Abandon Nest

Every once in a while, you need to sit down and think about your life. Think about your priorities and what you’ve been spending your time on. Sometimes, you need to ask yourself one question.

Am I living my life to the fullest?

Obviously, this is a very tough question to answer. What is the fullest? How do you fill your life? Do you need more stuff and more money? Should you spend your time volunteering or working towards a personal goal, or both? It is so difficult to answer these questions with any semblance of objectivity and completeness.

I think it really comes down to this. If you were struck by a car on your way to work and died, would you, if you had some type of consciousness remaining, be pleased with what you’ve been doing and how you’d lived your life? Today, this happened to someone where I work. A woman was walking across the parking lot into one of our buildings, was struck by a car, and died. When you hear about things like that, see the police cars, and get the company wide email, you really start to think.

So, take some time tonight and think it through. Are you living your life to the fullest? If not, how can you improve?

I’m a huge fan of Starbucks. First, they have amazing drinks. Whether you prefer cold or hot, you pretty much can’t go wrong. Second, its a great place to just sit and hang out. That’s what I’d like to talk about today. So why is Starbucks so great?

• Quiet and peaceful - Everyone wants a little peace and quiet every once in a while. You may not be able to get it at work or at your apartment, so why not head out and find it?
• Great atmosphere - At my local Starbucks I have plush padded chairs and nice oak tables. There is a great hardwood floor and soft music fills the shop. I love it. It’s so relaxing that the time just slips by.
• Great people - I don’t think I’ve ever been in a Starbucks where the people were mean. At the local store they now know me by name, and I’ve only been in there 4 times. It’s great.

I find I can get a ton of work done in the coffee shop because of all these things. I can go and spend a few hours sipping away at a venti cafe mocha while I read my newest book or type away on my laptop. If you get a chance this weekend, spend a few hours somewhere relaxing away from home, and see how great it is. I recommend Starbucks.

MySpace is the 2nd most visited site on the internet today in terms of pageviews. It’s home to a lot of people and is impossible to ignore in today’s “new media” society.

If you’re not familiar with MySpace, here’s the basic gist. MySpace.com is a social networking website that allows you to make a profile, customize it, and have “friends.” Last year, it was sold to Rupert Murdoch for a large sum of money so “old media” definitely thinks it has value. However, would it benefit
you to become part of the craze?

If you’re not already a MySpace member, I have to encourage you to stay far far away from the site. First, I believe the website itself has no value as a true networking tool. Sure, you can have 5000 friends, but how many do you actually know and how many will actually provide you with any value? My guess is the number is close to 0.

In addition, because MySpace users are allowed to customize their pages to their heart’s content, you end up with some of the most garish, disgusting, user-unfriendly, and atrocious pages on the internet. Picture annoying music, terrible colors, and unreadable text and you pretty much have 90% of MySpace pages. Also, it takes about 10 clicks to actually do anything on the website. No wonder it’s second in pageviews to Yahoo!

As you can tell, MySpace has almost zero use as a networking or marketing tool. Of course, there are a few exceptions. If you’re a female model or willing to portray yourself in compromising situations (without being pornographic), then
you’ll be popular and could end up with benefits. Barring that, I’d say you’re out of luck.

If you want a good user experience, great design, and excellent organization, MySpace is not for you. It’s a mess, quite frankly. I could not recommend MySpace to anyone, for any reason, ever. MySpace will not be a marketing or networking coup for you, so if that’s what you’re after, try LinkedIn or Facebook instead.