Failure To Attract

A bullet went through my head this morning.

Okay, not a *real* bullet, but more one of those metaphorical ones that still cause the physical jerk reaction - I jumped as if startled when the idea quite literally struck me.

I’m sure you’re familiar with “alternate” or “parallel” realities.  What, you aren’t?  Well, according to Wikipedia, “Parallel universe or alternative reality is a self-contained separate reality coexisting with our own.”  For more about what Wikipedia has to say, just click here.

In any case, the way I like to think about it is… for every single variable in our lives (from what we have for breakfast, to how fast we drive to work, to what time we leave for work), every single variable there is a “fork in the road”, so to speak.  There are infinite alternate realities - each one for each choice.

Follow me so far?  No?  Well that’s okay, I’m finding it very difficult to explain in words.  Just bear with me for a little while longer - the big epiphany is coming up.

So imagine that in at least some of these infinite realities, you as a person or being exist in some form, going through your life.  Now imagine taking a step back and looking at all of these different lives that you or some form of you inhabit and exist within, and - get ready for this - imagine that they are all you, and you are all them.  That you all share the same soul, that in a way, you are all the same being, experiencing every facet of life simultaneously, all for the good of the whole that makes up you.

I’m sure I botched up the explanation above, so I came up with an analogy to help illustrate my point.  Think of a big bucket full of water, and surrounding it are tons of drinking glasses.  Now imagine each of the glasses being filled up by the water in your bucket.  Each glass represents your body in a different reality, and the water represents the sections of your soul.  What if, when you die, the experiences you had in that reality are passed on to the greater you, as the piece of your soul inhabits that body merges with it.

I know, I know, it’s heavy.  I still don’t quite understand why such a thought slammed into me in the shower of all places, but I have maintained that the shower has always been my thinking spot.

Interesting idea, no?

On this day of January 11, 2008, Jackson Smith was born.  My nephew.

My god, I’m an uncle.  My mother is a grandmother, and my sister is a mother.  This will take a lot of getting used to!

He was born with a couple of complications, but I am so very happy to report that he’s fine and healthy, weighing a good 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long at birth.

I don’t have a picture of him just yet, but when I do, I’m going to see if my sister will let me put it up here!  I’m so proud.j

My beautiful older sister Emily is going into labor!

With any luck, I’ll be the proud uncle of a big, beautiful, amazing baby boy.  They already have a name picked out, and it’s amazing.  Ready for this?

Jackson Cash Smith.

Isn’t that great?!

I have to run help my mother get ready for her flight in three hours.  I’ll keep you posted!

-David

P.S. Can you tell how fricking excited I am?!

Well, I know we’re already a week and a half into 2008, but I thought I might as well write the post that every blog out there writes - the What-2007-Meant-To-Me-And-What-I-Think-2008-Will-Bring kind of post, but with a twist:  I don’t want to talk about 2007.  I reminisce all the time, way too much as it is, and I want to focus on the future.  So, what do I think 2008 will bring?  Here, let me bullet-point my thoughts for you:

• The advancement of general technology and the rapid flood of technology into the consumer market at an exponential rate.
• A change in perception about how we as a society think and feel about our neighbors - positively or negatively, I’m not sure.
• A lot more innovative online business ideas.

And… at the moment that’s all I can think of.  I’m sure when I have more sleep in my body, I’ll come back and add some more.

-David

If you’re like me and also out in the job market looking for something, there are a few resources that are touted to be the best ways of finding a job lead - and sometimes they’re right. Things like Yahoo! HotJobs, Monster, CareerBuilder and even CraigsList all have good things going for them - in fact, I’ve never had an issue with Yahoo! HotJobs. Yet, a trend I have noticed about the big job boards I check out, is that some aspects of their service are unregulated.

For example, since signing up with CareerBuilder and Monster, I have received numerous spam-related emails about “jobs” that just give me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Because it seems as if either the job board companies sell your contact information to third parties, or people spend a lot of time going through collecting your information from your profiles - add you illegally(I think) to a mailing list, and spam you. It’s not fun, and not cool. One would hope these big companies would find a way to protect their customers from crap like that.

If you feel the need to use these services, make sure you have a completely separate email address for them.

-David

I was really frustrated last night, even almost to the point of tears. A lot of things had hit me at once over the course of a couple of days, and it was rather overwhelming.

And then I had a wonderful conversation with A.

“A” stands for Aaron, a hilarious Asian guy I know who lives in Seattle. A is that kind of person who’s a real, true friend, who will listen to you and offer the kind of constructive comments that someone needs to hear when they’re in that mindset - honest and to the point yet softened somehow.

After I woke up the following morning - this morning - I had an email in my Inbox from him with a link to an article that described the Best and Worst Careers of 2008 in US News and World Report along with a simple message: “On the job front - here’s stuff to think about for the long term. A job now will help, but thinking about your career will pay off in the long term.”

I sat and thought about that. Do I actually want a career as working for some other company like that? Or do I want something more? I realized it was an easy decision.

I want more.

I’m still not sure where to go from here, or what I should do, but I think sleep will help me at this point.

-David

P.S. Read that article! It’s really good!

Well, I made it!

As I made my way home, I had my trusty mp3 player plugged into the car’s audio system to keep me company so I didn’t run up my cell phone bill too terribly.  Things get boring on the way back!

The point is, as I was listening to my music, an a cappella version of a Destiny’s Child song came on.  And while I was getting absorbed in the wonderful harmony, a line of the song seemed to come to life and float there before my eyes, and I knew I’d have to share it with you.  Ready for this?

“After all of the darkness and sadness, soon comes happiness.  If I surround myself with positive things, I’ll gain prosperity.”

Lets think about that for a second.  If you’re feeling down and everything is going bad, you’re depressed and feel that cloud hovering over your head and surrounding you, you can remember that happiness isn’t too far behind.  I’ve always been a firm believer of balance in life, and the power of the human mind.  I feel that we can control the extent of the balance with the right mindset, to make life more fulfilling and happy.  If you surround yourself with positive things, prosperity follows.

Isn’t that an amazing thought?

-David

Another interesting traffic opportunity is the “Reputation Management” service that Naymz offers.  Naymz is a social networking service that specializes in managing your reputation as well as connecting you to people who do similar things, could help you in your field, or vise versa.  You gain RepScore points for various things - completing your profile and building your Reputation Network, for example.  The higher your RepScore gets, the more perks you accumulate.  When you get to a certain level (The levels change depending on the average of all Naymz profiles), they will get you listed on Google at the top of the listings for your name.

That’s impressive!

There are two levels of membership - Free and Premium.  The Free account will work well for most people just starting out, but it’s limited in it’s functions.  The Premium account unlocks everything, including a reporting function that lets you see who’s visiting your profile, among other things the Free account is restricted in.

I suggest checking it out highly!

-David

Okay, here’s a cool idea for the new year:

Use something fun and interesting as a way of driving traffic to a product, blog, or other website.

Now, obviously this isn’t a new idea, but ways of implementing this idea continue to sprout up, almost daily, it seems.  This one, MyMiniCity.com, is pretty cool.  You give your town a name, pick the country you want it to be in - I picked Fiji Fiji - and it’ll create this little town, typically starting with just a building or two, and over time growing and adding infrastructure - kind of like the old SimCity games.  The kicker is, each visit to your city (one action per person per day) will increase and grow your population, which allows you to do more.  When you put it out there, and more people visit and it grows more and more, the higher in the rankings it goes.  It gets high enough, and thousands of people - at least - would see it.

There’s also a message board there, where you can put a link to a product or page there, and trade messages with your visitors.  It’s a totally free service, too!

Go check out my city, the Isle de Fuego!

-David