Provoke Thought

An informative blog with emphasis on the aspects and elements of life and business that matter! (and some other random stuff)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Busted! Hugging the Purple Teddy!


IMG_4970
Originally uploaded by SdPanek
Freeway Frogger gets busted hugging the purple teddy bear! Well, ok, he was chewing it's ears.

Freeway ( or Frogger, as I prefer ) get's his name because of where he was found. As I was in stop and go traffic, northbound 101, I look over and see this itty bitty kitty in the center divide. I was on the phone trying to sell Kyle's 4 -runner to a guy, but I couldn't leave this rascal in the median. He would be road kill without question.

So, I grabbed him... ( Not so easy on my first attempt as he ran towards oncoming traffic), tossed him in the truck and continued my phone conversation as Frogger "mewed" at the top of his little lungs.

The guy on the phone was laughing, but confirmed I did the right thing. I called Sooz, and let her know that I was headed for the Humane Society, but she let out an "Awwwww" when she heard Mr. Mew going on in the background.
"Just bring him here, I'll clean him up", she says.

Big mistake.

I sold the truck, though.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Desktop Organization - 5S


desktop organization
Originally uploaded by SdPanek
Love my new organized desktop. Found at: antbag.com/desktops

At work I deal some some smart folks, but their desktops appear to be their primary download location..... blechh...

A place for everything and everything in it's place.

I suspect that they go to the same drawer every morning to retrieve their socks.... It's the same idea: Dress socks go ever here, white socks in here... Download this monthly report to this folder, that one over her in this folder. That's where it will be when you need it next!

It saves real time. ... and that's money.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Landon is a Blackbelt


landonboardbreak
Originally uploaded by SdPanek
I'm beaming with pride. Landon has grown into an amazing young man. He just turned 14. The past few years of Taekwondo have provided an awesome environment for him to build a set of skills and a code to apply to all aspects of life.

When one knows how much work, study and sweat goes into achieving a belt level, it's hard not to have the utmost respect for those who get there. While we look at blackbelt level as the ultimate..... It is also, another step in the path of continuous growth and improvement.

I'm thankful to http://schafersata.com for creating a positive, encouraging environment for my boy Landon to become Mr. Ponek .

He has received the scroll of the Panther:

The panther is strong, intelligent, and has an endless supply of energy. With the ability to overwhelm its opponent with powerful strikes, it is no wonder this is a feared creature. The panthers' intelligence allows it to plan an assault, leaving its victim stunned and suprised. It's abundance of energy allows this predator to continue its assault until its victim surrenders and its fate is sealed. Nothing will distract the panther from finishing what it has started.

Congratulations.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Mobile Post

So here's a test of a ping from ping.fm on the iPhone using Pingle. The drag about this is it's still limited to 140 characters.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Faux-jacked Air Force One in New York City causes big scare (ABCnews)

This is such a stupid move it's hard to believe that we're hearing the whole story. To see the plane banking near high rise buildings in NYC with a fighter jet in it's shadow is an image that's not many are interested in recreating. Who decided this was a good idea? When do we get to see the high quality images that were snapped by the professional photographer, and who hired the photographer for the event? How could Obama not be notified? Bloomberg? The public? Where can I buy my photo calendar of the Air Force One NYC blunder? With smart people out of work right now, I'd like to see some idiots lose their jobs over this. un-freakin-believable

How to Share Files on Twitter

Pretty slick way to share a file on Twitter: www.filesocial.com uses Twitter credentials for login to upload and link files. Not that there aren't alternatives, but the path of least resistance often wins in my book. Now, why would I need to share a file with the Twittersphere? I haven't figured that one out, yet.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Twitter – Here Before Oprah?

Elvis the country twitter chickenI was honored to be asked my opinion about Twitter today, by Press democrat Daily Geek writer Nathan Halverson.  Hoping I didn't sound like a bumbling idiot in our phone conversation.  

I thought I'd throw some notes at my poor neglected blog.  Dear Blog:  I'm sorry I've neglected you.  I've been running around with Twitter, and Facebook lately.

I found the link herebeforeoprah.com and added my name to the list of self important early adopters.  I think I was on twitter before The Color Purple, so I found it appropriate. I got a 99 out of 100 on TwitterGrader... Is that good?

I can barely recall how I learned about Twitter, but I may have even beat the Diggnation boys and CaliLewis....  If that matters to anyone but me.

I've Pownced and I've Plurked, and I've Friend Feeded, but Twitter, in it's simplicity and endless available apps, (Twhirl, Tweetdeck, Twitterfon, Seesmic Desktop, Twitpic, Twitxr, etc.) has held my attention.

It's easy to get in and out of like mental bubble gum...Just stick it behind your ear, and pull it back out as needed.  Twitter has become a powerful news, entertainment source On Demand and on the go.  The On-the-go element has wide appeal.  So, if you are still goin' home and adjusting the rabbit ears for information, you'll be way out of the loop.....that method is played out.

Twitter is what you make of it.  It's there 24/7 for distraction, entertainment, and answers that you didn't know you had the questions to!  I like that I can search a keyword for any field of interest and get the latest global jibber-jabber and links to resources or events that I would never have know about otherwise.  I've been able to connect with folks who also work in with Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing methods.

I've Twittered from a Blackberry, an iPhone or any web browser, and there are web services and applications which will send your tweets as status updates to Facebook or even view Facebook statuses alongside your Twitter follows, (as with Tweetdeck).

It's beauty and success has alot to do with it's simplicity, and it's live speed.  There are a zillion stale blogs out there (like mine) because they take a different level of time and energy to compose and publish complete ideas.  The audience is different and the expectation is different.  Twitter is awesome for the information junky, or the short attention span generation. 

And yet it's more than a microblog, and not quite as intimate or permission based as a social network. 

But for business?  I made a joke on Twitter about my Comcast remote not working as a phone because I have my phone service through comcast, too, and I had a reply within minutes, from a Comcast employee, wondering how he could help.  That was an "Ahah" moment for me, when I realized this was a brilliant tool for companies to connect with the techy segment of customers. @Connectbyhertz is promoting it's New York car sharing program through Twitter.  I'm glad to see the company I work for get more tech savvy and customer connected..

I love the ability to snap a picture from the phone, and send the link to Twitter, and other sites like Facebook, and Flickr all in a few clicks. (I use Twitxr.com, but twitpic.com is popular, too)

CalFire used Twitter during LA fires....  A candidate shouldn't be without it, Celebrities have discovered it, News sites feed updates to it all day all night... Video Podcasters update, The Pastor of my church is even talking about setting up his account. 

As it's grown I'm starting to be able to use it more for direct messaging with local friends.   

There are more uses we have yet to uncover.  I find new ones every day.  I just found out you can update your google calendar with @gcal .  And schedule tweets in advance with Tweetlater.com .

I don't think Oprah will ruin it....  but Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk)  might! ;o)

...If there's any law limiting the quantity of hyperlinks in a blog post, I'm sure I've broken it! ...........and I was holding back.



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Gangs, Constraints .... and Blocks

Interesting brief on blocking time.
Simple, but powerful stuff. 
I need to take some of this advice to move some complex projects forward.

Snipped from 43Folders Merlin Mann








Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Bees are Back


beeonlycrop
Originally uploaded by SdPanek
Glad to see our old friends.... kind of.

Love that Canon macro lens.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

I might have to find a place to put this.

SdPanek. Get yours at bighugelabs.com/flickr


Friday, February 20, 2009

Not sure if this is useful.

A mashup of Flickr feed and Twitter tweets.

I think one day our heads might explode from over stimulous, and we'll wonder what happened.
It would be nice to be able to control the tweet speed, and transparency..  The tweets cover the pictures fairly well.



Pose the Question Carefully.







A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll asked two very similar questions
with very different results:







(1)  Do you favor cutting programs such as social security, medicare, Medicaid, and farm subsidies to reduce the budget deficit?

The results: 23% favor; 66% oppose; 11% no opinion.

(2)  Do you favor cutting government entitlements to reduce the budget
deficit?

The results: 61% favor; 25% oppose, 14% no opinion.



Source: American Statistical Association,
"What Is A Survey"