To all the people out there wondering where I am and why I haven’t been accessable for the past few days, I’ve been sick.

Sorry for the inconveniences. I’ll get back to everyone and get the ball rolling on everything when I can function at peak efficiency again (whatever that is).

In response to Lynn’s ping for the “come as you are” meme, here’s a pic. Gawd, I hate pictures of me.

I’m the type of person who has very strong beliefs in certain things and when someone trashes me based on those beliefs, that hurts my feelings.

Something has been weighing heavily on my mind. In a recent post, I ‘went off’ on someone and attacked a person because of a statement they made while they were passionately expressing their own strong beliefs. That was wrong.

So Jason, I sincerely apologize.

And for any of you cynics or skeptics out there reading this, this apology was not solicited in any way.

Lead Vocals: Geddy Lee
Lead Guitar: Alex Lifeson
Drums: Neil Peart

Guest - Blue Tshirt: Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies
Guest - Goofy Glasses: Bubbles, from Showcase’s Trailer Park Boys

I watched a video by a brilliant marketer and someone I respect last night. His name may be familiar to you. John Reese.

The video was all about Brain Dumps. I won’t go into the technique here but I will tell you that what John outlines in this video is life changing if you put it into action. Here’s a link to John’s video. It’s about an hour long, so be prepared. I listened to this thing at about 8pm last night - it’s about 10am now, the next morning and I finished about an hour ago. I’m exhausted, but I feel more energized and creative now than I have in years. It’s that good.

Ok, enough with that…

ok. Most of you know that I’m in the middle of restructuring my online business. Over the past 3 years after “coming out” into the public eye again, I’ve started a blog network, become somewhat of an authority on the subject of blogs, faded off the blogging scene, blah blah. Basically, I’ve had no direction or overall plan. So I started over and am still in the middle of that process right now.

Last night’s brain dump helped me a lot. It allowed me to clear all the silly little things out of my mind, get them organized on paper in an easy to manage list and free up that brain space for more important things, like solidifying new plans for my new media company.

One of the things I did earlier is to contact a few people and ask them to contribute to a new site I’m starting soon. It’ll be a community news site. More details on that later.

The people I contacted, if they decide to take me up on my offer, will be bloggers and all I’ll do is give them a platform and the support to get their stuff out there. But these people are a bit different than your normal, run-of-the-mill bloggers. They’re a unique group of people who never (as far as I can tell after some extensive research) blogged in this capacity before, and they have a LOT of important things to say. Their voices need to be heard and I’ve handed them the keys to the amplifier.

If they accept, I’ll be the luckiest guy on earth. If not, then I’ll look for more like them. But it will happen because I’ve set the wheels in motion and won’t stop til I get to the destination.

Again, more on all this later. But do yourself a huge favor and go watch John Reese’s brain dump tutorial right now. Then come back here and thank me.

Here’s how my life works:

A few months back I made an appointment to see a doctor about a minor problem. The appointment was made for about 5 weeks later. Of course, during that time the minor medical problem disappeared but I kept the appointment anyway.

So it’s 1:45pm, 15 minutes before my appointment and I stroll into a super-crowded waiting room, get some forms from the receptionist and stand there filling them out.

Afte standing for over an hour, I ask the receptionist how much longer I’d have to wait. “As you can see, most of these people were here before you Mr. Short.” My response “well can I book another appointment? I have to be somewhere else at 3:30 and I didn’t expect to be waiting this long. My original appointment was for 2:00pm.”

“The doctor is booked until mid Feb. 06.”

Me: “Oh, well, as I said I can’t wait any longer, I have to be somewhere else at 3:30.”

As I turn to leave she adds: “Mr. Short, there’s a $50 fee if you cancel your appointment without giving us 24 hours notice.”

Me: “Excuse me? I think if you look through your appointment book, mine was for 2pm. I was here at 1:45 and have been waiting for over an hour now. I was here for my appointment, the doctor is the one who renegged.”

Her: “But you haven’t seen him yet, so if you leave now we’ll have to bill you the $50 cancellation fee.”

Me: “I won’t be paying the fee. I was here to meet with the doctor at the appointed time. It’s written right there in your schedule, and, as you can see by looking at the clock, I have been here since before 2.”

Today, I recieved a collection notice in the mail for the $50 “cancellation fee.”