by Bob Grant

When I first traveled to China I was warned about the food from many well meaning people – some who had traveled to China and some who had not.  I was told that I would starve if I did not take food in my suitcase [...]]]> I Ate no Dog – I Ate no Cat

by Bob Grant

When I first traveled to China I was warned about the food from many well meaning people – some who had traveled to China and some who had not.  I was told that I would starve if I did not take food in my suitcase – so I did.  I took trail mix and hard candy – nearly overloading my suitcase with them.  It was just one of the stereotypes – of China – that I had heard, and believed, before I experienced true Chinese food for myself.  For that first trip – I ended up throwing away most of the food that I had brought because I did not want to lug it back to the U.S.

I will admit that the food is different from what I normally eat – to be honest – it is definitely healthier.  I found there to be a lot of vegetables, fish, and chicken – I never ate Dog or Cat at least to my knowledge.  I ate at restaurants and I ate in factories.  I ate what was put in front of me and I stayed in places where my associates stayed.  I had customers who went to China on their own – for other products.  They would not stay in anything but “Western Style” hotels and would not eat anything but “Western Style” food – there are places, in the larger cities, which have both.  Some of them would even go as far as to not eat during the day with their hosts – rather waiting until they returned to their hotels for their “Western Style” food.  I always felt that was rather rude – to say the least – and a bit disrespectful. 

As for the food itself – I found it to be, for the most part, rather tasty.  I took my hosts advice and did not drink the tap water.  I drank bottled water, their very excellent hot tea, and a lot of their extremely appealing Chinese beer.  The food was normally brought out as it was prepared and put on a Lazy Susan.  Everyone turned it until the food they wanted was in front of them and then put it on their plates or ate it over, or on, a bowl of steamed white rice.  We ate a lot – in restaurants – in private rooms which I truly enjoyed.  There was no outside noise and the atmosphere was more personal.  When I ate in factories it was what the employees ate and in their dining area – each experience was unique and enjoyable.  I learned to use Chopsticks – at least enough to get food from the plate to my mouth.  Although people keep bringing me utensils – I stuck with the Chopsticks while in country.  I “never” got sick from anything that I ate or drank in China which is more than I can say for my normal diet.

The food is just one of the misconceptions of China and its people.  I believed what I was told until I experienced it myself – not unlike other things in my life that I have been told by others only to be dispelled once I experienced it personally.

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

We were once students ourselves and may have built up a habit of obeying or even expecting punishment or [...]]]> Chapter 7 – Dealing with Schools

For most of us dealing with the teachers and administration at our child’s school can be a difficult process.  Many of us approach this important task with needless trepidation or false conceptions.

We were once students ourselves and may have built up a habit of obeying or even expecting punishment or derision from teachers and administrators.

This is a non productive attitude for parents.  Teachers are not gods, many of them are hardly even human.  Before engaging in any discourse with your child’s teacher, ask yourself these questions:

1. Did this person find teaching as a calling in kindergarten, dedicating the rest of their lives to the education of children?  Or was this the only job they could find after graduating with a useless degree in Grecian philosophy?
2. Is this person a master educator or a product of “if you can’t do, teach.”
3. Does this slimy wanker think they’re in charge?  Or do they recognize that theirs is to serve in a difficult task as best they can.  Parents, always ask yourself, are they “the boss of me?”

Perspective is everything in dealing with a school and their staff.  Parents must keep first and foremost in their minds that they are their child’s agent, the only protection a child has from pseudo-authorities who believe that there is such a thing as a “permanent record.”  The only permanent record is a police file, if you have one, bring it along.  They can be very useful in those tricky “who’s in charge here?” moments.

Parents must also remember that they are acting as an agent for thousands of  single taxpayers and childless couples, who are expecting that their hard earned monies are going into a system that prepares young citizens for jobs that do not require use of the phrase “Do you want fries with that?”

Parents must adopt the clear attitude that nothing is true until proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.  The statements and opinions of teachers and administrators (who are often failed teachers) do not constitute competent authority.  Any diagnoses, medical or otherwise, offered by school staff are suspect at best.  Would you support brain surgery on the basis of the biology teacher’s recommendation, or a career in air conditioning and refrigeration maintenance on the word of the teacher of English lit?

Parents must also avoid the trap of sympathy.  Just because a teacher has 9 classes of 30 students per day does not mean they can’t give your child special attention.  If they try that approach on you, suggest they look into a career in air conditioning and refrigeration maintenance.  Don’t be understanding.  Don’t try to be liked, or worse, appear intelligent.  Be the parent the school most fears distressing.  Your child is that special.  Be sure they know you would have no compunction in killing for your child.

Lastly, teachers and administrators are mostly humans and appreciate praise.  If they are truly praiseworthy, reward them. Gifts or enticements of money, and or large quantities of liquor are a parent’s best friend.  While not everyone can afford a yearly cruise to the Caribbean for their favorite teacher, how about a nice hand-job, or good quality diamond?  Just remember: be effective.  Will hanging their annoying neighbor’s disemboweled dog up on the apple tree, or a the rental of a good quality sheep costume and an offer to play a game of “the lonely shepherd” be more apropos to the situation?

Parents don’t be afraid to experiment in the cause of your child.  Children must navigate the difficult waters of a staid and beleaguered system in order to get the right start in our world.  Don’t be afraid to slide the bullets in and out of a large pistol during teacher conferences, or begin a school meeting by spray painting the little window in the classroom door with black paint.  Getting a good education for your child is not easy, or guaranteed.  As parents we must be prepared to go the distance.

In the next chapter “Nailing the parent teacher conference,” we will discuss the use  of bustiers, prominent tube socks and switchblade knives as effective conversation drivers.

Copyright Prentiss Gray 2009

Prentiss Gray is a writer and columnist and currently writes the Domesti-Tech Blog for Gannett.  He can be reached through his website at www.prentissgray.com

by Bob Grant

One of our US government officials reportedly made a comment with the word “retarded” in it.  There was also an attempt to make a joke using “Special Olympics” on a TV show in the past.  Why do people say the things they do?  Why have I said some of things [...]]]> They All Look Alike

by Bob Grant

One of our US government officials reportedly made a comment with the word “retarded” in it.  There was also an attempt to make a joke using “Special Olympics” on a TV show in the past.  Why do people say the things they do?  Why have I said some of things I have said?  When I have made comments at the expense of others – I either thought it was funny or it made me feel important in some perverse way.  As I have gotten older experience has taught me to think before I speak – at least a little more than I did in my younger years.  What someone says as a casual statement – or an attempt to make a joke – can offend others on a multitude of levels.

There are a little over 1.3 billion people in China from the figures I have seen.  I have had people say to me, “With that many people – how do you tell them apart?  They all look alike.”  After having an association with specific Chinese people – since 1998 – I take great offense when someone says something like this to my face or within earshot.  To me – they do not all look alike.  They may all have similar physical features but I see each person I have met – in my business dealings – as a singular, and unique, individual just as I would feel about anyone I met throughout the world.  As you meet people – speak with them – get to know them – I think everyone has personal features, mannerisms, personalities that make them different from other people in the world.

In terms of my feelings for China, and its people, it is only based on those who I have met personally.  As I view it there are values, I have found, that all of these Chinese possess – the reverence of family and respect for their elders.  I wish these values were more evident in the US.  With 1.3 million people milling around China how can they have these values when there are so many of them?  I once worked with a product that was to replace the toxic cleaner Nitric Acid.  In most instances the shipping tanks – in the ocean liners – have to be cleaned out after they are emptied.  They send “Chinese People” into these tanks to spray them out.  One contact actually said, “There are so many Chinese that when one dies from being exposed to the Nitric Acid there are a million more to take their place.”  It was all I could do to keep my hands from going around his neck or punching his lights out – being older at the time I felt he was not worth the hassle.

I believe the respect for family, and elders, in China is not something just confined to my small group of acquaintances there.  I think this is something that is country wide and I feel this is a virtue beyond description.  During one of my visits – my friend, and primary associate, invited me to a party to honor his new young son.  We held this event in a large private room within a very nice restaurant.  There were many people there – and as I have written regarding other situations – I was again the only non-Chinese in the room.  I felt completely at ease and extremely honored he would invite me to such an important “family event.”  The photo above shows me with my associate, his wife, his mother, and his new young son – I did, and still do, feel part of their family.  To me they remain friends – family – associates and they “certainly” do not all look alike to me!

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

Perhaps it is just the product of the times in which I grew up and my experience with the events of the world. Or perhaps it is the spin that has been added to the word “global”, endowing it with an almost spiritual quality.

Mostly, though, I think it is [...]]]> I Prefer Local to Global

By Alan Caruba

Perhaps it is just the product of the times in which I grew up and my experience with the events of the world. Or perhaps it is the spin that has been added to the word “global”, endowing it with an almost spiritual quality.

Mostly, though, I think it is my utter disgust with “global warming”, having spent the better part of three decades striving to defeat this plot to enable all forms of governmental intrusion into people’s lives and choices.

A bit of personal history; as a child I recall riding the train to and from the Jersey shore when it was filled with young men in uniform, all destined to fight in far-off places whose names even then seemed exotic to me; Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Normandy, and Sicily. It was the harsh geography of war, but to a youngster it only meant someplace far away.

By the time I was a teenager, an older brother was already in Japan at the headquarters from which the Korean conflict was conducted. There were new names to deal with, Seoul, Incheon, and the Yalu River. By then the Cold War was well on its way.

The 1950s were full of talk of A-bombs and then H-bombs, and then intercontinental missiles. In college I took scant notice of events in Cuba, but a few years later I would be in full combat gear waiting for orders to invade. Then the problem went away without ever really going away. It has since spread to Venezuela.

Like many Americans, I learned about the world because we were sending troops somewhere to push back against some form of aggression or some new oppressive regime. At home the streets were filled with Civil Rights marchers or anti-war marchers, both of whom would be replaced by new groups demanding to be heard. It was the era of Woodstock and Watergate.

And no trains filled with soldiers because the military had ceased to be every young man’s duty to serve their nation. It became a voluntary military and, we’re told, one that is superior to the former model. It would suffer casualties in Beirut, wrest Grenada from a communist takeover, invade Panama to remove yet another corrupt leader and then, in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, go there to set things right. After 9/11, in 2001 it would drive the Taliban and al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and then in 2003 invade Iraq to bring down Saddam Hussein.

Is it any wonder Americans are weary of war? Is it any wonder that the word “global” to my generation means some new place where young, dedicated Americans are battling some new despot, regime, or threat to peace anywhere and everywhere?

All of which brings me to the new meaning of “global” for the generations that followed mine. It is attached to “global warming”, the greatest hoax, not merely in the modern era, but in all of history! And it was initiated and implemented by an international institution that was supposed to end wars, the United Nations.

Some years ago, the UN published a book called “Our Global Neighborhood”, but we do not live in a global neighborhood. We live in our own, local neighborhood. The UN is all about global government with, of course, global taxes, a global army, and, as in the case of every dictatorship, a global restriction on gun ownership.

It is all about a vast matrix of global treaties that involve the surrender of some element of U.S. sovereignty to the UN to oversee “heritage” sites and our national parks. It is about an educational indoctrination program to turn American children into “citizens of the world.”

So you will have to forgive me if I look at the world and see places where Americans have continually had to sacrifice blood and treasure because someone or some nation had ambitions to impose their will on people who just wanted to be left alone.

If something terrible happens in America I do not expect to see one single other nation on Earth come to our aid.

In America today, the enemy is not always in some far-off place. It is in Washington, D.C. where an out-of-control Congress is spending and borrowing to the point where we are being warned that our dollar is at risk of being worthless. Led by a feckless new president, it has imposed huge debts on generations yet to be born.

The White House is trying to expand an “entitlement” program, Medicare, that is already broke for the purpose of controlling one sixth of the nation’s economy.

The White House is giving money to banks and then threatening to tax them after they have repaid it.

The White House has bought General Motors and Chrysler instead of letting them go through a bankruptcy process like any other business.

The White House is squandering billions on “clean energy” and “green jobs”, both of which are mere fantasies while billions of barrels of oil go untapped, billions of cubic feet of natural gas remains unavailable, and hundreds of year’s worth of coal is not mined.

Congress is engaged in phony, multi-billion dollar “stimulus” programs instead of cutting taxes to jump-start the economy.

“Think globally. Act locally” is the mantra of the environmental movement, but the movement itself is a global monster, determined to decide what you can eat, how you should deal with your garbage, what kind of car or truck you can drive, how much you should heat or cool your home.

It is despotism, no matter what other name you call it.

And then there are those insane followers of Islam who want to inflict more harm on America because they are not content with killing their fellow Muslims.

I wish I could ignore the world beyond my neighborhood, but it won’t let me.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center – he blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.c

Such a dysfunctional attitude might be catching. It might be socially and irresistibly viral. As parents, we spend every day combating even the hint of its symptoms, like ‘flu and cancer. “But you must go to [...]]]> I can already see the shock on your faces, the blood leeching from your veins, the rolling of your eyes.

Such a dysfunctional attitude might be catching. It might be socially and irresistibly viral. As parents, we spend every day combating even the hint of its symptoms, like ‘flu and cancer. “But you must go to school,” we glare, “and there is an end on it.”

He certainly has bad educational genes. I hated school, although I was quite good at it (I have four university degrees). My wife loathed it too, as did many in my immediate family.

But one of our sons is worse than that.

He gets asthma every night. He actually stopped breathing last week during his exams. School makes him miserable and it even risks killing him.

Universal education is an extraordinary achievement, driven for the mass of the population to feed the new industrial bureaucracy that was emerging in the 19th century which required factory and office workers, and driven at higher levels of society to develop colonial administrators and government officials.

Universal education is locked into a virtuous circle with social media which has created spiralling standards in applied knowledge. People are cynical when they hear that examination performances are rising irresistibly, but I can well believe it. Who can do their children’s 12 year old maths? Who even knew where Haiti was 50 years ago? In my home town there had been three writers associated with the place within recorded history, the first in the 17th century. Since the 1960s, over 60 published writers alone have sprung up, never mind visual artists, musicians and all the rest.

Bureaucratically, society functions to such a point where we get incensed when it doesn’t work, or fear that it will, rather than dance jigs when it does.

But rigorous educational standards and processes do not benefit some children who can still be useful to our society and maybe among the most useful. The world’s richest people rarely have good educational qualifications. Britain’s top entrepreneurs barely have an exam pass between them. 50% of them are functionally dyslexic, an aptitude (or lack of) which was formally considered evidence of inherent imbecility until recently.

What is interesting is how the dyslexic mind works. It is not only about a difficulty in reading words, but it is also about energetic restlessness, insatiable curiosity and great daring – the ‘unreasonable mind’ that GB Shaw referred to when he said that only unreasonable people can change the world. Dyslexic business people rarely do things directly themselves. They manage to pull together a team which they plug into the mains and challenge remorselessly to achieve extraordinary things. I do not know if Steve Jobs of Apple is dyslexic, but he certainly has many symptoms typical of dyslexia.

Our son is like that. You might say “Ah, he is ADD”, but he has not the slightest problem concentrating. If he is involved in something that impassions him, you could set a dragon on him and he wouldn’t notice, you have to shout at him five times before he responds, and you can only drive him to bed with a chair and a whip. Boy, can he concentrate, but he will only concentrate on things that interest him. Faced with anything else, his mind wanders off into more enchanting territories.

Your other suggestion is probably that he is autistic, the sort of autistic child who loves being with people. Supposedly about 99.9% of the population is autistic – autism has megalomaniac colonising pretensions. He is definitely not autistic.

Anyway, however you may wish to classify him, schools cannot cope with his approach, much as his school is superbly managed and really tries to accommodate him. The state educational system is about developing all-rounders. Our son is lopsided, but so are geniuses. Lopsidedness is almost the prescription for expertise – spending all your time within a narrow field you are passionate about is highly likely to build your knowledge of that field well beyond the reach of most others.

There are solutions to our son’s educational needs – he does have educational needs – but standard schooling is not one of them. It distorts his growth and it could well end up killing him.

Do you know any other children like that?

by Bob Grant

How can you embrace an enemy of the USA?  More important – why would you?  If these questions have not been outright asked of me – they have been implied.  Why I chose to speak highly of China, and its people, is something that I do willingly and [...]]]> I am not the Manchurian Candidate

by Bob Grant

How can you embrace an enemy of the USA?  More important – why would you?  If these questions have not been outright asked of me – they have been implied.  Why I chose to speak highly of China, and its people, is something that I do willingly and with pride.  I am not the Manchurian Candidate.  I was never brain washed during my visits there.  I was not tortured or forced into my feelings in any way.  Subliminal messages were not piped into my hotel room at night.  I did not have bamboo shoots shoved under my fingernails.  I was not drugged or impaired in any way unless it was done willingly by drinking too much of that fine Chinese beer.

Within my small circle of business contacts, experiences, and associations I would say it is Western business people who are trying to brain wash the Chinese.  As I developed my business relationships – I both read and experienced failures mainly because Western companies tried to “Westernize” their Chinese business partners rather than adapting to their Chinese partners way of doing business.  Maybe it has been different for others who have done business within China – but for me, personally, my successes came from letting the Chinese conduct business in “their way” and I tried to educate my customers in their methods and ways.  I won’t say it was not frustrating at times – in fact, it was frustrating most of the time.  However, in the end it was what worked best for me while others failed.  Honor and “saving face” are very important to the Chinese – I tried not to put any of my associates in a position that threatened either.

Again, just from my experience I have to say that people – from any part of the world – can work together to achieve a common goal if all parties can be flexible and understanding.  From my perspective – this is the true receipt for success among the world’s population.

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

Think PR.

Why do we [...]]]> We have become accustomed to the idea that a great strategy is the triumph of a logical mind (or set of minds) over blind nature. Some incredible guys in a room came up with this brilliant idea and it took over the world. Think Microsoft. Think Neutron Jack Welch. Think Warren Buffett.

Think PR.

Why do we believe this? Because some extremely manipulative minds want us to think that they have out-distanced us all.

And some probably have. As far as I know, Microsoft has more or less grown from strength to strength, and old Neutron Jack really did ruin many lives and make General Electric mega-successful.

But most of the time, these tales of strategic foresight and derring-do are mere fictions written after the fact.

There is the story of how Dow Chemicals created the second brand Xiameter to flog factory surplus profitably on the cheap. According to Dow, it was a huge success. Talk to anybody involved in the project and they go “Er …hum… possibly.”

And it is remarkable how often this happens. I have heard of many projects which were a ‘triumph of Six Sigma’ but had been and gone long before Six Sigma had even turned up. It was just politically convenient to link those projects to Six Sigma, and to some vestige of strategic intent.

When you go back over the great strategists of history, luck seems to have played a crucial part. Napoleon Bonaparte even said it: “Yes, he may be good, but is he lucky?” he barked. Napoleon himself may have been a great strategist for nearly 20 years, but he blew it in Russia, as did another supposedly great strategist Adolf Hitler.

William the Conqueror – he could be considered a great strategist. He sailed against England and his fleet got blown apart. He sailed a second time and he told his followers “This is a really dodgy enterprise. If we get away with this one, you can have any land you can grab.” He wasn’t talking pips in his negotiation strategy.

Winston Churchill – if he had died in 1935, what would he have been? His fame would have been for moments of Boys Own courage during the Boer War, a catastrophic failure in the Dardanelles, for being a virtual bankrupt, a melancholic and a drunk. Luckily, he survived a few more years to become the great British strategist of the Second World War, despite a very touch-and-go 1940. In 1945, he reverted to being a feeble politician again as Clement Attlee’s Labour Party swept the board against Churchill’s Conservatives. Still, in the 1960s he was anointed the ultimate national hero for fulfilling Alan Bennett’s dictum that the British admire you if you are eighty (or ninety) and can still eat toast. A nickname (‘Winnie’ in his case, like the bear) helps too.

And Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington – after a decade causing Napoleon minor grief in Portugal he came face-to-face with him in a major battle at Waterloo which even he termed “a damned close-run thing.” He was right. The battle was won because the German army under General Blucher turned up when all was lost.

Come on, be honest. You have probably been involved in a corporate strategy or two. Does anything ever turn out even remotely as planned? Usually not at all. What was predicted to be a disaster suddenly becomes a huge success because of reasons way outside anyone’s control. What looked really promising never got off the ground. But that is not how it is reported, is it? Who is going to stand up and say “We are a bunch of raving incompetents. Our success was an out-and-out fluke. Hurrah!”

Hand it to the PR department.

I cannot remember who said that the art of political strategy was to make the inevitable look like the outcome of deliberate government policy, but whoever it was could have been telling a rare truth.

Very clever strategies fail. Very stupid strategies succeed. The difference between success and failure often relies on the toss of a coin. It also relies on resilience. Hang on in there long enough, and you may well succeed eventually at something.

The real art of strategy is that when you are on your knees, make sure that you will be able to clamber to your feet as the tide turns and success is imminent so that you are in a position to clutch the garland of triumph and proclaim “This is what I was planning all along.”.

They say that when God wants a good laugh, he looks at our plans. In all probability, those who claim to have had good plans are laughing too.

by Bob Grant

I have been traveling to China since 1998.  I would not consider myself a seasoned traveler to that country – making around 25 visits total.  When I traveled there I usually stayed between one and two weeks – never during any of my visits did I ever [...]]]> I Never met a Communist in China

by Bob Grant

I have been traveling to China since 1998.  I would not consider myself a seasoned traveler to that country – making around 25 visits total.  When I traveled there I usually stayed between one and two weeks – never during any of my visits did I ever see, or meet, a “Red” Chinese person.  I saw no one wearing an “I am a Communist” sweatshirt, ball cap, t-shirt, sun glasses, button, or anything else physically labeling them a Communist.  I saw no street banners, bumper stickers, store front displays, mass gatherings, or any other public notice that I was among Communists.  What I was among were just people – regular people.

All of my visits were for business purposes.  I met with business people – only – and traveled to see their factories or offices.  I did not take much time to “sightsee” which was a mistake in retrospect.  With my business I tended to visit locations where I was the “only” non-Chinese person within miles.  I never felt threatened or out of place.  No one ever stared at me or pointed – “Look at that non-Communist person.”  I found “most” of the people with whom I came in contact – both during business meetings and other activities – to be very pleasant, warm, humble, honorable, respectful, and charming.  I will have to admit that I did have some dealings with business people who were other than honest; however, China does not hold a monopoly on those types of business people.  As a rule I found the Chinese people – with whom I had my dealings – to be extremely hard working, dedicated, and honest.

I had no fear going out on my own – in any part of China that I visited – day or night.  I was never threatened or accosted in any manner.  One day I was walking around a city on a Sunday afternoon – alone.  I felt a tug on my shirt sleeve and turned to find two young girls at my side.  One asked me if they could speak with me – in fairly good English.  I did not suspect their reasons for talking with me to be anything other than honorable so I said “sure.”  The girls were students at the university and their English professor had given them an assignment to stop – interview – and take a photo with any “Westerner.”  They said they had been looking for hours and I was the only “Westerner” they had seen.  I was happy to answer their questions – one of the girls took my photo with the other girl – they thanked me, and went on their way.  These were just two young students – with an assignment – and I felt honored that I was able to help them complete it.

Perhaps I am being a bit naive – I was obviously around Communists during my visits to China – but I never felt that I had really “met” one.  I had been fortunate enough to meet people from another country – and culture – and they had accepted me at face value.  I enjoyed each one of my visits to China and care a great deal for China and its people.  I truly believe if people could meet – and work – with other people around the world that a lot of the world’s problems would be solved.  Perhaps this is a bit Pollyanna of me but this is how I see things from my myopic point of view and experiences, with China and its people, and I will stand by them.

We welcome your thoughts and comments

When I originally covered the launch of the Apple’s iPad, it was a pretty positive review (correction: it was a rave).  I saw it as a great computer appliance for the home.  But then that key concept that stuck in my mind; [...]]]>

Is this your passport to the future of communication and entertainment?

When I originally covered the launch of the Apple’s iPad, it was a pretty positive review (correction: it was a rave).  I saw it as a great computer appliance for the home.  But then that key concept that stuck in my mind; Computer appliance.  This was much more than a “kindle killer”, it was a new way of home computing and using the internet.

I’m thrilled that it is not a full fledged PC.  Most of the worlds population does not want a basic personal computer in another shape.  That was the exact problem with the tablet PC.  The tablet PC was an easy to carry around ‘PC in a screen’ whose only benefit was size and form factor.  That’s why it didn’t catch on.

The iPad leaves behind all the troubles of a plain old PC, because of its functionality.  Some pundits decry the iPad because of its lack of disk drives, usb ports, and fully powered operating system.  But that’s because they don’t get the potential of a computer/internet appliance.

The benefit of an appliance is it’s specificity.  No time, space or power is wasted on being flexible; it does what it’s designed to do, and really well.  While a modern PC needs to fill every possible role for a computer and is often trashed for not having enough space for expansion or modification, computer appliances are task specific.

The beauty of the iPad is that it’s task is providing the best possible personal entertainment and mobile internet experience.  It’s very light and comfortable to hold, it has a great big display, it’s really fast (that includes a sub-second boot up time) and it comes with Apple’s unstoppable killer feature; an entire eco system of applications, media and support.

It always amazes me that when something really new comes along, people are so slow to grasp the potential.  Will it kill the Kindle?  I don’t think so.  It’s much more likely to bury the home computer, and probably the school one as well.  It has enough storage to hold every textbook we ever studied, and it has lightning fast access to all of the knowledge stored on the internet.

If you can do all your communication and correspondence, all of your calendaring, hold all your addresses (as well as millions more than any phone book), all your writing and calculation as well as hold your entire library of books, music and other audio, as well as every movie or TV show you might ever want to see, on the iPad, while comfortably perched in your favorite chair or in your bed, why would you want an old style PC?

You see, someone actually thought about what their “perfect computer/Internet appliance” might be able to do.  Then, they built it.  Instead of starting with megahertz, megabytes and buss speed and stuffing it all into a pleasing case, Apple started with the question “what would I want this thing for” and went from there.

It’s same reason no one figured out what made the iPod, iPhone, iPod touch, as well as Macs and their incredible operating system, so successful.  The approach is different.  Too different for the rest of the industry to conceptualize.  Apple fills a need from the first thought to the last screw, they don’t bolt on a bunch of propellors and ice cakes on some old tractor and say “See, now it’s an air conditioner!”

It’s a great design methodology.  But other’s don’t have to do it that way, they can simply wait for Apple to deliver something and then they can copy it.  Hence the Google phone, Verizon’s Droid and every other “mee too!” device delivered to ride on Apple’s coat tails.  Sony announced an iPad of their own Wednesday and Google released a “design concept” for a computing pad device.  That’s industry code for “if we draw a really nice picture, maybe you’d like to buy one someday?”

There were also quite a few new tablet PC’s shown off at the Consumer’s Electronics Show just before Apple’s announcement, which is kind of sad.  The buzz at the show was all Apple.  Now, most of us can’t even name one of these “revolutionary” products.

I think the weirdest part is that Apple has been trying to shout out their secret design concept since the very beginning of the company, “Think Different!”, but somehow, we just can’t hear it.

“Roll those tractors back into the shed, boys, and get the wrenches and bolts, let’s see the iPad do Internet food processing!”

Author’s note:

This is kind of like my regular column for Gannet, but I like to think I geared it for a deeper thinking audience; you guys.

Copyright Prentiss Gray 2009

Prentiss Gray is a writer and columnist and currently writes the Domesti-Tech Blog for Gannett.  He can be reached through his website at www.prentissgray.com

Typically, here are the different ways PE firms invest in companies:

1.  Complete buy-out — they buy 100% of the business

2.  [...]]]> One of the companies that I own is GranResources, LLC www.granresources.com  which provides intermediary services through our Capital Sourcing program.  This program involves pairing quality companies with either Private Equity (PE) or Venture Capital (VC) firms. 

Typically, here are the different ways PE firms invest in companies:

1.  Complete buy-out — they buy 100% of the business

2.  Majority buy-out — they buy 50%+ of the business

3.  Minority investment — they buy a non-controlling interest (equity position)

4.  Debt investment — they do not have any equity participation and only get paid the interest and principal.  This is usually called a mezzanine or sub-ordinated debt investment.

5.  Any combination of the above.  Normally an investment in a firm involves both debt and equity participation.

6.  Debt and minority positions are usually used for growth or expansion capital. 

7.  All of these structures have various names such as:  Recapitalization, management buy-out, growth capital, expansion capital, minority investment, control investment, mezzanine debt, sub-ordinate debt, spin-off buyout, etc.

8.  The general guidelines for interest are a profitable company, who has been in business for a minimum of five years, and has annual sales of $10 million or more. 

Below is information regarding VC firms:

1.  Location — they want to be near their money and the businesses they invest in. 

2.  Size — generally less than $5 million.  Usually dole out the investment in several rounds as the company needs it.

3.  Stage — there are several different stages such as:

     3a.  Seed — no income, few employees, earliest stage of a company

     3b.  Early stage — may have started operations, may have some customers, little to no product

     3c.  Late stage — already producing income, probably not profitable

     3d.  Growth — close to or already at break even in income, need more to ramp up operations to actually start building the company.

4.  Industry — VC’s are very niche industry specific.  They don’t have broad investment strategies and generally focus on a very small area of an industry.  This is due to the knowledge & skills their employees have. 

5.  Success Rate — 99% of the time no funding will be found. 

6.  Exit strategy — the company has to grow big enough to where the VC company can somehow realize its investment such as through a public offering.

The Capital Sourcing service we are offering will not have any up front costs to you if your opportunity is of interest to a PE firm.  If a deal is ultimately completed then we are paid a fee by the Private Equity firm – if no deal is reached then we receive nothing.  However, if your opportunity is more suited for a VC capital firm then we will have to discuss our fee which would be paid by you should a deal be reached – if no deal is ever reached then there will be no fee charged. 

We will analyze your opportunity and give you our recommendations whether it should be pursued with a PE firm or a VC firm – we do not deal with Angel Funds.

If you have an interest, or questions, please contact Bob Grant at GranResources@gmail.com , visit our website www.granresources.com , or call 816-510-4600.

Regards -

Bob Grant, President

GranResources, LLC

Kansas City, Missouri

Ph: 816-510-4600

GranResources@gmail.com  

www.granresources.com

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lohan, interviewed by that woman from Reno 911, reveals to The Insider that she’s got a problem with hoarding — JUST LIKE THAT ONE SHOW ON THE TV!

“It’s kind of a sore subject,” the Mean Girls star says about her massive amount of [...]]]> EXCLUSIVE! EXCLUSIVE! Lindsay Lohan is a hoarder!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lohan, interviewed by that woman from Reno 911, reveals to The Insider that she’s got a problem with hoarding — JUST LIKE THAT ONE SHOW ON THE TV!

“It’s kind of a sore subject,” the Mean Girls star says about her massive amount of shoes and clothing. “I just need to get rid of this stuff.” The music is really dramatic so you know that Lindsay’s serious.

I could care less about Lindsay Lohan. She hasn’t really been on my radar since A Prairie Home Companion. Since then, she’s devoted her time to crashing cars and drunken ramblings on Twitter. Obviously, you need more than that to draw me in. That being said, this new revelation about hoarder intrigues me, mostly because it’s complete BS.

Lohan in her element

Lindsay Lohan is NOT a hoarder. Lindsay Lohan is a rich starlet who gets ridiculous amounts of free stuff from designers. Lindsay Lohan is also a rich starlet who spends her time roaming the Hollywood Hills, searching for the loudest party instead of cleaning out her house. In other words, Lindsay Lohan is a lazy drunk. The people on Hoarders are folks who have serious emotional scars and require psychological help. While I think that Lohan probably needs some sort of psychiatric evaluation, I doubt she’s actually a hoarder.

So why say she is? Maybe because The Insider will publicize it and it’ll spread like wildfire via the web. Maybe because Lohan’s career and image are so tarnished that she needs something — anything — to revive them. If there’s one thing we know about America, it’s that it love when troubled stars make comebacks. Robert Downey Jr. anybody?

But I think Lohan went about this the wrong way. She should have confessed to a different disorder. I think maybe some good old fashioned OCD would have appealed to the people more. Film some clips of her repeatedly locking and unlocking her door — priceless! Also, she should have a sit-down interview with someone who isn’t as annoying as the Free Credit Report.com commercials. No offense, Niecy Nash. Call up Diane Sawyer or, fingers crossed, Oprah. That would bring in the viewers. That could get Lindsay’s career going again.

But, alas, she’s stuck with hoarding and The Insider. Who knows, maybe that’s all it takes. Maybe this will work in Lohan’s favor and she’ll garner some sympathy and perhaps get her life back on track.

Or maybe, just maybe, Linday really is a hoarder. Maybe she really is sick and needs medical attention. Maybe this really is a cry for help, even if she’s broadcasting it on national television.

But probably not. I mean, this is Lindsay Lohan we’re talking about.

If you think that you are going mad, based on the statements out of the White House and Congress, let me assure you that you are sane, but those in charge of governing the nation appear to have lost their wits.

The Democrat’s third-ranking House leader, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), during an [...]]]> The National Madhouse

By Alan Caruba

If you think that you are going mad, based on the statements out of the White House and Congress, let me assure you that you are sane, but those in charge of governing the nation appear to have lost their wits.

The Democrat’s third-ranking House leader, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), during an appearance on Fox News asserted that “We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession.” It is his view that “We’re not going to save our way out of this recession.” So saving money is bad. Spending money we are borrowing at a rate of a billion dollars a day is good. If that sounds insane, you’re right.

In defending his new budget, President Obama declared that “Already, we have made historic strides…to cut wasteful spending.” The problem with that is that his budget proposal, for a second year in a row, would increase federal spending as a percentage of the Gross National Product at a higher rate than any time in the past 65 years. Fully a quarter of the GNP would be sucked up and spent by the government.

As we all know by now, because the President keeps telling us, that everything that happened last year was the fault of the previous President, George W. Bush, but it turns out that President Obama proposes once again to spend 30% more of the GDP than Bush.

President Obama has also given notice to the United Nations that the U.S. would agree to the Copenhagen Climate Change Accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is reported that this means a reduction of “carbon emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020.” This would be contingent on the passage of the Cap-and-Trade bill lingering in the Senate.

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is based on the now widely discredited global warming hoax that blamed carbon dioxide for the non-existent rise in the planet’s temperature.

Thus, the Cap-and-Trade bill is, itself, a hoax and, worse, would increase taxes on all energy use for all Americans. The reduction that President Obama calls for would require a return to the days of horse-drawn vehicles and an end to manufacturing and other activities dependent on oil, natural gas, and coal.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced its intention to regulate carbon dioxide, the gas other than oxygen on which all life on Earth depends. Its justification for this is, of course, global warming. It requires a lot of gall to ignore the fact that the Earth entered a cooling cycle in 1998 that is likely to last another decade or two.

If the insanity emanating from the White House, Congress and the EPA is not enough, over at the United Nations last Monday the Human Rights Council met in Geneva. It was presided over by Halima Warzasi, a woman whom UN Watch notes “personally shielded the Saddam regime from international censure over the (Kurdish) gas attacks.” She was preceded in the chairmanship by Alfonso Martinez of Cuba. The Council’s principal members include China, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, none of which are famous for their attention to human rights.

Also last Monday, one brief moment of sanity; Ali Hassan al-Majeed, also known as “Chemical Ali” for having ordered the poison gas attacks on the Kurds, was hanged.

To Americans struggling with debt, with mortgages that cost more than the present value of their homes, and, for many, with unemployment, the notion that the nation would end the Bush tax cuts while raising taxes at the same time it is borrowing and spending money at an unsustainable rate is a good definition of madness.

In November, the Obama administration released a report stating that more than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted. The main culprit according to the report was Medicare, a program that the same administration via its “healthcare reform” legislation wanted to expand by adding millions more to its rolls.

So you may be forgiven for thinking that something is terribly wrong with the White House and Congress because it is.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center – he blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.c

by Peggy Klaus

It looks like 2010 is off to a cautiously optimistic start. We’re told the economy is rebounding. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is above 10,000 points and many Wall Street banks are expecting a blockbuster year. On the flip [...]]]> WHEN YOU CAN’T SHOW THEM THE MONEY:
HOW TO MOTIVATE AND APPRECIATE EMPLOYEES IN A RECESSION

by Peggy Klaus

It looks like 2010 is off to a cautiously optimistic start. We’re told the economy is rebounding. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is above 10,000 points and many Wall Street banks are expecting a blockbuster year. On the flip side, 85,000 jobs were lost in December, unemployment figures hover at 10 percent, and Main Street business owners remain frustrated, unable to secure loans that would in turn create jobs. So what gives?

As we kick off the new year against this discordant backdrop, employers feel like they’re stranded in uncharted territory. Many new workplace obstacles have emerged as a direct result of the recession, among them the question of how to show appreciation in the workplace when limited (or non-existent) funds are available. As one client put it, “I know how to incent my staff when the bonus dollars are there, but what do I do to motivate employees now that the bonus dollars have dried up?”

After hearing so many reiterations of this question, I created a survey on the topic called Gratitude in the Workplace. After being announced in the last Moosletter, more than 150 surveys were completed. Nearly 90 percent of the respondents came from the following five industries:

• Finance/Insurance
• Scientific/Technical
• Health Care/Social Assistance
• Advertising/Marketing/Communication
• Education/Not-for-Profit
• Manufacturing

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. I very much enjoyed hearing your input. We promised to share the results with you, so here goes.

Thirty-three percent of the respondents report that the recession has negatively impacted how appreciated they feel at work. But despite budget cuts and spending freezes, it appears there are still plenty of things employers can do to make employees feel valued.

Of course people still want money, and we received an avalanche of comments reiterating this rather obvious fact. But remove money as a reinforcer from the equation and, believe it or not, good old-fashioned (also cost free!) verbal praise and public acknowledgment ranked highest in determining how appreciated folks felt at work, with 84 percent of the total respondents citing both methods as effective. And for some people, verbal praise and public acknowledgement ranked even higher than cold hard cash. One respondent stated, “The most important methods do NOT involve money, but taking notice when an employee goes above and beyond. Many supervisors miss this point.” Greater flexibility in schedules, such as flextime or telecommuting, also ranked high, while breaks from the daily grind were considered the least beneficial.

The survey findings delight me on multiple counts. They demonstrate that even in these dark times, there is still much that can be done to increase positivity in the workplace. More importantly, they reveal what I believe to be a silver lining to the current economic crisis. Stripped of the cash once relied on to motivate staff, managers must get creative when it comes to incenting employees. Eighty-five percent of the survey respondents were from mid or senior levels at their companies, so I know that many of my readers are in positions where you supervise others. For you, becoming adept at soft skills that demonstrate appreciation to workers is just what the doctor ordered and the recession requires!  Here are a few of the most valuable ones:

• Encouraging employees to express their ideas and listening to their input
• Trusting direct reports to do their jobs 
• Being respectful and aware of individual differences
• Becoming more mindful communicators

I’ve poured over the data and have compiled the following results, along with some practical ideas on how to show and deliver appreciation in the workplace during the (not so) Great Recession.

EXPRESSING THANKS IS ESSENTIAL
I’ve said it before, and the survey reinforces this simple fact: people like being thanked when they do a good job. How’s that for a cheap way to make the workplace more positive?  Now try taking your appreciation to the next level. When you write thank you notes via email, one respondent suggested cc’ing HR and higher management. Or, instead of dashing off an email, write a handwritten note and send it to an employee’s home address so they get a little unexpected surprise. One respondent reported, “One of the nicest thank yous I ever received at work was a simple handwritten note from a Sales VP. The note seemed sincere, not just a ‘form’ note and it was completely unexpected, which somehow made it more valuable.” If bonuses are out of the question but there is still a little bit of cash in the coffer, many respondents effused about how nice it is to receive little items at work, such as gift cards to Starbucks, Amazon, or iTunes. If your company didn’t give out bonuses last year, consider handing out some little tokens of appreciation instead. Even better, make the gifts personal by giving things you know a particular person would especially appreciate—concert tickets to a music lover or a kitchen gadget to a cooking aficionado.

MAKE IT PUBLIC
Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that they wish public acknowledgment was being used more frequently at their workplace to express appreciation and motivate staff. Many mentioned really enjoying the recognition programs already in place at their companies. “We have small monetary awards ($100) with a public shout out for people who do something above and beyond what’s expected.” In the past year, people have been bombarded with bad news so implementing performance awards is a useful tool for creating a happier environment. As one respondent said, public appreciation is a “great way to change the atmosphere and energy.”  So, don’t feel bad if monetary awards are out of the question. Respondents indicated that even a little awards ceremony along with a certificate could give staff a big morale boost.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
Of the survey respondents, only 41 percent report feeling either appreciated or very appreciated at work. For those that feel otherwise (the majority of respondents), one major factor is a sense that the praise they receive comes across as insincere or canned. Dashing off a generic thank you that’s not personalized can actually do more harm than good. Be sure to let those you’re appreciating know specific things about them and their performance that you value and how their individual talents contribute to the team. Additionally, before deciding how you’re going to show appreciation to a specific person, consider their personality. “What works for one will not always work for the next. You could make someone very uncomfortable if you gave them public acknowledgment and they were very shy,” pointed out one manager respondent. Another manager said she keeps an eye out for information (articles, comics, etc.) that she thinks specific members of her team will like. “I’ll send these items to them with a note of appreciation to let them know that I thought of them.”

PAY ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
When dispensing praise, don’t forget to recognize folks from across all departments and those you may not see on a daily basis (behind the scene workers, telecommuters, etc). One participant wrote, “There are many operational people who work hard and no one realizes how critical their role is. I’d like to see those people recognized, too.” If you don’t pay equal attention to your entire staff, your attempts at appreciation may backfire. “One problem in the organization I’m in is that perks to show appreciation are not uniform across the organization. When you see people in another group who work down the hall getting picnics thrown for them and gifts given to them as rewards for their hard work, it makes it really hard for those not in that group to not feel resentful and unappreciated.”

OPPORTUNIES FOR GROWTH
This point came through loud and clear: When budgets are in the deep freeze and employees aren’t getting the bonuses or raises that they typically receive, one thing that can really be effective in showing staff that you value them is to provide opportunities for professional growth. Many of the following options can be done on a limited budget:

• Coaching or mentoring opportunities
• Lunch and learns
• Attendance at seminars/conferences/trainings
• Special assignments/projects that the employee is interested in and may be outside of their day-to-day job
• Paid time off for volunteer work

ATTENTION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It’s always important to let staff members know you listen to them and appreciate their input, and it’s particularly important now. Anxiety and stress are running rampant, and knowing they are part of a team instead of working in isolation helps alleviate these symptoms. When asked what appreciation methods they would like to see being used more in their workplace, many respondents said they want more face time with supervisors. “I sometimes feel that my immediate supervisor simply doesn’t have time to bother and that’s a shame.” Another wrote, “What do I want to see more of at work? Better listening skills of those in managerial positions.” Even if people’s requests can’t be acted on, it’s crucial that you acknowledge that you heard their input. Your staff is out there on the front line every day, and may have some critical information or suggestions that could benefit the entire team or company. So listen up.

GIVE THE GIFT OF TIME
Overall, the survey data demonstrates that managers are pretty savvy when it comes to knowing what works in showing appreciation to staff members. We asked respondents to rank how appreciated they feel at work and then asked them to rank how appreciated they think those they supervise feel. The numbers for both questions were quite similar, give or take a few percentage points. However, when given the opportunity to elaborate, supervisors tended to write about fun get togethers and outings as effective in motivating employees while employees focused more on flex time and unexpected time off. Giving people comp time after completing a large project, permission to leave early on a slow Friday, or the ability to telecommute a day or two per week—in other words, giving people the gift of time—might be a better way to show appreciation than by birthday celebrations in the break room, pizza parties, or lunches at the local Chinese joint.

TRUST AND FREEDOM
Here’s where one of the soft skills I mentioned earlier will come in very handy. When you have a competent staff member, letting go and trusting them to do the job will not only make your life easier but will make them happier, too. One respondent wrote, “I don’t think people are looking for less work.  I think they’re looking for meaningful work and an atmosphere of trust from their supervisors.” Another said, “I want more responsibilities and more freedom in managing my own world. Basically, I want signs that supervisors and management have enough confidence in my work that they can lessen their reins of micromanagement.”

DON’T KNOW WHAT WILL WORK?
I bet your employees do! One terrific suggestion we got was to “create a team grab bag where team members get to select from a list of choices—i.e., dinner gift certificates, half day off without using existing personal time, one hour of mentoring with an executive, etc.” How’s that for being democratic?

Peggy Klaus, President of Klaus & Associates

You may have seen Peggy Klaus on Nightline, the Today Show, and 20/20 or read her advice in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Newsweek, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and O magazine. You may know her as the “brag lady” or—as one newspaper called her—a “bragologist” because of her popular book, BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It (Hachette Books Group, Hardcover 2003, Paperback 2004). Or you may know Klaus for the soft skills savvy she promotes in her second tome, The Hard Truth About Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner (Collins, January 2008).

For more than a decade Klaus has provided communication and leadership training programs, keynotes, and executive coaching at leading corporations and organizations worldwide. Her client list reads like a who’s who of Fortune 500 companies, including firms such as JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard, Computer Associates, Chevron Corporation, Deloitte, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, The National Football League, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, American Express, Mattel, Booz Allen Hamilton, Kaiser Permanente, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, among others. She also has served as a lecturer at Harvard University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

With advanced degrees in drama, speech, and theatre from London’s Royal Academy of Music and the Drama Studio, Klaus began her career as an actor and classical singer. She then moved to Hollywood to become a producer, director, and coach who worked with actors, comedians, musicians, and broadcast news talent for productions at Paramount Studios, Warner Brothers, ABC, CBS, and NBC TV, among others.

When she is not coaching, training, lecturing, making television appearances, or giving keynotes in the US, Europe, and Asia, Klaus can be found in Berkeley, California, where she lives with her husband.

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

After about a 45 minute delay to try and actually get the lights working, we took the field for our first “real game” of the camp.  Jim let all his pitchers go longer than normal, about 2-3 innings a piece.  I hadn’t played a game at night in a few years, so it [...]]]> October 5, 2009

After about a 45 minute delay to try and actually get the lights working, we took the field for our first “real game” of the camp.  Jim let all his pitchers go longer than normal, about 2-3 innings a piece.  I hadn’t played a game at night in a few years, so it was definitely a huge adjustment, not only because we were playing in a stadium with lighting I wasn’t familiar with, but I was in the outfield.  Only one ball was hit to me in RF, but I misread it again and I wasn’t able to catch it; so, it’s back to the drawing board tomorrow in the outfield to keep trying to get a read on the ball as soon as I possibly can.  This is really my biggest problem with playing out there- my first instinct on how I judge a batted ball has been incorrect and then I have to try and make up for it.  People have been helping me and giving me advice, but none of it will help in the end because until I can get a read on the ball, it’s going to be an uphill struggle.

Since we hadn’t had any game action the last few days, I felt a little out of sync at the plate, but it was a productive night in the least.  In my first at-bat I was given the hit-and-run sign and was able to execute and put the ball in play.  After I made my mistake in the field, I came up to hit with a guy on 3rd base and I put the ball in play to drive the run in.  In my last at-bat, I hit the ball real hard to 3rd base and he made a great play on it, but thankfully I was able to beat the throw for a base-hit.  Even though I didn’t feel totally comfortable at the plate, I did some positive things in each at-bat.  I’m really waiting to get that nice, line drive to the outfield; I’m not sure what our schedule is going to be with games this week, but I know its coming and I’m and it’s going to feel great when I finally get it.

The coolest part of the night came after the game in the clubhouse.  Trey had his mother and little cousin stay in Joliet for a couple of days to watch him play.  He brought his cousin into the clubhouse tonight to meet the guys after the game; he couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old and it looked as if he was in heaven being around all of these ballplayers.  He came around with a wood bat and souvenir baseball and asked each guy for their autograph.  This was fantastic- I’ve never given an autograph to a kid that I’ve never met before.  He comes around to me, hands me the ball, and asks me to “Sign on a clean part.”  Before I signed it, I asked him if the spot that I found was good enough for him and I put my John Hancock on there, as well as the wood bat.  I’ve always dreamt of the day I would be sitting in front of my locker, giving a kid an autograph, but I didn’t know the day would actually come!  What an amazing feeling, I will remember that moment until the day I die.

Being able to give my autograph and watch that little kid walk around to meet all the guys with a big smile on his face helped me forget about missing that fly ball earlier in the night.  When you think about it, players are here only because of their fans.  Sure, it is our dream to get to play at the highest level, but without thousands of fans in the stands each night, the desire to play at the highest level wouldn’t be there for the players.  It was a great feeling to put a smile on that kid’s face.  I never thought that someone would come up to me and ask me to sign something for them; that feeling alone was absolutely amazing and I know I’ll get goose bumps every time I think about it.

A week from this exact moment, I will be on a plane making my way back home to New York.  Needless to say, I’m very excited about getting back into the Northeast to all my family and friends, as well as tackling this horrible economy and attempting to find a job.  Saturday was [...]]]> October 4, 2009

A week from this exact moment, I will be on a plane making my way back home to New York.  Needless to say, I’m very excited about getting back into the Northeast to all my family and friends, as well as tackling this horrible economy and attempting to find a job.  Saturday was our off day according to the new plan of action; it didn’t rain as much as was anticipated, so hopefully the grounds crew had a good enough chance to get the field ready over the last 48 hours so we can get a game in tonight.

The speech Jim gave us the other night coupled with For The Love of The Game being shown on TV has really gotten me thinking about the end.  He said that in reality, probably about four or five guys will get offers coming out of camp and the rest of us will go home without a contract.  It obviously doesn’t put the final nail in the coffin that is our playing career, but we have to evaluate ourselves and our situation to see where we stand.  I’ve been evaluating my situation on a daily basis since I’ve been out here, and I disagree with Jim to a degree.

Yes, I’m only 22 years old, but I’ve also just graduated from college, therefore I have a huge amount of loans that will need to be paid back and waiting around for another professional tryout is just prolonging the inevitable because those loans are still going to be staring me in the face.  I think the biggest reason as to why this would be the final chapter of my playing career because I don’t want to be like a few of the guys that are here with me: in my late 20s or early 30s and fighting for a job every year.  That doesn’t sound all that appealing to me because it would be nice to have some sort of job and financial security by the time I reach my mid-30s.

At this point in my life, this is probably going to be the best baseball shape I’ll ever be in and my athletic ability is also at its peak, so even if I don’t get offered a contract I can sleep well at night because I know that I put the best of myself on that field for three weeks straight.  I wanted to come out here to get myself an answer, whether it is a good one or a bad one.  What I know I didn’t want was to be looking back at my life when I’m 50 years old and regret that I never gave myself this opportunity.  My high school coach told me that he lives with that every day and I am sure that if I didn’t take this chance, it would eat at me on a daily basis.

So, being able to participate in this camp and getting my answer will give me the peace of mind that I’ve been searching for my entire life.  I realize that I’m talking like tomorrow is my last day when I still have another week, but this is how I’m approaching it.  This doesn’t mean I’m going to try any less or I’m going to refuse talking to a scout if they like me; that’s not it at all.  It’s comforting to know that I came out here for my answer and not to find a job, because if I did (like quite a few guys have), I would be extremely disappointed.  I’m fortunate to have a business degree and a couple of interviews waiting for me when I get home.

Our coach said that if nothing came from this camp that it doesn’t mean our baseball playing careers is over, but he doesn’t know everyone’s story.  I want to get the rest of my life going, before I blink and my 20s are going to be gone and I’m want to be settled in my life by the time I hit 30.  It will definitely be weird on the plane ride home knowing that my competitive playing days are over if I don’t get any offers, but it will be nice to know that I went on this journey until the absolute end; and now I will be able to embark on a new one.

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

It is hard to believe sitting here today, but in 2-3 years’ time paper books simply won’t exist.

I love paper books. Specifically, I love paperbacks. As they say about Toblerone, never eat a sweet that hurts you – so I am not so fond of hardbacks as being uncomfortable and often [...]]]>  

It is hard to believe sitting here today, but in 2-3 years’ time paper books simply won’t exist.

I love paper books. Specifically, I love paperbacks. As they say about Toblerone, never eat a sweet that hurts you – so I am not so fond of hardbacks as being uncomfortable and often painful to hold. But paperbacks ……

As with many authors, I read my own books about 30 times – 28 times electronically, and a couple of times in paperback. The first twenty-eight times are OK, except that even I get bored of my books eventually. However, the 29th (final correction) and 30th times are heaven. It is a completely different experience reading a book in paperback. As Steve Sangirardi is always keen to point out, it is the difference between the menu and the meal. Reading about the sensation of eating chocolate is one thing; actually eating it for the first time is another.

Nevertheless, in 2-3 years’ time paperbacks will be gone – almost completely – vanished like an old oak table [don’t you mean ‘varnished’ – ed? For the rest of this reference, see the TV series Blackadder III]. New technology takeover is often catastrophic. It is like the Monty Python running man – sprinting away but no closer – sprinting away but no closer – sprinting away but no closer – past you.

Put it this way. You will have paperbacks at up to $US 30 a copy, inclusive of delivery, and you will have e-books on Kindle, iPad etc. for free, 85% of them. What are you going to want to sign up for, given the choice? There is a no-brainer for you.

Does that mean that all our literary dreams of cavorting naked in a sea of dollar bills when our ship comes in has had the plug finally pulled on it? Yes, but it always was only a dream, wasn’t it? Of 500,000 books published in the US each year, only 200 earn enough money to be worth taking to the bank, and only a handful earn so much money as to be worth keeping safely out of the bank.

There will still be ways of working up your own legal tender tsunami. You can already be famous and bring out a book spin-off for $US 5m. You can use your book as what Tsufit calls a 200 page business card. Or you can build relationships with readers one-by-one, which is what Night Reading is all about. But for the rest ……

As it happens, I don’t much care. I love writing books. I love reading the books I have written. I love it even more when someone encouraging like Bob Ellal pours kindness all over them. He is The Great Gonzo, that man – but that’s another story too.

However, just when 500,000 authors have sussed the skill of how to layer out forests of words over hundreds of pages in an entirely competent and often inspirational manner, the literary experience is going to change seismically. It is going to go multi-media.

According to NLP research, only 15% of the Western world can handle paragraph upon paragraph of words on a page. Print is not what electronic media do best. They do multi-media best – sound, images, film, interactivity, even vibration.

I experimented in a very minor way with multi-media writing with a recent book called ‘(Just like) El Cid’s Bloomers’ where I wrote the story around the real music and lyrics of a singer-songwriter called Joe Solo. Joe said it was a weird experience having some fictional guy singing his songs while enmired in a love tangle Joe wouldn’t have wished on anyone. Still, it can be done.

We already have interactive books online for children, The Literacy Zone being one case in point. The other day I saw a site that specialises in making adult books interactive – Dava Sobel’s ‘Longitude’ was the example I followed with portraits of the key players, pictures of the clocks, maps of the world etc..

Take my recent book ‘Missio’ (better still, buy it).

‘Missio’ is set in Hull and is the fictional tale of Stevie whose father drowns when the real Hull trawler The Gaul went down in 1974. As it disappeared in a flash nobody knows exactly when, many conspiracy theories arose as to whether it had been sunk by the Russian navy because it had a British spy on board (it did, but so did many trawlers from all countries), whether it managed to snag its net on a Russian submarine and got dragged under, or whether it was riddled with fatal design faults. Here is a Google search . In 2004, the BBC found the wreck of The Gaul and salvaged it – queue news story and documentary footage. For further background, Alec Gill got an MBE for his study of the Hull fishing industry and community, and he has written not only 6 books on the subject but 6 videos too which could be linked to. There is also a Hull City Play called ‘The Voices of Hull’ where people recount what it was like to live amid the Hull fishing community, to be a trawlerman or a bobber (who carted fish around the dock), and bringing back to life all the fishing superstitions (wives were not allowed to wash the day their husbands went to sea, otherwise they would be ‘washing him away’ etc.). There is also BBC documentary footage of the Hull fishing industry.

Moving on, the book is based in the real Coltman Street, so you have Google maps and Google Earth no doubt to show you number 37 Coltman Street from a satellite shot. One of the scenes takes place in The Alexandra Hotel pub, so there is Tony Dunbar, the owner. If the Alexandra Hotel were a trendier place than it is, you could perhaps have live webcams of Saturday night raves and Wednesday lunchtime lap dancing there but, as it happens, it’s not. It does have four ghosts though, one of whom slaps and pinches you given half a chance. It also used to be a Jewish synagogue before it was a pub. I don’t know if anything in there is a sequitur, but I am certain it is another series of links.

When Stevie meets the magician, The Great Macaroni, he is asked to envision the Humber Bridge when it is built (the story takes place a few years beforehand). It just so happens that the Humber Bridge was for a time the longest single-span bridge in the world, so there is oodles on that. Then a character called ‘The Hanging Judge’ appears, so we can go into all the ramifications of 19th century British justice, how many sheep you had to steal before they hanged you, that Hull was one of the Northern hanging prisons (thus the saying ‘Hell, Hull & Halifax’), transportation to Australia – check your ancestors – and on and on. Also, it so happens that The Hanging Judge is a ghost, so how about some background images of the paranormal?

I could go on for hours (I really would like to, as you have already guessed) but the overall point here is that my 150 page novella suddenly becomes an interactive book epic dwarfing in length both the BBC TV and Russian film versions of ‘War and Peace’ combined.

Which is fabulous. You will really get a feel for the city the book is located in, for the actual streets in the story, for the drama of the loss of The Gaul, for the sound and feel of the Hull Hessle Road fishing community, and you will be inundated with a million additional tangential facts besides.

And all this will happen, even in my case for ‘Missio’. It is going to take a hell of a long time, though, to get through each sentence. Should I have put a link in that last sentence to ‘hell’? It is probably where some of you think we are all headed.