5 reasons I will miss my friend and colleague Jeff Sauer

I met Jeff Sauer about 5 years ago and he has become a good friend and respected colleague of mine. He has lived in Minnesota for as long as I'v known him, but now he and his wife  moving to the West Coast.

"Go then, there are other worlds than these."- The Gunslinger

There is a lot of things I can say about Jeff. I consider him a true Renaissance Man - "a person with many talents or areas of knowledge". Surrounding myself with people smarter than me has been a successful career strategy and and hanging with Jeff certainly fills the bill.

Here are only 5 of the many reasons I will miss my friend and colleague Jeff Sauer:

• Meat - Especially pork, the other white meat. Jeff really knows his way around a BBQ smoker and his annual Porkapalooza is the meat highlight of the year.
• Advice - all kinds of advice on business, technology, digital marketing, world travel, food, and cooking. Really! He has many web properties in which he dispenses this valuable advice. 
• Travel tales - it might be about Oktoberfest in Munich, a honeymoon in Mauritius or aerial photography from his personal drone over South Africa. It's always a good tale.
• Sense of humor - Jeff's sense of humor rings out with every blog post or online article he writes. His repartee in person is something to behold, especially at MnSearch board meetings when he has a foil by the name of Aaron Weiche to counter.
• His "Try Anything and Everything" philosophy on approaching life and the value he puts on people as individuals I will especially miss.

All-in-all Jeff simply makes everything suck less. Therefore I bestow MakeItSuckLess.com to Jeff's website - at least for now. This way I create my own personal avenue to share life with Jeff online even if I can't see him IRL when I'd like to. Long days and pleasant nights to you my friend.

"Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with." ~Douglas Adams

Plan a Flavor Tripping Party

Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is a cranberry-sized West African berry that that numbs your sour and bitter tastebuds for a hour or so after eating it. When eaten this fruit causes bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) to taste sweet. The berry contains an active glycoprotein molecule called miraculin. Miraculin is also available in tablet form

Here is a great article to follow as you plan your own Flavor Tripping party: Flavor-Tripping: a Whole New Way to Taste!

Here are a few examples that flavor-trippers have reported:

• Apple cider vinegar tastes similar to apple juice
• Lemons taste super sweet like candy
• Guinness beer tastes like chocolate milk. Other beers are interesting too.
• Under-ripe fruit tastes like the ripest, sweetest fruit you’ll ever eat
• Limes taste like key-lime pie
• Whole grain bread suddenly becomes healthy cake
• Dry white wines taste like a Riesling and reds taste more like a port.

Unbelievable Unconferencing at Unsummit 4

UnSummit is an alternative, "unconference," not unlike a BarCamp. That means full participation, full dissemination and free admission — all the things that traditional conferences are not. -Unsummit.org

I have been attending unconferences since the first Minnebar back in the day and I love the refreshing format. An unconference is where people talk with each other as opposed to at each other. New paradigm topics such as the ones that appear on the schedule of the unsummit should not take place in rigid, old paradigm formats. We are moving from a one-way event to a two-way experience.

This event, excuse me... experience, is free thanks to generous sponsors and also held on a weekend day. Even though it is free I think the attendees that give up part of their summer Saturday are more passionate and more highly participatory than the average conference goer.

Next year perhaps we can take a few more ideas into the format. I plucked the following participatory formats from a white paper titled "Possibilities For Transformational Conferences" by Tree Bressen with Debby Sugarman and Sunrise Facilitation:

• Attendees Interview Each Other
• Presenters Learn From Participants
• Fishbowl - small group of people speak together while others listen and witness
• Interview The Panelists
• Panelist Circles - panelists go out into the audience and form circles people to talk more
• Storytelling
• Speed Geeking - basically this is musical chars with panelists

Did you know that most unconference features match the characteristics of the traditional science fiction convention held since the 1930's? We are living science fiction every day. The future is now and I for one love it.

My Mother Sent Me This 'Warning' Many Years Ago

WARNING

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit .

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

- by Jenny Joseph

Todd Tongen's Silver Circle Award

Check this video out - My little brother, Todd Tongen receives the Silver Circle Award.

"The Silver Circle Awards recognize individuals who have devoted a quarter of a century or more to the television industry, a significant part of which was done in South Florida."

Way to go Bro! Big brother is very proud of you.

Ward's List Of 35 Words That Are Fun To Say

1. anthropomorphism
2. archaeopteryx
3. baba ganoush
4. buckminsterfullerene
5. Buttafuco
6. cornucopia
7. curmudgeon
8. derbis
9. diphthong
10. discombobulate
11. efficacious
12. ginkgo biloba
13. gorgonzola
14. indubitably
15. jabberwocky
16. Katmandu
17. kerfuffle
18. kumquat
19. Lake Titicaca
20. loquacious
21. lugubrious
22. mellifluous
23. obfuscate
24. onomatopoeia
25. persnickety
26. plethora
27. polyamorous
28. Punxsutawney
29. pusillanimous
30. rutabaga
31. sphygmomanometer
32. spumoni
33. superfluous
34. vociferous
35. Worcestershire

Bill Cosby Sweater Chair

Bill Cosby Sweater Chair
Originally uploaded by Weirdo Wardo.

I reupholstered this chair seat with an old Coogi sweater.