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Paul & MarkDecember 3

Paul & Mark

Originally uploaded by wsh1266

Bob Goyetche, one of my favorite people ever, tagged me in a new meme, where you go to the 6th page of your flickr photos, pick the 6th picture, and place it on your blog. Interesting that this one was from Podcamp Philly, featuring Bob’s partner from the Canadian podcast Buffet and Podcasters Across Borders, Mark Blevis and Paul Muller, aka the Caffination Podcast.

In turn, I am going to tag Christopher Penn, Matthew Ebel, Chel Pixie, Paul Muller, Chris Brogan and Megin Hatch from GNM Parents, just for fun.

Why I Hate PC’s and Symantec in ParticularDecember 2

I had a copy of Norton/Symantec Aintvirus and their security software running on my HP media center PC m7680n- about three years old, running XP, but it is a “VISTA” ready computer.  The subscription was about to expire.  Norton warned me multiple times a day for over a month to renew, and I didn’t, just because they were bugging me so much.

(For the record, I also object strenuously to the fact that Norton and other virus protection software hold you hostage and make you pay a yearly user fee to keep your PC from blowing up- it’s like a computer tax to a private company, but I’ll save that part of this rant for another day.)

So I renewed on the last day.  Downloaded Internet Security Package 2009- an upgrade from a regular renewal.  It downloaded, but would not install.  I then had to uninstall everything, and it still won’t install.  I have to wait now to chat with someone online, number 11 in their queue for support, down from 15.  This has chewed up way too much of my time, required way too many restarts and reinstalls and uninstalls to try to make this hunk of junk work properly.  Oh, and you can’t use Firefox or Chrome, you can only use Explorer to use the chat feature.  Joy.

I have been considering a new Mac anyway- I love my mac book pro laptop, and the fact that everything just works.  All the time.  But I have most of my podcasting stuff set up on the PC, and didn’t want to go through the hassle of switching stuff o

Umoo, a Finance Game with Learning ComponentDecember 1

I’m running a multi-player-game this week on Umoo- a stock-related finance game.  I’d love it if you’d help me  help them kick the tires for fun- they’re even giving prizes- books or amazon cash for books to the top three finishers!

Umoo has a great interface where you can play in a virtual stock market - using the real stock market’s data.  It’s like that stock game they run in economics class- only online, will a cool interface, and a chance for prizes, even when you play just for fun.  There is a play for cash component, but being conservative financially,  I certainly prefer the “for fun” category.

I know that with the roller coaster aspect of the current stock market, I’m nervous about where to invest my money for the long term.  The mattress isn’t practical, and putting everything in diversified mutual funds sounds okay, but those guys aren’t picking stocks any better than I can.  So Umoo seems like a fun way to learn about things like shorting stocks- something I have always been a bit leery about, and practice, using real stock market data, before you go and make that investment yourself will real live dollars.

The great folks at Umoo are doing this to help introduce people to their site, and are offering some cool prizes- either books out of my Amazon store- which I put up to collect all the titles I talk about here on the blog or on the LD Podcast mostly for convenience sake. (I think I made a whopping $10 this ye

The Cafe versus Mass MarketNovember 29

Chris Brogan had an interesting post up today about “Cafe-shaped conversations” that got me thinking. The big versus the small, the mass versus the individual touch- this is a classic dichotomy we all struggle with in our lives. Are we part of a group (safety in numbers) or are we individuals, acknowledged for what makes us special and unique? And if you are trying to sell stuff to LOTS of people, how do you deal with this fundamental seesaw of mass versus customization?

In a typical day, in a typical store, my choices seem infinite. There may be plenty of options, but sometimes, none of them fit what I need, want, or imagine in my mind. Because there are so many choices, rather than just one carton of one flavor of orange juice, you can spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to figure out the price/quality/flavor differential for everything you buy- and that’s just the grocery store.

If you walk into a clothing store, or a “junior department store” like TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, the selections and choices are many, often jarring to the senses, and leave me with more questions about

Thanksgiving and GratitudeNovember 27

Sometimes, it’s easy to get carried away with the “stuff” on holidays- preparing major meals, worrying about gifts, the house, the details- when in the end, the holidays, at their best, are all about friends and family.  This is your home community- the people who “have” to love you, and despite the fact that they probably aren’t the perfect TV family, they have their own unique appeal.  And I think if you always try to take the opportunity to find what you love about someone, you can spend a whole lot less time taking inventory of their faults, and more time realizing what gifts they bring into your world.

A few months ago, for example, I ran into an old high school friend randomly in Philadelphia.  It’s been super getting to spend time with her again after all these years- I had not seen her for almost 20 years!  She came to Thanksgiving at our house, and I felt like I had a lot to be thankful for- good friends, nice family, and basically pretty blessed all the way around.

Now, family is not without its irritations.  Your family knows how to press your buttons and how to say things that rub you the wrong way in ways strangers never will.  They know how to get in your business and put you right back into that place of teenage angst and awkwardness unlike anyone else on the planet.  But surprisingly, you can let go of this and focus on the good and generous side of people.  It takes a while to develop the ability to look at comments as c