I know everything about you. I even know the message I'll hear if I get your voicemail right now.

Hi, this is "Your Name". I can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you!

Aren't you impressed? So, the question is, why do we all still record this weird antiquated boilerplate? We need a new, abbreviated solution that still rings full of etiquette.

Any ideas?

My overall goal for this blog is that it serves as your daily devotional for critical thought.

More than that, I hope that this blog and my twitter account serve as some sort of aggregate for you in terms of keeping you up to speed on politics, marketing, faith and technology - with as little effort as possible.

But if you're interested in delving deeper into the sources that most influence me, here you go.

My Magazine Subscriptions

The Week - a weekly aggregate of the best stories from all around the World. If you only have 30 minutes a week for news, this magazine will keep you up to conversational speed on everything that is going on in the world.
Reason - this is a monthly libertarian magazine that gets more in-depth about specific policy issues, but in a very entertaining way. If you lean toward small-government, this magazine will help you understand both the moral and Machiavellian reasons why you're right.
Fast Company - this is a new find for me. A fabulous monthly mag about the latest technology, entrepreneurship and how to use the former to successfully achieve the latter.

My Favorite Blogs

Now, I subscribe to more than 100 blogs. Not all of them update regularly of course. But, since you read this one, here are my two favorite I think you might want to consider adding to your RSS feed or Google Reader.

Scott Adams - This daily blog (written by the creator of Dilbert) is what I want my blog to be. His creative thoughts will inspire your own. His brilliant humor makes even his longer posts extraordinarily readable. I would vote for him if he ran for President.
Seth Godin - As a marketing titan, Seth understands online attention span better than anyone, and utilizes my own "couple paragraphs" a day preference for every post. If you're business-minded, his brief daily thoughts on management, entrepreneurship and technology is better than grad school.

Now, since you guys all know me pretty well by now, what "essentials" must I add to this list?

When British Airways introduced the mini-fridge on long international flights, they held focus groups to figure out how to best stock these cold goodie bins.

The results? People wanted light salads and apples. But, what did people ask the flight attendants for when they woke up in the middle of the night? Candy bars.

People have no idea what they want. Steve Jobs talked about this recently in an interview regarding his predictive technological ability. And Jobs' replied that you should never give the customer what they ask for.

Because all a consumer can think of is how to slightly improve existing technology. Adding more features or performance to current laptops and phones. It's what you see Dell and HP doing. They're listening to their customers.

Apple is creating technology that people have no idea they need.

I hear this far too often. The fear of a newly appointed Republican politician "legislating morality."

Here's the problem with this statement. ALL legislation is morality-based. Consider what the new healthcare bill was? That bill says that it's a moral injustice that those with pre-existing conditions can't qualify for healthcare at the same cost as those without them.

Since that's clearly not an economically advantageous legislative decision for the country at large, it's a moral one.

If you want to stop legislating morality, you need to stop legislation altogether.

If you watch Hulu, you may have seen previews for "Downsized", a reality TV show about a formerly rich family who are now on food stamps, and taking odd jobs and dumpster diving just to pay the mortgage on their mansion.

Here's the crazy part. In the preview, their lawyer explains that they can't qualify for bankruptcy...because they refuse to liquidate their properties!!!

We, the people, are buying these people's groceries because they don't want to lose their summer home, not to mention "downsize" their current one.

While this show is being pitched as an anti-celebrity show, a "real"-life story, it makes me even madder than one of the generic celebreality shows. At least I'm not subsidizing the Kardashians.

This ad wasn't a joke. Did you read the bullet points? One said "Treat citizens like customers." This TV ad was created by candidate Rick Synder, who ran and won the race to become Michigan's governor this past Tuesday.

This idea of "running a state like I ran my business" has become a more popular talking point in the last few years. Because in times of financial suffering, it sounds appealing. This was Meg Whitman's big push. She ran eBay. eBay did good. So let's give her the reins to California, and she'll turn it into a successful online auction and shopping Website...wait.

It's not the same thing. The government is not a business. A state's role is not to increase total ROI, get bigger and buy-out other states. A state's role is not to take your tax dollars and invest them in blue-chip index funds.

Like it or not, government is charity. It's justice. It tries to right civil wrongs. That's what it is. And even if you think that's not what it should be - even if you think the role of government is simply to protect the constitutional rights of the populace, a business doesn't do that either.

If you want a balanced budget, elect an accountant. If you want social "justice", elect a community organizer. If you want a good ROI, invest in the market yourself.

No matter what your political views, we learned some interesting lessons Monday night.

One of the most important takeaways for me came from the California Gubernatorial election where former President and CEO of eBay, Republican Meg Whitman, spent a record $170 million on the race, which she lost to Democratic challenger Jerry Brown.

Money can't buy elections anymore. Whoever has the most gold can make the most ads. But, they're becoming a progressively decaying factor. Because P.R. spreads faster than billboards. Social media spreads faster than signage. Actions spread faster than ads.

So shut up with your "money will buy elections". It's true, but not based on ad budgets. People vote for the person that's going to be the best for their situation. If they are employed in an industry propped by subsidies, they're going to vote for the candidate who supports them.

That's what we should be focused on getting rid of. Not campaign budget and donor regulations.

More on Meg Whitman and the idea of "running a state like a business" tomorrow.

I wasn't sure about voting this year. I live in Illinois. And Illinois sucks...politically at least. The system is inherently corrupt. There's no getting around it. Except to not vote. And feel a sense of moral superiority in not embracing the system.

And I was mentally there. But, I needed encouragement. So, I asked my friend Wes Messamore, editor of The Humble Libertarian, of which I am a contributor, to write a piece in support of my apathy.

It worked. I was convinced. But then marketing guru Seth Godin wrote a piece in support of voting yesterday. And that worked harder. I hated the idea that sneaky marketing was working against me. That they want me to hate "hate" ads. That they want me to stay home.

And so the rebellion in my soul is driving to the polls on the way to work. I'm James Dean. Read both, and see where you fall.

My wife was sick yesterday, so it was my first time being in charge of giving out candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Here were my lessons learned.

Lesson #1: I wanted to learn my script - exactly what to say when the ankle biters arrived at the door. (I'm a writer). My wife thought I was crazy, but since we had an assortment of candy, I wanted to give the kids their choice. My idea was "Choose 1 of your favorites." Kat told me this was a bad idea and that the kids wouldn't just take one. But, I remembered getting to choose when I was a kid, and loved it, so I gave it a try. Big mistake. With those exact instructions, 60% of the first group took 2 or 3 candies each.

Lesson #2: So, I quickly gave up on this idea, because we would assuredly run out of candy if I continued my sociological experiment to test the etiquette of these neighborhood miscreants. So, I switched to my brilliant wife's originally recommended strategy. "Just pick one and give it to them." So, I did this. And 90% of the kids, after they received their candy, looked into my bowl of assorted delights to see what they would have been able to get if they got to choose themselves.

Lesson #3: Kids are cute, and rude. Least favorite line of the night. "Are you kidding me?!! Just one butterfinger???"!!"

It's easy to say, "Kids suck these days." But, I'm more curious in the reality. Because I was polite when I was a kid. I nicely said "Trick or treat!" And I always said "Thank you!" And there were a whole bunch of kids like that yesterday who came to my door. So, was I simply unaware of the bad-mannered kids from my generation? Or, since I live in a lower-class area than where I grew up, is there a socioeconomic correlation to etiquette?