I have known I would be facing a job search for months. That hasn’t made the emotions any easier. I continue to try to trust and focus where I believe I offer the most value. Today I was over-tired from a sleepless night and feeling unsure how best to focus my efforts. My wife suggested I take time away to spend alone with God.

I read through the book of Ephesians. It is a short letter with profound depth. While reading I recalled the hours I spent being guided by Watchman Nee’s work titled, “Sit Walk, Stand”. Today didn’t offer that much time, but reading through the letter reminded me of the solid truth of how much I am loved by God.

The key verses that stood out today were both 2:10 and 3:18-19.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

At any time in life it is great to be reminded that God has already prepared work for us to do. Work that is uniquely designed to be done by us as individuals. Personally, I needed to see that today. My background is diverse with experience spanning several industries and job titles. In a market that seems to be demanding narrowly focused job applicants it is easy for me to wonder where I should focus and doubt myself. In this verse there is a strong promise that He crafted us as His workmanship. As we search for work, as I search for work, that promise is important to remember; because it should be a source of hope and strength.

The second point of the verse is to know that there is specific work already prepared for us. There is work out there; God already prepared it for us.

Ephesians 3:18-19

may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

This was perhaps the most important section I read today. God’s love is so intense that Paul struggles to describe it. He even goes so far to say that God’s love surpasses knowledge. I’m an engineer by training and my top strength from the StrengthFinder 2.0 is a Learner, so you could say that knowledge is important to me. When I encounter things that surpass knowledge my system often doesn’t know quite how to handle it. Right now I realize that I have tried to quantify and understand God’s love. I analyze how He has worked in the past. I study, read, meditate, and memorize scriptures. I long to know … but Paul is stressing how huge God’s love is that it even surpasses knowledge. It is only through the power of the Spirit that I can even grasp the extent of His love.

As I thought about the entire letter of Ephesians and prayed for wisdom and focus, my mind was drawn back to Paul’s prayer in verses 3:14-21. In this prayer his primary focus is that we grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. What a wonderful prayer in both times of calm and times of turbulence.

So I found myself asking, “Do I really understand that God loves me?” Then I prayed Paul’s prayer…

  
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
  
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I realize we all need rest, but now that I am searching for a job full-time I can
get caught up in the activity and inevitably the stress of the situation. Thankfully I have been spending time reading in Hebrews lately. Chapter four has been a great reminder of my need to rest and rest in God’s care.

As I attended several job transition groups this week one common topic was dealing with attitude. More specifically the advise was to make sure you keep a positive attitude.

Keeping a positive attitude is sound advise, but I must admit that it is something that comes from Christ not my own striving. When I attempt to force my power of positive thinking it is shallow and short-lived. But when I return to Christ and trust in Him the result is an attitude of gratitude and hope that rolls over into the rest of life. Reading about rest ties into that process perfectly.

Here is Hebrews 4 from The Message translation:

For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we’ll experience that state of resting. But not if we don’t have faith. Remember that God said,

   Exasperated, I vowed,
      ”They’ll never get where they’re going,
      never be able to sit down and rest.”

God made that vow, even though he’d finished his part before the foundation of the world. Somewhere it’s written, “God rested the seventh day, having completed his work,” but in this other text he says, “They’ll never be able to sit down and rest.” So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient. God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David’s psalm, centuries later than the original invitation:

   Today, please listen,
      don’t turn a deaf ear . . .

And so this is still a live promise. It wasn’t canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn’t keep renewing the appointment for “today.” The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God. So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.

God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what.

Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

There is a great promise from God in those verses. When we trust Him for help in all of life, he gives us rest. What a wonderful promise, a promise that I’m counting on and trusting that it is Him who carries us through our days. I need to do the tasks in front of me each and every day, but I need to do them in His power, at His timing, and being willing to reside in His rest.

Just a short highlight my personal branding efforts.

I have reworked my main web page aimed to help me network to find a new job in product marketing, product management, or other roles related to bringing new innovations to life.

The design is based on a simple logo I developed in InkScape for my business cards.

For my blog I took the dfblog theme from Daniel Fajardo and tweeked the css and a couple of images.

A friend of mine got me interested in watches, or more specifically, chronometers. Exploring this sub-culture has reminded me again of the power of perception.

First let me set the stage with a little background information.

This past fall my wife and I celebrated 20 years of marriage by going on our first cruise. It was an incredible trip. A few weeks before our cruise my friend at work, Jack, came to me and said I needed to be looking at watches while we in the Caribbean. That simple comment started us down a journey of discovery and exploration as Jack educated me on the world of chronometers.

We went on our trip and sure enough both my wife and I returned with new purchases adorning our wrists. She got a ESQ and I held to my fascination with motorcycles got a Pirelli. (Yes, Pirelli. The watch band looks just like the tire tread that was on my Ducati Monster M800.)

Only a few short months back from the cruise and both of us found that our watches needed new batteries. I called Gould Jewelery in Anoka, MN since they are close to home and had advertised servicing watches. They said they could service both of our watches, so my wife and I headed there this past weekend.

My wife knows me well so on the way there she smiles and says, “you can’t get a new watch”. But like a kid in a candy store I was drawn to the polished counters filled with watches. I’ve been wanting a new watch with a silver band for those occasions when motorcycle tread may not be the most fitting.

There it was … a Bulova BVA-Series 100.

What caught my attention was the face design with the small window to display the intricate swiss-movement of an automatic winding chronometer. I had to try it on. The band was silver and the watch fit nicely on my wrist. I looked a bit closer to see it was a 21-jewel movement; the back face was transparent as well so you could see all of the inner-workings of the piece.

While searching for my next watch I have seen a consistent pattern that the automatic watches are $1000 on up. I even found one that was selling for more than $200k; it was a glorious example of precision engineering, but that price is just outrageous. I was a bit surprised when I noticed the list price was $425. Why so inexpensive?

Back to Jack. He would know. Sure enough he knew the brand and quickly explained that it was a good piece, but the price difference was because it wasn’t manufactured in Switzerland. Swiss automatic watches are $1000k on up. Bulova is made in America; not Switzerland.

Perception is lasting

Switzerland … just the mention brings two thoughts to mind almost immediately: dark chocolate and precision time pieces.

How can it be that a watch made in Switzerland can claim a list price that is three times a watch made elsewhere? Perception.

I don’t know the inner details of the manufacturing process enough to know how different Bulova’s manufacturing when compared to Tag Heuer’s. Is there an intrinsic difference in the engineering? Does the manufacturing process somehow improve by location? Are the raw materials of higher-grade?

While any of these could be true, my guess is that the price difference is based solely on customer perception.

That led me mind to ponder the power of perception in other areas. Simple User Experience = Apple. High-performance elegant automobiles = German Car Companies. Fast food = McDonald’s. Reliability = Maytag.

I found myself confounded with unanswered questions. Questions like … How is this perception developed? Once established can the perception be destroyed or altered? Can a new overriding perception be built? Where does a perception start?

Those perplexing problems brought me back to Bulova’s situation. I realize we, as Americans, need to find ways to develop and build sustainable manufacturing industries. But if the business at hand is designing precision chronometers, why would I manufacture anywhere other than Switzerland? Could Bulova build a business that is designed in America and manufactured in Switzerland?

This weekend I was reminded of two truths that are easily forgotten: networking matters and trust your vision.

My wife and I were enjoying time together with our teen kids gone for the weekend. We decided that part of our weekend-long date would include a trip to Truffles and Tortes in Anoka, MN. This tiny place makes exquisite deserts and has a small, but cozy seating area; perfect for a date.

While we were gazing into their display cases we were greeted by a smiling man wearing an apron. He had escaped from the back room to talk with customers. From his responses you could tell he not only knew their deserts, but loved to tell people about them. His joy was obvious. Based on his advice we ordered and found a place to sit.

While we were enjoying the Wild Rice soup, our happy chef emerged from the back room to mingle with the guests again. He stopped by our table where we praised his work. So he pulled up a chair to join us for a while. After a round of introductions we found out we were talking with Bob, the owner of Truffles and Tortes”. We asked about how their business has been, since they launched four months ago in the midst of this dark economy.

During our talk he made it clear that networking mattered and he had a vision for his business.

Networking Matters

Bob beamed as he talked about their first day of business back in November. He smiled as he described how they opened with no marketing and were flooded with 100 customers on their first day. While developing the location they only had a small sign on the front window stating when they planned to open. They had another location in Plymouth where people had come to learn about their one-of-a-kind deserts. That location was different; it had no seating nor food. The Plymouth location only offered walk-in deserts. This new location would offer customers more: the same unique deserts, with simple home-style meals, beverages, and a comfortable dine-in experience.

Built from their existing customer base, Bob’s new venture has been busy from the first day. 100 customers through the door of a new restaurant was a shock, he said they weren’t quite ready but they were excited. They have adapted and grown. He attributed much of their success to word of mouth marketing. Old-fashioned marketing. They trusted that their customers were talking and sharing the news about this new location; a location with food and in store dining.

Each of us needs to examine our network to understand the power and importance of word of mouth marketing. For Bob his network was talking about his unique deserts. Are people talking about me and my unique capabilities to mix technology and business? My visit not only filled my stomach, but gave my mind some ideas on how to network with more focus.

Trust Your Vision

“That won’t work”

Haven’t we all heard those words? I know I have as I have explored emerging technologies, or proposed targeting products to new niche markets. Bob said that was the response he heard when they approached the bank for funding. He smiled as he looked around the busy dining area. He smiled as he said they have stayed busy since they opened.

Bob had a vision for his business that couldn’t be stopped by a simple “no”. He persisted and trusted in his vision. He knew his customers and believed that he could attract enough people to stay in business.

There are times in all of our careers where we passionately believe in our vision. In those times we need to be able to trust in it enough to persist when all we here is “no”. With that persistence I can only hope that someday I too can feel the joy I saw in Bob’s face as he took another gaze around the room, got up to walk away, and said, “But now I can tell the bank, nah-neh-nah, nah-neh-nah, nah-neh-nah.”

I know we’ll be back. The food was great and our brief conversation with Bob refreshed some simple truths that I can so easily forget.

Loft beds … they can be such fun and a great way to increase usable space.

I was cleaning up some web space and found a handful of pictures from creating loft beds for my kids. It has been several years and both of them are ready for something new in their rooms.

My son’s room is done to a music theme with a Hard Rock logo on the wall, a guitar for the loft bed ladder, and a music staff painted on the bottom of the bunk.

My daughter’s room is a starry night theme. Her bunk ladder was a bit more work. I managed to create a falling star with three dimensional tails to work for the ladder.

A fun project that just might be for sale in the coming months.

So how do you price custom artwork?

Forbes is known for their lists, so this one begs the question. How many people do you know from their Web Celeb top 25 list?

Thanks to Twitter I recognized about 13 fairly easily. (Follow me on Twitter.). But if I read their bios from Forbes’ article many more came to mind. So I fell a bit short from knowing all of these key influencers in the web world, how about you. Here is the list:

1. Perez Hilton
2. Michael Arrington
3. Kevin Rose
4. Frank Warren
5. Cory Doctorow
6. Pete Cashmore
7. Beppe Grillo
8. Heather Armstrong
9. Guy Kawasaki
10. Jason Calacanis
11. Robert Scoble
12. Will Leitch
13. Jeff Jarvis
14. Wil Wheaton
15. Nate Silver
16. Om Malik
17. Matt Drudge
18. Owen Thomas
19. Dave Winer
20. Seth Godin
21. Brian Lam
22. Mark Frauenfelder
23. Steve Rubel
24. John C. Dvorak
25. Leo Laporte

This morning I was hoping for some music, so I thought I would check for an update from either Pandora or Slacker Radio. To my surprise Slacker Radio has released their native application for the BlackBerry Storm.

The installation process was a simple OTA download. I went to their site from my desktop to create a free account, then I logged into the application.

My first impression is that the application looks great. Well done design, simple interface with a coverflow style display for the tracks being played. Ironically during the very first track it died 4 minutes into a 5 minute song. My assumption is that this is just Verizon Wireless’s shoddy 3G coverage.

Once the player recovered and started to play music again things seemed be on the right track, but then I received an email. Sure BlackBerries are known for incredible push-technology keeping us all up to date, but it interrupted my tunes just to sound a chime. The Slacker Radio player’s buttons still displayed the ‘pause’ button implying that music was playing, but to get the music going again I had to press pause, then press play.

The player supports both portrait and landscape display modes, utilizing the BlackBerry Storm’s accelerometer to change display.

My next test was to switch from using the headphone jack on the Storm to using my Motorola SoundPilot S705 stereo Bluetooth pendant. The S705 was simple to pair to the BlackBerry Storm and once turned on the Slacker Radio application began streaming to the headphones.

While using the standard media player from the BlackBerry Storm the S705 lets you control playback with play/pause, forward, and back buttons. The Slacker Radio player did not accept these controls from the headset. I could only control the volume on the S705.

The sound quality was good and made it easy for me to leave my Storm on the desk while I moved around the office. I could even keep listening to the music while I went to get coffee. Music and caffeine; now that’s a great combination.

Imagine streaming video right from your BlackBerry Storm – that’s Qik. Or imagine being able to track your workout without dragging a pen/notebook around the gym without – that’s GymTechnik

Again I have been frustrated with the lack of applications for the BlackBerry Storm. As I continued to search I have found a few applications that hold some promise. Better yet I have been able to get involved with the teams creating these applications.

Qik is an application that I used on my iPhone to stream videos to share with others. It gave me a reason to have a video camera on my phone. The iPhone application worked wonderfully. When I got my Blackberry Storm I had to see if there was a Qik application available for it. There wasn’t. With a bit of effort I was able to get involved by testing an early release of the application.

First impression is pretty cool. The application is an OTA install, so I can do it right from the Storm’s browser. Once installed I can start it and it brings me right to a login screen where I can enter my Qik credentials. Once connected the screen shows a similar screen to the iPhone application with the live video displayed above and a few controls on the screen. There are still some issues interfacing with RIM’s system to capture the video, but it is coming.

GymTechnik is an emerging fitness community bringing fitness geeks together. As one of the founders put it, they “didn’t want to be the guy carrying a notebook around the gym”. There must be a better way.

Their web site gives a great web2.0 experience. One that excites the customer-focused tech-geek in me. It was simple to use, elegant in appearance, and just worked. I was quickly able to create an account (for free), then create workouts from exercises that were in their library or some of my own.

With my workouts created I was off to LA Fitness toting my BlackBerry. I pointed the Storm’s browser to their site and up came a simplified version that let me choose my workout of the day. Once loaded the GymTechnik site let me enter my weights, reps, and minutes on the different exercises in my workout.

So why get involved?

The interface worked, but was a little cumbersome for me to use. Part of that is due to the Storm’s interface. RIM has not included a way to tab from field to field on a web form. So I need to try to scroll the screen and select the next entry box each time. For me that is tough normally, but after pushing myself to get those last few reps it is near impossible. I found myself clicking and zooming, clicking and missing, clicking, clicking, clicking.

Sure that was my second day with the BlackBerry Storm and I was still learning how to use the device. Now after a week I am marginally better.

I started asking some questions from GymTechnik’s support link and was amazed at the quick response. Those initial email exchanges started a conversation that is still evolving. They invited me to join them in developing and expanding their site.

As far as the interface and user experience on the BlackBerry Storm they are developing a custom application for the Storm. Although the web applications are great and a quick way to offer some functionality to users, they can not leverage the capabilities of the device as well as a native application. (We’ve seen the same migration occur on the iPhone applications. Very few new application gain much attention as web-apps; they must be offered as native applications.)

Time will tell how I can best help these two mobile development teams, but I am excited to be involved. Both are working on leading edge applications that bring people together. They help us connect with others and utilize these powerful devices that so many of us carry around each and every day.

Go checkout Qik and watch for the official release of the Storm application.

If your into fitness go to GymTechnik, create an account, and start working out using your mobile device to track your progress. (If your not into fitness, isn’t it about time to get started?)

This is the first of several posts about my new phone, the BlackBerry Storm.  I had an iPhone for a year before switching.  With that experience, just about any phone will be underwhelming.  Still the BlackBerry has been working; for me.   The biggest difference is the applications: iPhone has applications for everything while the BlackBerry has … NOTHING.

Sure I’ve tried several OTA applications.  Some work okay, while others are just plain buggy and crude.  True the phone is fairly new.   The fact remains, I miss my applications.

Which application do I miss most?   Without hesitation I say Pandora.

I was getting used to hearing about a new artist, typing it into the iPhone’s Pandora app and jammin’ out to the new musical-styling of the artist.  Fresh music to the ears can be such a pleasant blessing.

So I searched, and searched, and searched.  I found people talking about a few applications and I gave them a shot:

1. Moodio.fm — This site provides a web interface to collect URLs for streaming audio sites around the planet. By creating an account on Moodio I was able to search for some stations by genre and add them to My Stations. Then I load the moodio.fm site from the BB Storm. By clicking on one of the stations the media player is launched playing from the stream. It worked, sort of. The streams were hard to find and the quality varied from one stream to the next. Not impressed.
2. FlyCast — I found this one straight from BlackBerry’s web site. The experience was like a dressed up version of using moodio. Finding music and consistent quality was near impossible.
3. nuTsie — I didn’t give this one a true comparison, because the mobile application costs $20! No way am I going to spend $20 for an application that I can’t try on a platform that has consistently given me poorly done applications. (I used countless applications on the iPhone and most were free. The only application I paid for was Snapture, which was a great camera replacement for $5.) I created an account and tried the desktop interface, it was close. Now if the mobile app was free/cheap, maybe.
4. Slacker Radio sounds interesting, but their BlackBerry Storm application isn’t ready, yet. Waiting is such a difficult thing to do.

That leaves me still searching and waiting; waiting in silence.