Stop Buying Bottled Water Now
by Mike on July 2, 2009
in Mission: H2O
I advocate for clean drinking water for everyone in the world. 1.1 billion people don’t have clean drinking water, yet Americans seem to think it’s okay to BUY water from corporations. I’m known to drink Gatorade and other sports drinks, so I’m not going to act like a saint…but I do not purchase bottled water anymore for the simple fact that I think it is morally wrong to privatize water.
If you think I am crazy and shouldn’t worry about this, that’s fine…you’re entitled to your opinion. But it is written: “For we are what [God] has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10.
If my humanitarian efforts don’t stop you from drinking bottled water, maybe this presentation that has been floating around the internet.
God Bless.
Tribute to MJ
Last week the world lost the greatest entertainer we have ever seen, Michael Jackson.
The Game, Chris Brown, Usher, and Diddy made a tribute song to MJ. Check it out…
In loving memory of Michael Jackson.
Rest In Peace.
Public Enemies
Five hours ago I had a strange feeling that I had forgotten to do something seriously important today.
I finished all my tasks at work, I ate dinner, checked email…what could I have been forgetting.
A bright light popped on in my mind and I was reminded…Public Enemies came out today!
I rushed onto Google and learned that the last showing was at 11:30pm and would not be done until 2am. I decided to take the risk of inadequate sleep, and being noticed attending a movie by myself.
And I’m glad I did.
I will not disclose any details (although if you know the story of John Dillinger it wouldn’t be a surprise to you) but I will say this: It was amazing. I have not seen a movie this good in quite some time. I’m usually biased toward gangster movies, but regardless of my love for them I give it an A+. The story is pretty accurately depicted (a few changes to it, but I can overlook them).
Johnny Depp did an outstanding job depicting John Dillinger (both John D…coincidence?), and Christian Bale gave a great performance as Melvin Purvis. The rest of the cast did an awesome job too. While there were no scenes in St. Paul, they did mention the city’s name, and discussed the Hamm kidnapping (double points for my hometown being involved, even if it was just by speech).
I know people will be celebrating Independence Day this weekend, but if you have time to stray away from the fireworks for a couple of hours, you will be thrilled with the movie.
Here’s a trailer to tease you until you see it:
Mission: H2O
by Mike on June 27, 2009
in Mission: H2O
After a few months of thinking, I’ve finally developed an idea that is close to fruition: I want to build a well for my birthday.
Enter Mission: H2O.
I’ve tried other names in the past, SaveBlue, SafeBlue, Watr.Me, but none of them seemed to move me the way Mission: H2O does.
I’ve been involved with church mission trips since I was a youngin in 8th grade. Recently I’ve been missing out on them, and realized that’s what’s missing in my life. Service.
I’ve contacted charity: water about fundraising for a well and have yet to hear back from them. I would love to get it going ASAP so I can hit my goal of $5000 by November 8.
Depending on how successful this campaign is, I will be asking for another well for Christmas, and then other holidays throughout the year.
Mission: H2O is not a mission that has an end point. Mission: H2O will be successfully completed when every person on the planet has clean drinking water. I know that’s a lofty goal, but, ironically, it’s the big goals that are typically easier to achieve.
Praise God, Give Water!
Stoicism
by Mike on April 13, 2009
in Philosophy
I read a blog article from Tim Ferriss’ blog today about Stoicsim. It was mainly a guest post by Ryan Holiday with a few comments from Tim. Tim has talked about this particular philosophical school of thought for a while and now he wrote a brief crash course on it. It’s quite interesting and has inspired me to dive deeper into the philosophy.
You can read more about it if you like, I won’t pontificate right now as I know very little about it. What I do know is that it is generally simple to understand and is more of a practical philosophy that is meant to be LIVED rather than DISCUSSED. This, Tim says, lends itself to being left out of teacher’s lectures and textbooks.
In college while taking philosophy classes and political theory classes I often enjoyed discussions about the ideas that were presented, but found it difficult to actually put them into practice in their entirety. Perhaps the reason for the difficulty in practicing such philosophical theories is that they have become dogmatic (although Marx argued that his philosophy should be evolving rather than leaving it in the 1800s, as it often is).
Anyway…I’m going to read some more about Stoicism and report back. I’m excited to study philosophy that is actually useful.
Anyone familiar with this philosophy?
Discipline is Bogus: Control Your Environment, Not Your Temptations
by Mike on January 30, 2009
in Productivity
I’m out of town this weekend, but I’ve just found a cool feature on WordPress that allows me to schedule a time for a post to be published (yes I’m slow). I wrote this on Tuesday, but it is being published Friday night.
One of my favorite productivity gurus, Tim Ferriss, has grazed this topic in many interviews and speeches he has given, but I would like to discuss it as a serious idea.
The concept of discipline is an old one: try not to yield to bad temptations (sleeping in, being lazy, eating junk food). As technology advances and alerts multiply, it is becoming more and more difficult to stay focused on the subject at hand.
When an email from your friend pops up asking you if you’d like to go to a movie later in the week, it is easy to reply right away. This habit of email as instant messaging is becoming an epidemic. You would probably reply, perhaps adding more to the event and asking for a response. Your brain is then preoccupied with the anticipation of the reply email. And this is all over a trivial event that is not really important at the moment.
How annoying is it to have your email pop up every time you get a message? How distracting is it to have your RSS reader alert you every time a blog is updated? The solution is simple: turn them off. Likewise, if you work at home, and find that you get little to nothing done, try leaving your home and going to a coffee shop with wifi, or the local library.
Three guidelines I’ve found helpful:
When picking your out of the house office, don’t pick a place you go to often with friends. Pick an entirely different location where you will work. You will eventually associate work with this location, so every time you walk in you will be in work mode.
Designate a two exact times a day when you check email. Inform people of your rules, so if they have an emergency they will know to contact you in a different way. A simple way to do this is to set up an email responder informing the sender of the message of your email rules. (Tim Ferriss)
Don’t spend too much time thinking. Just like your muscles, your brain needs time to relax. You wouldn’t sit at the bench press for two or three hours at a time and lift continually, so why should you do that with your brain? Just make sure your resting periods don’t allow for bad temptations.
What are some of your productivity rules to live by?
How To Make Cafe Cubano (Cuban Coffee)
Three years and a couple months ago, I was privileged enough to go on a church mission trip to Cuba. While I was there I met some amazing people, learned about the culture, and ate some of the most outstanding food I have ever had.
One of the foods I had was actually a drink. This drink is a staple in Cuban Cuisine, and is served both day and night. It is slightly bitter, with a decent amount of sweetness to balance it out. I am talking, of course, about Cafe Cubano, Cuban Coffee.
There are a few ways to make Cafe Cubano, so if you are familiar with a different way, please post your way in the comments.
First take a stovetop espresso maker and fill it with water as you normally would. Pack the coffee grounds into the appropriate cup (use Cuban coffee if you can, otherwise the darkest roast you can find). In the collection chamber at the top, put one teaspoon of sugar per 2 ounces of coffee (it is going to be sweet, that’s how it’s supposed to be). Brew the coffee on the stove. When it is finished stir the rest of the sugar into the coffee. Pour in demitasse cups and enjoy in the company of good friends.
If you don’t make your Cafe Cubano this way, no worries. Post your recipe in comments.
Baking Powder-less Pancakes
I woke up this morning and had a craving for pancakes. I had no Bisquik (like my mom makes) so I had to find a recipe online.
I scoured the internet for a good recipe. I had all the ingredients except one: baking powder.
I finally typed in “pancakes without baking powder,” and the following recipe popped up on epinions.com:
4 eggs, separated
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 2/3 cups skim milk
2 cups flour
Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks until light. Add in remaining ingredients, except egg whites. Beat egg whites until stiff; then fold into batter. Fry in a non stick skillet with cooking spray.
(http://www0.epinions.com/hmgd-review-1C85-B529514-3947DD71-prod2)
This recipe produced light skinny pancakes. It’s a nice recipe to have on hand.
Enjoy!
Career Builder/Monster Users Prey for Pyramid Scam Artists?
Like many Americans, I am in the market for a new job. I have spoken with friends, family, and other acquaintances, and they are helping me on my journey. As another avenue to find a job, I opened an account on CareerBuilder.com.
I received two calls from employers that found me on CareerBuilder, but I had never heard of them: Bay Area Promotions (BAP) and American Income Life Insurance (AIL). I tried to research BAP but could not find anything prior to the interview. I did some research on AIL and it seemed like a good thing to try out.
I arrived at BAP and the office was in a cheap office building with cheap furniture. My interviewer, JT Schultz, was so damn full of himself it was sickening. The AIL office was similar: cheap furniture and it appeared they were moving in, they were in an old office building in downtown Minneapolis. I began the interview with an unintelligent woman named Bethany Nielsen who doubled as a secretary. At both interviews I was given a questionnaire to fill out with some strange questions on it (Are you a “student”? Do you want to get rich? Do you like receiving residual income?).
At BAP I accepted an offer to go on a job shadow with an “employee”. BAP represents a few companies and does direct marketing/sales to customers in stores. I followed a guy around a Circuit City selling DirecTV. I began to smell something fishy on the ride to Circuit City when he mentioned he is on a commissions only pay schedule and that he knew he would run his own office some day…it was allegedly the goal of all the “employees” of BAP. I also observed that BAP was a subsidiary of SmartCircle.
At AIL I was put in a room with three other people and forced to listen to a presentation of their too good to be true life insurance. Then we were shown the financial potential of a career path with the company. I noticed AIL was affiliated with a company called Altig International, and was a subsidiary of Torchmark Corporation. After the two video presentations Tom asked us to stand up and tell him what excited us about the video. Everyone said the earning potential; Tom was pleased. He then asked me specifically what I, as an entrepreneur, was excited to do in my life. I responded with I would like to do some good for the community through social service or non-profit work. Tom was not pleased with this answer.
I refused to call BAP back, and I left the AIL office without a goodbye when Tom began conducting personal interviews.
Some characteristics of Pyramid/MLM schemes are:
Emphasis on large earning potential
Emphasis on moving up management quickly
Reception of residual income
Start-up fees (AIL wanted this from me)
Wanting student-minded individuals
Use of proven sales techniques
Bribery with vacations or other incentives
There are two resources I’ve found online to research companies you feel may be Pyramid/MLM schemes: Scam.com, Ripoffreport.com
I hope this helps you in your job hunt. Please do not fall for the scams.
Blog Action Day 08 – Poverty
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, and is focused on a topic of high importance. This year the topic is Poverty.
Poverty is something that exists every day, all over the world, even in the US. I have traveled around the country with my church group every summer since 8th grade, and I’ve seen poverty firsthand.
My first mission trip was to Pueblo, Colorado. I had just finished 8th grade (14 years old) so I wasn’t totally concerned with the mission aspect quite yet…I just wanted to be with my friends. Nonetheless, I remember helping build a home, and install a playground.
The second and third trips I went on were to Wheeling, WV (not sure why we did back to back trips to the same place, but we did). We assisted in re-designing a building to turn into a youth center, helped on a farm, and did some home construction work.
The fourth trip was to Albuquerque, NM. We stayed at a Christian school, sort of like a prep school. We helped out with some demolition and construction on the property, and helped at a daycare near by as well.
Holland, Michigan was the destination of the fifth trip (my last as a high school student). We stayed at Hope College, and assisted in a few Habitat for Humanity projects around town.
When I found out about the College Youth Group traveling to Cuba, I had to say “I’m in.” This trip was like no other, and I will save it for a separate post…stay tuned.
Two years ago I traveled to Fargo/Moorhead as a leader on the Middle School Mission Trip. We helped at a soup kitchen organizing different types of food in the warehouse. We also worked in a garden on the White Earth Chippewa Reservation.
The most recent mission trip I went on was to Southwest Minnesota (Mankato, Pipestone and Worthington). I was a leader on this trip as well. We helped at the Mankato Salvation Army, a thrift store in Pipestone, and assisted in teaching English at a school in Worthington.
This post is NOT intended to brag about my accomplishments. I am blessed with the opportunity to have helped all who I have. I sadly realize, however, that there is MUCH more work to be done. If you are a blog author, PLEASE blog about poverty today.
It is ironic that I found out about this event today, and that the topic of poverty was chosen this year. Last night I began thinking of a way to make social change using social media outlets, such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. It is nice to see that this is happening already (and probably has been happening for quite some time). I am going to continue my search for creating social change using these social media outlets.
Anyone want to help?
