World Sojourner : 3760

Mrs. M and I are in the final approach for purchasing a house.  We’ve found the right place, had our offer accepted and even have the financing in order.  The Maes, that is Sallie and Fannie, are now every important in my life.  See, together 99.9% of all my debt rest with these two entities.

Now that we’ve covered the first level of requirements, we’re moving into level two - home insurance, movers and the utilities.  The first one has been completed today - go Snoopy! So, that leaves movers and the utilities.

Skipping some commentary on the thugs that run moving companies in the area (note I didn’t say the actual guys doing the moving, normally they’re okay), and going to the utilities discussion.  I count cable television as a utility.  And, for this riff I count Direct TV as a form of cable TV …

A couple days ago, I finally clued in that Mrs M kept avoiding the subject of Direct TV.  When confronted, she finally admitted that she ‘didn’t want one of those things on her roof’.  I calmly explained that it wasn’t on her roof but the roof of our house and in the back.  On her roof would have probably hurt her head and kill our satellite reception. 

The funny part was that today, she attempted to push me back toward cable, which I, after five years of marriage, expertly picked up and deflected.  When the conversation turned to power, however she suggested we look into solar power.  I’m all for going off the grid, but we can’t have a dish but those giant black panels are okay?

Thinking creatively, I referenced back to one of my old Instep conversations about cat powered economies and suggested we have little tread mills with cats running on them in the back yard.  If all went well, we could get them singing the Meow-Mix song - you know, meow, meow and doing a small little dance at 10 and 2 each day.

Yes, there are some flaws but as long as we batch the little kitties and have a back-up generator during the switch overs.  And if the experiment doesn’t workout the little employees make great glove liners.  No, I’m not giving you the email address for PETA, you’ll have to find it yourself.

In our next edition of Domestic Conversations, Home Security - the 12 Gauge Shotgun versus home security system for $30 per month debate.

Over the last week, I’ve seen two of my blogging buddies from London Business School write ‘uh sorry I haven’t posted’ riffs.  One sun set his blog mentioning the blog was about the MBA, the MBA is over, so - we’ll thanks for all the fish.  The other post didn’t sign off, but mentioned how she has been dealing with the larger issues of life, ironically caused by how she now views the world thanks to the MBA.

These topics got me thinking about missions and how when one accomplishes a mission - like having a blog targeted toward the MBA - it becomes pretty damn hard to keep going forward once the mission is complete.  Events are like this.  All the work goes into the front end of the project, then the event happens, and all the inspiration to finish off the paperwork, write the final 3 questions of the planning guide or, you know, pay bills become less important.

Can one change their mission for a blog or a company?  Of course, the folks at Nokia found a way, as did Apple.  Theodore Levitt famously wrote about the decline of the train industry and that they let other firms take customers away from them because they assumed they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business. 

So, one answer to a huge strategy shift is taking one step back from the current activities.  It’s not easy, because one step back from ‘me writing about the MBA’ is essentially ‘my experiences.’ Those wishing to miss the fact that people enjoy the way some write about their experiences will find themselves wondering what to write next.

Personally, I don’t have this problem because my little blog has always had the same mission - post things that interest the author and, if possible, make him laugh or feel better about something he can’t change right now.  I’ve killed a lot of posts because the finished result bored me, and I have loved some that made me laugh out loud.  Thanks to the MBA links and friends I made during the MBA more people than I ever would have imagined visited this site (for the record, I never imagined my readership to go over 11 people so the 20 which glanced at this is far above my original estimations :))

The fact some of my closest friends occasionally leave comments is awesome and greatly appreciated.  I wonder why some of the alumna MBA bloggers I know don’t throw themselves into building their blogs around their current careers & look to those communities?  It’s the same tactics they took to build their MBA blogs. 

Probably the same reason I haven’t - until now - it never crossed my mind.

I needed more ink for my little printer and frankly, I just needed out of the house so a quick run to Wal-mart was in order.  During my trek back to the electronics department I noticed - The Noah Doll - a ‘fine human being.’

Yes, they sold extra animals and if I’d have looked around there was certainly a giant boat somewhere.

Giant floods sold separately.

Over the years, I’ve edited a lot of documents.  Sadly, until about three years ago, I probably wasn’t qualified to give any feedback in regards to writing - but - well I did anyway.

Before today, my favorite edit was adding an ‘L’ to the word - public speaker just before one of my relatives sent this resume out searching for a job.

But today, I had the chance to make another great edit.  After reading over a presentation deck, I was able to add the second ‘S’ to the word assess.  As in to ‘assess X’.

Sometimes just one letter makes the difference.