You realize how old you are when the use of netting has reappeared in your “board shorts.” Just an observation.
Go explore with some Washed Out – Amor Fati
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fYnfE5Cycg&w=560&h=315]
Volume 11 vs Silence
I’ve found recently that I’ve been driving with the volume set of the radio set a big fat 0. Straight Silence….I’m getting old.
My 19 year-old self with the windows down, sun roof open, and subs in the back is starring in shock.
It’s amazing how much you cherish the short amounts of personal time.
That’s it. Just a small observation in my own behavior.
Portugal. The Man – Sleep Forever
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jieN2Hp5hS4?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
No News Is Good News
I’m just going to say it. Don’t watch the news. It’s awful and it’s just end up freaking people out. The news gets better ratings from scaring people than helping people. And it shows. It’s all really really negative. In fact, just cut cable completely.
I haven’t had cable now for nearly 4 years and I haven’t missed too much. Sometimes, sure, I’m behind on something that happens, but it’s usually for about a day. Yeah that’s right, A DAY. The shows I don’t miss too much either. There are some that I enjoy, but I catch them later on the ole’ internet. The odd thing is that I’ve found I miss commercials. These were the things that let me know what’s coming out and what’s cool. I go to my parents house and I’m fascinated by them. And holy cow do I miss kids toy commercials. They got some neat stuff out there. Like these wrestlers guys! These are awesome.
Short post, but I’m on way to see Chad Valley. Great summer tunes!
Chad Valley – Now That I’m Real
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGrE3s0wdjA&w=420&h=315]
In the Shadow of Hanks
I have approximately 4 drafts started for blogs that I was going to finish up for today, but a quick glimpse at an article on MSN got me to thinking about something else.
There are many factors in the world that make life hard. You have sickness and death everywhere, the chances of making a poor decision are pretty high, and just the feeling of not knowing who you are and what you want to do can be tough. These are all problems that most people face, but I was thinking that the person that had to face that third item the most are the sons of the most beloved actor of our time, Tom Hanks. What do you do to carve a name for yourself? How do you not go for acting/directing/producing even though the path is pretty clearly laid out for you (with the draw back being that it’s a high chance you’ll only be the Tom Hank’s kid)? You have almost all the opportunities in the world open to you. What do you do?
Well I started writing this and thought, “What did they do?” I focused on Colin Hanks (you know…Tom Hank’s son from “Orange County”), but then I actually had to rewrite this because there was a son I didn’t know about, Chet. Well this how he did it. I told you…it’s hard. All the money, all the opportunity, and still in a big damn shadow.
I want to be clear, I’m not making fun of them. It’s an honest question. What do you do when you’re the son of Tom Hanks?
Music of the day by Chet Haze…not my normal cup o tea, but it suits the message.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gmpREs-pVU?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Always be learning
The world is changing crazy fast everyday, especially lately with new tech coming onto the market everyday. It’s hard to keep up. It’s so fast it makes almost going to school pointless because you’re out of date before you even finish.
Seriously? That last sentence sounds ridiculous, but what it really pertains to is formal “bring your books to class” school. It’s out of date. That’s why you have to take it on yourself to stick to the ABL of life, “Always Be Learning”. Sounds alot like the sales motto “Always Be Closing”, but it’s better. For example:
I’ve been writing and learning about HTML since I was about 14, but I never had any formal training. In some ways this was good because I learned to manipulate part of the code based on my experience and needs, but this was also bad because I only knew how to write bloated code. I only learned from what I saw others doing. It stifled my creativity because it took me so long to get down the basics. This was just something I did for fun and never pursued as a career. Instead, I went to school for marketing. I’m glad I did because it gave me the business know how to do the things I do today, but the odd part is I wouldn’t be anywhere close to the position I’m in without knowing HTML.
HTML got me my first marketing job, not my degree. But the marketing degree got me in the door with the parent company that I currently work with. Having HTML in my skillset then put me in a position to change roles to work with a great manager and team. Because that new role that involved both marketing and HTML I was able to flourish and was then snagged into my new position of managing an incubator (full story).
So what do I do now? My current job has some marketing aspects, but not really any HTML. So what do I do?
Read, learn and take anything I can get. Because I work with awesome people, one of my coworkers has offered for to take me and a designer through an 8 week course he put together for HTML. To be honest I’ve been doing this around 15 years and know quite a bit about it, but I’ll take it!! I just finished lesson 2 tonight and learned quite a bit. I was stumped on a couple little pieces. I would love to see how he solves these problems I hit and I can’t wait to watch and learn.
So the key is Always Be Learning. You never what you’ll need.
Today’s music video is not a music video, because it’s time to learn and not listen to tunes!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIpm6M6ecBM&w=420&h=315]
Too many ideas…
Writing everyday is pretty hard for me, but for a different reason than you think. Every thought in my head and every instance seems that it could be a post. All day I’m like OOOO that would be good or OHHHH that’s witty. That made yesterday even harder for me. I missed a post, but that’s because I just ran out of time. I took my pretty lady on a date, got home, and fell asleep. Â It was awesome and I don’t give a crap about missing a post. Today though I wanted to make sure I had something good. I must of had 15 ideas. The problem is I can’t remember them. At all.
I receive what I conceive to be “wonderful ideas” all day long, but also thoughts that I want to share. Today I experienced a moment and immediately thought of a post called “Get the F* Over  Yourselves”. It goes something like this…in life there is a time when you have a chance to make a difference and a chance to make money. Not very often do those two instances come together. When they do come together, I believe it’s time to get the f* over yourself because for one thing….no matter how good you are you’re not the best and if you are the best, you won’t be for long. If you have been selected to make a difference; take it, love it, roll on it like a dog with a dead animal. Be it!!! Don’t reject the people who are building you. Take the opportunity and Roll.  SO SO frustrating.
EDIT: (Clarification) This is not pertaining to any certain group or person. This pertains to all things in life. To be honest this applies mostly to myself. No matter how great I think I am I know I need to roll with something 1000% because that’s who I am and my ego needs to get the hell out of the way. So this was not a passive way to tell somebody off, but a way to remind myself of how not to be.
My other idea was for taking an app we’re working on and making it easier for my friends down the street to see that I’m grabbing a beer and totally want to hang. It’s in the works so don’t build it. I kill you if you do!!
So that’s that…
Here is the music I promised. This song makes me want to just give my wife the biggest hug. It could be the Stella talking, but she is seriously the most wonderful thing ever.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsLykJ17Oxc&w=420&h=315] EVER!
Non-monetary Change
I’ve been working and building a corporate startup incubator over the last 6 months and I’ve come up with a theory.
If you’re not frustrated then you’re not a startup.
That’s the conclusion I’ve come to this past hour. I believe change early and change often is a saying, but to what extent? Weekly? Daily? Hourly? Change can be great. I enjoy change, but I feel that too much change in procedures or operational change leads you to working on things that don’t matter.
A good example is a login screen for an app. Startups and engineers use frameworks (templates) to make it quick and simple to implement things, such as login screens. Every website has one. So why would you keep building and recreating the wheel. In my opinion, the same goes for operational tools. The trick is to pick something and go with it. If you spend too much time working on things that don’t matter you find yourself with a really great login page protecting a whole lot of nothing.
I’m pretty sure this analogy doesn’t make sense, but hopefully you get the gist.
And as promised a good tune to take you on your way:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08WeoqWilRQ&w=560&h=315]
Yes…but it is a lion
I heard a great quote today by Peter Sagal of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! while he was trash talking with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal.
You know what they said to the lion? They said, “Oh the lion only has one cub at once, while us lesser animals have litters.” The lion replies, “Yes…but it is a lion.”
I thought how could I compare this to the tech world? And this is what I came up with.
The innovators say, “Apple creates only one new product each year, while us regular people release millions.” Â The people say, “Yes…but it is an Apple.”
Just a thought. I’m not a fanboy of Apple or really much of a fan at all, but I am respectful of their clout and their attention to detail. And a big check goes into the blog-a-day box.
The Human/Internet Experience
About 3 weeks ago I had a fantastic shopping experience and it happened at a large retailer. It’s something you never hear, right? I couldn’t WAIT for the store to open, I had absolutely no reason to go in, and I even made sure that part of my birthday was planned around going to this new store. The store is REI.
REI is an outdoor store, just like the million other outdoor/sports stores in the world. What makes it different? Jacksonville has stores like this all over the place such as Gander Mountain, Bass Pro Shop, Black Creek Outfitters, and even Dick’s Sporting Goods. I just can’t figure out why I would get so excited about this place.
Maybe it’s because they know what in the crap they’re talking about. Through and through their site shows you what they have, but it’s their knowledge that makes it awesome. The people that were in the store looked like they had fallen off a mountain or two. They were rough, friendly, and I was even a little jealous that they were working in retail. Yeah, I said it… It’s probably the fact that they offer amazing adventures for a reasonable amount of money is key. It’s not a website just showing you a bunch of expensive gear. It’s a tool to get you what you need and the store is a direct reflection of the site and vice versa.
The web has started to make the human interactive experience better, instead of trying to kill it. You can even read about this trend by clicking here and reading about Harry’s, a shaving company.
Harry’s, which is launching Wednesday, aims to do for shaving what Warby Parker did for glasses: provide a direct-to-consumer boutique experience for mass-retail prices.
And it’s doing it by getting out of it’s own way and not making you jump through hoops to find what you need.
I try and buy things online as much as possible. Amazon has pretty much won all of my business because walking into Best Buy or Wal-Mart just seems like a massive rip-off or pain in the heiny. This pretty much pertains to anything like electronics, media, or other random objects, but not so much for clothes/shoes. Wearables are just too hard to purchase online for me, but it’s where the coolest options are. It’s frustrating, but I bet it’s much easier in bigger cities where many of the stores are actually located nearby which is not the case for Jacksonville, FL.
I’m excited to see how the new stores spaces over the next few year are going to develop, but while I wait, I want to go on this bad ass trek to the Patagonia EcoCamp in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park.
Obtuse
I love science and trying to understand the world around me. I could watch/listen to theories and explanations about how the universe was created, so forth and so on. I love talking to my friends and my family about how cool it is, and eventually it always comes down to what they believe. Then the conversation killer happens, religion. Most of the time the sciency folks come back to say, “How could you be so stupid to think this happens because of this?”…I’m the religious one, a Christian, and I’m the one fighting the uphill battle.
I grew up during the information age and watched science unfold. It was a very very hard step back to being a Christian. And it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Anyway, after listening to all these people talk about how there is no God and science is the key, I started to think…
Say you are no longer a human being and you’re now the numerical value  of 1 or 0. Say your life is now a tiny fragment of a piece of code and as you, the 1 or 0, start to learn about the code around, you start to discover that there is so much more. That certain sequences mean certain things and that there are other components out there functioning in ways you could never imagine and everything seems so expansive. Certain code seems to grow for unknown reasons and then you discover that you’re connected to other systems through API’s….
Isn’t it a bit obtuse of that 1 or 0 to not even think a programmer could be on the other end?