I found this video last week and was blown away. The Kahn Academy is promoting a brand new way to teach. Watch the Ted Video first, then check out the organizations website: http://www.khanacademy.org/ Enjoy!!
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I have had many discussions over the years about Danville and what can we do to make it a better place to live, work & grow. Maybe it’s the election season with candidates talking about all the positive changes they would make going forward, but it seems that the discussions have been more frequent here of late. We could debate about the importance of low taxes, the best way to increase business growth, and providing public services. However, I think those items are down the road for discussion points. It has to start with an attitude.
The attitude that I’m talking about is an attitude of wanting to be a better community. Do we project that attitude when we complain about what Danville doesn’t have or do we promote that attitude by being grateful for what we do have? Being thankful is a mindset. You can constantly look for what you don’t have; a nice car, bigger house, 6-pack abs, or you can look at what you do have; a good family, your health, a steady paycheck. This week, I had the opportunity to promote Danville in my own way and I hope (and believe) that it will pay off in the future.
The first time was while I was picking up dinner for the family at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was last Saturday after the Ohio State & Illinois game. A couple came in and sat down next to me at the bar while I was waiting for my carry-out order. I asked them about the game, they said there are from Ohio and decided late to come over for it. They said the hotels were booked up there so they decided to stay in Danville. As my food came out, I told them thanks for staying here and I hope next time they come over for the game they stay here in Danville because we would love to have them back.
The second time was when I went out to dinner with a friend at the Nugget. It was my friends first trip to the Nugget and he was taking a picture of the place as we went in. As we were going in, a couple was coming out. I made the comment, “It’s his first time here.” The couple replied that it was their first time too. I asked where they were from and they said Wisconsin. They were on their was to see her father in Indiana and stopped here for a bite. I said, “Well, thanks for stopping in Danville, we appreciate it and hope that on your way back you stop by again.” Will they? I don’t know. I would like to think that if they got to Crawforsville and started to get hungry they would drive to Danville because those people are so nice.
I have always said that the best resource in Danville is it’s residents. When something needs to get done, it does. When we need to community to come out and support a cause or our football team, they do. What if we carried that attitude around with us all the time? What if every day we made it our mission to do one thing, just one thing, to better Danville, what kind of difference would it make? It would be huge. It takes so little effort, but the payoff is so great. Give it a try, you may just find it not only betters your community, YOU will feel better also.
Thank you to Father Nelson for the inspiration behind this post. Great homily today, Father!
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In line at the Apple store
Somewhere in the past couple of years, I jumped the Apple shark. A downward spiral where Steve Jobs has taken my soul and replaced it with one of those free Apple stickers you get in every Apple box.
I’m a month shy of my 40th birthday, its 4:22am back home, and I’m standing in line at the Keystone mall in Indy waiting to buy the new iPhone 4. I’ll let that sentence soak in for a minute, I know I had to.
There are over 1000 people here(there could be more as there was 1000 when I got here an hour ago). I made it inside the mall, one of the lucky ones. They stopped letting people inside the mall about 50 people back of me. So, my best guess is that I’m about number 200 in line. Not bad as I hear people lined up all through the night.
I’m not the oldest, by far, but the average age of the crowd is about 24. I committed to putting in my two hours before the store opens. My one hope now is that the activation servers don’t crash.
Once I get my new iPhone, I will share a video or two. If you got a new one too, hit me up for some FaceTime!
…Update…
Well, after about 7 hours, my old iPhone went dead, so I was unable to give any more updates. You will see from the picture where I ended up spending 9 hours yesterday. I did get my phone, as shown by the attached picture. 
All in all, it wasn’t that bad. The way that I look at it, it was my Apple right of passage. I have seen the lines in blog posts and read the stories online about rabid Apple fans lining up for days (if not weeks) before the launch of a major Apple release. I guess that since I had never be able to do that before I felt that I hadn’t earned my Apple street cred. I have it now, bitches.
It wasn’t without it’s highlights. I stood behind an older couple and one of the guys that I was standing with shot this video and uploaded it to YouTube before we even knew it. (He had a new iPhone 4 that he got the day before in the mail, he was buying another for his mother.) She kept offering us carrots that she with her, by the end of the day, I think they had been dipped in LSD.
So I have my new iPhone 4, and after a good night sleep last night to rest my aching back from standing most of the day, I think it’s great. The camera is amazing and it’s hella fast compared to my old iPhone. Never mind that fact that you can probably walk up to the store today and buy one without waiting, that’s fine. You missed the experience.
I forgot about the band. My Yellow Rickshaw played before the mall opened. They also had free snacks, water, and Starbucks for us.
I took a different angle on the TV show “Lost” than most. I had heard for years how great Lost was and heard online of all the discussions as to what the island was (or was not). After a couple of seasons, I ordered the season 1 disks from Blockbuster. I watched the first couple of disks, thought it was great. The next set of disks was backlogged and I eventually lost interest in getting them.
Fast-forward to 2 months ago. Knowing that the show as in it’s last season, I decided to watch the entire series to get caught up before the finale. So, starting in March and through April, about every spare moment of my time was spent watching lost. It took about 6-weeks, but I got all caught up by the end of April. That was about 115 episodes (yes, I watched season 1 again). It was only about 14 hours a week, easily done when you wake up at 5am and can watch 3 episodes before going to work.
The Good & The Bad
The Good – I didn’t have to wait a week to see what was going to happen. I could just fire up the next episode. I think it was much easier to watch it this way. It was simple to track characters, know was recently happened, and reference past events.
The Bad – I was not able to participate in the discussion from week-to-week. I know that much of the fun of Lost has come from plotting out theories, developing story lines and such. I’m sad that I didn’t get to take part in all that for the past 6 years. Much of the fun for the past 6 weeks has been talking to fellow Losties about their theories.
Another “bad” was the fact that watching lost this was is a lot to take in. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of shit going on. I had a couple of weekends that I watched a marathon amount of shows and developed a headache.
So, that, my friends is how I got to be a Lostie. I will be back later with my thoughts on the show itself.
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Great Morning Mantra
While at a conference this past week, I received a card with the following quote on it. Take a second to think about it. I have not been able to get it out of my head since I got it last Thursday. I have made a printout of it and it’s on my bathroom mirror.
Yesterday, I was flipping channels and stopped on the “Real Housewives of wherever”. I watched about 15 seconds, thought about this quote, turned it off and fired up Netflix and watched an interesting documentary.
I have thought about my daily routine and have started to look for ways that I can replace useless activities with something better. Things that feed my mind and soul. I’ve already replaced the talk radio stations with books on tape. Read this through and give it some thought for your daily life. You may just find some opportunity for change.
“This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be a gain and not a loss; good, not evil. Success, not failure in order that I shall not regret the price I have paid for it.”