finite speck

We're still in summer. 23 more days until fall officially starts. And today is the last day of summer days at work where we can get half of the day off on Friday if we stack up our hours earlier in the week. Kids started going back to school this past week. One year from now our oldest will be starting kindergarten. Things keep changing. I heard an interesting podcast yesterday from Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was talking about New York City public schools and the government's desire to make school education equal for all ethnicities. My understanding from the podcast is that the government is looking at doing away with all public gifted school programs because too few black and Hispanic kids get into them. Instead, the gifted programs are mainly comprised of kids that are Asian and white. This recommendation came from a 2-year study trying to figure out how to solve this problem of inequality in New York City schools. No matter...

I'm starting to work on our entries for NAMA, the National Agri-Marketing Association's advertising competition. We've been entering our work in the competition for the last 4 years. There is definitely good work entered, but the competition is definitely not the same as that of the AAF or Cannes. But why do we even have these awards ceremonies? What fuels the desire to put forth the effort to enter into this type of a thing? There's a cost for every entry of time and money. Then there's a cost if you win of more time and more money, plus travel. So, why do it? I think there's a couple pieces to it. For one, it costs money to have an organization and I think of all events the awards piece helps fund the organization. Second, people like to be recognized by their peers for good work. It's a way to be seen and show others in your industry that you're doing good work. Third, and I think this is the one we've seen the most value in actually, is that ...

Have a conversation. Send an email. Pick up the phone. Send a text. Walk up to someone and ask a question. I was at a tradeshow yesterday for the full day and being more of an introvert I had to psyche myself up somewhat to start engaging with people in booths. I wanted to experience what "farmers" are experiencing at the show as much as possible. So really I didn't have to initiate most of the conversations I just had to answer people in a way that would keep the conversation going. I enjoyed it. I learned new things. I even saw someone that I recognized and took a risk and said, "I know I know you from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it... I knew it was someone I was related to." It ended up being my Grandma Neukomm's youngest sister, Joan. I also talked to a kid from Ontario, Canada that was familiar with our company for a while and he helped me figure out how Pioneer was doing their hat giveaway. I sit behind a computer a lot. I can e...

I'm trying to figure out how to "best" make a change or maybe I won't... I'm not sure. I want to have all of our family photos in one place and we currently have all of our photos backed up to Google Photos. Then all of our originals currently reside in Apple Photos. But, I want to start doing editing in Adobe Lightroom and I've heard it's a pretty good way to also organize and store your original photos. So, I'm debating, but it's challenging because I want to make sure I don't lose any original photos in the process. And I'm not sure the "best" way to do it if I make the switch.

Do you have a smartphone with you? If so it's really amazing what you have with you at all times. You are connected. You can look up information on anything. You can even just ask the virtual assistant on your phone instead of even typing it in. You can schedule appointments. You can set reminders with just your voice. You can have a moment that happens and capture it in video or with a photo. Need some light at night? Just turn the flashlight on your phone on. Set a timer while cooking a meal. Look up a recipe. Order anything and get it delivered the next day. Get a cab to come to pick you up. Make payments from your phone. Check your email. Check stock prices. Check your bank account. Play just about any song you can imagine. The list goes on and on. Never until the last 10 years or so was all of this available in the palm of your hand.

How much time do we spend looking at the stats? I get sucked into this somewhat regularly and I think there's the aspect where I can learn, but there's another part of it that just wants to know. The stats of how many likes, shares, views, how much time, opens, clicks, forms filled out... But, if there's no benchmark what's the value? Why do we care what a stat is if we don't have a goal? Maybe you have goals as to what you're shooting for, but if you don't what's the driver for looking at your stats? If they don't perform to the level you think they should will you do something differently or is it more of a comfort that something is happening? I think I've blogged about this before already, but I think there's something here. We're all driven by the stat and social media especially is driven by these stats. What if we didn't have visibility to them?  Are we putting things out into the world for the stats? Or are we putting thing...

What do you do when the unexpected happens? You have plans in your mind for the day. Or you at least believe it's going to look a certain way. There are things on your calendar. A list of to-dos. But, then you get an email... you get a phone call... someone stops by your desk or your home... you receive a text... What do you do? How do you respond? Are you ready to help out? Or is it an inconvenience? Do you see it as an opportunity to show love? Share the gospel? Or do you have more important things for the day and you want to try to find a way to pass the person or request off to someone else? Do you think this isn't "my job" or do you think "I can do that"? The unexpected happens a lot where I work. It also happens a lot at home. I think I respond better when it's at work then when it's at home. But why? Shouldn't I actually respond better at home... after all these little kids and my wife are my family! And their unexpected is way mor...

Will we always google when we need an answer to a question? Or will google.com, someday be gone? It's something that I've never really thought about before. Once something arrives you think it will last forever, but history would tell us that most things will rise and fall at some point. Only time will tell. And I look forward to time telling and being able to look back and say remember when... I can't imagine ever not having Google to quickly go to and ask a question, but maybe there will be something better someday without privacy concerns or that's maybe even faster or has other reasons to make a switch. So I just googled "is there a browser that will overtake google" and the first result was Brave . I know about nothing about this browser, but it's interesting that it claims to be faster than Chrome, blocks ads, and has a way to reward websites that the user wants to reward. It's gaining in popularity quickly and it's also utilizing blockch...

My grandparents live just a block from us and my wife and I have started trying to make an effort to visit them once a week. We've probably made it the last month or so. They love seeing our kids and I think it's a break from the long days for them. They don't have a car anymore because my Grandma has macular degeneration and can't see far away very well and my Grandpa's memory is extremely poor. So they don't get out a lot unless someone drives them somewhere. So last night we brought them dinner and just hung out with them for the evening. My Grandma especially seems to really enjoy it. My Grandpa I believe does too, but he's tougher to read and talk with, he tends to be fairly quiet anymore because he realizes he can't remember much in the short term. My wife has taught me a lot as far as reaching out to the elderly. She did this same thing with her grandparents when we lived in Peoria. It gets her out of the house, but I know she sees the value...

My computer has a 1 TB hard drive, but I have less than 100 GB of storage space left. Where did all the storage go? At first, my answer was I don't know, but Apple has a nice way of reviewing your hard drive and it was interesting. Applications 55 GB Books 8 MB Documents 514 GB iCloud Drive 18 MB iOS files 25 GB iTunes 28 GB Mail 23 GB Messages 102 MB Music Creation 1 GB Photos 107 GB System 150 GB Total is 903 GB that's used up... Not that my computer is running super slow, but I think they're a lot of files that really could just be backed up somewhere, that I probably won't need or reference ever again. I'm going to challenge myself to back up photos in a different way and try to clean up my Documents a lot more as well to free up more space to work.

We experience this most times we have people over in the evening. Especially when it's our parents. Our kids get wound up. The later it gets the crazier they get. We were with both sets of grandparents at different points this weekend and both times it got crazy. I don't know how you get them to settle down. I haven't figured it out.

What do texts, emails, blogs and podcasts all have in common? They are all great ways to reach out regularly to an audience that has said I want to hear from you. Are you using one of these formats with those that want to hear from you? Different from social media, you own the channel and you own the audience. There are no algorithms to work through your audience just subscribes or they don't. You just need to continually show up with content knowing that they gave you the privilege to communicate with them. So how can you use these mediums better? These thoughts were inspired by a question asked on Akimbo a couple weeks ago. Artificial intelligence is neither

How much will you micromanage? Feedback is good. It can make things better. It can also slow things down. It can derail a project. It can make others extremely frustrated. How much of what you ask others to do is super specific? Does it put all the ownership on you and just makes those you work with feel like a monkey pulling levers looking for approval to make sure it's done the way you want it? Or do you lay out a vision and let those you work with create? There's a place for feedback and critique. Just make sure it's pushing the work forward not catering to your preferences. Is it meeting the needs of the end customer or is it making you happy?

We went swimming last night and my daughter made all the way across the shorter distance of the pool. Maybe 15 feet, but she's only 4. And she was determined to do it. She jumped in and after that, she used everything she had to move forward to the other side. It wasn't pretty, but she did it! It's really fun as a parent to see your child make so much improvement in something over a short amount of time. Just 2 months earlier she took some swim lessons and had very little confidence in the water. Now, she's probably a little overconfident, but the likelihood of her drowning is way less than before. It's also amazing how kids just figure things out. I have helped her some to figure out how to keep herself above water, but a lot of it she is just figuring out by practice.

Some times I sit at home and start thinking about all the things I should do and it gets overwhelming really quickly. I should... finish painting the ceiling fill holes in the trim in the kitchen paint our bedroom put up some pictures hang a curtain go through stuff in the basement clean the bathrooms call the guy back about the insulation call the guy back about the ceiling schedule a dr appointment schedule an eye appointment trim our landscaping out front clean up some of our closets talk to someone about investments install the last light in the basement ... and that's just a small list from a few minutes of thinking. I don't know the best way to get away from this kind of thinking that I have to get something done. Especially with 3 kids under 5, it's tough to get much done in a regular day. God help me to prioritize what's important and realize that not everything that seems like it should get done needs to get done. Help me to be thankful f...

Two nights ago my wife let our youngest cry it out for almost 2 hours, and she graciously allowed me to go sleep on the couch, while he cried in our room. Last night we all had a really good night sleep. He slept for about 7 hours. Maybe we're going to get out of the waking up in the middle of the night stage soon! Uninterrupted sleep feels so good in the morning. I feel so rested today.

My daughter got some new shoes yesterday. And all she wants to do is where them anywhere she goes now. In the house and outside. And she wants to make sure that everyone knows about them too. If we'd let her she'd wear them to church this morning too. She went to a birthday party yesterday and there were pink and purple cupcakes to choose from. She said she chose a pink cupcake because it was the same color as her new shoes. She obsessed with them right now. When something is new to us we all get a little infatuated with the new thing. But, it's crazy how that new thing loses it's luster quickly. It doesn't stay clean or something else comes along. We are easily discontented. Very few things never lose their luster. I believe when we have a relationship with God that He has a never-ending newness and because we are created in His image, people have this ability in a much smaller way as well. I don't think the second part is maybe a perfect example.

My daughter has said thank you many times, but last night was really sweet and I could tell she meant it. I took my oldest son and daughter to see the movie Trolls in the park in Morton. It was a late night and it wrapped up around 10:30. The kids loved it, but my daughter as we were packing up to leave and started walking back to the car said the best words of the night without any prompting... "Thank you, Dad, for taking us to the movie tonight." I'm thankful that this was her response. We don't do things like this that often, so when we do she doesn't feel like she's entitled to it. I think she somehow realizes that in how she responded last night. God help my kids to be "thankful people".

It's no longer there. I just looked it up. But, the shaved ice stand in the Hartland shopping center in Lexington, KY was a favorite of mine as a kid. I don't remember the name of the stand. It was just a small stand in the middle of the parking lot with a drive-up window on both sides of the stand. And they had just about any flavor of syrup you could imagine. The two favorites I can remember were Blue Hawaii and Tiger Blood. I would ride my bike over with some change, I don't remember how much they were, and you could pick from 3 styrofoam cup sizes. I think it was our family bike ride last night that made me think of this memory that I haven't thought about for a long time, but it's amazing how some experiences can stick with you so well. I can picture right where that little stand was and remember riding my bike from my parent's house to the stand. I just looked it up to see if it's still there and now there's a coffee stand there called Common G...

Sometimes we start things and (gasp) we don't finish them. Sometimes we start things, finish them, and then never utilize them again. Sometimes we start things and we just keep them going and going. Reading an article around podcasts got me thinking this morning. We started a podcast a few years back. Lined up enough content for about 5 or 6 episodes and that was it. It died. It's still on Google Play, but it hasn't been touched since. We also started a testimonials page about 6 years ago... it's still live, but hasn't been touched since then. We also created a Twitter account for a mobile marketing truck and it hasn't been tweeted from in over a year... I say we because it was me and our marketing team. But, I'm partly responsible for the start and sputter. I think in all of these cases it's hardly a sputter and more of a stop. These things really need to just be done. I don't believe that they were failures, but they helped realize the effo...

Over the last year or so I've started to enjoy the car rides with my co-workers. Especially my boss. Part of it is probably because I typically don't drive, but a lot of it is just the conversations for a few hours... a lot of it about work, but other times just life. I guess my point in this thought is when you have an opportunity to share a ride or drive by yourself choose to ride with someone else. You never know what you'll learn or what it might bring up that you wouldn't have thought about on a solo drive on your own. I've got another drive with my boss today to St. Louis to meet up with our ad agency and promo supplier. Looking forward to the ride time.

I need it. You need it. We all need it. Grace and mercy. Undeserved favor of God and forgiveness though we are deserving of punishment. As I read parts of some of the latest stories within the American church today I think how could these things be? I'm surprised. Yet, God is not surprised. And I think what's to keep anyone in the church from being in similar situations? I'm so thankful for God's grace. And I pray that God would make me humble and not proud. Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (ESV)

I get these feelings of losing control of what I have had control of in the past and it's going to continue to increase as our company grows. We hired someone to do video internally for us, where before I headed it up and outsourced all of it. We're getting ready to hire another person that helps with digital efforts where now I handle or help outsource all of that. And our culture is awesome in the sense of when something is your job, it's your job, and you own it. There's a level of trust, not total just do whatever you want, but a high level of independence that comes with any job. But, it's unsettling to be giving up some of the "jobs" that I've had and handing them over to someone else to do and to help manage someone else. It's also a good sign though that we're growing as a company and investing in more people to do more work to reach more people. I think I can be somewhat of a control freak and like to know what all is going on. Mos...