Quick 2 minutes to check this out.

Check this out

It'll make you laugh or cry... the dumbest internet business ideas that actually worked. It's good because it shows you anyone can make a million dollars - it's bad because it wasn't you who thought of those goggles for dogs...

Sad, yet strangely funny...

In The Age today - what are the chances???:

"A police dog left in a truck with the engine running apparently knocked the vehicle into gear and ran down a woman who was walking to her mailbox.

Mary Stone, 41, of Utah in the United States, was expected to remain in hospital with a fractured pelvis and tailbone until at least tomorrow, said her husband, Paul.

The dog, a German shepherd named Ranger, had been left in the truck while its handler responded to a domestic disturbance call, police Lt. Loring Draper said. The truck's engine was on, so Ranger could have air conditioning."

Latte and 3 sugars man...

Well, I hadn't seen him out in the street since I last posted on him in my blog entry 'What good a cup of coffee???'

And then yesterday, needing a walk to clear my head, I started wandering down Collins St and it started to rain. Picking up the pace to get back to the office, there he was - squatting in the same spot as last time. Only this time he was barely out of the rain. Remembering he liked a latte with three sugars, I went over to the cafe and bought him one. When I went up to him and gave it to him, he was just the happiest bloke on the earth for that moment.

Whether it was that I remembered what he liked, or simply that I was there, it worked. It helped. It was the right thing.

Anyway, his name is Leslie. He stays with the Salvos when he can afford it (they are cheap, but he still is expected to pay something) so comes out and begs when he needs more money to stay in-doors. He's a good bloke. I gave him some cash - I hope he got back inside - it was darn cold last night.

Kinda puts things in perspective doesn't it... And he seemed pretty darn normal. I wonder what his story is...

Miss World and charity

OK. So get this. Apparently Australia's contestant for the Miss World beauty pageant got the nod without competing! Shock horror! Turns out that the finals in Poland were brought forward, and there was 'no time' to arrange the state competitions without potentially handicapping the girl as she wouldn't be prepared enough. So they gave the job to Australia's runner up from last year.

One of the other potential contestants was quoted in The Age as saying this:

"I am disappointed they cancelled it. It is unfair. I was starting to organise fund-raising for World Vision. I had picked my charity. It is not exactly her fault but she didn't have any competition for this year and there may have been a better person to do the job."

I have one thing to say. Dear Miss disappointed, I hope that this great charity work you started to get organised you will continue with even though you aren't in the competition this year. Why? Well, it struck me as kind of stupid. It reads like she is saying it's not fair because she put in some hard work to do things for a charity, and now there is no point going through with it - as though the only reason to do it is because she might be Australia's contestant. Makes a mockery of it really...

*sigh*

Or am I being too harsh? Is charity from someone who has an alterior motive better than no charity? Take the whole gambling thing. The Salvation Army won't knowingly accept money from TAB and the like because of how the money is gained.

Interested on random thoughts from anybody reading this...

They did it...

The Azzurri did it. They are through to the World Cup final. Not sure whether to be happy about that (because at least we lost to a finalist) or to be even more annoyed (because I believe we would have done as well against the Ukraine as they did, and therefore would have at least gone through to the last 4 ourselves...).

Well, good luck to them anyway. They did deserve this win - they played better. But MAN do they leave it late. Two goals in the 119th and 120th minutes! I'd be happy with either France or Portugal getting through to play them so we shall see what happens after tonight!

The money thing...

Was reading a blog on The Age website this morning. It was reporting on some new research done by some very prominent academics, including a Nobel Laureate on whether there was any correlation between more money and happiness.

I almost can't believe people bother with these studies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the researchers. It's very valuable research. The trouble is that nobody takes any notice. We eat up the latest fad without regard for the realities of life...

Yep, the research found what we all know already. Money really doesn't make people happier. The correlation between more money and greater hapiness was extremely marginal, and often meant people sacrificed more of their day commuting, and less time socialising (trading a great thing for happiness with a terrible thing).

The point the article, and the researchers themselves were making was, have we got it all wrong? Is our focus on money a waste of effort. I don't get it. We all know this already. What worries me is that the focus on more money, more things, more status will not change if we all believe everything we read, everything we watch on tv, read all the trashy magazines so we can find out more about the stars and try and live like they do, or even just covet what they have.

That's the challenge. It's not about selling all we have perhaps, but it IS about trying not to always say to ourselves I need the latest in everything (something I am working on, but sometimes fail at still...)

Here's a challenge for you. Don't get a new mobile phone until you have a real reason (either it doesn't work, or the plan is too expensive). Don't just get one because you want a new one. Sounds simple? I'm not so sure...

No I

Made t out alve on saturday! Ended up dong about 11 hours, whch was a lot better than last weekend. Spent today just recoverng though as have both a long week ths week and am workng all weekend comng up.

Left the letter out was complanng about n my last post on prncple. Mght make ths post hard to read - sorry about that. Just felt needed to make a stand...

Gven have a thng aganst that letter thought 'd gve an old and stupd joke.

What do you call a deer wth no eyes?
No eye-deer!

Hate that letter rght now!

The letter 'I'

Well, it starts again. Saturday morning, take II.

Here's to hoping this one is more successful than last weekend! It's 9:30am, I've been in for about 2 hours. It's too early to tell if we are in trouble yet, so cross all of your fingers and toes for me!!!!!

Update 1:

3:oopm. Things are moving. Had a number of scares, but things are definitely moving forward.

I have learnt a valuable lesson. If someone provides you with 1000's of lines of computer code (literally) and the leave the letter 'i' out of those millions of characters worth of information. If that letter 'i' is left out in the wrong spot, it will make EVERYTHING fail... And fail BADLY...

Who'd have thought that the letter 'i' could be such a destructive letter! I'm thinking of banning the letter I in my next blog post just to make a protest against such cruelty!