Category: just thinking out loud

Big sports day today. One big win, and one big loss.

Game 1: Galatasary 0 – Chelsea 2

Galatasaray were not the story for this game. It was all about Didier Drogba returning to Stamford Bridge. And he played awfully. And the whole team was awful as well. It was a really shit game, and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Why put up a second half like you did in Istanbul to play like this in London? Just give up early so we can enjoy a goal fest. It was really awful. I was ashamed to dress Luka in Galatasaray colors after the game. Until there’s a reason to change, he’s now a Besiktas kid.

Game 2: N.C. State 74 – Xavier 59

And then came the good game!

We just dominated. There was a period in the 2nd half where Xavier made a run, but we took care of business, and that was that. I think this team could do some really amazing things. I’ve picked them to go all the way in my family bracket. I’ve got an ’83 like feeling.

Go Pack!

My 12th grade English teacher had us build a writing portfolio of our life’s work up through high school. I told her mine was going to be digital, and that I was going to write it all up as a web page.

I very distinctly remember her telling me that that was a horrible idea. Years later when others still had theirs, I’d wish I still had mine.

I don’t know why this came back to me. Maybe as I’ve been writing, I’ve been thinking a lot about if I’ve improved or not. I read a lot of writing at work, and I challenge that folks can be good writers without editing, writing, and improving in a vicious loop.

And so, with Mrs. H’s voice in my head, I went out to find my old writing portfolio, and it was incredibly easy to do so. It’s sitting exactly where it did 11 years ago when I turned it in.

And you can find it here.

I’ve decided that I need to make a very serious effort to get out, and see folks.

I’m really awful at that. But I’m going to change it. Sometimes, I’ll get to include the babies. Other times, it will be about leaving the office, and not seeing the babies that night. Tonight was one of those nights.

Micky out of town. Genevieve had the babies. And Meg and I made a dash to see “The Monument Men” at the Kabuki Theater. It wasn’t a good movie. But dinner before hand at The Grove Fillmore was a blast. And we just spent the car ride home making fun of folks we both know.

Today was a good night. The first of many because it’s time for me to really start focusing on getting out again.

This is going to be hard 🙁

A teacher at Cary Academy passed away this weekend. His name was Dave McAllister. I knew him as an athletic trainer, gym teacher, NC State fan, and a great conversationalist. He gave us shit all of the time because he cared. He always did right by the person first. And I’m incredibly sad that he’s left us. We even shared a birth date. It doesn’t actually make sense (he’s younger than both of my parents), but I guess that’s how life goes.

A bunch of folks are sharing their stories on Facebook, but I wanted to share a few Coach Mac stories here.

I remember driving down the highway once, and this car was stuck between me and a tractor trailer. I noticed that the car had NCSU around the license plate (one of those plate decorators that you screw onto your license plate). Because I was in no rush (I was probably skipping 2nd period where I didn’t have class senior year), I let the car get ahead of me, flashed them a Wolfie sign, and off they went. The car driver smiled at me, flashed the Wolfie sign back, and drove off. When I got to school, and saw Coach Mac getting out of his car, I realized it had been him. It was a connection we were both really proud of (often making fun of my brother in the years since he went to UNC).

As a coach at Cary Academy, he always helped me keep my cool. It’s hard to be hyper competitive, and then have a set of players who just don’t self motivate to do so. He often came down to practice to make jokes (sometimes at the players, often at me), and it kept me grounded, and it helped me out a bunch. He was genuinely fantastic at that.

Man. It’s just not fair. It just doesn’t make sense. Our last interactions were over Facebook helping him brag about taking his son to an Eagles concert, and making fun of Doruk for needing help reading a kid’s book from Amelia. I loved that he was always rooting for me no matter where in the world I was.

RIP Coach Mac.

This morning I finally heard the sound of normal.

Genevieve was out sick Tuesday, and so we called in a back up nanny, and the hand off there was a bit harder than I would have liked.

Amelia was sick Wednesday, and couldn’t make it to school.

Luka has a bum left foot because his ankle is sprained, and he’s clearly in a lot of pain. The doctor said to not take him to school, and so he ended up at home with me too.

There was a turning point somewhere post last throw up, post Wednesday nap time, where I knew we had turned the corner. Amelia held down her dinner. Luka started putting weight on his left foot again. I had a good feeling we were going to get a good night’s sleep, and get back to normal.

But you’re not really back to normal until you hear the kids dancing about in the living room. Toast and eggs are made and waiting on the table. And you can take a breath, soak it all in, and lose yourself in that single moment.

The sound of normal, a sometimes very boring thing, was music to my ears.

I work too much 🙁 But we had a great week anyway.

Saturday after gym class the Green family came over. They are our co-conspirators in activities of parenting, start ups, travel, and SF living. It was out first true guest after moving in (Betsy gets the first true guest badge), and it was a blast. We were in the garden; the kids had fun; it was great.

Today I conned Micky into pizza for lunch. Luka was so tired he passed out in the car on the way back from the zoo. The new playground at the zoo is epic (and scary too). In his sleep state, the poor guy overfilled his diaper and ended up peeing through soaking me in the process (I was the make shift bed). I really do love The Pizza Place. And this story will live on in family lore

When all was said and done, it was a good week. Laughs. Sleepless nights. Ideas blooming.

Let’s see where it all takes us.

Micky and I don’t get enough time together. We both work too much, put a lot of time into the kids, and generally find ourselves too exhausted to do much more. We need to figure out how to get better at it, but there’s an epic impediment that I think needs to get jumped – the constant presence of the Internet.

There’s always an email to check; there’s always a Facebook update to look at; there’s always a level of a game to play.

And that’s a problem.

So I’ve declared a few moments of the day Internet free zones. Driving to work, and driving home from work. During the bed time ritual with the kids. And from bedtime for the kids through dinner.

We’re not great at it. But if we can get better at it, it gives us about an hour a day where there can be absolutely no Internet, and I think that that’s going to be amazing.

I’ll let you know 🙂

Yesterday, Comcast announced that it was acquiring Time Warner Cable. #1 and #2 are merging (minus 3 million subscribers to keep the FTC happy) in a move that in any other industry would have consumer advocates screaming anti-competitive. None of the analysis that I’ve read however is worried about it…

On a personal note, we cut the cord in 2010 when I finally got fed up with how expensive our cable bill was. We’ve gone from paying $200 per month with a million channels I never watched to paying $75 per month for phone, internet, and TV that I watch fully on-demand. I am not a cable subscriber, and the only thing that I miss is the occasional sporting event that can’t be picked up over-the-air (damn you NBC Bay Area!!).

There is clearly a move happening in this direction at some level that is scaring the traditional TV providers. Whether it’s cutting the cord, content from NetFlix winning Emmy’s, or the recent appellate ruling on net neutrality the rules of the game are changing. The game is going to be more and more about accessing content anywhere, and simply having a key to access the content. The key will be more and more expensive as the channels that once upon a time subsidized our cable bills become more and more irrelevant (and probably end up moving online anyway – think QVC for each niche with its own online model).

The channels that draw the crowd – sports & premium content like HBO – hold the power today. It’s all about the rights. The rights to the NFL. The rights to True Blood. And yet, MLB has a fantastic online presence, and is building an empire of its own content that it sells on its own channel. NBA.tv is there too. And the MLS presence on the Roku is fantastic.

I don’t know if ultimately HBO will sell itself a la carte (even though it’s owned by Comcast now), or continue to be the hook to get people to pay top dollar, but I do know that the game is changing for them too.

All in, we’ve got two epic players becoming one, and the reaction is just as excited as it is angry.

My good buddy James (one of the two (or three) James’ after which Luka’s middle name is derived) has started a blog:

365to30

Documenting the goals he has for this last year of his 3rd decade of life. Everyone should follow, and hold him to it. Some of the ones I think are wacky include:

• #7… getting a tattoo? Come on man :-p
• #16… where was my love when I had kids in diapers? What the heck’s going on there?

but most of them I love. I especially love:

• #15… which made me tear up when I read it
• #17 & #18… which I’m lumping together because if you can do them together, then you’re really killing it

Every year for a while now James and the family have come together to see the world. Portugal, UK, Grand Canyon, CA redwoods… and this year Sonoma International Raceway! He’s a great guy, and it’s going to be a good year to follow.

But seriously man, no tattoo.