I just got off the phone with customer service with Virgin Mobile tonight (Tuesday). Prior to posting this I spent a very angry 20 or 30 minutes tweeting about the evilness of Virgin Mobile. I ranted and raved about how their customer service is evil, lame, sucks - you name it. Ever since I’ve owned the phone I’ve hated it, but I have suffered through bad service, including nearly two hours to simply get the phone activated last year. Then I found out the phone didn’t have an alarm function. …

Shortly after a snapping a photo of a bowl of bananas with a tag that said, obviously enough, that they were “bananas,” a friend of mine and I laughed at how silly it seemed [then] to put a tag on something so obvious. Of course they were bananas! Then I rounded the table and saw several items, like Yorkshire Pudding, and some other exotic fruits and dishes I had no idea what they were. I heard a couple of Englishmen laughing at the idea that one would need to label …

I’m checking air line flights for a trip I want to take next year. I’m a little nervous because I heard that airlines will be charging a “Pee Fee” after the new year. Yup. There’s a “Peak Travel,” fee for traveling at peak times. There’s a baggage fee for people who are foolish enough to want to bring along more than the clothes on their backs. There’s a “Fat fee” where you have to buy two seats if you weigh too much, and then there’s a long laundry list …

Risk. People ask me about it all the time. I think back to this guy in the photo. He wore a pair of “toe shoes” to the first party at TED Global…odd shoes. Shoes that COULD have been laughed at…indeed were laughed at by some. But lots of people (including me) also thought they were pretty cool….odd, but cool. A couple of women later said, “I loved those shoes but I’d be afraid to wear them anywhere but the beach.” Their fear, it turned out, was looking silly. They were …

Remember Square Dancing? If you’ve never done it, you should. You’re in a circle and although you start with one partner, the dance is about moving around the circle, interacting and dancing with different partners as you move around the circle. Some are great, they smile, they know how to dance, your time with them is fluid and easy and fun. Then there are those who are new to the dance. They are stiff, scared, awkward and afraid of doing something wrong or looking foolish. They grimace rather than …