Dave Kurt's Blog

With two daughters, I've heard this song about a million times. Emily and her friend Ashlyn have even written their own version, substituting the words "coconut tree" with "belong with me". Who would of thought to play the song with a banjo?
(You can fast-forward to about 2:45 to hear the actual song)

Emily has been riding her bike with me while I run, and she's an amazing little trainer for me.  She takes great joy in knowing how to stay just far enough in front of me to keep me moving at a fast pace.  I don't even have to ask her to go running with me now; as soon as she hears I'm going running she heads right out with me.

Yesterday's morning workout was a bit rough, resulting in a near digestive release.  This morning, Cathie asked me how the workout with Kirk was and I responded that it was a little easier.  Without missing a beat, Emily replied, "That's because I wasn't training you, Dad".  Apparently Kirk has some competition.

Em's quick wit continues to amaze us.  We call her our little Jon (as in my brother, not the toilet). She comes up with stuff so darn quickly.  My wife actually made the comment this morning - "We're not that sarcastic, are we?"  Suuuuure we're not.

There's a great article in today's WSJ entitled, It's a free Country... So why can't we pick our technology?  The article looks at how many of us in the corporate world use antiquated technology in the workplace, and far more advanced technology at home.  I can relate.

Xerox has a very rich heritage around technology and innovation.  We created (but didn't always capitalize as well as we could have) on things like the Graphical User Interface, the Mouse and Ethernet networking.  We've come up with some amazing technologies around documents, copiers and printers that makes our products some of the best in the world.  What kills me is way companies like mine treat the technology that their employees are exposed to day in and day out.  You've got to wonder what the cultural impact will be around innovation when a company does not drive employees to stay up to date on innovation in their every day life.

My companies provide employees with very old Dell D610 laptops running an 8 year old Windows XP operating system.  They use a firewall to block many web sites around newer technologies, like Google Mail, Twitter and Facebook.  Only recently have they opened up YouTube as they've begun to use this as an advertising medium. 

It makes this example of Kraft Foods, a large global consumer company, that much more interesting:

Until a couple of years ago, Kraft Foods Inc., the consumer-goods giant, had a rigid approach to workplace technology that was typical of many big companies: It locked down PCs so employees couldn't install software on their own, and it prevented them from accessing sites like YouTube and Facebook. When it came to hardware, Kraft offered a limited choice of smart phones and Windows PCs.

This is a novel idea:

Executives began to worry that the company's technology policies were preventing employees from staying in step with trends. Kraft was a consumer company, they figured, so workers needed to be more familiar with the technologies that consumers were using, whether the iPhone or YouTube.

They key phrase here is that Kraft is a consumer company, so they wanted employees to know what consumers use out there.  Bingo.  This is key to bringing workers forward and encouraging them to understand the technology available in the world around them.  My company consists of a much older work force, many of whom are not technology adept.  It would be interesting to see the impact of some of Kraft's best practices around laptops and phones in Xerox.

The article continues on about Kraft:

So, the IT department stopped blocking access to consumer Web sites, and the company started a stipend program for smart phones: Workers get an allowance every 18 months to buy a phone of their choosing. (Over 60% picked iPhones.) Kraft has also started a pilot program to let some of its employees pick their own computer. One catch: Employees who choose Macs are expected to solve technical problems by consulting an online discussion group at Kraft, rather than going through the help desk, which deals mainly with Windows users.

I get that diversity of technology can be expensive, especially amongst a global workforce of 50,000 people.   I understand that in a company where people are not technologically savvy, support can be a ugly.  Being someone who is in front of customers days in and day out, it's can be a tough sell to tell the world that you're a technology leader while using antiquated technology.  Hopefully, as the economy starts to turn, we'll start to see a refresh of some of our technology, especially our laptops.  On the upside, I work for a progressive group with progressive leadership in my company that has been willing to bend the rules to allow innovation to occur. (As a result of this post, I got a note from a co-worker that that this refresh has begun).

On the bright side, my company did open up early on their Microsoft Exchange E-Mail servers to allow SmartPhone access as well as iPhone access.  Since then, they've tried to standardize everyone on Blackberries, but still allow iPhones if you want to foot the bill.   They've also done a nice job of leveraging Twitter, Second Life and Facebook as communication mediums, while many other companies I talk to are far behind.  We've incorporated web based CRM solutions for our Sales Force management, which I think is ahead of the times as well.

I really love the company I work for, and I want to see it continue to move more fully into some of the newer technologies even faster than they are.  Or.... Maybe I just want a better laptop. 

(Disclaimer: As mentioned in the footer of my blog, I should probably reiterate this here as well: While I am a Xerox employee, this personal blog and it's contents in no way represent the opinion of Xerox Corporation or any of it's affiliates)

At church, we just finished a 3 part message series on sexuality (You can listen to the message series here.).  The first was for married people, the second for single people and the third for teens.  The junior high and high school students stayed in for all three messages, so I was able to listen to them as both the Dad of teenagers and as someone whose tried to deliver this type of message and gotten it was wrong.  It was such a complex, touchy topic and Joe nailed it in his message.

As a parent, this is new ground for me.  Sure, I've had the talks about where babies come from, but this goes way beyond that, way beyond what I learned as a kid.  Nothing against my parents on this - I think they were trying to figure it out just like Cathie and I are doing.  My Dad jokes that he grew up on a farm and learned where babies come from when his Dad pointed out a cow and bull in the field.  Most of my life, I've looked at sexuality and sex as being the same thing, and I'm learning that the second is a small piece of the first. 

The church talks I've typically heard revolve around the same basic points, all true in and of themselves, but they leave some big gaps: They take you through how God created sex, and it's great, but you need to wait otherwise you'll get your heart broken, diseases or pregnant and you need Jesus to help you through the waiting part of sex.

Joe started right from the beginning saying that he wasn't going to spend time dwelling on the consequences of sex in terms of disease and pregnancy - he assumed that the kids had heard this stuff ad nausea in school, which they have.  From there, he took a very interesting approach, going with the same theme he had throughout the series.  He looked at sexuality as being much bigger than sex. 

He looked at sexuality in a broader light, beyond just the act of sex, but as a sacred energy given to us by God in every cell of our being, that drives us towards overcoming our incompleteness.  He looked at how TV tells teens that our sexuality should be channeled to bring us towards completeness verses looking at how else sexuality can be harnessed and respect the sacredness and power given to us by God in our sexuality.

During the first message, he talked about the sexuality of Mother Teresa (I know, those concepts don't seem to go together at first),  expounding on some of what Ronald Rolheiser (a celibate catholic priest) talks about in The Holy Longing.   Mother Teresa took that powerful energy and channeled it into God and the Poor.  Joe talked about how the teens in our church have poured this energy into serving the poor through our Downtown outreach  and Missions trips.  They used their sexuality, this unbridled energy, this eros, to pursue connectedness and to bless others. 

He had a very interesting example in the life of Tim Treadwell, the bear researcher.  Tim was known for living amongst the bears he studied, in their habitat, without any separation from them.  He treated something of great power (the bears) very casually, which you can only do for so long before it blows up on you.  For Tim, it resulted in the death of him, his fiancee and the bears.

I think I'm learning more and more about about this energy, and how I choose where to direct it: my job, my family, my friends, the poor, my stuff, my exercise.  I want my conversations with my kids in this area to be driven from God's larger concept of sexuality.  I think talking to your kids about topics like pornography become a very different conversation at that point.

The Holy Longing The Search for a Christian Spirituality is one of my favorite books, and I've started re-reading it again, and get so much out of it.  It's a simple book, but covers some of the deepest topics simply.  (Ken Buck would consider this book to be non-source text and likely be angry at it's very existence).  This book brings together some concepts around spirituality in terms of sexuality, justice, the church and Jesus in a way that just makes sense and challenges your world view.

Triad Performance Training Center had the first in a series of athletic testing yesterday to give you an idea of where you stand in different areas of fitness relative to others overall and in your age group.  These are used as part of the NFL combine as well to measure the athletes.  Kirk (the owner of Triad) has coached a number of pro football players, been to the NFL Combine, along with having been the trainer for the Detroit Red Wings.  After all of that, he still doesn't think I should play professional sports.

I'm a competitive guy and I like being able to compete against myself and others in a given area and to train for a specific area (like push-ups or chin-ups) or to figure out how to increase my speed in an event like the shuttle-run, which seems like it requires a lot of technique.

You should come out and see where you stack up in your age group.  It's fun, the staff at Triad really get what they're doing with this stuff.  It only takes about an hour (from 10-11 on Saturday morning).

Here are the results I received yesterday after the event.

Thank you for participating in this month’s athletic testing!

Your results from this month’s testing are as follows:

40 Yard: 5.14 seconds (World Record is 3.73)
Push Up in 1 minute: 54 (World Record is 120)
Vertical Leap: 25.5 inches (World Record is 60 inches)
Chin Up: 12 (World Record is 60)
Broad Jump: 8"3.5 inches (World Record is 11.4 feet)
Pro Shuttle: 4.71 seconds


You currently have the record for:

31-40: 40 Yard, Push Up, Vertical Leap, Chin Up, Broad Jump, Pro Shuttle
Overall: Push Up, Vertical Leap, Broad Jump

The next testing date is December 12th. We hope to see you there!

I think everyone has heard the story about the boy and starfish. If not, this is it:

A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.

The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,"I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference." The boy smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied.

"I made a huge difference to that one!"

My Dad has been working with a Somalian refugee since he arrived in America about six months ago.  Bakar is deaf and came to America with basically nothing and was paired up with my Dad through Catholic Social Services.

My Dad has worked with Baktar to help him with basic things that you and I would take for granted - figuring out bus lines to get to his job, rides to his mosque, enrolling in classes, figuring out how to get a text only cell phone plan.  What I think is so cool is the way my Dad has applied his network of friends and knowledge of the various systems out there to get Bakar dental reconstruction and a cochlear implant through U of M as part of a program they offer.

I've seen a lot of people retire and focus on themselves - traveling around the country, golfing and joining country clubs.  My Dad chose to invest his time into being Jesus in the flesh to this man.  I know of Christians who spend a lot of time being able to argue their faith with Muslims.  I think the way my Dad lives his life is a much more effective way to tell one Muslim who Jesus is - by acting like him.

Reading the words of Jesus, this stuff is far more important than belonging to the right denomination, political party or protesting just the right thing.  When Jesus was asked the Kingdom of God, he had this to say about the importance of how we treated the least of those:

 ³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
 ⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

It's great when I talk to my Dad to hear his excitement about Bakar and the progress he's making in America.  It's cool to see how this experience is giving my Dad a first-hand look at how tough it can be to get ahead for someone who starts out behind the eight-ball, even for someone who is motivated and driven, without the right resources.  My Dad's a great example for me in how life shouldn't be lived in orbit around yourself.  My Dad may not be able to fix the destruction caused by radical islam, or stop the genocide going on in Somalia - but like the boy saving the starfish, my Dad is making a difference to Bakar.

Nate had the ridiculous task of cleaning his room by bedtime Sunday night. Not just cleaning it, but cleaning it to his Mom's standard. To understand how big of a job this was, you had to understand just how trashed he'd (we'd) let his room get. It was a slow deterioration desperately in need of a clean sweep.

Nate and I hauled some hefty trash bags up to his room and started going through his room, drawer by drawer, shelf by shelf. We were even brave enough to move the bed. 2 1/2 hours later, we had the room pretty spotless and spartan. We hauled piles of junk out of his room, and for the next hour, it stayed pretty clean.

I came home yesterday at 3:00 about as physically and emotionally drained as I've been in years. In a good way. I spent 8 intense hours, from 7am to 3pm with 90 junior high kids and 20 parents and teachers, and 2 facilitators from the Be The Change organization. Challenge Day is built on Ghandi's words "Be the change that you want to see in the world". Our friend Katie Green was involved in her school around the Be The Change movement and invited Cathie and I to participate last year. I was out of town, but Cathie was able to do it, and loved it.

The goals of the day is to break down bullying and cliques in schools by helping kids to look at each other differently. The idea is that if kids understand the stories of the other kids around them and understand the impact of their words and actions on others, they'll choose to behave differently and start a chain reaction.

The school's pay around $10k to bring in the facilitators for a couple of days and put this on, and they do this for kids ranging from 7th - 12th grade, and corporate events as well. I was told that they cut the budget in the high school and are only doing it in the middle school this year.

The event starts with a quick orientation for the adults at 7am where they bring adults together, connect us a bit and tell us what they're looking for. The kids come in from there and we spend the next 7 1/2 hours with no more than 5 minutes of downtime for a bathroom break and a quick lunch break. The whole event is intense.

The two facilitators work on a very tight script, and manage the room of 90 kids with ninja-like abilities. I know some great junior high youth pastors, but none that can handle 90 kids, pretty much solo. The adults are really participating in the event with the kids, and really aren't called upon to much more than the same thing the kids are asked to do. The event moves at such a fast pace, in such close proximity to others the entire time, that the kids don't have a chance to screw around or deviate much.They controlled the energy level and level of intimacy in the room with tremendous precision. 

I've been through facilitation courses, and have run my share of junior high events - but this showed me everything I don't know. It was like going to your first karate lesson, thinking you know a few moves, and then watching two ninjas battle.  It was a whole other level of good.

We started out with a bunch of games at a very high energy level and some quick 5-10 minute talks, all designed to bring the group closer together emotionally and physically. The facilitators shared their stories and set the bar for what sharing would look like in the groups. They taught the kids to hug, talked about the importance of good touch like that, and talked about some of the reasons people would not want to hug (past abuse, homophobia, etc). In the end, they had junior high guys and girls hugging each other like it was not a big deal. That in itself was amazing, to break down the barriers for a junior high guy to comfort another junior high guy by giving him a hug.

They then broke us up into "family groups" of 6 - 1 leader and five kids. From there, we listened. They modeled how to listen for us, it was as simple as going around with each kid have two minutes to answer the questions:

1. If you really knew me, you'd know...
2. If you really, really knew me, you'd know...
   

At two minutes each, our group listened to the kids share some heart-wrenching stories about their family lives, to them and their parents: abuse, neglect, suicide, alcoholism, being picked on, being called all sorts of names: bitch, whore, trailer trash. It broke my heart to hear their stories. The adults had to share as well, and I think I was as nervous as the kids.

We'd move from our family group times, to larger group time, and to an event at the end that was amazingly powerful. They lined us all up on a line and would call out certain characteristics. If those characteristics fit you, you crossed the line, turned around looked back on the larger group. The characteristics ranged from the color of their skin, to those who have alcoholics in their family, divorced, adopted, poor, made fun of for being short, fan, complexion, death of a parent... The activity was amazing in showing a couple of things:

1. It showed the kids things about their peers they never imagined, stories that they didn't know were there.
2. It showed the kids that they're not alone in what they've gone through.
   

Nate's feedback at the end summed up what I hope a lot of kids took away, which was awareness:, "Dad - I didn't know that stuff (physical abuse, drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness) happened in South Lyon - I thought it was just in places like Detroit."

At the end, they gave kids the chance to get up and tell their stories to the larger group - answering the "If you really knew me" questions to the group at large. As a group, we got to hear some of their stories, and what kids are going to do differently. Reconciliation took place amongst kids, kids heard the impact of their words and actions in these stories.

I walked out of there thinking that this day really could make a difference in the school. If kids learn to see through different eyes - eyes of compassion, love and respect and then choose to treat people differently, and stand up for others as well - I think it could really change things.

Whether you're listening to Be the Change, Ghandi, or Jesus, I think the message of the bible holds true around loving others:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13

I know for myself that I can't achieve that kind of love and compassion on my own. I know that following Jesus and doing what he says has been the only way I've been able to make lasting change like this that lasts beyond a given event or observation.

If you know Katie Green, she's a great example to me of a high schooler (and now a freshman in college) who really lives out 1 Corinthians 13 and Ghandi's idea to "Be the change that you want to see in the world" in her school, friendships and time, putting her actions and relationships, especially with junior highers.

Check out this video that shows a clip of the "Crossing the Line" exercise I mentioned earlier that was shown on my brother Jon's favorite show, Oprah:

On Saturday night we hung out and had our family night. Being a part of our family, we invited Tiff to hang with us as well. We all hung out on the couch, ate some of my amazing popcorn and watched the movie Aliens in the Attic.

Afterward, Cath, Tiff and I hung out by the fire in the back yard and talked for a while, and then caught up on TV.

After church, it was just too beautiful to stay inside. In a rare bit of home maintenance motivation, I went out and cleaned the leaves out of the gutters and trimmed some of the trees that were rubbing up against the house. Maddie decided to show me that she has no fear of heights by scrambling all the way up our tallest tree.

Nate and I lamented end of his football season by throwing the ball around for a while.

It was a beautiful day to hang in the backyard enjoy the sun and hang out as a family.... And then watch football while grilling out - chicken drumsticks on the grill!

Maddie and I were playing around in the back yard and she wanted me to see how high I could throw her, like we do in the pool. I started tossing her up in the air, cheerleader style. It's a lot tougher than it looks.

After going for height, we tried to a sideways roll. It didn't go so hot, as you can see form the pictures.

She's still my little girl, no matter how old she gets.

Nate and I went to the Lions game on Sunday. It was kind of a last minute thing, meant to be a reward for his great report cards and conferences. It was probably the worst football game I've seen in years. It seemed like a bad way to waste a beautiful day.

I came home to find that my wife had spent the day mowing the lawn and raking the zillions of leaves we have. I went out for a few minutes to help her finish up the job. Maddie decided to take a few pictures, including this great picture of Cathie in action with the leaves, complete with her phone in holster.

Maddie had me pile the leaves so that she could launch off into the pile from the trampoline. I love this picture of her jumping into the leaves.

Emily followed suit, jumping into the leaves, with her curly hair following behind her.

I love these pictures of the girls.

Maddie's red hair blends right into the leaves. I got some other great pictures of Maddie and Cathie having a leaf flight that really captures the two of them together.

A couple of weeks ago we were sitting around as a family watching old family videos. We watched videos of Nate and Maddie's first Halloween's and laughed at their costumes. It's amazing to see how they've grown up. Nate changed his costume up at the last minute from being an injured football player to a cheerleader. Emily stuck with her animal theme to be a bee.

We weren't exactly sure what would happen this year with trick-or-treating based on some of the flu stuff going around, so it came down to the wire. In the past, Cathie had accidentally given out the stone in her wedding ring as a trick-or-treat, so this year, we made sure all the prongs were in tact.

Maddie went out as 'Little Miss Muffit' with two of her friends, Maddie and Jacklyn. It's tough finding an appropriate outfit for a 6th grader!

The girls made out pretty well with their candy, and separated out their candy for counting.

I'd suggested that the boys hit one of our bigger subdivisions, but I'm not sure how well it worked for them. Emily and her friend Kirstin went out with Monaca and Cathie and had a blast.

Emily and Maddie carved pumpkins this year, but didn't do the complex designs in past years, which worked for me, as I normally do all the carving.

Wilaca came over to hang with us. Cathie and Monaca took Em out, while Will and I passed out candy and then watched the MSU game. What a painful game to watch!

When the Xerox crew visited my friend Glenn's house, we all shared their guest bathroom. Specifically, we noticed that the pictures on the wall over the toilet were still the same that came with the frames.

Without Glenn knowing, we printed out pictures from the weekend and placed them in the frames. It took him a few days, but he figured it out eventually, and has left these amazing pictures up permanently. Zoom in to see some quality photos of the fellas.

This weather represents everything I love about Michigan Fall. Too bad we've only had about 30 minutes total of combined crisp warm days, sunshine and fall color. The rest of the day ended up overcast.

I'm waiting for a nice day (Wednesday?) to head out to Kensington and get some pictures of the fall colors.

We had our annual harvest party at church today, including the fifth annual "Trunk or Treat". People went to great lengths to decorate their trunks, with costumes, activities, prizes all around their decorated trunk theme.

Our Pastor, Joe and his wife Joanne, had a "Pie the Pastor" trunk theme:


Someone else had a human whack-a-mole theme. All very impressive. Cathie would normally be the person who would think of decorating. With her out of town, I felt proud that I'd remembered to bring the girls costumes and a bowl for the bag of suckers Cathie had bought earlier. With no real decoration theme, I quickly came up with the amazing theme of the "Blue Ultra Lounge 3000", which I'm pretty sure would have won, had I stuck around a little longer to claim my prize.

At least my trunk didn't look like this:

Today, I understood why the father ran, and why you'd put a sheep on your shoulders. At this moment, I'm so filled with joy in my heart that I can barely contain it. Let me start at the beginning - about 10 years ago.

I've been working with the youth group in my church for around 12 years. In those years, I've gotten to know hundreds of kids, lots of who are grown up now - even married. I stay in touch with a lot of them through facebook, some through church and some not at all. As I've been going through cataloging my pictures in Picasa, I've seen kids that I'd forgotten about. I've called some of them to check in on them and keep up with others through their friends. There's a part of me that feels responsible and hurts when I hear about my kids making bad choices, no matter how long they've been out of my youth group.

Junior high misfit kids have a special place in my heart. I like the soul-level misfits.... For some reason, my favorite kids are the ones who don't know or don't settle for the easy church answers, the ones that don't get how to behave in church or treat others in a "nice" way, the outcasts or the hyper-popular who think they have no space or need in their life for Jesus, the ones who are too cool to be a part of a youth group.

There was a girl ten years ago who was like this in my youth group. She was full of junior high girl drama, a cheerleader, insecure but with a great heart. She stopped coming to Crossroads after junior high, and I never saw her again. She was one of the girls I would always ask about as I'd talk to other kids her age that I stayed in touch with and it was sad to hear what was going on with her.

Joe came up today and told me that she was in church today! I ran over to see her, giddy at the idea that she'd come back. My heart lept to see her. She's 21 now. The kids and I sat next to her and we caught up. I was so excited to see her there today. It made these two parables come to life for me...

"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue. Luke 15:4-7

Seriously, I felt just like that... Ok, I didn't try and throw her on my shoulders - because I'm pretty sure that's just a metaphor...

She seemed a bit ashamed to be there, like she felt out of place, like she would be condemned for having left to begin with. The other story that came to life was the prodigal son... This is the parable of the son who turns his back on his Dad, goes off and sows his oats and comes back ashamed, awaiting his father's condemnation. Instead he's greeted by a father who is ecstatic that his son has returned:

"When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'

We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time.

I texted friends after church, and called a few to share the great news. My friend Ken Buck pointed out the value in being a part of one church over the long haul - being able to see people come back like this. I probably sound goofy gushing like this. At some level, it affirms what I sometimes have a hard time accepting about youth ministry: it's not my job to fix and save every kid that comes through our group. We get to put some of the puzzle pieces on the board, but in the end, God has the cover of the puzzle box and knows how it's going to turn out.

Anyone else have any good prodigal son type stories in their lives?

Facebook's got big 'ol data center with over 25 terabytes of data every day for the daily log files.

I've worked with some of the same guys for over 15 years and developed close personal friendships with a group of them. We started getting together for a few days every year to hang out, golf and catch up about nine years ago. The group has expanded a bit, but over the past 5 years or so is pretty much the same group of guys. It's a group that genuinely enjoy hanging out together. Some of the guys have been the other's bosses at one time or another, but it doesn't really change the dynamic of the group. I count these guys as good friends - willing to step up and help in times of need, personal or professional.

This get together was exactly what I needed. I laughed so hard, so often on this trip. Maybe it's because we've all worked together for so long and traveled together for work so much, but we all get together so well. There was no "that guy" that annoyed everyone else the whole time. People weren't above messing with you when you fell asleep first or crushing against the window in the back seat when the car took a sharp turn in your direction. Everyone helped out and everyone took care of everyone else, and would mock you at the slightest turn or dumb thing out of your mouth. Great times.

We normally do our gathering up in Gaylord at Bill's place, with people flying in from all around the country. Glenn bought a house in Clearwater Beach, right on the Intercostal water-way and it wasn't too tough of a call to head down to Florida. The weather ended up being about the same as Michigan in the end - maybe colder.


When we arrived, it was about 92 degrees. Within about 6 hours a huge cold front came through and dropped it down to about 75 degrees. It ended up getting as cold as 40. It was actually warmer in Michigan. Most of the guys flew into Tampa, a few of us had customer meetings down in West Palm Beach and drove up from there. The only upside to the drive was experiencing my first "Five Guys Burger" on the way. Greatest burger in the world - hands down.

We woke up early on Friday, all set to go deep sea fishing for the day. The same weather front that produced the cold, also produced big winds and big waves. The captain said he wouldn't take us for our own safety. I think he was just hungover and wanted to go back to bed on a rainy day.

Instead, Glenn took us out in his sailboat into the Intercoastal waterway. It was a beautiful view of the houses in the area.

A couple of the guys were fishing off the back of the boat when a pelican decided to take the bait. We had to reel him in so Glenn could release the hook from his mouth. Newton volunteered his shirt to grab the bird. He flew off, happy as a can be. Newton ended up with a bloody shirt.

Newton and I claimed the front of the boat, and as we headed towards the ocean, the waves got big and we had a great roller coaster ride. We couldn't sit still for long, so we headed up the mast to launch in to the water.

The only downside to jumping in from the mast are the wires, the boat below that you have to clear, the big waves and the really fast currents. Other than that, no problem. Neither of us died, but neither did it again either.

After the boat ride, most of our activities consisted of eating, playing cornhole (see below)

With cornhole, it turns out I am a ninja. I can pretty much blindfold myself and get a beanbag in the hole. I was told many times that I should go pro and I am considering my options.

We watched a lot of football and baseball (by a lot, I mean I have never watched that many football games in one long weekend) and then throwing Kohne in the Ocean on his birthday. On the topic of Kohne... Everyone gradually asked him for his iPhone, glasses, etc until he was completely sea-worth. What a group of friends we are. He took it well.


On the last night, we headed downtown to Clearwater for the Jazz Festival. Aaaron Neville played Sunday night, whom I've only seen on a Saturday Night Live City Court with Aaron Neville and then as the theme song for the Fisher Price Little People song the kids watched when they were younger. The song drove me nuts and the kids would sing it over and over to torment me. It was actually a pretty good show, ending with a Bob Marley cover and Amazing Grace.

Thanks again to Glenn and Rebecca for opening their house up to us and for explaining to the neighbors why guys were jumping off the dock at midnight.

Nate and I are going to run the Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving Day. Nate has the build of a runner, and a very natural form. We started running before football earlier in the year to get in shape and went out yesterday for a run on one of his off-practice days.

I wanted to run a 5k course with him to see what kind of shape he was in, figuring we'd run and walk some. We set out at an 8 min/mile pace and never stopped (except for five seconds to tie his shoe, after which he sped up so that his avg time wouldn't reflect the pause). Nate has great form, and I couldn't believe the kind of shape he's in from football. I know they work the boys hard, but was amazed at how far he went based on most of what the team does is sprinting.

As we got onto our block, he took off ahead of me at a sprint. I'm by no means fast, but I should be able to keep up with my 12 year old, or at least catch him, since I run a lot. Nope. He smoked me. I'm so impressed at the sheer will-power Nate shows with the stuff he does - refusing failure as an option.

Nate's only got two games left in his third season of football. It's been so much fun as a Dad watching him learn the game, learn to play on a team and to grow as a person. His team this year is 7th and 8th graders, with the maximum weight being 215. Nate weighs 80lbs but he makes up for it with raw heart.

He's not the biggest or the fastest guy, but he works his tail off and is willing to go up against anyone and put a hit on anyone he can. As you can see from these pictures from lats Saturday's game, he ends up going against some big 'ol boys. The Dad's on the team and I joke that some of these kids must drive themselves to the game they're so big.

I'm so proud of Nathan and the way her perseveres. The difference between what's expected between the 5th/6th graders and the 7th/8th graders is huge. The practices are brutal and would make most in-shape adults throw up from the intensity. He's been playing corner and wide receiver this year and keeps getting better and better.

I installed Google's Picasa 3.5 photo editor/manager about three weeks ago. The big new feature in 3.5 is that it has facial recognition and tagging, which previously had only been available via the Picasa Web Albums, but not the desktop client.

Picasa starts going through your pictures and extracts all of the faces in like sizes and has you start to tag similar faces. From there, it will start to identify groups of faces below a certain confidence level and let you confirm whether it's the correct face to person match. The more you do, the smarter it gets.

Once you've got your pictures tagged, you can search by combinations of people and events. I could search for pictures of my Mom and I, or find vacation pictures of Cathie. When you look at a given photo album, it will show you everyone in that album, allowing you to go directly to that individual. I've used iPhoto, and I like this more. The cool thing iPhoto allows that this doesn't is syncing to your iPhone by person, instead of just by album.

I've got over 50k pictures, and about 200,000k faces across those pictures. I'm amazed at the way it identifies and pairs them up with the correct people. It does well across ages, profiles, lighting and picture quality.


My biggest problem is that I've become addicted to tagging the pictures. It presents these to you in small groups as it identifies them, silently taunting you to "just tag the next group of pictures", at which point it presents you with an entirely new batch of faces. The other part that makes it fun is being able to go through old pictures and see how people have changed. Check out this link to see a collection of about 3,500 headshots of Madeline that I made just for fun.

My Dad sent me this video clip from 60 minutes on the wing-suit birdmen. These guys fly down mountains at 140 mph, flying a few feet from the cliff walls to give them a relative sense of their speed. Looks amazing.


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A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law Kevin and my step-sister Kristin ran in the capital city half marathon. There were around 1,500 people running in the race, the biggest I've ever been in.

This was my second half marathon, after doing the Portland half-marathon last year, which I finished at a pace of 1h58m at about a 9 min/mile pace. I swore I'd never do another half marathon after that race, but here I was. My goal was pretty ambitious: I wanted to shave about a minute per mile off my pace at an 8m/mile.

Kevin had been training for his triathalon this year and was less focused on just the running, so he decided he'd got for a different pace than me. Cathie, Maddie and Nate, my sister Susan and family and my Dad and Judy were there throughout the course to cheer us on. It made such a huge difference seeing them, giving me a great burst of energy.

I ran the first 10 miles at about a 7:55 pace, going strong. I ran in front of the 8 minute/mile pace guy and my goal was to keep my heart rate below 165 bpm for the first half of the race.

The best part about our local newspaper, The South Lyon Herald, is the letter's to the editor. About a month ago, there was a letter from a guy who spent about 1,000 word lamenting his van that burned down. It was odd and boring, but amusing in it's own way.

Today's paper had a response to the guy's story about his van. It is fantastic. My theory is that anytime you bring Hilter into your argument, you've already lost. Check this out. Sheer lunatic genius:

I read the letter headlined "Van will be missed" in the Sept 10 Herald, but I cannot in good conscience echo the sentiment, or provide any condolences. The writer of the letter may miss his van, but I can bet the earth will not. I say kudos to the flames that rid the world of one more gas guzzling mechanized earth destruction device. The letter's author may not be happy, but the planet is ecstatic.

The author discusses all the precious memories of times spent in the van, but what about hte future generations that will not have the chance to make the same memories? That van, and other vehicles like SUVs, trucks and the despicable Hummer, are doing their best to leave those future generations without a planet to make memories on. You had that chance, but at what cost? The cost of our comfortable climate as you, and your whirling death machine, prodded us ever closer to becoming Venus II.

The author discussed 15 years of memory spaning things stored inside the van. The letter leads one to believe that things like paper, and plastic products were strewn about that van. How many others ended up in landfills? How many animals lost their habitat whenever that van was cleaned? The things he talks about as memories sound like trash to me. The noble flames that destroyed the van thankfully destroyed that polluting garbage, too. At least some things won't end up festering in a landfill.

I urge everyone not to accept sob stories about vicious things. I'm sure Hitler had a few sad things happen to him in his life, but I sure don't want to hear him whine about it. Billions of people are at risk of death from a runaway greenhouse effect. I ask all the Herald's readers to stand up, and let it be known that we won't tolerate perpetual pollution peddlers like vans and SUVs. If you see a person driving one of those vehicles let them know you disapprove. Don't be mean, don't be rude, and try to avoid the one finger salute. Give them a stern disapproving lot, and make sure they know that they are destroying the planet just so they can drive their unnecessary gigantic greenhouse gas spewing death pods.

Adam Gjokaj, Salem Township