What motivates you? That's the question I'd like to ask in this inaugural blog entry on motivation. Are you motivated by fame, fortune, or fear? Or is it something deeper that fans the flames inside of you? Perhaps you are like Jeanne Louise Calment whose burning desire let her do something that no other human being has done before -- feat so spectacular that it generated headlines around the globe, got her a role in a motion picture, and landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records. A record that has yet to be beaten.

August 29, 1966 was the final live concert by The Beatles. I couldn't let the 42nd anniversary pass without saying -- I was there! And what a night it was...

Windows XP is gone, but Windows Vista is not an acceptable replacement. What now? Is Microsoft's forced death of XP also ending the era of useful Windows PCs?

Rider's Financial Advice of the Week: Buy food.

Three reasons:

1. Inflation -– our dollar is losing value because we put so many in circulation via the mechanics of the Federal Reserve.

2. Growing demand for food worldwide -– especially in the rapidly developing nations such as China and India.

3. Floods in the U.S., and droughts elsewhere -– especially Australia. More than usual this year, apparently.

My column in North County Times questioning the ancillary functions of public libraries brought a storm of protest from library lovers. Well, a squall at least.
http://nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/29/opinion/rider/doc483ee3f9b66bd295...

What struck me about the criticism is that many of these supposedly well-educated folks apparently read no further than the headline before firing away in the online comments section. Either that, or their vaunted reading comprehension remains at third-grade level.

The California unemployment figures for May 2008 constitute some misleading good news. We moved from the third worst state in April to the fifth worst state in May.

The bad news is that California's improvement is due to the fact that a handful of other states' unemployment rates are rising even faster. Michigan -– which used to build cars -– is in the toilet with an 8.5% unemployment rate.

Feel any better?