Take a closer look

Not long ago my buddy Tim did something interesting. Basically, he asked his readers to think about an image – specifically the tasty little automotive morsel you see above – and offer suggestions on how he could use it in a post. It was a good idea. Not only did it give him the opportunity to shake things up a bit and have fun, it also provided a fairly cool way to interact with his readers. 

I offered my two cents with the following ideas::

• Classic vs new approaches (in sales, marketing, relationships, whatever) and how sometimes tried-and-true is better (or not)
• Implications of perception
• What can be conveyed with a single image
• What new icons are being established right now

A couple of good ideas in there, right? More the fool, me. In his maniacal consistent effort to get me writing on this blog with a bit more frequency, Tim pulled a fast one: “Why don’t you write a post about it?”

Balls.

Over the last week I’ve had multiple false-starts; writing about how we recognize or define beauty to dialing it back and examining fond memories of my first set of wheels. But each time I kept getting pulled back to the image of the car.

But not the Jaguar.

Me, I keep thinking about the beat-up POS peeking out from behind the corner and wondering what the story is there. And as I didn’t even see that humble little auto the first dozen or so times I looked at the picture, I started thinking about just how often that happens.

Meaning, given the massive amount of information we see or hear or read every day, culling that stream into bits or chunks we can deal with absolutely makes sense. And the structure of online data only reinforces that scan/discard process.

I’m not railing against technology here – a clearer example of tilting at windmills I couldn’t imagine - but I do have to wonder: what are we missing?

Photo by PedroSimoes7 

We’ll resume our standard programming momentarily

Until then, here’s something you should watch. Some people are so freakin’ talented it simply blows me away; and their pleasure at playing well and playing together is so clear and sweet you just can’t help but smile. Enjoy.

Thank you, Patrick Rothfuss, for posting.

So pretty, so graceful. Right up until they tear a hole through your chest.

I, like many in my generation, am a child of divorced parents.  They split for good the summer before my 5th grade, so I guess I was somewhere around 9 or 10 when they finally called it quits. My sister, Sarah Shay, was the ripe old age of 1. And out of that entire nasty business, one real, unexpected tragedy was that because I lived with our dad and Sarah lived with our mom, for many years ours was a relationship far closer to cousins than brother and sister.

That changed when she moved to Austin (awesome) but the the point is this: there weren’t a lot of fairies, ballet slippers, or tea parties growing up. Nor were there unicorns.

If you check the links to the right you’ll see, near the bottom, one titled Whatever. It’s a blog written by a gent named John Scalzi, and in addition to being just a great read, his blog also provides a platform for writers to introduce and talk about their books. Very cool. It’s called The Big Idea and you can find that particular section’s main page here.

Not long ago the featured book was about, you guessed it, unicorns. I’ve included the first paragraph of author Diana Peterfreund’s introduction below and after reading her big idea I’m definitely going to pick up a copy. You might want to do the same.

I feel sorry for unicorns. No other mythical monster has suffered such brand degradation. Nowadays, unicorns are synonymous with weak, childlike, unrealistic naivety. You don’t see folks dissing dragons the way they do unicorns. No one ever equates griffins with rainbows, glitter, and six year olds. The sphinx isn’t cheesy. But the unicorn? The symbol of kings, the darling of artists, the keeper of a magical horn whose rumored mystical properties once made it worth more than its weight in gold and almost drove a real species (the narwhal) to extinction? The unicorn has become laughable.

Photo by Snappa2006

 

Without words

This post has been deleted.

My apologies if this causes any confusion, but I promise you’re really not missing much. The short version is I’ve been having difficulty producing posts for this blog and I’m working on it. The meandering, hazy writing that was originally here was unable to convey that fairly simple thought.

So it goes.

I’m working on getting back into the swing of things, so until then I ask for your patience and to look for new posts in the very near future. As always, thank you kindly for coming by…

How to pump it up

 

Do you ever find yourself thinking, “Self, I wish I were better at (insert at will)?” I certainly do. The things I’d like to be better at are many and varied, but I think it’s fair to say that most of the time my little wish, usually said quietly in the back of my head, is as far as I go to actually do anything about it.  

I’m thinking I’m probably not alone in this.

My friend Tim, who might be steadily becoming absolutely wearyof being mentioned here, has talked with me about this a number of times; generally about this blog. But first, as a few people (to include my mother) have requested I do so, I present you with a Boot Camp story:

Before I joined the Corps I’d discharged a firearm only twice in my life. Once, and even now I shudder at the stupidity, I and a handful of other knuckleheads fired shotguns into the air on New Year’s Eve. The second time occurred when my father and I went on our (only) duck hunting trip. That time I fired another shotgun into the air (hitting nothing except perhaps one of the eight million mosquitoes in the area) and shortly after we called it quits. As I didn’t enjoy hunting, or (at that time) spending time with my father, I was more than ready to get back to the safety of my room and sink into the melodies of a Yaz or Depeche Mode album through my headphones. 

And yet it’s generally the guys exactly like me, those with little or no experience with firearms, who perform the best on the firing range once trained. Instructors say it’s because we don’t have a mass of bad habits that we need to break. There’s probably a post about that idea (Tim, Russ – the gauntlet is thrown) but that’s for another day.

And while I’m certain the lack of bad habits had something to do with it, I’m more than convinced “Snap-in” was actually the key to my success with an M-16.

You see, Boot Camp provided two weeks of rifle training – one week of position training (Snap-in), and another week of live-fire practice and testing. While going through it, Snap-in was horrible: five days, eight hours a day, of sitting or lying on the ground, holding a rifle and staring off into the distance, imagining your target floating between the sights.

What I didn’t understand at the time was that I was building muscle-memory in those five days. That because of standing up, sitting down, kneeling, or lying in a the prone position, over and over, I was teaching my body the correct way to get my trunk, arms, and legs out of the equation when it came to tracking, targeting, and eliminating a target.   

When week two finally began I was a “natural.”

Okay, so how does that apply here?

Tim told me a story a few months ago about a Comic Book artist who, when asked by an aspiring artist how to get into the business, suggested that the inquiring individual draw 10,000 sketches. Yup, not a typo – that’s four zeroes. 10,000 sketches and you’re going to know your way around a drawing, was the idea. “Chops,” you could say.

So I wonder – out of all those things, those wishes that we’d like to be better at, just how awesome would we be after a week of Snap-in or 10,000 practice swings? Want to get in shape? Start tracking the miles you walk or run. Or the number of push-ups you do. Seriously – imagine how your arms or chest would look after ten thousandpush-ups. What will this blog look like after 10,000 posts?

Of course, it’s far, far easier to look into the air and wish we knew how to do this or had more talent at that and chalk it up to genetics or talent. Which will you choose?

Image by RightIndex

Moving Day

I had a fairly lengthy couple of opening paragraphs going as a lead-in to this post when it occurred to me a mini novella explaining the virtue of streamlining and simplification might be at cross-purposes.

The short version is this: I have way, way too many bookmarks and folders of “cool shit to read when I get a chance” on my desktop and in my browsers. So, taking a cue from a friend at work, I’m looking to cut loose, clean out, and simplify my digital closets. What follows are a few summaries and links in case you see something you might find interesting…

Doris Egan
I’ve written about her before, but if you haven’t spent some time looking through Ms Egan’s Website you’re missing out. She’s an author and writer for the show House. She’s also a fairly busy woman, and as such doesn’t update very often, but there are some absolute gems if you have a few moments to read.

The first explains why she likes to write about flawed heroes.

“But how much more satisfying to bring your villain right up to the floodlights and have him do his damage; and then to drench him in ambiguity by showing as well that he possesses courage, self-knowledge, and the ability to withstand a bleak existence with grace. It’s that drop of blood in the pearl that gives it its luster.”

That drop of blood in the pearl – wow – what a fantastically lovely phrase. At any rate, the second piece focuses on what it means to be a woman who’s growing older, but I encourage anyone to check it out, no matter what your age. Side note: while the quote below isn’t as sexy as the one above, this was my first kiss with Ms Egan, and the writing that holds me captive :

“The beauty of growing older is that after one has made a fool of oneself enough times, the idea no longer holds quite the same terror.”

50 Banned Books That Everyone Should Read
Fairly straightforward list, but I’m always surprised by some of the titles. 

29 Amazing Long Exposure Pictures
In a word, amazing. Check ‘em out.

Photo by Rick

To click or not to click

Clearly, not a question.

I was looking at stats yesterday and realized that in the last couple of weeks only one person has clicked on a link from this blog. And while that’s absolutely fine – I’m in bliss that you’re here reading at all – I do have to say I think you guys are missing out on some hilarious stuff.

Take the last post, for example. If you click on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” link below and watch the two minute video I dare you, I double-dog dare you, not to laugh.

I’m just sayin’…

Thoughts about the NBA

Fact: I can’t stand basketball. In fact, the pleasure I feel watching a fast-paced, really important basketball  game ranks somewhere slightly below cleaning up baby vomit. And, as I’ve had to do that a few times recently, I can say with certainty I’m absolutely not using hyperbole with that statement.

It’s a mystery.

Which is why it might seem strange that I suggest you read an article – a fairly long article, I might add/warn – that is solely about the NBA, what’s happening now, and where it’s headed. Written by a cat named Bill Simmons, this article kept me reading, interested, and engaged. And, when all was said and done, it left me shaking my head in wonder.

I had no idea…

“Clearly, we wouldn’t put this budding debacle on par with the Gulf War, the collapse of American car companies, the real estate quagmire, the implosion of Wall Street, the decline of the American dollar, the shaky footing of previously untouchable media institutions (newspapers, magazines, TV networks, movie studios and publishing companies), or even Vegas and the porn industry caving financially.”

Photo by StuSeeger