sad because he lost this big fish. But, if you look at perhaps how he lost that fish, then the story could get quite funny... Heck, I caught a pretty good sized fish, actually had someone help me take it off the hook, and then, just as they were going to place it in the ice chest, the fish gave a giant heave and leapt from the hands of a good friend and back into the ocean I had just pulled it from. I should have been sad, but I laughed so hard I cried. It was FUNNY. It was funnier looking at the crestfallen look on my friend's face when they realized they lost MY FISH. I thought it was FUNNY.

Actually, in that story, everybody won, the fish won another chance at living a little longer, I won because I didn't have to kill, gut and clean the fish, and my friend...well, my friend really didn't win, but once they realized I honestly thought the whole thing was funny, well, my friend discovered I wasn't mad at all.

The key to not going totally insane is to keep a sense of humor at all times. Life is difficult, life is tough much of the time. By keeping a good hold on your sense of humor, you stand a good chance of getting past all the hard stuff and actually enjoying life.

Don't forget to laugh. It lowers blood pressure, it makes the wrinkles on your face go away and the best thing of all is that it makes others laugh with you.

Until tomorrow...

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T21:35:00.003-07:00

Hi everyone. As you most likely have noticed, I have been offline for a whole week. There is a name for what happened - THE FLU... yup, the creeping-crawling crud. Nothing like wiping you out and kicking you when you are seriously down. Last week was spent dragging myself from one day to the next, with loads of sleeping in between. The good news is that I lost a bunch of weight, not because I couldn't keep food down, but because I was too tired to want to eat anything. This week is a little better, but am still getting really tired fast. It is because I don't want to leave you guys abandoned that I refuse to go to bed right now and wanted to post a quick blog...

Don't get the Flu...get a flu shot...you are not indestructible... trust me, been there...done that... Anyway, on to more fun stuff.

Today is Valentines Day. How many of you are actually aware of the origins of Valentine's Day? Well, tonight, your weekly trivia is on the origins of Valentine's Day...

To put it succinctly, nobody REALLY knows the true origins of Valentine's Day. There...blog done... well, not really. Bet you want to know just a tad more...

Some people may believe that Valentine's Day was based on something romantic that Saint Valentine did...but in actuality, it appears that one of the Saint Valentines (there were at least 3) was sort of a romantic, he married couples even when there was an edict against any and all marriages...

Let's start somewhat at the beginning...pre-Christian... There was a pagean feast of Lupercalia was where names of young girls were written on pieces of paper and placed into jars. Then, each boy would draw a girl's name from the jar and become partners, either for the duration of the festival, or the duration of a year (depending on your interpretation of history). This partnership was not necessarily platonic, so you can easily see how the Catholic church had problems with this Roman festival.

During the time of the Roman Empire, Emperor Claudius II of Rome (aka Claudius the Cruel) was having problems recruiting men as soldiers. He believed that the men were more attached to their homes and women and thus became weaker soldiers for that attachment. Claudius believed that if he outlawed all marriages and engagements, he would have more men willing to become soldiers, and be stronger for the lack of marriage. A Roman Priest, St. Valentine, secretly married couples even though it had been outlawed. He was ultimately caught and beheaded for his criminal acts.

Before this particular St. Valentine died, it is reported that he performed a miracle for one of his jailers who had a blind daughter. Depending again on your interpretation of history, St. Valentine became attached to the blind daughter of his jailer and prior to being put to death, wrote her a letter that was signed "From your Valentine".

Since the Catholoc church did not approve of the pagean holidays, they opted to change the name of the festival of Lupercalia to Valentine's Day (how historians made that connection is still sketchy to me...) and walla...you now have Valentine's Day.

Truly, I tend to believe another theory. Many historians agree that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love was by Geoffrey Chaucer (1382). Chaucer had written a poem to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. This whole theory makes more sense and the concept of romantic love was also picked up by William Shakespeare. The holiday of St. Valentine's Day took root and has evolved over the centuries.

So, no matter what you want to believe about the origins of Valentine's Day, have a wonderful day. Happy Valentine's Day.

Until tomorrow...

Super Bowl 45

2011-02-06T20:54:00.004-07:00

Well, another Super Bowl is now in the record books. Going into this game, I had no idea who I would root for. The teams I would have like to see, did not make it into the Super Bowl so I had to pick one of two teams that I really wasn't too involved with.

The good news is that this Super Bowl was a great game. It looked like two monster teams pushing each other back and forth across the field, the teams appeared to be fairly evenly balanced against each other. Even though I did not have a specific favorite, I did end up rooting for Green Bay mainly because Aaron Rogers was the new kid on the block. He had a lot to show that he was no longer second fiddle to Bret Farve. It was great to see a relatively young team do so well in a Super Bowl match up against the more experienced team of the Steelers.

The problem of finally picking a team to root for is that once I started rooting for Green Bay, I got engaged and started yelling at the TV (just like my Dad used to do...hmmmm, wonder where I learned that...). The end result, since the game was so close is that I have a very sore throat.

Overall, it was a great game, both teams played very well, and it was an exciting game. Hopefully the owners and players will be able to resolve their differences for next year's games soon enough to not affect our football pleasure. Watching the Super Bowl is exciting, fun, but tinged with sadness because you know that this is the last game of the season and we don't have any more games to look forward to for quite some time.

Enjoy your after Super Bowl party,

Until tomorrow...

What My Home Says About Me

2011-02-03T20:59:00.002-07:00

A house can just be a place that protects you from the elements and where you can rest safely for the night. A home should reflect who you are and what you stand for.

Former home of Joaquin Miller (poet), Wash., D.C. (LOC)

My home definitely reflects my personality and some of my habits. What my home says about me is that I have wide and varied interests (i.e. eclectic). Currently my home reflects what I perceive the Arizona atmosphere to be, and no, that is not just HOT. The house reflects the southwest tastes and decor, but there is some modern art thrown in just you you wouldn't get bored.

My home reflects my personality, interests and habits. For those of you that know me personally, you know that I have dabbled in many, many things, and am always a willing learner for new ideas and experiences. The only time I would say "NO" would be if trying or learning something would be unethical, illegal or immoral. Other than that, all bets are off, and I am a willing student.

When I start on a new path, I immerse myself on that path until I have answered the questions I had. That is not to say I would be no longer interested in that line of thought, but that I have answered the original questions I had and that I did not want to pursue any further questions...for now. The house reflects this personality trait too, you see the acceptance of western style art, but then it doesn't go too far. In one room you will find caracatures and fantasy artwork hanging on the wall. In another room there is a definite Aisian influence. In yet another room you will find just an odd mix of art deco, traditional art, and other odd pieces of work.

Each room has it's own feeling and theme, so depending on your mood, you are not overwhelmed by any one particular style or series of thought. The only consstant throughout the house is the plethora of books. Again, the books cover a wide range of interest, ranging from the classics to art history, to novels, to biographies, to fantasy, to westerns, to adventure, to history, reference...you get the picture.

So, coming to my home provides a tiny glimpse into my overcrowded, active and always questing brain. It is a fun place to be..(in my humble opinion). Perhaps if you are ever in the area, you can wander on by and take a look-see for yourself.

Until the weekend (I will NOT be posting tomorrow...)

How is your 2011 going so far?

2011-02-02T21:46:00.003-07:00

When people ask me how my 2011 is going so far, I pause and look at them hard before I answer. The answer to that question can different based on who is asking the question. At first you may think I am crazy to even consider providing different answers for different people, but in reality, don't we all provide different answers to the same question to different people?

If a casual friend asks you how your 2011 is going, you would not divulge your deepest darkest fears, but mainly give them the overview of how your year has progressed so far. A close friend would most likely never ask how your year is going so far, if they are a close friend, they would already know. If others are inquiring about how your new year is turning out, well, it really depends on their frame of reference before you can really give them an honest answer.

To answer the question though, my 2011 is going better than expected, but not as well as hoped. Is that vague enough for all of you? Allow me to explain. The great news is that I am still deeply embedded in the consulting work I started in September. This project has been an absolute blast and the deeper I get into it, the more work I find and the more willing the company is to have me around.

I love finding and resolving problems, issues and process flows. Granted I have been a Finance/Accounting person for many, many years, but I absolutely love finding and resolving issues. The new computer system that has been implemented has a few warts, but the good news is that we are identifying the warts and are in the process of removing them. With luck, but the end of my work, the new system will look wonderful and behave even better. The "ugly baby" will become beautiful and a dream to work with.

On the other side, I would have LIKED to have been on the road already, heading out to our new round of rallies all over this wonderful country. The good news to this is that the weather has been VERY uncooperative, and if I had been traveling as I would have desired, most likely I would be stuck somewhere, buried under way too much snow.

So, the good news is that divine intervention has kept me closer to home so far this year and kept me from the worst that could happen. So in answer the the question, "How is my 2011 going so far?", upon further thought, my 2011 is going GREAT!

Hopefully your 2011 is going well so far too.

Until tomorrow...

My Favorite Forms of Creative Expression

2011-02-01T21:56:00.002-07:00

Many people have many different ways of expressing themselves creatively. I have discovered two methods of personal creative expression that, if asked a few years ago, I would have told you I would NEVER have done. Heck I never even considered myself as creative...I am usually at my most creative when I am tired or frustrated. I realize that sounds odd, but perhaps because I am tired, the mental blocks to creativity are lifted. When I am tired, my brain (which NEVER turns off) tends to free-wheel more and that is when more creativity comes to the surface.

Also, when tired, I am actually too tired to edit the ideas that may come pouring out of my slightly off-kilter brain. It is at times like this I get waves of creativity. The difficult part is trying to harness the creativity and direct it in a productive manner.

One way I LOVE expressing my creativity is in my stone carving. Unfortunately, lately, I have been so tired that I have not had either the time or the energy to carve. When I do carve, though, it focuses my whole being. I am aware of the stone, I can feel the vibration of the stone when striking it with a hammer. If I feel a slacking in creativity, I will pick up a hammer and chisel and start tapping away at various stones I have. These are not random tappings, each stone already has it's design inside, it is the creative mood that chooses which stone is used for that day.

When striking the stone with the hammer and chisel, you feel the vibration from your fingertips up, into your shoulder and throughout your whole body. After carving for a while, you begin to understand how the stone will respond to the various strikes to it. It is at this point that you become aware of how the stone may actually break, even before you make that tap. This is when my creativity is at it's highest. At this point, I have already 'seen' the shape within the stone, now I am letting the stone reveal itself to me. I do not force the stone to do what I want it to do, I am merely being used by the stone, and am the one clearing away all the excess rock to show the beauty that lies within.

My newest expression of creativity is in my writing. I used to write a lot as a child, but got away from creative writing while going through school. Within the last 2 years, I picked up writing again, originally for business purposes, but have been enjoying the creative freedom of writing on a wide variety of subjects. My creative writing is still in its infancy, but since this is a new creative outlet it is exciting to watch where I have been and where I am heading. (Also, it is not as messy and noisy as stone carving....)

Until tomorrow...

Weekly Fun Facts

2011-01-31T21:22:00.003-07:00

Now that I am feeling much more human, we are back on schedule for our weekly fun facts. As we have had in the past, these are fun facts gathered all over the place so that once you have them, you can amaze your friends with your depth and breadth of useless trivia. Hopefully some of these fun facts will cause you to stop and think, and then grin to yourself. Enjoy:

For all of you who may use Colgate toothpaste, did you know that they faced a huge marketing obstacle while trying to sell their toothpaste brand in Spanish speaking countries? Colgate translates into the command, "go hang yourself". There are probably some children out there, when asked to brush their teeth, would probably hang themselves rather than brush their teeth...

Did you know that large kangaroos cover ore than 30 feet with each jump? Remind me not to aggravate a large kangaroo, I most likely can't run as fast as they can jump...and I do know they can box...

How many diets have you tried? Since we have entered another new year, there are many people looking for new ways to lose weight. Here is a different way to burn calories....you consume one tenth (0.1) when you lick a stamp. The problem with this statistic is that the majority of stamps now come essentially pre-licked... so perhaps if we try to lick an already sticky stamp, we burn more calories??? I'm not going to try that...

Did you know that Dragon boat racing is the 8th most popular sport in the world? Have you ever seen Dragon boat racing? Where do they find the dragons? (only kidding...)

For those of you who need your math fix - Pi has been calculated to over 2,260,321,363 digits... and I don't have a calculator with that many decimal points...nuts...

There are more plastic lawn flamingos in the United States than there are real ones... that I believe, have you been to Florida lately?

Did you know that the short phrases of organ music played at baseball games are called a tucket?

Some of us "older" folk remember the term Dungarees. How many of you young-en's out there know that Dungarees is another word for Denim (aka blue jeans, Levis...)

Now for some more animal trivia - Beavers can hold their breath for 45 minutes under water...don't know why they would do that if they only live in streams?

The average speed of a housefly is 4.5 mph, now that explains why I still can't squish those little buggers....

Thinking back on Flamingos...did you know they are pink because they eat shrimp? So...if I eat that much shrimp, will I be pink too??? ewwwww.....

Lastly for this week, did you know that all porcupines float in water? I pity the porcupines that got thrown into water to be a part of THAT study.

Hopefully you had fun with this week's edition of Weekly Fun Facts. Have fun amazing your friends, family and coworkers with this useless, but enjoyable trivia.

Until tomorrow...

Business Inspiration

2011-01-30T22:10:00.003-07:00

I never thought I would get Business Inspiration from a motorcycling magazine, but it just goes to show you that when your mind is in an inquiring mode, you can find inspiration almost anywhere. There are many times, when working your small business that you may find that you have lost your inspiration. Times are tough, the daily grind gets in the way, bills rear their ugly heads and you wonder...why am I in business for myself??? It is times like that when you should have a source of inspirational articles or inspiring people to look towards.

This week I found business inspiration in the most unusual place, the American Motorcyclist Magazine, specifically the February 2010 issue. Please don't get me wrong, this is a great magazine, fun to read, loads of good articles, but in this issue one article in particular really resonated with me. The article was about Bob "Hurricane" Hanna who is a member of the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. People who earn any sports Hall of Fame are people who I am interested in learning more about, but I was particularly enthralled with the interview in the February 2010 issue.

Bob Hannah was a motocross racer who won seven AMA National Championships along with a bunch of other championships. He raced pro for 15 years and then when he retired, did not just go back into the motocross sport as a coach. He started his own aviation company, Bob Hannah Aviation. What was most interesting about Bob Hannah was not that he started his own company, but more importantly, his views on life and on business.

When he was racing motocross, he was known for his single-mindedness on winning. He made sure he was as fit as was absolutely possible, always looking for ways to be in better shape than any of the competition and he never gave less than his all to training and competition. Bob Hannah carried that competitive attitude through to his business and has not compromised anything.

He believes in doing what he wants to do, daily. He states, "Yesterday is over. There's only today and tomorrow. And I'm always thinking of tomorrow." How many times do we lose sight of our tomorrows when we are struggling with our businesses today? As when he was racing motorcycles and then planes, he practiced for all contingencies, including equipment malfunctions. We need to remember to do that for our business also, nothing will ever go as planned but with proper planning, we can overcome unexpected problems.

Bob Hannah believes that if you are even partially good at what you do, with the right training, planning and effort, you stand a pretty good chance to succeed. You don't always have to have the raw talent to succeed, just the absolute desire to succeed. He never considered himself talented, but with a lot of practice and training he learned how to do things and succeed at them. Bob Hannah has no regrets, he has done what he wanted, he dedicates 100% of himself to the particular task. Even as he is working on one task, he continues to look ahead to the next one and the next day.

We should all take an assessment of where we are in business and perhaps we can use some of Bob Hannah's wisdom to help renew our business inspiration.

Until tomorrow...

Finally on the mend

2011-01-27T20:35:00.004-07:00

Well, today was the first day that I felt like a human being. No more water-hose called a nose, my coughing is getting under control and sneezing is a thing of the past. Now that my head is not so stuffed up, I discovered that all that stuff that I blew out also blew out ideas for the upcoming blogs...

The good news is that once I plow through all the back-logged e-mails and messages, I should have re-located my list of desired blog topics so you won't be entertained anymore with my woes of a cold... The great news is that I managed to get through this cold in record time. I came down with bad cold symptoms Saturday night, and the majority of the discomfort was gone most of today. Usually colds for me would last at least 10 days.... I would attribute my greatly improved healing time to the stem cell nutritional products I have been taking regularly.

If you have questions regarding the stem cell nutritionals, please feel free to visit my website at www.hawgwash.stemtechbiz.com These products have worked wonders in me, especially during this cold and flu season. I can tell you that the people I am consulting for are amazed at how fast I recovered from this cold. They have been sick before me and are still dealing with the illness....

Tomorrow we will be back in full swing regarding "normal" blog topics...if you have any idea what my "normal" blog topic is, please let me know... Perhaps we will do another Millionaire focus, we haven't had one of those for quite a few weeks....

Tune in tomorrow for what the topic will be...the anticipation is building...

Until tomorrow...

Runny Noses Here I Come

2011-01-26T21:42:00.003-07:00

Well, here it is, yet another day and I wish I could just attach a tissue box to my nose. I think that would be easier than cutting my nose from my face, which is also a very interesting thought right now. I have gotten past the sneezing that I was enjoying all last evening, so now I can kind-of see. Now my nose has decided to create a marathon of it's own and it has been running since this afternoon.

I would love to chat with you all more, but I never learned how to type with only one hand. I have always been a touch-typist, my mother would allow nothing less, so I cannot just type with one finger. Right now, my hands are occupied with tissues, trying to stem the race my nose has embarked upon.

So, I wave a quick good-night to one and all so that I can better attend to the running of the nose.... With luck tomorrow the race will be over and I can get back to the Internet and all the fun that entails..

Until tomorrow...

You are not being ignored

2011-01-25T19:01:00.003-07:00

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know that you are not being ignored. I have a ripping cold and have spent late this afternoon sneezing my fool head off. If I am not careful, I will be typing with my nose...

As soon as I can get this cold somewhat under control (after working all day...) I will be back online providing you with your weekly fun facts updates (right now, I can't even see straight after the sneezing fits...) and various comments.

Have a great week and hopefully you will be able to avoid this year's cold. I count myself luck to have caught this cold only once...before I started taking my Stem cell nutritional products, I would catch several colds a year.

Until my cold subsides...even just a little bit...

Three most important intangibles that you never want to lose

2011-01-20T21:43:00.002-07:00

There are many things I do not want to lose. I don't want to lose my car keys, I don't want to lose my wallet, but there are three very important intangibles that I never want to lose. The three most important intangibles that you never want to lose are your friendships, your time and your health.

Me In Time

These are some very important intangibles that I never want to lose. One of the most important intangible items is Friendship. You can't put your finger on the intangible concept of friendship, except to poke your friends. No matter how busy or stressed you may become, you do not want to lose the friendship of the people you really care about. This intangible can be very difficult to hang onto, especially if you are in the traditional job environment. Many people are worried about losing their jobs and unfortunately the stress involved with that worry can easily flow into your personal life and affect your friendships. Losing friendships due to overwork and stress can and will make your life even more unhappy and stressful.

The key here is to trust your friends. if you are feeling stressed, let them know, and if they are really good friends, they will let you know if you are becoming difficult to deal with. True friends will understand your stresses, and will work with you to help mitigate them. These are the friendships that you definitely do not want to lose.

Another intangible that you never want to lose is time. I realize that this sounds trite, but how much more time are we all working? Because of our stresses at work and the companies are downsizing people but not tasks, we tend to get sucked into the idea that we must spend more of our valuable time at the office in order to maintain the status quo of a job. The problem with that theory is that you may be able to retain your job, but you lose your most precious resource, time. You have now limited your personal time even more and that could easily affect your friendships. Time is an intangible that once lost, you can never regain.

When working at a traditional job, you are trading your time for their money. If your company requests, or even demands that you give more of your most valuable resource, time, to them without an equivalent return of money, then you need to start making some hard decisions. Your time is very valuable. If you give it to your current company, then there is that much less time for you to spend with your family and friends. Despite all the jokes, time is finite, once gone, you cannot retrieve any time.

The last very important intangible item I never want to lose is my health. If you lose your health, then you won't have the time to spend working on your friendships. Health can be affected by stress and overwork. All three of these intangibles tie together, if you are having problems maintaining your friendships because you don't have the time to spend with friends and family, you can get so stressed out that your health is adversely affected. You have to learn how to balance your finite amount of time with your health, friendships and work. This is not an easy balancing act, but is critical to your overall personal success.

Of the three intangibles that have been covered tonight, I believe that time is the most valuable intangible that you really cannot afford to lose. It is important to learn efficient ways to manage your time so that you continue to spend quality time with your family and friends. Quality time does not mean sleeping at your friend's house, but being awake to honestly listen to their troubles. You need the time to spend with your spouse or significant other so that they do not feel like you take them for granted. You also need time to spend with your children, because once they are grown (time again...) you cannot regain or repeat their childhood.

If you feel that your current job is sucking your time dry and not leaving any quality time for you to spend with the important people in your life, you may want to consider finding alternate sources of income. Again, at first blush, you will think that if you don't have time now, how can you spend what little time is left on an additional income stream. In actuality, if you do not invest a little extra time up front, then you will never have the ability to spend more time with your loved ones. Even more importantly, if possible, try to find an additional source of income that the whole family can participate in. You will then be all working together and most likely having fun doing it. You are now spending your time doing two very important things at once; earning an extra income and spending quality time with your friends, family and loved ones.

If you need ideas for additional income streams, check out our website at www.hawgwash.net. We offer several different types of income streams. If what we have to offer does not "float your boat" we may know where else you can look so that you can find that perfect second income which will ultimately allow you to spend more quality time in pursuit of other intangible things that are very important to you. All you have to do is to ask, we will be more than willing to assist you in your search.

Until tomorrow...

Brief notes for the evening

2011-01-19T22:48:00.004-07:00

I only have brief notes for the evening today. You guys will probably not be interested in all the work I did these last two evenings on initial public offerings (I.P.O.'s) and Private Stock Offerings. As a result of all the research I have done, my brain is truly fried and I cannot be very imaginative and interesting tonight.

My brain is funny like that, if I am doing hard-core research, it is very difficult to transition to fun, light-hearted banter. You are not being ignored, I just don't want to put you all to sleep with all this relatively boring, technical stuff.

On the other hand, if you are interested in learning about IPO's and Private stock offerings, please let me know and I will post some of my research here. I am more than willing to share, just not sure what the interest level is for that stuff.

For those of you wondering WHY I have been researching IPO's and such, we are exploring possibilities with Wink Energy, Inc. I will divulge more regarding Wink as the time gets closer.

So, tonight is VERY short because my brain is mushy. You all most likely have had the mushy brain syndrome, so I wish you all a good night as I allow my brain to re-gel...

Until tomorrow...

This weeks Fun Facts

2011-01-18T21:16:00.002-07:00

Well, granted, it is not Monday, but here is your weekly installment of Fun Facts. Life has been just a tad hectic here, so I have ended up running out of time before getting the blogs updated. You are not forgotten, my engine just ran out of steam last week. I think I have the engines fully stoked this week, so we should be on a better and more consistent track this week at least...

Since we are now more than half-way though the first month of the year and all of our holiday bills are piling up, I thought it would be fun to post some fun facts and quotes related to money...every one's favorite subject:

Have you noticed that success always occurs in private, and failure in full view?

Also that no one is listening until you make a mistake? (this happens to me often...)

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism...

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it...(boy, don't I know THAT one...)

A fool and his money are soon partying...

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments...

Have you noticed that bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks?

If you have to borrow money, borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back...

If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.... (and you care because???)

Dilbert's Theorem on Salary states that engineers and scientists can never earn as much salary as business executives and sales people. This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two postulates:

Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power
Postulate 2: Time is Money

As every engineer knows:

Work / Time = Power

Since Knowledge = Power
and
Time = Money
we then have

Work/Money = Knowledge

Solving for Money we end up with:

Work/ Knowledge = Money

Thus as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity regardless of the amount of work done.

Therefore, the less you know, the More you Make.

How many of you took to collecting the "new" state quarters when they came out? Did you know that the government has been banking on the fact that we Americans will collect the state quarters instead of spending them?

Did you know that silver coins changed from silver to the sandwich we have now in 1965? Did you know that these coins no longer contain any silver in them at all? They are now made of a composition of three layers of metal fused together, known as a "Clad". The outer layers of the clad are the same alloy used to make nickles and the core is copper.

Did you know that in 1982 the penny composition changed from copper to copper-plated zinc?

Did you know that the average life expectancy of your one-dollar bill is just under 18 months (or less if your bills are high...)? Also you can fold a dollar bill 8,000 times before it tears...I am not going to test that statistic, but if you are curious, give it a shot...

Now you have some fun money facts to entertain your friends (and enemies) this week. Happy tormenting.

Until tomorrow...

Who is Stressed Out?

2011-01-11T22:27:00.002-07:00

Who is Stressed out? In today's current times, stress has become a word that is used often. The key is to determine if you are stressed out in a good way or in a bad way.

Now why in the world would anyone consider being "stressed-out" lately? Not that there is so much going on in the world today to get stressed over, is there??? Stressed-out is a state of mind. Some people stress over the littlest things, others need a mountain to fall on them before they become stressed out.

Me personally, I am stressed-out, but you could call it a very good stressed out. I am happily maintaining Hawgwash, LLC, along with keeping the social networking side of the business interesting. I have also picked up a consulting job during the "off" season and that has taken a good bite out of my time. Add to that the work involved in getting a new company off the ground, and yeah, you could say I am stressed out...

Stess is a matter of how you handle multiple tasks. The key to handling stress is deciding what is important and what is not important, and therefore not worth your time. I know this sounds over-simplified, but really, once you start looking at all the tasks at hand and deciding which ones are critical and which ones can be delayed, life does get less stressful.

The key to managing stress is learning how to prioritize and efficiently manage your time. You could run around like crazy, trying to get everything done, but then by the end of the day, you are exhausted, and still didn't get everything done you wanted to. If you are able to prioritize and then not do the stuff that is a time waster and really doesn't help you to achieve your goals, then your stress levels should be greatly reduced. Get rid of the stuff that is more busy work than productive work. Just because the house needs dusting, doesn't mean you should forgo sleep to get it done. Those dust bunnies will be there the next day.

If you don't take care of yourself, nobody else will. Therefore it is critical to know when you are truly getting stressed-out versus just being busy. Remember there is good stress and bad stress. Good stress is different for each person, but good stress will drive you get go past your comfort zone and accomplish things you didn't think you could do. Bad stress will upset your stomach, will affect your health and could turn you into a growling person. If you feel yourself slipping into that type of stress, take a brief inventory and find what extra tasks you are currently doing that don't really need to be completed now. You may be amazed at the little tasks that have filled up your plate that are now making you crazy.

So, to answer the question, yes, I am stressed out, but it is a good, productive stressed out. I continue to take stock of all the tasks I do, and am continually learning how to reassess tasks and redistribute as necessary.

Until tomorrow...

Yet another installment of Weekly Fun Facts

2011-01-10T21:03:00.003-07:00

Welcome to yet another installment of Weekly Fun Facts. Tonight I am working on the fun facts in between time-outs during the Tostidos Bowl... It is challenging to pay attention to the game and try to find fun facts...but I will succeed... So, let's have some fun...

Did you know the only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat?

The ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat...don't remember seeing ferrets in the Bible...will have to check on that one... ;-)

Did you know the female ferret is referred to as a "jill"?

Today's cattle are descended from two different species: wild aurochs (they popoulated Asia, North Africa and Europe) and eotragus - antelope-like Asian animals.

A Holstein's spots (a breed of cow) are like fingerprints - no two cows have the same pattern of spots.

In honor of football season - did you know that it takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs?

If you are looking to lose weight, do not drink Reindeer milk...it has more fat than cow milk.

Looking at averages, more people fear spiders more than death...

Did you know that all polar bears are left-handed? Now the next time you go to the zoo, you too will look to verify this useless, but fun fact.

Speaking of polar bears, did you know that their fur is actually not white but clear? Their hair is hollow and acts like fiber-optics, directing sunlight to their skin to warm them.

Since the only visible part of a polar bear that is not white is their nose, when they want to completely camouflage themselves during a hunt, they will cover their black noses with their paws. (...and I thought it was because someone was stinky...)

Did you know that it is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly? This is noted in City Ordinance Number 352 in Pacific Grove, California. What I want to know is...how do the police know that you threatened a butterfly??? Do they file a police report? Also, what happens if a butterfly splats on your windshield? Are you in trouble???

More fun legal facts...All swans and all sturgeons in England are the property of the Queen. Messing around with either the swans or sturgeons (not the Queen) is taken as quite a serious offense...

Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes...

Goats eyes have rectangular pupils...have you ever looked into the eyes of a goat...pretty weird...

The pupils of an octopus eye is rectangular too...

On a business angle... do you know the oldest business in the United States of America? Ok, get your minds out of the gutter... the oldest business in the United States is the cymbal company, Zildjian, which was founded in Constantinople in 1623.

Well, that should keep you giggling for another week. Hopefully this installment of Weekly Fun Facts has helped to make your Monday a little more tolerable.

Until tomorrow...

Why should I look at a home-based business?

2011-01-07T22:16:00.003-07:00

Why should I look at a home-based business? I just heard on the news today that businesses (specifically in the Phoenix, AZ area) are not quick to hire anyone and for those positions that are open, instead of looking for someone who can be either molded or can create the job, they are looking for someone who will fit into a pre-determined box they call a specific job task. If the candidates resume does not fit within the box, the employer will not even call the job-seeker in for an interview. Because there are so many people looking for work and there are much fewer jobs available, employers have the luxury of picking and choosing candidates. Not only can they choose the specific qualifications of each candidate, but employers are also able to define what they want to pay for that particular skill-set.

Please don't get me wrong. Working for someone else is not a bad thing, it is just not something that most people will do if they want to become financially independent. I have yet to meet one person who worked for a company or organization and became wealthy just from working for that organization. Your wealthy workers were those who found other uses for the money they earned. These people took the money that they worked hard for and then started making that money work for them. By the end of their working time with an employer, their money was making money and they had no more need for trading their time for someone else's money. That is why many people, when coming upon retirement age, find that they cannot retire when they wanted and live the life they had dreamed.

The key here is to find something to do with that little extra money you keep putting aside. Putting your money in a bank savings account is good, but the interest earned on that money is minuscule compared to what you could earn with other investments. I am not about to give any of you investment advice on where to put your money, but am here to suggest that you start looking for additional ways to earn an income. Going back to the job situation again, even if you are gainfully employed, there is no guarantee that tomorrow your current company will let you go, either due to down-sizing or other issues. In today's work environment, companies are looking very hard at their bottom line and may decide to let go of their higher salaried people because they can obtain the same skill-set for less money because there are so many unemployed people out there.

By starting to get your money to work for you, you will free yourself up from the "rat-race" of trying to make a buck - trading your valuable time for their money. Once you start having your money work for you instead of you working for your money, you are starting on the road towards financial freedom. Eventually, it is entirely possible that your money will be earning enough that you won't have to worry about working for anybody else. That is the true form of financial freedom.

So, as you continue to save a little bit here and a little bit there from your regular 'job', think about how you are going to get your money to work for you. You may decide to try your hand in stocks and bonds, or you may try real estate, or there are some very profitable home based business out there that can also become self-perpetuating. Be sure that the money you do start to invest is something that you can afford to lose if the investment does not pan out. As we have discussed in prior Millionaire Focus articles, many of those millionaires have put money into investments and lost the investment. But, they kept looking for other investments to get into. They continued to find ways to make the money work for them, not the other way around.

If you are interested in some home-based business opportunities, please check out our website. We also have some ideas for starting your own waterless car cleaning business if that is what interests you. If you would like to discuss other investment ideas, we are here to talk to if you want to bounce some ideas around. No matter what you decide, find something you love that will also help your money to grow at a faster rate than you would find in basic bank savings and CD accounts. These are some reasons why you should look at a home-based business.

Until tomorrow...

How I Fight Cabin Fever on Rainy Days

2011-01-06T21:25:00.002-07:00

It is hard for me to get bored in almost any situation. There is always something to do, or something to think about, or something to read. Heck, I may even break out my old sewing and repair all those buttons that have fallen off all those blouses... There is no end to entertainment at my home...

Rain Storm Along the Front Range and Pike's Peak

It is relatively easy for me to remain entertained when either snowed in (very rare in the Phoenix, AZ area) or rained in. I have two dogs that are an endless source of entertainment. Even when they are sleeping, they are entertaining. If they aren't doing anything in particular, it is a great time for me to "mess" with them, either by tickling the hair between their toes or by tickling their ears.

Eventually, when they get tired of my tormenting, they will get up, give me a very dirty look, and stalk off to another, quieter, place to sleep. Once I have exhausted all attempts to harass the dogs, I finally turn my attention to the mountain of books I have in the study. I am an eclectic reader at best and have books on almost everything, ranging from philosophy to science, to Accounting, to murder mysteries, to classic literature. Once I start reading a book, for me it is like watching a movie, I don't put the book down until my eyes want to come out of my head. I can easily sit for hours reading a good book. I have been known to sit for a whole weekend, just reading and ultimately finishing a good book.

If I am still stuck in the house during a prolonged rain, I would then go to the computer and see what news and events I can find. I may end up chatting with other friends on-line, but more likely, I will sit down and work, since running my own home-based business does take a good bit of work (paperwork...). I will even look at the website and see what I can re-design or re-write or even create new. There is always something to work on if I was in the frame of mind to work instead of being entertained. I almost love long rainy weekends, that way I can spend some of the dreary time sleeping, and then the rest catching up on all the stuff I don't like to do in the house when the days are beautiful.

As you can see, it is hard for me to be bored, even when stuck in my own home for any prolonged period of time. There is always something to be done and I believe if you are bored, when snowed in or rained in, then you are not looking honestly enough at your surroundings. There are tons of things you can do to remain entertained (and I NEVER once mentioned watching movies on TV...when all else fails...)

Until tomorrow...

What I'm Looking Forward to in 2011

2011-01-05T21:54:00.002-07:00

There are so many expectations started each time a new year rolls around, it is hard to not get disappointed when many of your hopes and expectations do not come to fruition. The key to a successful new year is to take personal responsibility for how your year will progress and to not create unrealistic plans for the new year. Plan your year and then follow your plan. By doing that, you will have a very good new year.

I am looking forward to a lot this new year. I have NOT made any significant New Year's Resolutions, and the one I did make I will not make public. Since I am taking personal responsibility for my resolutions, I do not want you all to be watching what I do. This is my personal odyssey and I need to stay focused and stick to the task.

With regards to what else I am looking forward to this year, well, where do I start. We are currently preparing to launch a brand new company in the next 60 days, and I can't wait to get that up and going. No, this is not going to be an MLM opportunity, but it is an innovative product and we are expecting sales to go through the roof once the actual product hits the store shelves.

This new product is the next generation in energy supplement, and you will have to wait a little bit more before I can tell you EXACTLY what this product is. We have been testing this product in the field and have a select group of people preparing to sell this product to your local stores. I am sooo excited about this product...I can tell you this, the product name is Wink Zing, and it will be offered by Wink Energy Inc.

This product will be a blast to offer to the public, and we already have buyers eagerly waiting for our first run to come out so they can begin putting it on the shelves. Once the product hit's the market, I will be able to tell you more and let you know where you can purchase your own Wink Zing...

Beyond that, I still expect Hawgwash, LLC to remain profitable in 2011 and hopefully continue doubling sales year over year. Because of the pending launch of Wink, I have yet to nail down our rally schedule, but once we lock down dates and locations, I will post the updated schedule on our website (www.hawgwash.net)

Hopefully you all are also expecting an improved year this year. That is not to say that last year was bad, but you would always want an improvement over prior years. Take care and enjoy your new year.

Until tomorrow...

What do YOU want out of 2011?

2011-01-04T20:29:00.003-07:00

Isn't that the question of the day lately...What do YOU want out of 2011? How many people have you talked to that have stated AGAIN their New Year's Resolutions? How many of those resolutions were essentially the same as last year's resolutions? Can we all get out of this "Resolution rut"?

Instead of making a "New Year's Resolution" why don't we just decide to make one small change in our life that we are COMMITTED to doing for 365 days? If we can keep our promise for 90 days, we have definitely started a new and pretty solid habit. To say you want to lose weight in the new year, is almost similar to saying that I would love to not age this new year. PLEASE...we all (at least the majority of us) would like to lose that extra pound or two (or 5 or 10...), but if we don't make a commitment and don't have a defined and ACHIEVABLE plan of attack, that resolution will be nothing more than a wish that will most likely not happen again this year.

This year I resolve not to make any resolutions. I have looked at my life and am focused on making one small, but important change. This change is not huge, but it will have very positive effects in the coming year, if I stay focused and committed to instituting the change. If I keep the desired change small and manageable, and more importantly, measurable, then my chances of success become much higher. I am not even going to tell people what that small change will be because I do not expect them to help me stay focused on that change.

It is my personal responsibility to institute the change, and I should not rely on others to keep me to task. If I need to rely on others to keep my resolutions, then I did not really commit to that particular life change. We should not expect others to help us with our resolutions. Our resolutions are ours alone, and it is our personal responsibility to remain committed and focused. This way, any failure is nobody else's fault except our own. We should not place blame on anyone else for us not achieving our resolution. If you feel the need to blame others for you not achieving your goals, then the goals you defined were wrong. The concept of personal goals is exactly that, PERSONAL. Do not place blame where it does not belong. Enlisting the help of others may be nice, but again, you should have made a personal commitment to the change you wanted, and all the outside help in the world will not help if you are not strongly committed. Essentially, if you make a commitment to change an aspect of your life and you expect others to help you keep that commitment, do not expect to achieve your goals. Your friends and family cannot do what you need to do, they can only offer support. You are the one who must make the particular sacrifice or change.

You should be the one pulling towards that goal, others may help occasionally for moral support, but you are the one who is responsible for your own success.

So, here is to your continued success in 2011, whatever you choose to do.

Until tomorrow...

Weekly (Weakly) Fun Facts

2011-01-03T21:09:00.003-07:00

Well, HOWDY to one and all. HAPPY NEW YEAR. Bet you are more than a little bit tired of hearing and stating that phrase... Well, we are now into day 3 of the New Year and for me personally, I don't see much of a change from last year. Hopefully this year will be an improvement over last year, but so far, 3 days into it...I don't see it...

Anyway, so much for criticizing the new year, let's get into the weekly fun facts for the New Year. I have looked for particularly fun facts this time, just to get the year off on a good foot:

In this winter season, we don't see too may hummingbirds, but I thought this fact was interesting: hummingbirds weigh less than a penny...

Hummingbirds are the only animals that can fly backwards...

And you thought pigeons were big- the bones of a pigeon weigh less than it's feathers...

We have quite a number of quails here in Arizona. Bet you didn't know what the name of their "topknot" was called... try a Hmuh... don't even know how to pronounce that one...

For those of you living near alligator infested waters, this bit of trivia could be useful...(if you have the time to measure...) - the distance between an alligator's eyes, in inches is directly proportional to the length of the alligator in feet. Now, I ask you this, who, when face-to-face with an alligator, will take the time to measure the distance between the alligator's eyes in order to determine how long that sucker is? If I came face-to-face with an alligator, I guarantee I will not break out the tape measure...

For those of you who love to stare danger in the eyes - the poisonous copperehead snake smells like fresh cut cucumbers. Now who, in their right mind, will go sniffing a snake to see if it smells good???

For those of you who may have had a lobster dinner lately, did you know that it takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be a pound? So, if you think your dinner was a bit skimpy, think of how long that lobster had to be around first....they had a lot of work to do to get that big...

A flea expert is called a pullicologist..

Fleas have changed history. More human deaths have been attributed to fleas than all the wars ever fought. As carriers of bubonic plague, fleas were responsible for killing 1/3rd of the population of Europe in the 14th century.

Now, for those of you who are not terribly interested in animal fun facts... no piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times. Let me know if you succeeded....I didn't...

One in every four Americans has appeared on television...

For you poker players out there - the king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.

The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represnts the number of varieties of PICKLES the company once had...(so much for thinking it represented the number of tomatoes used in the ketchup...nuts...)

This last piece of trivia for this week is priceless - Walt Disney was afraid of mice... Go figure

Have a wonderful week, I will strive to post more regularly this week, was super busy last week and just didn't have the 'oomph' to post nightly. Hope you enjoyed your Weekly (Weakly) Fun Facts this first week of the new year...

If you are looking for additional income sources, check out our website for some ideas. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us...

Until tomorrow...