Back to work today after taking the past two weeks “off,” which basically meant I didn’t check email and now have to deal wtih over 400 real messages in my Inbox.
Completely overwhelmed with everything in my To Do lists and on my whiteboard that didn’t get done during the “break.”
Trying to remind myself to take it one little task at a time. No matter how good your GTD system, at the end of all the gathering and filing, you still gotta just get the stuff done…
Travel day from Santa Fe to Albuquerque to Phoenix to Salt Lake City to Park City. Planes were late but I got where I was supposed to go and my buddy Lana was there to pick me up. Good day!
I just finished IM’ing (Instant Messaging) with someone that I’ve only recently met via Twitter. He recently received an invitation to blog for one of the Presidential campaigns and had some questions that he thought I might be able to answer.
An hour later and he was so inspired that he decided to go for it! Doesn’t mean he has the job, or even an interview, but the combination of his opportunity plus Twitter, IM, and a little bit of time could turn into a life changing event.
I’ll update on my blog and at Viddler if anything comes of it.
Old and new clients calling and emailing us for work.
I should have been on a plane back to Hawaii early this morning but have extended my stay in Santa Fe, NM for 3 more weeks until July 10th. Long time to be away from Roxanne and Lexi but I get to see them every day at Beach Walks with Rox and be connected via Rox’s Twitter and iChat.
And next week I’m heading to Park City, Utah to spend 5 days with our friends Chris & Lana who recently moved from Hawaii to Utah. Crazy? Yeah, we think so. But they love it there and I’m looking forward to seeing their new home and biking and climbing in the mountains just outside their back door.
Based on a couple of responses that he already had, I only had a few minutes to leave a comment before an appointment. But I knew I wanted to followup with more since I’ve often been accused of being a “fanboy” by accusers that use it in a derogatory way.
If you find any of these ideas or observations interesting, then you’ve probably enjoy Beach Walks with Rox. The ideas I talk about below cover a lot of the philosophy Roxanne talks about on her daily video walk. And they are examples of how she and I relate to each other, our friends, our clients, and the world in general. As we like to say, “It’s simple. But it’s not easy.”
Here’s the comment I left for Colin:
I think there are a couple of things going on with “fanboy haters” or put another way, those uncomfortable with the enthusiasm exhibited by others.
I think this is a great topic that is really about human nature and the society we live in. I’m going to write more about it on our company blog and link back here later today. But for now, here’s a summary.
1) Idea of Scarcity. This is the idea that there’s not enough of something to go around. So if you have it, that means I can’t have it or I can’t have as much of it as you do. The idea of scarcity can lead to resentment.
2) Group Mind. This relates to a feeling of being powerless which can also lead to resentment. If all your friends are really excited about and love something, and you don’t, then surely your opinion counts less than theirs and and perhaps there is something wrong with you. Almost everyone I know loves “Lost” but I don’t get it. My opinions on “Lost” must therefore be less important than everyone else’s.
3) Making Comparisons. I have a car and you have a car. Different Makes and Models but similar list of features. They both get us where we want/need to go. But, MAN you love your car. You’re excited to tell anyone that will listen how much you love my car and why. Hmmmm…. My car is similar but I sure don’t love it as much as you seem to love yours. Perhaps I made a mistake buying my car? Why am I not as excited about my car as you are about yours? These aren’t the questions I ask out loud. Instead, I exhibit self-doubt, confusion, and most overtly, resentment about your enthusiastic excitement about your car.
Those three issues are pretty basic to human nature. And just like Colin’s reply to my comment, a lot of your reading this will probably recognize this in not only yourself, but most people you know at one time or another.
But I think the biggest thing that gets people in trouble is:
4) Making up a Story. Believing it’s True. And then Acting on as if it Were True. This one is really really easy to fall into and can cause the most confusion. The first part, Making up a Story, is easy enough. We all do it every day. We see a young kid with a lot of tattoos and automatically make up a story that he must be a punk and a troublemaker. We see a pretty woman, dressed well, walking briskly down the street not paying attention to anyone. Obviously she’s a bitch! Right?
Once you’ve made up a story, it’s easy to convince yourself that it’s true. To say to yourself, “I just know it’s true.”
Now the dangerous part. Acting on it as if it were true. Rather than engaging openly and with curiosity with the “tattooed punk,” you might ignore him, or worse, disrespect him or even seem fearful of him. Same with the pretty woman who was just in a hurry to perhaps visit her dying friend in the hospital. You don’t know their situations or what’s going on in their world. So you’ve made up a story that you now believe to be true, because you know everything, right. And now you’re acting as if the story you made up in a fraction of a second was true.
Then, when the tattooed kid happens to be having a bad day or the pretty woman doesn’t hear you when you say, “Excuse me.” when you’re trying to reach the coffee creamer, you get to be right. You get to self-fulfill your own story, that you made up, and say to yourself, “I knew it. She is a bitch.” or “Yep. What a tattooed punk.”
After a while, making up stories, believing they’re true, and then acting on them as if they were true, becomes a way of life. And we don’t even know it. It just happens. And it’s really difficult to break the pattern once it becomes a way of life.
Combine any of the above 4 items together, and it’s very easy to see why there are so many problems in the world. Why it’s so difficult to understand each other.
Hell, if we eliminate just #4, most of the shows on Network television wouldn’t be possible.
Who thought it would be a good idea to try to turn a comic-book, sci-fi movie into a gushy romantic thing???
Please, Hollywood, more character development, special effects, better dialog and plot. Less predictable, gushy, romantic crap in the sci-fi/fantasy films.
Better late than never. Tried to record my “Viddler MeTday” earlier but had an issue with our connection.
Also spent some time working with CamTwist. I’m using CamTwist with the built-in cam on the MacBook Pro to insert the graphics directly into the video stream. Then I use Viddler’s “Record” function to record directly to the site.
This all means is that I don’t need a video camera, no video tapes, no importing/recording into iMovie, no exporting from iMovie, and finally, no uploading to Viddler. Just launch CamTwist and Safari, go to my profile page on Viddler, and click Record. Couldn’t be easier.
In this MeToday, I show images from Harry’s Roadhouse where I had lunch with friends and then images from The Lofts where our Loft is.
Good Morning. Heard Identi.ca switched/upgraded servers and didn't properly take care of their DNS TTLs. It's redirecting & login is borked. 2008-07-03
Aloha Peeps. Off to my massage. May/not be back this evening. Be nice. 2008-07-03
@AlmostaGeek If by "penalty box" you mean "go get a massage" then I AGREE! Hasta. Off to my Lomi Lomi massage. :) 2008-07-03
January 14, 2008 
Posted in Musings 
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