My life is fantastic

'My life was fantastic' or 'My life is fantastic' are sentences that are surprising for most of us. For example I haven't meet people who could say this about their lives. These two sentences are reserved just for a few people. To explain this concept I take as an example the lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of the Google corporation. They were computer geeks who managed to have fun, get famous and rich. They were doing what they liked without concerning the next day, although they probably had lots of plans. And I bet that they are still pulling a screwdriver in computers in a while. I came to this idea of 'My life was fantastic' thinking at their plans to retire. I was thinking at what will they say when they will retire from Google. I will explain in a few lines why Google founders, in this case, are different to other people.
This is the article number 100 of this blog and I tried to write something anniversary related to what I wrote so far and was found most interesting by the readers. Looking at Google Analytics, I found that in about 9 months, the most visited pages and searched terms were related to 'Campbell Brown pregnancy','Jonas Brothers pictures' and probably the most viral subject, 'Miley Cyrus's bra'. When I wrote those articles I had no intentions to talk about my thoughts at that moment, but about the most rising searched terms on the internet at that time.
I was intrigued to see such interest in some subjects that I find with low consistency in a long time period, but I was wrong; these subjects were persistent over all this time and still are. Now, I am asking my self, is it possible that a person who is searching these terms on internet to say 'My life was fantastic'? The terms that people are searching on the internet gives different results to the above question.
After all these questions I think that when you ask yourself if your life is, or was fantastic, you will know if you wasted lots of years on watching others people's life instead of your own. Or at least if you are doing something to make your life fantastic, or if you are expecting from others to make your life fantastic. Having a great life depends on yourself, just like having a job to survive.
But there is hope: say 'My life is fantastic' and you will know at least what are you doing wrong and what you have to do to make you life more interesting. When you wake up in the morning and look at the plans for that day, be sure to ask yourself 'What is fantastic in all these plans?'

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LA Auto Shows auto bailout

Old cars are not ready to be forgotten.

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The lucky ones are those who are sentimentally about their first or old car. Car producers were quite not in the mood of joking at the press conference  and this because the financial bailout is extending on every corner.   The crisis is expanding like a cancer; the strongest point of the society was the real estate or people's homes on short. The house is probably the most valuable property of a person.   Next, is the car. Now, some people thinks that a car means luxury. Some people believe that the retro style is not that bad and their old car needs just a wash and some repairs. The price of oil was falling the past few months as an announcement of the auto bailout.   Is just too expensive to buy a car and spend so much on gasoline.
  So, who kept his old car in the garage, now is time to show it to the world. Unfortunately, there are lots of people who suffer after this so called "auto bailout".   Don't cry for investors who will lose a few $millions, but for the poor people who are losing their jobs. For some of them is not that bad; some companies intend to offer their employees the possibility to start a business. At the show, the car producers had some nice new models, but...

Associated Press report from LA

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Noir Desir - Le vent nous portera ?

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The french rock band 'Noir Desir' (the name seems predestined and you will find out why) have posted two new songs on their website available for download (somewhere on this page you can find a embeddable widget where you can listen these songs). The band have a long time activity so it shouldn't be in the top searches on the internet these days without a serious reason. Bertrand Cantat (2nd from left to right in the picture above), have killed his girlfriend 5 years ago in a Lithuanian hotel. He was sentenced at 8 years of prison, but he was released after spending just half of sentence for 'good behavior'. Probably he sang in the jail and composed these two songs. Although I think that Noir Desir have a few nice songs, I wonder how does Bertrand expects to be accepted by the public. It is ridiculous. Below on the page there is a nice song called "Le vent nous portera", (in English "The wind will carry us") and the title makes me think that Bertrand hopes that his past will be carried away from our memory. Maybe people will remember this way how an young actress have been taken away from her life. That's why the band's name sounds predestined: 'Noir Desir' (in english 'Dark Desire'). A tipical french story: a bit sweet and a bit bitter. And a nice line from this song:

Ce parfum de nos années mortes

which translated to english means 'this perfume of our years died'. I wonder, have people forgotten?!

Noir Desir - Le vent nous portera

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Google Flu Trends - get a quote

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Google has released these days "Google Flu Trends", a service which is supposed to keep people informed about the spread of the flu (just US for the moment). This release improves Google Health programs and probably is a good idea and Google will take a new award for this from the public. They look now like they want to be friends with everybody. About the accuracy of the data, this is a different story. They say on their site:

We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity.

I wonder which search terms are they talking about. For the moment these search terms are influenced for sure about the news that they've launched this service. Another thing that can compromise this service is the manipulation of data. Let's say that a farmaceutical company launch a product which treats coughing and they start a online free promotional distribution of this product just in, let's say, Alaska state. People will start search the internet for this opportunity of getting something free, either is useful for them or not; they just want the damn free stuff. That is a way to compromise the data. People will not go in vacation in Alaska because there is flu, isn't it ?

Here is an interesting video released by CBS on their Youtube page:

Now, I can't retain from saying what inspired me to chose the picture for this article; the man from the picture is a english singer, Simon Indelicate . This picture was taken probably during a live performance, but he looks so affected by the flu...Actually, all english people (and rednecks too) have a red in their cheeks, so the Google Flu Trends should be aware of this situation.

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Starbucks free coffee - just vote

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Nice video ad from Starbucks. Elections are a good moment to make a company remarked and Starbucks put the coffee on the tables to get on the front news. Free coffee !!! Yam Yam ! As all the most of people appreciated the intentions of Starbucks to get people out of their homes for voting, the purpose of the elections have fade out somehow for many. I was looking at what were people searching these days and here is what I've discovered: an incredible breakout search quantity for Free Starbucks coffee. These searching was hand by hand with election results.
Now, what are all these people when they are looking at the Starbucks ad?! The free coffee or an encouragement to go to vote?! I'm sure that most of the people interprets each ad as he or she is interested. Some people thinks when is the best moment when to go to Starbucks... before or after voting...Or 'who will know that I didn't vote?'. And a better idea: 'I take one of that creamy hazelnut coffee when I leave and one when I come back. Oh, wait! I'll search the internet to see what other free stuff I can get; maybe there is beer too'.
This idea of giving free coffee to people reminds me of that Seinfeld episode when Kramer won free coffee for life. And that is how I see people who were voting for a coffee.
The ad unfortunately for them, was breaking some laws, although it had good intentions.
Also, Starbucks sent an e-mail to Starbucks card owners saying:

What if we all cared enough to vote?

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Martin Luther King Jr. - Free At Last

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Now, indeed Martin Luther Kink Jr. is really free and is probably resting in peace. Have past 45 years from his famous speech. His words were engraved on his grave as a symbol of his fights and efforts, but now, really, those words are as true as a clear sky. If Obama will be a good leader for America or not, that is something that future will show us, but the past is already sealed: FREEDOM for black people, RIGHTS for all races that live in America and one more thing - United States. All these could be spelled with a single name: Barack Obama. 4th november 2008 is the day that will remain in history as the day when the last proof that America is a great democracy have been stamped.
Obama is for America a fulfilled dream, the hope and a new beginning and the end of a shame. For other countries he could bring a better taste than dust to the world. I'll end this idea as it started, with the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and a short collection of a few great speeches.

Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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