Cory Collier

Monday I stayed at home sick. I had a pretty serious stomach flu (and I still ain’t all better yet). It just so happens that was the day my house was struck by lightning. I was sitting down on the toilet when it happened (you can fill in the terrible details).

The way it happened, a bolt of lightning hit a tree behind my house. The saturated soil acted as a conductor and the voltage from the strike traveled to my irrigation system, causing severe damage to the irrigation system, as well as my cable and power.

The current blew up my sprinkler control panel, sending pieces of the device into my roof. I was just on the other side of the wall when that happened (in the bathroom, sick) , so the noise I heard was probably the scariest thing I’d ever heard.

I was screaming “OH SHIT!”

How ironic …..

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So I haven’t written anything of substance since Melissa and my Memorial Day camping vacation. I can rectify that situation now.

Melissa and I went on a date last Saturday night in downtown Sanford. For those of you who don’t know Sanford, it’s a small town about a half hour north of Orlando, situated at the south end of Lake Monroe. As you might have figured, not very much happens in Sanford on a regular basis. The big news lately: 

On March 24, 2008, the City Commission adopted a temporary noise amnesty ordinance which suspends Section 38-63 (b)(1) of the current ordinance for a period of 90 calendar days from March 24, 2008 in the special commercial zoning district (SC-3). The SC-3 

So Melissa and I went there for a date. We first stopped to make reservations at our restaurant of choice for the evening, Hollerbach’s Willow Tree Cafe. There was a wait, so we passed the time at a local wine bar, The Sanford Wine Company. If we had already eaten dinner, we could have stayed there all night. 

We didn’t however. The Hollerbach has an ingenious way of letting you know your table is ready: they call your cell phone. I can’t believe that nobody has though of this amazing idea before. It doesn’t tie you down to the restaurant, and management saves a ton of money. That’s how Melissa and were able to go to the wine bar while we waited for a table to open up. 

So, they called us and we went in for dinner. 

The Hollerbach (I can hear Gwen Stefani right now), is pretty typical of most German restaurants. Well, it’s pretty typical of most, that are actually IN Germany. The food was awesome, management has the good sense to keep a lot of people working there, and there’s live German music too.

The beer selection is pretty kick-ass there as well. When I went to Germany with some of the team at NFi last October, I was pretty disappointed with the beer there. I’m a stout kinda guy, and most beers I could find at the time were either a lager or a pilsner. Well, in Sanford, FL I found a really good German beer. It’s more of a porter, but it was awesome. Now, if I could just remember the name of it…

We intend on heading back there soon. We have friends in Deland and Deltona (not Daytona), so Sanford is a good meeting place for us. If you get the chance to go up there, I really recommend it. The folks out there were really nice, and we had a really good time.

I recently read an article, referred to me from Digg, about ‘Why Macs Still Arent Right For Business‘, as written by Jonathan Blum. Being a Mac Convert, I feel a certain ownership of this issue. I see people argue over this sort of thing all of the time. There are some key arguments in favor of PCs, but not many.

This guy had some intial transition issues, and turned it into an excuse to write about the ‘flaws’ of switching to Mac. His company uses lame software that was specifically designed for windows, and complains about Mac not working for it. It’s a weird argument, ’cause he prefixes all of this by saying he’s been a Mac user for years. The issues he complains about are largely encountered by newbs. Either he’s a liar, or he’s playing ‘Devils Advocate’ for the inevitable issues new Mac converts will face.

While it is mega-lame, it does give some validity to his argument. Many small business ARE using terrible software, and would be faced with serious costs if they chose to change software and hardware at the same time. Remember, most business users don’t like computers. They’re a tool for doing a job they don’t want to do.

So the issue here really is, ‘Do you like your job’? because if you do, then you would want to use the best possible equipment to get it done. You would want to be as efficient at your job as you possibly could. If your job sucks however, then you probably just want to get it done and get out.

That’s sort of the “State Of Business” for much of corporate America. There’s a reason why everyone you meet loves ‘Office-Space’. It’s because most people have shitty jobs. It might seem like a stretch, but I think there’s a real correlation between Mac / PC users and folks with good / bad jobs.

Figure it like this: if your employer doesn’t want to fork an extra thousand bucks on a computer that works more efficiently for you, do you think they’re gonna provide any other incentives?

Doubt it.