Friday August 10th, 2007: Issue #832
My sister-in-law brought me back a gift from her vacation: a mouse mat jigsaw puzzle. The mouse mat has been cut into 8 jigsaw shaped pieces.
As a jigsaw it is useless because it only has 8 pieces.
As a mouse mat it is useless because the pieces make the mouse catch.
Altogether it must rank as one of the most useless gifts I’ve ever received, apart perhaps, from the bookmark that I was once given that had a key ring on one end.
Why do people who go on vacation feel an inane yearning to buy rubbish to inflict on their friends and family? I’d much rather they just had another drink and didn’t waste the money or the time.
What is the most useless gift you’ve ever been given? Can it compete in utter pointlessness with a jigsaw puzzle mouse mat or a key ring bookmark? It’ll have to be pretty rubbish to come close!
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What a funny old world this is. Global warming is a reality, it seems, and our government is bleating on and on about how we all have to minimize our carbon footprint. Fair enough. I’m all for that.
One of the things that the government is particularly keen to make us feel guilty about is using our cars. We hear all the time that we should use public transport instead of driving.
Somehow I don’t think they’ve thought that one through.
I drove the 12 miles to my local shopping mall yesterday. A 24 mile round trip.
The petrol cost me £3.26 and a day’s insurance on my car is £0.62. That’s £3.88 for the trip. Call it a round £4 to account for a bit of wear and tear. Parking was free. The journey took 20 minutes each way.
If I’d caught the train the journey would have taken an hour each way and the fare would have been £7.80.
I don’t know how much the bus would be, but I do know that it takes an hour and 45 minutes each way.
It isn’t enough for besuited limousine-driving politicians to dictate to me that in order to be ‘green’ I should use public transport - they have to make sure that said public transport is both convenient and affordable too.
But let’s be honest, do we really believe that they care what we do, so long as they are seen to be saying the right things?
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I was in a big bookstore yesterday, looking at the display of new SciFi paperbacks. (Some light vacation reading).
A book caught my eye. Yes, that was exactly what I wanted - a galaxy-spanning epic space adventure. But … on inspection it turned out to be book 2 of a trilogy.
Of course, the store didn’t stock book one.
What is the point of that? Do they really expect me to jump in to a story without knowing the start?
I’ve come across this many times before and it has always struck me as stupid!
I will eventually get the book, and the first in the series. But I will order it from Amazon, who do keep it in stock.
One more nail in the coffin of the High Street bookseller.
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Kickstart, as you know, is a free service. You don’t have to pay a penny (or a cent) to receive it. The whole thing is funded by people buying the products and services that I recommend, and then subsequently am paid a commission on.
That fine, but I’ve been getting an increasing number of emails from people who are uncomfortable with that situation. Here is a typical message, that I received from Kickstart reader Alain Ginneken earlier this week:
Hi Martin,
First let me tell you that I love reading Kickstart. It is a really important part of my day and I look forward to every issue.
I do feel as if I’m taking advantage of your generosity though. I get such value from Kickstart that I would gladly pay to receive it. I understand that you would get paid if I were to buy things from your links, but my problem is that I am not ready to be an internet marketer yet and as most of what you sell is in that market, I feel bad to be taking so much and contributing nothing in return.
If you don’t want to start charging for Kickstart, is there a way for people like me to send you an occasional thank you? Perhaps by PayPal?
Alain
Hmmm. That made me think, I can tell you! It is one kind of complaint that I’m happy to receive every day! 
Of course, I don’t want to upset any Kickstart readers!
On the Warrior’s forum they had a similar situation - where people felt that they would like to reward folks who made particularly helpful posts. In the end a special ‘buy a drink’ button was added to the forum so that small donations could be made. The system works well, and I’ve seen something similar on some blogs and even in the occasional newsletter.
I can’t see any downside. Kickstart will remain free to all, but with the additions of a ‘Buy a Drink’ link, anyone who feels moved to say thanks in a small financial way will be able to. The amount is up to you to decide.
And I’ll be very grateful!
So here it is:
http://www.urlnex.us/BuyKickstartADrink/
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If you are on the London Lunch emailing list, look out for an announcement later today. Due to circumstances beyond my control I’ve had to move the date of the next lunch to the end of September.
All the details will be in that announcement.
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Now, the washing is all done, the suitcases are out of the attic, the thousand and one things that need to be done before a vacation are almost finished, the house and cat sitter has been briefed, the currency has been bought, and the last minute panic is setting in.
See you in a few weeks!
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An Inspirational Thought
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I heard someone say ‘awesome’
It’s a word you hear every day, especially from the lips of people who are a bit younger than me. It has become a background noise word, like ‘fine’ and ‘you’re welcome’ - repeated like a mantra until all meaning is squeezed out of it.
Words like awesome lose their meaning because they are fashionably used out of context and with little thought.
For some reason, this time when I heard ‘awesome’ the usual mental filter didn’t blanket it in nothingness, This time, a few synapses deep in my brain fired instead.
The result was that I asked myself WHAT is awesome?
Certainly not the inane blandity to which it was being applied.
Awesome comes from the same root as awful. In fact, the original meaning is virtually the same - something that inspires overwhelming emotions of fear, dread or wonder.
The dread and fear shades of meaning seem to have fallen into disuse. Today, something that is awesome is capable of filling our hearts, minds and spirits with wonder.
* Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon - that is awesome.
* Awesome is the bravery and selflessness of emergency workers battling to save a life.
* The look in the eye of child who has mastered something difficult. That’s awesome to me.
Awesome inspires. Awesome excites. Awesome moves your spirit to extremes of joy or wonder.
Surely that is too powerful a word to waste on trivialities?
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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Juma Ikangaa said,
“The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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When you go to see a doctor or a dentist you expect them to be up-to-date with the latest knowledge.
A lawyer would be pretty useless if he didn’t have the latest legal decisions at his fingertips.
When you take your car in to be fixed, it is understood that the mechanic understands this years model.
The world is a constantly changing place and there is new knowledge being produced in every field imaginable each moment of the day.
And yet, why is it that so many of us reach a certain stage in our lives where we think we know it all and that we don’t have to learn any more?
Most of us aren’t lucky enough to work in companies that give us limitless training opportunities. As we are not ‘forced’ into taking training we take the easy road and ignore it completely.
We all have two choices in this life.
We can take a decision to stop learning, stop acquiring new information, stop expanding our minds and stop growing. We can stagnate. Our knowledge and experience can stay exactly where it reached its peak.
In fact, it is wrong to say that when we do that we stop dead because we don’t. We carry on moving - backwards. The world around us is forging ahead and leaving us way behind.
Our only other choice is to embrace the concept of permanent education.
Permanent education means that we actively seek out new knowledge. We learn to love the acquisition of new information - even if it has no immediate application for us - because we know that one day all the pieces will fall into place.
Permanent education is all about feeling excited to end each day with more facts at our disposal than yesterday - to revel in the act of learning and to arrange our lives so that we can be exposed to as much new information as possible.
The fact that you are a reader of Kickstart suggests to me that I’m preaching to the converted. You are almost certainly already a perpetual learner - and I salute you for it!
The reason I’m writing this then, is not so much to persuade you of the value and the joy of permanent education, but to encourage you to share this thought with everyone around you. your children, your family, your friends and your colleagues.
There is safety in numbers!
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Fascinating Facts
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Almost a quarter of the land area of Los Angeles is covered with cars.