Moving again?

Someone said to me the other day that I must hold some kind of blogging record. I don't know about that. But I do move the thing around, that's for sure.

In an effort to tie my own blogging activity (a) to that of others with whom I work and (b) to connect the latest roll of posts to our company's new web site, I've moved the "What am I thinking" blog to the Burris Ideablog. You'll find much of the same sort of thing, just under a better looking graphic face.

All of us have had considerable input into the new burris.com, but the way it looks is primarily the work of our own Eric Gordon. Visit now and often.

Blogging in times of crisis

OK, so let's say you're a CEO blogger, having established your blog for one purpose or another. You've built a relationship with your customers on the back of the products or services you deliver, which many think are good enough that they'll buy more than once and pay you willingly for the privilege.

Then something goes bad. A necessary recall, for instance, or some questionable behavior is reported. The press is knocking at the door, your colleagues, customers and employees are starting to wonder what's going on...

If you're not a blogger, what's your platform for getting out the truth?

I've been in the marketing and communications business for over 30 years, a blogger for more than three years, and I just had this blinding glimpse of the obvious about one of the values of blogging. It gives you an outlet, access to your audience, to tell the truth, to give the background, to fill in the blanks, so that you can at least control some of the information.

Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek has written on several occasions (in order, here, here and here) recently that Steve Jobs should blog. Not only about the possible options backdating scandal, but also about new products, flaps over trademarks, the music business - about anything that would allow him to tell more of the story.

So maybe blogging isn't only about working out for myself what I'm thinking. Even with a small audience, it's a platform for the truth and the rest of the story.

36 Hours in Charleston

In the New York Times today, an updated look at what I call one of the top 5 cities in America. Click on the title above, or go here.

The wisdom of Buffett

Last night I read Warren Buffett's letter accompanying the 2006 Annual Report for Berkshire Hathaway. I look forward to it every year, so I poured a glass of Cabernet, settled onto the sofa, put a pillow between my fiery laptop and my legs and gave my undivided attention to the sage's latest.

Here are the highlights (for me, at least):
p. 4 - When writing about an Israeli-based company, which Berkshire acquired in 2006, ISCAR, "the maker of consumable cutting tools that are used in conjunction with large and expensive machine tools," Buffett wrote: "ISCAR makes money because it enables its customers to make more money. There is no better recipe for continued success."

p. 12 - Buffett is tireless in promoting the businesses Berkshire owns. Sometimes with humor. In writing about improved performance at NetJets, he says that "at Berkshire, and at a number of our subsidiaries,
NetJets aircraft are an indispensable business tool. I also have a contract for personal use with NetJets and so do members of my family and most Berkshire directors. (None of us, I should add, gets a discount.) Once you've flown NetJets, returning to commercial flights is like going back to holding hands."

And later (p. 22) when outlining the plans for the annual meeting, Buffett says this about shopping among the Berkshire companies with displays for shareholders: "Stop by the NetJets booth at the Qwest to learn about viewing these plans. Come to Omaha by bus; leave in your new plane. And take all the hair gel that you wish on board with you."

p. 17 - One of the dominant themes of this year's letter is management succession. "The good news: At 76, I feel terrific and, according to all measurable indicators, am in excellent health. It's amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow."

p. 18 - He's subtle, but I think taking a dig at the inefficiencies of the federal government and its certain inability to qualify to run any of Berkshire's businesses. Here's a relatively long quote under the heading of "This and That":

"Berkshire will pay about $4.4 billion in federal income tax on its 2006 earnings. In its last fiscal year the U.S. Government spent $2.6 trillion, or about $7 billion per day. Thus, for more than half of one day, Berkshire picked up the tab for all federal expenditures, ranging from Social Security and Medicare payments to the cost of our armed services. Had there been only 600 taxpayers like Berkshire, no one else in America would have needed to pay any federal income or payroll taxes.

"Our federal return last year, we should add, ran to 9,386 pages. To handle this filing, state and foreign tax returns, a myriad of SEC requirements, and all of the other matters involved in running Berkshire, we have gone all the way up to 19 employees at World Headquarters.

"This crew occupies 9,708 square feet of space, and Charlie [Munger, Buffett's management partner] - at World Headquarters West in Los Angeles - uses another 655 square feet. Our home-office payroll, including benefits and counting both locations, totaled $3,531,978 last year. We're careful when spending your money.

"Corporate bigwigs often complain about government spending, criticizing bureaucrats who they say spend taxpayers' money differently from how they would if it were their own. But sometimes the financial behavior of executives will also vary based on whose wallet is getting depleted. Here's an illustrative tale from my days at Salomon. In the 1980s the company had a barber, Jimmy by name, who came in weekly to give free haircuts to the top brass. A manicurist was also on tap. Then, because of a cost-cutting drive, patrons were told to pay their own way. One top executive (not the CEO) who had previously visited Jimmy weekly went immediately to a once-every-three-weeks schedule."

Don't limit yourself to the highlights I've chosen to post here. There's probably no better way to get a dose of good management technique - and humility - than by reading the entire "Letter to Shareholders" for this or any Berkshire year. Here's the link to download the 2006 and all others.

My Name Is Buddy

I didn't used to be a "cat guy." I'm not sure I am even now, though we have three cats (Bear, named after Barry White; Shadow, named because he used to follow Bear around all the time; and Zoom, who's faster than any four-legged animal I've ever seen). I must say, though, that I do look out for them, and they are a constant source of amusement. That's Bear, uh, sleeping, in the photo at the top.

I was interested in this NPR story about the latest Ry Cooder project, "My Name Is 'Buddy'." It's an allegorical tale about the Dust Bowl Midwest and the hard-luck, picaresque journey of "a farm cat who hooks up with a labor-agitating mouse and a blind preacher toad."

Give it a listen, a read, and enjoy one of the most inventive and talented musicians telling a wonderful story.

I bring this up partly because of two recent cat events that have come up. First, my friend Rick Hall told me that he has adopted a cat from his neighborhood. So I loaned him my copy of Willie Morris's little book, My Cat Spit McGee, the sequel to "My Dog Skip." And second because Neil MacKenzie's cat, also named "Buddy," recently passed after about 13 lives and, ultimately, cancer. What is it about cats that melts even the hardest people?

Dick Cavett's blog

I think one of the best short term blogs I've read recently was that of Dick Cavett on Times Select, the premium content channel for the New York Times. Here's a link.

In case you can't access it without paying for it - and in case you don't want to pay for Times Select - here are two paragraphs to treasure from his February 28 post:

"Tell me, are you too getting just a little bit fed up with our leader’s war? Isn’t everybody? Do you actually know anyone who thinks it’s all going to turn out fine? Except that chubby optimist Dick Cheney, of course, who thinks the Titanic is still afloat.

"And am I alone in finding our leader’s behavior at press conferences irritating? I mean that smirky, frat-boy joking manner he goes into while, far away, people he dispatched to the desert are having their buttocks shot away. It’s worst when he does that thing of his that the French call making a 'moue'; when he pooches his lips out and thrusts his face forward in a way that seems to say, 'Aren’t I right? And don’t you adore me?'"

Lunar eclipse

We missed the lunar eclipse last Saturday night. Although our sunset was magnificent, the other side of the horizon - where the moon was scheduled to disappear - was covered with clouds. Beautiful, but not conducive to seeing the sky's magic. I snapped a couple of digitals, however, of the sun setting. The earth can be a beautiful place.

Is social networking Web 3.0?

My friend Gordon Dalgleish and I had an email exchange today about social networking, building off a New York Times article from over the weekend. ("Social Networking's Next Phase")

I'm a believer. For a golf outing I'm attending in late March, I set up a Google Group for the guys who are coming in order to communicate to and among them. Eighteen of the 19 other attendees have signed up, and the smack-downs and trash talking are already starting to appear on the site for all the others to see.

Gordon is curious about the phenomenon of social networking, wondering if golfers traveling to the UK and other Perry Golf spots might participate. I believe so ... for several reasons:

• Many have not been before, and they would likely welcome advice about what to take, where to eat and the like from friends and strangers who have taken similar trips.
• Many have made the trip before, and in addition to sharing their experience, they likely want to live vicariously with others who have been to the same places, different places and so on.
• I believe they'll share photos, anecdotes and other information, both with those they plan to travel with and others planning trips now or in the future.

If "Web 2.0" is all about using the Internet to share data, "Web 3.0" is about community. The "social networks" that have been built up around dating and other topics will surely extend to golfers, who naturally want to share their rounds. (How many times have you been through all 18 holes of a friend's recent round?)

To see how far beyond "meeting up" social networking has come, visit Ning. I think this is getting serious.

OnBeing

This is so cool, I could just hang out and siphon off the expended energy from OnBeing to fuel my own ideas.

It started innocently enough. Our own Eric Gordon passed along a link on Apple's site about how The Washington Post is using video to tell some of its stories. ("About 50 of our reporters now have cameras with them," the profile says.) It's a cool story, using an interesting cinematic technique that combines stills with motion video and a staccato editing touch that suggests the passage of time.

So I go to the url Eric suggested, I watch the Apple profile, and I learn about something else altogether. In this, the era of user generated video content - of YouTube - there's still art in the simple set-up. Go to OnBeing (click on the title of this post to be transported), and prepare to be captivated.

The morning's obits...

My early morning usually starts with a quick scan of the email box, and the morning's email always includes a summary of the day's New York Times. Today's news brief included an obituary for Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the great, if liberally biased (admittedly so, I'm sure), historian of our age. Here's the photo that accompanied the Times's obit (article by Douglas Martin; photo by Jack Manning).

In fact, along with William Manchester, Edmond Morris and Stephen Ambrose, Schlesinger was among the most readable historians of our age. "Readable history" is what I call what happens when a scholar steeped in the movement of events of a time or era is also a writer looking to transmit character and interpretation. It's my favorite read, and it includes, at times, great biography (Taylor Branch's MLK series, for instance) and, sometimes, fiction (E.L. Doctorow's The March comes to mind).

Schlesinger was 89. To honor him - besides reading and saving the obitulary - I think I'll pull down and give a fresh read to one of his books. Any recommendations?

Early Spring?

A beautiful day today, hitting the mid-70's. I had a meeting on Johns Island (between Charleston and Kiawah) at Briar's Creek, and, fortunately, it involved 18 outdoor locations.

Is Spring here? Felt like it was just 'round the corner today. And with Daylight Savings set to begin a bit earlier this year (a national holiday, that day should be), I'm thinking shorts instead of sweaters, Softspikes instead of socks and sensible shoes.

So it's a pretty good day today. Good news from a client or two, a couple of good project prospects moving closer to starting ... think I'll have a cold beverage...

Thoughts upon watching Oscar

I watched The Oscars last night because I couldn't sleep. Amazing that the show itself didn't put me under. I gave up around 10:45, I think, long before most of the "big" awards were handed out. But this morning's New York Times filled me in. One photo from the Times is remarkable for the star power: Here are Coppola, Lucas and Spielberg handing over The Oscar to Scorsese for "The Departed." A quick run-down of some of my favorite movies of all time are reflected here, from "The Godfather" and the Indiana Jones series to "The Conversation," "Raging Bull," "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" and, yes, "Jaws."

Here's the thing, however. I watched "The Departed" on Saturday night (yes, the DVD is now available), and I think that the big-small screen - the 40+ inch TV in our home - I believe TV now offers more time for better character and plot development than the 2 or 2.5 hour film.

Is this crazy? Yes, maybe so. I need to think about this some more...

"In a word": Marty Kaufmann's wrap-up of Golfweek Resort Marketing Conference

"Resorts must define themselves," writes Golfweek's editor of "The Golf Life" in the February 24 issue of the magazine. Marty Kaufmann sat through almost all of the one day Resort Marketing Conference the day before the PGA Merchandise Show, and his editor's perspective is clearly evident in his wrap-up.

"Why did a golf resort on a remote, desolate stretch of Oregon coastline quickly become America's St. Andrews, the most desired of domestic bag tags, while perfectly pleasant resorts convenient to major cities stir feelings of indifference among visitors?"

In a word, Kaufmann says, Bandon Dunes is "pure." And that's the secret sauce of its brand.

I moderated the panels, my friends Gordon Dalgleish and Frank Sanders spoke, and overall I think the 40+ attendees got way more out of it than they dreamed. Will their brands benefit? We'll see.

We'll see.

Blogging can be lonely...

But Seth Godin, in his blog says to be humble and aware of why you (I) blog in the first place. A quick post worth reading. (His, not mine.)

Working from home

I'm sure I've written about this before, even shown you a photo of my home work space. But I came across this collection of articles in BusinessWeek at about the same time our own Neil MacKenzie decided to move his job with us from Greensboro to Atlanta. (Here's Neil with Anne Cassity and "Santa Paul" in our Greensboro "World HQ.")

I'm convinced I am more productive not driving to some office to set up business for the day. And though Neil will be hundreds of miles from HQ (as is Eric Gordon, who works with us from Richmond, VA), he'll get more done. What most of us need is bandwidth (lots and lots) and the right tools to communicate.

Coming next, inspired to think about it by a BW slide show, the tools I need to do my job from anywhere.

NBC Nightly News

I'm not going to wax on about the life or life support the nightly newscast lives, at least not in this post. I watch NBC Nightly News, usually the next morning via video podcast. I like Brian Williams; he's another in a line of solid, smart and trustworthy deliverers of the news (from NBC, Huntley, Brinkley, Chancellor, Brokaw; from CBS, Cronkite; from ABC, Jennings).

No, I just wanted to say that sometimes the newscast surprises me. In November last year, the broadcast had a single sponsor, Philips, who reduced the advertising content from 8 minutes to 5. More time for news. And last night (or, this morning), the last 3 minutes was a live performance by a Wynton Marsalis quintet (from Jazz at Lincoln Center), from New York, but celebrating Phat Tuesday.

Pretty cool.

"A championship team instead of a team of champions"

I posted this once before, but in a different location, so I thought it was worth posting up here:

The title of this post is a slightly paraphrased dictum, #4 of "7 notions of innovation," from Kodak's Antonio M. Perez, as quoted in BusinessWeek's IN special section. Here's a link to the article.

At Burris we have a championship team, and it's probably our greatest strength. Six individuals, each with his or her own unique personality and skill set, but all enjoying what we do, (most often) for whom we do it, and - at least I believe it - getting along quite well as a team.

What we need now, what we seem to always need, are more customers to replace the ones whose projects we just completed. We have to keep selling, the key to selling what we do is being able to define it.

We continue to say ours is "an idea company." Need something fresh?

My "-ias" syndrome

Maybe today's the day for confessions...

A friend asked in an email today about my business. I've said this to several before, but it strikes me that there's a lot of truth to it, so I thought I'd share with this audience.

I told him I suffer from an "-ia" problem.

"When we finish a major project, as we did recently with Yamaha Golf Cars, there's this wonderful sense of euphoria. And it's followed by - no, it's simultaneous with - a foreboding sense of paranoia."

Euphoria and paranoia, simultaneously. My "-ia" syndrome.

Ever since we became a project-driven idea company, this is the way it's been. When we're busy, we're busy, and we put so much into it that there's this great sense of accomplishment and relief and satisfaction as we near and come to completion. But, then, what's next? Maybe there's nothing. Uh, oh.

A technology confession

I don't admit this easily, but sometimes I fall into a technology trap. Yes, me.

On Thursday of last week I read in David Pogue's New York Times column about a service called Spinvox. Sounded cool. What it's supposed to do is take your voice mail messages and transcribe them into text and email them to you. So, no dialing in to your mobile VM and letting the prompts take you forever. Just read your voicemails.

I signed up. (It's free for the rest of 2007 in the U.S.) I received my registration info last night. I followed the directions to the letter this morning. But it didn't work. What's worse, I had difficulty UN-forwarding my mobile, a problem with Verizon.

So I spent about an hour this morning setting up and trying to UN-set-up my new SpinVox account.

I don't admit this easily, but sometimes I fall into a technology trap. Yes, me. I think something sounds cool and/or time-saving so I adopt the tech promise quickly ... only to lose time sometimes, mired in a process that saps my energy and patience.

I don't admit this easily, but sometimes I fall into a technology trap. Yes, me....

Update: Six hours later...
A Spinvox tech rep called me, walked me through their system, and my service is working now. I still have an issue with this and that relating to it, but it's working, and my faith is restored.

Lawyer friendly

We're working with a legal firm to develop a new "corporate" identity and message. Among the concepts we've considered is a clearly humanizing direction built around the partners' - especially one of the firm's namesakes' - ability to tell a good story.

I must admit that I'm influenced to some degree by current campaigns for Volvo and Cisco.

The Volvo automobiles campaign is built around the brand's being known for safety. It's theme - "who would you give a Volvo to" - extends the brand DNA by introducing an interactive or user-generated element. The web site features not only current advertising but also input from owners. "This is our way to inspire you to think about the people you care about." Well done.

A campaign for Cisco products is better executed. Extolling the idea of a "human network" (presumably connected by Cisco networking devices), this web site combines product demonstrations with true, user-contributed stories of good deeds and "wow" moments.

For our client we're introducing the storytelling motif to outline about seemingly complex examples of the law and legal processes procedures within captivating, easy-to-follow narratives ... told by one or more of the partners. They're not "case studies," not really, partly because we are uncomfortable identifying clients and adversaries. We call them "briefs," and we're using them not only on the web, with video, shot in simple settings, but we're also setting them up in recommended advertising media executions that tell a little - but not all - of the story and drive the reader to the web for the rest.

In the process of seeing what the firm has done, you "meet" one of the lawyers, get to know them perhaps a bit better than just a photo and a bio can do.

Our work is beginning to taking shape now. I'll show it to you when it's ready.

BusinessWeek's "Innovate"

On this cold Saturday, I caught up on some of my online reading. If you have a few minutes yourself and want to stimulate some fresh thinking, either (a) call me and we'll brainstorm together, or (b) go to BW's "Innovate" weblog for the latest round-up of ideas.

Ideo's method cards

At Burris we have our "Inspirator." It's a figment of Dean Wagner's imagination, a block of wood, unfinished, sporting an "On/Off" switch on top. (You can see it here on our new web site's placeholder.) It's pretty cool, and we're adopting it into our culture as a figurative device for turning on creativity.

Heck, an idea company needs something like an Inspirator.

Ideo, on the other hand, has their "method cards." (Click on the title of this post to see them at work.)

What do you use to fuel your creativity?

"I don't care"

Our annual homeowners meeting was today. I go for the oysters. Each year, at the conclusion of the meeting, we have an oyster roast just off the beach. Wonderful. But this year during the meeting there was an issue that caused a lot of discussion, a few motions and seconds and discussion and the "call to question" ...

There's considerable erosion on what the Isle of Palms refers to as "North Beach." The 18th hole at the Wild Dunes Links course is threatened, and the owners of property near there and the community at large are attempting to mobilize to move sand from one part of the beach to help stave off some of the problem. (It's probably too little too late, but as most of the residents in our community are quick to say of themselves, "I am not an engineer.")

Anyway, there's a petition to remove sand from an area near our little community (from an area affectionately known as a "spit") - 36,000 truckloads - to the badly eroded area. Some of the homeowners in our 'hood want to do what they can to help out; others fear that the removal of 5 feet of sand over a 1 million square foot area - the area of the "spit" - might cause a problem at our part of the beach.

I listened to more than an hour of point and counterpoint without participating in the discussion. I just wasn't moved enough by either side to formulate an opinion. One thing I've noticed about myself, a change that's come to me over the last several years: Some things just don't matter. I'm still opinionated about a lot of things ... about most things, I guess. But not everything.

At this point, about this issue, I really don't care.

How good are your notes?

The "Scooter" Libby trial reminds me of a couple of my own shortcomings. I don't take very good notes ... and my memory is not so good either. So if I were called to the stand, my notes having been subpoenaed, having to recall with whom I spoke about what, I would certainly fail.

I asked Betty yesterday how she manages her notes, to-do's and the like, whether she uses her Day-Timer system, her digital calendar and contact system, both, neither or what. You know, Microsoft's Entourage (Mac) or Outlook (PC) does a great job of linking calendar and contact info. Mac's iCal and Address Book - which I use - do not. I write to-do's and notes and such in a little black book (that's all they're good for now), unless I'm at my computer. If I'm at a keyboard I'm likely to tap in a texting program, then paste into a calendar to-do.

What works for you?

Being there

I'm reading Bill Bryson's latest book. It's hilarious, a beautiful capture of growing up in the '50's and early '60's.

Outside the major story, Bryson tells us about his father, who was an outstanding sportswriter - especially about baseball. Bryson senior was there for many of the key plays and games, and Bryson junior uses 1951 as an opportunity to wonder aloud something many of us wondered about:

"But then he had to be there. It was part of his fate, too. I am not exactly suggesting that Bobby Thompson hit that home run because my father was there or implying that he wouldn't have hit it if my father was there or implying that he wouldn't have hit it if my father had not been there. All I am saying is that my father was there and Bobby Thomson was there and the home run was hit and these things couldn't have been otherwise."
Bill Bryson - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

I sometimes wonder the same thing. And I'm convinced others do as well. I'm absolutely sure my brother Brad believes North Carolina's basketball team would have beaten NC State on Saturday, February 3, if only he'd been in front of the TV to watch anything more than the very end of the game.

Meetings

Do you get more work done in or outside of meetings?

As another Burrisite prepares to move outside the office to do his day-to-day work, I think about productivity and its causes. I know I'm extremely productive working from home. I use a lot of IM, email, Skype conferencing, web access - I use all these and more to push out work, to execute work, to wrap-up one assignment (self-imposed and otherwise) after another.

How about you? Where are you most productive?

The photo above is from a meeting at Dunes Properties yesterday. Jeff Satterwhite from Softwired Systems in Greensboro made a presentation of his work in progress for the company, and a number of decisions were made. As a result, Jeff and I are able to move forward, aggressively.

This is how it works best for me. I'm most productive getting stuff done outside of meetings. But if I need items approved, bought into, checked off, a face-to-face is almost always best.

Golf Travel

On p. 16 of the February issue of Conde Nast Traveler, in the "Feb.Online" column, there's this request:

"Tell us aobut your experience at U.S., Canadian, and Caribbean golf resorts and you're automatically entered to win a weekend at a top golf getaway." (Click on the header at the top of this post to go to the site.)

I just finished moderating Golfweek's Resort Marketing Conference during the PGA Merchandise Show, and one of our speakers, Frank Sanders, president and founder of CSM Research, delivered a compelling presentation on measuring guest satisfaction. Once again I call for the golf travel industry to work together - or for some private enterprise - to develop a consistent standard for capturing and reporting golf travelers' experiences, a sort of J.D. Power research with a ranking system.

Why is this important? There are at least two reasons:

1. It's such a small market. By some estimates there are approximately 2 million golf travelers; that is, golfers who go away to play golf for at least three days and two nights every year. That's a relatively small opportunity, and if a golf resort or destination is going to prosper, it must know what kind of service it delivers ... and, therefore, the likelihood of what I call "refer and return."

2. The hospitality industry itself is getting better, and the standards its setting are elevating the quality and service standards of travelers. I just this morning checked out of a Fairfield Inn, where the beds have been upgraded, the showers improved, the high-speed internet installed throughout - in short, the Fairfield is today what the Courtyard was yesterday, and there's be ongoing improvement right on up the line. But not so much at the typical golf resort.

My advice to golf resorts and destinations? Go after guest satisfaction and own it. Someone like Frank can help. So can Burris.

Is proper English important?

Some bristle when I correct their grammar, syntax or spelling. "You know what I meant," they're likely to say. (Well, not always.)

I found a new blog by Dick Cavett today, and his subject is the language and how politicians - especially the Bushies - use and abuse it. Here's a stand-out comment:

"Getting a little thing like words right, is it so important?

"The right answer is: Yes. As when poorly worded road signs cause fatalities. Sloppy language leads to sloppy thought, and sloppy thought to sloppy legislation. And why not a sloppy war? What if someone issuing an order with grave consequences made the (tiny) error of confusing the last letters of Iraq and Iran?"

I also received a resume and cover letter today. The job applicant (we are not hiring, no) said he "works "not in a haphazard manor...." Well, I hope not.

Write it. But, then, please review it. Please.

Have you seen my luggage?

Awoke early Sunday morning to prepare for the journey back east from Phoenix. Just before departing for the airport, I thought to check the status of my flight. CANCELLED, it said on the web site. I called US Air, and I'd been re-booked for a 2:30p departure, arriving Charleston at 9:50p. In other words, a 6-hour delay.

I called again to confirm what I'd been told on the first call (I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy when it comes to dealing with the airlines). Yes, confirmed, but the 2:30p departure is full of stand-by's; don't take any chances, the voice on the other end of the phone said. Somehow, I didn't feel all that confirmed anymore.

Calling a third time, I get "Ruby," and she suggests I go through Chicago instead of Charlotte. "Can you make an 8:30a departure?" she asks. Since my original departure was scheduled for 8:45a, "Sure," I say. OK, she says, let me just confirm that I can get you on a United flight out of Chicago. "Please hold." Literally, 25 minutes later, she returns to the line. I'm halfway to the airport by now. "OK, you're confirmed."

I won't go into the special security screening or the other confusion just trying to get a boarding pass. The connection in Chicago was tight, and the fact that we arrived late made it tighter. I made it though, just barely. But my bags didn't. And the airline couldn't find a record of two bags, just one, and they aren't sure if it's my suitcase or my golf clubs.

I guess we'll find out when one, both or neither arrives in Charleston, maybe today.

My radius for driving vs. flying has just expanded ... again.

The desert, golf and the PGA Tour

Six friends - including my brother Brad - visited with two other friends in Scottsdale this weekend, playing a private course there, The Country Club at DC Ranch.

I love visiting the desert, especially this time of year. Dry air, brilliant sunshine, fast greens ... it's a great place to escape the winter back East.

It just happened to also be the week of the FBR Open, what we used to call the Phoenix Open. I don't know the stats, but I'm told more than 100,000 people attend the event, the charitable contributions are significant, and it's a big boost to the local economy.

How do they do it? Compare it to Greensboro's PGA Tour event, now the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts something or another, known to many of us who grew up there as the Greater Greensboro Open, or GGO. The GGO is played on Forest Oaks, a marginal course located more than 20 miles southeast of Greensboro - away from High Point and Winston-Salem.

Here in Phoenix (actually, Scottsdale), ticket sales are brisk, there's that great stadium on the par 3 17th, there's reportedly the largest all-day ('til 10p) cocktail party on the Tour at a tent village called the Bird's Nest. All this stuff and fun and excitement. And in Greensboro the organizers have difficulty selling 10,000 tickets to individuals.

In 2007 the GGO has new dates in August, it's part of the FedEx Cup and finally the Jaycees have been pushed out of the leadership roles. There's a new lease on life for the event. Let's hope they can create some real excitement with their new opportunity. Hey, if I wanted to watch a golf tournament, I'd turn on TV.

The jackhammer vs. the spoon

Neil MacKenzie passes along this from Boston.com, which came from the blog at 37signals.

Here's the highlight: "37signals says they put a few smart people on a problem, embrace constraints, don't try to solve the wrong problems, focus on precision and take the time to get things right. So instead of using a jackhammer to break out of jail, they use a spoon."

We use 37signals' Basecamp project management platform and swear by it. And we see our company as one that takes a similar approach to our own work.

An earlier version

A couple of early morning thoughts on this last day of January.

• Eric (photo left) exclaimed in an IM yesterday: "Another blog!?" Yes. We're incorporating a blog posting capability in the new burris.com, where I will direct most of my energies soon, but in the meantime too much is being left unsaid. Furthermore, I like to experiment with digital technologies, and the improvements in Google's blogging engine, Blogger, made this revisit to my verbose side tempting.

• This blog, "What am I thinking?", is the latest in my blogging history. First there was the online version of the newsletter I started writing and distributing to clients, prospects and other contacts almost 20 years ago. That was the "Burris Blog." Then came "Golfography," a more photo-driven blog about the "landscapes of golf," where and with whom I played. That was followed by "Golfology," a more shamelessly-driven prospecting tool aimed at marketing decision-makers in the golf business. Next I migrated all three of those blogs to Apple's blogging software in iWeb. It was a different look, a design-driven interface that was fun to work with. Same blog topics, new posts, new look and location. For a bit more than nine months I also tried to keep up with what I called the "Sunday Blog," a communications tool directed to my extended family that was, alas, virtually fruitless in stimulating online conversation.

Then I shut them all off in September 2006. I said I was tired of talking to myself. Very little dialogue, although I must say I would often get positive feedback in conversation. But I wasn't finished experimenting with blogging engines. We tried a WordPress version on a more corporate "Golfology" site. I found it difficult to work with, not as intuitive for me, so I was not as assiduous in keeping it fresh. And in November 2006, after reading an article about companies in the "web 2.0" space, I set up a blog at a site called "Vox" (here). I struggled to figure what to talk about, came up with a topic that I (obviously) still kind of like.

And here we are.

If you are interested in prior posts, check the links at the bottom of this digital page. And for the immediate future, check back here. Who knows what I'll be pondering next?

Work in progress

We're working on a new, more dynamic site for our little company. Here's a rough of how we think we'd like the home page to look. Quickly we want to communicate who we are and what we do, but just as important is sharing what we're doing and what we've done.

The current burris.com is loaded with content. But it doesn't change ... and our little company seems to change a lot. We're trying to fix that.

You know the old saying about the cobbler's kids and their shoes. Well, this is taking longer than I hoped, but I think it'll be worth it.

Blog on

As Burris, the company, prepares to launch a new web presence, I find I need some outlet for capturing what I'm thinking about ... at any given time. So I guess I'm back - at least for the time being - to blogging.

The link in the title will take you to the old Burris Blog, and in addition to that I wrote and kept up with a couple of others. But I just wore out talking to myself.

This time may be different ... or it mayn't be. Not sure. Maybe I'll wear out again sooner rather than later. Or maybe the blogging capability we're adding to the new burris.com will give me the freedom to do what I want in this kind of space. Again, not sure.

But here we are - here I am - again, ready to work out what I'm thinking about, what's on my mind.