Tag: friends

insertfunnydomainname.com

Posted on by Carl Weber

I mentioned a while ago about my habit of calling a few friends on the way to work. These morning calls provide us with a way to keep “the cup” away from our homes, and give us some time to connect and process out our lives together.  Unfortunately we do not always connect and have to leave a voicemail.

With one friend in particular I have developed a habit.  For some reason (perhaps because they know it’s me calling) I get their voicemail more often than not.  After listening to their voicemail message over and over, and hearing them say that can also be reached at their email at blahblahblah@domainname.com, I had a funny idea.

Instead of simply leaving a message, my quest was to come up with a funny domain name back to them when I called after the beep.

It goes something like this:

Beep.

Hi, this is

Carl@whydoesn’tmyfriendeveranswerthephone.com

and I am sorry I missed you.  Call me back or you can reach me at my email

Carl@whydoesn’tmyfriendeveranswerthephone.com

We would laugh and developing these domain names became a way for us to essentially explain why we were calling or what we needed in a few short words.

Hi, this is Carl@Iamabadfriendwhonevercallsback.com give me a call soon.

Sorry I missed you, this is Carl@whatthehellwereyouthinking.com you’d better call right away!

Hey, Carl@feelingprettystressedatwork.com call right away!

The funny domain names helped us say a little about how we were feeling, or at times what we needed from each other.  Sometimes they were less funny and more of a clue that we needed something deeper.  Reflecting on this, I wonder…what is your domain name?  What story would it tell about you for us to know your real situation or circumstance without the normal filtered approach to our conversations.  Maybe it would help if we knew this about each other and ourselves.

you@tooafraidtoactoraskforhelp.com

you@takingontheworldtoday.com

you@justtakingitonedayatatime.com

you@wonderingifmydreamsarestillpossible.com

Go ahead and reply with your domain name today.  Who knows, just putting it out there may help it become a reality.

Your Super Secret Bonus Day

Posted on by Carl Weber

While having breakfast with a friend yesterday, I was reminded about an idea I had a few years back.

“You know what I need?  I need one of those secret bonus days you talked about inventing.”

It had been so long that I had forgotten my radical idea/invention, time altering notion.

(Image Courtesy of Western Michigan University Registrar’s Office)

The idea is a simple one, but does require altering the space-time continuum.  Everyone, and I mean everyone gets a Super Secret Bonus Day each week.  It appears on your calendar.  It can be between Wednesday and Thursday, after a hard Monday, anywhere you like, it is up to you.

The Super Secret Bonus Day is yours.  You get to do those things that you never get to do for yourself given your busy almost crazy paced life.  Read that book, go to the beach and lay in the sun, write, paint, sing, or just rest.  There is a catch.

No one else knows you are gone during your Super Secret Bonus Day.  You may have spent that day at the beach between Monday and Tuesday, but no one noticed.  For them, it was business as usual, but you are surprisingly tan and relaxed.  There are no logistics that you have to work out to have your day, no child care, no guilt for wanting to spend some time alone away from your significant other, kids, parents, co-workers, boss or friends.  It is your day and everyone gets one.

As we talked a little more at breakfast, I began to wonder.  Why is this concept so attractive, yet so unattainable?  (Besides the whole altering time thing…)  We are so busy, so stretched, and so scheduled that there is no time left for us.  We all have these lists of things we would like to do, but time slips away and they become a somewhat resentful reminder that there was no time to accomplish these things.

Given that a few years have passed and I have been unable to alter the course of time (despite a few good attempts), I have a new idea.  We can still have our Super Secret Bonus Day, but it may look a little different.  Everyone can have a Super Secret Bonus Day but the reality is you need to schedule it on your calendar.  Once a week may be too much to start, so I am going to try for once a month (for some of you, once a quarter may be more realistic).

Here is my plan.  I am going to put my Super Secret Bonus Day on the calendar once a month.  A day for just me to ponder life, read, and write a little while sipping coffee in some amazing local coffee shop, eating a lunch without the rushing of managing young kids, and quiet time in a library or art gallery.  What will your Super Secret Bonus Day include?

A few Super Secret Bonus Day Guidelines (no rules, this is supposed to be fun right?)

1.  It is your day.

2.  Do something you like that is not work related.

3.  Come to some agreement with those within your sphere that you each get a day, and let it happen without making the other person feel guilty for taking their day.

4.  Help someone else take their day (watch their kids, encourage them to schedule it).

5.  Have fun!

My Cooked Finger is Weak…

Posted on by Carl Weber

The other day I was having this interesting conversation with someone about their voicemail message.  Essentially, they never set up their voice on their cell phone.  When you call them, you get the standard voice stating you reached their number and a beep.  I am always suspect of the standard default voice because I am never sure if I called the right number or not.  I had to ask.

Why didn’t you set up your voice mail?

Well, if I am not there, someone should just text me.

Fair enough.  But what if someone doesn’t realize it is your cell phone?

Then they should not be calling me!

The rest of the conversation was spent coming up with creative messages for their voicemail.  They fell into a few categories:

1.  Trying to be funny.  These are voicemails that try to get a laugh.  One suggestion was the “Hello…hang on just a minute…” or “Hello, I cannot hear you…hello” approach.

2.  Trying to be deep.  These voicemails hinged around indicating that you were either contemplating the universe, conquering the world, or serving humanity.

3.  Trying to be crazy.  These involved getting multiple people in on the voicemail and involved yelling, shouting or various noises in the background (concert, jet plane, or zoo animals).  At one point I was trying to find a way to get the phone and put the message on there when the person was not looking.

It was during this conversation that I remembered the craziest voicemail I had ever heard.  To this day, it always wins hands down!  I first heard it while in college.  I had a musician friend with a few roommates.  At the time, those little magnets with words on them were new and popular and people stuck all these little word-magnets on their refrigerators.  As the story goes, they were making random word combinations and the result was read into their answering machine.  Each roommate had a sentence to read.  Each roommate waded deeply into their respective role.  The result was something different.  Something crazy.

For the full effect you have to read each sentence out loud as if you were the greatest actor or perhaps the greatest over-actor on the planet (a slight British accent helps).  Read them with determination.  Read them with feeling.  Read them with as much emotion as you can muster and you will have just a taste of what I heard the first time I called their number.

“My cooked finger is weak.”

“Misty is she who asks a thousand boys.”

Eat, though you have leg of iron.”

Beep

Is your voicemail message funny, or deep, or crazy?  I was reminded that sometimes we let this sort of crazy creativity mellow with age.  What a shame.  We should get crazier and more daring with age, not more reserved.  So, get out there and be creative.  Come up with something new for your voicemail, or maybe even your life.  If you dare, have the courage to share it with all of us.

Bringing the Cup Home

Posted on by Carl Weber

Typically, “bringing the cup home” is a good thing.  Unfortunately, not all awards are for positive achievement.

There are a few friends that I talk to regularly, usually while driving to work in the morning.  These morning calls have become a way to connect with each other, but they serve another purpose: determining who brought the cup home that week.

This is no ordinary cup.  This cup signifies personal failure either with our wives, our kids, or at work.  I won’t tell you what we actual call this cup, but think of a good term for when someone is not at their best or kind of a jerk and you will be on the right track.

Our conversations can be pretty funny.

“So, get this.  I came home from work and within 2 minutes yelled at the kids.”

“During an argument I said she was a lot like her mother.”

“While in a meeting today, I came across like a total jerk when I tried to convey my position.  It was definitely a CLM (career limiting move).”

Why do we do this?  It is not that we are proud of these failures.  As I said, no one wants this cup at their house.  The reason we talk about these shortcomings is to get them out into the open, discover the cause, and try to grow and develop past these issues.  The ability to be transparent about who you really are is a great first step.  Speaking out these failures provides a level of accountability that helps us remember to think before we speak, to be more patient, and not excuse away our behaviors.

How often do you bring the cup home?  Where do you fail?  Do you have someone or a few someones to talk through these issues?  If not, perhaps today is a good place to start.  These conversations certainly helped us grow, and created the kind of friendships that run deep.  We all need the kind of friends who are not afraid to speak the truth when we bring the cup home.

By the way, we are looking for suggestions or ideas to build an actual cup that could be passed from house to house.  But it should be hideous enough that no one would actually want it in their home.