The Idea

Let’s get together and tell the world we think all people deserve Food, Water, and Shelter. Wear clothes you care about and help buy a well for clean drinking water, food, and shelter from the elements for someone who doesn’t have access. Product (RED) did it so why can’t we? The message is simple: Food, Water, and Shelter. It’s not like we can go naked (we’ll save that for another movement). We have to wear something so might as well make our clothes count.

The Shirts

The two backslashes are from the beginning of all web addresses and represent our connectedness. The image and word associated with each shirt are meant to convey the idea quickly and succinctly so as to communicate the message within a millisecond. On the back part of the shirt at the top it simply reads All People (subject to change based on registering the domain name).

What I need

The prototypes shown above are using graphics which I don’t own the rights to. I need artist(s) to create vector based interpretations to be used in the screen printing process. The artist(s) who do this will each get a free t-shirt in the size of their choice as compensation. I have files and will send the current renderings to be used for interpretation.

Bonus Info

Shirts are $19.99 each. I want to have a program where each shirt YOU sell YOU make $3. This way if you are having trouble paying rent, the water bill, or putting food on the table then now you have a way to do so. Go to your local retailer, get them to stock 25 of each size – S, M, L and XL, and suddenly you just made $300. You get $300 towards rent, food, or your water bill and so do countless other people in developing countries who also need help.

Next Step

If you want to be notified and stay in the loop on the progress of this project then send me an email so I can add you to the list. The address is JasonFord1 at gmail dot com. I spelled it out so as not to get spammed by the email robots. Also, email me if you are interested in selling the shirts. Or just email me with your general thoughts. We can be internet pen pals. So seriously, let’s make a difference and look good doing it.

Spring of 2010 saw the release of the first prototype of DailyObj.com. This summer we are going to take it to a new level with the addition of multiple new features. Available at the end of the month will be the following:

1. Add multiple goals for a given day.
2. Add multiple long term goals.
3. Track your progress on each goal.
4. Write journal entries so that you can remember pertinent information related to your goals.

As always the ability to put in one main goal for the day will remain the same. At DailyObj.com we are building a product that ultimately focuses on helping you achieve your potential. Let me know of any way we can continue to help. Send me your feature requests. Our goal is to get your ass off the couch and out taking your life to a new level!

Jason and the DailyObj.com Team

Enter the Apple iPad, the device that changes the game on so many levels. Playing games, watching Live TV, reading a book, watching your stock portfolio go up and down… If it is content meant for consumption the iPad can make it happen. There is so much the device can do I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start so I’ll just dive in headfirst.

Not a computer

Let’s get one thing out of the way. The iPad is not a computer. If you ask it to be a computer you’ll only end up disappointed. The iPad is meant to stand on it’s own as a new class of device that serves many purposes, the greatest of which is consumption of content. Reading books feels natural. Watching TV is wonderful. Surfing the Internet is a breeze, but at times clumsy due to limitations placed on the browser. When all of these things are in your lap, though, and being manipulated with your fingers it feels futuristic like Minority Report.

Keyboard and Touch

I have used the device for hours on end everyday since buying it and not once have I missed my keyboard and mouse. It took roughly an hour and I was able to type at the same speed I could on a traditional keyboard. I was not expecting to be able to do that. Manipulating text, images, content, games, etc. all feels intuitive. Apple’s years of refining touch screens for the iPhone paid off because using your fingers to do all the work is flawless. The iPad may be a first generation device, but the sensitivity of the touch screen is clearly not first generation. This is something you’ll have to experience to truly appreciate how sensitive and accurate the screen truly is.

Screen

Speaking of screens, the one one on the iPad is gorgeous. Colors are rich and the LED backlit display responds instantly. Turn the device on and the screen instantly pops with color. The only complaint I could possibly have is that the ability of the screen to reflect is insane. If you turn the iPad off you could practically use it as a mirror. I haven’t noticed the reflection being quite as bad while the screen is on, but I could easily see how this would develop into an annoying issue. If you own any of Apple’s glossy screened laptops just look at it and imagine it being a little more reflective and you’ll see what the iPad’s screen is like.

How the device affects the marketplace

The device feels natural in your hands, has gorgeous snappy colors, and extremely refined touch screen technology. Now what do you do with it? First, I think all the newspapers and magazines in the world should send Steve Jobs a thank you card. Reading a printed newspaper, book, or magazine has always had a special quality that no device has ever replicated. The iPad comes the closest to replicating the feel of having printed material in your hand, but far more importantly it is the first device that takes traditional print and makes it better. What do i mean by this? Imagine if you could interact with the magazine you were holding in your hand. Imagine how cool it would be if when you touched a picture in the magazine it started moving and a video started. Another example, you are reading the Wall Street Journal, specifically a quarterly earnings report. Embedded in the article would be real time charts you could interact with and interviews with top executives. Yes, all of this is possible on the Internet today, but you are severely hampered by the web browser and the fact that you are sitting with a bulky laptop. I’m telling you, on the iPad or any other future Google or Microsoft devices in this space, it feels incredible.

I don’t think anyone really knows how a device like this will change the way we live our lives, but after only a few hours with it you’ll begin to quickly see the possibilities. Developers haven’t even scratched the surface with what is possible.

Shortcomings

Where does the iPad fall short? The lack of multitasking comes to mind first. When I normally surf the Internet, read emails, and chat with friends I am doing all three at once and moving between programs at light speed. On the iPad I can’t do that. The iPad allows you to only have one program open. This means you are either surfing the Internet, reading email, or chatting with friends, but never all at the same time.

Another downside is that the iPad is tethered to Apple’s app store which means you won’t have the freedom to download anything you want. Steve Jobs and his cronies must approve every app before you are allowed to download it. This means you won’t have access to some innovations for the sheer reason that “Steve says so”. This is a pain in the ass and quite frankly would be the reason why i would switch to a Google Chrome or Android powered pad when one became available. I like innovation and think an open marketplace fosters the best innovation. Steve doesn’t share my opinion.

The final major drawback of the iPad is its inability to handle Flash. This means no playing games through your Internet browser or watching TV on Hulu. I suspect this will change as the web converts to HTML 5 and H.264 video encoding, but until then the Internet on the iPad is a bit gimpy. This is also one of those “because Steve says so” instances. The iPad is technically capable of handling Flash, but Steve won’t allow it. Is Steve Jobs turning into a bit of a Howard Hughes or is he just that brilliant and knows something about Flash that the rest of us don’t? I’m leaning towards Howard Hughes. He has a blog post about why he doesn’t like Flash, but I don’t buy his excuses.

Final Thoughts

My final rating, two thumbs up for sheer innovation and quality. The device is a game changer in so many ways. We are at the tip of the iceberg with over 1 million units shipped in the first month. Developers are now incentivized to invest in creating some truly incredible applications that will push the boundaries of what we expect from a gadget.

I wish I could write more, but the captain is coming over the intercom and asking me to turn off all electronic devices to prepare for landing. I can’t believe how fast this trip has gone. On the train ride to the airport I streamed episodes of FlashForward on ABC’s video app over AT&T’s 3G network and then I wrote this blog post on Apple’s Pages for the iPad. I can’t believe I never even got the chance to mention the GPS, digital compass, new accelerometer, and 3G capabilities. Bottom line, this thing is cool!

Intro

I spent two years in high school and early college in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee working for a non-profit fighting a war on poverty. Over the years I have reflected on my experience and have come to the conclusion that the war I was fighting will never be won. In fact, my time spent helping change people’s standards of living was more or less completely fruitless when it came to “ending poverty”. Yes, I helped give some families hope and I helped build an elderly couple a wheel chair ramp, but at the end of the day the war on poverty was lost before I ever stepped foot on the battle field.

Entering the tunnel

Given the way we as Americans currently live our lives poverty will never go away. This isn’t an opinion. This is a fact and I can prove it. The secret to my argument lies in poverty’s definition. Webster defines the word as

Poverty 1a : the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.

I added the bolding for emphasis. You are probably thinking hold on a minute Jason poverty is so much deeper than that. Is it really? Think about how you use it in day to day language. Poverty is a term we use to describe a class or group of people who don’t have something. The problem with poverty is that the “something missing” the word describes is never defined. It can range from running water to nice school supplies to a given amount of money or income. Quite frankly poverty can be used to describe anything that one group of people think another group should have but don’t. Poverty will never go away because the gap it is intended to describe is never be defined!

Light at the end of the tunnel

I am not here to jump on the depression train and lead you down a path of human despair. The reality I want to instill in you is that saying you want to fight poverty isn’t enough. In fact, saying it practically means nothing at all. If you want to make a difference in the world then you need to define what it is you are going to fight for. Rather than fight poverty I have chosen to fight for three very specific things I believe every human should have access to.

1. A source of contaminant free flowing water.
2. Daily food of a life sustaining nutritional value.
3. Shelter to survive the elements.

Define what poverty means to you and then do something about it. How do you turn your fight into meaningful action? Support organizations which focus specifically on the goals you aim to achieve. To give you an example I support Charity: Water, World Food Program, and Habitat for Humanity. These three organizations work directly to fill the gaps I have defined. Dream of what your poverty free world looks like, define the gaps, and then support the organizations who are already working to fill those gaps.

Get off your ass

Don’t just say you want to end poverty because the truth is it will never go away. Define and conquer. Today is the day you can make a difference. Step up to the plate and make it happen.

Look back at the opening picture of this post very closely. Do you still see poverty?

At first I was afraid, I was petrified! …but then I got out the shovel and went to work. It was a gorgeous Michigan day and I had been tasked with making the front entrance to the house look a little nicer. This task would seem daunting at first, but I am here to share with you that it really wasn’t all that hard. If a guy from the suburbs who spends most of his days on a computer can learn the basics of gardening then surely you can too!

Step One – Clear the area

The front of my girlfriends house had a giant weed infested dirt patch which looked absolutely awful. It was clear the previous inhabitants of the house had a garden at one point, but those days were long gone. What was left of the former garden were lots of weeds the size of small trees and a few dead shrubs. I wish I had pictures to share of just how bad it was, but alas I didn’t think that far ahead. The weeds and dead shrubs lead me to step one, clear the area. The first step in getting your garden ready is to clear your future garden of unwanted growth. To give you an idea of what I mean by clear the area here is a picture of a vegetable garden I am currently clearing land for.

Notice how as I clear the area I am not digging a whole. All I am doing is clearing off the top layer of growth. The roots of plants grasp the nutrient rich soil so don’t accidentally throw away your best soil when you remove the old growth. Simply shake the soil free and back into the future garden from the plants you remove.

Step Two – Install Border

Once your land is clear of unwanted growth it is time to mark the garden off with a small barrier. This is done for aesthetic reasons and to keep unwanted things out of the garden like grass clippings. There are many options for barriers, but my personal favorite is using bricks. You can buy many varieties of barriers at your local hardware store, but for only 58 cents a brick I think it looks a lot better and holds up longer to the weather. Below is a picture of the barrier I created for my girlfriends future flower garden.

Make sure you entrench your bricks. This is important so that they don’t move around in the future (i.e. when you are mowing around the garden). Entrenching will also help with erosion if your garden is higher or lower than the surrounding ground. In my case I made the flower garden the same level as the surrounding ground.

Step Three – Pick Seeds / Flowers

After your garden is prepped and bordered off it is time to choose what to plant. The easiest way to do this is to head over to your local hardware store or nursery and just ask. I’ve found the attendants to be very helpful and knowledgeable. At the end of the day, if trying to pick what to plant is too daunting of a decision then simply head over to the display full of seed packets and pick out the plants that look best to you and are correct for your area. The back of all seed packets have a picture of your region and when it is best to plant the flower. Since I created this garden in April I picked the coolest plants which were appropriate for planting in April. Taking this route is extremely cost effective over buying already blooming flowers. One packet of seeds costs $1.50 which will yield anywhere from ten to fifty plants depending on the flower. This compares to a quart of already blooming flowers which usually costs at least $6.50 and contains only two to four plants. Do the seed route. It is more fun anyway because you get the gratification of watching the seeds you never thought would grow turn into beautiful flowers.

Step Four – Plant and Label

Once you have your seeds picked out it is time to arrange how you want to plant them and then put them in the ground. A general rule of thumb is to put your taller plants in back and work your way forward as the plants get shorter. The seed packets tell you on the back how tall and wide the plant should get so use these numbers as your guide. Once you figure out where you want to plant your seeds stick them in the ground and mark them with a popsicle stick. Marking where you planted the seeds is crucial because odds are weeds will start growing in your garden before the newly planted seeds will. Since you are a new gardener you won’t be able to tell the difference between a weed and what you planted so putting down a marker will help you tell the difference. This advice comes from the personal experience of leaving weeds to grow in my first garden while pulling up seedlings because I thought they were weeds. That was rather disheartening to say the least! Here is what I did in my girlfriend’s garden.

I labeled a few of the flowers so you could get an idea of what I planted. You’ll notice the Lilies and one Dahlia are much farther along than everything else. This is because I planted them three weeks earlier and then transplanted them to the location you see in the picture. The rest of the labeled areas are where seeds were just planted and should be sprouting in 7 to 21 days depending on the flower.

Step Five – Awesome plants sprout from the ground!

So thats it, you created a garden! Less than a days work and less than $20 has earned you one sweet garden that you never thought you could pull off. It doesn’t take a green thumb to put a little color in your front yard. Gardening is one of those tasks that seems hard on the surface, but once you get the basics of it is pretty easy. Just for Pete’s sake don’t forget to water it when it hasn’t rained in a long time! Mark your calendar to water it every Sunday afternoon if that helps. Once the flowers start sprouting you’ll be proud that you, the one who has killed every indoor plant ever gifted to you, actually started a successful garden!

I just got off the phone with a Nissan LEAF rep who gave me inside knowledge that I would like to share with all of you. As you are probably more than aware I am a huge proponent of electric vehicles as a solution for getting the United States off its addiction to oil. As such, I am extremely interested in Nissan’s 100% electric car coming to market this December. Here are a few quick facts about the car.

• 100% Electric which means you will never have to fill up at the gas station.
• A full charge will get you 100 miles.
• Charging the car to full costs less than $3 at current electricity rates.
• The car costs $25,280 after a $7,500 government tax credit. (MSRP before credit is $32,780)

Are you interested? Do you want one? I know I do! Here is how to get your hands on one the minute they hit the streets. Head over to…

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/opt-in/en/index.jsp

and fill out the form. Only check the first box at the end of the form and uncheck the rest unless you want Nissan to email you about all of their cars.

On April 10, 2010 Nissan will be sending out an exclusive email to everyone on the list to put down a fully refundable $99 deposit for a new car. This $99 deposit puts you in line so the faster you sign up the earlier in line you will be. Once the car launches in your state you will then be the first one in your town to take delivery! The car launches in December of 2010 in Tennessee, California, and Washington.

My advice: If you own two cars in your family then sell off one of them and buy a LEAF. Keep one gas car for your long haul trips and let the person in your family who does the most “around the town” driving use the LEAF. At only $3 per charge you will save 75% off what you would have spent on gasoline. Put another way, the LEAF uses the equivalent of 1 gallon of gas to do what your 25 mpg car would take 4 gallons to do. Pretty cool eh?

Leave your thoughts and questions on the new Nissan LEAF below. I will personally answer any questions you have. I’m curious, why will you be buying one or if not why won’t you be buying one? FACT: I am in line to purchase the car and will be placing a $99 deposit on April 20th. I have a motto, only take advice from people who have skin in the game.

I’ll be gone from March 1st through April 6th.

When: TODAY, January the 6th at 7:00pm

Where: Tesla Motors Chicago Showroom (see map below)

Hello fans of the Electric Car Challenge! On Wednesday, January 6th, at 7:00pm we will be meeting up at the Tesla Showroom in Chicago to present them with an award for completing the Electric Car Challenge. After the awards ceremony we may go out and grab a beer or more likely a cup of hot chocolate (the low is 18 degrees!) which everyone is invited to. It will be all around fun and you’ll get the chance to see what an all electric sports car looks like up close in person. I hope to see you there!

View Larger Map

Read this book if:

• You long for adventure
• You love the thought of travel
• You like things with an international flair
• You like money/finance

Amazon Page

My review:

This morning over my bowl of oatmeal I finished reading Riches Among the Ruins by Richard P. Smith. The book is non-fiction, but reads like a story and is about the Indiana Jones esque adventures of bond broker Richard Smith. I’ll come right out and say it from the beginning, I’m a huge fan of this book. I found it both highly entertaining and educational. Each chapter focuses on a specific country and Mr. Smith’s dealings within. For example, the first chapter is entitled El Salvador: Bullets, Bombs, and Bonds. A great chapter heading if I have ever read one!

One of the reasons I am so wildly attracted to this book, apart from its fabulous stories of daring financial madness, is that Richard Smith comes from a background very similar to my own. He was born to an upper middle class family who raised him to more or less follow in their upper middle class ways, but instead of following his family he decided to travel the world in seek of adventure and money. His pursuits took him to Vietnam, El Salvador, Turkey, Brazil, Iraq, Russia, and more. Mr. Smith, who is now in his 70′s, has the seasoned age to look back at his youth and describe the thought processes he used to break free of the life that he felt had been planned for him. Each chapter is full of details of not only how he made his fortunes in the far corners of the world, but also what he was thinking when he was there. In the book he tells you when he was making good decisions and also bad. He wasn’t afraid to be a good bit self-depricating at times.

In the end I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in finance, travel, or adventure. I got the book at Barnes and Noble because I had a gift card there, but you can get it from Amazon for $11 used or $16 new. Click the book image to go to the Amazon page for more details. I wish I could say go to your library, but it just came out in March and I don’t think many libraries have it sadly.

Seriously, read this book and tell me what you think. I know I can’t rave enough about it. I think it is my number one book of 2009.

Jason