Christmas Eve

Father Joe is with us this year and it has been really wonderful to spend this much time with him. As a catholic priest I doubt he has had an opportunity to relax this much during the Christmas season. As I watched the priests running around just before today's 4 p.m. children's mass, I thought of my brother and how hard he has worked his entire life. I don't think retiring because of his illness was an especially easy thing for him to do, but I believe now that some time has passed he is easing into retirement and starting to enjoy the freedom it has created for him. I know that he still has to be careful about his health, but he looks good and has even stopped smoking, which is something we had all been praying he would do. It is good to be with family anytime, but at Christmas it just seems so much more special. Mom and my sister Judy and her husband will join us tomorrow for a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings, which I will cook. That is another one of my favorite traditions.......Dad cooking Christmas Dinner. Or is it my wife's favorite tradition? Hmmmmmm.

Anyway, all the presents are wrapped and the children have just slipped off to bed and I'm getting ready to shut down for the night as well. However, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and I hope that Santa brings good tidings for the New Year.

Good night & God Bless.............

Anger Management

Joe had his fist real fistfight this past week and I'm still fuming about the situation. He was at Scouts and after his den meeting he went outside to play with a few of his friends and came home with a bloody nose and marks of his face that were obviously made with someones fist. The kid who attacked him is much larger than Joe and has a serious issue with anger. He plays for the basketball team that I help to coach and having observed him for several weeks it is clear he gets angry easy and has a vicious temper. While I'm normally in the club that says it is better for the adults to stay out of these things and let the kids sort the issues, I'm having a real problem remaining neutral. Probably because I know the kid's Dad and I would have expected some level of dialogue about the situation. Instead, he basically avoided the issue and did very little to impress upon his son the importance of not beating the crap out of other kids just because he's having a bad moment. It's also kind of sad since Joe was one of this kid's very few friends.....I say was because Joe has decided to take a serious break from the kid and not play with him until at least February, which hopefully will extend further into the year.

To his credit Joe tried to avoid the fight initially, but stood up for himself and by all accounts defended himself very well given he was fighting someone much larger. Why is it that we always remember our first real fight? Mine was with a kid named Joe Butler, whose Father was a boxer in the military and his Dad had taught him how to box quite well. He hit me square on the nose in the first 30 seconds and then while my eyes were watering he beat the living hell out of me. It was embarrassing and painful and I vowed that day that I would learn how to fight properly, which helps to explain my entry into the Marines a few years later.

I watched the Nuggets/Knicks brawl on TV and I think Stern was a tad lenient given the circumstances, especially with the coaches who both need a swift kick in the rear. Joe and I go to see the Hawks pretty regularly and it is bad enough with Josh Smith using the "F" word for all to hear whenever he gets upset, but I sure as hell don't want Joe to see these guys punching each other.........hell, whatever happened to the concept of professional athletes acting as role models for our kids? We pay them millions of dollars and the best we can expect is for them to say "F It" whenever things don't go their way............

Anger is a bad thing and we all need to learn to take a breath, to walk away, to count to ten as my Mom used to tell me when I was a kid......I'm proud of Joe for having defended himself, but I'm sorry his first pugilistic affair had to be with a so called friend............it's confusing when someone turns on you. I suppose it is a good life lesson in some respects, but tough when you are only ten.

Truly Remarkable

This morning I joined Kate and Joe to watch Ellie's performance as Toto in the Wizard of Oz. Produced by the wonderful staff at "Applause for Kids", a local program associated with The Atlanta School of the Performing Arts, it was a truly remarkable performance by twenty great kids. These kids rehearsed for two hours every Saturday for 12 weeks to deliver one wonderful experience for their parents and special guests. Ellie has been attending this program for nearly three years and she consistently improves with each performance. Today was especially challenging because as Toto she had a predominately non-speaking part (aside from a few barks here and there), spent much of the program on padded knees following Dorothy around (played to perfection by Parker Whitlow)and had to try to avoid being kicked as she maneuvered around the various dance routines. She was amazing and everyone said she absolutely stole the show. I of course agree, but then as Ellie's Dad I have little choice but to agree. Jennifer Salberg, the founder of "Applause for Kids" is a professional actor who had a dream about creating a school of performing arts for children and made that dream come true with Applause. She has a powerful personality that projects confidence and enthusiasm and engenders those traits in the the children that attend her programs. She and her very small, but very talented staff create four Broadway shows simultaneously, training 80 children over 12 weeks and delivering four shows over a 24 hours period (one last evening and three over the course of today). In addition, they promote "Curtains Up" a program focused on 45 foster children in Conyers, Georgia. The performances are all being held at the Northwest Presbyterian Church, a lovely venue and great for Jennifer since her school was muscled out of it's Roswell Road location by Ace Hardware earlier this year. Hats off to all the children and Jennifer and her team for a super show.

Sorry For The Recent Absence

Hi Folks: I'm truly sorry for having been absent the past week or so and I'm guessing you are all tired of looking at that poor deer. The truth of the matter is that I've been really busy the past week with all sorts of interesting projects. I have been trying to hook-up two good friends on a potential financial arrangement; i.e.; one is looking for money and the other helps folks find money. I've also been helping with the Georgia Technology Summit, which is progressing quite nicely and we are now entering the sporsorship phase of the event. That is where we put on our fund raising hats and go out and find firms that want to sponsor the Summit. Finally, I managed to get over the Monastery of the Holy Ghost in Conyers, Ga. with my good friends from NeboWeb and we are looking to help the good Brothers there redesign their website. The Monastery was very impressive, especially when you realize that it was built entirely by the Monks who arrived in the mid-40's using the most basic tools coupled with lots of sweat. It is intensely serene as you would expect, with a retail store that sells Catholic books and articles, but also fruit cakes, fudge, and bonsai trees. Visit www.trappist.net and explore the Monastery on line and then jump into the car on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and drive to Conyers to visit. I promise you will not be disappointed. Finally, caught a game the other night and someone asked me just how close my seats were to the action, so I thought I'd take a camera and give you some sense of being on the floor.

Ohio Tradition

I'm not particularly in favor of hunting, although as a child growing up in rural North Carolina guns were certainly part of the process and nine years in the Marines gave me lots of opportunities to handle some fairly serious weapons. I don't object to hunting and I know that my Sister and her family have created a tradition around Thanksgiving and deer season. They dress everything they kill and they eat vension year round. Thiswas my nephew's first kill of this season and one of many that they managed to land this year. That is relatively unusual from all accounts. I have heard of seasons past when no deer were taken or at most one or two, so this season seems to have been quite productive. I think for my sister Mary and her family the real joy comes from the gathering of relatives who visit them each Thanksgiving to partake in the this Ohio tradition. I have never managed to join them so far, but who knows? Perhaps next year with a camera instead of a gun.

Competition

Okay, I admit it. I'm a basketball fan! ACC, NBA, PAC10, SEC, BIG10, it just doesn't matter. I'm hooked. My favorite teams in order are UNC/Chapel Hill, the Atlanta Hawks, the Lakers, Georgia Tech, Virginia and the Chicago Bulls. Carolina and the Hawks rank over all the others and I'll root for them on any given night. Of course they don't always win, especially the Hawks, who have had a couple of disappointing seasons to say the least. But with season tickets and two seats on the floor I can't help but enjoy the game, win or lose. You see, I just like the competition. Basketball to me is like a lot of things we encounter in life. It has incredible highs and some fairly serious lows......it is a game of strategy and tactics and knowing when and how to deploy your bench. It takes confidence to play the game and it takes courage as well, especially when you are hurt and not feeling your best. And of course it is a game that mostly depends on the five guys on the floor playing together as a team. Superstars are welcome and often needed, but it is the team that consistently wins the day. Last night I watched Carolina play Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden and although Carolina jumped out to a commanding early lead I could see that it would not last because they weren't playing as a team. Carolina is blessed this year with an incredible group of talented young men, but it was Gonzaga, a team without its top two stars from last year that played like a team, remained patient and walked in the locker room at halftime with the lead, a lead they never surrender in the second half. So the 22nd ranked team in the nation knocks off the number 2 ranked team. Competition! I love it.

GTS 2007

One of my primary interests over the past couple of years has been the Technology Association of Georgia (www.tagonline.org), an organization that works hard to promote technology companies in the State and provides numerous opportunities to connect to like-minded individuals across multiple disciplines through the TAG Society's. The CEO Boot Camp that I attended last week was sponsored by TAG and it is representative of the kind of leading edge developmental programs that TAG initiates on an ongoing basis.

I am also honored this year to chair the 2007 Georgia Technology Summit. We have an exciting line-up planned for February 28, 2007 at the Cobb Galleria. The program will include top-notch speakers including Rich Demillo, the Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech and former CTO at HP. We will also have Chris Anderson, the Editor & Chief of Wired Magazine and author of the best selling book, "The Long Tail". We will be presenting our Lifetime Achievement Award to Jim Blanchard, the Chairman of Synovus, in recognition of his many accomplishments. The Top 40 Innovative Companies in Georgia as judged by a distinguished panel will be on hand to discuss their companies and the Top 10 will present during the program. We will also hear from the winner of this years Business Launch Competition (REACHMDConsult) and finally we will be previewing a special report on the state of technology in Georgia. Like I said, an exciting line-up and the planning committee is delighted to have it all come together before Thanksgiving.

Wow! What an accomplishment. Of course, most folks don't realize what it takes to put together a program like GTS 2007 since they think it must be organized by some professional group that TAG hires. Well, that isn't quite how it happens. In fact, the planning committee is comprised on a number of senior executives from the technology community who volunteer their time and talents to drive a creative program that both educates and entertains the guests. GTS 2007 is the largest fund raising event for TAG and to be successful we must deliver a program that inspires people to sponsor and attend. Think that's easy? Well, it isn't and tomorrow I'll tell you a bit more about our journey that started in early 2006 and still has many days ahead. Meanwhile, everyone have a wonderful evening. Ellie needs some help with her homework and so Dad needs to sign off.

Oh yeah, the funny looking hood in the pic? Well, that is none other than that infamous character Frank Baia, best known as the voice of god at most TAG events. Frank, the leader of Global Speak generously donates his time and talents to many different interests. In this photo he is doing time for Jerry's kids. He is just one of the technology executives that consistently supports TAG.

Saturday Night & Ellies Out and About!

Yes, that girl on the right is definitely my little angel. This was taken at a ballet recital last year. Of course she is much cuter now and naturally more grown up since she 8 years old going on 20...........anyway, she is standing right here next to me and needs to go to bed, so Daddy is going to finish this up and take her upstairs so she can get ready for a good night's rest before Mass tomorrow. Busy week ahead with Thanksgiving and Ellie said to tell everyone to have a happy Turkey day!

Basketball & Scouts

An interesting day spent mostly on catching up on expenses from my previous employment. Need to get them done and in the system before the end of the month, but the Lord knows I hate paperwork, especially expenses. Why can't they invent a credit card that allows you to record everything automatically so you don't spend hours and hours trying to figure out all the details of each item? I guess I'm just going to have to learn to do these things on a regular basis.

We had basketball practice tonight and the real coach showed up with his son, who can drill it from about 15 feet out and is pretty darn good on the boards. I could see the difference almost immediately in the way the kids responded to his approach, which was far more disciplined than mine. Moreover, the practice was more effective and the kids played much better during the scrimmage. I guess it helps if you know what you're doing.

Afterwards we all walked across to the boy scouts Fall Festival. Our boys are all cub scouts, but they graduate to the boy scouts next year and we are getting them ready for the big move. It occurred to me as I wandered around chatting with all the Dads and Moms who had organized the Fall Festival and the Dads who had just coached basketball that this really is a wonderful community. I chatted with Frank Bell, the CEO of Intellinet, who was doing his duty for the evening and Leigh Mayerson, the guidance counselor at Sarah Smith (who also happens to be the real coach I referenced earlier)and so many others. People working together to ensure our children have all the opportunities that we were given......and it does take a community to make it happen. It makes me proud to be a part of this neighborhood.

The photo is a shot of the approach to the Wintergreen Winery just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. A great place to hang out and drink some wine!

CEO Boot Camp

After midnight and I'm just finishing up with my review of today's material. Was it worth the price? Absolutely! Don't know what I'm talking about? Well then, go to the TAG website (www.tagonline.org) and explore events and read about the CEO Boot Camp, or just wait until later in the week and I'll tell you all about it. Bottom line? Best program I've attended in probably 10 years..........practical, concise and most important it is real-world advice from a guy who has been there, got the video and written four books about the experience. Check it out folks. It is WTPOA! (Worth the Price of Admission)

By the way, the canal doesn't have anything to do with this post. It's a photo from our home town in the Netherlands (Leiden), home to Rembrandt and one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, plus a center of excellence for the care of patients with leukemia. I thought I'd share it with you this evening because quite frankly I'm a bit homesick.

Southern Living

Have you ever spent a few hours in Social Circle, Georgia? Well, if you did, it was because you love southern cooking and you don't mind wandering around a few antiques shops. The Blue Willow Inn is one of Georgia's finest restaurants, operating out of a home that was built at the end of the 19th. century. It is family style dining with all the wonderful foods that most of us never properly learned to create from our Mom's, with of course the exception of myself, and my sisters Judy and Mary. They can still do cornbread the old fashioned way. We all learned to cook fairly early in our lives and with seven brothers and sisters it was important that at least some of us could take care of dinner while Mom and Dad worked most evenings to pay the mortgage and keep us in school.

The Blue Willow Inn, Social Circle, Georgia. About an hour out of Atlanta on I20 East, it is the place to be at Sunday lunch time. Make a reservation and then plan on visiting the shops on Main Street. It is a delightful experience and having been on numerous occasions I can attest to the fact that it just gets better with each visit.

Correction from Sis.........

Received a brief note from my sister who lives in Ohio. She wrote to correct me because my running around the front garden here with a blower does not truly represent a serious effort at gathering leaves. Her husband Roger obviously has a entirely different approach to the situation. I stand corrected Sis.

Christmas Already

I had to spend some money today and given the circumstances, I wanted to make certain that I got the best possible deals. My first stop was at Joseph Banks where I heard that they were having a 50% off of everything sale. Hmmmmm......found it kind of hard to see any real bargains. It looked like they had marked everything up by 75% and were offering discounts on items that would normally sell for far less. No real bargains there. I then popped over to Lowes to get a blower........Kate was desperate to see the lawn and drive cleared of all the leaves and our petrol blower got blown up by the last gardener who put unleaded into it instead of a oil/petrol mixture. The prices were a tad high, but after a bit of discussion I was able to purchase a demo model (it had never actually been used, but was out of the box on the shelf) for 40% below retail. I then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the front garden and believe me, there were a lot of leaves!

I have a great week lined up with CEO Boot Camp on Tuesday and Wednesday and lunches on Thursday and Friday. I'm also planning a dinner on Tuesday evening. I got a lead of a job that sounds like a good match with my skills and will be pursuing that over the rest of this month. I set myself up in the garage with an office and got hooked into the wireless network and while it is a bit odd sitting in the garage it is comfortable and except for the occasional really big spider it isn't all that bad.

Anyway, what's up with all the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving? It's a bit weird and absolutely too soon. Shouldn't someone tell them that we don't want Christmas in November?

Happy Birthday Marines

Today is the 231st.birthday of the U.S.Marine Corps and tomorrow we celebrate Veteran's Day. As a former Marine and a Vietnam Veteran, I am reminded of that period in my life. I am also reminded of the young men and women who sacrifice so much today to protect our country. My time was important to me, but it is time to focus not on my generation, but on today's kids who are serving with honor and integrity. When you wake up tomorrow, please remember our sons and daughters serving across the globe and do something constructive to help them. We owe them so much and we need not forget them during the coming weekend and every weekend to follow. Be proud of them no matter what how you feel about Iraq or our reasons for being there. They are the real hero's!

What a Week!

Okay, so I had the Men's Club meeting on Monday evening and then on Tuesday evening I attended an invitation only CEO dinner at Yum & Ross Arnold's home in Mid-Town Atlanta. Their home is quite impressive and has a very comfortable lived-in feeling. You know, sometimes you go into a big house and that's about all it turns out to be........a big house. This was a home, warm and friendly with lots of pictures and an air of children and family. I loved the way they catered it as well. Instead of pulling in a bunch of stuffed shirts they arranged to have food delivered from Whole Foods, put it on their own dishes and served everything buffet style. Again, there was a sense of familiarity with everyone sitting on couches and chairs, eating and really getting to know one another. I sat with Kelly Gay and Patrick Taylor and by the time we had finished our meal I knew more about Kelly and Patrick than I would have ever learned at the Hi-Tech CEO Council or TechLinks "Let's Do Business" or any other networking venue. Not that any of the networking venues are ineffective.........it was just that extra feeling of comfort that comes from being in someones home and feeling welcomed. After the dinner we had sat together with coffee and dessert and discussed a number of critical issues that were submitted prior to the event by all of us. All in all, an outstanding evening. I got lots of advice and lots of reassurance from everyone about the job situation and while no one offered me a job, I did get a number of suggestions and tips that should serve me well in the coming weeks. Hat's off to Yum and Ross for a lovely evening.

Holy Spirit, Georgia Tech & The Men's Club

I was asked earlier today by my good neighbor, Dave Denning to attend this evenings monthly meeting of the Men's Club of Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Although Katie and I have been members of the parish for about three or four months (having escaped from Christ the King), I have not had an opportunity to participate in the Men's Club. Dave, a former pilot with the Navy and currently a senior pilot for Delta called to suggest we go together. The guest speaker was Dan Radakovick, the relatively new Athletic Director of Georgia Tech. Well, I thought it sounded like a wonderful opportunity and jumped on it. It turned out to be an absolutely delightful evening. Dan was charming and graciously answered more questions than I think he might have anticipated from a Catholic Men's Group. I met a wonderful group of men of all ages and decided on the spot to join the group and attend other meetings going forward. One important lesson that I've learned over the years is that the last thing you want to do when you hit a wall is to hide your head in the sand. Get up in the morning, get dressed like you mean it and get out, even if it is only to a Starbucks or a Boarders with wireless access............what's important in this situation is not that you are unemployed.......what's important is that you don't fall into in any traps or start feeling sorry for yourself. Me, I'm a Hawks fan and for the moment we are leading the our division...........go Hawks!

Change Equals Opportunity

I packed my office this afternoon, said goodbye to a few folks, and made my way back home with the accumulation of three plus years of odds and ends, lots of books and a few awards picked-up along the way. I can't honestly say that I was sad or felt really bad about the situation. You see, over the years I've come to realize that everything happens for a reason and the good Lord has a plan for me and while I may not completely understand it, I trust that it will work out for the best. I've already been pinged a few times with some ideas from different folks. I'm looking at a franchise that would allow me to leverage the past few years of living the Internet experience and I may consider doing some project based worked in the new year on a temporary basis just to clear my head and do something different. I'm at peace with the situation and comforted by knowing that I have lots of talent and lots of opportunities ahead of me. Change always brings opportunity if we just take the time to find it.

50+

Did you know that two-thirds of all the people who ever reached the age of 65 are alive today? Did you also that the fastest growing segment of the population is those 85 and over?

There are 78 million baby boomer's, the oldest of whom just turned 60 this year and the youngest 42. One baby boomer reaches the age of 50 every 7.5 seconds, which adds up to 4 million every single year

You can read about the 50+ revolution by picking up a copy of Bill Novelli's book, "50+...Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America" with an interesting forward by Steve Case. Bill is the CEO OF AARP and therefore has an interest in those of us that have qualified for the 50+ club.

I'm 56 and Kate is 41. We have have an 8 year old daughter and a 10 year old son. I have more iTunes than any parent I know and I am constantly impressing my kids by introducing them to artists that recorded 20+ years ago. But you know what? They like the music and they think it is cool, which of course is very cool! Who knows, Kate and I may not be done with having kids yet. Heck, my Dad was 60 years old when I was born and he was 65 when my brother Jim was born. My Mom was 29 years younger than my Dad and we just never thought much of it until he got into his 80's and because of his heart condition he went downhill pretty fast and died at the age of 83......he was a devout catholic and a democrat and while he wasn't necessarily the greatest or best Dad ever, he was my Dad and I loved him. Age never seemed to bother him and he worked harder at 83 (he had a massive heart attack at work at the age of 83 still putting two kids through college) than many of the kids that worked in the firm I just left. He never moaned about the injustice of the system.....he just constantly tried to figure out how to make the system work for him. He was an entrepreneur before anyone knew what that word meant and he was respected in the community. I was proud to be his son and now that folks are beginning to recognize that age is not a factor in life the way it was in the 50's, I am reminded of that hard working man who got up everyday and somehow managed to support and educate seven kids. Jack Gaul was his name and he remains my role model for life! Born in 1889 and orphaned at the age of 11, he left school and went to work to support his Aunt and Sister. He was a self-taught man and an avid reader. Gosh, he read everything and was so current that I was often amazed how he could engage any conversation........he worried far too much during my time in Vietnam and the greatest hug I have ever received in my life was the night I got back and my Dad embraced me. He was both proud of me and thankful that I was home without any major damage. That was the Christmas of '69. Patrick Jr. was born in July of '72....his first grandson with the name Gaul......he died less than a year later, but not without holding the next generation of Gaul's and I think that made him very happy. I hug my grandson, Patrick David Gaul the 3rd and I know what my Dad felt..........

Time to Calibrate

Yesterday I left my former position with the hosting company and joined the ranks of the unemployed in Atlanta. It was a timely move for me and will allow me to have some time with my family while I consider my options and think about about what I want to do next. We have a move coming up in early December and there is lots of packing to be done. I'm going to attend a CEO Boot Camp being held in mid-November that is being sponsored by the Technology Association of Georgia. Should be an excellent refresher for an old dog like me. I also want to continue to do some writing, catch up on my reading list and enjoy a glass of wine in the evening. I plan to free lance for some local firms and most importantly, I intend to wind down and relax. Managing a business has its own unique set of challenges and over the past three plus years I've had my share of those challenges. Every so often it's good to take inventory, examine where you are versus where you want to be and sanity check the findings. I'm grateful that I have the luxury to approach the situation in such a balanced manner.

All Saints Day

Today is "All Saints Day", a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation, which means you are supposed to go to church. We did this evening and stayed for the church supper afterwards and it was actually quite nice. Holy Spirit, our church in Buckhead does that every Wednesday evening and we are trying to go as often as possible given it conflicts with Joe's karate lessons. So we can't go every week, but every three or four weeks seems to fit our schedule. During Mass I was listening to the prayers being offered.......you know, for the recovery of the sick, hear our prayer.. For the well-being our our troops and first responders, hear our prayer, for leadership that actually thinks, hear our prayer. I'm guessing that in Boston, a very Catholic and Democratic city that many Catholics were inserting the additional plea that John Kerry keep his mouth shut for the next week.........well, Karl Rove promised a miracle and John certainly did deliver it. What an absolute idiot! Sorry, but there is no way he can spin what he said into anything except what he said.........so he has now apologized after waiting about a day too long, has a lot of Republicans in arms when they were going to sit out this election...........that John Kerry shut-up until the election is over, hear our prayer!

101.4 Million & Growing, or is it?

Netvention just reported that there are now 101.4 million websites across the Internet, up from 50 million in May of 2004 and 18,000 in August of '95. Wow! Over 100 million websites......now, you know what's funny about that number? I read recently that the average life cycle of a website was less than 60 days and from my experiences as the President of a hosting company, I can tell you that there are a significant number of folks that purchase websites on a whim and never even build them for all sorts of reasons, but mostly because they just lose interest.Some folks just don't have the technical instincts, even when a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)site builder is included in the hosting package. Some folks go to the trouble of building something, but didn't really know what they wanted to do with the site to start and they lose interest. Then there are those who build them and don't do anything to give the site visibility on the Internet, which is the same as abandoning it. What's the point of building a website if no one is going to actually see it? So, my point? We may have over 100 million websites sitting on servers across the globe, but what percentage of those sites are every actually visited. Now add the complications associated with the hosting industry. In the U.S.alone we have over 15,000 web hosting companies in business, but the top 10 have nearly 60% of the market. So now, we have web hosting companies that aren't seen hosting websites that aren't seen.........the lesson here folks is that it is hard to be seen in a crowd and you had better know what you what to do before you launch the site and if you really need to be seen you have to engage an expert to make it happen. Buying Google AdWords is not going to get you on page one on Google, and if you aren't on page one of Google you better be on page one of something or else you are wasting your money. Want to know how to be seen. Go to my links, click on neboweb and talk to some experts.

The Buzz Over Kerry's Remark

Okay, I think the guy got a raw deal in the last election over his military service. How you can spin a man's willingness to go into harm's way at the direction of the military leadership into a character flaw is simply beyond me and I never went out on that limb. But, to equate military service in Iraq with lack of education is equally stupid. I'm not certain what he was trying to say, but I can tell you that after reading his remarks the message certainly comes across the way the Republicans are communicating it and he can't blame the White House for his comments. They didn't make them. He did and what he said is absolutely unacceptable to the entire country. Blame Bush for our troubles in Iraq if you will.........blame Cheney and the DoD as well, but don't deny the brave men and women serving in Iraq the same respect that those of us who served in Vietnam deserved.

Nice Chat

Just under 10 minutes left and the Cowboys are down by 1 point. Tony Romo is doing an okay job for his first NFL start........can you imagine the pressure on that kid? I don't care if they are making 3 million or 33 million, it is still a tough way to make a living. Profitable, but emotionally draining

I went into the office today after Mass and our traditional family brunch at the Landmark Diner. Ellie had chicken fingers once again, and once again we boxed them and took them home for her late afternoon snack.

I heard a phone ringing in the sales department and walked over to pick it up.......a very nice gentlemen who absolutely did not have a technology gene in his body, but needed some help......Flash: Cowboys up after they recover a kickoff fumble and take it in on the first play from scrimmage and then go for the two point conversion and make it.....oh, my Lord, there is hope for anything if the Cowboys can do that this season.......okay, where was I? Oh yea, so I answered the phone and had this delightful chat with a gentlemen in Texas about Microsoft Windows 2000. He had been given a computer and a package of goodies, but the software disk was not included and while he had a product key he did not have the disk to load it. I could not help him beyond offering some advice, but he was a nice chap and we had a good chat. Sometimes, you just got to be nice to people and believe me when I say it never hurts!

Busy Saturday

Joe started the journey to "purple" this morning. He had his private lesson at 09:30 sharp and the interesting thing about it was that he actually yelled at me from the front door at 09:00 to say that he would be waiting in the car. Two months ago I used to drag him out of the house and make him attend his Saturday sparring session......but then six weeks ago we started the private lessons and his confidence factor just went off the scale. If only Dad had figured that out a year ago, we could have avoided so much conflict. Now he's a Green Belt sitting in the car waiting for Dad to "hurry up and get him to class".

So the burning question this evening is, "how can I get our customers in the car waiting for me to hurry up and do something for them?" More importantly, how can I get our customers to communicate? I send them emails and about a quarter bounce because of bad addresses, a quarter delete with opening. Have we gotten so pathetic that they just don't want to know anymore? Sorry if that sounds paranoid, but we have the big boys coming in from London tomorrow and Monday and Tuesday don't look promising. Lots of questions ahead and I just don't have all the answers......okay, probably too much truth on a Saturday evening, but what the hell, a little truth never really hurt, did it?

Seth says to be remarkable. Yea, really simple. Just create this huge Purple Cow, do permission marketing, astound everyone and get to bed by nine! I need a glass of wine!

Proud New Green Belt

Mom has the best pictures on her camera, but this is one I managed to snap. He is posing with one of the black belt instructors at the school. He worked so hard for this promotion and we are really proud of him. Of course the journey continues because we now start the slow march towards his purple belt, which is the lowest rung on the ladder of the advanced belts and not easily won. His target is to do it in less than a year and with the right amount of practice and focus he can probably accomplish that goal. His big brother called last night to congratulate him. Patrick has been studying Brazilian Karate for a couple of years now and competes in tournaments on a regular basis and he has both of my grandchildren taking lessons as well. At least I know I will be well defended in my old age!

Yes! Green Belt...Pics Tomorrow

Hey Everyone,

Joe tested for his Green Belt this evening and he passed. Yep, that's right, I'm the Dad of a Green Belt! I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but wanted to let everyone know that he got through what we always knew would be a tough exam. I'm so proud of that boy that I could shout. He is an amazing kid and when I watched him doing those incredibly complicated Kata's, I was absolutely stunned. When and where did he learn to do all of those moves? Now, if only we get through long division by Christmas life would be so easy.

Someone called me today to suggest that I might want to tone down the political side of my comments and focus more on business. Well, I've given it some thought and I really appreciate the call, but I think that this country was built upon political dialogue and I plan to say what I think when I think it and hopefully my remarks will spark some political debate. I'm a Conservative, but not necessarily a Republican as the Party is defined today. However, I would never assume that I'm anywhere close to being converted to the dark side.......being a critic of the Party does not make me a turncoat. Change has to happen inside of the Party and we need to start with a new Leader.......nominations please.

Worth Remembering

"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" President Ronald Regan, Inaugural Address, 1981

Worth remembering folks and from one of the greatest conservative leaders of my generation.

What we "know"!

I'm reading an interesting book entitled "The Wealth of Networks", How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, by Yochai Benkler, a professor of law at Yale Law School. It's a bit of a hard read, which is understandable given this guy teaches law at Yale, but it also quite interesting and very relevant to what I do for a living. I'd like to share a quote from the book with you....."Overcoming what we intuitively 'know' requires disciplined analysis". What an absolutely remarkable thing to say and what a remarkable thing to think about.......Intuition is the power or faculty of knowing things without conscious reasoning; and to know is, to have understanding or direct cognition of, to be aware of the truth of, to have a practical understanding of. How many of the things that we "intuitively know" are we willing to question? How many of those things should we willing to question?

"The Conservative Soul" caused me to question a number of things that I thought I knew, but I'm not certain I knew them intuitively (well, maybe except for the fact that George Jr. is two beers light of a six pack.....I think I intuitively knew that awhile ago).

Most of us are taught some form of religious belief and at some point we either believe or we don't and often intuition plays a big role in the assumption of belief because it's hard to prove one way or the other. I think faith is somewhat intuitive after a certain point although it takes conscious reasoning to reach that point. My intuition also tells me that the folks living at the hard right edges of their faith are wrong and that destruction and death don't assure us happiness in heaven, or in whatever afterlife exists according to the faith.

I suspect the same level of thinking can and should be applied to our business intuitions. The pace of change that is created by a networked economy means that much of what we learned in the beginning of our careers no longer applies. You have to open yourself up to new possibilities and discard the old way of doing things. You have to question what you intuitively 'know" because intuition is now longer a basis for managing a business or a career.

Deep thinking on a Wednesday evening. By the way another reminder of Newport, New Hampshire. You should all go there and spend a weekend at the Backside Inn!

What Does It Mean To Be A Conservative?

Ever since I landed in Atlanta after working overseas for nearly twenty years I have been struggling to find my place in American politics. I've always been a conservative, which is both a bit odd and quite natural I think. Odd because my Dad was a Democrat and mostly liberal. Quite natural because I attended a Catholic school through the first eight years and the Franciscan Nuns who taught me were mostly conservative by my definition of conservatism. Still, when I got to Atlanta I started supporting the Republican Party and attended some fundraisers, contributed some cash and talked up the Party. But there has always been a sense of discomfort with the Party and it wasn't until just recently that I got a grip on that discomfort, which is essentially the religious element sometimes defined as the fundamentalists element. Part of my discovery came from a book I recently read called "The Conservative Soul" by Andrew Sullivan. Andrew is said to be a bit controversial, but that has been said about a lot of Brit's and quite frankly I didn't find anything radically revealing from a personal perspective. It just helped me focus my thinking about my politics and I realized that I am indeed a conservative and I'm uncomfortable with the Republican Party because it or they no longer represent the soul of the conservative movement. I'd highly recommend the book and then you can go visit Andrew's blog at www.andrewsullivan.com. I can tell you though that it hasn't moved me to the left.........it has just made me recognize that I need to do more as a conservative to influence the thinking of the Party and to get more involved in order to achieve that goal.

Atlanta Traffic

Do you know how to tell if a driver is from Atlanta? Well, the first thing to look for is a mobile phone in one hand up against the ear and the second is they don't indicate before they make turns....and oh yea, they drive like a bat out of hell even on the quiet residential streets. We live on one of those quiet residential streets and it is so dangerous that I have to walk Ellie across the street whenever she wants to ride her bike to her friends house. It's a small street, but there is a densely populated community at the top of the street and they come down the hill without any regard for kids, dogs, or runners. Yesterday we were driving back from Church and a middle-aged man in a Porsche with a relatively younger women sitting in the passenger seat decided that although I was doing the speed limit of 30 miles per hour, it was far too slow for him. So he crossed over the double yellow lines and proceeded to pass me, narrowly missing an oncoming car in the process. Now we all know the difference between a Porsche and a porcupine......right? Okay, enough said! My point is that perhaps we all need to slow down and not just on the highways. We work inordinate hours each day and arrive home too tired to communicate with our children. We find ourselves so tired on the weekends that all we want to do is sleep, but can't because we have so many commitments that rest is put aside for another time. Where does it all end?

It's Tough Being 10

Joe's day started with me urging him to get ready for his early morning Karate lesson while his Mom was urging his sister to get ready to leave for her ballet class. We stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and a kid's drink and hit the dojo for 30 minutes of private instruction. Afterwards, we did breakfast at our favorite diner (that's the Landmark Diner in Buckhead), where we are loved and well cared for because we have breakfast there just about every Saturday morning. We then rushed to HairCutters and barely got back to the dojo in time for his 12:15 sparring class.....that's right, full contact and toe to toe. About 35 minutes into the class the instructor changes up the order and suddenly he is facing a purple belt (Joe is two belts behind) and she has hands like Ali! They're about 2 minutes into a 3 minute bout when she gets inside and unleashes a flurry of punches to his face, which clearly hurt and backs him off. She continues to exploit the advantage and the next 30 seconds are pretty hard on Joe. He sits down after the match and I can tell he is hurt and needs to get out of there, but I stay back and wait to see how he manages the situation. To his credit, he waits until he is ready to go again, but realizing that he still can't see for the tears, he excuses himself and retreats to the locker room where we start the ice compress. For the first time in two years he chose not to return to the class and we left to meet Mom and Ellie at Barnes & Noble. Another coffee, some books and then back to the house where we started working on his October book report, which has some elements due on Monday morning. Joe is nearly a straight A student, but it takes a lot of encouragement, direction and support. Anyway, I think about about being ten years old and I think about Joe's life at ten and because I think that I had more fun and less stress it makes me wonder if we are really giving our kids the opportunity to be kids? When I was ten we spent hours in the woods playing Army, Cowboys and Indians, etc. and our kids spend hours rushing to various outside programs, playing on their computers, the XBox, listening to music on their ipods and talking to their friends on their cell phones. Sometimes it is difficult to remember that at the end of the day, they are just kids. Have we reached the point where we want so much for our kids that we have forgotten how to let them be kids? Or am I just another parent watching his kids grow up in an era that he cannot truly recognize and wishing for something that doesn't make sense; i.e.: the simpler life that I enjoyed in 1960? I believe we all need to take a step back and pause......kids dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear tests in Korea, China building a huge equity in America by financing our debt......maybe it isn't so far from 1960 after all!

Priorities

So how do you establish your priorities? Do you plan a quarter in advance and then adjust accordingly, or do you allow the day to drive your focus? It is often hard to separate the urgent from the important and even more difficult to focus on what's important because urgent usually equates to crisis, which means that you did not pay attention to the important and got yourself into a jam. Every business consultant in the world talks about focus, and in a business where there are over 15,000 players in the United States alone, which is where I find myself, you have to be focused. But it is really hard because those urgent matters divert your focus and suddenly the day is lost, which is what seems to have happened to me everyday this week! Oh well. By the way, just finished reading Jeffrey Gitomer's "Little Black Book of Connections". Once again Jeffrey has created a practical guide to a very complicated subject; i.e.: networking........what it is and more importantly what it isn't......I do lots of networking and I try everyday to add to my relationship equity by being focused on giving value before I receive it. How about you? Okay, a complicated question that needs some thought before answering........but while you are thinking about it, ask yourself if you really think about accomplishing specific objectives before you attend a networking function. Do you preview the list of attendees? A night of exchanging business cards is not networking.....an evening of fierce conversations is not networking.......figuring out how to provide value to another person is networking.........serving your community is networking.........helping out at school is networking.......my Mom, who is 88 years old always told me that good things come back to you. It's advice you can take to the bank!

Much To Learn

I was reading an article by Jim Rapoza in eWeekLabs yesterday (Vol 23 published 9 October) entitled "How to Spot Fake Blogs". Boy, do I have a lot to learn! Integrated feeds based on RSS and Atom, trackbacks, a ping feature that is different from the standard TCP/IP type of ping, which enables a blog to notify aggregators and other web sites whenever new content is added, blogroll features and administration, security, and anti-spam features...........good thing I know some very talented e-marketing folks here in Atlanta because there is no way I'm going to figure out all of these things on my own. So how does the average Joe (or Patrick) go about creating a blog that has all of these items recommended by Jim. Is there a blog provider that automatically downloads these items when you sign on to their service? I wonder. Guess I'll just have to do some investigation and get back to you with my findings later. Meanwhile, it's a rainy day in Georgia, but the Hawks beat Miami over the weekend and I was at the game with Joe. Every Dad should take his son to a basketball game. You get to eat incredibly expensive hot dogs, yell your head off and have a barrel of fun.

Kate's Morning

I normally enjoy an early start on Monday's as it gives me an opportunity to have some quiet time to think about the week and what I'd like to accomplish. Kate always adds a few reminders as she exits before me to head to the gym. I only wish I could be as organized as Kate. She gets up before all of us, has her shower and is dressed and preparing breakfast before either Joe or Ellie make an appearance. She gets them through breakfast, ensures they have all of their school books, homework, etc., packed and ready to go, gets the dog and then walks them to school. She then returns home, has a chat with me about the day ensuring she reminds me of any family commitments I've forgotten and then heads to the gym for 90 minutes of keeping fit. Meanwhile, I drag myself out of bed, do the shower and shave thing, have a cup of coffee and head out the door. My days are often long as I usually hit the office around 8 a.m. and leave between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. I try to grab a sandwich at lunch, which I eat at my desk and almost never get home in time for dinner. So what is it about women that allows them to manage sixteen different things simultaneously while we poor guys have difficulty managing two things at the same time? I know some folks believe in that Venus and Mars theory, but I'm not buying it. There is something else going on that we (meaning us guys) haven't figured out. Maybe it is an extra gene that no one has discovered as yet! Whatever it is I want some of it because as I sit here this morning and think about all the things that need to get done this week I know in my heart that it is going to be a stretch. Balancing work and family seems to be a struggle for me and yet Kate teaches at the Atlanta Ballet and for a private studio, helps out at school a few times a week, and manages our household with almost always a smile on her face and a bounce in her step. What would we do without the women who love us?

Focus

Yesterday I attended the TechLinks "Let's Do Business" reception at the Ashford Club and had an opportunity to hear a few words from Rob Webb, the CIO of Equifax. A very interesting chap who hails from Canada and has lived around the world including Hong Kong, Japan and the UK. I then rushed back to Buckhead to join a small dinner that had been arranged for Matthew Szulik, the Chairman of Red Hat. A busy night and an early start this morning with the Excalibur Awards, an annual event of the Technology Association of Georgia and one that our firm sponsored. Matthew was the keynote speaker and I very much enjoyed his remarks. I was especially taken by a quote that he attributed to Tom Friedman (The World Is Flat)........"If it can be done, it will be done. The question is, will you do it or will it be done to you?" I'm a big fan of Tom's having read everything that he has ever written including many of the articles and blogs his views have generated. Of course Tom lived in Lebanon during some fairly tough years and has never been shy about expressing his opinions, which is one of many reasons I admire him. I had forgotten this quote and have to admit it really got me thinking.

Anyway, back to Matthew: super speaker and true entrepreneur. His comments were well received by the audience; and he only slammed Microsoft once, although it was done to perfection. Open Source fan or not, you have to admit that it has been one of the most disruptive technologies in the past decade. Without you would be paying Microsoft significantly more for software, emerging growth companies might never have taken off, and global collaboration would not be anywhere near today's levels. We all owe Matthew a big thank-you for making change so positive for all of us.

Patience Once Again

I read a lot about the Health Care Industry in this country and I view it much the same as I do the Airlines; i.e.: they both need a good deal of improvement. I went to see an orthopedic surgeon this afternoon to discuss my torn rotators cuff and figure out what my options are for repairing it. Unfortunately, I never got to see the guy because I walked out of his office after waiting 45 minutes and realizing that there were folks ahead of me who had been waiting well over an hour. The front desk seem truly shocked when I told them that my time is as important as the Doctor's time and I simply was not going to wait while he caught up with the backlog of patients in his office. So I took back my $20 co-pay, which they had collected in advance quite efficiently, and one of his cards and said I'd call for another appointment. But I won't because I went back to my family Doctor and told him to find me another surgeon. Maybe it's just me, but I think the front desk says a lot about the medical practice. When they are efficient in getting your health insurance details and your co-pay and ignore you afterwards it suggests to me that the physicians are leading by example and I just don't want folks like that treating me.

Maybe it the same in business. Are we efficient in collecting our invoices and ignoring our customers the rest of the month? I hope not, but I am certainly going to find out!

300 Million

What does 300 million residents mean for America? Well, for Newport, New Hampshire it probably doesn't mean a whole lot. This past weekend we walked around this lovely small town and talked with lots of folks.....you can't help but talk to folks there because they are so friendly and they want to know about you and what brings you to Newport.....they all knew about the wedding and most of them knew the bride and groom. Kate and I watched the homecoming parade and it took me back more years than I care to remember to a small town in North Carolina that also loved football and had homecoming parades every year. It is reassuring to know that in this country where we will soon have 300,000,000 residents that there is still a place where people matter more than technology and where a young woman from Texas found love and happiness. Congratulations to Fran and Brian. I hope that they never lose the values that their parents and the good folks in Newport have taught them and the remarkable love they have for God and His blessings.

The Weekend

Delta must have read my post on Friday because the later flight did not go wheels up until nearly two hours past the scheduled departure time, which means that we did not get out Boston Logan until nearly 8:00 p.m. with a two plus hour drive to Newport, NH facing us. I think they were especially testing to see just how patient I could be when they got my wife's name wrong on the ticket. Ever try to go through security with a ticket and an id that don't match? Not particularly an enjoyable situation and then we got to stand in a queue after security to get things sorted, which they eventually did after about 25 minutes. So, you might think that it was a tough evening overall. Well, you'd be wrong because it actually turned out to be a delightful evening. You want to know what really made the trip fun? It was Enterprise Car Rental and the absolutely cheerful, helpful, smiling folks that inhabited their offices just outside of Logan airport. The driver helped us with our bags and the staff immediately handed us bottles of cold water. They were warm and friendly folks and without much effort of all they managed to rent us a GPS and an upgrade to a Mercedes. That car made the trip to Newport effortless because it was such a joy to drive. They transformed our otherwise disappointing experience into a fun journey and all it took was just that little extra effort to make us feel like they valued our business. They weren't faking it either. In fact, if I didn't know better I'd say that they were coached by Seth Godin personally because they did everything that Seth recommends. In other words, they were authentic!

Patience

We were all up at the crack of dawn rushing about to get everything that we should have done earlier this week finished this morning so Katie and I could make a late morning flight to Boston. You all know the drill; finish packing, strip the beds and get the sheets into the washer, make sure the guest room is ready for our friend who is staying with the kids this weekend, get the kids up and ready for school, breakfast, take the kids to school, and get to the airport. Everything was about where I'd expect; i.e.: we were running late and worried about missing our plane. Suddenly the magic email arrives from Delta telling us our flight has been cancelled and we are now booked on a mid-afternoon flight. So I re-scheduled the rental car, dropped the kids off at school and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with Katie at the local diner. We did all that and I was still in the office by 9 a.m. Now, would I have liked to arrive in Boston before the evening rush hour? Absolutely. But what's the point of getting upset? I've spent the better part of my adult life as a road warrior and after years of being impatient with the delays, the cancellations, the lost reservations, I've reached a point where I realize that none of it is important. It simply doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I've adopted an attitude that says that while none of the hotels, airlines, rental cars, restaurants, etc wanted to fail at meeting my expectations, the simple truth is that stuff happens. It's very much the same for my firm. We don't start the day expecting a server to crash or to have a spammer launch a massive email campaign........we don't plan for network interruptions or for a power strip to burn up.......these things happen because it is in the nature of the business. Technology fails from time to time; e.g: your car stops working even though you never missed a tune-up. I think what's important is not that the event occurred, it's how the failing party responds to their failure. An airline doesn't plan to lose my bag, but when they do I want to know that they are doing everything they can to track it down and get it to me. When a server crashes, I want the customer to know that we have someone focused on getting it back on line as soon as humanly possible. I want honest communication and I want an apology and I'm mostly okay with those two simple things. What I don't want is excuses and attitude. When I first arrived at this firm I had to dismiss a customer care agent who actually yelled at customers. Two warnings and then one afternoon I'm standing just outside of customer care and I hear this person yelling at one of my customers.........we walked that person out the door 30 minutes later. I don't have any patience for that type of behavior nor should our customers. But I do have patience for the realities of life and I think we would all be a bit happier if we tried to follow that guideline. Have a nice weekend folks!

Getting Old Has Its Drawbacks

Just got back from the eye doctor where I discoverd that the problem I have been experiencing over the past two weeks with burred vision in my left eye stems from the fact that the jelly inside of my eye actually pulled away from the lining of the eye and managed to take a piece of my retina with it. So now, the jelly and piece of retina are floating inside of my eye and is causing the blurrring. Unfortunately, there isn't a bloody thing the Doctor can do to repair it. It will shrink over time, but never actally go completely away and he chalks it all up to advanced youth (I think he was trying a bit of humor on me). What's worse is that he thinks it will probably also happen to my right eye eventually. Of course, you have couple this with the fact that I somehow managed to tear my rotator cuff a few weeks ago and will probably need some surgical intervention. Just not the body I was hoping for at this age. Kind of reminds me of a book I read earlier this year called "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurwzeil. You really have to read to understand, but basically he is a futurist that talks about the merging of technology and biology to improve the quality of our lives by making our bodies stronger as we get older. For example, a person might have nanobots running around their bloodstream looking for diease and eliminating it before it can take hold. Bionic limbs would be available as well as memory implants to help us during the aging process. It is really very cool stuff.......do read the book or visit his site at kurzweilai.net.

Okay, I'm Really Confused Now

I am still trying to figure out why folks get directed to a advertising site when they type in www.elliesdad.blogpost.com. Someone suggested I ping the site, which I did and discovered that it is redirected to ad.funnel.revenuedirect.com.akadns.net. Now, I don't know if that is something that The Blogger did automatically or if my site has been kidnapped by these guys. I also don't know how to fix it. I sent an email to the support group this morning asking for some assistance and I guess I'll hear back from them at some point. As the guy in charge of a web hosting company I really understand the importance of having real support on line when there is a problem and therefore we operate a 7x24 tech support group that is mostly based here in Atlanta. We roll over to our parent from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m., but the calls are still be answered and the requests are managed on a real-time basis. It's been a strange day........We had a spammer that caused one of our Linux servers to be blacklisted by the spam cops. Pain in the but because outbound spam from a shared server is very difficult to pinpoint, especially since the spam cops won't tell you anything more than the IP address that has created the spam. That would be helpful if all the customers on that server didn't share the same IP address......Okay, you add filters, but then that creates a whole new set of problems because one mans spam is another mans permission based marketing campaign. Bugger, I hate these kind of issues because they eat up a lot of sysadmin time and create customer dissatisfaction and cost money to fix. Spam is such a pain the butt! On a nicer note I got to have lunch with a business development guy from Register.com today. A very nice chap and we had an excellent conversation about the web hosting industry and all the very neat things happening today in our space. It was enough to almost make me forget the spamming situation, at least for a few minutes. Lots of conference calls today......I'm get tired of talking and just want some time to think. I suppose that is why I'm such a night-owl.......I would stay up all night if things were a bit different. The house is quiet, my energy level is really high and my focus is probably at its strongest. Odd I know, but that is how I tick. Have a great evening folks.

When Not To Push That Button

I was playing around on Saturday evening and decided to explore the wonderful world of Google AdSense by hitting a button that said I wanted to use AdSense. Now, I thought that I was simply exploring the opportunity and that they would send me some information and I could then decide if it made sense (no pun intended) for my blog at this early stage. However, what actually happened is AdSense took over my blog and now you cannot type www.elliesdad.blogpost.com and get to the blog. What you get to is a blogging spam/advertising page with lots of very annoying popups. I've written the folks at AdSense and in the strongest possible terms have asked them to immediately stop, but of course there aren't any real people to talk to and so I'm just sending emails and hoping that eventually someone will read one of my missives and disengage. Horribly annoying and while I readily admit that I hit the button that said yes, I can't honestly say that they really provided a clear picture of what would transpire. It is a lesson well learned and I won't do it again. I just hope they give me back my blog sometime soon.

Saturday morning and it's the usual running around. Ellie is at the Atlanta Ballet with her Mom (Kate teaches for the Atlanta Ballet Company - she's a Brit, remember?). Afterwards she attends "Applause for Kids", a local drama school for children where she is rehearsing for "The Wizard of Oz". I'm at a local Karate school where Joe is enrolled in a black-belt program. He has a Gold Belt and will be testing for his Green Belt at the end of October. He takes two classes during the school week and then a private lesson early on Saturday morning coupled with another class just after lunch. It's our quality time and we get to talk about all sort of things......it is amazing what a 10 year old knows and what he wants to know! Joe was on a school camping trip on Thursday evening and I picked him up yesterday afternoon at the school. One of the Mom's came over to tell me how great a kid Joe had been on the trip and he had helped with the chores and such. This morning after the private lesson Joe and I were have breakfast at our favorite Diner and a Dad who was on the trip came over to tell me the same thing. Now, if only we could manage to get that great, helpful kid to come to our house. Oh well, I guess I should be delighted that he is such a wonderful person when he's away even if he is a little bugger when he's home.
Karate is a great confidence booster. Joe is not much for team sports, but loves individual competition, especially Karate and Chess. An interesting combination when you come to think about it, but all that odd given the amount of concentration required for both. I got my confidence later through Paris Island and years of being a Marine Non-Commissioned Officer, but I think I would have responded well to a Karate program had I been given the opportunity earlier in life.
Kate and I had a date last night. We managed a quick dinner at the local mall and a movie, which was supposed to be a comedy, but it was a tad slow and I was ready for it to be over about 30 minutes before it ended. Still, it was nice to go see something that wasn't rated "G" for a change.
Okay, everyone have a great day and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Okay, so here I am back in the saddle after about 4 hours of sleep. Isn't jet lag a wonderful experience? I finally managed to drag myself to bed about 3:30 this morning and was in the shower at half seven. I spent most of those quiet hours searching through all the interesting blogs that Seth Godin references in his new book, "Small is the New Big". If you haven't read it and you think it is just another business book, then you really need to reconsider that position. It is filled with "remarkable" ideas and insights and truly cranks up one's creative thinking genes. I finished it on the plane coming back from Lisbon and have already used several of his ideas with our marketing teams. You see, we sell internet solutions, everything from mom and pop consumer web sites to highly complex managed hosting solutions. It is a wide range and means that we deal with customers that have varied needs. We have MS developers that just want the kit and they do the rest without much help from us. We also have small business owners that require a lot of assistance and are very demanding in the level of support that they expect. It makes for interesting days, especially when you know that sometimes the amount of revenue being generated doesn't truly warrant the level of support being provided. I guess I'm a tad old fashioned because I think that all our customers are important. Most business books will tell you that in a transactional business it is the automation that is important, not the individual customer. I understand it from a operational perspective, but I also like the fact that a designer in Deleware feels comfortable calling me personally when things are not being sorted to her satisfaction because it helps me keep my fingers on the real pulse of this business; i.e.: the customers who pay our salaries. Have a wonderday folks. By the way, Ellie was absolutely chuffed to find out that I named this blog after her and said to say hello to everyone. Of course now, she wants her own blog!

Just got back from Lisbon, Portugal this morning where I attended our annual MD's conference. The bad news was that traveling long distances has become a real nightmare. I flew Delta to Paris and then hung around Charles DeGaulle for several hours before connecting to an Air France flight to Lisbon. I guess it was about 17 hours door to door and I'm absolutely convinced that Delta squeezed more passengers into the mail cabin than the designers of that plane ever imagined possible. Yes, I fly economy even though I'm the Managing Director of my firm. Call it good financial sense given the difference in price was about $6,000 and when you run a P&L center you watch the bucks everyday. The good news was that we got a lot done in two days of very long meetings and I got to hang out with the other MD's, all of whom are based in Europe. Our firm is headquartered in London and it's nice to get back there from time to time, especially since my wife is British. Ellie was born in Holland by the way. Did I tell you that she landed the roll of Toto in the Wizard of Oz? Not a real speaking part mind you, but lots of work nevertheless. She's very proud because she was determined not to be a muchkin this year. Anyway, a really good conference..........A couple of very nice dinners couple with some excellent wine and port. Got back last evening about 6 p.m. and took MARTA back into the city to avoid the traffic. (Tell me, why don't more folks take MARTA given the traffic on I85?) Up early this morning and back to the office for a conference call on the Georgia Technology Summit (I'm the committee chair for the Feb '07 event) and a meeting with sales. Good day so far................Hope yours is going as well.