Top TEDs

Here they are. I realized there’s a ton I haven’t listened to, so take this as the “best of” mainly from 2004-2006.

1. Rick Warren: probably my all time favorite http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/71

2. Tony Robins: doing his thing. Also one of my favorites. Intense. Very funny moment with Al Gore http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/96

3. Larry Brilliant: amazing story. He now heads google.org http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58

4. Malcom Gladwell: awesome coffee example on how consumers don’t always know what they want. Great marketing insights http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/20

5. Franz Lanting: Really cool narrative on the evolution of life on earth. A little far-out but leaves you with a great understanding of natural history. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/40

6. Chris Anderson explains technology trends. It’s fun to see how he’s spot-on in some of the predictions he makes here in 2004. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/72

7. Jeff Bezos: I really like his electric industry metaphor http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/105

8. Barry Schwartz: insightful findings about choice that apply a lot to marketing http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93

Happy Birthday to Me

Its dawned on me a reason I may be so "resolute" about my resolutions is because of my January Birthday--I start a new year, and a new age, in the same month.

That's fine with me; the extra motivation only helps me reach my yearly goals.

Fun Fact: I was born 3 years, 3 hours, and 33 minutes after my Brother. Weird, huh?

I'm back from Vegas after a weekend of celebrating. I managed to win my air fair back on the Craps tables!

2008 Goals—A kickoff

It’s been shown that the more eyes watching, the more likely you are to reach your personal goals. In that spirit, I’m listing my set of 2008 goals here. I’m tracking my progress via thorough measurement and will be updating you on how things go.

After listing out my 8 goals I realized most beg for explanation. I’ve added a description of each so you understand what’s going on in Laura’s head.

My 8 for '08

1. Get rid of Muffin Tops—Yes, I’ve got them. They peaked their evil little heads out in Maui . The main suspect here is too much beer and not enough activity. The resolution is to put a work-out schedule in place, and cut down on beer intake. Measurement: No Muffin Tops by summer

2. Open up Other Revenue Channels—this basically means I want to make incremental money in creative ways. I’ll be trying and reporting-out on results from the following channels: day trading, odd jobs, using my real-estate license, & selling stuff I don’t need.

4. Spend More Money—I’m already good at being frugal. I’d like to strike more of a balance and not waste as much mental power and physical energy being consumed with the minutia being frugal sometimes entails. Depending 100% on frugality as a means to wealth building is also not very sustainable, a waste of time, and really boring. Instead I want to decide what’s important to me, and what’s not, and spend my time and energy respectively. See this post on conscientious spending.

Also, after reading “The Four Hour Work-Week” I’m motivated to spend money to be more efficient, and get more out of my life and time. One example of how to do this is to hire a Virtual Admin , which I’ve already done, and will post on the results of here.

5. Save More Money—Even while I’m doing #4 I want to save more money this year (as a result of #3, and of my own natural living below my means) in order to reach a specific net worth.

6. Live More—this means sleeping less. I’d like to keep a consistent 10PM- 6AM sleep hours—8 hours a night, then see if I can cut this down to 7.

7. Eat Whole Foods—After reading Michael Pollan’s insightful Omnivores Dilemma I’d like to take more effort to eat better quality food. This means less processed corn, more whole foods.

8. Start Something—a non-profit, an online-business, a cleaning service. Something. I want to try and fail and learn a lot and invest in myself.

Headline of the Year (so far)

As found on the Gizmodo blog today:

Hawaii Was Great, Except When My Cousin Then My Brother Fell Off A Waterfall

Here's the first of the pictures. You gotta see it to believe it.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/laura/main/the_hike?

Rules For The New Year

Countdown

18 days 'till Hawaii. It's raining in SF.

A Good Thing—Craig'sList Tool I’m In Love With

Yes, I’m into the genre of blogs and books on optimizing productivity aka: “Productivity Porn”. I recently came across a cool tip I’d like to share with you. I think I’ve either been hiding under a rock, or I’m one of the millions of people who haven’t noticed the tiny little “RSS” link now at the bottom of every search done on Craig’s List. I finally noticed, and started using it the other day, and WOW, it’s a powerful little tool!

It’s a simple site enhancement to the wonderfully basic Craig’s List, until you start thinking about how to use it. What I’ve done is tied multiple searches to my Bloglines feed to be monitored daily.

Example: I’m looking to buy a cheap computer chair. I don’t want to get in my car, drive to Target, and buy a new chair for $50 + tax + gas + assembly, hell no. A basic black computer chair is one of those commodity items people moving out end up wanting to unload quickly for twenty bucks. So I set up a search on “computer chair” under Furniture for Sale in SF. Now I can sit back, wait for the results to come in, and monitor the prospects from a place I hang out anyways--my bloglines feed. This is a perfect example of the information I want from the web coming to me instead of me seeking it out again and again manually.

My computer chair is a simple example, but let’s think about more significant uses. Say you’re looking to move to a certain appealing block in San Francisco, say, “The Great Highway”. You can simple set a search under apartments for ALL mentions of that block and be amongst the first to hop on a vacancy. Want to eventually buy a house in a certain neighborhood, say, Noe Valley? Simply add that search to your RSS feed and monitor that market and wait for a under market offering like the stealth cheetah you are. Looking to buy a rarely re-sold high-end piece of furniture? Go ahead, store a search for that “Eames Lounge Chair” for under $500 you’ve been lusting over, sit back, wait for that Pac Heights housewife to list hers at a price break, and let the results come to you.

Feeds I've Set:

DS Light (by Nintendo so I can play that Brain Age game)

Liberty Hill (neighborhood I'd like to eventually live in)

Computer Chair

Sapien Bookcase (a DWR bookcase I'm lusting over)

Ikea Besta (a bookshelf I want--second-hand ikea is a good 1/2 off)

Twitter Update

Good News--Today my SF Surfrider Twitter feed reached 100 followers. Hooray!

Follow the Oil Spill on Twitter

As you know, 58K gallons of oil spilled into the Bay yesterday creating a crisis for our beaches. As part of the SF Surfrider Foundation, I created this Twitter feed to help people keep abreast of the situation and to help answer questions like:

-will be beach be affected?
-can I go surfing?
-how can I help?

To answer those questions follow here:
http://twitter.com/SFSurfrider