What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Research

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“Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.” –Wernher von Braun

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You may remember the name Wernher von Braun. He was a true rocket scientist. One of the first.

He headed up the rocket program for Nazi Germany in World War II and when the war was ending surrendered to US troops and was moved to the States to continue working on his rockets.

I remember him as the mythical hero of the main character in the movie October Sky. You know. The one that the main character met in his moment of triumph and didn’t even recognize.

I can relate to that moment.

Anyway. There is no question that von Braun was a brilliant man. Even if I’m not.

Phraseology Power

Words are powerful.

How we phrase things can make all the difference.

I sometimes tell people “I’m deadline motivated.” My wife says that’s a polite way to say that I’m a procrastinator.

If you had a choice, which one would you share with folks?

Now I see there is a polite way to describe all the time I’m on the internet. I used to think I was just cruising the web, surfing the internet. Mostly just poking around. My wife is often tempted to say I’m wasting time.

Now, in those moments when the subject comes up, I can honestly say, “No honey. I’m doing some basic research.”

Talk about a better say to say it! Perfect.

Research in Action

During my research time (I gotta start practicing this one now) putting this post together I found that Homer Hickam, the guy that wrote the book that the movie October sky is based on, has a web site.

I think that’s cool because Gorgeous and I listened to one of his other books on tape during our road trip over the holidays. We really enjoyed it. In fact, I liked it enough that the author’s name stuck with me. And that’s saying something.

You can even check out Homer Hickam’s blog.

Well its sort of bloggish. A little bit.

I guess blogs are starting to become cool, even if folks don’t quite get it completely yet. But that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

High Times Shopping In The Sky Mall

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Sometimes I Don’t Get Marketing

Now I’ll be the first to admit that there are some things I just don’t get.

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For example I don’t get most things that have to do with home decorating. When Christmas rolls around my wife will take some classy looking ornaments and, say, arrange them on a side table over a snazzy table cloth with some glass bead strings snaked around the table.

It looks great! But I never would have thought to do that on my own. To my way of thinking ornaments belonged on a tree. Arranging them festively on a table would never have occurred to me.

This sort of thing has become a running joke in our marriage. We’ll see something along those lines and she will turn to me. Do you get that? You don’t get that do you?

Nope.

It looks great and all. But that someone would have taken the time and effort? Don’t get it.

I’m really OK with not getting some things.

I get most things about business. But there are some things about the whole marketing thing that I just make me shake my head. Nope. Don’t get that either. Read more

Free FCC Ringtones: When Is a Monopoly Not a Monopoly?

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I’ve Got a Question

Isn’t a generally accepted principle here in the US that monopolies are pretty much bad things?

I mean it’s something that most folks here seem to agree on regardless of their political persuasion. Those who shade toward the conservative side see competition as beneficial for the economy. And folks with a more liberal outlook generally see behemoth corporations as undesirable.

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And didn’t the US government spend something like 8 years in court to break up the monopoly that AT&T had over out nation’s communication system?

I’m sure they spent a ton of our tax dollars on that.

They Say That Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Where I lived we weren’t too affected one way or the other by the break up. We happened to live in a very rural part of Upstate New York and our family somewhat affectionately called our local phone company, Taconic Telephone, Rinky-dink Tel. Read more

That’s Okay . . . We’ll Sit in the Dark

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How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

Wait, wait. Don’t tell me. I’m sure I know this one.

Scanning through the headlines yesterday I saw this one:

California may ban conventional lightbulbs by 2012

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What will they think of next?

Apparently conventional lightbulbs are bad. They are the scourge of the planet and must be banned. That wondrous joy of late night reading that Thomas Edison gave to us nearly 140 years ago has to be cast aside in favor of newer, more expensive technologies.

And California has just the legislature to make this happen.

You see there are folks there who are working on enacting a ban on traditional incandescent lightbulbs. This would leave folks in the Golden State with a couple options. Read more

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Learning

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“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” –Sir Winston Churchill

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I took Friday off from my “regular” job and went to a local blogging conference here in Savannah. I was surprised by the folks who attended.

What surprised me were the large number of folks who were there because they didn’t know much of anything about blogging and wanted to learn. In fact there were so many that the organizer of the conference adjusted the schedule and added an impromptu session to cover some of the basics of terminology so that those folks could get more out of the rest of the sessions.

That was very cool.

However there were also one or two folks there who didn’t share the enthusiasm to learn. One lady in particular seemed to have her understanding of blogging all worked out before she got there (although I don’t think she’s blogging herself) and spent a large portion of the conference time attempting to convince the rest of us to accept her views.

Apparently she was too smart for the rest of us and certainly wasn’t interested in learning from us.

She apparently didn’t like being taught.

Of course I’m not one who enjoys life’s forced lessons either. I was being taught how not to completely bite someone’s head off.

Fortunately for me while I was talking my wife happened to be sitting behind the challenging person and was able to help me out by signaling me to keep my cool. I hadn’t realized before that public speaking can be a team sport.

I sure appreciated my teammate helping me keep from doing something foolish!

But I didn’t much enjoy the learning process for that one Friday.

Sometimes my attitude toward learning is similar to my attitude toward exercise. I like having learned, not learning in just about the same way I like having exercised, not the act of exercising itself.

The best part about working out for me is finishing!

Oftentimes life’s lessons are painful to learn. However the benefit of having learned them makes that pain oh-so worthwhile.

How about you? Do you always enjoy the learning process?

What are some things we can do to make that process a little less challenging for us?

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

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