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OpenCongress has a post about how residence in Manhattan are racking in federal cash from the farm bill - currently on its way to the Senate for (annual or something like that) voting. All these fun farmers have to do is grow a ’select group of crops’. So I thought, hey that’s nice of them; there should only be a few small farmers right. Well check the map for yourself.

What does everybody think of that one?

Outside.in created a post last week on its blog titled Why Boston is Bloggiest. Within this post it mentions how NYC may have a large number of blogs it is still only the sixth largest city in the US for blogging activity. This is due to the fact that NYC has a crap ton of people who are not writing blogs, so proportionally…

This happy information bumps Portland, OR into the top five. But should it be?

Where are the lines drawn on Portland? Portland is in one of those cities which boarders are not too well defined as a metro area. In its case, Vancouver and the rest of Southwest Washington are just four or five miles out of the city center but could be argued are not a suburb. Hell even ask Vancouver’s mayor. The same could be said about Gresham, OR - a suburb-ish but still Oregon’s fourth?? largest city. In my assumption of Vancouver, it would less bloggy - to use Outside.in’s words - than Portland which would possibly move Portland down in ranks if it were included. The opposite could potentially be said about Bellevue, WA - just 11 miles city center to city center from Seattle. But what if New Jersey was included in NYC.

My question to Outside.in would be to explain these boundaries. Do not just explain how it would pertain to this study but to your entire service. If I mark my site/post as Vancouver instead of Portland (or vice versa) how will that effect the circumstances of your service?

That is all I will say for tonight. There may be potential for more later - even more detail if I am up for it.

As many of you readers know, I have been riding my new bike quite often this summer. Today was no different. I was off on my usual route along the river.

This time was different; this time I got hit by a car. Actually it was a boat trailer. Here is my story.

I was going south on Main Street and came to a red light at Fourth Plain. Normally at red lights I look to see if anybody is turning right (has their turn signal on), and if not, I skip in line along side all the cars to get to the front.

This time was no different. I came to the red light and saw nobody was turning, so I started scooting past everybody. This put me next to an SUV - no it wasn’t a Dodge so not that funny - just at its hitch which was pulling a boat. Just as I was going to start speeding up to go through the intersection, I noticed the SUV had its turn signal on. At this point I was mostly out of options for where to go except turn the corner.

I tried to ride along side it around the turn, but the boat took the turn too sharply. The tire on the trailer clipped the rear tire of my bike. Let’s just say I went down. I am not really sure how graceful I may or may not have looked, but I was probably not winning any dismounting medals.

No need to truly fuss though folks; I will live to see the day. At this point, I have a cut on my finger and one Hell of some road rash on my back. I would show pictures but the road rash on my lower back is pretty low and may not be appropriate for our younger readers. My bike on the other had will not be living very much longer.

How about some picture? Notice the lack of rear break and obvious tire print in the spokes of the wheel.

The officer who will be writing the Police Report said he will not be able to assign fault since he was not there. Assuming though I do not come down with any serious injuries, all I really want is a new bike. Until then I am just going to have to drive my car to get exercise for a few weeks.

Full Title: You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way - and Live the Life You Want - with 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship by Cameron Johnson
ISBN: 1-4165-3606-X
Get it cheap.

Summary: Cameron has an amazing story of how he started 12 companies before he was 21. All of which made him money and few lasted more than a year. None required startup capital and few had more employees than himself. Many even were sold to bigger companies for ‘undisclosed amounts’. All of which taught him something valuable about life and business. This book was written to not really tell his story - even though it does- but to tell what he learned from his experiences of having business as a kid.

What I thought: I was actually sent this book from jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity who had a book give away. I would like to thank jim for his kindness in sending it to me. Even though I received it about six weeks ago and finished reading it probably two weeks ago, I am just now getting to writing my review. FYI, you can read jim’s review of You Call the Shots. Also you can learn more about Cameron Johnson Inc. Or read Cameron’s blog.

I thought this book was very interesting. I would somewhat expect a person who is making Internet companies to try at bigger ideas with higher goals. Cameron taught me to think smaller and of a more automated company. He worked on his companies while going to school and having other jobs - sometimes without Internet connects. Having a humble company does not make one less of a success or less likely to cash out. The amount of the pay off might be less, but in Cameron’s eyes, one does not need millions of dollars to be happy. It is the ride which makes one happy and make $50k when you are 12 will pay off eventually. ‘Go big or go home’ doesn’t really apply in this case.

This is a must read for any small business owner.

After testing a new ad system on YouTube for a few weeks Google announced a new system call InVideo this week. In a nutshell this is a way to have ads within the video which play on YouTube.

But wait there is more. Imagine a system like this on all the media you use - your phone, TV, DVR, GPS, and, hush don’t tell, your web browser. This might finally give Old Media the scare they finally needed. Don’t believe this is huge? I would say webbalert put it best. Go ahead watch this video and see if you believe me.

See, it is huge.