finite speck

I'm thankful that I can do what I do and get paid for it, but if it wasn't for a whole lot of other people also doing their jobs my job wouldn't be possible. So... thank you to the engineers and everyone that works in research and development that come up with the problems that need to be solved and decides to go out and solve them every day. Thank you to the sales team that goes out and talks to dealers and customer about the issues they face on their farms and how our products can help solve them. Thank you to the building maintenance team that just makes sure everything at our buildings is working properly, that it's warm when it needs to be or cool when it needs to be. That the water is working, that the electrical continues to come on. Thank you IT team that makes sure our internet is working and computers are up-to-date. Thank you for accounting for paying the bills and accepting checks so that we can continue to operate. Thank you to HR for making sure we know ...

I've just started taking a photography class online and one of the first things they are emphasizing is the rule of thirds. It's a pretty simple concept, but somehow it really helps balance out photos. The main point is to use the "tic tac toe" type overlay on your camera or phone to help position where your lines or points of interest are in your photo. you never really want a person dead center in the photo. You always want the person, their eyes or focal point at one of the areas where the lines cross. Also, you want to use the lines, top or bottom, as your horizon line. Never half and half. You either want more sky or more ground, never equal parts of each. These little tips help balance your photos. If you're interested in learning more just search for "rule of thirds".

What is it about certain games that make you just want to play one more time. It doesn't matter if you just won or you just lost. The playing field is even enough that you've always got a chance to win again. We've had a few experiences like this over the holiday. One was playing Bingo and another was playing Minute to Win it. Both are super quick games, but they also don't take a ton of skill to win, so it keeps you wanting to play again.

I stopped by the house on Main Street in Morton that has lights synced to music for the second time on our way home from my in-laws. I had both of our kids with me and they loved it. Well... I did too. Just as much as the lights, was the music they chose, that made it fun for our kids to watch. They had "Baby Shark" and "The Greatest Show" as part of the playlist which both of my kids know. What is it about lights being synchronized to music that is so mesmerizing? I think what's so impressive about this house is that somehow all of the LEDs actually create a giant screen that they at times have moving pictures on. It's about 20 minutes and as long as your kids aren't in a crabby mood or super tired I think they'll sit through it... or you can always drive away if it gets too long. I've only seen two of these types of house light shows in my life, but this is my top pick.

I was impressed by the wisdom of my father-in-law yesterday. My daughter fell at their house and cut her knee on a carpet nail. It was probably the worst part of her day there. We got her a band-aid, but it didn't have a character on it and crying evidently made her better. I needed to run to the store to get some food for dinner so I asked her to go with to see if that might help. She decided she wanted to, but the one thing that made all the difference was a minute or two later, Papa Tim came out of his bedroom with a quarter for her to use to get some candy out of one of the machines at the grocery store. After that the crying stopped, she still wanted to be held, but she had a new focus. She was going to get to pick out candy at the grocery store with her very own quarter. When we got to the store, after getting what we needed, she picked out the gumball machine and even knew which character she wanted on the gumball, Daphne. Fingers crossed she got the right color and ch...

My wife and I would say that the best steak we've ever had by far came from Trails End Smokehouse. I first had a ribeye from Trails End at one of our company events about 6 years ago. So, this year we decided to get ribeyes from Trails End for our Christmas dinner with her family. And then the pressure was on to still deliver "the best steak we've ever had", but we'd have to grill it this time. I put my order in and picked up a few days before Christmas from a house in a small town in Illinois. Our steaks were in zip locks bags in a small cooler outside the house. There was an envelope on the top of cooler to put the cash for the steaks in. Nothing professional about the process, but the expectation of quality steak was still high in my mind. I felt like I had the inside scoop on a best kept secret in the area when picking up these steaks. Well, yesterday was Christmas and we grilled all the ribeyes and they were still "the best steak we've ever had...

I've celebrated Jesus birth 39 times in my life. I don't know that having had celebrated Christmas 39 times means that I still fully can wrap my head around how amazing God making himself infinitely small and vulnerable as a baby, born of a virgin really is. For the purpose of being a gift of payment for our sin because there is no way that we could ever live to God's level of perfection. Every day I see my need for my Savior that we celebrate today. When I raise my voice at my wife, when make a hurtful comment to a family member, when I'm not loving towards my kids, when I complain about my life, when I'm not thankful for what God has given to me. Every day I need Christ Jesus. Every day I need to celebrate that God chose to send his son Jesus for me and for anyone else who would believe in Him. Here's just a little more that I read today from Paul Tripp... "Remember that he [Jesus] endured separation so that nothing could ever separate us from the Fa...

It is so fun to see those moments when kids open up a gift and you can tell they're excited. Whether it's really audible or it's just in their face. I had a couple experiences like that today. One with my daughter when she got a princess watch. It's funny she didn't say anything really, but she had the biggest smile on her face. Another one that was fun to watch was the two oldest cousins as they unwrapped inline skates. They were both super pumped and when they found out they both got them they were even more excited. But, a classic that my brother-in-laws enjoy doing every year is switching a couple gifts between boys and girls. One little girl gets extremely bent out of shape when she realizes her gift got opened up by one of her boy cousins. It's amazing how that difference in being the one to open the gift makes all the difference in happiness or sadness even if you get the gift after it's opened. There's something about just the act of openin...

When it comes to being sick I'm a total wimp. Two days ago I started feeling pretty sick and yesterday and I basically just laid in bed or on the couch. I didn't feel like I could eat anything and felt all kind of pressure in my head. When I'm sick all I want is for it be over, but what about when someone else is sick? How quickly I forget how bad I felt and the compassion I appreciated when others are sick. It makes me think of my wife who is pregnant right now and has felt nauseous the entire pregnancy so far. Even with the sickness of pregnancy, she's taken awesome care of the kids while I've been at work. Very rarely do I hear her complain about it. I don't know if I'll ever get to the point where I just embrace being sick when I get sick and just push through it, but I do want to be more compassionate towards others when they're not doing well.

We close on our new house tomorrow and it feels like a whirlwind. We'll be back to having two homes again while we get the new one ready to move into and the old one ready to sale. With two little kiddos and another one on the way, plus my busiest time of the work year and Christmas coming I'm wondering if we bit off a little much. Then I'm reminded God is sovereignly in control of all things, which doesn't mean I can't make dumb decisions, but it does mean that all will work out for His ultimate glory and I can't screw that up. Not everything has to get done today either. So, we can tackle today and then see what we can tackle tomorrow. New home here we come.

This morning, most of what my mind is occupied by is work. I've been working into the wee hours and still waking up at the normal time. Sometimes this is just what's required to hit a deadline. I've got a couple more days and then a week break to celebrate my Savior's birth. I'm hoping I can spend some time shutting down the work and enjoying my family, enjoying conversations and focusing on some other things.

As we look forward to Christmas coming and think about the birth of Christ I was struck by the different types of people that the birth of Jesus was revealed to and worshipped by. He was revealed to and worshipped by an unborn baby (John), a pregnant mother (Elizabeth), a virgin (Mary), a priest (Zechariah), shepherds, an old man (Simeon), an old woman (Ana), foreign wise men and to us. What's interesting is how different all of these people are. From the unborn to the old, from the lowly to high and from those of Israel to those outside of Israel. Why does scripture choose to highlight so many different people that Christ as a baby was revealed to? I believe it is to show that Christ being revealed has nothing to do with status or what we have and it has everything to do with His mercy. This is a good reminder for me as I so often look at the outward appearance of people. God does not choose to reveal himself based on anything that is outward.

So my wife wanted to save our family some time over the weekend when she went to return a few things at Walmart. So she decided to use their app to start the return process on our way to the store. She figured this would save time and she'd be able to zip in and out quick. Once she got there the employee in returns said that it looks like she'd already made the return in their system, even though my wife still had the items that needed to be returned in her hands. The employee and manager didn't know how to make a change in the system in order to actually physically return the items, but said that her account would be credited the money. So in the end after trying to do what Walmart's app said would save time, she probably spent about 30 minutes in the store trying to return the items. And... then she walked out of the store with all of the items still in hand, because they couldn't return them. We did get our money back, but we also got 2 extra lamps that we ha...

Everyone has something they can teach someone else about. Everyone. Are you willing to ask others questions? Are you willing to share what you know? I had a couple times this past week where younger guys that I work with showed me "shortcuts" to working on my computer. Things I could do that I had no idea even existed until they taught me about them. I knew other ways to accomplish what needed to happen, but what they showed me was easier, quicker and overall better. Thank you! I learned something valuable. This reminds me of one of the best parties I've ever been to. The party theme was centered around teaching something you're good at. Everyone was asked beforehand to come up with something they could teach everyone else at the party in 5 minutes or less. Not only was it fun to learn about something unique from each person, but it was also good to go through the process of how to present an idea to a group of people. This is one party I think would be fun to do ...

I've got a lot going on. I'm so busy. It's crazy. Things aren't slowing down. I've got a lot to do. My plate is really full. These are things I say to others when they ask how I'm doing or when I'm asked to do something around this time of year. The statements above are true, but they're all about me and could be perceived as, "Leave me alone. I've got important stuff to do, more important than whatever you're doing or more important than what you want to talk about." So, how should I respond? In these responses, I'm putting the task in front of a person. Maybe they have a lot going on too. Maybe they're dealing with something that's tough in their personal life. They wouldn't be coming to talk or ask a question if there wasn't something going on. God help me to see past my projects to the people around me that you bring by me.

Thankful for truck drivers today. There are approximately 3.5 million professional truckers in the United States. That's a lot of trucks traveling around and a lot of stuff they're delivering. Thankful that I can go to the store and purchase what I need or order what I need online and it's delivered where I need it. So much of this is dependent on the truck drivers. So today I'm thankful for the 3.5 million truckers taking stuff from here to there for us.

When I haven't planned ahead and thought about gifts much before Christmas it's kind of a stresser the closer Christmas comes. I make excuses because this time of year for me with work is typically really busy, plus we've got some other big life events going on this year AND I like coming up with what I hope are good gifts for others. So today is December 12th, 13 days from Christmas day. I've still got time, but I need to set aside time to make sure this gets done. More important than presents though this time of year though is being present during the time when my family is together over Christmas. Being present with my wife, with my kids and extended family.

Sometimes, many times, a given day does not go as you planned it. Yesterday, was one of those days. I was not expecting to get a FaceTime call from my wife in the morning while she was at the doctor's office for a routine baby check-up. She called and said, "Well, we know what we're having now." She proceeded to then tell me that they were not able to find the heart beat at first and ended up rushing her across the hall to do an ultrasound. After doing that they were able to check on the baby and all looked good. And... we're having another boy! We were both expecting we would have another girl for some reason. So, I'm super pumped about having another son. We were expecting to find out in about a month, but this present of knowing came early. I'm thankful for a healthy baby so far and pray that this little guy continues to develop properly for the next 5 months.

Here's another great commercial that tells a story that's all about the customer as hero and the product as the guide. No words spoken in the entire spot and we also don't even see anything that the hero, young woman, in the story is creating with her mac. What we do see is fear to share what she's created with others until her dog opens the window and lets all the creativity get out to others. There's a lot of little details in this story where each character we're introduced to in the first part of the story that the woman is afraid to share her creativity with in the end sees something she has created and is able to enjoy it in the end. There's a transformation that takes place in the woman from fear of letting anyone see her work to confidence that what she has created is good and others will enjoy once her work finally gets out of the box.

This post feels like I'm just showing up. I'm writing because I want to do this daily blog thing, but today my post is hitting at the end of the day. I've had different ideas rolling around in my head, but nothing has solidified. So I'm just showing up writing a few sentences, but I'm not quitting this exercise in writing. I don't know that my writing has improved a ton, but I want it to.

Shoot days always have me a little anxious with the feeling down in my stomach. Wondering am I forgetting anything? Does everyone know the plan for the day? What kind of challenges are we going to face? Are we going to get everything captured during the time we have allotted? Even after being on set many times I still get this feeling and it's probably a good thing, but it has lessened. The newness has worn off of it. I also have gotten connected with some extremely talented people that give me confidence that the shoot will go smoothly. 90% of a shoot going well is the people that are on your team, starting with the director and the team he puts together. The other 10% is out of your control and it's dependent on  how that team works together to pull off those things that come up that are out of your control. So... shoot day here we come.

How do you get people to commit earlier? How do you remove the procrastination? For most the deadline finally drives the decision, but there's always some who commit right away or much quicker. What makes those that make their decision to attend, sign-up, buy, etc. earlier than the deadline? How can we move more to make a decision earlier? Is it even possible? I believe a lot of these questions can be solved in the words we use and the urgency we create when we ask customers to commit. I don't have all the answers here, but I believe if we put more thought into the words that are used we may be able to move people forward sooner and have less last minute commitments or inaction.

This is probably one of the things I get the least excited about at work, but it's really an important task I'm asked to do. For one, I should be honored that others see enough value in my sense of design that they would ask me to take what they've already created and make it look more visually appealing and memorable. What I need to do in the case of something like this is to remember that I'm taking something that's already very well thought out and applying that final spit polish to it. As a creative person sometimes it's tough to buckle down and spend a lot of time on a 100+ slide presentation when you're not actually creating it. When I am faced with projects like this I like to try and take the opportunity to learn something in the process though. Like, how can I make the master template better for myself to make the clean up quicker? If I improve the master template will that make it easier for the presenter to have a more professional looking pre...

Is there room for marketing in missions? Is it ok to use marketing for support raising? Does that seem manipulative? When you're raising support and you run out of people you know and you haven't met your goal what do you do? These are some, probably not all, the questions a friend of mine is facing right now as he is approaching the 6 month mark before moving to another country to do missionary work. I believe there is room for marketing in the process of raising missionary support dollars, but I think it's a tool in the tool box, not THE tool. It's something I'm interested in putting more thought into. There's obviously a very diverse group of people potentially that a missionary could be talking to in asking for financial support, but one commonality would be that all of them are involved in the local church and hopefully are interested in seeing more come to understand the gospel. But where marketing comes in I believe is how do you make the ask more abo...

Every once in a while I stumble across a commercial that makes me smile. That happened yesterday. There are only 4 words by the characters in the commercial, but there's a story that's created throughout the piece. It's all about the relationship of a father and son using one song, time, body language and dancing. You see the relationship between the father and son start out close, drift apart and then get pulled back together again. The only part I cringe a little bit at is what the commercial uses to bring them together. A cell phone company. Part of that might be the brand, Bouygues, because I don't know anything about it. So it's hard for me to remember it or know what to think about the brand. The final line of the commercial is, "This Christmas, offer more than technology." So what am I to think at the end of the commercial? I come away thinking this company care way more about me and my family and how we stay connected and by the way they offer ...

My son is our second child. Part of being the second child and not the first is that parents typically are not as concerned about things as they were when they were doing everything for the first time. Therefore, with our son we don't use a baby monitor in his room. So, when we hear him we just go in and check on him or decide to let him fuss depending on how he sounds. What we've learned though is there's one noise in particular that means you better go in there because if you don't he's not going to go back to sleep. That's the sound of him dropping the pacifier on the wood floor. Once this happens he can't reach it and he won't go to sleep with out it. Hence, the paci drop.

Was talking to a friend yesterday that I would say is an extremely talented artist. He just has the ability to visualize things and illustrate them in a way that many people can't. I had heard that he has interest in pursuing this talent as a career, so I asked him what he'd like to do. He went on to say that he feels like he needs more training/schooling in graphic design to really feel comfortable with the choice to make a career out of it. I think my response to him may have surprised him a little. I told him he's already got talent that many don't have even after going through classes. I told him to just start doing work for himself or for others. I told him he will fail some, but it's how he's going to really learn. It's not always the case that schooling or more schooling won't help you get started into a career path, but I believe when you have real talent in something it's mostly proving to others that you are talented and the other part ...

This idea was preached in a sermon last week at church. The idea that the goal of music and art is to create unity of some thing within a culture. What if there were no music? What if there were no artistic expression? How would we communicate ideas? We could still use our spoken words. But words combined with music and/or art takes an idea to a whole new level. It makes a moment or thought more memorable for more people. The main point of the sermon was that "God is glorified when music unites people's hearts together in His truth". So, our creator designed music in a way that brings people together for His glory. As someone involved in the arts space this gets me excited to think about this not just being something I enjoy, but it's also something that God delights in as well, when it unites hearts to bring Him glory.