Several years ago an online acquaintance introduced me to a remarkable item. I had been complaining of an obnoxious smell which I simply could not get rid of, and he said “what you need is some of the lava rocks which Lee Valley Tools sell”. “Huh??” I thought. Rocks? Did he have rocks in his head?

But this is a person who is a font of tidbits – always useful – so I trusted him. And I checked it out.

I looked up the lava rock deodorizer on the Lee Valley site, and what I saw was a plastic mesh bag full of, well, rocks. They looked just like the white ornamental rocks, slightly larger than gravel, you often see in flower beds in people’s front yards.

Dubious, yet trusting, I ordered them.

And danged if these things don’t work!

And I have since used them to remove disgusting smells ranging from cigarette smoke clinging to things which I have ordered from eBay (even when the smell had permeated the pages of a book!) to the pervasive perfume left by our unhappy male cat when we went away on vacation.

I don’t know how they work, but they do.

According to the Lee Valley site:

Working like super baking soda, this porous bag of volcanic rock absorbs and neutralizes odors, including strong odors like smoke and perfume.

It works unattended for an unlimited length of time, although it needs to be recharged by placing it in the sun every 6 months and soaking it in salt water then rinsing thoroughly once a year. One of our employees tried it in her vehicle (it had a nasty dog smell). Within a few days, she reported that the odor was gone. Especially useful in musty basements, closets and sheds.

Made from a naturally occurring ionic rock called clinoptilolite. Weighs 2 lb. One bag treats approx. 4800 cubic feet.

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And I’m here to tell you that it’s all true! Thank you, Sheldon!

And they are only $9.95!!

You can buy them here

Ok, I admit it. I am unabashedly, openly, and happily a fan of Guy Kawasaki. He’s a great guy, with a big heart, caring and empathy for his fellow man (and woman), openly family-focused, and hey, he knows a thing or two about business. He should, being the CEO of Garage Technology Ventures.

So I was honoured and pleased when Guy, whom I consider to be a mentor – because, well, he agreed to be my mentor (I begged, pleaded, and generally debased myself…it wasn’t pretty) – when he asked me to read the draft of a new book he was working on, and give him feedback.

Well, that book, The Art Of The Start: The Time-tested, Battle-hardened Guide For Anyone Starting Anything, was released today, and let me tell you, and I’m speaking from inside knowledge here, it’s a great book.
Run out and buy it right now! Go on, I’ll wait for you.

Oh ok, you can wait. In fact you can buy it from the link below.

Here’s the thing: The Art is such an easy book to read! And it makes so much sense! All of the information, thoughts, and advice offered in The Art (and there are plenty of each) is so straight-forward, and presented so well. With his highly readable and casual style, Guy invites you into the pages, sits you down across from him, and tells it like it is – no BS.

I learned so much reading the advance drafts of this book, and having read it now several times, I can honestly say that there is nobody – NOBODY – who shouldn’t read this book. I guarantee you that if you read this book you will learn something – some things – and will be the better for it. I know that I did, and I was. Every chapter contained lightbulbs which went on, or affirmations of my own sense of “the right way to do things”, or both (in fact, most often both). There are things I learned, and things I took away, from every chapter. Things which can be applied if you are just starting or breathing new life into a project or company, and things to help keep it going and on track.

Do you know the ideal length for a business plan? For a VC pitch? Do you know what VCs are thinking while you’re pitching them? (That isn’t pretty, either.) How much do you really know about the art of schmoozing? What does Guy think of HTML email?

Seriously. Get this book. Here’s the link (disclaimer: this link contains my Amazon affiliate i.d.. If you find this objectionable, you can go directly to Amazon and search for “Kawasaki Art Start” and find the book that way):

By the way, and even Guy doesn’t know this – it was his role as an Apple evangelist which I had in mind when I named this blog. When I realized that I had become an ‘evangelist’ of ideas and products in which I really believed, and in my sharing my enthusiasm for them here.

We are having a huge national conference this week, ISIPP’s National Spam and the Law Conference (http://www.isipp.com/events.php). We needed to have some “Slam a Spammer”
(http://www.slamaspammer.com) t-shirts made.

Now, we have a regular t-shirt printer whom we’ve always used. I’ve always been satisfied with their work. But this time they needed the Illustrator file, said they couldn’t possibly work from a jpg or gif (I’m not disputing that, it may be true), but even after I found the file (had to track down the original artist, and then we didn’t hear from him for a bit) and sent it, they were not as responsive as we needed, especially given the conference was so close.

*Before* finding the Illustrator file, in a panic, I started searching around for someone who could make the shirts from a gif or jpg, and one of the places I called was ESP Designs, out of Sherman, Texas. They were *so* incredibly responsive, great communications, which they often initiated themselves, the art guy even sent me a long email describing all the process for me, what this and that meant, etc… in the end I gave them an order last Thursday for a big batch of t-shirts (they now have the Illustrator file), and despite the rush and everything they *met* the quote of the local guy (which was $2/shirt less than their regular price) *and* agreed to eat shipping as with a local guy we didn’t have to deal with shipping – all with a guaranteed delivery of Tuesday! They did call me back, very sheepish, when they realized it was a rush delivery (after saying they’d eat the shipping) and ask if there was any way we’d split the rush fee with them (wow…most places would simply say “you have to pay the rush fee”) – I agreed with pleasure, in fact I’d already offered to pay it in full but I guess they’d not gotten that message in the front office.

Well, again, that was Thursday when I *placed* the order – here it is,Monday morning (and a holiday to boot), and the t-shirts just arrived, and they look wonderful!! And are a day early! Wow! What incredible services!

ESP Designs, http://www.esp-designs.com. 888-403-4600. Talk to Bryan. Tell him I sent you.

We’ll certainly be using them for all of our shirt printing needs from now on!

As I’ve mentioned, we have a huge Spam and the Law conference going on right now
(http://www.isipp.com/events.php).

Given the extortionate rates which the hotel charges for renting a projector and a screen for a day, it quickly became apparent that it would be cheaper to buy them (yes, really). $600+ for the screen! $550+ for the projector, and we need each for 2 days.

We got a *great* projector (Panasonic PT-LC56U – *1600* lumens for under $1000, but they are hard as anything to find – Newegg.com has them), but were having quite a time finding the screen we wanted. First, nobody could give us any decent information – they sell ’em, but don’t know anything about ’em. Second, the one we finally decided we wanted is big and bulky (for shipping purposes, that is), and we wanted to buy locally to avoid shipping if we could and if it made sense price-wise. Well, wow, pricing for these things is *all over the place*! We’re talking a several hundred dollar price spread! And nobody stocks them – which makes sense, as there are so many choices, sizes, screen types, etc., so they all drop-ship them from the manufacturer in Indiana.

I finally found one local place, and their price was ok, but not the best, which would let us do an in-store pickup. But then came the kicker, which was we still had to pay for shipping. Then they tried to talk us into a smaller size of the same model, which they happened to have on hand. If it turned out to be too small (which I really feared) we could return it, but they would charge a 15% restocking fee.

This was last Wednesday. The conference is next Thursday. In desparation I searched the web again, and found several places with better prices, and figured if we were willing to eat the cost of express shipping we’d still come out better. I called them all, and then I found Joel at AV Superstore. Not only did they have the best price, but he was the first person on this quest with whom I’d spoken who knew what he was talking about! You could tell right away that he knew far more than I did about this stuff, and sadly that was a first for this quest. We chatted about quite a few other things, including projectors and cameras,and I wished I’d found him before making my other purchases – oh, he affirmed that they were good purchases, but I wish I’d been able to give him that business!

He worked with me right then and there to ensure we’d have the screen by Tuesday. He took my credit card number. Then he called me back to say that he must have written the credit card number down wrong (he had) because it hadn’t gone through, but he’d gone ahead and placed the order anyways because he knew what a rush we were in!!!

Well, the screen just arrived today! A day ahead of schedule!

Great service!!

AV SuperStore http://www.avsuperstore.com 866-866-6767.

Ask for Joel. Tell him I sent you.