A few things going on in my somewhat interesting life:

I'm making a website for the local branch of Athletic Nation. I got a hosting site from GoDaddy (it is pretty cheap). At first, I was going to use their "Website Tonight" program but I played with it for a while and couldn't get it to look the way I wanted. I talked to my daughter's boyfriend, Jake, who is very good at this stuff, and he recommended the Dreamweaver program. Since this is going to be a simple site, I decided to try a 30 day demo of a simpler program called "Visual Site Designer" from CoffeeCup. In spite of the overly techie name, it is a pretty easy program to get to learn. I've got a few pages finished. Now, I need to finish the rest and get it uploaded. Look for it at www.athleticnationtriangle.com in the next few days.

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I've just started listening to a great podcast called "Radio Lab" (from New York Public Radio - here). I've always heard very good things about this podcast and after listening to one from April of 2007 on Stress, I agree. It was very professionally done and very interesting. Some good stuff from this:    

• Chronic stress is very unhealthy and leads to a flu-like illness in humans


• The people who do worst with stressful situations are the so-called "Type A Personalities" who rage at any stressful event in their life


• Type A personalities were discovered a few decades ago by an upholsterer. It turns out that the cardiologists who eventually described the link between heart disease and the uptight, soon-to-be-named Type A personality had to keep getting their waiting room chairs re-upholstered. One of the upholsterers told them that no one wears out their chairs like the ones in their waiting room - the front 2 inches of the seat part and the front of the armrests. Their patients (who had heart disease and were primarily Type A) literally sat on the edge of their seats in anxiety. They scratched and twisted at the armrests. So these sick people (mentally and from a cardiac standpoint) wore out their chairs in a pathologic fashion. It took a few years for the cardiologists to make the connection, but it verified their more scientific findings.


• Baboons have Alpha males, the king of their local tribes. But at some point, every alpha male is successfully challenged in a fight with a lesser male. This male then becomes the new king. But what about the old king? Half the time, he just leaves the tribe. But the other half, he sticks around. Scientists have found that the ones who stick around have developed friendships, almost always with females of the tribe. Think of them as the Alan Alda types - their older, mature, kind and caring. They hang with the women when the women are not in heat (because the alpha male has no interest in them then), sit with them, groom them, etc. The alpha has his way when the female is ovulating, but the rest of the time, the old graybeard is the female's best friend. In fact, new research has shown that the Alan Alda type successfully breeds more often than the alpha. Apparently, the alpha is so involved in his testosterone based aggression against other competing males that the woman can run off to the bushes with her older friend.

Take home lessons (for those who think this blog needs a more small business focus):

1. Don't sweat the small stuff - you don't want the dreaded "flu-like illness."


2. Pay attention to your upholstery wear patterns


3. Nice old guys do not have to finish last. But they do have to be nice to the women.