A fable attributed to Aesop
In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”
“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”
“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:
“It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.”

Below is Walt Disney Studio’s version of this fable. Of course, it’s lighthearted and has a happy ending, but in the real world the story may not end so happily for people that fail to prepare for a “day of necessity”. With so many people (34% or more of the population) choosing not to think about or prepare for an inevitable winter’s day, I doubt that the folks that spent years saving will be so generous as to give away their hard earned money or resources.

The full quote is, “We are a nation of debtors, not savers, and someday that’s going to bite us.” That quote, from Jim Rawles, was made in response to this story about the results of a poll on Monster.com that asked the question, “If you were laid off without severance, how long would your savings cover your living expenses?”. Thirty-four percent said they only have enough to last one week or less. That number is made even more discouraging by the thought that the majority of people that visit Monster.com are probably proactive, responsible, and educated people. The lay-abouts and do-nothings don’t visit that website. Fewer laborers visit that website because most jobs that are posted require a college degree or certification. So the real number of individuals that have saved more than a day’s worth of cash for living expenses isn’t determined by that poll, but I suspect that the number of unprepared persons is much greater than 34%. I am encouraged to see that 20% have six months or more saved up! That is absolutely fantastic! I’m still working on my savings. It takes time. But I’m almost to the six month mark and I don’t plan to stop there. It’s a sad fact that people ridicule my own efforts to save money, especially when those people are thousands of dollars in debt and pay hundreds of dollars in interest every month. The money they spend in interest could be spent on things that could help them improve their family’s life or, more importantly, it could be placed into a savings account where it might be useful in the future. This reminds me of the story of the ant and the grasshopper.

I discovered this absolute GEM of a news broadcast on one of my new favorite blogs, “Probably Bad News“. Go ahead and see if you can watch this video all the way through without shaking your head in complete amazement.

Two articles, one from Bloomberg and one from the BBC, are reporting a problem with sugar supplies. Will the price skyrocket? Will there be a shortage? Sugar is an ingredient in an exceptionally large number of prepared foods, so it only stands to reason that if sugar prices surge then any food with sugar as an ingredient will see a price increase also. I’m not sure what it means, or if it means anything at all, but I think this is a really odd situation.

I think it was Christmas Day of 2004 when a large Tsunami devastated parts of Asia. The news post and accompanying photo, linked here, are old and you’ve probably seen them before, but the amount of devastation created by that tidal surge is still amazing and frightening. It makes me glad that I don’t live in a coastal region or plateau.

Discovery Channel hosts a “Dino Viewer” that offers images, models, and run-cycles of a few species. I thought it was pretty nifty, check it out.

By December of this year, the unemployment benefits of 1.5 million Americans will have expired. What will happen? What should we do? An extension of benefits has already been made, should we fund another three-month extension despite the fact that this nation has the deepest debt and the greatest budget deficit in history? The unemployment rate is still rising and no one can say for certain if it will level-off before next March. We can’t afford to fund extensions forever. Should those people be left to fend for themselves? If 1.5 million people were to lose their benefits, would they turn to crime? This New York Times article explains the situation.

Not only can you send and receive calls using Google voice, but it’s completely FREE. I can call anywhere in the United States, for free. In addition to the free calls, I also get voicemail, which Google transcribes and sends the text to my email where I can read it at my leisure. Then I can listen to the audio if I want. Especially if the transcription isn’t accurate because the caller purposely tried to screw it up, like the call below from Kelly. Oh yeah, you can download and embed any of the audio from your phone calls. Pressing “4″ on your phone pad will record any phone call. Not only can Google Voice record any call, it can transcribe them, place them in a database, and make them indexed and searchable. If this wasn’t so damned cool, it might be really, really scary. Here’s Kelly’s voicemail:

I’ve been inspired to sketch a little lately. This is a small version of a sketch I did tonight in a couple of hours. I love Photoshop. I wish I had more time to draw.

I was just browsing a few Blogs and websites of other designers and stumbled across a story that made my jaw drop. This story is exactly why it pays to have a portfolio of your own work online. I know there are several folks from Disney that read this Blog; some from California and some from Florida. Maybe one day I’ll get a call to do … something. Concept illustration, character illustration, Interactive design, sculpting … or all of the above. My portfolio is horribly old, and hasn’t been redesigned in over five years, but if anyone is interested … choosechris.com. Okay, back to my point; you’ll be amazed at the story of Ryan and Lucasfilm.

Kelly just sent me this link of photos with creative perspective and good timing, but that timing could be good or bad. You’ll see what I mean. Some of these are very funny! View the photos!

I suppose I should start off this post by saying that, generally, I dislike Microsoft. There’s very little about them as a company that I appreciate. I only use their products because it’s tough to work with computers and not use their products. However, their new “decision engine”, called Bing, has a map feature that offers some much nicer views than other similar services. I don’t like the search part of the service, I’ll continue to use Google, but I do like their map images, which aren’t taken directly overhead. It gives the map a more real-world view. Right now their mapping service seems to be much more limited than Google, but I’m sure they’ll expand their coverage areas. For now, check out what Disney World looks like on Bing’s map.

UPDATE: I’ve updated the link above. I didn’t notice until now that Bing doesn’t update the link in the address bar when you change or modify your view, so the link I posted previously wasn’t correct. Please click it again to see what I was talking about. However, I should warn you that twice now, I’ve had Bing Maps completely crash my computer, and I’m actually mad about it. Pardon me for going on a rant, but it’s my Blog and I can do what I want. (more…)