Voices of Glory

I watched the premiere of this season's "America's Got Talent" last night. The bad auditions didn't seem quite as painful as the early "American Idol" auditions often do (though I must say I cringed and had to look away from the screen during a few weird acts) and the two hours actually went by rather quickly.

While the first round is still underway, it looks like the early favorite may be the trio of siblings called "Voices of Glory" whose performance was saved to the very end of the show. Not only could these kids sing really, really well, they had a compelling story about how they got started performing together. Turns out their mom was in a car wreck, hit by a drunk driver, and ended up in the hospital, in a coma for eight months. The kids started singing to her at her beside then started singing to other patients in the hospital. The rest is history, or at least history in the making.

The mom survived and, indeed, was wheeled out onto the stage in her wheelchair after the children sang their song, "God Bless America." There wasn't a dry eye in the house, as you can imagine. Judge Sharon Osbourne was unable to speak through her tears. Even Piers Morgan said he had never seen anything so powerful.

"The Voices of Glory" bring to the show true talent, innocence, and an enthralling life story reminiscent of last year's winner, Neal E. Boyd. I suspect America would be very happy to give the million dollar prize to this family.

In case you think I've made up this entire scenario, stuff that television producers must dream of, just watch the video.

Learn Twitter Strategy from the Big Tweets

Why should you follow name brand companies on Twitter? You might find a bargain or a coupon code, but that's only a good reason if you're a buyer.

If you're a business person, someone who sells a product or offers a service, follow the big guys. Study their tweets, watch their business strategy unfold, and see what from theirs you can apply to yours.

Doing business on Twitter works for the big guys. No reason it can't work for you.

Obamustache?

By golly, it looks like President Obama is growing a mustache. I noticed that on the news this evening. He's on a trip so I thought maybe he had forgotten his razor, but then I noticed that his five o'clock shadow was limited to his upper lip.

To confirm my suspicions I went to the authority on everything, Google. I typed in "Obama mustache" and, indeed, there were a lot of results, mostly blog posts speculating as I was. I thought there might be an official picture or something so I looked at Google images and, oh my, there were images all right. Funny how many different people were playing "Draw a mustache on the president." Some were pretty creative; others showed little restraint and even less respect, but most were actually pretty funny. Here, take a look for yourself (caveat emptor).

Growing a mustache while in office seems like an odd thing for a president of the United States to do. Makes me feel a bit creepy looking at him, actually. Maybe he's trying to give both friends and foes something besides the economy to talk about. Maybe there will be an official press release with an explanation. Oh, I'd better start watching the late night talk shows again. Surely Dave and Conan will have some good Obama with a mustache jokes. Jay Leno said last week that it was hard to make fun of Barack Obama. Ha! Not anymore!

Pears

I was just getting dressed and happened to glance down at my pear-shaped body. (If that is too much information to handle, close this tab now.)

Unlike the diagrams that you see in books and magazines that tell you how to dress for your body type, my body is a three-dimensional pear. Those diagrams are just flat and don't point out that the, uh, round part of the pear goes all the way around.

I think I'm going to get rid of that full-length mirror.

Happy Mother's Day

If you're a mom, have a wonderful day. I know you deserve it!

If you're not a mom, I hope you have one to call or visit today. If you don't, choose another woman you know who's a wonderful mom and give her your best wishes. It'll mean a lot.

Here are the two who make my Mother's Day special. I love you, guys, and I'm so proud of you!

Sibs on a Stamp

Wish I could be there when my mom, my grandmother, and (next month) my dad receive their Mother's and Father's Day cards with this great stamp I made at Zazzle. I know they'll love it!

If you haven't tried Zazzle, you must. If I can do it, anyone can. (Check out my Green-Eyed Cat gallery.)

Finally, Some Good News

Listening to Glenn Beck on the radio this morning. The subject of Teddy Roosevelt came up. That's Teddy Roosevelt as in the former president. Turns out he was the Barack Obama of his time, maybe even worse.

Good news? Our country survived Teddy. That means it can survive Barack.

I hope so, and that's hope that I'm going to count on.

The Green-Eyed Cat

I'm at it again. More diversification. This time, I'm getting in touch with my artistic side, a side I wasn't even sure I had. I found it at Zazzle where I've been designing t-shirts, mousepads, stamps, tote bags and more to sell in my own Zazzle gallery.

If you've never tried Zazzle to design your own personal creations, you really should. Their products are great, tools are amazingly simple to use, and their commission and affiliate plans are quite good. It's also easy for a shopper to customize any design to make it their own. For instance, if you're not from a home town that I've included in my "My Home Town" series of products, you can use Zazzle's tools to quickly change the name on your favorite design to that of your own home town.

Here's a sample of what I've included so far in my new Zazzle gallery, The Green-Eyed Cat. I hope you'll drop in and take a look.

Diversifying Online Real Estate

I've started writing for eHow. Heard of it? If you've ever googled "how to" do anything, you've probably seen it.

Two days ago I wrote my first eHow article, yesterday I listened to this podcast (episode 22), and today I downloaded this ebook. I'm ready to write and I want to do it right.

I think eHow is going to complement my Squidoo business quite nicely. Diversification is the name of the game online, and I'm ready to play.

I'll keep you updated with the score.