Giveaway Friday: Chinese Chopsticks Can Create A Cornucopia of Quality (Free Baskets!)

Before we get to this week’s Giveaway Friday, congratulations go out to Todd Howard.

According to Random.org, Todd won our giveaway from two weeks ago (everyone won last Friday) for An awesome cutting board!

On to this week’s Giveaway Friday!

In the summer of 2009, I volunteered to work for the Denver Green festival. It was a fantastic experience where I met a lot of amazing people.

I also learned new approaches that people are using on to solve some of the largest environmental problems the planet is facing today.

One of the neatest and most unique businesses I saw was at a booth manned by the inventor/creator of the chopstick basket.

Every year, millions of used wooden chopsticks are thrown out after just one use. They go to the landfill with other food scraps.

Over 25 million trees and bamboo plants are needed every year just to support how many chopsticks are used (in China alone). While chopsticks are most often wood and will break down, it seems strange that humans would go to all the expense and effort of creating a chopstick just to throw it out after a single use.

I guess there are lots of things like that, but an inventor in Oregon saw this as an opportunity.

Chopstick Art is the original idea of founder Bryan Parks, an American who lived in China for several years, and discovered that billions of chopsticks are thrown out in China every year.

Bryan decided to invent the chopstick basket.

Working with local Chinese and Thai food restaurants, he collects the old chopsticks, soaks and sterilizes them, and turns them into baskets and light fixtures.

They are decorative, stylish, functional, and made from something which is otherwise just tossed away.

Bryan calls his chopstick art “exquisitely designed accents of enduring quality and ecological significance.”

You took the words right out of my keyboard Bryan.

To be entered to win this awesome chopstick basket, all you have to do is follow the instructions below.

Step 1: Like this post on Facebook, Tweet it on Twitter, or +1 it on Google.

Step 2: Visit ChopstickArt.com (opens in new window)

Step 3: Post a comment about what you will do with this basket when you win. Post your comment here on this post (below).

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Giveaway Friday: Protecting Your Pictures Is Particularly Painless (How To Watermark Images)

Today’s giveaway is something any computer user/photographer can take advantage of.

In most of the photos we post online, you can see our Copyright CarrieAndJonathan.com and the name of the place where we were when we took the photo.

Some people have told us that the watermark interferes with the pictures, but we have the originals, and the idea is to protect the pictures while giving them context.

(So while we could make our watermark smaller, we choose to keep it larger.)

Today, I’m going to show you how to watermark any photos you want using the exact same tool we use, and you can make your watermark any size you want.

The program we use is called Fast Image Resizer for Java (FIR4J) which is basically geek-speak for “really-cool-program-that-resizes-and-watermarks-pictures.” The program is free from SourceForge.

You can download it for free here.

Some genius built it.

So once you have the program on your computer, unzip and run it.

There are lots of options you can use within FIR4J, and I run through a few of the basics in the screen capture video below.

If you have ever wanted to watermark your photos in bulk, or watermark them in a simple way, I highly recommend fir4J.

It has saved us gobs of time (that’s the official amount of time – gobs) while sharing our travels with people via our website in the photos we watermark.

You don’t have to comment or anything today… because the giveaway is right here in the videos below. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to watermark images, these videos will be a big gift for you.

Basic Watermarking

How To Watermark Images (Advanced)

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Miracles of Unparalleled Proportions…

“The light shines in the darkness.”

This is a common theme in Christianity (and other religions).

I’ve been particularly aware of this message, in various ways, in the past few weeks. Perhaps this is because we returned to America over the Christmas holiday.

But this statement has caused me to think about it’s affect on a great portion of society.

Implicit in the statement is that Jesus is the light.

Also implicit in the statement is that we humans are “in the darkness” here on earth.

But why should we live with this belief (that humans are in darkness on earth)?

Why should anyone believe the world is darkness?

This is a belief which Christianity holds as one of its fundamental teachings – Christianity is here to “save” people from the darkness of the world.

But what if the belief changes?

What if the world is beauty – if we choose to see it?

What if we are the light in the world, if we choose to see ourselves that way, and live our lives as bringers of light to the world?

What if… as research shows… our perception of reality is the greatest influencer on the reality we experience?

Could changing my perception change my reality?
Of course it could.

Could changing my vocabulary (the words I use) change my biography (my job, my friends, my life story)?
Of course it could.

Could changing my biology (the chemical and physical make-up of my body) change my experience of the world?
Of course it could.

Could changing my language or location affect the way I see life?
Of course it could.

What a world we can live in, if this most fundamental belief and practice of religion (that the world is in darkness) is replaced with a different belief. We can all live with the core belief that we, and the world, are beautiful, healthy, and strong, that life is the greatest good, and that humans, and our planet, are miracles of unparalleled proportions.

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What Are SOPA/PIPA, and Why Should You Care?

What is SOPA?
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) is on the surface a bill that attempts to curb online piracy. Sadly, the proposed way it goes about doing this could devastate the online economy and the overall freedom of the web.

It would particularly affect sites with heavy user generated content. Sites like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, and others could cease to exist in their current form if this bill is passed.

What is PIPA?
The Protect IP Act (PIPA, S. 968) is SOPA’s twin in the Senate. Under current DMCA law, if a user uploads a copyrighted movie, music, or text to sites like Youtube, EzineArticles, or MP3 sharing sites, the site isn’t held accountable so long as they provide a way to report user infringement.

The user who uploaded the movie is held accountable for their actions, not the site.

PIPA would change that – it would place the blame on the site itself, and would also provide a way for copyright holders to seize the site’s domain in extreme circumstances.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation laid out four excellent points as to why the bills are not only dangerous, but are also not effective for what they are trying to accomplish:

• The blacklist bills are expensive. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that PIPA alone would cost the taxpayers at least $47 million over 5 years, and could cost the private sector many times more. Those costs would be carried mostly by the tech industry, hampering growth and innovation.
• The blacklist bills silence legitimate speech. Rightsholders, ISPs, or the government could shut down sites with accusations of infringement, and without real due process.
• The blacklist bills are bad for the architecture of the Internet. But don’t take our word for it: see the open letters that dozens of the Internet’s concerned creators have submitted to Congress about the impact the bills would have on the security of the web.
• The blacklist bills won’t stop online piracy. The tools these bills would grant rightsholders are like chainsaws in an operating room: they do a lot of damage, and they aren’t very effective in the first place. The filtering methods might dissuade casual users, but they would be trivial for dedicated and technically savvy users to circumvent.

Want to do something to voice your thoughts about it? Go here.

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Amazing Video: Native Northerners (Eskimos) Harvesting Mussels

I think Eskimo isn’t the appropriate term anymore, but I’m not sure what tribe or ethnic group these mussel harvesters are from. Perhaps they are Inuit.

In any case, take a look at this amazing video of Eskimos harvesting mussels under the ice.

Incredible.

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Poem by Jonathan: Old Smokey

Carrie and I have been looking for apartments since getting back to Denver. It’s a long story, so I’ll keep it short.

We moved into an apartment we thought we would love.

Day 2 of living in the apartment, we realized that a very heavy cigarette smoke smell was blowing through the vents.

After investigation, we discovered the smoke was coming in through the floor of the apartment below us, right into the HVAC air intake, which meant the smoke was blowing right into the system that was heating the apartment.

The complex did what they could (cleaning out ducts, attempting to seal the space), but the smoke was still coming throughout our apartment ducting.

They were good about it and let us out of our lease.

So, this Saturday, we’re re-moving.

We’ll be moving from our ‘old’ new apartment to our ‘new’ new apartment.

In response to this event, I wrote a poem. I hope you enjoy it.

Old Smokey
by Jonathan Kraft

I once knew the man who lived downstairs
He smoked two packs a day
His cigarette smoke slithered through the floor
Seeping into my place in every way

My shirts and my pants all smelled of the stench
So I blocked all the vents with paper news
It somewhat helped, but the smell still seeped
Into my kitchen and even my shoes

Nicely, I asked if he would puff a bit less
I thought it reasonable from this guy
He said “Quite honestly, I don’t jest…
I can not quit, but I’ll definitely try.”

He went on to tell me how he’d begun
Smoking quite rarely, just a daily one
But at some point this habit became more than fun
And he’d become addicted to the smoking gun

He said, “I imagine I’d be quite rich,
If I had just put the away the money
Six dollars per day just puffed away
Never figured how much, but it wouldn’t be funny.”

“I just don’t have the fortitude to stop
I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I’ve tried again.
But I don’t have the strength that it takes, inside
I just can’t stick to my decision.”

I told him I thought he did have the strength
If he truly wanted to quit
I told him that he was fibbing himself.
If he truly wanted, he could do it.

“I suppose you’re right” said the man with a grin
But then I found his grin quite a fright
His remaining teeth were yellowed with tar
The other teeth were gone out of sight.

I thanked the man giving it a try
Though I knew his best would be to smoke
Giving things up is about deciding
Trying says your words are prob’ly a joke.

I do think he gave it some kind of effort
We spoke on occasion in passing outside
But from that day on, It seemed he felt shame
He always seemed to want to hide.

I no longer know the man who downstairs
You see he is dead, and he has gone.
His smoke smell filled up his brain and his lungs
I discovered this, one morning on the lawn

One early morning, lights and sirens flared
I looked out to see the commotion
People were moving back and forth from his place
Coming and going like waves on the ocean.

Eventually I saw them bring the man out
The one who lived downstairs
I went outside for I wanted to see him
And let him know he was in my prayers.

I reached out my hand as he went by
And told him I hoped he’d be okay
He said “I don’t think I’m coming back.
This is probably my very last day.”

“I have only one regret in my whole life.”
The man from downstairs said with a groan
“I guess I’ve always known that cigarettes equal death.
I highly recommend everyone leave them alone.”

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Recognizing So Many Complaints

Something I’ve been noticing: The Western world complains a lot.

A conjecture: one of the reasons why standards of construction are (generally speaking) higher in America than in some other parts of the world is because people expect things to be nice.

People expect things to be nice, so they demand things to be nice.

This has not been my experience over the past 2 years in many parts of the world.

But since returning to Europe this summer, and definitely since boarding the cruise in Tenerife, I have noticed that many of the Europeans and Americans I’ve been around seem to complain more than their Asian and Indian counterparts.

This could be due to the environments I’ve been in (people take a cruise because they are stressed and need a vacation, ergo more likely to complain).

It could also be because I understand English, German, and Spanish well enough to understand what people are saying, where I don’t understand any Asian languages.

So maybe I just notice the complaints more, and maybe all people, everywhere, complain a lot.

I don’t know for sure because I’m not comparing apples to apples.

Generally speaking, I think it is good to expect and demand high quality.

On the other side, I think that complaining has become so mainstream and popular that it’s almost weird if you don’t find fault with something.  If everything is good, then something must be wrong.

Snippets from 2 conversations I’ve had/overheard:

——————–
“How was your flight?”
“Good.”
“Really? That’s good. My last flight was TERRIBLE. The….”

The person initiating this conversation only asked the question “How was your flight” to set themselves up to be able to complain.

———————

“Did I tell you about the really awful thing that happened?”
“No.”
“Oh, let me tell you. It was SO Horrible. I don’t know how anyone could have gotten through something so awful. It started because…”

And then this conversation went on to talk about something relatively minor and inconsequential.

———————

Another example:

“I Hate My Teenage Daughter“ is something being heavily promoted right now.

I saw an ad for it on one of our flights, but didn’t know what it was.

When I found out, I was confused.

Is “I Hate My Teenage Daughter“ actually the name of a Television show on mainstream television?  The producers of this show managed to stick a very forceful, very negative word right into the title of the show, as a desperate effort to get people’s attention.

The title of the show is a complaint many parents have probably thought, and so the producers have named their show this way so that they relate to their audience.

They say they have done this in the name of humor.

But this kind of humor (or at least the title of the show) is actually a complaint, offers no solution, and is a very poor message to reinforce for parents of teenagers who (probably) could actually use some help in being parents (which they likely aren’t going to get from this show, except a laugh which comes from making fun of someone else). Could they have called the show something that would have been as successful? I don’t know. But the title seems to reflect the general mood of complaining, so the show may do well.

One of my goals in returning to America is to be a person who excels at:

• Speaking when I have positive things to say
• Putting myself into environments where I associate and work with people who work on challenges (directly and) in positive ways
• Staying calm and working through challenges myself, in direct ways, when I can do something about the challenges
• Letting the rest go.

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Would You Give Up The Internet For 1 Million Dollars?

If you live in America, you are already wealthy beyond the wildest imaginings of people even 30 years ago.

Take a moment today, be grateful for this fact, and let’s all go to work on making things even better.

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The Value of An Idea

As we have traveled around, and as I have built businesses in the last 10 years, I have realized that most people are full of good ideas.

(Ask Carrie. I come up with at least 3 good ideas every day.)

At the same time, most people believe (or at least say), “If I could just come up with a good idea, I could be rich.”

Having a good idea from the beginning is important.

Example: “I’ve just come up with a GREAT idea for a breakfast cereal.”  The world doesn’t need another sugary breakfast cereal, and even if yours is better than every other one out there, you probably won’t become rich with a new breakfast cereal.

Having a good idea is important.

But Action/Execution of your idea is the most important thing.

Next to that also is having the right Timing.

If you introduced a revolutionary breakfast cereal in 1975, you might really have had a shot at being wealthy by 1985.

But in 2011, the timing for introducing sugary breakfast cereal (in America anyway) is gone. People already have their favorites.

I think it’s probably something like this:

• Ideas are worth 1/5 the value of timing.
• Ideas are worth 1/10 the value of Action/Execution.
• This makes timing worth 1/2 the value of Action/Execution. Acting on something is 2x more important than being in the right place at the right time.

Idea * (Action/Execution * 10) * (Market Timing * 5).

Ideas are great, but they are multiplied by what you’re willing to do to put them into the world.

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The Modern Man

George Carlin, despite some crassness, was an amazing performer.

Here’s George Carlin on The Modern Man:

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