The Girl that Silenced the World for Five Minutes

In 1992, Severn Suzuki travelled from Vancouver, Canada to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to speak in front of the United Nations Earth Summit on behalf of ECO, the Environmental Children's Organization. Since not much has changed, her message is as strong today as it was nearly eighteen years ago.


Absolutely phenomenal...

National Geographic Quietly Puts Adventure on the Block

Another great magazine heads for the publishing chopping block. Life will be a little less extraordinary without you NGA. RIP.

National Geographic Quietly Puts Adventure on the Block - M and A and Finance @ FolioMag.com

31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover

Leave it to me to decide to do a major internet marketing makeover...


I came across Michelle's 31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover last night somehow...I think it involved Twitter but as a Twitter newbie, I still tend to get information overload and can't remember how or where I found what information unless I hit the 'back' button a million times. That aside, I decided to give this makeover thing a try as it seemed rather fortuitous to come across it on day one.


Michelle MacPhearson looks like a cool chick who knows her stuff and she blows glass so that alone makes her formidable in this chick's eyes. Oh, and she wants to buy a Land Rover one day but is 'going to wait until the kids are older and less destructive'. That makes this Rover Chick very happy - both the LR part and the being sensible enough to let the kids destroy the Ford instead part. And no, that is not why I am recommending her 31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover...


Back to 31 Days: in this non-glass-blowing-super-hot-things-makes-her-nervous-unless-its-an-exhaust-manifold chick's opinion, you never quit learning. Most of my friends have heard me say at some point that if and when I ever stop being curious, kill me then and there. Life is about learning and growing and always getting better at, well, life. So, why not read 30 blog posts in 31 days about improving your internet marketing skills and potentially increasing your readership and search engine placement? Who is it going to hurt?


The other part that impresses me is Michelle discusses the 'crushing overwhelm' and 'bringing back conscious forward movement to your business'. Those are real words, not the hype and cocaine-induced hyper sales lingo that many such online courses throw at you. 'Overwhelm' is a word we have all dealt with in our businesses, online or otherwise, and 'conscious forward movement' just plain rocks! How many of us actually understand what it means to consciously make decisions and plan actions for our business instead of randomly following the path of what feels like it may make us some money?


Day two starts right now (oddly, the blog entry was posted as I was writing this post). It is about taking an inventory of your various sites and 'what you need to do to clear out the crap, the time wasters and money-suckers, you’ve got to know your inventory, how much each site makes, how much each site costs, and what you need to do to complete work on a site'.


Learn, grow, improve, and enjoy the end results!

Greg Mortenson & Three Cups of Tea

In our western world, I think we take for granted something that is an unheard of luxury in much of the rest of the world. Schools. Not education so much as there is room for improvement within our educational systems, but the actual physical building we call a school. At least our children have a roof over their head.

I am currently reading Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Greg Mortenson began the quest of building a school in one small, impoverished village in Pakistan after the people nurtured him back to health after a failed attempt at K2. I am only part way through the book - he is just about to start construction on the first school - and I am already gripped by this man’s struggle to fulfill a promise to the people of Korphe.

For anyone who has noticed, I have links to Amazon for a few choice products on this blog. There has always been the intention that any money earned would go to a charity that touched my heart in one way or another. Most people that know me would assume it would be an animal charity because of my deep love for our furry friends both wild and curled in their bed by the fireplace. I am very vocal and often step onto my soapbox about animal rights, abuse, misinformation, and anything else that happens to fuel my verbal ire at the time. Lord help anyone who is around me then!

However, there is something touching about this man’s work. Something quiet and contained with no need to debate, berate, or step on anything like a soapbox about education, literacy, and a school in every village. Who would argue back? What possible debate could there be? Would someone really take the stance that children do not deserve to have a solid roof over their head while they learn their letters?

Being both a writer and an avid reader, it seems to make some cosmic, bigger-then-me sense to give any money earned from this blog to Greg Mortenson’s cause, the Central Asia Institute.

Learn more about Greg’s work and ways of helping the children of remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan through Central Asia Institute’s community-based education and literacy programs.

And thank you Aunty Linnea for loaning me this wonderful book!