My mother has been temping lately, and has grown a new-found appreciation for kind people that make her day a little more fun. So, when I was visiting the other week, I noticed how she tried very hard to not just be polite, but to genuinely interact with people we met. While I pride myself on offering a "thank you" to everyone from the Walgreens cashier to the toll booth collector, I have realized that these common pleasantries don't really help make the person's day any better. It simply makes me more cordial than my fellow man. Let's set the bar higher. Take the time to entertain someone today. It means a lot.

a continuation from Tuesday. Let's say a man named John Wilson makes $250,000 a year. And a man named Bill Smith makes $40,000. Would you be willing to sign a bill that takes some of John Wilson's money and gives it to Bill Smith?

So, on TV today, an Illinois government official claimed shock and awe at the egregious acts of the governor, claiming they had no idea this kind of behavior was going on. Here's my problem with this. If you read the transcripts that have been released, no one who the governor is having these meetings with is yelling out, "Holy crap! You're a freakin' pyscho! Are you seriously trying to bribe me? Who do you think you are?!?!" It makes me wonder if these acts are as rare in government as I'd like to believe.

Let's say you have the sole power to appoint someone to one of the most highly sought after political positions in the nation. Why wouldn't you weigh some offers, and give the appointment to the highest bidder? See how it must have made sense to him? Unfortunately, he is not the CEO of a private business. He is an elected official of the State of Illinois. And he has just reached a new level of super-villain status. It's pretty impressive, to be honest.

Let's say you see $5 sitting on your boss's desk, and you take that money and donate it to a local hospital who offers free health care to the uninsured. Did you do the right thing? And does your answer depend on whether or not your boss makes over $250,000 a year?

My wife received a text on her cell phone last night, to the effect of: "Hey. That was so cool you writing your phone number on my arm last night. You made me feel like a total stud." Now I know what you're thinking. But, my wife has an alibi...being that she was with me the entire weekend, because we were out in Maryland visiting my family. So, the lesson we can learn from this story is that on the other side of this exuberant kid was a girl giving out phony numbers to nerds, and laughing about it with her friends. Ah, to be young.

I had a headlight go out the other day, and I couldn't install a new one myself, because I am obviously, not really a man. So, I called up Jiffy Lube and asked how much it would cost for them to install a new bulb that I would bring in myself. $29. So, I called Walmart. $4.50. Now, let's say you have a moral problem with Walmart's business practices. How high could a Jiffy Lube or other place, provided you liked their business practices, charge you before you decide to cave for the cost? FYI: I'm traveling this weekend. See you on Monday.

Wedding days are hectic. Photo shoots seem to get squeezed in, and it's hard to get all of the fun shots you'd like. That's why my wife and I took a post-wedding shoot a full two years after our wedding. We were able to go to an arboretum, relax, play in the leaves, and we love the shots we got.The only problem is, one day my kids might ask why I have more stomach and less hair in those wedding pictures. But, it got me thinking. What about a continual wedding album? You bring your wedding dress, or a cheapy replacement, with you on every major trip you take with your spouse. 20 years later, you'll have an amazing album of wedding photos from around the world.

After reading the book "Wikinomics", I've been on a big kick thinking about the future possibilities for mass collaboration. Here's my idea for a medical device. I'd love your thoughts. This tool, designed to help physicians and healthcare professionals better diagnosis their patients, is a portable tablet that practitioners can use whether they’re seeing a patient in their office, at the patient’s home, or in an emergency situation. As one evaluates their patient, they mark the symptoms, vitals and relevant medical history on the tablet within a universalized analysis chart. When they submit the evaluation notes through a satellite connection, it travels to a wiki database of other physician analyses’ and conclusions, omitting patient names for privacy purposes, and through statistical correlations, offers the physician a list of possible and probable outcomes. Let’s say a physical therapist completes an evaluation, and the database confirms the therapist’s original diagnosis that these are common symptoms for one who has recently undergone shoulder surgery. The therapist is then directed to the treatment section of the user-created database, where a host of peer-submitted exercise and treatment plans are available for use. These treatments can include in-depth medical illustration charts, audio advice, and video tutorials that can be shown to the patient immediately, as well as e-mailed directly to the patient for reference if being assigned take-home exercises. These treatment plans can also be rated by the community, so that the highest quality and most informative diagnosis treatments will be featured. This collaborative reference tool will help apply group-think to each and every patient, making sure that the physician makes their diagnosis with the best possible information. This tool will prevent misdiagnoses, and most importantly, will serve as a great research tool that will help practitioner’s to better understand the possible treatment options for their patients.

If you live in Chicago, how many people at your work were late this morning due to the traffic?

That's because we tend to makes plans based on the best-case scenario. If I have a 9:00 appointment and I know that I can get there in 20 minutes, I'm not leaving until just before 8:40.

And that is why we often run late for things, because snow happens, among other things.

When our current administration was playing around with the idea of an Iraq War, the best-case scenario thrown around was probably something like this: 1) remove one of the most evil and savage dictators in the world 2) secure a near-eternal supply of oil at an amazing price that will allow the U.S. to indefinitely remain the global economic leader 3) catapult Iraq into a thriving democracy which domino effects to bring peace throughout the Middle East 4) which ends Islamo-facism and makes the world a much safer place for everyone.

Perhaps we need to start planning for the worst.