The Sacramento Bee newspaper published an article on December 19th about “Peace Entrepreneurs”, written by Gilbert Chan. (Side note: I looked for the article online to link to and found the Sac Bee’s “fast and free” registration to be cumbersome and requesting too much information. If you’d like to attempt the process, go to Sacbee.com and search for “peace entrepreneur”.)

The article pointed to FLOW and an initiative called “Peace Through Commerce“. The general theme of the article can be summed up by the quote from Toni Maloney, co-founder of Business Council for Peace , “Our theory is more jobs, less violence.” Leaders of all the organizations mentioned in the article (and this post) are seeing the pattern that areas with more commerce are more stable. They are reaching out across borders to lend their entrepreneurial expertise to small businesses in other countries.

I’m thrilled by these efforts because I feel they helping create alternatives to global mono-culture and multi-national culture stripping. Would you rather learn how to run your own business or get a job at a sweatshop in China?

If you are in the Bay Area (San Francisco area in California), you might want to check out a FLOW gathering coming up on January 18, 2007 in San Francisco.

The twenty-seventh issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Lance
No big year-end hooha
2. Our Featured Quote
by William James
3. Article: Frogger vs. On Golden Pond
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
How to get back on Golden Pond
5. In the News
Dynamic Time Management, Organizing your workspace, Post-Holiday Toy Management Tips, and Giving yourself the gift of peace
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
The “In The News” Archive
7. Keep Smiling
Holiday Funnies

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.

[posted by Lance]

Sipping a cappuccino in the Venetian cafe, Caffé del Doge, on University Ave in Palo Alto. Having lived in Venice, Italy for a year in college many moons ago, stumbling across this caffé brings back sweet memories. The drawer to tap the used espresso grounds in, the bar to stand at and drink your cappuccino or espresso. The lidded sugar containers on bar, the barista speaking confidentially to the other barista in Italian. Pride and shiny metal everywhere behind the bar. Delicious cappuccino, clearly made Italian style. None of this 16 oz cappuccino crap–don’t even ask! A cappuccino is a cappuccino, there are no sizes.

Since I didn’t bring my camera on this foray to the heart of Silicon Valley, I used my Zire72 palm pilot to take these pictures at the caffé. Geez! how many photo ops have I missed in the past? What a great alternative! Wouldn’t this blog benefit from more photos? Too bad I didn’t think of that when trying on bridesmaids dresses on Sunday. Not sure I’d want to post those… That florescent lighting in dressing rooms makes my skin look green. The title of the photo could have been: green skinned girl in semi-formal dress.

stylin’ foam art

I had dinner with Larry and Sergey! Well, almost. I had dinner in their cafeteria anyways. They could have been there. I was scanning the tables for the faces I’ve only seen in magazines.

I enjoyed raw food salads, some delicious roasted beet salad, tasty quinoa, pear sauce (like apple sauce but all pears), and a little piece of salmon. We were in the “healthy” cafeteria with notoriously not-so-good desserts but the rest was great.

Perhaps life in a big company is second nature to a lot of people. Things like resistance swimming pools, steam rooms, full gym, free snacks, complimentary 3 meals a day, juice bar, espresso bar, laundry, dry cleaning and alterations, and other bene’s may be old hat to some—but for this small business girl, it was wild! Actually, it was more like dorm life, except that they paid the people to be there.

My personal tour guide told me that Google is hiring some 100 people a week. They have some 400 recruiters employed. With those kinds of numbers, seems like I should be expecting my phone to ring some time in the next month. I’m sure they need a Simplifier. Maybe your phone will ring too.

Is this sustainable growth? Is it stable? Can an organism grow that quickly and maintain its intended form and function? We usually call entities that grow uncontrollably “cancer”. I suppose Google’s growth isn’t uncontrollable, nor is it all in one place. Offices are spread around the world. Expanding that quickly could indicate great flexibility. Almost on par with the flexibility demanded of a woman’s body in the last trimester of her 9 month journey. Am I really comparing Google to a pregnant woman? That’s just not right. Ok then.

Back to the swimming pools. When people are swimming, they have to have a life guard on duty. Immediately a scene popped in my head: I’m at the sweet little Café del Doge (I stepped right back to Venice, Italy in the middle of downtown Palo Alto!) and strike up conversation with good looking guy with sun-bleached hair. “So what do you do?” “I’m a life guard at Google,” he’d respond.

I wonder when Project Simplify will be big enough to hire a life guard…

Yes, you can be the one to say, “I knew he could do it!”

What’s going on? Our very own Lance Brown, co-editor of The Simplifier newsletter and website creator & demystifier extraordinaire has set out upon an exciting adventure. His dream: to let his inner screenwriter shine forth into the world.

Unfortunately for him, his one year of work with Project Simplify has not provided him with the financial padding a blossoming writer requires to practice his craft full time. We have yet to institute The Creative Writing Grant for a Year’s Worth of Living Expenses, though I’ve no doubt Lance would have been the receiver of such a grant.

However, being the amazingly resourceful and creative guy that he is, he has discovered a most fascinating work-around…using the innovative vehicle of none other than Ebay.com. Check out his sales page to see what I mean.

Check out these creative and simple gift ideas compiled in the “Gift Idea Roundup” on Lifehacker.

I particularly like (hint) the brownie mix in a jar idea on Rick Broida’s Alpha Geek: DIY gifts for the holidays page. (hint)

And Photojojo’s “mailable mosaic” is brilliant! You turn a photo into a mosaic that can be sent to your loved one over time.

I love the idea of making gifts. It feels so personal and meaningful. Then December 23rd roles around and I realize I may have been a little overly ambitious in the gift making department.

So far, this year, I’ve relied on scarf-making-knitting skills for making gifts. And if the recipient doesn’t like the scarf, then she’ll have a high-quality, colorful cat toy. Or an oddly shaped pot holder. Or she could wrap it around her steering wheel on cold days. Or give it to her Aunt Mildred.

This is the season to Let it be Easy!

The twenty-sixth issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
Share your stories!
2. Our Featured Quote
by Simon Schama
3. Article: Following Your Heart to Success—A Case Study
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball
5. In the News & On the Web
Letting it all hang out, Coming clean, and Squalor Survivors on the web
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
The Project Simplify Museum and Gift Shop
7. Keep Smiling
Pictures Taken at Just the Right Angle

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.

[posted by Lance]