This morning I took the recommendation of a friend and listened to a podcast (internet audio) by a fellow named Mark Yarnell. Mark has working in network marketing for decades and is one of those leaders that keeps up with technology, techniques and society. So when he has something to say, it's likely to be insightful and thought provoking.

In this eleven minute presentation he pulls together material he has read and conversations he has had with people who keep track of societal and economic change. What they're telling him will likely get the attention of anyone who thinks of the future past what they're having for lunch.

You know the divide we see in society between the wealthy and the poor? Are you familiar with how the "middle class" continually gets squeezed? Unfortunately the outlook for the future isn't looking a whole lot brighter for the middle and lower income classes. But now we have a rough time frame on when the middle class will be nearly extinct. How long do you think we have?

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This weekend I got to do something that I hope to do more of in the future: volunteer at a biking event.

Up until the past year when I've been more involved with raising our son and working on the internet businesses I would go to a fair number of cycling events as a participant. This was usually a fund raising event, a "recreational" ride like the Seattle-to-Portland (STP), or bike race - mountain or road. I'd always appreciated the service of the volunteers who really make the events go smoothly and sometimes found it hard to believe they were so friendly even though they weren't getting paid for it.

I found out the secret to why they're so friendly: it's a lot of fun!

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My first introduction to internet discussion forums was through needing to find information. Usually it had to with finding a solution to an obscure technical problem I was having. I never did "hang out" much in forums because I figured I had better things to do with my time.

What I've learned over the years is that I actually have knowledge and experiences that can help other people. What you also find is that these online forums can be a source of meeting people of a similar mindset and can even set the foundation for both business and personal relationships. Since there is a certain amount of anonymity available with internet communication you need to be a bit more careful with developing these relationship than you might with someone in person.

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Even though one of the foundations of this site is to stay positive, I can't ignore some of the ugly things that happen in society. As much as we try to affect the world in a positive way, sometime it seems like the world is pushing back.

Of course, that's not really the case. I believe that most people do want peace and prosperity, but the overwhelming violence caused by individuals can shake that perception sometimes.

The recent violence and death on the campus of Virginia Tech by what appears to be a lone shooter is a senseless act that many people are trying to make sense of. Something like this is so far outside the realm of what is acceptable human behavior that no sense can be made of it. Different segments of society will try to blame guns, blame social stress, blame who-knows-what.

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