I start my day off at work every day by heading to Daily Dose of Imagery and looking at the beautiful photo of the day. Often, I use that picture as my Windows wallpaper for the day (right-click, Set As Background). It helps that the photographer lives in Toronto, like me, and I often recognize the streets and buildings in the pictures.

It's interesting to me that some of the most mundane subjects make beautiful pictures (a brick wall, a streetcar, a bug...)

Or, alternately titled, “How A Young Guy Like Rory Blyth Got Such A Cool Job At Microsoft”.

Remember when you were young, and your parents used to tell you, “You can be anything you want to be”. Well, that's largely true. You could fill a small country with people who have transcended their poor upbringing to make a substantial contribution to society, and people who come from rich upbringings who manage to screw up to become nothing. At the age of 5, the range of possibilities is endless.

But as you get older, your ability to be “anything” starts to shrink. If you aren't an up-and-coming politician by the age of 25, you will not become president. If you didn't quit college to start a company, you will not become Bill Gates. Almost every person you can think of who has become something great got there gradually. You can't wake up when you're 40, broke and unemployed, and decide you want to become president. It won't happen.

So when I heard that 26-year old Rory Blyth accepted a job as an MSDN Presenter, his dream job, I was not surprised. He has been leading an outstanding life as a consultant for the last couple of years, and this career move is the next logical step for him.

His blog entry on the topic is quite insightful. He has reached a point at 26 that I am reaching at 35, which is a bit disturbing. Basically, “Consulting is great, but it's tough not staying anywhere for long. Most times I am working on small and inconsequential stuff such as a new report, or a new web page. But there are so many other things I never get to do. Money isn't everything.”

It's interesting to see how he did not simply sit back and let fate decide what happened to his career. While still in school, he was hard at work getting real programming experience. He wrote online articles, hosted radio shows, travelled to conferences and gave presentations. As he says in his blog entry, his net income this year was “basically zero” if you factor out all the other expenses he personally paid to develop his career. Most other people do not put a similar amount of time, energy and money into their own careers, and languish somewhere as a result.

You know those people who have been at the same job for 5 years and hate it? Those people who would not dare work past 5:00pm and don't even want to think about anything possibly work related off-hours? They are the ones who expect others to direct their career and get nowhere as a result. While those that take training on their own time, get certifications, read books, go to seminars, etc, are sitting in the driver's seat.

So, if you're a teenager or in your early twenties, and are wondering how to get ahead in life, here's the great secret. “Get started now.” There is no better time than now. Don't believe for a second that if you have a job you hate, that in a couple of years things will magically get better. It is better to suffer the short-term discomfort of lower pay, for long-term happiness. The only way situations resolve the way you want them to is to resolve them yourself.

Oh yeah, I realize now that the people of Washington, D.C. are not alone. There are millions of Americans that aren't allowed to vote... residents of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico.

A few months ago, an online tool told me Al Sharpton was the closest presidental candidate to my views. I was shocked, as I would never have guessed. Tonight I heard Rev. Sharpton speak on TV from the Democratic National Convention, and I must say I was extremely impressed. Supposedly, he did not use the speech that was displayed on the teleprompter, which impressed me even more.

The funny thing is, afterwards political commentators on CNN were frothing at the mouth over this “unscripted” event. They were downright giddy. And their main focus was how this was somehow bad for Kerry and the Democrats. I mean, I just heard the most interesting and moving speech in ages, and CNN was calling it bad for Kerry. I say it was good for Kerry.

Now I sit here watching John Edwards stumble over his words. He's chanting “Hope is on the way”. That's the stupidest slogan I have ever heard. Hope is on the way? Hope? I have to tell you, if the Democrats are pinning their success on providing “hope” to people, they're going to lose in November. Why don't they just print signs saying “We'll try”, or “I think we can”.

Finally, I was surprised to learn that residents of Washington, D.C. do not have the right to vote. That's so ironic. Even Alanis Morrisette would agree.

For the last nine years, I have been paying my local newspaper (The Toronto Star) $14 a month for twice-a-week delivery (Saturdays and Sundays). I'm finally at a point where I can cancel my newspaper delivery for good. There are no more reasons to get it any more.

It's not like I read the paper. I rarely have the kind of time to spend the 45 minutes or so it takes to flip through a newspaper and read the interesting content within.

The only three reasons I subscribe to a newspaper are:

1. Comic strips
2. Movie listings
3. TV guide

For this, I have been paying $14 a month. I no longer need #1 - I visit www.dilbert.com to get my fix. I no longer need #2 - my cell phone, for gosh sakes, has movie listings when I need it. And I visit www.toronto.com to get listings when I am home.

That leaves the TV guide. That's a tough problem to get around - my wife watches a lot of TV and likes to read the TV listings to let her know what interesting things will be on. (Basically, she plans her TV watching in advance.) Now, the digital cable box gives TV listings, and so does Channel 5 -- but those only show what is on now, not what is on next Wednesday. I could go to www.zap2it.com, but my wife doesn't use the Internet and even find the online services awkward and inconvenient. They are not easy to use.

That leaves TV Guide. Either you need to pay $1.50 at a retail store to get it (no cheaper than the newspaper), or get it delivered to your home for $.90 a week. It seems a bit expensive for what it is -- about $.10 of paper, plus $.20 of postage.

Many, many companies have access to this TV listings data. TiVo, zap2it, Channel 5, my digital cable box, newspapers... I wonder how much it would cost to get access to this data. Would people be willing to get a PDF file via email with a weeks worth of TV listings, ready to be printed? For $0.25 a week or $12 a year? I would pay for such a service - print the listings for my wife or leave it by the TV.

The Internet is all about giving people access to information on their terms. Magazines such as TV Guide, which are simply repositories for information, should be prime targets. It can be done better. Maybe I should try to do it better?

I spent a few hours today studying for my next MCSD .NET exam: 70-315. One event that caused me to have so much free time is that we are getting our condo painted, and so I can't wander too far from home or for too long. So here I sit with my laptop studying like a college student. It's fun actually.

So, first let me give credit where credit is due: Amit Kalani has written some excellent study guides for the Windows and Web exams. I love doing examples - since I spend the majority of my study time working with .NET and not just reading about it. And the Kalani books have plenty of examples.

I have purchased the Transcender for the next exam already, although I have not had time to use it yet. I think I will try and get through the Kalani book before testing my knowledge with Transcender.

Of course, it's entirely possible to take the exam after studying only the Kalani book, without the help of Transcender. But I think having the exam simulation software allows me to honestly assess my skill level, gain confidence, and reinforce my learning over and over.

I can't wait to take the next exam. I think I'll book it soon.

Some time back, I created a Amazon.com Listmania! list of the books I've written. Since I have never posted the URL anywhere, I figured now would be a good time to do so.

Buy early, buy often.