Let’s think about something else.
That isn’t a call to abandon the pandemic or deny its existence. But in this moment, at this time, let’s think about something new.
Potato is spelled without an “e”. Unless you have lots of them, then it is potatoes.
See, that was easy. Let’s try a few more.
Why does the sight of flying jets still remain exciting to me even after flying over 50 times in 2019? When the US Air Force Thunderbirds recently flew right by our house in tight formation, I yelled into the sky “America” and then a couple of tears came to my eyes. It was like I was seven. I loved it. Flight can carry so many emotions, from the hope created by human ingenuity to our childhood desire to be able to fly like the birds. The Thunderbirds and Blue Angels also represent the best of what can happen when Americans put our nation’s resources toward a shared mission. Add in a dash of patriotism, and maybe it just makes sense to cry. At least that is what I will tell my red-faced self.
We recently held a virtual team day and used the event to practice hosting a virtual conference. We ran the event with conference tools and had Skylar on our team execute as the audio and video engineer. We learned a lot, but we were all struck with Skylar’s late night radio dj voice and epic microphone setup. It inspired me, so when we cut to break for lunch, I messaged in a song dedication to my wife that Skylar read to the group. Now I will share it with you:
“As we break for lunch I am going to play you out with a classic 80's song. This one goes out to Nicole from Ryder wishing you the most neon of colors and a totally awesome day. He is stoked to be married to you and thinks it is bitchin’ that you get to work together.”
The song: “Don't You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds.
Finally, just a quick tip. Working from home is changing up the game for ergonomics, and one simple way to get a better setup is to have an external keyboard and mouse and then to elevate your laptop to eye level, rather than staring down at your screen. There are a huge range of options for laptop elevation solutions, from a stack of books to highly-engineered and beautiful aluminum solutions. I set out on a quest to find a simple solution with one key criteria: Made in the USA. There were some rather crude options out there, but I settled upon Denver-manufactured
The Roost
. It is elegant, portable and durable. At nearly $100 including shipping, it is not cheap. But now is not the time to be cheap with our fellow Americans.
Escape time is over. Let’s get back to work.
Onward,
