Top Five on Exploration

Laurence Bergreen gives his top five list of books on exploration.

I'd add:

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone by Martin Dugard [Marvelous book!]

Facing The Congo by Jeffrey Tayler [Chilling and fascinating.]

Miscellaneous and Fast

The audience dress code for television talk shows.

Memorable - but not good - customer service in a big box store.

A trip to the dentist.

Dennis Prager is against anonymous messages on the Internet.

Robert D. Kaplan on the American military presence in Africa. [HT: Real Clear Politics ]

Classic comedy from Rita Rudner.

Quote of the Day

An acre of performance is worth the whole world of promise.

- J.B. Howell

Web Blog Award Finalists

The finalists for the 2007 Web Blog Awards are out.

Special congratulations to Evil HR Lady for making the finals for the Best Business Blog!

A Search for the Overlooked

Right now, despite your "To Do" lists and priority rankings and state of the art calendar reminder systems, you are overlooking something important.

What could it be?

In order to discover the likely culprit, you'll first have to give yourself some time think, preferably by slipping off to a coffee shop, library, or park where you are unlikely to run into friends and where you can review your current list of activities.

Once you've gained some seclusion, make a list of Things I'm Procrastinating On. The list may be fairly lengthy, at least if you're honest, but it will probably differ from your daily "To Do" chores. This is because by simply asking, "What have I been avoiding?" you'll open the door to feelings and not just projects. You are avoiding action for a reason, such as fear of confrontation, but that reason will not improve with time; indeed, the situation may get much worse. Furthermore, that fear may have kept you from adding the list to the items that receive your daily scrutiny since even thinking of the project may be upsetting.

Once it is spotted, you'll know it's the one (and, of course, there may be more than one).

Do something today to achieve that task, even if it is merely scheduling time to work on the matter next week and the week beyond. You'll be on your way to reducing the stress that the uncompleted project may have subconsciously produced.

Boomers Lament

P.J. O'Rourke on the long goodbye of the Baby Boomers. An excerpt:

O rend thy garments, America! Heap ashes upon thy head. We, the generation of generations--triumphant in our multitudes, invincible, indomitable, insufferable--have come into our inheritance. Hereby we claim our birthright. Give us all your money.

The pittance that is a current Social Security payment was intended to maintain the doddering retirees of yore in their accustomed condition of thin gruel and single-car garages. Such chump change will hardly suffice for today's vigorous sexagenarians intent on (among other things) vigorous sex, in places like Paris, St. Bart's, and Phuket.

How can present Social Security allotments be expected to fund our sky-diving, bungee-jumping, hang gliding and white-water rafting, our skiing, golf and scuba excursions, our photo safaris to Africa, bike tours of Tuscany and sojourns at Indian ashrams, our tennis clinics, spa treatments, gym memberships and personal fitness training, our luxury cruises to the Galapagos and Antarctica, the vacation homes in Hilton Head and Vail, the lap pools, Jacuzzis, and clay courts being built thereat and the his and hers Harley Davidsons?

College Expenses

Seth Godin explores the cost of undergraduate college in the United States and asks, "Is it worth it?"

Quote of the Day

It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.

- Winston Churchill

News Flash

The person who walked out of your presentation was not upset at something you said. He had to make a phone call.

The colleague who asked why the office should adopt your proposal does not hate you or seek to embarrass you. She simply wants to know why the office should adopt your proposal.

The reason why the committee didn't circulate your analysis was not a conspiracy. Someone forgot to send it out.

The people in the cafeteria didn't notice the stain on your tie; in fact, they barely noticed you at all.

This morning, your boss didn't say hello to you in the hallway because she was thinking about the news that her favorite uncle is dying.

That embarrassing mistake from three years ago - the one that still causes you to cringe whenever you recall it in the middle of the night - is remembered by no one else.

The suspicious event that you think is too neat to be a coincidence is a example of why the word "coincidence" was coined.

Quote of the Day

Bad readers have asked me if I was drugged when I wrote some of my works. But that illustrates that they don't know anything about literature or drugs. To be a good writer you have to be absolutely lucid at every moment of writing, and in good health.

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez