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1 Year Zaadz-a-versary

Posted on Oct 3rd, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
October 3, 2006 to October 3, 2007 - My 1 year anniversary...

Here it is by the numbers (and p.s., watch for some more posts and status,etc. today)

132 Friends
688 Emails received
833 Emails sent
200+ Videos posted
66 Blog entries
204 Sites bookmarked
50 Books listed
22 Pods a member of
1 Pod cultivator of
195 Posts on Darfur Pod by me
Unknown ~ Posts on other Pods
Unknown ~ Comments on blog entries and videos
200 Ideas listed
50 Photos posted
20 Shouts at me
20+ Shouts back
11 Goals
7,773 Friends blog postings
1000s of Tags added to blogs, videos, bookmarks, books, photos
365+ cans of soda consumed
800+ hours of lost sleep
10+ lbs of weight gained
1000+ salutations of peace
5+ times tried to quite caffeine
200+ times turning off/turning on javascripting
3 days or less not visiting zaadz
1 online progressive dinner attended
24+ stories/poems written in Diving Deeper Pod
Over 105,000 zaadzsters yet to meet
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status slam instructions ~ do you want to play?

Posted on Oct 3rd, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
Slamlogo_new
well, unlike poetry slams, of which i am not that familiar with anyway, i will not be scoring or picking a winner or anything.

the basic rules are this -

  • post a status message with ss: before it which stands for status slam.
  • invite your friends to join the conversation.
  • talk about whatever you wish to talk about, but see if you can play off of previous messages or not play off previous messages.
  • the status slam will start approximately now ~ 3pm Central US time and go until approximately 3pm Central US time on October 4th.
  • write messages, add links, be creative.
  • let the words flow.
  • all messages have to be in your status list though.  do not do the status slams in your blogs, that is not the point.  you can post a blog message about the status slam event, but otherwise all conversations should be in the status box.
at approximately 3pm on October 4th copy and send me all the ss: status slam messages you have on your list and i will attempt to seam them all together into one big list and post it Friday morning October 5th.

on your blogs on October 4th, please support the Free Burma movement - more info here http://coolmel.zaadz.com/blog/2007/10/in_support_of_free_burma

also feel free to talk about Burma in your status posts too!  hope you all come to play...peace

example:
Mike is:
"ss: this is an example status message...i am out and about on zaadz and i am hooked up at the local coffee shop.  i will keep status slamming."
(xx minutes ago)

think of it as free association or collaborative communication or a string of conscious word play or heck, just write something...
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International Bloggers' Day ~ Free Burma!

Posted on Oct 4th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike

Free Burma! Click Here!
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Free Burma

Posted on Oct 4th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
http://flickr.com/photos/liferfe/1480200396/


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STAND UP Against Poverty

Posted on Oct 10th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
Will You Stand Up Against Poverty?


October 16 + 17, 2007
Stand Up and Speak Out is the growing movement of people no longer prepared to stay seated or silent in the face of poverty and inequality. On October 16th and 17th, Stand Up and Speak Out for the Millennium Development Goals. Help us break the world record. So we can break the record of broken promises.

http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/


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pale blue dot

Posted on Oct 13th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
we all live on the pale blue dot
essentially we all share the same home
why don't we all work to make it the best home it could be?
We Are Here: The Pale Blue Dot



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What question do you believe is unanswerable?

Posted on Oct 13th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for October 13, 2007:

There are no unanswerable questions, just a lot of wrong answers.
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blog action day for the environment

Posted on Oct 15th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
what are we doing to ourselves?
our continued efforts to do everything faster, better.
is it going to kill us in the end?
was everything better before?
what was it like before, all this, stuff?

Manufactured Landscapes

some other videos from manufactured landscapes:
http://videos.zaadz.com/248253/manufactured_landscapes_--_edward_burtynsky
http://videos.zaadz.com/248250/manufactured_landscapes


Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day

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where's mike been?

Posted on Oct 25th, 2007 by Mike : Ideas, ideas, ideas... Mike
a message to my friends...

i have been a little checked out (of zaadz) lately...and as my status says - rebuilding.

no, i am not constructing a new house or even remodeling our existing one, but i am trying to step by step rebuild me and parts of my life.  i will still be checking in and back updating the Darfur pod and other things, but it will be a little less frequent for a while.

the first steps i am taking are to reduce the burnout that i have been experiencing and work towards improving my families bottom line (which dove even more just this week with an estimate for $2500 of repairs on our van ~ $1600 of which i have to get done).

i value this site and the friends i have here very much and as i said i will not be far away, just a little distant :)

my first steps have been to work on myself (hmm, seems logical) be the change you want to see ~ guess it can apply personally too.  i have eliminated caffeine, and fast food and i started walking on our treadmill again.  i am also getting an average of 7 hours of sleep a night now! ~ compared to probably an average of 5 or less in the past.

these changes, which i just started a couple weeks ago, have already been making a world of difference in my health and ability to accomplish tasks at home and work.  believe it or not i have actually even craved salad a couple times.  i also highly recommend the site - http://caloriecount.about.com/ for tracking calories, weight and exercise.  it has been a great way for me to see where i need to focus.

i have also greatly reduced my internet usage because i believe i was becoming a little too addicted to being online.  not that some of this time isn't productive and also giving me benefits, but i also was wasting a lot of time (not on zaadz of course :).  i installed the mee timer plugin for Firefox and it keeps track of all the time you spend on every site and you can even group common things - like social networking, email, procrastination, etc.  this timer was also a great way to show me where i wasted time.

so for those of you who have asked, i am doing okay, but i am working on all those things that life likes to throw at you and realized that i needed to set some priorities and release some things that were not as important right now.

i still have the same concerns for issues like Darfur, Burma and peace in our world and i still wish to be a part of and help all my friends and their causes, but first i need to do some rebuilding on myself and look at some other ways that i feel i can make a difference on these important issues.

so a couple weeks have gone by and i am 2.2 lbs lighter (even after having birthday cake on my daughter's birthday), have walked for over 3 hours, burned over 1000 calories and i have spent probably 20 hours per week less - online.

so i will be around and see you all soon.  i keep checking your blog posts when i can and catching email too.  i will update you all on my rebuilding progress as well over the weeks ahead.

peace, love and light to all of you.  
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