I know that dental floss might seem like something that you wouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about, especially which brand to buy. But using it everyday, you kind of want to get it right. I've tried lots of flosses. The last brand I tried broke on me every time. Maybe I have sharper teeth than normal. The brand before that, Crest's Glide, was great, but too expensive, even at price per yard. But last night I tried, OralB Essentials and loved it. I don't know what's different about it (besides the price, it was only $0.97 for 55 yards) but it's somehow kind of rubbery and springy. No breakage whatsoever. Just thought you might want to try it out.

I'll include the customary 'they are not paying me to do this' but I doubt anyone reading this blog thinks anyone would ever pay me to review something of theirs with the maybe three devout readers I have.

Labels: marketing

The Kaufman Foundation is launching Entrepreneurship Week beginning on Friday. The logo is lit up with "What's your big idea?" Not the first time we've seen that. It was plastered all over t-shirts for the BYU Business Plan competition last year and is still being used this year in the competition. I couldn't find an image of the actual logo that was used last year, but it isn't that far off.

Labels: byu, entrepreneurship

I was surprised to find the Cal State University system was in school today, President's Day. But then I thought, I'm working, so I guess it's not that big of a deal. But then I saw this on the Cal State Long Beach website:




Cesar Chavez day will be a holiday at the campus where there are no classes. I also want to point out that Cesar Chavez day is actually on a Saturday, but there are celebrating that Friday. Remind you that this is not a private university, this is a State of California funded university. Without getting into the politics of Cesar Chavez or discussing the merits of what he did, even if the entire country agreed with the outcomes of his efforts, does that mean that we replace the holiday celebrating our founding fathers? We're not even talking about one founding father. Remember how we combined all of them into one holiday? And now it's not even a holiday in exchange for a labor union leader? A leader celebrating rights that would not have existed except for the sacrifice of the founders? Is the State of California joking? Has anyone living in California written their congressman? Mine is Ed Royce and trust me, he's getting a letter, not an email. I handwritten letter.

Labels: politics

The actual quote was "Make me a princess" but I don't want anyone thinking that refers to my own desires. I hope it's alright if I make this entry on something that happened recently in pop culture. Anna Nicole Smith passed away. You can read about it all over the news. That's not what I want to talk about. In the course of her death, other stories have unfolded. One of which is the custody battle over 5 month daughter, Dannielyn. As I'm aware, there are now three potential men claiming to be the father. (That's a whole different story in itself. Usually the problem in this world is getting the father to accept it.) One of those potentially claiming DNA in the child is none other than Prince Frederick von Anhalt. Prince Frederick is married to Zsa Zsa Gabor but claims that he had been having an affair with Anna Nicole Smith. One of the reasons for the affair is that Anna said she wanted to be a princess. Since Frederick wasn't about to divorce Zsa Zsa (90 years old), he actually suggested going adopting Anna Nicole and even filled out the paperwork until Zsa Zsa said no (source). (Again, a whole different story in itself) What I wonder is how much Anna Nicole thought about how great it would be to be a princess. Little girls dream of it, helping Disney be a wildly successful company, and so do apparently middle aged women. The acceptable address for royalty in print is HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) and then the name.

Not long ago, we thought about changing the login on our sites so that instead of "Hello, Dan" it would read "Hello, HRH Dan" or just "HRH Dan." We weren't going to explain it and just wait for people to ask. The reason is that on one of the sites, which actually isn't functioning now, it seemed like every question related to people not understanding who they really are. The most success we had was when we would compare them to royalty and persuade them to act accordingly in certain areas of their lives.

I think that there is an innate desire in all of us to be special. To feel dignified. I believe I know where this comes from. As Wordsworth put it, "But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home." We never went through with that small change, but as we continued the royalty feeding, it seemed like there were many individuals that had a dramatic change in self esteem. This was probably not due to our referring to them as royalty, but more, their acting like royalty. When you act dignified, you almost can't help but feel a quiet dignity flowing through you. It all stems from the fact that we are royalty. We've felt it in us before and have a need to continue feeling that or remind ourselves of it. We often hear people ask, "What would the world be like if everyone..." and it usually finishes with something we can do to help others. But honestly, what would the world be like if we all treated ourselves like royalty should? I don't mean paparazzi and servants and secret lives. I mean with dignity and respect. If we just thought those higher thoughts of ourselves, what would be the change in our actions? In our relations to others? Try it for a day and see what changes it makes in your attitude.

Signing off

HRH Dan Sage

Labels: royalty

I think that youmail.com has to be one of the greatest free services available right now. I was given an opportunity to try out the new SpinVox accounts that should be available to the public soon, but if the two services are not compatible (and I believe they won't be), I think that I'll stick with youmail. Youmail allows a personal voicemail greeting for different contacts in your phonebook. I've already started customizing depending on the type of messages left. With one person, my voicemail greeting now says, Hi..., you don't need to leave a message. I'll see that you called and call you back." With another I said, "If you're calling because I'm late, then I'm sorry." Youmail also allows you to listen to your messages on line or have wav files emailed to you. SpinVox will convert voicemails to text and send them as text messages. I think that's cool, but not necessary for me right now. Both services will be free.

P.S. Don't be intimidated by the wierd welcome screen at youmail.

Labels: mobile phone

At the beginning of the month, I posted on the 2007 Mutual Theme for the Church, "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly..." We are going to provide content throughout the year in an effort to help individuals garnish their thoughts with virtue. In the original post, I included an audio reading of the Foreward and first section of James Allen's "As a Man Thinketh." Well, I am not a professional reader, so forgive any mistakes, coughs, or mouse clicks, or page turns that you might hear. But this content is public domain and so there is no copyright violation. I've finally finished the rest of the book. You can download it from this page and also find a lot more content in our Readings and Podcasts section of LDS Teen Help and Help for Guys. Undoubtedly, I will one day move these mp3s into a different folder called books/AsaManThinketh or Asamanthinketh or jamesallen or something to better organize them so that I don't have lots of mp3s sitting around unorganized. I will then probably update the Readings and Podcasts section links but forget about this post. When that happens, check the Readings section.

As a Man Thinketh

• Foreward
  
• Thought and Character
  
• Effect of Thought on Circumstance
  
• Effect of Thought on Health and the Body
  
• Thought and Purpose
  
• The Thought Factor in Achievement
  
• Visions and Ideals
  
• Serenity
  

Thanks, and keep looking back for more content.

Labels: books, lds, MP3

Is it just me or does it seem like we're going back to the height of the bubble with people trying to get funding for websites that are sure to become huge on-line communities? At the height of the bubble, there were so many companies buying domain names and trying to secure funding based simply on the expectation, "If we build it, they will come." In my readings, I've seen quite a few of those pop up over the last month or so, but worse, these are from trusted sources, sources that should know better. What has brought new life to these expectations? Social networks. We're seeing the exact same ideas from seven or eight years ago but with new hope because of the success of some social networking sites. It is probably a different group of people that are having those ideas. I wonder if we'll experience this every ten years or so when a new group comes along. I speak as if I were a veteran in the industry when anyone who knows me knows that I'm not, but I still think the observation has to be made. A successful website needs to have a whole lot more than just an idea for people to build around. You can't just say, "We're going to give people that have the same likes, hobbies, or passions, the ability to network with each other on the website. They'll love it." You can't even say, "There's no one place for people to go for information on this certain subject. We'll build a network around it and they'll keep coming back." Reasons you can't say that? There are no barriers to entry and don't think you're getting first mover advantage. All it takes is someone else to come along and say, "I can make a site like that and make it better" and you're done. And yes, it will happen. Another reason, gone are the days when we go to lots of different sites for all of our different interests. If there really isn't good info out there on the subject, create a blog and let them add it to their reader. Don't expect them to come to the site. Another reason, this requires absolutely no funding. Create the website for a couple hundred bucks by hiring a buddy or finding someone on-line from another country. There are plenty of websites that will connect you with talent for a cheap price. If the community gets huge, then great, secure some funding and proceed from there. Turn it into something big. But don't go out spending tons on some fancy website when you don't have the followers or the revenue stream to make it worthwhile. I know that history is bound to repeat itself, but you hope not in the exact same way and in such a short time. I hope the VCs and angels will be a little hesitant before going into something like this and I hope that otherwise credible sources will not lose credibility by backing such ideas until they've thought around all that they're going to have to deal with to enter the market. I'm not always this conservative, only with bad ideas.

Labels: bad ideas, funding, VC