Journal

Not that that’s really a surprise to anyone… but she’s been doing a portrait a day which is really cool.

I love Swedish food! Fortunately, so does my family. 🙂

Tamika and the kids and I will be driving up to Kawawachikamach in 1 week. We could really use some places to crash on the way up, if you, or anyone you know, is open, let us know!

Here’s our intinerary on the way up.

1. Dec. 2 – Driving to Philly – Staying with Tamika’s parents.
2. Dec. 3 – Driving to Vermont, or somewhere close – We need a place to stay!
3. Dec. 4 – Driving to Quebec City – We need a place to stay!
4. Dec. 5 – Driving to Sept-Iles – We need a place to stay!

We’re staying at my parents house for a week in Schefferville, then driving back (here’s that itinerary).

1. Dec. 15 – Driving to Quebec City – We need a place to stay!
2. Dec. 16 – Driving to Norwich, Connecticut – Staying with my grandmother.
3. Dec. 17 – Driving to Philly – Staying with Tamika’s parents.
4. Dec. 18 – Driving to Baltimore.

Thanks so much!

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
– Calvin Coolidge

Every day I’m hustlin’.
– Rick Ross

Tamika has been singing with local pianist Aaron Rhines and is group Groove Unit. A couple weeks back, they did a recording of Erykah Badu’s Window Seat. It’s really good!

Sitting in a rest stop on our way back from visiting Tamika’s grandparents.

I’m going through a reading plan that takes you through the bible in chronological order. I was curious about the two Lamechs in Genesis, so I looked them up.

Never thought of translating the actual NAMES of people in the bible before. When you do, Genesis 4 reads something like this:

God’s servant took two wives, light and darkness. The light brought forth the shepherd, who was the father of tent-dwellers, and herdsmen, and his brother was the musician, who was the father of harpists and pipers. But the darkness brought forth the blacksmith, the forger of brass, and of iron, and his sister was pleasure.

Very interesting…

I like sketchbooks. Leather-bound, hardback, crisp white paper. I try to always have one around, simply because I’m a firm believer that if you carry something everywhere you go, you’ll be able to use it at any given opportunity.

That being said, there is always something that unnerves me about them. Not a lot, just a little… but enough to make me think about it.

A couple years back, I started putting the date and the place at the top of every page; and it’s this feeling that compelled me to do it.

Everytime I start to draw or write; I always have this feeling like I’m being watched. Not like someone is there, but that some is reading this page far in the future.
And it sounds a little egotistical. But don’t get me wrong. I don’t feel like my work is worthy of future historical relevance, I just feel like someday someone is going to try to read these things and understand who I was.

Maybe that person is me as an old man. Maybe it’s my kids. Maybe my grandkids. I guess it’s weird to think about that, but I’m wondering if everyone who writes a diary or journal thinks about that. Or is it writing only for yourself? For my writing, it’s not just for myself. It’s meant to be read, to be enjoyed, to learn from.

If someone, maybe my descendant is reading this down the line, know this: I think about you all the time.

So, I’m on the Brightline Interactive retreat for the next couple days. We’re out in the mountains of West Virginia. I have never been out in this part of the country. It’s very different than I expected… it’s very very pretty. Erik (my boss)’s family owns a house out here on the side of a massive mountain, and the views is truly spectacular.

One of the first things we did was an online test. Erik bought this book, “Now Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.

We didn’t go through it at all, but with each book comes a card with a secret code that lets you onto their website to take a… glorified personality test. The test itself is a little weird, but the end result was pretty darn cool.

Below is what the test said about me. I’m curious about what you think. Does it describe me? Is it accurate?

Achiever

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

Ideation

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

Strategic

The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

Adaptability

You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.