An American Lion: October 2010

Focus

There are two things I’d recommend you do to get started — and you can choose which one to do first, as it doesn’t matter really where you start:

1. Pick your life’s short list. It’s crucial that you take a step back and figure out what’s most important to you. I suggest taking half a day off, or even just 30-60 minutes. Get outside and take a walk, or go to a coffee shop, and allow yourself to think. Big picture stuff: what do you love most? Every person’s list will be different — my list was: spending time with family, writing, reading and running. Pick just 4-5 things, even if there are lots of other things that also seem important. Now make a longer list: what else is in your life that’s not on the short list? Once you’ve done these things, you’re done with the Big Picture stuff — the next step is to start eliminating commitments that aren’t on the short list. Do the same for your work life — what’s most important, and what doesn’t make your short list of most important projects and goals.

2. Start clearing clutter in one spot. Physical clutter can be overwhelming, which is why you should just pick one small spot, and clear that. You can get to the rest later. It might be the top of your desk, or if that is super messy maybe just one spot on top of your desk. It might be a table-top or part of a counter or shelf in your home. It doesn’t matter what the spot is. Here’s how to start: first clear off that area and put everything into a pile to the side. Now sort through the pile quickly, making three smaller piles: stuff you use and love, stuff you can donate, and trash. Sort quickly and ruthlessly — everything should go in one of the three piles. Then throw the trash away, put the donate stuff in a box to be dropped off to a charity, and put the stuff you love and use neatly where it belongs. Everything should have a permanent home. Done! Slowly expand your decluttered zone.

Some people thrive on clutter, however. The continual re-sorting of clutter can be addictive. Then there is the idea that a person maintains control over their environment through clutter and through being able to index their clutter in their mind.

As to finding out what is important, I think that is healthy. If anything, we are a self-centered sort of species and it's always a good idea to disconnect from things and consider other people.

And, yes. Other people are clutter sometimes.

Do you know who has solved the issue of clutter? IKEA. Now, they're not paying me to say this, but the simple act of acquiring several IKEA pieces (doesn't matter what they are, so long as you like what they're about) and putting them together becomes a relaxation opportunity in and of itself. Think about what two big IKEA bookcases could do for you. Put them together. Sort and pile and reorganize and remove what works on those pieces and what doesn't.

Leo Babauta is the author of Focus.

Build a Tool Set Around the Right Cordless Drill

I think this is a great place to start:

Home maintenance takes time, and you don't need to waste even more trekking to the hardware store for basic tools each time you start a project. Bob Tedeschi at the Times pulls together the must-have items for every toolbox, from the basic hammer, screwdriver, cordless drill, pliers and wrenches (both regular and socket), to the less obvious but still important stud finder, level, and small handsaw. He also goes through the many variations on each tool, noting the pros and cons of each, like safety performance and multitasking ability.

It's not so much a shopping list of tools as much as it is a guide to creating your own. Everyone has different needs and preferences, so while there are certainly tools everyone should have, there is no one size fits all solution...

You can consolidate the tools you need just by figuring out how to use the cordless drill with the right bits and chucks. The article covers the essentials, but I'll tell you what you need--a cordless drill and then whatever the drill won't do. Get as many different kinds of drill accessories as you can--especially if you like putting together furniture from IKEA. And never pay retail--build your tool set by starting at your local pawn shop. Extra accessories for drills are easy to pick up on the cheap in a pawn shop because people tend to keep the essentials and pawn the luxury items, like that handy fifty-six piece set of extra drill bits and the like.

The way things have been lately, if you can't walk out of a pawn shop with a good cordless drill and your own basic tool set, then someone got there before you did.

Another Embarrassment for the Tribune Company

Look, Randy! She has boobies!

Of course, if Randy Michaels had sent the video, well, that would have been different, wouldn't it?

Tribune Co. chief innovation officer Lee Abrams, who wasforced to apologize after sending a company-wide email containing racy video, has been suspended from his duties. Here’s the memo:

From: Tribune Communications

Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:29 AM

Subject: Message from Randy Michaels/Lee Abrams Suspended

I want to let you know that today we made the decision to suspend Lee Abrams from his position as Tribune’s Chief Innovation Officer. He will remain on suspension indefinitely and without pay while we review the circumstances surrounding the email and video link he distributed on Monday. We’re in the process of determining further disciplinary action.

Lee recognizes that the video was in extremely bad taste and that it offended employees—he has also apologized publicly. He reiterated those feelings again to me privately today. But, this is the kind of serious mistake that can’t be tolerated; we intend to address it promptly and forcefully.

As I said last week, a creative culture must be built on a foundation of respect. Our culture is not about being offensive or hurtful. We encourage employees to speak up when they see or hear something that they find offensive, as a number of employees did with regard to this particular email. I can assure you, you will be heard.

Randy

This sounds like exactly the sort of person that Michaels would have decried as a humorless buzzkill in years past. Can't you hear him chortling behind his mirthless recitation of what the corporate suits told him he had to say?

You can't help but wonder if the heat has actually started to get to this pig of a man, Randy Michaels. His product is a disaster. His company is floating on cheap wood in the middle of a filthy pond and the wind is coming up. Everything he has touched has turned, proverbially and otherwise, to absolute shit.

As for Randy Michaels and his casual signature at the end of an E-mail that was dictated to him by someone with a law degree, what now? Isn't it about time to take the millions and go live in a walled-off compound, feted by sex slaves? Isn't it about time to retire somewhere pleasant and play with guns and look at naked boobies all day while drunk? Isn't that what retirement is for?

Get Your Yardbird Hutch Right Here

I suppose only crazy people still call them yardbirds...

A modern chicken coop that looks more like sculpture. The nogg transcends ideas of what a chicken house usually looks like. It is designed to encourage domestic farming while adding a touch of playful elegance.

Engineered and crafted by hand in the UK thenogg is made from strong cedar wood which is fresh scented and naturally antibacterial. Stainless steel trimming, locks & fasteners and the elevated glass dome gives the nogg a contemporary feel and is reassuringly safe and durable.

Posted via email from Warren Jason Street

Toni Braxton Has to Pay the Orkin Man

I sympathize with this poor lady--sometimes, your finances just get out of control:

Toni Braxton has filed for bankruptcy again -- claiming she owes somewhere between $10 million and $50 million in unpaid debts all over the country ... including DMVs in TWO different states.

Braxton -- who sold more than 40 million albums in her career -- just filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in California ... and in the docs, the singer claims she's only worth somewhere between $1 mil and $10 mil ... but she could have up to $50 mil in debts.

In the docs, 43-year-old Braxton lists a ton of creditors to whom she thinks she may owe money... including:

-- AT&T

-- The Four Seasons Hotels

-- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

-- Various medical bills

-- DirecTV

-- Neiman Marcus

-- The William Morris Agency

-- Tiffany & Co.

-- Orkin Pest Control

-- The Internal Revenue Service

-- BMW Financial Services

-- ADT Security

-- American Express

-- Flamingo Las Vegas

-- Mesa Air Conditioning

-- Nevada Power Company

-- Screen Actors Guild

-- The Westin

-- Wells Fargo Bank

Braxton also claims she may owe money to the City of L.A. Parking Violations Bureau -- and the DMV in both California and Nevada.

Braxton has a storied history of financial problems -- she filed for bankruptcy back in 1998 ... and earlier this year, the IRS filed a lien against her for $396k.

The scary thing is, the Orkin Man will get paid before everyone else.

You heard me.

That bastard knows how to collect. In New Hampshire, we owed the Orkin Man about three hundred dollars. We had a minor ant problem on the north side of the property and we had mice in the garage. I had the Orkin Man come out and do the work, but the mice came back and the ants shifted to the west side of the property near the patio. I didn't pay, of course. I figured, why should I pay for the incompetence of others?

Well, that was a mistake.

After the mailbox was blown up and after leeches were found in our swimming pool, and after roaches descended on the basement in droves--droves--we sent in a check.

Three days later, most of the pests were gone. The swimming pool cleared up. The basement was free of pests. The mice were belly-up under the Cadillac.

The ants?

The ants were still there. You can't get rid of ants, not unless you burn them out, individually, and who has time for that?

German Reunification Continues to be a Huge Issue

I get tired of the same people who comment about how "World War II" this and "World War II" that was what defined Germany. There is some truth to that, but, of far greater importance, is the process of German reunification:

The air here used to stink from the low-grade coal people burned for heat. That is easy to forget 20 years after East and West reunited and well more than a trillion dollars has been spent to prop up and rebuild the dilapidated region that was the German Democratic Republic.

The day the air cleared, when the sweet smell of the surrounding forest literally broke through, is the day that Birgit Kummer remembers as the start of her new life in a united, democratic Germany, one that offered her opportunities she never dreamed of under Communism.

“You could barely breathe,” said Ms. Kummer, a lifelong resident of this history-rich city, where Martin Luther studied, Napoleon met Czar Alexander and the first small step toward unification occurred when leaders of the East and the West met in 1970. “For me, it was a sign that everything would be better, when the air was clear.”

As Germany prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of reunification on Sunday, there has been a heated national post-mortem on the process, with much emphasis on thedisappointments and shortcomings. One official from a struggling former East German state declared that what happened was not reunification but an anschluss, or annexation, a word that recalled the Nazi takeover of Austria before World War II.

The discussion has primarily emphasized financial disparities: wages in the east remain at 80 percent of the west’s; the unemployment rate in the east is nearly 12 percent, about double that in the west; and the average wealth of an East German family is about 40 percent lower than its West German counterpart. And of course, those in the West often complain about the $1.7 trillion paid — so far — to rebuild and prop up the east.

Of primary importance here in Germany is the standard of living. That, and gardening. The Germans just want their gardens, their strong currency, and a nice walk. Reunification is the thing that continues to threaten to destabilize all of that. No wonder the Germans are agitated about immigration, bailing out Greece, and the weather, in particular. No one talks about the war. You can't even tell there was a war unless you go into a German cemetery.

As far as reunification is concerned, ask a South Korean how he or she feels about trying to "reunify" with their country cousins up north. You might get a similar answer from a Bavarian.

Focus

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