PUNdaMental Revisited

I wanted to be the Pundamentalist but that was already taken so here is PUNdaMENTAL. While I enjoy puns, this blog doesn't focus on them. That this blog has a focus is in fact questionable.

Starting tomorrow I'll be using Adwords (May 21 - 31). This is mostly a learning exercise. I don't have any thing to sell but I'd like to develop some expertise in this field. Currently I'm averaging 1 to 2 visits per day on u-lo-g.com. The Adwords experiment will send folks to only one page so a rise in visits will almost certainly be a result of the ad. As suggested in Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords by Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd, I'm running a split test. Here are the two ads

Preach Your Own Funeral

Do-it-yourself

Save to Video

Make the Funeral Special

No Preacher Needed

How to prepare a eulogy

I'm guessing that "Preach Your Own Funeral" will win the contest.

Both ads will point to u-lo-g.com/DoItYourself.aspx. You do realize that by clicking on that link you're gonna skew my results, don't you? Let me know if you'd be interested in the figures.

Perils of Enumeration

This week I began calling on homes in order to collect data for the US 2010 Census.
Today a resident told me: "Thank you for doing this." So maybe there are more blessings than perils.
When I was recruiting folks for this job several voiced their concerns. Many were worried about personal safety. That's worthy of concern. I learned today that Census workers have already died as a result of traffic accidents. But that's not what people were worried about. They were worried about the people inside the houses. I was worried about the dogs outside the houses. So far, no big problems.

Garage doors

We don't have a garage,
but if we did I'd want the garage door to look like this:

or this:

or even this:

for other options see: http://style-your-garage.com/us/appliance.php

The Blind Side

Since I've commented on "The Blind Men and the Elephant" how about an observation or two about "The Blind Side"?
Michael's essay about honor and courage is nice but what the story really describes is the tremendous power of active compassion.

Less than 360 days until Christmas

So if you want to be ready a little bit early this year. . . Or if you have a birthday or other occasion you want to commemorate, consider these gift ideas:

Give the gift of LISTENING. Really listen. No interrupting, no daydreaming, no planning your response. Just listening.
Give the gift of AFFECTION. Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the back and handholds. Let these small actions demonstrate the love you have for family and friends.
Give the gift of LAUGHTER. Clip cartoons, share articles, funny stories and a good clean joke. Your gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."
Give the gift of a WRITTEN NOTE. It can be a simple "Thanks for the help" or an "I appreciate you" note. A brief, handwritten note may be remembered for a lifetime (and may even change a life).
Give the gift of a COMPLIMENT. Everyone needs encouragement. Mark Twain said, "One compliment can keep me going for a whole month."
Give the gift of [ALLOWING SOMEONE TO DO YOU A FAVOR. Accepting such a blessing will felicitate you both. -- I'm adding this because it may be even more important than the original which suggesting going out of your way to do a favor for someone else-- ulogtwo].
Give the gift of SOLITUDE. There are times when we want nothing more than to have some peace and quiet. Be sensitive to those times, and give the gift of solitude to others.
Give the gift of a CHEERFUL DISPOSITION. The easiest way to feel good is to extend a kind word. It's not hard to be polite and courteous, to say "hello" or "thank you."

***

This is one of those "wish I'd said that" pieces. I've tried to make my emendations obvious and would be happy to give credit but it came to me as a "someone has written . . ."
This is also a great game plan for anyone seeking to avoid stocking coal in 2010 and beyond.
Happy New Year, reader!

I have no idea where I am going . . .

I came across this prayer by Thomas Merton in My Life with the Saints by James Martin:
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

Amen!

The most PHENOMENAL site.

There is a time machine on the web. I found out about it only minutes ago.

Please take me back in time!

The archive.org site allows you to search for webpages that have been lost and then "visit" them. It's like being able to travel back in time.

It's important to me because back in 1997 I got permission from Randy Becton to place several of his articles about cancer and grief online. At the time I was using AOL and so the materials were placed there. At some point those articles disappeared. It was some kind of storage/restart issue at AOL. I thought they were lost forever.


But the site listed above had them archived. And here are the links:

You are not alone.

Does anyone understand my grief?

Helping children cope with cancer.

Dealing with depression in illness.

Follow a link and you should see a selection of archived pages. Choose one and you'll be able to read the text of these 4 special booklets. Note that the links on these pages are out of date so don't expect to follow them. And since these pages are over a decade old (what's that in internet years?) the addresses are no longer valid.

If this is just too confusing, email me and we'll see what we can do to lessen the confusion and make it possible for you to read these booklets. Remember these are not my booklets -- not my words. There are probably newer versions available for purchase if you'd like to share them with others. Here's a link to Amazon's selection of materials by Randy Becton.