Peace Corps Lessons

These speak to me…tho I’d add to number 10 “or know when not to”… My time in Morocco produced a few too many “don’t get so close to me creep” moments so I’d suggest keeping in mind where SHE’s coming from…

clipped from ivancampuzano.com Top 10 lessons I learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer 1. To know your world, you have to see it- All too often we find ourselves constrained by what is immediately in front of our faces. The same breakfast cereal, the same job, the same routine television schedules, the same life. While there can be great comfort in routine, there is a whole big world out there, and unfortunately it is not just outside your window or through your T.V. screen. Earth is blessed with a multitude of peoples, cultures, landscapes, languages and things to see and do. Whether you take on a life changing commitment such as the Peace Corps, or just take an extended vacation, make sure you go someplace new and different. Open your mind and your eyes to the different facets of the world, and your life will be richly rewarded in direct proportion to how much you are trying to experience.

Fundamentals

Just a reminder. Thanks Ruben Harris!

clipped from rubenharris.posterous.com Fundamentals Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. - William A. Ward

I wanna be “I-Shaped”

What a great concept–on thinking about it, my friends are all I-people! And it has nothing to do with Apple…

clipped from www.businessweek.com Innovation Calls For I-Shaped People These thinkers have their feet firmly planted in the practical world, can stretch their heads to the clouds—and simultaneously span all of the space in between There may be no “I” in team, but every team needs to be made up of “I-shaped” people. This idea was crystallized in my mind thanks to another Englishman, one of the early pioneers of human-centered design, Brian Shackel. I once asked him if he had noticed any particular attributes that distinguished the students that went on to do remarkable things compared with the rest. His answer was as immediate as it was insightful. He said: “The outstanding students all had an outstanding capacity for abstract thinking, yet they also had a really strong grounding in physical materials and tools.” By this, he meant that they could rise above the specifics of a particular problem to think about them in a more abstract, and in some ways, more general way.

Heee heee–Tequila is bad!

I’m enjoying this new comic!

clipped from buttersafe.com

Material Possessions

The Author’s comment: “Material possessions: they are pretty sweet.”

clipped from buttersafe.com

GOOD.com

I am officially in love with good.com.  My current favorites:

Your own factory–make your own stuff with reprap.

Cars and People–how many calories make each go?

Good Biz Facts–A Harper’s Index-like layout of green biz tidbits.

And that’s just from today’s RSS….WOW!

Poster Art

Wow, great posters somewhere or other…

Remind me of the black and white “God” posters that have been popular in the MidWest US for the last decade or so…But secular…

Recycle your Cell Phones

If you don’t already have a plan for your cell phone when it dies, consider recycling it and helping out the poor.  At onemillioncellphones.com, you can get pre-paid mailing baggies, just like the mail baggies you get to recycle your printer cartridges.

Three good reasons:

1) Toxic chemicals and metals don’t take up landfill space and thus can’t leach into groundwater.

2) Metals are recycled and reused to reduce dependence on unethical mining in around the world.

3) Provide micro-finance for poor entrepreneurs.