Test from the new Google Dashboard Widget

Long ago there was a blogger widget that work for Blogger quite well.  Then google bought blogger, and upgraded to the blogger site.  This broke my old widget.  Today, I was trawling around at google labs website to see if anything was new and exciting.  I happened to noticed there was an update to the blogger widget that was published in June 2007, so I thought I'd download it and see if it works.  So this is my first test widget.

OmniFocus Sneaky Peek Tip

I was finally invited to participate in the “Sneaky Peek” / Alpha / Preview testing of OmniFocus recently, which basically means I have access to Omni Groups internal builds. Here are two tips that I want to share.

1) Restart Quicksilver. (OmniFocus installs a quicksilver action, but you must restart qs to pick it up)

2) Turn on “And when quitting” check box on the Preferences -> General -> Back Up Database panel.

This is very helpful as you install the latest nightly builds, when you quit the current running version, you’ll know that your current GTD landscape will be retained after you’ve installed the new version.


If you have no idea what OmniFocus is (and you use a Mac) visit, www.omnigroup.com and have a look-see at OmniFocus. They have a few screen casts which demo’s the app. In a nutshell, it is an implementation of GTD (see David Allen’s “Book Getting Things Done”, for more info GTD, or online productivity sites like 43Folders for more general tidbits.)

Working on my Swimming

I’m not a great swimmer. In fact I used to downright painful. Sheer effort used to propel me in the water. The last few months I’ve been following the books of Terry Laughlin and the Total Immersion methodologies of swimming. In a nutshell, they say most of swimming is a skill, such as golf or yoga. If you focus on the development of skill you can achieve vast improvement. Well, I am going to one of their weekend clinics this weekend, and working with a coach live, is much easier than than the books. So if you struggling with your swimming ability, I’d recommend checking it out.

See more progress on: get fit

First Kiva repayment, Micro-Credit on Numb3rs

Big week for Micro-credit in my life. Firstly, I received my first repayment of the money I loaned on Kiva.org . So the $25 I originally lent, has been returned to me and I immediately re-lent the money to another business. I’m pretty psyched that $25 has help one business (in Mexico) and is starting to help another (in Ghana). I may try to track the “threads” of a each $25. It could be interesting over the course of few years, where $25 is used.

Secondly, in the Friday, May 11th Episode of Numb3rs, part of the episode was a 90 second blurb about the benefit and efficiency of micro-credit in helping area’s gain economic stability. So micro-credit got some prime entertainment style plug.

Kiva.org, or other micro-credit peer-to-peer lending organizations, could be an interesting way to teach kids (or anybody really) about world issues in a very specific way, here is a person, here is their photo, and they send you emails, additionally it to provide an example charity. Most of the business send updates with their progress, so it would give you something to share, and provide a context to discuss different. area’s of the world.

Drink More Coffee, Support Local farmers in Africa at the same time

We have just passed the 60th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball celebrating the moment when he was moved up the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. I was reminded of a segment I saw on TV regarding Jackie’s son, David, who now lives in Africa. He has married an African woman and has become a coffee farmer. He has started a cooperative of local coffee farmers, called Sweet Unity Farms, and is working toward direct distribution of global marketplace, thereby allowing the revenues and profits of the coffee industry to reach the farmers in Africa.

Anyway, I just bought my first bag of whole-bean Tanzanian. $15 bucks with shipping & handling, pretty much what I pay for my coffee anyway, except now I’m putting more money in the hands of farmers in Africa doing the hand picking, instead of distribution companies. There are many ways to help affect the world, some of them as easy as buying coffee, so next time you need to replenish your supply, check out Sweet Unity Farms.