2016
Busy week for this kid.. Music Concert and Star of the Week. So proud of him and it is time to celebrate with ice cream.
What’s success anyway? - Chris Sacca
Seeing how it is getting close to that time of year again for College Graduations, it reminded me of this video I saw a while back where Chris Sacca gave an awesome Commencement speech to the Carlson School of Management back in 2011.
“What’s success anyway? Is success about making the most money? No, money for the most part turns people into jerks.” - Chris Sacca
There is so many good words of wisdom in the video that I wish I could have heard that exact advice when I was leaving school. However, fast forward to today and I think the advice is still valid and the points that he is talking about are applicable no matter where you are in your life.
“It all comes down to Happiness. Happy people get jobs, happy people create, happy people win, happy people fall in love and raise family’s, they lead and change the world. Happy people get what they want because often happy people realize they don’t actually need much more than what they have and appreciate what they got. Happy people are contagious.” - Chris Sacca
I would really suggest you watch the whole video as there are a lot of good quotes and thought-provoking topics he touches on. Four of the points stuck out to me as they are still so applicable today with everything happening in the world and how technology is continuing to change the way we do things and interact with people. In the simplest form his words of advice and ultimately a way to be successful is Be Present, Be Helpful, Be Ethical and Be your Weird Self.
*via Chris Sacca at University of Minnesota, 2011 : The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever : NPR*Another one of my favorite quotes from the video was that around GPA as I also share the same view-point as him. Hope you enjoyed the video.
“Your GPA only matters to people who have no other reason to find you interesting.” - Chris Sacca
Early morning run in the rain.
Girls were doing some “homework” tonight
Let’s go Wild!
Popcorn and Movie night for the kids
Went on an afternoon run while the big kids biked. Thankful for the uphills so I could catch up to them.
Fun morning at the Zoo
Quote of the Week - 04/18
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” - Dr. Seuss
**Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe**
Posting Frequencies, Schedules and Drafts
Lately, I have not been finding the time to write much on here or even remember to post something that I have found interesting. However, that is not to say I haven’t started a bunch of different posts from time to time (this is one of those).
Today after looking back and removing a couple I still have 24 different draft posts waiting for me to either look at again and finish my thoughts or probably just delete them because I don’t know what my original intent was. Since most of the time, my blog is just about random thoughts and things that I find interesting it is easy to quickly capture it in a blog post for a later point in time with the “Press This” bookmarklet. Also, if I have an interesting thought I want to share I can jot down a couple of notes and then pick it back up when I find time. Since the theme of my blog is less of a daily journal and more of a place I keep interesting things and thoughts, I never feel the need to have a specific real-time event to post or something that happened to me recently. Particularly, because most of what I do on a day-to-day basis probably isn’t the most exciting and it would kind of get repetitive though I know there are moments in each day I will cherish.
With so many Drafts started you might be wondering why I don’t find time to push the publish button more often and I think the reason is frequency. A lot of times, a week will go by when I have lots of thoughts and interesting things I find and then there will be weeks I don’t have as much to say or share at all. My problem is the times that I have a lot of things I don’t want to overload my blog with 10 posts in a week as I know the next week I might not have anything. My intention is then always to posting some of what I found the next week or sometime after that, but it never really happens. Hence, it would be smart of me to schedule some posts to automatically be posted out in the upcoming week(s). One of the reasons I am hesitant to do that is that I keep thinking I might find something more timely relevant that I want to share and don’t want to post too frequently. Another reason is that I really like to hit that publish button even though it gives me multiple chances to review and re-review that probably take away more time than necessary to get my thoughts published. I am still trying to work on a sustainable habit of writing/posting. I am trying to find a groove that works but sometimes I feel like I have thought block and can’t think of much to say or don’t really want to share anything I have already. I have thought the scheduled posting route might be worthwhile but haven’t taken the plunge on it yet.
If you have made it this far thanks for listening to my random thoughts and of course I have a question for you. I am curious to find out how other people manage their blogs in terms of scheduling, frequency, and/or surplus of drafts? Also, for bonus points do you have a goal in mind as to how many posts you try to write/share in a given day/week/month?
Happy Birthday to my amazing wife today!
Mommy and The Boo swinging at the park this afternoon
Dinner with the girls last night.
One of those days trilogy
I stumbled across these videos a while back and forgot to share them as they are really amazing, especially if you enjoy skiing. In fact, the videos don’t seem really fitting anymore since all of the snow was gone long ago in Minnesota.
However, my Brother’s family and my parents are out in Colorado this week skiing and while talking with them last night it reminded me that I had these videos in a draft post from a while back. Watching these videos really makes me want to hit the slopes as it reminds me and makes me miss the time I used to spend skiing with my family in Colorado and Utah. It seemed like for a while there we used to go every year over Christmas break as a kid. Not only did those trips create my love for skiing but thinking back it was a time that we got away from our normal day-to-day school (or work for my parents) with the only care (or care I had) was being the first and last person on the slopes every day. Then at nights we just relaxed by a fire, played board games or watched TV.
I am always reminded of that tradition whenever I see pictures of mountains or other people skiing. It is just amazing how those triggers bring me back to even my first time skiing in Colorado when I was in 5th grade. Now that I am thinking back to then, I will see if I can dig up some old pictures to share another time, but until then enjoy these really awesome videos.
Finally, if you made it this far, is there a place you used to go as a child with your family that when watching a video, looking at someone else’s pictures, or even just talking about something remind you of that time? I would love to hear about the place and what seems to trigger that memory the most.
#Run3rd
It was one of those perfect nights outside earlier this week when the moon was really bright making it super easy to go on a longer run when my first thought was to keep it short as I had some work to get done. However, the glow from the moon and the warm weather was just too perfect to pass on the opportunity to complete my Virtual 5k for the upcoming #Run3rd 5k event I signed up for.
Now you are probably asking, as I was 2 years ago, what the heck is a virtual running race and what difference is it than just going out on a run and completing a 5k? Honestly, there isn’t much difference unless you want to feel that extra push to complete a 5k and make it act like a race. The thing that really appealed to me about this specific race was the already strong presence of a community around this #Run3rd theme. The concept has been out there for a while so with that drove a good turnout in year one as people wanted to be a part of the Virtual race and as they finished they would share their experiences on Facebook and Twitter. The other positive of just a virtual race in general for me is that I didn’t have to travel anywhere and didn’t have to give up my weekend as a normal race would probably last all morning with events and registration. The actual race they have is on Saturday, April 2nd in Mesa, Arizona and it seems like as of today you can still register for the actual event or virtual one (http://www.run3rd5k.com/).
Now you might be wondering what this #Run3rd movement/community is and instead of having me try to explain it I would suggest you go read about it here and/or watch the video below, which is really the mission statement and tells a good story.
“I run 1st for myself, I run 2nd for my family, I #Run3rd for you.” - Sean Astin
The thing that drew me in was that I felt like where I am in my life today I align with the mission statement of #Run3rd. I just had never thought of it that way but it does put some things into perspective.
PS - One cool benefit even doing the Virtual #Run3rd 5k, if you are on the fence about it, is that you still get a finisher medal as well as a cool t-shirt.
Edit: Here is the cool shirt and medal I got for the 2016 run and I can’t wait till next year!
Thirty-Five
My thirty-fifth birthday has finally come after what has been a unique year, to say the least. I am actually not one to really talk about my birthday so this is kind of a rare post as I am actually admitting to when it is. Part of my reason for doing it this year is I feel like going forward it would be a good place to reflect on the year instead of marking my year on Jan 1st when most others would. So without further ado…
This past year, I found myself traveling to Germany for the second time in my life and China for the first for work. Traveling to me is something I enjoy but with a young family, all kids under the age of 6, it makes it harder to be away from home often. On top of traveling internationally, my wife and I attended a wedding in Seattle without kids and spent a couple of days before touring around. It was a great way to break up the normal flow of life with little kids. I wish I could say we came back more refreshed than ever but with the wedding festivities and just touring around, we might have been more exhausted after our trip.
Being in a new job for most of the year and traveling more than prior years made the year seem really busy and go by fast. Not to mention, in my free time over the summer months I was trying to build a deck, which in the end fast forward to this year, it has already paid for itself by the amount of time our kids have spent playing on it.
The year, of course, had ups and downs like anyone would expect. It is a bummer how certain personal things played out throughout the year but honestly looking back now I think it was probably for the best. True friends are still true friends even when you don’t see them. Also, it can’t be always a one-way street because people have different lives sometimes, kids vs no kids, traveling job vs not traveling, owning a house in the suburbs vs living in a downtown apartment. It bothered me for a long time as a friend of mine couldn’t understand the situation I was in but honestly, I probably didn’t always understand his (I will post more on this another time). That probably consumed more of my energy/life over the past couple of years than I am willing to admit.
In January, I decided to make a commitment as I was approaching 35 that I needed to start living healthier but more specifically I wanted to start getting in shape to get into better habits and feel better all around. With almost 3 months of these changes, I know personally and physically I am in a better place today than a year ago today. I could probably expand that to the last 10 years. In fact, I have lost weight, not that I am a heavy individual, but it was a weight that I probably should have never put on but has been holding constant for the last 5-6+ years. I am hoping by continuing I will lose more and get back to the number I remembered but if not I am feeling really good about where I am today with the age I am today.
Looking forward, I really don’t know what’s around the corner for this year but I do know I currently like the direction I have ended my 34’s. It will not be easy, there never is a year that is but I am looking forward to the challenges it will bring. I will continue to make tweaks to my routines, projects, and friendships. In the end, I know I am very blessed with what I have today, a loving wife, 3 amazing kids, a job that keeps me busy (and pays the bills), and some fun projects that I get to work on and meet amazing people.
Someone is not quite ready for summer yet
