Contaminated water tanks, oil leaking into water supplies, high levels of prescription medication found in drinking water, political corruption surrounding paying for water, water management agencies offices in high-rent areas, high taxes on bottled water…
…And all of these things are just in and around Chicago!
There’s no point in reiterating how important water is to all living creatures. Living in Chicago, where the entire eastern border of the city is surrounded by Lake Michigan, I am constantly reminded of it. Yet, for some reason, many tend to forget the real reason for all of what is done to get all the clean water we need. Today is Blog Action Day, a day where bloggers around the world write on a particular topic. This year, it is water.
Whenever conversations around a global concern take place, people tend to forget what is immediately around them, their backyard. As my Mom always said, charity begins at home. Keeping her great advice in mind, I propose not only thinking locally and acting globally, but acting on both.
Act Locally
Many people don’t know how the water gets to run out of their faucets. Here’s your opportunity to go out and find out what you don’t know. In Chicago, the city has a water management department and as well there is a regional water authority, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. I will be honest in that I don’t know too much about either of these departments, other than the latter has prime offices just off the Magnificent Mile and people buy billboards in their bid to be a commissioner of this organization. The also manage a system called “Deep Tunnel” to prevent overflows and flooding.
So why would you want to know this? Understanding the political ecosystem is usually as important as the environmental one, as the former has to do with how much you pay for your water, as well as the safety and purity of the supply. Though they should be straightforward systems, they tend not to be, and it can be summed up in 1 word – politics. I’ll leave it at that.
Knowledge is power, especially on the local level, and if you need to act – or react – you can be ahead of the game in knowing who is responsible.
Act Globally
Unless you’re planning on traveling the globe to do so, your options to help people’s water supplies around the world are limited. Here’s a great way to help such a cause while learning from great entrepreneurs – buy a copy of the Age of Conversation 3!
You may recall I talked about this great book, where myself and hundreds of people around the globe contributed to a truly collaborative story. The book is also a not-for-profit endeavor, and all proceeds from it go to Charity: Water an organization where all proceeds go to helping people around the globe, and they have the photos and geo-locations to prove it. Simply buy a copy of Age of Conversation 3 from Amazon or any other outlet and you have helped the cause. I’ll even autograph it for an extra donation!
We can all do our part to help – for the benefit of others as well as ourselves. So think before you take that drink of water today, all 8 glasses of it.
What better way to truly learn a new mobile device than to use it in real time… with colleagues in a business setting… dressed in suits… on a beach? This was my experience a few weeks back, as I was a guest and participant in the Nokia E73 Mode Beach House on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA.
Believe it or not, it was as I said – a gathering of mobile technology aficionados, with bloggers, consultants and fans. Most were from southern California, where a few of us were invited from around the US and Canada. The reason for the event was to get hands-on with the Nokia E73 Mode, a close sibling of the Nokia E72 smartphone, which is offered exclusively by T-Mobile. The business setting scenario was for a video shoot on the beach with all of us as participants, complete with planned and unplanned events. The weekend was organized by the gracious and brilliant minds of WOMWorld/Nokia, who handle word-of-mouth marketing for Nokia.
The E73 Mode Beach House was a multi-level house right on Sunset Beach. Those us from out of town – myself, Glenn, Lenny (aka The Truth) and Dennis – along with the WOMWorld crew – Donna, Adam and James – stayed at the beach house for a couple of nights and the house and back deck were converted for the festivities on Saturday night for us and those from the LA area. Some of the people included Jen, Jeb, Al and Mike. It was a reunion of sorts for Jen, Donna, Glenn and I as we all met a couple of years back at Nokia OpenLab in Helsinki. Though time had passed, it didn’t seem like it as we all keep in touch through social media.
Our assignment for the weekend was to make a video of us using the E73 Mode. It offers different “modes” where you can have both a home and work screen, each configured for what you need for each. As the camera crew arrived and were setting up, we were ushered upstairs to get dressed. We were confused as we certainly weren’t walking around the beach house naked. Then we saw what we had to wear – suits, complete with shirts and ties. Then the story came to life – we were working on the beach, but also living, and trying out the E73 Mode as to how it would help us with both modes of our life. As I said it is the sibling of the E72, one which I already own, I was well aware how well this works.
As for the video – nothing was scripted. There was the “story” of us working on the beach, but much of it was improvised, including Glenn surfing in his suit and the volleyball game of the suits vs. the locals, where the mobile geeks won! The video is embedded below, or you can watch the Nokia E73 Mode Beach Party official video on YouTube.
I’ll write more on the E73 Mode later, reviewing its features, and comparing it to the E72 and other mobile devices. In the meantime, enjoy the video, and thanks to Nokia and WOMWorld/Nokia for a great weekend experience, not to mention building a great device.
Sunscreen – check. Sand shoes – check. Desire to check email while on the beach – check!
I’m off to southern California for the Nokia E73 Mode beach party to be held on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA. The folks from the word-of-mouth marketing team of Nokia, WOMWorld/Nokia, have invited me and others from around the country, as well as a number of folks from the LA area, to participate in this unique event, which you can read more about here.
While we take advantage of the sun and beach, we’ll be trying out the new Nokia E73 Mode mobile device, which is available at T-Mobile in the US. It appears to me to be similar to my E72 device, and I will find out first-hand for sure this weekend.
If you’re so inclined, you can follow along on Twitter, and we’ll be will be using the hashtag #e73mode. I’ll also be checking out the camera and may do some video streaming, though my main focus will be on how the E73 can fit into my work life. Seriously!
Thanks again to the folks from WOMWorld/Nokia for inviting me out to this great event. And for the sake of full disclosure, or more like to keep the FTC from coming after me, you can read about my relationship with Nokia.
It is with a heavy heart that I write about Father Joseph McGlone, a retired Catholic priest from the Boston area, who passed away earlier this year. I just found about this news by chance when I was performing some Web searches. Allow me to take a diversion from my usual writing to remember a great man and leader.
Fr. Joe, as he was known to everyone, was the pastor of Corpus Christi Church in the village of Auburndale in Newton, Massachusetts. He was there for over 30 years, which is rare for a priest. I was fortunate to have been a member of Corpus Christi when I lived in the Boston area and was honored to have had him marry me and my lovely wife several years ago.
Fr. Joe had a unique appeal; unlike many priests this good Catholic boy had known over the years. He was very real and down to earth. He welcomed you into his church and made you feel at home. He prayed for the issues that many other priests would jam down your throat! As a result, Fr. Joe made Corpus Christi a truly welcoming church, and it certainly wasn’t a chore to go to his church every week. This is not to say Fr. Joe was not assertive or a leader. Even when he used his great sense of humor, he was making a point. There was a period of time I had not been regularly going to church. When I did finally start going back, one week I brought my family with me and he made sure I knew I hadn’t been there and how much I missed and how much I was missed. He jokingly let me had it, all the while welcoming me back.
As the sex abuse scandal was exposed in the Archdiocese of Boston, it took its toll on everyone, including Fr. Joe. When the Archdiocese announced that churches would be closed, he pointed this out one week in his sermon that church expenses weren’t being met my offerings and this was not a good sign for Corpus Christi. This must have been tough for him to say as he never asked for money. But the next week, offerings nearly doubled and maintained that level. I also remember asking Fr. Joe how he was doing throughout the scandal, especially as many of those priests were in surrounding towns. His response was, “I am a woodcutter.” When I asked him to explain, he said if anyone asked him what he did for a living, he would say he is a woodcutter and not a priest. That was on par with his style.
At the time of the almost heartless church closings taking place in the Archdiocese of Boston, Fr. Joe was asked to retire, to which he refused. Everyone was ecstatic he stood his ground! Here was a new archbishop coming in from out of town and wanting what was right about the church to leave? A few years later, after I had moved form the Boston area and Corpus Christi had merged with another church, he was asked again to retire and did. Though I cannot speak directly to the circumstances after I was away, I did hear he remained active in the church close to his hometown where he was a member after retirement, and I am sure they were fortunate to have him.
Right before I moved to Chicago, I lectured one last time at Corpus Christi and Fr. Joe was the presiding priest at the mass. At its conclusion he surprised me by announcing to the congregation that both my wife and I were leaving for a city where he had once studied once in his career at Loyola University. His thoughts were touching as he recalled our wedding and wished us well. That was one of the last times I saw Fr. Joe and a great memory of a great man, along with the many others I have of him from over the years.
What was unique about this project was I did not read the book before the Web site went live. Though I knew what the book was about, I didn’t know the full story. When I finished OUIJA – For The Record, I put down a fascinating story about a family who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960’s as the result of sessions with an Ouija board. Seriously! Where the story may be somewhat far-fetched to some, my only comment to people is to get a copy of the book for yourself, read it, and then form your own opinion.
As with all books I read, including non-fiction and novels, I have a list of takeaways from OUIJA – For The Record, including:
Tell Your Story - Most all of us have a unique story to tell. It may not be about all of our life, perhaps a small period of time. Even if it is not truly unique there will be someone else interested in what you have to say for a variety of reasons. It may be best told as a blog post or straight to a bound book. But tell it.
People Need Something to Believe In - Whether you are always on the move or live a simple life, we all want something to believe in. In the case of the family in OUIJA – For The Record, what they believed in was that they needed to go to the Middle East. Whatever that something is, it may not be even something you are necessarily looking for. What did that wise British philosopher say about not getting what you want, but what you need?
OUIJA – For The Record was a good read about a family that could be your next door neighbor, or yourself. If you like stories about every day people, or even in the paranormal as the Ouija board was a key element in these peoples’ lives, I highly recommend you get a copy of this book.
If you are still reading this after the last sentence, thank you! I know some have strong positive or negative opinions of Beck, however I am writing this as I do about all books I read, penning my takeaways from it, which I received the book as a gift from a family member.
My greatest takeaway from the book was not from Beck's writings at all, rather from its appendix which had the full text of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in 1776. With this, Beck reinforces his points with the complete writings of the original pamphlet. Many authors I have read use numerous quotes to make their point, but not an entire piece. Granted it was probably easier as Paine's writings are in the public domain. But if you can, why not? It made it easier to read one set of points, then another.
Another takeaway from the book was to publish what you say. i am not a regular viewer of Beck's Fox News show, but I have watched it. What I read was in line with what he says on his show.
My final takeaway from Common Sense is to be a well-informed member of society. And I'll leave it at that!
Common Sense was a quick read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys political discussions or watches the author's show.
If you are a regular reader of The Hot Iron, you may have gotten a sense that I am surely glad 2009 is over and 2010 is off to a great start, both from a business and personal perspective. It surely is nice to see when things come together and progress, whether we are overtly looking for them or not.
One sign things are better presented itself to me when I wasn’t even looking for it. As I added a bottle of wine I just purchased to our wine rack at home, I realized the rack was full, as shown in the accompanying picture. For the record note my wife and I are surely not sommeliers, but we do like to have a glass of wine with a meal and friends. The brands stored on this rack are also more than likely not to appear in any article by Chicago Tribune food and wine critic Bill Daley. We always like to keep a few bottles on hand and will usually get something for special occasions. But the point here is this – last year, the rack was not full all the time last year. Not only is it now full, but the couple of bottles of champagne we have are chilling for the right time to pop them open.
Another sign of good times is there have not been as many posts here on The Hot Iron as I would have liked. For now, I will share this, and write more pointed pieces in the future.
To all my friends and family and readers of The Hot Iron in the US and those who celebrate Thanksgiving around the world, may you have a safe and happy holiday, and most importantly - a great turkey! The photo above is of our turkey which, as I write this, is cooking and filling the room with some great smells! As there are plenty of photos out there of cooked turkeys, why not show what the bird looks like before?
As a way of promoting their E series of mobile devices, Nokia created a Web microsite called The Unloader, where you can upload a digital document and it is either recycled or destroyed through the site. It is a clever idea site which takes an image of the uploaded document and merges it with video and audio of “real” equipment doing the destruction.
The site has been out for a while, but I just rediscovered it this week. To play with it again, I decided to destroy the FTC guidelines for blogging! Below is the embedded video from the experience.
What else can you destroy here? Perhaps a PDF of a small paystub or a copy of your tax bill? The options are endless! And for the sake of full disclosure, I was an attendee at Nokia’s first OpenLab and the global device manufacturing leader lent me an E71 device to evaluate for a month at no cost, for which I wrote a review.
It has been said, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” These days, this is said a lot. Myself I have thought about it quite a bit as well. However the more I think of the phrase, the more I take a different approach to it, as follows:
Desperate times call for creative, sensible measures.
Creative? Sensible? Mike, the economy sucks! Who are you to take such a soft approach to it?
Well, I am someone who needs to. After putting a lot of thought into it, the second “desperate” is usually driven by anger, fear or anything that gets your blood boiling. Go ahead, blurt out what you will do, then give it a rest. There is a high likelihood what you said in frustration makes sense, and there is a chance it doesn’t. As you think more of it, creative juices are now replacing the adrenaline that was previously flowing through your veins, and some great options and alternatives can come from it.
That’s my story and I am sticking with it. Until those ideas don’t work, then I get frustrated and start all over again.
The Hot Iron strives to present unique content and perspective on business, technology and other topics by Mike Maddaloni, founder and president of Dunkirk Systems, LLC, an Internet consulting firm based in Chicago.
What better way to truly learn a new mobile device than to use it in real time… with colleagues in a business setting… dressed in suits… on a beach? This was my experience a few weeks back, as I was a guest and participant in the Nokia E73 Mode Beach House on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA.
It is with a heavy heart that I write about Father Joseph McGlone, a retired Catholic priest from the Boston area, who passed away earlier this year. I just found about this news by chance when I was performing some Web searches. Allow me to take a diversion from my usual writing to remember a great man and leader.
If you are a regular reader of 
