I went out to rent a movie the other day and as I got in line I heard a voice behind me. “What the F### is this S###? I turned around to see what this guys problem was. Apparently he thought he was in line and I had cut in front of him even though he was no where near the actual line. I said “Sorry, dude. Go ahead.” I let him cut in front of me with his two young daughters. I said “geeeez” to the person there who witnessed the whole thing and Mr. incredible says “Settle the F### down” as if I was the one with the problem. I stood there in awe of what had just happened and then a new register is opened next to us. She says “I can help whoever is next.” I give my new friend a look as if to say, “it’s all your’s buddy!” and he says “Go for it bro.” Unbelievable.

I was playing basketball a couple weeks ago and I unintentionally fouled a guy and knocked him to the ground. Admittedly it was a hard foul, but it was obviously an accident and other than his pride, he wasn’t hurt. I immediately apologized and asked if he was alright as I offered my hand to help him up. He swore at me and rejected my attempt at good sportsmanship.

How do these men come to be so warped? I wonder if it has anything to do with the attitudes of professional athletes. The role models in the sports world are convicts with ugly attitudes that care only about themselves. It is reasonably understandable how fame and fortune can go to a person’s head, but it is almost humorous when those attitudes get copied by middle age losers. For those guys the basketball court at the park becomes an arena where they are the self-appointed MVP. Even the video rental store becomes a place where you need to dominate the competition. As I think about the sports heroes I admired growing up (John Stockton, Orel Hershiser, Ozzie Smith, Barry Sanders, Ken Griffey Jr, Grant Hill) they all had integrity in addition to being amazing athletes. I am hoping that good sportsmanship comes back in style, but that seems doubtful.

I never exactly know how to answer the question “what are you doing this weekend.” The answer I think people want to hear has something to do with beaches, concerts, bars, parties or some other escape from work. I am afraid of the strange looks I would get if I were to answer truthfully that I am really looking forward to getting some work done. I am not talking about yard work or chores, the work I do on the weekends usually has to do with building a website and working through some of my crazy ideas. So rather than explain how much I enjoy working on the weekend I usually just say I am doing “nothing.” So it should come as no surprise that on Labor Day I am really enjoying my labor.

There is a good post on Seth Godin’s blog today that talks about how the definition of “work” has changed over time. He says “More and more people are lucky enough to have a gig like mine… work you’d do even if you didn’t have to, even if you didn’t get paid to do it.” I couldn’t have said it better. Happy Labor Day.

I have been blogging for a while and have participated in my share of heated discussions. I have been on the attacking side and I have been on the defensive side. I rarely make a post without being willing to defend my words in the comments. And yet it always surprises me which of my ideas get challenged. I just can’t predict it. Things that I think will be controversial go unchallenged. Things that seem harmless end up upsetting people. For example, take the following story which I wrote over a year ago…

“I was traveling from Colorado to Nebraska and stopped at a Conoco in North Platte. It is notorious for their high gas prices because their location is one of the few main stops on Interstate 80 between Denver and Lincoln. In the past, North Platte gas stations wouldn’t even show their price per gallon on their signs because they knew people didn’t really have any alternatives. You had to pull up to the pump to see how much they were going to stick it to you that particular day. When I took the exit, the first station was a Conoco with a big sign flashing at near strobe light regularity that their gas was $2.26 and they had “the best looking attendants.” Feeling somewhat insulted by the intrusive flashing of the sign, I passed it in favor of a Shell station a few blocks further down the road. To my disappointment, the gas at Shell was $2.49. I decided to pay the extra money and get back on the road. On our return to Colorado a couple days later, we again were ready to refuel in North Platte. This time, I decided to forgive the flashing sign and refuel at Conoco since they were still advertising $2.26. I pulled in and was shocked to see that the $2.26 price was nowhere to be seen on the pump. Since I was in a hurry again, I accepted the $2.49 price and filled my tank. When I got inside, I asked the attendant (who wasn’t good looking at all) sarcastically if I had missed the $2.26 price? As if I was the first person to ask this question, he said, “Oh, that is only on pumps one and two.” I think he mumbled something about “out of order” which seemed to be his backup answer. I was too disgusted to say anything else, so I just paid and left. It was a scam. Literally highway robbery. The gas in pump one came out of the same tank as the other pumps. Conoco, who has the prime location right off the highway, wasn’t satisfied with the usual profit they make from their inflated prices. Now they are deceiving every customer that stops there! I was so raving mad that I will never buy Conoco gas again, ever!”

That was just part of my post and you can read the whole thing here if you are interested, but it is a true story. Then today I got a comment from a local guy named Jo that was offended by my essay. He claimed that the prices were clearly marked and that I lacked common sense. I responded with a link to a recent article written about the same deceptive gas stations and the obligatory counter insult which never helps things, but is hard to resist. I won’t bore you by quoting the conversation any further, but it just strikes me as funny: I try so hard to write engaging posts that challenge and inspire people; and the conversations that actually happen end up being stupid bickering about gas prices. Sigh…

If you are a Simpson’s fan and you haven’t heard about the Simpsonize Me website you might want to check it out. You upload a photo of yourself and it draws you as you would appear on the Simpsons. You can see my result to the right. I also created Betsy and Rian if you were curious. Fun stuff, and another good viral marketing campaign. Since Crispen Porter does the Burger King stuff I am betting they had a hand in the production.

On another subject, has anyone seen the Simpson movie? I haven’t heard a thing about it. Is it any good?

I watched “Falling Down” this weekend for the first time and it was great. Rent it if you haven’t seen it. Not unlike two of my other favorite movies, Fight Club and Office Space, the hero of “Falling Down” decides not to put up with the day-to-day stress that the rest of us constantly struggle against. In other words it is about an ordinary guy that snaps. Here is a great scene from the movie:

Most of us are pretty good at staying calm under normal conditions. It takes something out of the ordinary to get us worked up and we all have different triggers. Traffic, work load, poor service, stupid people… whatever. You could almost say that we are all ticking time bombs waiting to go off. Maybe you could go your whole life without ever losing your cool, but most of us have lost it at some point. We are human and we have limits. We have an ugly side that most of us try to keep hidden. Unfortunately, I think I am better than most at hiding it.

Not very long ago I was under more stress at work than I have ever been before. A day before a huge project needed to be completed my computer crashed. Then in the afternoon while I was installing an update to our company’s server something went wrong and our email was down for about half a day. It was the worst possible timing and I really surprised myself by how I responded to the stress. I should say how I didn’t respond to the stress. I could be wrong, but other than the perception that I was a little grumpy, I don’t think anyone would have known that my world was falling down around me. It was kind of disappointing. It is nice to be known as “cool under pressure” but I wish I could just lose it like normal people. I know a guy that doesn’t control it nearly as well as I do. You just know that inches below the fake smile is an angry little man who is one step away from losing it. I wonder if I would be happier if I was more like him. Wouldn’t it feel better to blow off some steam now and then rather than keeping it bottled up?

The downside of being able to control your reactions is that you don’t give off the signals that tell people to keep their distance. This can be a problem when you barely keeping it together and people are walking up to you asking how to help them add an attachment to an email. You want to say “figure it out yourself you idiot!” but instead you help them out like a nice guy. I think I am going to stop being a nice guy from now on. Maybe I will go to McDonalds for breakfast at 10:35 tomorrow just for fun…

Stop reading if you aren’t prepared to lose a few hours of your life on one of the best little Flash games I have ever played. Seriously, I just went back to the site to make a screen capture and replayed the first ten addicting levels. The name of the game is called Bloxorz. The goal is to roll the rectangular block into the square hole. Sound simple? The levels get progressively harder and harder and there are some serious brain teasers along the way. Enjoy, and don’t blame me if you get addicted!

Like the set of my own movie, I have a lot of dreams that take place in Wentzville, Missouri, where I grew up. Many of them are set at Immanuel Lutheran Church where my family attended weekly and where I went to school from 2nd through 8th grade. Since my mother taught there I vividly remember killing time sneaking around the hundred year old church and adjoining buildings. I remember the church had a bell tower with a thick rope that was pulled weekly to announce the start of a service or the death of a member. The ancient leaky pipe organ squeeked out hymn after hymn. Little boys in itchy pants could slide across the creeky wooden pews and occasionally catch naps during slow sermons. I remember dark stained glass windows, heavy curtains behind the alter, a towering pulpit, and a storm shelter below – empty exept for a few dusty hymnals.

What does it mean to dream about a church? If I am in the sanctuary I am usually in the loft in the back next to the bell tower. Often I am in the annex off to the side where people congregated after the services to shake hands and chat about whatever it is grown ups talk about. As a child I could escape this ritual and run across the railroad tracks to a flee market where I could empty my pockets on baseball cards.

For some reason the parking lot is a popular dream setting for car oriented dreams. I have the ones where I lose control of my vehicle. The brakes stop responding and I steer my way back to that parking lot where I first learned to drive.

The church still survives, although it looks like there are plans for a new building in the works. A google search reveals that the campus has expanded since my school days but it is amazing how many memories come back as I retrace the steps of my childhood. I am hoping to travel back to Wentzville this year for my ten year high school reunion. I plan on visiting that church and see if I can make some sense of the dreams and maybe figure out why my brain takes me back there at night.

I have a bootleg (at least I think it is a bootleg) of a Simon and Garfunkel concert from New York in 1966. The sound quality isn’t that great and you can get a much better recording of the same songs at practically the same time period commercially. The problem with the commercial release, although it is superb, is that it edits out some of Paul and Art’s dialogue between songs. Most notably is the intro to Sparrow. On the commercial release the songs starts with Paul saying “relative to nothing, this song is called Sparrow.” It kind of makes sense I guess, but it makes more sense when you realize what was edited out. Paul tells a story about how he was “digging” his reflection in a window only to have his daydream rudely interrupted by a bird. Well, he tells it better than I can, so for your enjoyment I have ripped the full intro so you can hear it for yourself. Paul Simon’s accent cracks me up, too.

There Goes A Happy Bird, by Paul Simon (2.7mb MP3)

I had a friend in college that had an interesting daily routine. She would say “highs and lows” and you would have to name the best and worst things about your day. It was kind of theraputic and I am thinking about using it as a way to get a quick post up when I don’t have time for a full entry. So for today…

Low
Being insulted by a client who I built a website for. Unbelievably rude. I don’t remember ever being as mad at work as I was this morning. For people who know me, I almost never lose my cool, so for me to slam the phone down on someone you know I am upset. He apologized later, but you can’t repair something like that. Pretty much ruined my day. Until…

High
I got home with some beer that I never tried before. It is called Levity and it is made by Odell’s, who make my old favorite beer, Easy Street. Taste’s a bit like Fat Tire but with a bit more flavor. Wow, what a great beer. I am finishing my second one as we speak and listening to Miles Davis. The perfect ending to an otherwise terrible day.

I have been traveling back and forth between Nebraska, Colorado and Indiana for the last two weeks. Rather than bore you with the details I have condensed everything down to the always popular list format. Here goes…

Traveling Music
More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley
This is the new favorite of mine. Great songwriting and lovely female voice. It is what I hoped Neko Case would sound like when I looked her up based on her work with the New Pornographers.

Traffic and Weather by Fountains of Wayne
These guys never write a bad pop song – perfect driving music.

Cassadaga by Bright Eyes
Maybe it will grow on me like his other stuff has. Cool album art comes with a decoder, so don’t buy this one on iTunes.

Reading
JPG Magazine
My first issue after I finally got a subscription. The best photography magazine available. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it is produced by passionate contributors. Love it.

How To Become a Marketing Superstar by Jeffrey J. Fox
Pretty obvious stuff here. Nothing cutting edge. It is a quick read, though, and might make a good starter book for anyone oblivious to marketing. In other words, buy it for clients who are clueless about marketing.

Designing Pornotopia by Rick Poynor
I have been struggling my way through this one for a while and finally finished it. It is a bunch of essays by Rick Poynor loosely connected to the use (appropriate or not) of sexual images in modern times. Great at times. Mundane at others. I haven’t decided if it is worth a full review on Be A Design Group or not.

Driving
A transmission fluid leak took our Honda Odyssey out of commission days before our first trip to Nebraska. The transmission needed to be replaced, but luckly it was covered by warranty. I take back the bad things I said about our local Honda dealership.

In Indiana I got a Mazda 3 for my rental car. I want one. Compared to my old Tercel it is lighning fast. Nice stereo system, well designed interior. I would have to do some research before I pulled the trigger, but you can bet I will be looking into it next time I am in the market for a car.

Photography
I took about 50gb worth of photos of RVs. Gruelling work that I am glad to have behind me. For fun I saw an Ansel Adams show and ran a roll through my new toy: a Yashica Electro 35. Watch for posts on my photo blog in the near future if you care about any of that.

Watched
This was the week of catching up on garbage movies. I saw Ghost Rider at the cheap theatre in Mishawaka. It might have been worth the $1.50 I paid, but not a penny more. At the hotel I caught Anaconda, Terminator 3 and Chronicles of Riddick. Enough said.

Probably the best thing I have seen lately is Heroes which I have been watching on NBC’s website. They have every episode on their site so people like me who have been living in a hole can catch up.

So that’s what I have been up to the last couple weeks. Hopefully I can get on a regular posting schedule one of these days, but no promises.