Paul Merrill | Shiny Bits of Life

May 17, 2016May 14, 2016

Write

hand-written note on the back of an old postcard

Write with your hand.

This old postcard is one my dad left me, before he left.

Putting a pen (or pencil) to paper is an entirely different experience than typing on a keyboard. Feeling the pen tip (or graphite) move across paper produces a deeper feeling than hitting keys. Every character you produce is a small act of creation.

I have a bunch more of my dad’s postcards. I’d love to write to you on one. Just leave a comment on this post. I’ll send you an email to get your address, and then a postcard will magically appear in your mailbox, at the speed of snailmail.

Sending one back is completely optional.

May 10, 2016May 9, 2016

All too quick

I dismantled a swingset on Sunday.

Colorado’s intense high-altitude sun and temperature swings had taken their toll on the wood.

Our youngest kid is now 15. Playing on the swingset no longer holds the attraction it used to. So we decided to convert that part of the yard to garden.

It’s sad to contemplate that it seems like just a few years ago when I was mourning the loss of cuteness – when she was about 6 or 7 years old.

May 3, 2016May 8, 2016

Come on, invent that

window-gap

New windows for an old building… sometimes that doesn’t work.

Seeing this gap reminded me of reading a great phrase someone really smart once said: “no one puts new wine into old wineskins.”

And that made me think of the gaps that are all over Colorado’s roads. The extreme heat and cold we experience – and the water that seeps underneath our road beds – cause all manner of cracks and holes to appear – and gradually become larger and larger.

Road repair budgets are not what they used to be, so car repair bills related to tires and wheels are becoming commonplace.

Why can’t a smart engineer-type invent an inexpensive elastic road surface that will expand and contract with the changes in weather and precipitation? This surface would need to provide a uniform surface – as in, very smooth.

Know anyone up for the challenge?

April 26, 2016April 25, 2016

What once held value

Adobe Creative Suite, circa 2004 In 2004, I bought this Adobe suite of software. At the time, it was the full complement of software that the world’s best graphic designers would use to create their artwork.

(The current cloud-based version still fills that role.)

I paid something like $700 – and at the time, the regular full price was north of $1,000.

Today? That software is useless. It’s not worth a penny.

The computers it would run on have long since been retired.

And even though the core functionality of that suite of software hasn’t changed, no one would buy that old version.

At least we still hold value when we get older. Our core functionality isn’t that much different, though there are newer faster versions.

April 20, 2016April 20, 2016

You can’t say that

don't talk illustration American culture has become extremely polarized. If you are even slightly on one side of a fence, it’s very hard to say anything about your issue without getting shut down by voices from the opposing side.

This current political season has made the polarization much worse. Political candidates from both sides of the aisle are harsh and often unreasonable in their criticisms of their opponents. A climate of combativeness has sucked much of the American public into that same negative vortex.

Thankfully, I have become so tired of pre-election politics that I lost my desire to voice any political opinion. I hardly listen to any news, as so much air time is devoted to the same verses being iterated in some hardly-new direction.

I’ll be glad when November 9th hits, no matter who wins.

April 13, 2016

When good songs become bad

Hearing a song over and over can ruin a perfectly good song.

As I visited Kinko’s today, I heard a song that I’d be happy to never hear again for the rest of my life.

sir-paul-mccartney Paul McCartney is definitely one of the most talented musicians of the last 50 years. But every song he has written and sung has not been a masterpiece. (Very few musicians have that capability!)

Band on the Run is not my favorite song by Sir McCartney. Even when it became a world-wide hit on the radio, I didn’t enjoy it very much.

So when the Kinko’s playlist featured that song, I nearly ran out of the store screaming. (Well, not really.)

Can we have a world-wide moratorium on certain songs? Please?

April 5, 2016April 2, 2016

Seasons

car parts in a snowbank It’s that part of the year when I am totally ready for warmer weather.

Last week, we had a huge snowstorm. The white stuff accumulated so much that cars’ underbodies left bits and pieces all along the roadways as they unsuccessfully tried to be snowplows.

Days went by without sunshine. (And in Denver, we’re used to “about 300 days [with] at least one hour of sunshine sometime during the day.”) When you get used to seeing the sun, it’s hard to live without.

My brother lives in San Antonio. He trades not having snow for putting up with long summers of intense heat. As Americans get older, many move to warmer places. I understand that now.

But I do love the seasons. And the beauty of a new snowfall – before car parts start collecting in snowbanks.

March 29, 2016March 26, 2016

Do you love that company?

“Love covers a multitude of sins…”*

When you love a company, you’ll forgive their little mistakes.

I love IKEA:

I love their relatively inexpensive stuff.
I love how they suggest doing more things with less space.
I love the photo of the old Fiat 500 with a living room being transported on its roof.
I love the fresh, healthy and sometimes tasty food options in their cafeterias.
I love the style of much of what they sell.
I love the exotic-ness of the weird Swedish names for their stuff.

Because of my love for IKEA, I’m willing to put up with the things I don’t like:

I hate how they spell their name in all caps.
Some of their stuff is poor quality.
Since their goods are so inexpensive, workers in other parts of the world are not making enough in their factories.
The maze can be annoying, even though I know the shortcuts.

A very illusive goal for any company is to make it onto someone’s loved companies list. And it’s easy to get off that list. (Hello Chipotle and VW.)

Homework for my marketing friends out there: brainstorm with your team ways your company can get on your customers’ loved companies list.

* 1 Peter 4:8b.

March 23, 2016

Dreams

I love dreams. I rarely remember them, but when I do, and when they’re interesting, I enjoy telling Heather about them. If I have time, I like to write them down.

Saturday morning very early, I had this dream…

the band Quasi

I was supposed to play drums for my favorite band, Quasi. We were to perform at a small outdoor festival, kind of like on a gazebo in front of a medium-sized picnic. I was panicking, since I don’t play the drums. But in my dream, I could play them at least a little.

I asked Sam Coomes if my son could play instead of me. (And Jay can play the drums.) We were in the middle of negotiations when the dream faded. So I’ll never find out if Jay played drums for Quasi.

The irony of the dream is that Quasi has an amazing drummer. (Janet Weiss is my favorite drummer.) So why would Sam be asking me – or Jay – to play the drums?

March 8, 2016March 19, 2016

Variety and uniformity

a collection of vinyl records at a thrift shop - copyright 2016 by paul merrill

We love variety. We love uniformity. This contrast in our wants and needs is intriguing.

The familiar can be comforting – knowing that something will always be there. And yet, we love change. Few people would choose to have the same meal three times a day. We love listening to different tunes. A change in seasons is often welcome.

And yet everyone has different needs for variety and uniformity. Some people are content with no change, ever. On the other side, our ADD culture pushes us toward constant stimulation, which requires never-ending change. I’m probably closer to the wanting-variety end of that spectrum.

My need for constancy is reflected by the fact that I’ve been married 26 years. Yet there is endless variety in my wife. (Women are so different than men that I will never figure her out!)

Finally, variety is a luxury. In America today, we have far greater choice than kings and queens did 400 years ago. We can get fresh fruit 365 days a year. When I lived in Africa, my friends in rural areas did not have that luxury. If mangoes weren’t ready to pick, you didn’t eat mangoes. If they were ripe, you ate a lot, for several weeks straight.