finite speck

What is a good use of time off for Thanksgiving? Is that even a good way to think? It's going to totally depend on your priorities. If you're traveling to see family. Some of your time off will be traveling. But, there's still the question of how do you use that travel time then? If your family is all in town and you don't have to travel, do you spend most of your time with family? Or do you spend time at home? Do you spend time with people or do you spend time on projects? Do you spend time watching movies or reading? If you're with people do you engage in conversation with them or do you just listen to others? Do you ask questions or answer them? Does time with family wear you out or energize you? All of these questions may not really help you know if you use your holiday time well, but it's worth thinking about. I think after all of the food, shopping, football, and conversations, the more time you can spend together with your family whether in conversa...

I wasn't planning to go out last night for any "Black Friday" shopping (on a Thursday), but my wife and I decided that getting a TV for our basement at the prices that were available was a good idea... So I headed to Walmart with my brother-in-law. It wasn't like a few years ago when it was a mad dash, but it was packed. And it was just a bizarre sight. With a lot of people pushing around carts with these large inexpensive TVs in them. But, the thing that stuck out the most to me was the way they had cardboard displays chock full of DVDs and Blu-rays right in front of all the refrigerated food. Down the entire food aisle from the back of the store to the front was electronic stuff to buy. And it made me think to myself. In America, we really treat entertainment like food. Many feel like they need to be entertained daily. Many may even place it above food. We have an abundance of food in general in this country, but we also have an abundance of entertainment and it...

Would you call yourself a grateful person? What would others say about you? Would they say the same? Are you thankful for what you have or are you wanting more? As we celebrate Thanksgiving today I want to be a grateful person. I want to be thankful for what I have and not clamoring to have more. I want to be content... but I'm easily not. It takes very little for me to start counting what I don't have or what didn't happen. Today I'm thankful for the ability to see how unthankful I can be. I'm thankful for my kids. Whether they wake up early or sleep in. Whether they are challenging today or they are easy. Whether they complain or are thankful. I'm thankful for my wife today. Whether she agrees with me or disagrees. Whether she has a good day or a tough day. I'm thankful for my family. Both my family and my wife's family. I'm thankful for the people that are in my life.

First off my wife got up earlier than normal and I got to be with her in the morning before I left for work. That rarely happens. I always see her in the morning, but on a weekday I don't usually see her reading, sipping coffee, and have a chance to talk to her for a bit. Second, I ran across a great song by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors called "Family". And I literally just watched the music video for it and it's really fun. There's a ton of cameos of music artists and brings the whole song together well. Lastly, my wife ran across an app that seems really cool. It takes something complex and makes it doable. Imagine wanting to put together a video of a year of your family with some video from every day of that year set to music. Sounds challenging right? Now, imagine all you had to do was take a short video and then there was an app that did the rest. Sounds a lot more feasible now right? The app is called 1 Second Everyday . I'm considering trying it ...

This morning is one of those days when I just sit and stare at my computer screen and don't know what I should write. Different things fly through my head and I think, not that... not interesting... not a complete thought... and so I just sit. I'm thankful for this early morning practice of writing that I've now done for almost a full 365 days... a few days away. I believe my writing, in general, is getting better. I know it could still improve a lot. So, I'll keep doing this for another 365 days once I hit my first mark.

We're still 4 days from Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to this time. But, like I mentioned in an earlier post there has been so much on Christmas already as well. "Black Friday" has already started. We're getting hammered by marketers that want us to buy. And it's easy to fall into the trap that something that I see will bring contentment. God help remind me this season that anything that I believe will bring some sort of contentment is because you have put a longing in our hearts to be content. But help me remember that these things, relationships, ideas will never fully satisfy. They're not bad, but they're also not the world that is to come where all will be made right. In the craziness of Christmas here in the United States, help me and my family and others remember why we celebrate Christmas and help us be content.

I don't think I ever thought that when I had kids I would say, "When I was your age...". But it happened yesterday when we were talking about phones. I don't think my kids can hardly fathom the idea of a phone that is connected to a wall that you push buttons on and can only talk to someone on. Or the idea that the phone couldn't go everywhere you went. Or not being able to see someone when you're talking to them. And I don't know that I would have fathomed that our technology would be where it is today. It's the kind of thing that I remember seeing on the Jetsons.

Do you throw a curveball, a slider, a fastball, or a slowball? Who's hitting? Is she right or left-handed? How did your last three throws go? Every day you should be pitching something. But not everything you throw out there is going to be a home run. Are you learning what sells? Are you studying your customers? My direct customers are my co-workers and I continue to learn how to work with them. It might sound manipulative, but I believe there's actually some art to it. In what I do as a creative type a lot of times the easiest way to pitch an idea is to show an example or maybe even produce the idea to a certain level. Just talking the idea through with my team may be hard for them to visualize. I also mentioned pitching every day. I believe you're only going to get better at selling in your ideas if you do it regularly. In some form or another. Drip by drip. Send an email about your idea with a link. Bring it up after you've talked about it once. If you really b...

I listened to an interesting podcast the other day on forming habits and it really resonated with me. It was from Storybrand and it was an interview with James Clear, who wrote "Atomic Habits". I think of the habit I've formed of writing every morning over the last year. I wanted to get better at writing and I heard that starting a blog was a good way to do that. And part of having a blog was to just write something every day. So, for over a year now, almost every morning I write a post on my blog. This might take 15-30 minutes max... sometimes less, but I rarely miss a day. The thing I liked about the podcast though was the encouragement to not set these high and lofty goals but to start with something really easy. For example, I'm going to the gym and I'll work out for 5 minutes and go home. The goal is to make a habit of going to the gym, not to kill yourself for an hour. You want the experience whatever it is to be positive and then you want to build on it...

We were sitting at the table getting ready to eat supper. We were talking to my son Baer about not getting up from the table until he was done eating. He's almost 3. So Baer said to us, "I only get out of my seat when I don't like the food." We had to admit his logic is pretty good. And his statement is true. When he really likes what we're having to eat he doesn't have a problem staying in his chair.

Yesterday was a deadline. Which means that about 75% of those that were going to do something decided to do it yesterday. Along with that then comes problems. And when people get frustrated enough they call and want someone to solve their problem. Many of the calls coming yesterday were around not be able to upload their addresses. Or that some of their addresses weren't going through our system. Some of the calls were around not being able to use the website on a phone or tablet. Most of them were somewhat frustrated because the deadline was yesterday and the wanted to participate, but they were having a hard time doing it. The hard part for me then was taking the calls and only being able to do so much. If they were trying to do it on a phone or tablet, I had to tell them they had to use a computer. If they were having trouble with their list upload, I had to ask a bunch of questions and then the last resort was to have them send me their list and we would put their order in ...

The thoughts of Christmas have started and we're still over a week away from Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to Christmas, but some things like getting a Christmas card together or working together with my wife on how much to spend on gifts wear me down. I hope that this coming season we can enjoy the advent of Christmas as well as of Thanksgiving. I need help to make the right things the focus for myself and my family.

I spent a decent part of my Saturday, doing laundry, folding clothes, putting clothes away, putting stuff away, picking up things on the floor, and cleaning bathrooms. I'm not complaining about it, but it got me thinking about how all of these things will just continue to be things we have to do. Unless we hire someone else to do them or we have a machine that does them. Stuff gets left on the floor. Our clothes get dirty. Our bathrooms get dirty. Our clothes don't come out of the dryer folded and just pop back in the right drawer. This world takes work. Not just work at work, but work at home too. Yesterday made me think about what the world was like before Adam and Eve sinned and what the new earth will be like when all is made right? I don't know. I believe that we will have work, but I think it will be much different. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for t...

Well, I went to the eye doctor yesterday and mentioned that at night when I'm looking at my phone and I still have my glasses on or contacts in I can't read well close up. But, when I take my glasses off I can read better. She said that once you turn 40 your eyes have a harder time focusing up close. Your muscles actually are becoming weaker in your eyes and it takes more effort to focus up close that it does to focus further away. So, she said I'm going to in the next 5 to 10 years have to start looking into the B-word. Bifocals. I turned 40 this year, so I guess I'm right on schedule. I just noticed this a couple months ago as I was reading my phone at night with my contacts in. So it looks like one thing that 40s are going to deliver is "cheaters" or bifocals or something else to help compensate for my eyes getting weaker. I never thought I hear about the B-word at my eye doctor visit today.

What should I do? I was talking to one of our sales managers yesterday about how those that sell our product have a ton on their plate and they sometimes sell more than just our product too. We have certain things we would like to see them do and those things have deadlines, but they also have things they want or need to do. And the question I asked was how do we get more of our dealers to participate? Her response kind of took me off guard, but I think it speaks to the commitment of our sales managers. She said sometimes I just do it for them. It depends on what it is and what else they have going on. But if she feels it's really valuable for their business she'll jump right in and knock it out for them. She mentioned that she won't do that every time. Sometimes I look at doing something for someone else when they've been asked to do it and it should be their job as enabling, but it only is if they never do it. If you do a job for someone else because it won'...

This morning I'm really thankful for my parents and my wife's parents. They both live only a few blocks from us and they both are willing to help watch our kids once a week when we both work. So one mom will take the older two and the other will take the baby. Not only have they helped watch our kids, but the last two weeks they both have made us supper on that night. So, we've had supper already made the evening we both work and have another supper that we can eat the day after. I am so thankful that we have both sets of parents really close that can help us with our little ones right now. If we lived somewhere where we had no family close by it would be tough. So, today I'm thankful for my mom and mother-in-law. Thanks for watching our kids.

Over the past two days I've been thinking why have I pushed so hard for some changes on our website when everything was still working? Nothing was technically broken. And the reason I've started to question it is that it's been hard. It's taken a lot more work on a lot of people's parts than I guess I envisioned. We've had two different outside vendors working on the problem, plus 3 individuals internally. And we're past our launch date at this point. But, then I take a step back and know that these changes are going to make our customer experience so much better. The registration process will be painless. We have full control internally of our emails that need to be kicked out. We will have peace of mind with data to prove that everything is working as it should. So, why fix what's not broken? Because it's worth making things better for the customer. Even if it's hard. It's worth it in the end.

What makes a good business relationship? I'm thinking specifically about the client to vendor relationships. Here is a list of things I believe are important in working with clients. Be responsive. Have regular communication, not just on projects, but also on what the company is working on. Don't waste their time, but spend time with them. Bring new ideas that weren't necessarily asked for. Delight them. Understand the company you do work for... What makes them tick? What makes them comfortable? When they bring something up. Follow up on it quickly. Don't forget about it. Or worse yet, say you'll do something about it and not do it. Always hit your proposed deadlines or communicate that you're not going to hit them and why. But don't make missing deadlines a regular occurrence. Don't make it all about the Benjamins. If you have a good relationship you should be worth what you're asking for the work. Get approval for the estimate and then ...

This afternoon after church I took the kids outside and raked all the leaves in the backyard into a big pile. It took more work than just making smaller piles. We filled up a garbage can and with my kids, carried them over to the big pile. But it was worth it for them! And even though they're only 2 and 4 they helped out some. But the best part for them was getting to jump in the big pile of leaves. And you should have seen the smiles on their faces. My son especially. He had a grin on his face the entire time he was running until he jumped in the leaves. This was probably the highlight of my day yesterday, and most likely was for my kids too. We were only outside for about 30 minutes and it didn't take a ton of thought, just a little muscle, and patience. But it created a memory with my kids. I could have just decided I was going to do yard work and let them do whatever outside, but I want to try to do things with my kids.

I was at Kohls with my family doing a little shopping over the weekend and we met a woman named Maria while we there. She came right up to me and asked me my name, my kids' names, what we were having for lunch, if my kids have a lot of toys, and much more. She told us what all she had planned for the day as well and also mentioned where she lived which happens to be just around the block from our house. Why do I mention all of this? Well for one it doesn't happen that often that we have this much of a conversation when we go out shopping with other people. Maria has special needs and someone had taken her out for the day. There was something really refreshing about the interaction with her. She had the biggest smile and multiple times wanted some high-fives. She loved seeing our kids and especially our five-month-old son. In our society today there is a lot of talk about being a contributor to society. In fact, they do tests for babies in the womb to look for special needs ...

What happens when you have a group of family that's all willing to participate? You have a lot of fun videos to watch that are more engaging than TV. Just not the same quality. We've been using Marco Polo since around May of this year and I don't think I've actually skipped any video that's been posted there. And a couple days ago somehow dancing came up. I think we were having a dance party at home which we shared and then we asked my wife's cousin, Kylie, to do a dance since she's really good. So she did and then everyone else on that Marco Polo did as well including Kylie's mom and Kylie's husband. If you can find the right people to be on a group on Marco Polo and the right things to share it can really be entertaining. And I've gotten to know some of my wife's family in ways I never thought and probably wouldn't have at our family Thanksgivings and Christmases Nice job to the team that developed the Marco Polo app.

No, I wasn't sick yesterday. But I did spend most of my day in our two main floor bathrooms. I painted the walls. And even though there's not a lot of wall in a bathroom it just takes time to get everything taped off, all the stuff on the walls removed, and get things ready to paint. I think the worst part is trying to go around the toilet, so this time I took the tank of the toilet off and it made it a lot easier to paint behind there. I would say yesterday was tough... Not because I spent the day in the bathroom, but I took a Thursday off to work on our house instead of a Monday or a Friday and I really had a hard time pulling myself away from work stuff. There are always many things going on at work and I like to think I stay on top of things pretty well, but yesterday I just couldn't stop thinking about work stuff. I made a few calls still on my day off and responded to a couple emails. I know I didn't have to do these things and I probably shouldn't have beca...

This is a follow-up to my post from almost a month ago. I was starting to wonder if I was seeing things back then when I saw a mouse dart down our stairs into the basement. Well, I wasn't. A few days ago I found a dead mouse upside down in the middle of our playroom. I don't know if it was the same one or not, but he was the same color. Then my wife found another one in the downstairs workroom dead on a mousetrap. Hopefully, we don't have many more. But I'm glad we're getting them. I'd never used the sticky trap before, but it seemed to work well.

Should you go out for lunch with your co-workers? I sometimes ask myself this question. Not because I don't want to, but more so because of the cost and the question for me of how often. Plus, it takes up more time than bringing my lunch and eating at work. But, are these the right questions to be asking? I know it's more expensive. And I know I may get a little less "work" accomplished in the day. What if I just said I'll start going out once a month with someone or a couple people? And then be purposeful in the time with those people or person. How do you put a price on that? What about the value of a relationship? These are things to think through. Because at the end of my career I don't want to just be known as the guy who worked his butt off and rarely took a break to have relationships with people. I don't want to be the guy that no one really knew, but they knew he did great work. Should you go out for lunch with your co-workers? Yes.

This past weekend as we were driving to church all of sudden I noticed a man in a hooded sweatshirt hanging out of a vehicle holding something in his hands. Right away my mind went to car chase scenes in the movies where people are being shot at. I quickly moved into another lane. The guy literally had half of his body hanging out of the car. After taking a closer look I'm pretty sure he was trying to get photos or video of another car behind him, but it was pretty scary. Scary enough that we decided to get off at the exit and then get back on. Why do people do stuff like that? It's dangerous. Not only for the person taking the risk, but also the others on the road. I thought for a few seconds that there was a guy in a hooded sweatshirt that was going to fire a gun at another vehicle, possibly mine.

CBD (Cannabidiol) is everywhere right now. If I watch any TV I feel like I always see an ad for it. When I listen to music I hear ads for it. When I go past the gas stations there are signs for it. I think 2019 is the year of CBD. I'm not advocating for it by posting this article. I've never tried it. I know people who have and they say it helps with pain. But, I'm more just recording an observation that this year more than ever before it seems to be everywhere you look. So why is it everywhere? And what happens when you see and hear ads everywhere? Well, I know as a marketer the more you're exposed to an ad the more likely you're going to buy when the time is right. And I think there's a big market for pain relief. No one likes to have pain. When we're in pain we want to get rid of it, which it sounds like that what CBD seems to at least sometimes offer... pain relief. But, time will tell if it's a fad. If there are long term consequences. I still r...

What do you do with an extra hour? Go to bed at a normal time and get up an hour later. That's what I did with my extra hour last night. And it feels good to get that extra hour of rest. Another thing that is so nice with the time change is that my watch, phone, and computer all just change the time for me. I don't even have to think about it. So when my alarm went off this morning it gave me an extra hour.

We were at the library yesterday and my daughter wanted to find some Doc McStuffins books. I told her she could ask the librarian for help to figure out where they might be if she really wanted them, but she was going to have to ask. I told her I'd go with her. It took a little coaxing, and the librarian was really patient. But, she did get the words out and the librarian helped her find a Doc McStuffins book. Plus, she asked my daughter if she wanted to go in the back and find another Doc McStuffins book that had just been returned. So Josie got to go in the back with the librarian and find the book that had just gotten returned. It was kind of a fun teaching moment for me with Josie. If she hadn't asked the librarian for help she probably wouldn't have found those books and she definitely wouldn't have gotten to go by herself in the back with the librarian to find a second Doc McStuffins book. Sometimes it's good to just stop searching, be brave, and ask for...

So yesterday was Halloween and we had a record snowfall. And our kids had to wear boots to go trick-or-treating. But, I also tried some new candy yesterday that my father-in-law bought called Big Chewy NERDS and they were so good! I could have probably eaten the whole bag and would have been sick. They have the same NERDS taste, with a crunchy outside, but they have a chewy inside. A little bit similar to SPREE candy. I looked them up this morning and it looks like the came out last year and also won nonchocolate candy of the year. So others agree. Nice job NERDS team on coming out with a new spin on an old favorite of mine!