Pavlov's Hot Dog

Well it's the truth. There's isn't a day goes by that I don't have what I think is a valid insight about what's changed, or what needs to change to get our popular culture and our intertwined economy headed in a healthier direction. But day-to-day realities keep pulling me back to the pragmatic.

Like, for instance, if your c. 2003 site is hacked, maybe it's time to move to a more secure and feature-rich platform, which we did, officially launching both a new site, blog and online shop last Monday.

And if you see a study that shows food diaries can help people lose twice the weight, maybe you should figure out a way to make food diaries easier and more fun for people to use so that they'll be inclined to stop ignoring the most affordable and effective weight loss tool there is. So we did that.

And thinking maybe we should get with the program and offer it in an even more affordable and instant eBook version—we did that, too.

I think it was my first boss at 3M who told me it was OK for me to bring up problems, as long as I also suggested concrete solutions to fix them. Combine that with my Industrial Design education and I tend to put the focus less on talk, and more on tools to change things.

Well, sort of. I also tend to write copious descriptions of the tools we create and how to use them because on the web you need to give people everything they need to make an informed buying decision. You'll find all that and more at our new ColorCode Mode Journals site.

I also like to observe and write about change, an endlessly fascinating (to me) and ever changing topic. So two notes here on the changing workplace...

My daughter Alexis and I worked very closely to create our new food diary and our new website, hashing out the details for many, many hours each day and often into the night. Rest breaks were mandatory when her ancient Mac iBook would start to overheat, or experience a "kernel panic." Working so closely with my daughter, who has really given our company her all, has been one of the greatest rewards of my life.

But family members have worked together for centuries? What's new about that? Well, with all our resources going to our still-young company, Alexis and I haven't actually seen each other since last Christmas, almost a year. She's in CA, and I'm in MN (which helps explain that old picture we have on our site.) We're making other plans now, but until then, even I am amazed. If you had asked me 20 years ago what my workplace and co-workers would have been like, I could not have envisioned this and am thrilled, despite the unconventional way of staying in "close" touch with my grown daughter.

My other co-worker, without whom we could not have done our new journals, lives an hour away, which would still make it tempting to telecommute, especially with gas prices. But some things never change, and getting anything done when you have an infant and a toddler at home is one of them. So let's hear it for graphic designer Carolyn Gilde and her patient husband and co-worker Chris, of the talented Gilde Media Group, and for their adorable 2 1/2-year-old Luke and 5-month-old Juliet (aka Drooliet) as we completely blurred the lines between work and family and figured out a way to get the kids watched so that the new Lean Mode Food Diary could be born.

Sometimes when we really needed to work without interruption our workplace was Caribou Coffee, and on one late-nighter, the Perkins in West St. Paul, where we were assailed and tested by insufferably loud and horrible Musak that could not be turned down (or so they said.) I feel honored, Carolyn and Chris, to have been trusted with the care of your adorable, quick-with-a-big-smile children, who unlike my computer screen, return my gaze with a look of expectancy that I'm going to say something interesting to them, which of course, keeps me on my toes and also reminds me what's really important and truly delightful in life.

And so, from the creative workplace of Luhrs Media Co., wherever that may be at any given moment, I'd like to present the new ColorCodeMode.com web site, new official home of the Streaming Colors Fitness Journal and of Lean Mode, Color Code—Not Your Usual Food Diary.