Beard vs Scissors: Update

Give people a cup of water while deciding the winner in
Beard vs Scissors - the ultimate fund raising contest

Have you ever said, "I'm dying of thirst?" I bet you have and I'd bet you didn't really mean it.

If you're like me, you never spend much time thinking about water after all it is everywhere we go. Water's not a big deal. Right?

For a billion people on the planet, water is a massive deal. A life or death deal. A reason to walk for miles sort of deal. Millions of women and children have to walk hours each day to get water from muddy ponds and rivers. And much of that water is infested with parasites and leeches. In fact, 80% of all diseases in the world are caused by unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation.

That is why I am offering my beard as an incentive to help raise the needed funds to help a village of people to have access to real drinking water. Beard vs Scissors pits my beard against the threat of a shave. Your donations will decide the winner.

Now I said before that the biggest donation would decide the winner but I have decided to throw it open to everyone. The biggest total donations for the beard or against it will decide the winner. The biggest anti-beard donation will (if "off with the beard" wins) win the donation giver the right to cut off my beard (prior to my shaving).

Every US Dollar (the currency of choice) counts as a vote so US$10 is ten votes. To cast votes go to mycharitywater.org/K2AGuy and deposit some cash.

To make your vote count you should say "off with the beard" or "save the beard" in the comments.

For those that donated without voting you will need to identify yourself on one of these pages (on Facebook) and state your votes intention:

Don't forget to spread the word about your vote of choice and get your friends and family to back you with a few dollars more.

Alternatively if you do not wish to use Facebook you may use my contact form to let me know.

Just lately it seems the Dollar has been slipping against the Pound so your money will buy slightly more if you come from the UK.

Beard vs Scissors

It's Beard vs Scissors in the ultimate fund raising contest

You get to vote with your donation to the nominated charity. Does my beard stay or go - and will it be taken by your hand?

The contest has been taken to a whole new level now that facebook has got involved. You can "fan" or "like" a page to show your support for one outcome or the other.

Sneek Peek: New K2A Graduate's Website

One of the projects under my direction is the creation of a new site for Knowledge To Action graduates. While there is nothing exactly wrong with the current site there is a need for the site to do more for K2A's graduates. My job is to create a system that facilitates this.

Currently it is just a project on my development server which has a basic framework for hanging features. The most commonly used feature is one that will never see public use - the debug application. In the screen shot below you can see it spilling the beans as to what is going on under the bonnet.

K2A's amazing designer - Carl - has been working on a fresh new look so even the look and feel of this screen shot will change. before you guys get a chance to see it.

I'm mostly showing you this now so that you can watch as things progress. I'm hoping that the apparent pace of development can quicken now that the background work is almost done.

Blogging Corporately

One of the things I have been doing as a developer is to help set up the Australian Branch with a news system that they can use to provide industry news relevant to both the subject of Forex trading and Australia.

Of course one can not expect people to instantly be able to use any new system so I have also been supporting the Australian team by providing a little content and setting up some training time. Which is easier said than done when both offices are in use at the same time for such a short amount of time.

Of course researching news half the world away is also an interesting challenge too.

Goodbye to my beard?

I am willing to sacrifice my beard for the greater good.

My offer to you is that the person who donates the greatest amount towards drinking water for others via this page will earn the right to be the one who I will allow to take a pair of scissors to my big ol' "linux beard".

So if your name is Doug or you just want to see my beard but down to size this is your opportunity to do just that. Amounts are in dollars giving an advantage to Brits.

In order to claim you must be willing to travel to a location in London or Thanet (your choice) for the chopping off ceremony. You will be handed a sharp pair of scissors (so please be careful) and will get to remove my beard and make me look "normal".

Save my beard?

I'd rather keep my beard but it is for a good cause so please give generously if you wish to claim the honour of removing my beard.

Those (two or three) who love my beard you can also donate to save my beard (please put "Save the Beard" in your comment). Please give even more generously and show the beard haters whose boss (pretty please).

My big beard: Keep or kill? You get to choose.

So what are you waiting for?

Donate Now and choose my beard's fate

Knowledge to Action is Amazing

Working for Knowledge to Action is Amazing for a number of reasons but for me the big kicker is that I get to see how a company that is not a web specialist takes care of their web presence. For a web guy such as myself with a background in marketing and blogging it's a bit of an eye opener.

I'm starting to see how non geeks see their site, see email and understand search and SEO. It is like a whole other world.

Some might call it the "real world" and to a great extent it is. Knowledge to Action is an amazing opportunity to see how regular companies prioritize and develop. Moving from a pure web world to a world where an account manager wants you to actually justify an action rather than assuming that "if it is web then it is good" the need to think things through from a "big picture" view is startlingly good at helping to trim the fat from web activities.

Great for focusing on what matters.

Stock market crashes

The List of stock market crashes on Wikipedia makes for interesting reading. It seems like massive bursting bubbles is quite normal occurring with quite some regularity.

I wonder if in learning to trade I am going to find that a big factor is that people are not logical.

Forex Tweetable Tips

I thought I'd take the time to write a post that explains exactly what this project is.

I would like to create a freely distributable ebook containing 140 tweet sized trading tips. I don't mean "go short against the Euro" type tips which will have expired by the time the tip is given but truths any trader should take to heart. Rules of thumb that will help you be a better trader.

The book will be given away freely under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License which means every tweet must be attributed to the author and while you can share the book freely you shouldn't change it.

Up to 140 people will have their trading truth tweet immortalized forever in this book.

This groovy book image was created with the help of Carl the Graphic Designer

Knowledge to Action seminars expand internationally due to popular demand

Not wishing to brag but there is a certain stress free job security in working for a company that is in such demand they are opening new branches.

The first three tips.

There has been some confusion on line as to what we are looking at for the tip jar. Obviously going short on this or long on that will go out of date faster than we could compile the 140 tweets.

So leading by example we have the first three tips:

Always set a stoploss ideally at no more than 1% of your total stake. That way you control your losses. Tweeted by @K2A Guy

Never trade with money that you cannot afford to loose. Even if this means a smaller account and a longer start. Tweeted by @K2A Guy

Make smaller, more controlled trades while you are learning the ropes. Then your mistakes are less expensive. Tweeted by @K2A Guy

That leaves 137 left.