thedustindotcom

Beth’s HTC Incredible has been on the fritz for a while and it finally crapped out while we were conferencing-it-up in sunny Orlando. Tired of talk of phantom viruses and restrictive application download and install diets (I understand but despise CSRs habits of just making stuff up to send you on your merry way), we decided it was time to just bite the bullet and get her a new phone. For a split second there, it seemed like we might finally unify our household under the Apple banner but, alas, it was not meant to be (lack of inventory at the store and lukewarm and apprehensive feelings from both of us about Apple monopolizing our gadget repertoire are among the reasons).

So Beth ended up going with the Galaxy Nexus, but not without some actual lengthy consideration and discussion between the two of us. I have to admit, the selection is overwhelming with Android devices – both in a good and bad way. (I know, a #firstworldproblem for sure). To me, there was never any doubt that the Galaxy Nexus was the way to go, but I was concerned about how large the phone is and how convenient it would be for everyday use. I don’t have Andre the Giant hands, but unless I’m careful, it takes me two hands to reach opposite extreme touch points on the screen. Beth certainly has to do the same. I can honestly say I hope Apple doesn’t go big with the iPhone – but part of me wonders if they’ll have to if they plan to go LTE anytime soon. Or maybe not

Anyway, overall it seems like a great phone – and as a self-professed gadget geek, I like having it in the house – if for no other reason than just to have access to Verizon’s LTE goodness. It’s still not enough to tear me away from the iPhone – I live in an Apple-centric world and I’m not ashamed to admit that.

In between the pursuit of lost and yet-to-be realized dreams I’m often paralyzed by the myriad decisions that have to be made. Some are inherent in the pursuit, others are created by my maniacal over-analyzation of any and every situation. Ultimately, my indecision begets a lack of focus, stifling progress along the way. One lasting tenet of Steve Jobs’ second coming was his insistence that Apple simplify its product line – making tough decisions about which products to drop and which to pursue – and focus on making each of the products that survived the cut truly great. Only after achieving that greatness (albeit their interpretation of great) were they able to move on to the next pursuit. While some may debate the true greatness of the products, you can’t argue against the results.

Tonight, along with some great company, I’m celebrating New Year’s Eve with the Avett Brothers. A fitting end to the year as the Avett Brothers this year provided what has become one of the most inspiring refrains of the year for me – “Decide what to be, and go be it.” This simple statement, along with the influence of Steve Jobs’ legacy have inspired me to streamline my pursuit – to prioritize and identify the most important dream to pursue next – and to focus solely on that pursuit until I’ve acheived an acceptable level of, well, greatness. Over this past year, I’ve experienced more clarity about what I want to be than I’ve ever had. Now, it’s time to go be it. 2012, here I come.

It is our human nature, many of us, to revel in the anticipation of what is to come – if only tomorrow were today, today would be so much better. I am this way, even though I am blessed with such an amazing today. I think this is why I’m gaining such a deep appreciation for Thanksgiving as the years go by. Thanksgiving used to be the prelude to Christmas – and to a spoiled only-brat, how could Thanksgiving ever hope to get half the attention of Christmas. But now, as relationships grow more complicated with decreasing time and increasing distance and life becomes a dizzying array of difficult and often agonizing decisions, it’s nice to take the time to look back on the year that was, on the time that is just past, and think of how blessed I am to be here, right now, today. There is more yet to come, but me, I am grateful for what has arrived and is here, today. Thank you for being here with me. Happy Thanksgiving.

It was just a little over seven years ago that I acquired my first Apple product. And it was hard for me to swallow. So hard, in fact that it was an HP-branded iPod that I got by pimping out five of my friends and family to one of those free-something-dot-com email/internet marketing schemes. But that’s all it was for me. A free 20GB portable music player, with a really cool “click” wheel, and a clean and simple almost effortlessly elegant design. Or so I thought.

I remember the day I got that iPod – in fact I think it took at least six apartment/house moves before I finally threw away the box. I remember opening it and just being amazed at how much thought must have gone into the packaging and the experience of unpacking it. And I remember the iconic five words that still grace the packaging of their products today – “Designed by Apple in California”. Words in white text on a black background so simply stated, yet so thoughtful and meaningful.

“Designed”. Not made, not crafted, not derived. Not based on something similar but drastically different in some magically marketable way. No, this product was designed, as an original idea, carefully poked, prodded and perfected to the best of our most reasonable sensibilities, experience and technological capabilities. This product will, at first glance, seem like something familiar to you – you will know what you are supposed to do with it, but you have never interacted with a product like the one you are about to encounter.

“by Apple”. Not by our OEM partner. This is not based on a reference design procured by another company. We did this. You know who we are, and you know what we do. We believe our name speaks for itself. And although this may be your first experience with one of our products, from now on, you will know what to expect from every other product of ours that you buy.

“in California”. It could say “in America” and it would hit that patriotic nerve in all of us. And it would only be half as effective as it is. Because everyone knows that California is in America. But everyone also knows that California means so much more than this product is an American product. California is the land of the gold rush, the ultimate destination of the great westward expansion, and Hollywood. California is the land where products and ideas are dreamt and where those dreams come true.

This product could only have been dreamt – could only have been designed – by this company in this place. This product is unique. And there are millions of them everywhere.

I don’t know if Steve Jobs wrote those five words. But I’ve read some of the things he’s written, and I know that the thoughtful simplicity are hallmarks of his messages and how he chooses to deliver them. He may not have written the words, but they were written by him – by the way he led, by the team he assembled, by the company he helped create.

Steve Jobs will be remembered for innumerable contributions to our way of life. Some of them may be deserved and some of them may be overstated. But the thing that I will always carry with me is the thoughtful simplicity that characterized every directive, every idea, every vision, and, I can only assume, every day of his life. Thanks, Steve. You will be missed.

I have this weird disdain for music artists that build cult-like followings. I have no idea why, and it’s strange how this manifests itself in other areas of my life since I tend to be extremely brand-, friend-, etc. loyal. It probably has something to do with feeling left out when I don’t “get it” right away. In most cases, this disdain causes me to jump on band bandwagons way past their peak popularity. With the Avett Brothers, however, my disdain delay actually helped me catch their comet at just the right time.

I don’t remember when I first heard of the Avett Brothers, but it was probably a while ago – probably a lot closer to their introduction to the music stage in the early 2000′s than their more recent rise to stardom. I sampled a couple of tracks and it just didn’t click. It was nothing against them and I’m sure it was nothing against me – my musical tastes just didn’t have the palate for it. A few years later, a friend and co-worker reintroduced them to me and they still didn’t take. Not all the way, at least, but they did pique my interest a bit.

And then they released I and Love and You. I’ll confess that I don’t have the most refined musical palate in the world. I’m a melody guy. And sometimes it takes a few listens for me to get past some of the different or unique qualities of a musical artist to really absorb the melody. The thing about I and Love and You is that it’s (the album) pretty much tailor-made for people like me. It is their mainstream introduction. And for me it was their bait. Now they’ve got me hooked.

Soon after I and Love and You (the song) came out, I got an Amazon credit for a $5 album in the Amazon music store. As I was browsing the options, I noticed there were a couple of Avett Brothers albums available for $5. So, I turned to my friend and co-worker for advice about which album to buy. After reading it, I found it to be a great primer for anyone looking to try out the Avett Brothers. It’s written with the insight of a longtime fan with only a hint of regret for the mainstream aspirations of their most recent album. So here it is, edited slightly for public consumption. Enjoy!

Mignonette is the first CD I purchased. It is a simpler, older sound, with more songs on the cd. It was understanding music in the wake of a breakup and hopeful in a time of changing jobs and dwellings – well at least that’s the point of my life I was in 5-6 yrs ago. It is hard to beat.

After Mignonette came subtle changes on Four Thieves Gone, and then the break out that was Emotionalism. They added a cello player for dimension, surprised people with more dynamic songs, even threw in a little electric guitar. This CD release is why I took a long lunch break to hear them at school kids a couple of years ago. I was happier than ever when it came out and I’m sure that helped to add a positive spin. But like the electric guitar song was overdone in concerts so too the relationship cast a shadow on the Avetts in general. It is fresh without the poppy feel of their latest CD (which is suffering much by association with anti-[redacted] sentiments.) Fortunately this CD is so good it shines through though – it may prove to be the peak of their creativity (if not their popularity). Also, very hard to beat.

Basically these are my two favorite CDs of theirs. If you happen to have any of their older CDs I would say try Emotionalism; otherwise, go with Mignonette – it’s classic. And more songs per dollar, which is always a factor for me ( :

P.S. After Mignonette, you might also enjoy their newest CD (I and Love and You). It’s a little too overproduced sometimes, but it does have some good songs, that seem to be popular with the kids and adults these days.

Simply the best. I look forward to the rest.

Sooner or later it was going to happen. The huddle breaks. The line sets. The ball snaps and passes from center to someone other than Russell. It’s a reality that came sooner rather than later. And for State fans like me the feeling is bittersweet. But it had to happen and there’s no looking back. There’s no reason to look back. Russell’s gone and he was always going to be gone. It just happened a year earlier than we all hoped, but right on time with what we could have realistically expected.

Rewind a few months and we might ask ourselves if this really is how it has to be. I mean he came back to football afterall, only this time he’s wearing the wrong shade of red. Why couldn’t Tom O’Brien have just given Russell a little more time to decide? And if we let ourselves think about the good times – the elusive scramble, the perfect toss, the Wolfpack heart – it just twists the knife. But, love it or hate it, the reality of college football is that Tom O’Brien is our program, not a quarterback who, at most, gives us the best four years of his athletic life.

That’s the big picture. Our team was better with Philip Rivers, but is our program any better off because of Philip Rivers? I’m not so sure. And while he certainly has a unique set of athletic gifts, Russell Wilson is not Philip Rivers. That said, I’m so proud of the three years that Russell gave us and the excitement he brought to Carter-Finley stadium. And I don’t care if anyone else was or wasn’t talking about us while he was here or how much they’re talking about him in Madison and beyond. Because I don’t watch N.C. State football for everyone else. I watch it for me and I watch it for us, those of us who are tied by our allegiance to the red and white. And no matter where he ends up, those memories, the highlights, the excitement he brought are ours forever and no one, not even Russell himself can take that away from us. Our histories are inextricably intertwined.

And so with that, I’m wishing Russell the best. Because I know no matter what he does for the Badgers, it’ll never mean as much to them as a scramble, a toss, a juggle and catch in the back of our most reviled enemy’s end zone meant to us. Thanks for the memories, Russell. I’m rooting for you.

I’ve always felt like I was a pretty good multi-tasker, but as I get older I’m starting to wonder more and more if I’ve just been fooling myself all these years. I am getting older, so it could be that my mind is just becoming less capable of juggling lots of stuff and keeping up with it all at once. What particularly troubles me is how I get along when I have a one or more impending deadlines that quickly escalate from creeping up to blowing past. I’m finding that all I can focus on is the impending deadline – whether I’m working towards that task at that particular moment or not. The world could be falling down all around me and all I can think about is that one thing that’s coming due, always calculating what I have to do when, how long it will take, and what I’m going to do if I don’t make it. The panic worsens when there are multiple deadlines and for some reason it doesn’t seem to matter if they are self imposed, inconsequential deadlines or if they are work related uh-ohs. I freely admit I’m a procrastinator, and while I’m not always proud of the work I do under pressure, I’ve almost conditioned myself to need that pressure in order to perform. Almost like I’m starting to need 2-3 shots of espresso (a la milk) in order to properly function in morning and afternoon.

I’m coming off a 2 week binge of deadline madness and while there are certainly still a couple more on the horizon, I’m feeling a lot more like myself. I really wanted to caffeine detox this weekend, but it didn’t exactly happen. It’d be interesting to see if there’s just a little more normal under all that wound up, pressure pulled coffee dependency.

I love Groupon. No wait, scratch that. I’m addicted to Groupon. And the biggest enabler of my Groupon habit is my stupid iPhone – it should be illegal to make it so easy to throw one’s money at something. Swipe, swipe, touch – see – touch touch. Bam. $10 gone. Oh wait, they’ll let me buy two? Make that $20 … gone. Yeah it’s great that I can reconnect with the guy that sat behind me in my first grade class, but the real genius of social networking is social deal-making, am I right?

Or am I wrong?

About a month ago I read an article about a study at Rice University that now gives me pause every time I open the deluge of daily deal emails that flood my inbox. On the surface this is an article questioning the long term viability of the Groupon business model. And this analysis is not alone. But dig a little deeper, find a story or two about a small business owner’s experience in offering deals through Groupon and the outlook (and possibly even your perception of the process itself) gets dimmer. It’s easy for us to think that all a business owner wants is to get people in the door – and for the most part that’s fundamentally true – but just getting people in the door doesn’t magically pay the bills even if everyone that walks through the door buys something. And especially if everyone who walks through the door buys something at a discount.

It’s not all Groupon’s fault. In fact, very little of it is. Groupon is just a microcosm of the type of consumers that we have become – the type of consumers that marketing, globalization, and Wal-Mart have conditioned us to be: always seeking the best deal, always pushing the terms of those deals to the absolute limit and beyond, and always expecting perfection out of a system built by imperfect people – ourselves.

I call this the Daily Deal Dilemma because, as I see it, there is no black and white response. I’m not going to stand up and proclaim that I’ll never buy another Groupon or Living Social deal again. That would be foolish and dishonest. Remember, I called myself an addict and I haven’t been able to find any twelve step programs to battle daily deal addiction yet. What I will do is try to be a better consumer. If it’s a place I’ve never been before but am interested in trying, I’ll Groupon-it-up and go in and spend (and tip) generously but reasonably within my means. If it’s a place I visit once or twice a month anyway, I’ll abstain. And just to throw a weird exception in there, if it’s a place that has my credit card burned into the card reader, I’m buying max Groupons because, hey, I’ve practically put their kids through college anyway. And finally, if my Groupon is expired, or I’m not adhering to the stated/printed terms of the Groupon, I’m paying full price. The terms for these things are ridiculous sometimes, but no one’s pointing a gun to my head making me buy them and it’s my responsibility to make sure I read them carefully before I commit. Plain and simple.

The point is, we have to stop being so selfish as consumers. We have to start really thinking about the long term consequences of our actions and our overall behavior. We truly believe that money makes the world go round and it makes us evaluate everything we do in quantitative terms. We are so focused on transactions rather than interactions that we’ve lost sight of what really drives our existence – our relationships. We call it social deal making but in reality it’s actually more like social – and economic – suicide.

Back when Beth was living in the ‘burbs of D.C. one of the couples we used to hang with took us into Potbelly Sandwich Works for a quick lunch on the way to the Spy Museum. Although overwhelmed by the barrage of questions and the expediency at which the sandwich builders expected proper responses, I quickly fell in love with their take on the classic italian sandwich and bowl of chili with a slice of american cheese. It’s a lethal combination of fatty goodness and it had me hooked from day one.

I actually have this strange history with sandwiches. Until that fateful day at Potbelly’s, I never really ate them that much. Not because I didn’t like them, but more because I seemed to always feel compelled to have a hot meal. Cold cuts were, well, cold; and hot sandwiches were expensive and, at least according to my feeble young mind, just a lame attempt at replacing a hamburger. But I can’t honestly say that it was all Potbelly’s that turned me on to sandwiches. They were more like the sandwich shop that was in the right place at the right time – I was in my twenties, working so I had more disposable income, my tastes were evolving, and I was starting to be a little more conscious of healthier eating (though I concede that pretty much anyone’s italian sandwich can go toe to toe calorie-wise with a hamburger). I could have walked into any dump of a sandwich shop at the time and it probably would have had the same effect on my psyche. I was primed for change. But Potbelly’s was there, and for that they forever hold a place in my digestive heart as the matchmaker for me and the sandwich.

Unfortunately, the pedestal that time, distance, and nostalgia led me to place Potbelly’s on also has opened them up to vicious attacks from the unenlightened. “Went to Potbelly’s last week, and it is no different than Quiznos,” a friend boldly states, cowardly hiding behind 394 miles of internet-plated armor. Conceptually he’s right. They’re both purveyors of (primarily) hot sandwiches, employing a similar assembly line then oven then assembly line format for customizing your meal with various accoutrements. But that’s like saying that his beloved Jimmy John’s is the same thing as going to Subway. Jimmy John’s and Subway both cut their teeth on the classic cold cut sandwich, although Subway, for reasons outside of the scope of this conversation, has had to vary their product a little more since then. In fact, I’d argue that Jimmy John’s and Potbelly’s are more similar than their vastly different sandwich products would otherwise imply.

I’ll put it to you this way, you walk into a Potbelly’s or a Jimmy John’s, and you’re met with the same hasty approach to taking your order. “What are you having, what do you want on it, and why aren’t you telling me faster?”. Their menus are relatively simple, lacking diversity which isn’t needed for their niche market (they’re a niche, they are the diversity!). They don’t really make similar sandwiches, but compare them to their lower-end sandwich counterparts (Quiznos and Subway, respectively) and the breads are better, the meats are better, and probably the prices are higher (all subjective except for the price bit).

Regardless of your preference, there is clearly a class barrier that separates these groups of sandwich shops. Quiznos isn’t trying to serve the same market as Potbelly’s, at least not in the same way. In the case of me and my antagonist, his proclomation that a Quiznos sandwich is as good or better than a similar sandwich from Potbelly’s is clearly biased as a reaction against the aforementioned exalted status I’ve given to Potbelly’s rather than a rational food critique. I understand the point, as it’s a perfectly reasonable admonition of my own history of reacting strongly against extreme passion for one’s favorite band, book or movie. But the comment is reckless, rash, and misdirected and I cannot and will not allow a personal vendetta to bring down one of the greatest heros of our time.