The Change.Gov (soon to be whitehouse.gov) website features a “Citizen’s Briefing Book” where citizens can post and vote on issues they feel are most important.  The following is statement is from this web page:

“Thank you for sharing your ideas on the issues facing the new administration. Over 125,000 users submitted over 44,000 ideas and cast over 1.4 million votes. The best rated ideas will be gathered into a Citizen’s Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama after he is sworn in. “

I pulled the Top 10 issues, as they were voted on, into a list (see the table below)

Rank	Issue	Points	Comments	Partial Text
1	Ending Marijuana Prohibition	92,970	3,550	I suggest that we step back and take a non-biased “Science Based” approach to decide what should be done about the “Utter Failure” that we call the War on (some) Drugs.
2	Commit to becoming the “Greenest” country in the world	70,470	199	If America committed itself to this creed it would solve many problems at once. By creating the economic incentives and legislative benchmarks, going green will:
3	Stop using federal resources to undermine states’ medicinal marijuana laws	66,170	17	Our federal government’s Drug Enforcement Administration continues to raid marijuana (cannabis) dispensaries and compassionate use clubs in locations where local and state law allows them to operate.
4	An end to the government sponsored abstinence education to be replaced by an introduction of age appropriate sex education	65,350	158	1-4 teenagers have a sexually transmitted disease.  AIDS still exists. The longer we keep our children in the dark about their bodies, the longer these facts will continue to be true.
5	Bullet Trains & Light Rail	65,100	434	Train transportation funding should be increased at the federal level. I think that the one issue keeping many people from using trains to travel to and from other cities is that they are too slow.
6	The permanent closure of all Torture facilities (Facilities such as: Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib)	61,250	119	Let us again be human rights advocates. Torture is a popular debate in the current American discourse. The reaction of the US to photographs of our smiling soldiers at Abu Grahib made clear that America is no longer the defender of human rights.
7	Revoke the George W. Bush tax cuts for the top 1 %	57,080	119	The notion that giving the owners of the companies more money so that it will eventually trickle down to the common people is absurd. People WITH money HAVE money because they know how to KEEP money.
8	Get the Insurance Companies out the Health Care	55,080	362	The reason that our country pays more for health care than anywhere else in the world and still has poor health outcomes is that the system is run by profit-seeking insurance companies. Health insurance should not be a for-profit field.
9	Revoke the Tax Exempt Status of the Church of Scientology	52,470	545	The Church of Scientology was founded in the early 1950s, and quickly gained and lost its tax exempt status as a religion. The IRS ruled that the system of “fixed donations” and the services offered to the public constituted a for-profit venture, and was therefore taxable.
10	Bring Back the Constitution!	50,160	243	1. Separation of church and state. 2. Free speech. 3. Right to be secure “in our persons and effects”. 4. Rights to Life, Liberty
11	Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker	46,890	1,713	Let online poker players in the United States play legally and without fear of prosecution. Reform the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to exempt poker, a game of skill, from the law.

Ok, I couldn’t resist adding in #11.  It was too good to leave out.  Rather than give my opinions, I’d like to hear from everyone else.  What can we surmise from this list?  Does it say anything about the idea of participatory government?  Should any or all of these be on President Obama’s top 10 list of priorities when he takes office tomorrow?  Does it give you hope?  Does it concern you?  Does the list say anything about our country/society as a whole?  Is it representative of the majority?  Is it representative of people who use the Internet a lot?  Did you vote on change.gov or wish you did?

Get fired up Ravens fans!!!  There are good arguments for why either team will win but the bottom line is that whoever shows up, brings the intensity, and makes the fewest mistakes is going to the Super Bowl.  Last week, it looked like the Ravens offense was playing to not lose and the Ravens were lucky to come away with a win.  It was a great win.  The theme was bend but don’t break.  That’s the positive you can take away from that game.  It just shows you that no matter what the situation, the players absolutely believe.  They believe because they’re inspired by OJ Brigance.  They believe because they trust and believe in each other.  It’s going to take a much better performance this week.    If the Ravens win and go to the Super Bowl, it will be a pretty amazing feat.  But if anyone doubts that the Ravens are capable of going to Heinz field and beating the Steelers, watch these videos and see if you still doubt them.  The Steelers can bring it too so this could just turn out to be one for the ages.  I just hope the Ravens have enough starters left after the game for the Super Bowl or we might see Matt Stover playing every down.  They can’t worry about that now.  It’s time to bring it or go home.

Death on Wings – The Most Feared Defense of the Last Decade

 

Darkness there… Ray Lewis and Ed Reed

Ed Reed Ultimate Highlight

Ray Lewis “Jacks Up” Ahmad Hall Divisional Playoffs Titans vs. Ravens

 

Hines Ward jacking up Ed Reed.

Regardless of the comments posted about this video on YouTube, Hines Ward made a clean and vicious hit on Ed.  Anyone who ever played the game has to appreciate this one.  I hate the Hines Ward smirk as much as anyone but you have to admit this is the hardest-hitting WR to ever put on the pads.  Ward actually stopped and pointed at Reed to indicate he was hurt after the hit so maybe he isn’t so bad.  Still though, everyone who isn’t a Steelers fan wants to see Ward get his.  He may just get the smirk wiped off on Sunday.

Ray Lewis – Ultimate Warrior

Ray is just flat-out intense.  He’s the heart and soul of the team and it’s the biggest heart you’ll ever find.  Watch this one and you’ll see why you can never count them out.

Well, this is it, my very first blog!  For years I’ve been reading blogs, commenting on blogs, searching blogs.  I finally decided to start my own.  Once I decided that age old question “To blog or not to blog” that was just the beginning.  There were so many other decisions…should I have just one blog and post everything I want to say there…should I have a professional blog and a personal blog…should I have blogs for different categories of things I want to write about, should I host the blog on my own web site(s), should I use WordPress, blogger, TypePad.  So I started looking around at other blogs to figure out what I like and don’t like.  Anyway…here’s what I came up with.  I really don’t like blogs where one day the topic is very focused on something business or industry-related and the next day it’s about the trip the writer took with their family.  If I read your blog for industry related content, I’m looking for something specific.  I’d rather not sort through all of the other stuff.  So, I decided that it would be best if I have multiple blogs:

Dan Blake’s Blog – http://danblake.wordpress.com/
This is the blog you are reading.  This is my “personal” blog.  It’s where I post my deeper thoughts, updates for friends and family, and anything that is not related to my core business blogs.  That doesn’t mean I won’t post anything about my professional life here.  Work is a big part of everyone’s life (although hopefully not the biggest part).  But you won’t find me posting about some highly-technical, industry-specific topic on here.  My friends, family, and non-technical colleagues don’t care about how to architect a data center to host multi-tenant CRM SaaS applications.  Obviously, I chose to use WordPress for this one.

CourseMax Blog – http://community.coursemax.com/blogs/coursemax
This is my company blog.  CourseMax is a business I started back in late 2005.  CourseMax is a free online-community for anyone involved or interested in professional and continuing education (hopefully every adult on the planet).  We also offer premium software (CourseMax CRM) for organizations that provide training that helps them run their business and service their customers.  This blog is where I’ll write about the CourseMax community, tools, and industry-related topics.  Hosting this one was a no-brainer…blogging is part of our software suite.

Dan Blake’s CRM Architect Blog – http://thecrmarchitect.wordpress.com
In addition to being the President of CourseMax, I am also the lead technical architect (that’s GOT to change one of these days!).  I’ve been working with Microsoft(r) Dynamics CRM as a consultant for a long time…I think it’s over 6 years now.  CourseMax is (at least in my own mind) a pretty bleeding-edge, early adopter of Microsoft CRM technology.  That means we end up running into issues and idiosyncrasies that nobody (or at least few) has come across before.  I’ m very grateful to Microsoft and the CRM Community for all of the help I’ve received over the years.  So, when we learn something new or come up with a solution that I think will benefit the Microsoft CRM community, I’ll post it here.

So that’s it for my first blog posting (at least on this blog) and that’s why I now have 3 blogs where I used to have none.