Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page
Tracker Pixel for Entry

Last week, my younger twin sisters turned 30.

This is a fairly amazing state of affairs.  It means that they’ve had 1,500 Saturday nights, and 1,500 Sunday mornings.  It means they’ve been driving for about half as long as they’ve been talking.

It means they’re officially and incontrovertibly grown up. (I shall leave the issue of what that means about me for another post.)

Staci and I aren’t on speaking terms, and have been that way for several years.  I honestly don’t know what would happen if I called her; I do wonder about it every week or two.

I called Nicole and wished her happy birthday.  A friend of her had ignored her original birthday wish (make 30 disappear!)  and had organized a nice get together that she was obviously enjoying.  She’s like me in that respect—she doesn’t want people to make a big deal about her birthday but it seems that one of her friends did, and that actually was a good thing.  I’m the same way.  If friends throw me a party I’m just fine with it, but if it involves getting a whole restaurant to sing to me—that’s not so good.

I didn’t talk to her for too long, but it was really good to hear her voice.  She sounded, and I know this is clich?, grounded and healthy and coming into her own.  I was on my cell and so was she.  I was driving to the BBQ of a friend in Vancouver, and I felt more than a little sad that I was at the wrong birthday party that night, mingling mostly with complete strangers—lovely though the BBQ was.  I think I’ll call Nicole again soon.  It’s been far too long, and though we’re not not speaking, we’re not doing a very good job of speaking, either.  I miss her, and I should do something about that.

Meanwhile, my youngest sister is enjoying a really long, really wonderful trip to Fiji.  And Susie’s out of town until well into Sept. So basically, I’m on my own, and that, too, is the subject of another post.

Overheard

“Oh boy! Another great opportunity for personal growth!”

...who said it?

“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so. ... She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

...who said it?

After over a decade of user testing, it is clear that the way we search the web is similar to the way we would search our home for valuables as it was burning to the ground. Frantically.

...who said it?

“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value ... The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”

...who said it?

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email:


Location:


URL:


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

I'm Listening To

see more at Last.fm

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2012 Feb 09

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)