Happy Holidays!

I have been very erratic with my posting lately. I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I hope to get off to a good start in 2012.

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Not Feeling Creative

I am in a major creative funk. I actually took a trip to Puerto Rico last week and did not even take my camera. I was only there for three days, but even as recently as last year I would have never gone without my camera.

In addition, it has been way too long since I wrote a blog post. I just have not had much to say that I think other people want to hear about. I have been so busy with soccer that I have not felt like blogging at all.

I am hoping that I can come out of my funk for the holidays as it is a great time to take photos. I love taking pictures of holiday lights and the winter landscape.

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Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today I started this journey. I originally tried to post at least five times per week. I have not been able to maintain that schedule, but I am still posting semi-regularly. I will continue to post here as often as I can so I can continue my life journey.

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead

My fortieth year was a great one. I am very happy with my life at this point. I am not done growing, but I am satisfied with my progress.

As I begin my forty-first year, I need to contemplate my goals. I know I want to simplify my life. I want to remove the clutter from all aspects of my life. I read a blog post in which the author was attempting to limit his personal property to one hundred items. I thing that would be a difficult goal for me to achieve, but it is something to think about.

Another selfish goal is to travel to Europe next summer. I don't know if it will happen for sure, but it is my goal. And I feel like The Queen and I deserve it.

I also have a goal of dropping ten pounds before my brother gets married in September. I not only want to lose the ten pounds, but I want to get in much better shape. This is an attainable goal and is my top priority at this point. I have been getting healthier the last few years, so this is just the ultimate goal.

In my professional life I want to take more control of other aspects of my company. Up until about a month ago I was satisfied to sit back and let the other managers run their departments. I really got tied of watching them make mistakes over and over and began to work myself into our production and standards meetings. This is where I really feel like I can make a difference in the company and make people be responsible for their own work. I am tired of the excuses and can no longer sit back and allow the company to deteriorate.

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Inspiration

I have been unable to find the inspiration to blog for twenty five days. If you are a follower of my twitter feed, then you have seen a few photos that I have posted. Nothing has been written here though.

I can't say why I have not been motivated to blog. I do know that I have been unmotivated in every part of my life for about that time though. I think some of it came from tax time. Last year I had to pay quite a bit for the first time in a long time so I kept putting it off and stressing about it. I just finished my taxes at the beginning of this week and got a pleasant surprise. I am getting a refund. Time to pay off some bills.

I have not been very creative for the last month or so. Instead, I have been totally wrapped up in the Showtime series Dexter. I am not a subscriber, but I have heard great things about it. I decided in December to try out Netflix and I have been pretty happy. I started watching Dexter from the beginning and I am addicated. It is a great show and I totally identify with a lot of Dexter's emotions. It has totally zapped my creativity though.

I am going to start to blog and take photos again slowly and see what happens.

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Photography

I have thought a lot about TtV photography for about the last three years. To accomplish TtV photography you get an old Kodak Brownie or similar camera and take a picutre through its viewfinder. The photos taken this way are slightly distorted and usually have a frame around them.

I have messed with TtV in photoshop adding the effect to some previously taken photos and have really enjoyed the results. I had not really thought about it for a while, until I got a Photojojo email that had a brief write-up about the technique. It renewed my interest and I started searching for a camera on ebay. I am now following an auction and hope to get it pretty cheap.

I am really trying a lot of new social sites lately. I first started using Blogger to write this blog. Then I joined Facebook to resarch it for work. I started using Twitter for the same reason. I moved on to Tumblr because I found that it works better with photos than Blogger. Now I have started a flickr account. It all ties together.

I started messing around with flickr because of the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. I went pro so that I can upload more than one hundred megs a month. It is a racket, but I just felt the cost was worthwhile. You can view all of my photos. Book mark it and it will be updated with my new photos whenever you visit the link.

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Feeling Creative

I went for a walk last night to check the mail and on my way back I was mesmerized by the moon in the sky. It was about nine o'clock and it was not completely dark yet. The sky was a dark blue with the last vestiges of the sunset near the horizon line. The moon was in the classic shiver shape and there was a bright star directly above it.

I was inspired. When I got back home I grabbed my Diana+ camera and went to the backyard. I did not have a good view so I decided to take a walk to see if I could get a better view. I walked to the open field near my house and got some photos. I went back home and then went into the backyard again with my digital Rebel.

I tried to take one photo of the moon and was not successful so I started looking at the flowers and plants in the yard. I posted some photos on my tumblr site. I was really inspired last night for the first time in a long time. I hope my creativity paid off.

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My Next Books

I ordered my next set of books on Saturday. I am in a real funk right now and it applies to my blog posting as well as my reading. I hope that these new books will break my funk and give me some inspiration. Here is the list of books I ordered:

• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston
• Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar & Co. by Gary Erickson, Lois Lorentzen
• Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford
• Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirshberg

I have wanted to read Stirring It Up for some time and have always put it off. I think that will be the first book of this new group that I dig into. I really hope these books will give me a creative spark.

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At the Coast

The Queen, Meg and I took at trip to the coast to see Unk Timmers. Here are some photos from the trip.

I am trying out Tumblr, so let me know what you think.

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Happy Birthday O! Wretched Mortals!

Today is the one year birthday of this blog. My first post was short and sweet. It explained why I chose the name of the blog and a few alternatives I considered. Since that time, I think this blog has changed dramatically. It was originally just an exercise while reading the book "How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci." Now it it a blog about my thoughts on many topics.

This has been a good exercise for me. I am not usually a person who likes to share my emotions with people. I consider myself almost devoid of emotion on most occassions. This blog has allowed me to explore my inner feelings and put them out for someone else to view, or read. I have grown a lot this year and look forward to more growth in the future.

I have struggled many times over this year to keep writing regularly. Early on my goal was to write something five days a week. There were some weeks when I wrote more than five times and there were other when I struggled to write two or three times. I am going through a very rough patch now where I am lucky if I write something once or twice per week. I don't like the fact that this has happened, but I don't know how to get out of this funk yet.

I really wanted to have a nice post for the blogs one year birthday. I thought I could come up with something insightful and deep. Obviously that did not happen. Maybe I will write something great next year on the second birthday.

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A Lot of Information

My meetings here in Rosemont have been very good. I am learning a lot that I can take back to my company. I have met a few customers that are great contacts to get us in the door of a few target companies. It has been a very productive trip.

This year the meeting have focused a lot of time on marketing, in particular internet marketing and social media. I know there is a lot more that I can do in both of these areas, it is just hard to carve out the time and to justify it. I have learned some things this week that should help me with both of these.

Last week I had a conversation with my advertising agency and was about to throw in the towel with regards to social media. I had a bad attitude about it and I think my account manager felt that and just went along with it. Our meeting turned into a trash talking session about what social media cannot do for my company. I admit that I was not seeing any potential. I came to my meeting this week all ready to dismiss social media as a waste of time.

Two sessions really changed my mind. One session was led by a marketing person from a company in my industry. He focused more on web site analytics, but he started to change my perspective. The second session was led by a consultant who works with companies to establish their social media presence. I think that he convinced me that I am not wasting my time and need to actually spend some more time on social media. I really need to get other people in the company involved with blogging, Facebook and Twitter. He told us that we cannot do it alone. It needs to be a company focus. I agree.

I am planning to get started with the implementation of a social media strategy when I get back into the office. I am already thinking about who in the company will buy into the strategy and really work to make it successful. At this point I only have about two people who I have identified.

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I'm Back!

Well, almost anyway. I have been suffering through a sinus infection for the last week. I was exhausted all last week and it all came to a pinnacle on Friday. I left the office early and just crashed. I was supposed to go to a graduation that night, but backed out. The Queen attended without me. She called at about nine o'clock and told me that she had a sinus infection. She gets one every year, so she knows what they feel like. As soon as she said that, I knew that was what I was also fighting all week. We both went to urgent care on Saturday morning and we each got a prescription for a Z pack. We dropped Meg off at her cousins house and both just vegged all day.

It was great to get a medical confirmation that I was not just being lazy. I actually had something wrong with me that was zapping my energy and creating my writer's block. I was really starting to douby myself, so it was good to hear.

One positive thing that my sickness did for me was allow me to watch some movies for the first time in a long time. On Friday night I watched 13 Going on 30 with Meg. She really likes the movie and it is even enjoyable for me. I then watched another movie without her. After that we got back together and watched Up. I should say that she watched Up and I slept through most of it. What I saw of Up was good, but I just could not stay awake.

On Saturday, we dropped Meg off with her cousins after our doctor's appointment and ended up renting Invictus from OnDemand. It was a pretty good movie. It was really the first movie The Queen and I have watched together in a long time. I cannot even remember the last movie we watched in a theater, but I know that it was one that Meg wanted to watch.

The Queen is a movie buff. She will watch the same movie over and over again. She will buy it on DVD and then watch it every time she comes across it on TV. A good example of that is Overboard. She didn't buy that one, but she watched it every time it was on TV for about two years and it was on a lot. She also likes to watch Dances with Wolves every time it is on TV.

I am not a big movie fan. I usually watch a movie once and can't ever watch it again. That even applies to the movies I really like. In this respect, I am all alone in our house. Both Meg and Chels love to watch movies over and over again just like their Mom.

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Writer's Block or Rough Week?

I don't know if I am experiencing writer's block or if I am just having a rough week. Whatever it is, it is affecting most aspects of my life. I am really struggling to get up in the morning and exercise. I am also struggling to write on this blog. I guess maybe I just need a kick in the pants.

I have been exercising regularly for the last three months. I really enjoy most of my workouts, but it is getting tough to wake up in time to work them into my day. Maybe my boredom is that I am still stuck on the same workout. I need to change to my new workout next week and maybe that will solve my problem.

As for the writer's block, I blame the weather. It is very obvious that we are experiencing global climate change. We have had more rain than normal this year and the temperature is unseasonably low. This weather change is really affecting a lot of people where I live. More people than normal have been sick and allergies really seem to be hitting people hard, including me. I am struggling to breathe through my nose because I am always congested. I am also sneezing many times per day.

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Thirty Things Every Man Should Have

I came across a blog posting the other day entitled 30 Things Every Man Should Have by 30. I read through the list and feel that there are only a few items I do not currently have and most likely did not have when I was thirty years old. Below are the itmes I don't have with an explanation:

5. At least one friend who gives honest fashion advice. For some reason I have surrounded myself with people who are either stuck in a different era or who just don't have any fashion/design sense at all. I only have one friend who I would take advice from in this department. I think Topher has decent fashion sense, but our relationship is not such that we go shopping together. The friend I go to the most often for fashion advice is my best friend, The Queen.

14. An emergency kit in the trunk of his car. I don't have an emergency kit in my car and really don't feel like I need one. I carry my AAA card in my wallet and keep a cellular phone with me all of the time. I keep flashlights in The Queen's car.

15. A hobby that does not include a television set or a 6-pack of beer. I have had different hobbies over the years. I enjoy taking photographs. I play softball on a team. I tinker with graphic design and computers. I have built websites. I have designed t-shirts. Nothing has really stuck for too long, so I think I still need to develop a hobby I can stick with. I bought some canvases and paints a few weeks ago and plan to start painting abstract landscapes, so maybe that will end up being the hobby that sticks.

22. A nightstand that doesn’t say "Handle with care" on the side. My nightstand does not say "handle with care" on the side, but it is a beer crate. I took it from home when I left for college and it is still beside me bed to this day. The Queen and I really need to buy some new bedroom furniture, so it will move to the garage when that happens.

29. A place where everyone knows his name. I just don't have this place and I don't think I ever will. I have the wrong personality type for this. I tend to keep to my self and observe. People with my personality type don't usually have a place where everyone knows their name.

Here is another list for all of the women out there.

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Motivation

I came across a blog post for the 7 Most Motivational Quotes Ever Spoken. As I read through them I agreed with some and disagreed with others. I think the best one on the list is from the movie Pursuit of Happyness.

"You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period." These words were spoken by Will Smith's character in the movie. I have seen parts of the movie, but have never watched it all the way through. What I have seen of the movie has been really good and powerful, but I always seem to have something pulling me away. That quote summarizes the whole movie.

I always enjoy reading profound quotes from other people. We can learn a lot from reading other peoples words and really thinking about them to try to figure out what the person was trying to say. I always wonder if I will every say or write anything that could end up on a list like this one. I don't think so, but you never know. I also never thought I would be publishing a blog three to five times per week and I do that now.

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Productivity Improvement

I have been reading a lot about how to improve my productivity. I really need to focus a lot of attention on this task so I can be more efficient. I manage my time pretty well, but I do get buried by the less important tasks quite often. I am not usually late on my projects, unless there is a legitimate reason.

I see real value in becoming more productive. After all, that is the only way to effectively increase your income. I plan to start my own business on the side while I am still employed full time. In order to accomplish this task, I will need to be much more organized. I will also need to learn to prioritize items much better than I currently due. I am starting to see that the secret to business success is organization. It doesn't matter whether you pay someone to keep you organized or you do it yourself, but it has to be done.

I read some advice from one blogger that recommended that you hand write your task list. Her feeling was that if the task is important enough to be written by hand that it is important enough to be on your task list. I agree with this to a certain extent. I can see more shuffling and moving of items on an electronic task list. I also don't know if I want to have access to my task list at all times. If I keep my list in a nice Moleskine notebook, which I already have, it will take on more importance for me. I really like these notebooks a lot because they have an archival feel to them. They feel like something you need to hang on to because it will be important in the future.

I may give this a try, since I know I have to do something. My only problem with a hand written task list is that I make fun of one of my coworkers for walking around with a small yellow note pad in his back pocket. I guess I can still look down my nose at him if my task list is in a Moleskine notebook.

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