360aday.com

OK, so if you’ve been wondering about different systems available online to help you out with making some extra cash, then you’ll definitely want to checkout the Shoemoney System which is set to launch on January 26 around 2:00 PM ET (that’s noon where I live in MT timezone). I had the pleasure of meeting Jeremy Shoemaker at a poker tournament at PubCon in Las Vegas this past November (along with that Lyndon Reid guy) and immediately realized he’s the real deal. I respect him and the information he’s put out there so naturally, I had signed up for his email list a long time ago. It was because of this I got a special sneak look at some of the amazing things included. Not only does the Shoemoney System take you from the ground up, but it is scheduled to include some amazing bonuses.

The single greatest bonus included is over $2000 in FREE advertising. Advertisers like Google, Facebook, MySpace and AOL and that’s just the start. Jeremy announced live on his UStream channel that as an example you’d get $250 from AOL. Or how about $50 from Facebook? Not only can you learn some awesome affiliate marketing and online money making tips from the Shoemoney System, but you’ll be able to actually TRY OUT ADVERTISING NETWORKS–FREE!

I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Go watch the first video, and then the others and signup for the Shoemoney System NOW!

I was trying to think of something to write today and it came to me at breakfast with a little extra thought. I was making my morning Double Americano with Fresh Ground Kona Coffee Beans (yes I love Hawaii, but that’s for another post), when it came to me. Why does boiled water seem to re-boil faster? I pondered the thought for a while and even thought about punching in a query into Google, but I thought of a better way.

It seems as though mother’s have been making it into blog posts. BTW, if you haven’t checked out Lyndon Reid’s mom shotgunning a beer…you need to. My mom would never do something like that, but she is a science geek. In fact she’s got her Ph. D and is a serial cereal chemist for the government. So I decided to email her for some insight (thanks Lyndon for the inspired thought).

Hey mom

I figured I’d ask my favorite Ph D person this question since I figure it’s somewhat science related:

Q: Why does previously boiled water, boil faster the second time around…even the next day?

I was making coffee this morning/afternoon an this definitely happened. I figure since you’re a cereal chemist that typically eats oatmeal (a cereal grain) for breakfast and it requires boiled water you would be able to answer it quickly.

In non-typical government fashion, it didn’t take long for my mother to reply. I had a reply in under 15 minutes (it was actually 12).

As far as I know it’s because you’ve driven most of the air out of it the first time you heated it so when you ‘re-boil’ it the heat transfer is faster – but don’t quote me on it (in your case it could have been that the water you boiled the first time was cooler than when you re-boiled it therefore you wouldn’t have to heat it so long to get it to the boiling point). Where you live there could even be some effects of atmospheric pressure (thought I doubt this).

TTFN

I always love the TTFN she signs off with in reference to Winnie the Pooh stories. Anyways, back to the thought. It didn’t seem as though her answer was really to concrete on the thoughts. In fact she even says “don’t quote me on it”. So with that I had to hit Google. Low and behold the first result about Water Freezing and Boiling Myths has an answer:

Previously boiled water boils faster than regular water. Likewise, previously boiled water at room temperature should boil faster than water that has never been boiled, for the same reason it freezes faster (less dissolved oxygen).

So mom, it looks like you were right. I guess it’s just further proof that our mothers really are a source of information, knowledge and love. So if you’ve got a beer or glass of wine, raise it in a toast to your mom—or in the case of Lyndon, shotgun it with her!

For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I rarely have a shortage of what I consider my “million dollar ideas” to build on. In fact, I fairly regularly add to the list. A while back I wrote a post about thought vs. action. It seemed to me it was a turning point in my thought process…one of turning it into action. Fast forward a little over 6 months and where am I now? For starters, I’m off on leave (that’s really hard to say and hard to talk about). A long story short, I’m a big ass ball of stress. In addition to that my “million dollar ideas” list is larger and not a single one has been checked off anywhere near complete. There are some tiny modules that are working here and there, but nothing impressive at all.

I consistently find myself in a position where I’ve got a great idea and don’t act on it. Years back when the whole Napster vs. RIAA thing was coming to light of being illegal I was chatting with friends and telling them about a different, legal way to do MP3s on the internet and ensure the artists continued to make money. Well that idea is essentially what is now known as iTunes (and many other online music stores). At the time however, there were none…not a single online shop doing it. I’ll stamp that with a big FAIL on it as well.

Last week I was watching episode 9 (second segment) of Dragons Den on CBC. I love the show. There’s something fascinating about watching people do stupid things. But at least they’re up there doing it. I had been chatting with my brother about an idea I had which we were calling BlueBinder (@BlueBinder) and how cool it would be to pitch it on Dragons Den and get some capital, but more importantly the expert knowledge of these highly successful dragons. All five of them would be a valuable asset to the business. Well just the other week, GrubCanada pitched (successfully too I might add) and the thought of BlueBinder flickered and almost died. Then a friend forwarded me an article from TechCrunch about GrabyMyTable and it knocked another dent in the side of BlueBinder…though I’m sure OpenTable will give them a good run. Luckily there is still at least one USP (unique selling point) I have with BlueBinder and I’m hoping to capitalize and honestly competition is a good thing…it gives you someone to target. That being said, action is imminent and required IMMEDIATELY. This idea, is honestly on life support right now but can definitely be revived for huge success. I’d love to find out some information on patenting the idea/process that I have for BlueBinder’s USP.

Referencing these recent ‘insights’ I went back to have a look at the list of “million dollar ideas” and started going down the list:

• SPRY: While not a million dollar company right now, at least it’s in progress and slowly making some income. Most would consider that a good thing and I’m definitely in that boat.
• uPlay: I guess you could make this similar to Pandora—at least from my understanding of Pandora. Since I’m in Canada I have a hard time accessing it to actually test drive it.
• BlueBinder: As mentioned above, similar sites exist out in the market place that are doing certain components and other various concepts but none are actually doing it the way I think it should be done or how I want to do it.
• Community Connection: This one was a huge learning experience. Over $20k of personal cash invested in it (and still trying to pay that off) and a huge education as a result. The publishing industry is definitely an interesting one. The product was ahead of its time and I have no regrets for doing it. There’s a slight twist I’m planning to put on it that will hopefully have it making some revenue when I decide to revisit it in 2010.
• Back 2 School: I can’t take full credit for this one. A lot of the basis of this idea was from my fiancee. A mother in Ontario has done something similar (it took me forever to find in Google), though not the same concept. I even had contacted various people at Staples, Grand & Toy and Office Depot to get communications going. It’s definitely a little bit of a challenge to get high up enough into some of these organizations.
• Hotel Reviews: Again, not a complete idea of my own but the guys at Oyster are doing something similar. This one is moving forward slowly and will hopefully launch in Q1 of 2010.

The best part about ALL the ideas above is that they’re similar, not the same (with the exception of the iTunes one from the mid-90s). What does this mean? Well it means I need to take action. The only way to become successful is by taking action. It goes back to the wonderful grade 11 physics class with Dr. Flint and the whole “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” theory. I never realized how that would actually play over into life as well as the scientific realm.

Of course the list of “million dollar ideas” above is not complete. It also doesn’t give more then a 40,000 foot high-level view of a few of the things I’ve been thinking of. Have you got suggestions on things to add or features you’d like to see on them? Simply comment below.

My thought around this for a moral of the story is take action. And more to the point, why not take action today. Tomorrow is not a promise.

I look forward to hearing about your lost “million dollar ideas” from sitting around with inaction. More importantly I look forward to hearing your stories of success. Please, leave a comment.

It’s been some time but I finally got around to updating my runs yesterday…mainly because after almost four weeks I finally went out for a run. Not to mention it was eight weeks until my first full marathon I’m supposed to run. While I was approaching the three mile mark of the run I noticed another guy jogging towards me, headphones on & music blaring. As we passed each other the head nod was given and received. It got me thinking about just how universal the head nod is. Maybe it’s a guy thing? I often witness it in the parking lot at work or walking by someone in the hallways while in conversation with someone else.

I’d be interested to know where else you witness the head nod and if you’re a woman reading this (woo hoo I have readers) then let me know if it truly is a guy thing. Guys, I know you do it but feel free to comment around witnessing the female species nodding as well.

Yes it’s true, I’ve been thinking. Often this is something scary as the end result and it just may be in this case. As you may or may not know I’m off on a bit of an Eastern European tour. I’m sitting in the small town of Hostinée, Czech Republic right now. It’s beautiful here and so I plan to take a lot of photos. Of course, there was the connecting flight in London’s Heathrow airport that I got to spend a little too much time in as I missed my connect flight by mere minutes. Well, I missed the chance to check-in for the flight by about three minutes. I was not happy at first but took the opportunity to spend some time taking some photos and thinking. I haven’t had a chance to upload the photos or come up with a complete post around it but I’ll definitely give you a bit of a preview. It’s basically Canada vs. UK (or even Europe for that matter) and things that I know I’ll miss about this part of the world or that they’ve done right.

Honestly something as simple as actually separating the toilet and the shower/washroom makes perfect sense. I’ve yet to be in a home out here (and I’ve already been to a few) where the sink & toilet live in exclusivity alongside a bathtub or shower. To me it makes sense because it works. Just like low-flow toilets. Back home in Canada we’ve got this Americanized sense of entitlement that there will always be fresh water and a bit of a “who cares” mentality. One other thing I love…people are polite. Not only are they polite but they dress nicely too. Hard to find ‘scrubs‘ over here, unlike home…even in the office some times!

Of course I do my best thinking on my runs and finally had a chance to get out for a quick 3 miles today (or I should say 4.8 km). Everything here is metric…and I mean everything. I can’t tell them I’m 6′ 2″ (188 cm) or they look at me like I’m on drugs. Though the elevation is lower here then back home in Calgary, it’s a little more challenging as I have to watch for cars (pedestrians are truly seen as obstacles) and there’s quite a mountain climb initially. I’ll be updating my runs page off and on. The plan is to not spend a lot of time in front of the computer while here.

Oh and definitely one last thing I’ll miss that I’ll write about later would be the awesome selection of dirt cheap local brews! This country definitely knows beer!