The Rob BlogIt's Better Over Here.

Changes.

I’m working on a few theme ideas, so there may be some technical problems for the next few days.

I hope this doesn’t bother you too much…

Thanks,

Rob

Time Machine

Well the other day, The Slinky and I ended up in a Pizza hut. The experience was absolutley horrible for several reasons, but it did spawn an interesting conversation about going out to eat when we were kids.

Now, I don’t know if this is the case with other places across the country, but in the Midwest (or with us, specifically Northwest Indiana) it used to be downright swanky to go out with yoru family to eat at Pizza Hut. Somewhere along the line, we became a deidedly more delivery society, and the days of dining in for pizza ended.

Many of you are aware that I set an annual budget this year. One of the things we are trying to do is not to eat out as much. As a family, we are eating out once a week, which actually makes it a little more fun. This past Friday, we chose Pizza Hut, and here’s the deal…

IT

WAS

AWESOME

That’s right. It was EXACTLY like I remember it. Eating in the joint while other families sat around. A group of grade school girls crowded around the jukebox, playing Madonna tunes and dancing. (we even had the pleasure of meeting, in person, the esteemable Mike McMullin)

Our pizza was hot and excellent. You can’t even compare delivery pizza to eating in.

In short, it was as if I had taken a time machine back to the year 1990.

Well, it finally snowed here, so I’ll talk about that for a moment.

I live in Southeast Tennessee, but I grew up in Merrillville Indiana, just outside of Chicago. My entire childhood, I can only remember two snow days. I’m not saying there weren’t others, but I can only remember two. I guess my point is that snow days were few and far between, and it wasn’t for lack of snow. We had tons of the stuff. People shovel driveways there like hillbillies here decorate their front yards with old garbage that nobody else wants.

Anyway, here in Cleveland Tn, they use every available snow day, but rarely are they used on snow. In fact, typically, schools here typically close for something called “threat of snow” which really means “cold and overcast.”

So on Friday, when schools closed, I laughed as I usually do. Then, the snow came down hard, turning the streets into a treacherous maze. Cars were sliding off the road and colliding with one another all around me as I drove to get the boys from my Mother’s house. Once I got them loaded, the roads near her were particularly dangerous. At one point, we were heading up a hill and the truck just began sliding backwards. Even in first gear, we barely made it over.

Once we got home, I geared up to go outside and play with the boys. This gave me the chance to try out all of my Remington brand hunting camo that April got me for Christmas. We played outside for a long time, and I’m pleased to announce that I stayed super warm, despite the elements.

Now, on to the subject of Justice.

At the end of my street is an intersection. On one side of this intersection is a row of hedges. I suppose that the hedges are perfectly fine enough…Green. Well manicured. You know, very hedge-like. I have never been an enemy of hedges. In fact, hedges and I have, historically, gotten along famously. In my long 35 year run on this Earth, I’ve only had an issue with one row of hedges, and it’s this one.

At this point you may be asking what my beef with these hedges is, and I’m not afraid to tell you.

You see, these hedges are hell-bent on my destruction and the death of every person who dares approach this intersection. In case you haven’t guessed yet, the hedges are too tall and they make it impossible to see the oncoming traffic.

Now, people have been complaining about these hedges for years, but the owners simply don’t care. Apparently, these hedges have been in that very spot for a hundred years or so. At least that’s what they tell people.

I have even spoken to our city councilman (who happens to live directly across from the hedges and out of the danger zone) and he simply grins and says that he “knows they are difficult to see around, but what can you do?”

On several occaisions, I have thought that perhaps some enterprising students from the college or maybe an angry soccer-mom who had experienced a near miss at the intersection, might go after those hedges with a chainsaw. No such luck. It would seem that these hedges would remain forever on the corner, taunting us with certain death.

So, imagine my surprise as I finally pulled on to my street yesterday, after braving the crazy Cleveland blizzard, to see a red sedan sitting in their yard, precisely where the hedges had once been. Yep. In the terrible snow storm, someone had lost control and slid across the intersection and directly through their hedges. I came to a stop in front of their house and watched the owner staring at the damage. Finally, I spoke.

“Bummer. Sorry to see your hedges got hit.”

“Yeah.”

“Bad storm.”

“Yeah.”

“I guess on the bright side, you will never have to feel bad for causing a horrible wreck on this corner now.”

“…”

“Anyway, sorry about your hedges.”

To The Faithful Underground…

I’m very pleased to announce officially that I am writing reviews as part of Thomas Nelson’s review program.

We’ll see how this goes, but so far, I think it’s a neat idea. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with Michael Hyatt twice now, which is amazing when you consider how busy the guy must be, and I have to say that he seems to be on the level. As the person leading the Social media charge at our company (Life Care Centers of America is my employer) I always get fascinated by CEO bloggers, and Hyatt is, without a doubt one of the most active. He keeps a blog, FB page and tweets interesting content all day while still running Thomas Nelson. Fantastic. Anyway, my first book came in the mail and I’m really excited about it. One of the nice things about the program is that you get to choose your books form lists that interest you. It isn’t the kind of situation where Thomas Nelson simply sends you a book and that’s that.

My first book is “The Selfless Gene” by Charles Foster , and it deals with the idea of science and religion getting along…imagine that! Well, I can’t wait to read it, and as soon as I’m done, you can expect a full review here on The Rob Blog.

This of course brings me to my next order of business… I’ve been thinking a lot about my consulting jobs. For years, I have been a PR/Marketing consultant. I love the work, and it keeps my creative juices flowing. Life Care has a policy that permits us to work a second job as long as it is approved and doesn’t interfere with my dayjob. This, of course, means that I take care of consulting work mostly at night and on lunch breaks.

Now, I know that some of you out there might have an area of expertise that you think you can monetize by consulting, so as someone who has been doing this a while, I’d like to offer a word or two of advice…

#1. Never consult on a project that you wouldn’t be willing to do for free.

What?!?!?!?! Alderman, you gotta be kidding me!

No, dear reader, I swear it’s true. You see, if you are going to go into consulting, you’d better absolutely love everything about the subject matter. The fact is that I would give away marketing advice all day long if I wasn’t careful, and that’s a good thing. It means I love it and am not as likely to get burned out. You want to lose your mind? Go ahead and consult just for the money.

#2. Never consult for free.

Yep, I said it. In seemingly complete contradiction to my first statement. But here’s the thing- I never told you to do it for free. I told you to do it because you would be willing to do it for free. Instead, ask people to pay for it. When I play music, I rarely play for free. Sure, the occasional benefit concert will come up and I’ll play for a good cause, but a normal show? Never. Why? I’m not a popular touring musician anymore. No one knows who I am. But…I am providing a night of entertainment, and even though I’d be willing to do it for free, it’s much nicer to get paid for it.

OK…there you go.

In closing, I looked at our budget for the year this past week and it almost made me pass out. It was, at first, very discouraging. I couldn’t believe that we work so hard and still have so little savings. I’ve been working hard for many years now, and to be honest, when I saw the budget it made me feel like a failure. Once the shock wore off however, I was very glad that I had spent the time to plan the year out.

Here are a few budget observations…

#1. My wife, who has been paying our bills for years, is a saint.

#2. While the situation isn’t wonderful, at least I know what it all looks like and now, I have a plan to get free from debt once and for all.

Alright, Robloggers, it’s time for me to get back to work. I have a client who needs some marketing!!!

Pleasant dreams,

Rob

On night 3, things got a little insane. There is just no other way to say it. Any time a Space Alien shows up at your session, you things are out of control.

To be honest, the main goal was simply to retake some vocals and guitars on Indiana, the title track of the album. (yep…for those of you who are wondering, I’m calling the album Indiana. More on that some other time)

Anyway, I was worried about how pitchy some of it was after the first night, and the challenge was to take the vocals and guitar at the same time to catch the very fragile feeling of the song while keeping some of the whispery parts on pitch. We didn’t quite get there on night 1, so I’m glad we retook some things.

Having April on hand to throw in some BG vocals on the song was an added bonus.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s Night 3.

The Thing, Vocals and Aliens