1: Markus Frind: PlentyOfFish.com – $300,000 per month
Markus Frind is a local Vancouverite who is turning the online dating world upside down. His site, Plentyoffish.com is the biggest free dating site on the Internet. Plentyoffish.com receives up to 500 million page views per month and make over $10,000 per day for Markus, who runs the site from home.

2: Kevin Rose: Digg.com – $250,000 per month
Kevin Rose started Digg in December of 2004 with just $1000. Today Digg is one of the biggest news sites on the Net, with over 400,000 members and over 200 million page views per month. Digg will make $3 million this year from a combination of Google AdSense and Federated Media ads.

3: Jeremy Shoemaker – $140,000 per month
If ever anyone can be considered an Internet marketing superstar, ShoeMoney would be near the top of the list. Jeremy Shoemaker is a search engine marketer who knows how to take advantage of both Google AdSense and AdWords.

4: Jason Calacanis: Weblogs, Inc. – $120,000 per month
Before Jason Calacanis sold Weblogs, Inc to AOL for $25 million, he got the network of blogs making over $4,000 a day from Google AdSense. So impressive was his AdSense performance that Google used Weblogs for a case study.

Now that AOL controls Weblogs, you can bet it is making a lot more than a measly $120,000 a month.

5: David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard – $100,000 per month
David Miles Jr. and Kato Leonard, claims they make $100,000 a month from their site, Freeweblayouts.net, which gives away designs that people can use on MySpace.

6: Tim Carter: AskTheBuilder.com – $30,000 per month
Tim Carter is a licensed master plumber and carpenter with his own radio show. He also makes frequent television appearances. He founded AsktheBuilder.com in 1995, The primary focus has been catering to an avid following of fellow builders on the site. According to the Google case study, Mr. Carter did such a good job tweaking the Google ads on his site that it now makes $30,000 a month.

7: Joel Comm – $24,000 per month
Joel Comm is get rich quick guru. He wrote the best selling e-book, What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense.

8: Shawn Hogan – DigitalPoint.com $10,000 per month
Founder of DigitalPoint. The article states that Mr. Hogan makes $10,000 per month from Google AdSense using a very unique revenue sharing model.If ever anyone can be considered an Internet marketing superstar, ShoeMoney would be near the top of the list. Jeremy Shoemaker is a search engine marketer who knows how to take advantage of both Google AdSense and AdWords.

[source]

“He’s muffed it,” said Simony. “he could have done *anything* with them. And he just told them the facts. You can’t inspire people with facts. They need a cause. They need a symbol.”
– (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Sergeant Comely was working on the general assumption that where you got lots of people gathered together, something illegal was bound to happensooner or later.
– (Terry Pratchett, Johnny and the Dead)

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
– (Terry Pratchett, Diggers)

One day I’ll be dead and THEN you’ll all be sorry.
– (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

It’s not enough to be able to pick up a sword. You have to know which end to poke into the enemy.
– (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

“I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good.  It’s never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting “Forward, brave comrades!” you’ll see he’s the one behind the bloody big rock and the one wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!”
– Rincewind gives a speech on politics.
(Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)

Cuddy had only been a guard for a few days, but already he had absorbed one important and basic fact: it is almost impossible for anyone to be in a street without breaking the law.
– (Terry Pratchett, Men At Arms)

Sometimes it’s better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
– (Terry Pratchett, Men At Arms)

That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans. A European says: “I can’t understand this, what’s wrong with me?” An American says: “I can’t understand this, what’s wrong with him?”
– (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

He did of course sometimes have people horribly tortured to death, but this was considered to be perfectly acceptable behaviour for a civic ruler and generally approved of by the overhelming majority of citizens. [footnote: The overhelming majority of citizens being defined in this case as everyone not currently hanging upside down over a scorpion pit]
– (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

There were a few seconds of total silence as everyone waited to see what would happen next. And then Nijel uttered the battle cry that Rincewind would never quite forget to the end of his life.  “Erm,” he said, “excuse me…”
– (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

The Yen Buddhists are the richest religious sect in the universe. They hold that the accumulation of money is a great evil and a burden to the soul. They therefore, regardless of personal hazard, see it as their unpleasant duty to acquire as much as possible in order to reduce the risk to innocent people.
– (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.
– (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters)

The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.
– (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

With all of us engrossed in our own worries, ambitions, plans, hopes and daily life we often forget that each individual is only a very tiny cog in the workings of the universe. Or even tiny earth itself. For us the most important thing is our current immediate envoronment. What is happening miles away in another country is too far away to spare a thought for.

But still, it is good to have some sense of proportion. Sometimes to sit and think that there is a much bigger picture. Perhaps it would bring us hope in times of dispair.

According to Beathing Earth website, at present one Maldivian dies  every 3.7 hours and a Maldivian is born every 45.9 minutes. To put it into a simple time frame, by the time we finish watching a football match somewhere in Maldives two babies would have been born. By the time we finish one office working day two people would have died.

If we look at a bigger country such as India, a person dies every 3.5 seconds and is born every 1.3 seconds. Imagine the magnitude! Just look at your watch for a few seconds, keeping in mind that every second there is a child born somewhere on earth and someone else is at the end of his/her life.

Imagine that one of those black blips on that website will be you one day.

I can never look at the watch and feel the same. I find it humbling.

Definitely worth a watch.

Laura Bush bought Bush a parrot for his birthday.

She told Dick Cheney, “The bird is so smart! George has already taught him to mispronounce over 200 words!”

“Wow, that’s pretty impressive,” Cheney said. “But you realize that he just says the words. He doesn’t understand what they mean.”

“That’s okay,” Laura replied. “Neither does the parrot.”

  ——————————————- 

President Bush was visiting a school. The children were in the middle of a discussion relating to words and their meanings. The teacher asked the President if he would like to lead the discussion on the word ‘tragedy’. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a tragedy.

One boy stood up and offered, “If my best friend who lives on a farm is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him that would be a tragedy”. “No”, said Bush, “that would be an accident”.

A girl raised her hand, “If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, that would be a tragedy’. “No”, said Bush, “that would be a great loss”.

The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Bush searched the room, “Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”

Finally, at the back of the room little Johnny raised his hand, “If Airforce One carrying you and Mrs. Bush was struck by a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy”.

“Fantastic!” exclaimed Bush, “that’s right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?”

“Well”, says little Johnny. “It has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

  ——————————————- 

The Agent salutes and says, “Welcome back, Mr. President. Nice pigs, sir.”

Clinton smiles and says, “These aren’t pigs. These are genuine Arkansas Razorbacks. I got this one for Hilary, and I got this one for Chelsea.”

The Agent says, “Good trade, sir.”

Q. What is the difference between a drug dealer and a hooker?
A. A hooker can wash her crack and sell it again.

Q. What’s a mixed feeling?
A. When you see your mother-in-law backing off a cliff in your new car.

Q. What’s the height of conceit?
A. Having an orgasm and calling out your own name.

Q. What’s the definition of macho?
A. Jogging home from your vasectomy.

Q. What’s the difference between a G-Spot and a golf ball?
A. A guy will actually search for a golf ball.

Q. Do you know how New Zealanders practice safe sex?
A. They spray paint X’s on the back of the sheep that kick!

Q. Why is divorce so expensive?
A. Because it’s worth it!

Q. What is a Yankee?
A. The same as a quickie, but a guy can do it alone.

Humans are generally accepted as the smarted creatures on earth. That’s easy when humans are the only species intelligent enough to judge the intelligence of living beings. But I think humans certainly lost a dozen or so points off their IQ charts when they started to go around half the day with a noose around their necks. I mean, something’s gotta be wrong with anyone who tied a rope around his neck first thing in the morning and spent the day looking as if someone just cut him down from a tree he was hanging from.

What started centuries ago, around 1630AD, as a fashion accessory or a military insignia is now a compulsary element of office attire. It serves no purpose on a Director, Manager, Secretary or a Receptionist. So why do humans, supposedly the smartest of all creatures, still obscess over it?

I can see how it was useful as part of the military uniform. I can accept it as a fashion accessory. When listed among eyebrow-pearcings and multi-coloured hair, wearing a tie sounds like a very mild trend. But to make it compuslory in offices and force them to wear it? Some men have been turned down for employment and even fired with or without explanation after appearing without the “expected” tie. What does a Tie matter if the person is neatly dressed? Or what does a Tie matter if the person does not do his work properly?

Opponents of necktie wearing have cited risks associated with the wearing of neckties as an argument for discontinuing the practice. These risks have primarily involved entanglement, infection, and vascular constriction.

The risk of entanglement is generally well understood by people working around machinery or in situations where person-to-person confrontation may occur (e.g., police and prison personnel, and in certain medical fields).

The risk of cross-infection of patients by doctors wearing ties is being treated seriously by hospitals, it being noted that ties are cleaned less often than most items of clothing and can carry bacteria. Doctors routinely lean across patients and ties frequently come into contact with patients. Thus the tie can carry bacteria from one patient to another.

The risk of vascular constriction, in cases where ties are worn with over-tight collars, has been noted. Studies have shown an increase in intra-ocular pressure in these cases which can worsen the condition of people with already weakened retinas. People with glaucoma should exercise special care. In all cases sensible precautions can mitigate these risks; the danger lies in lack of awareness of the risks. Paramedics performing basic life support remove the tie from a victim as one of the very first steps when a victim is unconscious or has difficulty breathing to ensure it does not compromise the airway.

Seruously, isn’t it time we got free of a fashion statement of the 1600s or 1960s and stopped forcing it on employees. Their work quality does not depend on it. It serves no purpose. Just makes me feel stupid tying that cloth around my neck every morning. Next time you are standing in front of that dressing table tying that noose around your neck, look into your eyes and ask yourself whether you feel smart, or you feel like a damn fool.

The Iranian Ambassador to the UN had just finished giving a speech and walked out into the lobby where he met President Bush. They shook hands, and as they walked, the Iranian said, “You know, I have just one question about what I have seen in America.”

President Bush said, “Well, anything I can do to help you, I will.”

The Iranian whispered, “My son watches this show ‘Star Trek’ and in it there is Chekhov who is Russian, Scotty who is Scottish, Uhura who is Black, and Sulu who is Chinese. My son is very upset and doesn’t understand why There aren’t any Iranians, Syrians or Iraqis on ‘Star Trek.’”

President Bush laughed, leaned toward the Iranian and whispered back, “It’s because it takes place in the future.”

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day.  Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel.  None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch.  And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones.  And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied.  It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

– Elizabeth Bishop

God: “Hello. Did you call me?”

Me: “Called you? No… who’s this?”

God: “This is GOD. I heard your prayers. So I thought we’ll chat.”

Me: “I do pray. Just makes me feel good. I’m actually busy now. I’m in the midst of something.”

God: “What are you busy at?”

Me: “Don’t know. But I can’t find free time. Life has become hectic. It’s rush hour all the time.”

God: “Sure. Activity gets you busy. But productivity gets you results. Activity consumes time. Productivity frees it.”

Me: “I understand. But I still can’t figure out. By the way, I Was not expecting YOU to buzz me.”

God: “Well, I wanted to resolve your fight for time, by giving you some clarity. In this 21st century era, I wanted to reach you through the medium you are comfortable with.”

Me: “Tell me, why has life become complicated now?”

God: “Stop analyzing life. Just live it. Analysis is what makes It complicated.”

Me: “Why are we then constantly unhappy?”

God: “Your today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. You are worrying because you are analyzing. Worrying has become your habit. That’s why you are not happy.”

Me: “But how can we not worry when there is so much uncertainty?”

God: “Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional.”

Me: “But then, there is so much pain due to uncertainty…”

God: “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.”

Me: “If suffering is optional, why do Good people always suffer?”

God: “Diamond cannot be polished without friction. Gold cannot be purified without fire. Good people go through trials, but don’t suffer. With that  experience their lives become better, not bitter.”

Me: “You mean to say such experience is useful?”

God: “Yes. Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test First and the lessons afterwards.”

Me: “But still, why should we go through such tests? Why can’t we be free from problems?”

God: “Problems are Purposeful Roadblocks Offerin Beneficial Lessons (to) Enhance Mental Strength. Inner strength comes from struggle and endurance, not when you are free from problems.”

Me: “Frankly, in the midst of so many problems, we don’t know Where we are heading…”

God: “If you look outside you will not know where you are heading. Look inside. Looking outside, you dream. Looking inside, you awaken. Eyes provide sight. Heart provides insight.”

Me: “Sometimes, not succeeding fast seems to hurt more than Moving in the right direction. What should I do?”

God: “Success is a measure as decided by others. Satisfaction is A measure as decided by you. Knowing the road ahead is more satisfying than knowing you rode ahead. You work with the compass. Let others work with the clock.”

Me: “In tough times, how do you stay motivated?”

God: “Always look at how far you have come rather than how far you have to go. Always count your blessing, not what you are missing.”

Me: “What surprises you about people?”

God: “When they suffer they ask, ‘Why me?’ When they prosper, They never ask ‘Why me?’ Everyone wishes to have truth on his or Her side but few want to be on the side of the truth.”

Me: “How can I get the best out of life?”

God: “Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.”

Me: “One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered.”

God: “There are no unanswered prayers. At times, the answer is NO.”

Me: “Thank you for this wonderful chat. I am so happy to start The New Day with a new sense of inspiration.”

God: “Well. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Don’t believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs. Life is a mystery to solve, not a problem to resolve.Trust me. Life is wonderful if you know how to live.”