Yes I have lost some weight. Not much but more to the point I have tried to institute a lifestyle change. There are two major areas that I have addressed:

I am not on a diet. I still have some fries when I feel like it although I am trying to feel like it less. Chocolate is still there but more occasionally. I am trying to eat more salads, fruits and vegetables. Even with main meals I am trying to up their intake and lower my meat intake.

I am exercising. It is amazing how much better this makes me feel.  More importantly it means that I don’t have to watch as carefully what I eat. Because I don’t need to lose a lot of weight (I think about 7 kilos)  I have a bit of flexibility in this a area. The 8 seconds at a time is a bit tedious. Even though I know that it will help me to lose weight quickly there also has to be a level of enjoyment in it all. I like to exercise and think. Concentrating on pedaling fast for 8 seconds precludes this. Most of the time I try to ensure that my pulse is in the working heart rate zone and I forget about the 8 second sprints. I
am looking forward to getting back out on the road again. But, the beauty of an exercise bike is that I can do it at night when its dark because that’s the time that I often get home. I am also using a rowing machine. This is good too because it is more an overall workout.

So there you have it. Not big changes but a couple of kilos is the result. Two kilos means that I can fit back into clothes a bit more comfortably. It has meant about an inch off my waist measurement. And I feel a little bit better about myself because I have achieved something positive. To me they are all good results so far.

1. You have a daily 1 minute commute.
2. You have more time for other things because of the 1 minute commute
3. You can eat lunch at home and save money
4. You save money on fuel and other transport costs
5. You can take a productive break when you want and do something around the home
6. You are available for the kids
7. You can be more flexible with your hours
8. It’s nice to feel like you are your own boss even if you are still really working for someone else
9. There are less office politics to deal with

After a couple of years of blogging (most of it at another site), I believe that blogging is one of the best things to happen on the web. Remember when we all had a home page, it was everyone’s chance to have their 5 minutes of glory on the newest medium around. The trouble was that these pages were hard to update requiring some technical skills to be able to update regularly.

Now we have lots of blog content management systems that can meet the need of every user. For those who are a slightly tech savvy there is wordpress or a range of other platforms that allow a great total control over the look of their site with an easy to manage dashboard allowing the blogger to post. Then there are the paid hosted systems, typepad stands out in this group and is used by many popular blogs. For example TechCrunch uses typepad. Then there is a plethora of free hosted systems that usually have limited flexibility and are paid for by advertising.

Some of my thoughts on blogging after using a number of these and sharing my thoughts about fatherhood and personal development to the world are:
1. Blogging is about my personal interaction with whatever content matter I choose to write about. That’s what makes is special and unique. I know there are lots of spam blogs out there but they are blogs in name only. There are also a number of professional blogs that exist solely to make money that are really a cross dressing website.
2. Blogging is about the people who are reading your site. With adequate spam protection your blog joins a worldwide conversation of people interacting personally with your content.
3. Blogging is soul enhancing. I find that what I am writing about is also about sharing a part of my spirit with others. I think that writing is essentially about this and that we need to remember that the energy that is dispersed should enhance anyone who comes into contact with it.
4. Blogging is about people. Write for people, talk like a person and respond as a person is the best advice that I can give for building a successful blog.
5. My blog is my gift to others. I know that I may not be the most eloquent of writers but I want to share something of myself with others. The subjects that I write about I care about. I want to see people improve and to have the resources that will enable their self development.

What’s the difference?

Well they look pretty similar but dig in a blog and you will find something special, a person.

I recently with a friend made a large purchase of technical equipment at a prominent Australian retailer. We had two staff members collecting the stuff and they could not have been more helpful. They even waited for us at the counter and helped us to carry all the gear to the car. They were chatting and and friendly and we couldn’t really have asked for any better service.

Same company different day. I purchased a single less expensive item. The sales assistant was obviously not that interested in the service that I received. I was given the product and pointed to the direction of the front counter and there was not time for any idle chat.

I am not complaining about either transaction. I am just wondering what a commission based sales structure does to customer service? Does it really motivate or does it in the end devalue?

This is not a blog about customer service but I am always interested in the attitudes that drive us. I could talk all day about some of the ways that people are treated by companies. I am left wondering about this company? It is very successful but has it missed something important?

Or is it just a reflection on society. That is the way we are treated because of the size of our purchase a reflection on the values that are important to each one of us. Or are we going to break out of this?

I would like to think that we can be different.

I think of the responses that I have received from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame. Early in my blogging career I wrote a couple of emails to him. I always received a response and it was always polite. I realise that my requests were not really valid but never was I treated in a way that devalued myself.
Darren’s blog is one of the most popular on the blogosphere and yet he took the time to respond to me at ChrisGribble.com. It gives me hope that there are people who are able to live differently to others. I don’t know him personally yet I appreciated the way that he has differentiated himself in this way.

That’s right its been proven. I doesn’t matter if you are messy. In fact if you are messy you will probably be more creative.

Don’t ask me the references for my evidence but I heard it on very good authority that those impressively neat people with immaculate desks and a file name for everything are not neccessarily more efficient or happier than us messies. Almost certainly from the research it appears they will be less creative.

And guess what? Whether we are tidy or messy we will all spend the same time looking for stuff. About 6 minutes.

See here is my evidence. Messy kid happy face. Have we have just lost the ability to enjoy it as adults?

What is our relationship to the rest of the world? here are some more insights to being a positive presence person.

The highest honor a French chef can attain is to have his retaurant listed as a three star restaurant in the Michelin Guid to fine eating. According to one newspaper, the 1995 guide added a twentieth resturant to its three star listing: the Auberge de Eridan in Annecy, France.

The owner and self taught chef, Marc Veyrat, is a culinary maverick. His unorthodox ideas got him kicked outof three hotel culinary schols, and local hotels would not even take him on as an apprentice in the kitchen.

Veyrat is from the French Alps. Alpine herbs, such as caraway, cumin, wild thyme, and chenopodium, are key ingredients in his recipies. Once a week at dawn Veyrat ventures into the mountains to pick the herbs.

I know I’m not a traditional chef,says Veyrat.I’m a student of nature, because before you love the cuisine you have to love the ingredients.

To be a positive presence person (PPP) you have to really love other people before you can appreciate what they do. To do this means that we value them for who they are and refuse to view others as a commodity. It is about loving the ingredients that come together to make each person that we meet a precious encounter.

Try it and you will find that the way that they respond to you will be different. Sure there will still be the users. Learn to recognise them quickly and limit the access they have to your core being. Seek out other PPP’s and allow them to see those special attributes that belong to you.

I went for a wander this afternoon and traveled around the web. Here is where I ended up. Remember when we used to surf the web for fun?

Start here at homeworking.com

This site is for anyone wanting to work at home and anyone already working at home. You will find lots to get you started, help you find work at home and avoid scams.

I went first to the case studies because I like stories.

Jason is 27 and married to Stel. They have lots of furry creatures and the Cat Spedie! Case Study written in 2000 and not updated

mmm.. not updated not a good sign. So I quickly click around. The home employment agency looks interesting. So I click there

Samantha is in her 30’s and lives with her partner and 3 children aged 6 and under.
Sam runs the Home Employment Agency and talks here about being self-employed and the part it has played in her life.

Don’t click on her site. It takes you to a place of pop ups. I begin to wonder about the value of this site. So I go to Yaro the Entrepreneur to share in his journey.

Lots of links here. I go to the young go getter. Thankfully there is a back button. Nothing wrong with the site it doesn’t interest me at all.

For any eager beavers if you are ready to join as a client of Rich Schefren’s coaching program you can do so here – StrategicProfits.com/coaching/

but they are full. back to the back button again.

Next link is to Simpleology:

Here’s What You’ll Learn in the FREE Simpleology 101:The one simple “brain hack” known by the world’s richest 1% that allows you to get 300% more done in the same amount of time. (This one is so obvious that you’ll be amazed the whole planet doesn’t know it. And yes, this is why it seems the more these jet-setters lounge around the pool, the more money they make. It’s disgusting.)

But as I go through the sign on process they want more and more information so I get out of here. I am out of time almost an hour later and really none the wiser.

I am generally a happy person so I wonder what this article says about me? Why Intelligent People Tend to be Unhappy

Western society is not set up to nurture intelligent children and adults, the way it dotes over athletes and sports figures, especially the outstanding ones. While we have the odd notable personality such as Albert Einstein, we also have many extremely intelligent people working in occupations that are considered among the lowliest, as may be attested by a review of the membership lists of Mensa (the club for the top two percent on intelligence scales).

Finally I found something that interested me.

Summary

The concept of a global village encompassing the whole world seemed to become a reality in recent decades with the rapid advances in technology, the web, changing industrial practice and the shift towards the information economy. However the web (the primary communications medium of globalization) has also effectively communicated the differences that are increasingly obvious in our world. Globalization has ushered in a new information economy. The web was once hailed as the means by which the massification of education would occur with many seeing opportunities to capture new markets made accessible by the internet. Yet globalization has not resulted in the world that many hoped for. The question is will education provide the way for creating a better world or will it be the tool to further divide our world?

Globalization Definition

Today Globalisation is a term used to describe a number of paradigm shifts that have or are occurring in our world. It describes a borderless community in which the traditional nation state boundaries are redefined in light of economic partnerships that transcend these established boundaries. McWorld and Coca-colonisation of the world are global brands that are often viewed as symbols a new form of imperialism that is sometimes termed the Americanisation of the world. It is also used to describe the convergence of culture often to the detriment of local communities and values.

The web began as a medium by which academics could communicate to each other so that they could exchange information and ideas. It emerged in the early 1990’s from being a communication medium for a few elite academics to linking the world electronically. It very quickly was seen as a means to create income. For many the idea of communicating to the whole world also brought ideas of massive new markets to be tapped. At first no one was really sure how this would occur. The dot com emerged and during the 1990’s and generated huge amounts of investment capital based on little income and none of the traditional tangible assets. The mantra was if it was new technology it was good.

The bubble burst. The dot com collapse and resulting losses incurred devastated many people’s confidence in internet. Much of the early hype was based on a lack of understanding of how the web works as a communication’s medium. The halcyon days of the 90’s are now behind us but the web is still growing at a phenomenal rate. It is a medium that provides instant access to billions of searchable pages of information. Google currently the worlds leading search engine handles 200 million such searches per day. Millions of people everyday send emails, engage in virtual discussions in chatroom or instant messages and post views and opinions on discussion boards. It connects our world instantly in a way never before possible.

A second great influence is the shift in our world from being an industrial economy to an information economy. Alvin Toffler in the Third Wave describes the ramifications of such a shift. Production of goods is based on cost savings such as cheap labour and is not dependent on national boundaries. Once exporting was about the movement of raw materials to the next stage of manufacturing. The transnational corporation functions as its own entity moving production and finances outside the restrictions of the traditional nation state that has dominated world political systems for the past few centuries.

Out of these great changes the nation state are seeking to redefine their place in our global village. For many developing nations globalization is seen as a synonymous with Americanisation. There is a strong resistance to the homogenization of culture within a world of global brands dominated by American economic and cultural imperialism. The so called economic equal playing field strongly favours western nations who demand access to developing nation’s markets but are still able to impose tariffs to protect their local more expensive producers.

Globalisation has not been the cure all for the ills of the world. After the collapse of the communism late last century capitalism and its accompanying democracy is seen as the only viable financial and governing model. But it has also failed to realize solutions to many of the issues that plague society. World Bank initiatives to bail out some of the Asian tiger economies after their meltdown during the 90’s have imposed unfair impositions on nations that had little to do with the lending of money. For example the condition of receiving money is to open markets. These conditions have often exacerbated the receiving nation’s problems and this is evident in the growing divide between the world’s have’s and the have nots. During the recent Iraqi war the United Nations was largely ineffectual in staving off the United States dogged commitment to replace Saddam Hussein. Its resolutions and weapons reports were treated disdainfully by George Bush who chose to ignore it and go to the war on the premise of Iraq‘s possession of arms of mass destruction.

Education has long been seen as the means by which disadvantaged groups can modernize and achieve economic equality. This is even truer in an information economy where wealth is evaluated by one’s access to information. As one becomes better educated they gain higher incomes, they move up through society’s pecking order and they are better able to serve the community. Because of this the whole community is considered better off.

A concern is that education is now seen as another economic commodity. This tension is felt acutely in higher education institutions where courses are now closely linked to industry expectations. Once a University’s role was clearly defined, it accumulated information through research and disseminated that information by teaching. To a large extent this occurred outside the market influences, was largely government subsidized and was regarded as a community service. Today education institutions face increased pressures to do more with less and meet the demands of industry. With the burgeoning student population professors are under more pressure to meet increasing demands from their clients.

Within the education paradigm many viewed technological advances with an eye for cost saving and mass production and dissemination of education. Two thirds of the world lives within 800 miles of Bangkok and so far is largely untapped market. It was envisioned that there was a huge market for secondary education for these emerging economies. Many thought that transmissive models of learning would allow cheap mass produced education. This is reflected in terminology such as learning materials to describe a course of instruction.

Online learning opportunities may not be the educational panacea that everyone hoped for. It is not cheap. Instead quality online learning may be more expensive than or at least as expensive as traditional face to face educational models. One of the strengths of online learning is its ability to construct learning communities through computer mediated conferencing (CMC). Most suggest that a student ratio of one teacher to 25 or so students is the optimal ratio for effective learning to occur.

At the recent G8 conference in Evian, Jaques Chirac, France‘s Prime Minister suggested that unless there is an investment in infrastructure that globalization is doomed to failure. The evaluation in 2002 of the primary commitments of the G8 countries at Kananaskis of the Genoa summit in 2001 suggests that there is little interest or political will by the G8 countries to invest in the resources that are required to supply a primary education for many disadvantaged people.

Therefore rather than the liberator that it has been in the past if used wrongly it may become another tool that results in further oppression of disadvantaged groups. Current World Bank policies are orientated to an economistic development of human capital model of education. Education policies are designed to increase the efficiency of the way it is administered with an emphasis on the outcomes. They have created a global model that has little understanding or place for local needs, culture or communities. Instead of being in the hands of local teachers it comes under the realm of global economic rationalism.

Any global education initiatives will need to be able to identify with local needs if they are to be effective. The African continent is today facing an Aids epidemic that will infect one third of its population and will create a huge drain on its resources in the coming decade. Israelis and Palestinians continue to blow each other up on an almost daily basis. SARS recently erupted in flashpoints around the world carried at an unprecedented rate in a borderless world. Within a decade many baby boomers will begin drawing on their superannuation and many analysts are certain that this will result in an economic downturn as less funds are available for investment.

The possibilities offered to our world by technology and education are enormous. Online learning is poised to contribute to an emerging post colonial; post industrial world with its values of access and equity to all.  Is online learning the panacea to the ills of globalization? It could contribute to the growing world divide by furthering the gap between the information have’s and have nots. This scenario only serves the haves and enables them to be better off. However, with the right infrastructure it could provide access to learning opportunities without limitations of time or space or race or culture. This could serve to bring together co-operatively the strengths of our global community and create a win/win situation.

Readings

Barboza, D, When Golden Arches Are Too Red, White and Blue, www.nyt.com accessed 10.06.03.

Coxon, E, From Patronage to Profiteering, New Zealand’s relationship with the small states of Oceania, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2002., accessed 10.06.03

Heath, G, Introduction to Symposium on Globalisation, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2002., accessed 10.06.03

Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff, A Brief History of the Internet, http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml accessed 10.06.3

LEONHARD, D,  Globalization Hits a Political Speed Bump, www.nyt.com accessed 10.06.03.

Mayes, T. 2000, ‘The technology of learning in a social world.’ Paper for Lifelong Learning Forum, Glasgow Caledonian University, pp.1-11.

Peters, M., Roberts, P., Universities, Futurology and Gloablisation, Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, Vol.21, No.2., 2000., Accessed 10.06.03

Tapsall, S., All aboard the Borderless Education Bandwagon, Open Learning, Vol. 16, No.1, 2001 accessed 10.06.03

• Thrill seekers – Do you find challenges in the everyday. Are you able to create an sense of excitement even in the everyday experiences of life.

• Fear avoiders – These are the workers who want the world to stay the same for ever. And, they resent anyone who wants to upset the status quo. (seth godin)

You will find both of these people in the workplace. The longer that I work the more I realise that there are certain constants that come with work. You will find these personalities and the issues that come with them regularly.

Here are some other constants that I have been thinking about lately:

1. Conflict – this is the main one that we all will struggle with from time to time.
2. Relationships – Working with others is a core competency.
3. Skills – we all need to develop skills that will allow us to perform competently.
4. Routine – get used to it and be prepared to do the same things regularly even if you have a great job it will require some routine.

There are probably more that I will add to later………

By the way I should thank the appropriate people for the template. Thanks Adam even though I don’t know you for this design. The credit is at the bottom of the page and his site is here.

This template works really well I haven’t found any glitches yet. I still have a bit of tidying up to do but life has been busy in recent days.

Dr Chris Cain, says he is not surprised that the figures show a small drop in the nation’s death rate. (ABC News)
I find this surprising. I always thought it was close to 100%? And, that this figure was fairly stable worldwide?