Tony Dye

Hand Written Notes

Steve Leveen, Levenger's co-founder, recently published an article on his blog about the value of hand written notes.  Actually, he referred to the rewards of writing your own handwritten notes.  An interesting read and something I've long agreed with, but haven't practiced very well.  He sort of shot down most of my old excuses.  (Here's another related item on note cards)

I had a very practical experience of receiving just such a note recently.  I've been visiting a church for a while, but not really doing anything more than sitting there and receiving.  I decided to step that up a notch by sending a check (a very small check, by the way) to the church.  It was an electronic check, mailed to them.

A brief digression: quite a few of the people at this church kinda/sorta know me, but they just know me as "Tony."  Probably very few know my last name.  Of course, Tony isn't my real name, it's just what I go by.  So, when the check arrived at the church (with no note from me, of course), it was from Harold A. Dye, Jr.  The person processing the check might have figured out Tony Dye, but for sure didn't figure out my real name.  (no fault on her part, of course)

So, back to the story.  This church, or this person in particular, took the "above and beyond" action.  She wrote me a very nice short note, personally thanking me.  Receiving that note absolutely made my day.  Since she didn't know who I was, that actually added meaning.  I think she does this for EVERY gift received from anyone who's not a member or regular attender!

That would be a good place to end this story, but there's actually one more detail worth mentioning.  This sweet person who volunteers to handle the contributions is also a busy, high-level, executive with a local manufacturing firm.  If she's not too busy to hand write a note, well, that doesn't leave much excuse, does it?

Thanks so much for the hand written thank you note!

CIRCA Notebooks

Keith Lowe introduced me to the LevengerCirca notebook a while back.  Since my penmanship is so poor, I really wasn’t interested.  But, I did need some sort of notebook to carry around, and Levenger has a starter kit that’s attractively priced, so why not try it?  I did.  I’m hooked!

The main feature: you can put pages in and take pages out and move them around, yet they remain securely in place if you’re not intentionally moving them.  You can change covers and move pages from one notebook to another.  For a "paper" notebook, they have a lot of the feel of an electronic notebook!

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There’s another rather nice feature.  You don’t have to buy the expensive pages from Levenger.  If you want to do some page design of your own, fine.  Print it, cut the sheets, then use the Circa Punch to put the neat special holes into the pages, and add them in.  Pretty much any piece of paper can be added.  I've got 3x5 cards inserted.  Newspaper Clippings.  Coupons.  Now I design my own special sheets, print them, cut them, punch them, and I have just what I want.

There is one problem, and that’s the cost of the punch.  $58!  Or, if you buy two or more, only 48.  That seemed a bit steep, so I looked on eBay, and there are quite regularly used ones (actually, new, returned, offered by Levenger).  Now here’s a side curiosity for you.  A new punch from Levenger is $58, plus about $7 shipping.  If you buy one from eBay, the shipping will be $8.  So…how much would you be willing to pay to get the punch used, from eBay, rather than buying it new, from Levenger (even though it comes from Levenger either way)?  Over and over, I’m seeing them go for over $60 on eBay.  I don’t get it

Regardless, I like the notebook, I like the pages I’ve created, and I like the whole concept.  I’d love to see some lower-cost accessories, but I guess you just can’t always get what you want.  (is that Mick Jagger I hear in the background?)

Finding Liberty

I'm spending nearly half my time right now near the town of Liberty KY.  I love the name!  It's a small town, less that 2000 people, in a county of under 20,000.  Quite different from Atlanta!

In trying to learn about business in the area, I started with a visit to the Liberty - Casey County Chamber of Commerce.  Blaine Staat greeted me warmly and told me about the area.  He clearly liked living there and had just the right stories about the area.  He also mentioned that he'd come from the corporate life in Orlando and had relocated to Liberty just a few years ago.  That was quite encouraging because relationships in Kentucky are, um, interesting.  Some of the warmest, friendliest, people in the world.  But somehow there's a line that's invisible to me having to do with personal (how about dinner?) vs. business (let me tell you about my company).  It's nice.  It's pleasant.  People up here don't define themselves by where they work.  That's different!

Now here's something you might not know about me, but it probably won't surprise you.  When I meet somebody new and interesting, as often as not I'll do a quick Google search for the name, and sometimes I'll even set a Google alert if it's somebody I expect to follow-up with.  Blaine has a unique enough name that he was pretty easy to identify. 

Let me just say that Blaine was interesting during our brief conversation, but then I found out he was a lot more interesting.  His Orlando corporate life was with a company most people in the IT industry know of: Veritas (as in Backup Exec).  Wish we'd connected with him a few years back to ask about non-profit discounts and such :-)

There's a lot more to Blaine, though.  He's a writer.  He's published a few books.  He has his own publishing company, Linear Wave Publishing, located in Liberty.  He's even a blogger.  His Tuesday post, What Changed, is quite appropriate for IT troubleshooting.  I've been reading his book, Finding Liberty (available from his site, or from Amazon and elsewhere).  Very interesting and touching stories, and Blaine is quite clearly a Christian.

I hope I get to spend a lot more time with Blaine.  Blaine, I'm glad you found Liberty.

Peter to Madrid

This evening, my older son, Peter, departs for Madrid Spain.  When he graduated from college last fall, as an English major, he wasn’t quite sure what he’d do with that degree.  He thinks he's found the opportunity -- teaching English to native Spanish speakers, in Spain.  Since he's had a lot of Spanish language, including an intensive in Mexico, he should be well prepared for this.

Being "well prepared" may not be quite the right phrase to use.  You see, Peter doesn't know exactly what he's going off to do!  He knows where he's going, and he even has a place to stay, but only for the rest of the week.  By next week, he has to find a place to live, and get enrolled in some training, and figure out transportation, and food, and life in Spain.  Oh yeah, he also has to be part of finding his own students.  Perhaps in schools, perhaps corporations, maybe even individual one-on-one training (he's already got contacts with some).  Stepping into such an unknown thing, in another country, would be terrifying to a lot of people (me, for instance).  But Peter just takes it in stride.  He has a way with people and he's comfortable in so many situations.  In the past few years, he's traveled to Russia, Tanzania, Mexico, and then several countries in South America, so this is just one more step for him.

With this open-ended plan, he also doesn't know how long he'll be gone.  He's expecting nine months to a year, but it could be longer, or it could be shorter.  He doesn't have return tickets, though.  It's all just part of the adventure for him.

He’ll be away for a long time, which is sad, but he knows how to stay in touch lots of ways.  I’m excited for him.  And yes, I’m proud a proud father.  My son is doing things that I never did.  Way to go Peter!

 

Faith or Failure?

I attended a men's prayer/devotional time a few days ago and the topic of the devotion was the faith of Abraham.  OK, let me get controversial here.  All the usual disclaimers -- these are my own thoughts and probably nobody else, anywhere, is crazy enough to think this way.

I don't know what form the communication was in, but the Bible pretty clear says "the Lord said" to Abraham (or Abram).  Abraham had direct communication with God.  That's quite impressive.  So here's the starting question.  If God spoke directly to Abraham, how much faith did Abraham need to have?  Seems to me this is not an issue of faith as much as an issue of duty or discipline.  But I think it gets more complicated.  After God spoke to Abraham, it seems that Abraham had quite a bit of a LACK of faith.  Look at the situation with Abram and Sarai starting around Genesis 13:11.  Then there's the whole thing with the promise of a son, but Abram and Sarai decided that God needed some help, and the whole Isaac/Ishmael thing is still a source of conflict today.  A little later, we have the big test of faith with Isaac and the sacrifice, and Abraham comes through well here.  Hmmm... that one would seem to be the toughest.  OK, good for Abraham!

Abraham has quite a history of communication with God, being faithful, but also of being unfaithful.  How, after directly hearing from God, could he have done the things he did?  From the human perspective, seems like Abraham had more failure than faith.

But then I have to look at David.  The man after God's own heart.  He sure showed a lot of faith sometimes, then completely blew it others.  Same for Solomon.  How could the wisest man in the world have been so dumb and do exactly what God told him not to do?  Here again, the evidence is that David and Solomon were hearing directly from God.

In the new testament, maybe things are better.  Peter sure messed up (during Jesus' trial, especially), but seems to have turned to great faith later.  That's promising.

I don't want to beat up on any of these guys.  It's just an observation that many people of the Bible, despite very direct contact with God, still did dumb things.  I think the bottom line is that we often get the faith thing backwards.  Even when these Bible heroes failed in their faith, God came through -- God continues to be faithful.  That seems like a good place to end this wandering...

Why You Should be ACTIVE on LinkedIn

Over the last couple of years, I've become a big fan of LinkedIn.  Often, when meeting with people, I hear something like: “I’m not looking for a job, why should I care about LinkedIn?”  Let me give three good reasons, and I'm sure there are a lot more:

1. Do you know anybody who's looking for a job?  In today's economy, that's pretty common.  YOUR LinkedIn connections can be the key to successful networking for your friends.  With very little effort on your part, you can be a tremendous blessing to others who know you and are looking for their next opportunity.
2. LinkedIn is a great way to research companies.  Even if you're not looking for a job,you might have a good reason to know more about a company.  For instance, a potential vendor or partner.  With a good LinkedIn network, you can use LinkedIn's "Search Companies" to find lots of useful information.
3. Very much like item 2, LinkedIn is a great way to find contacts inside a company.  More and more top companies are making a point of being visible on LinkedIn, including listing some of the top contacts. 

So, you have nothing to lose, perhaps a good bit to gain, and you can be quite a blessing to someone you know who is looking for a job.

So, are you active on LinkedIn?  I sure hope so!

PS: If you're part of CITRT, please remember to join the CITRT group on LinkedIn.  It's yet another way to connect with those who are in similar roles.

Cables I like

I LIKE this cable:
 

This one is OK, but just OK:
 

This one is AWFUL!

This one isn't too bad:

How about you?  Have you seen cable vendors do it right?  Wrong?  How much extra is "right" worth to you?

Do You Want CLEAR WiMAX?

I've been using CLEAR for just over three weeks now, and loving it!  Great performance, good mobility, and amazingly affordable.  I've heard good things about service, but don't have any first-hand experience because everything has worked the way it should.

If you’re in the Atlanta area and thinking about CLEAR WiMAX, please allow me to tell you about it, and I’d love the opportunity to provide it for you.  (Yes, I make a few dollars.  That’s not why I recommend it!)  Leave a comment or send an email: tony [dot] dye [at] gmail.com.

Note.  I am NOT a retailer for CLEAR, but I have a relationship with a company who is.  I'll be connecting you with that company.

Business is in the Details

A couple of my buddieshave started a new site focused on helping small businesses.  They give away a lot of their wisdom and learning (not always the same thing) on the site.  Their tag line is so clear and also what sets them apart from many of the academic professionals: "For people making payroll, by people making payroll."  If that's you, or if you're even thinking about a small business, you might want to check them out.  BusinessIsInTheDetails

Oh yeah, they're also on twitter as bizdetails.

Would I Want to be a LION?

I've been a reasonably happy user of LinkedInfor a few years, and have benefited from the network of over 5 million connections from my 400-ish direct connections.  When I've looked for information on businesses, or tried to find old friends, usually that connection base has worked.  But I keep noticing people who are LIONS, the LinkedIn Open Networkers, and I have to wonder about the value of connecting with just about anyone.  I think I'd rather be a semi-Open networker, if there can be such a thing.

Anyone have any wisdom, for or against, the idea of being an open networker?