It’s team building week this week with SkörInc.  Okay.  I’m totally joking, but we are getting together for a little quality time at Lake Erie.  You know.  Because that’s what teams do right?  Go to Lake Erie?

Seriously though.  Since we are spread out all over the country, we’ve decided to take this long Labor Day Weekend and join up for a little regrouping and hang time.  Not to mention, since we are all over the country, our families have never met, so it’s a great time to make that happen.  We’ve gotten busier and busier and it’s time to take a moment to have some fun, get to know each other a little better and hit it hard when we come back.

I thought about making some shirts, but I couldn’t think of anything awesome enough.  Let’s hear it.  What should this SkörInc weekend be called?  Best name gets a digital high five from me.

Ready?  Go.

SkörInc Weekend Getaway is a post from: Brody Harper

I have a new favorite. I got an email today from a guy who stumbled on to the “Music You’ve Never Heard” section of this site and recommended this guy. Come on. This guy is the deal for sure. Not quite as sad as Damien Rice, but easily just as emotional. And just to be sure… you need to stay to the end of this video. Then everyone go check out Dan Craig and buy his stuff.  Let him know you heard about him on “Music You’ve Never Heard”.

Go on.

MYNH – Dan Craig is a post from: Brody Harper

Today is the first day Kristin and I are realistically looking at taking our dog of 11 years in to be put down.  He’s at a point where he hasn’t eaten in three days, can barely walk and doesn’t even lay comfortably.  I’ve talked to the vet, they recommend bringing him in when we are ‘ready’.  I’m not sure we’ll ever be ‘ready’, but there’s a sadness in choosing when to end his life.  Sadness.

A friend I went to High School with is burying her dad today.  He had a long bout with cancer and it finally got the best of him and he passed last week.  This same friend has a sister 2000 miles away, unable to travel to the funeral because she’s having a baby.  Today.  The very day of her own dad’s funeral.  Words can’t even describe the emotional conflict going on in that house.  The mom unable to be there for the daughter as she’s giving birth.  The daughter unable to be there with the rest of her family as they lay her dad to rest.  The joy of new life, and the ache of saying goodbye.  Sadness.

Seems like this life is full of it.  And there’s no way around it.  I wish I had some inspirational thing to write on here, but I don’t.  If you’re a praying person, offer one up for our friends in California.  I’m sure they could use it.

Sadness is a post from: Brody Harper

So, Barry might make fun of me for this. Probably call me a dirty hippie or something, but there’s no denying how amazingly these two guys can make their guitars talk. I’m an unashamed Dave Matthews fan for sure, but I’m more of a fan of his acoustic stuff, especially when it’s just him and Tim Reynolds. Mind blowing. I’d love to be able to pull off half the stuff he does with his guitar and still have the ability to sing.

Any Dave Matthews fans out there?

‘When The World Ends’ is a post from: Brody Harper

Alright people.  You know the drill.  Today is release day for a one Mrs. Natalie Grant.  I’ve been pretty heavily involved in this project, so it’s time for all the SkörKeepers to step up and start spreading the word.  Make sure if you Tweet it, use the hashtag #LoveRevolution.  Also make sure you use the link – http://bit.ly/bNFOk2 either on Twitter or Facebook.  And for the 3 of you still on Myspace, do something there too.

Now that the business is done I’d love to know what you people think about this record.  I know this crowd has a pretty diverse musical style so I’m interested in your thoughts.  Thanks for spreading the word and being a part of this community.

Natalie Grant’s ‘Love Revolution’ Today is a post from: Brody Harper

Seth Godin announced today that he’s not publishing any more books.  Not in the traditional way at least.  The way I read it, he’s a little unclear as to what he’s going to do, but it’s for sure not going to be the ‘hard cover – sold in a bookstore’ type of way.  Pretty interesting huh?  He’s living out what he wrote in Linchpin.

Sure, I’ve got some mixed thoughts on the whole thing, but here’s what I like about it. 1:  I like that he’s stepping out and doing something different.  I like that he’s taking what he talks about and putting it to practice.  To me he’s going against what’s easy and testing out what could quite literally change things. 2:  This might be the thing that pushes me over the edge and I’ll go get that iPad I’ve been on the fence about for so long.

Seriously though.  This post originally had nothing to do with Seth Godin, but it seems to fall in line perfectly with what I was going to talk about.  You ready for that?

I’m not what you’d call an ‘avid reader’ but I enjoy a good book now and then.  You all know about our SkörInc Reading List and I’m doing pretty well on that.  So here’s my question.  Once you’re done with a book, what do you do with it?  Pass it on to a friend?  Take it to a Used Book Store?  Shelve it?  Kindling for the fire place?  I guess the reason I’m wondering is because I’d like to hear your opinions on how passing books around among friends.  Come on. Be honest.  Who does this?  Is there a difference between doing this and passing on a CD?  Do you think that this is attributing to Seth Godin changing his format?

Now obviously passing books around has been the same forever.  It’s not like digital music and how it became easy to duplicate, but what’s the consensus here?  Is passing a book to a friend for them to read the same as burning them a CD?  Thoughts?

Ready? Go.

Thoughts On Books is a post from: Brody Harper

I ask my boys almost every day what they learned that day.  Whether it’s at school, at home, at a friends, I figure they must have learned something.  Typically the answer is “nothing”, but every once in a while they answer with something they really did learn that day.  It’s kind of awesome to see when that happens.

I’m no good with Excel.  In fact, it’d be safe to say that not only am I no good with Excel, but I also am not a fan of Excel.  I don’t like the way it works.  I don’t like the columns.  I don’t like that when I do something in one box it messes with other boxes.  It’s just a jacked up program that I wish I knew better.  I’m also no good with Wireframes.  I love the idea of wireframes.  I’m just not good at mapping something out like that and it takes me forever to get it right.

Recently I’ve started to realize that it seems like more days than not I go to bed having learned something that I didn’t know when I woke up that day.  Not because I’m seeking out these things that I need to know, but because some circumstance that day has caused me to do something I either, (a.) hate to do and so I haven’t learned it, or (b.) something I didn’t know how to do but needed to get done.  So I’ve started paying attention.

I’ve even started a little notebook where I’m writing down the things that I’ve learned.  Now, let’s be clear, these aren’t Earth shattering things.  In fact, I’m even a little embarrassed to admit that today I wrote down that Kristin taught me how to change Excel sheets from vertical to horizontal for printing.  Seems easy enough right?  Well, I didn’t know it because I hate Excel and never wanted to learn it.  In fact, currently I am forcing my brain to remember how to do that so I don’t intentionally forget it because I ‘don’t want to learn it’.  And yesterday I sat down with several sheets of paper and tried to learn wireframes.  I ended up working it out and now it’s something I feel more comfortable with.  Not perfect, but I’m getting there.

Anyway, all that to say, this is something I’m going to try to start doing.  And like most posts on this site, I’m going to ask you.  What’d you learn today?  It could be something as lame as turning a page sideways in Excel, but we all learned something.  Who’s with me in starting a little notebook and writing these things down.  Imagine how cool it would be in a year to look back at all the junk you’ve learned.

Learn Something New Every Day is a post from: Brody Harper

If you could do one thing for a living what would it be?  Let’s call this your ‘dream job’.  What is it?  And why aren’t you doing it?

Ready?  Go.

If You Could Do One Thing… is a post from: Brody Harper

Kristin had never been to New York before two weeks ago. She’d seen the pictures, seen the movies portraying the city, even read books set there, but never actually been involved in the culture that is New York City. I’d been a few times for work. Nothing more than a day or two there to walk around and catch as much as I could in the short time I was there. Certainly not long enough to capture the entire ‘vibe’ of the city.

Now, as far as the ’stereotype’ for New York goes, we all know it right? Rough, hurried, self-centered, rude… the list goes on right? I mean, I could be wrong, but from an outside perspective I think we’d all agree that New Yorkers are considered to be a certain way, right? Funny thing is, not many of those characteristics are similar to what we’d call ‘Southern Hospitality’ right?

Kristin and I took the subway several times in the couple times we were in the city and there were a couple things that jumped out at me on those short rides. Now, I’ve been on public transportation in tons of major cities in America and typically (especially in San Francisco) the insides of the cars are usually decorated with all sorts of ads. Since sex sells here in America most of these ads are pretty provocative or at the very least pretty suggestive. So naturally it took me back to see that in the middle of New York City the ‘ads’ that are covering the subway car walls were pretty different.

One stated “Bring Manners Back To The City: Give an elderly person or pregnant woman your seat”. This one had a picture of a guy in a suit standing up and offering a pregnant woman his chair on the subway.

The second was a picture of a man with a dirty face and jacket. Under his picture it said this: “Help the homeless.” Then beneath that in the small print it said something like, “help the homeless or if you see someone in need dial 311 and we’ll send someone out to help”. Not the exact wording but you get the idea. Pretty striking difference than what we’d expect from such a “rough” city. Sure, there are rough areas, and I’m certainly no expert on the city of New York, but that certainly jumped out.

Fast forward about 15 hours as we’re pulling into the “Bible Belt” south of East Tennessee and we are greeted with none other than the Confederate Flag waving proudly in the sky. Now, we’ve had some pretty great conversation about the flag, the meaning of it, as well as the perception of it, but I have to be honest. Going from what is stereotypically a rude, self-centered, rough place publicly promoting manners and caring for others, to the Bible Belt and what is stereotypically generous and “hospitable” waving such a “controversial” icon struck me as a little weird.

And here’s the thing.  I’m not claiming to be some culture expert and certainly have no idea what each person in the world thinks about homeless or manners or racism or hate, but I do, however, have eyes.  And I have perception.  And like every one else in the world I have questions about it all.  So, I know there’s not really a point to this rambling, but I’m curious what you think about all this.

Southern Pride – Northern Manners? is a post from: Brody Harper

Blue is eight today. I can’t believe I’m old enough to have a real kid. Like a full on kid. Not a baby. Not a toddler. But a real live, drive you crazy, starting his own life kid. It kind of freaks me out a little.

In about an hour we’ll have a handful of 2nd graders in our house running around like maniacs and devouring enough sugar to get them close to a comatose state just before we send them home.

Happy Birthday Blue.  You’re a real live kid and we love every minute of it.

Eight is a post from: Brody Harper