Don't let your dreams be dreams

"Don't let your dreams be dreams" - Jack Johnson

I recently read a manifesto by Chris Guillebeau entitled A Brief Guide to World Domination* : How to live a remarkable life in a conventional world.
*and other important goals

In it, the author makes the argument that you don't have to live life the way other people expect you to. You can focus the majority of your time on the things you enjoy, and in the midst can make a big difference in others' lives as well. His assertiion is summed up with this quote by Alan Keightely:

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to."

Guillebeau goes on to lay out his selection of the two most important questions in the universe:

1. What do you really want to get out of life?


2. What can you offer the world that no one else can?

To avoid spoiling the other 28 pages of the manifesto, I'll stop here and recommend you give it a read (you'll get through it in 15 minutes). Enjoy!

I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is.

There we are: June 19, 1999. At 22 and 23 we looked like teenagers. In fact, when we would take the kids to the store (2 year-old Madilyn and Infant Blake), we would got stares from old ladies of the "didn't you figure out how that happened the first time?" variety.

The truth was we were young, and often didn't feel that we were really adults. We talked during our honeymoon to the Smokey Mountains that we felt like we'd run away from home. I guess in some ways we did.

What a difference a decade makes.

I've been married to my best friend, and my personal choice for "most amazing person on the planet," for a full ten years. We've experienced pain and comfort, sadness and joy, confusion and understanding. We've asked questions, answered them, and then questioned the answers. We've built one incredible relationship, made two beautiful babies, and wrestled with lots of life stuff along the way.

I've become less and less sure about many of the things I held true at 23. I have more quesitons than ever, and I'm excited about the search for both the answers to these questions and the discovery of new ones. But I've never been more certain of this: I am in love with Janelle Chandler, and I cannot wait to add more and more decades to our adventure.

Want to pack your bags, something small.

Take what you need and we’ll disappear,

without a trace, we’ll be gone gone.

Moon and the stars will follow the car.

Then when we get to the ocean,

gonna take a boat to the end of the world,

all the way to the end of the world.

And when the kids are old enough,

we’re gonna teach them to fly.

You and me together, we can do anything, baby.

You and me together, yes, yes.

- DMB

Official Sponsor of Birthdays

The best PSA I've seen this year. Props to the American Cancer Society and whoever came up with this one.

Crack the shutters open wide, it's 20 degrees!

I was driving by the bank last week on my way to work, and a question struck me: Why does my bank continue to show Celsius degrees on their marquee? Does anyone in this country actually care what the Celsius temperature is (BTW, it was 21. 70 degrees Farenheit).

And what's up with the formula to convert the two? Tell me if this sound like it was made up by scientists spending too much time in the lab.

Nerd: Take the "normal Fahrenheit" temperature and subtract 32
Geek: Why 32?
Nerd: Um... Not sure. Just trust me.
Geek: OK
Nerd: Now take that number and multiply it by 5.
Geek: OK
Nerd: Now divide that number by 9.
Geek: What?
Nerd: Divide it by 9.
Geek: Seriously? I just multiplied it by 5?
Nerd: Just do it.

Eureka! We've discovered the conversion: Celsius = (5/9)*(Fahrenheit-32)

I'm sure there are good scientific reasons for the formula (reasons I likely learned in 8th grade but have since purged from memory), but it always seemed terribly random to me. And because of how it's set up, check this out. At -40 degrees Farenheit, it's -40 degrees Celsius. Wait...what? In Antarctica they don't even use Celsius and Fahrenheit. It's just -40.

Ridiculous.

But wait. Celsius is a much cleaner measurement of temperature. Zero = Freezing Water. 100 = Boiling Water. Why would we not use this?

This blog post could quickly fall into my "English systems of measurement are crazy" soap box (and who isn't waiting for that?). More kids would pass Jr. High math and science if they didn't have to deal with feet, miles, pounds, ounces, and kips. Kips? Really? A unit of force is called a kip?

I'll save the remainder of my metric measurement rant for another day.

So I'm thinking of learning the Celsius system (it's not that hard - 0 to 100) and using it in everyday speech.

"Hey Joe, it's gonna be a scorcher today. Might reach 35... Celsius"

Roses are green...

Thanks, honey, for finding this one. Christmas is coming!