Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, it’s bobsled time! If you’re like me and appreciate the movie “Cool Runnings” you’ll be happy to hear that the sequel is taking place as we speak! Ok, not a theatrical sequel, but a real life sequel is playing out. The Jamaican bobsled team has once again fought the underdog odds and qualified for the upcoming Sochi Olympics. Even though the team had qualified for a place at the Olympics, it did not appear they would be able to afford the travel cost for the team getting to Sochi. The underdog team took to the Internet and put forth their best crowd-funding efforts. In a matter of just a few days, the team had met their goal of $100,000. Underdog stories are always fun to rally behind, it shows that you can accomplish the things you want with some dedication and hard work. This story is doubly feel-good as you see hundreds and thousands, of strangers and fans come together to help make a dream come true. This should be a fun story to follow come the winter games. If nothing else, it will inspire you to dust off your old copy of “Cool Runnings” and give that a watch again.
It's 2014, and the future is now! Ok, technically the future can't be now, because then it would be the present, but enough with semantics. Automaker Audi has developed and started testing new technology to use in their cars. This piece of tech taps into the local traffic light control information to give you real time updates on your dashboard of when traffic lights will change. Next time you're approaching a red light, you can look down at your dashboard, realize the red light only has fifteen seconds left before turning green. You ease off the gas as you approach the red light, by the time you get to the stop line, the fifteen seconds has passed and the light is green again. Back on the gas and continue on with your driving. Now of course this will not prevent you from hitting a red light again, but it will help. When you do get stuck at a red light though, this feature could help ease your mind while you wait. I know that when I'm at a light, sometimes it can feel as if it will never turn green again. Now with Audi's new tech, you can glance down and get a timer showing you how much longer you'll be sitting there. There is obviously a lot of red tape that needs to be gotten past before we'll see this feature showing up in cars, so no clue how long before we can use it, but it's on the table now. Not even a month into 2014 and we're seeing new technology like this showing up, I'm excited to see what the rest of this year brings.
We're eight days into the New Year and I'm already beginning to snap due to my "lose some weight" New Year's resolution. I dream about all the tasty food that I can't eat anymore, and it seems almost impossible to accomplish. That is, until you read about a teacher, John Cisna, from Iowa who lost forty pounds in ninety days by eating nothing but McDonalds! Right?! Where do I sign up for this diet?? These were his guidelines to follow; strict 2000 calories a day, try to stay within nutritional recommended dietary allowances for things like carbs, proteins, and cholesterol, and he had to take a forty-five minute walk each day. Following these guidelines, he lost weight and reduced his cholesterol. Now, as nice as this sounds, the moral of the story isn't to go grab a couple extra value meals to shed some pounds. Cisna ate very well considering his dining establishment choice. For breakfast he would have egg whites or oatmeal, lunch was a salad, and then for dinner he would get an extra value meal of his choice. In the end though, all his food for those ninety days came from McDonalds. This gives me hope. I'm not saying go out and eat McDonalds every day, odds are it won't have the same outcome. Rather, eat or do what you want, but be smart about it and balance it out. Regardless, I congratulate this man on living the dream. I also thank him because from now on, anytime I get flack for eating fast food I'm going to reference this story!
With the lottery jackpots reaching so high lately, it’s easy to forget about the ritual of giving this time of season, and begin to focus on all the stuff you’d buy if you won millions of dollars. Nothing wrong with that, we all do it. Jackpot gets high up into the millions and you just start to daydream. A Canadian man named Tom Crist found out one day that his lotto ticket was a winner…a $40 million winner! Now, if that were me, I’d be singing and dancing from the rooftops. Not Tom Crist though. Tom Crist sat on that ticket for over six months. He knew what he was going to do with his money; he just needed some time for the reality to set in. Tom took all of his winnings and put it into a foundation he created in memory of his wife, whom he lost to cancer two years ago. All $40 million will essentially be donated to various charities, mostly to benefit cancer research. Here is a man that exemplifies the goodwill that comes along with this time of year. He wins $40 million dollars and doesn’t keep a single penny of it, but rather donates the entire winnings to charity to honor his loved one.
Now that we all feel warm and fuzzy, I want to wish you all seasons’ greetings and a happy New Year! We won’t be posting anything here until 2014, so keep your eyes peeled for new posts then!
Tis the season for giving. Most of us don’t expect much from large companies except for a sale here or there, or maybe a matched charitable donation. Sometimes however, just sometimes, a company goes above and beyond to really spark that holiday light in their customers.
Canadian based airline company WestJet did just that, went above and beyond. While passengers milled around their terminals, they could scan their airline ticket into a video machine allowing them to talk to Santa himself. Kids and adults alike were asked what is the one thing they really want for the holidays this year. Answers ranged from things like; a scarf, camera, video game systems, tablets, and even a big screen TV. The travelers thought nothing of it as they were talking to the Santa on the TV. What they didn’t know, though, is that while their flight was en route, the staff of WestJet was feverishly shopping for all of the gifts requested! When the plane landed in Calgary, per usual everyone funneled down to baggage claim. Much to their surprise, rather than seeing their baggage, the passengers were first greeted with wrapped presents individually addressed to each of them. All of the gifts were there; camera, video games, tablets, scarf, a flight home for the holidays, and yes even a fifty inch flatscreen TV!
Seeing stories like this always puts me in the holiday spirit. It goes to show that holiday cheer can be found anywhere, even in unexpected places like a crowded airport baggage claim. It also teaches us that if a video Santa asks what you want for the holidays, go big!!!
