Monday, March 12, 2007
08:27 p.m.
AMSTERDAM
Over the next few days, I will be looking over the photos, videos, and my notes on Amsterdam and Delft. Nicole and I had an amazing time, met a lot of great people, and saw a lot of both cities.
One of the most memorable things was when we came across some people playing basketball in the park. For all the miles we travelled, I'd have to say that a basketball court was a somewhat rare thing, and the courts were nowhere legal size. But that made the whole experience and the game entirely different and fun.
It just so happens, that on the same day Nicole and I were playing, my brother's team was playing another game back in Minnesota and won. They have advanced to the state basketball championship. That's no small accomplishment for a coach, and he has the possibility of playing at state for the next two years, because some of his best players... are sophomores!
While this is something I've done many times before, just shown up in a town or city and found myself playing baseball, basketball, hockey, or helping somebody with some type of work, this was a somewhat new experience for Nicole, to just pick up a game in some obscure neighborhood on the other side of the world. That's suprising, considering how good a basketball player she is, and how much she travels. She was making more shots than all of us combined, and she seemed to handle the ball better than most of us. We played guys against girls, with two guys and two girls. And I think the girls won. In fact, I know the girls won. And I wasn't counting.
I will be writing a lot more about this trip, but I need to get to bed to make a job tomorrow. I also need to replace two tires on two different mowers. I just got two of them fixed, and now I'm back to zero working mowers. Tires aren't as big a deal, but I'm still pissed. The mowing gods apparently still hate me.
I have a lot more writing to do, about this trip, some stuff I'm writing about courtship (for Nicole's eyes only), and I need to get working on a new website, now that I have the work site mostly up-to-date, and have the other sites I'm working on up to date. It will be for the upcoming wedding, and will eventually turn into a family site. I will announce the website here... Later.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
02:24 p.m.
Off to Amsterdam!
While this week has been hectic, I actually wished I could have been busier. Being busy always has a way of taking my mind off of things, and makes the time fly by. I know a lot of people who would pay big money to get time to slow down even just a little, but I always take comfort in knowing that I couldn't have been more productive with my day, and when everything is going wrong, that you know that you did something right, pulled off the impossible, when nobody believed you could.
I received a call from my brother a couple of weeks ago, and it really gave me some perspective. He is so good at what he does, as a teacher, a coach, and a mentor. And seeing his skills, a group approached him trying to offer him more money for some coaching he was doing, but for richer kids in some kind of "if you have money, we can make your kid a better athlete" camps. He was doing the same thing through the proper local channels, community education and local groups where every child was welcome, and often lower income kids were still allowed to participate, if they showed interest.
It bothered him that he could be making more money, but he found he would have to give up the program he was doing and follow their program, which skips over a lot of fundamentals, defensive strategies, and early athletic development. After several years as a coach, he has studied these things and knows they are pivotal to building the foundation of good athletes. The guys waving money at him wanted him to only teach offense. He knew it was a bad fit. Besides, when he approached them a few years ago about working for them, they treated him like crap and didn't return his calls. Now that they saw they could take his clients away, they were knocking down his door.
He had made up his mind about the whole issue, but he wanted to run it by somebody to make sure he was doing the right thing. I am honored that he called me, and I mostly listened, but I did offer to look at pros and cons from each side with him. Then I offered him what I would do. And it was pretty simple and straightforward.
Times like this remind me of something Steve Jobs (head of Apple Computers) said to the head of PepsiCo when he was trying to get him to leave his high-salary job and come over to apple. It was something along the lines of: "Do you want to push sugar water the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?"
He left Pepsi, by the way. And in Drew's case, while he could go make more money elsewhere, he has built his own program, his own clients, and has quickly become a pillar of the community. What he is coming to realize are some of life's most valuable lessons, that some don't learn until they are twice his age. And some of them are that money doesn't buy you happiness (it buys you other important things, but not happiness), that what you have to offer the world is important no matter what it is, and that if you want to change the world, you can't just change it for the rich.
Even Apple knows that you can't just build the biggest and best, sometimes you also need to build something that's easiest to use, or that fits in your pocket, is relatively inexpensive, and is something you just can't live without. For better examples, look to ebay or skype, who do transactions for pennies and took over the world.
What matters most may not be that Drew knows exactly what he wants to do with his program, but that he is filling a needed gap in his community, that he shares his special talent and tweaks his program while the kids he coaches show him the way. In a few years, he will be able to look back and be amazed by what he has built.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
04:43 p.m.
DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA...
SAY IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!...
DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA...
My awesome sister Rachel called me bright and early (as she has done for the last 14 years... every year... on the dot) and wished me a happy birthday. She called later than usual, I think because she hasn't been able to "catch" me because I'm usually up before her doing a GMA, Today, or Early Show live shot and I've been up for hours at that point.
Nicole called a day or two ago, but was the first in with the birthday wishes via email from Holland. I booked a flight over there and will be joining her for a few days later in the week.
My little brother Rudy really made my day this morning. He called, and I answered, but it was silent for a few seconds. Then the sound of about 30 kids screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" came across the phone. That was cool. That's a great way to start your day. I completely understand why he's a teacher. As luck would have it, he loves it and he's really good at it. I mean REALLY good at it.
My mom brought me out for dinner a couple of nights ago to The Branding Iron in Preston, Minnesota. I don't know why, but that place has always made me laugh. It has been around forever, and it's always been a great place to go eat. And it reminds me of Nye's Polonaise Room up in Minneapolis because nothing has changed since the 1950s. Well, except that now both places accept credit cards... that might be the only difference.
Kerris called a few minutes ago, but our cell phones kept dropping. Maybe I'll try her again in an hour or so when she gets home.
I'm working at the Hilton here in Omaha, and they have been less than hospitable... almost hostile. The most idiotic thing they told us today is that we had to fly our cable, and then they refused to let us use their ladders. I think they just provided me with the definition of stupid.
Just as we started to settle in, the generator burned up.
The generator was an hour and a half late, then an hour later the power started to "brown out" and fluctuate. I shut down the truck and went over to take this picture.. Keep in mind the smoke was much worse. I shut down the generator and the people I'm working with called them to come over.
Did they bring another generator? No. They started it back up and said, "Looks fine to me!" And then left.
Well, I'm not using it. And I'm not using United Rental out of Omaha again either.
I should be done by 7:30 or 8. Maybe I'll treat myself to a birthday dinner before I go home to Kansas. I might go over and work horses at Mark's tomorrow if it isn't too muddy.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
11:10 p.m.
A few days off...
I was able to catch up on some sleep, get completely caught up on our relayhouse.com freelancer database, sort out music on the new Ipod, and spend a few days with the hottest woman in the world, my beautiful fiance Nicole...
Just today she jumped a plane to Amsterdam, and my heart just sank knowing I probably won't get to see her for three weeks. However, I'm so glad she's going. There's so much to see over there, and it's quite an honor to be chosen to work overseas by your employer. Before she hung up, I wanted her to know how important it was to me that she go and do this, because I love her just the way she is and I hope she never changes. Besides, I'll be here when she gets back. I might even manage to get a few things done. (don't count on it!)
I spend so many days on the road each year, it means everything to me to have somebody who... for once... is understanding of my schedule. She is the first woman who hasn't wanted to change me, but getting to know her makes me want to be a better man.
The next sixteen months leading up to our wedding will certainly be interesting, and we're already dizzy with all the possibilities. And while I can't say I can see very much of the future, I'm looking forward to every second of it.
I had time to make a few changes and updates to the John Donaldson website. The effort is moving along slowly, but it is still gaining ground. All of the sports researchers we've run into think we're crazy for taking on such a monumental job of following a barnstormer, but we've never run out of material... years after the "experts" said we couldn't find any more. It's been an exciting chase.
There are some side-stories that pop up, and are well worth the watch. There is a documentary on the heavyweight fighter Jack Johnson (I believe it was a Ken Burns production), and is well worth the view. It's really an amazing and sad story..
I am continually coming across references to Jose Mendez, a pitcher out of Cuba who came to the U.S. in the 19-teens. He's another amazing story, yet would be hard to tell because of all the research required in Cuba (and who knows what, if any records exist there).
The game is done here in Omaha, and as soon as the crew is done melting, I'll have the dish down and will head home for a couple of days. Like I said, maybe I can get a few things done... Indoors, where it's warm!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
02:25 p.m.
Wrong Answer
Just a word of advice this week guys... When your girlfriend/fiance/wife asks you if you remember what's coming up on Wednesday... and you answer , "Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training in Florida?"
That would be the wrong answer.
Besides, Pitchers and Catchers report on Thursday.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
02:13 a.m.
Wicked funny dog...
Check out this dog: http://www.idodogtricks.com/index_flash.html
I don't know why I found this so incredibly funny. Maybe I'm just too tired tonight.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
10:01 a.m.
What? NO THANKS.
Thanks for giving us the "Thriller" album Michael, but no, I don't want to be your friend.
On to other news, I was archiving all of my email from the past year or so (yes, I do this every year, and you should, too). And I found a very strange photo I'd totally missed from about a year ago. Alright, it's more than strange. I think it's just downrign disturbing.
Donna, are you playing hide-and-seek with a horse? What possible explanation could explain you laying back in a water tank? Did a horse push you in? Are you fixing a hole in the bottom of the tank? Are you bathing?
While trying to come up with excuses for you, I've been laughing so hard I've been crying. This picture has reduced a man to tears, and I hope you're happy.
I just booked a flight for Orlando next week, and will spend a few days with Nicole for Valentine's day. She is at a conference this week, then flies off to Amsterdam for a couple weeks of work. I'd like to join her there, too. But I'm unsure if our schedules will work. I'm already scheduled for a bunch of jobs at the end of February, and there are more coming in every day. I'm just thankful for these two days together right now.
While going through pictures, I also came across a Christmas photo I took of my niece. My grandma knitted mittens for the great-grandchildren this year, and she seemed to like them:
Tomorrow I'm doing a job at a pet parade.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
02:01 p.m.
(HE HE HE...)
A friend and colleague of mine was the first writer to respond to yesterday's headline. His note reads:
Subject: Congratulations
Congrats on the engagement, you could always go to Vegas and get married by ELVIS.....?
ED Hill
Chattanooga, TN.
Thanks, Ed. I'll pass that suggestion on to Nicole when I talk to her. I have a feeling the answer will be no, not unlike when I suggested having a costume wedding (think how fun that would be... a table full of brides, a table full of Klingons... a table full of Klingon brides...). Ah, it's fun to dream. In reality a lot of those dreams might be fun for you or me, but a nightmare for others.
We talked about a destination wedding. However, I think that would turn into a nightmare for me considering nobody in my family has their passport (maybe my sister and my mom. A couple of my siblings HATE... I can't stress enough... HATE TO FLY... so that wouldn't work out very well. I can just picture my side of that wedding ceremony, with a pack of people trying to get over jet lag and panic attacks.
We have a unique situation when it comes to family size. Nicole has a small immediate family and a big extended family. I have a big immediate family and a small(er) extended family. So, even though I love the idea of a destination wedding, Nicole would have to fly out two people, I would have to fly out a grandparent, three parents, three siblings, two in-laws, and six nieces and nephews. I I were to add to that my aunt and uncle (godparents and the pastor in our family), I'm at 17-2 odds. Yikes.
Speaking of immediate family, it's my mom's birthday today and I'd better make a call...
Saturday, January 20, 2007
04:10 p.m.
SHE SAID YES!
Photo by Ali
Just a few minutes after midnight, on New Year's Eve, I asked Nicole to marry me. She said yes!
Never have I been more thrilled, and I have never been this happy before. She is the perfect woman, she becomes more beautiful to me every day, and I fall more and more in love with her every day.
From the moment she walked out the back door, onto the patio where we met, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
Nicole is fun, beautiful, intelligent, witty, caring, and even handy. She has a great family, and shares a lot of the same interests. When I was looking to court women, I'd always believed I had set my standards too high. But Nicole has come to make me realize I didn't set them high enough. She is the beautiful compass I've been missing all these years.
What I've learned in the past month has been largely based around engagement and wedding etiquette. I've been taught the difference between gold and white gold, platinum and titanium, and how to grade a diamond.
Some of the info has been a little overwhelming, and I hope the overdose of information hasn't fried something in my head and made me forget piano lessons or something else I still need.
We (I) am looking for any constructive help with planning the wedding. And we (I) am looking for any volunteers who might be willing to donate their services. We have the pastor, the venue, the dj (unless we change our minds and book a band), and the rest is a work-in-progress. Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated (Unless you tell us to elope... We have already received that advice.)
The hardest thing for both of us, I believe, will be making up the wedding invite list, and keeping it to a bearable number. Our huge families alone will stuff the giant hall, and it will be a struggle between inviting some friends and leaving other people out.
I have a few people I need to track down. I need to make some calls to see if I can track down my college roommate, Forrest Wollack, to send him an invite. A few other people on my list should be found with a few emails or phone calls. Heck, half the people on my list probably know by now.
Anyway, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and as always, thanks for reading Plastic Sled Quarterly. And oh, yeah... if you're a religious type, please pray for snow. Thanks.
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
11:13 a.m.
It's been a while since I'd written, but for once I really don't have an excuse. I've been whittling away at some projects I've had on the back burner for a while. And other than that, I'm just generally getting ready for the holiday season.
Things have been slow at work, and I'm hoping they'll pick up. It has been nice being home in Kansas to get a few things done, see some friends, and live the good life here on the prairie.
Last night I got some much needed recording done, and I'm hoping to get all of the songs uploaded to archive.org or garageband.com so anyone who wants to listen to some songs I've written over the past 16 years or so can click and download the MP3 for free. Three of the songs I played for a songwriter's get-together in Nashville a couple of years ago and I was given a "not bad!" I wasn't the best writer there, but at least I wasn't the worst. About four or five of the writers there still make me laugh just thinking about them. In fact, I wish I had their stuff on CD. Because it was so bad it was practically genius!
I'm no lyrical genius, but for me it's been a good outlet. It's something that very few of my friends do, and it's been fun to play guitar and sing at bars and slip in my own music amongst the other rock, country and folk to see if anyone likes it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they are indifferent.
I'm bummed about some news I received yesterday that it doesn't sound like I'll be doing the SuperBowl this year. I will miss the crew the most, and I will miss getting to be a part of the festivities, and even though there is an outside chance that somebody might see I'm available and want to hire me for the gig (call Randy or Kathy at Relay House!), all-in-all I feel that I was lucky to get to work at three SuperBowls in my life. Chances are I will take the weekend to go snowmobiling or go swing a hammer, or even work cows somewhere. Maybe I'll go to China and see how they celebrate SuperBowl weekend... Either way, I'll be having fun that weekend.
I'm in Lawrence right now, just getting a few errands done. We are in the upper 40s, and are supposed to be in the 50s this weekend. Perfect weather for football!
We were asked by a big company to come and do an uplink this week. And even though they decided not to do the gig (I think a guest backed out at the last minute.), it still is an incredible honor to be asked. I feel that way about all of our clients, and I would post more about all of the great people we get to work with... that is... if I wasn't so worried about all of our competition trying to constantly steal our clients. (We'll do it $100 cheaper than Relay House!) What they don't tell people is that there's a reason they're cheaper. Their trucks are old, cramped, and the operators don't know what the hell they're doing. There's a reason why I only play guitar as a hobby. It's because I'm a mediocre guitar player. I can get away with it in a bar full of drunks. However, the same thing doesn't happen in the satellite industry. It's full of people who don't know what they're doing, not sure if they're on the right satellite every day, confused when a satellite changes its name once every four years, and don't know how to read even the simplest test monitoring equipment.
Add to all of the confusion we're faced with every day, we have been treading into the world of high-definition, on-demand, and pro-sumer. It's turned a structured broadcast industry into a crap shoot where everyone's cranking it out, and there are millions of places to receive it. ("It" being defined as everything from great material to crappy video of fluffy kittens dancing across a piano keyboard.) The biggest problem is that very few people are archiving it properly, and even fewer people are properly changing/upconverting/downconverting formats. For every format, there is a device to convert it to a different format. For every format being requested, there is a mid-stream request to change to another format.
About a decade ago, somebody coined the phrase, "short attention span theater" and should have marketed the phrase on t-shirts. Do yourself a favor: While you're out shopping this holiday season, listen to some of the inane banter being purged from liars salespeople. Especially those pushing electronics.
Here are some lies you'll probably hear...
Yeah, that uses a standard High Def cable.
THIS IS A LIE (There are several high definition cables, and none of them are standard.)
This is backwards compatible...
WHILE THIS IS TRUE, IT'S A LIE (Though many electronics do work with old formats/frequencies... power output, power consumption and noise levels often change, but not always for the better.)
You don't need analog...
LIE LIE LIE LIE (Many electronics used for emergency services, old OnStar services included, use analog. People are still buying and PRODUCING analog LP records. There are a lot of places in this world where analog does and will exist.)
And don't believe anyone who says what you buy will last! Keep in mind two things: Apple just released an 80 Gig IPOD. Wow. Next month they will release an IPOD with a phone. Wait, what? Microsoft releases Vista, but most computers won't be fast enough or have enough hard drive space or graphics to run the operating system.
The craziest thing about electronics basically comes down to how much you thing you are going to use it. Will you use it every day? Will you use it once a year? Will it be outdated in six months? Will it be outdated in a year?
My suggestion to anyone looking to get something electronic for Christmas is to bite down and buy a good still camera. Get a good lens, and get a memory that is popular and easy to find at even the simplest box stores, should you ever have to find a memory card while you are on the road or on a vacation. Other than that, I hope all of you have a great time this holiday season!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
04:59 p.m.
PHOTO BRAVO
What a strange and exciting life I lead; One day I'm in St. Louis covering the World Series with the Japanese (they are SO awesome to work for), and the next day I'm serving wine to people at a Photo Bravo photo auction in Minneapolis.
Our friend Kaia was helping to put the auction on, Nicole put on the white gloves to carry and place the very large photos on tripods on the stage, and I helped out in the kitchen and served wine and food. How awesome is that!?
After that, we stopped over at our friends Derrick and DiAnna's house. And I'm pleased to report that the two of them are still very happily married.
Nicole has just been amazing. We've made trips to Port Washington, Wisconsin, St. Louis, Columbia, and Osage Beach, Missouri. She is planning a trip to Kansas, and I've made it up and will be going to Minneapolis quite often to see her. She has become my proof that great things are worth waiting for, and we are lucky to share a lot of things in common (especially, as our friends Derrick and DiAnna say, we share a similar sense of humor).
Back at the homestead, I was able to get a few things done... well... somewhat done. I worked on a wine cellar (it's actually a closet, but holds 300 bottles of beer and 100 bottles of wine, so I'm calling it a wine cellar... that's more than I'll ever be able to drink). I worked on sanding down a mortar wall where I will be projecting movies in the basement. I dropped off an electrical box in Kansas City, and I somehow managed to get a half a dozen small errands done in Lawrence, cooked up a batch of Kolsch, and made a big crock of 13-bean chili. Then, at about midnight, I headed over here to Columbia, Missouri for another game. The weather's beautiful, and I managed to get some baseball reasearch done over at the Missori State Newspaper Archives, about ten minutes walk across campus here at Mizzou.
If I can get back for any more than a day in the next week, I need to get over to Mark and Elaine's place to get some riding in before the weather gets too cold. There are a couple of horse that need riding, and I'm sure at some point they will need some farrier work. Mark's farrier Benny is quite an interesting guy. He believes and has taught the sit-down method using a stool. It looks like more work, but it certainly saves your back.
I'd love to spend more time learning about Farrier work, but there just haven't been enough hours in the day!
