Categories
Productivity Writing

I love you….Whiteboard!

DSC_0055.JPG A man can love a a piece of office equipment, can’t he? I mean guys have a favorite chair, an old calculator, a pen, right? Well, my secret love (I guess it’s not so secret now.) is my whiteboard.

I installed a new one today in my home office. And, at the risk of sounding like a recovering alcoholic, My name is Keith and it’s been 3 years since my last whiteboard. “Hi, Keith.” When I opened my office in April 2006, I decided not to install a whiteboard. I had used one in my office since I began my career in 1995. I was always more comfortable standing and writing on my board than scribbling on a notepad at the desk. I’m such a more visual person when explaining something, that it was a natural fit.

To be honest, I don’t remember why I didn’t put one up. Maybe I thought I had graduated from it. I was an “independant advisor” now and growns up don’t us whiteboards. I guess I didn’t realize how wrong I was. If I need to explain something to a client I use a notepad, but write so freaking big on the paper that I look like a 1st grader. I’m over compensating for my lack of a whiteboard, I know that now. (The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.)

While I still don’t have one at my office, it’s a safe bet that after falling off the wagon, one will be installed this week.

Categories
Web Stuff

File under: Things I should have thought of.

How many times have we said, “I could have thought of that”? Well, I had one of those tonight. While doing some website research, I was checking out some design work and one of the sites I stumbled upon was this:

http://www.iwearyourshirt.com/

I can’t explain it any better, so I will quote his site:

“In this up and down economy I’m outsourcing my wardrobe (namely shirts) to corporate america and you! I’m going to wear a different shirt for 365 days straight in 2009, take multiple pictures throughout my day and blog about it. Days are sold at “face value” so January 1 is $1 and December 31 is $365.”

wearshirt.png

By my figures, he stands to make $66,795 if he sells out the entire year (he’s sold out through September already). So, kudos to you, Jason, I should have thought of it.

Categories
Technology Web Stuff

New Bundle of Mac Software

Most of the software that I use on my Mac is from bundles. You get a boatload of apps for $49. It’s a great way for Mac users to get a bunch of really cool stuff for cheap. I think the value of this latest release is about $330 for $49.

If you are looking for a nice bulk purchase of applications, (there are always at least 2 that I will use on a daily basis), then jump over to the Mac Bundle Box and check it out.

Categories
Statistics

1/2 of All Marriages Don't Fail! Do the math!

wed.jpg I’m sure that everyone has heard the stat: “50% of all marriages end in divorce.” That statistic has been a pet-peeve of mine for years. It’s completely false and would like everyone that reads this to NEVER use that phrase again, please.

I downloaded several reports from the CDC and the census to get the number of marriages and divorces. Funny, they report the number of marriages (they track it through marriage licenses issued), but they don’t track the total number of divorces. According to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Report from 2006, there were 2,249,000 marriages. That is a rate of 7.3 per 1000. The total divorces are not given, because they don’t have a way to track it. However, they have a rate of 3.6 per 1000. So, 3.6 is about half of 7.3, so that’s where the 50% (well, almost 50% comes in). So, best I can figure taking 49.3% of 2.249 million is 1,109,095 end in divorce.

So, that’s it? Case closed. The stats prove it, right? Wrong. According to the census, the total number of marriages is about 55.2 million. So, we just established that 1.109 million marriages fail each year for 50% of all marriages to fail 27.6 million couples need to get divorced. Follow me? Each year 2.2 million go into the marriage pool while 1.1 million get out. So, each year we are adding another 1.1 million to the total population of married people.

Think of it this way. The first year, I give you two apples. Half way through the year, I take one away. Now you have one apple. (Am I typing slow enough for you?) The second year, I give you two more apples, for a total of 3. Half way through the year, I take 1 (not 1.5 away). Now, you have 2 apples at the end of the year. Year three, I give you 2 more apples, for a total of 4 and take one away 6 months later. So you end the year with 3. Are you following me here, camera guy?

So, with 55 million marriages in the pool and 1.1 million failing, actually puts the divorce rate at…..(drumroll please)……2% of all marriages fail.

If we used the same 50% logic, then the headlines should read:

56% of All People Die Every Year

Because the rate of births in 2006 were 14.3, while deaths came in at 8.1 or 56%. But see, the 4.3 million people born in 2006 joined the almost 297 million living people in America while 2.4 million went to the big Sham-Wow in the sky.

Like Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Comments?

Categories
Music

Watching stuff being made is cool.

I’m not exactly sure where I got it from or when it started, but I have always liked something more if I see how it was made.

About 3 years ago, I was flipping channels and I happened across a PBS special on Herbie Hancock – Possibilities. It’s a documentary that shows the making of the album: Possibilities. Now, to this point, I had one Herbie Hancock disk in my collection and as far as being able to identify a song besides “Rockit“, I would fall short with anything past Cantaloupe Island. This album featured duos with Sting, Paul Simon, John Mayer & Christina Aguilera, to name a few. I think what I will remember most about watching it was that Truce came and sat next to me when he heard Christina Aguilera singing and watched then entire show with me. This was 3+ years ago and Truce didn’t stay put for more than 2 minutes if Elmo wasn’t involved. So, for him to sit and watch a non-Sesame Street documentary for about 2 hours, floored me. I think that may be the night that he started to like jazz. I can put on the jazz station in the car and he will listen away. He likes the horns best. But, I fell in love with the creative process that was shown. Songs from that album make the iPod top 25 list a couple years back, that is for sure.

About the same story is true for the song “In Repair” off of Continuum, by John Mayer. I didn’t really like the song that much, but included in the disk was the video of the making of that song. I was amazed to find out that the keyboard/organ sound at the beginning of the song is actually a guitar. The video shows John having no song at the beginning of the day to putting the finishing touches on it at 1 a.m. Being able to create a song in one day and being able to watch that was cool. In Repair remains one of my favorite songs on that album.

After seeing David Gray’s “making of” video for Life in Slow Motion, I bought his entire catalogue. So, if you want me to get hooked on a group or album, just include a video that shows them in the studio and I will plop my money down.