Where did Marbles Come from?

I've never heard of Marbles knife before but they've burst into the review circle lately and I'm eager to get one of their products and compare it for myself. If they hold up at that price point, they are set to fight their way into a very competitive market. Marbles equipment is made in El Salvador, and only available online so far. www.smkw.com Here's a few more of their products...

Survival Shovel

I love the idea of a survival shovel but I never find them to hold up to the billing. This one, the Marbles Devil Tail, however really looks like it's worth a try. It's also priced well. If I can get my hands on one in the next month or so I'll consider doing a review although this video is thorough and I like that it goes head to head with a reliable industry standard in Cold Steel. I'd only like to see him take it our and hack on something and then shovel with it. That's the only missing element.

Top 3 survival things you need

This is a little slow paced but I like where this guy is coming from. So here's some fun viewing.

Survival projectile gadget

This is actually quite clever.

Practice Thankfulness for Success

I was reminded today, how important it is to pass out praise. I don't know why I struggle so much to give away something that costs me nothing, on the rare occasion I remember to let the people in my life know how much I appreciate all that they do for me I'm always rewarded with a good feeling. Mindtools.com has a number of articles on the topic because in business it's a proven fact that giving out raises only produces a short term boost to employee satisfaction. So here's some links to inspiring words about how to be more demonstrative in your appreciation. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/giving-praise.htm#np http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_54.htm#np http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/human-motivation-theory.htm#np One last thing on the topic though, from my own experience...make a habit of spending about 10 minutes right before bed, forgiving everyone for disappointing you during the day, and then spend a few minutes being grateful for everything you can think of. You will sleep better and you will experience a sense of freedom all the next morning.

The deep end of the pool

I was reading a post by my friend Sam today, which reminded me of a story my friend William once told me. William's story come from his childhood in El Cajon, CA. Around age 6 he'd still not learned to swim, and while hanging with some older kids they decided to teach him how to swim. As older boys will, they tossed him into the deep end of the pool and didn't let him out till he drowned his way to the other side. William can relate the story with a smile now, but I can tell he was terrified at the time. Together with the story Sam tells, about his father teaching him to sale and one day telling him to take the boat out alone I started thinking about the trial by fire experiences in my own life. We don't have a lot of rite of passage experiences built into our culture, which causes a lot of men to feel like they never really grew up. In fact most of the women I know would agree that the men in their lives lack some of the confidence they felt from their own fathers. I'm pretty quick to point fingers at the poorly implemented feminism that has sent negative messages about the masculine in the name of fighting for a better view of the feminine. But a ton of the blame goes to our lack of initiation in our culture. I just watched a video the other day, that quoted statistics about sperm counts in men born in the 1940's vs men born in the 1980's. They are detecting an 80% drop in sperm count, with a correlated drop in testosterone. Now there's doubtless several contributing factors including diet, and environmental poisoning, but I think our minds need to remind us that we are men and its ok to be a little more aggressive. In other words, we tell ourselves we lack assertiveness because we are "nice" or "polite" when we actually lack confidence. So what is the difference between Sam's sailing story and William's swimming story? William was shoved into a potentially dangerous situation by near strangers and forced to sink of swim. No preparation. No encouragement. No faith in his abilities. Sam's dad showed him the ropes, and Sam's dad sent him on his solo sailing trip as a sign of his belief that Sam now had what it took. Maybe 10-year-old Sam wasn't ready for everything that might have come his way. Maybe Sam could have used another couple years of practice, but there is a time when a boy must face something he's trained for, but not ready for, which he believe's he can do because the adult male who loves him tells him he can do it. Those are the events in life that help a boy become a man, and we just don't have enough of them in our over-tamed society.

Excuse Eradicators 10

#10 I call, "You are not alone."

10. The Art of Writing by Committee
The President’s Mystery Story by Franklin Roosevelt and seven other novelists
Many American presidents have written books, but only Franklin Roosevelt has contributed to a mystery novel. At a White House dinner in 1935, Roosevelt pitched his story idea to author Fulton Oursler. Roosevelt’s tale started like this: A man named Jim Blake is trapped in a stale marriage and a boring job. He dreams of running off with $5 million and starting over with a new identity.

Unfortunately, the President hadn’t worked out one major plot point: How does a man with $5 million disappear without being traced?

To solve the problem, Oursler formed a committee of five other top mystery writers: Rupert Hughes, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Rita Weiman, S. S. Van Dine, and John Erskine. Each author wrote a chapter and ended it with Jim Blake in a terrible situation, which the next author was left to resolve. Despite being the work of a Washington committee, the end result was surprisingly successful. The President’s Mystery Story was serialized in a magazine, published as a book, and even turned into a movie in 1936.

Yet, the writers never came up with a solution to Roosevelt’s original problem. That didn’t happen until 1967, when Erle Stanley Gardner wrote a final chapter to a new edition of the book. In it, the secret to Jim Blake’s mysterious disappearance is discovered by Gardner’s most famous character, Perry Mason.



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