Off the grid for a few days starting Friday. Heading down to Tulsa for family time with Brother Blane. My nephew Ryan will be home from Union University (Jackson, TN) where he’s a freshman. Ryan and his brother and sister grew up in Indonesia and were home schooled. I’m eager to hear his thoughts on college life. If his Facebook page is any indication, he’s having a great time.
I’m not taking the MacBook on this trip so the blog will be dark for a few days (unless Ryan takes pity on me).
Seth Godin puts his digital digit on why I would never put advertising on this blog (assuming anyone ever wanted to do so):
“Do your art. But don’t wreck your art if it doesn’t lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.
And the twist, because there is always a twist, is that as soon as you focus on your art and leave the money behind, you may just discover that this focus turns out to be the secret of actually breaking through and making money.
Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it.”
Some of you regulars might be aware that I am a big fan of a local (Jefferson City) coffee shop called the Coffee Zone. I’m there every morning and I love the owner/proprietor, Taisir Yanis. There’s not a sweeter guy on the planet.
Last spring I set up a blog for the Coffee Zone and maintain it on my own time and money. Taisir tries to give me a free cup of coffee from time to time but it’s a labor of love.
I recently posted something silly about the Wawa coffee website. They “analyze” your personality based on how you like your coffee. I said something like, “…somebody give these pussies a cup of Rocket Fuel.”
Today I got a text message from Taisir that said: “Pussies.” T speaks English as well as I do but his written English can be a little mysterious at times. So I texted back: “What about ’em?”
To which he replied: “Blog”
Seems he had been getting complaints from customers about my (single) use of the word “pussies” on the Coffee Zone website. I apologized and immediately removed the offending word. T wasn’t offended but he didn’t want to lose a customer so that I might have a full arsenal of comedic words and expressions. And I don’t blame him. Then I started wondering how you lodge such a complaint.
Customer: “I’d like a double-espresso and a latte, please. Light on the foam.”
Taisir: “Here you go, four dollars.”
Customer: “By the way, I was very offended by something I saw on the Coffee Zone blog.”
Taisir: “I’m sorry to hear that. What offended you?”
Customer: (sotto voice) “Pussies.”
Taisir: “Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
Customer: (louder) “Pussies!”
Taisir: “Where did you find “pussies” on my website?”
Customer: “Not so loud!”
You get the idea. As this scene played out in my head I was reminded of the scene in Silver Streak where Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor art trying to decide what kind of car to steal to catch up with the train that… never mind. That’s not important. Wilder wants to steal a Chevy and Pryor wants to steal a red jag. Roll the tape, please.
WILDER: “What are you doing? I thought we were gonna take the Chevy out back!
GROVER: (indicates a red Jag) Chevy!? That’s a jerk-off, man! This here’s pure pussy!
At some point later in the movie (I don’t remember the scen), Wilder is screaming at Pryor, “Pussy?! Pussy?!”
There really isn’t much connection between the scene in the movie and the post on the blog, but in the unlikely event the complaining customer also reads smays.com… I want them to get plenty of PUSSY! PUSSY! PUSSY!
My Aeron chair was waiting for me when I got back from a client meeting today. I expected a chair this expensive to be comfortable but when I put my toochis down on that mesh seat… aaaahhh. I knew my bottom was home.
The first thing I noticed was how much cooler it was. The next thing I “felt” was the quality construction. It had a solid feel the same way an expensive European car feels solid and well engineered.
I’ll play with the adjustments tomorrow but I can already tell this was a good investment.
A tree house is a frivolous thing. No practical value (unless you’re living in the African bush). But if you can recall that childhood rush of climbing to the top of a tree for absolutely no reason other than the joy of doing it, you can appreciate what brings four good friends (and friends of) together every year to re-experience that feeling.
Tree House III (this is the third year of the project) is in the middle of the Prairie GardenTrust, which is managed by my friend Henry. He invited me to to come and be part of TH3 this weekend, which was perfect in every way. We finished the day yesterday by climbing up to the third level (about 30 feet up) to enjoy the view and reflect on project.