Ed sent me this video he found on Seth Godin’s Blog. I love it. It’s about one of the most important and often overlooked human characteristics: curiosity. It’s a trait we should all strive to develop.

The film was made by Nic Askew of monday9am, a film-maker from Minneapolis. There are a bunch of interesting shorts on his website.

A Couple of weeks ago Laura and I went to dinner with our friends Abigail and Andrew. We Chose Everest on Grand, a Nepali restaurant in St Paul.

About halfway through our meal, I noticed a very tall and vaguely familiar man standing in the entry to the restaurant. Shortly later, the man and the woman accompanying him were seated at a table right next to us.

I whispered to Laura “Is that the guy from Babe?”.

She turned around and said “Oh My God, it is!”

We confirmed it with Andrew and Abigail, and Andrew got this video on his phone.

Not the most famous of celebrities (None of us even knew his name, but we all knew the face) but fun nonetheless. I Looked him up on IMDB later that night, and found out that he is an interesting guy. He’s outspoken on several progressive causes and animal rights (He’s been banned from Wendy’s in Virginia after being arrested during a PETA protest) and in the 60’s was a supporter of the Black Panther Party.

On September 3rd at around 7:00 Mountain Time, I wrapped up my 25th year of life on this planet. It’s pretty crazy to realize I’ve been alive for a quarter of a century.

Here are some things I think I’ve figured out in my 9131 days:

Travel as much as possible to places as far away as possible. There’s nothing better than a change in scenery to give you bit of perspective on the world. The older you get, the less time you seem to have, so travel a lot when you are young.

The best way to be successful in life is to surround yourself with people who’s skills, talents and virtues compliment your own. Partnership is very powerful.

Try not to have enemies, they’re rarely worth the time and energy spent avoiding them.

The traditional way of doing things is not always the best way.

I’m not sure how long this has been going on, but CNN.com now has a satire article on their front page every day.
I love The Onion, but I don’t think their fake news belongs on a legitimate news site, even if it is marked as “Satire”.

Is this worse than the other stuff that passes for news (Lindsay, Paris) these days?

Check out this video. It is a very artistic and informative video on the history of the web, and what role it is beginning to play in our society as it evolves. The world wide web is really a machine that is learning from everybody who uses it.

Laura and went to IKEA on Sunday to buy some new dressers and other home furnishings. Interior design is all about details. What’s the old saying about the devil and the details?

From Wikipedia:

A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe…
…The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia (a word that is derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Παρασκευή, δεκατρείς, and φοβία, meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively; alternate spellings include paraskevodekatriaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia) or friggatriskaidekaphobia, and is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen.

I think friggatriskaidekaphobia might be the best word ever.

This ad is brilliant.

If “Awesomely Bad” were in the dictionary, there would be picture of this guy as an example.

Not so funny, and slightly creepy, it’s what this ad represents that I love about it.
I am just utterly amused that this is what TV advertising has come to.

The quotation that sums it up best is one of my favorite regarding business and marketing:

“No one ever got rich overestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
- P. T. Barnum.

Is getting it into the heads of your customers the most important thing no matter what the impression you leave?
That’s all for now. I gotta go buy some Berries and Cream Starburst.