Hey gang,

I remember writing a story for 6th grade English.  It was assigned weeks in advance and in common middle school Cody form, I waited until the Sunday before the Monday it was due to write and illustrate it.  I am perhaps one of the top 5 worst artists in the western hemisphere so it was important that I write a really good story to offset the horror of my visuals.  It had to be a play and I had never written dialog.  I remember naming the 3 main characters brilliantly; Dave, Dude, and some other name lost to time.

In retrospect, I’m pretty sure it was the worst story I have ever written and true to form, a perfect example of my exemplary illustration skills (for example, I made notes directly near the drawings saying things to explain myself like, ‘those wiggly lines on their heads are hats’).

It was about a space alien named Dude that walked around town going up to kids and asking them to play catch with his football (I know how this sounds now but in 6th grade, I didn’t).  And as I mentioned, having never written dialog, I was simply marvelous at it.

Dude: Hi Dave (editor’s note: must be a mind reader), I’m an alien.

Dave: Cool!  I’ve Dave.

Dude: Cool.  Hi Dave, I’m Dude.  Want to play catch with a football?

Dave: Yes, that sounds awesome!

Dude: Yes Dave, let’s invite your friend [name lost to time]

And it went on like that for about 5 pages…

I don’t remember what I got for a grade which means it probably wasn’t too bad but I always felt like I deserved an F on that one.  My teacher could and should have written something like this –

Cody, this is an excellent example of how not to write.  Please never turn in anything so poor again or I may need to take a leave of absence.  Also, don’t ever draw.

The good news is I never did turn in anything so poor again as far as I can remember.  The bad news is I still draw; like a preschooler who has never before used a crayon.

The Work

The summer has come and gone but not without Sharp Guys launching a number of new client websites.  One of our favorites was Horner Automation.  This new eCommerce website was previously built on an old platform which we moved to WordPress, modernized and made it easy for the client to make updates and changes.  The team over there has been awesome to work on and they brought us back to do their sister company’s website, Horner Lighting.

In Other News

I’ll be speaking at a plastics manufacturing conference on October 12th about Google Analytics and I have been having an internal struggle deciding whether or not to throw in the only thing I know about plastics (a partial line from an older movie).