Have you ever wondered where the “worst” areas of the country are? So did the Kansas State University Geography Department. So they mapped it out. They looked at each of the “seven deadly sins” and plotted the highest and lowest concentrations of each. The breakdown of their methodologies of calculations:
Archive for Personal
21 Suggestions for Success
A friend of mine tipped me off to these suggestions, but they are both profound and simple:
1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love.
21. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.
Fresh Financial Tracking with Mint
If you are like most Americans, not only do you have money deposits at multiple financial institutions, but you also have credit cards, 401k account and perhaps a stock market account. If you’re like me, you hate having to flip through multiple paper statements or web sites trying to get the big financial picture. You can use an installed application like Quicken or Microsoft Money, or you can try something fresh in the financial scene — Mint.com.
Fun in San Francisco
Last night 3 co-workers and I left the Salt Lake City airport and landed in San Jose to attend a technology conference. Soon after checking into our hotel, we sat down to figure out the sessions we would attend the next day.
We quickly realized that we had come a day early. The first day was tutorials for somewhat beginners and we had not signed up (or paid) for these sessions. We found ourselves with a free day close to one of the coolest cities in the world, San Fransisco.
So we took the rental car up highway 101 into downtown and toured the city. A few shots (taken with the iPhone) documented the fun.
Guns and fun
There comes a time in ones life when you get the opportunity to do something that you will most likely never do again. Today, that opportunity came for me to shoot one of the largest guns legally possess-able to a non-military (or police) citizen. My work is trying to have a bit of a party or reward each time we meet our goals for the month. Because my boss is very into guns, she decided it would be good to go out west of Utah Lake and shoot. I shot lots of guns; rifles (one from 1903), old style revolvers, other hand guns and even a potato gun. However, the highlight of the day was that I shot a 50 caliber big gun. I don’t know the official name of it. According to this image (and caption), it’s the Barrett “Light Fifty” Model 82A1 sniping rifle. But I’m not sure if that’s the exact same gun. The ammunition for this thing is $10 a pop.
Was it fun? Yes. Did it make me feel manly? Yes. Would I like to own one? Heck no. Do I think they should be legal for non-military? Heck No. This gun is way to powerful. The average citizen has absolutely no need for something like this. It would blow away anything you would want to kill to eat. It’s only applicable for show and tell.
When this gun is fired you can feel the concussion from a good 20 or 30 feet away. Each time it was fired, everything that wasn’t secured would fall off the table from which we shot it. It’s just one of those things that you gotta do once in your life.
Would I do this again? Yeah… if the opportunity presents itself. However, I wouldn’t go out of my way to make sure it happens again.
Oh, and by the way, my left ear is still ringing and my sholder is really sore. All in good fun, right?
I'll admit it — I want a parrot
It’s just the cool stuff they do that makes them so awesome. We visited the pet store the other day and the parrot there was so friendly and fun. They kids and I sat and watched him for a good 30 minutes (waiting for mommy). He danced, sang and talked for us.
A lost parrot in Japan was able to tell a vetranarian it’s name and address. That’s better than a lot of young kids.
Check out the CNN article for more.
The Fear Epidemic
Fear is destroying our lives. There are some that say that money is the root of all evil. If that is true, fear plays a close second fiddle. It’s crushing our society, our children and our families. It’s one of the most debilitating problems in the 21st century.
There are many who would argue that drugs, sexuality, crime, abortion and many other issues are more destructive to our society. However, there is nothing more socially acceptable, yet so destructive as fear. This isn’t the fear generated from horror shows, but fear of the unknown and the possibility of tragedy.
Let’s take a quick quiz.
Conversing with me
A friend of mine recently posted a blog entry entitled “Conversating” that listed several questions/topics one could discuss with someone else in order to get to know them better. Seeing as I like to make your life miserable in the 21st century, I decided that I would answer those questions so you could all get to know me better. 
iPhone scriptures (and more)
I’ve reviewed the iPhone in the past and although I love the device, it has it’s problems and I have my pet peeves. One of the cons I mentioned in my review was a lack of third-party applictions. And although I am waiting with baited breath for the iPhone SDK (promised by end of February), which will bring third-party apps, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the online applications inspired by the iPhone.
Within the first few days oh having my iPhone, I went looking for the scriptures online. But not just the scriptures. I wanted something that was optimized for the iPhone so I wasn’t waiting for several minutes in Church for a verse to load. I found a decent application at MountainMighty.com ScripturesApp.com. This little site provides not only a the scriptures formatted for the iPhone, but handy tools like bookmarks, community bookmarks and searching. Just recently though, they outdid themselves by adding the current Elder’s Quorum and Relief Society lesson manual as well as the words to the hymns. I’ve been wanting the hymns for a while and although the manual is available on lds.org it’s much more bulky and hard to navigate. So thank you Chuck!
Joe's Goals — Keep your resolutions
So in the spirit of the New Year and setting New Year Resolutions, I figured I needed something to help me track and keep my resolutions. I first had the idea to build something simply myself. An online application I could use personally and perhaps expand in the future for other’s use. Of course, when I have one of my brilliant ideas, I try to see if it’s been done before so I don’t waste my time.