What The $*%&# Was I Thinking!?!

AAAARRRGGGHH!

I'm Pissed!

Yesterday (OK not yesterday...but I was too friggin' pissed off to compose myself enough to write this when I first saw the photo)...I was browsing my photos to find shots I wanted to share on my new Flickr account (while still an amateur, I'm loving the art of photography and want to post my favorites).

Then I came across this photo. (well, a screen shot from my iPad)

It stopped me in my tracks.

I instantly yelled, "YOU IDIOT!!!!"  then, "What the HELL where you THINKING!?!", then a version of "FRICK!"...but it rhymed with what I would utter now if someone asked what the %&$* I was thinking,....  "uuuhhhhh..."

You may recall I briefly mentioned this memory in my Prince Memories post, but quite frankly, I had forgotten the details.

And now they're staring back at me with Frickin' retina HD photo quality:

I HAD AMAAAAAAAZING TICKETS TO PRINCE IN 2012 AND I LET THEM GO!

Look...at...this:

Frick.

Worst of all? I let them go...see the bottom right corner???

TIME LEFT: 00:00  - I was actually WATCHING the timer go down...until I no longer had these tickets.

Dang-it-all-to-Frickerville!

Oh, and LOOK at the seats:  Section 111, Row 1, Seats 11-12.

ROW Fricking ONE!!!

In case you can't see it, here's a purple arrow pointing to the 2 seats I basically had in my hands...

...and I let them dissolve away.

Not feeling the impact yet?

LOOOOOOOOK!!

Ugh. I'm sick.

Now before you say, "Well, it was a Tuesday...in Chicago...it's a long drive, and you had kids to worry about".

One more thing:  LOOK AT THE DATE!!!

September 25, 2012.

Doesn't ring a bell? 

Well it does to us.

OUR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY IS THE 25TH OF SEPTEMBER!!!!

Frick!

....our 19th Wedding anniversary.  

Frick! Frick!

What the Frickety-Frick-Frack was I thinking?!?

"Hmm, what could I get my wife to show how much I love her? PRINCE TICKETS SO CLOSE TO THE GUITAR-SHAPED STAGE WE COULD SEE HIS SWEAT SPARKLE IN THE LIGHTS AND MAYBE CATCH A PURPLE GUITAR PICK??? 

Na, how about a night home watching the news?

FRICK!

I know at the time I'm sure I had a great excuse, but dang, right now it just screams:

• You settled into mundaneness
• You lost your sense of adventure
• If it requires effort, you just let great experiences pass you buy
• Your priorities are frackity-farckle-frick screwed up!

Ya, ya, I've had some great adventures since. But this rivals my biggest regret (a future blog...but I was in Verona for a week during a year-long world-wide Up With People tour) and was offered to travel to Rome for 24 hours for $100...and I declined because I didn't feel my budget could handle the extra expense...FRICK!!!  One Hundred Dollars? I blow through that in one night of Sushi...and I've STILL NOT BEEN. Of course now it will cost me at least $5,000)

AAAHHH!

And this ticket regret? It's not even like my Rome regret...Rome won't suddenly die...Rome hasn't given me years of joyous memories and emotions. I may even get to Rome and say, "This is crap...lets return to Dublin"...but I LOVE PRINCE CONCERTS!!! 

Unbelievable.

I'm sure I'll recover, and post something positive and "witty" in a future blog.

...but right now all I can say is...

I'M A FRICK FRICK FRACKITY-FRANGLE-FRICKER-FRICKFACE...

and if I have a message for me?

DON'T-MISS-ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME-EXPEREINCES-BECAUSE-IT-REQUIRES-EFFORT!!!

Okay. I think I can settle down now.

...Frick...

6 Beds in 8 Nights

When describing my travel by the numbers it sure sounds provocative...

"6 beds in 8 nights"

"3 females in one hotel room"

"Broke the law at 2 hotels"

"Barely had a chance to sleep (if you know what I mean)"

"Naked 360° panoramic photos taken...and shared"

But, is it really what it seems? Here's my latest travel experience between Friday 11/30 and Friday 12/7...

Bed 1: Minneapolis

My girls are gymnasts. They compete at different levels so the "Peppermint Twist" meet was Friday night and Saturday morning...forcing us to stay in a hotel. Luckily I had enough hotel points to stay for free at Holiday Express Inn and Suites. It was only one block away from the Convention Center so it was perfect location. Free breakfast, too! It was a small room (didn't get the room I booked) so the 6 of us crammed into a normal hotel room and barely had a chance to sleep with all the kids fit-ful (and one a nightmare-filled) sleep.

Was it legal to have that many humans in one room? Most likely not. But my life-long motto is "Ask forgiveness, not permission".

Results: Girls had 2 very strong events, and are now ready for state meet (see Bed 6).

Bed 2: Golden Valley

My wife is an actress. The problem is that she doesn't get to do it much anymore. Our niece played "Little Red" in the musical "Into The Woods"...and that made my wife cry. 

She LOVES that musical (so do I), and her dream is to play a role in it, but it doesn't appear often around us, so while she was crazy-proud of her niece, the second she started singing, my wife teared up. it hurts to see her obviously long to experience something she can't...yet.

We slept on a blowup bed at my wife's brother's house, and enjoyed a nice morning and then made our way back home that afternoon.

Bed 3: Rochester

A short respite in our lovely, so-grateful-I-should-scream-but-too-often-I-forget-what-abundance-I-have home.

Bed 4: Las Vegas

Now THIS is a bed!

But, I was only awake in here for about 40 minutes.

I also discovered that the Venetian is the first Vegas hotel that is not overly sleazy and wanted to spend some time in.  For example, I loved the 2nd floor...complete with "outdoor" italian river walk.

An amazing place...but what a waste without my wife along.

I had a crazy-good dinner at B&B Ristorante, not only because of the amazing food and wine, but becasue it was FREE! Thanks Gartner!

And finally, I can utter the sweet, sweet words, "Pre-Check Status" whenever I fly. No more having to walk through the x-ray camera thing where 360° panoramic naked photos of me are taken then shared with someone in Washington, DC to check for bombs and guns (can't help not flexing a bit a the camera swirls around me)

Bed 5: Raleigh

Comfort Suites is my go-to hotel because it gets me points that my family could use, and it has a free breakfast. My 20 hours in RTP consisted of arriving at 11:30pm from Vegas, waking at 6:30 for a customer briefing, all-day demos at IBM, and flight to MSP at 7pm...arriving at home in Rochester at 10:30pm.

Bed 6: South Minneapolis

The very next morning, we all woke and drove BACK to Minneapolis. I rarely stay at the Sheraton because IBM doesn't offer discounts, but since the State Gymnastics meet gave a discount, we stayed there. Good place. It snowed like crazy the evening we drove up, and since it was another small room we dropped the boys off at their cousins in Golden Valley, dropped the girls off at the hotel, then went to our annual Fujiya sushi dinner and "The New Standards" christmas concert. It was awesome! I simply love sushi, and the band is always a treat to watch.

The next morning was the State Gymnastics Meet. It was another awesome/sad meet where one girl got great scores and placed high (14th overall for bars from 191 competitors), whereas the other girl struggled.

We actually stayed in a 7th bed in 9 days by sleeping in the guest room of my wife's brother's house. A wonderfully restful end to a crazy travel week.

~~~~~~~~

There ya go.

So tell me, is that 8 days of travel as glamorous and attractive as the numbers portrayed?

100 Words, 4 Word Clouds, One Robot Life

I love writing.

I love writing music, lyrics, articles, and I've absolutely loved writing these blog entries. I wanted to look back to summarize my 3 years of blogging and thought that instead of telling you what what the blog has meant to me, let's look at what the words tell us directly.

Here, with no editing, is what justarobot.com had to say:

To see the word clouds in full, click the thumbnail.

Note: For the geeks, I exported my entire blog...every word of every post and comment...and added the content to wordle.net where I created word clouds. These clouds count up how many times I use a word (not counting common words like 'is'), and the larger the word, the more frequently I used it. Finally, the words are visualized.

To me, it said:

• Life has hard moments, but pales to the love I've found
• I have great family
• There's always a next song
• Always looking for the next experience
• My wife comes before guitars (and it looks like I love and need both) :-)
• My wife makes adventure good
• I hope for good adventure...even at home
• Music is central to what Greg thinks about
• Best moments are when God is first in my day
• I worry about the time I spend at work
• New songs are awesome and keep me happy

If I look at it differently, I get a different view:

This time I see:

• I love being on stage
• God is why I started first playing music
• I need family to be happy - including my church family
• Guitar is much fun!
• I have an amazing life
• I get to grow old with my wife
• I sometimes feel old
• One great song is my dream
• Playing a concert is like living in another world
• I found adventure throughout my years

Next, if I filter to show only the top 100 words I used:

I see:

• First go to a concert, play guitar
• I love time at home
• I need adventure, and every adventure should always involve my wife
• Music makes me see happy
• I've got One.Great.Life filled with Song.Love.Music.

Finally...

This last view tells me...

• These years have been quite amazing
• I think I've got it really good
• I want music in my day
• I love my wife
• My kids are awesome
• Love makes great adventures...and great songs
• Remember to play and feel happy
• To feel happy play something on my guitar
• Jesus, life, christmas...all gifts
• Now is the time for even one concert to hear a little guitar

I think that sums it up well.

I look forward to see what the next 100 blog posts bring.

What phrases popped out at you as you saw these word clouds?

Don't Look Up...You Might Miss It

Yesterday I was in Florida demoing for an event. 

Today I drove home from a gymnastics event.

...at least that's what it seemed. These events were exactly one month apart: 11/02 and 12/02.

What's going on?

I've said for years that life is going fast, but I really have no idea what to do about how fast this last month went.

Am I just not remembering?

Should I be more "in the moment"?

Should I, as Ferris Bueller says, "Stop and take a look around, or I might miss it"?

Am I trying to pack too much in?

Am I planning for the future too much?

Or, I wonder, am I doing it right...and it just goes so fast because I'm immersed in something I love...like when I'm writing a song and I look up after 20 minutes only to find 3 hours have passed?

When I looked back over the month, I looked at the things that matter and noticed:

• I played a lot of music at church. I've said it before, but I'm certain my path in life was paved so I would end up in Rochester serving at Crosswinds with my wife. I also started working on a CD I'm releasing of music I wrote a while ago but have had constant requests for...Maybe I can even write some new songs that go along with all the instrumental music.

• I engaged my oldest - exchanging great conversation, hard to dole out discipline, gaming excitement, and sharing the stage with him performing worship songs. He's like a rocket taking off and while I tend to wish everything would go straight and I wouldn't have to trouble-shoot or help adjust his trajectory, I wonder if that's why we're so close...and maybe this deep immersion in his life and behaviors is exactly what he needs...and wants.

• I dedicated time with my youngest wrestling for fun, wrestling through homework and reading, watching old Battlestar Galactica, and listening while he told me how he made a home-made basketball hoop out of his box of "Stuff Jaxon makes cool stuff out of" (yes, we have a big bin filled with cardboard, plastic, containers, stuff that we think he could be creative with). I know he savors my attention...and my deep focus on the details he cares about means the world to him.

• I taught my girls science, did lab experiments, drove my girls most every morning to gymnastics training. They love it and I'm seeing some really great results...not just in their scores (although those are great), but in life-long lessons on how to overcome challenges. Regardless of what they do in their gymnastics from now on, both of them struggled, dedicated time and tons of sweat and effort to work towards their goal, and achieved that goal. I am so grateful I was a witness to that.

• I spent time loving my wife. We sang together, we put up outside christmas lights, we watch some great TV shows, we had some amazing meals together (she may not think so since she cooked them, but it's my favorite place to eat on this earth), and we communicated. It seems the more I immerse myself into her details, the closer and more intimate we become.

Was this month perfect? Not at all. I did some dumb things and wasted some opportunities.

Did I have any regrets? Yep...when I lost my temper and said something that made one in my family sad. But I talked about my mistakes to my youngest/oldest/girls/wife, I think we're stronger afterwards because we shared those details.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know what Ferris said, but maybe in my life it's different...maybe the joy I have in my life is found in the details...the individual conversations, the one single hand I hold, the one guitar note, the singular glance at my wife that says our 'front-line' position in life is something we wouldn't change a bit...

...maybe in my case it is all about the details...maybe for me the secret is really:

"Don't look up...you just might miss it"

Official Rules for the "Real-Life Facebook Party"

So we're sitting in the green room in the back of our church auditorium between our opening worship set and our closing song, when we got into our weekly "deep talks". 

You know, the talks you have with fellow servants...about topics that can only surface after years of trust has been built...

Like how it would be REALLY COOL to have a real-life Facebook party!

No phones, no tablets or devices, only people, pens, and lots of sticky-backed paper.

After a short but intense brainstorming session, we carved out the basic tenants, and after updating the rules as much as I could, I think we've uncovered yet another universal truth that only the Church (or at least a worship band stuck in a little green room too long) can uncover. Here I give you the...

Official Rules for the Real-Life Facebook Party

Login

When you arrive, walk through the door and put a green dot in the center of your shirt. This will let your 'friends' know you are available to talk. Of course during the evening if you get tired, fed-up, or you just want to harvest some carrots from the 5'x5' real organic corner garden without interruption, switch the green dot with a grey dot...this will inform your friends you are 'not available to chat'.

Like

You will be given a stack of purple dots that say "Like". At any time, stick those purple dots onto people, pets, CDs, pictures, ...anything that gives you a smile.

Note: these dots firmly adhere onto what you 'like' thanks to the latest in adhesive technologies. If you decide to 'unlike' that thing, quickly rip the purple dot from that item and listen/watch as that item screams at the lost arm-hair. User research has found that this method of 'unliking' is very satisfying.

Post

Your clothes are your wall. Your friends clothes are their wall. During your social conversations, if you want others to know what you are thinking, or have a funny quote simply use the provided post-it notes and a pen, write it down, and post it to their shirt (wall).

Upload

You have previously printed out a variety of photos from your week, past, vacation, etc. Carry multiple copies around and number them. These can be added to your shirt/wall or posted onto your friends wall.

Share

If your friends like a post or photo on your wall, they can copy it (with your name on it of course), and add it to their wall. If others see it on your friends wall, they can copy it and share it...and so on.

Note: At the end of the night, the person with the highest shared content will win a prize

Socialize

As you walk around and converse, you may use your voice, but you MUST use 3rd person to talk about yourself (an homage to the old days of Facebook where all status updates started with "Greg is..."). For example, you walk up to the bar:

"Greg is thirsty!", with a host response, 

"There are over 30 micro-brews that Greg might enjoy", followed with, 

"Greg enjoys Trois Pistoles", finishing with, 

"Greg loves this party!"

Or, you walk up to a girl you like:

"Greg thinks you're pretty cute but is not sure how to ask you to dance", followed by, 

"Karyn married you 19 years ago dear, you had me at 'Greg'", finishing with, 

"Greg loves Karyn"

While this may seem very odd at other parties, it will add authentic realism to a Facebook party.

Request

You will be given a stack of "Request" badges with your name on them (drink coasters). If you see someone you do not know, you can request their friendship by giving them a request badge, and only if they return it to you can you strike up a conversation. Of course you are free to read their shirt/wall, but they may have privacy settings which will make them turn away from you.

They can return it to you at once or later once they get around to it. Or, you may find your request badge underneath their empty drink glass and then you will know you never really had a chance at being their friend.

Note: If you are reading the wall of a female, watch where you read...unlike the digital Facebook, this real-life Facebook comes with real-life cheek-slaps meant to course-correct those wandering eyes.

Group

For fancy Facebook parties, hired wait staff can also double as 'Facebook Groups'. You can tag the wait staff with a label they wear on their hat such as, "PRS Guitars", or "Sushi Lovers", and anyone who wants to join the group drops a request badge onto their tray. Any time a member of the group posts to the group wall (their tuxedo vest), the wait staff must shout it out loud so all members of the group can hear.

Sponsor

In the corner is a small stage with a microphone. This is called the "Sponsor a Post" stage. With proper payment, you may stand on the stage and say most anything you like and all in attendance really have no option but to hear it.

Note: Proper payment depends on those in attendance. It may be a case of beer, a box of Pokemon cards, or my favorite, G strings (for my guitar of course...what were you thinking?!?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I think we've got a hit on our hands. A Real-Life Facebook Party. What do you think?

What would you add? Respond and I'll add to it and give the proper credit :-)