Joy Phenix's Blog

I have just enough information to be dangerous in a technical world. Trust me on this. I’m proficient at downloading all kinds of cool things (Find Friends, to the right,  being one of them!), but then they lay dormant after a few uses. I know enough about blogging to get my posts up with a [...]

“Excuse the mess, but we live here.” Rosanne Barr Have you ever known someone who disappears whenever someone in their life has a crisis? I have one friend, let’s call her “Debbie,” who is notorious for such behavior. The people around Debbie have come to expect her disappearance act and most of the time give [...]

Last Christmas I received a pasta-making machine tool. The word “machine” sounds far too automated to describe what the device does. The pasta thingy allows us to take flour, water, eggs, and a pinch of salt and make a dough-like substance suitable for sustaining life. The process is messy, imprecise, and one step short of [...]

“Experience won’t make you better, only evaluated experience makes you better.” Howard Hendricks Have you ever been in charge of putting together a report, proposal, or creative piece? Have you given a presentation, introduced a speaker, or otherwise led in a meeting? Have you thrown a dinner party, hosted company, or been in charge of [...]

I was VERY smart when I was 22 years old. So smart, in fact, you couldn’t teach me anything. Been there. Done that. We all have years days like that, right? Right? Well, anyway… during that “know it all year,” I distinctly remember being at a business lunch and being placed at the far end [...]

I feel as though I spend a good percentage of my observation time wondering about the origin of things. I wonder about design elements (how clever!), subtle details people mostly miss, and decisions that, in my opinion, seem so ridiculously bad that I wonder, “Did someone really sign off on this?” (a specific GoDaddy commercial [...]

‘I’m good enough,  I’m smart enough, and doggone it,  people like me.” Jack Handy I have a friend who is the first person to imagine the “worst case scenario” for any situation that crosses his path. Death – Disease – Embarrassment. He consistently comes up with reasons  why people will hate him, how he will [...]

How do you find a blind spot? By definition, blinds spots are outside our view, but just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean we have to be ignorant of their existence. We just have to look carefully at our strengths, and we can get an idea. That’s not a typo. Look at your STRENGTHS [...]

I think my kids are defective. I don’t know how they got that way, but they can’t seem to remember simple instructions like “put away your shoes” or “turn off the light when you leave the room.”  They seem to have little to no capacity to recall straight forward instructions on tidiness, and they will [...]

No one protects their trademarks like the NFL.  There’s a reason you don’t see “Super Bowl” in ads; the NFL has a cadre of lawyers who will slap you with a trademark violation.  Instead, you can say “Big Game” or “The Professional Football Championship Game.”  Never noticed?  Pay attention and you will.  My favorite was [...]