Which Action Hero Would You Be?

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Batman, the Dark Knight 83% James Bond, Agent 007 75% Captain Jack Sparrow 75% Lara Croft 63% The Amazing Spider-Man 58% The Terminator 58% Indiana Jones 54% Maximus 50% El Zorro 46% Neo, the "One" 46% William Wallace 42% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Really Neat Ideas

My lovely wife, Ana, who is always a big help to me, pointed me at a site called iVillage recently. It's a site of FREE, instructor-led courses that are available 24/7 to help you make the most of your resources.
I've already completed two courses there and am working on three more. They have other courses that you can get a notice of when they become available again. I think I've got about five or so in the que.

From IVillage, I followed a link from one of my course lessons to a site called MindTools. MindTools is basically for people is business, either for themselves or at a corporate level. I found this really neat article today which works well for me and my innovation "hobby". I include it here -

SCAMPER
Generating new products and services

SCAMPER is a checklist that helps you to think of changes you can make to an existing product to create a new one. You can use these changes either as direct suggestions or as starting points for lateral thinking.

Developed by Bob Eberle, the changes SCAMPER stands for are:

* S - Substitute - components, materials, people
* C - Combine - mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate
* A - Adapt - alter, change function, use part of another element
* M - Modify - increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modifyattributes (e.g. colour)
* P - Put to another use
* E - Eliminate - remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality
* R - Reverse - turn inside out or upside down, also use of Reversal.

Example:

As an example, imagine that you are a manufacturer of nuts and bolts, and you were looking for new products. SCAMPER would give you:

* Substitute - use of high tech materials for niche markets, such as high speed steel? Carbon fiber? Plastics? Glass? Non-reactive material?
* Combine - integrate nut and bolt? Bolt and washer? Bolt and spanner?
* Adapt - put Allen key or Star head on bolt? Countersink head?
* Modify - produce bolts for watches or bridges? Produce different shaped bolts (e.g. screw in plugs)? Pre-painted green bolts?
* Put to another use - bolts as hinge pins? As axles?
* Eliminate - Eliminate nuts, washers, heads, thread, etc.
* Reverse - make dies as well as bolts, make bolts that cut threads for themselves in material, etc.

Using SCAMPER here has helped you define possible new products. Many of the ideas may be impractical or may not suit the equipment used by the manufacturer. However some of these ideas could be good starting points for new products.

Key points:

SCAMPER is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse. This is a list of changes that you could make to existing products and services to open up new opportunities.

Freaky February

One snow storm? That's it? We get to be nice and warm most of winter, get one storm of historical proportions, and then back to the warm. Everybody else got the stuff we usually get. And the Re-Blinder-cants say there's no such thing as global warming.

Ah well. Time to stock up on sandbags and sunblock. I wonder what madness March will bring?

My Snowy Valentine

Well the weather is better for Christmas than Valentine's Day, but at least it gives us an excuse to stay inside and cuddle up together. Not that we need an excuse.

The wind is gusting at 30 MPH or above (sob! all that wasted energy), the snow is drifting into near impassable mounds, the snowplows and salt trucks are nowhere to be found. Hope you're stocked up on food, 'cause it isn't supposed to get any better before the weekend. At least not for here.

Obstacles and Opportunities

I read somewhere that you should never let obstacles get in your way. You should, instead, see them as opportunities. Well, I've got a few obstacles that I'm trying really hard to see that way.

First, I got an offline this week from a woman who wanted me to come talk to the board of directors of her group about doing a hypnosis demo for them the last weekend of April. That was an Opportunity.

Yesterday, my mother-in-law's car started steaming and smelling of coolant. I figured one of the hoses had sprung a leak, only to find out today that the head gasket has blown. This is an Obstacle.

Earlier this week I was talking to a woman who is interested in investing in me as a hypnotist. This is an Opportunity. I haven't been able to get a hold of her since. This is an Obstacle.

So, how is it I managed to get things reversed, and where are the Opportunities in my Obstacles? 'Cause I just am not seeing it.