I love it when a plan comes togetherDavid has a cool tale of his latest emergency room shift.I enjoy reading his blog because he tells it like it is – the good and the bad. His last story, “I Shot the Robber,” really hit me hard. One of the last things I read before going to sleep. It knocked me down and I just kinda sunk under the covers and thought about it over and over again – staring at my wife – wondering.Keep an eye on David's blog. I think you'll be glad you did.

Working At Home – And Being ProductiveHere are 3 simple tips for being productive if you work from home. I don't follow them all the time, but when I do, I find that I'm more productive and have a better quality of life and peace of mind.1. Get up and GO to work
Get out of bed, hop in the shower, shave, and put on some real clothes. For months I used to work in my pajamas until around 10 or 11. I would roll out of bed and roll into my chair and start working. When I came up for air, I'd hop in the shower. I found that it was a big interruption and caused me to feel like I had wasted my morning. Instead, I now try to walk into my office (20 feet from my bedroom) fully dressed as if though I actually had to face the world.
2. Set Your Objectives
Whether you have a boss or not that you report to frequently, we all have things we need to get done and objectives we need to meet. I find that I can easy spend my day working on 100 different projects and end the day feeling frustrated and upset that I “didn't do anything.” In reality, I was busy all day, but I couldn't remember what I did. Now, I try to make a list at the beginning of each day and check things off as I go. If I get a call and someone asks me to do something that isn't on my list (and can't wait) I add it to the list. It may be a bit juvenile, but being able to look back at the end of the day and see how many “gold stars” you accumulated, does give you a better sense of self worth.
3. Life is a Marathon. Run it like one.
If you were setting out to run a marathon, you wouldn't sprint the whole time, right? Life is the same way. If you're lucky, you're going to run a long race. Working from home makes it easy to totally consume yourself in your work. It's so easy to pop into the office and check mail three or four times in the evening, and should something come up, that 5 or 10 minutes can easy turn into several hours. (trust me on this one) Don't forget to take some “water cooler time.” Whether it be a walk around the block, a lunch out with friends, reading a non-industry book or magazine, or just some quality couch/tv time, get OUT of the office for a few minutes every hour or so. I like to take a walk around the block. It only takes about 10 minutes, but even when I walk it quickly, I come back RE-ENERGIZED. My mind is racing and full of ideas and when I get back to that chair, I feel like my productivity has increased by 15-20%.

I want THAT job36 hours ago, the weather said, “No rain until next week.” Not a drop!! 0% chance! Today I woke up and it was foggy, misting, and the thunder was rolling non-stop. Then came the rains. Geez. Now what kind of prediction is this? AND, it came from “The Weather Channel.” You would think that they could figure it out. I mean, “Weather” is their middle name, right?

Making the most of a party – for fun or profitScott has a great article on how to get the most out of a party when you're looking for leads.Saturday night is our Christmas party – let's see if I can apply his wisdom and snag a lead or two.

How to Change Email-to-Weblog Timeouts

The default timeout is 10 seconds. You can adjust it by changing the
value of user.prefs.getMail.timeOutTicks — Set it to the number of
seconds for the timeout times 60, for example, 20 seconds would
correspond to a value of 1200, and 60 seconds would be a value of 3600.

Thanks Jake!!

Attention New BloggersScott has a nice piece on how to write for your blog. If you're just getting started with your blog and aren't quite sure how to get moving on it, take a quick read. He sums it up nicely.

An Oldie, but a GoodieAn old man was sitting on a bench at the mall. A teenageboy sat down beside him. He had spiked hair in different colors; red,blue, yellow, orange, green. The old man just stared.The young man said sarcastically, “What's the matter, oldman, never done anything wild in your life?”Without batting an eye, the old man replied, “Got drunkonce and had sex with a parrot. I was just wondering if you were myson.”

An Ode to my Former Employer

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What is Andy Listening To?

http://www.347.com/trackinfo.html

brought to you by Kung Tunes & the U.S. Department of Distractions

Google's Trend Analyzer. The year end Google Zeitgeist is Google's way of measuring trends by analyzing the types of searches made. It's actually pretty cool to see what was up and down over the course of the year. Google is doing some interesting things and this is one of them. [adrants]