142: Sparky Gets Focused

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I guess all the congratulations are in the other thread. :slight_smile: Enjoyed all the questions. The decision to focus on one area seems potentially more effective because the other area has been thoughtfully completed and closed.

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I’ll add some congratulations to this thread too: Congratulations again @macsparky.

However, I do have a bone to pick with something you said in this episode in response to @mikeschmitz’s question about taking a sabbatical: “If I can hit some ship dates and get some stuff taken care of as I’ve got the team kind of growing to take the back-end stuff maybe it will be easier for me to disconnect once in a while.”

That is way too wishy-washy. If a sabbatical or something along those lines is down on the list below finishing a couple of field guides and taking care of back-end stuff it’s not going to happen. Pick a week in February or March and put it on your calendar. Commit to getting everything in place so you can take a week off by then. Not only will that force you to get these structures set up by then, I’m confident that in the long run, it will result in more frequent, higher quality field guides than if you just slog away on them without a break.

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@ChrisUpchurch As those words came out of my mouth I though Mike (or perhaps Sean McCabe) was going to give me a shellacking for that. Turns out it was you :wink:

I’m recovering Chris. Give me a bit more time. :innocent:

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Come on, guys, let’s give the poor guy a break. He’s just gotten to the point where he’s starting to figure out what his schedule will look like as 100% MacSparky, and we’re hassling him about the fact he hasn’t scheduled a “sabbatical” yet?

He did say he has a couple of family vacations planned for 2022. “Sabbatical” isn’t some mandatory word or concept, it just means taking some time off from work to rest and recharge. What’s the difference if that’s called a “vacation” or a “sabbatical”?

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Board games, from the Deep Focus segment, I got this one as a lark to sell at the CO Wool Growers fund raising auction several years ago. It was a big hit and got lots of bids. Later I heard that it was actually quite fun so I got one for us. It’s a great Pub game. There is far more strategy involved than it at first appears.

Battle Sheep - board game of sheep fighting for pasture

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