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.

 

Reality Check – on the house

I just found out that Bill Baren will be interviewing Guy Kawasaki on Wednesday, December 10, at 12 pm PST (3 pm EST) to discuss Guy's new book "Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition."

I wrote about Bill’s Time Experts Teleseminar offering in the past, and still think it is pretty cool.  However, I’ve heard from folks who don’t want to pay for the Time Experts program, so this is a great, free alternative (either to soak up Guy’s thoughts or get a free test drive of the Time Experts offerings).

Guy has also offered the first chapter of his new book as a free download to all registrants.  You can sign up at  http://timeexpertstelesummit.com/guy.

If you’ve never heard Guy speak before, you should definitely check it out – he is awesome to listen to.

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Tabasco at its birth

Visiting relatives in Louisiana for Thanksgiving.  My father-in-law is gravely ill, so it was my job to take the kids out and keep them occupied and burn off some energy.  One of their favorite destinations is Avery Island, LA where all Tabasco is bottled.  Here are a couple of shots of the assembly line - pretty cool - they produce 170,000+ bottles per day, and every bottle of Tabasco produced in the world is bottled in this one plant.
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These pictures replace the grainier camera phone shot I posted earlier - and you can click for a full-size view.

The factory tours are free, and there is an excellent gift shop.  This is about 45 minutes from my parents' farm and we go here all the time, but my kids never seem to tire of it. 

If you find yourself down here in Cajun country, be sure and add it to your list.  Besides the factory, Avery Island is home to an awesome Jungle Garden complete with alligators, a giant Buddha statue, and more birds & beautiful trees than you can shake a stick at.  More info at Tabasco.com.

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Speaking of power...

I just walked outside my company's new office building to grab some lunch, and saw this car charging at a public automobile charging station (here in Portland, OR). In light of my last post on finding power in the airport, this brings a whole new issue to mind - I think having a car that's run out of juice could be much worse than having a laptop or cell phone that's run down!

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More power to ya.

The other day, when I wrote about the Samsung power trees in Newark Airport, my friend Kevin sent me a link to a Wiki page created by Jeff Sanquist that is devoted to sharing things like power outlets, wifi availability and other travel amenities at various airports.

This looks like a great resource for planning ahead or finding the resources when you need them (you can even look this up on your phone or PDA if you aren’t connected).

If you have any other resources to share, let me know or leave a comment.  And, if you’re so inclined – add your own discoveries to the wiki.

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Picture the day...

In the past, I've mentioned just how vital ClearContext is for me in my daily routine.  I just moved to a new computer and reinstalled ClearContext, and was reminded that they provide a very focusing diagram to help guide you through the day:

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I'm a visual person, so things like this help me a lot.  The process is sound, no matter what tool you use - ClearContext just makes it easier.

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