Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.
Amazon.com -- I am an Amazon Prime customer and, as a heavy reader, they make sure I see the UPS driver a lot.
LinkedIn -- I am in a business development / networking role, and LinkedIn helps me make new connections by leveraging my existing contacts. Pretty cool for business networking.
Digg -- A unique lens on the news of the world. Think of it as News with community-driven editorial overlay or filter. The only categories I watch are Technology and World & Business
I've had a few inquiries about the picture on my latest site banner. Here's the story - it's from a picture of a curious ground squirrel, which I snapped on a recent campout. It was definitely not shy, and I took the picture as it was trying to get into a bag of trail mix in one of our tents (it later jumped up on the lap of another guy who was there, trying to get to his food). You can see the whole scene here: CuriousChipmunk.jpg (204 KB).
This reminds me of a very funny video that's been making its rounds, called "The Dramatic Chipmunk" - you can watch it below, or on go see it on YouTube. Funny stuff!
I just discovered a very cool idea, courtesy of Gretchen and The Happiness Project. For the last year, she's been keeping a One Sentence Journal for a year now - I am very intrigued, and thinking of doing the same. Consider this, from her post:
"Each night, I write one sentence (well, actually, usually it's three or four sentences, but by calling it a "one sentence journal" I keep my expectations realistic) about what happened that day to me, the Big Man, and the girls.
Right now, I can't imagine forgetting the time when the Little Girl said politely, "Can I have some more pajamas on my pasta?" when she meant "parmesan," but I will, I will."
Don't know about you, but I think that's pretty cool. She also has plans to create bound books of the sentences for her girls and her husband. Check out the details in her post.
Wow, I just found out that I got picked, or nominated, or mystically appointed as a "Red Hot Blog of the Day" for August 6 in Technology, by RedOrbit! Thank you, RedOrbit!
It's now 07/07/07, and that can only mean that the "7 Wonders of Joyful Jubilant Learning" goes live today (by the way, this very post went live at 07:07:07 on 07/07/07 Hawaii time, since that's the local time zone of JJL's primary author). Leading up to this special day, the floodgates at the Joyful, Jubilant Learning (JJL) community blog were opened for contributors to offer 7 links that embraced learning. There are now literally hundreds of links there, so head on over and collect your prize!
I chose to offer three sets of 7 - here they are to get you started (by the way, the categories are those used on the JJL site):
First, one 7:
Joy of the Journey: My Beautiful Chaos - April reminds us of the excellence of parenting like a mere mortal.
Inspired Learning, Good Questions and Great Dialogue: On Genius - Dick Richards (Unlocker of Genius) on faith and work.
Language, Words, and Vocabulary: The Happiness Project - Gretchen on finding your "service heart."
Writing and Composition: Mind Unbound - EM about turning the tables on rejection letters.
Graphics and Photography: Post Secret - It's amazing what people can share through a simple, anonymous postcard.
Information and Knowledge: Presentation Zen - Garr Reynolds shares "One secret to a healthy life (and a great presentation)."
Best Practices: The Daily Saint - Mike's secret to productivity on vacation.
Then, another 7:
Visual Learning: Beyond Mind Mapping - Nick teaches us about developing a visual vocabulary.
Discipline, Habit and Self-Motivation: Neat & Simple Living - Ariane's mythbusting about whether you can develop a habit in 21 days.
Good Questions and Great Dialogue: Make It Great! - Phil shares 20 awesome questions for anyone to make their life better.
Auditory Learning: MBA On The Run - Some of John's favorite audiobooks to get a veritable MBA using your iPod.
Now, let's make it "triple 7" for the jackpot:
Principles and Values: Why I Failed - Steve Grossman discusses why "People would actually rather work with someone who is incompetent and likeable than competent and unlikable."
Good Questions and Great Dialogue: The Remote Control CEO - Greg's insights on great questions we can use to learn from our failures.
Collaborative Learning: Thinking Faster - How not to shut down the conversation before it even starts.
Connecting and Relationships: Slacker Manager - Our favorite Slacker enlarged something by 167% in 48 hours - find out more!
Inspired Learning: Virtualosophy - Stacy learns some cools off and learns cool stuff in an unexpected place.
Inspired Learning: Ramblings From a Glass Half Full - If a picture paints 1,000 words, how many words does a funny picture paint? Terry tells us the answer.
Storytelling, Yarns and Tall Tales: QAQNA - A fine (and funny) lesson on why you should be ready to deal with your customers - no matter what they're bringing.
I hope you'll find lots of new learning in these 21 links, and I'm sure you'll pick up some new favorites for your blogroll.
Google -- OK, so I'm hooked. I use it for Search, for News, Financial research and Alerts.
