Welcome To Think Thunk.

Fires and PC Backup

ThinkThunk — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 04:54:00 +0000

A true friend called to let me know that he and the other 3 passengers in the car were safe and unharmed. The same could not be said for his wardrobe and more importantly, his notebook computer.

As a computer consultant I find myself wearing many hats. As a rule I make sure my clients are aware of PC viruses, spyware, basic system cleaning and maintenance and most importantly - backup.

My friend and his wife were passengers in a car. They noticed a smell and thought it was the truck in front of them. Then the flames starting coming out from the rear passenger seats that they were sitting in. The car was pulled over, and with some commotion every exited the car. Soon there were fire-trucks and TV cameras surrounding the left-overs of the car. There was only metal left.

My friend asked what to do about the data on his notebook PC. I asked if he had backups. There were not any. So, we learned a lesson the hard way. Hopefully, you have learned the same lesson the easy way - BACKUP !

Happy Birthday Mom!

ThinkThunk — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 03:10:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today we again celebrated Mom’s 80^th birthday. Just this weekend we had the remote family pre-birthday celebration. Just when you thought the excitement was over - here we are again with the official date celebration. We celebrate her fine physical health, her sharp mind, her positive outlook and her unending selfless nature. Her older sister flew in from 1,000 miles away to be with her.

What a blessing to have your parents live long and well. Today we celebrated mom’s birthday with a family dinner out that included her sister, who just arrived, from out of town, especially for the occasion. There are many personal things that I could say. I hope that all of you have experienced either being a loved child, a loving parent, or both.

As one spends time with family, one’s love and appreciation only deepens as the experiences of a lifetime are created and shared. I wish all of you the blessing of a loving family.

Collection Agents - Not Nice

ThinkThunk — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:21:00 +0000

Although I personally have impeccable credit, a friend of mine does not. I decided to get him out of a tight spot by paying off his debt to a collection agency. I spoke to them on his behalf and we agreed on terms. The female collection agent assigned to my friend's account faxed me the terms of settlement which said that 1/10th of the settlement amount needed to be received today and the balance needed to be received within 5 days.

On the phone the agent said that she wanted me to give her a (2) check numbers and my checking account information so that she could draw the funds per the settlement agreement. She wished for 1/10th of the funds to be withdrawn from my account immediately and the remaining 9/10ths she would withdraw 5 days later.

I spoke to my personal banker and she informed to absolutely NOT give anyone - especially a collection agency my account information. The bank cannot setup a finite and specific withdrawal schedule. Once you have given them the account information they can access your account at will and you will be powerless to control it.

With this information I called the collection agency back and spoke to a different representative. I asked for their Western Union transfer information. He gave it to me. I decided to send the full amount at once instead of as two payments, just so that we wouldn't have to deal with these people a moment longer. Later on, I found out from my friend that after his assigned representative found out that the payments were going to be sent Western Union instead of having access to my personal bank account information she threatened that she was not going to accept the payments and that she was going to sue as well as having my friend picked up by the police.

I understand if a person has no intention of paying their debt and they are deadbeats. There doesn't need to be a lot of sympathy for the habitual credit abuser. However, there are times when people find themselves in the unexpected position where they are trying to make payments as best they can and are trying to work with their creditors.

Being a collection agent may be financially rewarding. However, often the work entails preying on the already struggling, financially challenged, who cannot afford legal advice. Agents use strong arm tactics with threats and intimidation of those who cannot defend themselves. It's a place I'm glad I only have had to visit from the outside.

Think outside the box

ThinkThunk — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:04:00 +0000

The toilet handle had become limp. The chain that is connected, from it to the flapper inside the tank, had broken and was now a bit short. I just used a bread twist-tie wire and connected one end to the handle and wrapped the other end around the remaining part of the chain connected to the flapper - voila!

It doesn't really qualify as McGyver- esque, but still - it was thinking a little outside the box for a blonde housewife.

Eat right

ThinkThunk — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 03:39:00 +0000

Eating right makes a difference.

Customer service is still alive

ThinkThunk — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 05:36:00 +0000

Today I made valuable suggestions to a client that wanted to have their website updated. They had specific requests in mind before our meeting. By the end, I had explained and demonstrated some important aspects of why Search Engine Optimization was important and how to do it.

My client was very pleased and got a free class on an important marketing tool for their business. I sincerely want my customers to be successful. I put myself in their shoes and ask the questions that they don't know to ask for them. I provide them with nearly free or affordable solutions to help them grow their business. Do I make a lot of money at this. Well, I lose money on every sale, but I'm making it up on volume.

It's vital for me to make sure that my customers are treated with care and to offer assistance. If they do not want the assistance - they will let me know. That has never happened yet. They trust my professional opinion and experience to keep their best interests in mind while offering valuable marketing and business advice and solutions.

Why do I work until the job is done - even when the price for the 2 hour job is fixed and it takes 10 hours? The reason is I treat others - all others, like I personally would like to be treated. That means getting a good value, with courteous service, in a timely manner, with professional and positive results. If customer service is getting hard to find in your town - have them give me a call. I'll let them know that it's not about the money. It's about taking pride in your work and getting satisfaction from helping others move forward.

Calendar feature added.

ThinkThunk — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 06:45:00 +0000

Finally, all of the links are functional. That doesn't mean that there is great content on the main page of Think Thunk yet. However, the Think Thunk blog now is in pretty good shape. The Google group, and calendar features are in place, greatly improving the site's performance and function.

It has been a bit of coding over the past few days to get it together. But, for being so early in the project I am encouraged. What would really help would be for anyone to send some type of communication acknowledging that they either got an invitation or at least aware that we are here. As you visit this site please contact us and let us know your thoughts. We really want to hear from you - really.

Currently, the email form submission page is not functioning properly. It is most likely a setup issue in the formmail.pl script or a server rights permissions issue. In any event, please email us at WoodStork@Gmail.com or call Steve at (843) 227-9000. We expect the form to be working by Monday 11/14/05 without a specific time as of yet.

Last night I worked on the site until 4:00am and the night before until 3:00am. I will probably post again tomorrow, so it's off to sleep now since I feel that this boat is nearly ready for floating.

Steve

Calf Shaver

ThinkThunk — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:51:00 +0000

Today I shaved my calf. I knew I was going to be cutting and laying vinyl flooring, so I wore my work shorts and t-shirt. By the time I was done I had some flooring adhesive that just wouldn't come off my hands. We'll get how that is tied to shaving my calf after I give you some background.

I measured and cut the vinyl. I then thoroughly vacuumed and cleaned the bottom of the vinyl and the hall and bathroom floors where its new home would soon be. I made sure that while cutting the separate pieces that the patterns would line up where the bathroom met the hallway. I perfectly made the cutouts for the commode water supply line and the bathroom vanity. I spread the adhesive, put down the flooring and broke out the 100 lb vinyl flooring roller that I rented from Home Depot. (No, I don't get money for that.)

When the time came for the vinyl in the hallway, I had to remove the storm door and the main hallway entry door in order to spread the vinyl that went under the door sash. I can undestand why some people don't do home repairs - it takes some guts and sometimes some special tools. However, you will almost always save money by buying commonly used tools and renting specialty tools and doing it yourself than paying someone else. Eventually, you'll have accumulated enough basic tools to handle almost any home repair or remodeling project - I know I have!

After the party was over, meaning that the floors had been rolled, the doors reinstalled, and the tools cleaned - I headed home. As I was cleaning up, in the shower, I noticed that soap was not completely removing the adhesive from my hands. As I was washing my calves I noticed that there were little adhesive cling-ons on my calf hair. The more I rubbed my calf to get them off the more of them appeared. I noticed that as my calf hair was developing more of these sticky cling-ons my hands were getting progressively cleaner. Soon I was purposely rubbing the parts of my hand that had the aforeto unremovable adhesive on my calf. It was pure genius! The adhesive was sticking to the hair on my calf and my hands were now completely clean!

With my newly clean hands I tried rubbing, scratching and scraping off the adhesive from my calf hair. It was futile. It was inevitable - I picked up the razor. I shaved my calf. Now both my hands and calf are clean. Hmmm, what kind of calf hair product can I market at Home Depot to clean adhesive covered hands?

Celebrate moments / The human condition

ThinkThunk — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 04:41:00 +0000

Celebrate life and share. Today is the birthday of my best friend. He is no longer able to celebrate in person - because he has moved on. However, that doesn't keep me from celebrating for and with him. Although, I had started typing this blog at 11:41 pm, at 11:53 pm I took a break to submerse myself, literally, in the creek 200 feet away. At minight, in the beginning of January one doesn't usually find many people in the creek. As I looked up into the stars, from the cold water, I felt connected and at peace. I celebrated a moment for my friend and was very alive at that moment and the feeling stills lingers.

As I had started to say earlier, I am most fulfilled when helping to nuture, support and lift others. Curiously, I am noticing more public awareness, groups and organizations that are developing and declaring they want to help others as well. Maybe there is a threshold that is starting to be reached by our more global society to face our self-centered cultures and begin to reflect on the larger mankind. Recently, I have had both local and long distance clients bring up subjects of social consciousness and the greater good.

The clincher was an email I just received responding to a business question I had. Then another email, from the same sender, immediately followed that included a slide presentation. He explained that this presentation had been done for his friends this Christmas season. His touching and poignant presentation depicted human nature, the human spirit and the need we all have for compassion, introspection and the divine. People with messages like this need to stay in the gene pool to ensure that the voices of reason, decency and goodness in the human spirit are shared and spread. When we find some thing that was created through loving effort, for the benefit of others, we should say thanks and then consider how we can do the same.

Do it yourself

ThinkThunk — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 03:38:00 +0000

I have a purchased a rental property. My intent was to have someone quickly and affordably take care of some minor problems so that I could get it rented. You should know that I don't have deep pockets and thus, I am working on a budget as well. I cannot afford to pay the going rates of quality remodelers in this area. What happened is I used a local handyman to help me with some demo work and everything seemed fine. A few weeks later I had him return for the opposite of destruction - it's called construction (just in case you're reading this). I needed to have vinyl flooring installed in two small bathrooms.

He showed up late on the first day. After being there for about half an hour he answered his phone and said that he had to go but would be back in a couple of hours. Four hours later he re-appeared. He measured and cut a piece of luan as a smooth surface to adhere the vinyl to. He miscut and tried to force in his template into the small bathroom and it broke into many pieces. His second attempt was not a pretty sight either - it looked like the aftermath of a Lizzy Borden encounter. He said that he would come by the next morning at 10:00am to fix things up and finish the project. He never showed and never called.

What was I going to do? I decided to the job myself. I measured each measurement three times before I started cutting with the saw. Guess what? - It worked! It looks like a quality job. It's the type of job I would like to have someone do for me.

I learned something: Sometimes in order to get something done the way you want it done - you might just have to do it yourself.

January 2 - To do List and Listening

ThinkThunk — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:49:00 +0000

Today, as the first official business day of the year began, there was a long list of things to do. Although many things on the list did not get done, many things that never made the list did get done. There was a lot of energy at the starting gate. Still, it's an ambiguous start, I'll admit. Deep introspection to analyse that will not be necessary.

Friends and family are checking in. They have their own resolutions that also include keeping in touch with the ones they care most about. A good friend, that I hadn't spoken to a long time called. Rather than multi-task for efficiency, I put my pen down, kept the phone to my ear, leaned back in my chair, pushed away from the computer at the desk, and let myself be there completely for the conversation. Can I afford to do that all the time? With the ones we care about - shouldn't I? Truly, if I don't listen, who will?

We wonder why it seems people aren't listening to us. Maybe that's because we're not fully listening to them either. If you can't afford to really listen 100%, because of simultaneous demands, and time contraints, just acknowledging you registered the message may genuinely be enough - if it's not an issue that needs your continued attention at that point. However, if it is about making a meaningful connection, do the right thing and drop your distractions long enough to fully hear what's being said. Later, they will remember that you listened, participated and shared. Isn't that what it's really all about anyway?

Since no actual New Year's resolutions were made here - none can offically be broken. Having said that, there are still some good intentions that I will try to nurture and foster. One of these is to write daily. The results may not appear on this site directly, but the process may provide some positive effects. This, only time will tell. As an encouragement to the rest of you - stick to your resolutions, tough it out, and you will be rewarded. Remember - run the good race.

Being truthful with friends

ThinkThunk — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 04:02:00 +0000

It's a well known idea called the truth. However, sharing the truth, in the form of constructive criticism, with good friends still isn't easy - especially if they are older and don't think they need someone younger and less experienced telling them how to do something. Although truth is always the best route - it certainly doesn't always seem the easiest.

Today, I met up with an older friend who I felt I needed to share some advice with. Because of my delicate presentation, I believe that I was able to introduce constructive criticism that ended in a genuine and positive discussion. Although my friend did agree that the behavior I was questioning could be questioned he explained his reasons for this behavior. Although, I could have seen these explanations as a rationalization, I remained open and was able to appreciate his reasoning.

There certainly was a chance of offending my friend. However, the fact that I called him on this issue, let him know that I had noticed, forced him to be accountable for his actions. I am glad I did. One might think it would have been easier to say nothing. However, I realized that if I had something that I felt was imporatant to say - and did not, because of a possible confrontation and resulting hard feelings, then I wouldn't really have been open and honest. And what kind of real friendship is that. (You shouldn't start a sentence with and - by the way.)

So today's lesson is - if you have something to say, and you say it from a position of caring and truly positive intention, then you are being true to your friend and more importantly to yourself. Now that sounds like real friendship.

Coincidences? Probably Not

ThinkThunk — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 04:44:00 +0000

This morning started with an unexpected (for me) visit from an acquaintance that really ought to be a good friend. He is one half of the one of the finest couples I have ever known. He is highly educated and has made a conscious choice to pursue his family, travel, knowledge and personal connections over the pursuit of money. How is this working out for him? Very well.

This evening, after working out and having dinner, I stopped by the Barnes and Noble and saw "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" lying on a display table. I began reading it while enjoying some Tazo brambleberry tea. (No, I am not getting compensated for that product placement) As I began to read, lights were turning on in my head. Why hadn't anyone, specifically my parents, told me about these concepts? Well, that would be because no one had taught them either.

The connection between the morning's visitor and the book is that both brought me some knowledge that I was silently requesting just a day ago. These events were a specific response to a non-verbal, internal request I had made for some new ideas and guidance the day before. I will definitely read the rest of the book now. I recognize that some would attribute this coincidence to the law of attraction while those with a religious background would attribute this as one of the gifts described in the teachings of Abraham.

I am not going to say exactly what it was that I was requesting. What I will say is that maybe you should consider trying new ways of doing and seeing things - if you are looking for new and positive changes in the coming year. Keep you faith grounded, but your mind open. There isn't much that is going to be able to present itself and be appreciated to a closed mind.

January 1, 2007. New Beginnings.

ThinkThunk — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:21:00 +0000

New Year's day, more than any other it seems, offers each of us a clean slate - a chance to begin anew. It's seems a magical day where the possibility of making our dreams, desires, intents, hopes and wishes, come true actually tangibly exists for us.

The truth of the matter though is that any day you choose can be your New Year’s Day. The adage that “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” is as true now as the day it was first uttered.

Take stock of your life, realize that you are an amazing being and set high expectations for yourself. Apply some discipline, some imagination and a consistent positive attitude of real expectation for your aspirations and you will bring your dreams alive. It's the law of attraction - what you give your energy to you will attract. Just remember:

* Believe and trust in yourself
* You can’t win if you’re not in the race.
* Luck favors the prepared.
* Failure to plan is planning to fail.
* Set your goals high. Even if you only get halfway there, you’ll have made an amazing difference.
* Don’t listen to neigh-sayers.
* Don’t forget to enjoy the journey on the way to your destination.
* Be thankful. A thankful heart is a happy heart.
* Those with the simplest pleasures are most happy.
* Help others along the way.
* Smile, live, laugh and love !

Once again, Happy New Year for 2007 !

Welcome 2007 !

ThinkThunk — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:05:00 +0000

2007 is here! It’s only a few minutes old and I can hear the celebrating as I type. Does this mean I am missing it? - not at all. I rang in the New Year with a toast and am watching the continuing fireworks and listening to the celebratory gunfire in the neighborhood as I write this.

I am wishing all of you great things this year. Although you could do it alone, we’d love you to share your experiences, knowledge and gifts at ThinkThunk.com. We are a community dedicated to helping others. Please be a part of the solution and contribute.

Have a Happy New Year, from ThinkThunk !