And we thought geekery knew no bounds.  Does your Halloween costume match up to these guys?

Those are 42″ LCD TVs connected to real-life iPhones on the top. Now all they need is dancing skills.

Career fairs, on-campus interviews, and flybacks can only mean one thing: it’s internship-hunting season again.  And I’m not having very much success.

About a week ago, I was really discouraged with the whole job hunting situation.  No opportunities were presenting themselves with on-campus interviews, and none of the companies I’ve met so far seem like a good fit with my personality.

Then I realized I’ve been looking at life through binoculars.  Backwards.  There are more companies in the world than those that recruit here on campus.

What would happen if I ditched the binoculars in other areas of my life?

I sleep in class a lot.

If professors were to watch for me, they could catch me asleep at least once a week — sometimes more.  I often ask myself, why do I fall asleep so easily in lectures?  Am I bored?  Do I have a sleep disorder?

To some extent, yes, both of those are true.  But they’re not the main reason my eyelids become extraordinarily heavy.  I realized today that it all goes back to preparation.

When I prepare for class, I’m less likely to fall asleep.  A little extra investment of time and effort seems to keep my eyes open, no matter how bored I become.

This principle applies everywhere: I won’t leave a boring football game when I’ve paid $25 per ticket.  I won’t fall asleep in a movie I paid $9 to see.  I won’t doze during a church meeting for which I’ve spiritually prepared myself.

If you want to get more out of something in your life, start investing more in it.  If the investment is painful, perhaps you shouldn’t be doing that thing in the first place.

The proliferation of the Internet has brought a strange phenomenon: we’ve become information gatherers, not information hunters.

In centuries past, when information was not as easily acquired, the world produced the greatest minds ever known.  Albert Einstein, for example, couldn’t rely on Google for answers to his science questions in High School.  He had to hunt for his own information — and change the world in the process.

Fifty years later, students get upset if teachers ask questions that can’t be answered with a quick search on the Internet.  Papers and reports are about gathering facts, not creating them like our forefathers have done.

We’re taught to gather information like ancient cavemen gathered berries.  Will we, one day, find that the branches of information are barren?

Do you ever do something nice for someone just because they’re human?

Society demands a reason for everything.  Smiling at a complete stranger, giving a dollar to a homeless person, or even helping someone carry his or her groceries is an awkward experience for most of us.  We avoid these situations because we don’t have an apparent reason for getting involved.

I believe the least apparent reasons are the best reasons.  Why can’t we do nice things for people just because we can?  Why can’t we respect others just because they’re human beings?

My new goal is to stop looking for reasons to do nice things.  Reasons will only hold you back.

Weekends mean a lot to me.  If I don’t stay away from the computer on Saturdays and Sundays, my Mondays (and consequentially Tuesdays through Thursdays) always seem much more hectic than they really are.  I need short-term wins to maintain my long-term stamina.

Yet short-term wins don’t come naturally — we have to plan for them.  I have to plan to stay away from my computer on the weekends, otherwise I end up in the daily grind like any other weekday.

John P. Kotter put it nicely when he said, “Creating short-term wins is different from hoping for short-term wins.  The latter is passive, the former active” (Leading Change: Why Most Transformation Efforts Fail, HBR, Mar-Apr 1995).

That’s why I write this blog.  It’s my scheduled short-term win, since I really love writing.  What short-term wins do YOU schedule?

Human beings, like monkeys, are trained from youth to look for cause and effect relationships.  Flipping a switch will turn on the lights, striking a match will start a fire, and throwing a rock into a lake will make it sink.

Yet we know the opposite can be true: sometimes the power is out, the matches are wet, and the only rocks we can find are pumice.  No matter how many times we order chicken fingers, life can always find a way to serve us a cheeseburger.

What are we to do?  Joseph B. Wirthlin counsels:

The way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life.  If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness.

Note that adversity LEADS towards times of greatest happiness.  Life may stink right now, but it will definitely get better.

Every day, 2.6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook worldwide.  Want to know what people are doing?  They’re playing games like Farm Town, Sorority Life, Mafia Wars, and who knows what else.

If you love these games, that’s fine by me.  It’s a little creepy when you’re a 50 year-old man playing Sorority Life (ahem), but whatever you do in your personal time is totally up to you.  Just do everyone a favor: turn off your couch potato meter.

You know, it’s that little green dot at the bottom right of your screen that says you’re online.  When that dot is green, every single one of your friends knows that you’re on Facebook right now.  And when you’re a green dot for the greater part of EVERY day, everyone knows you’re a couch potato.  Addicted.

Save some face, man, and click “Go Offline” before playing your Facebook games.

Most Facebook ads are terrible.  But the other day, I found one I really liked.

The premise of this ad is awesome: it gets people to think about Honda in a new way.  Here’s how my chain of thought went:

1. I thought of two of my cousins who always buy Hondas.
2. I began to wonder why they buy Hondas.
3. I felt sheepish because I was thinking about this ad so much.

Anyway, I wish more internet ads were this creative.

(And if you’re wondering, I still didn’t vote in the poll.)

(Update: Social media just got crazier.)

(Update x2: At the movie theater last night, Honda had a pre-show advertisement for this same ad campaign, giving a link to Honda’s Facebook page)

“Ching” is a word I made up.  It describes a feeling that changes your life.

Ching is the satisfaction you feel when you’re doing something you’re innately talented at.  I feel ching when:

• I balance the books for my web design business.  I’m not a particularly talented accountant, yet I feel strange sort of satisfaction when everything balances.
• I vacuum the living room so the carpet looks spot-free.  Mowing the lawn or cleaning the kitchen is the same.
• I answer client support requests promptly and efficiently.  It’s not uncommon to get an e-mail back from me in less than five minutes, especially if I know the answer.

As you can see, my ching has a lot to do with accomplishment and attention to detail.  Be careful, though — your ching might be completely different.  I know people whose ching has more to do with creativity, friendships, and even selfless service.

Ching has nothing to do with practical skills.  Rather, ching is when you’re exercising one of your natural born talents through your practical skills.

Want to be happier with your job?  Find your ching.