We have been working on a large site (1000 pp +) re-do for 3 years. We had design approval and were 85% completed about 12 months ago, when the client decided she didn’t like it.

So we started over.

Round 2: we had design approval. “Yes, much better.” Even more cool, in that 12 months, even new and more robust CMS software came available. Woohoo! Thanks for being cranky, round 1.

Then we spend the better part of 8-9 months developing the site. The client has been busy, over-worked, travelling, on holiday. Back on the job last week, she gets a sneak as we are putting the polishing touches on it. We are loving it. And our wonderful client?

“It looks like a CPA built it.” Uggh. Please don’t ask us to start over again. Please!

So I ranted. To my partner, not the client. Of course.

But it was designed by a hot young guy in Portland who does work for Nike, Intel, Spin, Hooked on Phonics!

But we employed the latest research on how users look for info on a web page.

But you asked for it to be very refined, minimal, elegant…so the content – the people you support – will be the attention-grabbers!

But but but. But we love this client. They have given us opportunities to develop something that is superb, that stands out, that looks different. They want the best – and isn’t that what we service providers dream about?

So we went back to the drawing board, and after a mere 3 days, came up with a subtle tweak to the concept. Damn if it doesn’t absolutely take the design over the top! Energetically, it adds that final “aha” to the visual experience. It’s true “feng shui” for web sites. (Don’t try to steal that. My friend and colleague Michael C has already written the book.)

I love you Ms. Client. Thank you for being cranky, even though you didn’t know how to fix what you thought was wrong. Your holding out for the best, has pushed us to delve deeper and the result is wonderful in our eyes. Thanks for being cranky, round 2.

I am almost looking forward to round 3. In the transition, I love cranky clients.

Last night I took the red eye from HNL to SFO, on my way to Santa Fe for a client presentation (via DEN and ABQ). It was a last minute decision, as the virtual method of persuasion was not working. What was I thinking anyway? Asking a non-techy on a Friday just back from vacation with an attention-craving inbox to take a first look at her not quite finished totally new web site while holding the phone with one hand??

Fortunately I came to my senses! I managed to find a ticket for next day travel at a good price (a mini “you never know!”) although I would be flying into ABQ (Albuquerque) instead of SAF (Santa Fe.)

Until, in Denver, I decided to just ask. I saw there was a flight to SAF an hour b4 mine to ABQ. I pulled up my smile, my sweet receptive energy and “I know this is a long shot…” Turns out the ABQ flight was over-sold. Turns out the SAF flight was only half full. Turns out the agent had just returned from the birth of her grandson (she showed me the pics and I felt her bliss), and so it turns out that she re-booked me on the flight to SAF as an “involuntary re-route” or something like that.

Final Result? I get home 2 hours earlier. I get reminded that even something as large and inflexible as airline travel can bend. For me. With no struggle. I guess that is the real reason why I could not find anyone to pick me up in ABQ and why I couldn’t reach the shuttle service to make a (required) pre-paid reservation. When I saw that SAF flight, I just decided – That’s the flight I wanted be on! Who would have guessed I could do it and for free? What would you have guessed?

Common Sense:

Listen to the people who have first hand experience with something, before making costly (in terms of LIVES, money, etc) decisions.

Not Applied:

The people who avoided war for themselves are rather quick to engage others in it.

Here is a list of people and their military service:

Democrats

Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971; army journalist 20th Engineer Brigade

Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received 311

Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor; Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V

Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam

Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea

Chuck Robb: Vietnam

Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-’47; Medal of Honor, WWII

David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72

Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star, 7 campaign ribbons

George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII

Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star

Howell Heflin: Silver Star

Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91

Jimmy Carter: Seven years, U.S. Navy

John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs, Air Medal with 18 Clusters

John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts

Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, Soldier’s Medal

Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam

Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart

Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star, Legion of Merit

Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57

Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71

Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-1953

Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72

Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.

Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg

Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953

Republicans

Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base

Bill Frist: did not serve

Bob Dole: an honorable veteran

Colin Powell: Long career in military management

Dennis Hastert: did not serve

Dick Cheney: did not serve; Several deferments, the last by marriage

Donald Rumsfeld: U.S. Navy, 1954-57, as aviator and flight instructor

Douglas Feith: did not serve

Eliot Abrams: did not serve

George H.W. Bush: Pilot in WWII. Shot down by the Japanese

George Pataki: did not serve

George W. Bush: failed to complete six-year National Guard obligation; failed to show up for required medical exam so grounded from flying

Gerald Ford: Navy, WWII

Heather Wilson: Air Force 1978-1989

Jack Kemp: did not serve: “Bad knee,” but continued in NFL for 8 years

JC Watts: did not serve

Jeb Bush: did not serve

John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business

John Engler: did not serve

John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross

Karl Rove: did not serve

Newt Gingrich: did not serve

Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve

Richard Perle: did not serve

Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies

Rudy Giuliani: did not serve

Saxby Chambliss: did not serve: “Bad knee.” (attacked Cleland’s patriotism)

Tom Delay: did not serve

Tom Ridge: Bronze Star for Valor in Vietnam

Trent Lott: did not serve

Pundits & Others

Antonin Scalia: did not serve

Bill Bennett: did not serve

Bill Kristol: did not serve

Bill O’Reilly: did not serve

Clarence Thomas: did not serve

George Will: did not serve

Kenneth Starr: did not serve

Michael Savage: did not serve

Pat Buchanan: did not serve

Paul Gigot: did not serve

Ralph Reed: did not serve

Rush Limbaugh: did not serve 4-F with a pilonidal cyst

Ted Nugent: did not serve

I don’t know if the description for Mr. Limbaugh is accurate or a joke, but it sure is an interesting coincidence! Snopes says it is true.

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Be curious instead of critical.

I am new to blogging, despite having written hundreds of blog threads in my head over the past few years – just never got around to getting them on virtual paper. Too busy to set one up…surfing web sites when I am brain dead, and burnt out from work, life, etc. Only to go to bed and then my inner genius comes alive! I have thoughts I think are brilliant or useful or that are just lonely for another mind to agree with them.

So then I finally set up this blog—detemined to just write and not worry about design for a while—which I have done a decent job at. I mean, who’s counting a little background color change and a few font styles? Certainly not me. As a recovering perfectionist AND a recovering someone-who-cares what-others-think person, that’s a challenge.

Of course design DOES affect the words on the page, but I am just trying to focus on my admin. That is where I write and it is quite pleasing actually.

The real obstacles are more deeply rooted in the psyche. I use the general third person psyche, as I know I am not the only one who feels ambivalent about writing by myself for an unknown audience of none to a few billion. (It’s gonna be a while before everyone has internet access…) It is a curious pull —this desire to take what used to be thought of as something personal and make it very public, theoretically.

Personal thoughts that used to go in a DIARY. Comes with lock and key. Death threats to anyone who would open it without permission. Now, “Hey, world! Guess what I am thinking?”

So after my fist two essentially test articles, my inner critic stepped in and kept me away. Guess it’s not a totally bad thing as the last thing the world needs in more pretentious preacher who thinks she knows it all. And I can be that way some days.

My answer to the question, “Why blog?” for today: the drive comes from the loneliness; those thoughts of mine that are seeking like-minded ones.

What do I mean, “in the transition?” The word “transition” refers to a “transition in consciousness.” Not to rush things though, I’d rather talk about examples rather than try to define a concept I am still studying. So, many of the musings on this site will simply be extensions of the starter phrase, “In the transition….”

Here’s one: In the transition, there is an absolute criteria for nothing. Good luck finding any issue where there is only a single black or white answer, other than simple math. I am willing to accept that 2+2=4 every day of the week, just as I look forward to fine minds poking holes in my logic.

Like most things, the divine is in the details – platitudes and promises and pretty slogans mean very little here if they are not accompanied by real life examples.

The practice is simple – though often not easy. Walk the Talk. Sure, until 5 different people have 5 different ideas about how to interpret the talk. And the walk.

Fortunately, this is one of the places where the transition comes in so handy – since there is an absolute criteria for nothing, I get to claim my subjective reality. And so do you.

If you and I can be reasonably detached adults, then the page opens up for curious discussion, not critical judgment. “Your walk means that to you – Jeez! I completely read it as this.”

Curious not critical. One of the basic building blocks of freeing my mind and lving in the transition.