Chicago

Those close to me are well familiar with my hermit like habits. This is only amplified by my refusal to imbibe, my dislike for small talk, and my inability to produce any form of stimulating conversation. Rarely in my life do I feel comfortable in a new environment. That was until Chicago.

I've been here for a week now. I leave tomorrow. I am excited to see my wife and children again (selfishly, I'm wanting to alleviate the guilt of leaving my pregnant wife alone with twin 3 year old girls for a week), but the time here in Chicago has been an amazing experience. For once in my working life, I can't stand being in my hotel room and just have to get out. The dining has been wonderful. The architecture and parks are beyond anything I'd ever encountered in Utah and Austin. Part of me wishes I had a camera (aside from the poor pictures I've been able to take with my blackberry), but at the same time, I feel as though a camera would impede the atmosphere I've been all to anxious to absorb. Strangely, I have a sense of being "home" here. I don't know if this is a city I'll ever have the chance to live in, but I will return (probably for work), and Leslie will be with me to share this now familiar taste of a city.

lemon block

Operator: What is your e-mail sir?

Me: ryan at em double u three design dot com

Operator: r - y - a - n @ n - w - 3 . com

Me: no, r - y - a - n - @ - m "as in mimesis" - W "as in Worcestershire" - "the number" 3 - design.com

Operator: so I have ryan at n - w - 3 - design.com.

Me: no, emmmm not ennnn . . .

Operator: oh so, ryan at em double u three design dot com

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I'm sure everyone has had a similar experience, the constant spelling out of e-mail addresses. That coupled with my always changing e-mail addresses (remember @normansanagram.com, @everythinggrey.com, rsb@cc.usu.edu, daylight_fadingCC@yahoo.com (back in 1997)). I was excited for a time to settle on mw3design.com, but this e-mail has proven to be too frustrating to give out. I thought about doing something like me@ryanbarlow.com, but that feels semi narcissistic. The thought of switching to something more popular like gmail, or yahoo, would be nice, but then again . . . I'd have to spell out the username. So began the search. What should ryan use for his e-mail address? I thought of using tradingloop.com, but if that business idea failed, I wouldn't want to be continually faced with that failure. In the end, I concluded my best option was to find a domain/e-mail that is a combination of two completely unrelated words. That may sound simple enough, but the task of finding a good, not taken domain name is at par of finding gas priced below $3.00 a gallon. After much thought, I've decided on . . .

lemonblock.com

It still feels unusual to me, but so far it has passed the "say it without spelling test". I'm going to continue test driving this e-mail (see if it grows on me). I still get e-mails to my mw3design.com, but if anyone gets an @lemonblock.com e-mail, don't assume it is a pen1s enlargement concoction made out of fresh lemons.

A more official e-mail will be sent out if I decide that this is going to be my e-mail of choice.

recess is in

Bullied at the pump. Wall Street is sinking. Unemployment is jumpy. Foreclosing the inevitable.

Damn...I guess I won't buy my boat.

We are about to enter (or as many state "are already in") a recession. What got us here in the first place? Sure you have the rising middle class overseas, but it seems a strong case can be made for. . . feelings. A fascinating article/study published in the LA Times best demonstrates my feelings on the major cause of this recession.

the article states:

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"Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same.

Surprisingly -- stunningly, in fact -- research shows that the majority of people select the first option; they would rather make twice as much as others even if that meant earning half as much as they could otherwise have." 1.

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The article concludes with this statement:

"When it comes to money, as in most other aspects of life, reason and rationality are trumped by emotions and feelings."

I feel this article best describes our peculiar buying habits such as the need to buy a home we can't afford, or purchase impractical things such as the SUV (granted this is a generalized statement, practical reasons exist). With emotions playing such a vital role in these major decisions, and jealousy being such a strong emotion. It's no wonder our economy is in the condition it is in. Interesting that one of the ten commandments contains such strong economical advice (part about not coveting).

Since we can't rely on our emotions to make the rational buying decision for us. It is best that we do enter a recession. Changes have been needing to take place for some time now, such as improved technology in the automotive industry, or perhaps our glutenous/expensive habits of eating out. Sure times are changing and adjusting, and thanks to the inevitable recession we are about to enter (or have already entered), things will change for the better. I welcome this recession. It is painful the extra costs. But like the temporary pain of taking off a bandaid, things will improve. Feelings of the pain will change demand. Consumer demand changes everything.

. . . now to buy my boat

1 "Why people believe weird things about money" Michael Shermer, Los Angeles Times, Opinion, January 13, 2008. link

Fighting the Inevitable

From High School through the first 4 years of my marriage, I've been unable to break the 155 pound barrier. As many of you have noticed, that is not currently the case. Since taking a desk job, my weight has increased at an accelerated amount. I'm not near enough of a weight to panic (whatever that number may be), but I'm at a point where action must be taken, or I will find myself at an unhealthy level. 1st problem. Time. I have plenty of things on my plate at the moment, and a dedicated exercise routine requires too much time. I would have to drop one of my current projects to make room. Lemons? Of course not. Trading Loop? No. Obviously, family, religion, and work aren't options to eliminate. With school starting soon and a 3rd child on the way, exercise has more than been placed on the back burner, it's been tossed out.

2nd problem. Support. I've been on a rigorous exercise routine consistently before, I should be able to do it again. But every time I try to start, I can't seem to break the 2 week barrier. Most of the time this is due to the time factor coming into play, but many times it has to do with going solo. When I am by myself, I don't have nearly the dedication I do if I'm going with someone. If someone is relying on me, it gives a different atmosphere to the routine.

With these two obstacles in the way, I had decided to give in the weight gain...until I reached an interesting conclusion.

Lunch.

James (my brother) works 1 mile away from me and we both have flexible lunch schedules. My lunch hours are currently spent mindlessly wandering the internet in my office. We can easily fit in a good 45 minute workout everyday during lunch. This simple solution easily overcomes my main two obstacles. So with excuses aside, I begin my war.

fawder

Post fawder's day celebrations lead to reminiscing moments of being a father (and of course of my own pops, see this post for that dedication)

Losing to myself

My goal in gaining "Ryan Barlow" dominance, in the organic google search rankings, has reached a point where I am now number 1 and number 2. I can't help but feel that I am losing to myself. I'll have to settle for being the number 1 Ryan Barlow, and the number 2 Ryan Barlow. I may have earned the "self-centered", "egotistical", "narcissistic" labels with these Ego surf posts about Ryan Barlow, but I guess the time to explain myself is in order (even though the labels are more than accurate).

The web crawlers that spider through the internet are looking for certain criteria that increases ones relevancy when specific key words are searched. That criteria involves many things (some are even unknown to us), but the more common ones are how many websites link to you, and another is the number of times the key words is used in the text. For example. If I want this website to show up when someone searches for Ryan Barlow, I need to find ways to say Ryan Barlow as many times as possible. My previous "Ego Surf" posts were specifically designed to say the name Ryan Barlow as many times as possible (in a non cheating sort of way, google hates cheaters) which helped lead to my website becoming the number 1 ryan barlow search site. In order to maintain my position level, I will have to periodically write posts about ryan barlow. In fact, Ryan Barlow has been said 10 times so far within this post (not nearly as many Ryan Barlow's as my previous posts (they numbered around 13 to 14 Ryan Barlow's). Oh well, 12 will do.

Ryan Barlow...13

distracted

My waning diligence in blog writing can be directly linked to the launch of my companies redesigned website at bbqcovers.com. I apologize to the faithful few who have continued to visit my site (even though we all know you came out of habit rather than out of loyalty).

new site

old site

Advertising

Quote:

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s**t (edited for mother) we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives.”

Bloggers Note:

I loved that movie/book. I think I'll pick up the book again.