If You Are Having A Bad Monday Then Read This

I usually try not to be preachy but thought that I would share this. You can click on the image to enlarge. Have a nice day!

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose By Tony Hsieh

The visionary CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.

Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority. Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business. Help employees grow both personally and professionally. Seek to change the world. Oh, and make money too.

Sound crazy? It’s all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that’s doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year.

In 1999, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO.

In 2009, Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine’s top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon later that year in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

In his first book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose ($23.99), Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Ultimately, he shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion, and purpose both in business and in life.  You can order the book HERE.

5 Really Expensive Toy Cars

For over 50 years, kids have spent their summer afternoons playing with toy cars sporting the Matchbox or Hot Wheels logos. As these kids grow up and are looking to recapture some of that childhood bliss, they wind up paying a pretty penny for cars that once went for small change. HERE are five examples.

Fan Made Poster for Marvel’s The Avengers

Over the last week, concept art leaked for Marvel’s Thor and Captain America giving comic book fans a better understanding of what the future superheroes will look like.

Alil Zeker took the images one step forward and created this awesome poster for the upcoming Avengers movie.

Hollywood Has Only One Newspaper?

Either they all use the same newspaper, or all these shows take place on the same exact day?

More examples HERE

Izabo’s ‘On My Way’ Music Video

The iPhone has become an integral part of pop culture and the Israeli band, Izabo showcases the ubiquitous device in their new music video, “On My Way” in a very clever and unique way.

Jones Soda Introduces Dungeons & Dragons Limited Edition Spellcasting Flavors

The quirky carbonated beverage maker, Jones Soda has begun offering a new limited edition set based on the popular role playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

The flavor choices include Illithid Brain Juice, Potion of Healing, Sneak Attack, Eldritch Blast, Dwarven Draught and Bigby’s Crushing Thirst Destroyer for the popular Pacific Northwest based soda company. A six pack costs $10.99 plus shipping and a 12 pack costs $18.99 plus shipping.

I guess you will have to throw your 10 sided die to determine which soda will quench your thirst first.

News of the sodas hit the web this week and have already proven popular. The initial run has sold out, but don’t worry. They’re making more. (Thanks for the tip Dawn)

James Bond’s 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Is For Sale

One of the coolest and most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery as James Bond in Goldfinger and Thunderball, will be put up for sale for the first time in history at RM Auctions’ Automobiles of London event on October 27th where it is expected to fetch over $5 million.

Offered by in association with Sotheby’s, the famous Aston Martin is one of only two, and the sole remaining, of the original ’007′ DB5s. With its “rather interesting modifications” as originally conceived by Oscar-award-winning special effects expert John Stears, the car is factory-fitted with the full complement of operational ‘Q-Branch’ gadgets.

These include machine guns, bullet-proof shield, revolving number plates, tracking device, removable roof panel, oil slick sprayer, nail spreader and smoke screen, all controlled from factory installed toggles and switches hidden in the center arm-rest.

Since 1969 the car has been in the collection of Jerry Lee, a radio broadcaster and philanthropist based in Philadelphia. The car is set to make its first 21st century public appearance at the Bond-themed Midsummer Classic / Thunderball concours and black-tie reception scheduled for June 26 at the Stoke Park Club located outside of London, familiar to Bond fans as the site of the first confrontation between 007 and Goldfinger.

Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. Super Deluxe Edition

Exile on Main St. Super Deluxe Edition ($140) is the definitive release of what many consider to be the Rolling Stone’s best album, with a package that includes the deluxe edition CD, a vinyl copy of the album, a 30-min documentary DVD, and a 50-page collector’s book with photos.

Gulliver’s Travels Trailer

20th Century Fox has brought online the trailer for Gulliver’s Travels, starring Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, James Gorden, Catherine Tate and Chris O’Dowd. Opening in 3D and 2D theaters on December 22nd, the fantasy action adventure is directed by Rob Letterman.

In the contemporary re–imagining of the classic tale, Black stars as Gulliver, a big–talking mailroom clerk who, after he’s mistakenly assigned a travel piece on the Bermuda Triangle, suddenly finds himself a giant among men when he washes ashore on the hidden island of Lilliput, home to a population of very tiny people. At first enslaved by the diminutive and industrious Liliputians, and later declared their hero, Gulliver comes to learn that it’s how big you are on the inside that counts.

The Oil Crisis Might Be Solved With Mentos and Diet Coke

Almost four years to the day after Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe posted the (literally) explosive video featuring the Vegas-worthy fountains that they created from nothing more than Mentos dropped into two-liter bottles of Diet Coke, the pair has returned with a striking new endeavor.

What started out as a backyard gag of the “dude, do you know what happens when you mix Mentos and Coke” variety turned into one of the most viral videos of all time.

Their latest feat? A rocket car powered by Mentos and Coke Zero. After years of work, the Coke & Mentos guys have harnessed the explosive power of these geysers and achieved human propulsion! 108 bottles of Coke Zero and 648 Mentos mints combine to propel the internet celebrities into the annals of unusual records.

The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car uses a piston mechanism: a six-foot long rod sits inside a six-foot long tube attached to each bottle of Coke Zero. When the Mentos drop into the soda, the pressure tries to push the rod out of the tube. With 108 rods all pushing at once, that provides the vehicle a lot of power.

Pepsi’s New iPhone App Rewards Restaurant Patrons for Checkins

Soda drinkers who show their love for Pepsi by checking in to venues that carry its products can now earn rewards in the process thanks to the newly released iPhone app — Pepsi Loot.

This Pepsi-made checkin service allows iPhone users to locate Pop Spots (Pepsi-selling food service venue) in the Base section of the app, and check in to accumulate rewards. Users can also access a more detailed map that allows them to filter Pop Spots by cuisine type. They can also visit the Loot section within the app to view goodies, as well as watch music videos from featured artists. For every three checkins, consumers earn a free digital song download at the Pepsi Loot Store. (Read more HERE – Thanks for the tip Don)

Thor Concept Art

Concept art of Chris Evans as Captain America surfaced yesterday (View HERE) and now similar artwork of Chris Hemsworth in the full Thor costume has appeared online.

I wonder if the studio will opt for the famous feathered helmet or ditch it?

Apple Sells Two Million iPads in Less Than 60 Days

Apple announced that iPad sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3. Apple began shipping iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK this past weekend. iPad will be available in nine more countries in July and additional countries later this year.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

iPad allows users to connect with their apps, content and the Internet in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.

Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch.

Hand Made Fonts

HandMadeFont is a design firm based in Estonia. They create very clever, untraditional fonts. The company takes their inspiration from everyday objects such as sprinkled donuts, LEGOs or packing tape.

Captain America Costume Revealed?

The internet may have its first look at the red, white and blue costume that Chris Evans will be donning for Captain America: The First Avenger, thanks to pictures that have appeared online at Ain’t It Cool News.

Fan reaction to the proposed designed seems, on the whole, to be extremely positive. The look blends the traditional Captain America look from the comics with the grittier Ultimates look.

It should be noted that, despite how widespread the images have been across the internet this morning, the art is still unconfirmed by either Paramount or Marvel Studios.

Pre-Order Toy Story 3 Tickets on Facebook

Disney has created a new Facebook app that will let users purchase tickets to see Toy Story 3 right on the site, while also inviting their friends along. The application is called Disney Tickets Together and is a brilliant example of social media synergy.

The app, which works in partnership with ticket-buying websites like Fandango.com, lets users pre-order tickets for the show and then invite others to join them. Users can also post what showing they are going to on their Facebook news feed.

The nice thing about the Facebook app is that you can view what types of theaters are showing the film in your area (meaning 3D, stadium seating, IMAX 3D, etc.) and you can also invite along non-Facebook friends by entering in their e-mail address.

Justin Cronin’s ‘Passage’ May Be a Best Seller

Justin Cronin is the author of an epic, multimillion-dollar, 766-page novel that stars bloodthirsty creatures that run in packs and savagely kill people at night. And he’s planning to turn it into a trilogy.

So he is prepared for the inevitable comparisons — another vampire book? — that could accompany the publication on Tuesday of “The Passage,” the sprawling saga of a girl named Amy who is one of the victims of a covert military experiment that went horribly awry and its bloody aftermath.

“I have not read ‘Twilight,’ ” Mr. Cronin, 47, said of the Stephenie Meyer book that kick-started the recent public obsession with the paranormal, adding that he was reared on vampire comics, the 1960s television soap opera “Dark Shadows” and the 1931 film version of “Dracula,” with Bela Lugosi. “My relationship to vampire material definitely predates the recent renaissance.”

But if “The Passage” shares anything else with “Twilight,” it may be pure commercial frenzy. In the publishing industry, “The Passage” has been hyped as one of the hottest books of the summer. At the annual book industry convention in New York last week, it was advertised on a banner roughly the size of a city bus, hanging from the ceiling in the vast convention hall. For those attending, 13,000 name tags were emblazoned with the title and a spooky image of a dark, empty forest that is also on the cover of the book.

So far, booksellers have expressed early and passionate enthusiasm. “The Passage” was chosen as an Indie Next List pick for June; Library Journal predicted that the book would be one of the most popular novels of the year; and Publishers Weekly raved, “Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin’s engrossingly horrific account of a postapocalyptic America.”

“The Passage” is appearing at a time when publishers are still snapping up books in the paranormal genre, a category that has evolved beyond vampires to include zombies, shape-shifters and dark angels who have fallen to earth. (Mr. Cronin’s vampires are called virals.)

It was more than four years ago that Mr. Cronin, who is married and has two children, began working on the book between his duties as an English professor at Rice University in Houston. He got the idea during afternoon jaunts around the neighborhood with his daughter, Iris, then 9, who rode her bicycle while Mr. Cronin jogged.

“The game I suggested was Let’s Plan a Novel Together,” said Mr. Cronin, taking a break from signing autographs and meeting booksellers at the book convention last week. “I had zero expectations. It was supposed to amount to nothing more than a good time.”

By 2007 “The Passage” was half written, and Mr. Cronin was still teaching during the summer to make extra money. His agent began shopping the book around, immediately setting off an intense bidding war.

“Everybody suddenly wanted it,” said Mr. Cronin, slightly wide-eyed and giddy at the memory. “Scott Rudin was calling my agent. Thank God for the structures around you. I would have been a deer in headlights. I would have been completely blown over by all this stuff.”

Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions paid $1.75 million for the film rights, and Mr. Cronin said John Logan, who wrote the screenplay for “Gladiator,” is currently at work on a script.

Ballantine Books, part of Random House, eventually won the rights to publish “The Passage” in the United States, along with two more books to complete the trilogy, for $3.75 million, New York magazine has reported. (Brian McLendon, a spokesman for Mr. Cronin, declined to confirm the sum. Mr. Cronin allowed that it was “more money than I’ve ever made in my entire life.”)

The finished result is a novel that appears to be vastly different from his previous work, which reflects his literary pedigree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Harvard: a bunch of short stories, novellas and two serious literary novels, one of which won a PEN/Hemingway award.

Still, Mr. Cronin said he believed the distinction between literary and commercial fiction was slightly overblown.

“It looks like a bigger change than it is,” Mr. Cronin said. “I think literary is shorthand for appreciated, and commercial is shorthand for sells. I did not undertake the writing of this book thinking that it was one thing or the other, or even that books in general have to be one thing or the other. Those are descriptions of what happens to a book after it’s written.”

He said he had no idea how many copies his first two books sold. (Probably about 74,000 copies combined, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales of print versions.)

The early success of “The Passage” has meant sudden material prosperity for Mr. Cronin and his family, he noted with giddy relief. His wife has left her job as a high school teacher. They have bought a piano, a black Yamaha upright, and a horse for their daughter. For the first time, he knows that they can afford to pay for college.

Ballantine is confident enough in the book’s prospects that it has ordered a first printing of 250,000. (Read more HERE)

The Creepiest Children’s Cereals Of All Time

We all remember Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and even Franken Berry, but those ghostly brands have nothing on these creepy kids’ cereals. From “slime” flavored puffs that turn milk green, to the creepiest mascots you’ve ever seen (that clown really will haunt us in our sleep), we wouldn’t recommend giving these to any child. Unless, of course, you want them running around saying they had “Kiddo Balls” for breakfast. In that case, you go right ahead.

Click HERE to see the bizarre kiddie flakes and puffs.

Comic Book Pick of The Week: Serenity: Float Out #1 Written By Patton Oswalt

Acclaimed writer/actor/comedian Patton Oswalt (The Goon, Batman, JLA, Dollhouse, Ratatouille) brings back one of Firefly’s most beloved characters in this special 40 page spotlight issue!

Always ready with a brilliant aerial maneuver and a terrible one-liner, Wash was pilot of the Firefly-class ship Serenity in Joss Whedon’s cult-classic TV series before being killed in the movie. Float Out includes three brand-new stories of Wash in a series of exciting smuggling raids, each providing a hair-raising escape or daring last-minute rescue! Featuring a cameo that will leave Serenity fans reeling, this special one-shot illustrated by Patric Reynolds presents new tales of the Serenity universe’s past and tantalizing hints about its future!

Serenity: Float Out #1 ($3.50) will be in stores on Wednesday June 2nd.

Real Life Superheroes

What makes a hero most?  Get to know the real lives, real stories and real truths behind The Real Life Super Hero Project. They don’t fly.  They don’t stretch. Neither do they explode, morph nor regenerate.  They possess no dazzling arsenal of gadgets, turbo-charged vehicles, no futuristic ballistic-armored suits.

Real Life Superheroes group shot: Top row left to right: Life, Mutinous Angel, The Crimson Fist, Ragensi, Zetaman, Motor Mouth Center row left to right: Dark Guardian, KnightVigil, Civitron, DC's Guardian, Z, Deaths Head Moth, Zimmer Bottom row left to right: Nyx, Phantom Zero, Super Hero, Geist, Thanatos: The Dark Avenger, Master Legend, Citizen Prime (© 2010 Peter Tangen/The Real Life Super Hero Project)

Rather, they are ordinary men and women, who have made a conscious choice to live extraordinary lives—living, breathing, feeling embodiments of Creative Altruism, and all that it entails.  In a world where too many people have given up and settled for less, they have decided to rock the status quo by getting up, going out and making whatever small differences they can, in hopes of inspiring others to do the same.

They are Real Life Superheroes, and these are their stories.

Download The She & Him Cover of Fools Rush In

In the latest Levi’s Pioneer Session, She & Him went into the studio and recorded a cover of the track “Fools Rush In”.

Rube Bloom and Johnny Mercer collaborated on several songs in the ’40s, though “Fools Rush In” is considered their timeless classic. Cover versions of the song are numerous, though teen-idol Rick Nelson’s 1963 version is perhaps the most critically loved. While only reaching #12 on the Billboard pop charts that year, his version’s everlasting impression on country, folk and rockabilly music for decades after is a testament to his legacy.

True to the spirit of his original, She & Him re-craft this enduring classic and give it a touch of torch, a bit of country western and a gentle dusting of the rockabilly that was Rick Nelson’s passion.

Download the song HERE.

First Look: Art From Frank Miller’s 300 Prequel Xerxes

Dark Horse comics has revealed the first art from Frank Miller’s upcoming miniseries Xerxes, a prequel to his 1998 graphic novel that was turned into the 2007 feature film 300 by Zack Snyder.

The image, available for sale as a lithograph directly from Dark Horse, depicts the Persian King and reveals the logo for the series which, if the film adaptation follows 300′s lead, will presumably match that of the upcoming film version.

The product description includes the following description of the series:

“Xerxes rose to power in fifth-century-BC Persia and became known as ‘The King of Kings,’ eventually raising and leading a massive army intent on ruthlessly destroying the hated Greeks who killed his father. Xerxes seeks nothing less than to become a god himself — and achieves his wish!”

The print features art by Frank Miller and coloring by Dave Stewart.

Frank Miller spoke today with the  Los Angeles Times regarding the comic book project, revealing a number of specific plot details.

“The time frame begins 10 years before 300,” said Miller, “and the story starts with the Battle of Marathon, which was killer to draw, by the way, even if it was a lot of work. The lead character is Themistocles, who became warlord of Greece and built their navy. The story is very different than 300 in that it involves Xerxes’ search for godhood. The existence of gods are presupposed in this story and the idea is that he’s well on his way to godhood by the end of the story.”

Describing Themistocles as “the complete opposite of Leonidas,” Miller does promise that the 300 character will make a cameo. While that doesn’t guarantee Gerard Butler cameoing in the eventual film version, it does make it likely, as does an appearance by Andrew Tiernan as Ephialtes, the deformed Spartan traitor who Miller promises also places a role in the new story.

Dark Horse Comics will release Xerxes as a six-issue comic book series beginning next year.

Entertainment Weekly Ranks The 100 Greatest Characters In Pop-Culture From The Last 20 Years

To help celebrate Entertainment Weekly‘s 20th anniversary, the writers and editors of the magazine carefully curated a list of the 100 greatest characters in pop-culture over the last 20 years. Whether the fictional women, men, ogres, muppets, babies, and cartoon rockers who made their list were initially created before 1990 didn’t matter so long as they made a lasting impact in the culture after 1990. HERE is the list. Do you agree with it?  Who is missing?

Loopt Aims At Being The Digital Loyalty Card For Everything

Loopt, tired of falling into the shadow of location games like Foursquare and Gowalla, has just upped its ante. A lot. It’s releasing Loopt Star, a rewards scheme that basically turns it into a store loyalty card, stored electronically on your iPhone.

Loopt, if you remember, was playing in this check-in/service review/social network space from pretty early on. Recently, though, the limelight has shifted away from Loopt onto Foursquare and Gowalla, thanks to Foursquare’s big-name advertising “checkin” partners and tight Twitter integration. It’s precisely because of these moves by Foursquare that Loopt has launched Star.

Star is a new app, requiring a new download to your iPhone or iPod Touch, but it integrates the existing checkin protocols from Loopt so regular users will find they can still update their friends on their whereabouts. The main thrust of the new service is this location-based reward scheme, and to demonstrate its power Gap is taking part in the launch with a 25% discount voucher on the second checkin to a store location–redeemable on the spot, unlike your usual stingy loyalty rewards. Universal is offering free MP3s if you checkin with Loopt friends to participating bars, and non-reward schemes are also being offered by retailers and organizations like Starbucks, which instead offer badges and honorary statuses (like Starbucks’ “honorary barista badge).

The move is a significant revamp for Loopt, and it demonstrates the power of this new medium for advertising: Just a few years ago schemes like this would’ve been no more than intellectual curios, but now they present enough of a value proposition for participating advertiser partners that these companies are prepared to invest in multiple LBS platforms. It also shows a trend toward more relaxed user thinking about “live” location-sharing. Users grow accustomed to having advertising tagged to their location and freely sharing that location information. And this hints that in the future, thanks to systems like Loopt and its competition, the sort of semi-intelligent location- and user-aware advertising schemes that sci-fi movies like Minority Report have imagined in the future may actually arrive sooner than you think. (Reprinted from Fast Company – Thanks for the tip Don)