The Collector – Exercise #19

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First off I would like to apologize to all who read my blog as soon as it comes out. I have discovered that the quickest and easiest way to proofread anything I have written is to just hit the “publish” button. Same probably works with email. As soon as you make the work public you will begin to notice all the small spelling errors, incorrect word choices, and mixtures of tense. I try to go back and correct these as quickly as possible, but those of you who get immediate notice of the posting or are Johnny-on-the-spot and read it as soon as I post it online will get to see all my gory and glorifying errors. Really quite shameful. Especially for an English major. We all know that spellcheckers and other such grammar tools cannot find all little errors. It takes time, it takes reflection on what you wrote, and  it takes rereading with a keen eye and ear. None of that seems to happen until I hit the publish button.

Catherine CollageWell, enough of that apologizing and self flagellation. Today’s exercise, number nineteen of thirty-one, is something that is near and dear to my heart, something that drives those who live with me nuts, for today I am asked to describe, “what do you collect?” That is both a dangerous and a broad subject.  We can start with the fact that I am a collector of all things involving around British cars. Not just the cars themselves you understand, but books about the cars, emblems from the cars, models of the cars, publicity posters, videos of the cars and car races, well I think you get the idea. Basically if I run across almost anything that has to do with old British cars I will collect it and try to find some spot for it in my home or office. The more esoteric the better.

If that’s not enough on the large side, I am also a train and trolley collector. Unfortunately I have no actual prototype real-size trains or trolleys (not that I haven’t tried), so I have to make up for that by collecting the same tonnage in model trains. Next week in fact I will be at the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) convention in Atlanta for four days. My wife is going with me, and boy is she thrilled. And as is inevitable with a collection like this, not only do I collect the model trains and track and scenery and buildings that all go together to create a scene, I also collect the aforementioned books, movies, posters, belt buckles, and anything else you can think of that has to do railroading.

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In The End We Name Ourselves – Exercise #18

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In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asks us, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That all may be well and good, but names do have strength. This goes back to the ancient belief that if we name something or know a creature’s real name, then we have power over it. So while the task for Kindle in my namethis exercise may sound easy, “The Meaning Behind Your Blog Name”, the story behind that meaning is much more important.

Ok, directly, this site is my blog and it bears my name, Michael Carnell. Simple as that. But it didn’t always have that name. And in the past it wasn’t even my blog. If we go way back, this was my personal business site, business only, and it was named “Palmettobug Digital.” In fact if you got to http://www.Palmettobug.com it still brings you right here. Palmettobug Digital was my professional business identity. On the personal side I had a blog titled “Postcards From Myself”. A cute little title that not only indicated that I was trying to post a good number of pictures, but that I also wanted to travel, and that what I was writing was as much a reminder to me of what was going on as anything else.

Now jump forward a few years – my business is doing better, I am doing more public speaking and writing, and people are becoming more familiar with my work and my name. Well the problem is that outside of the Southern United States for the most part, no one knows what a palmettobug is. By the way, palmettobugs are cockroaches. And, as my friend and unofficial business advisor Andra Watkins pointed out to me one day, those folks who do know what a palmettobug is don’t like them. It was not very inviting to new clients. And the name really didn’t have anything to do with my vocation or skills, it was just some interesting local color. Understanding that then, I started to consider new names for my business. Well, duh, it finally hit me that it was me people knew or were looking for. It was my name that was on those magazine articles and book chapters, it was me standing up giving presentations, and it was my name that was my most reliable search term. With that, my name became my brand.

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Pride Goeth Before Parenthood – Exercise #17

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Today’s exercise is about pride. I am going to switch it up a bit, use multiple definitions, and generally do what I feel like. So when the exercise says,”What is your proudest moment,” what I’m going to tell you about is me being proud of my kids. So we are talking about pride in a pride. I am doing this for two reasons.

Carnell KidsFirst is that although I am happy about things I have done, I don’t take huge amounts of pride in my accomplishments. What I do usually involves a lot of people as a team, not just me working by myself. I have partners in business, in hobbies, and in life. So I can’t and won’t take credit for everything goes on. Very often it is other people fixing my mistakes or polishing my rough work that makes me look good.

Second, what I really am proud of is what my kids have done. And what they will do. They are still young and have a lot of time ahead of them, but if their history is any indication then their futures will be burning bright. If I leave nothing in the world other than the legacy of these two young adults, I can be content with that. I have a feeling that they will both leave their marks on people in great ways.

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Kicking The Bucket – Exercise #16

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There are movies, there are books, there are websites, and there are all sorts of folks offering advice on the subject. But, when it comes to a bucket list each of ours is a personal thing. What we want to do and what we feel we need to accomplish before we shuffle off this mortal coil is different for each person. The exercise for today, from my great list of exercises to do, is “What is at the top of my bucket list.”

Swiss Cheese in a BucketI never thought so much about having a bucket list myself  I have things I’d like to do in life, places I’d like to go, and  people I want to meet, but I’ve never put them on a list of “things I have to do before I die or I am going to die.” I’m also very happy to say that a lot of the things I wanted to do in life I have already done. Not because I set out with some dogged determination that I had to accomplish something,  but because I just did. It’s kind of like the old Nike ad of “just do it”.

Two of the things that I had always wanted to do envolved traveling. The first was to go to Ireland, and the second was to visit England. Luckily my father got invited to speak at a conference at Trinity College in Dublin 1992 and amazingly he asked my sister and me if we wanted to go along. How could anyone turned down such an invitation? We spent a marvelous week in Dublin and some other southerly parts of Ireland enjoying the history, people, poking the Book of Kells (well not really, I poked the case) and generally exploring and having a good time.

Later, on our 15th anniversary, my wife and I got a chance to go to England. She had a relative living just outside of London who kindly offered us full use of their house. They were to be away in Rome that week! Again, too good a deal to pass up – and we didn’t. I don’t think anyone could hit all the high points of the London area to lifetime, but we did a good bit. And I also did something I really wanted to which was visit Abingdon, the home of the original MG factory. Also got to visit Warwick Castle, Bath, and catch Phantom of the Opera at the Queen’s Theatre.

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