What I Did On My Autumn Vacation (so far)

I’m on vacation. It’s one of those stay at home vacations and do what you feel like doing kind of weeks. It’s been crammed with activity and non-activity. One thing I’m finding is that my darn Catholic guilt from childhood keeps creeping in making it hard to relax. I think I managed to finally feel relaxed mid yesterday. I know-it’s really sad. We all have our burdens, this one isn’t the worst I can think of……but it can be really annoying to feel that you must be productive at all times. I’m working on getting over that.

Now for the activity part.

I did get out this weekend. Went to see the Skullcranes on Saturday night at the NE Minneapolis venue Club Underground in the basement of the Spring Street Tavern. The Skullcranes have an album coming out soon. I’ll make sure to announce it here on the blog as it will have a photo or two of mine in it. I also checked out the first NorthStar Roller Girls match. Two of my friends are in it and they kicked some A**. Saturday night was full.

Sunday began with a family brunch. After brunch and gift opening (our anniversary is on Halloween) we went home and continuted on our journey of watching all the Battlestar Galactica’s. It’s in season three and we’d only watched the mini series so we still have catching up to do. The evening plans included a night of music as we headed to the Bob Dylan concert with acoustic Foo Fighters opening. Oh the Foo Fighters. Even in acoustic mode they ROCK HARD. I love you Dave Grohl. He’s so funny, talented, confident and relaxed. It was an incredibly intimate show even though it was at the xCel energy center in St. Paul, MN. It was my first Bob Dylan show and I wasn’t so sure about Bob and his band until about 6 or 7 songs in. They were really stiff at first and of course there was the annoying crowd surrounding me which didn’t help. After that 6th or 7th song though, they relaxed and actually looked like they were having a little fun and then it got much better.

Monday was a day of sloth and watching an awful MN Vikings game. That darn Tom Brady always seems to smush us hard. Of course I felt guilty but I did accomplish some sloth.

Tuesday, Halloween, was our 9th anniversary. We had a slow, restful day. We had two meals out. Salad for lunch and the fancy and wonderful Ruth’s Chris steakhouse for dinner. This year the service lacked punctuality. It felt like the meal was in slow motion. I tried to not let it get to me, but alas, I think I was a little too affected by the lack of perfection. I’ve been so impressed every time I’ve dined there, this time they didn’t live up to those past expectations they had set. And there were lots of old people there in sweats. That didn’t help the ambience. ;)

And Wednesday, yesterday, was another day of relative sloth. My husband accomplished ethernet connection in our sun room, but I didn’t do as much. Oh well, gotta get over that guilt for not getting anything done. I’m always getting stuff done. Sometimes it’s ok to be a slacker.

On that note, I’m headed off to enjoying the rest of my vacation and hopefully not accomplishing much more except relaxing and playing.

A Sea Change

I love my job. I view my job as something that is a personal project that I want very much to succeed at. The stakes are higher for me. One thing I like about my job is that it challenges me to make sense of how the internet communication space is changing. It is a constant evolution and I am so amazed by it. So, the point of all that, you ask? The point dear reader is that is what made me realize the sea change. Because I have a good job at a smart company I am encouraged to explore and understand new ideas that will make us better. I recently picked up a few books. I try to limit the number I get because I can only consume so much content. I just happened to look down at my desk today and the books that I saw made me see a new picture when they were grouped together.

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A new picture that told a familiar story. It’s still all about people. People + conversations=content, community, authenticity.

I haven’t read thru all of these yet. I’ll let you know what I think after I finish my studies. The beginning of Naked Conversations says it’s a continuation of Cluetrain and I had a very enlightening experience with that after re-reading it recently.

Do They Know?

I posted about Northwest airlines a little over a year ago. I’ve never been happy with them and last fall they administered the final blow. So I blogged about them in a not so positive way. I recently cashed in some of those well earned miles for my in-laws. We are sending them to DC for a vacation. Funny thing is, they somehow got first class seats on the way home. I thought those reward seats always sucked. Hmmmmmmmmmm

It’s not the bloggers that are the problem

I subscribe to the New York Times “Today’s Headlines” email.

I saw this headline today, “
CBS Replaces Its News Chief; Sports Executive Is Successor
By JACQUES STEINBERG
The replacement was the latest shake-up for a news
organization damaged by a discredited broadcast and
struggling to stem viewer defections.”

and I thought…..these are the people complaining about the bloggers? These are the people questioning the information we put out?

I know it’s not just CBS. There is a systemic problem that all media broadcast companies have. ‘If it bleeds it leads….”. Maybe they thought the sports guy would be able to find more blood.

One Day Shy Of A Month

I just haven’t had anything to say to the world. I’ve been busy. I’ve been living. I’ve been taking a million photos and doing Pilates. I’ve been hanging out with friends and running errands. I guess I just let life take over.

I was reminded of why I enjoyed doing this both yesterday and today. I was having conversations with people about blogs. I was inspired by one friend and I encouraged another.

So, how can you go out and encourage someone to do something and be so undisciplined about it yourself.

I’ll tell you how. It should never be an obligation to do this. It should only be done when inspired & desired.

love,
evol

I’ve posted a pic of me and thomas to prove I’ve been out having fun ;)

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