2013 is the year I'll feed the world

2013 promises to be an exciting year full of change for myself and the family. While I'm not expecting a robot or zombie apocalypse, it's still going to be pretty damn cool.

To start with, I began a new job a few weeks ago. While this new gig isn't a huge departure from my prior job, it's a huge step in the right direction and will hopefully enable us to do a number of things which have been on the back burner for far too long due to uncertainty in the area of my own employment. While I was sad to leave my job (I had been there for nearly ten years) I was hugely excited to be facing a new challenge which will, with any luck, propel us to the all-important next level.

Last year began a certain amount of that change which I am looking forward to. Out of almost shear necessity we ventured into the world of farmer's markets. Having both grown up on actual working farms, we have a certain amount of gardening skills in our blood. I was a little unnerved when I sat up my table on that first evening in August but by the time the season wrapped up in late September I was totally digging the farmer's market scene. We tried our hand at our hometown market and a couple other area markets but I like to think that, in a couple short months, we carved out our niche. I met my neighbors, had conversations with some really interesting customers and in that short time became known and recognized for what I was selling.

2013 will only serve to expand on that small farmer's market base we built last year. I've been busily planning what to order so I can plant things at the right time and have a longer season. If all else fails, we're going to be eating a ton of home-grown produce in the upcoming year. If all goes well, we're one step closer to forging a future free of the shackles of a commute and an office. Working the land -- however small the parcel is -- runs in our blood and this venture just makes sense.

2013 will be plenty of work but that's what we do and hopefully we do it well.

Farewell (sort of)

I can’t believe that it’s been nearly ten years since I began the job which I left today. I remember the day I interviewed for the position -- I was beyond sick. I had a low fever and was constantly coughing, yet I drove the nearly 100 miles for the mere opportunity to interview for what I figured to be my next step. The interview itself was long. I think it clocked in at just under two hours.

My first day at the job which I am leaving was a typical February morning. It was cold because this is Minnesota. I sucked at my job. In reality I am, at best, a jack of many trades and far from a master at any of them but I make things work. In the field of Graphic Design I had won a couple awards which, to me, meant I might have a future at this. Sure, my typing skills are less than amazing and I sometimes confuse deep shades of brick red with shades of brown (I am only slightly color blind, a test in school confirmed it) but I still made it all work. I am surprised that they kept me after the 90-day probationary period. I still wonder how I’ve managed to keep this job in particular over what has been a very turbulent ten years.

Whatever the case, my direct supervisor took a chance on me and I thank her for that. I suppose, too, that she took a stand in defending my value to the company more than once when incredibly tough decisions had to be made regarding layoffs. Others, too, must have seen some promise in this barely-capable graphic designer who often thinks he’s better suited returning to southern Minnesota to run the family farm.

Not long after it was announced that I would be staying on after those initial 90 days I started trying to improve my design skills. I developed a great friendship with one of my fellow designers in particular and we had an almost bitter rivalry as we competed to “win” certain projects. We competed so much that we forced each other to try every new technique we could learn. It got heated and, at times, we got downright mad at each other but at the end of the day we were still friends.

As things in the media landscape evolved, so did my skills. I was chosen for numerous committees and teams which shaped the future of the company. I was given the time and freedom to learn as we went along. I learned all things online. With the help of the company’s very patient IT guy I learned Drupal. He also helped me learn the foundations of Wordpress which is my go-to choice for websites these days.

Then there’s the online publisher. He, too, must have seen some potential in me as we had sporadic meetings and conversations as our online division grew and evolved. He tasked me with developing creative solutions for whatever came up that he secretly knew I could figure out even when I had no idea what I was doing and doubted that I could figure out some sort of workable solution. Throughout the last six or seven years he was my online safety net. He knew the struggles I faced as the company changed and he knew I was growing both frustrated and becoming uncertain.

It happens to everyone, I suppose, but in the end I wouldn’t be moving forward if it wasn’t for the past nearly ten years. I am not leaving graphic design behind and even though I sometimes bitched a blue streak about the challenges and uncertainty I faced, I think I will miss the changing media landscape -- mainly because, deep down, I like a good challenge and the past ten years have been more challenging than I ever imagined.

I will certainly miss the small work family which we developed over the past ten years. I was trained in those first days by some amazingly talented and knowledgeable designers and I never would have imagined that years later I’d be the one training them on skills I had developed.

At my going-away party it was mentioned during a speech by management that I was one of the most valued people within the company -- my leadership and knowledge of all things online would be nearly impossible to replace as I wore so many hats.

I have joked numerous times in the past two weeks that hopefully they’ll hire me back in a few weeks when I crash and burn at my new job and have to come crawling back, begging for a job. Maybe it’s the healthy dose of doubt in my mind that keeps me moving forward. Whatever the case, the general manager requested that I keep in touch because he finds me and my stories interesting. If nothing else, I hope I made some sort of impression on the people and the company. I guess that’s a good thing, right?

Reflection, layoffs and a dumb video

The past two weeks have been a time of reflection for me. Maybe it's because a girl I worked with in high school began a class of 90-whatever group page. It's sort of cool to see how infrequently most of my former classmates make it back to the city we grew up in. Hey, I've been back three or four times this  year and it's about a 90 minute drive so I'm no better than any of them. It's also interesting to see what became of them. It seems like the general rule is that most of my former classmates have two kids, are married and are gainfully employed. Ten years ago I never would have imagined that most of these people were capable of holding down a job and being parents. Hell, I can barely make it through some days but it seems like I am working two or three jobs some days. Not that I'm complaining.

And that leads me to my second area of reflection. A co-worker of eight years (he had been with our employer for 13 years) was laid off on Friday. I knew nothing good was going to come of us being called in to the conference room and I already had it figured out when I walked past my co-worker's cubicle. It's the second layoff in my department in two months. Layoffs are always brutal. This guy has a family. He has a house. He has financial responsibilities. He has a pre-teen daughter. He has a house. His wife owns her own business and was hit particularly hard during this depression (let's fucking face it, this isn't a recession, recessions end). I don't know how he's handling things. I plan on calling him at some point this week just because I'm quickly beginning to realize that my job could very well be the next and it never hurts to have a strong network.

It sounds bleak to say that and as much as I joked in a text to my old lady late Friday about running my family farm being closer than I had ever imagined, it's always our plan D. And plan D is close because we don't exactly have a plan B or plan C.

I could probably get more reflective but instead I'll give you an insanely annoying but addictive video professing one's love for farm equipment... weird.

Reverb10 - Lesson Learned

December 17 – Lesson Learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward? (Author: Tara Weaver)

The biggest thing I learned this year is that I can actually find something positive in changes when everyone around me only sees negatives.

Negativity has always been, for lack of a better word, my trademark. I'm not a negative person but for whatever reason I have always found the negative in most every situation. Maybe it's because I'm a pessimist or maybe it's generational. After all, my generation is billed as the first that will not have a higher standard of living than their parents.

But even with always seeing the negative in situations I've managed to keep a positive attitude (for the msot part) and even keep those around me laughing while shining a dark light on the negative. If you can't find humor in something, you might as well be dead, right?

But the past month, from a work standpoint, things have been a bit dark. Faced with an uncertain announcement -- coupled with plenty of lead time before confirming what exactly the announcement entailed -- things got grim. But I asked questions and with those answers actually managed to keep those around me somewhat positive. If you can't triumph over adversity, you stand no chance. Would you rather tackle something head on and try to overcome it or pre-emptively roll over before you've even been defeated?

Has your college degree helped you?

College is an essential part of an individual's education. While it doesn't guarantee a job in that particular field by any means, it does further your way of thinking. I'm one of those who wishes I had taken more courses and stayed in college longer but I didn't feel challenged so I wrapped things up with a relatively low level degree in a somewhat low paying field but I knew from the age of 14 that it's what I wanted to do. And two months after graduating college I had that all important first job in the general area of what I wanted to do.

I evolved with that job and even after moving and taking a new job in the same field where my focus was originally back to my roots, I have again experienced that evolution. The relatively open management has not only allowed but encouraged my experimentations with social media and writing. They hired me, I think, because my skills spoke for themselves and my boss realized the potential I had so even with what now looks like the portfolio of a high schooler, I was hired. Nearly seven years later I am still doing what I love along with all of the side experimentation and dabbling in other sometimes unrelated areas.

I realized very early on that I needed to diversify to stay viable. So I took on a bunch of IT-related duties. I worked with software vendors and solved problems. I travelled locally to meet with B2B-type customers and made those relationships more efficient for all parties. After moving I did less of that but still solve problems that if left unsolved would grind operations to a halt and effect not only us but service providers we rely on and charge us for time spent on our projects. But in my back pocket, through all of this, I still have that practically meaningless degree as a back-up. Sure, it's probably not entirely meaningless because it's directly related to the very job I've held for over a decade but it's really just a piece of paper saying I've completed courses whose curriculum is basically outdated.

Then a drastic reorganization hit us. Call it change for the sake of change or needed change to see if things can be made to run better but it's been met with plenty of resistance. A colleague found out that projects previously his or her own would be taken away essentially because he or she doesn't have a degree in the particular field we are employed in. My colleague, whom one person is essentially deeming as underqualified, is the best on our team and has proven so time and time again. Consistently going above and beyond and satisfying customers while meeting deadlines and being pleasant to be around. Let me say that again, the best on our team - the best I've ever worked with.

But because this colleague is no longer the shining star because one person has decided that everyone should be equals. A level playing field. All this based on initial conversations without examining work. What I take away is that the best will again rise to the top because every team has grunts and superstars. Equality is nice but it isn't always reality. It takes superstars and behind-the-scenes people to make a team work. We can't all be quarterbacks but one person seems to think so. I have faith that it will all work out in the end and that those superstar-type projects will again return to their rightful superstar but it will be a bumpy road between now and then.

As I've found out via Twitter, degrees are a good launching pad but in the long run it's experience and proof via your work that make you successful. And there are plenty, too, who are damn good at what they do with degrees in totally different areas than what they are employed in. So, while college has value and I'm not saying that you shouldn't pursue a degree in something you're both interested in and good at, that degree isn't the be all, end all. So what if that BFA in Art History is gathering dust as you toil away as a manager. Those skills gained as a manager could launch you in to HR or something more. Or that lowly tech certificate could allow you to pursue a boat load of cool side projects because it's allowed you to be a jack of all trades and getting paid to find your niche is pretty damn cool. Just like MinnPics has been called pretty damn cool. Plus it's the only intensely Minnesota photo blog showcasing the photos of others that I know of so go check it out.

Do you get personal at the office?

Here's a serious question. What kind of value, outside of your described duties, do you add to your job? If you are an administrative assistant have you stepped up and taken on additional duties - without being asked - such as shoveling the sidewalk in front of your office? What as the reaction of others at your office?

I ask because in times like these when we're all supposed to just be happy we have a job it seems that behavior is scrutinized - perhaps too much in some instances. For some it is a privacy issue with a work computer or work phone, for others it is internet usage on company time. But what about some fuzzy lines we all encounter? It's nearly impossible to schedule a doctor's appointment on your own time because a doctor, or some reason, has the same office hours as the rest of the universe. So it essentially boils down to taking care of something personal on company time. But does it effect your performance? I remember one episode of "The Office" when Jim called out Dwight as being hypocritical about the whole personal business/company time conundrum. Try it for a day - see if you can go an entire day without doing anything deemed as personal on company time. Then see if you were any more productive than you usually are.

I would venture a guess that you end your day without personal tasks feeling more exhausted. But you also end it having done about the same amount of work, if not less, than you would accomplish with taking some personal time during the course of your work day. Whether you check your personal web e-mail on your office computer, update your Facebook status or blog for a few minutes it gives you a break - outside of your normal break time(s) - from the daily grind and you are more refreshed and focused.

So, what has the situation been? Do you take personal breaks for those little tasks?

Or do you hop on over to MinnPics to see what kind of photographic gems I've dug up?

Who used the restroom before me?

"Wow it smells in here. I must be in the wrong restroom."

As I opened the door, I peeked around it expecting to see a graphical depiction of an elephant with the phrase "ELEPHANT" below it. Nope, it says "MEN". I'm apparently in the correct place.

"This just isn't right. There are two cans of Oust air sanitizer here, there's no reason for it to smell this terrible. It's a hate crime for any place inhabited by civilized humans to smell this bad. Did someone tape a dead fish under the counter?"

I decided to crouch down and verify the potential rotting seafood scenario. It didn't pan out.

"My skin is beginning to itch. This has to be some sort of insidious chemical attack. What kind of bastard would carry out a chemical attack on a restroom in a suburban office building?"

I investigated as much as one can investigate a 7 foot square room and found nothing out of the ordinary that would even lead one to believe that a chemical attack was underway.

"Someone must have upper-deckered in here."

Afraid to pop the cover off of the toilet tank, I hurriedly went about my business and wondered to myself, "who used the restroom before me?"

MinnPics is back after a warm Minnesota weekend with another week of stunning photos from all corners of the state.

Describing myself in five (hundred) words

We've all been there - that job interview where the interviewer says "Describe yourself in five words for me." You then proceed to rattle off the standard answers - diligent, hard-working, motivated, blah, blah, blah...

The problem with that standard job interview question is that most everyone uses the same five answers. Nobody ever answers with "sporadic" or "scatterbrained". That's why people in the hiring position at companies rarely get the best employee for the position. I have to admit that I'd rather be allowed to basically hang myself during in an interview without being limited to a handful of words. Instead of five words, why not five-hundred? What would you say about yourself in five-hundred words? Here's what I'd say in a bit more than five words.

I'm not using the standard answers you're used to hearing but I am a hard worker. I don't need anybody telling me what needs to be done because, unlike some people, I can see what needs my attention and I take care of those tasks while I prioritize the other necessary tasks. My desk will always look like a typhoon just made landfall but it's how I work. I'm the guy that steps up his game in a crunch. When there's a pile of work sitting there and there doesn't seem to be nearly enough time to get it all done, I'm the one the gets it done. Sure, I might not be the most pleasant person to be around during those few hours but in the end the work gets done and it looks great and the clients are happy. I always have their best interests in mind even if they don't seem to care about their image. I, and I know this sounds like a cliche, can easily be accused of caring too much. Most times, that first concept is the best and great ideas don't always need endless tweaks and adjustments and especially additions. I can convey a message without having to write a story. The best messages often times leave the potential customer asking a few questions and the client is just the person to answer tham and that leads to sales. It's the ultimate goal in advertising - to move your product - whatever it is and my work leads to positive results while putting your business' best image possible in front of potential customers.

As far as my temperament, I treat people exactly how they treat me. If you have a gruff attitude or lack common sense or decency, you'll get that right back. I don't roll over and I take a stand for what is best. Treat me well and you'll get that in return. Believe in what I'm doing but know that even the best ideas sometimes fall flat on their face. Work with me and the ideas, concepts and results will impress you.

Now that I've done my fake job interview, feel free to take it and run with it on your own time. Share the results and we'll at least all come out of this having a vague idea of what each other does.

And do me a HUGE favor and check out MinnPics. It's chock full of killer photos from every corner of Minnesota and currently obsessed with fall.

Drama, Dancing with the Stars and Twitter

The American workplace is a clusterfuck. There, I said it. Over the years it moved from casual conversations about last night's episode of Knot's Landing around the water cooler to people endlessly shopping on ebay. Then it moved on to people dicking around on their MySpace page (which is now officially the Detroit of the internet). Those same people have now all moved to Facebook where they post results to mind-numbingly stupid quizzes about what kind of fruit they are and are always buying me a drink. Sorry bub, but I can't drink my 24 inch Dell LCD monitor.

The cool kids drop tweets all day long. You can tell the ones who spend too much time tweeting because their Twitter page consists of updates about what they are eating, have eaten or plan to eat. If you're gonna tweet, make it something at least mildly interesting or so strange that I'm compelled to know more. (My latest Facebook status update stated that I "feel like a cowboy" - I'll let you figure that one out.) My Twitter account is for business but even that is kept at least moderately interesting (my grandma, if she was still around, would probably be sobbing into her Pringles can of knitting needles with Reader's Digest filing chapter 11 today).

It's all good in moderation. I can even tolerate discussions about the performances on last night's Dancing with the Stars (that's a hot topic - I can't wait to see Kelly Osbourne's pasty skin shoved into a dancing outfit). But my biggest pet peeve is drama. Especially if it interferes with your job and, in turn, fucks up mine. Keep that shit at home and I don't care if I put my foot down and, in a roundabout way, make you feel bad for dropping the ball - especially when you straight-up say "I have a lot of drama in my life right now, not that you care". Bingo. I don't care. We are at work, not your latest counseling session. Now get off the phone with me and go make me some money. Daddy needs a new entertainment center.

MinnPics is far more controlled and free of celebrity gossip, rants and drama. Check out the killer pics!

Divorcing a generation

If you're up for some reading today...

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

Read the rest of it here and see if any part of the "Generation M Manifesto" matches up with your way of thinking. I spotted one contradiction of sorts but, for the most part, it does seem to describe the way my generation (late Gen X - early Gen Y) views the world. Plenty of us have accepted the fact that we will be the first generation to not "do better" than our parents. We don't feel stuck but we are pessimistic at best because of this vast generational divide.

Our parents were the "big business is good" folks and we are the technology generation who are fast, nimble and flexible in our ways of working. Looking back ten years, I never could have imagined that my job would be where it is now. A world of interactivity and instant feedback seemed only a dream in 1999 but here it is and if you don't grasp it and become familiar with it, you'll be left behind in a cloud of dust.

I'm curious about you thought on the manifesto. Do you agree with it or totally disagree? Are there gaping faults with it?

And if you're so done with the written word, I suggest checking out the final day of the First Birthday Celebration at MinnPics. Dozens of photos made the cut and you should check them out because these are truly the cream of the crop in the days predating the existence of MinnPics..

How did you spend your weekend?

A couple tons of mulch. That's what my weekend boils down to in the simplest of terms.

It had been over two years since I sparsely mulched our yard's landscaping with brown wood mulch and frankly it was beginning to look like shit. I don't like my yard looking like shit and my old lady definitely doesn't like our yard looking like shit.

It's one of those never-ending battles. We have to set aside entire weekends to clean up what, on the outside, appears to be tiny messes but upon further inspection turn out to be epic disasters. Yesterday, which was a perfectly dreary and cool day, seemed well fit for that indoor maintenance. So we tore apart the contents of the office closet. We shredded half a decade's worth of old bank statements. We made room for the still-boxed high chair for The Youngling and filled our garbage cart.

I cleaned up the mouse poo remnants of our early-spring rodent infestation (11 caught) and furter sealed tiny holes which seemed to be the source of the little bastards. And The Youngling cooperated. She slept when she needed to and was awake when she wanted to be.

Sure, I hate cleaning up messes as much as anybody else but I have to admit that having just a couple areas of our ramshackle villa tidied up feels like a huge accomplishment.

So, what did you do with your weekend?

If you're looking for more fun, check out the photos at MinnPics and see what you've been missing since its launch.

El bano

4/6/09
If you drop one off in the men’s room that smells like a digested but full ash tray, have the damn decency to spray the air freshener sitting on the vanity.

2/26/09
The men’s restroom at my office smells like hard-boiled eggs - and not in a good way.

9/30/08
Our restroom at work smells like a long-haul trucker whose diet has consisted of nothing but uncooked canned chili just shit for the first time since Labor Day and did so in the floor drain. Please, use some air freshener next time. It’s right there on the counter.

These are the archived Random Thoughts I've shared on my other blog (to your right) in the past few months pertaining to the restroom at my office. The reason leads us to the upcoming unveiling of yet another interesting website idea. Stew on that for a while.

Have you been furloughed yet?

Furlough, it's a fancied-up word for unpaid time off. Before this year I'd only heard it used with military personnel. Maybe that makes me a member of the military. Okay, probably not. Whatever the case, my employer issued a memo about our mandatory week-long furloughs. Every employee, even managers, will be taking a week of unpaid time off. In the short run it saves money on staffing. It also, however, takes valuable revenue-generating folks off their beats and while their number obviously aren't that impressive lately, every dollar still goes toward that all-important bottom line.

I am glad that it's not just the "worker bees" taking this latest hit due to the circumstances around us but I also have to wonder how many more times this will happen this year and next year and the year after that? How long will it be until companies realize that most everyone is running negative numbers and that your employees are your most valuable resource? How long can even somewhat financially set "worker bees" take hits like this and continue to keep their heads above water. Do minimal cuts like these do more harm than good for the economy? Do they do more harm than good for the very companies making these hard, bottom-line decisions?

I'm happy to still have a job but I often wonder, even while trying to be optimistic as the stock markets begins to rebound and home sales start to improve, how long I will count myself among the ranks of the employed.

Change keeps changing

Sometimes I sit and wonder what the world I live in now will look like in a year, five years, ten years.

This thought process runs through my mind because in my nearly thirty years here, I have seen plenty of changes. Hell, growing up we still had a 19 inch black and white TV in the living room and until the early 90s I had to physically get up from my seat and change the channel. Little did I know that before the end of that very decade I would be in charge of running a news website. Not just one aspect of it, the whole damned thing and not because I knew everything there was to know, it was because of my age. It was the one thing that someone of my age was supposed to know because the internet grew up with me.

Now I look back and realize that while I got the job done, I also completely sucked at it. Yeah, I made the company substantial piles of money but it was during the boom-time in our country.

Now I have a diminshed role more focused on what I know but it's still with websites. They've changed and everythign I do regarding them has changed as well. The world around me has changed too.

The city where I grew up recently had a fire burn down a pre-turn-of-the-century block of downtown businesses. Just blocks away, more businesses met the wrecking ball in favor of a parking lot and court house addition. Adjacent to that project, Great Depression-era bridges and underpasses were removed. The highway traffic they once served was moved to the freeway which now skirts the city in the 1960s.

The character of that city's downtown has changed so much that I don't even recognize it when I pass through.

Physical structures seem to be built to resist change while technology advances at a pace that makes some people's heads spin. Is there some middle ground that can be found to preserve the physical view of the past while making it functional for the future? Will the changes I've witnessed be dwarfed by those to come?

If existential questions like those above make your head hurt, check out the soothing yet intriguing photos at MinnPics. Great photos. Minnesota style.

Work as a vacation

Sometimes, after a particularly grueling weekend, working the old 9 to 5 (or, in my case, around 8 to whenever) can seem refreshing, almost like a vacation. This entire week will seem that way. Those who know me more personally than most readers here know that I have been contemplating the bathroom remodeling project since April when we bought literally a truckload of tile. As of Saturday, November 17th, it became very real that we were going to actually do the remodeling project as we gutted the bathroom down to the ramshackled studs and haggard lath that backed the plaster.

We found plenty of surprises behind those walls that had remained untouched for almost 110 years and some rather interesting approaches to construction which included studs which were nothing more that two-foot chunks of wood stacked on each other and electrical wiring which didn't actually make a complete circuit but mysteriously worked until we added the second switch for the light/fan combination which turned out to be the straw which broke the camel's back.

Friday morning, though, things started to be put back together. We started with four hours of electrical wiring. All told, I now hate the very insulation I put in my attic only two years ago because it's dusty and is a pain to move when adding more electrical wiring.

Sure, it sounds boring on the outside but I am amazed at the shear amounts of dust that come from cutting cement backer board and I can't wait for more dust from the impending drywall mudding and sanding that I'll be getting done this week so we can paint next weekend and install tile the following weekend which will allow us to get back to life as normal as possible. I know I can't wait and I have a feeling that the missus is even more eager than I am.