Genuine Curiosity

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.

 

[Updated] Gimme five (and pass it on)

Bren slapped me five this week. He is perpetuating some kind of blog chain letter thing (or a social pyramid scheme) in which you tell five things about yourself, then tag five more bloggers to keep the chain going. Interesting game - and kinda fun.

So - here are five, little-known things I'm willing to share:

  1. My first car was actually an old truck purchased from the late Cajun television chef Justin Wilson for $150 (he was a friend of the family - "I GARONTEE!").
  2. I can look at a printed page and misspelled words tend to "pop out" at me like magic. (For some reason, it doesn't work as reliably on a computer screen - I don't know why...)
  3. Between 1983 and 1991, I was a professional radio DJ and traffic reporter (under the names Adam West, Dwayne Adams, Bruce Wayne, and Yule Devni).
  4. When I was 5, I nearly drowned in Louisiana Senator Russell Long's swimming pool (another family friend).
  5. I am very picky about how sheets are put on my bed, to the point that I often re-make beds in hotel rooms, and I insist that I put the sheets on my bed at home (my wife refuses to play along and make the bed my way).

Now, here are five bloggers I'd like to give the gift of "five."

Don't break the chain - the last person that broke the chain accidentally responded to that Nigerian email scam and lost everything he had. Double true.

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Travel Tips: Get all the sweet Wi-Fi hookups

Planning on traveling with your laptop and wondering if you'll be able to get online? There are a few tools that can help you figure out where the Wi-Fi hotspots will be when you arrive at your destination.

  • Yahoo! Mobile Hotspot Finder is one that I really like - you provide the address and range of distance around the address, and Yahoo! brings back a list, sorted by distance from the address you provided. The list also tells you which provider / network each hotspot belongs to, and the hourly rate.
  • JiWire is also very good. It offers similar functionality to the Yahoo! site and allows you to filter according to the pricing plan you are seeking - i.e. free, fee, Holiday Inn, Boingo, or Wayport. I've got a T-Mobile annual pass, so this one is less practical for me, though.
  • You can also try WiFiFreeSpot if you are just looking for free hotspots - it has a page that tells you which airports offer free hotspots

The tricky thing is to remember to check for them before you go. Unless you have a PDA or phone that gives you internet access, it could be tricky to find a Wi-Fi hotspot unless you have one already.

Of course, it is also becoming increasingly easy to find coffee shops that offer free wireless, but if you're going to hang out and use their resource, please be nice: buy a cup or two if you're going to use their service (and maybe a scone or something).

Related items:

Fresh gear: Hz is my Killer app (3/22/2006)

Travel: De-stress or Distress? (12/20/2006)

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This 2007 Spread the Love!

Last week, I wrote about how I sometimes stop doing business with a company based on its actions or the values it seems to project. On the flip side, there are a lot of companies that do great things for others, but their actions go quietly unnoticed. I had the privilege to encounter one of those companies last weekend.

Some background - my son's school does an annual holiday food basket service project, in which they provide a month's worth of food and basic household supplies for 73 families in our area. This is a great way for the students to experience the satisfaction of helping folks that need a little extra help during this season (they actually go out and personally deliver the baskets to the families they're helping).

Last weekend my son and I (and a bunch of other families) were invited out to a local trucking company, Stewart Stiles Truck Lines. There, we picked up cases and cases of food they'd donated to help out with this effort.

In our van alone, we had 15 cases of various canned fruits, vegetables, peanut butter, and macaroni & cheese - all donated by the company. On my visit, I learned that this was started by one of their managers a long time ago as a way of giving back to the community. That gentleman is now deceased, but they are keeping his tradition alive in honor of him.

Personally, I'm not in a position to use the services of a trucking company, but now I'll recommend them to anyone I know who has any trucking needs. They aren't looking for glory and accolades - they're just quietly helping other folks. And that's pretty cool.

I bet they're not the only company that does things like this, either.

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Malignant Melanoma Skin Cancer

In my hemisphere, summer is upon us and that means lots of sunshine and outdoor fun. It also means exposure to the damaging rays of the sun.

I had skin cancer (malignant melanoma) back in 1999, and they theorize it could have been a result of the many sunburns I received when I was young. I was successfully treated, but in the process I learned a lot about skin cancer and I want to share some of that so you don't have to experience it first hand.

One of the disconcerting things I learned was just how fast skin cancer can kill you. Consider this from the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR):

Malignant melanoma can be one of the most dangerous types of cancer. They all spread into nearby tissues, but some grow faster and spread further than others. If diagnosed late, treatment is not usually able to cure the cancer.

The good news is that the earlier you detect skin cancer, the better the prognosis for survival. The other good news is that you can greatly decrease your risk by taking a few, straight-forward precautions.

With that in mind, please check out my posts from last year on how to recognize skin cancer and some of the precautions you can take to protect your skin:

There is also an excellent collection of articles about this in the latest print edition of Reader's Digest, complete with pictures of various types of skin cancers to help you identify them when you see them. Check out the online version here:

And use your sunscreen. Please.

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Holiday fun, games, and whatnot

I've been quiet here for the last week or so, but having some fun with the family in Louisiana. I'm back in Oregon, and wanted to share a couple of online fun things I discovered this season (that you might enjoy, as well).

Rekindling memories of my Vertibird

My favorite toy of all time was something called the "Vertibird," by Mattel. I had a couple of them as a kid and wish they'd lasted (they were notoriously failure prone, and I couldn't convince my parents to buy me a third). The Vertibird was a helicopter toy that allowed any kid to pilot a helicopter and conduct their own search and rescue or conduct salvage missions right on their own kitchen floor. Tremendous.

Anyway, my first find is Peter Hirschberg's cool computer-based simulator called "VertiSim" that you can download and use for free. VeriSim will give you somewhat of a feel for what it's like to fly a Vertibird. The controls are very finicky, but it's still a really cool program (and you can't beat the price).

Finding old friends

In trying to track down old friends so I could send out cards this year, I found most of what I needed through Whitepages.com - and they (unlike lots of other address searching sites) don't charge you to get addresses. Another cool feature - once you find someone, you can click "Find Neighbors" and find out the names and addresses of the other folks that live on their street. This is handy (though maybe just a tad creepy?) if you're interested in sending cards to old or new neighbors.

This is all public information, and it's interesting to see what you can find about yourself online, isn't it?

Go elf yourself

I've saved the most fun for last. We had a blast this year with www.elfyourself.com, where you can turn yourself into an elf with just a few clicks. Start off the fun by clicking here to see what I look like dancing around in my elf suit!

When you're done watching me, go elf yourself.

Happy holidays from Genuine Curiosity!

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