Focus on Winning Your Goals

Before you walk into a meeting, know the following:
• who your audience is
• their expectations
• the context in which you are presenting your information
• your desired outcome

From pg.220, In the Company of Women
By Katherine Gay
ISBN: 0-00-255731-2

Glaciers suffer record shrinkage

"The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown. Experts have called for 'immediate action' to reverse the trend, which is seen as a key climate change indicator."--read more: BBC News

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?"
--Pablo Picasso

Tuesday Tooth Report

Don't worry, my teeth didn't put a damper on Easter. I chose pure milk chocolate — melty goodness and no peanut chunks collecting in my braces! (Thanks to a wonderful neighbour, I still got the peanutty taste with peanut butter-filled chocolate eggs! Yum.)

National Geographic's Green Guide: Plastics

To make sure that your plastic water bottles and storage (food or other) containers are safe for your family and the environment, check their plastic type. On their bottom, you'll see a number inside a triangle pressed into the plastic. 3, 6, and 7 are considered plastics to avoid. Between probable cancer-causing properties and hormone disruptors, you'll want to turn these plastics in for recycling and replace with safer ones. ...read more at National Geographic's TheGreenGuide.com

Book Review — The Entrepreneurial Itch

• Author: David Trahair
• ISBN-13: 978-1-55180-735-5
• ISBN-10: 1-55180-753-1
• Publisher: Self-Counsel Press
• 153 pages, soft-cover
• $13.95 US / $17.95 CDN

Small business owner, Chartered Accountant, and writer of books on personal finance and small business, David Trahair, offers an honest look at what to expect when starting a new business.

A quick read and written in terms that anyone can understand, this 153-page book plainly tells you what off-ramps, pit stops and potholes to expect on the road to creating a business. Not one to sugarcoat it, Trahair recommends a self-effacing “Attributes of a Successful Entrepreneur” test that might leave a sour taste in your mouth but will cut straight to the core — do you have the right personality to be an entrepreneur. He asks questions like: Are you able to sell yourself, meet people, research your market and competition, push yourself to work long hours for the first 3-5 years while the business gets its footing, delegate work where appropriate, listen to the advice of your customers, etc., etc.? If you pass, proceed to Go. If not, consider a safer, more palatable career path.

He likens owning a business to owning a 3-legged stool. All three legs of your business — Operations, Sales, and Administration — must be sturdy enough to keep that stool upright. A flaw in one leg could tip the entire… you get the metaphor.

The book includes keys to marketing/selling yourself on a start-up’s budget, easing the cash-flow crunch, bookkeeping basics, integrating your business with your life, and buying a franchise.

Although a little too quick to promote other Self-Counsel Press publications, Entrepreneurial Itch, at under $20, is a super starting point for anyone considering striking out on their own. It will help you determine if your skills, your drive and your ideas are strong enough to turn that burning desire into a full-fledged business venture or to apply ointment to keep you from scratching.

Speaking of Teeth...

"A museum visitor observes the teeth in a large-scale model of the human mouth, complete with rubber tongue, taste buds, and tonsils, at the Corpus museum in Oegstgeest, 35 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam. The makers of Corpus, a new attraction in the Netherlands, are hoping that a combination amusement park and health education museum will encourage kids to take better care of their own bodies. (Fred Ernst/Associated Press)" -- via CBC News "This Week in Pictures"

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Inside every fat ad there's a thinner and better one trying to get out." —Advertising writer, Tony Cox

Tuesday Tooth Report

As a few of you know, I've recently gotten braces. Straightening teeth seems to be a two-year process these days -- much faster than when I was in highschool.

I've decided to blog the experience once a week for the duration of the process -- a kind of performance art using my jaw as the medium. Pushing and pulling teeth around like clay on a turning wheel. Hopefully sculpting the perfect smile in the process.

So, stay tuned for Tuesday Tooth Reports!

Sticky surface on poster "collects" pollution to "draw" the message

"The poster is blank with a clear sticky coating over the headline and artwork. Over time, dust and dirt particles from the street get stuck on the poster, gradually revealing the message. In doing so, we let polluted air speak for itself." What's revealed? The headline "Polluted air pollutes" and a visual of human lungs getting dirtier by the minute. January 2008 Gold winner of "Best Outdoor" at Ads of the World.

To Feed the Birds, First Feed the Bugs

"They are struggling to plant the native species that are needed for insects and animals to flourish. As exotic ornamentals leap the garden fence and out-compete the native plants, many creatures are starving to death because they did not evolve with the exotics and simply can’t eat them." --read more: The New York Times

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Confidence is 99% of what you do."
--George Clooney

Marketing Gives a "Hand" to Child Abuse

Graphic in both senses of the word, this smart ad helps Against Abuse Inc. spread its message in a memorable, if not disturbing way. Text at the bottom of the poster reads, "More than 300,000 children are sexually abused in Germany every year."

January 2008 Silver "Best Print"
Agency: Grabarz & Partner, Germany
Featured on Ads of the World.

Antarctic fish's winter 'sleep'

"The Antarctic cod puts itself into a state similar to hibernation for the winter, researchers have found, which is highly unusual for a fish." --read more: BBC News

Mathematics Explains Mysterious Midge Behavior

"...Similarly, an exploding midge population collapses when diatoms become scarce. Midge larvae, burrowed in the lake sediment, feed on diatoms that float by. When the larvae squeeze into every nook of sediment, diatoms have no room left to grow. 'It’s basically the midges eat themselves out of house and home'." --read more: The New York Times

Illegal Loggers Invaded Butterfly Haven

"Illegal loggers have chopped their way deep into unique forest reserves in a mountain range in central Mexico where millions of monarch butterflies from eastern North America roost for the winter, according to researchers who posted satellite photographs of the area on a NASA Web site Wednesday evening."
--read more: The New York Times

Turning Glare Into Watts

"On sunny afternoons, those 10 plants would produce as much electricity as three nuclear reactors, but they can be built in as little as two years, compared with a decade or longer for a nuclear plant. Some of the new plants will feature systems that allow them to store heat and generate electricity for hours after sunset." --read more: The New York Times

World's Highest Tides in New Brunswick, Canada!

Time-lapsed video of the tide going up and down at a Bay of Fundy wharf. As the "Bay of Fundy Blog" says, "remember, in reality, it takes our massive tides 6 hrs 13 minutes to go from high to low (or vice versa). --via Bay of Fundy Blog; as seen at YouTube

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
--Gandhi