Beard 1 Scissors 1

Well the fund raiser that pitched Beard against Scissors has closed. We raised $120 which will give four people clean drinking water for the next twenty years.

My donation for save the beard was $10 greater than the sum total of the shave Matt donations. So to honour the shave the beard (scissors supporters) I have chosen to significantly trim my beard.

If you want to see my face pink and hairless you will have to do better next year.

Beard Vs Scissors results: 6 people clean water for 20 years

The Beard Vs Scissors campaign has come to an end. I received this email from the team at charity: water

Dear friend,

Congratulations! Your campaign raised $120, which alone can give 6 people clean water for 20 years.

The mycharity: water site tracks every dollar donated on your page to a specific water project. When the water projects you helped fund are completed in 12 - 18 months, we'll send you and everyone who contributed to your pictures and GPS coordinates. Even though your page can no longer receive donations, you can go back to the site anytime to see your campaign and to eventually see the village you helped.

We've seen the amazing impact that water projects have on people's lives. Your dedication these past three months is deeply appreciated.
Thank you.

--the team at charity: water

Comments are off

Due to a spam attack commenting is off on this blog until such time as I can get into the office and install something a little more suitable. Thanks for your understanding.

24 Fund Raising Days Left

There are just 24 days left to get your donation in before the deadline day.

Now I'll be frank with you - I'm pretty sure I'm not going to cause $5,000 (US) as we have just got to $110 (US) but I'd like to at least get to $250. Just a donation of $1 (about 70p give or take a wee bit) would take us forward.

Give a little and change a life

Ultimate Success Summit Sydney 2010

Recently the company founder Greg Secker jetted off to speak at the Ultimate Success Summit "down under" in the land of Oz.

Here are some pictures from that event.

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.

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