Community on the web and the people who are in it

I spent the last couple of days in a meeting discussing the community on the web and how the new site I am going to be in charge of putting together helps bring a better world to the people both in the community and outside of the immediate web community. I really got a sense from the people that are currently running their online communities how much they truly feel like family with the people that are current community members.
I had a lot of interaction with the Zaadz and Lime community people over the past two days. It was great to hear everyone talk about the people and the content that is available on the specific community and try and think about how we can put together into a stronger community for current and new members. With the large amount of community 'hoopla' going on right now, the need to have focus on the specific reason to spend time on community initiatives is important to understand. Put your mind and heart into something you believe in and you can add a lot of value and change to the world.

Manual labor and the working stiff

So over the past week or so I have been tearing out the old deck to replace it with the recyclable 'trek' material that we have on the front deck. Let me tell you, doing computer work does nothing to prepare you for the hardship of manual labor. I used to do a lot of construction work in the summer to earn money but that was obviously a very long time ago. My hands are pretty sore from tearing out the old deck and carrying the crazy heavy trek deck material over the back deck.

Now the back deck is 32 x 32 so it is a very large deck and that is only about 1/4 of the whole deck on the house. I mean, back in the 70's I think it was a huge deal to have as much deck as possible but no one seems to have thought about what a pain in the ass it is to maintain and shovel when it snows like it does here in Colorado. So to all you people that think 'bigger is better', you are welcome to stop by and grab a bag of screws and start working over at my house.

One thing I am very happy about is putting the recyclable material down on the deck. I am all about the green and environment when it is possible. Getting rid of the stain that needs to go down on the deck for the preparation for each winter sucks and is super bad for the earth. So out goes the crappy oil deck and in comes the new recyclable materials deck. I hope in about a week or so I will be sipping margaritas out on the back '40', otherwise known as the over size back deck.

Fuel needed to bike to work

I dont see why I cannot write off some of my miles that I ride on my bike to outside clients. If I get to write off miles on my car and all the additional items that come with it, why can't I get that same thing on my bike?
Here is a great note about the bike messenger who wanted to deduct his 'fuel costs' from his Canadian tax's: