Great Quotes from Great Leaders

Introducing Flickspire: a fantastic website featuring a growing collection of short, inspirational movies. After watching the recommended offering, Great Quotes from Great Leaders, you may wish to explore the other clips and possibly bookmark the site.


I learned about Flickspire from Ed, to whom this Tip O' the Hat is dedicated.

Rustico Octo-BEER-fest

Borrowing the Harley-Davidson Bar and Shield

The beer list has just been released and Rustico's annual Octo-Beer-fest promises to be another blast! This Saturday at noon, in Alexandria, VA. New beers from: locals like Port City and Lost Rhino regionals like Blue Mountain, Heavy Seas, and Flying Dog nationals like Sierra Nevada and Weyerbacher http://rusticoktobeerfest.com/ Virginia is for (beer) lovers!

Hoka Hey or Hoka Joke?

Unbelievable and extremely disappointing.

While scanning the blogosphere for news you can use, I found evidence that NONE of the 11 riders who finished this 14,000 mile race within the 16-day time-frame would be awarded ANY of the $500,000 prize money.

The justification given by organizer Big Jim  Durham at the 9 Oct awards ceremony: speeding. At some point over the course of the race, each of the riders had violated the rule about obeying all posted speed limits, and so they were all disqualified.

• Why did Big Jim ask the 11 winners to come to the awards ceremony in Mesa when he knew he was going to disqualify them? That's just adding insult to injury. I wonder where Big Jim got the money to pay for his transportation to Mesa? 
• If the GPS used is so accurate, why did Big Jim advertise a 10,000 mile course when in fact it was over 14,000? Last year they did not use US Fleet Tracking and they relied on local police to enforce the speed limit rule. I believe in technology but I have certainly witnessed a wide range in terms of GPS accuracy and reliability. Riders should challenge this.
• Why even have a time limit if the course distance is off by 40% and violating the speed limit rule is a disqualifying offense? 
• Could anyone have completed the 14,000 mile course over back roads in 16 days without speeding? To cover 14,000 miles in 16 days requires an average of 875 miles per day. If a rider is able to average 50 mph while riding on back roads, it would take 17.5 hours of riding per day to cover the course. That leaves 6.5 hours for gas stops, stretch breaks, maintenance, food, and sleep.

Those 11 riders who made it over the course in the allotted 16 days and passed the post-race drug- and lie-detector tests had every reason to believe they'd be splitting the purse.  The way Big Jim has handled this STINKS! I used to think I would like to try this challenge but at this point, it looks like a SCAM.



Read the summary of the awards ceremony here Hoka Hey Challenge 2011

Read the story as reported by Cyril Huze

Related posts on PhilosFX
http://philosfx.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-heck-is-hoka-hey.html
http://philosfx.blogspot.com/2011/08/hoka-hey-sitrep-7.html

Finisher! ATM 2011

It's not WHEN you finish

It's THAT you finish!

Inching forward toward the starting chute, a fellow runner quipped, "Just keep moving and don't fall over." That became my mantra during the race.

This year's Army Ten-Miler (ATM) was a great jog through town with 30,000 of my "closest" friends. We had perfect weather for a moving family reunion. I ran into (almost literally in one case) lots of people I hadn't seen in years. Always happy to see so many long-lost colleagues.

Some things were different this year. I did not see the flute player or the juggler. I saw fewer costumes. I did not see the Golden Knights or any static displays. The food and water tents and the after-race party area were set up in North Parking, further from the Metro. Some people wanted credit for a half marathon because of the extra distance we had to cover.

I had a great time. The ATM is like homecoming.



Related post: http://philosfx.blogspot.com/2010/10/finisher.html

Three logicians walk into a bar....

Today's humor feed comes from Spiked Math: Three logicians walk into a bar

Don't get it? Read the comments at Spiked Math

Get it and want more? Try this one from X, Why?

Win 10,000 Cash Money in Our New Contest!

We are approaching a HUGE milestone: 10,000 views at PhilosFX. And I want to celebrate!

Announcing a contest: Be the 10,000th viewer and WIN our prize--10,000 Cash Money! (That's 10,000 pennies, or US $100.)


Here's how to win the Grand Prize:

• Navigate to PhilosFX (you are here--step one, complete!) 
• View early and often: each view counts! 
• Be the 10,000th viewer and take a screen shot of the counter as proof (see example below)
• Leave a comment so I can send you an over-sized Party Check for 100 clams!

Print Screen, then save the screen shot as a picture.
Only ONE person will be able to capture the 10,000th view!

PhilosFX averages 20 views per day, with a low around 5 and a high around 300. So it will take somewhere between 2 and 100 days to get to 10,000 views. Odds are that if the average holds. it'll take right around 25 days to cross the 10K threshold. There's a chance this contest will bump the views up slightly, so keep that in mind.

But wait, there's MORE!

Announcing the consolation prize: Guess the day! In case no one wins the Big Prize, a secondary prize will be awarded. Be the first to correctly guess the day and win $10!

Here's how to win the Consolation Prize:

• Guess the day on which PhilosFX crosses 10,000 views by posting your vote in a comment below, like this: 31 Oct, or October 31st, or 31/10/2011
• Be one of at least 10 different people to guess the day--get your friends to comment, too.
• Each contestant may guess up to 10 different days
• The tie breaker: who guessed the correct day first per the time stamp on the comment 

Fine print:

• Everyone is eligible, except me
• The Big Prize will only be awarded if the actual 10,000th viewer captures the event!
• The Consolation Prize will only be awarded if (a) no one wins the big prize; and (b) at least 10 different people guess at least one but not more than 10 days.
• Each Guess the Day contestant must have a unique name. It can be a screen name that we sort out later, but "Anonymous" will not work. 

Steve Jobs: iCon

Steve Jobs tribute icon by Jonathan Mak

Steve Jobs

1955-2011



“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

All quotes from Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech, June 2005

Related post: http://philosfx.blogspot.com/2011/08/steve-jobs-iconic-entrepreneur.html