I’ve been compulsively using StumbleUpon for a little while now, and every single day, without fail, I still find a half dozen or more really great sites that I probably never would have seen otherwise. My bookmarks have exploded since I started using it.

The first day I installed the toolbar for Firefox, it seemed like every single time I clicked the “Stumble!” button, I was taken to a page that was either extremely useful or cool or both, and that happened probably a good hundred times in a row. I’ve been hooked ever since. It really is a marvelous little toy to tinker with, and I highly recommend it. You can see the pages I’ve liked by viewing my StumbleUpon homepage.

For some time now I’ve had this little javascript “The Secret” banner across the corner of my site’s index. I first watched the movie in July of 2006. I thought it was fantastic, and still do. Since then, it’s had a lot of skeptical press and negativity rained down upon it by about every media outlet on earth. I think they are misunderstanding the film.

Unless you are a really vapid individual, you don’t view The Secret and then start thinking that you can conjure things from midair, which is apparently what these media types are taking from the film. What the film is trying to tell people is that positive people attract positivity into their lives, and that no one ever successfully jumped through a hoop without thinking about successfully jumping through a hoop first. It’s about believing in yourself, and caring enough about the things you want to try and make them happen. The presentation is gorgeous and engaging, and the message is sterling and clear. If you don’t feel energized and excited after watching the movie, your skepticism has murdered your imagination, and you should immediately make every effort to snap out of it and regain some shred of the spark for life you were born with.