Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - Dreaming

Photo Hunt 27: Dreaming

Theme: Dreaming | Join the Photo Hunt | View Blogroll | Visit participants.

Dreaming - To have a deep aspiration; To regard something as feasible or practical; To conceive of; imagine...

This theme is pretty easy for me to grab hold of... when I "retire" to "refire" in my latter years or when I win the lottery, I'm gonna be chasing sunsets. That's my big dream coming true.

I'm dreaming of a day when I hop in my big RV and start heading west starting here in Nashville:



and winding up at the Pacific Ocean.



Pretty simple... there's something about sunsets. If I want to go Deep Thoughts with it, then here goes... sunsets cap off a day, good or bad with a promise of a better day to come... Fresh winds always blow in from the west... and starting in Nashville, I won't run out of highway for a while!

Maybe I'm getting all old man like, but I am dreaming of a day of visiting the USA in a big RV, photo blogging with my family and dogs in tow, with all my tech gear - simply priceless (and expensive).

xxx

I just joined the Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt hosted by Tn Chick. You too can play: Join the Photo Hunt There's a theme every Saturday, and it's a lot of fun visiting the community of participants.

Having fun with Bubble Wrap

You may have seen the latest careerbuilder.comcommercial...

It's a monkey opening a box with bubble wrap. After tossing the new laptop on the floor, the monkey rolls around the floor in the bubble wrap making monkey noises, doing back flips and popping the bubble wrap. Meanwhile, the guy trying to work asks the monkey in the next cubicle if the out of control monkey is bothering him. The monkey shakes his head, "Nope"

We've been around similiar office cubicle behavior; like the IGMO who's racing his remote control car up and down the hallways or the guy who spills Coke on your desk and walks away...

It's those precise times you want to grind your teeth and make a career change. Here a resource for ya to help you out of predicament!

It's called inBubbleWrap

If you like free stuff and the best in business books and other free stuff to help you be smarter than the average bear or cubicle monkey, then it's really simple - just create an FREE account and visit every day for your chance to win - assuming that you correctly answer two qualifying questions such as:

How do male wookies meet female wookies?

Can you spell for me the sound anger?



There's a new offer for you to enter on a daily basis. I logged in and won several prizes such as The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley, Executive Intelligence by Justin Menkes and Spark by John Winsor! Check out October's previous offers here.

Here's some of my winnings so far since Day One of the inBubbleWrap launch last year:



Not only do I have a good collection of expensive books to draw business wisdom from courtesy of inBubbleWrap, but once done, I'm able to pass them along to friends. You can win big too!

If not, then use regular bubble wrap and make yourself useful:



What is inBubbleWrap?

Well to make a long story short, we love business. We love talking about it and we love doing business. iBW is our way to share this love (wrapped in Bubble Wrap) with you.

iBW is a site dedicated to giving you the opportunity to win FREE business related prizes. Each day (Monday – Friday) brings a new contest with new prizes for you to win. All prizes are business related whether it’s the latest set of business books, nifty office supplies or advice from a business book author.

New offers are launched daily at 9 a.m. (Central Time) and run for 24 hours.

inBubbleWrap is founded by http://www.800ceoread.com/ the best source period online for business books.

Public Potty Break Gone Bad

Jeffery Hanserd wants everyone to know that using a public toilet could leave you flushed with embarrassment.

Last night on WTVF - News Channel Five they aired a story - "Antioch Man On The Wrong End Of Practical Joke"

I'm all for pranks, but this one is pretty crappy - err - NOT FUNNY.

Not be unsympathetic, but personally, I strive to NEVER use public restrooms. Especially at WalMarts. Definately never at gas stations. If I'm within 30 miles of the house, the flashers are on the Honda and the race is on.

If I absolutely must, I use five layers of the seat liners and lots of toilet paper to lay on the seat (which Jeffery should have done). That's what the extra roll of toilet paper is there for.

While traveling, I never sit my backpack or laptop bag on the bathroom floor.

I don't answer my cell phone in the bathroom. Or make small talk.

And c'mon - please wash your hands.

I'm still freaked out about yellow file folders. When I worked downtown at L _____ y, I saw a guy in the stall with yellow file folders on the floor. He was writing out post it notes and placing them on the folders.

West Nashville's Nashville West

Living in the West Meade area of Nashville, I get to see the daily progress of the new $120 million retail development called Nashville West.

I'm seeing Costco rapidly coming to completion in time for a November 15th opening...



Road widening of Charlotte Pike is underway with the relocation of utility lines and soon, Brook Hollow Road will be widen for turning lanes. The concrete walls of the storefronts are up as well.



What I'm excited about is the integration of a "interactive park environment with significant green space for recreation or leisure use as well as acommunity local for organized sporting, theatrical or musical events." The development promises to be unlike anything that Nashville already has in place with the big enclosed malls.



What West Nashvillians are craving for are quality restaurants... the only rumor I've heard thus far is Olive Garden and that McDonalds will rebuild at their present location.

Stores? Best Buy, Staples, Pass Pets by the existing Firestone store as part of a strip center by Costco. Publix supposively pulled out.

Along the Charlotte Park development, my understanding from various sources: Super Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, Old Navy, Ross Dress for Less, Cost Plus World Market, Linens 'n' Things...

Trippin' to Tacoma, Washington

Many of you know how proud we are as a family of our son Gary entering into the Air Force, based in Tacoma, Washington. He's very passionate about the opportunties that lie ahead for him, and as parents seeing your chidren find purpose and embrace their destiny in a God centered worldview brings great joy to our hearts!

We've been busy around the WonderDawg homestead helping get things transistioning for Gary's big move to McCord Air Force Base.



A welcome back party, moving boxes out of storage and our garage to his fiance's house, banking matters, AAA trip-tik planning, visiting friends and relishing the time together as family.

Gary left Thursday morning with his good friend Brandon making good time from Nashville to Topeka, Kansas. Next leg: onward to Denver; Billings, Montana; Spokane and Tacoma.



We appreciate your prayers and good thoughts. Very grateful for the advice and well wishes!

Me in the monkey world

If I was a chimp rather than a WonderDawg, I guess I would look like:



More monkey business here

Promotional music collectables from the WonderDawg archives

Mrs. WonderDawg at one time was deep into Beanie Babies; coming back from Orlando on vacation, we stopped at virtually every McDonalds to collect the mini Beanie Babies - we ate a lot of Happy Meals back then.

I've been collecting musical packaging and promotional items since I was ten years old, not so much for the rarity, but the creativity in the execution of the packaging. Before Gary was born 26 years ago, I had at one time maybe thirty thousand albums in mint condition, filed A to Z, by category, in plastic outer sleeves and inside dust jackets filling a pre-nursery bedroom and a 10 x 20 mini warehouse.

I'm reminded when I was transferred from Atlanta to Nashville back in 1975, the UHaul was loaded down with peach crates full of LPs. The four hour trip took over eight hours with a top speed of 50 mph. Over the years, I got tired of lugging them around, so a bunch of them made their way to Great Escape. I'm down to a manageable five thousand or so LPs now.

These days, I've been collecting schwag from tech companies, but I love the old days when I was in the record business doing the marketing and merchandising stuff. When people were buying records by the crates, there were posters, buttons, t-shirts, trinkets and much more a plenty!

After lugging this promo stuff around for nearly forty years, I've been up in the attic reclaiming some stuff - such as the Rod Stewart standup I've hauling around since 1978 - which has a found a good home at the Mothership BBQ.

Me thinks that with the age of iPods and iTunes, our generation has totally missed out on the joy of album covers artwork in big 12 x 12 size and the stuff contained within. They'll never know the joy of The Who Live at Leeds Lp that was packaged as a press kit with B&W glossies, poster, booklet and other stuff, or Led Zeppelin's third lp with the spinning die cut wheel (that lp cause all kinds of warpage problems with retailers). I'll find examples from the WonderDawg archives and post it here soon.

In fact, I just might dig out my 100 favorite LPs with built in goodies and post a Flickr set.

Some of my favorites tucked away in ziplocked bags within easy reach of the keyboard are:





SUZANNE VEGA Days Of Open Hand (1990 US 11-track promotional CD, featuring Book Of Dreams & Rusted Pipe and housed inside a holographic front panelled tri-fold digipak.)





SUZANNE VEGA 99.9F (1992 12 tracks + 1 bonus Limited Edition 24 page book housed inside a slip cover.)



Jane's Addiction Been Caught Stealing CD Promo with mini handcuffs.

and some plastic:





Neil Young & Crazy Horse promo single from 1981 Reactor LP

Packaging of minicards

Last week I wrote about MOO minicards. A couple of days ago, I received the initial free 10 pack of MOO minicards to try out the service. To help spread the word, MOO gave away 10,000 FREE packs of 10 cards to Flickr Pro Users.



Not only are the cards of excellent quality and the delivery time from London to Nashville is within the promised ten days, but I REALLY like the packaging and presentation.

The little slipcase with the die cut window added a "this is cool" response. Nice job.

I go for this kind of stuff as I use to be a merchandising and marketing guy in the record biz in the seventies - early eighties.

More later...

When will I ever learn?

Everytime, I mean everytime without fail, when I cook something in the oven, like a pork loin roast or a meatloaf birthday cake, I open the oven door and get suckered punched in the face with 350 degrees of unleashed hell and heat fury.

My glasses get fogged up, I feel like my face is being stung by a thousand sweat bees and I yelp out a wordy durd.

All without dropping the pan on my feet. (That would be awful...)



At least I'm not like Jamie in Deadpan Valentine where he failed to commit suicide by placing his head-in-the-oven because of the unpaid-gas account cut-off.

I must prefer the electric stove way of instant punch in the face.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - Lost

Photo Hunt 27: Lost

Theme: Lost | Join the Photo Hunt | View Blogroll | Visit participants.



Lost - No longer in the possession, care, or control of someone or something...

It was one year ago on October 11, 2005 when I traveled to Sulphur, Lousiana for a week to lend a hand with the TN Baptist Disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. I was hoping to blog from there and send back some photos, but there wasn't an internet connection to be found, let alone electricity.

What I found instead were people who lost everything... from 100 extravagant homes on the Gulf washed out to sea at once to a modest single mom's apartment totally drenched.

With no electricity to wash clothes or run refrigerators, we had long days working from 5 am to 7 pm as part of the team that prepared upwards of 5,000 hot meals a day to distribute via the Red Cross and our base of operations. Another team went out with chainsaws clearing downed trees.

We who are consumer focused (and myself included) tend to look at the material things that are lost. We're left counting on insurance or the kindness of strangers to cover our losses in such devastation. Yet, we all are needing assurance that everything will be OK.



While walking the Sulphur neighborhood, we came upon this single mom and her daughter living in the apartment pictured above.



They were absolutely precious. While having lost all their possessions, except what could pack in the trunk of their car to start a new life, they never lost their joy for life. Rather, they were profusely thanking God for sparing their lives.

That week in Louisiana completely changed my whole theology of what it means to serve.

See a need? Go fill it. Don't wait for permission for a committee to decide whether the situation determines a "Yes" or "No" or worse, a "Maybe" response.

Lost - No longer in the possession, care, or control of someone or something... I got it. That week, I lost quite a bit of self-centerness through generous self-giving of time, talent and a open heart.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

My Flickr set from the visit to Cameron, LA here

Paul & Debbie's flooded home

Base Camp at Sulphur, LA

Thanks for stopping by... (and letting me share)

xxx

I just joined the Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt hosted by Tn Chick. You too can play: Join the Photo Hunt There's a theme every Saturday, so I look forward to visiting the community of participants.