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A few weeks ago, I discovered the queue at my public library’s website. The process is simple: Select your books, wait a few days, then pick them up. They are available from any library in the county, delivered to my local library. That’s awesome. Much more convenient-and cheaper-than Amazon.

So I moved a couple of pages of my Amazon wish-list into the library’s queue.

I must not have been thinking, because two days later, I got an email telling me that 19 books were ready to be picked up and 10 more were in transit.

In this county, each checkout is good for 21 days. For items that don’t have a waiting list, you can reserve 3 times. That’s 12 weeks for 29 books. Hopefully, I’m up to the challenge. Please keep in mind, I’m a father of three, two of whom are in diapers, and I’m married, and I have a full time job.

I have frugally blown every second of spare time for months.

Update: This was another post written in advance. When all of the books came in, I suspended my request list. Little did I realize, the suspension cancels itself after 30 days. That was 30 more books. Whee!

New Ideas

Business

lawn gnome

I had an email exchange with my close friend and business partner earlier this week.

“I get ideas but think they are probably stupid. Okay, I have some ideas. Again, I get scare you’ll think I’m reaaaally dumb.”

My response?

“No ideas are stupid. You start filtering **** like that, we’ll never find the ******* gold.

Brainstorming has no filter. You never know where a “stupid” idea might lead or what associations it might trigger.”

When you are trying to generate new ideas, applying a filter like “That sounds stupid” won’t get you anywhere. It’s idea suicide.

Could a discussion on the possibilities of becoming a lawn gnome distributor lead to becoming a successful manufacturer of combat gnomes?

Brainstorming involves turning off your stupid filters and running with it. Keep a recorder or a notebook handy and keep track of everything. Go off on tangents and see where they lead. Maybe they’ll lead to the gold.

The one thing you can’t do while brainstorming is criticize. If you start shooting down ideas, you are destroying the opportunity to find greatness. Even if an idea is impractical, build on it. There has to be an angle that becomes worthy of consideration. On the off-chance that there’s not, run with it anyway. It’s an exercise in creativity.

I regularly send my friend emails with potential business ideas. Most of them come to nothing, but once in a while, something clicks and we launch a successful venture together. If I were filtering ideas because they might be stupid, we might not have some of the projects we’ve got.

In addition to random & odd emails, I’ve got a notebook of some kind with me everywhere I go to record any passing idea I may have. In my car, I use a voice recorder. I periodically review everything I’ve noted and copy most of it into evernote.

Someday, those pieces may come together into a billion dollar idea.

How do you generate ideas? Do you bounce ideas off of friends or get drunk and shuffle a Trivial Pursuit deck into a Monopoly game?

Apple Launches iPad Air in November

Business

<a href= — iPad Air” width=”240″ height=”160″ /> iPad Air (Photo credit: Nokton)

With a lighter and thinner chasis, the newly announced iPad Air has a more powerful processor with a great new design and performance features that’s sure to continue Apple’s trend setting reputation. Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller is calling it the biggest leap forward for a full-sized iPad. We expect people have already started packing overnight bags for their long wait on the sidewalks outside the stores.

Apple is promoting its newest innovation as having the power of lightness, hence the addition of the “Air” moniker. That’s because the iPad Air weighs a mere pound and even then doesn’t feel like it. It’s 7.5 millimeters thin and has a design that might remind you of the iPad mini. It’s been engineered with a smaller bezel that shrinks the tablet without losing any screen size. The new dimensions and weight actually makes it easier to hold the tablet in one hand.The device will certainly impress its fans with its incredible power. The new A7 chip has a 64 bit architecture, providing graphics and CPU processing that’s significantly faster than the previous version. Working alongside the A7, the M7 motion co-processor, according to Apple, provides a graphic performance that’s over 70 times faster than the processor in the original iPad model. In fact, in terms of graphics, the Retina Display is likely the most impressive aspect of the new iPad. Graphics promise to render at two times the speed of the last iPad. The pared down bezel makes the screen stand out prominently.The iPad Air is supposed to give a user the chance to do more in more places with an advanced wireless connection. It’s faster than ever in more locations than ever before. The iPad Air brings a WiFi performance twice the speed of the last iPad. It utilizes two antennas instead of one, and MIMO, the latest in communication and smart antenna technology. The WiFi and Cellular model will support more LTE brands, offering greater support and quicker connection anywhere in the world.

With almost a half million apps already available for the iPad, you have a great head start on things to do. Apps built into the iPad Air will include solutions for routine tasks, like web surfing and checking email. A number of previously apps that had to be purchased are now free, such as iMovie, Keynote, iPhoto, GarageBand and Pages. Popular apps for other Apple products, they have all been upgraded to work with iOS 7 and the iPad. Quickly put together an original song or detail a presentation anywhere. As a lot of apps are developed solely for Apple products, these can look stunning on their displays.

The iPad Air’s current launch date is November 1. It will come in black and gray or silver and white. It will start at $499 for a 16 gigabyte WiFi version. This is $100 more than previous generation launches, but supporters say the consumer is getting more screen real estate. The Cellular model will retail for $629. The iPad 2 will continue in the stores for $399.

Deathbed Relationships

Life, Parenting, Relationships

My great-uncle has been depressed lately.

He lives in the same apartment building and my grandmother, his sister. They are just down the hall from each other.

Over the holidays, he’s seen a steady stream of people visiting my grandma, bringing cards and pictures, or taking her out to eat. Over Christmas weekend, she spent far more time away from home, celebrating with her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids than she did at home.

He’s never met his great-grandchildren. He’s in his 70s, living in a retirement home attached to the nursing home he will most likely die in, and he’d like to see his descendants.

It’s too late.

He didn’t lose his relationship with his kids and grandkids in a fight. Instead, he spent his entire life doing his best to avoid all forms of responsibility. He spent 50 years avoiding supporting his family. He wasn’t there for them.

Of course they won’t be there for him.

There is a simple way to get your kids and your grandkids to dote on you in your old age: You spend your entire life being there when you’re needed.

Simple.

Building a relationship that can survive–or even thrive–in the times when you’ve got very little left to give takes a lifetime of commitment.

It starts the day your children are born, when you hold that precious little high-maintenance paperweight and swear that nothing bad will ever be allowed to happen to them. Then you teach them to walk, and teach them to talk, and kiss their booboos when they fall. And they will.

Day in, day out, you be there. You feed them, clothe them, punish them when necessary, and love them unconditionally even when they make it hard to like them. Every blessed day.

You soothe their pains, manage their fears, help them grow and turn into useful adults. Every flipping year.

When they are adults, you lend an ear, you lend a hand, you help with their babies, you offer advice, you listen and talk and you are there. Decade after decade.

Then, when you are old and broke and broken down, you’ve got people who love you, who cherish their memories with you. These are the people who will drive an hour out of their way to pick you up for dinner. They’ll carry you up the stairs you have trouble with. They’ll sit at your feet and listen to you tell stories. They’ll be there for you because you’ve always been there for them.

That’s how you get your kids and grandkids to visit you in the nursing home. Simple, not easy.

If you’ve missed their childhood–for whatever reason–it’s still possible to build that relationship, but it’s so much harder. You start by taking time out of your life to do spend time and be there. Help when you can with what you can. Be there.

If you wait until you are old and broke and broken down to start your relationship, it’s too late. Your kids will know that it’s just another example of your selfishness. If you’ve never made an effort to give, you’ve got know business expecting to get. You’ll be lucky to get an occasional phone call and a greeting card for the holidays.

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