“Throw yourself into your job. Learn it very well. Show your superiors you’re grateful to have work — many don’t. Be inquisitive about Learfield, about what all is going on around you. Ask about things you don’t understand; push for answers. Feel free to offer suggestions. Don’t feel hurt if your great ideas are scuttled; push for reasons why. Go to lunch, or otherwise find outside social opportunities to be with associates — all of whom probably outrank you. Arrive early and stay late. Walk briskly with your head erect. Dress better than average. Remain quiet –not outspoken– in departmental meetings. Become involved in a community of friends outside of work. Be respectful, but not intimidated, by management; feel free to email or stop by our offices anytime. Expect to advance and be bold in seeking new opportunities. And, read my blog everyday!”
Living Healthy (35) – Anxiety
Recorded June 24, 2006
Living Healthy (36) – Knee Pain
Recorded June 24, 2006
My Wilderness Adventure
Following my brief stint on The Tree House ground crew, Henry took me on a mini-tour of the Prairie Garden Trust. I think it’s hundreds of acres and we saw some small fraction of that during the hour we spent in Henry’s little four-wheeler. I did this in iMovie and have come to the conclusion it will do everything I’m likely to want or need to do. I haven’t given up on Final Cut Express but it’s obviously more app than I need. (Alas, more shelfware). As for this little ride-around video…it’s quick-and-dirty and doesn’t begin to capture the beauty of the Prairie Garden Trust.
Gnomedex 2006
Five days. 120 hours. And then I’m on vacation. Sort of. On Wednesday Roger Gardner and I head for Seattle and three days (for me…RG will probably get geek toxic after a day or so) of Gnomedex. I’ll get back just in time for the long 4th of July weekend. I’ll rest up a few days after that and then it’s off to Destin with the lovely Barb where we gather with her clan for a week. While I won’t be completely off the grid, I will be away from the office and I’m really looking forward to it.
Hope to see my pal Jim Mathies, who lives in Destin. Search for some open wi-fi. And try to get better acquainted with the Mac Book. I feel like the guy that’s due to be released from prison in three or four days and is afraid to leave his cell for fear of getting shanked so close to freedom.
I’m blogging this
I’ll explain the provocative headline, but first, a few words about smays. I don’t photograph well. Too much gum showing (or none). More grimace than smile. But I’m not self-conscious about it, as evidenced by the frequent images here at smays.com. Then, every once in a while, someone takes a photo that I really like. Henry took this shot and it nicely reflects my mental image of myself. Sort of “Keith Richards-without-the-guitar-or-the-money.” It’s probably as simple as: good photographers see things differently than the rest of us.
Speaking of really good photographers. One of the people working with Henry and Bernard on the tree house project is their long-time friend Nick Kelsh. I thought he was just a sweaty, middle-aged guy yelling instructions at me down on the ground. In fact, Nick is a nationally prominent photographer, co-founder of a successful Philadelphia design firm and the author of eight or nine books. What Nick is not, is self-conscious. This is what Nick called his “gay porn” pose, chosen to showcase his improvised safety harness. Nick’s son, who was on the ground with me, seemed neither embarrassed nor surprised, leaving one to wonder if this was the first time Nick has done this sort of thing.
Mark Cuban on cursing
“I like to curse. I like to curse because I enjoy how it gets everyone in an uproar. I won’t curse in an environment where I have accepted an invitation or am a guest of someone else. I will play by their rules. But if you come on my home turf and want something from me. It’s my rules.”
— Mark Cuban
Yes. Yes, indeed. And smays.com is my turf so you should expect to see a profanity or an obscenity from time to time. Please reference this post.
Most people aren’t funny
Lt. Steven Hauk’s (Bruno Kirby) wonderful line from Good Morning, Vietnam. It was brought to mind by this observation in a story about Ze Frank:
“Most people aren’t funny, and most funny people are not funny most of the time.” — Clay Shirky, adjunct professor at New York University (interactive telecommunications program)
For my part, I’d rather be funny than know how to fly.
Blogging the U.S.A
Reply
My buddy Chuck is blogging and podcasting his way across the US, covering something called the AASHTO Interstate 50th Convey. It’s a paid gig for the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.
This is just an amazing opportunity to to demonstrate the power of new media and Chuck is firing on all 8 ethanol-powered cylinders.
How would the client have promoted this in the previous century? Well, we’d send out some news releases, inviting the media to come to our kick-off (free snacks!). And, uh, we’d send out some more news releases about what is happening along the way. What else? Oh, we’d take some pictures and put them on our website. And if we were really clever, we’d hire a film crew to shoot a little documentary of the journey. In a few weeks (or months), after the thing is edited (down to say, 30 minutes)…we’d send copies to the media in hopes they’d watch it and be so enthralled they’d do an interview with us and put it on their (Network, TV station, radio station, magazine, newspaper). And if they did do an interview, we’d send out a news release telling everyone about that.
Or, you could invite everyone that might possibly give a shit (or should give a shit) to come along for the ride. And if it’s easy enough, and fun enough… a lot of them will.
Mac migration continues
After I purchased my iPod nano (a year ago? two years?), I installed iTunes on my home desktop Windows machine. And for the most part, that has worked fine. This morning I migrated everything over to the Mac Book and sync’d up the nano. My original thought was I wanted to be able to update podcasts wherever I might be. Before, I had hook up to the home PC…now I sync with the Mac Book which I am keeping with me more and more.
I’ve also loaded my Outlook contacts back on the nano (I’ve found this to be extremely useful). First time I did this it was a bit of a pain. Had to export the contacts from my Win machine at work and jump thru a couple of hoops to get the file on the nano. These days, I keep my Mac Book Address Book sync’d with work (I just drag and drop a file) and sync’ing the nano with the Mac Book is… well, you’ve seen the TV ads.
Pre-Mac, I tended to keep a lot of stuff scattered between home, work, laptop. I find myself looking for ways to get my most important stuff on the Mac. I’m looking forward to my first road trip with the Mac.