In my mind I would much rather have someone be themself than be super professional. What I mean by that is, if I walk up to a business owner I don’t them to use big words to impress me. I want them to talk to me like they talk to their friends and family. You can still come off as professional while being more human like. If they “cuss” I don’t care, as to me that makes them seem a bit more human as long as they don’t go way overboard. If they don’t “cuss” it also doesn’t bother me as some people just don’t.

I know several business owners that will talk to me about what they offer and what a competitor offers. They tell me that they would be more then happy for me to buy from them but if I don’t its no big deal. This alone makes me feel good about dealing with the company. I have been up to SASS a few times and the way they have talked to me, I don’t mind driving the hour there to buy from them even though there is a competitor shop 20 minutes away. A marketing style newsletter I get, if they recommend something and use a referral link they tell me they will get a kick back on it. It seems both these companies care about potential clients trusting them.

Then there is DreamHost. These guys crack me up. If you haven’t checked out their blog I recommend you do so. Even when they had that huge screw up with their billing they were pretty funny with their blog posts.

Now, for what inspired this post. Simply a blog post over at the 37Signals blog.

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1351-1-who-the-fuck-designs-this-shit-and-2

“1. Who the fuck designs this shit? And 2. Gotta love the white remote.”

I have to agree with thim. That cd player is hideous. That post inspired me to write this post because on a company blog I would not expect the words “fuck” and “shit” from an employee of the company. To me, that being allowed on their blog, says they could be a fun group of people to work with. I am much more inclined to go with a company that seems to be fun or laid back compared to a company that seems upity. Hell the company I use as a web host has this up.

So, to all of you that own a company, there are people out there who want you to be yourself and be able to sit there and bull shit (talk about stuff) with them. Show that you are on a level with the person looking at buying your product. Yes you know more than I do about your product(s) but you don’t have to make sure that I know that.

I imagine at this point I am just rambling on about something. To that, farewell.

No this isn’t one of my heart felt posts. This is actually a post about a really good book. The title is called Getting Real written by the guys/gals over at 37signals. The book is mostly focused around web programming but can be used for general programming as well as product / business management. This book might alter your perception of how you build apps. I know it did mine.

The book is free to read online or you can buy pdf and paperback versions. Im not even getting a kickback as an affiliate on those links. Thats how good it is. Go read it.. No seriously go read it as soon as you are done with this post.

<offtopic> Gas was $3.33 / gallon today. HOLY CRAP </offtopic>

For the past several years I have always used a prepaid cellphone. Specifically BoostMobile as it had some decent rates. When they made some changes that I did not agree with such as no longer letting you know when you were getting low on minutes, I decided that it was time to change. I had planned on getting the iPhone but this prompted me to do so sooner than later.

Since I got my phone (back in February) I have been talking on it more and more compared to when I had prepaid. This month figuring out the difference it was actually cheaper for me to have my AT&T plan that it would have been had I still used BoostMobile. We are talking straight talk time not including text messaging or internet. I am not a fan of text messaging but I have started using it here and there.

Just thought I would throw that out there.

So this past 10 days I was up in Grayling for Anual Training phase 2. I tell you what. This is probably the best time I have had since getting out of Basic/AIT. I played on AFATDS a shit ton and it including shooting LIVE high explosive and illumination rounds. I didn’t get to see them from where I was at but I hit the “RED” button to send them down to the units.

I also busted my ass a lot. I volunteered to get on AFATDS when people were going to sleep yet we were still shooting missions. If I wasn’t doing anything important I made sure the guys doing RTO were not on it for a super long time. Most of my days were from 0400 – 0130 (4am – 1am (the next day)). A few of those days I was forced out of our TOC (tactical operations center) to go get some sleep and give someone else a turn.

Wednesday I went down to the gun line of Charlie battery and watched the FDC (same as me) do their jobs when a fire mission came down. This was a first time I had seen real live action of a battery unit processing missions. When I do it, it is at battalion level and there is less stuff to do and manage. While I was down there I got to see the howitzers shoot. OH MY GOD! It was awesome. Going off topic for a second. I watch fireworks to feel the boom and intensity. I don’t know if I will like a fireworks show ever again. The blasts were intensive and great.

Last but not least. From working so hard and people actually noticing it, I got an Army Achievement Medal. One day I will scan the certificate and maybe take a picture of the medal. I am way to tired to do it today.

Those of you with my AIM/MSN etc. may have noticed I have not been at my computer quite a bit lately. The truth is I have been having fun. No not that hardcore programming fun. Its been actual go out and hang out with friends and live a life. As crazy as it seems, it is completely true. This weekend I was on my computer maybe 3 hours from Friday (after work) -> Monday morning.

Hopefully it will continue as I love it.