Some friends of mine have started a really cool thing that I think all of you need to take a look at. And after you take a look at it, go out there and blog about it. Why do you need to blog about it, you may ask? Well for every 100,000 visitors to their site between now and July 1st, they will fund the complete training of a local Burkina Faso mason to build houses for families that need them.

You can also get a cool thing for your blog to keep up with the progress. So here we go. How many people across the world can we get houses for?

Check out Do Some Good Now

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Seth Godin did a post the other day about linkbait.  According to Seth Godin I can get a “TON of visits. Like 250,000 new people” if I do it his way, but I don’t need 250,000 visits today. Right now, I only want one. I have decided that what I want is Seth Godin to not only link to me, but I want Seth Godin to blog about this blog.

I realize that doing something like this isn’t the most conventional way of doing things, but I am taking Seth Godin’s advice on only this post. So here it is.

Don’t you think Seth Godin should blog about this blog? I do. In fact if you think Seth Godin should blog about this blog, feel free to send Seth Godin an email to seth@sethgodin.com. From what I understand Seth Godin actually reads all of his emails, and Seth Godin also knows who is linking to him out here in the world wide web.

So go ahead and send Seth Godin a quick message telling him that we are talking about him over here. Then let’s all sit back and see how Seth Godin responds to this particular linkbait.

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This is some carbon monoxide meter that came plugged into the wall when we bought our house. We never really knew what it did, but knew that we wanted our kids to stay alive so we kept it plugged into the wall, in the middle of the hallway. There it stayed until our youngest started to crawl and walk and pull things out of wall outlets. Then we moved it into my office where it would at least keep me safe from deadly chemicals… or whatever. Occasionally one of the kids would walk by and push a button on it causing it to beep really loud and it would take a good ten minutes pushing different buttons to get it to stop making my ears bleed.

Yesterday Cooper figured out a way to make it beep and stay beeping every ten seconds or so. Kristin and I tried for about an hour pushing different button combinations to get the noise to stop, but since this thing came with the house, it did not come with instructions. Finally we resolved to just putting the thing in the garage where we could barely hear the beeping and figured eventually the batteries would run out and we would be free.

This morning I walked downstairs to get breakfast started for the boys and heard a constant, high pitched screeching noise coming from the garage. I knew something had to be done so I went to the garage, picked it up and threw it on the ground. The beeping instantly stopped as pieces of plastic and wires flew all over the garage. I realized that there were probably more civil ways to handle something like this but at least the noise had ended.

When Kristin came down stairs minutes later, I confessed what I had done and told her that the meter thing that we had no idea what it did was smashed all over the garage, but the noise had stopped. Kristin started to laugh, looked at me and said,

“I was thinking about doing the same thing, but didn’t want to look like a crazy person.”

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Here’s the part that really gets me. It’s not like I ever will want to just “upgrade” to a new power cord. It’s not like your walking through the mall and see the new, sexy, 2009 version of the MacBook power cord in the window and just have to have it. You don’t loose sleep thinking about how your life will be more complete if only you had the latest vervion of the new power cord. The only reason you buy it is if it breaks, and when that happens it’s just annoying.

I can see Apple charging eighty dollars for something you actually want to buy. Even a silly accessory for something you already have. But a power cord? I guess it’s a matter of necessity. I need it and I will pay for it. No doubt Apple has a patent on the design that stops anyone else from making the same thing and selling it for, oh say, fifty.

Well, they can make me keep buying things, and I will. And they will give me those cool little white Apple stickers with everything I buy to make me feel cool. Yeah… they can make me feel cool, but they can’t make me like it.

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As of lately I have been on my laptop literally all day, everyday. I use it for fun. I use it for work, and Kristin and I even watch movies on it at night every once in a while. It’s always on, and always working… until today.

I have been having trouble with it getting a full charge, not because of the battery, but because of the cable that plugs it in. It was acting as if there was a short or something and just not charging. It was driving me crazy but I haven’t had time to get a new one.

I had a meeting this morning to talk over some more blog stuff and take some exciting pictures that are still in question of being released. When I got home I had a few hours of work that needed to be done so I closed myself in the office and started in. About three hours in to working I noticed smoke floating in front of my face and gliding across the desk. At first I thought it was incense, but then realized the burning plastic smell was not the smell of incense. I looked over and my power cord that was sitting on my desk, on several pieces of paper, and plugged into my computer was smoking like crazy.

I unplugged it from my computer and the wall, and watched as my battery slowly died without any way to recharge it. Luckily the kind folks at Apple, offer power cables to purchase for a mere eighty dollars, you know, in case you want an extra laying around or something.

So now I have a new one. And hopefully nothing else decides to light on fire while we are asleep tonight.

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We are still working on getting Fee’s blog up and going but I can’t help but give you guys this little teaser of what to expect from them. Last week, when I was in Texas with these guys I grabbed a camera to just to capture them hanging out on the bus. This was what came from that. Hopefully this week we will be able to get their blog up and running, but for now… enjoy.

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I’m not a violent person by any means. I’ve never been in a fight. Never punched anyone… ever. I’ve never been punched, or even pushed really. There is, however, a “type” of person that I would punch in a heartbeat if I morally could.

I’m not even talking about a specific person, but you know those guys that are freaking out, yelling and acting like idiots on those late night car commercials? The volume of their voice, the jumping around, the flashing neon. I want to punch it all.The other night there was some local dealer commercial on and it was literally ten minutes long. This fellah on here was yelling and screaming at me the whole time, but I couldn’t change the channel. All I could think about was going to that dealership and punching him is his loud, annoying teeth. I’m sure he’s a decent guy, and I’m sure when he’s not screaming about low interest rates we could have a great conversation, but he just… won’t… stop… yelling.

Now, I am not advocating punching anyone. I’m really not. Seriously. Don’t punch people. It’s not nice. But, what type of person would you punch if you could just once?

** Now before anyone jumps all over me saying that punching people, or even thinking about it is awful, let me tell you this. No kidding. I know that. But I also know that every one of you has thought about it. That is all. **

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I fall in love with Kristin several times a week. It’s not that I ever fall out of love, I just add to what’s already there. Some days it will be a look she gives me from across the room, other days it will be laughing at a lame joke. Sometime just the way she walks by me, but many times I am left shaking my head in disbelief that she married me. Today however, there was something very specific she did.

It’s about time to go grocery shopping in our house. With me being gone the last few days, and Kristin home with the boys, the fridge and cupboards are looking pretty sorry. For lunch today we had the options of running out somewhere, going to the store, or piecing something together that we had. This is where Kristin gets amazing. She took some pizza dough, some sauce and some cheese, and instead of just making a regular pizza, she threw it in a muffin pan, and won my heart yet again. Can you think of a cooler lunch? Little muffin sized pizzas that aren’t like Bagel Bites, with the weird square pepperoni chunks. This girl is hot and brilliant.

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