Category Archives: remainders

In a further effort to get me back to posting here more here is the first in another regular series — Random Notes and Thoughts. Some of these I may loop back around to in the future with a longer dedicated post but I need to park them for now.

• I’ve actually been working and writing a lot since I got back from vacation. Just not here. I wrote a thousand words about the camera in the new iPhone 5S over at Minimal Mac. I wrote a forward for my friend Julio’s upcoming book. I have recorded about half of the audiobook version of my Apple Consulting Guide which I hope to complete the recording of this week. Plus a flood of client work. So yeah, I’ve been busy.

• I’ve also been working on a lot of personal and professional development stuff. I’ve been thinking a lot about my current consulting rate, current service offerings that have become burdens or not cost effective, and potential new services I could/should be offering. I’ve been reading Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss but I’m not quite sure if it has the answers that apply to me and what I do. Which leads to a more interesting question which is, perhaps I should be doing different things.

• I think it is really good, especially if you work for yourself, to take a step back every once in awhile and evaluate your business top to bottom and ask the hard questions… Am I charging enough for the value I provide? Am I providing the right value to the right people? Am I in the right business in the first place? Is Starbucks hiring and do they still provide healthcare to their employees? These are all valid and worthy questions.

• But, the fact also is that I’ve let all of that get in the way of the commitment I have made to myself (and you) here and this makes me feel bad.

• Be happy with the things you can do. Don’t focus on the things you can’t.

• The fanciness of your process only reveals your resistance to the dirtiness of the work. Only the work is The Work. Everything else is an excuse.

• I don’t believe I will ever get used to not wearing a wrist watch. Mainly because when I need to know the time I never remember there is a device in my pocket that can tell me.

• I don’t quite know what it is "the kids" are listening to these days and, on the odd occasion I hear it, I just can’t understand why anyone would listen to such crap. I always imagined I would grow up to be the "old guy"’who was "down" with "the kids". I now ready to be content with being just old and not having a clue what or why the kids listen to what they do these days.

• I think that Blossom), played by Mayim Bialik in the 1980s hit TV show of the same name, would be an appropriate fashion role model for my daughter. This also makes me far more comfortable with allowing her to dress herself.

• Replace every hour you will never get back with two you wish would never end.

• Most days, I’m not sure I will ever be as satisfied by most technology as I am with a good pen and nice paper. Nor will it inspire the same feelings of possibility, expressiveness, and creativity.

• I become enamored with ideas. This site proves that.

Today is the first day of The Great Minnesota Get Together — The Minnesota State Fair. What is commonly known here as simply, “The Fair”. It is the largest state fair in the United States.

There are many, many, things to love about the Minnesota State Fair. But the one thing I love the most is how it unites us all. If I were to walk up to any of the 3.4 million people in the Twin Cities Metro Area and ask them what their state fair traditions are, every single one would have an answer. Everyone would have a story to tell about the fair, how this thing or that thing became the thing they always do, or about some offbeat thing they have found there that no one else seems to know. They might tell you the day they always go or where they always park, or the exact order they always plan their day, or the things they always have to see or eat. No matter, everyone has at least one state fair tradition and most people several.

I, of course, have my own. I always have to eat a Scotch Egg for breakfast at the stand near the livestock barns. I always have to get a malted milkshake at the Dairy Building. I always try to get a bucket of Sweet Martha’s Cookies which always overflow the top such that one can not put the lid on unless you eat a couple of dozen which are always best washed down with several glasses of milk from the “All The Milk You Can Drink For $1.00” truck (it used to be .50 cents).

Around this time of year, I often think to myself where else in America (or the world) one could find such a thing? An entire city or region or state united by the shared experience of something so fun, uplifting, and meaningful. Something so full of tradition that often spans generations and crosses culture, race, and gender. Our state fair is a great state fair made greatest by the love of all who frequent it.

I suspect it is rare and increasingly more so. Hence I (and many other Minnesotans) am always just a bit more thankful and proud to live here this time of year. And we are, rightfully, just a bit more proud of ourselves too. Because we can pass a stranger and know that no matter our differences there is something we likely share — we love The Fair.

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