a few reMarks

I hope everyone had a happy holiday.  As we slowly clean our houses from the mess of Christmas morning, take note of the amount of waste this one day creates.   In fact according to Reduce.org between Thanks Giving and New Years household waste can increase by more than 25%.  This number is pretty astounding.

To help this here are some things my family has been doing for the last couple of year:

• Gift Tags- Instead of buying gift tags we cut the front cover off of the Christmas cards we receive and tape them to the packages and write right on them.
• Wrapping- We use gift bags when ever possible, since they can be used numerous times (in fact I cant remember when we last purchased gift bags).
• Bows- Bows are another thing that can be reused year after year.  Also instead of bows, tape one of those ornaments that didn't fit on the tree.

Any little bit helps in the goal of reducing our carbon foot print.  One of the packages we received this year came in a holiday napkin instead of paper.  This is a great idea that can be reused an endless number of times.  For more ideas on a green, eco-friendly holiday check out the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance website.  They have some great ideas on reducing Holiday Waste.

Again I hope your Holiday was as joyous as mine and I wish you a Happy New Years!

For those who know me, you know I am a deal hunter.  I really try not to pay MSRP for anything.  I am out every Black Friday early in the morning getting the once a year prices on the latest gadgets and generally dedicate my Sunday morning to scouring the ads for a good deal.  I have decided to share some of my secrets.  Below are a few of may favorite sites for Hot Deals:

• Deal Dump - Aggregates all the latest deals from some of the best deal sites on the web.
• Black Friday Ads - This site is great for Black Friday.  Posts the ads weeks in advance and also has a user deal rating tool and shopping list feature.
• Slick Deals - Great site it is also covered by Deal Dump but I like to visit it on its own since Deal Dump only shows latest 10 deals.
• Deal Spy - This site is still in its infancy.  However, has the potential to be very useful.  It uses a Digg like voting system to help eliminate some of the "fluff".  Like I said it's still new so sign up and start submitting so it gets better.

These are my favorites if you have a good one that is not listed here please leave it in a comment.  With these gas prices we all benefit.

This is from the O'Reilly Radar Blog.  Apparently Yahoo was just found guilty of copyright infringement.  The Yahoo search engine provided search results that allowed

user to illegally download copyrighted material.  Baidu, the website that hosted the illegal material, was not found guilty.  This is obviously more a political move than anything since "almost 70 percent of U.S. Customs seizures of pirated goods are traced back to China."  Companies like Microsoft have been battling piracy in China (without much help from the Chinese government) for years.  It will be interesting to see what develops from this.

A close friend recently recommended a book for me: How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The book was first published in 1937 and since has been translated into nearly every known written language. When you first tell people the title, you get some strange looks and no doubt some think you have a sever case of social anxiety. However, the book elegantly addresses one of life's everyday problems: "...the problem of getting along with and influencing people in your everyday, business and social environment."

Though this seems rather remedial; the importance of the lessons in this book are more significant now than ever. In our society of ever decreasing direct social contact, the importance of the impression left from direct social contact can make or break that business deal, or forever tag you as "that guy". We communicate more now than ever but it's thru a digital medium in our so called Web 2.0 paradigms such as Facebook and AIM. So when this actual face to face or even over the phone contact happens it's important for you to make a lasting impression, leave the other person remembering your name. This is where the book comes in. It helps you optimize your face to face contact to help you get what you want.

The book interestingly enough also is applicable to electronic communications. It is in part dedicated to wording conversations in such away that it benefits you unknowingly to the other person. This isn't any Jedi Mind Trick, instead the book teaches how to take advantage of the human psyche for your benefit.

The book is over 70 years old now, but it has proven to be timeless (maybe even more applicable now than ever). I once had a boss that when ever his Outlook inbox had more than 10 unread messages he just deleted them all. He said if it is important they will call. Don't underestimate the power of communicating the old fashion way. Or when using new means of communication make your words work for you; get the person to want to help you.

I recommend you check out the book. I was able to snag a used copy for about $5 with shipping on Amazon.com. Below is a link to it:

US Senator Harry Reid did us a momentary favor on Monday by pulling the Telcom Bill (at least till January). This bill would give the government the right to spy domestically without a search warrant. Therefore circumventing the IV Amendment and the need for probable cause. The New York Times has a nice editorial on the subject I recommend you check it out.

So after years of wondering why people write blogs and why people read them; I have decided to start my own blog. I myself subscribe to over 50 blogs. So hopefully I can make this interesting and people will actually read it.