<![CDATA[Allan Marston - Home]]>Tue, 15 May 2012 11:43:45 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Cherish Every Moment]]>Sat, 05 May 2012 09:09:14 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/05/cherish-every-moment.htmlOn April 21st I lost my brother who died very suddenly. He was a year younger than me and I never, ever suspected that we did not have many more years to spend time with each other.  I live in Calgary, Canada and he lived near San Francisco, California. 

I was grief-stricken but I really didn't realize how bad things were until I came for his funeral and saw how devastated his wife and kids were.  His wife of 23 years wrote this beautiful poem that was shared at his funeral.  She has graciously allowed me to share it with you. 

As you read it and feel her pain you may pray for her.  Most of all, when you are done, go cherish every moment with the ones you love.  Life is not just short; it can end very suddenly. 


My Lost Love
by Dolly Tek-Marston

I have only just lost you and the pain is so hard to bear
Do I have to go through life knowing you're not there?
Please someone explain to me why he had to go
Are there any reasons, I really need to know
I sit here and remember all the wonderful and precious times we shared
The talks, the laughter, of everyone you cared for
I am told the pain will ease with time
And I will think of him without a tear
But that will be impossible as I need to have him here
He was my very world to me and my ever guiding star
My darling just kiss me softly on the cheek and tell me where you are?

I am not as strong as I thought I was
Since you have been gone
I sit and cry all night long
from dusk to dawn

Another day comes and once again
I have to pretend that I am strong
As soon as the day is over
I sit and cry all night long
From dusk to dawn

Nevermore
Will I see your smiling face?
Will I feel your strong, firm embrace?
Will I wish upon the starry skies,
Will I gaze into your loving eyes.
Will I feel your warm lips upon mine,
Will my eyes sparkle and shine,
The streets your feet will roam,
Because Our Lord and Savior decided to take you Home.]]><![CDATA[My Brother's Funeral]]>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:50:52 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/my-brothers-funeral.htmlDear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your calls, e-mails and cards on the sudden demise of our beloved Christopher Marston.

The Funeral arrangements are as follows:

The viewing and Rosary will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at St. Johns Catholic Church, 264 E. Lewelling Blvd.,San Lorenzo, CA 94580. 

The Funeral Mass will be 10 a.m. on  Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at  St.  Johns Catholic Church,  264 E. Lewelling Blvd.,San Lorenzo, CA 94580. The phone number for St. John's Church is 510-351-5050.

The burial will follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery at 1051 Harder Road, Hayward, CA 94542.   The phone number for Holy Sepulchre Cemetery is (510) 581-2488

Funeral arrangements are made by: Holy Angels Funeral & Cremation Center, 1051 Harder Road, Hayward, CA 94542. 

Thank you.

The Marston Family.]]><![CDATA[Yesterday My Brother Died]]>Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:42:31 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/yesterday-my-brother-died.html My 54 year-old brother collapsed and died at the gym as he was working out with his wife.  Now the shock is turning to sorrow and contemplation.

Today I find myself questioning my own mortality.  I have heard many people say that ‘Life is short’ and that is true.  What I am thinking about today though is how suddenly life can end.  Death has no regard for your plans, your future, your dreams and goals! 

Do we have a predetermined amount of time on this earth?

Is our final times written in some book somewhere?

In Greek mythology Atropos or Aisa was the oldest of the Three Fates, and was known as the "inflexible" or "inevitable." It was Atropos who chose the mechanism of death and ended the life of each mortal by cutting their thread with her "abhorred shears." She worked along with her two sisters, Clotho, who spun the thread, and Lachesis, who measured the length.

For me my brother’s death – he was just a year younger than me – creates massive urgency in my mind to get more done, get more accomplished and fill my life with more memorable moments.

Not sure if I can live every day like it is my last but I am contemplating the concept.

]]><![CDATA[I Like a Great Story!]]>Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:34:28 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/i-like-a-great-story.htmlThis is such an awesome story that gives humanity hope that good people and their good deeds can go viral.  I like what is happening in this story: http://www.wisecraks.com/2012/04/coffee-shop-where-everyone-pays-for.html

Plus there are a lot of great Little Ideas that you can read about on my other blog and then go act on it.
]]><![CDATA[Entrepreneurial Reading]]>Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:44:32 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/entrepreneurial-reading.html It's a lazy sunny Sunday as I sit on a patio chair reading the March 2012 issue of Inc magazine.  Most of the articles are on entrepreneurship which has me reminiscing about my startups and my journey into Silicon Valley with my first tech company.

One of the first things I encountered was the huge difference in the mentality of Angel investors and Venture Capitalists here in Calgary, Canada and those I was meeting and presenting to in the Valley.  In Calgary they wanted to know how much of our own money we had put in and even then they wanted to own most of the company. 

In the awesome Inc. article on Howard Tullman, the manic super entrepreneur and investor who has a dizzying array of accomplishments, says it best.  The entrepreneur's stake in a startup should be his time, and only his time.  "This idea that you have to go into hock and mortgage your home and starve is bullshit," says Tullman. "I tell entrepreneurs this all the time. If these VCs' come along and say 'Would you work for $5?' find different partners."

As I continue my entrepreneurial reading I come across another article on the file-sharing startup, YouSendIt.com and the nightmare the founders went through.  If you think all Silicon Valley startup stories are magically uplifting, they're not.  In this one the VC's really screwed the founders bringing in $5 Million and leaving the founders with 3% each even though the company had over a million dollars in earnings that year. 

I call it stealing the souls of the creators.  They then fired the founders as YouSendIt went from 300,000 users to 100,000.  Beware, startup entrepreneurs!  It might be better to continue to toil in the Valley of Darkness than sell you soul to the devil.

]]><![CDATA[Lessons from the Butterfly]]>Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:59:29 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/03/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit1.html Butterflies start off as caterpillars feeding on leaves until they finally cocoon themselves turning into butterflies.  The process of the butterfly breaking out of the cocoon is quite strenuous and can take a while to do so.  However, this process actually strengthens the butterfly’s wings and allows the butterfly to have the strength in it wings to fly away from the cocoon.

If someone decided to help the butterfly in the cocoon by removing the layers of the cocoon, the butterfly would be denied the opportunity to strengthen its wings. Once free from the cocoon the butterfly would fall to the ground and die.

When helping others never deny them the opportunity to strengthen their wings, so they too can fly like a butterfly. ]]><![CDATA[The Forgotten Masses]]>Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:31:34 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/the-forgotten-masses.htmlThe Internet has been growing at a torrid pace for a few years now.  A number of businesses and savvy marketers have earned huge profits as a result of tens of thousands of people joining the ongoing online revolution every day.

Yet there is a mass of people who have been the engine of economic growth for decades that are being left behind as the big brands consolidate their gains.  These people are the home-based and small businesses that collectively generate billions and keep millions working but have not caught on to what is happening on the Internet.

They know very little about putting together a website and in some cases they have no idea how critically important a website is to their credibility and how it can play a role in making them more profitable.

Most of them don’t know what SEO or SEM is and have no idea what Google Analytics is or how they can use it to generate business.  The majority still use referral and word of mouth marketing that is very effective but not nearly as huge as doing it on the Internet where a business can quadruple their profits if they know what they are doing.

And then there is social media and in particular Facebook and Twitter that many small businesses think is the way they can increase profits.  Instead they find out that on Facebook promoting your business is the fastest way to get unfriended and that Twitter works if you know how to work it.

So what is a small business to do?

Here are 3 suggestions that I am working on:
1-      Let’s get a movement started amongst our friends, family and acquaintances to fanatically support home-based and small businesses.
2-      Let’s get all these businesses in one place so people can find them.
3-      Finally, let’s make it affordable for these businesses to get on board.

That movement has already started and it is called BIZAXY.

]]><![CDATA[The Seed Event]]>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:04:30 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/the-seed-event.html Our world is changing, no doubt about it. How can you meet these changes with grace, preparedness and with awareness?
www.SeedEvent.org
Picture
]]><![CDATA[What is W.I.S.E.craks?]]>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:54:23 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/what-is-wisecraks.html_ I wouldn’t call myself a workaholic as such but I sure spend a lot of time trying to hit a home run in business.  I don’t consider that ‘work’ since I love being an entrepreneur.  However, one of the things I have learned over the years is to take some time and play and that has not been easy for me to do.

My idea of play is to surf the Internet looking for stuff that is weird or inspiring or entertaining.  I would find them, enjoy them and bookmark them so I could view them again, later.  Then when I would go back a few months later the page or website was no longer there. 

I started thinking of creating a repository for me to go back to, for posterity sake and for others that might find this stuff interesting.

That is why I decided to put together www.wisecraks.com which is a revival of sorts of an eZine I used to have in the early days of the Internet that was called W.I.S.E.craks.  Back then the W.I.S.E. stood for Wisdom, Inspiration, Satire and Enlightenment. 

The modern version of W.I.S.E.craks stands for Weird, Inspired, Serious and Entertainment.  I hope you will visit and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  If you do enjoy it please consider subscribing on the site and sharing with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc as well as email.  You will find those links below each post.  Enjoy!

]]><![CDATA[Why You Should be Interested]]>Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:40:45 -0800http://allanmarston.weebly.com/1/post/2011/09/why-you-should-be-interested.html In today’s Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid says “A tiny group of Albertans - probably no more than 50,000 party members - will vote on a premier for 3.7 million souls.  It's a moment of huge public significance. But in Calgary, there's probably more interest in the Flames roster.”

I am certainly hoping that my friends will take a more active part and it’s not too late.  If you choose to vote you can buy a membership (Only $5) at the polls. If you want to know where those polls are you can check the PC Party site or http://www.HornerForAlberta.ca as that is the site I helped put up.  I know many of my Liberal and NDP friends are voting today and will be Two-Minute Tories just because they want to have a say in who becomes premier.

And if you want some help deciding, maybe my process of evaluating how I arrived at my choice might help.  The main point is that during these tough worldwide economic times we need experienced leadership.  This is not a time to tinker with someone who is a great speaker or to vote for someone based on emotional popularity.  That is what the Americans did with the beloved but highly experienced Barack Obama who I liked too.  Now they are struggling with massive unemployment and predictions of huge riots to come.  We don’t need to go there!

Both Doug Griffiths and Alison Redford are emotional favourites of mine but lack experience managing anything really.  Both are young though and in another 5 to 10 years these 2 would make awesome candidates if they made it into cabinet during that time and they should.

On the other end of the spectrum Rick Orman is just too old school.  Ted Morton is just too American. He even taught American policy as a professor at U of C and was born in the USA and moved here when he was 32.

Gary Mar in my opinion is the worst of all of the candidates but has a ton of experience.  Why is he the worst?  He has never apologized or expressed remorse for giving his old buddy and executive assistant Kelley Charlebois what amounted to a taxpayer gift of $400,000.  Don’t take my word for it, research it on Google or read this: Premier Klein's Health Minister Gary Mar has paid Tory insider Kelley Charlebois over $400,000 for oral "advice." Although Gary Mar has 1,287 employees in his health ministry doing administrative and communications work, he paid Mr. Charlebois $143,000 in 2001, then $119,000 in 2002, then $111,000 in 2003 for giving oral "advice." After paying Mr. Charlebois $373,000, Gary Mar hired him again in 2004. Then, last week, with the public expressing outrage and with a provincial election getting closer, Gary Mar finally terminated this fourth lucrative "consulting" contract.

A Freedom of Information request by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation revealed that no reports are available to show whether Mr. Charlebois produced anything of value to taxpayers. Nor were these "consulting" contracts put to public tender; Mr. Charlebois got them without any competition.

And he continues to surround himself with unscrupulous people – Kelley Charlebois is back working on his campaign – and then this Give-Away of Free Memberships that cost $5 scandal: http://thealbertaardvark.blogspot.com/2011/09/team-mar-volunteer-donor-is-paying-for.html

Now Gary Mar is calling for more transparency!
Really?

MY CHOICE:

There is one candidate who has 10 years in government, served as minister of advanced technology and education and helped make Mount Royal College into a University amongst other major accomplishments and was deputy premier.  He has been involved in business around the world, with his family established province's first oat and barley milling operation and served in our armed forces reserves.  His father was with Peter Lougheed through that historic win.

His name is Doug Horner and I truly believe that with him as premier we will have an honest, innovative and highly intelligent premier who has a history of listening to the people and consulting with all stakeholders before decisions are made. 

By far The Best Choice for Alberta and I hope you will join me today in voting for him.

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