Paul Merrill
If you’ve always wanted to get inside my head a little more than my blog will permit you, my friend Johanna very kindly did an interview with me over at her blog, Blip of Cheer. Check it out. And I hope you enjoy it. (Thanks, Johanna!)
“Wonky” is a great word. Askew or amiss might have a close meaning, for those of you not from the UK.
Anyhow, sometimes it’s better for a thing to be slightly imperfect for it to be more interesting. In the case of this little sign, if the clear background portion were perfectly aligned with the front portion, it would be boring.
Takeaway: Can you be intentional about adding some interest to projects you are working on? Adding a tiny bit of chaos could be a good thing.
Art is a wonderful way to look at our world differently. I know if I had seen the actual head of this particular high school student, she would look different. But in difference is found beauty.
The weekend approacheth. Go out to see some art. It’s often free, if you look in the right places.
A nearby coffee shop has a descriptive tag next to a piece of fabric art from India: “Embroidered Mirrored Tapestry, Gujarat.” But the thing is, that describes a tapestry across the room, and not the one it’s next to. I brought that up to an employee, and she basically said, “Oh.”
My gift is noticing details. Others notice the big picture. Both are needed for a job to get done well.
Teams work best. If you work alone, find a way to join a team. I’m part of a mastermind group that meets occasionally (mostly online), and we all help each other. You can do the same, if you’re not part of a team.
The makers of Cheez-It snacks weren’t thinking too well. Only a tiny precentage of their buyers would ever notice the name change from “Party Mix” to “Snack Mix.” My guess is that their staff were so excited about the new name that they felt they had to announce it on the box.
The rest of us? We would never have noticed the name change.
Takeaway: Think of your audience in any communications you create. Consider what they care about.
If you have never heard of Alltop, I urge you to visit. Guy Kawasaki started the site, and my friend Neenz keeps it running quite well.
Alltop is a library. You start by looking within a huge variety of categories. Each category’s page links to some of the finest websites and blogs within that realm. I’m on the “Life” page. You can also find ballroom dancing and Pacific Northwest street food.
And it’s not just for fun – Alltop is a very useful tool for work, if your job involves spending much time online.
I love my wife, Heather.
Happy Valentine’s Day to her – and to you too!
I was given a wonderful Lindt chocolate bar for Christmas. (I love chocolate, you see.)
I was sad to read that the chocolate bar was made in New Hampshire. (Click on the image for details.) I would guess that the chef did not look like the one on the package. And yes, it tasted exactly the same as if it had been made in Germany.
Why is it I felt cheated when I know that BMWs are made in South Carolina – and I would not feel cheated if I were the buyer of a South-Carolinian BMW?
I don’t know.
I get emails from Gilt. It’s fun to see what luxury deals are out there. Most of the time, the bargains are so far out of my world that I don’t even think about them. But it’s occasionally fun to imagine a vacation in Aruba, particularly when it’s -17 degrees (-27 C) outside my window.
This ad was so far out of my realm that I just laughed… two hours on a private jet for $7,700 (regular $10,000).
The funny thing is that I was once (and still am) like those who can afford those two hours. We lived in Nairobi, Kenya, (Africa) for five years. We knew people whose income represented about the same difference between ours and that of Bill Gates. Going out to a Valentine’s Day dinner at a fancy restaurant was about as inconceivable as our hiring a jet for two hours.
It’s good for me to remember that.
How do I deal with that knowledge? My wife and I try to be generous, when possible. We fail, but sometimes we succeed.
My daughter cut up an apple differently than usual.
I had never seen an apple in that way before.
