But here’s something that really shouldn’t be ignored. Henry Blodget of BusinessInsider.com wrote a New Year’s Day piece worth reading.

“There’s only one thing you can control in your life–your own effort.”

Now that I like!

He’s quite right. Blodget’s piece pulled this from Cuban’s new book (How To Win At The Sport Of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.):

Effort is measured by setting goals and getting results. What did I need to do to close this account? What did I need to do to win this segment of business? What did I need to do to understand this technology or that business better than anyone? What did I need to do to find an edge? Where does that edge come from, and how was I going to get there?

The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t.

He’s so right. Blodget’s post has a link to preview the book (via Amazon). It is only $2.99, so I went ahead and purchased for my Kindle.

Curious to hear what else Cuban has to say.

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In order of appearance:

Deepak Chopra
Mick Fleetwood
Tony Hawk
Rashida Jones
Laird Hamilton
Robert Walter
Robin Sharma
Catherine Hardwicke
Sir Ken Robinson
Akiva Goldsman
Chungliang Al Huang
Rebecca Armstrong
David L. Miller
Brian Johnson
Norman Ollestad
Joseph Marshall III
Alan Cohen
Gay Hendricks
Lynne Kaufman
David Loy

Rebecca Armstrong
Reverend

Dr. Rebecca Armstrong is a minister in the liberal religious tradition, dedicated to the free and conscious search for truth. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School, Meadville- Lombard Unitarian Seminary and The Chicago Theological Seminary. She is ordained and has practiced as a Humanist Minister since 1992. After serving several Chicago area churches she chose to establish herself as a consulting minister in private practice, serving the spiritual needs of those without church affiliation. Most of her clients describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Reverend Rebecca works with individuals, couples and families as a spiritual counselor to create specialized rituals of transformation for healing, overcoming grief, house blessings, transitions into death, life review and spiritual legacies.


Deepak Chopra M.D.
Best Selling Author/ Co-Founder: Chopra Center for Well Being

Co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body healing, a bestselling author, and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. Heralded by Time Magazine as the “poet-prophet of alternative medicine,” he is also the host of the popular weekly Wellness Radio program on Sirius/XM Stars. A global force in the field of human empowerment, Dr. Chopra is the prolific author of more than fifty-five books, including fourteen bestsellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality, and peace. Dr. Chopra’s books have been published in more than eighty-five languages.


Alan Cohen
Best Selling Author

Alan Cohen is the author of 24 popular inspirational books and CD’s, including the best-selling The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winning A Deep Breath of Life, and the classic Are You as Happy as Your Dog?.  He is a contributing writer for the New York Times #1 bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul, and his books have been translated into 24 foreign languages. His work has been featured on Oprah.com and in USA Today, The Washington Post and 101 Top Experts. Alan’s radio program Get Real is broadcast weekly on Hay House Radio, and his monthly column From the Heart is featured in magazines internationally.


Mick Fleetwood
Founder, Fleetwood Mac
Co-founder of the enormously successful band Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood has played on some of the most successful rock albums of all time through his turbulent career. Fleetwood started as a drummer in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. In 1967, with fellow Bluesbreakers John McVie and Peter Green, he formed Fleetwood Mac, who gained a reputation as one of England’s finest blues groups. The band soon hired English singer Christine Perfect and Californian singer/songwriters (and couple) Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Soon, they were back on form, with a more commercial sound. Their 1975 album, Fleetwood Mac was big, but nothing compared to its 1977 follow-up, Rumours. Containing the classics Don’t Stop, Go Your Own Way and Dreams, it shot the band into superstardom. His band’s record became, and remained, one of the biggest albums ever. Fleetwood’s solo career began with The Visitor in 1981 and Its Not Me in 1983.


Akiva Goldsman
Producer/Academy Award Winning Screenwriter

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman was born in Brooklyn, NY, where his mother and father were both child psychologists. Goldsman graduated from Wesleyan University in 1983, where one of his classmates was Paul Schiff; they lived together in a student house where the misadventures of the residents helped to inspire the campus comedy P.C.U., which Schiff produced. After graduating from Wesleyan, Goldsman studied creative writing at New York University and later took up screenwriting. Goldsman’s first screenplay to be produced was for the comedy-drama Indian Summer; his experiences with his parents helped to inform his second produced screenplay, Silent Fall, which concerned a psychologist dealing with an autistic child who witnessed a crime. Goldsman adaptations for screen include The Client, A Time to Kill, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. In 2001, Goldsman won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his screenplay for the film A Beautiful Mind, based on the biography of John Nash written by Sylvia Nasar.


Laird Hamilton
Professional Athlete

One of today’s best-known big wave surfers, Laird Hamilton made an unusual entrance into the world. He was born underwater in an experimental tank called a “bathysphere.” He grew up in Hawaii, learning to surf at an early age. While he avoided surfing competitively, he became well regarded in the sport for taking on monster waves, some as high as 80 feet tall and for performing groundbreaking stunts, like aerial 360s. In 1992, Hamilton helped develop the method of using jet skis and other personal watercrafts to allow a surfer to tow in to bigger and faster waves—waves that he or she could not catch by paddling alone. Later he created foil surfing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDt-T1KEOgY), which involves adding the keel from a hydrofoil to a surfboard for surfing in the deep ocean.


Catherine Hardwicke
Director, Twilight

A prolific art director and production designer in the 1980s and 1990s, Catherine Hardwicke made an impressive leap to the director’s chair with 2003′s harrowing Thirteen. Inspired by the turbulent life of an ex-boyfriend’s teenage daughter, the indie drama about a young girl’s descent into a dangerous lifestyle was widely praised by critics and audiences alike for its gritty honesty. Hardwicke followed this with Lords of Dogtown (2005), an unsentimental look at teen skateboarders in the early eighties. In 2008, she tackled the biggest project of her directorial career with Twilight a Gothic romance about a schoolgirl’s budding relationship with a young, brooding vampire. Despite the fantastical nature of the subject matter, Hardwicke brought her trademark realism to the project; a combination that was the key to her status as one of Hollywood’s most challenging and independent-minded directors.


Tony Hawk
Professional Skateboarder

According to Newsweek magazine, Tony Hawk is the “most famous skateboarder, like, ever.” In the 1980s and 1990s, Hawk almost single-handedly transformed skateboarding from a kids’ parking-lot pastime into a respected sport. He won virtually every skateboarding competition he entered, and before he was twenty, he was considered to be the number one vertical skateboarder in the world. Hawk was equally talented off the ramp. His business ventures and product endorsements have made him a very wealthy man, and have also kept him in the spotlight. As skateboarding icon Stacy Peralta told Sports Illustrated, “Tony is the first skateboarder who has given the world a face to put on the sport. He has become a part of American pop culture.”
Note: Here’s a link to a piece he bylined in Newsweek.


Gay Hendricks Ph.D.
Best Selling Author/Co-Founder of the Hendricks Institute

Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., has served for more than 35 years as one of the major contributors to the fields of relationship transformation and body-mind therapies. Along with his wife, Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks, Gay is the co-author of many bestsellers, including Conscious Loving and Five Wishes. He is the author of 33 books, including The Corporate Mystic, Conscious Living and The Big Leap. Dr. Hendricks received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Stanford in 1974. After a twenty-one-year career as a professor of Counseling Psychology at University Colorado, he and Kathlyn founded The Hendricks Institute, which is based in Ojai, California and offers seminars worldwide. He has appeared on more than 500 radio and television shows, including OPRAH, CNN, CNBC, 48 HOURS and others.


Chungliang Al Huang
Founder-President, Living Tao Foundation/Tai Chi Master

Chungliang Al Huang has been called “a master in the arts of living” and “a sage for the modern age. Huang uses a wide range of tools to inspire his students: brush calligraphy, music, poetry, mythic story telling, and more. Fundamental to his work are the Five Elements, Tao Te Ching, I Ching and other classics in Taoist, Zen Buddhist and Confucian studies. If you spend any time at all with Chungliang, you immediately understand why so many people around the world choose to study with him. His passion, charm, intelligence, tireless energy, and child-like enthusiasm are infectious. You can learn more here.
This “AHA!” video is pretty cool too.


Brian Johnson
Creator, Philosophersnotes.com

Brian is the Philosopher & CEO of en*theos–a company that creates cool stuff to help people live optimally. Projects include The en*theos Academy for Optimal Living, PhilosophersNotes and Blissitations. He is also the author of A Philosopher’s Notes and his Big Ideas column runs in every issue of Experience Life magazine. In his past lives, Brian raised over $8 million to create two leading social networking sites: eteamz (sold to The Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) in 2000) & Zaadz (sold to Gaiam (Nasdaq: GAIA) in 2007). He graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from UCLA.
Here’s a link to his intro video.
This other video is cool too.


Rashida Jones
Actress/Screenwriter

Rashida Jones is an actress, writer and director. Her talent and intelligence, combined with being the attractive daughter of composer Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, contributed to her establishment in the industry. Jones’ film credits include Now You Know (2002), Death of a Dynasty (2003), Little Black Book (2004), The Ten (2007), Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009), and Life in Flight (2009). In addition to playing Zooey in I Love You, Man (2009) and The Social Network (2010). Television appearances include Freaks and Geeks (2000), Chappelle’s Show (2003-2004), NY-LON (2004), Unhitched (2008), and Parks and Recreation (2009). She also played saleswoman Karen Filipelli in NBC’s The Office. You can learn more here.


Lynne Kaufman
Award Winning Playwright

Lynne Kaufman is the author of eleven full-length plays that have been produced in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Louisville at such theatres as The Magic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Theatreworks. Her plays have won many awards including the NEA/Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays and Theatreworks Best New Play in California. Her short stories have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and McCalls.


David Loy Ph.D.
Author/Philosopher/Zen Master

David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author, whose essays and books have been translated into many languages. His articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist magazines including Tricycle, Turning Wheel, Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma, as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. David lectures nationally and internationally on various topics, focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn from the other. From 1990 until 2005 he was professor in the Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University, Chigasaki, Japan. In January 2006 he became the Besl Family Chair Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society with Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, a visiting position that ended in September 2010. From January to August 2009 he was a research scholar with the Institute for Advanced Study, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. From September through December 2011 he is in residence at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, with a Lenz Fellowship.


Joseph Marshall III
Author

Born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, Joseph Marshall III is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux) tribe, and his first language is Lakota. It was in that environment that he learned the ancient tradition of oral storytelling. Joseph writes full time, having published nine nonfiction works, including the best selling, The Lakota Way. He was a technical advisor and narrator for the Turner Network Television (TNT) and Dreamworks Television six-part mini-series Into the West, as well as playing the on-screen role of “Loved by the Buffalo” a Lakota medicine man. He is also a practitioner of primitive Lakota archery, having learned from his maternal grandfather the art of hand crafting bows and arrows. As a speaker and lecturer he as appeared in many venues throughout the United States and in countries such as France, Sweden and Siberia.


David L. Miller Ph.D.
Watson-Ledden Professor of Religion, Emeritus, Syracuse University

Dr. Miller has worked at the intersections of religions and mythologies, literature and literary theory, and depth psychology since 1963. He is a retired core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. Dr. Miller is a multi-award winning teacher, who has shared his brilliance and humor with learners ranging from undergraduate students to professional psychologists. He has lectured all over the world. From 1975 until 1988 he was a member of the Eranos Circle in Switzerland and he lectured at the Eranos Conference nine times during that period.


Norman Ollestad
Best Selling Author

Norman Ollestad is an American author of contemporary fiction and non-fiction. Ollestad is also an avid surfer and skier. At the age of eleven, he was the only survivor of a plane crash that claimed the life of his father. He wrote about the tragedy in his 2009 New York Times Bestseller Crazy For The Storm: A Memoir Of Survival. Optioned by Warner Brothers the film adaptation is in preproduction. Ollestad is currently working on a new book.


Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D.
Best Selling Author/Educator

Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He works with governments, international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. He was been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, the LEGO Prize for international achievement in education, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s ‘Principal Voices’. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts.


Robin Sharma
Best Selling Author/ Founder: Sharma Leadership International

Robin Sharma is the globally celebrated author of 11 international bestselling books on leadership including The Leader Who Had No Title, the phenomenal #1 blockbuster that is inspiring a movement around the idea that “Now, anyone – in any organization – can show Leadership”. His work has been published in over 60 countries and in nearly 70 languages, making him one of the most widely read authors in the world. He shot to fame with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, which has topped international bestseller lists and sold millions of copies. Robin is the founder of Sharma Leadership International Inc. a global consultancy that helps people in organizations Lead Without a Title. Clients comprise of many of the FORTUNE 500 including Microsoft, GE, NIKE, FedEx and IBM. Organizations such as NASA, IMD Business School, Yale University and The Young President’s
Organization are also SLI clients. Robin is a former litigation lawyer who holds two law degrees including a Masters of Law (Dalhousie Law School).


Robert Walter
President, Joseph Campbell Foundation

In 1979—after over a decade as an arts educator and production manager, director, and playwright on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in major regional theaters—Bob “retired” from the professional theater to serve as editorial director of renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell’s Historical Atlas of World Mythology. At Campbell’s death (1987), Bob was named his literary executor, completing unfinished portions of that opus and supervising the posthumous publication of Volume I (two books) and Volume II (three). In 1991, Bob and Campbell’s widow, Jean Erdman, founded the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and Bob was named its executive director. As executive editor of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell—in print, audio, and video—he continues to oversee publication of Campbell’s oeuvre. He was appointed President of the Joseph Campbell Foundation in 1998.
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The Oakland Athletics have been trying to get a new home. They have their eyes on San Jose now (at one time, Fremont was the target). The problem is, the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants say San Jose is theirs and are fighting tooth and nail to keep the A’s out.

No doubt, both teams could benefit from the plethora of companies that make their headquarters in Silicon Valley. Mr. Chass wrote:

The Giants’ position on San Jose is untenable. Although they have refused to acknowledge it, San Jose is part of their constitutionally (baseball) protected area because Walter Haas Jr., the A’s owner, agreed to cede it to them in 1990 before which both teams shared the territory.

Haas made his magnanimous gesture because the Giants were struggling in San Francisco, as the A’s are now in Oakland, and wanted to move to Santa Clara. Now the Giants selfishly hold tightly to the territory, refusing even to concede that they have no legitimate right to it.

.

It’s true. The A’s played nicely to keep the Giants from moving out of state (destination Florida).

And because that A’s played nicely, PacBell/SBC/AT&T ballpark became a reality as the Giants left the chill of Candlestick behind.

The land grab now by the Giants seems rather greedy. If they shared territories before, they should share again.

Again, special thanks to Mr. Chass for raising the issue. Let’s hope the commissioner, Bud Selig and his “Blue Ribbon Committee” make the decision soon so the business of Athletics baseball can move forward. The holding pattern is killing them.

It’s time for the Giants to play nice.

Note: Borrowed this image from the Right From The Start Organization.

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untenable

un·ten·a·ble   [uhn-ten-uh-buhl] adjective
1. incapable of being defended, as an argument, thesis, etc.; indefensible.

Read more about the issue here.

For example, this ad for Oreo Fudge Creme cookies was shown during the Fight Hunger Bowl game. Though it was from June, it was the first time I actually saw and heard the ad.

My first thought was, “really?” Like, they got away with that. It is LOL funny because of the euphemistic nature of the phrase.
Just check out here if you want to learn more.

I googled around and found stories where moms were in an uproar about the ad (for an example, click here).

I look at it this way. The ad was indeed memorable and if anything, it may make Oreo Fudge Cremes jump out at me next time I’m in the cookie aisle of the supermarket.

My other thought is that I hadn’t heard anyone repeating the line in my daily travels, so clearly it hadn’t made SNL (Saturday Night Live) status.

My guess is that the recent ad buy will trigger a bunch of posts like this one.

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Great stuff!

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The pepper spraying cop imagery was quite popular. Here’s a link to a meme.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based lululemon athletica, a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company that creates “components” (hoodies, pants, towels,etc.) for people to live a long, healthy and fun life, is causing quite a stir with an Ayn Rand reference appearing on its shopping bags.

Who is John Galt?

This question is asked early and often in Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, that was published in 1957. Through her writings, Rand espoused a free market philosophy, which promotes the idea of individuals living for their self-interest and dismisses altruism.

Atlas Shrugged

In its blog, it was pointed out that Dennis J. Wilson, founder and chairman of Lululemon, first read “Atlas Shrugged” when he was 18 years old. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is lululemon’s company vision).

So these are Rally Bags to get folks to overcome mediocrity. Makes sense to me.

Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on.

How are we going to live lives we love?

So maybe how the message got communicated was controversial. That doesn’t make it any less relevant. In fact, now is a really good time for folks to acquaint or reacquaint themselves with the works of Ayn Rand (put those new Kindles and iPads to work!).

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FINDING JOE explores Joseph Campbell’s observations on the Hero Journey common to all mythologies, and how it applies in contemporary culture.

In addition, JCF also said that DVDs will be available in time for Christmas.

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For the Stanford Cardinal, the new look by Nike will be for one-day: Saturday’s final regular season game against Notre Dame.

The "normal" look at home.

The Nike One-Day Special Look

Though different, the Stanford uniforms won’t be nearly as controversial as the ones worn by the Maryland Terrapins.

The story in the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned that the uniforms help with recruiting.

For sure, they keep Nike and Under Armour front and center in the minds of the young and “influenceable.”

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Read more here.

It all started with a recipe for Ramen-Crusted Skate I saw in the first ever issue of Lucky Peach.

Ramen-Crusted Skate

I noticed we had some halibut in the freezer that had been packed and put away uncooked. Figured I could thaw it out and do a spin of that recipe.

So a little Wondra, some beaten eggs, some panko and a hot pan were pretty much all that was needed (along with some seasoning for flavor).

To accompany this fine fish, there were oven roasted brussels sprouts, some jasmine rice and for added flavor, a side of kimchi.

For a warm-up snack, there was Dutch Crunch Sourdough bread from the famous San Francisco bakery, Boudin’s .

One of the highlights was the special beer chosen for the occasion.

Yes, that is the name: Hop Stoopid

It was awesome. You can learn more about it below.

For sure this was a different way to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Being creative and breaking with tradition is a good thing!

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For Sarai Hoffman, that is the case of this week’s project — a doll that she breathed some life into.

The “doll” came from MUNNYWORLD . And MUNNYWORLD came from a company called KidRobot.

Kidrobot came up with proprietary soft vinyl figurines which resemble cartoon animals based on urban graffiti and stencil art. They are sold as unpainted, “blank canvas,” do-it-yourself (DIY) pieces.

On the website, there is a gallery with plenty of examples of custom designs that folks have created through a combination of “scribbling, piercing, painting, posing, piling, dressing up, and sculpting.”

Now that you have a little background, here is Sarai’s story:

It has a long time the I bought this little doll blank and I have being putting as far as I can just for the simple fact the I have no inspiration what so ever.

Finally I came to a decision I’m going to finish it.

The question here is who is this character?

I have been working on it, hopefully this week I can get my imagination wild. This is the first try!

*****
Where to Buy…

A 4-inch white edition of the mini MUNNY can be purchased online for $9.95.

There are physical store locations in New York City (Prince Street), San Francisco (The Haight) , Los Angeles (Melrose), Miami Beach and London.

Also, a selection of Kidrobot figures can be found at Urban Outfitters (both online and in its retail stores).

*****

Their motto is “You can do anything you want!”
Clearly Sarai has done that. So, what’s next? Any ideas for the storyline here?

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Some More Cool Ideas…

MUNNYWORLD Foodfight!

Kid Punk 16 Animated Short

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