I spent the past three days at a family reunion/graduation in Vermont. My niece lives right outside of Burlington, in a rural community where there's nothing but farmland, beautiful mountains and lots of rolling green fields. One of my nieces graduated from UV on Sunday with a degree in archeology. She received a couple awards, so we wanted to support and honor her. It was a beautiful weekend in which the family convened to celebrate and also to enjoy a rare couple of days visiting with each ot

I thought I have seen every possible way a "poacher" can use or abuse an article. Never thought of this one. It's funny, but I don't like it. PORN??? Just found the title of one of my articles, my site name and my name used to advertise a porn site. What possible relevance is an article about antique Persian rugs to PORN?!  They used just the title of the article, no article, thank God for small blessings. I think this is one for Google complaints, don't you?    

Hey Guys, Read This! What? No more pine nut mouth?  Pity. I'm just passing this on to you. It was sent to me this morning, and since USA and much of the rest of the world is in similar trouble, let's try this out. Our job market needs a good boost. Anyway, I'm tired of being poisoned. Worth trying everywhere. Give it a go world! Time to trust what we buy again.     Did you see that Diane Sawyer has a special report coming up this week? They removed ALL items from a

Time off to have coffee with my WA buddies and chat. Why not? It's the weekend. I try to spend Sunday mornings catching up on reading. Because my time is limited, I want to make my reading count and read the sort of stuff that is educational and/or inspiring in some way. I am very interested in health matters and the different ways we maintain our health. Too many people are getting cancer these days, people close to me, and far away. Too much of it.  Sometimes, I wish I had become a doctor

If you're like me,  you're not in your sweet spot around rules. I've never been comfortable with rules. I never wanted to go the same direction as the crowd. Never fit in. Always an oddball. This is not braggadosio, it's truth and something I have made friends with over the years. It's not easy being green Ask Kermit the Frog. Maturity helps. You grow into your oddity. You speak your oddity with authority when you grow up, and you have a few credits under your belt, and people listen. Te

Have you ever known people who are so stubborn and self righteous that they can never admit when they've been wrong, or admit that someone else might have a better way of doing something? You'll never get an apology from them either. They always have to be right.  Have you met Mr. or Ms. Know It All? After a while, people just ignore that stubborn person and don't even try to help them, or listen to them. You come across these people every day, in personal and professional life. I hope I

  Are you familar with this site? www.jwtintelligence.com/2011-and-beyond/ You might want to check out the 2 videos. Insightful. You probably intuitively and deductively know most of this forecast already, but as marketers, it's worth thinking about in planning for the future. Here are some of the high points:   -Mobile everything: mobile memes to moblogging to waning interest in point-and-shoot cameras   -Counter trends to broad shifts in consumer behavior: To balance out inc

And The Art of What to Do About It Maybe it has something to do with living in New England. I don't know guys. We have so many grumpy old farmers where I live. They're old timers who have been farming for years and years, and their produce is superlative. I think they have probably been in Connecticut since the beginning of the world.  But along with the tomatoes, you often get attitude. The Supermarkets are not like that. These local independent farmers charge you hefty prices too. I have

A couple friends sent this to me and I loved it, so sharing it with you. You may have already received it, but if not, it's good to think about and practice in business and personal relationships.   Interesting and very thoughtful message for all to read.                                        &nbs

Yes I do, and you do too. Surprised? I didn't think so. Richard Carlson calls it "stacking order". It has to do with how many projects you are comfortable working on at one time. Some people must focus on one project at a time. If they're given too much to handle at once, they fall apart. They look incompetent when they really are not. They have too many things on their plate at once, and they are not temperamentally suited to doing that. So they collapse. When you are holding down a