Filed under: life
I need some time away from the internet. Shortly before Garrett was born I sensed this, half-ass tried it, but caved. There is a severe lack of discipline in my life right now, and I need to cut loose the non-essential stuff – blogging, myspace, facebook, etc. I have a compulsive personality that unfortunately gets me into non-essential stuff.
So tomorrow – Monday – I will take a break from non-work internet stuff. It being Monday brings me back to a song I wrote a few years ago. In this song are the best lyrics I’ve ever penned:
The bane of my intent is reason
Endless planning, nothing done
This lack of acts amounts to treason
To the man I should become
The song is called “It’ll happen on Monday,” and it’s about how my compulsiveness always mandates that I start new ventures on Monday. I’ve tried other days. Doesn’t work. Needs to be Monday. Anyway…
It is likely important that I jot down why I’m doing this – my mental state of this dreary Sunday afternoon:
I feel displaced and awkward at my core lately when it comes to just hanging out with people. Conversely, place me in front of a few VPs at a business meeting or a business owner whom is considering using D&A Design, and I’m totally confident, calm, purposeful, and comfortable in my skin. But if I’m just hanging out with a few new friends I’m a ball of anxiety, unsure of what to do, what to talk about, etc. This is pathetic. I am not sure why or how I got to this place.
Ten years ago I experienced the exact opposite: I journeyed through a season of life where I journaled how I felt like I had been given a giant crate labeled “dan,” and in this crate was who I was at the time. I kept pulling stuff out of this crate with a great degree of satisfaction and sometimes bewilderment, but I knew that by working through some crap in the season prior, I had come into a realization of purpose and identity.
Right now my identity is wrapped up in titles: Business owner, father, husband, and so on. This is not to say that I do not thoroughly enjoy, and am humbled by these new roles. They’re great. Far better, far more enriching than I ever thought it would be. But the garden of my being needs to be weeded. Sometimes I need to kick my ass into shape – hard but good discipline.
I need to get to bed earlier. Since becoming self-employed I’ve gone back to staying up late. I love working on a project late at night with AM talk radio on in the background. I’ve taken a ton of overnight road trips with Art Bell as my only companion when Andrea and I were long-distance dating. There’s just something about the night.
But I am now a morning person. I absolutely love 6am. When my alarm sounds, I’m out of bed immediately. Snooze is not an option. So I need to face the facts that the season of life for late nights is over, and God has blessed me with joy for mornings.
I need to eat better, too. More variety, more planned-out meals so as to not waste time.
I need to get my yard back into shape when it warms up. Lots of plans here – chicken wire will go up in certain areas so as to reclaim areas where dogs have trampled.
In short, I need more discipline.
Filed under: business
There is nothing that will turn a person into a Government-loathing Libertarian more than business ownership. Once you have to write the quarterly tax estimates to Uncle Sam, money that you earned, you sold, you developed, you were paid… well, in kind terms, it sucks hard.
Andrea had prepared for 2007 taxes so we didn’t owe much. If I have to choose between the two, I’d rather owe than get a check come tax time. If I am getting a check, that just means I over-paid. I can put my money in a much better savings vehicle than the bloated govt., thank you very much.
So as a business owner, around this time of year we get the double-whammy: We get to pay the balance of taxes-due for 2007, AND pay our 1Q 2008 estimate for D&A Design! And to make it even more of a joy, March has sucked in terms of getting checks for the business. It has been a very good month in terms of developing new business, and I fully expect the months ahead to be much better than March. But still… writing those checks to a govt. that gives zero in return, that invades other countries for no good reason, that funds artists who place the Cross in a fish bowl of urine, … it’s just as taxing to my nerves as it is to our wallet.
Yet even as I write this I hear Jesus …give to the government what’s theirs, give to God what is His (my paraphrasing)… it’s not “mine” in a grand sense.
Filed under: business, design (and branding), happenings | Tags: climate change, design (and branding), global warming, ohio floods
We moved into our house July 2006. Since then we have experienced:
- An ice storm
- Severe Drought
- Blizzard
- Severe Flooding
My basement is wet. Streams of water are flowing toward the center main drain. This house was built in 1944, and it’s a solid as a rock. The rain seems to have overcome our sump pump (our second one since moving in), but when the pump pit over flows, the water streams directly into the drain. This wetness – hard to call it “flooding” – caused me to realize that the drain cover is partially rusted. I guess this has been an issue for a long, long time. The tile-on-concrete floor is doing well, too. Though last night we were taken aback when we saw 4 perfect spouts of water flowing the bottom of one wall, forming a solid stream that ran directly to the main drain. Unseen until last night, these holes are perfect 1/4″ holes apparently drilled to relieve pressure on one wall when it’s really wet. The more I get to know this house, the more amazed I am by it’s simple-yet-efficient design!Unlike my hand-wringing Leftist pals, I do not think this is the result of man-made Global Warming/Cooling or the so-simple-it’s-silly phrase now being thrown around, “Climate Change” (seriously – Climate Change??? who thinks of this? soon Sun Setting will be a global concern).
To me, it is quite pompous to say that the weather is the result of people when weather records only go back 100 years or so. Who’s to say that the last 1,000 years haven’t been a hiccup in what is really ideal on Earth? Make no mistake: The snake oil of people-caused Global Warming or whatever is bunk.
But it is also entertaining, even in the skeptic’s seat. On one hand, new Green Initiatives in corporate America have drummed up new business opportunities in design and branding. Trying find renewable materials to use in packaging or printed pieces just makes design projects more interesting. Though I do get a kick out of proposing the options of virgin paper versus recycled paper for a project, and virgin paper is picked almost every time because the ink will “pop” more when the package is on-shelf. Depends on the product, I suppose…
I was in a Target store a few months ago and saw an end-cap with “green” electronics. The packaging was designed and printed on uncoated stock, matte colors, very flat from a design perspective. Flat is also seen as “simple” a la most Target packaging. It is not good or bad design – I don’t believe in good or bad design, it’s all relative to the client and their goals. Anyway, I saw these “green” electronics products, and laughed aloud saying “God bless capitalism.” I mean, here is a situation where someone realized that they could sell more widgets if they tweaked production a way or two, redesign the packaging, and leave the consumer believing they just did a little something to save the planet!
Personally and professionally, I have no problems with Green Initiatives so long as the Koolaide isn’t forced down anyone’s throat. Let the free market figure out sustainable ways, and who knows – maybe Green production methods will result in better ROI for everyone!
Filed under: happenings
I just read Barak Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech he is to give today over at Drudge. I’d post a link, but it will be dead by day’s end.
Obama’s proposed policies couldn’t be more different, and sometimes opposed, to my core beliefs. He is a “government can fix all” guy – proposing a plethora of new Big Brother spending that the so-called “wealthy” will pay for by increased taxes. As if the “wealthy” don’t already pay way more than the lion’s share. I digress.
The speech, though, is yet another example of the brilliance of Obama’s campaign. If he is not the next President of the USA, then something will have gone terribly wrong. Instead of doing the tried-and-true political move of citing a line like Bill Clinton’s jargon about getting on to the work of the American People, Obama breaths a few more news cycles of life into the Rev. Wright issue! The speech is not full of vague references followed by vague and/or grand movements away from the bigoted banter of Rev. Wright – no, Obama calls it out, disassociates himself from it, and supplies well thought-out logic as to why.
As a Ron Paul Conservative, I left that speech – which as of this writing has not been given yet – satisfied. Obama made his case, it makes sense. I have a few Leftist friends, some I count as sisters and brothers, and our debates are fiery and sometimes result in temporary tempers. But cooler heads prevail because we love each other. I am not going to only have fellow Conservatives around me – that would be incredibly boring. The more I spar with my Lefty pals, the sharper my mind becomes. What’s more, sometimes I end up changing my stance on some issues, so long as it falls in line with my core principles.
Here’s another aspect of Obama no one is talking about: Whether you regard Rush Limbaugh as a leader or an entertainer (or better/worse), one cannot deny the impact Rush has and has had on the political landscape for the past 12-15 years. The one thing Rush talks about no matter who is President is the importance of being optimistic. Conservatism, at its core, is an optimistic world view. Conservatism believes that the individual can thrive, prosper, and help his/her fellow man/woman by resources available without govt. intervention. Conservatism has a positive outlook on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Optimism attracts people, and this is why the Democrats have failed on such a grand scale over the past 20 years, because they offer a persistently negative outlook on life. Everything is in need of repair, reform, or some govt. program to “fix” any given situation.
Then along comes Obama, with Big Govt. veiled in optimism. The guy has a very positive outlook on things, and sells his ideas around a genuine offering of “hope.” Hope is a universally optimistic theme. Anyone who has hope has a seed of optimism. And we see the crowds of people organizing behind Obama.
Personally, I plan to vote for whomever the Democrat is on my ballot come November. To me, the GOP is no longer the home to Conservatism. George W. Bush is no more a Conservative than I am a border collie. So some time in the wilderness is needed to see if the GOP and Conservatism can still live under the same roof. I can’t vote for John McXerox because it would be more of the same – unfulfilled expectations, quasi-conservatism (note the lower-case “c”), and more war. I just hope that Obama can weather whatever is on the horizon for him. I’d like to see this experiment played out.
Filed under: life
The Gov. Spitzer story has caused me to think again on the modern day person’s ability to discern between absolute Right and absolute Wrong.
In pop culture any form of critique on another human is judgment, and so it goes that, in the minds of otherwise well-intentioned people, “judging” someone (even oneself) is inherently wrong.
The problem with this kind of thinking is that it cancels itself out: I can tell you (read: judge you) as being wrong when you are labeling (judging) someone else as being wrong.
Compounding the illogic is the question of where the concept of wrong and right come from. I think a lot of people would say that wrong or right are relative to your situation or how you feel. Emotions rule the day.
But the example Ravi Zacharius often gives is relevant to cite here: The person who says “There are no absolute truths” is stuck in a cycle of illogic. If they are right, then the absence of absolute truth would in fact be an absolute truth. And so goes the person who judges another for judging yet another person’s behavior as wrong.The real question is: If relativism is really the systemic heartbeat of pop culture morality, how can there even be a Right or Wrong at all?
Application is ugly. I’ve had this debate with several Humanists, and whenever their logic is brought to fruition – to its fullest potential, the debate turns nasty. Here’s why: The relativists of today would have to judge themselves and thus remain silent, and not stop or condemn the death camps of the Nazi’s. After all, who are we to judge?
On the other hand, there is genuine concern and outrage being dealt on issues like Darfur, war (in general), environmental issues, and the role/size of government. “Right” and “Wrong” are being bandied about as though they had some root that everyone knows about.
Somehow, some way this conversation has to become common. Otherwise the “do what feels right” line of thinking will play out to a nasty end result. There are absolutes, this much we know by elementary logic. Determining what these absolutes are, and where they come from will probably make some uncomfortable, but I have to believe this is a necessity.
Filed under: design (and branding)
I thought it would be interesting to list what’s in my doc, and hear what is in other people’s docs.
For the non-Mac follk: The doc is is a Mac thing. It’s where we launch our programs from. You can place your doc at the bottom, left or right side, and it can always be present or only appear when you mouse-over the area. Also, there is a magnification setting that causes the program icon to enlarge as you mouse-over each icon. I don’t do that, but it’s there if you want it.
So… to start, here’s a pic of my doc:
Here’s a list of what’s here:
- Finder
- iCal
- Firefox
- Safari
- CyberDuck (FTP Client)
- iChat
- Adobe Illustrator CS3
- Adobe Photoshop CS3
- Adobe InDesign CS3
- Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
- Adobe Flash CS3
- Adobe Acrobat CS3
- Preview
- iPhoto
- PhotoBooth
- Linotype FontExplorer X (a free font management utility!)
- MS Word
- MS Excel
- MS Powerpoint
- VLC (a free video player, lets you take screen grabs – iDVD does not.)
- TextEdit
- Address Book
- Printer Utility
- System Preferences
- Disk Utility
- SafeEyes
- Time Machine
Anyone else care to show? Is there something like this on a Windows machine? If not, why not get a Mac?!?
Filed under: life
Yesterday’s time change was almost the first one experienced totally automatically. It wasn’t until 3pm that I realized that my kitchen clock was off. Had it not been for my kitchen and Jeep clocks, it would have changed automatically on all my clocks, and I wouldn’t have noticed. I don’t know if that’s scary or cool.
I continue to hear this voice in my head: “Little things before big things.” Need to listen to that more.
I need to get out of Cincinnati. When I moved here – gasp! – 4.5 years ago I had to leave at least every 3-4 months because I felt claustrophobic here. I love the hills and trees, but it’s a lot more cramped together than the wide-open, boring planes of northern Illinois. Last time I was in IL was this past summer, and that’s way too long. We are going to do everything possible to get up there in April, and it will be our first trip with Garrett.
The “blizzard” was more like a temper-tantrum. I’d say that 90% of it has thawed already. After a severe drought last summer, all this snow is very welcome to me and my trees. As soon as it has dried up to the point where water is not standing on the sidewalk, I look forward to returning to a nightly routine of going for a walk.
IKEA opens its latest store in near by West Chester on Wednesday, and as of this morning there were tents outside the doors. Literally. Now, for the record, I’ve shopped at IKEA for nearly 10 years. Though I have a troubling fondness for the film “Fight Club,” I part ways with What Would Tyler Durdin Do when it comes to the Blue-and-Yellow. At one point, around 2002, I had to sit myself down and stop myself from buying more IKEA goods. My apartment looked like an IKEA in-store room (which my pal Drew sets up in one of the CA stores). Anyway – I say all of that because some locals are beginning to bemoan “IKEA-snobs” because of these campers, but I would probably qualify as an IKEA-snob and there’s no way I’d ever camp out for a store opening. I won’t say these people are losers – to each his/her own, but I have to believe there’s something more productive they could be doing. I’ll be at the store either late Wednesday or Thursday morning, but not after camping out a few days. I actually have need: I got Garrett’s changing table from the Schaumburg IKEA in July, and didn’t get the specialty-sized IKEA changing pad. So they can count on my $5.00 for that.
Tonight I launched the new D&A Design website update. It’s not an overhaul – just an evolution of the site. Part of putting together a good website is creating searchable content so when someone googles a word or phrase, they see your site on the first pages. This is an exercise in patience and craftiness. The key to success is words, and how/where they’re placed. My previous site was not too friendly for that unless you searched for my name, but now it’s better. For instance, I now have pages dedicated to my services: Branding, logos, packaging design, etc. That helps. The catch, though, is that for one’s site to be ranked, it takes a month or so to see progress. One thing that helps is when another site posts a link to a friendly site (most of the time), so if anyone reading this wants to link to our site, feel free! (www.d-a-design.com)
I discovered “The Devil Wears Prada” the other night. No, not the movie or book – the BAND. As JD said when I sent him a link to their myspace page, “must… resist…hope…” for this to be a sign of good to come out of the otherwise incestuous “christian” music industry. That’s another blog altogether.
I’ve discovered a fondness for 3 Musketeers bars. Who knew?
We’re going to sell one of our vehicles. We simply don’t drive very much anymore, so our 2003 Toyota Matrix (red) will go on craigslist.org soon. It’ll be odd to only have 1 car, but man am I excited about having less stuff. I need to do some serious spring cleaning soon and begin unloading stuff. If not craigslist, we have a plethora of resell stores I’d be happy to give stuff away to.
Filed under: happenings
I bet if it were Boston or NYC getting hit with a blizzard instead of Cincinnati, it would be a top story for the monkey-media. We’ll see what happens in a day or so when this storm makes its way to the Northeast. My money is on it being a Major Event. One more reason journalism is dead.
So today’s weather has officially become a blizzard, and just 4 days ago it was in the lower 70s and sunny. This is why the month of March always comes with some hesitation on my part – as though I don’t trust it. We have buds on trees, and our tulips have been showing their turtle-heads for two weeks now. Tulips: They’re a much stronger, resilient flower than I think. They’re like the Marine Corps of flowers – coming in bloom right on the heels of winter, like a persistent salesman at a car lot.
It’s a good weekend for a blizzard. I didn’t need spring fever drawing me away from a sorely needed business website update (almost done), and a house that needs to be cleaned. I’ve not been able to clean the house in about 2-3 weeks, and I am fighting depression because of it. No joke. The bane of a neat-freak: Diry house.
On a positive note, though, I have great optimism about the business. I figure if I can keep a humble yet optimistic attitude during this infantile stage, and during a recession to boot, we should do well. On paper it probably doesn’t look “wise” to start a business in these conditions, but my gut says otherwise. I probably sound like a broken record, but I’ll say it again: I’ll take intuition over analysis anytime.
Garrett rolled over on his own last night for the first time. Such a strong boy. We went to the Cincinnati Home & Garden Show yesterday afternoon with him, and he got too hot at one point so I had to get him out of the stroller and carry him around. I’d periodically take a look at him as I kept a running commentary about what he was looking at. I mean, the kid’s never seen flowers in his life! Amazing. Anyway… as I would look at him I couldn’t help but notice how comfortable in his skin he seems. He is so alert for 4 months old. More of my lack of baby exposure at play here, but that’s not a bad thing. I enjoy experiencing all of this at it happens. I finally made him laugh yesterday, too: Tickles on the tummy and chest.
Why do doctors call it “tummy”? Why not “stomach” or “belly” or “abdomen.” I don’t think I’ve heard a family doctor call the stomach a stomach – it’s always “tummy.” Odd.
I need to do a Phase One shoveling. Don’t want to shovel all 12″+ on Sunday.
Filed under: life
Two pet peeves came into focus today. First, I loathe hearing someone say “let’s have fun!,” or “we’re going to have fun!” because it pretty much ensures that fun will not be had. This came into focus earlier tonight when I got an email from an organization leader I’m part of whom was referring to an upcoming social networking event, and this person assured all recipients of the email that we would have “fun.” Get lost.
The other pet peeve is one of those minor things in life. It’s when you’re driving home from a grocery store with food in plastic bags, and stuff begins to roll around in the trunk or floor-board in the bag. Hearing the crinkling of plastic, where every turn you make is cause for more crinkling just annoying the hell out of me.
I voted for Ron Paul yesterday. I was not old enough to vote for Reagan, so I consider this vote for Ron Paul to be my first “big” vote. It irks me that talk radio hosts, journalists, and friends alike whom share the Conservatism ideology simply will not follow Ron Paul. I tend to get the standard line, “he has the right message, but he’s not the right messenger.” But McBush is?!? Sorry, but when I hear McBush speak it is eye-glazing, uninspiring, self-righteous, estrogen-laced, mouth-breathing fodder for idiots. It’s more of the same: Modern-day Republicanism, which is actually 1960s Democrat party talk and policy. I plan on voting for the Democrat come November so that we can hopefully have 3 years of a Carter-esque president in order to give rise to refined true Conservatism.
Spent all day Monday in Chillicothe with friend Steve and Melissa, and here in southern Ohio it was a beautiful sunny day, spent mostly in the upper 60s, lower 70s. Spring fever stirred me. Having good friends on hand also stirred me. Here in Cincy our very few friends are spread out – takes a 30 minute car ride to get to someone’s house, and that just sucks. I really need to become more pro-active in making friends here in our little city. It’s not going to fall in my lap.
On my way home I called up a brother, Tobie, and we talked about our winter mentalities. Tobie is a guy that God crossed my life with when I hired him at a previous job. A true brother in Jesus; we’ve been mistaken as cousins, too, as we look sorta alike and don good-looking healthy beards. Anyway, we tend to be very transparent with each other, mostly due to the fact that he’s in another state, and we talked about how we have noticed ourselves being generally pissed a lot lately for unknown reasons. We have everything we could ever ask or want, materially, yet there is this deep-seeded anger that dwells and surfaces. Our conversation ended with the always-comforting assurance that we are not alone.
