baty-barr.com [the blog]

As most of you know, i am now through my first full week of self-employment. i just want to take this opportunity to thank all the people that have been so supportive through this transition process. Everyone has been just great with their words of encouragement and 'you are going to be so good at this!' - it really just brings a smile to my face and gives me the confidence to say ' I can do this!'.

If you have been watching my twitter this week, http://twitter.com/bootnumlock you know that i was having some challenges with getting some traction here at the house. By traction, i am referring to that feeling of just spinnig my wheels and not getting much done :)

Day one focused primarily on gettng an window air conditioning unit installed in the office. With all the computer equipment in there, I never realized just how hot it could get! I also had several meetings this week, which is great and an important part of growing the business, however, it does take some time away from actually completing billable work.

I have several projects lined up for this week and was able to generate some billing last week, so i am off and running. I will be looking forward to some invoices getting paid this week, so i can stay on my regular routine of paydays -- man i sound pretty spoiled :)

Oh, how could I forget all the health insurance meetings i took this week as well. I am so glad that I have Caroline to help me out with all this stuff. She saved my butt big-time in this first week. hopefully, as the business grows, i can have her working more and more to keep the malicious thinkTank companies rolling along!

Well, it has definitely been in the air for a while and now the time has finally come, I will be leaving my job for good this time to pursue a full time interest in being self-employed.

For all of you who do not know, this is my second tour of duty at my current employer. The first time around, I wanted to be a copy-writer and ended up being a print production artist. The second time around I wanted to help develop the multimedia arm of the agency, I ended up in too many battles to justify the value of the product and service, was given all the responsibility I wanted, but no authority and finally wasted far too much energy in trying to be invested emotionally, physically and spiritually in something that I could never truly even share in as part of my own.

Perhaps I was living a fantasy thinking that could be true. However, I was the only person in the entire organization that actually knows how all facets of the company work and could possibly interact. It was always a dream of mine that both areas of the company could exist together to serve the greatest good for the clients and the employees. That never really materialized.

I forgot to mention above that the two tours total nearly 15 years of service.

A few years back, the company engaged in discussions of how WE would grow the company. How WE would be involved in creating something for the younger members of the team to strive for. Mind you, the team back then was in the neighborhood of 13 employees. When I close this chapter of my career and life, only 5 full-time employees [including the owner] and two-part time employees will remain. I believe they will add another full-time employee that is currently out on leave, but still... major shrinkage in workforce, which has led to a major shrinkage in morale.

It was interesting to watch the mentality migrate from a team dynamic to an every-man for himself approach. The expectation was a 9-5 type day and that is what everyone gave. Don't get me wrong, the pay for everyone is really good - in my opinion. The flaw is that everyone is doing exactly what they did five years or more ago [in some cases].

As a senior member of the team, I felt that I had something to strive for much longer than some of the junior team members, but alas, even I fell victim to empty feeling of 'why should I work harder?' .

So, long story even longer... There really isn't anything left there for me, it is time to move on.

So, what is it that I will be doing? Pursuing my love of the 'why question' when it comes to marketing and advertising while focusing on the digital brand execution aspects of marketing -- web sites, interactive media, direct email -- but also making sure print executions fall in line with the overall brand, too.

So a lot of the same stuff, just for me and the clients I want to do work for. Clients that are interested in a justification for the executions they chose to produce. Clients that are interested in some sort of accountability for their programs. Clients that aren't afraid to ask me the why question and who aren't afraid of me asking why?

Perhaps it is overly idealistic, but this is what I am willing to try at this point in my life. I am basically starting from nothing in less than two weeks from today -- I am incredibly excited, but at the same time terrified... so if anyone wants to engage my services, give me a shout :)

I will keep you all posted via my blog here and my twitter page. In the coming days, I will also give formal introduction to my new business.

Okay, maybe not really... but it sounded like a fun title :) We picked up the special edition of rock band the other night to help Josh spend his birthday money and i gotta say... it totally rocks! For some reason, the kids wanted it for the xbox 360 [not even sure if it is available for the Wii yet] so we ran out and got it, but couldn't set it up because it was too late. So we woke up early Friday morning and set that bad boy up!

If you ever had fantasies about your kids being the next power-pop trio then this game is for you and your family. Here is our million dollar lineup... On drums we have the monster of rock, the boy of bam, the might OBB - Owen! On lead guitar we have the master of thrash, the axe master - Josh! Finally, rounding out the trio on vocals... the princess of perfect pitch who belts it out like nobody's business we have lil' miss Lillian.

Sure the game is a blast to play, but it is incredibly fun to watch the kids jammin' out together as well. I can see this being a lot of fun and the weekend party potential is just awesome to consider.

Just a quick blog post to let everyone know that Copenhagen is beautiful and we are having a great time. Caroline has been touring the city while I have been having a GREAT time at Codegarden08. I have been meeting some incredible friends and learning even more about the remarkable umbraco experience. Exciting new things with umbraco 4.0. A package coding contest, umbraco boost, nitros and more. Now that the conference has concluded, Caroline and I will be seeing the sites and I will have more time to blog about the conference and our wonderful experiences in one of the most beatiful places I have been... Copenhagen.

More soon.

As human beings, it is always amazing to discover that when you think your tank is empty and you have nothing left to give, there is ALWAYS some little spark that can keep you going. Each of us is motivated in different situations by different things. When competing in sport, we can look to Michael Jordan for perfect examples of pushing the body beyond pain, illness, etc. to perform at amazing levels when it would appear impossible.

Today Owen discovered for the first time how to push beyond where he thought was possible for himself in a given situation. This will come in handy for him big time as he progresses in his martial arts, but today, he experienced this on the soccer field.

Owen took a huge shot to the mid-section when a defender on the other team tried to clear a ball from his zone right into his chest. He stopped and started to bend over and I yelled to him 'RUN THROUGH IT--YOU CAN DO IT--ATTACK!' as any crazed father would :)

The great thing was that he believed and responded. He chased down the ball, but lost possession of it and quickly reset his position. His team did re-gain control of the ball and he took a pass from one of his team-mates and outran the four defenders near him to drive the ball into scoring position. He shot and it was wide... however, he realized that he caught his breath and ran through his percieved pain.

I spoke to him after the game and told him that he should attack the game like that for every minute he is on the field. He said he felt like he wanted to hurt somebody... meaning he was angry, and I reminded him that one of his martial arts principles is 'control the power' and that is what he did -- he harnessed and controlled the power to run through his pain and be highly effective in his attack on the goal.

It will be interesting to watch Owen's progression through his athletic endeavors.

well, i know it has been quite a while since my last blog post... things have been a bit crazy. Caroline and i decided to plan a trip to copenhagen in june. the primary reason for the trip is to see a part of the world that we never have. the secondary reason is for me to attend umbraco codegarden. i have a passport from when i was a teenager... hence expired - and this is where the adventure begins.

the story unfolds [literally] around a folded piece of paper i have been protecting like an ancient piece of art. i had carefully taped the reverse side of the document to prevent the folds from cracking and destroying the document. i had this document carefully filed in our family filing cabinet where it lived cosily protected and waiting to be called to duty. i actually think i used this piece of paper to get phone service or utilities at one point in my adult life.

anyway, Caroline and i both needed new passports, so we filled out our forms, made our appointment and both brought our highly coveted birth certificates. we arrived at the post office for our official, face-to-face passport interview and the interviewee collected our paperwork. i was quickly informed that what i thought was my birth certificate was indeed a copy and an un-notarized copy at that.

set back number one....tune in for more in the coming days, because the story gets better -- i just like to keep these posts small and easily digestible.