The Uberpreneur: How An Uber Driver Makes $252,000 A Year

The Uberpreneur: How An Uber Driver Makes $252,000 A Year, article.

Lars Andersen: a new level of archery

This is one guy I'm proud to call my countryman. He can not only split an arrow with his own arrow, but do it to an arrow flying towards him!!
And this is very far from his only remarkable skill, watch this.

Majestic - Wax Fang - American Dad

To me this song (which I like) sounds like it was made as an homage (or rip-off?) of Pink Floyd, particularly The Wall. I found a bit of agreement on the web, but not as much as I'd anticipated. What do you think?

Almost no one

Almost no one
There's a huge difference between "no one" and "almost no one". Almost no one is going to hire you. Almost no one is going to become a true fan. Almost no one is going to tell someone else about your work. Almost no one is going to push you to make your work ever better. If only 1% of the US population steps up, that's 3,000,000 people in the category of "almost no one." If only one out of 10,000 internet users engages with you, that's still hundreds of thousands of people. The chances that everyone is going to applaud you, never mind even become aware you exist, are virtually nil. Most brands and organizations and individuals that fail fall into the chasm of trying to be all things in order to please everyone, and end up reaching no one. That's the wrong thing to focus on. Better to focus on and delight almost no one.

Posted by Seth Godin feb 1, 2015

Eolake illness? and a new tea-warmer

I saw by accident that some people (enough to make it show high in suggested search terms) are searching on google with the words:
Eolake Stobblehouse illness
... showing me there's a vacuum of information there.
Yes, I have told things here and there, but I've been shy about it, because the situation is in itself complex, and because I was and am always hoping it will get much better Any Day Now.

Like many know, since 2013 I no longer own or run the nude-art site Domai. The main reason had to sell it was that I was not in a condition to work.
The doctors are not in agreement about what it is. But the current favorite is Chronic Fatique Syndrome.
Anyway, it involves debilitating pain, anxiety, and crippling chronic exhaustion.
I even stopped going out photographing, my dearest passtime.
As you may imagine, there are more fun times to be had than this, if you have a choice!
It is hard to pinpoint the start of it, but it got worse and worse until at least 2013. From 2014 there are signs of betterment sometimes, although it is still pretty uncertain. Some days I'm very low and pessimistic, others I can accomplish a little, and have some optimism (for example I've bought the domain stob.me as a memorable place to buy my art, but the site is not up yet.)

Here's to hope. Yours kindly, Eolake Stobblehouse


===========
I got a couple of fine hot-drink flasks (the brand Contigo ones turned out to be much much better than the more famous Thermos brand, for me), when I lost my last tea-light tea warmer. It didn't seem I could find a replacement for that. But now I did, though I had to import it from the states. Bought it at a site called Notting Hall (not Notting Hill).
I think it looks great, modern, and it's stable, and will service cups or tea pots of any size (the hole is smaller than the bottom of any cup I know of). (Though I think I'm one of few who use such for cups.)

This is my exemplar. I love how with modern cameras, you don't need tripod and special lights to shoot something like this indoors, you just point and shoot. With a decent camera, and especially with a fast (sensitive, apertures 1.0 to 2.8) lens, you will probably get a good picture easily. (The big aperture also gives it a taste of "pro" with the softened background, which also softens any distractions which might have been there.) 

You put one of those little fat tea light candles (in a small aluminium pot) in the bottom. The lid does not get hot (at least in the short time I've used it), but the heat up through the hole is very effective. 

Biggest variable is the material and thickness of the bottom of your cup/pot. 

Funny, writing this, I think I can smell my last cup of Lady Grey, though I used to buy the popular brand Typhoo.

The cause of addiction? (holy macaroni!)

The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think, article.
If you get run over today and you break your hip, you will probably be given diamorphine, the medical name for heroin. In the hospital around you, there will be plenty of people also given heroin for long periods, for pain relief. The heroin you will get from the doctor will have a much higher purity and potency than the heroin being used by street-addicts, who have to buy from criminals who adulterate it. So if the old theory of addiction is right -- it's the drugs that cause it; they make your body need them -- then it's obvious what should happen. Loads of people should leave the hospital and try to score smack on the streets to meet their habit.

The funny thing is that this is right in front of our nose, and yet most of us still believe that addiction comes from the drug.

Nearly fifteen years ago, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe, with 1 percent of the population addicted to heroin. They had tried a drug war, and the problem just kept getting worse. So they decided to do something radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs, and transfer all the money they used to spend on arresting and jailing drug addicts, and spend it instead on reconnecting them -- to their own feelings, and to the wider society. The most crucial step is to get them secure housing, and subsidized jobs so they have a purpose in life, and something to get out of bed for. I watched as they are helped, in warm and welcoming clinics, to learn how to reconnect with their feelings, after years of trauma and stunning them into silence with drugs.
[...] since total decriminalization, addiction has fallen, and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent.
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North and South

There seems to be some kind of universal "rule" that the expensive neighborhoods are north of a city, and the cheaper ones are South of it. (Anybody know any significant exceptions?)
Why should it be like that, that seems so weird to me, like 500 coin tosses all coming out heads. One should think that desirability of location would be by landscape features, not the Earth's magnetic field!
(Is it the same in the Southern hemisphere, or reversed?)

Dances with powder

Dances with powder.
(No, not that kind of white powder. At least I hope so, for his budget and for the dancer's health.)

There is also a video. 

Senior sax humor

[Thanks to Kirk]

An older couple were lying in bed one night.

The husband was falling asleep but the wife was in a romantic mood and wanted to talk.

She said: "You used to hold my hand when we were courting."

Wearily he reached across, held her hand for a second and tried to get back to sleep.

A few moments later she said: "Then you used to kiss me."

Mildly irritated, he reached across, gave her a peck on the cheek and settled down to sleep.

Thirty seconds later she said: "Then you used to bite my Neck."

Angrily, he threw back the bed clothes and got out of bed.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To get my teeth!"

_____________________________________

DOWN AT THE RETIREMENT CENTER

80-year old Caroline bursts into the rec room at the retirement home.

She holds her clenched fist in the air and announces,

"Anyone who can guess what's in my hand can have sex with me tonight!"

An elderly gentleman in the rear shouts out, "An elephant?"

Caroline thinks a minute and says, "Close enough."

__________________________

OLD FRIENDS

Two elderly ladies had been friends for many decades.

Over the years, they had shared all kinds of activities and adventures.

Lately, their activities had been limited to meeting a few times a week to play cards.

One day, they were playing cards when one looked at the other and said,

"Now don't get mad at me...

I know we've been friends for a long time but I just can't think of your name.

I've thought and thought, but I can't remember it.

Please tell me what your name is."  

Her friend glared at her.

For at least three minutes she just stared and glared at her.

Finally she said,

"How soon do you need to Know?"

_____________________________________

SENIOR DRIVING

As a senior citizen was driving down the highway,

his car phone rang. Answering,

he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him,

"Vernon,

I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on I85.

Please be careful!"

"Hell," said Vernon,

"It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"

Hard rock classics

Karefully kollekted tonite for U, the conniseur, U no hoo U R.
All diffirant, all gud.






I tuk too from Ministri's "Ze Mine Iz A terrable Ting To Taist", 4 it's a rekord wich must be remembarred!! Takking bout Minstry, doen miss this!

What if Michael Bay Directed "UP"?

Michael Bay is the director who is happy and proud that his crew is terrified of him. How do I know? He said so himself on a commentary track! (Transformers 1) He mentioned gleefully how when he was coming to the set in a bad mood, somebody would run ahead and shout "Coming in hot!", like the young boys in The Wire who ran around shouting "Five-Oh!" when the police were coming.

The one below is very critical, but it has some good points.
And M Bay recently walking off a stage because he was unable to say a few words about his process when the teleprompter broke? Whu?



(There are many of these "Honest Trailers", but be warned: don't watch them if they're about movies  you liked.)

Just after sunrise, January

(click for big pic)

Update:
Laurie Jeffery said: Excellent! What equipment did you use? 

Thanks, friend.
Olympus OM-D E-M1, with the pro grade 12mm-40mm F:2.8. (It's the equivalent in view angle and image quality to the Canon and Nikon 24-70mm 2.8 zooms, but much more portable (and with a notch more reach).)
It's nice to have such a sharp and fast zoom. With a slower lens I'd had to use a tripod, and there was no time for that, light changes very fast with the sun close to the horizon, and indeed, on my last frame, the street lamp had been turned off!
And I still consider the E-M1 to be the best all-round camera there is right now.