Author Archives: Kerch McConlogue

Business and South Park

Funny man photo by vnyberg found on morguefile.com If you’re in business for yourself, or even if you just (as if, just!) get to make business decisions for your company, you gotta take the inspiration for progress where you can.

Some times those sparks come in odd places.

Check out this article by Amber Conrad over at InsideCRM : “25 Things I Learned About Business from “South Park” What the comedic cartoon can teach you about navigating the business world.”

South Park is not for everybody and most certainly not for children. (Sheesh, if teachers in the 80s thought the Simpsons was bad!)

But often buried outrageous stories is some hint of something important. That’s one way that comedy works. The joke starts with a story that the audience expects will have a certain progression. But when the unexpected happens and yet, it seems logical, well, people laugh.

I learned that from Basil White‘s Comedy Workshop at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD.

If you’re a fan of South Park or have a slightly off kilter sense of humor, check out that post.

And if you’re not a fan, please don’t hold it against me!

Why is it so complicated?

Bread shot by EmmiP from Morguefile.com A couple of weeks ago on a trip to a nearby Salvation Army store I found a bread machine … with instructions .. for just $20. Because it is entirely possible that I might only use the thing once, I don’t want to spend a million bucks on more “stuff” in my house.

But the purchase was within my mental discretionary purchase limit, and I thought I’d like to try it out.

I brought the thing home and sat it on the counter for a week or so. Then I put it in the cupboard because it takes up too much room on the counter. I studied the instruction book for the bread maker. Are you listening? I READ the instructions over and over. I bought the stuff it said I needed. None was very expensive. And then I read the instructions some more. Finally after nearly three weeks, I got up the nerve to try making bread. It is amazingly simple. And the bread was pretty good.

Please tell me what is so scary about making bread in a machine that does all the work for you? You just put the stuff in the bucket and turn it on. Really, how hard can that be? Why did it take me so long to try the thing out?

Here’s my question: How much do you miss because you read more instructions that you need? How much time do you waste trying to be sure you have everything right before you try something new?

  • Nike says: “Just do it.”
  • Guy Kawasaki says, in his book, The Art of the Start “Get going.”
    Check out his talk on the topic at TiECon 2006 here.

Really, almost never will the bread machine explode gooey dough all over the kitchen.
And if it does, you can just clean it up.

What are you gonna get off your duff and do this week?

Technology is my friend

I am more than a bit wowed by technology and generally cool stuff. I love American Science and Surplus for so much stuff you never knew you needed.
Nun Chucks
In December, I visited Milwaukee on a corporate wife function. But first on MY agenda was a visit to SciPlus — in the snow!

[Thank you Jill, the talking GPS. Sometimes, not so affectionately, referred to as the “bitch in a box.”]

Oh, the things you can find there. And the fun you can have later with airport security when your suitcase is filled with rare earth magnets and blocks of aluminum. And that’s not even mentioning the Nun Chucks! It’s this great little plastic shooter that tosses little bitty nuns across the room!

But this morning I found a fabulous post over at Geeks are Sexy about

Johnny Lee, whose amazing Wii Remote hacks – which turn the $40 device into a digital whiteboard, multi-touch display, and 3-D viewer

Oh, I SO want one of these. Imagine how you could trash the competition who’s just using that nasty old PowerPoint!

And so it goes!

Let’s stay connected…

… but were we ever in the first place?

Twice in the last week, I’ve received a sorta automatic email from someone I’m pretty sure I don’t know asking me to change their contact information from some old unknown email address to a new one.

new email address graphic
In each case, there has been a real name associated with the change. But I sure don’t recognize it.

I manage a bunch of websites and I write for several publications not to mention the times my address could appear in someone’s address book or contact list because I know someone they know and so we were on the same distribution list one time.

So while I certainly appreciate the world keeping me updated with where they are, do I really need to know it? Nope!

And really, isn’t one of biggest the reasons to change email addresses is because you were getting too much junk at the old address?

If I move, I’m not gonna share my new address with Publisher’s Clearing House. (Note to PCH: I just don’t believe you any more, I really don’t care if you find me ever again. No offense, but you’ve been telling me for more than 30 years that I “may have already won” and I never have! So please find someplace else to peddle your magazines!)

I sure AM gonna tell Rolling Stone. I want them to know where I am. We’ve got a life time subscription!

And if one day I need to find somebody I once corresponded with over the value of a particular drip irrigation system, I figure it’s my responsibility to keep up with that! It’s sure not that company’s responsibility to keep up with me — especially if I only wrote to them one time!

How many people can you actually keep up with? Seems like I read a study about that one time and maybe it was some number close to a couple dozen. (If you know, please shoot a comment thru!)

I just checked my list — for laughs. There are about 500 names in my current Eudora address book. That doesn’t count those in the master excel spread sheet of old contacts from another computer or the contacts in my current outlook list. That doesn’t count the single names that are really lists of names.

I also noticed as I went through, that I have no idea who some of those people are. So do I think they’ll care if they never hear from me again? Nope! I suppose I ought to spend some time deciding which of these addresses to keep and which to archive to that master spread sheet just in case. But that would take time I just don’t feel like spending right now. And I know that the longer I wait, the longer it will take to actually go through that list. But putting off for tomorrow always seems like the easy choice. I do think that backing up that list of contacts is an excellent idea! THAT I think I will do now.

You know, I’m thinking this could be the same kind of put-off exercise as backing up your computer files. But you do have a plan for that, right?

Back in the day, the size of your Rolodex was some sort of measure of your worth as a business person. But now, the list in the computer is invisible to the untrained eye.

So do me a favor, if you don’t really know me, or you don’t particularly want to either give me something, or ask for something, don’t bother telling me that you’ve moved.

Hey, if you think a person should care, ask yourself this question: “When was the last time you had contact with them?”

Friends, even acquaintances and business contacts, need some kind of attention from time to time if they are to be of any kind of use when you really do need them.

As the old song goes, “Reach out and touch me.” But if we’ve never met… then let’s have a formal introduction first.

Is this a rambling? Probably.
Thanks for reading.

You say toMAto, I say tomaato

Now that I’ve shared my 1/2 brain cell with half the western world, I just gotta ask… What’s the big deal about the mistaking an “r” for a “t”? (See yesterday’s stupid pet trick)

Genetic, generic… are they really so different?

OK, OK.. I’m sure my DNA string musta snapped someplace and I’ve totally embarrassed my parental units.

And for that I do apologize!