Living Better

I had a meeting in LA this morning and took the advice from a friend
to check out the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica for lunch.

I'm about to dig into my salmon.

And then write out some goals while enjoying California's brutal winter.

Tyler Jorgenson

Videos From Africa

Compare these two videos:

1.


2.

And all this time I thought we were tough for chasing the Giraffe.

Snow Day in Wrightwood

We had a great day up in the mountains. I had to check on a couple of things for WrightwoodCabins.com and the kids love playing with their Grandma and Grandpa J so we piled into the truck and headed up the hill.

Tanya is always wanting to get a good family pic and the kids were in good spirits. While we were posing with the little red house behind us snow from the tree fell down on us.

I love spending time with the wife and kids. Especially when my Mom and Dad provide pizza and hot cocoa. Thanks!

Wall Street Interview

One of the highlights of our recent trip to New York was visiting Wall Street. Many people asked me if I found it in ruins, but it was quite alive and bustling with activity. I carved out a few minutes to answer a few questions for a news team from a major national network. Yep, here I am with the reporter from TBS. They asked me questions about the economy, current monetary policies, housing and my choice of wearing jeans to the NYSE. Yep, TBS... Tokyo Broadcasting Service. I'm huge in Japan.

Times Square

I try to make an impact wherever I go. I enjoy networking, meeting new people, helping strangers, tipping cabbies, etc. Trying to make an impact in a city as impacted as New York was a fun challenge. This picture of me was up on Times Square on Dec 15, 2008 at 2:57pm. It isn't 'real' in the fact that I'm not really TIME magazines person of the year, but it was really displayed just like the picture shows.


New York really touched me. I am inspired to be bigger. I am inspired to be better so that the ripples of my life's work reach far and help many. The world has plenty of followers... I'm not one of them.

I Love...

New York. The shirts are so popular for a reason, I guess.


I'll be doing some other posts on specific experiences and lessons learned during my recent trip, but for now I just thought I'd let you know that the city was inspiring.

Wall Street

I am pretty excited to check out what many consider to be the financial capital of the world.


Any last minute NYC tips for me?

Padres - The Good & The Bad

This past weekend my parents (the good Padres) took my wife and me down to San Diego for a belated birthday present. We went to see the Padres game at Petco Park and we treated to a full tour of the stadium before the game. While we were waiting for the tour Mr. Padres himself walked by and shook a few hands. I didn't think he'd remember me from our meeting in 1995 so I didn't mention anything, but we go way back. The Padres (the baseball team... aka the 'bad' ones) didn't have too great of a game. The couldn't hit the pitches the 12 year old was throwing I guess. The pitcher for the Giants was a 23 year old kid with a rocket for an arm. He shut out the Padres but it was still a great night of baseball.

The Future

The family and I are staying at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas for a few days. This is an amazing part of the world, truly breathtaking views and spectacular beaches. We've stayed here before but somehow this time it's different. It's in my blood now... this is where we'll end up. It's just a matter of time, well and a lot of cash. Driving around here is like going to a fancy car convention. I hope they don't mind my cool guy minivan. The doors are automatic... is that cool enough to fit in?

The 8 million dollar homes and $450,000 cars are nothing compared to these assets.

We discovered Crystal Cove State Beach for the first time and fell deeply in love.

Loving my Mercedes-Benz

In case people didn't catch it in the last post, I am running my 'new' Mercedes on WVO (Waste Vegatable Oil).  I haven't set it all up yet, since I didn't want 200 gallons of old fry oil in my garage until I actually had a car.  I've had a LOT of questions about how this works, and whether or not I need to install some sort of conversion.  Here's a video showing that this works.  It is from a British show, so you'll need to replace some of the terms like 'chips' with French Fries.



There are people that make Biodiesel which is basically a pH balanced and additive rich version of WVO but there are questions as to the emmissions emitted due to the additives.  The bottom line is most diesel's (pre 2007 for the most part, but don't quote me and ruin your motor) can run right off of vegatable oil.  Wolfgang Diesel, the inventor of the Diesel engine designed his invention to run on peanut oil, but big business has worked to help us forget that these were designed to run organically.

Here's the problem.  I love my new car and I want more.  This one is really a simple and fun commuter, but isn't nice enough to take to meet clients.  I'm looking for a late 90's E or S class diesel and a G wagen.  Then I'll have my 'sports' car, my SUV and luxury car and never pay for fuel in any of them.

I was going to post the video of the Mythbusters episode where they prove the myth that this works, but it became unavailable from youtube.  They showed a large diesel mercedes getting 30mpg on pure WVO with no modifications.

My Brand New Mercedes Benz

A few months ago when the economy really started getting bad and the housing troubles had really spread a few partners and I launched TD Financial. We have a lot of vision for where the company is going but right now we are focusing on note modifications and other ways of assisting homeowners remain homeowners.

In reflecting on my post on gas prices the other day I thought about getting an diesel vehicle and running it on WVO (waste vegatable oil). I was on Craigslist the other night and found the car I wanted. I emailed the ad poster and asked if perchance he would be in need of my services and would he be willing to trade the Mercedes. Long story short, here's my new ride.

I know, I know. You can be jealous. By the way, if any of you have left over vegatable oil after cooking french fries, floutas, etc just let me know. I get about 30 miles to the gallon on that stuff now.

Edit:Here's a cool snippet about what I'll be running this on."Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The use of biodiesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter compared to emissions from diesel fuel. In addition, the exhaust emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates (major components of acid rain) from biodiesel are essentially eliminated compared to diesel." Source: Biodiesel.org

Have you seen the Pyramids?

Gone skydiving? Traveled to Hong Kong? Been on Safari? Helped a stranger for the better?
My beautiful wife rented The Bucket List for us to watch. I'm not much for writing movie reviews, but all in all it was a good flick. It made me think a little bit about my life's goals and aspirations. In the movie Morgan Freeman's character has a nice family life (but a stale marriage), a modest job and a traditional home. Somehow he ends up sharing a hospital room with Jack Nicholson's character (sorry about the Lakers in Game 4 Jack) who is an extremely wealthy man, but with no family ties to speak of. Both characters get to impart a bit of their views to the other through the movie and end up better people in the end.

The first thing I thought of was my amazing family. I have three ridiculously amazing children and a super star wife. If I were left desolate in a shack in Tulsa (the Paris of Oklahoma) but I had my family then life would be alright. The next thing I thought about is that I want to see some stuff while I'm on this earth. I've been lucky to chase giraffe in Africa and I am very grateful for my time there... but I want to see Machu Picchu, sing to my wife in Italy, tour the Holy Land and climb Kilimanjaro.

While I was in South Africa I read some words in Afrikaans that have stuck with me.

Gryp Die Dag

Many of you know it's Latin counterpart, Carpe Diem. Both say the same thing so both are obviously good but Gryp Die Dag, said in a gluteral and milataristic voice full denotes expedient and forceful action. Carpe Diem is so much more poetic and light.

That being said, two questions to think about?

1. What is one thing you feel you MUST do before you kick the bucket?

2. What is the most rewarding thing you can do TODAY?

My thoughts after watching the movie are in line with Baird's poem:

Time flies on wings of lightning;
We cannot call it back;
It comes, then passes forward
Along its onward track;
And if we are not mindful,
The chance will fade away;
For life is quick in passing.
'Tis as a single day.

Life your life with a sense of determined urgency. Reap while the sun shines.

Entertain me and leave a comment with your answer to question #1. Maybe there's a prize for whoever leaves a comment with the most original answer.

Wipeout!

I don't think I'm supposed to publicly talk about how well I did, but yesterday I filmed an episode of ABC's new show WIPEOUT. It was awesomely brutal and I was humbled and encouraged to get back into shape.

The course I did was a bit different than this one, but it was VERY challenging. The other contestants were all awesome and great to hang out with all day in the blazing heat. Stay tuned, I'll let you know when my episode is going to air.

San Jose

I'm off to San Jose. My flight leaves Ontario at 7:45am and I'll be back to Ontario by 1:30pm. Isn't it great that we can travel over 600 miles and have a meeting all within 6 hours. To do that in my car I'd have to drive 100mph and have the meeting on the phone.