US Election 101 - In plain english

I bet many of you got sucked into the US election media storm. I did. I know more about Replicans and Democrats than I do about Liberals and Conservatives. Oops! Is that ignorance or indifference.

Although us Canadians didnt have a say in the matter, I found myself huddled around the TV with a few friends, beer, chips and halloween candy as if we were watching the Super Bowl. I have never been so in tune with American Politics - probably because of the influence of new friends and even more because I work from home and watch the MSNBC TV feed all day long while I work.

Anyhow - even after the great Obamarama last Tuesday November 4th - I still didnt fully understand the american political process. I sought answers, simple ones, and found them here, with this video - Courtesy of commoncraft.com

My New Life

After a few months of inactivity, I have decided to renew my presence on this blog. Since July, I have made a few drastic changes in my life - All changes and choices were sparked by a desire to gain the following - more learning opportunities, more free time, and more focus on myself, my friends and family. You know, all the good stuff that we lose site of when we are too busy chasing a biweekly paycheck and artificial recognition.

I left my full time job in September where I worked for 3 long years. Not very long for some, but with all the overtime, it was probably closer to a 4-5 year time investment, on a 3 year salary. Although I learned a great deal and gained invaluable experience - I got a little itch to move forward and make better use of my time and my life.

I have managed to replace a 60hr a week job (40hr salary) with a full time job working from home. While the adjustment has been a little tricky (cabin fever, self-discipline, etc), I am happier, having completely replaced my old salary. Also, I have the time to pursue entrepreneurial ventures with the added time flexibility and I only have to be somewhere if I want to. I love it.

After reading countless articles and books on the topic of working for yourself and working from home, I partially made it happen - by making bold decisions and defying conventional wisdom that the more you work, the more you get paid. In fact, being stuck in this rut for a while, I realize that more work actually equaled less pay in my situation. Everyone has a realization process and a threshold - I reached mine. I have shifted to smarter work = more money = time leverage = happier.

Thats it for now! In the mean time - I will try to post more frequently about work, life, technology that helps, and other simple things.

Follow The 80/20 Rule - Pareto's Law

Although, I rarely make it through an entire book, I always try to grasp a handful of valuable lessons in the books that I do read. Below is a brief explanation of the 80/20 rule. It has come up a few times in the latest books that I've read and I am sure many of you have heard of it - but here it is for those of you who haven't.

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from just 20% of your efforts. If you can identify and focus on the 20% that matters most, you can be more productive (and impressive) without increasing your workload. Try to automate or delegate the less productive 80% whenever possible. When random emails and phone calls start pushing you off course, remind yourself of the 80/20 rule and make an immediate course correction. If an emergency arises and you absolutely need to eliminate something from your schedule, make sure it’s not part of the vital 20%.

Twitter - Waste of Time?

This week I set up a Twitter account at twitter.com/jonnywired. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it’s a free online service where people can post very brief updates (up to 140 characters), and other people who are interested can follow and comment on those updates. Think of it like micro-blogging.

I heard about Twitter a long time ago and quickly dismissed it as a waste of time. But lately I’ve heard good things about it from other bloggers, so I decided to dive in and give it a go this week. Best case is that it provides some extra value for people. Worst case is that it truly is a waste of time, and I simply stop using it. Limited downside + potentially unlimited upside = worth trying.

What tipped me into finally setting up a Twitter account was the article 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers by Darren Rowse of Problogger. Darren makes the case that bloggers can leverage their existing blogs to use Twitter in many beneficial ways. Makes sense to me.

Apparently Twitter was intended to be a service for people to share quick updates about their lives with friends and family (and anyone else who cares). For example, you could use it to tell people what movies you’re watching, what books you’re reading, or what recipes you’re trying. I may share some details like that because I do get a lot of questions from readers who want to know how I spend my time, but overall I think this would be a boring way for me to use Twitter if that’s all I did.

The nice thing is that posting Twitter updates is dirt simple. I can submit a new update in less than a minute… as opposed to setting aside a few hours for a typical blog post.

If you want to follow my Twitter updates, you’ll find them at twitter.com/jkennedy8. There’s also an RSS feed for those updates. Try it for a while, and if you don’t like it, you can always unsubscribe. It’s free.

Dude Backflips Into Pants

What is people’s fascination with watching other people do stupid things? This video shows guys trying to jump and land in their pants, specifically, they’re trying to do back flips and then land with their legs in holes. It’s ridiculous, but for whatever reason, people are fascinated by it, including me, and as a result, it is becoming viral at a shocking pace.

Most of what I post is useful. Fortunately, I answer to nobody here - so some posts will be entirely useless and counter productive. Thanks.

Dan Pink: Exercise Creativity at Your Job

I discovered Dan Pink on YouTube a couple weeks ago. I recently read and briefly reviewed his book "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko". Dan somehow came across my blog after I posted the entry about his book. He thanked me and offered to send me some Johnny Bunko chopsticks - I gladly accepted.

Reviewing more of his videos on youtube, I came across one that was highly relevant to myself and my peers. Check out this one minute lesson on exercising your creativity at work.

Mac Takes a Bite out of Montreal

The First Canadian Flagship Apple Store opened its doors yesterday in Montreal. Im not a Mac user, nor do I have iPhone. I do have an iPod that I primarily to wacth movies. The store is the first of its kind in Canada and the 7th Worldwide. I strolled in this morning during a break from class to check out the hype and there were dozens of customers and even more helpful staff wearing blue tshirt, very helpful and not overbearing. I asked a few questions, took some quick pictures and off I went back to school. The Montreal Apple store does not quite have the same presence as the glass box in Manhatten, but their bitten apple logo sure is hard to miss. The stature of the building rises above all the little surrounding shops - they make the modern colors of telus stores look severly outdated.

The appeal, the intensely loyal following and the emotional involvement of Apple clientele is nothing short of amazing. Much of Apples recent success is attributed to marketing genius and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

As part of their launch, Apple has announced a series of concerts to be held at the location from now until the end of the summer. They also have free workshops for most of their products. See schedule here