If you are part of the 57% percent of American workers who still have vacation days unused because you think the world will collapse without you, Miller has three words. “Get over it.” — Vacation, Unplugged – Fast Company
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Archive for July, 2012|Monthly archive page
A vacation with one thumb on the iPhone at all times is no vacation at all
In Unplug on July 31, 2012 at 10:33 am
See you tonight and tomorrow at River City Days
In Chaska on July 27, 2012 at 9:17 am
This weekend I’ll be slinging Pork Chops on a Stick at Chaska’s River City Days in historic downtown Chaska on behalf of my church.
If you’ve never been to historic downtown Chaska, this annual community event is a great reason to come check it out.
Nestled on the banks of the Minnesota River and about a 15 minute drive from the Twin Cities, downtown Chaska is a genuine gem.
Century-old “Chaska brick” buildings and historic homes dot the streets, antique shops and locally-owned restaurants serve up malts, burgers and enchiladas, and the entire area is walkable. There’s also the picturesque Chaska Cubs Ballpark, the soaring Guardian Angels Church cathedral and Greg Swan’s house. (ha).
River City Days features model racetracks, bouncy castles and face painting for the kids, a 5K Fun Run and beer garden for the adults, and a community parade, bands, craft and food vendors galore for the whole family. See you there!
Painting the front porch floor on my 120 year-old house
In Home Projects on July 23, 2012 at 9:20 pmThe front porch of our 120 year-old house has a painted floor, and it was peeling badly. It was painted an unfortunate emerald color at some point, and upon scraping, I determined it once had red shag carpeting. Classy!
Here’s a side-by-side before/after shot:
It made a great weekend project. Scraping took about three hours. I used Kilz primer and Glidden Porch & Floor Paint tinted to “Chocolate.” Only needed enough for 150 square feet, but they only sell each of them in gallons.
I actually did three coats of the brown, so I used almost all of it. Three coats seemed smart considering I don’t want to do this again for a very long time, and we actually use the porch on a daily basis.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
IN-PROGRESS:
Saul Bass on business evolution and visual storytelling (circa 1969)
In Technology on July 23, 2012 at 4:03 pm“We’re fighting a war. Making a peace. Integrating. Segregating. Getting richer. Getting poorer. It’s quite a time to be alive.
Business has its particular problems — young people refusing good jobs; investors are more influenced by publicity than performance; customers complaining about the finest products, produced anywhere in the world….
Many of us here today remember when it was quite different. The pursuit of happiness had ground to a halt. Survival was the goal — just to have a job, but to have a job with security: That was the prize in 1933.
How long a product lasted was more important than how well it looked. Wall Street had forgotten blue sky and was now talking blue chip. Down-to-earth, safe — that was the place to be.”
[…]
“How a thing looks today is as important as how well it works. As never before, people are influenced by what they see.”
– Saul Bass, “one of the most iconic and influential visual communicators of the 20th century — possibly the most famous graphic designer of all time,” in 1969.
PS – Make 27 minutes to watch this:
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Things I missed while unplugged last week on vacation
In fishing on July 17, 2012 at 10:42 am
I turned my phone off, put it in my glove compartment and went camping for the week.
Here’s what I missed:
- 45 Facebook notifications about nothing
- A news story that Digg was sold for only $500,000.
- Approximately 500 work emails that took less than 2 hours to get through on Saturday.
- 2 voicemails that weren’t urgent.
- These pictures of dinosaurs mating
That’s about it. You should try unplugging sometime soon. You’ll miss nothing.
