Greg Parrish | Entrepreneur, Artist and Student of Life

The combination of “Baker” (WP 2.8) and insomnia have inspired a reset of this site, my daughter’s site, and rethinking of my sandbox. WP is just sweet isn’t it?

After a few minor set backs with my last installation/configuration and my hosting company’s control panel, I decided to just blow off the entire thing and start over with a clean install of v2.8. Same sort of approach I tend to take with Microsoft’s operating systems.

Between a visit from my cousin RP, his wife and 3 kids encouraging a well-needed few days off from work, followed by a major case of rhinovirus (gotta love that name) giving me the worst soar throat I think I have ever had, my sleep schedule is now worse than my internal clock’s tendency to migrate to Pacific Time (I’m on Eastern). I think I’m probably averaging 4-5 hours a night starting between 2:00 and 5:00 a.m. and waking up usually once or twice in between. Man, I hate losing REM sleep. Regardless, I have a renewed interest in keeping this site at least trickling.

Here is a cool video from 2003 about Vincent Van Gogh and his love of painting and absinthe. It’s our exploration in stop motion animation. For even more fun, check out the www.vangogh-absinthe.net website.

It’s almost surprising just how many times conversations between friends, family, acquaintances and even complete strangers eventually migrate towards the struggles in our economy. The only thing that has changed over the last several weeks is the utter agony expressed in filling one’s car with gasoline. I just filled up today in Savannah, GA and paid $2.74 per gallon. The highest I paid a few weeks ago was $3.89 per gallon and this was just minutes before it jumped to $4.39 per gallon. I witnessed an Enmark station close to my office jump 3 times in less than probably 4 hours a total of $0.60 per gallon. It’s just ridiculous.

So now we are grateful for the relief in gas prices while we witness historical fluctuation in the stock market. In my teenage years, I probably would not have even noticed events like these as youth tends to “shelter you” from the real world. Now, I react to CNN much like watching a bad train wreck and you can’t seem to look away, as much as you know you should. And, I’m not really referring to the recent train wreck I actually saw on CNN, but rather the meltdown of our economy and the unbelievable responses coming from our government and politicians.

It is difficult to imagine what countries around the world must be thinking about the changes that we as a people have seen over the course of W’s administration. My wife calls me a liberal or a democrat. I have always claimed that I am not affiliated with any party and my voter registration confirms it. This was partly due to the fact that most of my life (I hate to admit it) I have intentionally avoided following anything about politics as I found it completely and utterly disgusting due to the hypocrites involved in politics. However, with age, I have learned that it is irresponsible to ignore these sort of things and if you want the right to complain about something you have to be a part of it in an attempt to make a difference. So, now that I have been paying attention, I guess I am leaning towards (if I have to claim anything) being an Independent.

My how time flys when you own your own business! Hours become days become weeks become months and before you realize it years have passed. Perhaps this just happens as you get older, regardless of what you do for a career, but if you work 80 to a hundred hours a week, burnout is your destiny!

For those of you who think owning your own business would be fun, well, sometimes it is. It is easy to become obsessive with a new business as you watch it develop and grow. I used to think I would be “in control” and decide when and what I wanted to work on, and that it would provide me many opportunities for free time! Well, years have pasted now and I have finally discovered I have not had free time at all, and often times (depending on the type of business) you are still working for your clients (i.e. working for someone else). Think hard about the decisions you make in life, as even seemingly insignificant decisions may one day make a dramatic difference in your life.