Brilliant ideas log.

Every once in a while... or every few minutes... I come up with something I think is brilliant... usually its only me that thinks this.

Here's some from this week:

• An LED light with battery, and radio beacon to attach to indoor climbing walls for climbing comps so you can change the route remotely... or even as the climber is on it!
• Beer Runners... a beer and wine delivery company. Saves everyone from driving drunk. Add pizzas to that, and it basically prints its own money.
• Graffiti finder... a website you upload camera-phone photos of graffiti and get more information about it. Maybe even a google-maps of where all those tags are found.
  

Thats it so far, its been a slow week. I have had to dumb myself down to deal with work. Maybe when I quit I can smarten up again.

Ofcourse, the greatest of all is the Dayton Rickshaw Company... where we are a rickshaw taxi service!

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Dog owes me $64.45

Patina ate my sunglasses. She ate the ear piece, and bent them enough to weaken them... and the bridge broke. I sent them to Maui Jim to repair... here's my note:

Dear Maui Jim.

I love my sunglasses. So does my dog. Please make your sunglasses taste bad to dogs. It will have to be really bad though, because she eats poop!

-Russ

I hate to smell what they will send me in return.

Ugh

I no longer want to live in a place where someone says "Hey, its going to be warm tomorrow... in the 50's!" Whats worse is... I agreed, and thought it felt warm!

50 degrees can be described as chilly, cool, not as cold as it has been, warmer than it has been... but never should it be described as warm.

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Patina rules

Maria and I have been pretty busy working, and doing stuff around the house, and picking up dog poops. Thought I would share some of the moments we have had with the puppy.

She loves to play on the stairs... and is pretty tough.


Sometimes she plays so hard she plays in her sleep.


Back at it.

Advice from everyone

So, I am sitting in my little cube right now... have been all year. Its cold out, but the sun is shining. I don't enjoy my cube much, so I practice a new form of escapism, where you listen to pod-casts (internet talk-radio) about sailing all day. and I have pictures of my boat up on the walls, and background of my computer, and let my mind wander.

The particular podcast I have been listening too is furled sails... where they interview all these people who are sailing, or doing awesome sailing things. Often they will ask people who have shared a great story about their adventures what advice they would give anybody considering doing something similar.

The first thing that every single person has answered was "go do it". Thats the first advice that anybody ever gives... not what sort of boat to take, sort of gear, when, or how... but that anybody considering something similar, should just go do it.

I hope that some day I will be able to give similar advice.

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Even in Spam

My buddy Paul always has some displaced Nigerian king wanting to pay him to  help out with a little problem he has... or is contacted by someone who works at the bank, and found an error in record keeping leaving untold millions uncollected and wants to give some to him... or some how wins the British lottery (note, Paul sits next to me at work, no where near anything as cool as London).

Me... I win sometimes too... but the consolation prize.

---

Ref Nr: PBL/CN/6654/CP
Dear consolation Prize Winner,

We wish to congratulate and inform you on the
selection of your email
coupon number which was selected among the 6
lucky consolation prize
winners Your email ID identified with coupon No.
PBL2348974321 and
was selected by our E-games Random Selection
System (ERSS) with entries
fromthe 50,000 different email addresses
enrolled for the E-game.

Your email ID was included among the 50,000
different email addresses
submitted by our partner international email
provider companies.
You  have won a consolation cash prize of GBP
1,500,000.00 (One
MillionFive Hundred Thousand Great Britain
Pounds) only.

You are to contact the DPU Officer with the
following details for the

release of your winnings.

Claims Requirements:

1.Name in full:
2.Home Address:
3.Age:
4.Occupation:
5.Phone Number:
6.Present Country:
7.Sex:
Contact Person: Mr Anderson Moore
Contact E-mail: email removed to protect the scammer

TEL: Tel: +44-701-114-7850



Regards
Mrs. Stella Bryan
(Group Co-ordinator

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So, not even when its fake, or spam can I win the main prize!     

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Sorry

I am sorry to every other "professional" out there who hates me for wearing pants with integrated belt systems, don't brush my hair, wear alot of fleece, sometimes wear pants with holes in them, don't have a orderly desk, drink alot of coffee, don't act my age, say "thats what she says" every chance I get, wear a tie only once a year, yearn for my uniform to consist of only board shorts, hate hearing myself talk so much that nobody knows what I said, don't believe in umbrellas, and am only friends with people I actually respect.

But, this is not my first rodeo.



Had to get that off my chest.

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Pee everywhere

We had a bit of a scare with Patina last week... she was sick, wouldn't eat... and pee'd a little blood. We took her to the vet, and turns out she had a little bladder infection... which is getting cleared up.

Life is adjusting to her... which is quite an adjustment. I have taught her how to sit, how to fetch, and how to make Maria mad by peeing in the house. She does all 3 pretty well... and we have moved on to lay down, and bark-all-night. She is catching on to bark-all-night faster than lay down... but I think she'll get it eventually.

Seriously... potty training a puppy with a bladder infection, or Urinary Tract infection is not the easiest thing to do. She seems to pee right after you bring her back in from peeing outside. Once we get her last set of shots, we are taking her to obedience school so she can learn to do handstands, and cartwheels... or atleast how to walk next to me.

She does a good job of not chewing on cords, and helped me paint a room the other day without getting into anything. She has an issue understanding not to jump up on people, jump up onto furniture, and with biting. The vet told us to just act like she hurt you when she bites... so I tried that... she seemed to enjoy inflicting the pain, and bit more, and harder. Now I grab her nose, and hold it closed till she settles... and that seems to be starting to work.

Also... I read some awesome advice which nobody ever mentioned to me. I wasn't sure she understood the pack mentality of being with us... and that she thought she was the leader. Then I read that if you lay a dog on his/her side, and keep her there till she submits, she will realize your the pack leader. We have done that a few times... and I definitely can tell a difference. I am surprised I never heard that before... I guess momma dogs do that all the time when a pup gets out of hand.

I can't wait till she's potty trained... thats going to be an awesome day. I just told Maria last night how good she was all weekend, and how she didn't have an accident, when I caught a whiff of some horrible smell coming from the other room. She came wandering out with that "ahhh... I feel better" look on her, and there sitting in the middle of the room was a nice, steaming pile for us to pick up. So close. Once we can get her potty trained, teach her to not bite, and to stay off the furniture... I think that things will get alot easier at home.

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Family addition

Maria and I had an awesome break. We went to Vegas for Christmas and New years... and ended up coming home with a new puppy!



She's a 14 week old Vizsla girl named Patina... and she's awesome, and cute, and awesome, and needy, and awesome, and hyper, and awesome, and lazy, and awesome, and whiny... but she's pretty awesome.

Here's the story. Maria and I had looked at her and her litter mates before New Years... there were 8 total puppies rescued. Patina (then called Pumpkin) came right over, and climbed into my coat when we met... then she started bouncing around everywhere. She was adorable, and hyper. We discussed it and decided that we didn't need a puppy complicating our lives.

So, the day we were leaving, we talked again... and changed our minds. Ofcourse, its an hour before we need to be to the airport. We ended up changing out flight to the next day, and started the adoption process. The rescuer had some doubts, but after talking a while figured that Patina would have a pretty good home with us.

The next morning we picked the pup up. We had 2 hours before our plane, so we went to the pet store, and bought her some stuff for the plane. We had to get a carrier because they don't let you just have the dog running around... yeah, I dunno why either. Turns out... she's a bit of an escape artist. We found this out when the guy infront of us asked why there was a puppy grabbing his feet. She had broken the zipper on the bag and was making her way to the cockpit to see what was going on. Luckily she didn't get away... and we got her back into the bag.

She was pretty chill the whole flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta... didn't really complain too much. But the plane was hot, and the only time she whined was when she was over heating. We had a few hours to kill in Atlanta... and I was sure she needed to relieve herself... so we found one of those family bathrooms, and bought a newspaper. She had alot to relieve... glad she waited till them... that would have SUCKED if she had done that on the plane.

We chilled in the airport for a while where we ran into several people who knew that she was a Vizsla, and told us that they are the best dogs in the world... smart, and very trainable... and very well behaved. Thats pretty cool.

She did very well on the flight to Dayton too... although she made it obvious she doesn't like to be in that little bag under a seat.

The little girl is home now, and we have begun settling into a routine of waking up, going outside to potty... come inside, play, clean up her accident, go back outside... don't potty, come back in play, outside to potty, nap, outside to potty, nap, play, clean accident, outside to potty... etc, etc. We have a crate for her to sleep in... which she's doing ok with, when we are around. She complains alot when we aren't around though. She's pretty needy... but she's cute, so she gets away with it.



There will be more stories as she grows up.

A recent forwarded message

A friend forwarded this on, and I thought this was interesting... it made me think enough atleast to think it might be interesting to other people.

---

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably,if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.


Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

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