What would you say if I were to tell you that there is a job out there that will pay you a lot of money to live on a tropical island? Your duties would include: feeding tropical fish, exploring the island, blogging about your experience, and occasionally cleaning out the pool. Did I mention the island is located in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef? Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Well, the Australian government is about to make someone's dream come true.

To learn more about this amazing job opportunity, go here. In order to be considered for the job, you have to make a 60 second video about yourself. To see what I mean, go here and don't forget to rate the video! My good friend Lindy is applying for the job and she says it's one of those once-in-a-lifetime chances you can't pass up. I think she's right, but I'm afraid I can't leave my life behind right now to do it. If you can, then give it a shot! Here is a picture of Lindy after the jump.

 

 

 

New Year's is a funny time. We reflect back on what's happened to us. We look forward to what we could accomplish. We act like the possibilities are endless and what lies ahead is surely better than what lies behind us. I tend to agree. What lies ahead is surely better and within our grasp. What we've left behind is lost. Lessons learned are all we take with us. However, one thing I won't do is make any New Year's resolutions. Goals made just because it's a new year are destined to fail. So instead of goals, how about a firm resolve, an optimistic outlook, and a little more luck in 2009 than we had in 2008. Cheers!

President-elect Obama and I disagree on a few things. I think Obama has a great deal of character. I just hope he makes a good American president.

Democrats like to speak of the wage-earners in our country as if they are what makes our country great. I believe that wage-earners make our country strong, but they are not the source of America's greatness.

Perhaps I am partial to entrepreneurs, but I believe innovation is what makes our country great. The ability for someone to follow their dream and control their own destiny is the stuff of greatness.

Innovators, problem-solvers, and dreamers create jobs, products, and services. I understand the importance of the middle-class and wage earner. I consider myself to be both at the moment.

The Democrats belief in universal health care, increased taxes for many small businesses, and an overall semi-socialistic mindset may hamper the innovations that entrepreneurs come up with in the next few years.

I, for one, hope and pray this does not happen. I am going to be optimistic about Obama and hope the innovator's climate somehow improves rather than think we are in for stormy weather.

Dear America,

I realize the stock market crashed 4% and that a lot of stupid and greedy people screwed us with their mortgage lust. I realize that gas prices are higher than we like. I also realize that the Chargers got screwed on Sunday. Here is what I don't understand: why is everyone panicking???? Panic and fear NEVER make problems get better. The stock market is still 40% higher than it was ten years ago. There is still a great deal of opportunity ahead of us. People were screaming end of the world after Sept. 11th. It didn't happen. We've survived just fine for the past 7 years. We'll be fine. Consumers need to continue saving and spending. Don't pull all your money out and put it under a mattress. If everyone would just remain calm, we can avoid a total depression. Recession is not the end of the world, depression is much worse. Don't listen to the media, they are just selling papers. Yeah, it's bad, I get that. Innovate, look for solutions, and live your lives. Oh and as for the San Diego Chargers, play defense on two more plays and you wouldn't have lost. Quit whining. You too, America.

It's been several weeks since my last post. I've been so busy with my startup company that I haven't relaxed enough to do some personal blogging. My thought for the day is this: How in the world does the NCAA allow themselves to be run by a third-party Mafia like the BCS? How is it that the greatest sport on earth has the worst post season in the world at the same time? It's very interesting that in the USA we do not allow monopolies yet the BCS is clearly one of them. If you cannot already tell, I am a HUGE fan of college football. My favorite team, the Utah Utes, happens to be in a non-BCS conference. Even though they are better than the majority of BCS programs out there, they do not get to share in millions of gauranteed money each season. I would love to hear one sane argument as to why the BCS is a valid orginization. Anyone?

Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in WWII, the Japanese commander Nagumo was heard saying that Japan had awakened a Sleeping Dragon. As I watched the opening ceremonies last night for the Olympics in Beijing, I could not help but think the world's newest Sleeping Dragon was awakening from a long slumber. China has long struggled to enter the modern era. Thanks to the US, however, China is finally ready to take it's place as the world economic leader. Over the past few decades, the US has helped finance the growth of China as we've bought billions upon billions of dollars worth of goods. Now they are our greatest creditors. I got the sense that China was making a statement with these games. Hopefully, China can not only become an economic leader, but can pass through reform in Human rights and environmental issues. Without those two things, a growing China will not be healthy for the rest of the world. China's GDP has been the largest in the world for 9 of the last 10 centuries, and I'm guessing it will now be 10 of 11. What will China do, however, with a shortage of clean water, air, and oil? Everything China does from here on out will affect the world for good, or for bad.

When I was in elementary school we had what's called "sharing time." Sharing time was when you brought in something cool from home and told everyone else about it. I hated sharing time. I never felt like I had something cool to share. All the other kids felt like sharing cool stuff would somehow make them more popular and more accepted. Then one time we had to bring in something related to thanksgiving. This is where I hit the jackpot. My family has an old authentic eagle feather headdress from the Colorado River Basin. I wore it to sharing time and I became really cool that day. So in a way, I think Facebook is nothing more than a big giant sharing time community. People share stuff about their lives in an effort to somehow feel more popular and more accepted. Most of the time the stuff we share is stupid and the majority of people couldn't care less about it. Every now and again we find an "authentic Indian headdress" to share, but for the most part we are all searching for ways to be cool. So Facebook isn't some earth-shattering new idea that is changing the world. It's just making us all feel obligated to share stuff. We could all live perfectly fine without Facebook. I'm not even sure what the point of this post is. I guess I feel compelled to share my thoughts on sharing. So if sharing our photos, videos, ideas, hobbies, and passions is what propelled the Web to what it is today, what will be our next move? There has to be a way to move the power of sharing our lives online into the real world. I feel empty and unfulfilled with most of my  "social networking" experiences.  I have a feeling that the mobile web will be the next world-changer. When we are all connected as we go about our daily lives and the messages and pings we receive on our mobile phones cause us to change our behavior, then we will see the true power of sharing. I guess this means I need to buy an iPhone? 

I am reading a book called "The Last Lecture". The author is Randy Pausch. He recently died of pancreatic cancer. Before he died, he shared his thoughts and lessons learned in this book. One of the lessons he learned was that brick walls only exist to see how bad people want things. I tend to agree with Randy. In this month's issue of Website Magazine, it talks about the difficulty of adding video to a site can seem daunting and overly complex. However, those that want it bad enough will discover that there are solutions available to make this process easier. In other words, if you really want video, all you have to do is start looking for solutions and you will find them! Qgia is a great way to make your videos powerful. It's easy, affordable, and effective. The rewards of adding video to your site are enormous. Direct response videos can increase your conversion rates up to 400%! It will take effort to research solutions and find the one that works for you. It will take effort to create a script, shoot a video, and add it to your site. But once you break down that brick wall, it will create great rewards and a lot of opportunity for your site!

I saw The Dark Night on Saturday. Watching Batman go around thrashing people, saving the day, and doing so without any political gain got me thinking: who are the real life heroes we look to in our own reality? Sure, the most popular answers are our parents, church leaders, maybe some of our friends. But who can we all look to together for inspiration and hope? I've often felt that Winston Churchill was one of the last political heroes. I actually do not feel any of our political leaders today are really heroes. Barrack talks a big game but I don't believe in him yet. There are very few athletes who can be considered heroes. Most of them are self-centered. Oscar Pistorius is one of my heroes. Beating the tar out of people without real legs is really inspiring. I think that if we don't see the kinds of heroes we'd like to see around us, we need to work harder on becoming those figures ourselves. Who are your heroes?