Heroes

We use that word a lot lately.

From the dictionary(1):
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

Note, there’s nothing in there about how a hero suffers, how poor or rich he might be, or other circumstances.

Those do not define a hero. Heroes are defined by action.

My Heroes

Heroes are specific to each of us. You and I have different experiences and know different people.

I don’t know your father, your friend, or that kid in Egypt. You don’t know my brother, coworker, or lady who manages HavenHouse St. Louis.

But are any of them heroes? They could be, and only you know it.

Likewise, my heroes may not be yours.

If we expect validation of them, we must go back to what defines a hero, their actions.

Heroes Do

A soldier could be a hero, but just showing up in Iraq doesn’t define him a such. That’s just a circumstance.

A child in Egypt might be starving on the streets. That hunger doesn’t make her a hero. What is she doing in spite that?

My brother is fighting ALS. Actually he’s suffering from it, and so is his family. He’s not a hero for that. His suffering doesn’t impart a title, but his continued effort to be part of his children’s lives, keep breathing, and working to maintain his dignity, those are acts of courage, and to his family, he’s a hero.

Who are you heroes

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

(1) definition from Dictionary.com

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Image by Tojosan via Flickr

What’s your favorite email this Tuesday? A quick note from mom? Your boss sent a thank you along? Perhaps your honey sent you a little tease?

My favorite email today comes from across the ocean.

From Emelie:

Hi Todd, do you send postcards to Sweden? If so I would love to get one, love snail mail as well!

Many Thanks!

Now that’s what I like, directness and postcards in the same email. Shall we tell Emelie that I’ve sent postcards as far away as China and as close a zip code away? Nah. Let’s just send her a postcard, addressed by hand, with a personal note.

Princess sticker? Curious George? Superheroes? Missouri?

I’ll post a pic of the card I decide on.

Want a postcard? Drop me a DM, email, or use the contact form.

Do you still send snail mail?

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A few weeks back I posted the Name That Tattoo Contest. Several great ideas were suggested.

The winner is Michael with the suggestion of ‘sunshine.’

Random selection with thanks to Random.org.

Here’s a few of my favorite suggestions:

• Social
• @nanna_j
• fire breathing dragon

Social is king these days and important to what I do.

Nanna J is my life of course; @nanna_j is my wife.

Fire breathing dragons are cool. Dragons are also considered symbols of wisdom and intelligence. I’m totally full of both. Back me up here.

All great ideas!

I’m not getting a sunshine tattoo or even a rising sun. Something is brewing in my mind’s eye with a combination of a buddha, a cross, and something symbolizing inner peace.

Another idea combines a cross and an anchor. Thank you @SgtHotPants for that.

I’ll be sending an email to Michael and keeping everyone posted as ideas firm up.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter – @tojosan – to keep in touch.

Thanks for all of the ideas and images.  Jump in and leave a comment if you’ve got more suggestions.

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Movies, they give us a bit of fantasy to break up the tress in our lives. Sometimes they show us places we’ll never get to see in person, or take us inside an experience beyond our reach.  One thing all movies have in common though is a protagonist. He or she is the one we’re drawn to relate to.

Key to these movies is how the protagonist comes out victorious in the end. The story follows the ups and downs, support and obstacles along the way. In the end they make it.  Here’s what I’ve distilled down to the key principles of success. Enjoy.

• The craziest plan works out in the end. Never just cut to the chase and ask permission.
• Use a gun. You can be an expert after just a few fire fights and ammo is cheap and easy to find.
• All great success involve kissing at some point. So if you’re not going to kiss the beautiful business partner, kiss her ugly boss. It’s like magic.
• Yes, that book you wrote doesn’t need more editing, it just needs you to make sure the right publisher is forced to read it.
• Akin to writing, your art is really great. It’s just the ordinary citizens are too cheap to buy it or don’t appreciate it. As soon as you get it under the nose of a real expert though, boom, instant success.
• All success involves selling out.
• Success requires partners.  No matter how tough the hero, he or she inevitably needs helps along the way.
• The opposing team has limitless resources and must always be outsmarted.
• That partner that helps the most will the one least expected.
• Girls dig the crazy guys.
• Success at the end leads to forgiveness by all the innocents you hurt along the way. It’s like magic happy potion or something.
• If there’s a need to reprogram a lock, a computer or a satellite, fate provides a helper.
• All kids are technology gurus.
• Bomb making is easy and every good success action movie requires one.

One common theme in the list is that once you’re committed to your own success, the universe provides a way to make it happen.  The crazier the better of course, but success comes to those who strike out after it.  That’s the biggest lesson movie teach us about success.

We can’t all make bombs in real life, but we an all strive to grow, conquer and succeed.

This post inspired by #usblogs weekly blogging theme. Twitter group, #usguys, provides a topic suggest. Each person writes their own piece and shares it back to the group.

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Or what’s in the reading queue!

Read Instructions by Neil Gaiman out loud to my wife. The story really draws you in. Purchase intent wasn’t just for the adults. Hopefully it’s a story my granddaughters will enjoy. Neil Gaiman has written several children’s books with illustrations. Be sure to check them out.

The Essential Captain Marvel is all mine. Marvel Comics releases Essential books for what the title says, to give readers the essential stories of a particular character. Captain Marvel was a favorite of my child hood years. Marvel is also the first comic book character to die of cancer. Found this book at Star Clipper.

Evil Plans is the second book by artist/cartoonist Hugh MacLeod. The book is about escaping the rat race and being successful doing what you love. Hugh shares his take on things with wit, wisdom, and his art. Hugh is known for gapingvoid.

Also in the queue:

• Superman Earth One
• Zero History by William Gibson
• and the bottomless stack I can’t reach from the keyboard.

What’s in your reading queue? Go.Read.Enjoy.

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Time to close the tabs and clean up the browser. Being the end of the first full week in February it’s appropriate.

Here’s what’s open as we wrap up:

• Land of Smile Thai Restaurant
• Screen Jelly – screen capture via browser
• Angela E J Koh – Poet
• Tweet Reports
• Margie’s Library of Marketing Musings and Morsels
• Heat Up St. Louis
• Success Creeations
• Kitchen Table Companies
• And still to read pages…

But what about my Twitter buds?  Here’s a handful of what they had open:

• Facebook
• StLToday
• Excite
• Flickr
• Weather
• Wall Street Journal
• Twitter
• Email
• Google Docs
• Mailchimp
• Google Voice

Pretty calm this week and not very diverse.  Is it a weekend thing?

At any rate, if you’ve got an interesting link, blog, online paper etc to share, send me a tweet, or leave a comment.

Go.Browse.Share.

Related articles

• Poke the Box Giveaway (toddrjordan.com)
• 100K Tweets Onwards and Upwards (toddrjordan.com)
• What I’m browsing late January (toddrjordan.com)

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Time to close the tabs and clean up the browser. Being the end of the last full week in January it’s appropriate.

Here’s what’s open as we wrap up:

• Crusade to save the words
• Wild Love Fundraiser – Feb 12
• Writing for Eden Cafe
• Best Art Ever 1/21/11 – Comic Alliance
• Illustrated Anatomy of Gamera and Foes
• The Animated Woman
• Looking forward | Urban Fantasy and Steampunk in 2011
• iOS App Developer Center

Some of my Twitter friends had the following tabs open:

• Shameless Grounds Coffee
• Sustainablog
• Small Biz Survival
• TED Talks
• email, gmail, Facebook, Seesmic dashboard and more

Interesting bits there. Please click through, open a tab, and come back and share.

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Each year our culture challenges us to make resolutions. Resolutions are sort of like goal. Goals though with no fixed location, time, or specific achievement end point making them of not much value.

Year after year though we jot things down, tell them to family and friends, and now record them on websites. The end of the year comes though and few of us have achieved any of these resolutions.

Chris Brogan, blogger, writer and entrepreneur, has a suggestion to replace resolutions, Three Words.

Three words that represent behaviors and attitudes replace resolutions but still aim us in the right direction.

Let’s take some examples:

• Healthy – replaces diet, exercise more, etc. You are choosing to be healthy. Choices will be guided by this approach. Is that healthy for me? That activity, is it helping my health.
• Consistent – replaces be at work on time, make doctors appointments, be at the kids’ practices. Evaluate each choice against the behavior of consistency. Stop worrying about each potential situation, and begin to act with consistency.

So why three? Why not seven or just one? Three words are easy to remember without being trivial. Three words are words you can own and remember and perhaps tie together.

What are my three words?

• Professionalism – I’m going to bounce my choices against whether it’s the professional way to handle myself or the amateur way. Am I going to work the work and worry less about the rewards or will I put myself on a pedestal?
• Faith – Stepping out, jumping in, and moving forward is what this embodies for me.  Faith to do what needs to be done and worry less about where it goes, success or failure, or rewards. Faith for me is about not waiting on the cheerleaders or the ‘right time’ but going for it knowing chips will fall where they may.
• Happiness – You can’t make someone happy. There is no magic dollar amount, or specific gadget that gives out happiness. No app yet that provides more than entertainment.  Happiness for me is about sharing my own, encouraging it in others, and owning the fact that happiness is largely a matter of choice. Happiness is contagious, so building from within to outside hopefully happens naturally.

Will I write these down in stone? Will I expect others to remind me of these? Will I feel guilty if I don’t align my life with these all the time?

No.  I’ll keep going, keep working, keep smiling. None of these relies on circumstances, chance, or generosity of others.

So things are magically going to be better? No.

You get the idea.

So given the examples above, and my own three words, what words will guide you in 2011?

Will it be patience? Generosity? Sex?

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Created by Kelvington.

Saw this and immediately knew I had to share it!

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So I asked my Twitter friends to finish the joke for me, “A social media expert walks into a bar; he orders a ….”.

Here’s what they had to say:

CocktailDeeva:Wait..what is a social media expert doing out in public?

lizscherer: a shot of humility

RobynsWorld: he waits to order until he polls on twitter asking what be should order.

chrisheuer: only one thing to order, a Me-tini, because if they think they are an expert, they are probably putting the ME in media everyday

StLLegend: influence

ldupin: a wifi hub to tweet his order. / a team to build a collaborative cocktail./Guru music.

MichaelStanisci: (shot of wild turkey in under 140 characters)

dan_munz: redesign with more drop shadows.

RexDixon: tweet’zoo (like a baltimore zoo, only with a bird stirrer!)

AMP_Agency: He orders the same thing @Mashable ordered

karirippetoe: a mashup martini.

chrisheuer: put it on my browser tab! (Chris couldn’t  figure out who came up with it, so I’m giving him credit.)

theslynch:he…blames the Google goggles.

Genuine: orders everyone a drink and then tries to find out how to monetize it.

jennifertyree: He orders a c-um shot!!! (its a drink, but for a guy to order it, is kinda weird!!lol)

WDWFieldGuide: Via is iPhone & waits until he has an audience to drink.

What’s your best punch line? Leave a comment or tweet it out.

Cheers, and hey bartender, I’ll have a…

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