Category: Motivation/Inspiration
North Shore Cattle Company
View from the NSCC ranch, 1100 feet above Haleiwa, with Kaena Pt. in the distance.
My family and I had a wonderful time at the North Shore Cattle Company ranch yesterday. Check out their website for more details on this epic place.
My high school classmate, Ryan Lum, and his “ohana” run the working ranch that has stunning views of the famed North Shore of Oahu.
Way up, at over 1100 feet above Haleiwa, Ryan shared that the temperature has dropped way down to a chilly 45 degrees in the winter.
It was such a welcomed escape from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu.
And the bottomline: with restaurants like Alan Wong’s serving their premium, high-end, grass-fed-only beef, they are deservedly doing remarkably well. Congratulations to the Lums.
What an experience! Thanks, Ryan. Keep up the great work…
Me and my beautiful cowgirl, Michelle!
CARLIN ON AGING AND STAYING YOUNG
The following was an email I recently received from my mom, Dr. Linda Andrade Wheeler.
I love Carlin’s overall perspective/philosophy on life and his deep, comical intelligence.
Enjoy! Here it is:
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
‘How old are you?’ ‘ I’m four and a half!’ You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.
You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m gonna be 16!’ You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life! You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, and then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.
You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I Was JUST 92.’
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. ‘I’m 100 and a half!’
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay ‘them.’2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever, even ham radio. Never let the brain idle. ‘An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’ And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. We all need to live life to its fullest each day!
Bugatti Veyron vs. Eurofighter Typhoon
The most technologically advanced car in the world, the Bugatti Veyron was pitted against the supersonic Eurofighter Typhoon jet plane in a head-to-head race of truly epic proportions. Which of these mechanical marvels will win? Well, the Bugatti is quite impressive. It can hit 253 mph and is heralded as the quickest accelerating and decelerating street-legal production car in the world. But compared to the jet, which tops out at 1500 mph, it’s a snail. So the race is pretty straightforward, right? Not so. Here’s the twist, the jet will need to shoot up a mile into the sky and come back down; while the supercar will need to go one mile down the runway and make it back; both covering two miles. The first back to the starting line, wins the race. See the mind-boggling race for yourself– Bugatti Veyron vs Eurofighter Typhoon Jet.
Unbelievable, but I saw it for myself; it’s the real thing. Top Gear BBC featured this in their popular auto show on TV recently. Of course, it’s a novelty of sorts, but it’s still cool. The Bugatti Veyron racing a Eurofighter Typhoon Jet over a 2 mile tarmac turned “drag strip”. Click here to see the race.
I can still remember walking into the Ettore Bugatti store in Waikiki over a decade ago. It was a big event for Honolulu when it premiered. Even the Robb Report interviewed Crazy Shirts founder, Rick Ralston, who brought it to Hawaii. But only two months after that interview appeared in the magazine, Ralston shut the store down. We have many high-end boutiques on Kalakaua Avenue, but this store’s quality was a cut above, and the prices were too. I went to the closing/liquidation sale, and the stuff was still just way too expensive.
Consider the Veyron supercar: At $1.7 million, it’s the most expensive production car in the world. The way I see it, if you’re fortunate enough to afford one, you are getting a ridiculously special vehicle. They truly take their time in putting together this automotive masterpiece. It is said that only two are completed weekly. When I read that statistic, my knee jerk reaction was, “that many?”
What makes any car worth the price of a (small) beachfront home? Well, overpriced parts, for one. To give you an example, the square-head bolts that hold together the air ducts on this supercar are made from titanium, and costs more than $100 apiece. Although most of us can’t, if you can afford it, and it would just represent a little splurging, then go ahead and make yourself happy. It might just be good for your health.
Hard to believe, but on July 7, 2008, the Wall Street Journal featured an article entitled, “Splurging Is Good for Your Health”. Appearing in the Harvard Business Review, researchers came up with the virtues and regrets of consumers. As the WSJ put it, “Whether luxury is good for your finances is another matter.” All I do know for certain is that spending more than you make is not good for your financial health.
Whatever the case, enjoy the race!
Are You a Tigger or an Eeyore?
Last Friday, July 25, 2008, Diane Sawyer announced on Good Morning America that Randy Pausch had passed away. Who was Pausch? Well, for one he was a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as a best-selling author. But most notably, he achieved worldwide fame for his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007.
It all began with one, age-old question: What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you? For Pausch though, the question was too real. Pausch, a father of three small children with his wife Jai, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer—and given six months to live. But instead of focusing on his death, Pausch spoke about his childhood dreams. He went on to attain almost all of those dreams, but they didn’t all come easy.
In the lecture, he spoke of overcoming the obstacles that may seem insurmountable. One of the reasons Pausch was so highly thought of by his students was his extraordinary way of looking at obstacles: “The brick walls are there for a reason,” he said during his last lecture. “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” In essence, he was telling his students, ‘it was there to keep others out, not us’.
Ain’t Life An Artichoke?
“A goal without action is a dream;
all action without a goal is passing time;
and a goal with action is accomplishment.”
From the #1 Bestselling Book by Dr. Linda Andrade Wheeler. (Yep, you got that right: Not self-promotion; but shameless family promotion. If you know something is good, share it. That’s what I’m doing here with you. Dr. Wheeler is my mom and I’m truly proud of her accomplishments…find out for yourself why her books are perennial Hawaii bestsellers. The book is on its third printing.)
Ain’t Life an Artichoke: It Takes a Lot of Peeling to Get to the Heart…The Best Part
This book is about personal excellence–the process of self-discovery and self-renewal as you interact with others in building healthy & happy relationships. It is about a journey to your heart, which you must take alone to find your uniqueness. The process can be uplifting and bring a brand new perspective to your life.
Saving Money $2 At a Time
I still remember receiving $2 bills for my birthday every year. As if a family tradition, my grandparents (who lived in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California) sent them to me in Hawaii every year without fail. There was never a surprise, just a $2 bill in the letter. Without missing the message, my parents always made us call them to express our appreciation.
At the time, I used to think they were a bit tight. Later I would learn that when they passed on, they had amassed over $125,000 (in the 1980’s) in bank savings! I was proud of them and understood why they did what they did.
They knew something about saving money. Maybe there hope was that I would choose to save the $2 bills as keepsakes—I still have them 30 years later—and not spend them. (Later I would learn the importance of, “compound interest”.) According to the United States Department of the Treasury, it seems to be what most people do with them.
In spite of its relatively low value among the denominations of U.S. currency, the two-dollar bill is one of the most rarely seen in circulation and actual use. They are almost never given as change for commercial transactions, and thus consumers rarely have them on hand. After 13 years in business as a day-to-day retailer at Successories of Hawaii, I can’t remember accepting a $2 bill as form of customer payment. Production of the note is quite low; approximately 1% of all notes currently produced are $2 bills.
The $2 bill has not been removed from circulation and is still a circulating denomination of United States paper currency. The Federal Reserve System does not, however, request the printing of that denomination as often as the others. As of April 30, 2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide.
In one of her catch phrases, gold-hued financial planning guru, Suze Orman, put it in perspective well, “People first, then money, then things”. My grandmother had her own way of summing the same up. In every letter she wrote, she signed-off, “Remember you are loved”. I agree that we all need to know that we are loved. But at eleven years old, I assumed that. I just wanted a $20, not a $2 bill. Thanks, grandma.
United States
Department of the Treasury
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/denominations.shtml
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