Plenty to do.

I've had so much to blog about lately that I haven't had any time to blog it. If this is any indication, I'm doubting that I'll be much better over the holidays.

November has been a great month. It started with my good friend Jason being out to the valley for a week for a neurosurgeons conference. We hit all (well, maybe not all - but we gave it a valiant attempt) the great restaurants. Did a little shopping, and probably more than anything else raced Forza 2. Your career is still waiting to be completed, Jason. One night we actually took a REAL drive out the B-Line, and saw some of our scenery. It really is a gorgeous drive, and there is not much better than an 80 degree November with the top down in the mountains here.

The biggest thing in November though, is our anniversary. For our 1st anniversary, we went back to L'Auberge de Sedona where we honeymooned, and spent a couple days again. The drive up is almost as much of a treat as the actual getaway - well, that might be pushing it, but it's a wonderful drive.

I had a bouquet of peonies waiting for Tracy, and the staff recognized our return with a card and bottle of champagne.

We enjoyed cocktail hour at the lodge, dined at L'Auberge restaurant, and had lots of fire in the fireplace (one of our simple favorites there).

Sensationalizationism

I have HAD it with the media. Those who know me, know that there is a fair amount of critique available on this topic. The headlines (Paris, Brittany, Lindsay, rehab, sex tape, prison) are NOT headline news. They should be in the National Enquirer if they see print at all, and what should be headlines (Russia arming themselves and declaring the U.S. an enemy) might see page 7 if it sees print at all...

But with all of that, this one is just beyond rediculous.

"STUDENT PLANNING A MASSIVE COLUMBINE STYLE ATTACK". This the catchphrase as FOX news pans footage of more than a dozen guns, as well as knives and swords laid out on a table. Had I not already seen this covered I would have thought it scary. It looks scary. That is why they were able to cleverly craft the sensationalizing phrase "Shocking Cache of Weapons". The truth is though, that having already seen this (on Anderson "Do I look good" Cooper), I knew that "These are all BB guns with the exception of one" - which FOX news failed to mention EVEN ONCE!

So they say that the teen was hoarding the weapons and planning a Columbine style massacre, and I’m just wondering how that would go when one is shooting 300 FPS (feet per second) "Airsoft" guns … 'cause that's what these are. To put this in perspective, the ASSAULT RIFLE (read: BB gun) that my dad bought for me when I was a teen shot at about 600 FPS, and a couple friends and I used to have BB gun fights in our woods. It hurt like heck, but only broke the skin a couple times.

These (Airsoft guns) are MADE TO BE SHOT AT PEOPLE WITHOUT HARMING THEM (hence the PLASTIC pellets), but are made to LOOK like real weapons (with the exception of that cute orange tip that comes on the end of the barrel). Airsoft is a sport that started in Japan, and has caught on here. It is so popular (and safe) that when I typed "Airsoft" in on ebay, I got 850 results. Yes. You can buy these toys on ebay. Even though they look like guns.

It wouldn't have been as sensational to have a dozen "Nerf" guns lying on that table - but he would be just as likely to commit a MASSACRE with them.

So I’m just saying...If it were me...and he were massacring me with a plastic pellet – I would probably walk up and slap his cute little 14 year old face.

What I'd really like to see would be the headline if he HAD "done it" (which if you don't get my point by now - wasn't going to happen - let's deal with a real threat, shall we). I suggest something along this line: "14 Year Old Boy Mildly Annoys Classmates by Stinging Them in the Tummy with Little Yellow Plastic Pellets".

Sinatra Was Here.

For someone who loves Sinatra (the music more than the man), I had a real treat two nights ago. We are wrapping up a week of seeing (and dining) all that we can here in New York City, and two nights ago spent some time in an old favorite of Franks, Patsy's Italian Restaurant.

While it could have something to do with the fact that Patsy's had one of the only 10 liquor licenses in the city at the time, Sinatra liked the place so much that he had his own entrance, and his own table at the back.

They haven't changed the decor since that 50's and 60's prime time era, and it takes you back. For a retro-phile such as myself, that is a lot of fun. I haven't seen that many mirrored walls in...well, ever. I had a Jack and Coke for the man, in his old favorite spot just to say, "Cheers, Frank".

Painting a Porsche with a Brush...

I had the fortune today of having the opporunity to bid on yet another logo, label, and headstock inlay "design set" for a luthier. For those of you that don't know, I have had the opportunity - the priviledge, really - to brand numerous guitar companies and builders over the last few years. The problem though, is that by the time I got to bidding the job (within the same day), it had been reduced to only the label -- as a well meaning volunteer had "taken care of" the logo for free.

I'm sure that many people would look at this as a loss - but I really don't. I think that if you can't tell the difference between good/great/best and mediocre/bad/terrible, you get what you deserve. That may be harsh, so let's say it this way...you are just as happy as if you had something professional.

I do find it puzzling, though:
Here is my perspective. You put 15 years experience and 400 hours into sculpting 13 peices of Bubinga hardwood, imported from Brazil, into the finest guitar man has ever seen -- then you inkjet print your friend Bob's best attempt at putting three words and a lightening bolt clipart together, spray it with adhesive, and stick it to the inside of your masterpiece. Honestly, if it were me, I think that I'd just hack something guitar shaped out of some poplar, stick that label to it, and put it up for sale.

You see my point:
The only thing that I can think of to draw a parallel is perhaps putting that same 400 hours into a frame-off restoration of my favorite Porsche 356B Speedster, and then painting it (maybe even lavender) with a 4" brush.

Thanks Guys. I'm Glad You're on the Case.

I saw a headline this morning that the FBI believes that the bomb threats for money ($10,000 from a NEWPORT, R.I. Wal-Mart) are "the work of an individual or group". You just can't help but feel better armed with that information.

The Power of Stupid.

I really do want the bulk of what I put here to be original, but I came across this today on the Dilbert blog, and just could not help but post it. It reminds me of just so, sooo many things that I saw while in Corporate America. I will have to note some of my own in the future:

A reader sent this story about his workplace.

-------------“A theme from many of your previous comics came true to life for us today. Quality in the workplace.Yesterday, a pointy-haired boss decided our meeting room needed nice motivational pictures on the wall. Twelve by eight inch, wooden frame, 1940s-style motivational tools (think 'Rosie the Riveter' in artwork, color and font). So an assistant was ordered to procure such things.The first mistake was where the artwork was obtained from. Rather than pay $15 per picture for the real thing, it was decided to take the small JPEG images of what we wanted from a website that sold these trinkets. Cheap picture frames were bought (from a dollar store, by the look of things).When the images were enlarged to fit into the 12 by 8 frames, the pixelation was terrible. In itself, this was funny. A picture that celebrates the idea of quality in the workplace looked cheap, and knowing it was a stolen image lessens the impact of the message slightly.”-------------

This story made me think about one of the great wonders of capitalism: It is driven by morons who are circling the drain, and yet. . . it works!

Think about all the people working and earning paychecks from companies that will ultimately fail. It’s a lot of people. But until those companies fail, the employees are getting paid, buying goods, and contributing to the economy. After the failure, those employees hop over to another sinking ship, and so on.

Within successful companies, a huge portion of resources are dedicated to projects and products that will ultimately fail. But in the meantime, everyone is getting paid and propping up the economy.

I once worked in a bank, making loans to small business start-ups. Our rule of thumb was that 90% of new businesses fail. The exceptions were franchisees and pizza places. But we saw no shortage of people willing to mortgage their homes to start their own sporting good stores and boutique dress shops, despite the 90% chance of failure. Without clueless optimists, the economy would grind to a halt. My own career has been a long string of failures and a few notable successes.

I understand the math of capitalism, and how the few successes are so large they pay for all the failures and then some. But at any given moment, the majority of resources in a capitalist system are being pushed over a cliff by morons. This fascinates me. And it’s clearly the reason that humans rule the earth. We found a system to harness the power of stupid.

In the rest of the animal kingdom, being a moron is nothing but bad. A moron lion, for example, who can’t catch anything to eat, is adding nothing to the lion economy. But a moron human who starts a business selling garlic flavored mittens is stimulating the economy right up until the point of going out of business...

Bible Peity.

I was recently scouring Amazon.com (what a great brand story) for an NRSV study Bible. Once in my cart, there were the numerous suggestions based on my choices. One of those (in addition to a bb-gun and an external harddrive) was a book by Terence E. Fretheim, About the Bible.

What sold me was this hard hitting observation. "All too often for Christians, Bible piety is not matched by Bible literacy. That is, we revere the Bible highly, but we often don't really know very much about it."

I have found out just how much I don't know by being married to a seminarian (who would not for an instant think that she has the answers either -- but is equiping herself with the tools). But just like the rest of life and worldview, the more you learn the more that you realize that you don't know. The more you travel, the more you realize that you have not seen.

I have come to the realization that having attended a "Christian" school from k-12, and spent 4 years at two Christian colleges, I understand next to nothing in the Bible contextually. What I got was the "rights and wrongs crash course", the Cliff's notes on the parables, and some well intentioned (and less well intentioned) folks niave understanding of the king's english translation of what things mean. I don't understand the culture, I certainly don't understand the language, and I DEFINITELY don't understand how these contrast and parallel other cultures of the periods.

What an awesome thing to find out that I don't know! And what an incredible challenge to get to do something about.

Seagal says FBI probe ruined career

(and I say that his being a tool ruined it.)

Sorry steven. Oops... Forgot to capitalize your name there. steven seagal. Oh, look at that, I did it again...

So that's right, stevie, you're probably right. The FBI investigation that we didn't know about stopped us from going to see your movies. There is just no second chance for people in trouble these days (Paris, Lindsay, Britney, Nichole, Robert Downey Jr., Charlie Sheen...), just no chance.

Could it have been that there was something else playing at the theaters...Gigli, maybe?

So what have you got going straight to DVD these days? I know Shakespeare doesn't play well at the theaters...maybe you should do an action movie. Call it something like "Dark Warrior", but make sure that you add a subtitle. Subtitles are cool. Like Dark Warrior - Warrior of Darkness. That would be a good movie. You could have somebody (a really bad guy with, like, a scar on his face -- or someone that smokes) hurt someone that you care about, and then you could track them down and lose to them in a fight. My bad. it's your $900 movie. You definitely get to win the fight.

Congrats on being basically the biggest (most dressed in black) crybaby of all time. Johny Cash would have worn fuschia if he would have known what you'd do to black...

Read the news article here!

Letter to a Legalist.

A few months ago, I came across a website proclaming Christ, and denoucing, well...pretty much everything. Having grown up with this kind of "tolerance" and it pretty much destroying my faith -- after a few days I found myself writing the author. I have never heard back...but then I have never heard back from those most responsible for the misinformation of my youth.

Here is the letter:

Dear _______,
There is so, so, so much that I could say about how sad your site makes me. I really do believe that you could have the best of intentions. I came out of a cultish little Christian school with intentions just like yours. These “good intentions” nearly kept me from ever trusting Christ...from ever coming back to that child-like faith. A few years ago though, I found out that we weren't given a rule book, but a guide book. There are rules to be sure, and those aren’t flexible. But there are those things that aren't spelled out for us, things that we have to weigh and through His grace come to conclusions on. (Many of these things are the things that you and your clan love to go ahead and draw lines in the sand on…)

The Old Testament book of “Music”, Chapter 3 and verse 2 does not say "drums in music are wrong". It doesn't say that steel guitar is wrong, and it doesn't say that violins are right... We are given the tools with which to make judgments. Our famous "man after God's own heart" was one of the biggest failures and screw-ups (by our standards) ever, and in the stern world of KJV thumping Baptistness (not to be confused with Christianity) he, King David, would likely have been banned from the (at least YOUR) church. Can you even imagine the scowls from the bun-headed long-skirt ladies (or the things that you could post on a website) about someone who first lusts, then fornicates, then murders, and then lies about it. MAN AFTER GOD"S OWN HEART, INDEED! Yet he was. God knew his heart. I guess that must have something to do with intent. 'Cause he certainly wasn't following the Fundamentalist rule book.

One of the most amazing things that I see uneducated (or Fundamentalist Programmed Die Hard Baptists (who put Denomination in front of Christianity), arguing is that the KJV is "God's Official Version" of the Bible. It's a VERSION...a translation. The Bible is thousands of years old, the KJV is a few hundred...and translated by quite a doosey of a man for politically motivated reasons. You can post whatever you want about this, but even a Baptist can't change history. This isn’t like someone 3 years ago theorizing that Abraham Lincoln liked men…these historical accounts were written THEN. Many of the undiscerning who are shouting this “KJV is the inspired word” belief are also big "Rapture" believers...an idea that's acceptance is about 150 years old, and was considered heresy by conservative believers originally. (If you want to look it up, it’s called pre-millennialism, and in the timeline of Christianity it’s a pretty new idea.)

So here is a/the question that I would like for you to consider objectively.

First, let's start by acknowledging that the KJV is a translation. It’s an easy thing, because we all know the Bible wasn’t written in English, right? Now. Let’s not even factor in these other translations like the NIV, and the RSV, and that thing they are calling “The Message”. Even if we're going to assume that the KJV flat out IS the “Jesus Christ Autograph Edition” of His word, what about all of the fine folks in the world who don't speak English? Does this mean that only 35.8% of the world has access to "the Official God Endorsed Bible"? Are we then to TRANSLATE A TRANSLATION into other languages to be missionaries to the world??? What small minded worldview has something in English as the "real thing"? One would have to have not left Kentucky in their lifetime to think that we here are that big in “the big picture”... What happens when you translate a translation? There are words that can't be accurately matched from Greek and Hebrew to English, then words that can't be matched from English (apparently the language of God) to Zimbabwean... Do you know that while in the Greek there are four kinds of love and words for each, we in English have only one word, and no way (without verbose description) of differentiating these 4 kinds? How then are we superior?

I really am not expecting you to give this consideration. The information you have posted speaks to one who “believes what they believe” and "don't confuse me with the facts"...but I hope and pray that you might just give this a moments thought.

I am going to pray for you tonight. And I am going to remember you occasionally from here on out. If your many efforts here are really meant for the good of the Kingdom, I hope that God will lay it on your heart to do some objective thinking.

My wife and I were talking about the full frontal attack that you have posted in the guise of a Bible believing, soul-saving site, and we had an interesting epiphany. While we tend to think only of false prophets coming from the left (that means liberal), the damage that is done by the false prophets on the right (strict rule based, regulatory "Christianity") is probably much more damaging. There are likely more people deceived (and turned COMPLETELY away) by distorted truth than by flat out lies.

Sincerely,
Dwight

Persistantly Persistant.

It has been one of those days - a couple now actually - in which a certain amount of resolve is necessary. It has been a heavy month for 73ideas, and that has been taking it's toll on me. I remember a couple years ago, early in building the brand that I would have given alot to be in this predicament. Then I was working 16 hour days to try to GET work. 16 hour work days pay. 16 hour working at trying-to-land work days do not. This is all somewhat beside the point, but in this couple week stint of persistance, I am reminded once again of the value of it. Former President Calvin Coolidge once said:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

It's true. I can't tell you some of the talent that I have been exposed to along the way. But talent without doing doesn't do anything. It ferments, but never turns into a cabernet.

Perspectives You Could Probably Live Without...

I've been thinking -- and that's the problem.

If I'd just cut that out, you wouldn't have to listen to this. But nevertheless, here's what I'm about to do. I'm going to let you have it -- my thoughts on things I see, hear and read.

It seems that breath is a bad thing now (with all that carbon dioxide it gives off) so rather than wasting my breath, I am going to waste my keystrokes. Anyone know where I can buy some keystroke offset credits? I'm feeling pretty bad about this.

I've been thinking. That's the problem. And I'm tired of all the people that don't. Brace yourselves.