Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Author: Justin Matthews (Page 4 of 76)

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Do You Have What it Takes???

Where would we be without electric light?  Where would we be without cars?  Where would we be without pasteurized process american cheese food?????  All of these things were invented by people with Drive, Perseverance and Tenacity.   I love me some Kraft Singles that’s for sure.

I was just reading a great article on Drive over at Lee’s Shizzle.  In this article he talks about the drive that he used to complete a daunting task when he was a kid.  I started to comment but the gremlins in my computer deleted half of my comment.  It worked out well because it prompted this post!

In most of our “Heroes” and “Role models” that we have today (I’m not including sports figures for this argument, they are a mixed bunch) we can see Drive.  My personal definition of drive is that dogged determination or hard headedness that makes people great.  Think about your heroes and see if they had Drive.  I’ll bet that they did.

Referencing the first paragraph, Thomas Edison tried 10000 different ideas for the light bulb before one worked.  Now lights are a bit different but that was a huge jumping off point.  Edison never finished school.  Edison did whatever he had to to invent things that revoultionized the world.  He had Drive.

Henry Ford  didn’t invent cars, yet if you ask who invented the car, I would bet more than 90% of people would say Ford.  He didn’t invent the car, just a way to manufacture cars better.  He poured all of his time, money, blood, sweat, and tears into making the Ford Motor Company a success.  Like Fords or not, companies all over the world use the basic assembly line techniuqes that he first put to use.  He had Drive as well.

If you haven’t heard of Kraft Singles you have been living under a rock in a deep dark hole.  Ok Maybe not the deep dark hole but still.  I am not going to get into the history of processed cheese but it is delicious.  Wikipedia has a great article about it here.  This cheese was patented by James L Kraft in 1916.  In the United States at least, the most common type of cheese on a cheeseburger is the American style processed cheese food.  James Kraft built one of the biggest food companies in the world, and one of the biggest selling products that they have is Kraft Singles.  He had Drive.

Now, after a brief history lesson, some introspection.  If you are reading this there is a good chance that you have a blog or would like one.  I have read that most blogs don’t survive past 3 months.  People who run these just do not have the Drive necessary to succeed and be a survivor. (BTW I like Survivor too…Go Boston Rob).  It is easy to give up and not push past the hard part.  When it gets hard to keep up with your blog that is when you have to kick in the Drive and get your lazy butt back in the saddle.

There are those whose blogs are failing and they say “But I have Drive!  Why isn’t my blog working?”  Well, I think I have answers.  How much time are you putting into your blog?  It is a business for all intents and purposes.  I put at least 3 hours per day into it and most days more like 6.  When I am doing design and WordPress stuff it was 8-10 hours per day.  James over at the infopreneur says he has spent over 600 hours in the 4 months that his blog has been active.  It takes time.

Lee has another post about his site being 6 months old and how it is finally taking off.  You have to get past that 3 month barrier to make it work. This blog has been online since December 14, 2009.  I started to learn about how to actually blog and made the jump to my own .com name January 4 2010.  I consider that the true start of my blog now.  I have completed 2 months of posts and redesigns.  I have to find it in myself to keep Driving and blow through this month and into the next.  I can do it, this is just way too much fun.

More questions to ask if your blog isn’t working.  Are you actively posting?  Are you keeping new content out there?  Are you visiting other sites and commenting?  Are you promoting your blog?  Right now in Twitter I have 193 followers.  I also am in 5 lists that extend whatever I tweet out by about 100.  that means right now if tweet about this post it could be seen by nearly 300 people.  How many of them can I get to click over?  Ideally 300.  Realistically, I don’t know.  I just am going to keep posting and hope for the 300.

Finally, a simple maxim you have probably read a million times.  Put in the work and reap the benefits.  It would be nice to make millions with a 4 hour workweek but it isn’t going to happen.  It takes work.  It takes Drive.  It takes Perseverance and Tenacity.  Stick with it and you can be one of the successful blogs that keep working past the 3 month mark.

I will be there cruising past 3 months and giving that wall the bird right around Easter.

If you are reading this you are awesome!  And you, know if you feel like saying something, please do so in the comments!

Later

Justin

Loyalty and Business Sense.

I have been sitting on this post for a day or two but today I want to write it.  I started thinking about how great it is to start building traffic and actually having people reading my blog.  It is exciting to be putting out a product and having someone consume it.  A product that is part of my brain and has required no sweat or muscle to produce.

I have been excited to get replies to my comments on other sites, and on my site.  It is exciting to be “out there” and getting noticed.  If I keep on this way I will be famous in a few years.  That is my hope at least.

I was also thinking about loyalty.  I have several blogs in my RSS reader and I usually keep up with them fairly well.  I have been commenting more and have been plesantly surprised at responses.  Those blogs I tend to want to visit more and more.  If someone posts a comment on my site I want to reply to the comment and then go see what they have in store.  I have been keeping track of people on twitter the same way.

I follow a bunch of people and reply to many who are not following me because I have an opinion damnit and you will at least see there was a tweet directed somewhere vaguely in your general direction.  It is coold to “talk” to people all over the world from one interface though.  You all are my only friends….Just kidding I do interact with humans.  Mostly small ones, but still humans. (written as my 3 year old is begging for Dora the Explorer to return)

So, to go with Loyalty, I read a post on Mike’s Life blog today about reciprocity.  Go ahead and read it yourself but it made me think about loyalty to those who are “with” you on your blog/business.  Mike stated that he has been an affiliate of this other site and has sent traffic to it, if that traffic did not come to sales, that is business.  Mike has done his job and paved the way for a sale to take place.  My opinion, and the way I want to conduct myself in business, if someone I have even heard of doing anything for me wants my help I will do everything I can to help.

I may think differently later but ever since business school I have thought the same.  Give great customer service and go for quality over quantity.  That may limit some income opportunities but I will have loyal customers that will come back and tell their friends about me and my business.  You can’t put a price on that.

Until later,

Justin

PS check out my page For Our Troops for a patriotic message! Thanks

The day after….DST Hangover

I am sure there are going to be 50 billion posts today about daylight savings time.  Well, I am no exception.

Is there anyone out there who DOESNT think this is just a giant waste of energy?  With today’s society and technology, time is relative and who gives one rat hair what that actually is?  Farmers don’t, and that is what the bureaucracy has tagged DST with all of these years.  Recreation is now a more accepted fact of why they want longer days during the summer.

But what difference will it make in the winter if we just stuck to DST all year long?  A few states don’t change time, AZ and HI come to mind.  They seem to do fine, why doesn’t the rest of the country follow suit?  I don’t believe there are any kickbacks to the government from people who get to play in the sun until 10 pm.

I guess you will just have to forgive me today, I am in the midst of the “Time Change Hangover”, that day after the change when you actually have to get up and work or get the kids to school, and you realize that you are now getting up at 5 am.  Sure in the winter it will feel like 7, but that is now months away and not worth looking forward to.

I know it will do about as much good as hoping for a miracle, but what do you think about changing DST to be the only time?  Making summer time standard and standard across the country.  Not one time zone like China, but one time, so that 8pm in Utah in July is 8pm in Arizona in July.  Or December.

I have a story about a vacation to AZ with time differences…  We were on a vacation to visit a bunch of National Parks in Utah and then the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  It was noon by our watches and our stomachs, and we were hungry.  This was in late June.  We went looking for something to eat, and every place we looked at around the grand canyon was just getting started.  We looked at the open times on the windows, 11 AM.  Well here it was 12, and they still were not open.  Finally one guy told us in broken English, “No, is 11 now.  No time change in Arizona.”  Gee thanks Arizona State Government.  Maybe you could be troubled to post a sign or two saying, “We don’t conform to the stupidity of changing the time twice a year.”  Anyway, the whole debate is silly, pick a time and stay there.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions that don’t involve death or moving countries.

Until later,

Justin

Poetry Tuesday 4: Anticipation

Hello again!  Here is installment 4 of my new Poetry Tuesday feature.  There will be a special post tomorrow as well, look forward to it!

I wrote this poem somewhere near 15 years ago when I as dating my wife.  This one is a little scary to put out because it is more personal than ones in the past.

I would love some feedback from anyone, my comment section is not being used at all.  Is there a problem with leaving a comment? I haven’t noticed anything wrong but….Please let me know if there is an issue.  I don’t moderate comments (on purpose) but I will delete spam in a heartbeat!

Thanks for everyone who continues to come by and visit my site, I really appreciate the readership and knowing that my words are not just stuck in my head or my computer anymore.  Enjoy the poem

Anticipation

By: Justin Matthews

Midnight approaches and awake I lie,

Without my love, my hear wants to die.

She is so far away, I wish she were here,

But soon comes the time when she will be near.

I feel pain at our parting, yet my love flows so strong,

Much like the lyrics in an old Chicago song.

Without her love my life has no rhyme,

I can’t wait for the future when she will be mine.

I yearn for her voice, I long for her tender touch,

Oh how I miss her so very much!

She is my love, my heart, my life,

I know she will be mine through all trouble and strife.

Yet here I lie, longing for her,

She invokes feelings no other can stir.

I wait and I miss that sweet love of mine,

I will love her intently ’till the end of time!

Yet for now, I lie awake and dream…..

I think next week I will feature something from my Grandpa…he was a major cause of me starting to write poetry.

Thanks for reading!

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