Sunday, April 16, 2017

The Freedom of Disconnection

Getting disconnected from the world is something I never thought I would do.  I am pretty positive that I have been consistently around some sort of internet connection since 1994. Even when traveling overseas I always found a way to get online.  Even slow, crummy internet is better than no internet.  Well last week I went off the grid for 2 days.  No internet.  At all.  And it was glorious.  I really enjoyed being free.  Though I will admit two things were tough to get through.  One was I am still massive sports fanatic.  So not being able to know what happened in the NHL or NBA each night was painful.  The other was that habit that I bet many of us has.  A comment would come up about a music star or a trivia question and the normal reflex is grabbing the phone and hitting Google.  Not having that was a challenge but easier to deal with than lack of scores!  In any case I enjoyed my 48 hours without e-mails or texts.  I’ll have to try it again sometime!

Elsewhere…

--  Speaking of being connected, social media is always a big piece for me and I want to give props this week to the folks at Burhans Glass.  They have done something that I have not seen a lot of online even though it’s a great medium for what we do.  They are on and all over Instagram.  For most of the industry it is Twitter and Facebook, but I have not seen many folks jump deep into Instagram.  Burhans has and they’ve done a nice job.  Kudos to them!  If you are on Instagram and posting job pictures drop me a line- I’d love to follow.  Instagram is still not a dominant place for B2B and still growing B2C but the potential is there because of the emphasis on the visual. 

--  One more note on social media… One area where I really like Twitter?  Saturday morning, back to back tweets from John Wheaton and Garret Henson with interesting links on a project and a massive Florida development.  It’s that insight and knowledge that I would probably miss otherwise.

--  See I disconnect for 2 days and half of my return blog is internet related… scary!

--  The Dodge Momentum Index continued positive with its 6th straight winning month.  Institutional work continues to lead the way there.  If there is any concern from this months results its softening commercial numbers.  Still positive but weakening.  So that is one area to keep an eye on.

--  Congrats to the folks at Vitro for their work with water reclamation.  The story that came out that broke down what they are doing at their Wichita Falls, Texas facility is really great stuff.  Efforts like that don’t usually get enough pub.

--  I know a lot of people in the industry were involved with the new basketball arena in Sacramento.  I ran across this article that did a great job of looking at the design and thought behind it.  Really good insight.

Last this week- I had run a story recently on a crazy expensive wedding that ended up NOT happening.  Well my pal Chuck Knickerbocker from TGP (also an amazing blogger in his own right) sent me this note about a wedding that DID happen and showed a positive tale of wedding planning and awesome execution.  

LINKS of the WEEK

A 2nd death recently from food eating contests.  So sad. 

My daughter Natalie was a terrible baby sleeper.  If this new awesome crib was around then, I woulda paid any amount for it…
  
Good for these kid journalists.  I hope they eventually stay the course become true “Big J’s” because we certainly need them.

VIDEO of the WEEK

Fun and light (don’t we all need that some times) a cockatoo and owner play a classic kids game…








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