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Oprah Winfrey: “What I know for sure is that what you give comes back to you.”

Everyone is aware of the extreme profitability of Apple and other Tech Companies (slightly less, but still very profitable). To put things in perspective, WorldPay created a website with an animation that shows how quickly the top tech companies generate their revenue and profits…it puts things into perspective eh?

The screenshot below was taken after just 3 seconds and while Samsung has the biggest revenue, Apple puts all the other tech ‘giants’ to shame when it comes to actual profit; a stunning $4000 in 3 seconds, (accumulating to $1,000,000 in just 14 minutes and 11 seconds!!)…Apple’s profit is bigger than the combined revenue of Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo and LinkedIn, WoW!

Give it a try yourself (click the play button) and see how long you can stand watching all that money pile up. 🙂

Real Live Preacher: “There isn’t much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren’t really living without it.”

For all of ‘us’ who are born in the 50s, 60s, 70s, or early 80s; CONGRATULATIONS, you made it!

You made it, *despite* the challenges put on us by the living standards of those years which, according to todays regulators and bureaucrats, are supposed to be life threatening and therefore totally unacceptable…uhhh?!? Well, I’d rather like to say; You made it, *thanks to* the challenges put on us by the living standards of those years! He he, I am pretty sure you know what I mean… 🙂

James A. Garfield: “Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.”

In my professional career I used a pretty good problem solving technique; acknowledging that the problem exists, and they actually will (always unfortunately) occur and it is just how you deal with them (and THAT you deal with them) that makes the difference! (a technique which is also valid for private life btw. 🙂 ).

The ‘international guidelines for problem solving’ chart below show some different approaches (ROTFLMAO!), I am not so sure if they reach the same positive results, but perhaps real solutions are not the main objective in international politics… 🙂

Anita Roddick: “The end result of kindness is that it draws people to you.”

Recently a hype emerged about a revolutionair new speed-reading technology called Spritz. The software developer has been working on the technology for three years, and aims to revolutionize the way we read.

‘Why it Works’ (from spritzinc.com): “Reading is inherently time consuming because your eyes have to move from word to word and line to line. Traditional reading also consumes huge amounts of physical space on a page or screen, which limits reading effectiveness on small displays. Scrolling, pinching, and resizing a reading area doesn’t fix the problem and only frustrates people.”

In theory it all sounds very nice, and you can see some examples below to verify that it actually works (yes, I was *really* ably to READ at those speeds, wow!). I believe there is a catch though; reading text is one thing, understanding what you just read is a whole different ball-game…TIME.com has a nice piece on it; ‘The ‘Brain App’ that’ better than Spritz‘ (READ it, the old-fashioned way 🙂 )!
250 words per minute:

350 words per minute:

500 words per minute:

Hugh Macleod: “The best way to get approval is not to need it.”

I recently took the ‘What Country Do You Actually Belong In?‘-test (via buzzfeed.com) and got a pretty satisfying result: Norway! (lucky me, I don’t have to move LoL 🙂 )

Yeah, I am really happy living here, check out ‘Why Norway is arguably the most beautiful country in the world‘ for some of the reasons why! (and yes, it is all true! 🙂 )

Robert Ingersoll: “Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.”

A friendly reminder for y’all so that none of you will miss it, there are still some hours left to celebrate THE event of the year; yes guys, it is Steak & Blow Job Day today, yayyy!!! 🙂

Well, actually not so much ‘yayyy’ for me as I don’t eat meat (and am therefore ‘missing out’ on the steaks, which I don’t feel too bad about 🙂 ) and also, for some reason I have been home alone on March 14 ever since I found out about this Day two years ago (and *that* makes me miss out the blow job, which is definitely NOT good! 😉 ).

The whole theory of Steak & Blow Job Day is founded on it being a Man’s equivalent to Valentine’s day and the idea is simple; there are no cards, flowers, candy or other overpriced fluff. Partners need only to bestow their man with a steak and a blow job. But not necessarily in that order. And not necessarily only once that day. And it doesn’t even have to be them who does it.

It is also good to see that this memorable day is supported by some of the smartest and wisest man in the world:

– Stephen Hawking: ”Fellatio is awesome and makes you smarter!”

– Ghandi: “If only there were more Steaks and Blow Jobs in the world, we would have no War…” (~ Ghandhi on Steak & Blow Job day, before he turned vegetarian.)

(Oh, and for all you girls out there, don’t get too upset…your turn comes soon enough: April 14 is Cake and Cunnilingus Day! 😉 )

Margaret Wheatley: “When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.”

Fantastic!! (via Kerwin Rae, also via Facebook)

Once a group of 500 people were attending a seminar. Suddenly the speaker stopped and decided to do a group activity. He started giving each person a balloon. Each person was then asked to write their name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room.

The people were then let into that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written on it within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos.

At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon.
Then, the speaker asked each person to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker then began, “This is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is.

Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness; you will get your own happiness. And this is the purpose of human life…the pursuit of happiness.”

Budd Schulberg: “Isn’t everyone a part of everyone else?”

I flew home with my angel today and had a fantastic flight; Misha is talking more and more and has been entertaining everyone on the flight (including his proud daddy 🙂 )! Back home we were taken by surprise how little snow is left; the garden is still white but everywhere else all snow is more or less gone…already, yuk!! 🙁

After Misha hit the hay I couldn’t wait any longer and I set up my new Marantz SR6008 AV receiver! (he he, instead of unpacking my suitcases; two HEAVY suitcases in addition to one ‘odd-size luggage’ box containing the Marantz…traveling light is still not my thing 🙂 )

Setting it up was a charm following the easy on-screen procedure including the Audyssey automatic speaker setup, which honestly surprised me in its quality…the first hours of listening/watching/playing are already fantastic, quality sound is back in da house!! 🙂

Still some things to do though; I found out that I lack some HDMI cables, want to replace the speaker cables and I need to find another solution to get network access to the unit as my Ethernet-over-Power adapter is broken, darn! (Spotify, Airplay and controlling the receiver via an iOS app is a must!)

Zora Neale Hurston: “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”

Gregory Garcia and Dan Coscino: “A hug is a wonderful thing. It makes you feel wanted, needed, and loved all at the same time.”

This is a great cartoon showing ‘Imagine’ from John Lennon as you have never seen it before!

It is made by Pablo Stanley, check out his site stanleycolors.com for more great ‘Comics and stuff’!

Click the picture for the full image (or click the direct link here), this YouTube video is nice too!

Louise Nevelson: “I never feel age…If you have creative work, you don’t have age or time.”