IMG is nothing?

Every year, I obsess over finding a cool father’s day gift for dad. I always start out expecting to find some super gift that he will love, but somehow I always end up getting him a tie, some tool, or just taking him out to dinner. The problem is that while I know Dad will appreciate anything I get him, I also know that he doesn’t really need or want much: he’s the type of guy that will buy whatever he wants and he’s past the point where he has many “needs”.

This year, as with Mother’s Day, I decided to make shopping a project and focused on the most efficient way to find a gift. I’ve got some issues with Amazon.com (had some customer service issues a while ago), so I’m trying to avoid them (I know that’s counterintuitive since I’m looking for 1-stop shopping, but bear with me). After doing some surfing, I came back to the Collectibles Today. They have a Father’s Day shop that is really easy to use. I found a great digital photo wallet that can hold up to 60 pictures (it has 16mb, so its really like 20-30 pics on most cameras). It just so happens that I gave the folks a bunch of pictures last month (lil brothers birthdays and holidays), so now Dad will be able to look at the pictures without having to use his computer (he seems to spawn viruses just by looking at his laptop).

So, I’m really happy with my choice. I’ll still be taking Dad out for a beer, but I finally got him something worth while too.

I’m curious if anyone else has the same shopping problems I do (see previous post for more on that). If you have problems or have found a cool solution, then leave a comment.

Every year I find myself in the same situation: its a week or two before Mother’s Day and I have no idea what I’m getting my Mom or Step-Mom.

I am a reluctant shopper in the best of times, but mix that with my guilt for not calling more often and the string of well-intentioned but poorly-planned gifts in the past; and I become damn near incapable of buying anything. Its not that I don’t want to give my Mom(s) great mothers day gifts; its that I’m terrified that anything I pick will elicit the standard hug, a “Thank you”, and then be put in the closet.

Maybe I’m alone on this one, but nothing hurts like finding your mother’s day gifts on that shelf in the spare bedroom where knickknacks go to die.

This year, in order to reduce the anxiety, I chose to shop online and look for a single store with a lot of mother’s day gift ideas. I figured a mother’s day jewelry gift would be a safe bet, but also wanted some less obvious options (music boxes anyone?). Right now, I’m hooked on the Mother’s Day Shop at Collectibles Today. It has hundreds of mother’s day gifts including mother’s day rings and necklaces, figurines, music boxes and some stuff I don’t have names for…

I haven’t decided on which gifts yet, but I expect to decide today. Check back to find out what I came up with.

Guy Kawasaki has a great post “How to Get a Job on Craigslist” that is really useful for anyone trying to get an interview. The majority of new grads and young professionals are going to be relying on the web for their job search. While this makes the search process a bit more efficient, it also makes the competition a lot steeper.

My personal favorites from Guy’s post are:

Write a cover email that addresses the position.

This should be a no brainer. You want to stand out in crowded field, then your reply to the ad needs to tell them that you’re qualified and that your resume is worth a thorough read. For new grads, this is critical since you may have holes in your experience or qualifications.

Apply really well.

You need to understand what the employer is looking for and make sure you address that need. Its fine to have a stock resume on file, but before applying tweak it to make sure you emphasize the experience or knowledge that the employer is emphasizing their need for. Also, make sure that you send them what they ask for.

There is a great article in the International Herald Tribune, written by seven U.S. soldiers about what Iraq is really like. While its not a glowing critique of our time and activity there, it is a logical and measured assessment of where we are, what we do, and what needs to change.

The Iraq war as we see it

Here are a few of highlights [comments by yours truly]:

“In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: One of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, a U.S. Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a “time-sensitive target acquisition mission” on August 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.) While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse - namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force.”

[I’ll raise a toast to Sgt. Murphy and his recovery. The rest of you keep your heads down, so I don’t become an alcoholic.]

“The most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. “Lucky” Iraqis live in communities barricaded with concrete walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In an environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act.”

[Why don’t we hear this stuff when Petraeus goes on Fox News?]

“We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.”

[You guys rock and I wish we weren’t making your jobs harder with poor strategy.]

Thanks to the Men & Women of the U.S. Armed Forces. We’re proud of you.

Before I went to college, I already knew that the job for me couldn’t be like my father’s. I didn’t want the hours and though I might make less, I’d have to be happier.

He made good money, but also turned gray early. You never knew when he’d make it home or what mood he’d be in (I was supposed to know his mood, but rarely guessed right). I often felt like an employee (I called him “Boss” until he asked me to stop). 

In college, I found that most of my friends had come to similar conclusions about what type of work they’d do and what they wouldn’t give up (read: ‘me’ time or personal-development).

Since moving into my adult-life, I’ve worked some insane hours but have also walked away from jobs that would have made my father nostalgic. Jobs that seemed to insist on the grind for its own sake, or, that created stress without ever creating solutions.
Brazen Careerist ran an article that I think spells out the difference between how/why I work now and how/why my Dad worked then.

New financial data highlights generational rifts

Don’t let the title fool you. I promise no graphs.

Read it and let me know your thoughts about what she’s saying. I’ll probably come back to this topic soon.

Kurt Vonnegut died last night. [Bow your head for a moment of silence].

He wrote what we needed to read:

1. our truths masked as someone else’s;
2. our folly put into focus;
3. our world as it was, without forsaking what it could be.

I still re-read Mother Night. Breakfast of Champions helped me survive a deep depression my 3rd year of college.

If we made Slaughterhouse Five mandatory reading in high school, we’d be able to revive the publishing industry and develop some really smart kids.

The NYT obit

A nice piece over on Salon by Andrew Leonard. Leonard played chess with him as a boy. I now have to be jealous of Andrew Leonard.

Read this post from Brazen Careerist a few days ago, wanted to comment then, but just couldn’t put my ideas into words. Since then, I’ve been scanning the comments and there is some good stuff there. Before I start, let me tell you about the post by Ryan Healy. Ryan wants people to realize that the whole work/life balance idea is flawed. He thinks that what we want professionally, personally, socially, etc. has to fit together and that no aspect can really take precedence over any other. He uses the contrast between the advice given to his girlfriend by her boss and that given by her mother to illustrate how confusing this can be.

At the office full of twentysomethings where my girlfriend, Niki, works, everyone was comparing their salaries, and the owner of the company got really angry. And his being angry made for a tough week, so Niki asked him if she could take Friday off.

He said, “If you’re going to be successful you need to start putting your career before your life.”

Of course she took the day off.

When she told her mother about the situation, her mother said, “If you don’t put your life before work you will never be happy.”

Hearing this conflicting advice from two of the most influential elders in your life is confusing. What does Niki’s boss say to his kids when he gets home? Does he tell them to put work before life? What would Niki’s mom say to young people she works with? Would she tell them to go home early?

From this point onward, Ryan talks about how he doesn’t even try for a work/life balance. I’m not going to quote his full article, nor continue the summary. You can read it yourself. But his post got me thinking.

I’m an entrepreneur who also works (almost) full-time for another outfit. This means that no matter what hour of the day, or day of the week I have work I can be doing. Lucky for me, I like what I do across the board, but there are still days when I’d rather be watching Naruto episodes or napping. Like Ryan, I’m young (26 vs. his 22) with no wife and kids. But even without those pulls on me, I find there has to be a division between work and life.

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I just finished watching the first 2 episodes of ‘Hometown Baghdad’, a web-documentary that follows the lives of 20-somethings trying to make it in Baghdad. The show is a co-production between Chat The Planet and a group of Iraqi film-makers.
Adel & Saif (I haven’t watched the episode introducing Ausauma yet) are students in engineering and dentistry, respectfully. They are educated, middle-class guys who have remained in their hometown despite its deterioration. They are pursuing their educations and aspirations (Adel wants to be a rock musician).
As you watch the video, its easy to forget where these guys are: they sound like guys I knew in high school and college. Slight accents, but perfectly understandable. They talk about their bands and girlfriends. Only when they start talking about brain splatters and the loss of professors to extremist do you get a feeling that their world is so different.

Below is the 1st episode.

Michael Dannenberg and Phillip Longman - A Bid for Better Student Loans - washingtonpost.com

Web 2.0 isn’t a new topic, but its what’s happening now and its principles will be seen in everything still standing after the next tech explosion. Yet business still doesn’t get it.

I was catching up on my NussbaumOnDesign reading. If you haven’t checked him out, Bruce Nussbaum is the guy who talks about design and innovation for BusinessWeek. Bruce regularly talks about products you’ll love someday. Cool job.
His post about Davos and Web 2.0, lines up pretty well with my earlier post on the topic.

I’ll be writing more on 2.0 real soon.