This morning on the way to school Jessica asked the girls what we should do while some friends come into town this summer. Abby replied, “Let’s go to the art museum!”
Jessica suggested that not everyone might enjoy the art museum because not everyone is like us in the things they enjoy.
Abby: “yeah, we’re a nerd family.”
Evie asked, “We’re nerds?”
Abby: “Yeah, and it’s cool!”
I’m such a proud dad 
So Monday the 16th (yesterday) was the 8 year anniversary of our having lived in the Denver metro area. We like it a bunch, but we still miss friends and family from around the US (and world) – but it’s the longest amount of time Jessica’s ever lived in one place. The same can be said for Abby & Evie 
I lived in Nevada for longer, but I hardly count.
W8w.
The Matrix has no right to be 13 years old. It stands up so incredibly well. Amazing film. Shame they never made any sequels. — Shea Bennett on Twitter
How many things in your day are you pre-loading with the assumption “it can’t be done.”?
How right are you with that assumption? I’m guessing you’re probably wrong.
If it’s too hard, too long, too stressful, too much work, too (insert excuse here) you’re probably justifying that which you should question.
Today is my sister’s birthday. It turns out that once a person reaches a certain age you’re supposed to say, “Happy 29th birthday!,” no matter how old they actually turned. You’re supposed to start that when they’re 27, right? [I know her actual age, but I'm not sharing out of respect for her privacy]. w00t!
I’ve started journaling/blogging my preparation to build an acoustic bass guitar. You can read about it here: Luthery.
Happy New Year! I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds. Its looking exciting and i’ve got a lot to learn. As you’d expect, i’ll do a bad job if keeping you posted
Normally I’d write some very sentimental message right here, but today I’m going to just link you over to Cake Wrecks. Now I’ll say this: Thanks for pulling with us during 2011 – it’s been quite a year with lots of firsts and some hopefully lasts, and maybe even a laugh or two. As for now: may your Christmas be heavenly focused, and may your time with your family not need spiked eggnog. And if you don’t get time with family may you get time with friends. And if you don’t get time with family or friends may you get it before or after. And if you’re an exception to that: I’m sorry.
Question of the week: What was the best part of 2011?
If you want to drive me bonkers send me an email that is only a subject. It will make me crazy because most of these emails come in like an awkward text message, but instead of using the body of the message to tell me more information I get nothing. Blankness is not boldness in this case. Send me an email with a subject that means something (hopefully within the vein of content that your message body contains) and then a message body that contains full, complete, clear thoughts. I even prefer paragraphs rather than a stream of consciousness email that is about 6 topics, but has no way for them to be found due to a lack of break in contents.
Yeah, if you send me emails with just subjects I’ll be bothered. I won’t tell you, but I will tell the Internet.
I’ve been reading a lot lately. Below is the list of books I’ve read since October, almost all of them have been 4 or 5 out of 5 stars.
The Power of Who [5/5] – a great book on the importance of relationships and their use in our growth and achievements as people. There are people in your life that are willing to help you, are you asking them? Are you settling for “what else” or are you striving for “what’s more”?
EntreLeadership [5/5] – Dave Ramsey has been known for his personal finance book, “The Total Money Makeover”, but this book on leadership in small-to-medium business is a must read. Lots of insights into people, planning, and developing a winning culture.
How the Mighty Fall [5/5] – What if you could avoid leading a company into disaster? What if you were able to turn a company headed for disaster around? This book has a lot of good material in it and it may be just the awakening that some company leaders need. Once they read that one, they should read “Great By Choice.”
Great By Choice [5/5] - This great book on what makes companies stand out in a crowd should be read by anyone in the business world looking to evaluate their own company’s success or failure. The illustrations help make the points in this book and engaging research ties into incredible value for anyone who is looking for direction on how to improve their company and their company’s leadership direction.
Kanban [4/5] – This book is about starting up a “Kanban” or LEAN implementation in a software development environment. There’s a lot of good material in here, but some of it went on a bit long for me [thus the 4 out of 5 stars]. However, despite needing to be a bit shorter in a few places this book is a must read for anyone looking to bring transparency to their software development projects in a team environment.
I’m also working on Lean Startup and Passionate Performance. Reports on those are to come!