Post Jordan

Memorial Day isn't Veterans Day

Veteran - someone that's served in the miltary. It's intended as a past tense word.

One can also be a veteran of a campaign or war. That's not the same as being a veteran of the military. A veteran of the military is someone no longer serving.

Got that?

Now, Memorial Day isn't Veterans Day. It's not to remember the men and women who still live. It's not to honor the active duty military. 

It's about the fallen. Those who served and died.

Now I'm not saying it's wrong to honor our military, active, discharged or retired. It's better though to honor them properly.

In the photo above, the gentleman on the left is a retired veteran. The man on the right is active duty Army. The hottie in the middle is my wife.

Me? I'm a veteran. I made it out alive but not till retirement. 

We three men would prefer to use Memorial Day to honor those who have fallen. It's not about another holiday for a picnic, though you can do that. It's that you can have picnics, get drunk, and listen to loud music, because of that man or woman in a grave.

Kicking back a cold one this weekend? Grilling some brats? Take a moment to honor our fallen.

Nothing fancy is required. Perhaps just a moment with no music, shouting, or revelry. A moment of silence in your busy weekend.

How will you show your respect?

The end is never the end

We always say, "it's going to be better when I get there."

Real truth:

The end is never the end and you're always at the beginning.

Reading thoughts from two gents today, Chris Brogan and Seth Godin. They hit the nail on the head about 'the end.' Or how what we crave to have 'at the end' isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

T is a friend. Many times she asked me how to get the 'white picket fence.' My answer was always the same, start moving that direction.

She read books on motivation, planning, and goal setting. Sadly, there was no magic there. 

Speakers she heard focused on attitude and inspirational thinking, and finding kindred souls.

Notebooks were kept, writing exercises done, and worry still was there. How would she get 'there'.

Start moving. 

If you've ever had someone tell you that, you realize it's not simple. We don't always know what to do next. We're driven by goal accomplishment and moving on to the next. 

Truth? That only works if you already know the path.

T focused every day on the the end but wasn't willing to get on the path, the unknown path.

What better advice did I give? (and note, often forget for myself)

Be the person who has a white picket fence. 

Forget the picket fence, the big house, and that reliable car. Those are ends that aren't finishing points.

Forget learning some secret business or writing technique. There isn't one.

Forget winning the lottery. It happens but you can't control it.

Listen, learn, watch, absorb who the person is. 

It goes beyond individual doings and big efforts; it's about the attitude, behaviors, and patterns.

Is that person about getting proper rest, rising early, being on time? 

Does he or she practice endless hours? Write till they pass out? Long walks in the park?

The magic isn't in the finished novel; it's in the sweat, effort and grind along the way.

And when the novel is written and the pay check collected

You'll not be done. The end isn't what you're really after. It's the feeling of being behind the picket fence you wanted, or so you thought.

The morning will bring new desires and dreams. Your house will be too far from family or the car too old. The trusty typewriter must be replaced. The kids grow up and move away.

What's your end that isn't and are you focused on being over chasing that end?

Remember to read to your children

As Maurice Sendak passes, many acknowledge his most famous work, 'Where The Wild Things Are'. Each of them admires him, this book, or a cherished child hood memory.

Maurice and I weren't even acquaintances yet in one respect I know him.

He wanted to reach a heart or two with his work. He wanted to gift a bit of love and inspiration.

What better way than a childrens' book.

When was the last time you reached out? 

Drawing your own illustrations or making up a fantastical story isn't required.

Pick up a book today and read to your children or even someone else's.

What book have shared with a young mind?

Don't Be Part of the Wall

Are you part of the wall?

The wall is what we see when things block our view. Even noise can be a wall.

Are you part of that wall?

Twitter, Facebook, and even newer smaller networks can have their walls. Those walls are driven by folks like you and me. We create the wall.

What is the wall?

The wall is the noise of constant flow of posts from people we follow and those we don't.

Beyond your own posts, it's the retweets, reposts, likes, and shares. It's the upward spiral of reshares that make it worse.

An example is my favorite weekly Twitter chat, #blogchat.

It starts with the moderator introducing a guest or topic. Suddenly a hundred folks are retweeting every tweet that's more than a hello. <color me guilty as well>

One retweet leads to ten, then to hundreds more. Then the replies to those tweets. If you're following my stream at this point I've just created a stream of noise. 

There is no hope you're going to keep up with me; worse, you'll be unable to see anything else. Your conversations, threads, or even your own subscriptions, they are lost in the wall of noise.

You mean me?

You're saying it isn't you. I hear that. Trust me; it could be.

As I type this, a good friend just splatted five tweets in a row to my stream. Before I finish, at least one of those will be retweeted by someone else in my stream.

My niece, as wonderful as she might be, has discovered quote posting on Facebook.  My news stream becomes useless for however long she's posting, liking, and reposting those 'fun' little picture quotes. 

Why not share? I'm popular right?

Sharing is great. Even better if you can share something interesting, unique, or new. Sadly, that isn't many of us in the age of Twitter, Facebook, and instant news.

Rule of thumb? If you've seen it more than once, it's not news anymore.

I'm done telling you about the wall, and done making this post into one.

Do you see these walls? Is it me? Are you part of the wall?

Free, Cheap, and Easy

Are you giving your value away for free or cheap? Or is it just easy to get too?

Ask yourself what it is you're really selling. Ask yourself what you're buying.

If you're like me, you love getting something for free. Likewise, you hate to give away too much for free. 

Taking a different angle than Chris, I'll say you have to be willing to move out of free on both sides.

Drawing

I've taken up drawing over the past year or so. Searching for examples and lessons was key to that.

Watching videos, reading web sites, and finding folks to pick their brains there was knowledge to be had.

It's limited. It takes you through to the edge and moves aside the big boulders. 

The precipice is the free/non-free point.

Details

Giving folks a start is great. Get them excited and able to move beyond a circles and triangles, that's stil valuable, but it's high level.

Providing direct and specific tailored information is the other side.

The other side

Not a new concept, and Chris hammers this home in his latest newsletter, but it's worth remembering for being on the other side.

Don't expect to get the details for free.

You and I are always looking for something for nothing. It's time to stop looking for free, cheap, and easy.

Once the boulders are clear we have options.

• Explore on our own
• Pay for direct knowledge transfer

Exploring is more fun but can be frustrating when you're trying to use that knowledge for business. Likely not effecient either.

Paying gets you there faster. Bonus, it's more personal, immediately valuable, and has lasting value.

Expectations and Value

What do you expect for free and easy? Me? I'm done expecting personalized details. 

If that artist is willing to do more than give some slow knowledge, offer to pay.

Getting paid is a huge incentive.

What are you worth? What is the other guy's time worth?

Leaving it up to you to think over this and toss in your 2 cents.

Work isn't Practice

How does one get better at a skill?

Practice.

I'm asked how I became a succesful programmer.

I tell them practice.

What they here is, 'I worked for many years and survived long enough to get a decent job.'

What I mean is practiced outside of and even before I had a job as a programmer.

I couldn't make time and money to get formal training, so I began my practice programming on my own.

Coding became a passion. The practice was the hours starting over with 'hello world'. Each day I prepared and pushed.

Practice wasn't the sitting in the chair making code at work. Practice was all that lead up to that, and what continues to push me forward.

I didn't just fall into my current job; I prepared.

This post inspired by Zen Pencils, Always Be Prepared.

Note: My jobs are always in my 'blessings' category. Never consider you deserve anything; consider you make the most of where you find yourself; be prepared.

No More Doggie In The Window

No more doggie in the window. That's us in the Jordan house.

Surrendering Charlie was tough. The Human Society makes the process simple enough but it's not drop and go and forget.

We brought Charlie into the building where we waited for service. Of course, you're waiting with your pet for several minutes; pondering happens.

The young lady at HSMO was clear and efficient with the paperwork; it still took 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Telling the future owners about your pet is included in the paperwork. Questions about friendliness, playfulness, and attitude come along with favorite types of toys, activiity levels, and how they greet you at the door.

I wonder if the forms, questions, and waiting are designed to make one really think before giving up their pet.

A final thing before the formal handover, a reminder.

Surrending Charlie had one final step, the reminder.

They told us once we surrender him, we could not call and ask about him or his new family. Much like giving your child up for adoption.

Have you dealt with this before?

Vacation isn't about how far you travel but the distance you go

So often we claim we need to get away. We pack our bags, gas the car, and drive away.

Yet, we're not just driving to nowhere. We're always enroute to that perfect vacation spot, or at least the one we could afford.

Even with the 14 hour trip and 800 miles behind you, you're not on vacation just yet. The body is there but the mind isn't.

Likely this is you on your vacations. The stress sets in before the first bag is packed. Heck, likely the real anxiety you're working to escape may never leave you.

This explains the heavy us of chemicals. They give folks the closest thing to a vacation they'll give themselves.

I had a real bit of vacation this weekend. My wife and I celebrate 28 years of marriage.

We didn't travel far but we sure got away.

We committed the time to focus on each other, ourselves, and no one else. Time was taken to eat without rushing, to walk without a direction, and to hold hands. Dancing was thrown in as well.

None of those bits of being lost to the world required large distance or great time. No large investment was key.

What's your vacation plan?

Winning at Draw Something from an aspiring artist

I'll be frank; I'm not the best artist in the world.

I'm not even the best on the iPad.

That out of the way; I believe I can still give advice about how to play Draw Something.

As the person drawing:

keep it simple - if your drawing starts and ends with elaborate pieces and too many colors the person on the other end may miss the forest for the trees. 

use just enough drawing - if you need a smile, draw one. If you need a plane, draw that. Drawing an idea? Try to capture it with two figures and how they relate.

don't be afraid to scrap your work - if you get started and lose track of where you're going, delete the drawing and start fresh. Often if you're confused, so will the other person be.

consider drawing in parts - example: draw the first clue, erase, draw the second. This works well for some more complex words.

if you only need a head, draw just the head - drawing a whole body can easily confuse the other person, drawing focus away from the clue. Also, it's a patience thing; if the other person has to wait 2 minutes while you sketch an elaborate scene, it's just not as fun.

As the receiver:

watch the drawing - don't look only at the end. The other person might be conveying the word in two or more parts.

check the letters for obvious words - the shorter the word to find, the more likely it will stand out in the letters below. This works well for longer combination words, e.g. turn as part of turner or return.

consider the colors - if only one portion of a drawing is colored, focus on that item or portion

look at the faces - it might be as simple as a smile or anger. Emotions are often drawn through the facial expression.

if a series repeats, consider them as a whole - A B C characters, think alphabet. With a series of tall and short block or items, perhaps they're a skyline.

look for something odd - a huge apple for New York or the one guy hanging over the edge of the boat for seasick.

look for the arrow - often the drawer will point the clue out in an obvious way, such as an arrow drawn to it.

What are your tips? I've only scratched the surface of playing Draw Something.

Ephemera

A few things straying from my mind to yours. Enjoy.

App idea: geo-tagged story creation/narration. Items that only show in the app when geo-located with where recorded. Allow recording more than images, but also short text, voice snippets.

Free training - set up at your library and tell folks what a tweet is, and if it's really worth their time.

Things I wish people would write more about:

- online life and happy marriages

- how to connect with local restauranteurs 

- how to get that first client

- what is surrendering an animal

- why are bloggers going across the ocean to learn about people, places, and crisis situations

I'd like to write about:

- my marriage - how it is celebrating 28 years of marriage

- having to give up a pet

- how I consider myself to be a Christian but not closed minded and stiff

- life on a submarine. Lots of false starts here. 

Only midly prompted by @ChrisBrogan post - Future Scratches, though less about business, and more or less useless.