Author: Tim

The Other Hand

The Other Hand

At a magic show, we are willingly fooled – we are willing participants in a deception designed to entertain.

Sleight of hand, misdirection, and prattle is used to distract while the magician is arranging the reveal. Usually this takes longer than the setup actually takes, but it’s good theater and makes for a good show. If you’ve ever experienced this you know just how amazing it can be.

Right now a good number in our country are willing participants in a deception designed to fundamentally modify the way Americans, for generations to come, will be allowed to live their lives. I won’t go into the why of this – that’s a huge discussion. For now, it’s enough to simply try to awaken you to the fact that it’s occurring and that you are an audience member whether or not you want to be.

As we begin transitioning into the third month of hearing the same story from both media as well as politicians, I would challenge you to begin looking at “the other hand.” The worst of all of this is that while a magic show is designed to entertain, this show is designed to ensure compliance. There are powers at work in this situation that are sinister and devoid of any true compassion.

Please start looking away from where you’re told to be looking and look for the trick, the arranging – please think for yourself.
Look at the other hand.

 

 

 

Photo by Julius Drost

Daddy

By Tim Gallagher
12/13/2019

Time goes past, it is fleet of foot – fast to the past
And yesterday is yesteryear – last night I was a baby
When did I love you, lose you, see you, find you at last
Daddy, I was only three when I saw you and mommy
And now you’re gone and I’m here, by myself, lonely

And now I’m the father, and I have my own who say “daddy”
But I miss you, and want to tell you again I love you
But time goes past, it is fleet of foot and gone, sadly
Time is so cruel, it doesn’t care, you’d think it would
But it’s gone, where are you? it took you away from me

I realize it’s my turn now. I’m the one they call daddy
All of life has a minor chord running through a sad song
Tunneling under – undermining my resolve to be strong
I dry my eyes, but on the inside there’s a graveyard
Stand up straight, dedicated to a brand-new brave-start

I’m an imposter – cowardly bones covered with sinful skin
One day soon it will be my turn – will one of my own
Have their turn at the pen? to put words to the pain again
To the hurt that burns within, the yearning, the loss,
God help me, the hole that grows bigger each year

Daddy, I was only three when I met you and mommy
That’s what I remember, that’s my first memory
I’ll meet you soon and we’ll both be with Jesus
Finally grown up – together we will understand, finally
Why life had to hurt and what true love is, eternally

Time Machine

by Tim Gallagher, 10/24/2018

If I could build a time machine, I would go back in time
Over and over, to spend more time with you – you are sublime
Time is cruel, the cruelest for stealing you away from me
And me away from you, you know it’s true – time is mean

Maybe I don’t need a time machine, maybe what I want is a rewind
Not a do-over, but a do-again, because, darling, let me remind
I love you, I do, I will, I would, I hope to a whole bunch more
But we don’t get either, so let’s value today, tomorrow, before

Before I… before you… well, let’s not talk about that yet
Because it chokes me up. We have our memories, don’t forget
But the best is yet to come. It has to be, because we love each other
So grab your paintbrush and meet me at the canvas we get to cover

With colors bold and bright and as brave as our love and blueprinted by God above
Let’s paint a picture with our words, brushes and love, with no push, with no shove
Because I’m for you, because you’re for me, because together us are for our “we”
We’re on display, for all to see, like it or not, so let’s shine and let’s be

Brilliant and pointing the way toward the One who showed us what love is
By giving up His life and laying it down unreservedly for His beloveds
So, Lydia today is the day, tomorrow is the day, until the day I die
I promise to be the best man I know how to be – raindrops in my sky

Above all, I’m glad for what you were, what you are and what we are together
For richer or poorer, houseless or housed, Sicker or better, through all kinds of weather
We are madly, irrevocably, no u-turns allowed, steak-dinner rich, sugar candy sweet
Ridiculously, meticulously, unambiguslously, serendipitously, completely in love

Immutable Database Schema

Immutable Database Schema

I’m adding functionality to a mature web application and need to add a field to a database table.  I started mentally walking the path of the change and what all it touches and the required testing and review that would ensue and it’s mildly daunting.

Then a voice in my head said, “immutability.”

The field I would add is not necessarily a record field – it’s not data, it’s relationship.  Is “relationship” data?

Instead of adding a field and reviewing and refactoring everywhere the model is used, I can simply add a relationship table, create a model and use it when needed.

Slightly more code, way less review.  But I don’t know if it’s a good approach, or if anyone else has tried this, so I’m documenting this online and asking for feedback.

Do you have an opinion about this?

PHP Exceptions and Namespaces

I’m way too late to the PHP namespace conversation. Initially I just didn’t see the benefit of namespaces, but now I’ve seen the light.  The other issue was the production environment at work didn’t support  namespaces – I own that problem too.  Basically for way too long it was a big fail fest.

But now angel choirs are singing and I’ve seen the light.  I preface this post with these details in case you already know what I’m about to write about.

I just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out why the same pattern of code worked in one place but not another.  I’m trying to validate date strings in form submissions and had some code like this:

function validateDate()
{
	try
	{
		$dt = new \DateTime( $fieldValue );
	}
	catch( Exception $e )
	{
		return false;
	}

	return true;
}

The error I was seeing was an uncaught exception for an invalid date format.  That’s exactly what I was trying to prevent!

It took me way too long to realize that I needed to namespace the Exception class.

The solution is either to

use Exception;

at the top of my class file or to rewrite the function.

function validateDate()
{
	try
	{
		$dt = new \DateTime( $fieldValue );
	}
	catch( \Exception $e )
	{
		return false;
	}

	return true;
}

 

TLDR: Make sure you namespace the class names in your catch blocks otherwise it’s ignored and the exception is not caught.

Last Train Out

I’m in the last seat, on the last car
On the last train out, from the middle of here
I’ve left my bundle of worries, there at the station
On the platform, beside my little black heart

The conductor comes by, and tells the passengers
“You’d better have your tickets out and ready
Or we’ll throw you right off this here train.”
So I pat, paw, and dig around, and then… panic

I’m in the last seat, on the last car
I’m gonna get thrown off, I won’t get far
Right as I get up to go and hide, a Tall Stranger
Appears beside me, “Here you go, friend.”

I’m in the last seat, on the last car
Clutching my ticket, holding it tight.
I’m looking at a man, who gave up his
Gave it to me, and I don’t understand

When all of a sudden, just as he’s grabbed
Like a bolt, I know the truth, the awful truth
He had but one ticket, and gave it to me
And I realize this, as he’s taken away.

I get up to follow, everything is blurred
I hear the conductor say, “Just throw him off!”
So they threw the Stranger off my train
And I watched him bounce and roll, and roll

I kept watching as we clacked out of sight
And before I lost view, his body stopped
Still, and silent, and I knew exactly the price
The Tall Stranger had paid, back there on the tracks.

Dreaming Dream Dreamers

(a Christmas poem)

It takes a fight to push back against the internal night
And a sacrifice to smile and stay in the fight
When hope lives near the raggedy edge of despairs
Leave the day’s failures behind and put my foot to the stairs

Step forward and up, with a deep breath; take score:
Four children and wife… Put my hand to the door
A push and I’m in where the air is ablaze and alight
Quick, shut the door to keep out the black night

Each one is a dreamer, each one is alive
Every single wonderful person inside
And they are all simply lovely, these people of mine
Each one is enthralling, like expensive fine wine

And each dreaming dream dreamer has their head in a cloud
With their thoughts and ideas, and it makes me feel proud
Kids! Kids! Kids!!! I must start by kissing your mother!
Her lips are fantastic… I must smooch! I must smother!

Goodness! Now that that’s over and done,
Let me hear of your day and all you’ve become
Tell me all that you’ve learned and the ideas you’ve had
I bet they’re all good – not a single one bad

Because all of you dreaming dream dreamers must know
I love you more now than I could possibly show.

IMG_3995

Locked in a Closet With Club-Wielding Bullies

Have you ever been locked in a closet with a group of bullies who are beating on you?

Welcome to my life.

Hopefully this will never be a literal truth, but we all have our closets and we all have our bullies.

This is what truth, art, poetry and childhood all fight against.

Bullies beat you down and tell you you are worthless.
Truth says all are valuable – made in the image of God.

Bullies destroy, pillage and hate beauty.
Art transcends time and culture, finding – celebrating! – beauty in all of life.

Bullies hurl insults and curses.
Poetry heals. Poetry soothes and inspires transcendence.

Bullies berate and belittle. Bullies believe buffoonery is better than blessings.
Childhood has all the promise of a full life ahead without the dullness that time can bring.

So here is the challenge – approach each day with truth on our lips, art in our fingers, poetry in our hearts and childhood in our minds.

I’ll leave you with a poem I wrote 15 years ago.

Sunshine Smile

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m losing my mind
Said the girl with the sunshine smile
Except, maybe you just don’t understand my kind
Always losing, sometimes finding, only to lose again

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve lost my heart
Said the boy looking at the sunshine girl
If I really have lost it, I wouldn’t actually mind
But I need to know if you know where I could find

Silently nodded silently hoped …
Golden curls knowingly bounced, hopeful
Eyes glinted, hinted at the secret hidden
Within their depths only diving could reveal

“I’ve decided to run away, run to the north woods”
Said the boy to the girl with the sunshine hair
“I was wondering if you’d like to… if you could…”
“Well, if you’d like to come along … for good”

Big rain drops formed at the corners of her sky
Blue eyes, silent thunder crashed, on her earthen
Red lips, brilliant lighting flashed from her soul
As her mouth silently formed a single word, “Yes”

03-06-2000

Sponsorship Based Business – Auto Racing Edition

You provide value, and your value is all attitude – “We love what we do, we love what our sponsors do and we’re super excited to be able to do this together”

Sponsorship creates a customer/vendor relationship. What value does a race sponsorship bring? It brings recognition to a brand. It brings an attitude of “We chose our sponsor because they are so awesome you really should check out what they do.”  As the vendor serving a customer, your racing team will need to have this attitude permeate its entire culture.  You are creating lasting relationships that benefit you and your sponsors.  This means you do not try to figure out how to maximize a sponsorship or find people who will give you money, you are not trying to talk people into anything. You provide value, and your value is all attitude – “We love what we do, we love what our sponsors do and we’re super excited to be able to do this together”

A lot of what I’ve been reading recently has been about customer-first thinking.  With this in mind, your customer is your sponsor.  This is the relationship to nurture.  Every fan interaction, every media experience must have your customer in mind. In a lot of ways, you’re not in the racing business, you’re in the excitement business and you have to be excited about your sponsors! (See what I did there with that exclamation mark?)

Did you know Starbucks isn’t really in the coffee business?  They are in the real estate business and they are masters of it.  They are so good at it, in fact, that property values of surrounding properties go up.

“What does that look like in practice? Let’s look at the historical home value appreciation of areas that now are located within a quarter mile of a Starbucks. A home that is now near a Starbucks would have sold, on average, for $137,000. A home that is not near a Starbucks would have sold, on average, for $102,000.

Fast-forward 17 years to 2014. That average American home has now appreciated 65%, to $168,000. But the Starbucks-adjacent property has far outpaced that, appreciating 96% to $269,000.”  qz.com

In the same way, you’re not in the racing business – you’re in the excitement business.

Life is relational – utilize existing relationships to find someone who is looking to enter into a sponsorship.  Make it known that you’re willing to pay a finders fee.  Make a list of the top 10 people to talk to.  Write 10 different emails.  Send them.  (this is the important part)

Make a 10 item list of the companies you could be super excited talking about. Company or product.  It can’t be fake excitement so be careful.  When you identify these companies, do your research on them.  Take your time, make a presentation just for them. This will take time but it’s worth it.  This could even take months.  Find out who to speak to at the company – there is the potential to have multiple people who have the authority to make a decision – figure out who is the person most likely to understand the value of sponsoring your racing team. 

Once you identify a company don’t go with a beggar’s mentality – you don’t need to beg for a sponsorship – you’re offering a unique opportunity.

This is a business.  You need to have a polished presentation and demographics and marketing ideas etc.  Make a list of 10 marketing ideas for joint marketing efforts – they should benefit you and your sponsors.

Even before you have your first sponsor, start getting excited and posting YouTube videos. Tweet exciting things about the progress of your racing empire.  If you’re going to be in the excitement business you need to start now.  Your first assignment is to come up with 10 ideas for 2-3 minuteYouTube videos.  production value must be high

Ignore facebook for now – you don’t need your friends loving you – they already do.  You need to get strangers to love you.

Think local.  Community banks, local icons (businesses that have been around for at least 30 years).  Local restaurants with multiple locations. Local lowers your cost of travel.

Do some business networking.  Find some meetup groups that are for entrepreneurs.  Ignore anything that is even remotely similar to network marketing or MLM, etc.  You’re looking for groups that are primarily focused on helping each other with support and advice.  It should be free or cheap.  You need to find a group that is comprised of leadership level people – big thinkers.  You want to be in a group where the attitudes reflect a big thinking attitude – where big business is measured by 8 or more digits.  Even though the membership might not represent c-level positions, the group still needs to know how to think big.

Do not attach yourself personally to your presentation and ideas for this.  This allows you to be objective and your delivery or the content of your presentation can improve over time.  If, when you’re done with version 1 of your presentation, you think “This is awesome” you’ve failed.

Talk to business people you know – they might be members of professional networking groups already.  While you may not qualify or be welcome as a member, many times these groups have times where outsiders can come in to make a presentation.  The goal of the presentation might be as a way to let people know of an opportunity, but (and even better if you ask me) it might be a way to help you refine your delivery and content.

“Hi John, are you a member of or know of any professional groups that meet regularly – I’m looking for a group to make a presentation about an exciting opportunity to become a racing team sponsor and would love an introduction.”

Don’t worry about what kind of promises you make, just over deliver.  Deliver radical value.  Do this and the value of a sponsorship will grow, your racing team will be worth more and your revenues will go up and you’ll get better at delivering amazing value.  It’s a virtuous cycle.