Open Loops

Open Loops Update

For those of you who left comments and emailed me with words of support, I want to express my sincere thanks for your good thoughts for me during this difficult time.

Unfortunately, after wrestling with an illness for a little over six weeks, my mother passed away on October 24.  During this difficult time, there was plenty of time for reflection about the lessons taught by my mother as well as lessons learned during this ordeal.  I'll be sharing some of these lessons in the days and weeks to come.

Beginning Monday, October 31, Open Loops will be updated, once again on a regular basis.

My Spotty Posts

My apologies for the spotty posts over the last few weeks. My mother, who lives in a different state, is having some severe health issues.  Due to this, I am presently in the state of West Virginia, where she is in the ICU of a hospital in Huntington, WV.

Due to this, I am not able to post with the same frequency as when I am home.  I apologize for lack of fresh posts and will resume posting as soon as I am able to return to home.

Thanks to all for your patience in this very trying time for my family and myself.

Do Not Call Me!

National Do Not Call Registry

Yes, little children, those mean ol’ telemarketers will soon have access to your cell phone numbers.  It irks me to no end to think that they will be able to call me on my dime to pitch me their product when I’ve shown absolutely no interest in what they are selling.

If you hate the idea as much as I do, click on the above link and register your cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry.  I registered my home phone when the Do Not Call Registry first began and my telemarketing calls were eliminated.  I hope it works with my cell phone just as well.

Americans and Their Time at Work and Home

The results of a survey conducted by Day-Timers yielded some interesting information about American attitudes related to personal management, including time at work, time at home, goals, success, and happiness.  There’s so much information in there, but here are a few tidbits that stood out to me:

Study: Meanness in Girls Can Start at 3 - Yahoo! News

As a follow-up to today’s earlier post, I found this news article.  I mentioned in my earlier post that children can treat others in ways that can affect how they develop into adults.  Here is more data regarding how children can treat others.

Study: Meanness in Girls Can Start at 3 - Yahoo! News

Good Looks Mean Better Pay

A recent article cited a study by two university researchers that indicate the following about aesthetic endowment and economic earning potential and productivity:

• Plain looking folks earn 5% - 10% less than good looking ones.
• The results are the same in all occupations.
• Ugly women are less likely to hold a job
• Ugly women are more likely to marry men with no talent and/or ambition.
• Spending money on make-up, hair styling, and a better wardrobe to mask or improve their physical endowments did not improve one's economic lot in their career.
• Ugly children turn into ugly adults.
• The taller the man, the bigger the paycheck. (I guess that size is important in that regard)

Ouch!  I mean, look at my picture.  What am I going to do?  At least at 6' 2" I have height on my side.

Open Loops Store is Open

Usually Saturday and Sunday are light days for blog reading per the stats, so this weekend we'll let you have a sneak peek at the new Open Loops Store.  In the right hand sidebar, you'll find a shopping icon that is a link to the store.  Right now, you'll find a few items with the Open Loops logo on them.  In the days and weeks to come,  we'll add more merchandise with various productivity cartoons, pictures, and quotes.  Go ahead and give it a spin!

My goal is to make Open Loops "Productivity Central" with access to as many productivity related items, ideas, and products as possible.  I've already switched to using Flickr as my photo album server due to their great addition of highlight boxes where I can add comments to the photos.  I'm also working on some ideas to make Open Loops even more interactive.  For example, after the store is up and running, I'll be adding a voice blog section as well as playing with the idea of podcasting.  I'm also working on some guest authors to bring a fresh perspective into our discussions.

So, help us grow by shopping for merchandise, clicking on the links in the ads on the left, and using the donate buttons below the ads.