I was reminded today of one of my favorite quotes (the theme of which seems to be ongoing on this blog). This first time I saw it was on a wood plaque, hanging in my father’s basement workshop, that used to hang in his father’s workshop:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unrewarded talent. Education alone will not: The world is full of educated failures. Persistence alone is omnipotent.

It’s a great attitude for starting off 2010 and persisting on all those resolutions.

If I offered to pay you $3.99 to go stand in a corner and do nothing for an hour and a half, would you do it?

Human psychology never ceases to amaze me:

[KFC] Restaurants summoned extra help to keep pace with the crowds, yet some customers waited an hour and a half as the chain gave away millions of the meals Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday.

That is a snippet from a recent AP article about KFC’s botched marketing campaign where they, in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey, were offering a free two-piece grilled chicken meal worth $3.99. It is simply amazing how people behave under the perceptive influence of getting something free. All reason suddenly flies out the window, logic takes a vacation, and an uncivilized “horde as much as you can lest we starve” mentality from a primitive section of the brain takes over. I’m not bashing on folks who are down on their economic luck and truly need to take advantage of a free meal. I am talking about vast majority of average, free-willed people standing in line, clutching their computer-printed coupons, who could afford to think rationally about the prospect of wasting hours of their time and sanity for $3.99 worth of fast food — and even staging civil rights era-style protests when they did not get their way.

To put this in perspective: $3.99 is the price of a cheap beer at a local bar, 1/3^rd the price of a single adult admission to a movie theater, the price of a small bag of popcorn at that same movie, and only 16 minutes worth of pay for a person making $30k annually (not far above the poverty line). In perspective, $3.99 is not a lot of money. Yet we humans, time and again, completely lose perspective when offered something of even minor value for free.

We’ve seen examples of the same attitude regarding “free”, time and again. Last year people waited in line for two hours at Denny’s for a free meal worth $5.99 (that still required cash tip for the server, making its net worth even less). Every year for Black Friday, people camp out in parking lots for upwards of 8 hours — and sometimes trample others to death — to save a few dollars on retail merchandise. It’s not pretty. It’s not rational. It’s animal. It’s fascinating.

I deleted my free chicken coupon today. I’d rather go pay for my lunch.

I received a nice pair of Bushnell binoculars as a gift several years ago. They ended up in a drawer, unused, and still packaged. I found them recently and was dismayed to discover that a manufacturing defect caused a vertical misalignment of the images in the left and right lenses, for which there was no adjustment. The effect on the brain after looking through them was the opposite of Advil. Fortuitously, I found a limited lifetime warranty  card and proceeded to ship said binoculars to Bushnell along with a requisite $10 extortion handling fee to get them repaired. A few weeks later I received a letter in the mail informing me that some technician’s Magic 8-Ball read “Customer’s Fault”, and so my discontinued binoculars would not be repaired nor replaced. Translation: “we don’t make the parts for this model anymore and would prefer not lose the money to send you a new, equivalent model.”

Now, I’m the type of person who has a long fuse and whose passionate rage is rocket-fueled by only a few things, of which include being called or implied a liar, treated unfairly, or simply written off as a sheep who won’t stand up and swing back. One stern but respectful phone call was all it took. Today my brand new pair of Bushnell Binoculars arrived in the mail and I am happy to say that the lenses line up beautifully. But I had to wonder how many Bushnell customers have received the same letter as I did and simply chose to fold. Persistence pays.

Creak, creak, creak. It was starting to drive me crazy: everytime I sat down, shifted, rotated, or just moved in my desk chair it would creak in this deep, metallic register that I can only imagine was driving my downstairs neighbor crazy too. Being a problem-solving handyman extraordinaire, I spent more than half an hour try to get the creaks out of this chair, and in the process was reminded of some valuable lessons. After using WD-40 on nearly every joint, bolt, and connected piece, the chair was unfazed. Creak, creak, creak. I started unscrewing things, taking pieces off, looking for hidden possible sources of creakage… no dice. Creak, creak, creak. The problem was that the creak was seemingly everywhere. Despite my best efforts, I could not pinpoint from where the noise was emanating. Creak, creak, creak. Frustration! Finally I took a step back, deep breath, and thought to myself, “Let’s think outside the box here. There must be a logical solution.” I examined the chair top to bottom to find any possible source of creakage that I missed before. The fabric? Not possible. The arm rests? Possible, but very unlikely. The casters? The casters. The casters! That had to be it. I had not originally thought to check these, but it was certainly worth a shot of WD-40…

As it turns out, the answer was indeed the casters. How apropos that the squeaky wheels would get the grease. The noise was actually coming from the metal inserts that connect the casters to the metal base of the chair assembly. But, meh, details. No more creaking. The lessons I was reminded of today are that things are not always as they appear, and the solutions to your problems are sometimes hard to find, but patience and persistence rule the day.

I began by asking, “What’s your number one New Year’s resolution?”

She replied, “If I want to make a change in my life, I just do it. I don’t need to wait for the New Year to set goals.”

I, with a defiant smirk: “Indeed… However, people generally need benchmark points for their goals, lest they get distracted by the everyday. The New Year is a convenient benchmark for reflection and renewal of one’s goals and desires, no?”

She, with an engaging grin: “Good point.”

As much as I would like to claim a rebellious counter-cultural stance on the ever so cliche’ “New Year’s Resolution“, I actually find the tradition quite beneficial. And although it is also a lesser stated cultural norm for most people to become distracted from said resolutions by the end of January, I make them anyway. Last week I sat down to jot a few that were on my mind, and by the time I was done the list was a whopping twenty-four long! So I began to make good on my organization goals by categorizing: general, diet & exercise, personal, and business. The goals themselves range from “improve name recall when introduced to someone new” and “lift weights at least twice weekly” to “stop cracking knuckles” and “create a new business marketing plan“. Many of the resolutions were already in progress and some are even renewals of past resolutions failed. Regardless, the fact remains that my conversation partner was right: New Year’s Day is a (mostly) arbitrary reference point. I could just as well do the same thing in February. Maybe I will. Either way, I currently feel rejuvenated by all the reflection and goal planning, empowered by the energy that comes with the beginning of a new year, and motivated by the vision of any or all of these goals realized and complete. Now if I could just resolve to do it again next month…

Tomorrow is Halloween, arguably my favorite “holiday” of the year. I like it because it brings out my inner child and my inner geek, giving me the social opportunity to be creative and dress up as whatever the bounds of my creative side (and the law) will allow. This year I chose to dawn a pinstripe zoot suit and go as a 30’s-era gangster. This costume will double as Lex Luthor, minus the zoot coat and adding in a glow-in-the-dark shard of kryptonite. Bwahahah! I also decided to carve a pumpkin yesterday… and after (only) four hours of work, I think it came out looking pretty good! Here’s a video showing it with the slow-strobe light I picked up at Target for $3, which gives it a nice background lightning effect. Happy Halloween!

This has been a difficult month. Not long after the passing of my beloved grandmother, I received a call this week that my good friend Jillian “Jey” Edwards had passed. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have never lost a friend in this way before.

Jillian, who I fondly referred to as “Buttercup”, was 31… an age too young for such as talented, kind-hearted individual to leave this world. She was beautiful beyond words, kind to people and animals alike, and wanted to give so much to this world. One way she gave was with her music, writing deeply inspired guitar melodies and lyrics; and skillfully reciting them in song. She was an adept musician, massage therapist, rock climber, cook, and a budding swing dancer. She put all of her soul into her friendships, as can be attested to by all the people who felt her gravity and were attracted into her life. As this world is full of balance, there was a dark side to her bright persona. Jillian suffered greatly from a debilitating disorder that would cause her emotional suffering at times beyond what any average human could possibly imagine. She was courageous in battling for the stability and normality that most people unknowingly take for granted. During her bad times and good times alike, she and I would exchange music and song lyrics that had some special meaning to each of us. The night before her passing, I unwittingly emailed her the ColdPlay song Lost! in the hope that she would find some deep meaning and enjoyment in it, as I have. Little did I know how apropos it would turn out to be. Rest in peace, Buttercup.

Lost! by Coldplay

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I took this photo after a family night out for dinner, during the time when Grandpa Marty was fighting lymphoma. This was one of the last times I saw them together under normal circumstances. Grandma Fernie helped him up the steps in front of their apartment, and they walked off together. I always get choked up when I look at it, because of the symbolism and the deep meaning it holds for me. Now that they are both together again on the other side, I feel it is appropriate to share this beautiful photo:

self·less -adjective- showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others

Dear Grandma,

I wanted to thank you for a few things. I know it’s a little late now, but better late than never.  Thank you taking me to the swimming pool and to the lake to feed the ducks a few years ago, when I was 8, and would come spend the night with you and Grandpa. I also want to thank you for cooking my favorite dishes whenever I would come over for dinner, and for playing with me in the snow and helping me make collages from the automotive magazines I was so interested in… for enjoying my baking, even though my kitchen skills had a long way to go… for teaching me how to play card games and how to speak my mind. Thank you for being a strong, upstanding role model, and for touching so many people in this world with joy and happiness even when they might not have thought such treasures were still available in their worlds. We shared a special sense of humor, you and I.
And even when you were on your sudden and untimely deathbed, barely able to speak or even stay awake, you still managed to put the people around you ahead of yourself– even making sure to ask if we had picked up the all-day pass for the hospital parking lot, so we would not have to pay extra. That was just who you were: beautiful, thoughtful, animated, strong, spirited, and selfless. You are deeply missed. I love you, Grandma.

Love,
Allen

I think this sums it up nicely:

All the banter about Fannie and Freddie is interesting but no one seems to be asking: how did the people in a democratic republic, the world’s largest economy, host to the world’s reserve currency, the only remaining super power, let their economy become solely dependent on the ability to process and reprocess debt on homes? How did we let our government legislate into being, through the GSE’s, the largest Ponzi scheme ever?

Check out the entire, excellent post: http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly08/alcoholic-US7-08.html