You know what you should really do? Go to Junkyard Wisdom and subscribe to the RSS feed or email updates. That way you can find out what I’m up to!

On another note, look for even more changes to this blog in the weeks to come. We’ll be up and running at www.junkyardwisdom.com before long, and I hope to figure out some fun new wrinkles to the site. Any suggestions?

Thanks to everybody for making this process so much fun. It was great to see the creative ideas and energy from everybody. As one person said on Facebook, I have fun friends!

It finally came down to a decision I had to make on my own. That’s normally quite easy for me, but it wasn’t this time. In part because there were so many nominations! But also because I’ve grown to understand just how much writing a blog identifies you to the world. So be careful, I thought, and choose wisely.

I do that best over dinner and a bottle of wine with D’Aun. Which we had last night (2007 Tofanelli Charbono, if you care). Then I slept on it overnight. And I woke up this morning with a clear victor in mind. It’s not going to please everybody — in fact, this name had the most negative comments of any nominee. But that’s one of the points of a blog: to be different, stand apart, be heard, and possibly make people just a bit uncomfortable.

The winner of the blog naming contest is “Junkyard Wisdom”, nominated by my friend Steve Bagdanov. It should come as no surprise that Steve would know me well enough to nail this. We met when we were 18-years old at Westmont, and quickly became best friends. I was the best man in his wedding, he was the best man in mine. His cynical, sarcastic, smart-ass attitude makes him an ideal friend for me (and clearly helps him in his role as pastor).

Junkyard Wisdom reflects my youth when my family owned junkyards. It reflects the Saturday mornings when all I wanted to do was watch cartoons but instead had to be up early to work in the shop with my Dad. It reflects the long hot summers of pulling parts in the yard. It reflects the wild and zany people that I met in the junkyard. Ultimately, it reflects a major source of learning and experience for me that has shaped who I am. It’s not the only force that shaped me, of course, but it is perhaps the most distinctive.

I worked with my Dad for 25-years at Goble Properties, and at the core of our business were junkyard philosophies that served us well. Though I may not ever want to return to the junkyard, it was still a force in shaping who I am. Ultimately, it was in the junkyard when my understanding of business was formed and my commitment to family was shaped. It was in the junkyard where my faith was tested and pushed, where my cultural understandings were challenged, and where my desire to “rise above” found its motivation. It was in the junkyard where I learned how to swear. It was in the junkyard where I learned bluntness and direct speech. It was in the junkyard where I saw the primal instincts of people: what motivated them, what calmed them, what scared them, and what made them angry.

So, Junkyard Wisdom it is. Can’t wait to see where this goes …

First, the runner up. Jolene Flores’ nomination of “Uncorked” was wildly popular with nearly everybody who has an interest in wine, a love of good food, or who has enjoyed Goble hospitality (which, to be fair, is primarily D’Aun’s hospitality). It’s a great name for a blog because it has meaning on multiple levels. There’s the obvious meaning of an uncorked bottle of wine, which implies a good meal (or a wild party). An uncorked bottle has many cultural and religious overtones, which is ideal for the topics I tend to write about. Then there’s the image of “uncorked” as a release of emotions and maybe just a bit out of control, which is also a great image for a blog!

But it came in second place. Sorry, Jolene, but my concern with the name is that it was too easily associated with cooking shows, wine snobs and the whole foodie thing. Now, I’m a foodie and a wine snob to some degree! But it’s still not the center of who I am and isn’t the image most people have of me. Plus a quick google search shows just how many people have utilized “uncorked” in some way or other, so I’m not sure it would stand out among the millions of blogs.

So, “Uncorked” gets second place. I still hope to use it in the tag line for my blog (e.g. “Uncorked musings and ideas”). That alone deserves a nice prize, so Jolene, you’ll be getting a bottle of wine soon. Thanks for your help!

We are now down to the Final Four. Here they are:

- Junkyard Uncorked

- Scraps From the Table

- Junkyard Wisdom

- Uncorked

Let me know what you think!