Show Art Sell Art

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

It’s Saturday morning which, until last week, meant wake up eventually, then breakfast and blog. As of last weekend, Saturday mornings became wake up early and devote hours to art, selling art. Or, from another perspective, getting to spend a day hanging out with artists, folk who don’t care about convention (unless it is about what is “art”), but who do care about exploration, innovation – and how to make a living from passion. An art sale blends idealism with realism. Here’s a bit of what it’s really like to be an artist.

Breakfast – It has to be hearty. It’s spring in the northwest. It snowed this week. Sitting beside my art for hours is not very active or warming, unless it happens from within. What a great excuse for a cheese omelet and bacon. Unfortunately, I had to give up wearing shorts for the day.

Packing – Prints, satins, books, racks, stands, and hanging hardware, are obviously going into the car. Chairs, plural, because I need the second one as a foot rest; plus food, a thermos of tea, the computer for blogging, the camera for practicing candids, and undoubtedly other paraphernalia that all unconsciously add up to about eight trips to load the car. Selling art includes the art of sitting back and letting the people browse and shop while being available. Computers are handy. I can focus on mine while surreptitiously watching the traffic, in other words, being productively sneaky. Practiced nonchalance involves as much material as the art. A mastery of zen might make it easier, but then maybe a zen master wouldn’t be selling anything material.

Setup – I’m lucky. Most of my art is on paper. Books and prints aren’t as fragile as the work being set up by sculptors, potters, and metalsmiths. Glass, ceramics, and thin metal can dent, bend, scratch, and shatter. My art merely wrinkles, and doesn’t weigh nearly as much. I could set up in about ten minutes, but socializing stretches it out to about thirty. I’m done before the event’s begun, because I got here early to get a good spot. That leaves about an hour of sitting and typing as others busy themselves before the public arrives. Cold fingers though.

Open – The door’s open! The garage door’s been open since we got here, which is why the air isn’t balmy. Oops. I brought the wrong satins. Oops. My first visitor noticed that the prints were put in the stand backwards. The first one was faced out, but the rest weren’t. Maybe I set up too quickly. The first sale of the day! One of the painters just moved to the area and this is her first show in Washington State. And she sold art. During a break in the traffic we all celebrate.

The kiln and furnace are firing up. Paul Petersen hosts this event in his studio as much out of community support as anything else. He sculpts in metal and glass, but the space he’s rented is larger than he needs. (Susan Jensen gets thanks too for her organizing skills.) We fill the rest. We haven’t decided whether we’re the show and he’s the sell or if he’s the show and we’re the sell. No matter.

Artists, in general, even if they are competing, support each other. There’s safety in numbers, and it gets better from there. Gaps in traffic are times for stories, suggestions, maybe a bit of gossip. Can they really knit a doily big enough to cover a police car? Who can entertain the eight year old the longest? Ouch, someone says as they singed their eyebrows as they got too close to the kiln. Where’d the traffic go? It must be time for the sketchers to start sketching. Sketching is the new trend.

Art, in general, is becoming a new trend, and not only for the sake of art. Baby boomers are retiring, and many of those who don’t revert via consultancy or dive into golf are becoming writers, photographers, painters, sketchers, sculptors, and weavers. Seattle’s lucky enough to have Daniel Smith Art Supplies. As Starbucks was to Denny’s, Daniel Smith is to Michael’s. Visits are made to the suburban store but pilgrimages are directed towards the main store in the Industrial District. Paints and papers, brushes and canvases, portfolios and easels pull in professionals and passionate enthusiasts. Within the writing world, the number of writers is increasing even as the number of readers is decreasing, though maybe the maturation of the e-book industry is turning that around.

Despite the drop in art education, younger folks are also turning to art independently. Partly it may be a frustration with jobs and available careers, but I think it is also because they are encouraged and enabled by digital media and communities. Their posts are going to be embellished with appealing graphics, videos, and words; entry arts into the more complicated addictions of three-dimensional physical art.

I think art is also appealing because it allows for expression, and many organizations and corporations have become bureaucratic, stifling creativity. Art doesn’t require bureaucracy. Self-expression can be judged by self. And if someone wants to buy it, the artist gets paid to make more. Jobs and careers may only deliver paychecks. Sold art generates self-esteem and revenue.

The sales part of the day is winding down. Sales happen. Compliments are more frequent. My photos have a very high compliment to sales ratio. We’ve all found new inspirations and ideas. Paul even succeeded at his first attempt at a new type of lamp. Big smile there. We’ve even spent some time as a real estate news center. Evidently people are shopping, getting ready to buy. Well, architecture is art too. (Check out Ross Chapin’s new book.)

Late news. Another Paul piece sold. Smile again.

Soon it will be time to tear down, pack up, and drive home to metamorphose into a dancer for tonight’s dance, yet another art, but just for the fun of it. Nothing to sell. No need to be showy. Lots to share, and that’s worth a lot.

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Windows and Doors

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

When one door closes, somewhere a window opens.

Within 24 hours, one bookstore requested copies of all of my books and another bookstore asked me to take back the ones they hadn’t sold. The books won’t even have to come into the house. They’ll stay in the car until I run an errand past the welcoming bookstore. Those two doors swung almost in unison.

Over the two weeks, my largest stock holding, DNDN, has risen about 20%, finally heading back towards my guesstimate of the buyout value of the company, which is a low evaluation considering the company’s potential. Just as that window opened, a big door slammed shut as my second largest holding, AMSC, dropped 40% overnight.

History and lives advance in slips and starts. Even the seasons are having a rough time progressing today. It’s April. I live near sea level, and it’s snowing outside. Spring’s advances have been swung back by a last blast of winter. Don’t worry. The rest of the area is outside this weather bubble. The Seattle area has a weather phenomenon called the Puget Sound Convergence Zone, which is a mobile micro-climate that leaves everything else dry except the slice of land beneath it. Five miles north and five miles south of here it’s sunny, or at least not snowing. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s gloomy here and now.

The Dismal Decade was one massive vault door slamming shut opportunities, unless you were a part of the military-industrial complex. With such a large door shut for so long, it can be hard to even remember where the windows are.

I think we’re heading into a better decade. We’ve all lived under a dark cloud for too long, but I think the storm is breaking. I don’t expect a golden era free of drama and trauma, but I do see progress. The general fight against disposable plastic is gaining traction, but the tsunami washed lives and entire cities into the ocean, and even if we did everything right, it is estimated that it will take decades or generations before sea birds are no longer accidentally feeding plastic to their chicks. A lighter looks like a fingerling, but neither the parent nor the chick can digest it. (Go check Midway Journey for a professional, artistic and informative description of how our plastic is ending up on Midway Atoll in the Pacific.)

Typically, I am an optimist, and like I’ve said before, sometimes I use this blog to convince myself of positive possibilities. If I can’t find solutions in the media, it’s time to create a new media. That’s why writing can be powerful. Something new can be created without much more than creativity, time, and in this case, a computer.

Some of my friends continue to pass through dark times, but even a few of them have been surprised to find that side businesses are drawing in useful revenues. I’m not as surprised. Entrepreneurs frequently fare well if they work at it long enough.

Books have inspired me, and one I haven’t mentioned much is The Millionaire Next Door, by Stanley and Danko. A favorite quote is:
“Interestingly, self-employed people make up less than 20 percent of the workers in America but account for two-thirds of the millionaires.”
Self-employed people have a power. When a door closes and they can’t find an open window, they might just get out a sledge hammer and make a new door.

Another, more recent, book is Freakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner. Near the end they point out that many successful people, whatever success may be, frequently achieve it through persistence. That persistence succeeds because it lasts long enough to give doors and windows enough time to open. The other trick is to then recognize the draft and see it as a good thing.

For too long it seemed that everything was doors closing. Things are opening again, but it is like airing out a house during a Seattle spring, long-closed doors and windows are opened for a few minutes, or an hour or so, but quickly shut again as another front moves through. Eventually though, I know that summer will arrive and there will be days when every door and window are opened and the breeze is welcomed in.

Until then I’ll make sure the heat’s on, cook up some comfort food, and maybe wash the windows so I can see what’s coming. I kid you not, but the snow’s stopped. The wind has died. And there’s a hint of sunshine on the far hill.

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Puzzle Fixes

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

This blog is about balancing life and money, mostly, usually, well at least that’s true within a lot of leeway. Blogs are good for open-ended musings. But I don’t expect that this blog, nor balancing life and money, to be fixes for everything.  They are all just parts of the puzzle.

I tackled a puzzle this week when I did my taxes. Six hours of work resulted in an amount owed that equaled the amount refunded, zero. That’s balanced. It’s also easier than it seems. Frugality has its benefits.

The less money I spend, the less I have to make, the lower my tax bracket, the less I have to spend in taxes, the less I have to make. Do you see how this is going? At some point deductions, allowances, and various losses take the amount due from capital gains and income and leave me owing nothing. Nothing withheld. Nothing to refund either.

The result was zero but the effort was significant. I hate filling out taxes. I rarely use the word “hate”, but I pull it out for a few things, including having to fill out official forms. Six hours of being casually walked through the numbers by TurboTax could have been effortless, but that zero cost me a massive headache, tightened muscles, and a strong need for a run, my karate exercises, some meditation, and a spiced martini.

Maybe I over-reacted. I suspect that I’m not alone. I don’t want to imagine how bad I would have felt if I tried working through the paper forms using the IRS tax guides. Hours probably would’ve stretched to days. The subsequent medications would have been stronger than any martini.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” It was nice to give zero.

Believe it or not, I actually look forward to paying more taxes. Our government can’t run on fumes, and shouldn’t operate on massive debt; and while the government is massively inefficient, so are most charities. The real reason though is that if I am paying higher taxes it’s probably because I’ve made more money. Living frugal is fine, but I won’t turn down simultaneous, substantial wealth.

I’ve been wealthy, though I may not be now, as measured by my own criteria. Wealth can only be measured personally, which is good because it also means we each get to set our own goals. Claim success and you are successful.

Back in those wealthy days it was nice to actually send the US Treasury non-tax money to help pay off the debt. I don’t like the federal debt, but this is my country, and therefore my responsibility. We can fix this, but it probably involves many such individual efforts and probably the hiring of different managers.

People, businesses, and governments can have money problems. One trick is to remember that money is not the problem. Money is a resource. It is emotionless. One trap is to tie emotions to it. A famous misquote is “Money is the root of all evil.” The complete quote is, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” The emotion tied to money is the issue. Loving money is ill-advised. Hating money is unproductive. Fearing money is counterproductive too.

I know people who many would consider to be wealthy, but who deny the existence of their monies because of fear, upbringing, an excess of humility, or a repulsion from being considered a part of a “class”. They don’t want to be one of “them”. They discount the existence of their IRAs. Inheritances, pigeon-holed savings, windfalls, are left off the ledger when they calculate their net worth. Millionaires convince themselves to work extra decades because they don’t have “enough” even though their only true limit is self-imposed.

When I was wealthy there was plenty of money but there were plenty of problems. Health issues, family disputes, conflicting obligations, household repairs, garden and lawn maintenance, car upkeep all gave me more than enough to worry about. The wealth allowed fixes via money, but worries persisted. Being stranded in a winter storm on the Interstate was miserable no matter how much money or resources were available for eventually fixes. Hypothermia happens and money doesn’t warm well enough.

The main problems came from time spent on obligations that didn’t fulfill a life’s interest, that weren’t aligned with a life’s values.

Balancing money and life can’t be done with money alone. Time must be respected too.

Ignoring wealth wastes time. Decades spent chasing a few more dollars or company benefits are years of a life spent living someone else’s life and agenda, unless your career is your vocation. Statistics suggest that vocationally engaged careers are in the minority. There’s no fix for getting those years back.

I have an idea of how much time is worth for me. If nothing else, I know that spending $100 on tax preparation software was worth days of savings, and untold avoidance of stress-related health consequences.

My taxes balanced. My time and money were spent in balance. My responsibility is assuaged for another year. At least I’ve fixed that worry and that unfilled spot on my to-do list.

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Waiting For News

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Waiting for good news. Remember good news? It has been known to happen. The Dismal Decade erased it from our short term memory, but as I recall there have been days to celebrate. There will be again. Here they come.

Cold Fusion was going to be this month’s good news, but it has been delayed until October. In the meantime, someone at MIT has developed a Solar Leaf, something about the size of a playing card that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can then run a fuel cell; effectively making solar energy work at night. Solar cells in the daytime. Solar Leaves powering the night.

Dictatorships falling, not quietly like a tree in the philosophical forest, but noisily like real trees crashing down while opening the forest floor to light and new growth.

Businesses getting busy. It isn’t everywhere, but every week I hear about more friends having less free time because their businesses are busier, or because they’ve got a new job, or are chasing some new opportunity.

Japan, recovering, and while most are focusing on the nuclear issues, I keep in mind that the Japanese people continue to impress with the recovery from a massive quake and tsunami. They are doing what needs to be done, which is worth applauding. Their efforts are taken for granted, at least in the media.

Spring is arriving. Buds on the trees. Bunnies are chasing each other around my yard. The bald eagles and whales are hugging their respective sides of Whidbey’s shoreline.

I’m wearing shorts again. Oh wait, that happens year-round.

Dendreon is awaiting news too. Today, supposedly today, supposedly any minute, maybe even as I type, Dendreon (DNDN) should hear about reimbursement policies. Thrilling, eh?

Much of the good news we await comes in pieces. Bad news can be quick and traumatic. Good news, unless it is winning the lottery, seems to come in nibbles. Each element of the story held back, building tension and suspense, allowing pessimists to point and say “But it won’t clear this hurdle” and taxing optimists’ patience, persistence, and perseverance.

My stock spotlight is currently on Dendreon, but in the past the spotlight has hit other stocks in my portfolio. AOL, Starbucks, Pixar all performed well as companies and as stocks, but each bit of good news was always cautiously received because of gaps in their stories. AOL had great subscriber growth, but were the competitors coming on strong too? Starbucks (SBUX) continually surprised, but surely they wouldn’t be able to extend beyond Seattle, the West Coast, the coasts, North America, etc. Pixar could have stellar opening weekend box office receipts, but debates would ensue over production costs and merchandising possibilities.

I’m waiting for good news from my other lines in the water. I check my book and photo sales. I’m encouraged by those that want to take my classes. Networking is improving because of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and good friends. I can’t know every possibility that results. I calmly add energies as “Smolinsky Moments” allow (aka serendipity, but really serendipity sounds dippy sometimes), but I also don’t try to control every tendril of potential good news. They probably don’t need my interference.

I’m also impressed with the news feed from Facebook and Twitter (@tetrimbath) because they give me views into friend’s daily celebrations. Rarely are the events large and significant in isolation, but they build into good news stories that should carry banner headlines. A scroll through a day’s posts reveals a menu of successes mini and major.

Looking past the bad to find the good is almost unstylish in some circles. I think if President Obama could deliver enough gold to pay off the debt and could discover cheap clean energy, he’d be chastised for inflationary measures, deflating the price of gold, and for driving coal miners out of business.

It has gotten to the point that when I hear bad news I wonder what good news they covered up. Didn’t coverups work the other way originally?

This just in, Medicare plans to cover Dendreon’s Provenge. Good news for patients, physicians, shareholders, and employees. Each of us is going to have to wait for the next bit. Where’s the patient on the waiting list? Which physicians have easiest access? Will the stock price go up on good news (not always the case)? Who gets which jobs in what is about to probably become a more dynamic and growing company? Everyone will have to wait a little while for their answers.

The rains are back. Good news for my plants. I wonder which ones will survive the bunnies, slugs and deer?

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Changing Corporations

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

If only changing corporations was like changing diapers. Imagine changing corporate culture by simply disposing of the messy bits, cleaning things up, and then hoping that a miracle happens and potty training was spontaneous. Corporations are changing, and while some of the evolutionary changes are welcome, some of the revolutionary changes are even better for innovation but maybe not so good for investors.

It is easy to forget, but corporations didn’t always exist. The idea of a corporation was an invention, just an idea that caught on. They’ve really only been around since the 1600s. The conquering Europeans landing in the New World predate pervasive corporate culture. International commerce spawned the concept as a way to spread risk and limit liability. Since then, the concept has evolved, but the core goal has remained: getting a bunch of people together to make money while reducing the chance of losing too much. It produced exploration, expansion and exploitation.

Under American governance, the goal was restated to “improve shareholder value”; and shareholder value was interpreted as maximizing the value, the wealth that each share represented. Each share of stock is treated equally (within a class of stock). The only way each shareholder is treated equally is if each shareholder held the same number of shares. Shareholders with more shares get more votes and it is possible for very few people, or even just one person, to control the fate of shares held by crowds of small investors.

Such a young system, young within anthropological timing, is bound to have flaws and imbalances. Evolution tweaks such entities and corporations have changed, usually through regulations that followed financial upheavals.

Our current system is flawed, but humans are imperfect and we could only devise a flawless system by chance. I’m willing to work within that system and invest within it because, for the most part, it works well enough. And I eagerly await stringent enforcement of the regulations and at least a few subtle yet pervasive modifications that could dramatically reduce society’s risk exposure. How about: shareholders only get to vote after they’ve held the stock for a year and a day, which would radically slow down corporate raiders. How about: require at least one human to be involved in each transaction, which would severely cripple flash trades. How about: eliminating naked short sellers, which sounds like naked shorts cellars, which actually isn’t as bad as the real thing, but is a topic too convoluted for me to go into here.

Corporations are a product of our social environment, and human environmental forces do not always require evolutionary changes. Revolutions happen too. At one time the concept of a corporation was revolutionary. Today there are new revolutionary concepts. I welcome them while recognizing that they may undermine my method of investing.

If you think you’re upset about the machinations of Wall Street, you might be surprised to learn that many wealthy people are even more upset. Unhappy people produce change. Within the realm of corporate America there are public companies (the kind we buy stock in) and private companies (corporations that are taken off the market). Are you wealthy and fed up with Wall Street hyenas? Buy up a public company, take it private, and run it the way you think best. (Playboy)

Did you create a company? Is it doing so well that it doesn’t need financing? Then there’s little reason to take it public. Some of the largest companies in the world are privately held. (Bechtel)

Did you foster an idea that is sustaining itself without having to chase profits? Then maybe you don’t need to turn it into a business. (wikipedia)

Maybe you run a company and want to redefine “shareholder value”. In that case you can turn your company into a b-corp, a new type of corporation recently legitimized in several states.

There’s even a revolution in entrepreneurship that ignores size, growth, and longevity. Kiosk companies, temporary incubators, flash firms are based on the idea of quickly creating, developing, producing, and selling a product, and then possibly closing down the business before it gets stodgy. Wired Magazine just ran an excellent article on Kickstarter, which I am exploring.

Maybe large corporations are no longer the most efficient means for production and wealth creation, though more properly, a few large corporations are providing the infrastructure for crowds of innovators to become entrepreneurs. Within the last several days I learned that my publisher would not be able to able to make my book, Dream. Invest. Live., available for Kindle. Amazon, the bookstore, the hardware provider, and the enabler, created a process where I was able to reformat the book myself. Uploading the right version of the Word document (which did take some experimentation to find) and a bit of patience and my book is now available for Kindle – and one less company was involved.

There was much talk two years ago about restoring our faith in the economy. Vast sums went to conventional institutions and organizations. I’m seeing the innovations outside those bounds, and many of those alternatives to public companies are happening in forms that are difficult to invest in. If that trend continues, stock investing may become an anachronism.

For now, I’ll keep my stocks. I’m hoping for significant evolutionary changes, and I won’t be surprised if the corporate changes are bigger because the companies became smaller. That would be revolutionary.

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Turtle Investing

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

It was fun writing the chapter: The Investment Zoo, in my book, Dream. Invest. Live. (which is finally available on Kindle, yea!)
“Lots of news stories make it sound like there are only bulls and bears, but there are also wolves, vultures, turtles, hummingbirds, elephants, church mice, . . . ”
Lately I’ve been feeling like a turtle slowly walking through a storm, keeping my head tucked in, and only poking out when I need to nibble.

Bull markets and bear markets are up markets and down markets. They are also generalizations, and just like with people, generalizations are always inaccurate. People and everyday life are defined by unique details that only match generalizations by chance. I enjoyed matching analogies of hummingbirds to day-traders and elephants to institutions. I’ll leave those detailed descriptions to the book. Within my view of the investment zoo, turtles can be those investors that keep their heads down, tend to be solitary, make slow steady progress, and survive because of a defense that protects them during tough times. They don’t grow quickly. They don’t move quickly. They aren’t flashy. They definitely aren’t noisy. And they can be easily overlooked.

My portfolio has not been a happy place this year. The companies I’m invested in have been doing very well, but the bull market has been growing the larger and more well-known stocks, that was until the world was hit with an unseasonable series of unrests and disasters. Even the broad markets have retreated. The companies represented by my two biggest holdings (AMSC & DNDN)  have reported good business growth and are properly positioning themselves to accelerate their revenue growth. In one case that is good news for energy (AMSC). In the other case it is good news for cancer treatments and patients (DNDN). Both stocks started the year undervalued (in my opinion) and have declined. In particular, DNDN has dropped just as I was relying on it to pay bills. I can still pay them, but it takes more shares than I prefer. I’m having to nibble my way through my bills. Good thing that I live a frugal life.

Dendreon recently received FDA approval for its prostate cancer treatment, Provenge. This year the company announced that the treatment works better than previously thought, that they were expanding into Europe without having to share profits here or there, and that they were accelerating the building of more facilities within the US. In rough numbers they made about $40 million in 2010, will probably make about $400 million in 2011, may expand to $1.2 billion after the facilities are operating in 2012, and will more than double that if they successfully treat the European market. They have a potential for a $4 billion revenue stream from Provenge alone. And it looks like the same technology can work against a half dozen other significant cancers. Revenue growth of a hundred-fold and the stock has gone down, ostensibly as they wait for the Medicare authorities to finalize their reimbursement strategies – even though the company is almost running at capacity even without that.

American Superconductor has a similar story: a disruptive technology with few competitors and revenues steered towards accelerated growth, with a declining stock.

Right or wrong, unfortunate for me or not, such disconnects between company prospects and current stock prices are more common amongst small companies. That’s why I buy their stocks, when I can. It’s why it is difficult to be an investor relying on their value to fund a lifestyle. It’s why, at times like this, I become a turtle of an investor.

There are herds of investors that have been spooked into stampeding. The predators like it when the prey run. The media sells drama, not rational thought. Unrests and disasters are traumatic events. For some companies, they are catastrophic. For many people such events are final. Those are the stories we see in the news, and for good reason. Knowing about tragedy is one way we exercise compassion. But a perspective is also necessary. I know many people who are worrying about radiation from Japan. If you have the time and sense of humor I recommend chasing yourself around this chart from a most excellent geek cartoonist (xkcd). Most of the things in the news don’t impact most lives.

As a turtle, I mosey along as I keep my goals in mind, poke my head out to check my progress, graze as required, avoid stampedes, and watch for the clouds for the break in the storm.

The companies that I’m invested in look like they’ll succeed. I hold enough stock in enough companies that I should have “enough” and probably more, maybe not today, but eventually. I’m not one of those investors who gets spooked out of the market, simply because I am not one of those investors who thinks I can guess the right time to jump in as the storm will passes. Being late on such timing misses much of the benefit. I invest for the long term, and in the long term I have been reasonably successful because enough of the companies that I’ve invested in have succeeded and become noticed.

I thought that over the last twelve months DNDN would be worth two, three or four times today’s price. I actually think it is worth that, but unfortunately the price has actually gone down 15% despite good news and real revenues. Maybe “they’re” right. Maybe I’ll be right.

In the meantime, I’ll slowly nibble my way across the investment landscape, keeping in mind that the turtle analogy is not immutable. As the sun comes out and the world gets brighter, I’ll be able to step outside the shell and change into something swifter, freer, and more exuberant. Okay guys, in my head I’m cuing up “Fly Like An Eagle“.

(Side note: I’ll be talking about my kindle experience in my Modern Self-Publishing class scheduled for April 23rd. Send me a note if you want to attend. tetrimbath@whidbey.com)

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Floating With The Universe

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

“How’ya doin’?” “Just floating with the universe.” “Excellent.” It isn’t a verbatim conversation, but generally that’s how I live my life. That’s an odd lack of structure for someone like me who spent years in corporate cubicle world, was raised in intent Catholicism, and trained in a very old and traditional martial art. Even before I left my career I followed intuition when logic couldn’t provide a definitive answer. Within a normal life, logic rarely is able to make definitive guesses about the future. So, where’s it led me now? How about to teaching a class on self publishing – again?

Welcome to Whidbey, and especially the town I most frequent on the south end, Langley. You all should come by and visit. The cute B&Bs, restaurants, shops, and artists will appreciate your visit. Like me, some come and stay. Langley paints itself with the image of a sleepy sea-side town, which is mostly true, though the ocean waves are a hundred miles away. It is, however, regularly visited by grey whales as they feed on the tide flats, and orcas cruise by chasing salmon and seals. The town lacks the waves but it does have the life. The hidden truth though is that Langley is a networker’s happy place. The talents and resumes are world-class, quiet, and the networkers are very eager to encourage others. A two block walk, which covers half of “downtown” can take hours as conversations bounce from one set of friends and projects to another. That’s one thing I like about this small town that isn’t apparent to visitors.

A few years ago, soon after I moved here, a handful of friends invited me to a gathering. Their descriptions of it made no sense, but I trusted them and attended even though it was at a resort (Hollyhock) a couple of hundred miles north on yet another island across the border. The short story is that I went, met lots of interesting people and am somewhat addicted to the event. I’ve noticed that they all have fascinating stories, but usually want to hear yours first. It makes for animated conversations, especially as projects are spawned or find new resources and happy serendipities.

By going to that event I was invited to another event that I’ve mentioned before: the University of Washington’s Global Social Entrepreneurial Competition (GSEC) where I’ve met students committing themselves to changing the world by starting businesses that benefit impoverished people.

Tonight I’m attending a project kick-off (The Flow Project) that aims to tap artists’ insights for the benefit of civic governance, I think. I’m honored to be included and don’t need conclusive logic to convince me to attend. But I have committed to cooking a potluck item after I post this blog, so this isn’t simply showing up with a pad of paper and a pen. Maybe I’ll make meatballs. Hope the vegans don’t mind.

These layers continue to overlap, unfold and grow to the point that sources of inspiration are hard to trace and expectations of control are frequently challenged.

A friend has based his life on a maximized version of this philosophy. Steve Smolinsky, someone I met at the resort in Canada, runs a Conversation Blog about networking and the benefits of interconnectivity. His posts are entertaining because of his writing style, but also because of where his networking takes him. He’s back from Africa, again.

I had a small Smolinsky moment yesterday. Walking through Langley to deposit a check (book sales are a good thing) I’d bounced around through a half-dozen conversations over a ninety-minute, half-mile walk when I noticed a friend working in his co-work space, also known as the Langley Center for New Media. He and his laptop had a well-lit place beside the window where he could see the world go by and the world could see the space in use. A short visit later we’d agreed I’d hold a class on self publishing there. I’d come into town to deposit a check and walked away with another spot on my calendar, and probably a few more classes and clinics.

Following my intuition has resulted in five non-fiction books, series of series of nature photos, a chance to touch many projects, and a long list of other potentials. The most gratifying part has been meeting, knowing and helping people. I truly don’t know where this is leading and I am willing to let that happen.

I retired (check the Engineer part of my bio) in 1998. Since then people either assume I spend the days sleeping, or they want a one word answer to what I do. I’ve finally settled on “writer” because it is broad, ambiguous, and has very low expectations. Stereotypical middle-aged writers are expected to be eccentric, probably intoxicated, and highly unproductive. That’s a low hurdle that’s easy to clear.

This level of chaos isn’t a lifestyle that fits for all. Retiring early or otherwise usually involves a break in daily structure. That break can be traumatic and is a good reason for people to find hobbies and causes, at least at the start.

I’ve been retired for over a dozen years and there is very little structure to my life. Dance on Tuesday. Blog on Wednesday and Saturday, maybe. The rest fills in as it will, and it does fill. And I trust it. I float with the universe.

 

Curious about that one class that came from who knows where? The details are below. And as I say in the class’s intro: “Give your dreams the freedom they deserve.” There’s no way to know where they’ll take you.

Class: Modern Self-Publishing
Publishing is undergoing a revolution.
Independent movies challenged Hollywood tradition. Independent music challenged the major record labels. Now, print-on-demand publishers are enabling legions of writers to pursue their passions without having to appease agents and editors.
Most authors can get their books published worldwide within a few months for about the cost of a writer’s conference.
An industry in revolution is never an easy place though, so come see ways to steer your dream project through the shifting landscape, and become aware of the cautions that lie ahead.
Give your dreams the freedom they deserve.

Time: April 23rd
seminar 9AM-noon
lunch – You’re on your own but it’s Langley so that’s a good thing.
workshop 1PM-4PM

Cost: (cash or check)
seminar $60
seminar + workshop $100
workshop only (Nope, gotta take the seminar too, at least this time.)

Contact:
Tom Trimbath
tetrimbath@whidbey.com
360-221-2201

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Recycling Perspective

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Look at the bags of recycling gathering in my kitchen. Look at the photos of Sendai’s tsunami, Haiti’s earthquake, Hurricane Katrina‘s impact on New Orleans. I’ve got bags in my kitchen filled with waste paper, empty bottles and cans. Disaster zones are cleared by bulldozers and front end loaders scraping up and dumping kitchens, houses, neighborhoods, into landfills. I’m doing what I can on a personal level, but watching the tsunami wash across Sendai with dirty water sweeping up multi-story buildings made me reflect when I added another emptied and clean can to its appropriate bag. What difference was I really making when nature has such an impact?

I am a minimalist, not by deep thought or great philosophizing. I am a minimalist because I don’t want to be bothered with too much stuff.  There are some pleasant consequences. I don’t have to clean or maintain as many things.  I don’t spend as much as others. I can live in a smaller house. Living in a smaller house takes less maintenance and is easier to clean up which makes parties more likely. All of those things combined spiral down my cost of living, except for the parties which are a fun way to spend a bit extra.

Recycling and reuse have always made sense to me. Why throw away something that involved resources dug from the ground? It’s already dug up. I’m done with it. Let someone else clean it up, melt it down, and reform it for some other use. Reuse is even better because it skips that entire melt down and reform phase. Some think it sounds like a sign of impoverishment. I like the words more akin to antiquing; patina, history, proven.

With all of my recycling and reusing, my trash can is sometimes empty for days. I’ll even forget about it some trash days, one less chore to chase, because the only thing in there was a grocery bag of kitchen garbage and a couple of half gallon milk cartons. I use milk cartons for wet kitchen scraps and small bits that fit. Some weeks my compost pile gets almost as many additions as my trash can.

My trash can is rarely full, except after the aforementioned parties.

A frugal lifestyle positively reinforces itself. I’m well aware of the impact our plastics have had on our planet. Project Midway Journey (soon to be a movie) has proven how specific the impact can be. Midway Island is very far removed from any major city, but the albatross there are dying because they can’t separate the plastic from the seafood. A baggie looks like a jellyfish. A butane lighter looks like a fingerling. They mistakenly eat the plastic and fill their insides because they can’t pass it. The team has been able to photograph where the birds have died because they leave an outline of their insides traced out in plastic. Tupperware may be handy, but I’m now a bigger fan of canning jars. Midway was seen as being amidst the big plastic patch called the Great Plastic Pacific Gyre. That inspired my inventive side and I sketched out a harvester that I can get to work on as soon as I have a spare million or ten. Unfortunately, we’ve dumped so much plastic in the ocean that they’ve now discovered that the Pacific Gyre is bigger than original estimate of the size of Texas. The plastic patch has no boundaries, covers the Pacific and is even more concentrated in the Atlantic. I have pause as I type this because that saddens me.

Revolutions and Renaissances are spawned by society first passing through absurdity. At some point enough people say enough. Then change happens.

We exhibit hubris. That’s not news. Within our society, most large organizations, governments included, act as if no wrong can be done and that long term issues can be left to those in the future.

I’ve climbed volcanoes. Since then I’ve never doubted that Nature is much bigger than us and could goggle us up and continue on its way without much more than a small burp.

The scale of our impact on the planet is human-centric and larger than the decision to use glass instead of plastic. We build our cities and civilizations in ways that don’t work with and around the nature that spawned us. We pave over it. We try to defend against natural occurrences. Then, when Nature acts naturally, everything we’ve built for years, decades and centuries can be turned to rumble within minutes. How much recycling will it take to counteract the mega-tons of wrecked cities washed-out to sea? We build in flood plains, along tsunami coastlines, atop earthquake faults (including the one under my house) and in the paths of hurricanes. We’re better at it than ever. Building codes, education, and preparedness have all improved. But we continue to approach it as a battle with the elements, not living with our birthplace.

We are heading in the right direction and passing through some absurd times. I hope we will figure out how to smartly site homes and cities, sustainably water, power and feed ourselves. Maybe we’ll even quit arguing over the short term cost cuts in emergency preparedness and start long term sustainable savings. Rebuilding cities is expensive. Lost lives can’t be recovered.

But I’m an optimist, right? Yep. Old organizations may not get the new message but many people are saying “enough”. Chris Jordan, from Midway Journey and Running the Numbers, produced a picture, an art work called E Pluribus Unum, 2010 that, “Depicts the names of one million organizations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice, and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture.” Does it look too abstract? Look closer, very close. Look close enough and it becomes real names. There are only a few hundred governments. There are hundreds of thousands of organizations, which reflect millions of people who are working towards that better world that we’ve yet to completely define. Abstract debates miss the individuals that are doing real work. He draws a nice bridge between the two.

The natural events that have been disasters for millions of people have taught me again the size of the task before us. While advocating for environmental awakening and action can seem abstract and self-righteous, I’ll be honest and say that personally it is a self-centered motivation. The savings from eliminating dysfunctional government spending and by adding sustainable preventative measures would bring down my expenses, my taxes, and my anxiety level. Working with the planet, respecting its resources and patterns, is the most economical and most enjoyable way for me to enjoy a long, happy, healthy life. Imagine if we were able to pass that along to each other.

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Time Saving Tips

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

The first was inspired by the Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami. I realized that such an overlooked notion like being prepared was actually a time saver. Then I realized it was just one of a similar set of simple acts, and they have application within a life and for larger organizations too.

Be prepared. I’ve got an earthquake kit and disaster supplies ready. When a natural disaster hits the news I don’t spend time worrying about whether I’m prepared. I know I have reduced the risk, and know that I can never be prepared for everything. I wish our government did a better job of this. By now, Katrina’s damage should be confined to history. It ain’t. I suspect that Japan, one of the most prepared countries in the world, will recover and then take this as an opportunity to improve further. As for other dramatic events – What will I do when the aliens say hello? Deal with it then.

Maintain what’s important. In this economy I’ve fixed many things but postponed many repairs. I saved money in the short run, and may even get by without ever having to fix quite a few things, but in the meantime there’s a chunk of every day that is spent wondering if I’ve put things off too long. If I had more money I’d spend less time worrying. I’m not the only one. Imagine the productivity increase in any organization if the people there didn’t have to spend time worrying about their health, their commute, their child care, their careers.

Treat luxuries as luxuries, not as necessities. If a luxury fails life continues. If a necessity fails, well, something made it a necessity, so something will be missed. Of course some luxuries embody certain necessities. Ask any pilot or skipper. But polishing the golf clubs may not be as important as cleaning out the gutters. This one is easy for me. I’m a minimalist, and one reason was the recognition of how much time was spent maintaining stuff. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I even have a de-clutter shelf during parties so people can take something that I want to get rid of. On a national level, there are plenty of necessities being ignored, but pork barrel politics seems to survive every reform. As an investor, well, I consider most management teams and directors to be more luxury and not nearly as necessary as the employees. Pity the compensation isn’t distributed that way. But that’s just my point of view.

Tell the truth. The world’s fascinating as it is. How does anyone ever manage to keep lies alive and untangled in any relationship that lasts over an hour? I will admit to occasional exaggeration, which is probably a request for attention. My friends would know better than I. I’m always surprised that organizations think they can keep secrets. Some secrets stay secret. Most leak out eventually.

Follow the laws. Drive below the speed limit. Because of stop signs, lights, and traffic, driving slowly usually doesn’t change my arrival time. I don’t have to buy radar detectors or spend time thinking about outwitting the cops, I can spend less on insurance, and don’t have to spend money and time on tickets or fighting them. Hmm, how much time and money does our government spend back-pedaling because of ethical ambiguities like torture (very unambiguous), corruption, and propping up unseemly governments?

Cook in instead of dine out. Cooking at home sounds like it could take more time. Actually, some recipes do. But even with slow-cooked recipes that take hours, I can get something done in the meantime. My favorite way to spend that time is talking with my dinner companion. There’s no time waiting to be seated and served. The dress code is much more relaxed. The costs are lower, and the wine cellar and bar are very likely to have my preferred beverages. It’s easier to get a meal that meets every dietary requirement, and the setting is much quieter than the fanciest restaurant. Cleaning up is a hassle though, at least until I get the dishwasher replaced.

Don’t spectate – participate. Don’t watch sports unless you know someone on the team. I’ll skip my usual expression of dismay with today’s millionaire athletes and the dearth of sportsmanship. I’m a fan of bicycling. I no longer watch football, baseball, or basketball, though curling is interesting. When the Tour de France was on TV, it inspired me to go for a bike ride. It took less time than watching someone else expend calories. I got exercise, maybe had some fun, and definitely got to eat more. But it is fun to watch local high school or even junior high games. The players aren’t paid as much. Their talents aren’t as developed, but they care about it a lot more than some professional who is more worried about the conditions of their contract.

These time saving tips actually take time, which is one reason they are easy to ignore. But just like that money adage, “You’ve got to spend money to make money”, sometimes you’ve got to spend time to save time.

Be careful out there. It will probably save you some time.

(Another time saving tip – get something done early occasionally. I thought about delaying this post until my normal Wednesday morning upload and realized that holding back and then remembering it later took more time than just hitting “Publish”.)

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What Me Worry

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Yep. I live over an earthquake fault, have to drive through a tsunami zone to get home, am within about a hundred miles of three large volcanoes, and live on an island that is only tied to the mainland by one bridge and two ferries. Do I worry much? No, at least not about that.

Someone asked me to teach a class on everyday risk management because I’ve done many things that were considered risky, but I did them safely. My approach to risk inspired my personal title of chicken adventurer. (No, that has nothing to do with taking chickens along on a bungie jump.) My adventurous friends might consider think I’m chicken, but more sedentary types think I am adventurous. I bicycled across the United States by getting off the road before rush hour. I climbed Mt. Rainier thanks to a guide service (RMI). I’ve run marathons, hiked the Wonderland Trail, and spent considerable time in the Cascades every month of the year (until I moved to Whidbey) some of which ended up in three books (Twelve Months at Barclay Lake, Lake Valhalla, and Merritt Lake.) I’ve done those things because I was willing to head out into something that might be uncomfortable, and was very willing to turn around when I encountered an avalanche slope, bad weather, heavy traffic, or the stares that told me I’d walked into the wrong bar.

My risk tolerance is high, or at least it seems that way to many people. I think my engineering background helps. It isn’t because I think everything is taken care of by backup systems and safety factors. My engineering experience proved to me that there is risk everywhere, and that living life is aided by realizing the likelihood and magnitude of various risks.

A friend and I had a conversation on Thursday, the day before the Sendai quake and tsunami. She lives within a few houses of the shore, and only about six feet above the high tide line. Should she worry about global warming? It’s easy to see one risk and concentrate on it. We walked through the scary possibilities. The sea is already rising, probably from global warming. It can also come up from tsunamis, especially local ones within Puget Sound. The Antarctic ice shelves can calve and kick off tsunamis and raise the sea, a double hit. Storm surges can flood for a day or so. But we live in an earthquake zone, which can spawn tsunamis too, but it can also raise or lower the land by many feet within seconds. The most likely scenario on any day is that nothing will happen. The risk of any of these things happening is smaller than the risks involved in driving to work. Drive careful. Drive defensive.

Every place has its hazards. Map lovers can get lost clicking through hazard maps from many agencies (your tax dollars at work – in a good way). Rather than being inundated by them, I realized that my life was rarely affected by quakes, waves, severe weather, and other worrisome hazards. They are worrisome, but I don’t worry about them every day because I’ve taken at least some precautions.

I live on an island, which can be worrisome, but the area is semi-rural. Except for a few weeks per year, there’s plenty of water coming from the sky, which I don’t always celebrate, but I do use for filling my rain barrel. The local land and shore have plenty of resources, wood and food. My hiking gear is good emergency equipment. My bicycle is backup transportation in case the road to the neighborhood is blocked. I even fantasize that I’d use the kayak to paddle the three or four miles to the mainland if all else failed. I suspect it would be much easier to hitch a ride on someone’s sail boat. I don’t do everything the Feds recommend, but each thing I do lessens the impact of hazards that are real but rare.

When I see videos and hear the news about cities in crisis, I am glad to be farther out. It will take longer for official help to get here, but resourceful people with a lot of resources can be more comforting than, say, sitting in a powerless waterless condo waiting for FEMA to ride into town. Rural life has its risks too. The nearest hospital on the island is about 45 minutes away on a normal drive. That’s a statistic I don’t like.

I have a few provisions set aside. There’s an earthquake kit in the backyard that I should refresh. I built a woodshed, and made sure it was stout and large enough to double as a shelter. My house is 100 feet above sea level. Fishing gear is ready, though I’m out of practice. And some provisions are actually disguised as luxuries. My wine collection is really backup supplies, sort of. Power’s out? Pop a cork. I wish I had a root cellar. That’s handy food storage for the right foods. A day of wine, cheese, apples, and maybe some smoked meats is a nice picnic.

All of this talk about risk and preparedness over-emphasizes the worry. The impact on my life is the opposite. Because I understand the relative risks and because I’ve taken some precautions I can spend more time enjoying every day. This is the same writer’s phenomena I’ve noticed when I wrote about various adventures. A five second mishap can fill pages of detailed description, consequence and insight. Five hours of free time spent quietly sitting by a lake is only source material for a short paragraph unless a stunning revelation is included. This post may be about risks, but it is really about freeing up lots of time.

There are things I worry about. Health care, house maintenance, why my car’s fuel mileage is dropping, and when my portfolio is going to radically improve. There’s been enough evidence of the consequences of those worries over the last two years. (I’m feeling better now, thank you.) I’m continuing to remove the excessive negative feedback wiring within my grey matter. Natural disasters are natural. They will happen. I can’t control them, but I can control my response to them. Control is de-stressing. I’d be less stressed if I had enough money to pay for any health care bill, to pay for every house improvement, to fix the car and have a motorcycle as backup, and to have enough for play, extensive philanthropy – for a long and prosperous and happy life. The Washington State Lottery is up to over $8 million. That would do it.

In the meantime, I watch the news, hope for the best, and then get ready for the rest of my day. A big worry for today? What am I going to wear to the dance?

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