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If I were reincarnated, I'd want to come back a buzzard. Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything. -- William Faulkner
As I was waking up this morning, this was my dream...
Two monkeys are loose at a gate in the Los Angeles airport. A supervisor turns to someone and says, "Get me the director of lax security."
And the supervisor literally said "lax" and didn't spell out "LAX." I woke up chuckling.
I've had similar things like this happen in the past, where something too quick for me to take credit happened in a dream and it cracks me up. How is it that our own brains, in sleep, can act almost as a separate entity from our conscious mind and surprise us with the content of our dreams?
I watched the Ayn Rand movie tonight. It was well done and stayed true to Rand's dialogue - which is a bit stilted at times to get its point across, but the point's worth it.
I invited my sons to accompany me, but no interest. Which meant that since my wife is in Minneapolis this week, I went solo.
The woman who played Dagny was great. The guy who played Rearden was good, too, but I expect to see more of her in other things.
More movies like this, please...
ETC: Talking with Jonathan about it, he brought up this parallel between Obama's doings and what occurs in the film. I mentioned that through several parts of the film, I thought about how prescient Ayn turned out to be. To which he said:
Which just goes to prove how obvious the consequences and solutions are once you have a firm grasp of validated principles.
So much of what's going on now was easily predicted. Grow government, and this is what you get.
Homes, Membership Cards, Doctors, Non-Profits, and Such
Here are a few of the web sites that I've built:
You won't find more beautiful, custom-built homes than those designed by Pinnacle, and their web site needed to showcase the elegance of these livable works of art. Purple Circle Marketing worked with me to create a site that embodied the feeling of detailed attention that Pinnacle gives its customers.
SourceCORP helps companies gain more loyalty through their customized plastic card service. Membership cards, gift cards, loyalty programs... these guys bend over backwards to create a solution. It was a pleasure to work on their web site.
West Des Moines OB/GYN's web site was written in collaboration with Purple Circle Marketing, and features not only a beautiful layout, but a versatile administrative backend that allows the OB/GYN folks to change the text of the pages themselves. Additionally, it features a blog function for their patients to tell their stories to share with others who need great OB/GYN doctors.
Common Cents is owned by Energy Stewards International, and allows HVAC professionals to optimize and certify the energy savings in homes and buildings through the use of a very detailed and full-featured web site. I implemented a flexible architecture that includes an Excel-like formula engine and survey mapping. This architecture gives the system admins extraordinary latitude for every solution they need, while simplifying the experience for their customers.
Environmental Professional of Iowa needed a membership management system with event capability, and Creative Leap and I delivered that to them. The site's ecommerce facility is easy to use, and makes signing up for events a breeze!
Venture Net Iowa works with start-up and early stage companies to help grow them to success. TalentNetIowa uses a platform that I developed to capture the skill and talent profiles of the C-level executives who want to help these young companies achieve success.
Nobody knows the annuity business better than Duane Goodwin, and to help people get to know him better, I built a very simple web site for him quickly. As I said, from the simple to the very complex, I can provide every of solution that you need.
I can think of few things less worth our national time than the whole birth certificate issue. Why?
Let's say that Obama was born elsewhere and not eligible to be president. Waving my wand of hypotheticalness - poof -he's gone...
Now who's in charge?
Biden? Hillary? Howard Dean? Whomever... it doesn't really matter.
Does the agenda change? Nope, not at all.
It's not about the person, it's about the agenda and its impact on the country, with $5 gas and high unemployment and small business owners (i.e., job creators) being reluctant to move forward at all due to all of the uncertainty of what the government will do next.
The direction of the ship is far more important than a single person. If everyone in the wheelhouse agrees with the current direction, removing one of them is pretty pointless and could be a Pyrrhic victory.
I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Rogers Universe, the aptly named web site of my son, Nick.
On the subject of independence, he had this to say:
An African professor once told me that Americans take things too seriously and we're too busy. He said he wouldn't envy anyone growing up in the U.S. just because of all the stress. To an extent, he's right. I can personally attest to the often stressful and difficult nature of just growing up here. We've got school, jobs, friends, family, homework, bills, exercise, debt, and these are just some of the things demanding our attention. Living independently is not always easy, and in fact, it usually isn't, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I like the country I live in. We are largely a productive and freedom loving society with a high standard of living. I like the person I've become because of the struggling I have had to do. In the last few years, I have learned so much that I feel like a different and better person. I like feeling productive and busy and living purposefully. As another professor once told me, everybody faces tradeoffs. So if I have to endure a little extra stress and push myself a little harder in exchange for an independent life here, I'll do it.
He's about to finish his sophomore year in college and works as a manager at the FedEx hub. He moved out on his own when he was 18, got a demanding job as a loader, and persistently applied for management and worked to impress his managers until he made it into his current role. I couldn't be more proud - of both his ethic and his thinking.
I guarantee that he'll have good things to say in the future.
I'd like to introduce you to 
