New Tree! Happy Anniversary! September 7, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Garden/Pond, Nature, Personal.1 comment so far
Today, the city sent someone over to plant the tree that we requested for in front of our house. We were shocked. They just started digging. Within fifteen minutes, we had a new Pistachio tree. It looks great.
Now, our next step is to break out two squares of bricks to either side of the tree to plant some other plants. I’m not sure if it will be bushes or a couple dwarf trees. I have to make sure that they don’t grow too near the yellow fire hydrant that you see in the photo. That’s why dwarf trees might work better. I’m also going to remove the plant growing around the tree since it’s ugly and not really so healthy.
Now for some updates. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Sorry, guys. Them’s the breaks. I’ve been so busy and I’ve been spending 14+ hours a day on the computer. So, I didn’t have time to post. Every moment I was on the computer, I was working.
I figured out some ways to make some money online, tried them out and they’ll probably turn some profit, but I’m not sure how much I like the work. So, I’ll be taking a step back from what I’ve been doing and try some other things that I can see myself doing for the long term. No, I won’t tell you all what I’ve been doing, yet. I’m a secretive guy, what can I say? Plus, it’s just a difficult thing to express without demonstrating and blogs don’t lend themselves to that without adding video. I’m not going to put work into doing that.
Well, tonight Talli and I are heading to the Bahamas for 5 days. It’s going to be great. I need the time to rest, read, meditate, relax and maybe work on the tan a little. Hopefully, it won’t rain much. There are some thunderstorms in the forecast.
Talli and I will be celebrating our fifth anniversary! We’ve had lots of good times and good fortune over the last five years, so it will be great to reflect on that while we’re there. I can hardly wait. Happy annniversary Talli. I love you very much! Here’s to the next five exciting years! I’m looking forward to it. When we get back, we’ll be off to Monterey for three months since Talli got a job there with a corporate apartment. Another in a string of adventures. Life is great!
Mutant Orange Cross Section & Podcast Updates August 19, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Garden/Pond, Nature, Podcasts.add a comment
As promised, here’s the cross section of the mutant orange we picked from our yard. It doesn’t look too bad here in this picture. I sampled the orange and the first section tasted alright if a bit tangy, but the other bits weren’t so good and went right into our yard waste.
Time for the iTunes update for our podcasts. Both shows have been doing great lately and now Talli’s Being Healthy podcast is heating up as well. Here are our current rankings.
Millionaire or Bust:
Personal Finance ranking: 3
Business Ranking: 3
All Podcasts Ranking: 66
Being Healthy with Talli:
Fitness & Nurition: 25
Health: 88
Things are cranking along. We appreciate all the support from our loyal fans and we’ll be taking it up another notch. Thanks everyone and enjoy!
Mutant Orange August 16, 2006
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Here’s a picture of a mutant orange fresh from our tree. At least it was fresh when this picture was taken. I found it on the day of my birthday party over a week ago. I still haven’t taken the time to cut it open yet though. I guess I get busy and just forget. Now it’s a little late and I’d rather blog than cut. I will cut it open soon and taste it if it looks edible. Then, I’ll post a blog with the pics and the review.
On a non garden front, everything has been pretty busy lately. I’m kicking around one business idea right now. It sounds fairly promising. It’s not a huge money maker, but sufficient and it affords me a lot of flexibility. Plus, it won’t cost much to get into it or require expensive marketing. Right now I’m crunching the numbers. If it works out, you’ll all here about it later.
Good night, everyone.
American Apparel Grand Opening in Second Life July 29, 2006
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On the eLIfe side of things, I decided to attend the American Apparel store Grand Opening in Second Life. It was featured in
Business Week and various other periodicals, so I figured it was worth a look. The grand opening was last night at 7:00 PDT.
I have to say that the grand opening seemed to be a success. It was a beautiful virtual build that really captured the feel of a brick and mortar store. It was built by a Second Life resident that goes by the name of Aimee Weber. I really thought it was a nice vision of the way that virtual worlds might start to bridge the gap between them and the internet. As of yet, you can only by virtual clothes there and not actual clothes, but if you did purchase something there, you would get a coupon for 10% in the real world.
While I was there, I did manage to win a gift certificate to their internet store to by some real clothing, so that was a nice bonus. Now, I just have to see if they have anything that I would wear. I’m sure I’ll buy something though. It’s free, right?
Ferreira Duque de Braganca 20 Year Tawny Porto June 30, 2006
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The highlight of the day was the food at dinner. Talli made an excellent curry dish and an excellent tofu dish. After dinner we had some biscuits with organic fruit spread. There was also tea and some delicious 20 year old tawny porto. Ah the port! It was excellent. We opened it yesterday and here is my review.
It is a very smooth 20 year tawny with a beautiful bouqet. It had a nice slightly woody flavor with that not overstated berry taste. The taste is complex, but not overly so and has a nice long finish with no after taste. I just need a course in porto wine tasting to truly do this wine justice. It is truly better than I could describe, even after two days of drinking it. I’ll just have to sample it some more. 
My research was curtailed a bit by a spotty internet connection for an hour or so, but everything is moving forward nicely. Hopefully the research will result in a good outcome. Enjoy your nights everyone, live life and be happy. I’ll do the same.
Wine of the Day June 28, 2006
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Talli and I opened a bottle of Organic Wine Works’ a’ Notre Terre’ Red Table Wine. It’s a very nice red wine. It went very well with our dinner even though Talli prepared us a spicy tofu dish. It was nice to have a slightly higher quality of wine tonight. Luckily, we drink slow, so it’ll last a couple more days.
Today was a research day for me on the internet. Talli and I are still kicking ideas around. Today was an especially good brainstorming session. I’m trying to kick in an ability to be a futurist. I believe that if I can figure out where the world will be in 5-10 years, then I’ll be well placed when it gets here.
We also had some nice biscuits today with tea. Talli is constantly trying to add to her repertoire. I think they’ll be even better tomorrow with a fruit spread filling instead of a chocolate topping. We’ll see…
I’ll let you all get to bed. I have to get back to work.
Another Small Update June 23, 2006
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Today was a day to relax and pretend I’m on vacation instead of working on being an entrepreneur. Yes, everyone needs a vacation sometimes. Did I relax the whole day? No…*sheepishly* I guess I’m a little of a workaholic, but I cut my work to one quarter strength. So, as you can see, I delegated the jumping at the tree task to Hunter. He was kind enough to take care of it for me, but just this once he assured me.
Today was cooler. The pond was warmer. The breeze just died down, but it’s comfortable here if you stick to shorts. I’m skipping the Irvington High School 12 year class reunion since I can’t motivate myself to go and it costs $60/person to go. Why a 12 year reunion? I guess they couldn’t motivate themselves to set up a reunion until now. This is the first. It’s sad really. It’s been so long, I hardly care to go.
That’s all for today’s update, except to wish my Uncle Hans a happy birthday. His birthday is actually tomorrow, but I might be too busy tomorrow being at his birthday party at Cattleman’s to post.
Next time, I’ll have more to update…I hope.
Making Money Online June 20, 2006
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Show #3 of Millionaire or Bust is almost packaged and ready for release. I like to have one show in the can so that I know I won’t miss a deadline. The script for the fourth show is started, but will be updated until the show is recorded which won’t be until next week.
I got down to some writing today. It was nice to be able to crank out a little fiction again. It’s been quite a while. I was also able to do some research and a lot of reading. Some business ideas are starting to loosely coalesce. It still looks more like a nebula than a galaxy, but hey that’s where stars are born.
In the photo here, you can see me sitting and collecting the second life version of social welfare. I’m sitting in a money chair that pays out 24L$ per hour. While my avatar was collecting money, I was working in the real world. I was not sitting there watching my avatar sit and collect money. Too boring. I’m still really curious about online worlds like Second Life and Project Entropia. I’ll bring you all some info on that trend later. I will give you this tidbit. One person purchased a piece of virtual land online in Project Entropia for $26,500 and made back their investment in a year. Think about that.
Hard@Work June 15, 2006
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I admit that this picture makes it look like I haven’t been working, but I have been. I’ve been reading, researching, writing and editing most of the day. I did take a half hour break to discuss philosophy with my long time friend Jeff Parker, but hey, what good is life without philosophy?
Well, tomorrow Millionaire or Bust Episode #2 will go online. I hope you’re all subscribed. If you’re not, I shouldn’t have to tell you to go do it now. If you don’t, don’t ask me how it’s going or what we covered. That information is for subscribers. All you have to do is subscribe and listen to the show. It’s only 10-15 minutes once a week. It’s not much of a time commitment and if you do it, you will learn something. If you don’t learn a single thing…you weren’t paying attention.
Well, I had better get back to business. I’m a busy man, believe it or not. I might be working more now that the clinic is closed. I’m also enjoying it a lot more now that my work coincides with my interests.
Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, either by blogs or by podcast. Hopefully, it’ll be both.
Clinic Closing/Business Planning Dinner @ Jardiniere June 14, 2006
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Last night, I wasn’t able to post a blog because Talli and I were at Jardiniere in San Francisco for an 8:00 pm reservation. It was our official clinic closing dinner. It was also a business meeting where we discussed plans for the future of our business. (Our new business that is.) You didn’t think we’d just rush to get employed by someone else, did you? America is built by entrepeneurs, not employees after all. It doesn’t matter what the employees think or say.
The dinner was excellent as it always is at Jardiniere. I had some excellent beef short ribs. The wine was nice and the Quinta do Noval1986 Colheita Port was tremendous.
Discussions of the business were fruitful and helped to focus us a little bit more. Today, I’ll be continuing on the podcast portion of that plan. The rest of the plan is still not public information and, as such, I’m not at liberty to discuss it. So, to all inquiries I’ll have to politely prefer no comment.
