Tweaked and adjusted a new template design for a facelift, reintegrated our logo into the header.  Ran our blog feeds (mine and the other boys) through feedburner for better tracking.   I got myself signed up on Twitter finally and have a widget displaying my “tweets” on my parts of the site.

I also plugged in Google Adsense where it made sense to on the site to potentially monetize our activity – will be interesting to see how that pans out.  Signed up for a few product/partner affiliate programs for software/tools I actually endorse and use – so we will see how those go too.    

Embedded a new Flash slideshow of our portfolio to the front page and threw in a CNN widget on our news page too.  And I finally integrated a contact form through one our favorite form builder/enablers: Wufoo.  

Now I just gotta get back to my book on investing and start paper  trading like I want to – so I can get out of exclusively managed investments like RRSPs (through a financial advisor that is doing little to actually manage my money – not his fault, that’s what the industry is about!).  Rule #1 and Phil Town will be my mentors/advisors as I give that a try.

Also, just finally read through the Watchmen graphic novel, I am now quite pumped to see the movie (wasn’t even familiar with this book’s existence until I saw the trailer in theaters)

(n) : the state of being synchronous or simultaneous; Coincidences that seem to be meaningfully related; supposedly the result of "universal forces"

I love when stuff happens that dares you to infer that nothing’s an accident.  That trivial coincidental stuff even somehow isn’t coincidence.

I took out a cool book from the library: Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.  And it happened to have a couple little sticky notes in it from a previous reader/loaner.   Not so weird.  But based on the pencil marks in the book, and the sticky note, it seemed to be someone who was trying to learn words/vocabulary from the book around a particularly dense part of the book.  So take a look at the words…  1 and 2 are fine, but look at 3: reconceive.  Reconceive is the process of achieving Reconception.  How neat and weird.

And interestingly it was on a page that I could even cite as being a manifesto for Reconception’s business/philosophy, at least inasmuch as I see it.

“The popular conception of innovation is that it’s highly desirable but rare and difficult to elicit.  Actually, it’s the other way around.  The problem is not an idea shortage.  New approaches can usually be elicited just by asking for them.  The average brainstorming session produces lots of fresh thinking.  Good ideas surround us.  Openness to such ideas does not.  What’s at a premium is receptivity to innovative suggestions and the vision to pursue them, even if that means reconceiving altogether what we’re up to.”   …

“The best ideas aren’t hidden in shadowy recesses. They’re right in front of us, hidden in plain sight.  Innovation seldom depends on discovering obscure or subtle elements but in seeing the obvious with fresh eyes.  This is easier said than done, because nothing is as hard to see as what’s right before our eyes.  We overlook what we take for granted.”

Beautiful!  Couldn’t have said it better myself (and I didn’t, Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes did) .  It’s a good read, but it was a nice renewal in my mind of why I try to solve business problems and why I love interactive technology and project management in the first place too!

Is it just me or does the idea of watching the Palin/Biden debate tonight make your skin crawl?  Every time Palin is interviewed I feel bad for her – it’s like watching awkward moments in a Ben Stiller comedy.  I feel bad for her, she’s obviously smart and resourceful and accomplished, but she seems to have real gaps in required knowledge and she has trouble ad-libbing her way out of questions she has trouble answering.  Ouch.