Advice
10th Wedding Anniversary
On Sunday my Wife and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We met in college and took about 95% of the same classes. So between dating and being married we have been together about 13-1/2 years.
To be clear, we do have arguments from time to time. And discussions can get heated, but they get worked out. The key is to get back up, grow and move forward.
We started celebrating by having dinner at Macaroni Grill. It was an Anniversary dinner plus two. The two are our kids. It was a great Italian dinner starting with fried mozzarella, Italian sodas, a garden salad, and then some huge entrees. The 7 layer lasagna and honey balsamic chicken were delicious, but we boxed up most of them for meals later during the weekend. For dessert we had Three-Berry Tiramisu, needless to say it was good too.
Then on Saturday night we got a baby sitter and went off to the movies. We went to see Iron Man. We thought it started at 8:00 PM but found out it changed to 7:45 PM. It was ok, because it saved us 15 minutes of watching movie previews.
What’s next? I am planning an Anniversary trip and would like suggestions. We are want to go away for about seven days and flying there. Post a comment and let me know where you suggest going.
Happily Married,
Sam Carrara
Save Time with LeechBlock
I found another good way to reclaim your time in the form of a FireFox extension/plugin. LeechBlock lets you set times and domains to block to help you get more accomplished.
Really it helps you to avoid looking at the newest Anime episode when you should be working.
To read the whole review see it at LifeHacker-
http://lifehacker.com/374812/save-yourself-from-time-sinks-online-with-leechblock
Save Time,
Sam Carrara
Get Back Up
How many times have you tried something and failed at it? For me it’s numerous times. There are a few good quotes to encourage you to fail again.
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. (Thomas Edison) This was in response to all the ways to create a light bulb that didn’t work. What if we gave up on the 147th try? You may be in the dark.
Fall down seven, Get up eight. In Japanese it is translated nana korobi ya oki. No matter the number of times you fall, get back up.
Some people fall and refuse to try again. Don’t be one of those people. Pick yourself up and try again. LEARN from your mistakes. Push past failure to success.
See what Keith Goodrum had to say about getting back up:
http://www.keithgoodrum.com/help-ive-fallen-i-refuse-to-get-back-up/
Get Back Up,
Sam Carrara
Unclutter Your House- 3 Solutions
Do you have books, DVDs, CDs and other items lying around your house? Have you used them in the last year? I have alot of said items that are using up space. I’m planning to get rid of many of these items over the next month.
Why would you unclutter your house? Two Reasons:
- Sanity- Many studies have shown that a cluttered house causes anxiety. So clean it up and reduce your stress, this can help you get your creative juices flowing.
- Money- As a fast food restaurant slogan goes, “Because you gotta eat.” Selling items helps raise money to pay bills (car, house, utilities, etc.) or fund product launches (marketing, producing, paying fees, etc.).
Here’s what I’m going to do with them:
- Trash- There are items that have little to no value that it would be easier just to throw them away. Magazines, newspapers, receipts (non-business ones), etc.
- Donate- Medium value items are good to donate to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. The money they make on them will help their programs continue. You can get a receipt to get a tax deduction, but many times I forgo that. I that by giving to others, I will get more back later (Law of Reciprocity).
- Sell- Those items that have a higher dollar value can be sold at auction. They need to be higher dollars due to the fact of shipping, listing and credit card cost. As a minimum I would say something that sells for $20 or more. If you end up making a regular business of this your figure may go up or down. Don’t forget to figure in your time, it is valuable.
To get started visit the link below and start listing items:
http://www.samcarrara.com/auction
I’ll give more tips soon to help you out. If you have specific questions, leave a comment. To let you know I have gotten warnings from EBay before for violations I didn’t know existed. If you get too many of those, you lose your account no matter how many positive ratings you have. Stay tuned to learn…
Unclutter,
Sam Carrara
p.s. Just say no to clutter. Tell me your clutter story, best one gets a prize.
A Job Halfway Done- SFO Solar
Conundrum of ideas at the San Francisco Airport (SFO). Are they really being green? Let’s look at two areas of the airport:
1) I saw on the roofs of the different terminals they have solar panels (or photo voltaic panels) to reduce use of coal, nuclear or other fuels used by PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric- the local utility). This is a good move to help improve the environment.
2) I noticed in the baggage claim they have inefficient T12 fluorescent (older thick bulbs) lighting. It doesn’t make sense. If you want to save energy, consider your whole building.
Looks like a job halfway done… They are producing power using solar, but not saving energy by using inefficient lighting fixtures.
Apply this to your own business. What looks good to most people, and what areas need work? Work to improve all areas of your business.
Learn more about the solar panels at:
http://www.enviro.aero/SanFranciscoInternationalAirportandsolarpower.aspx
Do It Right,
Sam Carrara
