Good Times!

Unity's 17 Ways to Cook an Egg

When I was home in Iowa Thanksgiving week I went out to eat with my family at Village Inn. For those of you who have never been, it's a pancake and pie chain big in the Midwest and parts of the South. It's the type of place that people go on Sunday morning after church, or Sunday morning after leaving the bar on Saturday night.

I spent four long years of my life waiting tables during high school every Saturday and Sunday. I learned a lot about life during those four years, but the downside is every so often I can still smell blueberry syrup in my skin and I have lost most of the feeling in the tips of my fingers from carrying so many hot plates.

I could go on and on about how much I learned during my years at Village Inn (how to manage stress, timing, customer service, how to upsell), but here's one thing I figured out: there's a lot of ways to cook an egg.

In fact, I can think of 17 ways I know of to cook a simple egg. Now, let's be clear. This doesn't include egg recipes for things like Quiche. I'm talking about all the various ways to serve an egg on its own, plain and simple.

Please help me out by letting me know if you know of any other ways, but here's my list of 17 ways to cook an egg:

1. Raw
2. Sunny side up
3. Over easy
4. Over medium
5. Over hard
6. Well done (also called Fried)
7. Poached soft
8. Poached medium
9. Poached hard
10. Soft boiled
11. Hard boiled
12. Omelet
13. Scrambled
14. Deviled (sort of a cheat for this list)
15. Basted with steam
16. Basted with oil
17. Baked

UPDATE
18. Just in from Dr. Greene (the 100% Organic Man): I love shirred eggs. Yum! Also good drizzled with olive oil instead. Pinch of sea salt.

Omelet and baked frittata style is my favorite. Scrambled comes in second.

OrganizedWisdom Featured in BusinessWeek Again!

CBS and BusinessWeek are collaborating on a series of health related stories. OrganizedWisdom was featured in the article about Health 2.0 innovators changing medicine today.

Read the article here.

Slow Train Coming...

Just found this picture again of me in highschool that my brother Cayenne took of me walking down the train tracks. We stopped off the road for family pictures one Christmas Day on our way to Grandma's.

The power of balance, patience and the center of gravity

It's Been A Long Time Comin'

Did you hear Sam Cooke when Obama said, It's Been A Long Time Comin' in his acceptance speech last night? When I heard him say it, I wanted to start singing (Sam Cooke's - A Change Is Gonna Come):



Here's a different, but equally inspiring song from Bruce Springsteen (Long Time Comin'):

Ever Experienced This With IKEA? I Have Too...

Fueza Bruta

Keeping your refrigerator stocked will get you many women

Powell Makes Powerful Endoresement for Obama on Meet the Press

General Powell earns from credibility points back with this powerful and meaningful endorsement. It's well thought out and obvious he put great thought into the decision.

Batman Vs Penguin Debate Seems to Mirror Republican Strategy

I Finally Found The Umbrella For Me

Street Scenes: Progress

Economy Got You Down? Try Unity's Coconut Syrup Recipe And You'll Be Feeling Sweeeet Again!

Bummed about the stock market? Worried about the value of your home? Finding it hard to pay those bills?

I've got a temporary cure for all of your problems.

It's my secret Coconut Syrup recipe...a guaranteed elixir that will swoop you and yours right off your feet...and (even if for only a few minutes) settle your mind from all your worries and remind you about the finer things in life. Like living.

By way of background, I think my mom taught me this recipe when I was 9 or 10. We used to make lots of waffles and french toast. From my recollection, when we would run out of maple syrup (100% pure!) we always had a back-up plan: Coconut Syrup.

Here's how it's made:

Half a stick of salted butter
Equal part natural honey
1 Table Spoon shredded coconut.

Melt the butter on the stove...not the mircowave. Add in the honey and melt together for a minute or so. Stir in the coconut and stir it all together.

Serve it piping HOT on homemade french toast, pancakes, or waffles.

Great for breakfast or dessert! You won't even remember your house is being foreclosed on after tasting this. Promise!

McCain's Involvement in S&L Crisis

The Final Countdown

ElbowToe: You Only Live Once

 

Unity, Esther, Sergey, and Steve

 
We had an amazing time last week at the 23andMe.com Spit Party hosted by Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller and Harvey Weinstein. From left to right, Unity Stoakes, Esther Dyson, Sergey Brin and Steven Krein.

Personalized Genetics Gets More Exciting and Affordable

I've been following the field of personalized genetics for a long time now so I thought I would share this post I just wrote today on the OrganizedWisdom blog:

Personal Genetics Just Got A Whole Lot More Exciting, And Affordable

I'm thinking about signing up for the 23andMe service and having my own DNA mapped. Even though the price has dropped dramatically, it still costs $399. Given that is the same price as an iPod or digital camera these days, I figure my health is definitely worth the investment.

Once I get some results in, I'll probably share some more details about the process and what I learned. Hopefully I find out good news that will help me focus on wellness and prevention. But there's no telling what my details will show. As they say, you can choose your friends and even your neighbors, but you're stuck with your DNA.

If anyone is interested in trying the 23andMe service I have a 25% off coupon that says it's valid until 9/16/08. Ping me and I'll be happy to share.

Now That's Healthy!

 
Great salads at Extra Virgin on West 4th. This is the Shrimp Cobb Salad. Yummy. And Healthy. And I even bumped into this guy again.

Me in the Lenny Kravitz Music Video - Again

I was out at dinner the other night with friends and we were talking about Cafe Habana over on Elizabeth and Prince Street. It reminded me of the time I walked into this Lenny Kravitz music video by accident.

Much of the video was filmed at Cafe Habana. I believe it was summer 2000 as I used to live over there then. I can't remember exactly at this point. But I was walking down Elizabeth street one Saturday afternoon to grab some Huevos Rancheros at one of my favorite local spots (Cafe Habana). Long story short is I happened to walk in and sit down at the counter in the middle of the film shoot unaware that they were filming a video let alone a LK shoot. I ordered normally and the next thing I know a camera is filming me. The PA then comes over to ask if I want to be in the video. I said sure. Gave my social security number, name, and signed away all my rights for a dollar. Then they told me that Lenny would be sitting in the seat next to me.

A few minutes later a limo pulled up and Lenny Kravitz walked in with the director who introduced us. We briefly shook hands and the filming continued.

After the shoot, I went and sat in a booth to watch the happening for a bit longer while they shot some more b-roll shots.

The funny thing is you can really only see me for less than 2 seconds after the edits and you have to be watching EXTREMELY closely. The camera pans across me at 1:14 and again in a different location at 3:50 in the video above.

It was a fun brunch. And I had a good time. I don't go back to Cafe Habana too much anymore because the line takes way too long...

Os Gemeos: Too Close Too Far at Deitch

 
 
 
 

High Impact Obama Ad

Thought this was an effective TV spot. The way they used the imagery and music, etc...

Unity's Gizmo Top Rock

Nearly 25 years ago, I learned to top rock in Iowa City, IA. Yep, the movie Wild Style changed my life and living in a college town I was fortunate to have access to the school's indie film theater called the Bijou.

The music I used to play was a little more Jam On It, but it's all about the flow anyway.

My street name was Gizmo:-)

Street Scenes: The Longest Dreads

 
Wow. Walking down the street the other night I spotted this guy with the longest hair (and dreadlocks) I have ever seen. I remember always seeing the pictures in The Guniness Book of World Records for the world's longest hair, but this seems to top any pictures I've ever seen. I couldn't resist snapping a quick photo on my iPhone...

The Getting Results Toolkit: 41 Essential Tools You Need To Build a Green Start-up and Go 100% Virtual

I just wrote this blog post over on the OrganizedWisdom blog, but thought I'd share it here too:

We've been getting a lot of email and calls since we first published 20 Benefits of Building a Green Start-up by Going 100% Virtual and since BusinessWeek wrote about our approach of building a more efficient company by not having an office in the article To Expand Your Business, Go Home.

The most frequent question asked is how does OrganizedWisdom run your business this way and what tools do you use to operate such a large team so efficiently without an office?

Over the past 2 years, we've worked hard to test and assemble a powerful set of tools and services that help us run OrganizedWisdom and manage a rapidly growing company with 20 team members and hundreds of Guides dispersed across more than 15 states and 2 countries.  We call this The Getting Results Toolkit(TM) and we thought it would be helpful to share it with other entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Health 2.0 space who want to find a smarter, more efficient and fun way to build a successful company.

We hope you will comment and send us your own suggestions for tools and services you've discovered.

Setting Up Your Virtual Office: The Getting Results Toolkit

It's amazing how drastically things have changed even in the past 24 months.  There are hundreds of new Web services and tools designed to help you operate and manage your business in radically more efficient  ways.  And the best news is that many of these resources are either free or have low-monthly fees that are easy to cancel at anytime.

We can tell you from first-hand experience that these resources have helped us build an extremely efficient operation (all without an office), and one that is focused exclusively on building a quality service and a metrics-driven business focused on results. 

The way we are building OrganizedWisdom is truly transformative for us. It keeps us focused on results, helps us reduce costs and be more efficient, and let's us devote our resources and energy into R&D and innovation.   

Setting Up Your Command Center

Since we operate with no physical office, the first step is making sure each team member has their own Command Center and "home-base" of operations.  Preferably one that is portable so they have the option to work from anywhere they want. 

We've learned that the best way to get results from a virtual team is to empower each person with the responsibility of setting up their own personal command center in a way that works best for them.  Happy and comfortable team members equate to better results.  We don't dictate what equipment people use, we just focus on the goals and results, and let everyone decide on their own how to best arrange their work environment.

To give you an idea of the hardware that has worked best for many of our team members, here's the equipment we recommend:

• iPhone with unlimited service/data plan


• MacBook, MacBook Pro or iMac (I'm waiting to upgrade to the new MacBook Air for ultimate portability)


• Dual 24 inch monitors


• Wireless keyboard and mouse


• Headset with quality Mic


• Web cam (most new computers already have this)


• Portable Skype Phone and/or Speaker phone that works well with Skype or Vonage


• Big desk


• Quality ergonomic chair


• Verizon WiFi Card/Service (for those team members who travel frequently or want to be able to work from multiple locations).

Keeping Your Business on Plan

Managing your company's goals effectively is the most important part of running a business that wants to Go Green Virtually.   It's essential that every team member knows the organization's goals, their team's goals, and also the specific goals and actions they are responsible for.

We use an elegant new application called PlanHQ to manage, communicate and update our team.  We track all of our goals using this system, and use it for all of our action management so we can easily keep track of who is doing what, the status of each project being worked on, and the due dates associated with each initiative.  We like using PlanHQ because it is not a project management tool.  It is an action management tool and it focuses on helping your organization build your plan around you most important goals rather than a random list of to do items.

Enabling Your Team to Collaborate

We use a variety of new systems that enable our team to collaborate in asynchronous time and in a manner that tracks all changes automatically.  These tools make it possible for multiple people to work on the same projects at the same time, or at different times, as well as make it easy for people to edit, add, and contribute.  Specifically we use Basecamp to collaborate on projects, Google Docs to collaborate on files, reports, and anything that involves writing.  We use Google Sites to assemble larger groups of documents.  We use wiki's to update web-based training materials and build our knowledge base. And we use ConceptShare to collaborate on design projects and presentations. 

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

The hardest part of not having a physical office is building a connected culture for your team.  In an office environment you can easily hold group meetings, walk up to people and check in on them, and meet face to face everyday.  We don't have a water-cooler for people to stand next to.  We don't have a kitchen to celebrate birthdays in.  We don't have a brick and mortar wall to post our goals on and rally the troops.

But new communications platforms and Webcams and group chat, have enabled us to create a work environment that is actually better.  By setting up communications channels that connect the whole team, provide for one on one interaction, and let people see one another no matter their location, we are able to connect the team effectively.  The best part is that by not having an "office" we have cut out all the distractions that come with people constantly interrupting each other's work flow.  And you'd be surprised at the camaraderie you can build via IM, email, and Web cam.

The key is to leverage both group communication tools as well as private communications systems.  It's also important to have a system that makes it easy for people to check in and catch up on what everyone else is doing.  To do this we use a group chat system called Campfire.  This is our office space.  We have group chat rooms set up for our Main Office, for Special Projects, and for Management.  Each team member checks in everyday and can chat, ask questions, and read the transcripts for the day to see what is going on.  This saves an extraordinary amount of time because there is no need for multiple conversations to take place for people to be updated.  It also helps with knowledge sharing.  And the transparency helps create a more connected team all working toward the same mission.

When we want to host group video chats, we use a new service called ooVoo.  We can have up to 6 video windows on our monitor at once and host meetings with our team members across multiple time zones with ease. We also use an amazing FREE service called FreeConference.com to host group conference calls.

For one on one communication, you can't beat the phone.  We also use GTalk/AIM and Skype. (It's not unusual for me to have 6 to 10 separate chats going all at once).

Your Corporate Network/Platform

At previous companies we used to have to hire network administrators and IT staff to manage our corporate network.  Not anymore.  This frees us up to invest in our technology resources focused on our product.  We use Google Apps, Gmail, Google Calendar and host with services like Dreamhost and Amazon Web Services.  And some of our team uses the new MobileMe service from Apple to stay in sync.

Managing Contacts, Sales and Business Development

Check out these tools we use to manage our contacts, deal flow, and sales. SalesForce.com is the most robust online CRM service, but we opt to use HighRise for our contacts and sales communications tracking.  We use Pipeline Deals to monitor our deal flow.  And since OrganizedWisdom is partly an advertising based model we use Google Ad Manager and AdSense to manage and monitor sales.

Stop Wasting Time Managing Paperwork

We have automated the most time consuming aspects of our HR and Legal administration. We use an amazing service called EchoSign to manage, organize and store all of our legal documents.  This keeps us extremely organized, helps us run a tight ship, and makes it easy to collect e-signatures.  Best of all we don't use any paper!

We also have an extremely progressive health benefits package that lets our team members choose what care they want.  We simply provide a monthly stipend to our employees and they decide how best to spend it on their health and well being.  We use an amazing service called ZaneBenefits to manage this for us.  This solution saves our company time and money and gives our team members exactly what they want: choice and control over their health care. (We'll be writing a lot more about this topic in separate posts).

We've also streamlined our accounting and finance using services like Paycheck Records, QuickBooks Online and Freshbooks for invoicing.

Transform Your Corporate Communications by Opening Up and Blogging

We use this blog (via TypePad) to keep our team, our investors, our advisers, the press, other bloggers, and our users up to speed on our company.  We use it as a platform to show off new features, share achievements and milestones, welcome new team members, and discuss important industry trends.  Our company blog has become an invaluable resource for us and has helped us cost-effectively transform our marketing and public relations strategy.  We find that the more transparent we are with our various constituencies, the more value we get back in the way of feedback, support, new ideas, as well as new opportunities.

We also use Facebook Groups, Twitter, a Group Email List Powered by Python, a Forum, and a shared Google Reader.

There are several other tools we use regularly, but this list is more than enough to get started, transform your business and set you on the path to Going Green Virtually. 

We hope you share this post with others who you think will benefit from the lessons learned.  And please send us your ideas. We'll add them to our Getting Results Toolkit.

Don't Mess With Texas

Texas Style Deposition

OrganizedWisdom Featured in BusinessWeek!

I wanted to share this feature story about OrganizedWisdom that just appeared in Business Week: To Expand Your Business, Go Home.

I couldn't be more excited about how things are going and our focus on Going Green Virtually. It has been a tremendous success for us and a great way to build a truly rewarding company.

Read the full article here.

New OW Video Interview on CenterNetworks

Yesterday morning I had a fun time doing a video interview about OrganizedWisdom with Allen Stern of CenterNetworks.

The video runs about 15 minutes and some of the topics we covered include:

* What is OrganizedWisdom?
* What's a wisdom card and how many cards are there today?
* Are you creating content or just showing search results?
* Plagerism issues - this was running wild in another human powered search engine
* Do you allow the public to contribute?
* How do you compare to NY-based Hakia's health search and iMedix?
* What's the business model -- this is actually very interesting - I discuss a variety of components to the business plan unlike some of the other human powered search engines that are looking at advertising as their only revenue avenue
* What's the team like in NYC?
* How does someone become a guide and what qualifications are required?

The Unity Stoakes Friend Feed

I'm continuing to flood the world with too much information.

Which is why you can now get my Friend Feed here.

Even though my blog is really my home base here at www.unitystoakes.com, you can now subscribe to my friend feed and get all of my various feeds from places like Yelp, LinkedIn, several blogs, Flickr, Google Reader, Twitter, Delicious, Amazon Wish List, Netflix Queue, and about 20 other feeds.

I can't even keep up with all of that, so I'm sure you won't care either. But it's a fun repository anyway...

Going Green, Virtually

I first published this post on the OrganizedWisdom blog here, but I thought I'd share it on my personal blog too:

One of the best decisions we've made since we launched OrganizedWisdom Health two and a half years ago was to build a green company and get rid of our brick and mortar office.

We call it "Going Green, Virtually."

That's right. No office. No commute. No paper. We don't require team members to punch a time clock. No spending wasted hours in traffic driving to work just to sit in a desk much farther away from one's home and family.

And as a result of Going Green Virtually, the benefits have been enormous. In fact, we believe it's one of our key ingredients to our rapid growth, dramatic increase in productivity, agile innovation cycles, and team member happiness.

Since we officially made this transition to Going Green Virtually over a year ago, we have debated the merits of our decision many times. We've often asked, would we be more productive if we were all sitting in the same room everyday? Would our team members be better off commuting to and fro? Would our ideas be better? Would we attract better talent? Would we have more or less expenses? Would our business be more successful? Would our product be better? Would we be more happy?

The answer to every question each time we assess our operations is simply, no.

The fact is, on the rare occasions when we do need an office, we still have access to great space and conference rooms because anytime (usually once a month) we can use one of our investor's offices. We use this space for strategic brainstorms, to white board in person, or to host investors or interview new team members.

We're not only proud to be building our company this way, but we believe that there are countless benefits to growing our company this way. We see the way we are building OrganizedWisdom as the wave of the future in terms of how start-ups will be founded and great companies grown. And it's becoming clear that much larger companies are going to have to learn to operate this way too. For all of you entrepreneurs out there, here are 20 major benefits we've seen so far by Going Green Virtually.

1. Access to the world's very best talent pool: We can hire our team members from anywhere that has great Internet access. This essentially means we can hire someone in the mountains, the woods, and cities and towns large and small. This means we can hire globally. We are not confined by the city our main office is in to find the best talent. We don't force people to relocate when they join our team. We don't have boundaries for where we can hire. We just work to hire the very best people, period.

2. Increased productivity: We don't waste time monitoring what time people come into an office. Our technology, collaboration tools, and goals are designed to focus on productivity, not merely time spent. Our system gets better because it's not about how much time something takes, it is about how efficient and productive it is.

3. Metrics based goals: Because we are productivity focused, we are forced to make sure every goal is measurable. When every goal is measurable, then chances are it is more clear what needs to be done. This make it easier to keep your strategy and team focused on the goals that really drive the health of the business.

4. Less interruptions = less wasted time: Offices breed politics, disruptions, excess meetings, etc. We still have group chats in Campfire and on IM, but we've noticed many of the distractions that come with office life are replaced by things like being home when you kids get home from school or being able to make yourself lunch at home. Being virtual replaces the negative interruptions with meaningful interruptions.

5. No commute: This saves everyone of our team members probably at least 10 hours a week and lots of money on transportation, parking, and food costs. People can use this time to spend with their family, get more rest, on hobbies, and even on being more productive.

6. Flex time: We let our team members work when they are most productive and set their own schedule. We monitor production, not a time clock. We trust our team members to do a great job and as a result they do an even better job.

7. Huge cost savings: There's huge cost savings for the company AND for our team members. They don't have to spend money on gas, tolls, parking, less car maintenance, food away from home, after school daycare, etc. We don't have to spend money on expensive office space, chairs, desks, equipment, energy, and on and on. To us it's a no-brainer.

8. Rapid innovation cycles: Because we use collaboration technologies and new communications tools we are able to work in smaller teams and innovate more rapidly. There is no big bureaucracy to slow us down.

9. No more meetings: We don't do meetings. We publish goals and metrics. We have an ongoing group chat. We build a team run knowledge base and community forums which get smarter with every input. We don't travel to meetings and take our team members away from doing what really matters: building a great service to help more people. We'd rather spend our time doing and less time talking about doing. Again, because we are metrics focused, people already know what to do.

10. No searching for office space: For those of you entrepreneurs in San Fran or New York you know how much wasted time and energy goes into finding and setting up an office. Imagine never having to do this again. Imagine not ever growing out of your office space. Pretty great dream huh. It's a reality when you go green. It also enables us to focus on innovation rather than operations.

11. Ability to scale quickly: Because we depend on bits, not location, we can scale up or down instantly. This makes us nimble, efficient, and ready for growth and opportunities within minutes not months.

12. Diversity: Our team members come from all over. They live in the community we serve: all over the US. Often time, especially with media, Internet and content companies there's an unintentional bias influenced by the might of a city like New York or San Fran. Growing up in Iowa, I know that often times the coasts just don't get it:-) So we're happy we get to bake in a much more diverse perspective and cultural outlook into our product then that of one particular region.

13. Global operations: Again, because we are not constrained by a brick and mortar office, we can leverage resources from overseas whenever it makes sense.

14. Forced to learn new technology: We are an Internet and technology company. By being forced to practice what we preach, we are early adopters at every turn. This keeps us ahead of the pack and helps us keep finding new ways to save time, energy, money and increase productivity, quality, and team happiness.

15. Tap the power of part-timers: Lots of people don't want to or can't work full-time jobs, but they have an interest and passion in working part-time. We get to work with these people too.

16. A 24 hour work cycle: The web is open 24 hours a day and so are we. We don't have the same constraints because our team members are in multiple time zones already.

17. More time with friends and family: One of the best advantages to building this type of business is the ability to be there for your friends and family more.

18. Happier employees: Because our team members don't have to commute, relocate, waste time on the train, can work when they are most productive, and can spend more time with their families, we have happier employees. Happier employees = more loyal and productive team members.

19. We're Going Green Virtually! We're trying to do our part to help the environment and our team members anyway we can. People don't have to buy gas, we don't use paper, and we don't have a big office to waste energy on.Let's get thousands of companies to do this!

20. Share your thoughts: If you've gone green already please post your feedback on what's worked (or hasn't worked)...

Technology has truly changed everything over the past few years. We feel blessed that we get the opportunity to build our business this way, and proud to share our wisdom as we grow and evolve.

We hope you'll consider Going Green Virtually soon too.

Some Exciting News To Share

For those of you who know me well, then you know a major part of my life is dedicated to the success of building a company I co-founded and love called OrganizedWisdom Health.

I'm thrilled to share some big news. We just raised a round of financing from ETF Venture Funds and several other strategic angels which will help us scale and grow in a big way.

Read the story in TechCrunch here.

Thanks to all of my friends and family who continue to support me everyday. It means a lot to me and keeps me going. To be sure, the life of a serial entrepreneur is never dull, but thanks to your support mine is usually fun and always worthwhile.

Now please go tell all of your friends and family to start using OrganizedWisdom Health! All feedback welcome.

Pictures of Street Art in New York City

 
 
 
 

Only in New York City

 

 
 

Sad Memorial on Manhattan Street

 
Every time I walk by this makeshift memorial near the Maritime Hotel it makes me sad, and a bit angry at the crazy drivers in New York City. Imagine living your whole life, 82 years, and then to be struck by a car crossing the street. I've never met this woman, but I think about her often.

Visit the Leo Kesting Gallery

 
There's a great new art gallery in the Meat Packing District called The Leo Kesting Gallery. Stop in when you get a chance. David Kesting and John Leo are fun, friendly, and breathing new life and humor into the neighborhood.

OrganizedWisdom on NPR

Got a call from my folks today saying they heard OrganizedWisdom was mentioned on NPR's Talk of the Nation today. Thanks for the heads up mom!

Just listened to the program online and there is a great discussion about how Government is being pushed forward by collaborative media, new technologies, entrepreneurs and the citizenry. The episode features Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Paradigm Shift. I was thrilled OrganizedWisdom was included in the discussion as a company helping push this kind of progress forward.

It's a conversation worth listening too if you have a few minutes...

Listen to the program here.

Ahhh, To Be A New Yorker

We're Looking for the Mouse

Clay Shirky shares a powerful argument for why people will continue to move to participatory media and away from TV.

He outlines what he calls society's "Cognitive Surplus" and re-frames media's future as a triathlon - consumption, participation/producing, and sharing.

One of my favorite lines: a screen that ships without a mouse, ships broken.

Featured in Today's DMNews...

Just noticed that I'm featured in today's DMNews in an article titled:

A new human touch for search helps guide users

Nice that OrganizedWisdom was featured with two other great companies helping lead the Human Powered Search Movement: Mahalo and ChaCha.

Crazy Frog Boys Remind Me of the Good Old Days

Love these kids. Reminds me of when my brothers and I used to break dance in front of our video camera in the 80s. I'll have to dig up those videos and get them online! Until then, we have the Crazy Frog Boys.

My favorite part is when the shorter kid pretends he is walking down stairs. Classic mime move. And the dude in the background is going to be a star one day. No doubt about it.

Spacer Invader Sightings in New York City

 
 
 
 

Space Invader is one of my favorite street artists. His work can be seen all over the world now, and recently I've sighted a lot of new pieces downtown Manhattan. He's often copied so there's a chance that some or all of these works are done by others.

Once you start paying attention to his work you start to spot it in the strangest places. It's always fun to see how long they stay up before someone takes them down.

Street Scenes: Dive Bar and a Wheel Chair

 

I was walking by this local dive bar (as evidenced by the neon sign that simply says BAR) the other day and was caught a bit off guard by the electric wheel chair sitting out front. It seemed like a perfect NYC street scene so I snapped a quick shot.

Two initial questions to ponder:

1) Where is the person in the wheelchair, and assuming they are inside how did they get inside the bar?
2) Can you get a DUI for driving a motorized wheelchair while intoxicated?

Do Not Try This At Home: Kobe Bryant is Crazy

Street Art DownTown Manhattan

If you follow my blog, then you know I'm a big fan of street art, paste ups, graffiti, stencils, etc. Here are a few recent images of great street art I took with my iPhone walking around the city.

 
 
 
 

First Place!

AltSearchEngines.com Hearts OrganizedWisdom

For those of you who care to follow progress of OrganizedWisdom, I did a fun interview last week with AltSearchEngines.com about the company. Read the full chat by clicking here.

They also published this review raving about our new RequestWisdom service. I love how they ended the post:

Bottom line: If you want a Wisdom Card for your medical condition, or for your friend or family member’s, OW will either have one or make one. And if you have a question about it, you can check in with your personal Health Expert.

Honestly, can Google do that?

If you've ever lost photos then you'll understand why SugarSync is needed...

A few years ago, I lost about 4 years worth of digital photos. It was a real drag to say the least.

Fortunately, I was able to recover about 30% of the images, but that was no solace.

As a result, I am constantly having to back up all of my photos from multiple devices, on to multiple DVDs, and store them in multiple locations. The whole process is a real drag too. But something I do at least quarterly to make sure I don't experience a data disaster again.

That's why I'm so happy to test this new data sync and back-up service I just read about in the New York Times called SugarSync.

I'll let you know how Sugar Sync works...but my parting advice is please, please take the time TODAY to back up your data. It's worth it.

How Aware Are You?

Ever wonder why communication is so challenging sometimes? Is your message is getting through? Think that 30 second spot is worth 2 million bucks?

Watch this video and think again. I first took this test a few weeks ago at a forum and was blown away. Out of 400 people in the room, only 2 people were perceptive enough to pass the test. And everyone thought those two were crazy before watching the video again.

Give it a try.

Whirlwind Few Weeks

My posting has been slow as it's been a whirlwind several weeks.

I just got back from the amazing Health 2.0 conference in San Diego. OrganizedWisdom was the only company to have been invited both times to speak at Health 2.0, which is amazing considering the great companies now helping shape the space. We launched our new service called LiveWisdom, which enables people to connect with a doctor to ask them questions for only $1.99 a minute.

Read what VentureBeat has to say about us today here.

We also helped launch the dCard over the past week. Here's the press release.

OrganizedWisdom continues to beat even our own expectations and is growing at a rapid clip now. We're now covering more than 10,000 of the most popular and important health searches! We have thousands of WisdomCards and our team of expert health guides are producing them at more than 100 a day now which is no easy feat.

We launched a new design that I am thrilled with. Check it out and let me know what you think. Be honest please!

Besides working around the clock, I've been traveling all over the place which has been fun but tiring. In the past 12 weeks or so I've been to Rio de Janeiro, San Jose/Jaco (Costa Rica), Los Angeles, San Diego, Cleveland, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, and am now finally back in NYC. Phfew!

Besides getting food poisoning in Brasil and having to travel for my grandfather's funeral, I have had a great few weeks. And I'm looking forward to the next few now that day light savings is almost here.

More Pics From Brazil...