Haiti Relief, Please Give

I had been hoping that 2010 would bring a turn in the events of not only my own life, but of those around me. So far, it's been a rough start to this new year.

Besides those closest to me, with their family illnesses, broken relationships, financial difficulties, and general troubles at hand, we have now had a major catastrophe in the world affecting a country that could ill afford any sort of setbacks in their recovery from previous hardships. The earthquake in Haiti is impacting the lives of millions of people, jeopardizing their health, their well being and their very survival. The entire infrastructure of the country has literally collapsed. Aid and assistance is pouring in from across the world, but it will not arrive fast enough to prevent a tremendous loss of life. Those who DO survive, will do so having lost many members of their family and friends, their homes and most of their possessions, and their means of generating any sort of income. The need for aid and assistance for these people who are the victims of this natural disaster, will be very great for years and years to come.

I ask you to extend your prayers to an entire nation of people who are will need them for the foreseeable future. And if you have the wherewithal to give anything at all to the relief effort, please consider doing so. Every dollar, every euro makes a difference! The need is critical and truly massive. Thank you in advance for your compassion.

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2010! If you are like me, you always like to start the new year with something new and different! So I thought I would turn you on to a couple of new things I have been working with that are very functional, and quite good!

First, if you hate IE and Firefox, and if you are not using the Google Chrome web browser, then I must ask, "Why not?" This is a gem: very fast, very functional, and for the most part it JUST WORKS. No more IE crashes or lockups. No more waiting forever for Firefox to even load. It just works! Best part? It's FREE! You can find it at http://www.google.com/Chrome . For those of you who are brave, give the Beta of V4 a try! It includes bookmark synchronization and widget style extensions. Very cool!

Is your hard drive getting too small and you have NO bucks to upgrade to a bigger one? Or do you need massive amounts of storage that you need to be able to access from anywhere? Check out GoAruna! It is a cloud storage facility that offers unlimited storage space on their cloud storage system from anywhere on the Internet. Great for sending and receiving large files, or permanent backup or storage of overflow files from your disk. Secure and easy to use. GoAruna even has a simple desktop application for your PC or Mac, and has applications that run on your iPhone or iPod Touch, your Android phone, or Symbian or Windows Mobile based phone. This is a steal if you ask me, but one wonders how long it can remain free. Give it a try at http://www.goaruna.com .

Hope you have some fun with these suggestions. Feel free to post feedback here on how they work for you!

Have a happy 2010!!

Ideas Are Everywhere

Ideas are sprouting up everywhere. Many of them take a fair amount of effort to implement and so the result of our work here often doesn't appear in public very quickly. For example, in this past year we have been doing a great deal of work on a concept called the HotTrax Remote, which is essentially a custom player for all our HotTrax Radio channels. I expect that we will have a public Beta of the Remote available for use sometime in the early part of January. This will be the culmination of a concept that I have had since we first started the station and we are now in our third year of operation.

Keep checking back here, as we will keep you updated on the latest developments with the Remote and all sorts of other things.

Till next time! :D

Talk about your DEAD BLOGS..

Yes yes, I know... who follows a blog that has no new posts? No one! So much for last year's new years resolution!

Well, my new years resolution for THIS COMING year... is to blog more. I'll try to just write something at least once a week. (We'll see how well I do with that before I commit to more!) LOLL!

A lot has happened this pas year, and more is coming soon. Time flies! (Where have we heard THAT before??)

On a technical note, I've had it with a lot of the Microsoft products that I used to use. Not only is the cost for me to upgrade prohibitive in this economy, but there are some decent, FREE alternatives out there. I have pretty much abandoned Word and Excel already and I am officially in the process now of abandoning Microsoft Outlook (which has been my standard email client for as long as I can remember.) I am moving to Open Source alternatives, specifically, Open Office and Thunderbird for email. I really like Thunderbird's new version (3.0) and have found a way to synchronize email and contacts with Gmail (where my primary email accounts are). Me likey!! :D

Now, does anyone know of a good Open Source alternative to Visio??

Till next time!

A New Year Begins...

New Years is the time for new beginnings, looking forward to the future and changing those things about youself that you'd like to change...

It's funny though how so many people go through life saying, "I need to do this.. or that..." and somehow never getting around to doing it. Well now is the time!

Pick your most pressing issue that you've been avoiding, figure out what the first step is in solving or resolving it, and take it. You'll be one step closer to making the change you want, and you'll feel good about yourself for making some progress!

Personally, I have some unfinished business with my daughters. This is my resolution this year.

So tell me... what will you do to change your life this year?

What Christmas Means to Me

It's simple to me:

• It's the time, first and foremost, to give thanks for our salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ and for His birth. (If you are not a Christian, then please insert the deity of your choice here. I doubt it matters to God, which of his forms you worship!)
• It's the time to be thankful for all the blessings granted us. For friends, and family and all that have come before us and all that will come after, because we are all part of a Greater Plan. (Yes, I know, you thought that's what Thanksgiving was for!)

To my friends and family, I love you all! I never knew how important you could be to me, until this stage in my life! Thank you for all you do, and for the wonderful difference that you make in my life!

The Lizard

Balance... Another of Life's Lessons

I don't know about you, but I often find it easy to get caught up in the details of everyday life. Now, I will be the first to admit that for me, those details are somewhat different than they probably are for most. I do, however, get so caught up in things that I suffer from tunnel vision at times.

Right about now, most of you are wondering what the heck the Lizard is spouting about now. Well, let me see if I can clarify.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I think one of the most important keys to happiness in life is about balance. When one moves too far in any one direction, things can become distorted and warped, our perceptions often blur. In a world where there is always something going on at every extreme of our life's reach, and where information overflow is the norm, and where we are constantly barraged by the media selling us "something", it takes a lot to just "be". To exist, at a relative state of peace, is precious, and yet that eludes most of us on a daily basis. I believe, that for the most part, its because we forget to maintain balance in our lives.

Many of us get caught up in what it takes to keep and maintain our jobs. Others delve deeply into hobbies and recreational activities. Some turn to alcohol and drugs either to get their pleasure or to escape their pain. We do everything we can think of to just cope, to try to just maintain some sense of order and peace in some aspect of our lives. And yet, so many of us fail to attain that sense of peace. Why do you imagine that is?

I think we lose track of our sense of balance in all things. We simply can't work all the time, nor can we play all the time. Moving to either of those extremes diminishes us as a whole person. It's unhealthy. We know it, but we do it anyway. And then, when everything comes crashing down around us someday, we wonder why we are so devastated.

I won't deny that making a living and achieving some sense of security for ourselves and our family is important. So is being happy. But how do we balance these two things?

I think for me, the way to remember to keep balance in my life is to remember first and foremost what's most important. Yes, sports fans, its not the latest and greatest technical whizzbang thing that I'm interested in. Nor is it that new web gadget thingy I wanna do for the radio station... nor is it the cool new technical toy that I just "gotta have"! Though those things all still interest me, it is the people in my life that are the most important to me. Maybe this is just something that comes with age, or maybe, as I'm sure some of you are thinking to yourselves, its just a matter of me finally "growing up", but I have reached a point in my life where I finally understand that it's the people in your life that are the true gifts you have to cherish.

What I need to remember is that its important to give the people in my life at least as much effort as I give to all the other things that are not so important. That means putting away the computer, turning off the TV, and spending "quality time" with those that make a difference. I don't do this often enough, but I'm learning...

I realized recently that my personal relationships are suffering because I have let things get out of balance. Determined not to make the same mistakes I have in the past, I vow to make things different from this point forward. I'm learning...

Recently, a good friend of mine has been away a lot. I haven't had much opportunity to talk to him nor spend time with him. He has been very busy doing just what I've said though. spending time helping another friend who really needs his help. I have lamented not being able to spend more time with him, however, I realize that he is setting an example for me, that I never expected. I'm learning... slowly... but learning nonetheless.

I have the great fortune to have fantastic friends and family in my life now. To be honest, I think I always have and in my own self involvement, have not valued them as much as they have deserved. To all those in the past that I have forsaken, in any way, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. I vow to not let that happen again. I am learning...

Hmm, maybe old dogs, can learn new tricks!