Dan Jones VI

Pursuing Curiosity the World Over

Why Apple Is Great but the iPhone Is a Scam

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After much foot-dragging, like say, twenty years worth, I’ve become a big fan of Apple products. To my left is my iPad Mini, from which I was just reading Tony Robbins’ newest book, MONEY Master the Game—very good. To my right is my trusty iPod Touch 5, which will turn two years old in a couple weeks and hasn’t missed a beat despite taking a beating. And in my lap is my Macbook, from which I am writing to you, my cherished reader.

I’ve gone from being an Apple hater to having my life inundated by all things Apple. Except, of course, the iPhone. [Read more…]

A New Leaf: How a Change of Scenery Could Be Your Game Changer

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Napoleon Hill called it a “hypnotic rhythm”, but you might know it better as a “rut”. Getting in a rut, as we call it. It’s when we get stuck in a pattern of monotony, repeating and perfecting our mistakes until they become part of a muscle memory of subprime performance. Maybe they don’t even qualify as mistakes, maybe it’s just a less than optimal method of living. We accept the first few instances of it, promising ourselves it’ll change when the time is right. But before we know  it, months or even years have passed. We’ve adapted to the mediocrity. Grown comfortable with life’s imperfections. Rather than push through it, break those patterns of thought, we prefer to be passive. This is life, after all, right? [Read more…]

The Hostel Revolution

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There are no guarantees. If you take the risk, you may end up in a bed with sheets that aren’t quite clean. You may find out that pillows aren’t included or that, gasp, there is no hot water in the shower. But at the end of the day, you’ll still pay an incredibly small fee for being able to sleep securely with a roof over your head in a faraway foreign land. [Read more…]

This Election, Please, Just Stay Home

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Election season is upon us. It’s awful, I know. The recycle bin fills up twice as fast from unconvincing direct mail ads by the ream. Awkward tension develops amongst neighbors with rival candidates campaign signs staked in their front yards. And the most abhorrent form of human communication ever devised, the political bumper sticker, rubs your nose in the random ideologies of fellow drivers.

About this time, various influential individuals, interest groups, and non-profits spring up to clamor about the importance of voting. A public shaming in the form of radio, TV, and print ads takes place to discourage anyone from even thinking the thought of not voting. Celebrities on gilded soapboxes admonish the entire population about the need to vote.

“Vote or Die” went one get-out-the-vote campaign some years ago. That seems a little extreme, doesn’t it? But even without the stark alternative of dying, is voting a necessary and moral thing for all people to do? I’m not so sure. [Read more…]

Top 10 Words You Mispronounce That Make You Sound Like an Idiot at Work

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We all do it. We hear a word spoken improperly at a young age by an authority figure and it becomes engrained in us. Even into adulthood, we hear respectable, intelligent people mispronounce a word, and it sticks.

Like little contagions in the conversational ether, they strike when we least expect it, reprogramming our brains for a lifetime of mispronounced words. Nowhere is safe. Even movies, advertisements, and talking heads on TV often (more on this word later) get some of the most commonly spoken words wrong. [Read more…]

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