Relax the hoity toityness (holy crap the spell check didn’t react to that at all).

Just get off your ass and do the 1 big thing first.  That means don’t worry so much about some of those other balls and get the main thing done.

So what is it? What’s the main thing?!

FIND OUT!

The (insert wonderful adjective here) Gary Veynerchuk has brought yet another awesome inspirational video.  This is one of those things that makes me want to kick butt.

For more inspirational goodness, check out Stefan Bucher’s work too! He’s awesome (and it’s all him). His follow your heart video is great (I’d ignore his stance on goregous women,, but that’s just me (I married one)).

Another inspiring thing is to find others to inspire, and return that inspiration right back at you.

To sum up.

• Narrow down your concept.
• Get to it.
• Inspire a friend
• Let them inspire you too.

I came across Wordle this morning as I stare out into the beautiful Maine greenery (I’m in Maine for a conference my wife is attending/holiday/getting my own work done (results pending)). Then Wordle.net popped into my crosshairs. In a word,, it’s useless, and needless, but it sure is fun and pretty and, if you’re a HEAVY Del.icio.us user like myself (feel free to jump in and take a look at my DS4tool links, they’re all about product development, startup, and other tips and tricks for small business, I save them, so you can use them).

Hopefully some big rollouts coming here soon, but till then here’s my Wordle cloud.

My apologies, I didn’t remark as to who brought wordle into my crosshairs this morning.

He’s got a great piece related to an article by Josh Kopelman about “Feed Frenzy” and what to do about all our feeds.

Brad accurately distills the info Josh generates in his article (here)

The crux of it is all pretty straightforward. There are feeds for everything. You get tons of email. Why don’t you get a smart dashboard that integrates them nicely?

It’s a simple question, there’s probably a few simple answers, (damn I’ve got to learn to code). My guess is it’s somewhere between a video game interface, digsby, netvibes, and google reader. It’ll be fun to see soon, (hopefully).

This also brings up a bother I’ve had for some time. I’ve always wondered about setting up, as Tim Ferris is wont to say “rules for email.” I haven’t added them (I’m fairly good at weeding out the chaff, but I need to be smarter about them.)

Additionally, I’m web based (ok, at home, not at the office,, it is the land of outlook, I don’t mess with the system). I want a way that yahoo, gmail, (and, shudder,, hotmail) can play nicely together in an interface I don’t want to vomit on. Additionally,, please Gmail,, give me an option to use “regular” style email (no threaded conversations). So far Netvibes and Pageonce (I think that’s the one) haven’t really scratched my itch here yet. Also,, let’s find a way to get plaxo less “flashy” and more integrated with this magical service. Then I can have a “web button” (I won’t even go into my “art button” that’s a combo of all adobe software, solidworks, and painter, but I digress).

Whew,, there’s my diatribe and it’s late.

Tune in again when Fred says something else inane! (wait,, I’m Fred)

(hang on a sec, eating raw chocolate chip cookie dough, don’t tell anyone!) Ok, I’m back,, and no time has passed for you.

Additionally the added bonus to making ribs was that my good buddy and his wife were coming over to share in the ribs and other ridiculously delightful foods. He’s a graphic designer so we swap hilarious design stories and generally find the most ridiculous music to listen to (seriously, if you haven’t found Johnathan Coulton yet, then I weep for you. (oh yeah, and the Dropkick Murphys).

So back to the ribs, I take two recipes I found a while back (Memphis Hogaholics, Best Odds, THANK YOU!) and combine them in a way that will make tears weep from your eyes, (if executed correctly). Then again, it could just burn a hole in your stomach that could sadden you in a way you don’t want to know.

Here’s what I did to 2 racks of pork back ribs (4 of us, each half a rack,, it was the first time I couldn’t finish!!)

Of course, the night before I pulled the membranes off (that weird cover skin stuff, it just gets in the way). Pro rib guys actually cut any of the little meat pieces that hang off,, ummm that’s rib meat, don’t cut it you goobers! Then I stuck each half a rack in a gallon ziplock, tossed in about 2 tablespoons of salt and 2 cups of water, shook vigorously and let em sit for the night (make SURE you seal up those ziplocks!)

Then about 10:00am I got out my rack,, of spices, and went to town.

First, the dry rub:
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon ground basil
2 tablespoons red pepper
1 tablespoon lemon peel
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika

4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

Dry off your ribs, put em in new ziplocks and toss in a nice coating for each half a rack (if you do it right you might even have some rub left over for another dish!). Then toss your coated ribs into the fridge, you’ll need them later.

I think that’s about right (I’m going off memory and some “reference materials” I used. I typically adjust on the fly for taste at all times.)

For a wet mop, I use a 50:50 mixture of 1.5 cups canola oil and 1.5 cups apple sauce with a tablespoon of rib rub. Some cooks like to add some apple cider vinegar to the mop. I probably shouldn’t be called a cook, but I did add about half a cup of apple cider vinegar.

For the Sauce itself (which I’m still using on various things like,, grapes,, latkes, and anything else I can find that is edible).

5 ounces dark soy sauce (this is the thick stuff that’s hard to find but SO WORTH IT!)

1 small can tomato paste
5 ounces Worcestershire sauce

12 ounces catsup

1 ounce of your favorite bbq sauce (it’s probably got the dash of liquid smoke we’re looking for, you could do that instead)

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1 lemon — juice of
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon basil

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 2
hours on your lowest setting in the morning. Then just keep it hot (NOT BOILING FOR GOODNESS SAKES!!) Over the day the sauce will bloom nicely (my wife was blown away at how the flavors changed in the sauce from the morning to the evening, don’t forget to taste it a lot!) mmmmm

To cook I simply tossed em on the ol’ gas grill. I did take some preparations though.

My grill has three grates, so I pulled the far left grate (it’s a gas grill with four burners).

I have a little smoker box that I shoved full of hickory chips and got them going nicely after cleaning and oiling my grill. I cooked at a temp of between 250 and 320 for about four hours I think. I was flipping around every 20 minutes (mopping carefully at each flip with the wet mop). I just used a simple brush for the wet mop, also I have a side burner and to keep my ribs from losing heat, just keep the mop hot and dab it on, it works great and they don’t dry out.

About 2 hours in I dropped in another batch of hickory for more smoke (it isn’t a true smoker, but I got tons of great flavor from a gas grill, something people will often tell you that you can’t really do)

For the last turn of your ribs slather them on the grill with your sauce like they’re the pope naked and you just want him to put some pants on!  Oh yeah, and the BBQ sauce will last you quite a while too!

Have a great day!

oh,, hang on a sec, I’ve got to get my Google phone,,,

No,, wait,, that’s really not here, or there either.

Yes, two things I was kind of excited about from the start, have fallen quickly into the Ho-hum category.

It’s rather sad is it not.

Open Social, does look good, with it’s shiny new name (thanks Social Graph!)

It does look like it will be doing us some good in the coming future. I’m betting four months from now, I’ll look up and be thankful that it’s all connected now. Right now,, I’m not so connected,, you know,, socially, (hint,, subscribe to my RSS).

Will I (and everyone else you know) have connected that which we’ve had, (Friendster), that which we’ve paid (linkedin), that which we play (Myspace) and that which we,,, think we’re coding a world beating app for (Salesforce/Facebook) along with that which we use to refer to our own data (Plaxo/RTM).

Or,,, will Open Social just end up as a beautiful pipe dream,, like the Spruce Goose, or dating 2 supermodels and having our wives be ok with it. Gosh,, it would be cool if it really opens it all up correctly.

One thing I will say,, it’s one hell of a shot, wherever we all end up.

Oh yeah,, I’m still seething about getting a really good, and smart phone. Months ago, my palm pilot died, after the cryin, weeping, then,, thankful realization that most of the data was still backed up on my hard drive and easy to drag to Plaxo, I dreamt of a magical device that’d do all that I’ve been hoping cough! (iPhone)

Sadly, I was quickly priced out of the game, won’t (can’t) switch from Verizon and thus can’t get a Centro, thus I await a Google phone answer, that apparently just fits in any old phone (that I’ll still have to pay full rates to surf from).

Hmmm, seems like I’m right back where I was (along with you). We’ll see where we are in a few months. Till then, I guess I’m still tied to a desk somewhere.