Some of you may have noticed that my posts have been quite infrequent lately. I have been enjoying the summer by working on jobs around the house, catching up on some reading, going out for coffee with my wife and walking the dogs.
The weather was great in early July (sunny, 25C - 29C) but lately it sucks (rain, 14C - 18C)! Newfoundland weather is really unpredictable.
Anyway, I look forward to getting back to blogging more frequently starting near the end of August.
I hope you are enjoying your summer. It’s great to relax and do different things for awhile. What do you do when you like to take a break and relax?
Today, July 1st is Canada Day. It’s the day that my country celebrates it’s birthday (we started as a collection of four provinces on July 1st, 1867).
My province of Newfoundland & Labrador was the last to join Canada in 1949, so here at home there are mixed emotions over July 1st. This is because on July 1st, 1916, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment suffered tremendous losses while fighting as a British Colony at the battle of Beaumont-Hamel.
Here is what wikipedia says about Newfoundland’s loss.
History
On July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, 801 soldiers of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment rose from the British trenches and went into battle at Beaumont-Hamel, nine kilometers north of Albert in France. After only 30 minutes the regiment was devastated. Only 68 men stood to answer the regimental role call the next morning. 255 were dead, 386 were wounded, and 91 were listed as missing in action and presumed dead. Every officer who had gone over the top was either wounded or dead.
On the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army (57,470 casualties, 19,240 dead) at the opening of the largest battle (over one million casualties) of the war, Newfoundland had also suffered its gravest military loss. To this day, Beaumont-Hamel remains the most significant single military action fought by Newfoundlanders and a turning point in the history and culture of the island. Many Newfoundlanders mark the date of July 1st not as Canada Day, but as Memorial Day, the date of remembrance for the Beaumont-Hamel battle.
Newfoundlanders remember this day with bittersweet emotion.
I am a proud Canadian and I am happy to celebrate Canada Day every year but I can’t help but wonder what Newfoundland & Labrador would have looked like today if we hadn’t have lost our best and brightest men way back on July 1st, 1916.
On a lighter note … today is also the day that Danny Cleary is bringing the Stanley Cup to his hometown of Harbour Grace, NL. Cleary is a member of the Detroit Red Wings who won the 2008 Stanley Cup and he is now the first Newfoundlander to have his name etched on the Cup.
Hockey is big in Canada and it’s great to have one of our own immortalized in hockey history.
It doesn’t get very warm, very fast in my neck of the woods (I’m about as far east in North America that you can get), so when it comes time to mow my lawn for the first time this year, I guess you can say that it is truly a sign that summer may soon be here.
Just this past weekend I actually mowed 6 lawns. Front and back of my house, my in-laws, and my friend’s house. After I finished, I thought about what I had to show for all that work besides some nicely mowed lawns.
And then I got to thinking.
I have always liked mowing lawns but not necessarily because the grass looks nicer. It’s really because of the time it gives me to give my mind a break.
You know what I mean. I’m talking about getting lost in a particular activity and feeling mentally refreshed after it’s finished (this feeling is commonly known as “Flow“.
There are tons of activities good for getting in the flow state. One of them for me is mowing the lawn. Which ones work best for you?
You know the old saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun”. Well it certainly has with my blogging.
My first post was back in July of 2007 (I posted about “The Age of Conversation“. I only posted once that month (technical glitches) and I only posted about three times in September. Needless to say, it took a little while for me to get the hang of the blogging as another avenue to express myself.
Here are some things which I have learned through my blogging adventures so far:
Writing
I have published a number or articles in the past year and I have found blogging to be a great aid in getting my current thoughts down on paper the screen. It really enables me to get organized and to focus more on what intersts me.
People
By far, the most amazing thing that I have discovered about blogging is that there are so many genuinely sincere people out there that are more than willing to lend a helping hand.
I don’t mean to paint a doom and gloom picture everything outside the blogosphere, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that bloggers cut to the core. It seems that when bloggers communicate it is usually because they are passionate about an idea that they share.
Here is a list of the blogs of the bloggers who have taken the time to comment on my blog since the beginning. Thanks to all of you for your help. I really appreciate it:
More than four comments - Phil, I’ll have to steal your words and tell you that … YOU DA MAN! www.makeitgreat.typepad.com
I have actually gotten to know most of you even more through email.
I think I may be settling into a rhythm of writing so the challenge for the next 100 posts will be too get out there more and make more of an effort to check out and comment on other blogs.
I am also still in the process of weeding through all of the blogger tech jargon and I haven’t even looked at figuring out how to optimize my SEO (did I say that right? I’m not much of a techie when it comes to blogging. I know just enough to be dangerous).
Anyway, I’ve got to go link up all of the sites I mentioned (there is no shortcut for that, is there?). In the meantime, if anybody has some good blogging advice give me a shout, I’m all ears!
Cheers,
Steve
PS.
Can you believe it! WordPress has just changed their new look today and for some reason I can’t link to any sites. I have been at it for a few hours now with no luck. I’m going to have to publish this post and maybe link later. Technology … great when it works, sucks when there’s problems.
Update:
My link problem is now fixed so I went back to this post to properly thank my commenters.
As I was changing channels on my car radio today, I stopped to listen to Faith Hill. She instantly reminded me of the trip that my family took to Las Vegas a few years ago. Part of that trip was a visit to Vegas where I actually learned a few life lessons.
During one of our evenings in Vegas all of us took a leisurely stroll down the strip towards the famous Belagio Resort. The Belagio is most famous for its water fountain show. Every hour it sprays water upwards through the man-made pool in front of its hotel.
This is not just a single spray of water that you might see at a mall. We are talking about hundreds of sprays going at different heights and angles, complete with lights and timed to music via a computer system.
As my wife and I snuggled under one of the trees in front of the huge pool, we started to hear music. The song, “This Kiss”, by Faith Hill began to play and the water began to spray in all directions, at varying heights, perfectly timed to the music. A breeze was blowing lightly, and all was right in the world.
For those few minutes I wasn’t in the bustling town of Vegas, I was quietly enjoying a wonderful spectacle with my wife. I didn’t even notice the hundreds of people around me who were also in awe of the show.
What a memory and what a life lesson:
Take time each day to look for and enjoy the beauty around you.
I found this TED video featuring Christopher deCharm talking about a new kind of MRI that allows doctors AND patients to look inside the brain in … get this … REAL TIME!
This video is not the usual TED length of 20 minutes (it’s only around 3minutes long) so it won’t take much time to have a look at it.
This is one of the most awesome 3 minute clips you have ever seen! Just think about it. If we can get used to controlling our brains what will this mean to how we live our lives?
I would be interested in looking at my brain when I am making decisions. I am continually fascinated by how people make decisions and more particularly, what role intuition, ego and emotions play in the decision-making process.
If you had access to this technology right now, what would you be interested in checking out?
I had a meeting tonight with my fellow speaking professionals. I always love to meet with them each month to chat about how things are going, talk about the business of speaking and best of all, listen to an excellent guest speaker.
The speaker this evening was another one of our excellent guest speakers. We had Deborah Bourden speak to us about branding ourselves.
I am not a marketer but I love marketing. I love reading books and blogs about marketing and I am intrigued about the whole concept of personal branding.
Deborah presentation focused on seven key points to remember when branding yourself. She drove these points home by using an iceberg analogy with internal concerns being the bottom 90% below the surface and outward appearance being the 10% above the surface. Here are the further details,
Internal Concerns
Vision - What are you passionate about?
Values - Thoughts that guide your decisions.
Personality - Who you are at the core.
Position - The place you occupy within the marketplace
Outward Appearance
Image - Be precise and consistent in how you project yourself
Service - Specialize!
Products - Have products that are able to speak for oyu when you are not present.
AND …
Keep all of these points in mind as you stay true to who you are!
I know these are not all brand new ideas (’scuse the pun) but I loved the way Deborah packaged the info. Deborah founded the company AppleCore Interactive. They sound like a really innovative and exciting bunch of people.
So what do you think about Deborah’s points? Do you have anything to add?
I encourage all of you to check them out and see what you think.
I just recently returned from another Toastmasters meeting this evening and it was fabulous!
As with most TM meetings, I am in a rush to get there and I usually have many other things which I should be doing instead of attending this meeting.
But without fail, when I get to the meeting and meet all of the members, everything runs great, I learn a great deal and the time flies by.
What is it about Toastmasters that makes it so great? … It all has to do with the people.
Toastmasters is usually filled with people from all walks of life (ie: no shop talk) that are there to support each other in the process of becoming a better speaker - that’s it!
No politics, no back-stabbing, no one-upmanship … just honest support and enthusiasm (and, no it is not all boring meeting stuff, at least my club isn’t).
Sound like a great place to be? Why not check out your local Toastmasters group and tell me what you think.
Last year I took part in a great project which involved being an author with 102 other bloggers from around the world. We all created an original article which formed the book “The Age of Conversation“.
This year I am excited once again to be part of the same project except there are now 275 (what a load of folks!) contributing bloggers. The co-editors, Drew McLellan, and Gavin Heaton have decided to give AOC2 a them entitled, “Why Don’t They Get It?”. They have even broken the book up into chapters.
More on the details of AOC2 to come later. In the meantime, here are my colleagues for AOC2:
Hey, why not get the first AOC book while you’re waiting for the AOC2 to come out? It’s a great read and every penny made goes to a fabulous childrens charity.
Today is the day for everyone to chip in and make the sales of “Age of Conversation” an Amazon.com success.
Here are the details that Chris Wilson organized for the plan of action as seen on the AOC site.
PLAN OF ACTION (for March 29th):
With the infinite amount of social sites and connections on the web, this is a huge undertaking. That is why I came up with this plan of action list with the highest priority items at the top. The idea is to generate as many touch points around the web as possible so that it will be hard not to spot the Age of Conversation activity.
1. Buy the Book & send others to buy the book.
This is the number 1 call to action, because this is where we want to see the most impact.
NOTE: Please buy 1 copy at a time because Amazon counts bulk orders once, and please use this affiliate link,
which will help us in tracking sales. Remember, ALL the proceeds from the book sales and referrals will go to great children’s charity.
2. Blog About It
Make sure you have a prominent link to the Amazon listing so that readers can easily purchase the book. (Remember to use the affiliate link above. All of these earnings will go to charity as well.)
3. Twitter Commentary
Join Drew and I as we give a Bum Rush play-by-play on Twitter. (Follow us: @Freshpeel, @DrewMcLellan, @Servantofchaos) We also ask that everyone saying anything about the Bum Rush to use the code #AOC so that it can be picked up by Twemes.com
4. Trackback or Comment on the post that Chris will leave here on March 29th at 12am CST, so that everyone can follow the conversation and help promote exposure on social sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, etc.)
5. Digg the posts listed here & send emails and shouts to friends requesting Diggs.
6. Stumble the posts listed & tell friends to do the same.
7. Bookmark your posts on Del.icio.us
8. Add your post to other social media outlets ( Technorati, Ma.gnolia, Furl, BlinkList, Newsvine, Facebook, etc.)
9. Send an Old Fashioned email to your friends about the Bum Rush for AoC.
10. Keep talking
Get on ooVoo, iChat, Aim, or where ever you like to talk, and start talking.
As usual, a BIG thanks goes out to Drew Mclellan and Gavin Heaton for starting and keeping the AOC excitement going.
Here is a post from one of my blogger friends, Phil Gerbyshak. When I started reading this post I began to think about the steep learning curve that I have been going through with the tech side of blogging. Phil is and Advisor for Minutefix so I know the company has to be good.
Hey, If just one person finds this site useful then that’s great.
I was going take the main points from Phil’s post but I decided to copy all of it.
Here is what Phil had to say,
Friends,
Do you work from home and have the occasional annoying technical problem that you can’t figure out, but you don’t want to go in and pay the Geek Squad $50 or more an hour to do something you KNOW can’t take more than 3 or 4 minutes?
Do you have a home PC that you’re dying to set up with wireless, but your team of helpers consists of the 17 year old neighbor kid you know is setting up your network so he can surf the web without his parents knowing?
Do you need a little help getting your PC back on the automatic updates schedule it was a few months ago, but that you just haven’t been able to make time for yet?
I’ve got a solution for you: MinuteFix. We can help you with any of your technical support issues on your computer, and we only charge you by the minute (hence the name, MinuteFix).
You might be a little concerned about how we’re going to do this, what the caliber of our techs are, and if the support is really great. I know I would be asking those questions, and plenty more.
Instead of me telling you, I invite you to head over to MinuteFix and check us out. There’s no cost until March 15th, so I’d bet you can get a few of your problems fixed, or at the least, you’d know that we are a great company and one you can count on to fix those annoying computer problems you’ve been having for years.
If you don’t need this service for you, perhaps you know someone who does, and you could share MinuteFix with them.
If you’re a blogger, I’d ask that you share this with all your readers, because many folks who only READ blogs aren’t very technical, and could use some help. Or click below on the site and Stumble this so we can get the word out.
Free tech support until March 15th, 2008. Only from MinuteFix. Thanks!
I hope someone benefits from this information. In fact, I think I may take some time to ask them a few questions myself.
Most mornings my wife and I usually make it a habit (like millions of other Canadians) to visit a Tim Horton’s to get a coffee and have a chat before we begin our day.
We recently purchased some Tim Horton mugs to play our small part to save the environment. The mug is a large coffee but we usually order a medium.
So what this have to do with that “little extra” (I knew you were probably wondering that by now). Well, you see most times (depending on where we go) the server at Tim Horton’s usually fills our large mug to the top even though we order a medium.
Big deal? … well, yeah, it is a big deal!
I really appreciate that “little extra” which the server gives me. Sometimes I may not even finish all of my coffee but it doesn’t matter. It is simply the thought that counts.
Besides, how much does it really cost Tim Horton’s for that little bit of coffee between a medium and large? A small amount to them but a big difference to me.
I really notice the “little extra” when I don’t get it. In fact, there was one time that a shift manager actually poured out a medium coffee in the regular cup and then poured the coffee into my reusable mug! Give me a break!
Anyway, forget coffee and forget Tim Horton’s …….. but don’t forget that “little extra”!
I’m sure you have probably heard about the quote which mentions the difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary as being that little “extra”. It may sound a little corny but it’s true!
Taking the time to give friends, relatives co-workers etc. that “little extra” will make all the difference in the world.
Let me give you one of my “little extra” examples while keeping with the coffee theme. When my wife and I went to Parent-Teacher interviews for our childen (when they were in elementary school) we would bring a coffee for the teacher.
My wife would actually email the teacher ahead of time and ask her what she liked in her coffee. Well, it didn’t take long for the word to spread through the school to make sure to book the Bannisters in the middle during P-T interviews so that you can have a coffee break!
Big cost to us? …. No! Big difference to the teacher? … you betcha!
Behold the power of that “little extra”
If you don’t believe me, go out and try it for yourself. Whenever someone asks you for a favour, give them a hand but then give a little extra … use your imagination and tell me how it goes.
Last night I was very fortunate to have heard the ultimate expert in Power Point presenting. His name is Dave Paradi and when it comes to Power Point Training, he is your man (just have a look at his bio)!
Dave’s website and blog has tons and tons of practical information that I know you’ll find useful. If you can’t find what you’re looking for than I’m sure that if you contacted Dave he’ll get an aswer for you asap (that’s just the kind of guy he is).
Here is just a small sample of one of Dave’s articles from his site:
How to Avoid “Death by PowerPoint”
Solving the Five Most Common Problems With PowerPoint Presentations
by Dave Paradi, MBA, co-author of “Guide to PowerPoint”
With more and more people using PowerPoint to deliver presentations, we are seeing it used poorly so many times that a new phrase has been coined to describe the poor use of visuals during a presentation – “Death by PowerPoint”. Here are the five most common problems with PowerPoint presentations and how you can solve them so that you avoid “Death by PowerPoint”.
Problem #1: The presenter focused more on the visuals than the content.
Problem #2: The audience can’t clearly see the slides.
Problem #3: The audience is distracted by the visuals.
Problem #4: Pointer movement on the screen.
Problem #5: Dropping into the program.
Of course, you’re going to have to read the whole article to learn more about each individual problem.
From now on I urge you to check with Dave and/or his website before you do any important Power Point Presentation (and no, I don’t get any kickbacks from this endorsement ).
A few nights ago I attended one of my bi-weekly Toastmasters meeting (I am the President of my local Toastmasters Club). You may have heard about Toastmasters but not really understood what it’s all about.
Well, through my experience (I’ve been in Toastmasters for around 8 years), people tend to think that Toastmasters International is a stuffy organization with formal procedures of how to conduct a meeting and give speeches.
Yes there are some procedures involved but the stuffiness couldn’t be farther from the truth. Toastmasters is all about helping people become better speakers. Skills learned from toastmasters can help you in any situation from a small committee meeting to speaking in front of hundreds of people.
Everyone can benefit from Toastmasters and as a result, all types of people tend to become members. Toastmasters International has organizations throughout the world so I would bet that there is a Club somewhere near you.
Why not look them up, give them a call and attend a meeting?
When you get back from the meeting, give me a shout and tell me how it went.
It’s the end of the week and it’s time to take a break!
I was thinking about what to post today and then it came to me … in the form of an email. I received an email from a friend which was one of those “pass this email along” emails. No, this wasn’t one of those, “you-better-email-this-email-to -ten-of-your-friends-or-something-terrible-will-happen-to-you!” emails.
This email was one which was to be shared by Newfoundlanders to make them realize what a unique and historic place we live in.
I am using this email to come up with a “Fun Fridays” post. These posts won’t necessarily be all about “Minding the Gap“. they are meant to a break on a Friday where I’ll post whatever picture or video I think is funny, interesting or whatever. If you see something fun and interesting then you’re more than welcome to send it along.
Anyway … back to this post. I haven’t really taken the time to talk about where I live. Home is certainly a special word that conjures up all sorts of feelings and memories for anyone you talk to.
My home is no different.
I have lived my whole life on an Island on the North Atlantic Ocean. My island called Newfoundland is part of Newfoundland & Labrador, with the Labrador being part of mainland Canada. Newfoundland & Labrador (NL) is one of ten provinces of Canada.
There are only 1/2 million people in NL but the Island is larger than Britain (which I think has around 65 million people). So … yes there are a lot of open spaces. Although my city, St. John’s has most of NL’s population (around 100,000).
Anyway, I could go on and on about how special my home is to me. Instead I’ll just list some of the interesting facts that my fellow Newfoundlander emailed me today:
Newfoundland is …
The first province to respond to Titanic distress signal.
Steve Bannister is passionate about ideas and people. He loves to learn and he is continually fascinated with what makes successful people tick (with "success" being whatever you define it to be). More stuff about Steve can be found on his website.
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