Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

On a lighter note...

Happy Mother's Day card inspired by the lolcat universe. Hope you are all celebrating Mother's Day with someone!

Unmoderated comment section available nearby

Those of you who have read this blog for any length of time have probably noticed a shortage of uncivil comments.  That's because this blog frowns on ad hominum remarks, unless made by this blogger, of course. The main focus of this blog is on facts and on improving the quality of life.

This approach seems to be popular with most readers, but it leaves some irate commenters feeling that they have not had a chance to be heard. Well, there is a solution. There is now a place where those whose comments are not being posted here can say what is really on their minds.

The Blue Ridge Muse, owned and operated by good friend Doug Thompson has some of the most spectacular photography and provocative articles of any blog in the area.

He is also a public-spirited blogger who hosts an unmoderated comment section where conflicting views are discussed with no holds barred. So, if you ever feel that you are not getting all of the story here, visit the Blue Ridge Muse.

If you like excitement, arguments, and an insight into the hidden stories of Floyd with your morning coffee, you can get it all there, hot and steaming right out of the tap.

Genial host Doug keeps the discussion from getting out of hand, but just barely. So, if you want to kick start your day with a little excitement, visit the Blue Ridge Muse.

When thoughts wander...

We looked out at this surreal scene this morning and my first thought was "That's what the inside of my head feels like!

Gretchen was not amused. After caring for me during my five days of illness, she succumbed today and is down with a fever.

We have been doing our best to stay focused these last several days, but it is really getting to be a chore.

After taking this shot, I managed to split and stack enough firewood to carry us through the next few days and then slept for a few hours until I felt ready to tackle paying bills and other chores.

By then Gretchen was rested enough to spend a few hours in a phone conference.

We spent the rest of the day alternating between sleeping and trying to keep our lives on schedule. This is hard to do because we find our thoughts wandering and we keep checking with each other to make sure that chores are really done.

"Did I take my medicine?"

"I'm not sure."

"Bummer!"

I know we are not alone in this effort to get through illness, but we are trying to avoid contact with people until we can be sure that we will not be sharing whatever it is that we have. Our neighboring friends have offered to help us several times and we really appreciate it, but this is one of the few times I've felt it would be an unkindness to expose them to this debilitating and distracting illness.

Later in the afternoon, the rain started and has continued for about 8 hours. My hope is that all will be gone by the weekend and we can enjoy some quiet time in the sun on our back deck.

We hope that you are holding up through these stormy days of early Spring and that we can all get out soon to enjoy some good weather.

To get the full effect of what it felt like looking out into our back yard, please continue reading past the jump.

Early Morning Blogging

I enjoy working in the early hours of the morning because the house is still and the world outside is dark and still asleep. I can work away on untested ideas without having to respond to the phone or to break for visitors. Once I am at work, there is enough high priority work to fill every minute available, so untested ideas which need uninterrupted time for contemplation get kept for quieter hours.

Then again, as I write this, I hear a low crooning behind me and our female cat Buffy the Slayer scuttles across the room with a hapless mouse or mole dangling from her jaws. It is hard to tell because she is moving fast and is trying to hide it from my view. She has just returned from a brief foray into the rainy night with her first catch of the day.

She no longer brings her prizes for me to view because I invariably pick them up and hurl them into the outside darkness before they drip on the rug.

Now she merely croons to let me know her hunt was successful and then she disappears into one of the back rooms to snack on her prey. With luck, we will discover the little carcass before it begins to get ripe.

We notice an interesting pattern in the daily behavior of our little huntress. She has several places where she spends time observing mice and mole activity but cannot get close enough to capture anything. Later she will go out the door and return with prey in a matter of minutes.

Well, it's 6:15am now and my email alert is going off. Time to get on with the business of the day.

The first thing is to discover where Buffy left her early morning treat... UPDATE: A well-chewed half-mouse was lying inside the bedroom and I disposed of it. Buffy had already gone outside in search of another one.

Martha Stewart would have approved...

When you are invited to a barbecue in Northern Virginia, the hospitality can be quite frankly overwhelming.

We went up North to attend a friend's wedding and were invited to a barbecue put on by her next-door neighbors, Jack and Joanne.

About 40 of us trooped into Jack and Joanne's house cheerfully expecting fried chicken and fixin's and were greeted by a "barbecue" to end all barbecues.

First came the baked brie with a glaze of nuts and sugar in a phyllo crust. Then came the hot spinach Parmesan dip and homemade bruschetta. I almost foundered at this point due to overindulgence, but I determinedly stayed on my feet and wended my way into the dining room where a long table was spread with everything from moussaka, to chicken, to baked ham.

I cautioned myself, "Take a little bit of everything" and steadied myself for a cruise around the table. The food was amazing, but I was strong and was able to restrain myself to only two helpings.

I watched with admiration as Joanne continued to pull food out of the ovens as her guests swirled around her and her husband Jack entertained this vast crowd of strangers as though we had all been friends for years. And so it was, because these wonderful people became our friends and will occupy a special place in our hearts for years to come because of their generosity and gracious welcome.

I was so taken with the ease with which they took us in and made us feel welcome that I almost overlooked the dessert room. Several fruit cobblers, an ice cream cake, and slow-cranked ice cream awaited us in a glass-walled breakfast room off the kitchen.

Jack and Joanne made this wedding rehearsal night even more of a special occasion.

Oh, that milking machine photo at the top? That stood in the corner of their living room. Joanne put it there to remind her of her early life on a farm.

Comments are restricted

I have been inundated with spam today and have had to invoke the dreaded comment authentication feature.

Please bear with me until I find a simpler way of screening your valued comments out of the flood of automated spam comments generated by Fritz, Jolie, Hector, Karl. etc., etc.

I enjoy all of your comments.

Please continue, unless you are Fritz, Jolie, etc.

Feline organizational structures- part 3

Overcoming adversity

When sickness strikes one member  of a group, it can bring out protective attitudes in other group members who normally exhibit only hostile behavior. This picture, by Amy Thompson, captures a unique moment in the Thompson household.

Cats, like people, compete for social status within a group and often show aggression towards those who threaten their position in the group. This can change when one of the cats in a groups falls ill.

Tonight Dr Jekyll, normally one of the most aggressive cats in the Thompson household, took on the role of nursing Loki, who has been exhibiting signs of feline epilepsy. 

Jekyll licked Loki awake, then walked him to the litter box where he stood guard. Then he stood guard while the kitten fed from the community feeding station. Normally the kitten is pushed out of the way by the larger cats, including Jekyll, so this new behavior by Jekyll was highly unusual, to say the least.

Loki has had several brief seizures since we arrived. At first we thought they might be nightmares, because they usually occurred when he was sleeping, sometimes even when he was purring.  When it happened, he would shake uncontrollably for almost a minute and then collapse in a semi-conscious state with irregular breathing and trembling. He recovered each time after we comforted him. The other cats were in attendance during some of these attacks, so it may have been evident to them that the kitten was unwell.

Doug and Amy will be taking Loki to see the vet as soon as possible, but it is a good sign, to me at least, that he is getting special attention from another cat as well.

We have seen for ourselves how our cats will become especially protective of us whenever we get sick or injured, but this is the first time I had seen an aggressive cat become protective of another.

I hope you are all well during this holiday season and if you are not, I hope that you are receiving the same love and attention that we are able to give Loki. It is a difficult time when you are sick or injured. Having a friend or loved one to look after you is the best that you can ask for.

Be well and take care of each other. May we all start the new year in good health and a good state of mind.

First Snowfall of the Season

This picturesque scene marks the beginning of white-knuckle driving season.  I have a finished project to deliver tomorrow and the driveway is a real challenge when it is covered with snow. I made a delivery today, but only because I was able to use a friend's four-wheel-drive pickup.

Later, I drove to the Post Office in our sure-footed Subaru, but I could picture myself skating all over in the two-wheel-drive Dodge Van. It is a powerful and stable vehicle, but when it breaks loose on  a slippery road, the big fifteen-passenger van is positively scary. That great mass of moving metal and no traction!

I have a lot of hauling to do for the move to Floyd and a few inches of snow typically renders the van useless. Our move deadline is only two weeks away and the van must be useable, so I started thinking about snow tires.  I need more traction for the van. This was at 3:30 pm today.

I have delayed solving this problem for at least a year and I am now up against the stops. The heavy mixture of snow and rain coming down steadily has finally jacked up my necessity level to the point where I feel compelled to do something about my van so it will be useful during the winter. 

Fortunately, I have a friend, Gerry, who is a fount of information on all sorts of useful things. I called him as I negotiated slippery roads on my way back from the Post Office. Gerry steered me to a guy named Rodney who worked in Campbell's, a local tire store I had never heard of before.

I immediately call the place and speak to Rodney, who is an alert and helpful guy. I describe my problem and he suggests an off-road tire called a Buckshot Mudder which he says has an aggressive tread pattern. It sounds good to me and I like the name and the price. I am still slippy-sliding around and it's getting darker, so I order these off-road tires and a set of aftermarket wheels. Rodney said I could pick up the tires in less than an hour.

I make it home, fire up the Dodge B3500, cross my fingers and head out into the storm in search of new tires. After a bit of a struggle and another call to Gerry for directions, I find Campbell Tires and pull into the parking lot at 4:30 pm.

I walk into an office/showroom which is filled with unshaven guys with camo jackets and trucker hats. They are all waiting for service and they snicker to themselves as I walk up to the counter. I look around and count at least 8 guys waiting and see that only 45 minutes until closing time. The guy behind the counter doesn't look very helpful either.

While I'm standing there trying to figure out what has gone wrong, a stocky dynamo of a guy comes bursting in from the shop area outside. He smiles and calls out, "I've got your tires already mounted! I'll put them on next, after I take care of the purple pickup truck that's ahead of you."

I smile and thank him and head for the door to put my van next in line. The office is strangely silent. I didn't even bother to look at anyone. I could feel the confusion welling up as I left.

Ten minutes later, Rodney tapped on my window and I slid gratefully into the service bay. He replaced my rear tires with the Buckshot Mudders in less than ten minutes. As you can see, they have a seriously aggressive tread design. 

As I left, he explained that the guys in the showroom don't usually call ahead. They bring their trucks in and then they spend a good deal of time picking out tires in the showroom. Tire shopping is a big production for them and they bring friends along to assist in the process.

As I pulled out of the lot, I could see that he was right. The purple pickup that was ahead of me was still up on jacks, waiting for the owner to decide what tires to buy.

When I got home and charged into my backlog of tasks, I was reminded that there is a road less traveled. Buffy sleeps serenely on top of my desk, oblivious to the sound and fury of our preparations for the move to Floyd. This was shot earlier, but her position today is much the same.

I hope that you, too, can take time from your busy schedules to stretch out and enjoy a few peaceful moments

Children of the Internet - part 2

The Children of the Internet will introduce change into our society in ways we cannot easily predict because they are bypassing traditional sources of information.

A culture controls change if it can restrict the flow of information. As long as a child only learns skills, attitudes, and fears from its extended family, that child is protected from the corrupting (and civilizing) effect of "outside ideas".

The child of such a culture can be raised to regard all outside the group as inferior or as enemies to be slain or subjugated. By the time the child is old enough to see that these "inferiors" have superior technology and lifestyles, it can be so warped that its only recourse is to destroy that which it cannot emulate.

The internet, with its overwhelming abundance of information, incredible beauty, and skillfully delivered lies, presents a challenge to any culture, even an advanced and open-minded one. The internet, even in its present limited form, presents the ultimate threat to closed cultures. The open flow of information exposes many lies that these cultures use to keep their citizens under control.

In the past, children would not be immersed in cultures outside their immediate environment until they were at least 12 years old. Today, five-year-olds are finding out that Mom, Dad and other authority figures really do not know what they are talking about. This places greater importance than ever on telling your children the truth.

When women of a closed and degraded culture see that intelligent, strong women of other cultures can excel in business and in war, it stirs up the kind of ideas that despots really hate! When races deemed inferior by some, can see that others of their race are worshipped as popular heroes, it tends to break down the mindset that caste systems rely on to survive.

Children given free access to the Internet may not easily unlearn lessons of hatred and bigotry, but they will quickly spot when the "truths" they have been taught bear little relationship to reality. This is true whether they live on the eastern seaboard of the US, in the heart of Los Angeles, or on the outskirts of Baghdad.

I feel that access to unlimited information will eventually result in children selecting the best parts of many cultures and synthesizing their own, to the shock and horror of those who insist on acting as "guardians of culture".

Some of the recent extreme fashion trends coming out of Japan may be a harbinger of things to come. Fashion may be a leading indicator of change because it is so visible. I think the real changes will be those that we cannot readily see because they represent new ways of thinking and dealing with people.

I hesitate to predict anything more specific other than this: those who cannot embrace change will go down fighting as they are rendered irrelevant. :)

Tag: Children of the Internet

Children of the Internet - part 1

The Children of the Internet live among us almost undetected, their numbers growing every day. As they tap the vast resources of the Internet to feed their hungry minds, they find each other and slowly become conscious of themselves as a culture in the making. Embedded in a society that is almost too busy to notice them, they undergo a transformation from talented individuals to a potent political and cultural force.

Unlike religions that have a mission to overthrow and subjugate others, the Children of the Internet are transforming society from within. These are our children and grandchildren and they bring knowledge into the household that isn't pre-screened by Mom and Dad.

In the past it was understood that children received most of their knowledge, attitudes and opinions from their parents until they approached their teens. Once they reached 12 years of age it was quite observable that in most cases, children regarded parents as highly suspect sources of information. Most twelve-year-olds went to outside sources for real data about the things that matter.

This was a direct result of the efforts that many parents make to protect their children from the unpleasant truths of life. As children observed that their parent's explanations about life did not make sense, they went outside to sources that may not have been accurate, but which were willing to communicate.

Today, children can access information about almost anything and are making decisions for themselves about issues that are completely off their parent's radar. They become passionate about wrongly-made decisions and are beginning to communicate about them in ways that are being noticed. One ten-year old friend of mine set up a website and wrote well-researched articles about the unfair dismissal of a favorite teacher.

Another ten-year-old I know is waging a personal campaign to bring back Invader Zim to Nickelodian. Once he discovers the  online petition to bring back Invader Zim, there will be no stopping him.

I had never heard of Invader Zim until this weekend, but since then I have been subjected to long, passionate harangues about the unfairness of dropping a show that provided witty entertainment and thought-provoking dark humor.

What makes this remarkable is that this ten-year-old is ranting about a show that was dropped several years ago! I am not sure he ever saw the original show as he would have been only seven years old at the time.

His last comment to me was that he was writing a letter to the person responsible for dropping the show.

To get the true perspective on this, you have to realize that his parents have had no part in this. They respect his passion, but sit bemused as he lectures them at the dinner table about the unfairness of it all.

Multiply this upset consumer by ten million and you begin to see some long-range effects from the Children of the Internet.

In future posts, I want to take up some observations on how the Children of the Internet are teaching themselves new skills.

Have you observed some Children of the Internet?
Do you think they will create changes in society?

Tag: Children of the Internet Invader Zim

We are moving to Floyd, VA

After almost a year of preparation, our house-building project has achieved critical mass and everything is beginning to happen at once.

Gretchen and I look forward to joining our blogging and non-blogging friends in Floyd before snow falls. The Ripples Weblog, Affordable Designs in Wood, and Bent Crow Press are moving down to Floyd, VA in less than 60 days if all goes well. 

The rapid transition from planning to moving is a direct result of deciding to build using a modular home. This builder takes about four weeks in the factory to construct a home and then another few weeks on site to finish the home by adding a roof structure, siding, and some interior details.

We were going to build in the Spring of 2006 until we were informed that material prices were becoming unstable due to the after-effects of Katrina. We made the decision yesterday to proceed immediately with the house and the factory in Rocky Mount, VA will begin construction Monday.

This sets off a chain of events which I will blog, because we are planning to work outside the box in several areas and I want to capture the lessons learned. I also want your advice and suggestions because we have a lot to accomplish in the next 60 days.

I hope to find a mover that offers moving pod service. Barring that, I hope to find a mover that will cause the least damage. Any current recommendations for movers in the south central Virginia area will be most appreciated.

We will be listing our current home this week and I have work to do to give the place more curb appeal. I will provide a link to the listing for those of you who have friends who are looking for a less stressful lifestyle.

Gretchen and I moved to Virginia from San Jose, CA in 2002, hoping to find acreage and high-speed internet connection. We found you could get either, but not both, so we settled on the wooded lakeside environment at Lake Monticello, VA. It offered the comforts of a gated community and a peaceful lifestyle where we could operate businesses from our home.

As time passed, this formerly rustic resort community has mutated into a clone of typical northern VA developments. It is still a charming place to live, but it is more like a manicured golf course community than an example of laid-back country living.

As a result, it is becoming an attractive bedroom community for people who commute to Charlottesville or Richmond and want gracious living at an extremely attractive price.

For home-based businesses, on the other hand, there is increasing pressure to minimize any visible evidence of business activity. Thus business expansion almost mandates a move to the countryside where land-buying pressure has driven prices sky high.

Our alternative was to find a community where land prices would allow us to achieve our earlier goal of enough acreage to put up a house and a workshop while allowing us to have high-speed internet access. Floyd County still offers that opportunity at a price we can afford.

Stay tuned for the rest of the saga.

An engineer's viewpoint on global warming

The world has gotten slightly warmer since 1850 and people have had something to do with that increase. Big deal.

Measurements taken since thermometers were invented show that global temperatures have increased 0.8C in the last 150 years. About one third of that increase is due to increased Carbon Dioxide which can be attributed to mankind.

Before anyone whips themselves into a frenzy screaming, "I told you so!" they should be aware that a significant part of this temperature increase is a result of solar activity which they can't blame on any political entity I know of. :)

To further confuse things, A Little Ice Age existed in the 900 years before 1850 when mountain glaciers advanced in most parts of the world.

During the big Ice Age of 650,000 years ago, the ice advanced deep into the Midwest and deep into Germany. So much ice collected in these two major regions and several lesser ones that the sea level dropped by some 400 feet and the overall global temperature was lowered by around 5°C (about 9°F)

You should read the excellent Calspace Distance Learning Courses and get a full understanding of the discoveries and the limitations of past and current research. 

I found this excerpt interesting:

...only climate history, that is, long-term experience, can tell us whether we are witnessing highly unusual conditions or not.

As an example:

Habitation of Greenland was possible in the early Middle Ages because the climate was unusually warm. By 1000 A.D., Greenland was inhabited by an estimated 1,000 Scandinavians. The settlement only lasted until about 1480 A.D., when the onset of nasty winters brought the inhabitants to death by starvation. This sudden climatic cold spell, known as the “Little Ice Age,” is an example of the power that climate change can have on human society.

We should not look at 0.8 degree Centigrade change in 150 years and panic while ignoring huge changes in temperature that took place before recording thermometers existed.

The forces that created the earlier ice ages still exist. For a reality check read, Lessons from the Ice Ages?

If we don't understand the underlying mechanisms, we don't have a chance of preventing or ameliorating the next big temperature swing.

The experts at Calspace wisely mention in their conclusions that they need to improve their computer models. I agree. I think we need a lot more research before we try to assign blame or try  "fixing" the perceived problem.

Read Climate Change 2: Past and Future. This will give you a background from which to develop your own conclusions.

Thanks to Fred First for introducing me to this excellent resource.

UPDATE: Andy at the Charlotte Capitalist has posted more to suggest that our climate changes are driven by the sun rather than by industrialization of this planet.

Tag: Global Warming

BlogAds logo redesign - revisited

What must be really frustrating for the two or three people who took issue with Henry Copeland's fast-track methodology is that they were voicing valid concerns!

A logo design that will not scale without serious degradation or does not suit some particular medium is a big problem! What they seemed to have overlooked is that Henry got 30 finalists in a matter of weeks! If he had gone the traditional route, they would still be in the middle of hammering out an agenda for the first meeting.

Here is the shortlist of logos that Henry and the BlogAds staff feels will work for them.

Take a look and see if you agree or disagree. Remember, this company has become a success in spite of a logo that violates all conventional rules of brand identity except one: The logo is truly the "maker's mark" and there is five thousand years of agreement that the mark must let the customer know who stands behind the product.

Here is the basic issue as I see it:

All Henry and crew need to do is make sure that the new logo does not create any confusion in customer's minds.

Whether it goes on a T-shirt or hot-air balloon is a secondary issue. I am sure that the BlogAds team and the winning designer will handle these issues with a minimum of histrionics.

"Needs more cowbell?  Sure!"

This online collaboration in front of the entire blogosphere is one hell of a way to shake down a design. Issues get immediate visibility, but it works best when you have someone who is confident enough to shut off discussion when he has heard enough to make a decision.

Check out the shortlist and see if they have a logo candidate that communicates BlogAds for you.

This exercise bears a lot of study for someone who is going into business for themselves. You will have to work out for yourself if brand identity is as important as the development and maintenance of the brand itself.

Tag:branding

Blogads logo redesign has some "experts" in an uproar

Henry Copeland does not follow conventional rules. He built a multi-million dollar enterprise on the notion that advertisers might want to advertise on blogs. He felt they might want  to engage 500,000 opinion makers, instead of pestering 100,000,000 nobodies.

The secret? Smart Blogads join a community's conversation rather than shouting over it. As a result, Blogads have become an increasingly important part of the blogosphere.

Henry achieved three years of success while defying conventional wisdom and using a scrawny scribble of a corporate logo that was a mistake.

This year, he decided to create a new logo. Blogging friends in the ad industry said "do an RFP, hire a pro, draft a creative brief, hammer out a brand identity... do it right!" Demotivated by that feedback and with lots of other projects bubbling, he put the idea on the backburner.

Recently, he turned the task of designing the new logo over to the internet with this notice:

Blogads.com needs a new logo. I hope you can help. We'll pay $1000 to the creator of our new logo and $300 to the blogger whose post refers or inspires her/him.

You can read the story of the logo collaboration here. It makes fascinating reading.

Henry decided that Blogads needed a new logo and he went about it in his non-traditional style and a few "experts" have gotten their knickers all bunched up as a result.

There are more than 365 entries from a lot of talented people who understand the blogosphere, but a few of yesterdays experts are sputtering about the way it was done.

I had to put in my opinion, of course, when I read this "expert's" advice:

My advice to you is to hire (or persuade) a professional designer to pick the 10-15 logos that will go on your shortlist. You could then make your decision from that pool.

In all honesty, if you pick the logo yourself, or if you allow the people who are leaving comments to have a hand in the decision, you are going to waste 1300 dollars on a badly designed logo. From your previous post, and based on some of the completely ludicrous comments left on the entries... I suspect that you're not going to make the right choice.
Posted by: Brian Ford on Sep 14, 05 | 9:45 am

I wrote:

Henry, consider the purpose for this logo redesign and who your target customers are.

If your target customers are blog-savvy businesses that want to advertise effectively in the blogosphere, a good logo is one that punches up the informal, but effective conversational style of blogosphere communications

If your target customers are from the Proctor and Gamble school of marketing. then Brian Ford's suggestion might make sense, because you will attract ad agency flacks who respect and honor logos that grace the pages of Communication Arts.

Your call, of course, but simpler and real are better in my opinion.

Which elicited this response:

I disagree pretty much 100% with what David St. Lawrence says in his comment.

A "good" logo is one that is designed well; regardless of who the target audience happens to be. There are plenty of logos in the list that follow the guidelines set forth in the entry form, but that doesn't mean that they are automatically "well designed" logos. In fact, I would say the opposite happens to be true in this case... This isn't about target audiences. It's about getting advice from someone who -knows- design. (my emphasis)
Posted by: Brian Ford on Sep 14, 05 | 10:28 am

and another:

I'm going to inject my honest opinion here. Many of the logos submitted are absolutely useless for branding. Many of them are not vector....  It will be nearly impossible to pick a logo you can brand with the rigid guidelines you set. ...For $1000 I would have thought you'd want to make sure you were getting something you could actually use.

Posted by: William Chastain on Sep 14, 05 | 4:32 pm

These "experts" are confusing design with branding. Blogads has overcome the limitations of a "butt ugly" logo by delivering on the promise of expected service. If Henry can find a new logo that aligns with customer expectations, I think he will be just fine.

What do you think?

Tag: Blogads

Playing a better game of life - part 6 - finale

Warning: This is not a warm, fuzzy conclusion with softly swelling inspirational music. It is more like a klaxon signalling another round of hostle activity. It's time to move from the theoretical contemplation of life as a game to getting on with it and applying what you know.

Life is all about survival and doing things that lead to increased survival for self, family and the greater community in which we live.

Most of us understand this fairly well because we have done things which have actually threatened our survival at some time. If we survived, we tend to look for ways to improve survival, not risk it needlessly.

Some people lead such protected lives that the idea of "survival" is somehow repugnant, something that only happens in a third-world society. They have so little knowledge of the real world that they can scarcely imagine bad things happening to them. This can be seen in those whose good fortune comes from wealthy parents who protect them from the realities of life. Even as adults, these people are "protected" by their parents influence or wealth against the results of their own mistakes.

We live in a rapidly changing world and parents/protectors find less and less stability in their own lives these days. Whether it is a natural disaster, tsunami, hurricane or just the end of a bad financial quarter, more and more people are finding that their personal survival depends on a certain minimum level of preparedness and not on what "Daddy" can pull off for them.

We who have been threatened with financial disasters or who have lived from paycheck to paycheck know that it doesn't take much to go from living well to finding oneself in dire straits. When I see men almost my age busing tables in Paneras, it gives me pause and I redouble my efforts to make a go of my business enterprises.

I see many well-kept older men and women working the checkout stations in food chains and retail establishments. These are often people who held good-paying jobs and expected to retire comfortably until their company off-loaded them in an effort to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive world. They have refashioned their lives and have adapted to the realities of 21st century employment instability.

Most of the people I see working the craft shows are former business professionals who have become artisans and artists. They were able to be more selective in their occupations because they prepared themselves for self-employment.

There are many more who used their corporate time well and gave themselves a running start when they became self-employed. They became consultants to industry or small suppliers to industry and prosper because they identified a niche and prepared well enough to deliver a service that is needed and wanted.

I am bringing this series to a close because the game goes through repetitive cycles and we are coming up on the end of another financial quarter. Some of you are at risk and you need to prepare yourself as best as you can, not necessarily by working harder.

If you are finding that your new boss is being unduly critical of you these last few weeks, it may be because she is planning to get rid of you in an effort to save her own job. If the company has not been doing well, the end of this first or third quarter is when efforts are made to lighten the ship in hopes that it will weather the storm to come. Your work output is rarely a consideration when it comes to deciding who goes and who stays. In far too many cases, the people who are kept are those who are in tight with management.

You know who you are, and if you are reading this you are probably not one of the insiders. Instead, you have been trying to get your job done in the midst of too many meetings and too much micro-management by the clueless.

Do not slacken your efforts to get your job done, but network as never before because this is a time when you need friends who have friends who are hiring. There is always someone who is hiring. Your job is to find the one who is right for you.

If this person doesn't seem to be available, hire yourself and get on with your own business. It's all part of finding a game that you can win at. You may find yourself playing the best game of your life when you are self-employed.

Good luck. Give it your best and you will find that there are brighter days ahead.

Tag: career advice

Playing a better game of life - part 5

The key to enjoying the game of life is to play it in a self-determined manner.

"Easier said than done," you may say, but this is an absolute necessity if you are to stay reasonably sane.  If others control everything you do, you are experiencing a kind of slavery, no matter how kindly these others treat you.

You normally have some control over your life, unless you have broken enough of societies rules that you are deprived of liberty.

On the other hand, far too many of us stupidly give up one freedom after another in order to gain favor with the corporate elite and keep a fat salary coming in.

You will occasionally encounter a hiring manager who interviews you and keeps you off balance all during the interview and yet wants to hire you. Run, do not walk, out of there. This is a variety of toxic individual who will demonstrate his or her insanity constantly by keeping you in check or off balance as long as you work for them.

If you strive to get their approval by pleasing them, you will get led around in circles and will be constantly reminded that you are being kept on only because of their charitable nature because your work is woefully deficient. After a while you will begin to believe it and will be grateful to them. Eeew! Yuck! You need a severe reality adjustment if that is the case.

These people like to keep their employees anxious and afraid for their jobs. They may even pay high starting salaries to attract willing victims. Once you are on board this madhouse, you will find your confidence waning almost immediately. You will be made wrong almost every day and if you stick it out, determined to get them to approve of you, you will be bitterly disappointed.

Some of you may snort and think, "What company would allow such behavior!" This behavior is usually invisible in a large company because this kind of manager is constantly sucking up to higher levels of management. In a smaller company, this behavior is tolerated because the person doing it is the owner or a relative.

It really doesn't matter whether the company is large or small or whether this manager promises you rewards for your hard work. If you are not being allowed to use your judgment while carrying out your duties, you are merely a "gofer", a minion, no matter how much they pay you.

You will find gofers close to the highest levels in almost any organization. Some executives like to keep minions close to them as though they are fashion accessories. You will not survive well as a fashion accessory or as a minion.

Far better that you choose a path that lets you have more control over your life. Take responsibility for everything that happens to you and you will soon be well on your way to living a self-determined life. There is much more to be said about this, but I think you have the basic idea now.

One more tip: Try to cause only those effects that others can experience easily. You will be amazed how this uncomplicates your life.

Tag: career advice

Playing a better game of life - part 4

Think of your environment as the playing field.

Your environment is an essential component of the game of life. Your survival depends on how well you understand this fact and take appropriate action to level the playing field or tilt it in your favor.

In any game, the playing field has an effect on the outcome of the game. You would not expect to play a topnotch game of soccer or baseball on a field littered with garbage and potholes, because the neglected environment introduces unnecessary obstacles and will cause loss of control and possible injury.

An office environment where mold or harmful vapors exist can seriously affect your health. Ignoring these clues can significantly shorten your career and your life. If you work in a foundry or a paint shop, you are prepared for a life-threatening environment and usually wear protective equipment. Office workers will placidly continue working while workers use caustic solutions to remove paint or lift carpets in the same bay where office work is being done. In the same manner, office workers will continue working in offices with rain-soaked carpets and moldy ceilings because the boss has not told anyone they can go home or work elsewhere.

For example, deciding not to protect employees from black mold infestations in Research Triangle Park offices was probably not a decision made by IBM top management, but it affected fifty lives, some of them fatally. Somebody decided that it would be more efficient to cover up the problem rather than deal with it. It is still being covered up.  The interesting point as far as I am concerned, is that other employees are still working in the affected buildings...

The home is becoming a workplace for more and more people as telecommuting and self-employment spread. If ones home is cluttered and disorganized, it acts as an impediment to efficient production. If the home is filled with strife and unpleasantness, that is a major distraction to getting work done. A pleasant and orderly home makes a wonderful workplace. Those who work in such surroundings are to be admired.

Your town or neighborhood is the playing field for much of your social life, and in some cases, your working life. You have a responsibility to contribute to the town or neighborhood so that it remains a safe and healthy place to live. Only the most degraded expect the Federal Government to bear the responsibility for activities that are the responsibility of any local government.

For example, if you build your town in a swamp or a flood plain, why should the Federal Government be responsible for keeping you safe from mosquito-born diseases and flooding? State and County governments may be involved because of the possible economic returns, but the basic problem is an irresponsible choice of a high-risk playing field.

As an individual looking out for the interests of self, family, and neighborhood, you have a responsibility to ensure that your environment will aid you in your playing the game of life. Sometimes, the neighborhood gets overwhelmed by factors that you and your neighbors cannot overcome. If you have done all that you can do to rectify the problem and the neighborhood becomes more unsafe as time goes on, you may have to find another playing field before harm comes to you or your family.

This is an extreme situation, as you can usually enlist allies to clean up even the worst of situations if there is some underlying financial return from doing so. When there is a long-standing situation of unhandled corruption and criminality, the economic viability of a city, corporation, or township can be so marginal that it will no longer support legitimate businesses. This is one of the times it is wiser to relocate and start again elsewhere.

Do your best to improve your environment and make it a safe place to live or work. If your actions are being strongly opposed, you may wish to find another playing field and get on with your life.

Tag: career advice

Playing a better game of life - part 3

Winners, losers, and victims

One essential aspect of any game is to fully understand the possible outcomes beforehand.

We have all heard about the benefits of winning and the penalties associated with losing, but too few know about the ancient strategy of avoiding defeat by claiming to be a victim.

This is the strategy that claims you won because you had an unfair advantage, and because the victim was handicapped in some way, and because, well you know, things are always unfair, etc. etc.

Winners almost always win because of better preparation. It may not seem like that to the losers, because winners sometimes seem to carry off winning performances with ease, but winning is almost never an accident.

The winning actress gets the part because she flossed every day, practiced when others were out partying, and studied like crazy to develop the skills needed to succeed.

The winning executive learns from his past mistakes and understands the politics of the workplace well enough to know what is REALLY wanted from him.

Successful people endure a lot of deprivation in order to achieve long-term goals. These can include studying while others party, painstaking preparation for presentations, long hours spent getting results, the list can be endless. Winning depends on getting enough right to make a go of it. All the preparation will be in vain if something vital is missed. There is no guarantee of success. There is only an increasing probability if you know enough and are well-prepared.

One key point is that winners make more friends than enemies and these friends help propel them to positions of powers and success. People who climb to success by exploiting others eventually get thrown down by those they have betrayed.

Losers are those who fail to do enough of the actions that lead to success. They may floss and study and all of that, but somewhere along the way, they get discouraged and stop trying. Some stop trying in grade school and we see them sleeping in doorways and under bridges.

Victims are losers who are not willing to take responsibility for their own defeat. They seek sympathy for imagined wrongs. We are not discussing victims of hurricanes here, we are discussing those who seek a handicap for their incompetence. They will seek an advantage because of their color or race or circumstances of birth rather than seeking equality of opportunity. Victims, in a word, are irresponsible.

There are good reasons why the bar shouldn't be lowered for those who are less "fortunate". Airlines would be even more dangerous if flown by the educationally challenged. Government by the terminally confused would be an adventure that most of us in the U.S. could not contemplate. Government is a chore that challenges the most highly skilled and motivated. Anyone who has held senior positions in a good-sized company knows how incredibly difficult it is to get things to run right even with highly skilled people involved.

There are whole books that can be written on this subject. The bottom line is that success takes a LOT of work and a very small amount of luck. That is as it should be. When this natural order is overturned, things go downhill rapidly.

Tag: career advice

Playing a better game of life - part 2

To reiterate the theme from the first part:

Life is a game in that there are barriers to success, rewards for success, opponents, and potential team mates.

This part is about joining a team that is right for you. It can be harder than you think.

If you are a "wolf" joining a "dog" pack, you may think your superior skills and intelligence will carry the day. I'm sorry, but you will not fit in even if you learn to yap in chorus with the rest instead of howling. You will not "smell" right and they will eventually make you feel unwelcome. The same is true whenever your natural culture is not aligned with the team culture.

There are many teams with goals that are not aligned with your goals, in which case you will be operating in opposition to the team at times. Whether you realize it or not, this puts you in treason to your own goals and purposes while a member of this group. Believe me, this is not a good thing.

For example, you may have pulled in a lucrative contract with a drug company which promotes better living through mood-altering drugs applied early and often to people of all ages. If you know that the same effects can be achieved through proper nutrition and diet, you will be subjecting yourself to a moral crisis every time you come up with a way to get more people hooked on this medication.

If on the other hand, you firmly believe that the good life is the thoroughly medicated life, you are in the right group.

It all comes down to understanding what your future team mates do as well as what they say. Whether it is well-known company like Enron you are joining or a group that calls themselves Freedom Fighters for Universal Justice, you need to know whether their activities and culture align with your culture.

You will occasionally run across companies and groups with high-sounding goals which seek to achieve them by slandering or destroying people and institutions which are trying to keep the world running.

Does this sound confusing? The high-sounding goals can suck you right in and can cause you to get involved with a group that promotes fairness for oppressed minorities, while insisting on absolute subjugation of women and total destruction of other races and religions.

Another example is the political arena where a political group has all of the right words and music, but the principal actors are morally bankrupt. This applies to domestic and international religious groups as well.

When you choose to join a group, you should view it with the same seriousness as when choosing a life partner. The relationship should be mutually beneficial and should be something you will be proud to be a part of for a long time to come.

If your purpose in joining a group or relationship is to make a quick score and depart care-free at the earliest opportunity, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Flirting with the wrong people or causes can leave you with a reputation that may follow you forever. People do not forget those who fraternize and support enemies of their country or culture. People also have long memories when it comes to executives who betray their employees.

You will do best with a group when you take time to thoroughly investigate the group's activities and culture as well as the professed goals and purposes - before joining the group as a member. Spend as much time as you need, working and visiting with the group if possible, before making your decision. You will not regret the time spent.

Joining the right company or group can have a profound effect on your life. Just remember, a well-run company may have a culture that suits existing employees just fine, but you may not fit that culture. It is up to you to make sure that you will be able to function well in that culture and become a respected member of the team.

Once you are part of a team that suits you, you can do a better job of playing the game called life. In the next post, I will discuss winners, losers, and victims.

Stay tuned.

Tag: career advice

Playing a better game of life - part 1

Life is a game in that there are barriers to success, rewards for success, opponents, and potential team mates. There are dimly-understood rules of a sort, penalties for failure, and you can't opt out of the game except by dying. The one saving grace is that you have a better chance of winning in life if you remain insouciant, that is to say by remaining carefree.

Just to make the game more complex, you will find there are winners, losers, and victims. In addition, your environment is an essential component of the game. Your survival depends on how well you understand it.

You will get as much pleasure out of playing the game as you are able to play it in a self-determined manner. You will experience misery out of the game to the extent that you consider that "they" are forcing you to play a part that you don't want to play.

Let's begin with the easiest concept to grasp and apply.

Life is a team sport. You will survive better when you are part of a team and you work toward the survival of the team. A good team for you is one that offers you a role you can play well and helps you to win in life. A bad team is one that exploits you and treats you as a consumable, as in discarded or eaten when no longer useful.

People join companies or even criminal gangs, for that matter, because it appears that they will be more likely to do better as an employee or gang member than on their own. People get married for the same reason.

Sometimes these decisions are made unwisely. In a hostile and stormy environment, it may seem that any port is better than braving the storm. As a result we may connect up with people who are crazier than we are and we live to regret our decision many times over.

Then we find ourselves bound into what seems like servitude because of our earlier decision and we stay in an abusive relationship or in a destructive work situation when we should be elsewhere.

Does any of this ring a bell for you? If it does, I have some suggestions for breaking free. If this is all too dreary and unreal, slip off and read Harry Potter or into some role-playing game. What I am about to suggest takes more courage than facing Voldemort.

The escape route from a bad decision is to make another decision to undo the earlier decision and to bear the consequences of having joined and then abandoned the destructive group or relationship.

This decision will cost you friends and you may lose every material possession. You could even suffer physical harm depending on the group you are separating yourself from. The upside is that you will emerge wiser and stronger and will go on to new and better things if you have learned from your experience.

If you try to escape the group or relationship without taking responsibility for publicly and formally departing the team, you essentially become a fugitive and this acts as a barrier to joining a better team.

It all comes down to integrity. You compromise your integrity by joining a group for the wrong reasons, or by staying with a group that reveals itself to be a destructive influence on you.

Taking a salary for a job you hate, sex in a relationship you despise, or drugs for favors - all of these are short-term pleasures with long-term destructive consequences. The longer you continue, the more damage you cause to your self-esteem and to your sanity in general.

In the next post, I will attempt to suggest how you can select a team that is right for you and will allow you to play a better game of enjoying life.

Tag: career advice

Life-changing moments...

When the door to a new business opportunity opens, some fortunate people seem to step through it easily and pick up a new life on the other side.

Others agonize, trapped by indecision and self-doubts, until the door of opportunity closes on them again.

Still others exultantly throw the door open and embrace their new challenge, only to find that their nearest and dearest are hanging back in disgust or dismay. They hear:

"You didn't say we were going to live ___________!"

Fill in the blanks with your choice of: in Detroit... on Penobscot Bay...on a tramp steamer...so far away from mother.

Others find that long-awaited opportunities present themselves at inconvenient times: they just got promoted, the children are in a new school, they just met the person who is right for them, etc.

If you find yourself in the last three groups, your life is far more stressful than it needs to be, but there is a possibility that you might be able to do something about it.

First of all, you need to recognize that opportunity means change. If comfort is important to you, your choices of new opportunities are severely limited. A lot of people grumble about their jobs, marriages, and living quarters, but find any number of excuses to avoid changing any of them.

Life is all about recognizing the need to make changes and then making them. When you are part of a family group, it is wise to bring the rest of the group into the decision-making process. If your family does not support the changes needed to take advantage of a much-needed opportunity, you need to re-examine your priorities or the family's priorities. In either case, you may have some hard decisions to make.

The people who find opportunities on every hand are those who keep themselves open to new opportunities. They don't wish for opportunities, they create a mood that anticipates opportunity by remaining open-minded and ensuring that pursuit of opportunity is welcomed by their family group.

When children are raised in an environment where self-employment is well-understood and is respected, they also learn a wealth of information about discovery of business opportunities.

Developing a plan to improve your live and the life of your family is not a one-shot deal. Get everyone involved and things will either go far more smoothly, or you will discover what sources of counter-intention exist in your family. Either way, you will be closer to a resolution than before.

If you keep looking for life-changing moments that never seem to appear, try examining your readiness to accept change. When you are actually ready for a change to occur in your life, it is almost as though the universe seems to get it, and your opportunity appears.

Hope you have some pleasant life-changing moments this week.

Feasting in Floyd

While the rest of Floyd County was gearing up for three days of music at the Floyd Fest, Fred First invited Doug Thompson and the St Lawrences to feast on barbecued chicken and fixings at the First home on Goose Creek Run. This was our last night in Floyd and it promised to be interesting because any time you get three bloggers gathered under one roof you hear a lot of funny stories. The best ones are often told by the wives.

To get to Fred's place, you drive way out of town and leave the paved highway and drive for miles on a winding, single lane road under a continuous canopy of foliage. It is always worth the trip and this was no exception.

We knew we were in for a good time when our hostess greeted us with a gun in her hand. She had been walking the dog and she wanted to make sure that the local black bear did not come back to tangle with the dog. For the full story of the bear, the dog and a man clad only in boxer shorts, you must visit Fragments From Floyd.

When a photographer fails to take a newsworthy photo of his dog chasing a bear, his friends will try to make him feel better by stalking the bear and getting a picture for him. Here are Doug Thompson and Fred First with a bear photo taken in Floyd this week by Doug. For a more complete story of the bear and other wildlife photography visit Doug Thompsons Blue Ridge Muse.

Gretchen and I enjoyed the incomparable First family hospitality and ended the evening in true country fashion, eating strawberry pie on the front porch while a thunderstorm built up around us and Fred's dog Tsuga kept watch for bears.

We had a great time and drove home with the camera on hoping for a glimpse of Fred's bear or one of the local coyotes. We saw nothing but deer, which we photograph at home in great numbers.

Blogging in Floyd County

This quiet rural area feels more like home with every visit. It is the kind of place we have been seeking for many years. It has the same intermingling of scenery and high-tech sophistication that we saw in Woodside and Pacific Grove, but we do not find the same level of high-ticket living that characterizes those California oases. The Maserati count is negligible and there is no ostrich salami available at the local deli. In fact, there is no deli in the county!

Floyd has charm and internet awareness at a price that ordinary bloggers and other citizens can still afford.

I am sitting in the Cafe Del Sol with my wife, Gretchen, and we are joined by blogger, Colleen Redman. Gretchen (on the left) and Colleen became instant friends because they hail originally from the same area in Eastern Massachusetts.

While they are talking, a woman in the corner mentions Hingham, Massachusetts, and her name is also Colleen. So here in this coffee house at a remote crossroads in southern Virginia in a county with a single traffic light, three women from the Hingham area are excitedly discussing their websites, blogging, and life in general. As the conversation winds down, they exchange business cards!

Last night we enjoyed another excellent meal at Oddfellas Cantina. I had the Roast Thai Chicken and I recommend it highly. While we were eating, Rob Neukirch, the owner of the cafe, got up on the small stage and jammed with Bernie Coveney, and Chris Luster on a number of old standards.

Rob, a former actor, has established an outstanding reputation for his restaurant by offering fine food and live entertainment. He shows remarkable talent in a number of areas and keeps the show on the road in spite of all obstacles.

As we were leaving after a wonderful evening, he shared a harrowing story. On Wednesday, a week ago, an automatic fire sprinkler on the second floor of the building let go and water cascaded into the Oddfellas kitchen for several hours. The roof fell in and the main floor and the basement were flooded by the time he figured out how to turn the water off.

This would have put many a small businessman into a tailspin, but Rob and his crew had the place dried out and back in operation within a few days. If he had not told us, we would have never known of the recent disaster. The restaurant was back in operation serving wonderful food and the musicians played everything from bluegrass to jazz. It was another "uneventful" and altogether pleasant evening.

These are many businessmen who are not as cool under fire, but this is evidently what it takes to be successful. Rob exemplifies the successful small businessman, multitalented, always courteous, and unflappable under pressure.

Carnival of the Vanities #149

There is a lot of interesting writing this week in the Carnival of the Vanities #149,  which is being hosted by Melinama at  Pratie Place

Melinama bills Pratie Place as: "Reflections and news, primarily from the previous millennium. Because I can't keep up."  This would seem to be true as she seems to resist hosting carnival entries that she doesn't agree with.

Seems to me that when you agree to host a carnival, you need to be a host, not an editor, but that's just my take on it. A carnival host gets the benefit of a lot of new traffic and it seems unkind to bite the hands that feed you.

Visit the Carnival of the Vanities, see a lot of interesting writing, and take time to read Melinama's posts on her recent visits to small towns in Maine. There is something there for everyone,

I am just offline - not ignoring you!

My high-speed internet connection isn't.

For the past few days, my Adelphia Cable service has been running at sub-dialup speed, so I uploaded the last post from Panera's in Charlottesville.

Wi-Fi is a godsend for bloggers. There are at least three free hotspots in Charlottesville, so I will never be offline for long, if I am willing to drive 20 miles to keep my weblog updated. Sounds fair to me. If someone is willing to provide a free internet connection, I will do my best to keep the essays coming.

I have another post backlogged which I will upload as soon as service resumes.