Everybody's happy.....

I've been on again/off again with my morning radio. When I was in high school I would listen to Radio from Hell religiously. It played in Salt Lake City on x96. The DJ's were irreverent and funny, and they played an awesome selection of alternative music. Whenever I go back to Salt Lake I try and catch their morning radio shows.

Since my arrival in Atlanta I have found a morning show to listen to on my way to work that is entertaining and fun to listen to: The Bert Show on Q100 (that really means 99.7 on the radio dial. I don't get it either). They do a few things I haven't heard done before and I like their format. Today's post is about something they are doing right now.

For as long as I have been listening to The Bert Show they have been talking about an event called "Bert's Big Adventure." For this event the radio station has picked 13 kids with chronic and life altering illnesses and has provided them with the ultimate VIP all expense paid trip for them and their families to Orlando so they can spend a few days in Disney World. I actually feel a bit more connected than I think I normally would because my company is providing the air transportation there and back for all the people involved in the event. I am very proud to be working for a company that is giving a little bit back to these kids and their families.

Driving into work this morning they were doing their send off radio show. They show was broadcast from a hotel lobby with all the family's there playing in the background and getting ready to head down to Orlando today. I was struck by how committed everyone is to this event, and the difference it makes in peoples lives. A statement that hit very close to home was about how going to Disney World outs these sick kids on equal footing with other kids their age who have also been there. It is a chance for them to feel "normal." For the last 15 years of my Dad's life, he battled a chronic disease. He did everything he could to maintain "normalcy" during this time, and he was always proud of himself when he was able to achieve those moments in his life. I could relate very easily to how the family's must feel about their sick children having the same opportunity and being able to forget their illnesses for a few days. Thinking about this I was actually getting a little emotional on my morning commute.

I was able check out the Send Off party a few hours later. The energy in the room was palpable. The kids were having a great time, and with the exception of a wheelchair here or there, you never would have been able to tell anything was wrong. Some of the kids had their faces painted, and others were talking to the Disney Characters that were at the party. There was no complaining, no crying, no negativity at all. Just joy, anticipation and excitement.

I hope all those kids have the time of their lives. I'm sure this weekend will be an amazing memory for all those involved. I'm also grateful that The Bert Show is giving back to the community in such a profound and meaningful way. Hopefully we will all have a chance in our lifetime to be part of something as special as this Adventure. Imagine how happy we would all be then.....

Luner Eclipse

I was looking forward to tonight. I was going to see what kinds of photos I would be able to get of the eclipse. But the clouds decided they wanted to see the show also, which means I now have an obstructed view. Wonderful.

And I was a boy....

My first time skiing I was five years old. I don't remember much about the experience, except that I never could get the hang of the whole pizza slice. Plus the whole "put you weight on your left foot to turn right" concept was way beyond the comprehension of my 5-year-old brain. I remember a few runs, but mostly I remember being on the ground. A lot. I also remember my older brother going down the hill backwards watching me and trying to teach me how to ski. I know know he was just trying to help, but at the time I thought he was emphasizing how bad I was at this whole skiing thing. He could go the whole way down backwards and I could barely go 100 yards facing the right way. I went once again when I was six, and then I retired and hung up the skis for a few years.

Fast forward to age 12, and suddenly I had a bit more coordination and athletic ability. And after a few times skiing with my brother, I was able to do fairly well. That was the start of a long recreational skiing career, one which is still going strong. I don't know if I ever thanked my brothers for teaching me how to ski, and then continually forcing me out of my comfort zone so I could improve, but I owe them for allowing me to have a wonderful hobby which I can share with my family.

Since picking up the traditional alpine skiing, I have added snowboarding and telemark skiing to my repertoire. The Christmas season is one I look forward to all year long because to me it means spending time with my brothers on the slopes enjoying one another's company, the beauty of the snowcapped mountains, and the challenge of the hill. Recently, my brothers kids have started to ski and snowboard as well, so now we have one more generation in on the tradition. The only downside to this is that my sister and her kids live in rather far away and have never been able to join us.

You might be wondering what this is all about. If everything goes well, tomorrow I will be headed to Colorado for a weekend of skiing with my oldest brother and some of his coworkers. I didn't get to ski much during the Christmas season last year (more on that in a future post) and so I have an itch to get out there and feel the wind rushing past me. I am looking forward to the weekend, and Friday morning can't get here soon enough.

Everyday things change, but basically they stay the same....

So last week at work my boss called me into his office and asked me to close the door. This is the first time this has happened in my new job, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I never would have guessed what was coming next. My boss proceeded to explain that he had been promoted to Vice President of our version of the HR department. Now we are in the finance department, so this will be a bit of a switch for him. I also thought it meant there would be changes in the finance department, but so far there have been none.

The selfish part of me is hoping that the Trickle Down effect will lead to a promotion for me, but I know if that happens I am going to be way overwhelmed. All I can do is be patient, which is something I have proven to not be very good at.

I'll keep ya'll posted on how this all develops.

Elated Bliss?

In my previous employment, my employer used the acronym "RAVE." This was meant to be an a form of recognition on an internal website where any employee could recognize outstanding service by any other employee in the company. It was thus possible to "RAVE" a fellow employee if they did an outstanding job, or to be "RAVED" if you were lucky enough to not only be an overachieving employee, but to also have some other employee recognize your overachieverness, and then take the time to tell all the other employees about the awesomeness of your overavhieving state of being. I was never RAVED. I prefer to think the reason was because either no one had the wherwithall to follow through on any one of the numerous times they thought "That was totally RAVE worthy, I need to write about that moment" or because all my moments were RAVE worthy, and thus no one moment stood out from the rest to my fellow employees. Either way, I was RAVE-less.

The reason I bring this up is because at my current place of employment we were talking about employee recognition, and I told my fellow employees about RAVES. One mentioned the fact that a rave can also be a party, which according to wikipedia is a

"dance part[y] (often all-night events) where DJs and other performers play electronic dance music, which may also be referred to as 'rave music', with the accompaniment of laser light shows, projected images, and artificial fog. Popular rave dance styles include breakdancing, popping and locking, shuffling, glowsticking, liquid dancing, and poi."

The same employee also brought up the fact that the drug Ecstasy is also used a lot at raves. Upon hearing this, a second employee turned to me and asked if Ecstasy is still really popular and easily available. I'm not sure what it is about me that says "I know about the popularness and availability of pyscotheraputic drugs" but aparently I was the man most likely to have the answers. I had to inform my coworkers that I was not the party animal that I appear to be and had no knowledge of how easy or costly ecstacy is to find. I hope they weren't too disappointed in me. At least I don't have to worry anymore about not getting a RAVE.

Office Quote of the Day

"Peach Iced Tea. You're going to hate it."

-Michael to Stanley after choosing a soda for Stanley from the Break Room vending machine.

Scary?

Which of these two characters would you most likely keep small children away from? If you said the dude on the left, I would agree with you. A seedy mustache is much creepier than a sophisticated goatee. However, many places I have worked/studied felt otherwise. They would allow a mustache, but a goatee (or any other type of beard for that matter) was strictly prohibited. I never understood this. So to prove a point me and a fellow coworker grew mustaches over the last week. He got more crap than I did, mostly because he saw more people outside of work than I did. At one point his friends put together a photo shopped a "To Catch a Predator" promotional flyer with him as the big star.

As for my experience with a mustache, one manager started laughing midway through a conversation and offered this explaination: "I'm having a tough time keeping a straigt face looking at you." I have had a goatee several times (I'm a rule breaker - I live on the wild side) and never once has this happened to me. So, since my friends didn't get a chance to rag me for my new look, I'm giving you all a chance to zing me. Fire Away.

New Title

So when I started this whole blogging adventure I was unaware of just how many decisions I would have to make in a short period of time in order to have my very one piece of webistate (Real Estate on the Web. Has anyone ever used that before? If not I call dibs.) What web address do you want? (Too bad all the good ones were already taken) What format do you want to use? Do you want a picture on your profile? Public or Private? Searchable or Non-searchable? Can anyone post? Do I want adult content or content just for kids? And what is your Title? Almost as imposing a question as "What is your Quest?" I did pretty well until the Title question, and then I froze. I couldn't think of anything good, or unique, or funny, or thoughtful. So I came up with two one word questions. (I don't even think that is really grammatically possible, but that never stopped me before.) I felt really sheepish about my Title, and resolved to work on coming up with a new one.

I have always liked music, and I have seen some friends use Music very well on their sites. So I decided to scour some of my favorite bands for a lyric that I thought would be fitting. I came across several and then had to narrow it down to one to represent everything this blog will EVER be. Ok, probably a bit dramatic.

I decided on "Tomorrow Is No Place To Place Your Better Days." I have a tough time not procrastinating, so I thought that would be a fitting thought to have every time I log in to blog - a small reminder to not wait until later to do what I want to. No reason why I can't start being the person I want to be today. Also, seeing as how I this blog will be a surrogate journal it should be a record of what happened today (or yesterday, or last week, but at least the recent past...you get the idea), I figured this new selection would be a kick in the pants to keep up with my new found hobby of blogging.

So there you have it. Also, first person to identify the song the lyric comes from gets a gold star.

Depressing…

Today I had one of the more depressing moments of the last couple days. As I was driving home I was listening to the radio, nothing to spectacular. Then after one song, the DJ made the following statement:

“Coming up in infotainment news we have an update on Britney Spears. Back in five minutes”

After this statement, I found my self lost in the following thought:

“I hope I am still driving home in five minutes. I’m curious to know what happened”

A month ago I could have cared less, and now I wanted to extend my commute to get the scoop. This thought was depressing to me on many different levels. First, I couldn’t believe that I had become emotionally invested in the Britney Spears story and now cared what the latest news on her was. Second, I’m upset that it didn’t occur to me that if I did miss the late-breaking Britney news, I could always check CNN or MSN and get just as good of an update.

I need to find some new things to care about.

Voting Matters

So today I voted for the first time since the election for my High School Student Body President. It wasn't anything earth shaking, but it was interesting reflecting on the ideology of voting while I was waiting in line. It is humbling that wars were started over the right of The People to have representation, and today we take such a cavalier attitude toward the whole process. Somewhere in the history of our great country voting stopped being treated as a civic duty and became almost an afterthought for too many people. I am included in the afterthought group, so I am just as guilty as the next person of neglecting my duty as a citizen. I would be willing to place a wager that the founders of our country had higher expectations of us and our commitment to our country. Makes me wonder how great a country we would have if we lived up to their ideals and principals. If everyone took to heart the words of the late John F. Kennedy and truly asked themselves "not what [our] country can do for [us], but what [we] can do for [our] country," imagine how much stronger of a nation we might become.

Also, on another front, does anyone else hope the Fed allows a recession to happen? I feel like we are delaying the inevitable, and the sooner we start the recession the sooner we can work to get out of one. I also don't like the fact that it appears that the Fed is reacting to movements in the market. Since when was it the Fed's job to stabilize markets? Markets have, do and will fluctuate. If they try and limit the downside exposure to bad events, then they must also be limiting the upside potential. Their job is to provide a stable monetary and financial system, not to ensure the market doesn't react to negative pressure. Maybe I believe to much in the ability of markets to allocate resources where they are most needed. But I think allowing markets to naturally rule is better than providing bailouts. Bailouts have the potential consequences of creating incentives for people to take on more risk than they otherwise would.

I read the other day that a congressman is threatening to block any proposed mergers between major airlines. He is worried that larger airlines will remove smaller routes and charge higher fares. These are legitimate concerns, but don't complain if these same airlines, unable to merge, file bankruptcy again. If such a bankruptcy happens again in the near future and that airline is unable to emerge from bankruptcy protection, then the end result will be the removal of an airline from the landscape - the same result as would happen in a merger.

On a lighter note, Apple upgraded their iPhone and iPod Touch today, with the result being that I now want an iPod Touch more than I should. I am still going to hold out for an iPhone until they release a phone that runs on the 3G data network.

And did anyone else see that move Deron Williams put on Chris Paul last night? What a sweet juke and power dunk to finish it off.

Snow

Also, Snowbird is getting hammered with snow. Something like 100 inches in the last 10 days, including 24 inches yesterday. It is days like today when I think Skibums have the right idea....

Exciting News

Ok. So I have two big news items. The most important piece of news in terms of significance is that one of my good friends is pregnant. I know she has wanted to have kids for a long time, so this will be a great thing for her. She sounded super excited when she told me, and I'm stoked for her to be nearing the next phase of her life. She is sure to be an awesome Mom.

Second, and this has more of an impact on my life, is that Dave announced a tour stop....with Tim....in Hawaii. I have seen Dave and Tim in Europe, so it only makes sense for me to go and see them on US soil. Plus, it is in HAWAII! It is part of the Kokua Fesitval to raise money for the environment, and is sponsored by companies such as Patagonia. Jack Johnson is also part of the festival. I am already planning on going, so the only question becomes how much time do I spend there before the concert. I think I might fly in a day early and hang out on the Island.