And WildDog won’t stay out from underfoot as I shoot, so he gets the wirelessly triggered flash used against him.

Still labeling your boxes with descriptions like “fragile” or “kitchen stuff” or even “dangerous chemicals?” You can do better.

Add some drama. Create a little mystery. Do what this guy does.

Start boxing up your precious goodies by vaguely descriptive categories.

Now that’s interesting.

I do not judge a person based on race. I do not judge a person based on economic status, gender, nationality, or religion. I judge a person based on one factor and one factor only: Interestingness.

If you’re not unique, engaging, original, experienced, reflective, charming, or witty — if you’re not interesting — I have no time for you. It’s that simple.

Lest you think it is cruel to pass such judgement, I must remind you that lack of interestingness is a choice.

The Great Equalizer

Interestingness is not limited to the rich, famous, or intellectual. Interestingness is not dependent on age or ideology. Everyone has an equal chance to be interesting, to be fascinating, to be one-of-a-kind. You can be an interesting king, cab driver, or accountant.

Interestingness is the great equalizer.

True, the measure of who is interesting and who is not is entirely subjective. Wonderfully subjective. It’s a subjectivity that puts you to the test in every conversation and every situation. Interaction becomes more than an exchange of information. Or a chance to vent your emotions. Or a place to kill time with shallow small talk.

When you are an interesting person, every exchange is an opportunity: To inspire, engage, overwhelm, and imprint. To sketch a picture of the world and color it with your hard-earned perspective.  It’s an opportunity to be unselfish. It’s an opportunity to hold another mind’s attention, to make another heart beat faster, to stir another action or reaction. It’s a chance to go off-script, off auto-pilot, and off the beaten path.

In other words, to be interesting.

Never Too Late

So, you’re not interesting? That’s ok. Being interesting doesn’t take much more time than you’re expending now but it will require your thought and attention.  It’s never too late to start.

Read something other than the back of a cereal box. Avoid identifying with any group of people because you are too lazy to form your own opinions. Lean less on labels and stereotypes. Ask more questions.

Talk about yourself less. Listen more than you speak. Watch the news channel that you don’t agree with. Stop eating lunch alone. Take a walk and notice the details you’ve never seen.

Keep a journal. Volunteer. Take a different way to work. Explain what you believe to someone who doesn’t. Take a class, a trip, or a ride. Face a fear. Become an expert. Laugh at the unexpected. 

In other words, become interesting.

I can’t wait.

Today was one of those days. Lewis made good use it.

I don’t know how to say this but, in Israel, I’m kind of a big deal.

Let me take you along the trail for gems like: “Texas….Oooo.” “A microphone!” and “Welcome to Israel…. I love you SO MUCH.” Along with two impromptu Hebrew lessons. Maganiv!

See more photos from my day at En Gedi here on the Insight for Living Tour Blog.

And saving webpages as pdf files on my iPhone and iPad was one nut I just couldn’t crack. Until now.

Let me show you how.

Wanted: PDFs

I’ve been looking for a simple way to save webpages as PDFs from the iOS Safari browser for quite some time. See, I use Evernote to store research, interesting tidbits, records, blog material, and just about everything else I’m interested in. The great thing about Evernote is that everything I save in it is searchable — including pdfs.

That’s why I wanted to do more than just email a webpage url which is the usual MO for sharing web content from Safari. I want to capture the text itself as a gloriously searchable pdf file that will look great and print well for years to come without the need for tedious copy and paste and without the aid of a computer.

Magical Javascript

I finally have a simple, handy solution. In a few easy steps, you can create a custom bookmarklet in iOS Safari that will do just what I always dreamed — take a webpage and convert it to pdf. It’s free. It’s easy. And it has this digital squirrel twitching with delight.

The secret is this little string of letters and symbols:

javascript:pdf_url=location.href;location.href=’http://api.
joliprint.com/api/rest/url/print/s/joliprint.com?
url=’+escape(pdf_url)+’&disposition=attachment’

It’s a javascript. A magical formula that we’re going trick iOS Safari into running for us to create pdfs.

A Few Simple Steps

Follow the easy steps below to create your own pdf maker bookmarklet. Before you jump into step one, copy the javascript above exactly  and send it to yourself in an email. That will make your task easier.

So sit back, kids, and let uncle Owen tell you about the time…

Jesus turned the water into wine…

The story is actually way better with words.

Sarah and I take our new waterproof gopro camera out for a swim with Lewis, and we decide to take it slow…

(The music’s from the ol’ dot deluxe and garageband for ipad)

.