Greg Hartnett

I don’t often post about work stuff here, and almost never do I write about stuff in order to promote, but..

We officially brought BOTW Local to beta today, and I’m pretty psyched about it. We have spent the better portion of two years going crazy and screwing up other deadlines to get this out. We grossly underestimated the amount of work that would go into it, and we’re nowhere near “finished”.

The site is huge - like 16.5 million pages. So in an effort to not scare the hell out of the spiders we’re doing a somewhat slow roll out. Most of the site still contains “no-spider” tags. Thus far, we have only introduced the spiders to the following markets: Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Chicago and Austin. As we feel comfortable with the indexing and crawl rate of each market introduced, we introduce more. So far so good with tens of thousands of pages indexed, and many many pages ranking very well. More cities coming soon.

So all in all, it’s been a hell of a build. There’s still plenty more build to do with more than a few holes that need filling. And after that comes the really tough part - marketing and monetization. Oh the fun of new projects

I’d encourage any business owners to claim your business - it’s free with the JumpStart page. The user account is a little unpolished, and the entire sign up process is in the final stages of a makeover, but the business pages work, and they’re free.

If you find something that sucks, let me know.

I hope that this offering proves to be as successful as we plan, and that you find it to be a useful resource for your local information needs.

Yeah. Me. And I’m feeling really pissy about it. Hopefully next week is better.

*Update* - A couple of weeks in and I’m feeling pretty groovy. I definitely feel markedly better than at the time of the original posting.

A few months ago, I was interviewed for a book to be published by Wiley. Due out next month, Online Marketing Heroes is a collection of interviews with 25 search industry professionals. The book features some very sharp minds, and I am truly honored to have been included amongst such an illustrious group. I had a fantastic time doing the interview, and have an entire chapter devoted to my experience in running online businesses. If you are so inclined, I’d encourage you to grab a copy.

Yesterday, one of the interviewees, Lee Odden, was good enough to ask a handful of us for a recap of our interviews so that he could help to spread word of the book’s launch. As is often the case, one person’s good news is another’s excuse to lash out. After Lee’s post a comment rolled in on what a lame and self-congratulatory group we are. Sheesh - get a grip. We were all individually approached to provide an interview for a book on online marketing. I don’t think anybody was paid (I wasn’t), and we all spent time to try to provide interested parties with insight into marketing online. And we didn’t pick the name of the book…

But for the record - I am a hero. But not because Wiley claims I am. I’m a hero to my daughter when I sit down and help her with her science homework, or when I try to calm her down after an argument with her friend. I’m a hero to my son at t-ball practice, or when I teach him to use his words and not his hands. I’m a hero in my community when I volunteer or go out of my way to help a neighbor. I’m a hero at my organization when I set a good example or steer my people down the proper path.

Lastly, I’m a hero because I celebrate other’s accomplishments and successes, not hate them for it.

Over the last few years I have grown more and more interested in Buddhism. I find it helps me to focus on what’s important and keeps me centered. While I am nowhere near the ultimate destination of enlightenment, I have begun the journey, and each day proves another opportunity for learning and growth.

Recently I finally began to try meditating. I had been reluctant to give it a shot, figuring there would be no way that I’d be able to quiet my mind. Fortunately I have found that with mindful awareness, I have made strides in meditating, and now actually get a few moments of clarity. Sometimes I sit on the floor of my office and devote a half hour to meditation. Other times I try to grab a quickie - maybe five or ten minutes while I sit waiting for my wife (which I do a lot).

The objective of meditation is to just be. Sit and clear the mind. Recognize the thoughts as they arise and let them go. But it takes a little while to get there. I usually sit and repeatedly go through a mantra or two before I’m able to get there. My current mantra is from Buddhist meditation master, Kalu Rinpoche:

We live in illusion
And the appearance of things.
There is a reality.
We are that reality.
When you understand this,
You see that you are nothing.
And being nothing,
You are everything.
That is all.

So I finally broke down and joined Facebook (link to my profile). I had held off for some time because I just didn’t see any value for me in the platform. But after hearing about it month after month, the curiosity finally got the better of me.

Overall, I think it’s a pretty interesting concept. Staying in touch with friends, helping to plan an event, birthday reminders - all good stuff. I’ve even seen some colleagues make use of it from a business standpoint. In a nutshell, I think Facebook has a promising future, and could prove to be a next-gen search alternative (social graphing is way cool).

However, I’m taking a stand against all the bullshit that goes with the site. What’s the deal with the sheep throwing and gift giving? They’re fake gifts people. Zombie bites? Puhleeze. Pretend drinks? How about inviting me to have a real drink? Probably much better bang for your buck there…

This morning, I had a business associate “poke” me. Somebody I don’t know very well outside of a business relationship. WTF? So now am I supposed to “poke” him back? And then what? He pokes me again, or steps it up to start throwing things at me?  Shouldn’t we be working?

Call me weird, but I think it’s all a little, I don’t know, lame.  Maybe I’m a bit stuffy, but I have better things to do with my time than screw around with idiotic things on Facebook.

So feel free to friend me.  Invite me to your groups.  Let me know about any causes you are interested in.  Hell, even write on my wall and engage me.  Just keep your sheep and your pokes to yourself.

If the guy you are having dinner with offers to toss the salad, he might be gay.

Giggle giggle.

For the past 14 months I have been using Comcast for my internet, cable and phone connectivity. Their pricing is good, their service reliable, and they were able to set me up quicker than anybody else (next day install when I called).

Two weeks ago some sales reps from SureWest came by to tell me that they were going to be installing a new fiber optic line in my neighborhood. With promises of lightning internet speed and better TV reception (for HDTV) I was sold.

The contracted technician came by on Wednesday for a three hour install process (I needed him to go into the attic for additional lines), and after a quick call to tech support I was up and running. Running FAST:

Those numbers are pretty impressive - 18+MB on the download and over 27 MB on the upload.

How fast are you surfing?

• SureWest speed test
• Speakeasy speed test
• Speedtest.net

I received the following email yesterday afternoon:

Hi Greg,

My name is Tamara and I’m a producer on a Spike TV show called “World’s Most Amazing Videos.” My producers and I saw a video of some pee wee hockey
players brawling on the ice with your website posted at the end. Is this
your footage? If so, we want to license this from you for use on our show.

Please contact me at 323.468.xxxx or xxxxxx@nashentertainment.com.

Thanks,

Tamara xxxxxx
Segment Producer
Nash Entertainment
1438 N. Gower Street
Bldg. 35, Room 150
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-468-xxxx phone
323-468-xxxx fax

I’ve dealt with “producers” from a couple of other outlets in the past looking to get their dirty little hands on my hockey fight video, so I was somewhat prepared for how the interaction would play out. Sure that nothing would come out of it, I decided to kill some time while the SureWest guys finished off my new fiber optic installation.

From the onset of our call I had a bad taste in my mouth. Tamara sounded like the typical Hollywood producer - self absorbed and as shallow as a puddle after a spring shower. She sprung right into action, telling me how great her show is and what they wanted to do with my video. She never took a moment to learn about me or my son, nor did she even pretend to care about what I thought about giving them permission to use my video. She simply ripped through what she wanted to say, throwing out a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, and finishing off with a recap of what they’d need in order to make it happen. She then offered me a whopping $500. Wow - even the guys at Country Fried Home Videos ( a show on the Country Music Channel) started off at $1000.

I told Tamara that I had no interest in letting them use my video for $500. I told her that if they wanted to use it, they’d have to pony up with considerably more money. I think I caught her off guard (I guess most people just jump at the $500) because she got a little flustered and told me that she’d have to pass me off to her senior producer to negotiate further.

Next on the line was Jenni - a senior producer who had the power to offer me more money. After a few moments of speaking with Jenni, it occurred to me that self absorption and shallowness must be a prerequisite for a job in Hollywood. Jenni provided me with much of the same information that Tamara had gone through, but she was able to offer me $750 for non-exclusive production rights.

At this point, I was finally able to explain to them that I wasn’t interested in their offer at these dollar amounts. I tried to explain to her (though I don’t know if she either didn’t understand, or just didn’t care) that the video was hosted on my blog, which is completely non-commercial in nature. I told her that the original version of the video - the one hosted on my blog - contained music that is copyrighted by System of a Down. I’m not currently concerned about the copyright as I’m not making any money whatsoever off the video or the blog, and both are provided to the public under the Fair Use clause of the copyright law. If I started taking money for use of the video, I wouldn’t be able to claim Fair Use, and may open myself up to potential liabilities.

This seemed to have resonated a bit with Jenni, eliciting a new offer of one thousand dollars. I quickly retorted that she was still not even in the ballpark of a number that would get me remotely interested. When she asked me how much it would take to get me interested, I replied “definitely north of 10 grand”. I think this irked her a bit because she got on the defensive, even insulting my video: “The video isn’t that great - it’s not like somebody is hanging off a cliff or something.”

I know that the video isn’t necessarily worth that much, but that’s what it would have taken to get me interested in pursuing it any further. It would have caused a paradigm shift for me, and could have potentially opened a can of worms - that’s what the $10,000 was for.

Needless to say, you won’t be seeing JR any time soon on the World’s Most Amazing Videos.

There are more than a billion people on the planet living in poverty. I’m not talking about flipping burgers at McDonalds for minimum wage poverty. I’m talking about extreme poverty - characterized by the World Bank as living on US $1 or less per day. In today’s age of unparalleled opportunity and wealth, this is morally repugnant.

In his emotional and eloquent plea to the world’s rich, “The End of Poverty” economist Jeffrey Sachs outlines a detailed plan to end extreme poverty worldwide by the year 2025. The basic tenets follow:

• Commit to Ending Poverty - The first step is commitment to the task. Oxfam and many other leaders in civil society have embraced a goal, Making Poverty History. The world as a whole needs now to embrace that goal. We have committed to halving poverty by 2015. Let us commit to ending extreme poverty by 2025.
• Adopt a Plan of Action - The Millennium Development Goals are the down payment on ending poverty. They are specific, quantified, and already promised in a Global Compact of Rich and Poor. Not only should the world community recommit to these goals, but its leaders should adopt a specific global plan to meet the Millennium Development Goals of the sort outlined in chapter 15 (raising ODA to 0.7 percent of rich world GDP), and offered in detail by the UN Millennium Project.
• Raise the Voice of the Poor - Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. did not wait for the rich and powerful to come to their rescue. They asserted their call to justice and made their stand in the face of official arrogance and neglect. The poor cannot wait for the rich to issue the call to justice. The G8 will never champion the end of poverty if the poor themselves are silent. It is time for the world’s democracies in the poor world - Brazil, India, Nigeria, Senega, South Africa, and dozens of others - to unite to issue the call to action. The poor are starting to find their voice, in the G3 (Brazil, India, South Africa), the G20 (a trade grouping that negotiates within the WTO, and elsewhere. The world needs to hear more.
• Redeem the Role of the United States in the World - The richest and most powerful country in the world, long the leader and inspiration in democratic ideals, has become the most feared and divisive country in recent years. The self-professed quest by the United States for unchallenged supremacy and freedom of action has been a disaster, and it poses one of the greatest risks to global stability. The lack of US participation in multilateral initiatives has undermined global security and progress toward social justice and environmental protection. Its own interests have been undermined by this unilateral turn. Forged in the crucible of the Enlightenment, the United States can become a champion of Enlightened Globalization. Political action within the United States and from abroad will be needed to restore its role on the road toward global peace and justice.
• Rescue the IMF and the World Bank - Our leading international financial institutions are needed to play a decisive role in ending global poverty. They have the experience and technical sophistication to play an important role. They have the internal motivation of a highly professional staff. Yet they have been badly used, indeed misused, as creditor-run agencies rather than international institutions representing all of their 182 member governments. It is time to restore the international role of these agencies so that they are no longer the handmaidens of creditor governments, but the champions of economic justice and enlightened globalization.
• Strengthen the United Nations - It is no use blaming the UN for the missteps of recent years. We have gotten the UN that has been willed by the powerful countries of the world, especially the United States. Why are UN agencies less operational than they should be? Not because of UN bureaucracy, though that exists, but because the powerful countries are reluctant to cede more authority to international institutions, fearing reduction of their own freedom of maneuver. The UN specialized agencies have a core role to play in the end of poverty. It is time to empower the likes of the UN Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization, and many others to do the job - on the ground, country by country - that they are uniquely qualified to lead, helping the poorest of the poor to use modern science and technology to overcome the trap of poverty.
• Harness Global Science - Science has been the key to development from the very start of the industrial revolution, the fulcrum by which reason is translated into technologies of social advance. As Condorcet predicted, science has empowered technological advances in food production, health, environmental management, and countless other basic sectors of production and human need. Yet science tends to follow market forces as well as to lead them. It is not surprising, I have noted repeatedly, that the rich get richer in a continuing cycle of endogenous growth, whereas the poorest of the poor are often left outside of this virtuous circle. When their needs are specific - by virtue of particular diseases, or crops, or ecological conditions - their problems are bypassed by global science. Therefore, a special effort of world science, led by global scientific research centers of governments, academia, and industry, must commit specifically to addressing the unmet challenges of the poor. Public funding, private philanthropies, and not-for-profit foundations will have to back these communities, precisely because the market forces alone will not suffice.
• Promote Sustainable Development - While targeted investments in health, educatio, and infrastructure can unlock the trap of extreme poverty, the continuing environmental degradation at local, regional and planetary scales threatens the long-term sustainability of all our social gains. Ending extreme poverty can relieve many of the pressures on the environment. When impoverished households are more productive on their farms, they face less pressure to cut down neighboring forests in search of new farmland. When their children survive with high probability, they have less incentive to maintain very high fertility rates with the attendant downside of rapid population growth. Still, even as extreme poverty ends, the environmental degradation related to industrial pollution and the long-term climate change associated with massive use of fossil fuels will have to be addressed. There are ways to confront these environmental challenges without destroying prosperity (for example, by building smarter power plants that capture and dispose of their carbon emissions and by increasing use of renewable energy sources). As we invest in ending extreme poverty, we must face the ongoing challenge of investing in the global sustainability of the world’s ecosystems.
• Make a Personal Commitment - In the end, however, it comes back to us, as individuals. Individuals, working in unison, form and shape societies. Social commitments are commitments of individuals. Great social forces, Robert Kennedy powerfully reminded us, are the mere accumulation of individual actions. His words are more powerful today than ever:

Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills - against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence… Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation…

It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy an daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Let the future say of our generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we worked together to heal the world.

Yesterday was a bummer.

I received a phone call from my sister-in-law Friday afternoon informing me that my Golden Retriever, Simba, had taken a turn for the worse. In early April, I noticed a large (lemon sized) bump on his back. After bringing him in to see a vet, he was unfortunately diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer. The vet informed me that it would be foolish to try to battle such an aggressive strain of cancer for a dog in the twilight of life.

So for the last few months, we had watched Simba transform from a strong, energetic dog into a shell of his former self. The tumor on his back grew to the size of a small watermelon, and Thursday night actually broke through his skin. Friday morning he woke with a fever, and could barely move. So after a long conversation, my wife and I decided that it was time to euthanize him. His condition was only worsening, and we couldn’t bear to have him suffer.

So I woke early Saturday morning, and made the 110 mile trip to San Francisco (Simba had been staying with my sister-in-law for the last week) to put my dog down. Most of the drive I spent in contemplation, remembering the times we spent together, and how I could have been a better owner, and provided him with a better life.

I picked him up shortly before 10AM at my sister-in-law’s, and after lifting him up and putting him in the back of my pick-up, we made the journey to the vet’s, just 10 blocks away, though it seemed an eternity to get there.

Upon arrival at the vet, we waited in the reception area until they were ready for us. Simba wanted to mingle with the other dogs in the office, completely oblivious to his imminent demise. After waiting for approximately 15 minutes, we were ushered into a small examination area, equipped with little more than a x-ray machine and an examination table.

After speaking briefly with the vet, I gently picked Simba up and placed him on the examination table. The vet told us what to expect (it’s basically an overdose of anesthesia), and assured us that he would experience no pain whatsoever during the process. So we spent the next couple of minutes saying our goodbyes while the doctor prepared the solution.

And then came one of the most difficult and powerful moments I have yet to experience. As the doctor administered the lethal injection, I held Simba’s head in my arms, and whispered “I love you” over and over again into his ear. I placed his nose against my mine, and felt the warm, salty tears begin to flow freely down my cheeks and onto my lips. I squeezed tightly and assured him that everything was going to be OK. And then, he was gone. His eyes, though still open, were completely unresponsive, and his body was limp. I peered into his eyes, only to see a small refection of myself staring back at me (I wish I hadn’t done that - that image will haunt me). I couldn’t get his eyes to stay shut, so in an attempt to avoid that death stare, I folded his left ear over his eye. I then held him for another minute or two until my sobbing had subsided.

Once the ordeal was completed, I hopped into my truck and sped home as fast as I could. My in-laws wanted to take me out to lunch, but all I could think of was returning home to sulk on my couch. So I drove home - silently the entire way. When I got back, I held Simba’s collar in my hand, and took one last trip where we used to take our daily walks. When I got home, I couldn’t contain the emotion, and stood bawling in my kitchen for a few minutes - it felt great to let it out, alone and unfettered.

Simba, you were truly a great dog, and you will be missed. Thank you for all the great times we had. Thanks for letting my kids pull your ears, ride on you, and treat you as their own amusement park. I could not have asked for a better dog - I love you Simba.

In the debate over Social Security, President Bush’s handlers have already won some victories, at least in the short term.

Bush and Karl Rove, his deputy chief of staff, have succeeded in convincing most of the US population, including more than two-thirds of college students, that there is a serious problem with Social Security, which opens the way for considering the administration’s program of private accounts instead of relying on the public pension system. The public has been frightened, much as it was by the imminent threat of Sadaam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. The pressure on politicians is rising as leaders in the US House of Representatives hope to draft Social Security legislation by next month (June 2005).

For perspective, perhaps it should be noted that Social Security is one of the least generous public pension systems among advanced countries, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Bush administration wants to “reform” Social Security - meaning dismantle it. A huge government-media propaganda campaign has concocted a “fiscal crisis” that is mostly imaginary. If some problem does arise in the distant future, it could be overcome by trivial measures, such as raising the cap on the regressive payroll tax.

The official story is that the baby boomers are going to impose a greater burden on the system because the number of working people relative to the elderly will decline, which is true. But what happened to the baby boomers when they were zero to twenty? Weren’t working people taking care of them? And it was a much poorer society then.

In the 1960s the demographics caused a problem but hardly a crisis. The bulge was met by a big increase in expenditures in schools and other facilities for children. The problem wasn’t huge when the baby boomers were zero to twenty, so why when they’re seventy to ninety?

The relevant number is what’s called the dependency ratio of working people to population. That ratio reached its lowest point in 1965. It won’t reach that point again until 2080, according to Social Security Administration figures. Projections that far ahead are meaningless.

Furthermore, any fiscal problem that might arise in caring for the elderly boomers has already been paid for, by the payroll tax rise of 1983, designed for this purpose. And by the time the last boomer has died, the society will be far richer, with each worker producing far greater wealth.

In other words, we’re already past that crisis. Anything that comes is just a matter of one or another kind of adjustment.

Meanwhile a very real fiscal crisis is looming: namely medical care. The United States has one of the most inefficient systems in the industrialized world, with per capita costs far higher than other nations and among the worst health outcomes. The system is privatized, one reason why it’s so inefficient, with administrative costs far higher than Medicare or public programs in other countries, among many other severe flaws inherent in privatized health care.

But “reforming” the health-care system is not on the agenda. So we face an apparent paradox: The real and very serious fiscal crisis is no crisis, and the non-crisis requires drastic action to undermine an efficient system that is quite sound.

Rational observers will seek differences between the Social Security and health-care systems that might explain the paradox.

Some of the reasons seem clear. You can’t go after a health system under the control of insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations. That system is immune, and will remain so even if it is causing tremendous financial problems (quite apart from the human cost), until some other sector of concentrated power, probably manufacturing industry, throws its weight into the fray on this issue - or better, until formal democratic institutions function sufficiantly well for public opinion to become a factor in policy formation.

A further reason is that Social Security is of little value for the rich though it is crucial for survival for working people, the poor, their dependents, and the disabled. And as a government program, it has such low administrative costs that it offers nothing to financial institutions. It benefits only the “underlying population,” not the “substantial citizens,” to borrow Thorstein Veblen’s acid terminology.

The medical system, however, works very well for the people who matter. Health care is effectively rationed by wealth, and enormous profits flow to private power thanks to management practices geared to profit, not health care. The underlying population can be treated with lectures on responsibility.

The US Congress has recently enacted bankruptcy reform that tightens the stranglehold on the underlying population. About half of US bankruptcies result from medical bills.

Opinion and official policy are once again in conflict. As in the past, most Americans favor national health insurance. To cite just one of many illustrations, in a 2003 Washington Post-ABC News poll, 80 percent regarded universal health care as “more important than holding down taxes.”

Quite apart from these considerations, Social Security is based on an extremely dangerous principle: that you should care whether the widow across town has food to eat. The Social Security “reformers” would rather have you concentrate on maximizing your own consumption of goods and subordinating yourself to power. Caring for other people, and taking community responsibility for things like health and retirement - that’s deeply subversive.

- Noam Chomsky, Interventions pp 129-132

It’s not what a candidate stands for that gets him/her elected. The issues rarely come into play. Politicians have been trained to say nothing while spouting the party approved talking points. History has proven that getting into office is less about where you stand and more about how you play the media (think Nixon vs Kennedy or the surrealistic rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger).

This next election should prove to be the candidates’ most prolific use of the web to attract those all-important swing voters. Never before have so many candidates embraced so many elements of the web to reach formative minds. With the meteoric rise of social media sites, the candidates have an abundance of real estate to tackle.

In the first of a four part series, the search marketing blog at 10e20 examines how each of the most popular of the Presidential candidates embraces search and what how they are faring at search marketing. You can check out the full post here.

Keep your eyes on what each of these candidates does online - it may prove to be pivotal in determining who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania through 2012.

Most people think it is impossible to change our government, yet they fail to remember that they are the government. The government is simply an extension of the people, serving the implicit and explicit wishes of the populace. Our daily lives have the most to do with the situation of the world. If we can change our daily lives, we can change our governments and we can change the world.

Nourish awareness and compassion will follow.

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, whose wings are still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope,
the rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly
metamorphosing on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird which, when spring comes,
arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who,
approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old-girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man
who has to pay his “debt of blood” to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom,
my pain is like a river of tears,
so full it fills up the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are but one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, 1976

The censoring of the super secret DVD hack that was published earlier in the day has gotten Digg users in an absolute uproar. In fact, the backlash has gotten so severe that the homepage of Digg is swarmed with anti-Digg censoring stories.  Snapshot here.

I wrote not too long ago that the top users have jumped ship - will this be the straw that sends the rest of the users packing?   The revolt is actually humorous - reminds me of the temper tantrums my 5 year old throws.

How do you deal with the crowd once it’s turned on you?

Also interesting to note is that the number of stories submitted by top users continues to decline.  See the Friends’ Activity in the previous screenshot.

One month ago today I returned from a boarding trip to Whistler. The trip was truly amazing - we got approximately 6 inches (15-20 cm) of new snow every day, and despite a minor illness that crimped my style, I was able to get six days straight on the hill(s). Pics - Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 . Videos here and here.

Six days straight of snowboarding in fresh powder on some of the most challenging terrain I have ever been on definitely sent me home with some sore muscles. Sore in a good sort of way. Sore in a way that I haven’t felt in 10 years. My arms felt a bit tighter, my legs burned, and my stomach muscles were screaming. I felt good - the best I had felt in some time.

So I decided to keep the ball rolling. I wanted to continue physically exerting myself on a daily basis - pushing my body in an effort to build strength. I had decided to go get a work out bench and some free weights, but before doing that, I wanted to make sure that my body was ready for it (no need to get a bench and have it sit around collecting dust). So the day after my return, I started a daily exercise routine of push ups and sit ups (crunches).

I started with sets of twenty push ups and twenty crunches, 3 times daily - once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening. Over the course of the next few weeks, I increased the repetitions and the numbers of sets, and introduced some cardio work into my daily routine (jumping rope). In one month’s time, I have shaved two inches off my waist line and increased my upper body strength considerably. I find myself paying attention to nutrition information (I can’t believe how much crap is in so much of our food) and making healthier choices (grabbing some fruit instead of a Snickers).

I have since begun lifting weights a few times a week, but I still make sure to do my push ups and crunches each day. Now I have gotten into the following routine: two times during the morning, I do 35 push ups and 25 crunches; twice in the afternoon I do 45 push ups and 30 crunches; some rope jumping in the afternoon (10-15 minutes); and, twice in the evening I do 35 push ups and an additional 25 crunches.

I have made push ups and crunches the cornerstone of my exercise program. They are quick to complete (less than 3 minutes per set), and can be done anywhere (no excuses for traveling). Start with a handful of push ups a day, and slowly increase the number of repetitions. Once you get into the swing of it, increase the number of sets you perform. After a couple/few weeks, introduce some cardio work (this really helps to shed the pounds). As long as you can commit to a minimum number of sets and reps per day, you too could be on your way to a healthier body.