Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says

This item from the Washington Post should cause everyone to stand up and pay attention. According to the General Social Survey which was funded by the National Science Foundation, over a quarter of the population has no one to talk to besides their spouse. Even more alarming is that the average person has only two people in their closest circle of confidants. The reasons cited for the lack of social connections were more hours at work, the pressure of having to have parents working among others.

I think that what exacerbates the problem more is the lack of trust between people. At my place of employment, there are little opportunities to interact socially with people away from the job. The focus of relationships at work is usually geared toward getting work done, meeting deadlines, and avoiding standing in the unemployment line. Most people that I interact with away from the job has taken time out to really get to know me, as I do with them.

Jesus had twelve disciples that he relied on to spread the gospel throughout his ministry. Each disciple was unique in his own character, but Jesus came to rely upon them for their input in saving a lost world. It would have been harder for him to do it by himself.

I wonder if everyone has at least 12 good friends that they can rely on for comfort. It is helpful for a person's emotional and spiritual well-being. If you only have one friend, take time out and make new ones. Your life would surely benefit from it.

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USA and Canada Current Average Gas Prices By City/State/Province - GasBuddy.com

GasBuddy.com lists from the USA and Canada Current Average Gas Prices By City/State/Province. If you want to travel to Hawaii, make sure that someone else drives you. They have the highest gas prices overall by state ($3.507 per gallon) and by city (Honolulu - $3.27/gallon).

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Average Number of Vacation Days Around the World Per Year

This item from the Information Please Almanac gives an estimate of the Average Number of Vacation Days Taken Around the World Per Year. The United States is dead last with 13 days taken. Italy takes the most time off with 42 days taken. I wonder what do they do with their time over there?

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The Average American

I came across this item that really made me proud to be a middle-of-the-road American male:

According to the book, "The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen" a majority of Americans:

• Eats peanut butter at least once a week
• Prefers smooth peanut butter over chunky
• Can name all Three Stooges
• Lives within a 20-minute drive of a Wal-Mart
• Eats at McDonald's at least once a year
• Takes a shower for approximately 10.4 minutes a day
• Never sings in the shower
• Lives in a house, not an apartment or condominium
• Has a home valued between $100,000 and $300,000
• Has fired a gun
• Is between 5 feet and 6 feet tall
• Weighs 135 to 205 pounds
• Is between the ages of 18 and 53
• Believes gambling is an acceptable entertainment option
• Grew up within 50 miles of current home

These are the characteristics that apply to me:

• Can name all Three Stooges
• Lives within a 20-minute drive of a Wal-Mart
• Eats at McDonald's at least once a year
• Takes a shower for approximately 10.4 minutes a day
• Never sings in the shower
• Lives in a house, not an apartment or condominium
• Has a home valued between $100,000 and $300,000
• Is between the ages of 18 and 53

My score is 8/15, which calculates to be 53%. Does this mean that I am half average or what?

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Father's Day Reflections

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers around the world. Being a father is a job that requires a lot of love, a lot of patience, and most of all a vision for lives that will extend beyond yours to multiple generations. I am a father of a nine-year-old girl, and seeing her progress through the stages of life a step at a time is truly heartwarming. She has a special way of making sure that I do not lose track of her. Today at church she attached herself to my right arm, and velcroed herself to me and just would not let me leve her sight. I am thankful that she wants to stay close to me and her mother at this point in her life. She asks questions about everything from how to do you buy a building to "will God still love me after I am finished being bad?" She makes sure that I have enough for breakfast before I goto work. She makes sure that we pray togaether at night before going to bed. But most of all, she keeps me from being selfish.

As most fathers can attest the pressures of life can be overwhelming. There is pressure to stay ahead at work, save for retirement, and fullfill the American dream. At the same time your child is being influenced by advertisers, parentless kids, and an environment which does not allow for spiritual and emotional growth within a family unit. And sometimes I feel it too. I think that at times we can work too many hours chasing things that have not been in a family's best interest. But, having a child who really wants to emulate your good qualities is a blessing. That's why I try to watch what I do, because any negative influences that I bring on myself will likely affect my family too.

What helped me even more was having a father and two grandfathers to emulate. My father, who passed away in 2001 was from the old-school. He beleived in hard work, discipline, and having good common sense would overwrite anything negative that can happen to you. I tested his patience a lot of times. I ran with the wrong crowd in the neighborhood, and I was influenced to smoke dope. I went over a friend's house and got so high that I had to stumble home. When I got home, I could barely stand up straight. I tried to eat a plate of sphagetti, but I could even eat it, before passing out on the table. My father wanted to know what was wrong, Even though I was afraid of the consequences, I told him what I had done. He fed me coffee and walked around the table, until I straightened up. I was so ashamed of what I had done, I stopped that very night.

He would stand up for his kids no matter what. When I got robbed in fromt of my house as a teenaged paperboy, my father just missed him. If he caught him, he was going to beat him up severely. But when I took his car and drove to Lafayette, Indiana without him knowing it. He said for the first time, he consideed throwing me out of the house because I had disrespected him. Indeed I did.

He had that instinct to tell me what friends would be the best for me, and who wouldn't be. But he always made sure that I knew the consequences of life, right or wrong. But, the thing that encouraged me the most was that he told me that I would be a good father one day. How he could see it from afar, I still to this day have no idea how he thought of that.

But the most amazing thing about him was that God allowed me to learn from him. Learning how to be a good father and a man was priceless. I hope that my daughter can continue to be inspired by me. I am not perfect, but I just want my kids to be influenced the right way rather than the wrong way.

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SellTheKnicks.com

For all you Knicks fans, SellTheKnicks.com is a site that allows you to spill your guts out about your hapless Knicks. The site has gained a lot of publicity lately for selling products that thumb its nose at its incompetent owner James Dolan. By the way, who is going to be the next coach of the Knicks?

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Robert Scoble - A New Type of Corporate Shill

I read with amusement the other day about Robert Scoble - probably the world's most famous blogger (since he works for Microsoft) being uncomfortable with all of the attention that he is receiving for annoucing that he is leaving Microsoft to take a job in the Silicon Valley. I am sure that he figured that he would never garner this much publicity, but I would say that it has been well-deserved. By becoming perhaps the first well-known "corporate" blogger, he gave his company a tremendous public relations boost at a time when Microsoft gets roundly crticized for its product slippages and slow innovation.

In boosting Microsoft's PR, he redfined the role of a corporate shill. I used to chuckle when I saw commericials from Dave Thomas from Wendy's who used to shamelessly pitch his new hamburgers in a variety of humorous situations. He looked like he really enjoyed doing them too. In being the public face of Wendy's he connected with a lot of America in a down-home folksy style. To my recollection, McDonalds did not have such a public face. This gave Wendy's a big advantage, so much so that at one time Wendy's surpassed McDonald's in sales at one point.

When reading Scoble, he isn't quite the public face that Dave Thomas is, but he became a cult figure overnight due to the expaning blogosphere. His job was so open-ended that he was allowed to criticize his employer and hob-nob with fierce competitors like Sun at the same time. As he notes in his blog:

First, I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me — at least as a
supporter and friend. I am not throwing away my Tablet PC or my Xbox or my other Microsoft stuff. :-)

Second, my management team is awesome and I don't
have a beef with them at all. They have ALWAYS supported me. I have, in my
pocket, a corporate American Express card and they never have questioned any of my expenses.

Third, I wasn't, and am not, frustrated at Microsoft. I've never had more opportunities available to me. In fact, I am due to spend a day with ImagineCup contestants and Bill Gates later this month.

Fourth, believe it or not, but no one at Microsoft has complained to
me about my views for a very long time. In fact, the harsher I got the more
support I got. At Microsoft I am encouraged to change the world
and make things better for our customers.

Fifth, I've never been told not to travel to any conference by anyone at Microsoft and my travel expenses were always approved. I was encouraged to meet with developers wherever they lived.

Sixth, how do you know that the company didn't move heaven and hell
to keep me happy? They did. I have the best job in the tech world. Bar none. I
got to meet and interview and influence the best people in the world. Career
decisions are personal and opportunity and growth require thinking about a lot
of different things, not just one or two. I've turned down quite a few offers
for more money than I'm now making.

With unprecendented access and freedom to do whatever he pleased, Scoble made a name for himself, which I am sure will not be too easily forgotten anytime soon.

I read Scoble and Matt Cutts frerquently throughout the day, and while they both function as technical evanglists per se, their styles are different. Cutts is a little more low key that Scoble is, and tends to confine his comments to Google related products and issues while only touching on search engine related issues periodically.

Both styles are effective, I will continue to read their opinions as I always have.

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Best of 2005-Amazon.com Books: Holidays & Seasonal

Amazon.com has just released a list of the best books for 2005 in the Seasonal and Holiday Categories.

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Tiger Woods Stands Alone

In another sign of just how potent an athlete's popularity really is, Tiger Woods, according to a new poll from Harris Interactive has displaced Michael Jordan as the world's most popular sports personality. In a poll taken last month between May 9th and May16th, even the retired Jordan didn't fall very far to #2. But this is the first time that this has happened in the last 13 years.

The rest of the Top 10-

Brett Farve #3
Derek Jeter #4
Dale Ernhardt #5
Shaq #6
Kobe #7
LaBron James #8
Jeff Gordon #9
Barry Bonds #10

This ranking probably takes into account Tiger's already growing popularity in golf, where he is recognized as the top player on the tour, but the top draw as well. Michael is retired, but still has juice with some segments of the population who watched him become a celebrity overnight.
He is still the favorite of people in the 18-29 and the 42-60 age groups, Shaq is loved by the 30-41 year old set, and Tiger is the favorite of the 61 and older crowd. But universally, Tiger is loved by both men and women alike. There is no doubt that as long as an athlete remains in the public eye, whether retired or not opportunities to pitch products will always be available to him. Even Barry Bonds, who is the subject of much scrutiny, is still loved by most fans. Congratulations to Tiger!!

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Being A Black Man Series-Washington Post

The Washington Post has started a week-long series that quite frankly should have been introduced during Black History Month. It is a series that delves into the struggles and triumphs of African American men living in America today. Entitled "Being a Black Man", the week-long series deals with the way that African-American Men see themselves and the country that they live in. Even if you are not African-American (like I am), this series is desgned to educate the public about the internal struggles that they face. I am going to read through the series and comment about it from my own perspective.

I am acutely aware of the internal struggles, because I have experienced them myself. My best friend, who I grew up with (and is a successful accountant) constantly reminds me that despite experiencing considerable obstacles in growing up, finishing college, and raising a family that we currently earn salaries that would put us in the upper 2% of wage earners. I guess that means that I am upper-class, huh? But often times, I drive by affluent neighborhoods and sometime feel that I have not done enough to raise myself up economically.

Even though you will not be able to take your money with you when you leave this earth, it can sometimes present an unwarranted burden. I look at my life and see a lot of promise and a lot of hope as well. My nine-year old daughter has her whole life ahead of her. And we are getting ready to move into my first house at 45 years old. Success is not defined merely by what society thinks you should do, but how you embrace delayed gratification, loving others, and self-discipline to create the life that you really want to have. If you can do that, then future generations can learn alot from the adversities that you had to overcome.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/blackmen/blackmen.html

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Blogging Goals for the Rest of 2006

Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net has started a group writing project that helps a newbie blogger such as myself get their feet wet in polishing their writing skills to reach a wider audience. When I started this blog, I really did not have too many goals in mind to accomplish. I have always wanted to write a book, and from reading Darren's blog it seemed that this was a cool avenue to explore. You are in control of your own posting schedule, your blog layout, and your content. No one can tell you what to write, but the feedback that you receive usually gives you hints and other clues as far as what to write about. I typically don't receive an average of more than 5 unique visitors a day, but it is a good start nonetheless. I have recieved visits all over the world, which I never imagined. I haven't added Adsense or any ad service yet, because I want to maintain a steady traffic level so it can make a difference in my earnings, whenever I decide to add monetization.

So what do I plan to do to get there? I have several ideas:

1. Enter more blog carnivals on a weekly basis: This gave me an unexpected boost in traffic when I submitted posts that little did I knew attracted a modicrum of attention.

2. Define the purpose of my blog: My blog title was a parody of my own penchant of reading and consuming information from almost everywhere I can find it. I link to news articles in one vein, and then go off on another tangent. My readers appear to like what I read, but I am not sure if they understand where I am taking this blog. My original intention is to highligh unique websites that almost any one can use to help improve their lives. If the purpose strays to far off track, I may have to move some content to another blog ( I have four others).

3. Post more consistently: I have read that some bloggers post an average of 5 times a day. If you consider that there is usually 200 working days per year, that means at the end of the year, you will have at least 1000 keyword-rich blog posts that generate decent traffic. I have trouble sometimes posting more than one post a week. I will have to commit to at least one per day, just to keep momentum and not bore my readers.

4. Participate in more forums: Participating in forums like this is educational for me, because I learn a whole lot from people who have experiemented with a wide variety of blogging tools, formats, and ideas.

5. Invite more feedback from readers: Learning how to connect with readers is important, because if there is a flow to your writing, people will tend to come back and visit more frequently.

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