Thanksgiving is rapidly closing in and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Turkey day.
As a national day symbolizing the Pilgrim celebration of harvest, food and feasting, let us remember that it is also a time for thanks and praise to God for the food that he has given us.
Also hoping that the Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, ham, mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pecan pie and all the other good food that comes with it doesn’t give you too much of a belly ache (from eating too much).
And Black Friday… who can forget the one (of the two days) in the year where people actually camp outside stores to get the best deals of the year. Tempting as it is with the deals at Best Buy or Circuit City, it is just too cold to stand outside at 4am in the morning — so you won’t find me doing that anytime soon. For those of you who might consider braving the cold, here is a good site to read about the fantastic deals from the major outlets.
I have also decided to take the rest of the month off (and maybe a little more) to finish off work priorities, deadlines and spend time with J and her relatives too. Unfortunately, I have not been able to juggle work and blogging this past month with everything that is going on around this holiday season.
If anyone would like to guest blog on The Foo Logs during that time, please feel free to contact me. Have a wonderful time with your family and look forward to blogging again soon.
I laughed myself silly when I saw this on College Humor. It’s a spoof off the TV series 24 and is what it would have been like if they made the series 10 years ago. Windows 3.1, AOL dialup, Prodigy (remember them?), floopy disks etc. … ahhh, the memories.
Link: College Humor
Miles has a new (bad) habit. In the past week, he has been putting his paws in his water bowl and overturning it. We’ve been moping the floor multiple times a day and it’s starting to get really old. Not sure where he learnt this from or why the sudden change in behavior after 3 years. This needs to stop!
Tried different things in the past week — sprayed him with water everytime he did it, did a little slap on his paws to makes sure he knows not to do it, bought a heavier/ wider porcelain bowl (thinking it might be his reflection that’s bothering him), bought a water fountain/ dispenser and used bottled water instead of tap water … none of which worked.
Can someone give us some advice and help on this? We’ll be interested to know if your cat did it, and how you stopped this behavior. We can’t keep mopping the floor 5-6 times a day and can’t stop giving him water either. I really hope this is just a temporary behavioral phase.
What happens if you have only a certain amount of time to live? Would you want to take a trip of a lifetime or just sit at home counting down the days?
For me, I would want to experience some exciting adventures and do some things that I’ll never forget. Here is my top 10 list (in no particular order):
Freefall and dive like there’s no tomorrow! A helicopter will fly to the top of Mt. Everest (29035 ft above the ground), where you will freefall past some of the world’s highest mountains and land on the highest drop zone in the world. You will then experience the Himalayan environment, visit the Kathmandu and Serpa lands on the Everest region.
Train on sophisticated simulators used on astronauts and fighter pilots, test your reaction to space flights zero gravity and more. It’s a two day intense training course by the National Aerospace Training & Research (NASTAR) Center in Pennsylvania. Those who experienced it called it “Disney’s Mission Space on steroids”.
3) Experience an Air Combat duel
Be a fighter pilot for a day, engage in aerial dogfighting with choice of 4 aircrafts including a world war II fighter plane. Maneuver the plane acrobatically and dog fight like the movies. You will get to fire with electronic bullets, so you can’t run out of it. Each plane is equipped with laser weapon systems, smoke and sound effects for realistic experiences.
4) Star in a personal Top Gun gun style documentary
Fly the L-39 jet fighter and play the role of the fighter pilot. Work with the same people and the same plane that was used in the movie Jarhead. Coordinate and create your own action/ flying sequence. While you are in the plane flying, everything will be filmed and at the end of it, you get to keep your the personalized documentary film and movie footage.
5) Exploring the Grand Canyon on a raft
A 14 day expedition down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon that includes hiking and rafting experiencing the history, archeology, ecology and geology of the Canyon. Imagine rafting down a canyon that is 6000 feet deep, 277 miles long and 18 miles wide (at its widest). This is a trip like no other.
6) Explore Europe, Africa and the Carribean on the Picton-Castle
The Picton-Castle is a sailing ship reminiscent of what commercial sailing ships were a 100 years ago. With 12,450 feet of canvas sails, an 1893 cooking stove, a galley on deck, two tiers with bunks, steel hull, mast and pine decks; you get to experience traveling the world like Christopher Columbus did. While on it, you will be a ship trainee seaman, learning navigation and square rigging.
7) Trekking in the Tibetan valleys seeing the last Shangri-La
Experience a 3 week hike up the eastern valleys of Merak and Sakten and tour the ancient monasteries. You will trek across 13,500 feet of the mountain, exploring ancient traditional villages and finally visiting with monks who follow the Nyingma sec of Tibetan Buddhism.
8) Bungee jump off the highest dam in the world
Bungee jump 722 feet off the Verzasca dam in Ticino, Switzerland. It takes about 7.5 to 8 seconds to reach the lowest point of the jump. Verzasca dam is the same dam James Bond jumped off in GoldenEye.
5 days reliving the adventures of the Wild West in South Dakota; getting up close and personal with a roaming buffalo herd, riding with the cowboys, bouncing along the prairie through the mountains on authentic wagon ride, horse through the back country and joining the native Americans in a traditional Indian pow wow.
10) Drive off-road down the Baja Peninsula
The ultimate in off-road adventure… one will drive an off-road car/ truck from the international border at Tijuana, along the Baja coast through Punta San Francisquito and finally to ending at Cabo San Lucas. Through the 7 day off-road journey, you will experience the variety of vegetation, wilderness, geographical terrain, beautiful valleys, and enjoy the Pacific coastline.
So what will your top 10 list be like?
A little late in the game but I joined Facebook last week. I wanted to see what the buzz was all about… now I wish I had joined it sooner!
Was just amazed to find so many of my childhood and high school friends. In less than a week, I’ve found 20 friends that I’ve lost contact with during the years.
Words can’t even start to describe how I felt when I found a childhood (best) friend from more than 20 years ago. I may have to put that on my list of the top 5 most exciting moments in my life. Rekindling childhood memories and good times like that is priceless. It’s also pretty surreal to see how they’ve all grown up as my only memory of them and how they looked like was when they were teenagers.
With it’s integrated apps and a huge database of people, I see some using it more for business purposes too. For now, I am just content with using it to find my long lost friends and may probably keep it that way. This is because I would rather not have my business contacts dive into my personal life and personal details; there really needs to be a separation there. I also believe LinkedIn is better suited to business networking as it seems more formal.
To say that Facebook is a valuable networking tool is an understatement. I now see why it has a valuation of $15 billion.
Scanning the TV for something to watch yesterday, I was lucky enough to catch a good documentary about Andre Agassi called Between The Lines. It talked about how Andre Agassi changed from being the “image is everything” brat (who took everything for granted) to the respected ambassador of tennis that gave everything back to the sport and one who kept on fighting till the very last day.
We can learn a thing or two from Andre, not just how he changed for the better, but from the way he dug himself out of the problems he had and never once thought about giving up.
Here are some of the things we can all learn …
1) Taking things one step at a time
When his rankings were at an all time low, he didn’t give up but took it one day and one step at a time. Sometimes looking too far into the future clouds your mind and gets you thinking too much i.e. looking at the big picture may not the best way to go about things. This is especially true when you are overwhelmed with problems, overly stressed and have a lot on your mind.
2) Set small simple goals daily and focus on finishing it
Getting up early every morning, he set simple goals that to accomplish by the end of the day. That way his goals were focused one at a time.
According to him, not looking at an intimidating long list of goals made it more achievable, seemed a lot easier and less likely to procrastinate. He also said that setting simple daily goals allowed him to evolve and alter what he wanted to achieve as time went by or if there were unexpected eventualities. He put it simply, what you want to achieve in a month might not necessarily be the same in a year or 5 years.
This is interesting as it goes against what we normally do i.e. making a long list of goals and trying to work through it within a time frame of weeks or months. I do have to agree that the longer the list of goals you make, the more intimidating it is.
3) Be humbled
Ranked 140th in the world, he admitted having problem and didn’t blame anyone else but himself. Although he was a superstar, he wasn’t embarrassed and was humble enough to play a number of 2nd tier challenger tournaments at local clubs/ universities — to the extent of picking up balls himself and playing at venues with minimal spectators.
This shows that we sometimes have to be humble enough to look within ourselves, admit our faults and try to change them rather than to blame everything/ everyone else around us.
4) Get back to basics
Sometimes if you have lost track of what you want to achieve or where you are in life, go back to the basics. When Agassi’s tennis rankings were at an all time low, he stopped and reevaluated himself. He admitted to straying off track from what he was good at, what his objectives were and went back to the basics.
5) Persevere and never give up
He had a lot of downs in his 21 year tennis career (both personally and professionally). Many would have quit and walked away but he persevered. The hard work saw him rise back to the top (against all odds).
Brad Gilbert (his coach at the time) persuaded Andre to go to the 1999 French Open when he was unmotivated and at an all time low professionally. He said, “You can’t win the French Open if you don’t turn up”. Andre took his advice and ended up winning it as an unseeded player.
It is indicative of human nature, to give up without even trying. To achieve something, we have to make an effort. We really won’t know how it would turn out until we try.
6) Create a mission in life
His mission in life was not to be another John McEnroe or a Rod Laver. Being good was just not enough; he wanted to be exceptional and remembered for being the best.
We all have missions in life but most of us have not defined or created it yet. Creating a mission keeps your life on track, makes it a more productive one, motivates you and gives your life more meaning.
7) Leave a legacy
Agassi left his legacy to the sport and to the community by creating the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy (helping at-risk children) and the Agassi Cottage for Medically Fragile Children.
When being interviewed a couple of years ago, he put it into perspective by saying that life is more than just accolades and winning trophies but for what you put into it and the legacy you leave. Of course, we all can’t afford to donate millions to the needy or build a hospital for kids but what we can do is leave something for life to remember us by.
8) Don’t forget those around you
We can’t achieve something alone. Regardless of what anyone says, we do need the motivational push, inspiration, love, loyalty, encouragement etc. There is only so much that you can do from within, the rest comes from those around you.
Befitting his presence as the elderly statesman of the game, his final speech sums it all up:
“The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found. And over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I’ve found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I’ve found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could have never reached without you. Over the last 21 years, I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.”
I believe we all have experienced what Andre Agassi has in our lifetime i.e. life’s ups and downs. Some of us endure more pain, suffering and adversity than others but we all end up wanting the same thing i.e. to be happy, to create a better life for ourselves and to be the best we can be.
Never thought the Andre Agassi from years ago (with the long hair and bright colored attire) would turn out to be the very person giving me some valuable lessons in life.
Seems like a number of the blogs I read everyday haven’t been updated in a while. They are probably burnt out with blogging or are pretty busy this time of the year.
Lately, I’ve kind of been sporadic with my blogging as I try to catch up with my MBA coursework. Being on jaiku and twitter is a bad distraction too.
I think I’m just mentally exhausted with the busy days and lack of sleep. Putting my feet up, being lazy and watching TV seems like a better option for now. I do have to make a conscious effort to post short snippets, quotes and references on my scrapbook instead.
I know what I need … a good night’s sleep, a relaxing weekend and I’m sure I’ll come back refreshed! TGIF and hope your weekend is a great one.
