Spent the whole xmas and run up to the new year in the bathroom…. renovating!

Real quality 12 days with dad, demolishing the bathroom which hadn’t even seen a lick of paint since we moved in 17 years ago, preparing the walls, plumbing and electrics, and soon to have the new bath, sink, and all the accessories fitted in.

For the past few years, as we had a bathroom downstairs, the upstairs bathroom was used as a ‘temporary’ storage solution for all the pieces of furniture we no longer needed in the other rooms or were thinking we may be able to pass on to relatives.

When we had to eventually clear out the bathroom, there were two big pieces of furniture that ended up in my bedroom - temporarily of course! We could have either smashed them apart and taken them to the dump yard, sold them, or given them away. They were quite old, but not antiques, so unlikely that we could have sold the chest of drawers and TV stand. Smashing them and taking them to the dump yard was not a good eco option.

We Freecycle’d it! Sunday afternoon I put up a message stating “Offered: Chest Of 5 Drawers & TV Bench (HA7 Belmont Circle)” and gave details of what I was giving away. Within an hour, I received an email from a dude named George who wanted to collect these off me, to take for his daughter who had just moved into a council flat and could do with some basic furniture. I dropped George a note back to arrange that he could collect them the next day (today, Monday).

How cool is that!? My first ever Freecycle experience, that saved me the effort of demolishing this ‘no-longer-needed’ furniture, the hassle of taking it to the dump yard, lightening my carbon / karmic footprint as the furniture would have been dumped into a landfill, and giving me an opportunity to pass something on to someone who it would be better used by.

Check out www.freecycle.org. You can find your local group there (wherever you are in the world), sign up with the group for free, and post up a message that states what you want to give away and your location. Then if someone takes an interest in it, they’ll get in touch and can collect it from you (i.e. take it off your hands!)

Now to find someone to take a pair walking sticks off my hands!

The Bake Me A Wish website at www.bakemeawish.com takes online orders for custom made cakes for birthdays and national holidays.

What has given this New York based business massive news coverage recently is that they are even taking orders from families who want to send a baked cake to their relatives who are service members stationed overseas.

What a terrific treat for christmas to show your loved ones that you’re thinking of them, even if they are halfway around the world!

Josh Kaye, owner of the internet cake business said “I received a phone call from a mom who wanted to send her son a birthday cake in Iraq, and I hung up the phone and said, you know, ‘‘What an amazing possibility that would be.’”

When you listen to your customers, and then announce it as a service that you are offering, your marketing effort really becomes a peace of cake!

Having just watched the first film directed and produced by Aamir Khan, the recent bollywood hit Taare Zameen Par left the whole family lost for words.

This story is about a young boy with the challenge of dyslexia, who was mis-understood by his parents and teachers, teased by the fellow school kids, and who gradually lost his self-confidence. Catch the trailer here and check out this movie which although is in Hindi, will most likely be showing with English subtitles…

This movie highlighted the lack of support many children get from their parents. Children are so often afraid of just being themselves. They feel that they have to consistently live up to their parents’ expectations of how they should act, the aspirations they should hold, and who they should be.

It also reminded me of the powerful force I’ve had throughout my life - both my parents have stood by me, no matter what, and have supported my gradual progress in life. I’m sure there have been many moments of anxiety for them when they’d be wondering if I’d ever settle down into a “stable job”. Regardless, both mum and dad have been the secure foundation for me to discover myself, and allow me just to be as I am. In fact, I feel blessed that some of my closest friends have also been such a gentle and caring pillar of strength for me to gently tread along the path that continues to be defined for me.

Mum and dad - thank you…

Much love,
Suraj

Dinesh & Shilpa
Dad and Mum
New Years Eve 2002

The next time you’re out on vacation and you take a suitcase that has a zipper on it, here’s what to do if you lose the key to the padlock.  All you need is a pen!

Breaking Into A Suitcase

Maybe when they invented zips, they were meant only for doing up the fly on your jeans or to close up your jacket!

What would you suggest is decent vacation baggage as an alternative to carrying a suitcase that has a zipper on it?

The recently announced top quote “Don’t ‘tase me bro” by protester Andrew Meyers has now been turned into a ringback tone.

On 17th September 2007, University of Florida student Andrew Meyer was arrested and thrown out of a speech by a U.S. Senator. According to a Wired blog, “Meyer barged in line to harangue Massachusetts senator John Kerry during a campus talk that day. The student refused to pipe down after being asked to by the forum’s organizers, and after he carried on pressing Kerry for answers, police hauled him off. They forced him to the ground, and tasered him.”

This week, the quote was named most memorable quote of 2007, and has been turned into a ringback tone (sometimes known as a callback tone). Available from the Verizon site, this downloadable ringback tone is what the caller hears when they call you.

A ringtone or ringback tone is just another good idea for an Instant Digital Download product that can generate revenue for your business. Already we’re aware of other products that can be sold to and downloaded online by customers who want to be informed or entertained instantly, such as eBooks and MP3s.

What would you want your customers to have their callers hear when calling through? What ringback tone product could you create for your customers that would add value to them, and generate further revenue for you?

In line with Mik’s September 2007 post on Using Descriptive Domain Names To Drive Relevant Traffic To Your Web Site, here is a terrific resource called Good URL Bad URL that helps you understand:

1. what a good URL is and what a bad URL is using examples from existing sites
2. what would be a good URL for your own website
3. how to present your URL in your adverts

Check out www.goodurlbadurl.com before purchasing your next domain name for your online marketing campaign.

Fact is, there are some things that just bring grief to a relationship.

There’ll be friction. There’ll be heat. You’re different - she’s different.

Sometimes, you’re just gonna have to tolerate the differences.

Sometimes, you’re just gonna have to tolerate: your girlfriend.

Here’s how to tolerate your girlfriend so that your relationship becomes smoother…

Step 1: Attend to the situation you’re currently exposed to.

Step 2: Observe the element in her that you’re finding hard to deal with.

Step 3: Cherish this element in her, COMPLETELY.

By fully attending to the whole situation that has arisen for you both, hone in on that part of her presence that’s brought up this friction within you - hold it in your hand and observe it from all angles - and then learn to cherish this part of her.

You see, it’s not really about tolerance - it’s about loving what’s there, whatever it is, rather than wishing it wasn’t.

Now that you’ve cherished this one element in her, extend the love you’re starting to feel and cherish all of her, head to toe, inside and out. I assure you, it’s worth it.

What are you learning to cherish in YOUR girlfriend? Share your comments below…

There you go - smoother relationships in three easy steps.

Much love,
Sol

p.s. would you like to learn How To TAME Your Girlfriend In 3 Easy Steps?

If you’re a young company, or a solo-preneur, you naturally want to keep your startup costs as low as possible.

Here is a terrific resource that lists and describes 30 essential pieces of free to use software for Windows.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/01/30-essential-pieces-of-free-and-open-software-for-windows/

It includes web browsers, email clients, complete office applications, media players, image editing applications, and even games!

This week I am limiting my computer use to 6 hours.  Regardless of whether it is for emails, surfing, blogging, skype chat, social networking, writing articles, or listening to music, I will only use the computer for a maximum of 6 hours this week.

Yes, it is an experiment.  It tests to see what happens to the quality of my work, the depth of my relationships, and my level of vitality.

I expect that by limiting my use of the computer, my method of working would be more reliant on spending enough time working things out in my own mind, and then exploring creative ways to record information and communicate it with those I am collaborating on projects with.  It would also have an impact on my health (more time healthy eating and getting fresh air rather than being stuck in front of a computer), and most certainly enrich my personal and business relationships.

So hey, lets see what happens in a week and how it really impacts my work, my relationships, and my vitality…

For it to be truly effective and to make the most of limited time on the computer, it requires me to batch tasks such as checking and responding to emails, programming in Living Jain quotes, or raising invoices.

If you happen to get an autoresponder message from me when you email me this week, please be patient for my response - after all, the time I have on my computer is limited so that it can make me unlimited!

Much love,
Sol