• In the Shade of Inspiration Welcome to R3d.me – your way to learn all about what’s on my mind. Yes, I know, it is very narcissistic to think that anyone cares enough about what I think to spend hours absorbing my thoughts… but isn’t Blogging inherently narcissistic already? Well, at best, I guess you could......

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• The Google Phone, Unlocked (Confirmed And More Details) The Google Phone, Unlocked (Confirmed And More Details) by Erick Schonfeld on December 12, 2009 Last night, we started seeing some Tweets from Google employees and others about a new Android-powered Google phone that was apparently handed out at an “all hands” meeting. Now Google is confirming that it is......

There have been many changes in the Smartphone field since my last article. I have been doing some more digging into “The” smartphones of Q1 2010.

The Nokia N900 has since dropped off of my must-have list. Nokia is now backpedalling more than I am comfortable with, mentioning in press releases and interviews that Maemo 6 will ‘fix’ the issues of Maemo 5, that they will only be releasing one Maemo unit in 2010, and that Symbian will still be their primary focus. These setbacks will keep the Maemo platform from going mainstream, and will limit it to a developer or ‘geek’ oriented OS. As far as Symbian, I understand that they do not want to throw the years of development they put into the OS down the drain. There are still many Symbian developers, and it is still one of the most proliferated smartphone operating systems in international markets. If you want my two cents, they shouldn’t have made the jump into Maemo without being sure that it was a direction they were going to focus on. Releasing one handset and relying on the development community to carry the software end is not the solution that the largest handset producer in the world should be accepting. Nokia is losing market share faster than any other major player in the wireless sector, especially now that Motorola is back on the top of their game with the Droid (and upcoming Sholes).

With regards to the HTC HD2 – it has some major competition hot on the young phone’s heals. There are rumors in the wind of a new handset (Codename HTC Bravo, Dragon, Passion etc) that will have similar hardware but will run on the Android OS and have a more manageable screen size (3.7 AMOLED Display). To me the unit doesn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as the HD2, but the new hardware combined with the great OS should make things VERY interesting.

Sony Ericsson has been out of the upper-tier smartphone game for the last couple of cycles, but their newest handset shows that they’ve been paying attention. The Xperia X10 sports a 4 inch Capacitive display, the impressive 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, and a revamped Android skin simply named “Rachel”. Videos of the demo (running early Pre-prod software) unit show the OS to be very laggy, but the implications and possibilities can clearly be seen. The intuitive and customizable interface would bring most other smartphones to their knees, but the Snapdragon-running hardware should keep things running smoothly. The impressive 8.1 megapixel camera will also be interesting to play with. Yeah, yeah I know- more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better photos (especially in smart phones). Higher numbers do, however, indicate a positive upward trend in hardware, which is always a good thing for a tech junkie!

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 at a glance

Camera

• 8.1 megapixel camera
• Up to 16x digital zoom
• Auto focus
• Intelligent face recognition features
• Geo tagging
• Image and video stabilizer
• Photo and video light
• Send to web (photo and video upload)
• Smile detection
• Touch focus
• Video recording
• Recent shot tray

Music

• Album art
• Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Media player
• Music tones (MP3/AAC)
• PlayNow™
• TrackID™

Web

• Bookmarks
• Google™ search (from standby)
• Web feeds
• WebKit web browser

Communication

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™
• Speakerphone
• Vibrating alert

Messaging

• Conversations
• Email
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Text messaging (SMS)

Design

• Auto rotate
• Gesture control
• Picture wallpaper
• Touchscreen

Entertainment

• 3D games
• Media browser
• Infinite button
• Video streaming
• Video viewing
• YouTube™

Organiser

• Alarm clock
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Flight mode
• Infinite button
• Office suite
• Phone book with dialer
• World clock

Location-based services

• A-GPS
• Google Maps™
• Wisepilot™ turn-by-turn navigation* (free trial version)

• *The service may not be available in every market. For more information, go to www.sonyericsson.wisepilot.com

Connectivity

• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Micro USB connector
• Synchronisation
• USB support
• Wi-Fi™

Preloaded applications

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™
• Sony Ericsson Mediascape
• Sony Ericsson Home with clock widget
• Sony Ericsson Sync
• Android Market™ Client
• Gmail™
• Google Calendar™
• Google Maps™ with Street View
• Google Media Uploader
• Google phone-top search
• Google search widget
• Google Talk™
• Google Voice Search™
• Network Location Provider
• Set-up Wizard
• YouTube™

Screen

• 65,536 colour TFT Touchscreen
• 4.0 inches
• 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA)
• Scratch-resistant

Accessories
In-Box:

• XPERIA™ X10
• Battery
• Stereo portable handsfree
• 8 GB microSD™ card
• Micro USB cable for charging, synchronisation and file transfer
• User documentation

Optional:

• Hi-Fi Wireless Headset with FM Radio MW600
• Car Charger AN300
• Screen Protector ET902

Facts 1)2)

• Size: 119 x 63 x 13 mm
• Weight: 135 grams

• Phone memory: Up to 1 GB

• Memory card support: microSD™

• Memory card included: 8 GB

• Operating system: Google™ Android Donut, version 1.6
• Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ QSD8250

Availability and versions

• Networks

• UMTS HSPA 900/1700/2100
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

• UMTS HSPA 800/1900/2100
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

• Available in selected markets in Q1 2010

Colors

• Sensuous Black
• Luster White

The only numbers that don’t seem to be going up is battery life. There are all kinds of theoretical advances in the field of energy retention, but not many practical ones that apply to mobile tech. What good is a phone if you have to keep it tied to an outlet? Kind-of makes it lose that whole ‘mobile’ moniker. I understand that 3.5”+ screens and touchscreen technology are notorious battery drainers, but to get me to drop completely out of the Crackberry club, they’re going to have to do better than 8-12 hr. standby times.

• Need I just got done downloading Timothy Ferriss’ book “The Four Hour Work Week” off of Audible. I spend a lot of time on the roads of this great country, and having ‘brain material’ to listen to always helps me stay awake and alert. The last book I listened to, “The......
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• Sony Ericsson Vivaz – Brilliant Hd Mobile Phone The popularity of Sony Ericsson mobile phones are recorded quiet high in recent few months. Their upcoming handsets are build with some unique technologies that gives completely new experience to its user. They recently announced Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the phone which has compiled with all the latest technologies including......
• The Latest Wireless G-Phones The latest to join the many treats are WiFi cell phones by Linksys with which VoIP calls can be made over Wireless –G networks.Expected to retail at US$ 220- US$ 370 the phones have a user interface that can be configured to function using available wireless-G networks.Wow:• You can......

Review: Upgrading to Windows 7

Upgrading to Windows 7

Yes, I know, Windows 7 isn’t out quite yet. I was lucky enough to get chosen to participate in the Windows 7  House Party program, and got my copy of Windows 7 Signature Ultimate Edition on the 9^th. A couple of days ago, I finally got the chance to install it on my Gateway 7805u laptop. For those of you interested in specs, they are as follows:

Gateway 7805u 2.2Ghz

17” 1980×1420

1gb Nvidia  9800M

4gb DDR3 RAM

Windows experience score of 5.7

When I purchased this laptop, it came with Windows Vista. Prior to this I had been on a Mac, so needless to say, I was not impressed. Approx 2 weeks into owning the computer, I started getting BSOD’s happening fairly consistently (2-5 times a day at times). I had bought it at Best Buy, and they offered to replace it, but I didn’t want to get rid of this particular piece of hardware. The first production units of this particular Gateway model were mistakenly run with a premium screen (LG 1980×1420 res), instead of the 1440x? that they were supposed to have been installed with. I fell in love with this resolution from the first moment I booted up the computer, and refused to go with an inferior screen if I could help it. Stubborn, yes, but I had a plan.

You see, I knew that there was a new operating system just around the horizon. By this point, I had found that the problem was software-bred, rather than something wrong with the hardware. The House Party selection took place, I learned that I’d be getting a limited edition version of Windows 7, and all of the puzzle pieces fell into place.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I began upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7 around 7p.m. The installation concluded around 4am. This was not as quick of an upgrade experience as some were claiming, but wasn’t the 24 hours of tortured waiting that others had to endure. For a rather long time (approx 2 hours), the installation was stuck unpacking the installation files for around 2 hours. This was rather nerve-racking, as I kept expecting it to fail. At one point, I was about to do a quick battery-pull and try again, but I instead got on my Blackberry Bold to check and see if anyone had similar problems. Apparently, this extended wait was very typical during the Windows7 RC installation, and was expecting in the final release as well. This calmed me down somewhat, and I went back to twiddling my thumbs or whatever it was that I was doing.

When I got back on the computer the next morning, I was pleasantly surprised. The installation was complete, I had a crisp Windows 7 Login screen waiting for me, and I didn’t have to chuck my wife’s cat for sleeping on my keyboard again (she likes the heat coming up from the comp). When I first booted into Windows 7, I immediately noticed how much more quickly the comp went through the startup process. I actually timed it, and it took around 1:30-1:40 to go from a dark screen to being logged in and seeing my Windows 7 background.

In the past 48hrs, I have not had a single BSOD or crash of any kind. All of my software, with the exception of Skype ran smoothly and efficiently. For some reason, the version of Skype that I was using was incompatible with Windows 7. I. No worries though- I downloaded a Beta version of Skype 4.1, and everything now is hunky-dory (haven’t had a chance to use that term in ages!)

As far as speed, Windows 7 is showing at least a 20%-30% bump on the startup times, application opening times, and multitasking. I have taken the time to run 12 labor-intensive applications at the same time, and didn’t see anything other than a small expected slowdown on the app side. I like to think of myself as a gamer (especially considering I’m opening a gaming store), but I haven’t had the time to run any graphics-intensive games. I had SimSociety running in the background while listening to music while writing an article while surfing the net while loading a youtube video, and didn’t see the processor task load jump over 70%. Sometime in the next few days, I’ll pop in a copy of Call of Duty World at War and see how things look then.

Overall, the installation of Windows 7 went more smoothly than any of my other OS upgrade experiences (although I would have to say it’s tied with my experience upgrading Mac OSX Tiger to Leopard.

If anyone has any questions about the upgrade process, feel free to send me an email or SMS txt!

Tips for Upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista:

1. I recommend Defragging your hard drive prior to any major system upgrade. This process takes data that has been spread across various parts of your HDD (Hard Drive),
2. Backup as much as you possibly can, otherwise there you may end up on the proverbial “Wall of shame” if you lose everything without having a backup.
3. If the download hits any snags, DON’T RESTART IT unless it tells you to. Let the Windows 7 install wizard take it’s time and do it’s thing.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep updating my experience with the Windows 7 OS as time passes. So far, I give it a 10 out of 10, even with the lengthy upgrade. I will be recommending this OS to anyone wanting more out of Windows XP, or higher speeds than what vista has to offer. Other than that, let me know how your own installations go (especially if you can get your hands on it before the 22^nd). Adios!

Misc. Info:

Windows 7 Versions

Share and Enjoy:

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• In the Shade of Inspiration Welcome to R3d.me – your way to learn all about what’s on my mind. Yes, I know, it is very narcissistic to think that anyone cares enough about what I think to spend hours absorbing my thoughts… but isn’t Blogging inherently narcissistic already? Well, at best, I guess you could......

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The Feature battle for 2010 has begun! So far, we have the Nokia N900, HTC HD2, and Motorola Droid either out already, or coming very soon to the states. All three phones are promising to be the next “iPhone Killer”, and (on paper, at least), are all formidable in their own right.

If you’ve been keeping up with the reviews and the hype, you should already be aware of most of the info in this article. Note—I’m not providing a hands-on p/review of any of these phones, just compiling information from other reviewers to give you my take on these competitors. I may end up doing a hands-on video and review of the N900 and HD2 as soon as they are both available. I haven’t been able to decide which I prefer, so will probably end up getting both (N900 for personal, HD2 for business).

Out of the three, the Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid both have physical Qwerty keyboards, along with virtual on-screen keyboards for those moments that you don’t feel like taking the 0.002 seconds to pop it out from under the phone. The HD2 relies on an all-virtual typing experience, but the keyboard in HTC’s new Windows 6.5-based Sense UI has been heralded as the best virtual keyboard on SmartPhones to date.

Physically, the HD2 has been winning out for the large, gorgeous 4.3” screen and thin form factor. The Droid is second in line, described as being “so utilitarian that it’s hawt”. The N900 is a bit thicker than the competition, and doesn’t as high a resolution. It is advantaged, however, by the hardware acceleration built into the hardware.

There is one clear winner if you are looking for processor speeds. The N900 and Droid are running at 600mghz and 550mghz, respectively, while the HD2 is packing a netbook-grade 1ghz Snapdragon processor.

You can have all of the processing power in the world, but if your Operating System doesn’t know how to make use of it, you’re better off just getting a “Free with Contract” dumbphone or featurephone. As mentioned above, the HD2 is riding on the Windows 6.5 wagon. Sure, Windows Mobile has been pretty bland in the last couple of iterations, but HTC has been able to shake things up by completely revamping the OS into their very touch-friendly SenseUI (currently used on the Hero and other Android phones). It does the trick with regard to looks, but ends up lagging a bit more than the N900 and Droid. This has been accredited mostly to the RAM-hungry OS (and the pretty new overlay doesn’t help in this regard).

The Nokia N900 is rocking Maemo 5.0. This is a linux-based mobile OS that allows multitasking and looks great, but doesn’t have the app library the Windows and Android boast of. Since this is a very ‘open-source’ OS, you can be sure that the app market will grow quickly in the months following the N900’s release.  The Droid got its name from its OS, Google’s Android. We’ve seen plenty of Android mania and phones in recent months, but the Droid is one step above the rest of its cousins- Motorola is releasing this phone with Android 2.0 (multi-touch support, less lag, and some of the bugs have been fixed). Like Maemo, Android is still a fairly young mobile operating system, but already boasts a much larger library of applications and developer support. This OS isn’t expected to go anywhere soon, and as hardware speeds keep increasing you can expect to see the apps to only get more robust.

To decide which phone is ‘the’ phone, you must get past all of the marketing hype and decide what it is that you’ll be using your phone for. If you are needing a smartphone primarily to keep up with the endless onslaught of work-related emails, spreadsheets, and reports, then a Windows (or RIM BlackBerry, preferably) would be a better solution. Most business users (and CTOs) prefer these operating systems because of the easy MS Exchange support. If you want a phone to use as a gaming platform while on the go, just suck it up and get the iPhone. None of the currently discussed phones will have the same amount of support from the gaming sector. Android has attracted some developers, but not enough big names to qualify as a gaming OS. As far as hardware goes, the N900 hardware is very similar to that of the iPhone, and includes OpenGL support. This allows OpenGL-based titles like Quake III to be easily ported over to the handset.

Surfing the internet using your phone is something that most SmartPhone users do, but is still not as comfortable and convenient as using a computer. Mobile browser developers have been working on improving the mobile internet experience for years now, and this quarter’s top three (touch) SmartPhones are no exception. The N900 is supposed to be an Internet Tablet right out of the box.. Does it live up to the hype? From all indications, Nokia and the Maemo crew have not taken this phone’s browsing experience lightly. The phone includes out-of-the-box Flash 10 support (Now we play many FB games on a handset!) While the phone does not have multi-touch, using a simple “Spiral in/out” gesture will allow you to see the pages you are viewing in more detail.

I am currently a BlackBerry user, but didn’t include reviews of any new and up-and-coming BB’s for one simple reason- the only touch-based BB phone is the Storm (and now the Storm 2); daily users and tech reviewers alike have had the same opinion- the Storm is nice, but too gimmicky to be an end-all device. The Storm fixed many of the hardware and software issues, but to me still seems like it’s a response to all of the other touchscreen phones out there, rather than an industry-leading platform. If the 9700 (the replacement for my current phone, the Bold) would have incorporated a capacitive touch screen, it would have definitely been my upgrade of choice. But, alas, size constraints and battery life have kept RIM from going into this direction, nice as it would have been.

If I were spewing out the specs of my dream phone, it would probably end up looking something like this:

Maemo or Android w/ HTC’s SenseUI

1ghz Snapdragon (or the 1.2Ghz TBA)

3.8” Capacitive Touchscreen

1gb Ram (All physical)

64gb Internal Storage** (upgradeable to 96gb via 32gb MicroSD)

Quadband, support for 3g, Edge, etc OR LTE, CDMA

WiFi (Wireless-N compatible)

8MP Rear Camera, Dual LED Flash, 1.2MP Front-facing Camera

5 line staggered Backlit (Dual/Multi Color) Physical Keyboard

Optical Trackpad (BlackBerry 9700 style) on front.

**Note – a requirement of the storage is that ALL of the internal memory be available for applications. The only phone that has been able to accomplish this (to my knowledge) has been the iPhone- all of the other platforms only provide between 128mb and 1gb of application memory, severely limiting application size and options.

• World's Strongest Man In my youth, I would often watch the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ competitions with my younger brother. I would often tell myself (and my family), that I would one day be in those competitions. That was my dream, and what I thought I wanted for my life. I took the steps......
• Life in the Teen Zone Life in the Teen-zone Looking back, there are a few things that I wish I had known back in High School. These are things that you often hear about, but never take seriously. More often than not, teenagers choose to believe that they are the first ones to go......

• Deutsche Bank Championship Preview 2009 Tiger Woods has just recently made it official: He is going to be playing in the 2009 Deutsche Bank Championship which is slated to be held at the TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts this upcoming week. Of course, was this something we were really worried about? The truth is, there......
• How the Right IT Solutions Can Save Your Company Money In this new era of fiscal responsibility and uncertain economic times, all businesses are looking for ways they can save money and be more productive. Information technology (IT) enables companies to be more efficient and effective; it can help them save money. Leveraging the right technologies by adopting recent......

Have you ever wondered who you are, and who you want to be? Are these two individuals different? How are they different? What do you have to do or accomplish to bridge the gap between the two You’s?

Most of us go through life, blindly stumbling along an unlit path. We feel our way forward, day by day, not really sure where we’re going. Other have a flashlight in hand, along with a crude map drawn on a napkin. Some, very few, board a private jet and get to where they’re going without ever even having to worry about finding their way there. Where do you fall on this journey we call life?

I’ve been bouncing around since the day I was born. I’ve lived on four different continents, have travelled to more places than I can remember, and still dream of being able to go wherever I want to, whenever I wish. I’ve had jobs where I stand in the same place for 12-16 hours a day. I’ve held positions that would take me through seven different states in three days. I have made phone calls to Jamaica in the morning, and stayed up late to talk to Nepal at night. Some people equate a ‘diverse working resume’ to a person with no purpose in life. I would have to disagree- I know where I’m going, but it’s up to me to decide how to get there. So far, I’ve just been taking the scenic route

I am a big believer in experiencing life, not just living it. I love to try new things and meet new people. Most of all, though, I like expanding upon my inner library. I love to learn new things, be it random facts that will never be of use to me, or how to build a house. Everything that I experience during my day-to-day walk through this plane of existence contributes to who I am. Even if it has nothing to do with my eventual destination in life, every experience helps make the journey that much more meaningful.

For those of you feeling like you’re stuck doing the same dead-end job- take a second to look around you. While you’re doing whatever it is you do, who do you interact with? What do you learn? Always try to think of the things that you do as being a contribution to who you are and where you are going, not as a deterrent. Keep in mind where you want your life to go. Forget the limits that are plaecd upon you by your “station in life”, your lack of money/education/good looks, or anything else that may put a damper on your dreams. Keep your ultimate goal on the horizon, and walk towards it step by step, only looking back at the end to see how far you’ve come.

• Need I just got done downloading Timothy Ferriss’ book “The Four Hour Work Week” off of Audible. I spend a lot of time on the roads of this great country, and having ‘brain material’ to listen to always helps me stay awake and alert. The last book I listened to, “The......
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Money travels. We’ve all seen the documentaries about how currency travels all over the world, before finally ending up in an incinerator (or in the pocket of a corrupt bank official) once it is unfit to be reissued. For those of us wanting to promote a business, website, band, or pretty much anything, I have devised a way to

PROMOTE AROUND THE WORLD FOR LESS THAN A PAIR OF OVERPRICED JEANS!

My expertly trained staff (they have been writing for over 20 years, each) will write any message that you wish on a $100 bill, and then professionally introduce it into target areas around the United States (extra charge for international distribution). This bill is Guaranteed to be seen by at least 100 different people, unless it is confiscated as evidence in a drug/laundering/other crime case. Even if this happens, imagine the press you will get when the feds find your information all over this bill, and raid the mailbox you are using as a business address. All of the major news networks will be on it, with your face and website plastered all over the primetime news shows. Ahhh, we can dream. (Note- the aforementioned scenario is in no way covered by the Guarantee mentioned above. There is a 1 in 123,094,510,591,457,024 chance of this happening. For explanation of how our statisticians got this number, please refer to the Article entitled “86% of Statistics are Made Up”)

! The $110 MARKETING PLAN !

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Yes, we will PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS or your, your site, your profile, etc for the amazing price of $110. This covers professional sorting to find the optimal $100 bill, stenciling/branding, and recirculation in the best possible locations around the US.

If you have any questions, please refer to above text. Click on the Paypal button below, fill out the information, and indicate in the Special Instructions sections exactly what you want written on the bill. (No profanity, up to 60 Characters, and special characters are limited to periods ( . ), hashtags, ( # ) and parentheses ( … do you really need a sample? ). Commas ( , ) may be subject to additional charges (for tax reasons).

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• Why Internet Marketers Need a Website to Succeed Both Alec and Remon like baking. Cheese cakes, butter cookies, pumpkin pies, banana rolls, muffins with raisins, you name it. So they make baking and selling cakes their career. Every morning, they spend hours producing all sorts of cakes and sell them in the afternoon. Alec puts his cakes in......

I was writing an email, and decided to come up with a quote to include in the signature. I see people putting in witty, insightful, and creative quotes all the time. Why not come up with my own? After a couple of minutes of creative editing, I came up with this:

~Innovation is the fabric upon which I create the tapestry of my life. Threads of Vision and Determination sewn with the needle known as Strength.~

It sounds ‘artsy’ enough, but more importantly, it means something to me.

In the beginning of the quote, I mention Innovation. I have always looked ahead, at the ‘big picture’ of any situation. I often try to think of ways to change the things around me for the better. These characteristics of my personality were one of the primary factors pushing me to go into consulting (which I did and enjoyed for a couple of years). This drive for innovation and constant change is the fabric, or core of my personality and who I am. Even though the image on the tapestry may gradually change, the fabric always remains.

My thought process and the way I look at things is different from that of most people that I’ve met, which helps me see things that others miss or ignore. In any project that I take on, I look at the ‘best possible scenario’ – a sequence of events that culminates into the ultimate peak for any business, product venture, etc. My Vision changes as the tapestry is formed. New experiences, events, friendships, and partnerships all make their impact on the threads symbolizing the timeline of my life.

If Vision symbolizes the bright threads in my tapestry, Determination represents the earth tones, pastels, and solid patterns that allow the threads of Vision to stand out. I am, and always have been, determined to succeed. No matter how often I may fail, I am always determined to take the best out of any situation and continue. Our lives are never completely shiny and happy. Sometimes we have to go through hardships and difficulty, but those somber tones give our tapestries the substance they need to be beautiful and original.

To build the life we want, we have to use the right tools. My primary tool is Strength. (I have written an entire post dedicated to this topic, titled World’s Strongest Man). I must have the Strength to continue regardless what obstacles may come my way. I must have the Strength to overcome diversity and my own doubts and concerns. Just as a needle allows a talented seamstress to create beautiful works of art, so my Strength allows me to cut my own path throughout the reality around me.

Please keep in mind that this post was written at 4am. If it seems like I was under the influence of a controlled substance while writing this, the only drug in my system is Caffeine. My cup of coffee at Ihop two hours ago has kept me going this long, so might as well spend the extra sleepless time writing!

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In my youth, I would often watch the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ competitions with my younger brother. I would often tell myself (and my family), that I would one day be in those competitions. That was my dream, and what I thought I wanted for my life. I took the steps to realize that dream. I began lifting weights around the age of fourteen, and moved on to competitive powerlifting through the remainder of my high school years. A series of injuries forced me to abandon this dream for the sake of my health (and the ability to use my shoulder), but I came away from this extended experience with a new sense of respect for the concept of Strength.

Obviously, strength plays a major part in the dream track that I had chosen for myself at that young age. To bench press a hundred pounds, your arms and back must be able to sustain the weight, and drive it forward. Two hundred pounds is a bit more challenging, requiring additional support muscles that are not as well developed as the ones you use day to day. Bench pressing three hundred pounds takes determination- weeks (if not months) of training to strengthen all of the core and support muscles throughout the arms, chest, and shoulders. Hitting four hundred pounds is a feat in and of itself, as it requires intense concentration on every muscle group throughout the torso (even the lower back) for years. Without taking the steps necessary to build up these minor and major muscle groups, it is impossible for most individuals to lift that kind of weight. Hurrying through training or ‘cheating’ will only lead to injury.

With all of the various schools of thought on the topic of success, we are often taught to expect it all right away. If we don’t know how to handle small amounts of success, how are we supposed to react when hundreds of millions of dollars are suddenly piled into our laps? Much like trying to lift too much weight too quickly, trying to grasp at too much success can get us hurt. Don’t get me wrong- there are plenty of ‘miracle’ success stories. There are also at least twice as many cases where individuals propelled into stardom or riches crash and burn.

Throughout the entire process of training to bench press that weight, your concept of Strength gradually changes. When I first started training, I had dreams of seeing more than one “45” lb plate on each side of the bar. Gradually I grew accustomed to seeing many more than that. I had thought I would consider myself ‘Strong’ after being able to leg press five hundred pounds. When I reached my max in that exercise (1470lbs), did I feel like I had finally reached my goal? Not really- I knew I gained levels of strength and accomplished my previous goals, but I still couldn’t completely walk around calling myself a ‘Strong’ man. If I had let myself be ruled by the mediocre goals that I had set at the beginning, I would never had proceeded past mediocrity. My dream of being one of the ‘World’s Strongest Men’ (the likelihood of which was next to none) kept me blowing past these mediocre goals and standards that I let myself set. I was able to reach heights (well, weights, technically) that I never would have dreamed of in those first days of sore muscles and tired limbs.

In our lives, we often set our sights on a certain level of wealth or accomplishment. For those of us that had to wash dishes, we couldn’t wait to get that thirty-cent raise. In our career life, we wait on that distant promotion, knowing that it will fill that void and make everything right. When we finally get to that point, are we as fulfilled as we thought we would be? In most cases, no. Just like with weight training and sports, we set these artificial indicators in our minds because we know that we can reach them. We shelter ourselves from the possibility of failure while telling ourselves that reaching these goals will give us what we need. If we keep allow our lives to follow this narrow track of small goals, at what point will we allow ourselves to feel ‘accomplished’ and relax in that relative mediocrity?

What is your dream? What is your ‘best case’ scenario? Is it a beach house and a surf board? Is it millions in the bank and a happy marriage? Or is it to climb the highest mountains and dive to the deepest depths of the ocean? No matter what you dream of, make sure that you don’t allow your focus to shift from that dream. Refuse to accept mediocrity. Keep your eye on the prize, and don’t be afraid to accept the small gains and accomplishments. Accept them, but don’t let them take the place of your wildest dreams!

• In the Shade of Inspiration Welcome to R3d.me – your way to learn all about what’s on my mind. Yes, I know, it is very narcissistic to think that anyone cares enough about what I think to spend hours absorbing my thoughts… but isn’t Blogging inherently narcissistic already? Well, at best, I guess you could......

• Pushing Around a 5500 lb. Car Car pushing can help build muscle and strength in ways you never would have imagined. I first came across car pushing and pulling while watching The World's Strongest Man competition on ESPN as a kid. It can help train your body in ways that conventional weights, exercises, and machines can't.......
• 62 Pounds in 100 Days… 1.9 Pounds in 2 Weeks For those of you that go straight for the graph... I didn't cheat last week, but I was quite down on myself until I figured out what on earth had happened that caused me to gain 9 pounds in a week... (I bet the women already know) WATER. My blood......

*Note* This post is borrowed from my “Twitter for Business” blog, TweetClubb.com. Added some additional content, so give it a r3ad!

Well, there are a million Twitter apps, solutions, and sites online, and every one of them is trying to be the next ‘it’ thing. This list is comprised of some of my favorite Twitter apps, along with others that I find interesting!

Su.Pr: All I can say is Wow! This is one of the newest online-based resources out there, but I guesstimate that it will quickly become one of the best. Su.Pr comes from the makers of StumbleUpon working in conjunction with Tim Ferriss (his claim, not sure if it’s substantiated!). It combines a link shortener, with a full-service Wordpress plugin, with an incredibly adept traffic analysis/analytics tool, with the Stumbleupon platform, and so on and so forth. I’ll be doing an entire post about this tool (once I get the hang of using it), so stay tuned!

TwitPic: Awesome app that lets you post pics to Twitter, and will also let your followers (and others) see other photos that you’ve posted. A must have for the pic-buffs out there!

TweetDeck: I’ve reviewed this Adobe Air-based application already, but for those of you that don’t feel like scrolling down, this is my favorite and most often-used application. The multiple panes allow for a quick and easy view of everything going on in your Tweetdom.

Twhirl: Great alternative to TweetDeck. Use this app if you prefer a simple IM-like interface, and want to see everything in one pane. I use this alongside TweetDeck, as it allows for maintaining more than one Twitter account.

TwitterSearch: Twitter’s search function, and one of the ones that I end up using most often. Search for a word, a term, or pretty much anything else, and you’ll see exactly who’s talking about it and when. Also allows you to link to it as an RSS feed, allowing you to post Tweets on any topic to your blog or site (if there isn’t already a better Twitter solution out there).

TweetStats: Find out all of the stats on Twitter, including most Tweeted topics, peak usage times, etc. Builds a customized page for you detailing all of your Twitter-oriented statistics.

TwitterToolbar: If you are the type of person that likes to keep everything in your browser, then this app is a must-have! Works great with Firefox and with Internet Explorer.

Monitter: Another Must-Bookmark app for anyone that is wanting to use Twitter for Business! Monitter allows you to see a side-by-side view of live Tweets on any three keywords or phrases. The best part is, you can sort the search results by proximity to any zip code. If you have a location-based or brick-and-mortar business, then this app will allow you to see who is talking about your business, and where they are from!

Twitter Atlas: Very interesting Flash-based online mapping interface, aggregating Tweets from around the world. Also allows you to get standard atlas functionality, including getting directions, finding places to eat, etc.

• In the Shade of Inspiration Welcome to R3d.me – your way to learn all about what’s on my mind. Yes, I know, it is very narcissistic to think that anyone cares enough about what I think to spend hours absorbing my thoughts… but isn’t Blogging inherently narcissistic already? Well, at best, I guess you could......

• How One Los Angeles SEO Company Can Help Businesses Compete Imagine that on the national news, a huge story about your industry category is featured. That is good, right? Although you're not mentioned and your major competitors are, the mere fact that the news story was featured on national television could mean more business for you, right? Well, the answer......
• Top Blogging Strategies Whether your blog is about general interest topics like how you washed a crayon in your son's pocket and there's a new bank going up in town, or you have a niche blog designed to make money, the same basic blogging strategies apply if you want to be a top......

Since this is a very new blog, I haven’t been getting much organic traffic. I’ve been looking for various ways to get visitors to the blog. Since I’m not really pushing Adsense or anything else, the traffic is mainly to make myself feel better about myself. It’s tough putting hours into a project if no one is going to see it!

A couple of days ago I came across Blogclicker. I left the site open in one of my Firefox tabs until earlier today. I took a look, and was pleasantly surprised. Basically, the concept of the site is as follows: You set up an account (free), and add your blog’s information. For signing up, you get 10 credits added to your account. Credits are used to get other people to visit your blog, but more on that in a minute.

Once you’re ready to go, you can click on the start link that they provided. You are automatically taken to the account of another fell Blogclicker subscriber. At the top of the scree is a small menu bar that provides other sites that you are to visit. As you visit these sites, sur, and look over your ellow bloggers’ work, you get additional credits, allowing for further traffic pointed towards your site.

Within the first five minutes of adding my site to my account, I was able to see that one of my credits had alrady been used. This meant that my blog had already been added to the list, and had already generated one visitor.

I am going to keep using this service for the next week or two, and will provide another update as we go along. If nothing else, it gives me a steady stream of new blogs to look over, and brings along a fun ‘gameplay’ oriented atmosphere.

• In the Shade of Inspiration Welcome to R3d.me – your way to learn all about what’s on my mind. Yes, I know, it is very narcissistic to think that anyone cares enough about what I think to spend hours absorbing my thoughts… but isn’t Blogging inherently narcissistic already? Well, at best, I guess you could......

• Get Free Blog Traffic by Writing Smart Why should you have to pay for obtaining traffic to your blog? There is no reason why you should spend a lot of money making your blog friendly for readers, considering that some of the best ways to get blog traffic are free. Attracting free blog traffic can easily net......
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