Trab

I hope you don't get screwed out of a lot of money. I subscribed to a magazine once, and fell for their 3 year special offer. I paid up, and only a month later they shut down. My money was gone. Lesson learned. I never subscribe for more than a year at a time now, and I don't renew more than 1 month before the expiry of the subscription.

Maybe it's exactly what I've always thought, singing voices are just instruments and not intended to convey logical meaning. It might just as well be Greek, Latin, or Swahili for all the difference it makes to me.

My sincerest condolences.

Nice, but for me, with my paucity of imagination, I'm left hanging uncomfortably wondering what might possibly be written on the other side of the list. I can only admire Colin's ability to think of not just one, but several dozen.

I haven't heard of it at all, but sometimes, if you can remember specific words or word groups (accurately) and put them in google, it can find the relevant work. It's probably a long shot, but you could try it. This might work even better if you can remember the name of the site you got it from originally.

Well, obviously charity didn't begin at home, or poor Rick wouldn't be poor Rick now, now would he, and one has to recognize that he also isn't a drug dealer or a prostitute, much less a car salesman.

"There's nothing so cool as holding an intellectual discussion on the meaning of the universe and the ramifications of quark theory on French cuisine, with the local lads." Certainly leaves me cold.

I loved that bit about seeing the trees for the wood.

Des, James' goals sound more like asthma than Zen.

That cat is more than just pissed of at zombies, but also the world, and he looks like he's got the body mass to back up his irritation very effectively.

Sobering while inspiring. We are entering our driest summer ever. The dryness is currently 3 months earlier than in our previous devastating year of 2003, in which huge areas burned, thankfully with little more than property damage, aside from the forests and all therein, of course. Some towns have created fire breaks around them, based in part on your Australian experience, but many have not.

I would suggest that maybe we, as in the general public, tend to forget, or not recognize, the reason for being of many things in the marketplace. TV shows are there to keep you hooked between commercials. Pure and simple, but largely ignored by the public. Commercials are there to get you to remember a product in any way possible, and favorable or not makes no difference. They are there to get you to buy those products. Products are there, not to provide a service, but to get your money when you buy it. Whether it works or not makes no real difference, as long as it gets your money without costing more than what is received from you. Promises, like guarantees, are there to make you think the product is more beneficial to you and that you should invest your money in buying it. There are basically two approaches to selling: sell lots of cheap stuff cheaply, or sell a small amount of stuff dearly priced. Of course the ideal is to sell lots of stuff dearly priced, but that's a skill not easily mastered and requires a lot of convincing. What MS seems to do is thrive on the earlier concept of selling lots of things cheaply and often. This is done at a cost too though, and that is in eventual distrust of the products. This is particularly important when money becomes 'scarce' and people cannot buy everything over and over again. People will gravitate towards that which is not replaced all the time. A trust is built up in certain products and services which are consistently good and of value, and this makes it even harder to tolerate when that trust is betrayed. eg. Toyota I guess my point is that after all the devolution by MS, are you really surprised that it is continuing today? As long as you keep buying into that, they can continue to milk you and the rest.

One of my goals in 2nd year college was to be in a career of microwave radio system designs within a couple of years. At the end of that period I was taking retraining at company expense in computer repair (yes, the first generation computers, each as big as a house (nearly)). I never got to work on radio at all. All I'm saying is that goals are often based on our conception of external developments, and often those don't go the way we think they will. Lofty as Colin's goals are, he might well be working on a space station doing genetic research in 5 years. Strangely, and some might say 'tragically', although that would certainly not be me, the vast majority of my 'career' (working life) was in the post office, ending up managing an office before my early retirement. My personal goals changed just as much as my career goals, and so long as you are willing to let go the old and welcome the new, you'll be just fine. It is your satisfaction with yourself that is most important, and if others appreciate what you are doing, so much the better. And if you can do all that while not hurting anyone or anything in that process; best of all.

At 61, I confess to having few goals. I've already taken early retirement, so that's no longer a concern, unless my pension plan goes all askew. Help organize a major national car rally is one goal (had a setback this year, and this is postponed). See my 88 year mother through her dotage is another (ongoing but no idea of time needed). Drive to Maine (from the west coast of Canada) and slowly work my way south to see all the autumn colors, but that has to wait till mom has passed on. Meet some of the authors at AD; one date for early September '10 has already been set. Lose 70 pounds and 8 inches off my waist (not likely before September, so be warned) (working on this with more exercise, and cutting 90% of my carb intake). Edit about 15 hours of raw footage video into a nice package on a DVD; vacation shots from several trips to New Orlean, Colorado, and all places in between (researching someone who can take the Hi8 and SVHS tapes and put them on disc or HD to allow me to edit it). Organize my neighbourhood into a cohesive emergency unit in case of the 'big one' (taking courses every other week and talking to neighbours about this, as well as to emergency coordinator).

Your goals Yr. 1 and Yr. 5 are personal goals, and as such under your control, although I think setting such high numbers for Yr.1 is unrealistic and might actually cause a backlash as you try to push the inevitable 'writer's block'. Your Yr. 2 and Yr. 10 are my concerns for you. They are dependent on OTHERS. Having your material published is not a 'bad' goal, but it is not under your control, and as such it is not a good goal. Making a living from published material is also not a good goal. It is pretty much 100% out of your hands, and as such it is (in my view) recipe for disaster. It is no more realistic than aspiring to having an Academy Award by such and such a date. The odds are against it, and nothing you can do can really change that. Please, I implore you, pick goals YOU can control directly, with your own efforts and enthusiasm.

Oh dear. That was a painful ending.

Awesome. I guess that's a requirement, considering the name of the site, right?

That dropbox pricing is just too high for me to consider. What a huge jump, from 2Gbyte for free to 50Gbytes for $120 per year. They need to have one for $12 per year and they'd likely have millions of subscribers.

That only works out to 30 Mbytes doesn't it? Even the smallest SD memory card could hold that, and it is flat enough to be sent in a regular envelope through the mail. As far as I know, all that would be needed is a card reader. You could do the same thing on a USB memory stick (more easily) but it would jam in the mail sorting equipment as it is too thick.

I never thought about the age thing either, but that said, we had a backdoor neighbor who had a daughter at 63, so there is nothing unusual at all.

Nice. Very nice.

Is anything?

Not everyone is equally impressed. Two of the Heathers?

Beautiful.