The 4 hour time change is great when you wake up. You can feel good about yourself for getting up at 6:30, but feel like you slept until 10:30. I might feel the effects tonight when I crash at 9:30 pm. A loser bedtime to be sure.

We decided to circle The Big Island today. Leaving from Kona, we headed up to Honokaa. We enjoyed the view, then ate at this great little local dive called Tex Drive In. They have basic burger fare (with a twist, my burger had pineapple) but they specialize in “Malasadas”, a portuguese donut. Since I am a fan of donuts, I ate two.

We continued heading around the island and stopped at ‘Ed’s Bakery’. We met Ed himself and showed us to his selection of handmade jams. Guava, coconut, starfruit, lime- and free samples were encouraged. It was great stuff and a great place.

We headed over to Pakaka falls, a massive waterfall that was very impressive. More impressive was the jungle we walked through to get to the lookout. Giant bamboo towers and dozens of other plants and trees I have never seen before today.

Racing the daylight away, we headed to a lookout where Lava is flowing down the side of the mountain and colliding with the ocean. When the magma (I learnes that word in 5th grade science class) hit the water, the result was a fiery explosion and a pillar of steam billowing a mile high.

On our way out we spoke to a couple vendors peddaling their wares. They were all interesting hippies, but my favorite was Jose- a 50-something islander who makes his living by selling photos he takes of the lava flows from his motor boat. He gets pretty close- “oh man, I’ve been burned a few times man.” And his photos were a bargain- $10 for 3. Amber couldn’t resist.

Now we are on the road headed to an observatory. I guess we will follow up on that topic tomorrow.

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The flight was uneventful enough. We landed to discover that the Honolulu airport is tiny, old, and laid out very very oddly. As we proceeded to the connecting gate for our flight to the Big Island, we rode a shuttle bus, walked down really long halls, went indoors and outdoors about 100 times, and ended up walking down the tarmac with an airline employee. We weren’t lost. Apparently this was the correct way to go.

The connection was run by a tiny airline who’s only employees making more than minimum wage was the pilot. The staff was terrible. The flight was an hour late for no apparent reason whatsoever. We finally arrived at the Kona airport, which is basically an assortment of tiki huts with a baggage claim. Pretty cool.

We got to the resort, chatted with Shonn and Crystal for a bit and crashed early.

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Last night Amber and I went to the Twilight Concert Series where Josh Ritter was performing.  I discovered Josh about 3 months ago, and I am hooked.  I can tell he was inspired by some of my other favorites (Dylan, Tom Waits… and do I hear some Leonard Cohen?)  But that doesn’t stop him from being a completely original talent.

My only dissapointment was the crowd.   Since it was a free concert, half of the people were just there to hang out rather than see the show.  When Josh would do a ballad, it was hard to hear him just because so many people were talking.  He was gracious and said it was a good crowd, but it wasn’t.  I was really hoping to hear”Snow is Gone”, and he didn’t do it.  My theory is that it would have been the encore, had the crowd applauded for more than 2 minutes. The sad thing is that he said it was his first time to SLC.  I hope it doesn’t stop him from coming back.

There is a line in “Snow is Gone” that says “I’m singing for the love of it…” You tell how true that is. He was grinning from ear to ear the entire show. He was clearly having a great time, which makes it hard not to enjoy yourself.

It was still a great performance and a great night.  Here is a video from a recent appearance on Letterman.

And another one from a concert in Dublin.

Music | 2 Comments »

There is nothing that makes me more uncomfortable than when someone tells me “Then we will have you talk for 30 minutes”.

I really don’t like the idea of filling up time just to fill up time.  I would much prefer if the assignment was “Then we will have you explain your topic…  Please don’t take more than 30 minutes.”  Sometimes you just don’t need much time to communicate your message.  I shouldn’t waste everyone’s time pretending I do.

I think this holds true for all communication.  Don’t send an email if you don’t have anything important to say.  Don’t raise a concern in a meeting if it isn’t a valid concern.  Don’t hit “Reply to All” on a mass email and ask the sender a question that no one else cares about, or to simply say thanks.

All this does is create noise.  It makes my valid emails harder to find, and the real concerns harder to validate.  If you are commonly generating noise, you are crying wolf.  When you have a real comment, a real question, a real concern, you will most likely be ignored.

One example-  A friend of mine just forwarded me an email he received from someone asking about an overdue payment he was waiting for.  The reply was simply:

Hold on

and then his signature line.  Did this accomplish anything?  He already was “holding on” (he had been for the past 6 months).  And after he sent the email, that is essentially what he was doing until his question was answered.  So what did this do?  It was just noise. (Sure, it validated that his email was received, but if he cared about that I’m sure he would have turned the delivery notification on.)

Brevity can include the amount of time you talk, the length of the email or blog post.  It can also include all the communication you withhold for lack of a clear purpose.

I don’t see anything wrong with ending the meeting early, or remaining silent when you don’t have an opinion.  Your message will be more powerful when you have one.

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Well, all of my fans (Ammon) have been asking when I was going to post again.  So here is a video.  Now leave me alone.

Historic “Blockbuster” Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past

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This morning while I was driving in to work, the car in the lane next to me decided to get into my lane without notice.  I honked so they wouldn’t hit me,  and moved over in my lane, averting the accident.  When we pulled up to the next light, I looked over to see two very old people.  The passenger was probably 80, and definitely a woman.  The driver was about the same age, but I am not sure if it was a man or a woman, I couldn’t tell.

So then the old driver looks at me, and flips me off.

I had the only normal reaction when someone that could be your grandma (or grandpa?) flips you off.  I started laughing pretty hard.  They saw me laugh and they decided to double down and give me the two-fisted flip off.  That just made me laugh harder.  My window was down so I very politely yelled, “What are you, like 110 years old?”

They didn’t like that much, so they gave me an even bigger flip off-  two hands, going up and down.

I am going to try to remember that for when I am that old.  If I can’t work and can hardly drive, I can at least do my part for society by making people laugh on their way in to work.

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Here is a random list of my favorite things.

Dwell Magazine
Moleskine Notebooks
Bolthouse Farms Juice
Herman Miller Eames Lounge Chair
Fender Guitars

The thing is, I not only like these things, I am extremely loyal to the brand.  (Except Herman Miller, I can’t afford it)

A lot of people feel that way about their car, their Mac, their dog, their clothes….  Something happes when a customer stops merely using your product, but makes it part of their identity.  Its Branding x100.

Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi released a book on the topic called “Lovemarks“.   The only problem is that in true advertising agency fashion, they didn’t really talk about how brands achieved Lovemark status.  Just that they had it.  I have been looking at this for a while now in my own life, trying to figure out what it is that makes me feel that way, and what I can do to replicate that for a brand I am responsible for.

So, what are your favorite things?  Why are they your favorites?  Do you get a sense of personal identity from them?

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Our 7 month basement remodel project is finally done.  I hated just about every minute of this project, but I love every minute I am in the basement now.  So I decided to post some pics, along with my comments.  Since I tell everyone the same thing when they see it, you can rest assured that this is just as good as an in-person visit.

I didn’t take any ‘before’ pictures, so let me describe it for you:  It sucked.

Now on to the new basement.

The couch (and pillows) are from Ikea.  It was pretty cheap, and it folds out into a full-size bed.  The wall that has the window is covered with Cork tiles.  The wall behind the couch is a textured wallpaper.  There is a close up of those below.

Here is the other side of that wall. The color looks weird.  Its tan, not salmon.

The TV looks small, but it is actually a 103″.  Ok, its a 32, but it still looks really small in this pic.
Below the TV is a giant toy cabinet. (Doors also from Ikea).  This was the whole idea behind this room.  When the kids are done playing, we bring out a small bulldozer and shovel it all in to the cabinet.  A place for everything…  The other side of the cabinet pokes into our utility room, so I put some desk tops on it and made it a massive workbench.

The utility room also contains our equipment rack.  All of the electronics are stored in the other room, and controlled via a remote control repeater system (see that little black box on top of the TV?)

This is the opposite end, which is for amber’s desk, books, and cds.  I dont have much more to say about this.

Here is a closeup of the cork we used on one wall.  I like it, so you should too.  At least pretend like you do.

A lot of people ask if we are going to use it to pin stuff up, and the answer is no.  Its just decorative.

The wall behind the couch has a textured, paintable wallpaper on it.  It really added a cool dimension to the room, and it was a nice short cut from fixing all the drywall that tore when we pulled the panelling off.

So here is what I learned from the project:

1.  Amber is a lot more detail oriented than me (thats a good thing)
2.  I should take “before” pictures
3.  Mudding drywall isn’t so bad, it just takes a long time
4.  Amber keeps her camera, batteries, memory card, and USB cable all in separate places.  So writing this post took about an hour instead of 10 minutes.

House and Home | 6 Comments »

I really love Bolthouse Farms juice.  They are way too expensive but also extremely delicious.  If I feel a cold coming on, I drink a whole C-Boost and it usually goes away (a 1 liter bottle contains 4800% of your daily vitamin C allowance.)

Back to the advice.  They have the following printed on all of their bottles:

Shake Well
Settling is Natural
Perishable.

That is my life philosophy right there.  The problem is, the longer the settling has occurred, the harder it is to shake up.  I would really love to shake up my career right now, but settling has certainly occurred.  I fear if I don’t shake it up soon I might perish.

If I were to get a tattoo, I think that this would be a good one.

As for the last line, Keep Refrigerated-  I don’t know how inspirational that is.   But if I had the tattoo then I could show it to my wife when she complains that our house is too cold.

“Sorry honey.  Gotta stay cool.”

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Most people logically use their birthday as a landmark date in their lives.  My birthday was a few weeks ago, but tomorrow is my landmark - June 3.

On June 3, 1998 I left to serve an LDS mission to Guatemala for 2 years.  I am not sure why this date haunts me.  I think it is because birthdays all blend together, but this date is still completely clear in my mind.  My life was very well defined, I had a clear plan of action for the next 24 months, and I even thought I had a pretty good idea of what my life would look like after that.

Well, it didn’t work out the way I had planned.  I went on the mission, but it was different than I had expected.  An life afterwards has been something I never would have imagined.  So as I review who I am today vs. the Sam from 10 years ago, here are some things that come to mind:

• Being a parent is worth the sacrifice.  I thought I was on my way to fame and fortune in the music business, but being home all the time with my kids is better.
• While I am well into my adulthood, I still look up to my brother.  I want to be his equal, but can’t ever seem to be as cool as him.
• Now that I am a parent, I think I finally understand how much my parents love me.
• I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
• While most of my ‘plans’ didn’t work out, I still wish I had the clarity I had back then.

“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”
Bob Dylan, My Back Pages

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