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As some of you may or may not already know my father moved to Pattaya Thailand about three years ago.  He is living out an incredible retirement over there for about a quarter of what it would cost for him to live the same way in the United States. 

Typically he will come home over the holidays for about a month to spend time with his friends, children, grandchildren, etc.  Unfortunately with extremely high fuel prices this year it was going to cost him nearly double the typical airfare to come visit and he decided that it would be smarter to wait and to come visit another time.

I decided to try to find a good way to be able to communicate with him.  I needed something that would allow my brother and sister who do not have computers to be able to talk to my dad and I wanted to be able to do video as well.  I came across a great video phone product that appeared to cover all of the requirements.

o   Free international calls to other video phones

o   Crystal clear video

o   Inexpensive (less than $200 shipped and only $30 a month)

o   Replaces my home phone line

o   Was extremely simple to configure

o   4 way video conference calling

o   Intermittent Lock-ups

o   Long boot time

I was extremely excited when I found this and immediately purchased one for myself and another as a gift for my dad.  I promptly sent it overnight via FedEx to Thailand and waited for my dad to call.  The next day I received my first video voicemail from him letting me know that he had successfully hooked it all up and was hoping I would receive the message.  It was so awesome to get to see him and the quality between Tucson and Pattaya was amazing.

I am in the process of learning how to wire the video phone into my house so that all of my cordless phones work through the VOIP as well.  I’ll write instructions up once I’m finished and post them here…

If you’d like to get a video phone of your own you can order them here…

I typically don’t repost content that I did not write, but I felt that this e-mail I received today was very insightful.

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip.  

You don’t have to actually answer the questions.   Just read straight through, and you’ll get the point. 

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world. 
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant. 
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress. 
6. Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners. 
 

How did you do? 

The point is , none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. 

These are no second-rate achievers. 

They are the best in their fields. 

But the applause dies.. 

Awards tarnish. 

Achievements are forgotten. 

Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. 


Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one: 

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school. 

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time. 

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile. 

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special!! 

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with. 


Easier? 


The lesson: 

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials.. 

the most money…or the most awards. 

They simply are the ones who care the most. 

  

I can’t remember a year in the past where I ever came up with resolutions, but for some reason this year feels different.  I feel like there are some things that I should be better about this year and in the future.  I’ve also been debating as to whether I should share these publicly or not.   I decided that my friends and family that happen to see this can help hold me to these. 

 So here are the items I came up with:

1)      More time for family – I know that I am a total work-a-holic and need to find better ways to balance my work and home life.  I’ve definitely done a better job of this over the last few months and I plan to continue the trend and make sure that I’m not missing out on any birthday parties, family events or small get-togethers unless there is a dire emergency that requires my attention. 

2)      Get my home businesses moving – Both of these businesses are moving much more slowly than I would like.  Maria and I have had good intentions for moving these along more quickly, but I would like to kick these into high gear so we can get ourselves debt free and increase our freedom.   Initially I am working to get Maria up to speed on the details for both businesses and we are going to try to introduce 1 new person to either business every day which we feel should be a good start.  We’ll see where they go from there.

3)      Drop 15 pounds – I did a good job of sticking to my workout plan until right before I left for Mexico.  Since then it’s gone completely to crap and I’m still about 15 pounds heavier than I would like.  I’m going to get back on my exercise plan and try to get those other 437 miles of walking / running / jogging out of the way before Miranda’s summer break.  If I can average 15 miles of exercise per week I can make this goal by June at some point.

4)      Increase my Spanish skills – I have the perfect opportunity to get good at this.  With my girlfriend and her daughter speaking Spanish fluently I would be dumb to pass up this chance to learn the language and have many opportunities to practice it.  I’m thinking that I might try to get into an evening class or something similar to jump-start this.  If any of you reading this can recommend someone, I’m happy to listen to suggestions.

I guess since I took the time to put this together I should probably do some follow-ups throughout the year to see how I am tracking against these goals.  More later…