Good to Great

Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don'tI started reading a book written by Jim Collins called Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t the other night and the book opens with a quote:

That’s what makes death so hard — unsatisfied curiosity

– Beryl Markham, West with the Night

Interestingly, just a week ago we were having a family moment at the kitchen table. My son, my daughter, my husband and myself and the question one of the asked was: “Are you afraid to die?”

Having worked in home hospice care, providing care to terminally ill patients for a good many years of my life and have watched death happen and helped counsel and comfort the grieving more times that I care to keep track of, I have a perspective on death that I can only describe as ‘accepting’. I’ve thought more about death than most of my family and friends, naturally because death was a part of my daily life for so many years. I don’t have a fear of it. It doesn’t cause me anxiety or stress. I’m actually quite curious about it and am somewhat morbidly looking forward to having the curious questions in my head answered about what happens.

Though, I can say that I am not impatient to have those questions answered - - I can wait.

We all live.. and we all die - - those are two universal truths of life that cannot be argued with. What happens from the moment life begins to the moment it ends is an individual story that makes humanity, ultimately, so fascinating.

I see one problem with death that bugs me — and who knows, maybe I will realize the solution to this particular problem when the time comes. That problem is exactly what the quote above says: unsatisfied curiosity.

Simply put - - I want to know how the story ends.

If I fall asleep tonight and die in my sleep… will I ever know (in random order)..

Who killed JFK?

How the war on terror ends?

Was democracy possible in Iraq … and was it the answer?

Was there ever a cure for AIDS?

Is there proven life on other planets?

Did they ever find Bin Laden?

Was buying Google at $445 a good idea?

What the web of the future looks like?

Does Google merge with Microsoft and end up taking over the world?

Does all of Hollywood shrivel up and die from a strange disease that they didn’t anticipate happening, caused by Botox injections to the face?

What its like to get to know my ren as adults?

Will I have grand ren.. and if so, will they inherit my strangely shaped little toe; just as I inherited it from my father?

Did global warming eventually destroy the earth?

Was buying a membership on https://www.jasminlive.mobi/ a good deal?

Will the sun change polarity in 2012 as prophesied by the Mayans?

Does WWIII ever happen and who drops the bomb first.. and on who?

Is the evolution vs creation debate ever, scientifically, settled?

What happens to my husband… does he find love again? How does he cope with the loss?

…things like that - and so much more.

And if I don’t ever know those things.. will it matter? My frustration with this is solely an ‘earthly’ concern - - the thought that I would care about them after my death assumes a certain level of consciousness after death, I suppose….and, well…who knows? I guess it would be right to say that I don’t grieve or fear my death as much as I grieve the loss of the answers that ongoing life might bring.

I find myself to be curious, by nature - about most things. Things I am involved with, things I care about, things I know about - - directly or on the periphery - - how does it all resolve… and does it resolve - ever? These are things I want to know and death kind of interrupts that flow of knowledge, doesn’t it?

I am not a person of religion, and as such, am not settled on any ideas or notions of what happens after death. That concept is as much a curiosity to me as anything else. Perhaps if I were a religious person, the frustrations of this unsatisfied curiosity - - of not knowing how the story ends, would not unsettle me so much. Rather, I would be satisfied in the truth of my knowledge of what happens … such knowledge that comes with faith I do not possess. Such a faith is sometimes a thing to be envied in others, I feel. Not so much as to cause me to pursue it - - at times, however, I could see how that kind of…. complacency, I guess(?) … might be preferred over restless curiosity. Maybe complacency is not the right word - - I don’t want to offend and also didn’t want to get off on a religious bent here, so I won’t. If you have a better word for it, please freely correct me :)

I guess the best answer to my frustration is to stay curious, keep learning and share any knowledge and insight I may pick up along the way with my , so they can pick up the mantle of curiosity and be a part of the answers to those questions…. a part of the story.

At any rate.. I’m looking foward to reading Mr. Collins book. The fact that it opens with a quote that succinctly puts words to a string of thoughts that have been rattling around in my head makes me think that this book and I might be a good connection.


...more of my fav quotes

My ears lost their innocence in 1990.

I used to be a person who was just happy listening to music on whatever medium was available – - the car radio, my home stereo system, the loudspeakers at the mall – it didn’t really matter to me. Although, I am a musician – and a classically trained one at that – my ear was never really very picky when it came to consuming music for my entertainment. My ear only seemed to be MY worst critic, not anyone else’s. That is until 1989, when I married a true audiophile geek. If there is one thing to be said about my ex-husband (we divorced in 1993), it’s that he has an amazing ear for reproducing music and sound as close as possible, if not better, than the original performance. His talent for mixing up sound to produce an absolute feast for the ears is surpassed by none, really – - at least no one that I’ve come across yet. And, man, I really hate to compliment the guy – but he is good. I guess that comes in handy in jasminelive.online studios to produce music. It’s one thing for him to be OCD about it in the studio – but he carried it with him wherever he went, and that applied to our own home entertainment system. He is picky to an absolute fault and is absolutely obsessive with extra special attention paid to sound quality and enhancements – and was especially picky about little things I never could really hear – - until he pointed them out to me, now I hear them in low quality systems everywhere I go.

It wasn’t until after I divorced him and spent some pretty lean years raising our two on my own that I realized my once beloved sources of music – - my car radio, my home stereo system – - pretty much anything that could reproduce my favorite tunes… those sources just weren’t good enough any more. My once lazy ear had been trained after years of marriage to an obsessive compulsive audiophile (to the nth degree!). But, those were some pretty lean years and there’s no way I could afford the system we once had in our living room (now in his possession) – - the Altec Lansings were clearly way above my pay grade.

Very recently, I purchased a recording of 100 of my favorite classical piano pieces. Classical piano is a part of my (almost) daily life – - I listen to it a lot, mostly while working and writing – - much to the dismay of my teenage ren. There’s almost nothing I love more than to turn it up as loud as my system can handle it and then sit back, close my eyes and take it all in. I could do it for hours…and have.

The first day I played the recording on my PC with its 5.1 Logitech speaker system I’ve had in place for several years – - I queued up ‘La Camponella‘, adjusted the EQ so the treble, bass and mid-tones were just perfect (to suit my ear) – and sat back for a listen…and came up sorely wanting. My years of marriage to the audiophile geek were coming back to haunt me. The mix wasn’t right – - the speakers couldn’t handle the volume – the mid-tones muddled – - I was in sound quality hell, thanks to my ex-husband. No wonder I divorced him! (Actually, there were other reasons for the divorce that I just won’t go into here – - the snobby, elitist way he approached our home entertainment system wasn’t actually one of them.)

One day, I whined to my (current) husband about the curse of the audiophile, who is no longer in my life, but whose influence lingers on by way of my ears! I vented my frustration that morning and returned to my office, resigned to the less than stellar sound coming out of my Logitechs – - and then, on Christmas morning, when I unwrapped a box of the brand new Bose Companion 5 speakers system for my PC . . I knew I was headed for piano heaven. He listened to my woes and cries of dissatisfaction with my current sound environment and solved the problem on Christmas morning!

I set those speakers up on my PC and immediately cranked the volume on Chopin’s 27 Etudes, Op. 10, No. 25 in C Minor, ‘Revolutionary’, Op.10, No. 12 and knew immediately that I was in love — with the speakers, and with my (non audiophile geek) husband who acknowledges how my past continues to haunt me in ways that his ears cannot comprehend.

I’m enjoying how my classical piano recordings sound through these speakers just as much as my favorite Metallica albums (pre-St.Anger, naturally).

The Bose Companion 5 speaker system are affordable (I peeked!) and the sound quality is really amazing for what they are – - and they suit me perfectly. I don’t claim to be an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination - but my former husbands picky ear did wear off on me a little bit — even allll these years later. I guess I shouldn’t complain at all – there could have been WAY worse things that could still be lingering from that particular relationship – - a (somewhat) picky ear isn’t the worst thing in the world!

Hope you all had very happy (and safe!) holidays and are headed for a fantastic new year in 2010!

Believe it or not.. I am still alive

It’s been kind of nuts over the past 2 weeks, hence the lack of updates here. I’ve been getting ready for my 5-day trip to Austin, TX for the SXSWi Conference. I leave very very early on Friday morning and will be returning home on Tuesday evening. Much needed to be done before my departure, which leaves absolutely zero time for blogging ort to visit my fav chaturbate rooms, of course! I will be working from Austin during my down time (if any clients are reading this - no worries, please! Austin is wired and I’ll be hooked in) - and avail. by email, of course.

We adopted a green-cheeked, yellow winged Conure Parrot from our local Avian Rehab Center. We named her “Kiwi” and she’s adorable — I need to post pictures of her SOON!

We also moved a Military Macaw named “Ozzie” into our home. If you’ve been around this blog for any amount of time, you may know I’ve blogged about Ozzie in the past:

Ozzie is the green one on the right. We moved Ozzie from his home at Chris’s mothers house in New York because Thor (the red one on the left) and Oz no longer got along and .. well, it’s a long story - let’s just say that Thor and Oz are doing a trial separation of sorts and Ozzie is now the newest member of our family.

Which means we have three birds now: Jinges (our lorikeet), Kiwi (the Conure) and Ozzie (the Macaw)

On a business note - things have been a little hectic. I’ve been working extremely hard to get caught up after having one of my (now former) designers kind of jump ship with zero notice - leaving 5 incomplete projects in their wake. This is another long story - and one of the cons of owning a multi-designer studio where I, as the owner, am in the position of placing my trust in someone else to get the job done. Hard and painful lessons learned, to be certain….but not impossible obstacles to overcome

I am attending SOBCon May 2-4th in Chicago, Il. Will I see you there?

WordPress For Dummies is on its THIRD reprint and I am about to enter into the writing of the second edition of the book in order to update it for upcoming changes in WordPress 2.5. Guess I didn’t get enough the first time, eh? Heh. Will post more about it at a later date when I have more details.

Planning a post for tomorrow on my SXSW plans. I have couple things lined up like a live radio interview, my presentation on the Adobe Day Stage (eek!) and book signing - - details tomorrow!

For now - I have a fair bit to do before I hop a jet on Friday morning. I’m not sure what makes me more nervous - - flying or public speaking. I’d say it’s a toss up!

New Talent at E.Webscapes

I’m very thrilled to report that the response to my job posting for a new designer at E.Webscapes recieved such a large response. The talent out there is inspiring and I had the opportunity to talk to several designers from diverse backgrounds..it was really an interesting couple of weeks. Due to the large response, I had a very difficult time narrowing down the candidates.. but in the end, I brought on three excellent designers to the E.Webscapes team and I’m looking foward to working with each of them.

At E.Webscapes, we are currently in the position of having way more work than we can handle. That is a really GOOD thing and in order to continue to provide our clients with the quality design solutions they are seeking, bringing on new and talented designers was essential. Besides myself, Leanne and Dino are all full timers at E.Webscapes and Joni and Becca are both part timers - Lindsey, my assistant, is keeping busy, as well doing a lot of project management and doing the phenomenally difficult job of keeping ME organized (it ain’t easy!).

Char Polanosky

Char can be found at Essential Keystrokes and here at Casual Keystrokes.

Char has over 12 years of experience in working in and around the internet, including designing websites and assisting people with finding the right tools to help them achieve their online goals!

Char has really built a nice blog readership on her sites through offering some great tips, resources and advice for those of us who work from home. I always find such great tools on her site and she’s been in my feedreader for a VERY long time because I love the treasures I find on her site! Give her blogs a gander.. I bet you find something very helpful there yourself.