NEWS

Drudge Report - Links to national and international newspapers.

ZDNet News - Breaking technology news now.

VIEWS

William Bill Safire - Winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, joined The New York Times in April 1973 as a political columnist.  Tough, outspoken and timely.

Cluetrain Manifesto - A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed.  As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. (chapter one can be read online)

OLO Factor - Sign up to receive Bruce Rector's Monday Morning Message.  The MMM is a brief insightful, inspirational newsletter.  I highly recommend it as a positive way to start your week.

Tom Peter's Observations - Work -- yours and mine -- as we know it today will be reinvented in the next ten years.  The author of In Search of Excellence provides his weekly observations.

Gary Minor - former attorney turned facilitator, trainer and executive coach writes some great articles on dealing with people.

CYBER TREASURE

Dr. Cliff Pickover - has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limit of computers, art, and thought. - Los Angeles Times

The Onion - A weekly news parody taken to the cutting edge and beyond.

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - Check out the journal of an Englishman who provides us with some fascinating and hilarious observations on relationships.

Urban Legend Generator - Simply make your selections from the incredibly complicated and technologically advanced PUMA (plausible urban myth articulator) will do the rest.

AltaVista Search - Search for web sites, images, products, audio, video and discussion groups.

Internet Movie Database - The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet.  Look up movies by plot, genre, year, title, and/or movie quotes.

Super Snooping - A current list of the most recent searches on supercrawler.com.  The list changes every 15 seconds.  See what the world is looking for.

Dynamic Drive - The premier place on the net to obtain free, original DHTML scripts and components to enhance your web site!

 

Similar Points of View

Ask yourself this question, "Why are you cluttering up the planet?"

I believe it was Og Mandino who said, and I paraphrase, The moment you are born God whispers into your ear what you are supposed to do and you spend the rest of your life trying to discover what was whispered.

Have you ever noticed when you watch interviews with, successful celebrities, sports figures, artists and entrepreneurs, many of them knew at a very early age what their life's ambition, chosen field or life goal was. You hear these stories all the time. The story of the Hollywood super star that had a small part in a third grade school play and knew, the moment, when they walked on stage, that acting is what they wanted to do for the rest of their life. How about these "Dot Com Millionaires" that spent their entire childhood mesmerized in front of a computer and then turned that passion into a multi zillion dollar IPO.

To know at an early age exactly what you wanted to do with your life would give you a tremendous advantage. Think about how much more effective and successful you would have been if only you had focused upon your one true passion, at an early age.

The power that comes from deciding exactly what you want to do is incredible. The underlying principle of most self-help books is, "Decide what you want and then make a plan to achieve it." As one famous, best selling author says, Put first things first."

The positive message here is that it is never too late to find your passion and set out on a path to achieve it. I am saddened by the realization that as my 40^th birthday approaches that certain things in my life are simply no longer possible. I will never be a Navy SEAL, NASA Astronaut or an Army Ranger. I will never play major league baseball. I will never be a VJ on MTV. However, it is encouraging that as I write this a 69 year old is making an attempt to summit Mount Everest and I remember that Colonel Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was in his 60's. The realization that certain doors are closed is depressing however, it is uplifting to know that many more doors are still open. I, as it is with you, just have to decide which door to walk through.

That is the purpose of the following questions and exercise:

Why are you cluttering up the planet?

Justify your existence?

Write your own obituary.

Take a moment and try.  It may put you on the path to discovering your life's ambition. Maybe it will help you to decide which door to walk through. Maybe it will just reinforce that you have already found you life's calling and simply increase the intensity with which you are working to make it happen.