A Really Good Question

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.00 each.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Email Address Typo Ooooooooooops

Lesson to be learned from typing a wrong Email address:

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules, so the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After Reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen, which read:

To: My Loving Wife

Subject: I've arrived

Date: October 16, 2004

I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

PS: Sure is freaking hot down here.

Don’t Mess With Old People

The IRS decides to audit Grandpa, and summons him to the IRS office.

The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up with his attorney.

The auditor said, ‘Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, Which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I’m not sure the IRS finds that believable.’

I’m a great gambler, and I can prove it,’ says Grandpa. ‘How about a demonstration?’

The auditor thinks for a moment and said, ‘Okay. Go ahead.’

Grandpa says, ‘I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.’

The auditor thinks a moment and says, ‘It’s a bet.’

Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor’s jaw drops.

Grandpa says, ‘Now, I’ll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye.’

Now the auditor can tell Grandpa isn’t blind, so he takes the bet.

Grandpa removes his dentures and bites his good eye..

The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Grandpa’s attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.

‘Want to go double or nothing?’ Grandpa asks ‘I’ll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.’

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there’s no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he agrees again.

Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can’t make the stream reach the wastebasket on the other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor’s desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win.

But Grandpa’s own attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.

‘Are you okay?’ the auditor asks.

‘Not really,’ says the attorney. ‘This morning, when Grandpa told me he’d been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty-five thousand dollars that he could come in here and piss all over your desk and that you’d be happy about it!’

Don’t Mess with Old People!!

West Jet Airplane Jokes – Flying & Flight Attendant Jokes

You’ve got to love the Canadian sense of humour.

West Jet is an Airline with head office situated in Calgary.
West Jet airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight “safety lecture” and announcements a bit more entertaining.


Here are several real examples that have been heard or reported by passengers from flight attendants on real flights:

On a West Jet flight. There is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want. Passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, “People, people we’re not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!”
———————–
On another West Jet Flight with a very “senior” flight attendant crew, the pilot said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants.”
————————
On landing, the stewardess said, “Please be sure to take all of your belongings. If you’re going to leave anything, please make sure it’s something we’d like to have.”
————————
“There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane.”
———————–
“Thank you for flying West Jet Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.”
—————————
As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at the Vancouver airport, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: “Whoa, big fella. WHOA!”
————————-
After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Ontario, a flight attendant on a West Jet flight  announced, “Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted.”
———————–
From a West Jet Airlines employee: “Welcome aboard West Jet Flight 245 to Calgary. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised.”
———————
“In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling, stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite.”
———————–
“Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we’ll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than West Jet Airlines.”
————————
“Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments.”
———————–
“As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings.  Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.”
—————————
And from the pilot during his welcome message: “West Jet Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!”
—————————
Heard on West Jet Airlines just after a very hard landing in Edmonton; The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, “That was quite a bump, and I know what y’all are thinking. I’m here to tell you it wasn’t the airline’s fault, it wasn’t the pilot’s fault, it wasn’t the flight attendant’s fault, it was the asphalt.”
——————————
Overheard on a West Jet Airlines flight into Regina on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain was really having to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Regina. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what’s left of our airplane to the gate!”
——————————
Another flight attendant’s comment on a less than perfect landing: “We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal.”
———————
An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the Passengers exited, smile, and give them a “Thanks for flying our airline.”  He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment.  Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said, “Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Why, no, Ma’am,” said the pilot. “What is it?”
The little old lady said, “Did we land, or were we shot down?”
——————-
After a real crusher of a landing in Halifax, the attendant came on with, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.”
———————–
Part of a flight attendant’s arrival announcement: “We’d like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you’ll think of West Jet Airways.”
———————–
Heard on a West Jet Airline flight. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing. If you can light ‘em, you can smoke ‘em.”
———————–
A plane was taking off from the Winnipeg airport. After it reached a    comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from Winnipeg to Montreal. The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax.. OH, MY GOD!”

Silence followed, and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier. While I was talking to you, the flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee on my lap. You should see the front of my pants!” A passenger yelled: “That’s nothing. You should see the back of mine!”

Musician’s Mind

This is a test to see if the musician’s mind works in a similar fashion when analyzing regular language as it does when analyzing complex wave patterns, performing hyper-speedy logarithmic calculations, collapsing a mess of vibrations via Fourier analysis / Shenkerian reductionism on-the-fly, all while also in the midst of complex synchronous compression-wave generation (all together, commonly known as “being musical.”)

To test your own mental predisposition, quickly read through the follow text and see what message you come up with.  Do you think like a musician or not?

—-
The phaonmneal pweor of a msuicains mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae a muiscain’s mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
—-
It’s pretty interesting – I’ve showed this to musicians and everyone gets it immediately.  In contrast, non-musicians have trouble at first, but eventually get it.

Ste-pun Hawking

I’ve been reading something very interesting — Stephen Hawking’s latest book about anti-gravity.
I just can’t put it down.

10 Ways to Save $12,000

Added up, these 10 ideas get you deeper & deeper into this chart:

Money Savings Ideas

Saved money can add up quickly, so let’s get started:

1 – Get a Free Library Card

Entrepreneurs have an insatiable thirst for novelty and information. Quench this thirst with a library card instead of your wallet. You can still buy items for your personal library later on (items you’ve checked out of the library 3 times), but 90% of the stuff you buy or think you want you’ll never end up reading/watching again.

Most libraries will charge you a few bucks for a card, but if you cite “financial constraints”, they’ll give it to you for free. Also, most libraries have “inter-library loans”, so that even the smallest suburban branches have access to the entire collection. Then, fulfill your need for information on the public’s tab. Reserve best-sellers or TV series online. They’ve got almost everything you can imagine.

Monthly Savings: $200 or more

2 – Cut Your TV Package and 2 Cell Phone Features

Cutting your cable or satellite TV package will have a dramatic effect on your life – you’ll have more free time, more energy, plus you’ll be smarter and happier. Trust me, its true. To rebalance your life, explore internet videos and a local library.

Cutting the most useless features on your phone package is something you won’t miss. Endless voicemail, bundled text messages, the data package you never use… these can all turn into $’s you can use on something else way more fun.

Monthly Savings: $50 – $150 per month

3 – Drop Your Land Line & Long Distance Packages.

Get Skype for all long distance calls, get a Skype phone number or mailbox, encourage regular contacts to install Skype as well (so your conversations become free), buy a $30 headset, and chuck your landline for good. Use your cell phone “in case of emergency” and have them call you on your free incoming minutes. You will never look back.

Monthly Savings: $50 – $100

4 – Lower Your Rent

If you can’t afford where you’re living, move somewhere $200/month cheaper. Pretty straight-forward, eh?

Monthly Savings: $200 or more

5 – Drive an Older Car and Live Where You Work

Daily commuting costs an incredible amount of time and money – something often visible only once you’ve stopped doing it. 25 minutes to get to work… $75 gas… Arranging to get the oil changed… $400 car payment…

Instead, buy an older import with no depreciation that does at least 40 MPG (mine does 55), move to within walking distance of you daily destinations, and park your car. Rent a car for that once a year trip where reliability matters.

If you’re trying to impress people with your automobile, impress them with stories of the foreign excursions you took with that money instead.

Monthly Savings: $500 or more


6 – Drink Water for Lunch

$0 drink per day multiplied by 20 working days per month = $0

$2-10 drink per day multiplied by 20 working days per month = $40 – $200

Monthly Savings: $40 – $200

7 – Brew Your Own Coffee

Brewing your own coffee = almost nothing

$2-10 drink per day multiplied by 20 working days per month = $40 – $200

Monthly Savings: $40 – $200

8 – Sell High – When your stocks go up in value (perhaps well above their previous highs), and you’re thinking, “Yes! I’m about to become a millionaire,” stop being such a moron and take your cash while you can. Letting your stocks plummet in value is a really easy way to lose money. If you don’t want to follow your stocks daily, set stops so that you don’t have to. But regardless, don’t just sit around and lose your shirt.

Monthly Savings: Only you know this number

9 – Learn to Cook Gourmet

Cut out one fancy dinner per week and you’ll easily save $200 a month, especially if you like to entertain guests. If you’re relying on a restaurant for romance to impress the ladies, they like it better when you cooked it yourself 😉

Monthly Savings: $200 or more

10 – Make Your Own Wine/Beer.

The first kit won’t save you much money, but it will still be cheaper than any sale in town. Subsequently, wine will cost you approximately $2/bottle and beer even less.

Making wine or beer is best done in good company (as your drinking should be!) Aside from ensuring fun throughout the whole process, if everyone does their own kit but you all split the results, you get a variety of products and minimize the risk of a ruined batch.

If you’re having a company party, this is an easy way to cut costs and do team-building (the brewing process) as well.

Depending on how much you drink and how much you pay, this can save:

Monthly Savings = (X*Y) – (X*$2)

…where (bottles/month = X) and ($/bottle = Y)

Adding Things Up

Take the amount of money you’ve saved with each of the 10 items above, put it in the “Monthly Savings” column, and see how much you can save.

Money Savings Ideas

After 6 months or several years, these savings can really add up.  The trick is to do the math and let time elapse. Then there are many ways to reach $12,000.

Simple, eh?

10 Terrible URLs

Honestly, what were these people thinking when they registered these domains?!

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com
  (2013 update: phew, they changed it)


3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com
  (2013 update: phew, they changed it)

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com
(2013 update: now a smut site)

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com
  (2013 update: now a smut site)

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com
(2013 update: phew, they changed it)

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com
  (2013 update: phew, they changed it)

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com
  (2013 update: phew, they changed it)

…Now, let’s see: Snee-zl. Sn-eezl. S-nee-zl. Sneez-l… (phew… there’s nothing funny hidden in “Sneezl”!)

🙂