Great Saturday afternoon drive

Posted by on Oct 13, 2007 in Photography | 0 comments

Lots of relaxation and thinking.

A Saturday afternoon drive

Lots more on the Flickr page.

Die In A Fire

Posted by on Oct 13, 2007 in Rant | 15 comments

Die In A Fire

Of the many expressions online that I really dislike, topping the list has got to be “die in a fire”. Like virtually every other Internet expression, it’s bandied about carelessly, and the people who use it probably don’t think about it a whole lot. So here’s a bit of perspective in the hopes that at least for the more thoughtful, careful, and socially sensitive people in the group of folks I like to call friends, we can retire this awful phrase.

When you’re caught in a fire, the first thing that generally happens is that the hair and surface skin burns, usually very quickly. Anyone who’s singed themselves while cooking or tending a fireplace has gotten a taste of what this is like. The skin cracks, the hair burns off, and the nerve endings all fire at the same time, communicating only one thing – you’re in a heck of a lot of trouble and pain.

As your body heats up from the fire, the fat underneath the skin melts. As with all animal fats, it melts at a relatively low heat point, instantly causing some skin to slough off in flakes and sheets. Your eyes will be especially affected – the eyelids are thin tissue and will be destroyed relatively quickly, but the liquid eyeball itself will boil first, then burst, and only then burn.

If you’re exposed to direct flame, you will catch fire just like a wick in a wax candle. At this point, if you’re lucky, you’ll have a low tolerance for pain, fall unconscious, and never wake up.

If you’re not lucky, you may live long enough to watch your body fall apart. Incidentally, the voice box is relatively well protected by heavy cartilage and muscle, so if you’re still conscious, you can still scream.

Once the skin and surface tissue have melted and burned away, the proteins making up tissue and muscle are the next to cook, then burn. Internal organs heat to the boiling point, then explode, and as the muscles burn away, they too dry up, wither, and burn away.

If the fire’s not particularly hot, what will be left will be a skeleton with carbonized tissue attached to it. If the fire is sufficiently hot, the proteins that bind the minerals in your bones will burn away as well, causing your bones to fall to ashes.

This is what it means to die in a fire. To wish that on anyone, even casually or in jest, is to wish them one of the most painful ways to leave this mortal coil.

If you’d like to see what happens when you only get injured by fire, take a look at Youssif, an Iraqi boy doused in gasoline and lit on fire.

Now, can we retire that expression?

post-script: in case you were wondering where the expression crossed my radar, someone invited to a Facebook group named People who Type Like This Can Die in a Fire. Needless to say, I declined the invitation (and the subsequent zombie requests as well)

I have FIOS and you don't, but John Wall does

Posted by on Oct 11, 2007 in Blogging, Blogroll | 4 comments

Tune into this week’s Marketing Over Coffee, the best marketing podcast ever recorded in a doughnut shop with co-host John Wall. We discuss all manners of things, including what you can use FIOS for (and what you can but probably shouldn’t), along with how my show, the Financial Aid Podcast, tripled email subscribers.

Awaken YOUR Superhero Powers : Power 10 of 10 – Realization

Posted by on Oct 7, 2007 in Buddhism, Ninjutsu, On ko chi shin | 0 comments

Awaken YOUR Superhero Powers : Power 10 of 10 – Realization

Chi
Jnana Paramita
Realization

As part of my every thought, word, and action, I am inspired by the heroic ideal of spiritual intelligence. I pursue highest knowledge!

The last aspect of the superhero is perhaps the most important, because it makes all the other powers make sense. The power of realization is the power of leaving behind everything that isn’t true, everything that clouds your vision and makes you doubt yourself, your powers, and your ability to make positive change in the world. The power of realization is the garden hose that washes the mud off the windows and lets us see things clearly.

I reflect often on the motto given to Superman’s ultimate quest – a never ending battle for truth and justice. (the American way came later) If all the other powers describe things you’ll need on your heroic quest, the power of realization reveals to you where you’re going – or where you need to go, as well as what holds you back or threatens to steer you off course.

Imagine what a reality of all truth, nothing false would be like. Your GPS would get you to your destination every time. The news would be timely, relevant, and completely accurate. Your thoughts, words, and actions would be in complete sync with reality – and how effortless life would be.

Commit today and every day towards taking steps to achieve a life of all truth, nothing false, beyond the pull of distraction and confusion, knowing exactly where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. Bring all your powers, skills, and friends to your aid as your heroic quest begins.

Thought: Where are you going? Where do you know, deep down inside your heart, that you need to go? Are they different?

Word: Examine what you’ve said about your life. How can you use more accurate, more clear words to describe where you need to go?

Action: Assemble your ten powers of a superhero and put them ALL into action today.

Endnote: The powers themselves are translated by Senior Master Instructor Stephen K. Hayes from the Enlightened Warrior Gyoja Practitioner Recitation Handbook, published by the Kinryuzan Golden Dragon Mountain Kasumi-An Dojo.

Informal working group @ PodCamp Boston

Posted by on Oct 7, 2007 in Marketing | 0 comments

For those folks who – like me – aren’t pub crawlers (I am grossly incompetent at it AND genetically Asian, meaning that alcohol and I have a twisted relationship), I’d like to invite you to an INFORMAL working group session at or around 9 PM Saturday evening (after Jeff Pulver’s PodCamp Party) at the Westin Hotel next to the BCEC to discuss podcast marketing. The general topic for the evening will be, “Hey, how do we explain this stuff better, because we really suck at it”, and tackles a vitally important point Mignon Fogerty (Grammar Girl) raised on Twitter: “There are 100 million iPods out there. Aren’t they the low hanging fruit?”

Bring your ideas, stuff that has worked for you, and stuff that hasn’t, plus anything else as we all have a group head shed to see if we can come up with some powerful new ideas. This is NOT an official PodCamp session at all.