It is Your Choice How. What a Difference a Week Makes. The Alarming State of Consumer Debt. The Challenger Disaster. Your Super Bowl Winning Team? Silent Morning.
Quote of the Week: “It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.” – Kobe Bryant
How will people remember you? From the strength of your presence? From what is inside you, your traits, and attributes? From your appeal (or lack of), clarity, composure, confidence, and credibility? To me, it is the combination of what you put out into the world and how those around you receive it.
Here are some top-of-mind elements that make you memorable:
Your Speak. There is no doubt that what you say, and how you say it develops a bond of trust, credibility, and professional or personal friendship. From a personal standpoint, I have been told that what I communicate is clear and direct, how I say things can be standoffish. I have learned that less is more.
How People See You. Putting your personality on display has a significant impact on how people see you. Creating a positive impression through your appearance, including your clothing, creates a feeling and defines your reputation.
How You Make People Feel. Do you look people in the eye when you speak with them? Do you take the time (and sometimes the energy) to really listen to what a peer, friend, or family member is telling you?
Honesty and Integrity. Do people know that you are someone that they can trust? Do they feel that you have been honest, with open communication? Everyone can say that they are honest and have a great deal of integrity but do their actions measure up to their words?
How do you want to be remembered? That is a personal goal that varies for a multitude of reasons. Mostly in good ways, but sometimes the hard way, I have learned that “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” (Maya Angelou).
- Egg on my face to say the least. In the last post I gloated about last Sunday’s 85-degree temperature in Orlando, Florida. While much of the United States was under freeze warnings, people in Central Florida were basking in the warm sun. What goes around usually comes around so my gloating is over. This morning’s temperature in Orlando is 25-degrees. 🙁
- Consumer Factoid of the Week: According to Edmunds, “more than 20% of Americans pay more than $1,000 a month on car loans.” The blame goes around but is fueled by record prices of automobiles and higher interest rates. The tough truth: “Car loans falling sixty days or more delinquent hit 1.45% in the third quarter,” according to TransUnion. That may not sound like much, but it is 40% higher than just three years ago.
Total household debt was at a record $18.59 trillion at year-end 2025. This includes record highs with credit card balances, above-mentioned auto loans, and student loans. How and where does this crisis end?
- I have written about my interest in the United States Space Program. My interest accelerated eight years ago when I moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Orlando, Florida, then and now living in a high rise with my condo facing both east and south. My eastern view offers a direct sight line to the Florida coast and Kennedy Space Center, forty-nine miles away. I have watched many launches with the privatization of space exploration providing multiple launches per month.
It seems like yesterday, but forty years ago last Wednesday, the Challenger space shuttle exploded minutes after launching from pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center. The disaster claimed seven, including the first teacher chosen to have a spot on the flight. Christa McAuliffe was selected out of ten thousand applicants, and the rest is unfortunate history. A side note: I mentioned this morning’s unusual cold weather in Orlando in my take above. The Challenger disaster was blamed on an O-ring failure caused by the cold weather on January 27th and 28th, 1986 with ice covering parts of the launch tower. Forty years later and we all hope that nothing like that tragedy ever happens again. Most of you were not around to witness this launch and the first seventy-three seconds:
Four factoids for the first Sunday of February 2026:
- Five weeks to daylight savings time.
- I am not being political with this take: Why are local police not controlling protestors? The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the exercise of speech rights. If protestors are over-exuberant and out of line, should local police step in just like they would do with any protest? Why is ICE engaging with protestors and not focused on the mission to target criminal aliens? I guess that is a question for the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. Kristi.Noem@dhs.gov
- An Orlando-based national law firm is handling over four hundred clients in lawsuits against Ozempic manufacturer Novo Nordisk. The lawsuits argue that manufacturers prioritized profits over safety by not warning users of the severity of potential side effects including intestinal blockage and vision loss. One in 8 American adults used, or have used a GLP-1 drug. Not good.
- My last visit to Mexico City included a few Uber rides. I was again pleasantly surprised by the number of Chinese electric cars on the streets, which make up nearly 20% of total car sales. I rode in a BYD and Geely electric vehicle, both with updated technology features and both with roomy interiors. On Thursday of last week I read that Elon Musk is ending Tesla’s Models X and X production and having those factory lines make Optimus robots. Now we know why.
Thanks to everyone for your answers to last week’s Question of the Week regarding the strangest food you have tried, and if you liked it. Here are some of your interesting responses:
- Monkey brains…from a live monkey (RIP), served in China…one monkey, one hammer, was “dinner.” No!
- I stay away from weird foods. Always been a meat and potatoes gal.
- Fried crickets! It was at a tequila bar drinking mezcal. I can’t remember how it tasted, but nobody cared anyway.
- Last year, while traveling in Asia, I ate silkworms and crickets! I so regret not trying the fried tarantula! Was told that the crickets are served in bars like we use to serve (pre covid) peanuts.
- Rooster comb. It is that thing on the top of the rooster’s head. French delicacy. Did not like it!
- The setting is a Vietnamese restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. The table that is set for twenty people is beautifully decorated with flowers. In the middle of the table is a four foot eel. It was disturbing to say the least and NO, I did not like it.
Here is this week’s Question of the Week: next Sunday’s Super Bowl LX is set, with the New England Patriots facing the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Factoid: the Patriots will seek their NFL-record seventh Super Bowl victory. Who wins the Super Bowl, and why?
- Pure Talent. I know you are over me talking about the music of the 1980s. Just deal with it and watch the musical talent Noel perform Silent Morning, a techno/dance/punk piece that EVERYONE danced to…no matter if you could dance or not. Lighting that cigarette to start the performance and freestyle dancing. Noel was Pure Talent.