Seattle Photo Shoot

Well, I took more photos for the cd project and I realized that I really need to spend 10,000 hours on modeling or smiling believably or something. Wow. I am a serious nerd with no photogenic gift. Here are some funny ones. (Please, please laugh at my expense. I think these deserve to make you happy!)

There were some good ones but out of 1000 photographs (taken over 5 hours) there were only a handful of ones that looked natural.
Wow! I had no idea it was so hard to be believably happy. AND I AM A HAPPY PERSON!!

My favorite one of these (I hope I didn't make them too small so you can't appreciate how goofy I look) is the twisted up lips one. It looks like I'm grimacing- probably am, come to think of it.

Decades and Principles

I have been thinking about the next ten years.

I have also been thinking about principles and what they really mean.

Dave Ramsey (who wrote, ahem, "The Total Money Makeover") has been getting my full attention lately and he said something about principles that really got me thinking: basically, to paraphrase, 99% of your decisions are made for you if you have principles. I think he's on to something..not quite sure what exactly, but I have been stymied several times recently by what my mind thinks of as "gray area", decisions that are confusing and don't seem to fall into a clear "yes" or "no" deal. Soooo, I am wondering if perhaps I am not being led by my principles and more by my wants. Well, I mean, it's happened before. :)

Back to my comment about the next ten years. I read in a book called "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell that virtuousos in their field have spent 10,000 hours doing that that thing they do. Wow. 10,000 hours is about 20 hours a week for ten years. So, what do I want to be really good at in ten years?

songwriting- yo, I want to write hits and make millions from the royalties!
performing- I want to be able to give a great show and share music that matters with people.
playing- I am a stinky pianist. It's time I got serious. I have my first background solo gig in January. I am earning a ton for it (by my standards) and I'm a little scared about not being able to pull it off. (At least it's not in my hometown.)
singing- I think this is where I've spent about 7000 hours. And I feel most confident in this area. Still, there's more time and work here that needs to be done!

So, ten years...just with these four areas I have four part time jobs! They overlap some, but it will still take dedication to pull that off.

Huh. I better get to work.

So, in the next ten years, what would you do? Wouldn't it be interesting to take a poll and see what people really want to do and be?

Let's do it!