Over the past few years, I have read with interest Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year. Most years I have found that I agreed that most of the people on the list deserve to be there. It has also been interesting to see the names of people who have been on the list more than once, such as Hillary Clinton, President Obama, Lorne Michaels, and Mark Zuckerberg.

I just started David McCullogh's new book on the Wright Brothers. When I was in fifth grade I did a specialty report on them though I can't say I remember much about it. I do remember though my mother coming to class that day and sitting in the back while I nervously gave my presentation. The book is filled with a number of quotes from brother Wilber.

It's quite a large volume of fluid. To put it in perspective, that's four of those big 2 liter bottles of soda. Not that I drink much soda but the amount is significant.   And that's precisely the quantity of liquid they drained out of my stomach last Wednesday. I know...I can't believe it either. I watched as a catheter, that was inserted into my right side, sucked out fluid for over 45 minutes. What a feeling. My belly got smaller and I felt my insides relax. I could take a full breath once again and my internal organs were pretty happy too.  

Something that can make a defining difference in one's life is drive. Drive might not make one happy, but it helps make one be the best that they can be and enhances the prospect of success (and happiness). I didn't have much drive when I was coming up and there were a number of disappointments and failures along the way. At some point, however, I'd had enough and those experiences help fuel the drive which I still have to this day.  One can be driven to triumph by will. Or in the words of Nike: Just do it!  Just find a way to get it done.

Last night was David Letterman’s last show.

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust

  As a fifteen year old boy, my son could spend literally all day in front of that game console. It calls his name. Truth be told, there has been more than one conflict in our house in an effort to limit the amount of time he spends engaged with that machine.