"My father had been opposed to my flying from the first and had never flown himself. However, he had agreed to go up with me at the first opportunity, and one afternoon he climbed into the cockpit and we flew over the Redwood Falls together. From that day on I never heard a word against my flying and he never missed a chance to ride in the plane." -Charles A. Lindberg (1902-1974)
"There aren't many days when history really changes, but December 17, 1903, was one of those days, because it was the day on which an airplane flew for the very first time, and the airplane's an invention that has shaped the history of the 20th century, from the way in which we do commerce to the way in which we fight our wars. It has absolutely shaped our time. It was an important day, of course, for Wilbur and Orville Wright. They knew that this would be the culmination of everything they'd worked for."
--Tom Crouch, Senior Curator of the Division of Aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., author of The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age (National Geographic, 2003, with Peter L. Jakab), and a new edition of The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Norton, 2003). More at NOVA.
Daddy loved Christmas and wanted to be with us. He enjoyed our excitement as much as we enjoyed all the surprises of the season.
I didn’t know he had lung cancer, but the illness worsened with the news of November 22, 1963. President Kennedy’s assassination left him quiet and withdrawn. The next morning an ambulance rushed him to the hospital. A few days later mom drove us there for a visit. Dad was hooked up to oxygen and an IV but looked so glad to see us. When he said, “I’m going to beat this thing,” I didn’t really consider the alternatives.
Dad knew about adversity. He’d worked as a Special Agent in the FBI during World War II. In 1941 he wrote to his father: “Since December 7 I’ve been especially busy... Last Friday we were given gas masks and instructed how to use them. These are trying times but I’m inclined to think they’ll pass away.”
After the war, he was stationed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was a loyal American who didn’t question his assignment as our nation built a nuclear arsenal. Dad’s nature was to strive for resilience, but early on the morning of December 9, 1963, the battle ended. With his death our family would never be the same.
I didn’t see it as a nine-year-old, or at 19 or 29, but now that I’m almost 50 I’ve come to view his untimely death as a strange, unwelcome gift, one I’d never have sought but with value nonetheless. Without it I might never have sought and found mentors who have guided me in so many ways.
Late last Christmas Eve my wife and children gathered quietly in our living room. Thanks to a teenage son who had crawled up on the roof, strings of glowing lights hung from our gables outside. An old toy train sat silently under our tree.
I thought about dad and how I’d missed his sense of adventure, his calm resolve, his hugs. I thought about Christmas miracles, and for just a moment I felt something strong and gentle, comforting and familiar just beyond the glow of the lights on the roof.
“It is my goal to provide for cleaner rivers and lakes, to enhance water yield, and to increase public awareness and wise use of Utah's watersheds.” -Utah Governor Olene Walker
Related resources:
"I'm proud of you for the times you came in second, or third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you had ever done."
-Fred Rogers, The World According to Mr. Rogers
He's back, he's funny, he's serious. See his direction, disclosures and discussion at Chunk's Fridge.
When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found.
-Sufi Saying
Found while looking for something else: Three Cheers for Change
In comparison to President Kennedy's inaugural challenge in 1961, Utah Governor Olene Walker's plea today sounds simple.
Kennedy urged, "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." Walker's inaugural challenge: "I call on each of you to spend the most important 20 minutes of your day reading with a child.”
Our slain president challenged us to ask a question and presumably act of the answer we find. Walker's challenge leaves us with far less wiggle room. "Nothing would improve the education quality in our state more than having every adult read with a child for 20 minutes every day."
She left no exemptions and no exceptions. Adults should read with children daily. So should I read with my three college kids? She didn't say read to them, she said read with them. Perhaps I'm going to be able to handle this challenge after all. Gotta run -- a friend's asked me to do something important tonight and I don't want to let her down.
Literacy resources:
Related resources:
The big storm in Salt Lake on Friday brought an abrupt end to Indian summer. But we've needed the water and the storm brings yet another kind of beauty and a chance to reflect on the wonder that's all about us.
I'm grateful for this little planet we share. For its continents, oceans and seasons. For sunshine, darkness and light. For fall leaves and the much-needed storm which now covers them. The snow changes everything and nothing. Colors are muted at first and then almost completely masked. Sharp edges soften. Drivers who don't acknowledge the change are sometimes gently - and sometimes not so gently - reminded that the laws of physics still apply.
Anyday I can get a little exercise is a good day. If it happens to be on my mountain bike all the better. I might get a decent photo, spend some time with friend or loved one, feel more connected to the changing season, to the earth and sky. All of these things happened last Saturday afternoon when we headed up Dry Creek and were rewarded with this view of Salt Lake City through the October leaves.
Autumn is full of color, but much of it is color of leaves dying. It's end of the story for the leaves as a living part of the vista. Yes, they'll go on to other roles, they'll support other life, but their own lives are spent. I probably wound'nt think quite so much about this stuff if the fall of 1963 had turned out a differently for my dad. Hard to believe it's been four decades since we've enjoyed the seasons together. I'm not quite sure how I'll mark the 40th anniversary of his death on December 9, but I want to do something. What would you do? How do you celebrate a life that has had so much impact upon your own?
If you'd like to share your thoughts on these questions, just drop me an e-mail.
Last night's surprise after work ride took us up past the Hogle Zoo to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail overlooking the Salt Lake valley. It's that time of year when I need to haul a sweatshirt and my light in the old backpack. The ride got pretty dark and cold by the time we headed back. The sunset shot was worth it, but of course I could have gotten the exposure and stayed warm and safe with a little more planning.
Today's quotation:
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
Benjamin Franklin
1706-1790
"When we teach a child to draw, we teach him how to see. When we teach a child to play a musical instrument, we teach her how to listen. When we teach a child to dance, we teach him how to move through life with grace. When we teach a child to read and write, we teach her how to think. When we nurture imagination, we create a better world, one child at a time."
--Jane Alexander
Jim Stewart blogged about about competition this weekend. Thanks again, Jim, for your perspective and for reminding me of this quotation:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." --Theodore Roosevelt
It's great to see that St. Vincent's College in Pittsburgh has established The Fred M. Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media. Also in the works from Hyperion is The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember. Just as Fred emphasized that each person is unique, so is each day.
If you want some instant perspective on the value of a good day, or even a few good minutes, take a look at Dan's Cancer Weblog. I visited Dan yesterday afternoon. He was having a pretty good half hour in a pretty good afternoon on a pretty good day -- all of which you appreciate when you've had a day when you couldn't eat anything and even sitting up in bed felt like climbing a mountain.
Confidential to Dan: You've got a lot of people sending good vibes your way---your associates at the Eccles Broadcast Center, your freinds, fans, and family---we're so proud of you. We rejoice in your progress. We admire your strength and attitude. We hope you can feel this energy, this spirit, this encouragment during the tough days. We're praying for you, buddy.
"From Shakespeare's Henry V to Winston Churchill, the world is full of people who were assumed to have no leadership qualities, yet at the right time turned in spectacular performances. The opposite can also be true."
--Harold Hodgkinson, demographer
Such a happy and sad day. The great news: It's our son's 24th birthday. Congrats, Joe! The sad news: I learned of the death of my friend and colleague Joe Campbell. He passed away yesterday. Both are such great guys. Both have had such an impact for good in so many lives.
Campbell's helped Utah education numerous ways. Here are just a few of the projects Joe helped improve and made more visible to Utah educators.
One of this morning's e-mails was titled "RTNDF - Reconnect with a Winner." It began, "Recently we sent a packet to all scholarship and fellowship winners to find out about your recent activities and to find out where your path has taken you since you were selected an RTNDF winner."
I immediately thought of my long-time mentor Barney Oldfield, former treasurer of the Radio and Television News Director's Foundation.
We didn't get the annual Oldfield Christmas Card this year, but I knew he'd established an incredible website a few years ago so I googled it and there was the news: Barney Oldfield, age 93, died on April 29, 2003 at Cedars-Sinia Medical Center. Here's what the AP wrote:
"Barney Oldfield, a retired Air Force colonel who was a publicist and press agent for stars such as Errol Flynn, Elizabeth Taylor and Ronald Reagan during their Hollywood years, died Saturday in Los Angeles, a friend said."
Barney and his wife Vada had no children, but cared enough about future generations to set up more than 100 scholarships including the one I received. How did a retired military man have the means to establish millions of dollars of scholarships?
In his words, "For those who have never given scholarship establishment serious thought, thinking it beyond their grasp and resources, let nothing deter you. By using the cumulative method and taking one's time, it's relatively easy to do; and there's hardly anything equal to it in satisfaction when it materializes and becomes operational."
That's true. Barney's example and counsel were instrumental a dozen years ago when I served as executor of a friend's estate. With a single legal document we put a long-term plan in place. It took about a decade to accumulate, but now interest from his gift enables the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma, California to award the Richard K. Gaskins memorial scholarship each year.
Thanks, Barney. Without you I might not have chosen my first career as a journalist. I definitely wouldn't have had that four year RTNDF scholarship to the University of Utah, and I certainly wouldn't have thought it possible to help endow a scholarship.
"Although we cannot change the past, we can learn from it and build up skills and useful insights from it. The past is over, the future is unknown and so the only time we can truly affect is now."
--Instant Meditation by John Hudson
Oh, and the answer to the quotation below? B. Dr. King. (Notice I formed the question before most the 40-year anniversary publicity started to hit the media. Perhaps it only takes one mention of an upcoming event to get your minding ticking away at possibilities?)
Related resources at UEN:
Found while looking for something else: Juan Williams on Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready
We were mortgage poor. We had a new house on the hill with a beautiful view of sunsets on the Great Salt Lake, yet not enough money for a new bike. But as it turns out that was good. For a while I rode my big sister's old bike. It was something to learn on and it was the beginning of an adventure.
We lived on a steep stretch of Center Street at 1147 East in Bountiful. One day as I rode down the hill the chain broke which meant I had no coaster brakes. As I crashed a sharp edge of the chain guard gouged into my right thigh. The ten widely-spaced stitches I got that day formed a Scorpion-shaped scar which is still faintly visible.
Later I entered the KUTV / Walt Disney Greyfriar's Bobby coloring contest and won the second place prize -- a red Schwinn bike. It had a fancy Bendix "automatic" two speed hub -- just push back on the pedals and it would toggle between the first and second gears. The bike was a little big for me, but I grew into it.
If a new bike had just shown up for a birthday or Christmas, I'd have at lost least half a dozen great memories, probably more. The obvious ones are:
If you've read Dan's Cancer Weblog you know that author is in preparing for a BMT - bone marrow transplant. Since Dan's my long-time friend and brother-in-law I find myself seeking information that may be useful to him. Here's something I stumbled across while looking for something else on the Pioneer Library's EBSCO service:
"It may be difficult, but in troubled times, researchers say, people need to take comfort from life's simplest pleasures. In a small study at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Dr. O. J. Sahler found that bone-marrow transplant patients who listened to music reported less pain and nausea, and their transplants took less time to become functional." -- Newsweek; 2/24/2003, Vol. 141 Issue 8, p50, 2p, 1c
I'm continuing to browse through Chia Martin's Writing Your Way Through Cancer. She lists these advantages of writing -- advantages, it seems to me, that appy to almost everyone and may accrue from writing as well as other forms of self expression including drawing, painting, photography, exercise, biking, swimming, fishing, walking, conversation.
Martin says writing:
-strengthens the immune system
-encourages uninhibited expression
-objectifies experience ("...coaxes monsters out of our mind and into the light of reality allow us to see their true nature.")
-generates personal power
-stimulates a mood of healing
-enables de-stressing
-opens a doorway into insight and personal introspection
-clears the mind
-costs nothing, is portable, and available to almost everyone
"You have something to say. It is unique, authentic, soley yours."
--Chia Martin
"Web logs provide an important and valuable means of exchanging ideas. Certainly there are blogs I wish I'd never written. (Or at least not published.) But blogging has given me a greater set of friends, a broader set of ideas and a way to organize and express my thoughts. I recommend the process with all of its good and bad aspects." --Jim Stewart (author of Jim's Pond)
Amen, Jim.
Looks like there will be a change in the lineup for The Governor's Monthly News Conference -- and a whole lot of other things.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0811BushEPA11-ON.html
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030811_1139.html
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3258450
Leavitt has championed several distance learning initiatives including Western Governors University, The Utah Electronic College, and the Utah Education Network.
EPA job is 'no win situation'
Phil Windley's take on this: "Leavitt to Head EPA"
"Unlike corporate websites, b-blogs are cheap to launch and easy to maintain, thanks to powerful, easy-to-use tools. Unlike spam, or junk e-mail, b-blogs aren't intrusive; users must click to them. Done well, b-blogs provide a fast, informal way to share information -- project updates, research or test results, product-release news, industry headlines -- inside and outside your company."
--Inc.com | Technofile: Blogging for Business
Shots from Friday night, posted Sunday afternoon.
From under Sandstone Wall and Aquaduct in Tanner Park, Friday, August 8, 2003. About 8:00 p.m.
Sandstone Wall and Aquaduct with historic marker placed in 1996 by Sons of Utah Pioneers.
Closeup of the marker.
"Absences and omissions are the places where a journal's most powerful stories reside."
--Alexandra Johnson, Leaving a Trace
Drove around
Last night
Turned off the radio
Rolled up the windows
Blasted the heat
Intentional discomfort
Incinerator on wheels
I shouted
Like a madwoman
on a street corner
in the Bronx
Get the ****
Outta here
You've had your fun
Now
Beat It
Scram
I've been patient
Understanding
Even compassionate at times
And now
I'm telling you to
Clear out
Now
Today
Vamoose
Beat It
Cancer
Git
All the way out
And a little warning
No setting up
Your filthy little camp
Somewhere else
In
My
Body
Felt so good
Felt like a Texas preacher
'Buking the devil
--Chia Martin, Writing Your Way Through Cancer
"The man who works for the gold in the job rather than for the money in the pay envelope, is the fellow who gets on."
--Joseph French Johnson
There was something in the envelope? Oh, that.
That said, it was a pleasant surprise when an old friend read a recent entry (on the Seattle Special Olympics) and sent off an e-mail thanking me. Blogging is kind of like putting a message in a bottle and it's a great feeling when you learn that sometimes the bottle lands near a thinker.
MTOD (my thought of the day):
Small Miracles.
Any day you wake up feeling rested is a good day. Any day you help sustain your family is a good day. Any day you go to work (or take a break from work) is a good day. Anyday you read, learn, think, write, plan, watch, listen, feel, move, stretch or appreciate is a good day. Any day you talk with a friend, or go for a swim, or get on your bike is a good day. Any day you share a meal with your family is a good day. Any day you spend a few one-on-one minutes with a loved one is a good day. Any day you play ball with the dog or get the cat to leap for his toy bird is a good day. Oh and any day more than a few of these things happen is great day.
Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
who watches over you
make a little birdhouse in your soul
--They Might Be Giants (coming to Red Butte Garden, July 23)
What's new? Updates to TwoFatGuys.org
--Sidney J. Harris
On the other hand, there's a certain Price of Nice that's not such a good deal. The trick, as in so many things, is balance -- candor and kindness / honesty and tact / expression without explosion. Easy to say, aye?
"Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel. A facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal. We are intimately related. May we never even pretend that we are not.
Have you heard my favorite story that came from the Seattle Special Olympics? Well, for the 100-yard dash there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and at the sound of the gun, they took off.
But not long afterward one little boy stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard him crying; they slowed down, turned around and ran back to him. Every one of them ran back to him. One little girl with Down Syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, "This'll make it better." And the little boy got up and he the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line.
They all finished the race at the same time. And when they did, everyone in that stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long, time.
People who were there are still telling the story with great delight. And you know why. Because deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then."
--excerpt from Fred Rogers' 2002 Commencement Address at Darthmouth College
Lake Desolation as seen on this morning's Wasatch Crest mountain bike ride between Big Cottonwood and Millcreek Canyons. It's been two years since I've done this ride. It was great to return to this world class trail. My sons dropped us off on the Big Cottonwood side at about 8:15 a.m. and we were back in the Millcreek parking just east of 1-215 at about 12:15 p.m. Today's ride gets ***** of five stars in my book.
Not a cloud in the sky
Got the sun in my eyes
I'm on the top of the world
Looking down on creation
--Carpenters
Sittin' down by my window
Looking out on the rain
Somethin' came along
Grabbed a hold of me
And it felt just like a ball and chain
--Big Mama Thornton
Related resources at UEN:
Found while looking for something else: single track Mormon Trail at Little Emigration Canyon
We all knew was going to happen, but it is still a shock to see demolition underway for Dilworth Elementary where four of our kids started in kindergarden and progressed through to the big 6th grade dance.
Ring out, school bells, to the wild sky
The crying cloud, the crumbled sight.
The school dies now in solstice light,
Ring out, school bells, and let her die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new.
Ring happy bells for her last show.
The school is going, let her go,
Ring out the old, ring in the new.
Remember her valiant and her free,
Her larger heart, and kinder hand,
Ring out the way she used to stand,
Ring in the new that is to be.
(adapted from Alfred Tennyson's Ring Out, Wild Bells)
Jeeped the Schwinn up to Jeremy Ranch this morning and joined Dave for a wet ride up a portion of the original Mormon Trail. The light rain and overcast sky deepened the colors and made a somewhat technical ride even more challenging.
To Jim Stewart: Thanks for the kudos on my graveyard post. A little encouragement goes a long way. I pulled way back on my Memorial day comments -- trying to stick to the facts and a reflection or two -- but somehow, for you at least, the emotional stuff I deleted came through anyway. Less is more -- more or less.
To Dan Bammes: Your recent posts continue to provoke me. I often tend to either/or, all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking -- usually to my detriment. So since I've been trying to spot these distortions in my own thoughts, I've seen them elsewhere, too...
For example: Why not let both a man-made statue and a divinely-created mountain peak say their own somethings? There's no touching the peak, but if I needed to do some hands-on sculpture or just enjoy some mere human's attempt, I wouldn't hold myself or them to mountain-creation standards.
Anyway, Dan, thanks for sharing your journey. Keep fighting, my friend. Dex sounds like a fairly ruthless regimen, so I'm glad your treating her as a potential teacher and not just an unpleasant drug.
Found while looking for something else: Helen Keller's birthday
"Many people would be more truthful were it not for their uncontrollable desire to talk." --Edgar Watson Howe
Bought my first full suspension mountain bike back in March. My previous mountain bike was a pretty beat up Liahona. Here are my before and after impressions.
Liahona
(About a $400 mountain bike purchased four years ago. Has seen two years of daily
riding on the streets of East LA and two summers of weekly riding in the foothills
of Salt Lake.)
Schwinn Mesa
(About a $400 full suspension mountain bike purchased in March 2003.)
This year the Memorial Day weekend spanned my birthday on Saturday the 24th. That morning we made the traditional visit to my dad's grave in this section of the Salt Lake City Cemetary. Before this visit, if you'd asked me what's visible in the distance when you look east from dad's plot, I might have said the University of Utah, but it would have been a vague reference to the campus, not a specific visual memory of the big block U. Certainly I've seen it many times, but didn't notch it in my memory -- even though dad is a U grad. Somehow I see -- and remember -- much more detail when I'm packing a camera and knowing that I might later be blogging about what I've shot.
London's Guardian Unlimited, which claims to be the UK's most popular newspaper web site, mentions Dan Bammes (Dan's Cancer Weblog) in an article headlined, "A sympathetic modem - Bobbie Johnson on how the internet is helping people cope with grief and illness."
Multiple kudos on the genesis of Dan's Mulitple Myeloma blog: Pete Kruckenberg, glad you encouraged Jim Stewart to blog. Jim, glad you talked me into blogging. Dan, glad you didn't just laugh when I shared with you my recently-discovered zeal for blogging.
So what do we learn from this? Blogs are a form of viral marketing, yes. A little blog can make a much bigger ripple than you might suspect. (Guardian Daily in print has 400,000 readers. Wonder what their site draws?)
Consider these personal questions about blogging:
Okay, now that I've asked you the questions, what are some of the answers for me? Yes, I want to improve my blog. For me it works better when I give it daily attention. But even when I can't write during the week, I can usually get in a few moments on weekends and it's been well worth it. For me it's like that old Sophie Tucker quotation: "I've been rich and poor, and rich is better." Well I've kept journals on and off for more than 25 years, and I've been a fairly steady blogger since February. In short, I've tried writing and not writing, and writing is definitely better.
Who would I like to see blogging? Here's a quick, partial list: Kucera, Elwell, Hunter, Krier, Cline, Gardner, Petersen, Hess, Millington, Strickland, Jones... But wait, these are your associates, don't you see them enough face-to-face? Some, but not all. Besides what you blog about and what you talk about are often different and sometimes strangely complementary topics. Then there's the time issue. Rarely can I sit in Jim's office, but I can scan his blog. I glance at the lure, and many days he sets the hook. Another form of catch and release I suppose. (Jeff Holmes got me thinking about fishin' today.)
So who is on your list of prospective bloggers who'd undoubtedly generate some distinctive (and perhaps much needed) ripples in the pond?
Shot from the first mile of Saturday's ride up Millcreek Canyon (about 12 miles round trip). We took four or five breaks on the way up past the snow gate to the east entrance to the Pipeline Trail. Light rain kept things interesting on the way down. A bit startled by a loud whack on my helmet from an overhanging branch I misjudged. Glad I'd packed a sweatshirt when we hit the last fast pavement back to our vehicles. Superb late afternoon ride from approximately 5:15 to 6:45 p.m.
The only downside: Burned a CD just for this ride, but forgot my earbuds. Upside: Weather made for a cool ride up and great overcast lighting for photos. Ride seemed easier than last fall -- possible factors include L&L* support from Peak Academy, Campus Rec Natatorium, and TwoFatGuys.org.
Ride rating: * * * * of five stars.
*legs and lungs
Friday's lunch hour ride, Dry Canyon. The goal is to slam this ride in 45-minutes with only one break at the top. It's still taking half a dozen stops. But they're getting shorter and not all of them are strictly for air. "Gotta stop for a photo. Get sumn' good for the ol' blog, you know. Not that I gotta take a long draw on the CamelBak. Not that my lungs and legs 'r screamin' for oxygen."
Ride rating: * * * * of five stars.
Just spotted a disturbing report on Craig Nielsen’s blog. The study finds only 75.7 percent of Utah 18-year-olds graduate from high school -- which gives Utah a national ranking of 18. The top ranking state is Vermont at 92.1 percent. Arizona ranks last at 55.8. The overall rate in the US is 71.3 percent.
The study does not include GED graduates. Here's their rationale: "GED holders should not be counted as the equivalent of high school graduates, given that they fare worse in the labor market and in post-secondary education than individuals who get regular high school diplomas."
"People will do almost anything you ask them to do and resist anything you tell them to do." -Dick Siddoway, author, legislator, and Principal of Utah's Electronic High School.
“Yesterday and today
have been exceptional days for dramatic clouds. This morning’s view out my window looks a little like the blueberry
sour cream pie Joey picked up from Marie Callendar’s over the weekend.
There are layers of dark blue, gray blue, light blue, sky blue and a
layer of white, cumulous clouds emulating the sour cream and whipped cream.
It’s also much colder today than yesterday.”
--a journal entry on October 29, 2002 at 7:40 a.m. Today’s clouds reminded me of that entry, but
here in mid-May the there’s much more blue sky, and fewer dark gray clouds.
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then
they begin to hope that it can be done, then they see that it can be done --
then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.
--Francis Hodgson Burnett
He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, May 24, 1941. As a
child he learned to play guitar and harmonica. In high school he started a rock
band called the Golden Chords. Early influences included folk musician Woody
Guthrie, country-blues singer Hank Williams and gospel-trained rocker Little
Richard.
Influential Dylan recordings include: The Times They Are a Changin', Blowin'
in the Wind, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,
Mr. Tambourine Man, and Like a Rolling Stone.
"Despite his coarse, nasal, and somewhat grating singing...(a producer predicted success for the performer with)...street-urchin charm, and a Chaplinesque stage presence."
--Current Biography, World Musicians, Wilson Biographies
"Bob Dylan's influence on popular music is incalculable. As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting, from confessional singer/songwriter to ...stream-of-conscious narratives." --AMG Biography
"Elvis Presley freed your body. Bob Dylan, he freed your mind."
--Bruce Springsteen
Related resources:
Find more with:
We hit the Boneville Shoreline Trail east of the This is the Place Monument on the lunch hour mountain bike ride today. Great view of Research Park, Fort Douglas, the University of Utah, downtown Salt Lake, and all "within the shadow of the everlasting hills" -- the figurative shadow, that is, of the snow capped Oquirrh mountains and Farnsworth Peak.
What goes in a blog? What doesn't? Pete Kruckenberg and I talked about this a bit yesterday. (Incidentally, Pete's migrated his blog from Radio Userland to MovableType and is a much happier blogger as a result.)
Blogging is like writing a letter to the editor, calling a talk show, or sending an article off to a publisher. You're making a public statement. You're on the record. There's a permanency with an upside and a downside.
The upside is that you're accountable. You may help solve a problem. You may encourage someone. You may put out a fire and help the firefighters see their possibilities as paramedics.
The downside is that you're accountable. You may start a fire and find you've distracted the firefighters. You may inadvertantly or intentionally rain on someone's parade. You may have to check your facts, issue a correction, or apologize.
Either way, sooner or later, blogging is likely to be an educational experience in ways you didn't anticipate.
So here's a low tech way to improve your content and protect your assets. Draft your blog in a word processor. Write freely. Don't try to edit while you write. After you've got something sitting there, then paste your best stuff it into your blog. Or rewrite it. Or go a different direction. In other words separate writing from editing and publishing. Write whatever you need to write and then decide later if that's something you want to publish. Maybe that will be a few minutes or hours later. Maybe it will be weeks, months or years later.
For example here's something I journaled October 9, 2002 -- several months before I started blogging. "Yesterday was an adventure. I helped (my step dad) Dee install a new light fixture in his bathroom. It is the first time I can remember driving alone with Dee in a long time, probably not since I got my driver's license. It was a pleasant episode."
So thanks for two memories, Dee. The recent one of removing the old fixture, going to the store, buying the new stuff, fishing wires, installing the switch, hanging the fixture, and finding satisfaction with the finished result. And the not-so-recent one when you trusted a 15-year-old with your car, and didn't panic when I failed to stop when making a right turn on a red light.
"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." -Red Green
On the calendar this month: May 24 - Bob Dylan's birthday
I wasn't going to write today. I told myself I'm just too busy. I'll post a quote and list a couple of links, but that's it. And then I saw the quote below and realized that it would probably be easier to write than to post that quote and feel strange about not having written something.
Relaxation and balance are on my mind today. Maybe because it's a Monday and I feel a little anxious and unbalanced. But I did swim on my lunch hour and again felt an incredible weightlessness in the water. I've been trying Terry Laughlin's Fishlike Swimming techniques. He teaches relaxation and balance, piercing the smallest possible hole in the water, seeing yourself as a vessel and shaping it to be a long, slippery and streamlined sailing ship rather than a barge, slowing down your stroke, improving your feel for the water, increasing your net propulsive potential by decreasing drag -- moving faster by slowing down.
Related concepts?
Related resources at UEN:
"Writing crystallizes thought and thought produces action." Paul J. Meyer
Found while looking for something else: Hats of Hope and Writing to Heal, Writing to Grow.
The Kodalith effect. Doing this in a darkroom in the seventies took special film and hours of trial and error. Doing it in PhotoShop probably didn't need to take hours, but it was great fun to play around with all the possible variations.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." --Abraham Lincoln
Found while looking for something else: A case history on how NOT to treat your customers. (Just take a quick scan through the red, negatives this guy has managed to elicit from his customers.)
Dry Canyon (mountain bikin' on the lunch hour - May 6, 2003)
Why do I blog?
Just participated in a UEN Tech Summit discussion on blogging. The non-bloggers asked questions that I asked myself when I started blogging back in February. Here are some of the concerns that came up:
Here are a few of the ideas we considered.
Blogging can strengthen your communication skills. It's perhaps a bit like exercising. I attend a spinning class (indoor bicycling) a couple times a week. One of my motivations is to improve my strength and endurance so when I go mountain biking, I've got the lungs and legs climb the hill. If your job requires "excellent communication skills," blogging may help keep those skills in top condition.
Blogging is a worthwhile endeavor in self-expression even if the only reader is the blog writer. Thinking through topics, research, writing, editing, proofing, publishing -- the process may be as important or more imporant than what you actually write.
Will blogging increase your immunity levels, lower anxiety, and increase your sense of well-being? I don't know of any studies that have been done of the health benefits of blogging, per se. But studies of journal writers do suggest the above health benefits occur with some journal writers. Why wouldn't this tend to be true of blog writers -- especially blogs which are essentially online journals?
What role could blogging play in your portfolio of communication investments? Where does blogging fit on your list of effective communication techiques?
"The inner speech, your thoughts, can cause you to be rich or poor, loved or unloved, happy or unhappy, attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak." --Ralph Charell
Found while looking for something else: Tchaikovsky's birthday
I'm driving north along 2100 East near 1300 South at about 7:45 this morning. As I enter the intersection on a green light, an eastbound vehicle on 13th south fails to stop at her red light and enters the intersection. I swerve. She finally sees me and hits her brakes. We don't collide. She continues on eastbound up 13th. I continue on northbound along 21st, trying to put this together. Possibly the sun was in her eyes, she squinted at the traffic signal, mistakenly thought it was green and continued on her way. Fortunately, I wasn't distracted and had a quick reaction time this morning. Also fortunately, she slowed down as she came through the intersection. If she'd been going just a little faster or if I hadn't responded when I did, it would have been ugly.
I immediately thought of Jim Stewart's recent blog entry on his near accident on I-15 in Davis County. Jim's experience was more dramatic than mine, but I like the way he thought through it and chose not to let it anger him too much. If I hadn't have read Jim's blog I doubt that I would have cooled off as quickly as I did. I doubt that I would have remembered that I've also done some pretty dumb things and other drivers gave me the benefit of the doubt. Or there was some kind of unseen intervention. Or both.
p.s. Just went back and actually re-read Jim's entry to add in the above link. Jim, I don't think I quite gave you enough credit above. I see your entry actualIy had a great deal to do with my much-calmer-than-usual reaction this morning. Thanks.
My dear blog reader,
Sorry I haven't been in touch much lately. I've had recurring bouts of spring fever, and just when I think I'm ready to resume blogging (or any number of other worthwhile indoor activities), I succumb once again to the great outdoors.
It's not that I haven't been thinking about the blog. I'm still trying out the chest-cam (photo above), but to be honest about it -- and this is where the fever may be causing delusions -- I'm actually considering a helmet cam to connect to the ol' Sony Hi-8 -- one step backwards to an analog format, but a couple of steps forward from still shots to video with stereo audio.
So if you've had any experience with (or just care to share your opinion about) helmet cams such as the VioSport, or Helmetcamera.com, or others, let me know what you think.
"A man thinks as well through his legs and arms as his brain." -- Henry David Thoreau
Found while looking for something else: Multimedia Winners Exhibit
Another BSCCH (blind shot from chest cam holster) while walking.
"Education is not the filling of the pail, but the lighting of the fire." -William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish poet, playwright
Found while looking for something else: Multimedia Arts Exhibit Next Week
I want to be able to shoot photos while I'm mountain biking. Not stop the bike and get out the camera. Snap what I'm seeing while I'm riding. I guess a helmet cam with an electronic viewfinder goggle and remote shutter release on the handle bars would be nice, but not exactly affordable. What I'm trying instead is adapting a GameBoy Advance holster ($5.00) to hold the camera on my chest. Above is a test shot while walking on campus today. Perhaps I'll incorporate a bubble level -- or adjust my posture -- or claim the camera angle is intentional. The next step? Actually get on the bike and try this.
Found while looking for something else: Registration Deadline for the Spring 2003 UEN Technical Summit where none other than Phil Windley will moderte a panel on blogging.
Ahhh...
Just returning from a three day weekend. Also took a break from blogging, but not digital photography. So I do have some new photos. Stay tuned.
"Light is my inspiration, my paint and brush. It is as vital as the model herself. Profoundly significant, it caresses the essential superlative curves and lines. Light I acknowledge as the energy upon which all life on this planet depends." -Ruth Bernhard
Found while looking for something else: Avoiding Armageddon - Related Resources
Sun-caused color distortion in a red flag, 03/06/2003.
Key Communicators
Who speaks for the organizations you care about?
Sure there are the leaders, the designated spokespersons, the authorities who are usually quoted in newspapers, those who are often heard in a sound bites and seen in TV clips. But what about your voice? And the voices of the people you interact with? Here's a list from the National School Public Relations Association ranking the single best known employee at most public schools:
1. school secretary
2. custodian
3. food service employee
4. bus driver
5. school nurse
6. teacher
7. principal
8. superintendent
9. school board member
What's the point? Every member of the staff impacts community perception. If associates are unhappy or uninformed, their comments can do more harm than negative news coverage. The solution? Foster recognition that all associates contribute to the process of public communication. Empower all staff with information, instruction and involvement.
Inform. Whether news is good or bad, they should hear it first. They need to know facts behind decisions. Their friends and neighbors look to them for the "real scoop." Be sure they have it.
Instruct. Provide training, workshops, tools, publications, articles, and opportunities for expression, dialogue and creativity. Show interest in the personal and professional development of staff members.
Involve. Encourage the sharing of concerns, ideas and goals. Reward teamwork and individual contributions in staff meetings, on bulletin boards, in your school newsletter, in the faculty room, in e-mail, and on school web pages.
A slightly different version of this article is posted at: UEN News. Here's a another take on the concept of key communicators from a New Jersey school district.
"Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy
to govern, but impossible to enslave."
-- Henry Peter Brougham (1778-1868), Scottish-born jurist
Found while looking for something else: Race to Save the Planet
"Hello there,
This will probably be the last e-mail that I will send for a while. We leave for ... tomorrow, and will be there until the first of May. We still have not been given our mission orders, and that might be due to the speed of which the Collation has reached Baghdad.
I am doing well. The Army life of up early and really long days, are nothing new. Over the past month ... we have been through several briefings, and classes here. We had a five-day Field Exercise where I am sure ...(some residents)...must have heard us. But I don't think that the guns were firing all night. They did shut down the range at midnight.
Later today, I should get the third of 6 Anthrax shots. And then I will go back to my bunk and finish packing my bag. I only have one left to pack. The other two are on the truck.
I am very grateful for the support that I have received from you all ... This is not an easy thing to do. But, this mission of the US- Lead collation is an important one, and I am very proud to be a part of it.
I am part of a really great unit. We are all brothers and we watch out for each other. I will be back about a year from now. Until then, have fun and be good.
Love..."
A few related quotations:
"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom."
--Bob Dylan"True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher."
-- John Petit-Senn"Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away."
--Tom Brokaw
A few of the many related resources at UEN include:
Found while looking for something else: Daily
Celebrations
Descent into Artificial Light
Not quite stairway to heaven, but rather a look down the stairs from the EBC "Penthouse" level, 04/03/2003, 4:12 p.m.
Found while looking for something else:
Five Sites Where Fun and Learning Click
If things look a little strange here, it's because I'm making a transition back to Blogger to generate my html for this blog. I had been using Dreamweaver, which of course wasn't specifically designed to handle blogs, but has many other bells and whistles.
Monday, April 07, 2003
Creek five miles up Millcreek Canyon, 04/06/2003, 6:06 p.m.
Found while looking for something else: Avoiding Armageddon - Utah's Role and Legacy at KUED.org.
Sunday, April 6, 2003
Shadow Greetings, 03/29/2003, 8:08 a.m.
Craig Nielsen responds to an earlier entry:
The Questions in your blog of April 2 are good ones, perhaps rhetorical, but I think they are also answerable. And the answer in most cases is a resounding YES!
Printing did replace the spoken word in the sense that it dealt the
final blow to strong and dynamic oral tradition (as in Homer).
Photography did contribute to the death of representational painting as
serious art (leaving aside such iconoclastic schools as "photo-realism".)
Movies are, of course, just a series of still photographs, so those are still with us. But people do prefer their visual images in motion. I don't think there is much question about that.
I don't see the analogy with newspapers and book, nor with radio and
records. But I think its obvious most people get their news today from
television and/or radio. And in a very real sense television has killed
radio, first turning it into an almost exclusively recorded music medium,
and now into inane blather, and rigidly formatted music formulae.
Broadcast television's share of ratings has declined steadily since the
profusion of cable. Television and videos have affected motion picture
theater attendance, and has lowered the demographic, so that the vast
majority of movies that make money at the theatre box office today are
marketed for 12 - 14
year old boys.
And I do think that the "Internet", especially in its future
incarnations, will incorporate newspapers, radio, and tv, and thus effectively
render them superfluous as separate entities. But that is in the future.
Anyway, you got me thinking!
My reply: Thanks, Craig. I'd started to think that despite my attempts to provoke a discussion here, I wouldn't get much dialogue, so your comments are most welcome. Regarding some of your points:
Many record companies went out of business as commercial radio took hold in the early twenties. "The size of the industry in the U.S. alone declined by about one half in the early 1920's," explains David Morton in his History of Sound Recording Technology.
Record sales started to rebound in the thirties as the industry made the transition from acoustic to electrical recording which brought a dramatic improvement in sound quality. Development of the juke box also helped boost record sales.
I agree that television forced radio into a much different role, but
the ubiquity of recorded music and "inane blather" also eventually
helped foster a niche for public
radio.
Speaking of radio, anyone remember Herb
Jepko on KSL radio?
I met Jepko when I started working part-time at KSL in 1973. Herb was
great at multi-tasking as he hosted the overnight Nitecap program. He'd
sit in a darkened studio, smoking a cigarette, drinking coffee (which
he called "Cinnamon Tea" on the air), running the audio board,
talking to a caller -- all while carrying on a side conversation with
me. When the caller would pause, he'd open the mike saying, "uh huh"
or "yes, dear" then turn off the mike and continue our off-air
discussion.
Found while looking for something
else: Helping
Kids Cope with War
Friday, April 4, 2003
Dry Canyon, 04/01/2003, 5:56 p.m.
"I find it strange that people 'play' golf, 'play' tennis, and 'play' volleyball; but when they swim they 'work out.' I never work out. I 'play' swimming. I play intensely, but it is play. Beats the heck out of working out." --Dr. Keith Bell, sports psychologist and Masters Swimmer (as quoted by Terry Laughlin in Total Immersion)
Found while looking for something else: Habay wants to rename bridge after Rogers
Thursday, April 3, 2003
The southwest corner of the Eccles Broadcast Center, 04/03/2003, approx. 8:58 a.m.
A reminder: Pola's March shows tonight at 9:00 on KULC-Channel 9.
Wednesday, April 2, 2003
A few questions I've considered as I hear various guesses about how rapidly any particular "new" technology X may replace and forever render as obsolete some "legacy" technology Y?
Did printing replace the spoken word?
Did photography obsolete painting?
Did movies cause the death of still photography?
Did newspapers reduce the market for books?
Did radio replace records and newspapers?
Did television kill radio?
Did cable television kill broadcast television?
Did home rental of movies wipe out movie houses?
Will the Internet kill newspapers, radio and TV?
Of course the interplay between these various media siblings, parents, cousins, etc. is as fascinating as any human dynasty.
From Steve Schoenherr's Recording Technology History:
1931 - The EMI studio that opened Nov. 12 at Abbey Road in London,
was the largest sound recording studio in the world; Louis Sterling hired
Alan Blumlein to install Blumlein's own electrical recording system and
Sterling stopped paying royalties to Western Electric. Alan Blumlein patented
the "binaural" (stereo) recording method in England.
Found while looking for something
else:
Weblogs at Harvard
Untitled, 03/28/03, 8:36 a.m.
"Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me
always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I
are one. I am a painter. "
--Paul Klee
New Cancer Weblog
Welcome to the Utah Blogosphere, Dan's Cancer Welblog. As you may have read in one of my previous entries, Dan -- a long-time friend -- is contending with Myeloma, a form of bone cancer.
He writes in an e-mail, "A number of people have been urging me
to write about my experiences with cancer. I've resisted that until now,
realizing that cancer is not at all uncommon and that lots of people have
had significant things to say. So I'm trying something Rich Finlinson
suggested -- a weblog. Seems to be the personal news form of the 21st
century. Take a look; let me know what you think. If it's too self-indulgent
I'll pull the plug."
My feedback to Dan, "Great blog. Funny. Serious. Oh, a nice mug shot, too. How did you like writing it? Any other response yet?"
As Dan said, take a look and let him know what you think.
Found while looking for something
else:
Utah Electronic College
The Utah Education Network changes lives. UEN enables Utah high school students to take college courses via closed circuit television and the Internet. In a typical week several thousand students attend more than 200 electronically-delivered classes in most high schools and every college and university in the state. In the last school year students in 27 rural school districts earned 43,212 concurrent enrollment credits. This represents 1,440 annualized FTEs -- the equivalent of a small rural community college.
Those statistics tell only a part of the story. "Because of concurrent enrollment, six of our high school students will have earned associate degrees by the time they graduate, and they've qualified for New Century Scholarship that will pay 75% of Utah college tuition for the next two years," says Gordon Grimstead, principal of Tintic High School in the rural town of Eureka. "In essence, concurrent enrollment and the scholarships have allowed them to complete college at an accelerated and drastically reduced cost. Without UEN a college future is not realistic for our students." (Excerpted from Utah Education Network, a briefing paper on network services, impact and the future)
"He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle to steady his fellow countrymen and hearten those Europeans upon whom the long dark night of tyranny had descended." --Edward R. Murrow (1908 - 1965), On Winston Churchill, 1954
Found while looking for something else: The "No Significant Difference Phenomenon"
Leaving Dry Canyon 03/14/2003 approx 1:15 p.m.
