We got back late last night from a long weekend in the Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at the Wilderness Resort with some friends, and had a good time (minus the injuries). Pictures (not of the injuries) will follow soon.

I received some inspiration in the mail today in the form of Seth Godin’s Small is the new Big. Check out his blog post that inspired the title (and which might inspire you too!)

If you read this blog in a newsreader via RSS, you’ve probably noticed some new stuff showing up lately. Because blogging time has been tight for me lately, I’ve decided to share the stuff I’ve been bookmarking at del.icio.us. I tag a lot more stuff than I have a chance to write about, so it’s a good opportunity to see what’s getting my attention on a daily basis. And who knows, maybe you’ll find something cool in all that noise.

Casey has been keeping things adventurous lately by trying lots of new recipes. Now I can say that I’ve had curry, hummus, and lots of other great stuff I’ve never tried before!

“Waiting” pretty much sums up work right now. We’re still not open for business, but we’ve had some tangents and side projects come up, so we’re actually working on a second business right now that we’re going to push out the door sooner rather than later. Needless to say, I’ve got plenty of things to keep me busy.

I’ve been doing some of our web development at work for the last several weeks (fun stuff!), so I’ve suddenly become very interested in search engine optimization (SEO), otherwise known as “getting ranked higher in Google”. Don’t be surprised if you see me tagging a lot more bookmarks “seo” in del.icio.us in the near future.

My beloved Razr has started letting me down on a regular basis by turning itself off whenever it likes. I put a call into Verizon today, and a new one should be on the way to our house right now. The downside: I’m 99% sure the replacement will have all of the bluetooth features disabled, just like Casey’s.

Tomorrow night Casey and I are going to see Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium in Grand Forks. We’ve had tickets since May, so we’re really looking forward to the show!

That’s all for now. Check back again soon for baby pictures and more!

Possibly related posts:

1. Back in Grand Forks

Yes, I bought a Powerball ticket. And then I ate it. It’s much more interesting than just buying one and waiting to see if you win; now you hope, intensely, that you lose. If you take down the numbers before you swallow it, you get relief the moment they announce the winning numbers.

If you know me, you may or may not know that I’ve never bought a lottery ticket and that I think it’s a waste of money. I do, however, think you have every right to waste your money if it makes you happy. I even voted in favor of bringing the lottery to North Dakota a couple of years ago.

Maybe I’m too rational or analytical, but I’d rather take my chances on a game where I have a fighting chance, like blackjack. There is, after all, a very good reason why mathematicians don’t play Powerball, and it should be printed on the back of every ticket: You’re six times more likely to become President of the United States than win Powerball.

I think I’ll start getting ready for the 2016 campaign…

Today happened to be the birthday of John, my supervisor, so a few of my coworkers and I went to a local Mexican restuarant for dinner. I had a really good time. I don’t get to see them very often, so when I do, it’s pretty fun.

This week I’m taking a few steps to help my productivity and reduce the “clutter” I’m encountering every day. One example is my RSS subscriptions. Bloglines currently has my feed count at 226, although not all of them are public and updated on a regular basis. Still, 200+ RSS feeds deliver a ton of content every day, to the point that information overload has again become an issue (reducing it was one of my reasons for using a news reader in the first place). So, taking a suggestion I read on 43folders, I’ve started to put some of my feeds on probation. After a day or two, I’ve got 25 of them in a “probation” group that I plan on scan on occasion before marking everything as read. It’s already made a noticable difference in my reading — less noise equals less stress. Next steps: Try out some of the other tips on 43folders and Lifehacker and get back on track with Getting Things Done.

Possibly related posts:

1. Keeping it Simple

It’s pretty obvious that all levels of government failed to respond fast enough to the aftermath of the hurricane, but I don’t feel now is the time to cast blame. There will be plenty of time for that in the coming months and years. Now is the time for action. Keep praying for the victims and their families and consider donating if you haven’t already.

Update on 09/05/2005 @ 1:00 pm: Required reading: Tribes on Eject! Eject! Eject!

Honestly — I realize this is Grand Forks, but snow in August? I’ll take a few photos if the white stuff actually materializes…

Possibly related posts:

1. Gambling on the Weather

Once we were back home in Grand Forks and ate dinner, we decided to drive across town to Target so we could start our baby registry. We walked out to our Nissan Maxima, which was parked on the street in front of our apartment, when Casey saw a piece of paper under the windshield wiper. We immediately assumed it was a ticket, but we couldn’t think of why we would get one. When we read it, we quickly realized it was a note from someone either living or visiting a house across the street. They noticed something we didn’t — we had two flat tires!

Some little punks were apparently pretty busy Sunday night, because as the note said, there were several other cars on our street with one or both of the street facing tires slashed. Thankfully we are AAA members, so we were able to get a free tow to Home of Economy, where we had them replace all four tires.

The tow truck driver said there were many people reporting slashed tires in the last couple of days, so apparently it wasn’t just our street which was targeted. We’re not holding out much hope that the people who did this will actually be caught. It would be a nice surprise though…

Possibly related posts:

1. Introducing Asa Jay Berberich
2. Off To Seattle

Sadly, as I’m writing this, the 12 minute event has ended. Four-time winner Takeru Kobayashi took the title again, managing to put down 49 hot dogs (and buns) in that time.

Well, that was fun. Now back to OLN for the Tour de France. Have a happy 4th of July everyone!

Here’s something else in the mean time. Via Instapundit, here’s an article on Slate.com about the Mazda 3, the great little car we bought almost a year ago.

The article talks about the supposedly poor steering of the 3 relative to the model it replaced, the Protegé. I’ve never driven a Protegé before, so I don’t know how that particular car handled, but I can safely say that Casey and I have never even thought it was an issue with our 3. It’s been an awesome car for us: plenty of power, looks and quality of a vehicle costing twice as much, and really good gas mileage (33+ miles per gallon). Still highly recommended!

Casey and I are having a baby! We’re both very happy and very excited. Our due date is November 26th (right after Thanksgiving). Casey has been feeling surprisingly well, which is unexpected but good! We began planning our big summer vacation well before we found out about the pregnancy, and fortunately, will still work out great. Next Friday (June 10th) we will be flying out of Fargo to Orlando and will then board our cruise ship in Port Canaveral for our 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. Our original plan was to make this trip a post-grad school celebration after we graduated from UND with our masters degrees. Casey met her part of the agreement last summer, but time was not on my side. I will be finished with my MBA classes when I finish my summer course next month, leaving only my independent study. So, I’m pretty close — close enough to celebrate. In addition, it will also be one of our last chances to take a big trip with just the two of us before the baby comes in the winter. We’d better enjoy the chance to relax while we still can!

Possibly related posts:

1. Off To Seattle
2. Kick’in the Tires on Drupal

Anyway, here are a couple examples of what I mean:

1. Getting Things Done: David Allen’s systematic approach for managing all of the “stuff” in your life. This awesome approach frees your mind from the clutter of trying to remember everything you need to get done in the various parts of your life. It’s really liberating to get things down on paper and instead use your brain for what it’s really good for: thinking
2. Mind Mapping: Although I’ve known about the idea behind mind mapping for at least several years, I can honestly say that I didn’t “get it” until recently. A couple posts on the Creating Passionate Customers blog really helped me understand how our brains naturally make connections and associations between things, something a mind map does much better than a regular bulleted outline ever could. I finally had my “light bulb” moment when I used mind mapping to create and capture new ideas for my Imagination class. I’m now a believer!

My latest discovery came late last night while I was working on my final concept for my class with Dr. Stamp, which I will be pitching later this afternoon. I was using the thesaurus at Thesaurus.com when I came across a text ad for a product called the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus. Play around with the free version for a few minutes and then tell me that you wouldn’t choose it over a dead tree version. There is tremendous power in being able to see the connections between words. Simply awesome!