1. Who is Brandon Hein? For a tragedy that occurred in my hometown over 10 years ago, three boys were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Brandon is truly a victim of injustice, with a fate that seems to hold little hope. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and although he did not partake in the stabbing that killed a boy, or even know that it occurred, he has suffered 12 years in prison so far, with a lifetime more ahead of him. I don’t know what lies in his future, and I don’t know how to rally troops to support him and help his appeal, and I don’t know how to effectively bring this to the attention of the CA Governor (who can pardon him), but hopefully if just one person reads this and does a little about it, a lot of a little might just turn into positive successful action to help him. It’s the kind of case about injustice that sociology classes study. Read about it here.
2. Ask yourself: Are you dreaming big and taking risks? Are you living the life you imagined? In light of all the emails I’ve been getting from friends and colleagues who have moved to Japan, Germany, and Greece, plus the emails from co-workers bidding farewell to public accounting, I think it’s important to think about taking risks while young and relatively commitment-free. Maybe you’ll realize your life isn’t heading the direction you want it to, or maybe you’re set on a destination, but instead of taking the freeway you decide to explore the scenic route.
3. Free wake up calls at wakerupper.com, and you can even have customized messages.
4. Some tricks for google searches: to get to websites blocked by your company try “cache: site.com“, to compare items use “better than _keyword_”, find related items with “~_keyword_”. More tips here.
5. Try some new instant messenger applications like digsby.com and pidgin.im (pidgin even includes lotus note’s sametime) but meebo’s still my favorite.
