Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Puppy Approval
For probably the last 5 years I’ve been known as “the meanest Dad, ever,” because I wouldn’t authorize the addition of a dog to our family. But it was with good reason. From about 2000-2006, we had a dog. While I owned that dog I learned I’m not a “dog person.” See, “dog people” get dogs and understand dogs chew on things, are not human, and that they do dog things (bark, get sprayed by skunks, run away, bark, shed, have accidents in the house, bark at 2 a.m. at nothing, are a burden because they need to eat and visit the vet every now and then, and completely tie you down when it comes to blowing outta town for a weekend or going on a long vacation).
I had another problem with our dog – it was a pure bred beagle and it’s boss was always it’s nose, so that came with added fun. Our dog would find everything that smelled good and then eat that good-smelling thing (trash, food off the table, diapers, random fecal matter in the yard or on walks). We went to three rounds of obedience school and the dog was OK except when left alone with it’s nose. Maybe our beagle was high-strung, but it just couldn’t resist anything that smelled awesome. It would climb like a monkey to get at peanut butter brownies.
The dog had to go. Beagles scent receptors are 1,000x more powerful than humans and 100x more powerful than any other breed of dog.
“Dog people” might’ve tolerated it. I could not.
I vowed that if I ever got a dog again, it would be a mutt. I had an unidentifiable mutt growing up and it was the calmest, smartest, most easy going dog the world has ever seen. Enter the mutt you see above. It’s the result of two mutts having puppies. It’s like a Super Mutt. So, it is my conclusion this dog is the dog I’ve been waiting for and it will be calm, and easy-going, easy to train, it won’t be beholden to a host of instinctive behaviors (hunting, attacking, digging), and it looks like it’ll have short(ish) hair and might be right around 20-25 pounds when full grown.
I’ve been the “meanest Dad, ever” for years, now, but I always (secretly) enjoy when we get to babysit our dog-nephew and neighbor’s dogs. My family has been begging – including my youngest daughter who dubbed herself a “dog trainer” from about the time she was three years old. Truly, today when we talked about inviting some friends over for a cookout and watching some football, she breathlessly said, “oh, and they can bring their dog, too.”
I’m not kidding. She was breathless. The idea of a dog in our house for a few hours literally took her breath away.
So, here I am. I’ve given this new adventure the green light and I want to go on record that, if a dog isn’t in our house by Christmas, it’s because my wife is the “meanest Mom, ever.”
This was a nice re-entry into the blogging world. I’ve had a lot going on. I hope you missed me.
Oh …my point? People can change.
If we get this dog, I’ll be tweeting about that …so you can hang on my every word at @donkowalewski.
Things I Want: iPad Air and Plain Colored Ties
Some people ask, “do you really love the iPad that much?” And of course I always respond the same …if my house was on fire and I had 30-seconds to evacuate, I’d save, in this order, two of my three kids, my iPad, the third kid (time permitting), my wife, then my iPhone. You may think that sounds absurd and I’m obsessed with “things” and have no sense of values and what’s important, but truly …if everything else in the house was destroyed and all I had was the things on the list above, I’m pretty sure I’d be OK.
When the iPad was invented, I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen. I promptly robbed my corner convenience store, mugged a few little old ladies in the parking lot of the grocery store on the corner, and saved (stole) enough money to buy one. I’ve never regretted a single thing – except perhaps not wearing ski mask during my crime spree.
An iPad is the greatest invention ever. It’s like the “future” arrived early and every day when I use it I marvel …who dreamed this up? Why didn’t I dream it up? It’s like a computer, and an eReader, and a phone, and a music collection, and it’s sturdy, doesn’t slow down or crash or get viruses, has a billion time-wasting games, looks beautiful, and can DO EVERYTHING.
It’s perfect. The original iPad was perfect, and if they’d never invented the iPad 2 or Ipad 3 or iPad Mini, I’d still be amazed and happy with the first iPad. Obviously, the newer, faster versions are just gawdy, but how do you improve on “perfect?”
Apple figured it out and made a faster, lighter, and thinner iPad. The iPad Air. I need it. “Need,” you ask? You might say this is a perfect opportunity to explain to my kids the difference between “want” and “need”, and you’re right …I’ve explained very clearly why I “need” the iPad Air. I mean, look at it (video below). It’s thinner than a pencil. Thinner than a pencil!!!
Our society is obsessed with thin, no?
Anyway, I guess this blog entry is nothing more than a lunatic ranting about a thing and has no point. And maybe secretly I’m hoping an Executive at Apple reads it and thinks, “I like this blogger’s moxy and passion. I think a great advertising and public relations move would be to give him a new iPad Air and organically his love for our company will help us sell thousands of these new iPads because he’s an opinion maker.”
Again, I’m a lunatic.
Lastly, before I show you how the iPad Air is thinner than a pencil, I think I’ve missed the boat on plain, solid color ties, but I think I need two or three colors to pair with my patterned shirts. I’ve been seeing that alot lately and I’m ready to jump on that trend and, a year from now, have a closet full of plain single-colored ties I won’t wear. Sort of like when I used to have 3 denim shirts, or royal blue dress shirts in the late 90s.
Let me know if you get the iPad Air so I can be appropriately envious and invite myself over to your house to hang out and use your new iPad.
See you tomorrow.
Things I Do: Status Updates in Third-Person
Many people (nobody) ask, “Don, why do you update Facebook in 3rd-person?”
I’m a Facebook Originalist (that’s not really a thing, I just made it up). Remember when Facebook first started? It didn’t just list your name and ask you to post any old random thing. No, right before your blank slate, it said, “Don Kowalewski is …”.
I’m even pretty sure it has the dot-dot-dot …
There was a time when Facebook wasn’t a buncha Gen Xrs and Boomers posting their political views. It wasn’t always about pictures of your kids on the first day of school and status updates lauding your children as the greatest thing that ever happened to you (and me) and all that other stuff. Don’t get me wrong …I love Facebook as it was and even more now as it is. I truly like seeing my friends kids growing up, winning their soccer championships, and going to prom. I kinda wish MORE of my friends were more active. I like checking-in on people and seeing what they’re up to. Without Facebook, it’s true, I couldn’t possibly keep up with 500+ friends. Some say that’s as it should be, but I say phooey to those people. We used to rely on one phone in our kitchen and we’d make a couple of phone calls each week to loved ones. To everyone else, we might write a letter. We “lost touch” because there was truly no way, and not enough time, to “keep in touch.”
I’m sorry, but that wasn’t “better”.
Soldiers can Skype and FaceTime with their wives and children. That’s a GREAT thing. Sick people in a hospital can stay connected with all their well-wishers and easily kill time between visits from their closest relatives and pull strength from the most random friend who posts something as bland as “I’m praying for you” on their Facebook Wall. Don’t think this matters and makes you feel good? Well, I won’t wish sickness or a hospital stay for you, but trust me, it’s incredible just to hear from people and connect, however brief or short the interaction.
My point …as I discussed in a meeting yesterday with a woman I just met …we love Facebook and we’re not ashamed of it.
I just wish people would challenge themselves to bring their most creative and fun self to Facebook – starting with writing updates in third-person.
“Don Kowalewski is … wishing everyone would write status updates in third-person.”
“Don Kowalewski is … probably overthinking his obsession with writing status updates in third-person.”
So there you have it. Why do I write all my Facebook status messages in third-person? Because that was Facebook’s original intent. To tell the world what we’re doing or thinking in any given moment, but doing it as if Facebook was writing our story for us. Join me in re-capturing the original spirit of Facebook.
“Don Kowalewski is … hoping you will.”
Things I Wonder: Could This Blog be Better?
Could this blog be better? Yes, of course. But how? As a guy who’s been blogging for nearly a decade (I’m rounding up), you’d think I’d have it all figured out, by now.
I don’t.
I feel like I should just go back to making this a personal journal about whatever it is I’m doing. Like this weekend. As of Friday when I left for work, I had really not much of anything planned for the weekend. Then, there happened to be extra tickets to Disney on Ice for Friday night, so I asked for some and took my family. The 9-year-old boy was excited to go, but didn’t end up having all that much fun because, “there were too many princesses,” even though later he said, “some parts were sorta funny.”
Also, at some point during the day, my wife happened into 4 Michigan State football tickets, so before I knew it, my Saturday morning and afternoon were planned.
Then, the wife suggested, “hey, after the football game, whey don’t we head over the river and through the woods to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.”And we all voted YES.
Again, from no plans to a full, amazing weekend complete with driving Michigan backroads during its peak color tour.
But who’s going to read or care about a blog like this? Maybe just me, and maybe that’s just OK. I used to call my blog “Don’s Ego” and I gave everyone fair warning – this blog was going to be heavy on Don-related things.
What else am I doing? I’m trying to get full night’s sleep. I think it’s just a phase and I’m sure I’ll get back on track, but for some reason, when I wake up at night, I’m awake and that’s it and there’s no going back to sleep. It doesn’t help that my youngest daughter gets up just about every night for some reason or another – bad dream, itchy legs, “heard a noise.” The problem is, once I wake up, I feel awake and alert. It’s not stress or worry and usually I daydream about things – the same as I do at bedtime – and that usually puts me to sleep, but lately I daydream (in the middle of the night) and I don’t disappear into those dreams, anymore.
So there you have it. I think this blog is silly and pointless, I had a busy weekend, and I can’t sleep.
Seems like this could’ve been three blog entries. But who would read blog entries about sleep, an impromptu weekend, and blogging discipline?
Oh. Me. That’s who.
Things I’m Doing: Sleeping
Hello, R.E.M. sleep. It’s been a while. Science tells us sleep is important. I don’t argue with science. But what if, despite the best science available, “sleep” doesn’t happen?
I won’t say I’ve been an insomniac for most of the past 6 months, but my routine has been (a) watch TV until my brain can stop thinking about the day that I just finished and the day ahead of me, (b) wake up on the couch in a very tired state (c) drag myself to my bed and hope I can remain in this dream-like state until I hit my pillow and fall immediately asleep and finally (d) pray I don’t wake up in a panic at 4 a.m.
The problem is, as I guess is the case with most people struggling to sleep, is you add the worry of, “I need to sleep or tomorrow will be worse than today,” and suddenly you have another failure to obsess about. You start thinking about how much you used to enjoy bedtime and how you weren’t nervous or scared to wake up the next day.
Feelings of doubt, fear, regret, failure, anger, and sadness don’t help with sleep.
Last night? I slept. Today? I feel amazing. I have a feeling of optimism that’s been missing for many days and night.
All because of sleep. And what did I do with this new found energy and optimism. I went shopping.
Later, I might go for a walk. I might watch some TV and get some more writing done. Truly, with a good nights sleep, I can do anything.
Have you ever had trouble sleeping? From grief? Anger? Sadness? Stress? What did you do? How did you fix it and make sure you got sleep?
Leave a comment or Tweet at me at @donkowalewski.
Things I Think: A Rent Control Scam for a Century
It’s been a while since I had random thoughts. Random thoughts used to keep me going.
If I understand “rent control”, it’s something that happens in Manhattan. Or maybe all of New York. I mostly know about it through sitcoms and films set in New York. It’s a system for protecting little old ladies who started renting their apartment in 1970 from having to pay whatever the 2013 going rate is and, hence, being unable to afford it.
I always imagine some cute little 80-year-old woman is paying $315 a month for a great place overlooking Central Park.
It would be great if some guy rented an apartment, say, back in 1946, just after the war, and before he decided to move out in 1955, found another person who looked very similar to himself and let that dude take over the rent. And when that guy decided to move on, he’d find another guy who looked like himself and rent to him. And so on and so on. The first renter could’ve willed some of his clothes and his tell-tale Mets hat to the next tenant to really fool the landlord. In fact, it could go one step further… the new tenant would also have to change his name, legally.
People need to be more creative.
This could be made into a movie. An epic “period piece” spanning many decades in New York and show how a man named so-and-so always made headlines and was a part of many incredible, historic moments. Interesting people would move into and out of the apartment building, never realizing the so-and-so they said good morning to on a Thursday wouldn’t be the same person they said it to on Friday. Now I just need a motive, a climax, and an ending. But I have a premise.
Things I Don’t Do: Write What I Know
Lately, this blog is “trying too hard.” What happens is, I read six Seth Godin books in a row, I spend hours traveling around in a rental car and listening to Seth Godin books on CD, and suddenly I think, hey, I’m going to be Seth Godin.
But I’m not Seth Godin.
Then I got a book on CD about the Vatican and read a buncha stuff written by Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II, and wouldn’t you know it, suddenly I started writing like I was some sort of theologian.
I’m not any of those things. I’m a father, a husband, and friend. And I’m barely a B- or C+ at any of those things. I’m an employee (80% of the time). I fancy myself a “writer” and I do some writing here and there. I blog, Tweet, and Facebook a bit. And I do some public speaking when asked.
But …what am I? What do I know? Does anyone really know what they know?
I always wish I just had this incredible knowledge of automobile engines and I could blog about that. Knowing stuff about engines, I figure, makes you smarter than 90% of everybody else. But then I think, um, since 90% of all people don’t care a rats ass about car engines and how they work, well, that’s not a great idea for a blog.
What if I wrote a “Fatherhood Friday” weekly post? Would that catch-on? What about “Writing Wednesdays?” Or “Try-Something Tuesdays?” Would any of that be interesting? And would it get me 1,000 readers?
What do I know? What makes me special? And am I asking the right questions? Or should I even be asking questions? Maybe I should just write things on here about what I’m doing, and maybe you’ll get wrapped up in the “adventure” of my life.
Everyone’s got a blog. And so do I. This is what Ricky Gervais says about writing and creativity. Look for future blog entries where I write as if I’m Ricky Gervais.
Things I’m Doing: Using Evernote
So I follow this cat named Damien on Twitter and he’s a writer (writes alotta right-wing stuff, which isn’t my cuppa tea, but that’s not really the point of this blog). He writes alot and one day he opined about how much he loves Evernote. He’s not alone in my Twitter feed in his praise for Evernote. But I wasn’t sure, the few times I’ve tried it, how to make it work.
I asked him, he gave me some tips, and in two short weeks, I’ve managed to funnel just about every thought, article, task, list, schedule, and picture into I can think of. It’s on my iPad, my laptop, my iPhone, my computer at work, and if I could install it on my watch, I probably would.
I use it like my own personal Pinterest, but it’s better, actually.
If you’re a writer, or a multi-tasker, or you’re trying to balance home life, work life, hobbies, and other random activities, this is your app.
I fell in love when I got the idea to file the PDFs of my son’s and my daughter’s soccer schedules into it. See, storing a PDF, say, on my laptop is a good thing. It allows me to eliminate another email from my Inbox. But what if I’m sitting in a doctors waiting room and someone asks, “can you come for a follow up on such-and-such date?” And I say, hmmm, maybe, I’ll have to check because I think I have a soccer game that day. Well, with Evernote, I know that no matter what device I have with me, I can check.
I also have a book project I’m working on and my client shared a large document with me and I’ve been able to migrate material, research papers, etc all to a Notebook created specifically for this book.
For my job, I need to track leads, ideas, and sometimes record some audio …Evernote does it all.
Have I sold you on Evernote? Probably not. But if you meet me for a cuppa coffee someday, I’ll probably bore you to death telling you about how great this app is for staying organized across the many categories of your life.
I’ve even copy/pasted some Tweets to Evernote. Yes, I Tweet. I’m known as @donkowalewski on Twitter.
Things I Love: Powerball and Survivor – I Can Win One of Them
Is it the anticipation? Is it simply the fantasy? Tonight the Powerball drawing will award some lucky guy $400,000,000. I hope it’s me.
Also tonight, the new season of Survivor starts on CBS, and after all these years and all these seasons, I still watch it religiously. But I’ve gotten to the point, I watch it almost as a college class or instructional video, because I’m still convinced (as is my wife) that someday we’re going on this show and we know exactly what it’ll take to win.
The good news is, my Survivor dream is still intact. The bad news is, I don’t think I can win the lottery. It’s because of my “electricity theory.” My wife was recently talking to a friend of ours and it turns out he knows somebody who won a rather large lottery jackpot. So, with my “electricity theory”, I can never win the lottery. Why? Well, simple. It’s one thing for a person to know another person who won the lottery. But what are the odds any single, random person would know TWO people who win the lottery?
It can’t happen. It never happens. Twin brothers don’t win the lottery three years apart. A son and his mother don’t win the lottery at different times in different states. It doesn’t happen. It’s awful when it comes to the lottery, that you can write it off as something that “will never happen to you”, but it’s good when it comes to plane crashes. If you know somebody who knows somebody who was in a plane crash, you’re pretty safe. The theory being, your friend isn’t likely to know two people involved in plane crashes on two separate occasions.
Which brings me to Survivor. I know two people who’ve been on The Amazing Race (my other favorite show). But so far, I don’t know anyone who’s been on Survivor. And I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who’s been on Survivor.
So I’m saying there’s a chance.
Oh, and speaking of #Survivor …if you like recaps of shows you’ve watched with your own eyes, I do that sorta thing. I’ll be recapping #Survivor over at spunkybean.com all season. At least that’s my plan.
And I’ll Tweet about @Survivor_Tweet using my @spunkybean or @donkowalewski Twitter handles. Heck, I might even use both. Check me out. I’m all about social media.
Things I Think: We’re Looking for the Smooth Section
First, stop giggling.
Now, let’s talk about my street. It’s an old neighborhood and the streets are showing some cracks after years of snow, ice, salt, and snow plows coming through and tearing things up. I think my home’s value would increase significantly if the township would repave the entire neighborhood. Won’t happen; but it would make the entire neighborhood look better.
The township, instead, does spot-repairs. They fill in the holes with a shovel and some asphalt. Then, occasionally, they’ll realize when the damage is too great, and they’ll re-surface an entire 40- or 70- foot section. And when they do, it’s amazing. My kids have been obsessed with taking their bikes and their razor scooters down to the “smooth part” and just going in circles.
I can’t lie …it’s nice. It’s why I wish they’d resurface the entire neighborhood and rebuild all the curbs.
Anyway, I watched my kids race down to the “smooth part” and realized that’s what we’re all seeking …smooth sailing. We all want a smooth operation and wish we were smooth operators. We don’t like bumps in the road.
But just like my street, some things are out of my control. It’s not always smooth sailing and there isn’t always a smooth part – but when we find it, enjoy it. We should all be so lucky to recognize when things are running smoothly, and hold onto that moment for as long as we can. Go in circles while we’re there. Because, eventually, Mom is going to call you to dinner and you’re going to be back on the rough and bumpy parts of the road, but hopefully the thrill will keep you going. If you keep scooting and working, you’ll get another shot at the smooth part.
I can’t complain. My life’s been pretty smooth. And when things get bumpy and rough, most times it was because I chose that route. But I really want to get back to the smooth part.
I can get there. I just gotta eat dinner, do my homework, and then push my scooter back to where I want it.
Meet me at the smooth part.
I Tweet stuff at @donkowalewski, if you wanna see. Follow me and I’ll follow you.
Don Kowalewski 