Complete Fulfillment

I have accumulated so much music it won't fit on my 30 gig iPod. So I am going through my music slowly and rating it all on the 5 star system provided by iTunes. There is an upside to the digital way to purchase music. You can buy individual songs which is great because in my review of my old CD's there is a lot of crap stuck around the few good songs. There are exceptions for some great complete CD's but that is not the rule.

So as most anyone who follows the NBA probably know - Greg Oden is out for the season. He got up of the couch a while back and his knee was hurting. Then after about a week he was running at the practice facility it hurt more and he told someone. There was some swelling and an MRI - then they scoped the knee. The papers were talking about this should not be bad and he will probably be out for six weeks. Then microfracture.... What? Microfracture? That is the worst news that could come out of exploratory surgery. The first thought with microfracture is that he might not come back. A friend sent me this page that shows all of the NBA players that have had the procedure and the results. There are some bad results but there are more good results. The key is not to come back to early and put in the work. Zack Randolph had his best year every last year 2 years after his microfracture but his first year back was a struggle.

All these bad thoughts come but then time to get back to reality. The damage was very minimal, it was clean, there was no flaking and the rest of the knee looked great. He is 19 and has loads of talent and work ethic. And by the way the Blazers have a better team than anyone gives them credit for. Sure - Oden was going to help but it was a good 50% of the season that he was in a steep, steep learning curve.

Last season the Blazers were better than anyone ever expected. That was with Roy, the Rookie of the Year and leader, out for over 20 games. Lamarcus Aldridge out at the start of the season. Joel Pryzbilla out for a good chuck then having a rough time getting back. Zack was there but he was Zack. The Blazers proved that they played well without Zack - if not better.

Certain people think the Blazers will still be bad but those are the people that probably didn't watch 5 games last year. John Hollinger over at ESPN has a mathematical formula that he says has the Blazers winning 26 games next year. Are you nuts? That is worse than last year. This team will still be in the running for the 8th spot most of the year. They will win about 35 games. As Prichard said yesterday, this gives the other players a chance to step up. And a report from Blazers practice was about how Roy and the team decided it was time to support Oden and for everyone to step up. The team could decide this because they have all been at the practice facility working out for about a month. They are there because Roy called everyone this summer. No coaches just a team that is hungry. Watch out folks the Blazers are coming. It may be a couple of years to fully get there but if you are counting them out you are a fool.

The first thing that Oden said to GM Prichard was - sorry (about 20 times). He will be back and prove to the world his talent. And he will only be about 21 when he does. The future is still very bright for the Blazers.

Tonight was an experience. My wife and I were upstairs talking in our office and it had been a while since we had seen our 2 kids (3 & 1.5). It was way to quite so we went out to look for them. We found them in the bonus room working on a little "art project". Our 3 year old had taken a large black Sharpie and decided to leave her mark on about 20 things in the bonus room. The door, the wall, the wall, the treadmill, the 32" television screen, some toys, the work out balls, my leather chair, and a number of other items. Besides being upset how does a permanent marker come off of things? Off to the internet. I found a blog that suggested these 8 things.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (also works for crayons),
WD-40,
Anti-bacterial hand gel,
Hairspray,
Cooking spray,
Nail polish remover,
Bleach (depending on the surface),
Goof Off

We only had WD-40 and Nail polish remover. The WD-40 worked best and only took off the smooth surfaces. You have to go at it for a while and some of the marks did not come all the way off. The leather chair still has a faint mark on it and the walls we had to paint over. This was the first real toddler incident that we have had that I'm sure will be remembered for a long time. She knew she did something wrong but I don't think fully understood at first why it was so bad. After most everything came off and a few hours later it was a little funnier. The joy of kids.

For some time now there has been rumors of a new iMac to hit the streets. It has been rumored to come out later this summer but the summer is disappearing rapidly. I am not a Mac user but I think our next computer purchase will be an iMac. My wife will love the easy interface for pictures and video and I think it will reduce her frustration she has will our slow Dell.

Apple is hosting a Mac-related media event. The rumor is that they will be available directly after the meeting. According to www.appleinsider.com Apple has issued 3 new price points to suppliers. A 24” will look great in our office! Apple sure knows how to get the media worked up over a product release.

I was surfing www.appleinsider.com for the latest news on the rumored new iMacs and stumbled upon this article. The rumor is that Apple has a 3G version of the iPhone in the works. They basically have to given that it is a sweet phone but has some limitations. This article states that we may see the 3G version this November before the Christmas season. If they could figure out a way to make the business email a reality I would be in with a 3G version! All those poor people who dove in and spent $600 on the first generation. I shouldn't laugh. I did that with the Treo 600 but it was a revolutionary device at the time. Given that I need the email and speed is a must if the functions are going to be worth anything I am waiting for the new and improved version. The article also talks about the affect on RIM. You would think that this is something apple is looking to address.

I was recently introduced to the book The 4-Hour Work Week. The warning I recieved was you just need to keep reading through the first 20% of the book. I went and downloaded an audiobook of this to listen to on the way to work. My first impression was this guy was out there and this was not something a normal person would do. How could you? This is not how the world works? But I kept with it and the book is really amazing. You can take the concepts as far as you would like or are comfortable with.

The author Timothy Ferris lives a great lifestyle of living life by creating an income flow that can be managed on a minimal basis yet provides enough to do some of the most amazing things in the world. This book fits well with my current delima of what to do in life. His advice is to find a way to live life and not wait until retirement to do the things you want to. He has foreseen all the excuses and eliminates them. He also does a great job at giving a step by step guide to developing all the pieces necessary. This is truely a book written by someone who has done this.

The ideas I have grasped on to are the outsourcing and automating a business. I currently run an eBay business but I know that it could run 100x smoother if I spent some time makeing it that way. I spend bunches of time to get it back in shape. I am going to experiment with outsourcing at work this quarter. He give details on what outsourcers in India and China will do - basically anything they do not need to be physcially present they can do. I am going to see where I can get some leverage out of this for report design, spreadsheet work and research. Based on the sucess I will expand this to further businesses or my personal life.

I think that anyone should read this book. If you go to a job each day and are saving for tomorrow then this is a must read. The only requirement is to have an open mind and explore the possibilities. Timothy might disagree with this but you can take as many of these items to apply as you feel comfortable with. They have created a great website that has lots of additonal resources. Hint - you have to have the book to get the full use out of the site.

The Vegas Summer Leage has started and the Blazers are playing the Boston Celtics. I was excited because the games were suppose to be broadcast on NBA.com. BUT...the Blazers game is blacked out. It will be on NBA TV tomorrow but still a fairly bad move by the NBA. Oden did not get of to a hot start but will be fine in the next game. That guy has so much pressure and attention I can't even imagine. This year will be great. It should be interesting to see the rest of the moves the Blazers make before the season. Darius Miles please retire.

So this is my blog. I have put off doing this for many reasons. One is because I have no idea what this is going to be about. There are so many things that I want to talk about from sports to books to gadgets. I thought that I had to have a topic to focus on but I am going to just start writting and see what comes out. Another reason I have not taken this on is because I have been in an Executive MBA program for the last 9 months and have not had any extra time to do anything. Well today was the last day of my first year of the MBA. So here we go....