I have been in incubation for a long time about a pet project that I want to develop. I had a vague idea about what the project would include, but without a breakthrough there was no way to make it happen. So I have been waiting. Thinking. Watching. Ready for the light in my brain to turn on. Sunday morning the idea hit me and I haven’t been able to turn the light bulb off. I can’t even find a dimmer switch. Fueled by the adrenaline that accompanies a breakthrough, I am staying up late. When my head finally hits the pillow, I can’t sleep. During the day, I am fighting for extra minutes that will let me get back to developing this idea. It is exciting. Exhausting. Frustrating. Rewarding. And of course it comes at a time when I am completely swamped with work and other “more important” things that I need to do.

I think it is interesting how little control we have over when the “big idea” is going to hit us. I could have focused with complete concentrated for weeks and not come up with this idea. I could have hired focus groups. I could have solicited advice from people much smarter and more experienced than me. I could have taken surveys, read books, brainstormed. Nothing would have produced what I was looking for. And then a random thought triggers something and the solution seems obvious. Why didn’t I think of it before? Why hasn’t anybody done this already? Is this idea as great as I think? One thing leads to the next and you are going 100 miles per hour after being stalled for months or years.

Has this ever happened to you? The lesson is that you can rarely force a good idea. There isn’t a formula for innovation. The best you can do is prepare for it. Stay alert, and one day when you least expect it the idea will hit you. Then when you are face to face with the weight of your idea you will have to confront a new challenge: How do you turn the idea into a reality? That is tough, but it is much more fun (and easier) than coming up with the idea in the first place.

What? You were wondering what my idea was? Yeah, I am going to have to leave you hanging about that, sorry. Stay tuned though.

Do you ever have dreams where you are back in high school? I have this reoccurring dream where I am late for band practice. I thought maybe if I wrote about it, my band teacher Mr. Hanson would stop making appearances in my sleep. So in my dream I arrive late for band practice and Mr. Hanson is giving me a hard time. I just sit back and take it and in the back of my mind I am thinking about how great it will be to quit band and never see Mr. Hanson again. There aren’t many variations of the dream and they usually revolve around me getting in trouble for not practicing, or being late to class, or some situation where I have to confront old Robert Hanson. Geez, I cringe just thinking about it.

I played trombone at Wentzville High School in Missouri for 3.5 years. I finally quit after the first half of my senior year. The one memory that is burned into my memory was when my friend Kevin Hendrickson and I were getting chewed out (something that happened pretty regularly) in the hall by Mr. Hanson. He said that he wanted me and Kevin to come back and visit him some day after we graduated and had lived in the real world for a while. He was certain that we would look back and feel sorry for him or something. Actually I think he thought that we would want to thank him for everything he taught us. I look back at my band experience and aside from the fun I had with band friends, it was pretty much a waste. I know that probably isn’t true, but I think that is still what I would tell Mr. Hanson if I met him today. Thanks, Mr. Hanson, for wasting my time. Now get out of my dreams so I can get back to dreaming about being friends with Paul Simon. But that’s a dream for another story…

This is the stage my 3 year old is going through right now. It is still cute for now, but I can tell that the cuteness will wear off soon enough…

Rian: Look, Daddy!

Me: Yes, an animal cracker. Remember we have to be quiet in church, ok?

Rian: Why, daddy?

Me: See all the people? They are all being quiet.

Rian: Why, daddy?

Me: Because at church you have to listen.

Rian: Why, daddy?

Me: Because the pastor has important things to tell us.

Rian: Why, daddy?

Me: Because.

Rian: Cus’ why, daddy?

Me: You think you are pretty clever don’t you?

Rian: Yes.

My dad (Adrian 2) is a pastor and recently accepted a call to be pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Norfolk, Nebraska. Since my dad became a pastor late in life, I have only been able to hear him preach a few times. One of the cool things that this church does is post mp3’s of the sermons. It is going to be great to be able to hear all my dad’s sermons without taking a long multi-state journey. If I can ever get around to it, I am going to republish them on my dad’s blog as a podcast that you can subscribe to through iTunes. If you are like me and attend a church that doesn’t do much for your spiritual life, I encourage you to check out my dad’s sermons.

Somebody tell me if something like this already exists…

I would like to be able have comments I leave on other people’s blogs appear on my site. It could work really well in a sidebar (although I don’t have one at the moment) as a “See What Adrian Is Saying Elsewhere in the Blogosphere” section. Not the catchiest name, I know, but it is a work in progress. Ideally, it would look something like this:

Adrian recently said, “Listen to the commercial. It says “I am a Mac. I am a PC.” They clearly don’t say “I am a mac user.” They aren’t supposed to represent the users, they are representing the products! It is a pretty simple concept, so I am amazed by how you misread it so badly….”

On a post called “The problem of smugness”
over at www.cultureby.com
on Aug 30, 2006 at 10:26:15 AM

Easier said than done, I am sure. When I am on a blog and hit the button to publish my comment the plugin (or whatever is powering this crazy idea of mine) records the comment and lets me preview and edit what it will post to my sidebar. Kind of like a bookmarklet (Do they still do bookmarklet’s or is it called something else now?) except it would work for comments instead of entries. I don’t think there is any money in this idea, but it would be pretty handy. Ok, somebody go make that for me…

I hate compromise. I try to blog with conviction, and not let anything stop me from saying what I believe. I have avoided this, my personal blog, because I knew that I was being forced to not say what I really want. I have always been pretty confident that everything I write on my blogs is protected by freedom of speech. I still do, but I had the first legal encounter with someone threatening me because of what I wrote. It is a relatively harmless situation, and I am kind of a wuss for backing down so easily, but the stupid thing has been on my mind for about a week now, and I just want to get it behind me. You can read the nasty letter here if you want the dirty details. I can’t tell you how much better I feel just for publishing the lawyer’s letter, even if I stripped out the names. I think that was the best thing to do, but it is still a compromise, and it stings. Part of my wussyness has to do with the fact that I don’t want to make a scene since I still work for the agency where I did the work in question. Job security aside, the blogger in me just wants to paint it in the sky and really make them pay. But I didn’t. I compromised. I backed down. I gave the faceless corporation a pass. I failed. Please forgive me for my compromise, and I promise to never do it again. I hope.