T-M-I from T-I-M

Trusted Source Search Algorithms

I just read a super post on Mark Cuban's blog about how brands sway consumer interest and its relation to current search engines.  Most of the time when I search on google I rarely go past the first page (unless the results are just off the mark, of course then I will just change the search).

He brings up a superb point about the power of recommendations from people like Oprah or even Mark Cuban as a means to improve the impact of a search.  He also talks about targeting certain demographics in the media as a means to draw an audience.

How do you do that in search?  He asks:

If Mark Cuban on Facebook lists my favorite magazines, books, movies, what have you, will anyone care ?

I think yes.  Wouldn't it be cool to have a search engine that you could type in certain general demographic info and type in "book recommendations" and you would get 50 or 60 search results with people who would likely resonate with you?

I suppose the search engine could simply crawl to social networks or relevant websites.  Maybe the point I find so exciting (and I'm probably late to the game on this) is that I would rather get 10 results where 70% of them work vs. 100,000 results where I'm lucky if .1% work.

It's interesting how he just drops ideas like this out here, basically giving people the chance to hit it big with a new idea.

Garfield without Garfield

A friend of mine forwarded me this link to the Garfield comic strip without our friend Garfield in it. 

Pretty funny results!

To be or not to be....a parent

My good bud Ben just wrote a sizzling blog post on his experience telling people that he's either a no or maybe to be a parent.  I completely understand where he is coming from and feel a little torn about it.

I'm torn because I realize how hard it is to evaluate what it means to have a child if you don't have one.  I know that sounds a little snooty and it's just the type of stuff that drives me nuts.

But the fact is I've never repeatedly experienced moments of unconditional love with anyone else in my life other than my daughter.  I've been in love with women before (most notably her mom) and love my parents and my brothers dearly.  But it doesn't quite match up to how I feel about my daughter.

How can I explain it?  I can't.

In fact there have been a few occasions where I have told my daughter:  "You know honey I'm going to tell you I love you but it doesn't really even capture what I'm feeling, it's something deeper but I love you is all I have."  (which is usually followed by a good minute or two of hugging or snuggling)

Now whether or not someone has a child is secondary to me to that person having this experience of unconditional love in their lives.

Maybe they are lucky enough to experience it with a life partner or a friend or even themselves if they attain that level of enlightenment.  My path has been to experience that with a child.  That's how it had to work for me.

Whether someone decides to contribute to the continuation of our species is completely up to them. 

I just hope whichever way Ben or anyone else goes that they get the chance to feel the kind of love I have for my daughter.  It's a clear model for how I can actually unconditionally love and accept myself, which is what we all ultimately want anyway, right?

Jesus Christ!

I was playing hoops the other day with a group of friends and one of my homies, who is an awesome hoops player, was not playing so well.  After a couple of missed shots, he yelled out:  "Jesus Christ!" because he was angry.

It got me thinking (which as most of you know can be a...well...entertaining venture?).  I've written before about swearing and that I think it's basically a waste of words.  But I will accept the occasional f-bomb as being something I just can't change. 

But why invoke Jesus Christ when you're pissed?

If a Buddhist is playing golf and he shanks one into the woods does he throw his club and yell:  "Siddhartha Gautama!!!!"  (aka Buddha)?

I doubt it. 

I freely admit that I've taken both God's and Jesus' name in vein and have dropped my share of f-bombs.  I admit (a little less freely but in public) that I've even combined the two giving JC a lesser known middle name of the f-ing bomb.  But mostly on the golf course which I think after Vatican Council II classifies it as a venial, not mortal sin.

I just don't understand why that urge came up in me and comes up in others.  Here's a man that was all about love, acceptance, compassion, understanding, honesty, peace, etc. and his life was cut way short and partially memorialized by people who are, I guess, just plain tired of using the 7 dirty words.

Who knows?  At some point we may just get tired of God or JC and decide to become more modern.

Lost your keys?  John Lennon!!!

Cut off in traffic?  Mother Theresa!!

Burn your dinner?  Martin Luther King, Jr.!!

Just something to think about.

"I've read your blog and...."

I find it particularly curious at this point when I meet someone for the first time and they tell me that they've read my blog and etc., etc.  I've always been pretty transparent out here and have been doing this for a couple years now.  As such, there's a lot of my life history out here.

So when someone tells me that they've read my blog, I'm not always 100% clear about what they've taken from it but I do feel like they know an awful lot about me.  In some ways it's a bit disarming.  In another, very real way, it's actually pretty comforting to me.

The fact is I'm not much different than what you read here on this blog.  I'm a sensitive, open, honest, flawed, sometimes happy/sometimes sad, curious, ambitious (at times), bitter (at times), funny, compassionate, fairly smart individual.  My views on things will change from time to time but my core belief is permanent.

My core belief is that there is no greater power than love.

I know that you take me to the hardest, most crack-addicted, sociopathic, seemingly hateful individual and I have a strong inner knowing that love can save him or her.

Now I readily admit that I don't always act in a loving way.  I stray and I KNOW when I'm doing it (at least I do now, I haven't always known that).

When I don't act lovingly and it involves someone else, I usually have to ask for forgiveness.  Interestingly when I'm decimating myself I usually rely on time to take care of those self-inflicted emotional wounds rather than ask forgiveness on that (which by the way, if you're wondering, does not seem to work all that great).

And given the fact that my blog and myself aren't all that different, it means that when I meet someone who tells me "I've read your blog and...." I actually don't really have to worry about what part they read of it because it's all me and I'm not an act....as far as I can tell.