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Why Defend Liberty T-Shirt?

Why did I make the Defend Liberty t-shirt?

On the 4th of July my wife usually lets our kids paint some t-shirts to celebrate the holiday.  This year, I decided to join in and tried to think of a design that would represent my love of country and dedication to defending the values that make the U.S. great.  Along that train of thought, I came up with the logo on this shirt.

Made from freezer paper, an exacto knife, a sponge brush, and black paint.

Made from freezer paper, an exacto knife, a sponge brush, and black paint.

I used canva.com to design my original idea, printed it out, placed the print out under some freezer paper, traced it with an exacto knife, ironed the stencil into place on the t-shirt, painted it with a sponge brush, and then smiled at the result...

July 21, 2015 entrepeneur, Ideas, Inspiration No comments
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How To Be Original by John Locke

Seth Godin, a popular author and blogger, recently wrote, “Just about every successful initiative and project starts from a place of replication. The chances of being fundamentally out of the box over the top omg original are close to being zero.”  This reminded me of four things that seem unrelated, but I promise they are: John Locke’s definition of private property; my family trip to Palmyra, New York; the Foo Fighters newest album; and Sting’s new Broadway production.  They’ve all taught me that being original isn’t about creating something from nothing, it has something to do with what John Lock said about private property many years ago.

Private Property

chop down a treeJohn Locke in his Second Treatise defines private property at length...

November 21, 2014 Ideas, Music No comments
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Pension: When Did This All Start?

I recently finished reading a fascinating book by a friend of mine, Richie Norton, called The Power of Starting Something Stupid.  This book had me writing pages of notes and inspired me to take immediate as well as long-term action.  I foresee a number of posts on principles in this book.  However, there’s one question in particular this book has caused me to think about in more depth.  It’s a question I’ve been discussing with my wife for a few weeks now in regards to our family as well as the world.  Why is there a cultural expectation and a sense or urgency for a pension?

Where in the heck did this idea come from and when did this all start?!  It seems like we sacrifice the best of ourselves, our time with loved ones and our greatest dreams, for the anticipated benefits of retir...

January 22, 2013 Ideas 9 comments
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Unrepressed: Why We Love Kids and Lead Singers

I’m reading The Element by Ken Robinson these days. This is another great book and I will be dedicating a number of future posts to it once I’m done reading it.  However, I got into a great conversation with one of my co-workers about the unrepressed nature of children and wanted to share it because I think it will resonate with a lot of people. This will definitely require more in depth writing later.

In the book Robinson notes that children have an “unrepressed” type of behavior.  They don’t care if they do or get something wrong – they are not driven by fear like adults.  Somehow as adults we lose that sense of freedom; we gradually develop a fear of failure and that child-like unrepressed feeling is taken from us.  We are too often afraid of being wrong...

November 17, 2012 Ideas, Inspiration 3 comments
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Knowledge and Wisdom – A Conversation With Aristotle

I noticed a copy of The Pocket Aristotle on my shelf the other day.  It reminded me of an interesting section under the heading Metaphysics, where Aristotle describes the difference between and the value of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Knowledge and Wisdom

plato and aristotleAristotle describes knowledge as being an understanding of things through experience.  “For men of experience know that the thing is so.”  It’s like knowing that fire is hot, water is wet, a kiss is awesome, and the sun is bright.  This is knowledge and it can only come through experience.

However, knowledge has a shortcoming.  Just because someone may have experienced heat from a fire, wetness from water, awesomeness from a kiss, or brightness of the sun, that person is not always able to explain the why of it...

March 22, 2011 Ideas One comment
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