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triangulating to find your location.

Here's a quick shot of me calculating a geosynchronous orbit of my desk with a toy satellite and a picture of me in an old Broadcast Engineering magazine proving I'm qualified to use terms like pitch, yaw and geosynchronous. It was a paid advertisement and I didn't actually fly any satellites, just tune in transponders. Not nearly as impressive.

Steven Wright said "It's a small world... but I wouldn't want to paint it."

Yesterday my wife and I went to the Minnesota State Fair like we do pretty much every year. While we were at the fair with 172,000 other people yesterday a woman came up to me and asked "Are you Wes Thomsen?" and I said "Yes, are you a scrapbooker?" She had been to the premiere where she and her husband had their picture taken with me. Apparently I stuck my finger in her husbands ear right before the shutter snapped. Being a distinguished couple in a situation where we were all wearing suits and ties I can see where I would have easily done that. She and her husband had some great words and then she asked if I felt like a celebrity. It never really entered my mind.

Today I was reading Cathy Zielske's blog because I think she's cool... and a legitimate scrapbook celebrity. She showed a plume of light from the fair bandstand out the window of her house saying she can turn to the right and see it every evening of the fair. She also talked about the horrendous parking situation during fair time.

I'm in the strange place of shedding my skin from growth as a cold blooded media man ( as many of media / marketing types really are reptiles ) and need to kick into the phase of production where you have to tell everybody how great you and your project is, how important it is that people watch and / or buy it. I'm hyper sensitive to "the pitch" and am trying to find a middle ground, climb out of the media ooze, walk on dry land and become warm blooded yet live in the carnivorous land of reptilian sales and promotion.

I took a shortcut away from traffic leaving the fair late last night and in some weird way I found my bearings this morning when I read Cathy's blog. She's having a crap day and since ( I can only assume ) everyone outside of the People's Republic of China reads her blog, they all know she's having a crap day and yet her personal brand assets aren't plummeting on the Dow Jones. Thinking about last night when I was on the Midway with the lights and noises spinning and blasting adrenaline in all directions, then being approached by someone thinking I might be a Scrapbook celebrity, potentially driving right by Cathy Zielske's house who really is one but living life like everyone else, needing to scheduling in self maintenance "me time" and watching the fireworks outside from her quiet place... well, it just reminded me where I am... where we all are.

This morning I thought that place is the moment of all of us being who we were made to be that changes in a split second because of the fluidity of life. We're all celebrities to someone aren't we? Karen the scrapbooker and Larry her husband are celebrities to their kids and I'm sure many others... they may never know how much until after they've passed on. Cathy influences me, I influence other people. It all goes on and on. We will never "arrive" because life's obviously to damn big for us to harness and steer. I'm going to just ride the wave, get my bearings and try my best to steer in the direction I want to go.

Sometimes it takes at least three points of reference to determine where you are.

wes

PS> You can see Cathy Zielske's blog by going here: http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/

PSS> Ahhh, no this post isn't very clearly communicated and yes, I'm mixing metaphors like a mo-fo.

posted by wes @ 11:23 AM