Home Leadership Turn Archives Me RampUp Solutions  
 

  • Categories

  • Archives
 
Archive for the 'Just For Fun' Category

Stick It To A Spammer

Wednesday, December 13th, 2017

The last few weeks have focused on some pretty depressing topics, so it’s high time for something that’s

  • interesting,
  • useful,
  • creative, and
  • fun for both of us.

Re:scam fulfills all four criteria.

Introducing Re:scam – an artificially intelligent email bot made to reply to scam emails. Re:scam wastes scammers time with a never-ending series of questions and anecdotes so that scammers have less time to pursue real people. (…) Instead of junking or deleting a scam email, you can now forward it to Re:scam who will continue the conversation indefinitely – or until the scammer stops replying.

Add me@rescam.org to your address book and make sticking it to spammers effortless.

Video credit: Re:scam

If The Shoe Fits: The Challenge Of Literalists

Friday, October 27th, 2017

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.

5726760809_bf0bf0f558_mWhen I was young there was a riddle making the rounds (it probably still is) that went like this.

Railroad crossing look out for the cars, can you spell it without any rs?

You could spend a lifetime puzzling over how to spell ‘railroad crossing’ without an r.

Or you could spend just a few seconds focusing and thinking about what was actually said (or rereading it if written), instead of reacting to the overall idea.

There is constant chatter about how fast you must go to keep up with today’s world, so who has time to focus/think?

Of course, if you listen mindfully, instead of multitasking, or read carefully, instead of scanning, you wouldn’t have to go back and do it over.

The people who have no trouble with riddles like this one are literalists.

They respond to exactly what they hear/see because you can’t be a literalist without being mindful. The two go hand-in-hand.

Why should this matter to you?

Because your your instructions need to work for both, as the following two examples, one conversational and one written, graphically show.

and

Hat tip to KG Charles-Harris for sharing these examples.

Image credit: HikingArtist

Words & Pictures

Wednesday, August 16th, 2017

This old Italian proverb makes the perfect pin with which to prick inflated egos.

After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.

When it comes to software…

programmers think they know,

 

 

 

 

 

 

but users are sure they do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Computer Funnies

If The Shoe Fits: A Golden Product For A Golden Market

Friday, July 7th, 2017

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.

5726760809_bf0bf0f558_mLooking for a product idea?

One that has a targeted market of 100 million, with proven disposable income?

Saturday Night Live has a suggestion, but, since Jeff Bezos is aging, Amazon will probably beat you to it.

Image credit: HikingArtist, video: SNL

Golden Oldies: Quotable Quotes: Memorial Day Mondegreens

Monday, May 29th, 2017

It’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.

Even more amazing, the funny ones are still funny. I lived for 25 years in San Francisco and read the SF Chronicle and Jon Carroll regularly, which is where I learned about Mondegreens. My own personal Mondegreen is the “pickled bass” (i.e., fickele past) in the chorus of Cross Over The Bridge,

Golden Oldies is a collection of some of the best posts during that time.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

I thought I’d share some Memorial Day appropriate fun with you today and get serious tomorrow. I’ve written about palindromes (no relation to Sarah) and I’m sure I will again, but today I have three patriotic mondegreens courtesy of Jon Carroll.

In a nutshell, a mondegreen is a mishearing of song lyrics—as you might guess, kids are a great source of them.

The term was coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954 when she wrote about a song she heard as “Ye highlands and ye lowlands/Oh where hae you been/They hae slay the Earl of Murray/And Lady Mondegreen,” only to learn years later that it was actually, “They hae slay the Earl of Murray/And laid him on the green.”

So here are three to help launch your Memorial Day celebration.

I love this first one, it could be the start of a new oath for people who take jobs on Wall Street.“I led the pigeons to the flag” (for “I pledge allegiance…)

Next, is a possible opening line for a song about Congress, “Oh, beautiful, for spaceship guys,” only it might be more accurate if it was ‘oh, beautiul, for spacy guys…’

This final offering has to be the product of a hungry five-year-old, “America, America, God is Chef Boyardee.”

For more mondegreens be sure to use the link above.

Image credit: Visa Kopu

Please share your own Mondegreens below.

Support Ocean Guardian Robot On Kickstarter

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017

Can you spare a few Starbucks visits to help

  • save Atlantic reefs and fish;
  • assure yourself a gourmet dining treat;
  • create a new online sport;
  • all of the above?

Easy to do.

Just donate to this Kickstarter campaign by June 3.

The problem is the unchecked proliferation of lionfish in the Atlantic; they are voracious eaters, have no local predators and females can spawn 2 million eggs a year.

Colin Angle, executive chairman of iRobot, a consumer robot company that builds and designs robots, and founder Robots In Service of the Environment (RSE), a nonprofit organization set up to protect the oceans, built a machine named the Guardian specifically designed to hunt and capture lionfish.

He also wants to turn lionfish hunting into an online sport.

“With advances in wireless technology, we can actually have an app where people pay to go hunt lionfish and capture the fish by remotely operating the robot,” he said, adding that, if robots can catch lionfish, a new market in which chefs can turn an environmental hazard into gourmet cuisine might emerge.

I’m not a gamer, but I’d play this one frequently!

So click to donate; think what a difference donating just the value of a week’s worth of Starbucks visits — or more — will make.

Video via BI

Happy Birthday To Me!

Wednesday, April 26th, 2017

Another year, another birthday and I’m taking my day off.

Eventually I won’t be here, nor will I have a tombstone, but if I did here is what it would say…

Instead, I’ll be enriching the soil around the redwood I grew from a burl and planted at my friend’s ranch (how cool is that?).

And if you’re interested, today’s image comes from a 2014 post.

Wordless Wednesday: Reality Check

Wednesday, November 30th, 2016

Do you remember Wordless Wednesday?

It was a thing on many blogs from around 2008 to 2011.

I’m feeling nostalgic, so I thought I’d bring it back — occasionally.

http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-signs-wallingford-chevron-gas-station-seattle-propane/Image credit: Bored Panda

Happy Turkey Day!

Thursday, November 24th, 2016

Today’s the day and I want to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you enjoy every minute of it with people you adore and, since holiday calories don’t count, feel free to gobble ‘til you wobble. And…

FB TurkeyMay your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

That said, Christmas is just around the corner, so the more you farctate today the less you can in December.

An Oldie for the Day Before: Life, Kindness And Thanksgiving Wishes

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016

From 2008…

I’m a bit ambivalent about Thanksgiving along with many other holidays, such as Mother’s Day. While I understand and even agree with the idea of honoring a certain attitude, it seems hypocritical when it’s done only on that day.

Sadly, many of the people most vocal about a holiday are the same people whose actions during the rest of the year belie their holiday attitudes.

That said, here are my suggestions regarding Thanksgiving.

No matter how bad things are in your corner of the world give thanks that you are alive to read this. As long as you’re breathing you have a shot at changing your circumstances or improving someone else’s.

Several years ago I had a terminally ill friend. Her final Thanksgiving act was to sign papers consigning all her useable body parts to an organ donor program; she died just a few days later.

Her action infuriated her family, but she had made sure they couldn’t stop her choice.

Which brings us to my second suggestion.

Remember the words of Plato, “Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle,” and follow the advice of Anne Herbert, “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” daily.

Get in the habit of doing one small, unplanned thing every day—drop a quarter in an about-to-expire meter; pick up a piece of litter; help someone across the street. Just think of the difference if everyone did just one random act every day.

Have a wonderful day tomorrow and remember this special request from your turkey friends.

turkey-ham

RSS2 Subscribe to
MAPping Company Success

Enter your Email
Powered by FeedBlitz
About Miki View Miki Saxon's profile on LinkedIn

Clarify your exec summary, website, etc.

Have a quick question or just want to chat? Feel free to write or call me at 360.335.8054

The 12 Ingredients of a Fillable Req

CheatSheet for InterviewERS

CheatSheet for InterviewEEs

Give your mind a rest. Here are 4 quick ways to get rid of kinks, break a logjam or juice your creativity!

Creative mousing

Bubblewrap!

Animal innovation

Brain teaser

The latest disaster is here at home; donate to the East Coast recovery efforts now!

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation or call 00.733.2767. $10 really really does make a difference and you'll never miss it.

And always donate what you can whenever you can

The following accept cash and in-kind donations: Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Red Cross, World Food Program, Save the Children

*/ ?>

About Miki

About KG

Clarify your exec summary, website, marketing collateral, etc.

Have a question or just want to chat @ no cost? Feel free to write 

Download useful assistance now.

Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.

Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
while $10 a month has exponential power.
Always donate what you can whenever you can.

The following accept cash and in-kind donations:

Web site development: NTR Lab
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.