http://www.monopolizedchaos.com/

My current view. Broken pedal and all…

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:53:28 -0400

My current view. Broken pedal and all…

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to..."

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:35:11 -0400

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

- John Lennon

Gonzo was the big winner today in the Indianapolis Five...

Tue, 22 May 2012 16:52:00 -0400

Gonzo was the big winner today in the Indianapolis Five ‘Hound’-red!

Back in the saddle tomorrow. First time wearing this...

Mon, 14 May 2012 21:11:13 -0400

Back in the saddle tomorrow. First time wearing this jersey…

"A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:46:03 -0400

“A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”

- Henry Ford

My current view: Let’s play two! National Ballpark!

Sun, 06 May 2012 19:52:54 -0400

My current view: Let’s play two! National Ballpark!

My current view

Wed, 02 May 2012 20:25:26 -0400

My current view

News-Free

Tue, 01 May 2012 20:48:00 -0400

For the month of April I chose to go on a news diet (or some may call it a fast). I’m addicted to news. It’s sad, really. Any downtime I have during the day, I find myself going to ESPN, CNN, IndyStar.com, or any other news site I regularly subscribe to. While driving or working out, I’m always tuned to news talk on an AM station. In the evenings, I DVR several news shows… you get the point.

The underlying goal behind the move was to 1) free up time and force myself to focus on the task at hand and 2) quit caring about so much trivial stuff.

The outcome? I definitely enjoyed having time to read in the evenings (I finished four books during the month). I’m definitely more cognizant of my idle behavior and will hopefully be able to resist the urge to consume news purely to fill a void.

This is one of those songs for me that immediately lifts my...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:05:37 -0400

This is one of those songs for me that immediately lifts my spirits or just encourages me to strive fore more.

My current view. Game 3, Eastern Conference Quarter Finals.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:02:00 -0400

My current view. Game 3, Eastern Conference Quarter Finals.

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:50:41 -0400

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Still one of my favorite political cartoons. If you don’t...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:24:15 -0500

Still one of my favorite political cartoons. If you don’t get it, well… you don’t get it.

"By definition, to be exceptional, you have to be the exception, not the rule."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:02:05 -0500

“By definition, to be exceptional, you have to be the exception, not the rule.”

- Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of Hubspot

Second anniversary with my beautiful wife! Steamboat Springs,...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:41:24 -0500

Second anniversary with my beautiful wife! Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

"Sometimes, clarity takes time. Sometimes, people never wake up to reality because they are stubborn..."

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:14:05 -0500

“Sometimes, clarity takes time. Sometimes, people never wake up to reality because they are stubborn or refuse to face facts.”

- Phillip B. Wilson

Barack Obama - The One Term President

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:11:59 -0500

For the exact reasons Jimmy Carter was a one-term president, President Obama will only serve once as well. I will also throw in, it will be for the reason Clinton got a second term… “it’s the economy, stupid.” Reagan inherited mortgage rates nearing 20% and unemployment rates nearing 10% — instead of blaming his predecessor for all of his woes and standing idly by, he cut both of those numbers in half by the end of his presidency.

Do you remember the voting conditions in 2008 when Obama “connected with suburban voters… aka… Carmel soccer moms? The country was incredibly sick of the endless war, were at the beginnings of a financial meltdown, and uh… HATED George Bush. What a PERFECT time for a young, charismatic senator from Illinois to be thrust into the public spotlight!

It didn’t matter if the Republican party put up Mickey Mouse as a candidate — moderates were going to vote AGAINST GEORGE BUSH… and they did indeed do just that. The “middle-right” majority switched to the left and cast their vote for Obama. He moved the entire nation with his message of hope and change and enlisted the ranks of youths across the nation to usher in some of the best voter turnout EVER in the under 25 range. Let’s also not forget he is black. That’s not a racist comment, but moreso, pointing out the fact that he got another voting bloc to the polls that historically hasn’t shown up.

Now, fast forward four years, when many (most?) of his policies have failed. His stimulus that he said was required and promised that unemployment wouldn’t go above 8% if passed was a bust and unemployment climbed to over 10% (but I’m sure that’s Bush’s fault), and remains that high today! Wait, I’m sure you’ll tell me that number is lower and fall in line with the rest of the people who are using math and counting errors to their advantage when they REMOVE those who have taken themselves out of the employment hunt and those who are underemployed working minimum wage jobs just to get by.

In 2012, the middle-right “independents” are fed up and will either move back to the right or not vote at all. The youth and black voting bloc will stay home, again, like they historically have. Why? Why will it be different? There’s nothing magical about this run… we’ve already elected our first black president, and well… George Bush isn’t showing up on the other side. And lastly, “it’s the economy, stupid.”

"You work your tail off for 15 years, and you are suddenly, an overnight success"

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:45:12 -0500

““You work your tail off for 15 years, and you are suddenly, an overnight success””

- Dave Ramsey

Eat That Frog!

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:26:00 -0500

To start of the New Year, I decided to re-read Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy.

There’s an old saying: if you eat a live frog first thing each morning, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day.

Tracy lays out 21 principles to stop procrastinating and get things done. Two of them really stand out to me:

Forced Efficiency – there’s never enough time to do everything, but there’s always enough time to do the most important things. What are they?
ABCDE Method –think on paper and place a letter next to each before you perform the first task
- A – “must do”
- B – “should do”
- C – “would be nice to do”
- D – “delegate to someone else”
- E – “eliminate all together”

While the concepts are not earth-shattering, it always helps me to be reminded of the power of focus. By planning your day around the most important tasks and getting those out of the way, you always put yourself in the best position to succeed. Secondly, by learning to delegate or “outsource” tasks, you can free up even more of your time to further focus on the things that really advance your goals.

All of this coincides well with my 2012 plan of creating a “default calendar” – scheduling my weeks on purpose before they happen and then just filling in the details as they happen.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:06:02 -0500

““Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.””

- – Confucius

Addicted to Breaking Bad

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:30:06 -0500

I don’t watch much tv. Well at least “tv shows” that is. I’ll use it as background noise when I’m tired of music or political talk radio, but I mostly watch sports and movies. However, I must admit I’m addicted to Breaking Bad.

I kept seeing tweets from several friends about it being “time for Breaking Bad” and how great the show was. Then, as I started inquiring about it, I was told it was the best show on tv. “Better than Dexter,” I said with a *gasp*. “Yes, better than Dexter,” I was told. So, I gave it a shot.

Breaking Bad is a Vince Gilligan production shown on AMC. The quickest description I can give you is that it’s about a local high school chemistry teacher who finds out he has stage two lung cancer and turns to “cooking” meth as a way to support his family.

I’ll admit, the show started off pretty slow. Through five episodes I started asking, “this is really the show you guys are raving about?” I was urged to give it time to develop and boy am I glad I did. Now, in the span of the last two weeks, I’ve caught up on the first three seasons. Yes, I said *seasons*, plural.

The addiction was so bad that yesterday I did two crazy things… first, I woke up at 6 am with the only intention of watching two episodes of Breaking Bad before I left for work. Then, and this one is worse, I had a trip to Chicago in the evening… three hours in a car… the only thing I could think of was watching the LAST TWO episodes of season three. So, I mounted my phone on the dashboard like a GPS and… thanks to Netflix… watched the last two J

Now, I have to wait for season four to hit Netflix… agh!