Revnut

Have you noticed a trend that we seem to know a bunch of people at work, we know some folks in our neighborhoods, we know some people from Church, but that we don’t REALLY KNOW them. Have you noticed that we seem to have more and more acquaintances and less and less true friends we can really rely on?

If you’d like to break out of this pattern, this book can help. If you would like your family to develop long lasting strong relationships over time with other families, this book can help.

The subtitle of this book is “Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture”. Andy Stanley and Bill Willits are small group experts. Their book has had a significant long-term impact on our family.

I’ve never really been a Starbucks customer. Then I read this book and was driving home from a recent vacation. I had to try out a high class uppity drink.

Espresso, milk, vanilla syrup, ice and buttery caramel. It was quite delicious.

Howard Schultz is the author of this book and he is the entrepreneur behind Starbucks. The subtitle is “How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time”.

I enjoyed this book. Howard was passionate about his ideas for the company and persevered amidst person after person telling him that he was crazy. Who would have thought that a commodity like coffee could be so profitable?

Humans seem to resist change yet many successful entrepreneurs bring about change. I find this conflict to be interesting. The entrepreneur is seen as a nut for awhile until the idea pans out. Then they’re no longer a nut.

This book tells a great story – how Starbucks was started, how they grew, the mistakes they made, and the surprises they discovered.

This book by Seth Godin is excellent. The subtitle is “Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers”.

The marketing world has changed over the last few years. Spending money on standard forms of “interrupt marketing” (like tv / radio ads, magazine ads, etc) no longer makes any sense. A much more effective alternative is to establish long term relationships with customers who have given you permission to communicate with them.

This book explains how to do it. It’s pretty great.

Bobby is right about this children’s toy. It’s an incredible invention. It includes a big mat and a special pen that looks like it’s writing in ink. The catch is that it’s water in the pen.

The kids can draw like crazy and make no mess. They dig it.

I agree with Denise’s review, this sauce is delicious. I think this will end up being one of the sauces we have in stock for last minute marinades.

You don’t need a first aid kit until you need a first aid kit. My mom bought us this kit made by the company named First Aid Only™. It comes in a compact, flexible, sturdy, zip up bag that easily fits under a car seat. The model given to us has 208 pieces.

We’ve used this kit a number of times over the years including last night when we saw a pretty horrible car accident on the highway. That experience made us realize that we need to re-stock the kit and we need to get another kit for our other car.

First Aid Only™ makes a high quality product.

We had my daughter Madeline’s 7th birthday party at this roller skating rink in Cary, NC. It was a pretty nice place and the kids really loved it. They had rollerblades and rollerskates for rent. It was a fun morning. We’ll be repeat customers. Here it is on the map.

This is an awful product. It’s BJ’s generic glass cleaner which has a name brand of Berkely Jensen. I cannot figure out how on earth to elminate the streaks that it leaves when you’re cleaning windows. It’s wicked annoying.

Stick with Windex.

We have tried a number of different diaper varieties. I was thinking that in White Cloud we had finally found a diaper that was cheaper than the competition yet still didn’t leak. We were pretty excited to save so much money on diapers. White Cloud is WalMart’s generic brand of diaper.

Then, my wife Kelly and I spoke to Diana and I read Diana’s Review of White Cloud. Kelly then noticed that our son was occasionally getting a rash and that this irritation had only started since we started using these diapers.

So now we’re out on White Cloud. Our loyalty lies with Luvs.

This was a pretty interesting article by Laurie Sullivan which was published in Information Week. I liked it because its conclusions seem to indicate that websites like Soapbox have a good future ahead of them.

Here are my favorite parts:

• JupiterResearch analyst Diane Clarkson wrote in a report that recommendations from family and friends are among online travel researchers’ most used resources…
• JupiterResearch advertising analyst Emily Riley said word of mouth, defined as online conversations, between two people that know each other is the most trustworthy method to gain information…
• “The days of reading some review from an expert is dwindling because people want to obtain their information from other users,” Rogoway said.

This is another excellent web-based application created by 37 Signals. If you need to chat with more than one person at a time Campfire is for you. There are a ton of reasons why using your instant messenger application for group chat is a bad idea.

Campfire works wonderfully and it’s free.

I love this keyboard. I was starting to have some significant hand/wrist carpal tunnel pain. I needed to address the issue because it seemed to be getting worse and worse. I noticed about a half dozen friends were using this Goldtouch keyboard and I asked them about it. They said they were having pain and that the Goldtouch took the pain away. I have now had the same experience.

This is a high quality keyboard that’s built to last. It’s expensive, but it allows me to use a computer without being in pain. I even bring it with me when I travel.

I’m a big fan of Vonage. I don’t know how the regular phone companies can compete.

Here’s how it works. Vonage sends you a small appliance about the size of a cigar box. It allows you to make phone calls by connecting your regular phones to your high speed internet connection. It’s only $24.99/month for unlimited long distance and local calls. This price also gives you every phone feature you can imagine (like 3 way calling, call waiting, etc.)

Voice mail can be emailed to you. You can also check it through the phone or through the Vonage web site.

Guests using our phone would never know that it’s an internet phone. The call quality is excellent.

I can get you a free month of Vonage with a referral email. Feel free to email me a request for a free month.

We’ve had 3 types of lawns in the houses we’ve lived in – fescue, weeds, and centipede. We’ve also had neighbors with bermuda and neighbors with zoysia. I like centipede the best. Here’s what I like about it:

• It’s low maintenance. Over-fertilizing is actually a problem many people face. It seems centipede doesn’t want too much love. I don’t know of a grass that’s lower maintenance.
• It’s drought tolerant. We only water when it starts to look a bit gray. This will keep the turf dense to prevent weeds from growing. One year, I didn’t water at all. It survived but it didn’t thrive.
• It’s a creeping grass which means you’ll never have to seed again because it spreads. Are you fescue people sick and tired of seeding? Come on!
• It’s a think, dense turf. Need to drive a truck on the grass? No problem. Bobcat? It don’t care. In comparison, fescue is just weak. You step on fescue the wrong way and it dies. Then you’re back to re-seeding.
• It chokes out weeds.
• It looks good.
• It grows from seed and sod. We’ve done both.
• Did I mention low maintenance?
• Unlike fescue, centipede thrives in the sun.
• Unlike bermuda, it’s slow growing so you don’t need to cut it as often.

It seems to me that many people struggle with their dying lawns because they’ve chosen a bogus species.

Kelly and I enjoyed this movie. I think I like movies dealing with frontier times and horse drawn wagons. :)

There are actually two movies that continue the story where this movie leaves off. All three movies were directed by Michael Landon Jr. They’re excellent family friendly movies.

This is a an excellent article by Steve Pavlina. If you’ve ever considered starting a business, this article is for you.

Some might say that it’s risky to write a review for this book because then the federal government would know that I’ve read it. :) Others might say that if you buy this book, you might want to use cash.

The creature the book is talking about is the Federal Reserve. This book will put your chin on the floor and keep it there for the entire book. It is wild.

Did you know that when banks loan you money, they actually create it on the spot? Did you know that banks only keep 6/10 of 1% of their funds in reserve? That means that for every $100 you deposit in your bank, the banking system can legally create $16,258.45 out of thin air to loan to people. It’s no wonder that the banks own so much real estate in this country – they’re allowed to create money. I found this book to be quite frightening.

I also found this article that does a pretty good job of summarizing some of the issues of the Federal Reserve.

I was given a chance to spend some time with a gifted artist named Jonathan Daniel. He makes some incredibly detailed artwork and sells it to help fund the ministry work he’s doing for the people of Zimbabwe. His artwork is pretty amazing.

If you’re looking for a gift for that hard to shop for person, JD Wire Art could be the place for you. He even makes custom orders.