John Dilbeck And Friends

On another of my blogs, I recently wrote about how broadband makes a huge difference in online marketing.

In that post, I concentrated on the benefits of fast Internet access and how it helps to get more work done.

In this post, I’m going to look at the other side of the coin and how broadband Internet access throws up so many shiny red balls that tend to catch my attention and pull me from my work.

To be fair, life is not all about work and there should be a good balance between work and play, business and family, and even being at home and getting out in the world. I know those things.

What brings this all up is that I’ve been spending much of my time with my daughter and her family this month and I’ve encountered some things that have made it more difficult to focus on my work and to ignore the distractions.

1. Television - the great time waster.

For years, I could only see 3.5 channels on TV - NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS. I say 3.5 channels because I could only receive PBS part of the time.

When TV switched from analog to digital, I could see exactly 0 (yep, zero) channels. No TV!

For many people that would have been a disaster, but for me it helped to make more time to focus on my work.

Now, I don’t know how many channels are available here. There are channels I’ve never seen before and some of them catch my interest in ways I never would have imagined.

I was watching a show about rebuilding Stonehenge on the National Geographic channel. It was a fascinating story of how some folks built replicas of the Stonehenge monolithic rocks using foam and rebuilt what they think is a good replica of the original Stonehenge. I found that fascinating. *Poof* there goes an hour of my life. Was it educational? I think so. Did it help me get closer to reaching my goals? Not at all.

My daughter introduced me to a show called Cake Boss about some folks in New Jersey that have a bakery and specialize in some rather awesome cakes. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d find that interesting, but I did. The next thing I knew, I’d watched three episodes and another hour and a half had evaporated. Entertaining? Yes. Closer to achieving my dream? No.

I could go on and on. I bet I’ve wasted 30 or 40 hours this month, just watching TV. I’ve been watching old reruns of NCIS, Becker, Cheers, and lots of other old favorites. Why? I’m not really sure.

2. Internet video - both useful and an incredible time waster.

I have really mixed feelings about this one.

Now that I have access to broadband, I’ve discovered that I both like and loathe online videos, and I haven’t been good at separating the two.

I recently learned about Hulu.com and while I enjoy some of what it has to offer, it has cost me quite a few hours of productive work time.

For instance, I have watched six or seven episodes from season one of The A-Team and enjoyed all of them. Entertaining? You betcha. Helps me get closer to reaching my goals? Quite the opposite.

I have been a big fan of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis for several years. Since I didn’t have cable TV, the only way I could watch them was to rent them on Netflix.

While playing around on Hulu.com, I discovered that Amanda Tapping, who had been one of the co-stars in both Stargate series had a show of her own called Sanctuary. Three episodes were available on Hulu and I watched all of them. I liked the show so much that I added all of the episodes from season one of the series to my Netflix queue and eventually they’ll show up in my mailbox.

With broadband, I don’t have access to just three DVDs at a time, I can watch shows online from NetFlix and that’s a huge temptation.

Until this month, I had much less temptation to watch movies and TV episodes because I had made it a habit to do all my work first and would reward myself with a little TV (by watching DVDs from Netflix) while eating dinner.

Now, however, there is a huge number of shows and movies I’d love to watch and I don’t even have to wait the two days it normally takes to mail a DVD back and get the next one in my queue.

So, I’ve had to think about ways to deal with these distractions.

I realize that watching old reruns at random is a waste of my time and energy. I don’t think I’m going to have a difficult time tuning them out.

On the other hand, I’ve also discovered the lure of YouTube.

I will never get hooked on the mindless entertainment that is available on YouTube. I have no doubt about that.

However, I’ve discovered that YouTube has some interesting and useful content that I will watch and some of it may even be helpful in my business.

For example, I’m a huge fan of Napoleon Hill and his books Think and Grow Rich and Law of Success. But, until last week, I’d never seen a video of him. Quite by accident, I stumbled across a video of Mr. Hill talking about his initial meeting with Andrew Carnegie and how that launched his career devising and publicizing his personal success courses and philosophy.

Since I have some pages on my sites about Napoleon Hill, I added this video to a couple of them. For example, you can see that video on this page: Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich - Law of Success.

I think that video actually adds something to the information about Mr. Hill.

So, while I’ll never waste any time watching videos of squirrels surfing or idiots doing stupid things, I do find value in some of the videos available on YouTube and I’ll be making use of some of them in the future.

One of the things I plan to do is create short videos of some of the business owners on Murphy Gold where they can talk about why they enjoy owning and operating the businesses they do. I think that will provide good information that some of their customers and prospects will enjoy learning.

I still have to learn how to create and edit these videos, but that’s going to be pretty easy since one of my granddaughters has a photography business and can take good videos with one of her cameras.

I have video editing software on my computer that I’ve never used, so it will be interesting to learn if this will be another distraction or a way to help promote my business and my client’s businesses.

So, perhaps I needed to get caught up in some of these distractions this month in able to sort out the useful from the shiny red balls that just lead me off track.

I can see how someone who doesn’t have a plan or goals to achieve could be dragged into hours and hours of wasted time.

It’s easy to do. Just veg out in front of the tube and let it feed nonsense into your receptors.

On the other hand, when I find something that matches the goals I have set for myself, I’m discovering a whole new world of information that can really be useful.

The hard part is to separate the two and not let myself be distracted by things that will never lead me one step closer to achieving my goals.

What about you?

How do you deal with distractions? Do you have plans and goals you want to achieve? Do they help you stay focused?

All the best,

JD

And now, for something totally different than what I’ve been writing about lately.

I like soup.

I prefer to drink soup from a cup rather than eat it from a bowl using a spoon, unless it is full of big chunks of meat.

When I’m eating soup with a spoon, I enjoy the slurping sound I make when I’m trying to eat it before it’s really cooled down. I like my soup hot and I’ve been known to microwave it half through to heat it back up.

I don’t like cold or even cool soup.

My taste for soup changes depending upon the weather. When it’s warm outside, I prefer chicken noodle soup or cream of chicken.

However, when the temperature drops outside and my fingers and toes start to ache from the cold, there is only one soup I crave and that is tomato soup. I love tomato soup in the cold of winter, but can’t stand it the rest of the year.

I wonder why that is.

I don’t really like tomatoes.

I don’t like raw tomatoes, except when they’re on a hamburger or chicken sandwich. I will eat them in a salad, sometimes.

I like lasagna and spaghetti, but don’t eat either of them more than once or twice a year.

Tomatoes just don’t play an important part in my diet.

I’m craving tomato soup.

But, even so, yesterday and today I’ve been craving a hot cup of tomato soup. Yesterday, I treated myself to tomato soup and a baked chicken sandwich for lunch and enjoyed every bit of it.

I don’t normally eat lunch. Usually, I try for a good breakfast and then a good dinner, but lunch tends to leave me sleepy and non-productive for the next couple of hours.

That’s what happened yesterday. I worked for five or six hours and ate my delicious lunch. Then, I didn’t feel like doing anything and took a long nap for almost three hours.

Today, like yesterday and the day before, I feel like I’m running a low-grade fever with the itchy eyes, runny nose, and lack of energy. It doesn’t seem to be getting any worse and I don’t really feel sick, just not quite up to par.

So, can you guess what’s on my mind? That’s right. I’m looking forward to a hot cup, or maybe even two cups, of tomato soup this evening. I don’t know what I’ll have with it, but that doesn’t seem to be all that important. I’m looking forward to hot tomato soup on a cold day.

I wonder why that is.

What about you?

Does your taste in soup change with the season and the outside temperature?

Whatever you like during this time of the year wherever you live, enjoy some soup today!

All the best,

JD

I’m not going to lie about it.

2009 has been a very difficult year for me, but it could have been much worse.

My home is not the home of my dreams, but it gives me a place to live until I can earn enough to buy or build the home I dream of.

This old house is where my parents retired in the early 1970s. They left Atlanta and moved to Murphy, NC. They loved living here, even when times were tough.

Pop died in the summer of 1991 and Mom died last year, just before Thanksgiving.

Both of them have been on my mind a lot this month.

Mom’s birthday was November 6; their anniversary was November 25; Thanksgiving was a couple of days ago. It’s been a month of memories and being thoughtful about what is important in life.

Both of them worked hard all their lives and were quite a bit healthier and stronger in their latter years than I am now. It gives me something to work towards - better health.

Both of them had serious health problems earlier in their lives and they still managed to mostly overcome them over time.

Pop broke his back when he fell off a crane onto a truck’s roof. For years he could do very little. Still, many years later, he could easily outwork me.

Mom had trouble with her legs for most of her life, but that didn’t stop her from doing what she wanted, until her cancer surgery caused nerve damage and she was no longer able to walk unassisted.

So, I can look back on my illness earlier this year and think “poor me” all I want, or I can continue to do what I can to get around and rebuild my strength.

Sometimes life just isn’t easy. It’s the challenges that make us stronger and help us develop real character.

So, maybe that’s what I’m working on now - character.

Money is tight, but I’ve managed to find something to eat for over 57 years while fending off everything that tried to eat me, so I guess that’s some measure of success.

(I’m not sure who said that originally, but I read it some time back and liked it enough to paraphrase it for myself.)

I love living here in Murphy. Sometimes it’s hard to earn a living here, but other people in other areas have had it tough, too. We do what we have to do to survive.

I’ve decided that I want to help others as I help myself and that’s why I’ve dedicated myself to building the best marketing system for locally-owned small businesses in Murphy, NC. You can see the start of it at Murphy Gold and Murphy Connections. Over time, it will get better and better and I look forward to helping small business owners in our little mountain town market their businesses to a wider audience.

While I may not have all I need right now, I do have a plan and I’m working on that plan every day. It gives me something to work towards and that’s important.

Thanksgiving was an interesting day. I spent the day alone, but I still had contact with family and friends online and over the phone.

Several friends called to see how I was doing and to wish me a happy holiday.

I was in touch with family even though I didn’t see them in person.

I was alone, but not lonely. Memories of past holidays gave me good feelings and I smiled quite a bit during the day.

Even though I may not be able to visit my brother and his family this year, I’ll think of them often.

I’m looking forward to Christmas breakfast at my daughter’s house and spending time with that branch of my family. Christmas will be here before we have a chance to turn around a few times.

Would I have enjoyed a house full of people and a table loaded with traditional Thanksgiving food this year? Of course, I would.

But, I’ve done that many times over the last few decades, so missing it now and then really isn’t such a big deal.

I’m grateful for all I have and I intend to redouble my efforts to rebuild my marketing business to where I’ll be enjoying prosperity instead of mere survival.

As we enter into this major winter holiday season, I hope you’ll reflect on all that you have and all the good memories of times and people who have helped shape your life.

We all have a lot to be thankful for.

All the best,

JD

It’s been awhile since I’ve done any blogging, but I’m back and, hopefully, I’m going to have the time and energy to get lots done over the coming weeks.

I’m finally feeling better now that I’m past all my fall allergies. It’s amazing how much more I can get done when my head doesn’t feel like it’s going to explode!

So, what’s with the title of this blog post?

Sometimes life intervenes and we have to adjust our priorities to handle them. That’s why I’ve been mostly offline for the last week or two.

A few months ago, I received a notice from the NC government that they wanted to recoup all the money they spent last year for the few months Mom was in the nursing home before she died.

If that happens, I don’t know what I’m going to do. It looks like the only option will be to sell the house and land and find a new place to live.

The trouble is that I’ve been living here since the mid-1990s, ever since I was divorced.

I planned to stay for a few weeks and help Mom do some things around the house and property and then I was seriously considering moving back to Arizona.

That didn’t work out.

The longer I stayed here, the more I realized that Mom needed more help than I was aware of. That really got serious in 2002 following her cancer surgery. She was no longer able to care for herself and I made the decision to bring her back home and care for her.

So, I did that for over six years. She lived at home and I cared for her 24/7.

Last July, her health declined rapidly and there was no choice but to move her into the nursing home. I still don’t like it, but I had no choice.

She was there for a few months and died just before Thanksgiving, nearly a year ago.

Ever since, I’ve been trying to settle her estate and deal with lots of unexpected issues including some serious health problems of my own this year, a decline in my business income, increase in expenses, and one problem after another.

Sigh.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working around the clock to respond to a letter I received in early September from the NC Department of Health and Human Services.

I finally responded to that letter a couple of days ago and now we’ll see if they will give me a waiver on the thousands of dollars they want from Mom’s estate or if I’ll have to sell everything and leave.

If I had the money, I’d write a check and send it to them. I never wanted the state to pay for Mom’s care in a nursing home. In fact, I believe that I’ve saved the state of NC hundreds of thousands of dollars because I cared for Mom myself.

But, I don’t have the money.

During the years I cared for Mom, I fell farther and farther behind in my profession and I don’t think I’ll ever again be able to do professional computer consulting and database work. My health has declined to the point where I could not hold down a full-time job, even if I could find one around here.

So, I’ve done all I can do. Now, it’s just a matter of waiting to see what happens.

If they grant the waiver, I’ll be able to turn my full attention back to trying to earn a living. If not, I’ll disappear from all my online haunts for a few weeks while I throw out everything here and try to find a place to live and a way to pay for it.

If they insist on payment, maybe they’ll give me some kind of payment option and maybe they won’t.

I never expected that I’d ever be facing the possibility of the Sheriff selling Mom’s home on the courthouse steps, but that’s a distinct possibility in November.

Am I worried.

No. I’m scared.

But, it’s one of the things that life throws at us and we have to deal with them.

I’m hoping that 2010 will be a much better year than 2009. This has been the most difficult 12 months of my life and I’m hoping that things will turn around, soon.

I’m trying to keep a good attitude and continue to work, but it’s a struggle sometimes.

I hope your year is going better than mine!

All the best,

JD

I’m going to preface this by saying that since I was a teenager in high school I was very opposed to the war in Vietnam. I still hold that view.

Even so, I’ve never been one of those people who took it out on the people who served in the military in Vietnam.

It has been a long time since I really thought about the Vietnam War and that all changed this week.

The Cherokee Scout ran a series of articles about local people who served in the war and I was moved enough by one of them that I called him and thanked him for what he did. We had a pleasant conversation for the next 20 minutes. I already respected him a lot, but, now, even more.

(I won’t mention any names. This was between him and me.)

I was never in the military, but I worried about the draft all through high school.

Unlike many of my friends, I was not drafted, but they were and quite a few of them went to Vietnam.

On Friday, October 9, 2009, I went to see The Moving Wall in Murphy, NC.

(I uploaded some photos of The Moving Wall in Murphy, NC on MurphyConnections.com.)

Every volunteer I saw was friendly and helpful.

After walking down the flag-bedecked path to the Wall, located right next to the River Walk, we arrived at the booth where all guests were asked to sign the register.

I think one of my cousins was killed in the war, but he was not a close cousin and I didn’t know his name. When one of the volunteers asked if I was looking for anyone in particular, I told him my cousin’s last name. He looked in the huge book and found a number of people with that same name, but none of them were from the Atlanta area. So, I wasn’t going to look for a particular name on the wall.

(After talking with my brother this afternoon, I realized I was thinking of the wrong branch of the family. He told me the name of our cousin who died in Vietnam. I’m going to try to get back to the Moving Wall before they leave and see if I can find his name.)

I spent a few minutes just standing there looking at it.

The Moving Wall is longer than I thought, but only half as long as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

I started walking down the Wall and looking at the names. At first, there are only a few names on each panel, but as you approach the center of the memorial, there are more and more names until the panels are full.

It affected me more than I thought it would. Even though I didn’t know anyone whose name was on that memorial, I had to stop along the way and read a few of the names and realize that these were real people who served and died in Vietnam.

Every now and then, someone would leave something stuck between two of the panels or something at the foot of the monument. There were photos of the people who had died, a few flowers, and even a pair of boots.

By the time I reached the end of The Moving Wall, I had tears in my eyes. I had to sit on one of the River Walk benches and let it all sink in.

At that moment, I had an entirely new way to look at the Vietnam War, and this time it was personalized by the names I read on that wall. Now, I understand the photos I’ve seen of people who visited the actual memorial in Washington.

I don’t know anyone on that wall, but others have friends, relatives, and people they served with memorialized there.

I felt a level of empathy for not just the names on the wall, but for the real people those names represent and for all the people who knew them.

It’s not just 58,000+ names, it’s hundreds of thousands of people who were personally affected by the war and the tragedy of so many lives cut short.

As I left, I stopped and thanked each volunteer I saw for helping to bring The Moving Wall to Murphy.

I realized that I was lucky and so were my friends. Of all the people I know who served in the Vietnam War, all of them came home alive. Some were radically changed and others were seriously wounded, but none of them died there.

Not everyone was that fortunate.

These words do not really represent how deeply I was moved by visiting the memorial, but they’re the best I can do.

I want to thank the Marine Corps League #1011, all the volunteers, and the sponsors, individuals, and businesses that contributed to bring The Moving Wall to Murphy.

If you haven’t visited, yet, you still have a couple more days.

All the best,

JD

As you may, or may not, know, I no longer watch TV. That means that I no longer watch all the news shows and the Sunday morning political shows.

I find that I don’t miss all the bickering and misrepresentation that goes on and my life feels just a little more peaceful as a result.

So, I was pretty much unaware of President Obama’s scheduled speech to students in American classrooms until I saw tweets showing up (on Twitter, of course) saying that parents were being given the choice not to have their children watch the speech in their classrooms.

Now, that’s all I know about the controversy surrounding this, but it feels like more political wrangling and bickering more than anything else.

So, I went looking to see if the White House had released the text of the speech, and they have. Here are the Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama, Back to School Event, Arlington, Virginia, September 8, 2009.

Being a somewhat thoughtful person who would rather respond to facts than react to vitriol, innuendo, and mischaracterizations, I read the speech for myself. The first time, I read it to understand the gist of it. The second time I read it, was to look for anything that might be objectionable. The third time was to enjoy the meaning of it.

I only wish I could write that well and be that inspirational.

Success is not easy. It takes a long time and lots of hard work, and education is a vital component in achieving the success we want.

Those who learn how to depend upon themselves for learning, who set goals and work to achieve them, and buckle down and keep working when the going gets tough are the people who will succeed at what they want to do.

We need more of these people.

When I was a student, I was complaining about one of my teachers and Mom told me, “The best teacher cannot teach someone who does not want to learn; the worst teacher cannot stop a dedicated student from mastering that subject.”

Now, my memory is dim on this, but I think she said that Martha Berry said that to the students when Mom was attending Berry Academy way back in the mid-20th century.

Tomorrow, President Obama will tell students across America this…

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

What parent would not want their child to hear the President of the United States of America address personal responsibility in such a way?

Why is this objectionable?

(Hang on a moment. I’m going to go and read that speech one last time…)

I’m back.

This paragraph jumped right off the page when I read it…

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s the American dream expressed in four short sentences.

We make our own future.

He will continue…

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

No matter what we want to accomplish with our lives, in order to be successful, we need to set goals for ourselves and then work to achieve each of those goals, one step at a time.

Find ways over, around, under, or through the obstacles that will show up in our path. Keep on trying until we succeed at what we want to do.

If you’re looking for the secret to success, “keep on trying” may not be the only secret, but it is a vital component.

That doesn’t mean we have to keep knocking our heads against a wall when we run into one. We have to evaluate our approach and our goal and where we are at the moment. Then, we need to apply our intellect, imagination, and experiences to the problem and try a new approach.

Keep on trying.

Everyone encounters obstacles that must be overcome…

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Finally, President Obama will challenge the students to do their best…

…I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it….

This is a great speech. It tells the truth about accomplishing what we want for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our country - and I might extend that to include our world.

It reminds the students that everything won’t be smooth sailing, but we can accomplish the things we set our minds to achieving.

It challenges each student to do his or her best - to be an asset rather than a liability.

I feel sorry for any child who is not allowed to watch President Obama address the students of our nation tomorrow.

Do you think there may be something objectionable in it? Then take a few minutes and read it for yourself…

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama, Back to School Event, Arlington, Virginia, September 8, 2009

Act on your dream!

JD

First, I want to thank Susan Murphy for tweeting about her new favorite blog post. Otherwise, I probably never would have seen it.

Today, Christopher S. Penn wrote a great blog post about Arguing against your limitations, and I recommend that you read it.

All of us has something that holds us back, even if it exists only in our own thoughts. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Why accept your own self-imposed limitations?

I also enjoyed reading his thoughts on blue ocean marketing strategies. I think many people who do online marketing should think about this. Maybe you?

It won’t take long to read his post and the comments are interesting, too.

Act on your dream!

JD

At one point in my life, I wanted to be an engineer. Well, yes, the kind that drives steam engine locomotives, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I wanted to be the kind of engineer that used a slide rule when I was young and then moved to computers, later.

I’ve been fascinated with mathematics and doing practical things using math.

It turned out that I just wasn’t suited to be an engineer. But, I still love practical applications involving mathematics.

One such application is CAD/CAM (computer-aided drafting and manufacturing). I taught myself how to use a couple of CAD programs about 20 years ago and enjoyed it, but not much more than drafting using a big table and plastic triangles. It just isn’t for me.

Along the way, I learned a bit about 2.5-D and 3-D CAD.

Just as I’ve always wanted to be a sculptor, but lacked the talent, I’ve always wanted to build 3-D models, but lack the talent for that, too. So, I’ve remained an outside observer, watching the developments and learning a bit, here and there.

I’ve watched as it became possible to print a 3-D model in resin and plastic. In fact, I have a small, plastic sculpture of a human head that was printed using one of these techniques sitting on a bookshelf across the room.

Today, I ran across a company called Shapeways and loved their slogan, “Passionate about creating.”

What intrigued me, initially, about Shapeways is that it is kind of a Zazzle or CafePress for 3-D model designers. You can upload your model and they’ll print it for you. You can then have it shipped to you or even sell it in a Shapeways shop.

As I said, I don’t have the talent to do this, but I enjoyed looking at some of the galleries.

A friend of mine, who is a sculptor, and I spent some time experimenting with creating what are actually 2-D models with depth using a laser engraver many years ago. I could do the drawings for that and we tried printing the products in plastic and wood. We even tested creating wax models from the originals and casting them in silver and pewter.

It was intriguing and had some nice possibilities, but that was about the time Mom became sick and I chose to close my metalsmithing business and become her full-time caretaker. So, we never really did much with it, after that.

Still, every now and then, he sends me a link to a website or an article cut from one of the many magazines he reads that talks about new developments with laser engravers and 3-D model printing.

This time, I get to send him a link to something he may not know about.

One thing that really caught my attention is that Shapeways now offers the ability to print 3-D models in stainless steel.

That’s a huge jump forward, as far as I know.

It’s an interesting process. They print the model using layer after layer of stainless steel powder that is bound with some kind of binding material. When printing the model is completed, it is heated and cured, and then infused with bronze. After that, it is polished and ready for delivery.

One thing I really liked is their section on Expectation Management talking about the limitations of the process and the requirements for successful printing in stainless steel. It shows, to me, that they have caring people there who want you to be happy with the results you’ll obtain.

I know absolutely nothing about Shapeways other than what I read this morning. This is not a personal recommendation. However, if you have the talent to create 3-D CAD designs, Shapeways may be something to look into for fabricating your models.

It’s not something I’ll be doing, but I do find it fascinating.

Act on your dream!

JD

Yesterday and today, I did something that I rarely do. I took a day off and enjoyed napping and watching Stargate SG-1 DVDs I rented from Netflix.

I’ve been working very hard for the last few weeks updating older websites, creating a new one, working with clients, and blogging now and then.

Yesterday, around noon, I got offline to call my daughter on the phone. I missed her, but we got together today.

I’d been working yesterday for about nine hours when I stopped to call her and I was tired. A new DVD from season one of Stargate SG-1 had arrived the day before, so I microwaved a couple of corndogs and sat in my favorite easy chair to watch an episode and relax.

I love that show. I used to think that Star Trek was, without a doubt my favorite show of all time, but, lately, Stargate has been giving it a run for its money.

Since I don’t have cable or satellite TV, I missed all the original episodes of Stargate on Showtime and the Sci-Fi channel. But, now, years later, I can watch the entire series in order by renting them from Netflix.

I don’t spend much time watching TV, especially after the analog to digital conversion, because I don’t get any digital signals where I live. Analog reception was not always good, but digital is non-existent.

It’s just as well, because I’ve been concentrating so much on work for the last month.

Yesterday, however, I was caught up with most of the items on my to-do list and decided to take a break. I intended to take a few hours off, take a nap, and go back to work, but it didn’t turn out that way.

After watching a couple of episodes and taking a short nap, I woke to an approaching thunderstorm. I went around the house inserting manual air gaps into the power connections to my computer and major appliances (i.e., I unplugged them).

I pulled out a book to read and just as I got settled, the power went out.

Seeing my opportunity, I changed clothes and headed into Murphy to pick up some groceries.

I used to hate rain and storms, but after living in the dessert in Arizona for a few years, I’ve loved rain ever since.

I enjoyed the drive into town. All the trees and other vegetation are in their full summer lushness, and you won’t find many places on Earth with more variety than we have here in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Even with the overcast, rain, and steam rising from the road, the beauty of this area can be almost breathtaking.

The rain stopped about the time I got to the grocery store, so I spent a few minutes there before heading back home.

Armed with a fresh supply of corn dogs (I think I’m addicted to these lately, but don’t really know why. It’s not something I normally like.), I was set for another episode of Stargate.

About that time, another thunderstorm approached, so I settled into another nap until it passed. That was pretty much the pattern for the rest of the day, all night, and half the day, today.

I finally woke up and was ready to go to work today about 1:00 pm. It’s now about 12 hours later (1:45 am), and I’m thinking a break and another Stargate episode sounds good.

In a couple of hours, it will be time to pull out my to-do list and start working on the most important thing on the list, but I’ve enjoyed taking a day off and doing nothing but enjoy living and napping.

I hope you get to do what you love doing.

Act on your dream!

JD

I originally sent this as an email to the President of WRCB TV in Chattanooga, TN. He sent a nice reply, and I thank him for that.

These were some of my thoughts on the morning of the transition from analog to digital TV.

This morning, at midnight, while watching Conan O’Brien, the end of an era arrived and now it’s time to say goodbye to all my friends at Channel 3.

For almost 25 years, I’ve started and ended my day with your broadcasts.

Jed, Latrice, and David started my day with news and weather and the Tonight show ended my day with humor. During the day, the Today show provided information and news. I enjoyed watching Ellen and some of your afternoon game shows. Your evening news gave a recap to what was going on during the day.

I moved to Murphy in 1984, about the same time as Bill Markham and Paul Barys [moved to Chattanooga], I think. Even though I’ve never met them, it feels like I’m listening to friends when they come on TV.

Channel 3 has been my main source for news and weather, but now all I can do is visit your web site, which is very slow because I have only a slow dial-up connection to the Internet.

I live in an area north of Murphy where there is no broadband Internet nor cable TV available - and probably won’t be any time soon. Still, I would not exchange the peace, quiet, and beauty of where I live for better connections to the rest of the world.

When I first attached my new digital converter a few months ago, all I got was “no signal.” This was not unexpected. Reception here, where I am surrounded by mountains, has never been good, even with a signal booster.

I rescanned this morning and still, no signal.

So, goodbye TV. Goodbye Channel 3.

It was fun while it lasted.

All the best,

JD

As I said, above the quote, he sent a nice reply and suggested that I look into satellite services.

I’ve already thought of that and decided that what they offer isn’t worth the cost, as far as I’m concerned.

It sounds like I watch(ed) a lot of TV, but that’s not really true.

I have a TV in my office and have it on with the volume turned down low much of the time, but I rarely give it my full attention. There were some exceptions, however.

I enjoyed watching the first half-hour of the Today show to get a daily summary of the news. I was a big fan of Meet The Press when Tim Russert was the host, but not so much now that David Gregory has succeeded him. I liked watching the evening news and weather and usually stopped what I was doing to watch the monologue on the Tonight show.

Otherwise, it was on in case there was breaking news and as a background so that barking dogs and passing vehicles didn’t distract me as much as they may have otherwise.

I might be interested in cable TV, if I could also get broadband, but I’m not interested in satellite TV and don’t want their Internet service either.

So, after about 30 hours with no TV, I don’t miss it as much as I thought I might.

Act on your dream!

JD