Hello, I'm a Mac.

This is just me venting.

I choose to live in a Mac world.  My family all use and prefer Macs.  The ease of use, the stability, the design, and the quality of components are all, by our experiences, awesome!

I have to work in a Windows environment.  It's a hostile place, full of enemies who try to attack me, viruses spreading, conflicting devices, and cheap components that are constantly breaking down.  (Just to clarify, I'm talking about computing environments, not the actual work environment)

In less than three years, I have gone through four different HP Laptops.  My most recent one dying Monday and leaving me without a computer.  I can't access my work files, my email access is limited, and my frustration and stress level is building as I'm unable to get to and complete my work.  In contrast, I've had one iMac over the past five years.  It has worked perfectly from day one and continues to work as well today as it did in 2005.  The only difference is that it is relatively slow by today's standards, but for most things I need to do, it still works great.

I have an associate that resisted Macs with his company for years, but has now converted his entire company to Macbooks and iMacs.  In his words, "Our systems are faster, more stable, secure, and our productivity has increased significantly since switching to Macs."

I have been a constant advocate for bringing Macs into our work environment, but after the last 48 hours I am ready to evolve from advocate to street corner evangelist.  It's time to embrace change and fight segregation in the workplace..... Macs are more than capable machines with more than capable software for our business needs - and certainly capable of running Windows if it's really that hard to let go.

Callout to my I.S. Director (I know you're reading this) - let ME be the guinea pig and show how effective one can with even better tools to work with!

Thanks for letting me vent.

Ignite Indianapolis

I went to an event in downtown Indianapolis tonight with my friend Bill (@billwolfe) called Ignite Indianapolis. I wasn't familiar with Ignite until this event, but apparently the Ignite events were started by O'Reily Media and are done all over the world.  The evening was almost 2 hours long, but if flew by because the presentations are exactly 5 minutes in length and consist of 20 slides auto advancing every 15 seconds.  When the 5 minutes are up, the presentation is over.  The presenters were a varied bunch of people with different ideas they are passionate about as personal interests, professional endeavors, or some sort of combination. My favorites of the night were (in no particular order):

• Jason Moriber from Wise Elephant (@jelefant) - his presentation on Platforming the Empty Middle was probably the most entertaining, although I didn't completely agree with everything he said. He still made me think about how to and what role platforming has within higher ed.
• Bob Mattax from Developer Town who answered the question, Why Houses?  His ideas wouldn't work for my line of work, but it made sense to me and I thought the originality was awesome!
• Brian Shafer from Walnut Valley Bison convinced me to eat more Bison and left me with the best advice, directly from Bison:
• Stand your ground
• Have a tough hide
• Keep moving forward
• Let the chips fall where they may
• Stacie Porter-Bilger from the Hoosier Academies who walked everyone through the life of a 1st grader experiencing a revolution in education through technology.  There are some awesome things happening in online education before students get to college.

All in all it was a great night and I look forward to the next event, supposedly taking place in a few months.  I'll have to start thinking of my own topic to present on.

Bumpy's Surprise Visit

Marcy's dad, or Bumpy as the kids call him, arrived in town late last night (or early this morning, depending upon your perspective) for a surprise visit to Indiana.  Marcy and I were obviously aware of his impending visit and due to a slip-up by Marcy a week ago, Makela had figured it out as well.  The boys had no clue though, and went to bed Wednesday night like any other night, with screaming and arguing........ uh, I mean cooperative and expressing appreciation for each other and their family. 

We decided to let the kids skip school today and when morning arrived we let them sleep in. When they started to stir and wake up we explained that they had slept in and needed to get ready, but first they could head downstairs and eat breakfast.  As they came downstairs for breakfast, there sat Bumpy with his morning cup o' Joe at the kitchen island.  One at a time the boys walked into the kitchen and their faces lit up with excitement.

Kyron had the best reaction though when he said "Bumpy!" ran and gave him a hug and then tried to process what was happening.  He turned to Marcy and asked, "Is it my birthday? How old am I?"  We had been talking so much about Bumpy coming in April for Kyron's birthday that we probably confused the poor kid when he saw Bumpy this morning.

I love surprising the kids, but I especially love it when the surprise is family we all miss so much.

Breakfast with Bumpy @ the Original Pancake House

Musical Amazement!

This past weekend was our first weekend of no basketball in about 5 months, even through the holidays! With our party size family though it doesn't mean we slow down, just that our attention turns elsewhere. After 5 months of focus on the boys it was time for Makela to get a little of the spotlight as her middle school band participated in the Indiana Music Educators Association non-competitive music festival. It was the first time she had been to an event like this with a performance, adjudicating, and workshop components. To be honest the whole thing was a sort of reminder of days gone by from when Marcy and I were kids doing the same types of music festivals. It's strange to watch your kids going through the experiences you still have many great memories of yourself.

Anyways, I have heard Makela's band perform before but I was absolutely blown away. These sixth graders were awesome! I was so proud of them all, but especially Makela. Both her band teachers have done a great job of building camaraderie within the group and Makela genuinely enjoys her role as part of something much bigger. "We're like a big family!" is how Makela describes her experience in band. (Big shout out to Mrs. Pote and Mrs. Allen for the positive impact on Makela and the other kids) Clay Middle School has some serious musical talent in their building. It will be fun to watch these kids grow as musicians in the years to come. As great as they seem today, I can only imagine how wonderful they will sound in a few years.

With all the focus on sports in our house, it's nice to have someone interested in the performing arts to help balance it all out. I'm so proud of Makela and how well she and her other family did Saturday.

Wardrobe Malfunction

I had my very own wardrobe malfunction today, although it was really not so much a  malfunction so much as it was user error. 

I don't know that I had my wits entireley about myself while getting ready this morning. I remember taking a shower and ironing my clothes, but I also remember getting distracted while ironing my shirt and then returning to my task. The problem was that I remained distracted and somehow didn't complete the task of ironing my shirt.  I was so distracted though, I continued to get dressed, put my jacket on and left for work. 

It was cold in my office all day so I left my jacket on, until later in the afternoon when I briefly removed my jacket thinking it was warming up.  It was then I noticed that something didn't look right with my shirt.  I went to the restroom to look in the mirror.....it was then I realized the result of my morning distraction, I only ironed half of my shirt!  

I've had my days of being absent minded, but this is one of the better and more humorous examples. My co-workers are all so gracious that no one even gave me a bad time or even mentioned it to me...maybe they didn't even notice. Thank goodness I actually wore a suit jacket today and could hide my blunder from the rest of the world.

End of the Basketball Season

Last night we had the end of the season banquet for  Caleb's Pups Basketball season.  This was Caleb's first year playing competitive basketball, he has only played rec level until this year.  Last year, at the end of his third grade season, he set the goal that he wanted to make a Pups team and he worked hard over the entire year to improve his skills and put himself in a position where he could compete, intentionally working toward his goal.  I was so proud of him when he accomplished the goal of just making the program.


I think the season was a good challenge for him, but I am so proud of how he has continued to focus on trying to improve and compete, doing both with class and dignity.  When his coach introduced him last night to congratulate and recognize him for the season, he talked about his improvements and development as a player, but what really meant the most to me was how he talked about Caleb's character and attitude at practice and during the game, always smiling and always encouraging.


His jump shot, court awareness, ball handling, and aggressiveness will all continue to develop and serve him well on the court but his attitude and character will cross over into every aspect of his life.  As his parents, we couldn't be prouder of Caleb for his work this year and I look forward to next year as well.

Caleb is #5 in the video

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day and I wanted to give a shout out to some key women in my life that have helped shape who I am today:


My wife, Marcy.  
I don't know a better person in the entire world.  She's totally out of my league and is amazing at handling everything the kids and I throw at her. She's part wife, part mom, and all superhero!


My mom, Mimi.  
If all the moms in the whole wide world were lined up, I would choose her every time!


My mother-in-law, Frances. 
I don't think there isn't anything she wouldn't do for her family.  


My sister, Kelsey. 
From baby sister to soon-to-be Mom, it's amazing to see her all grown up and yet still see the little girl in her too.


My sister-in-law, Lisa.  
One of the strongest and driven women I have ever met, and yet one of the most caring as well.


My sister-in-law, Erika.  
Supermom to five adopted children who needed a forever family. Need I say more?


My sister-in-law, Kim.  
She puts up with my brother-in-law..... that's amazing! (just kidding Jason!) Seriously, she's one of the kindest people I know.


My Aunt Gail.
She passed away a number of years ago, but I have so many special memories from my childhood that involve fun times with her.


Our family friend, Brandi.  
She's been glue for Marcy the past couple years as we've transitioned to being Hoosiers and I'll be forever grateful to her.


High school teacher, Janet.  
She's been one of my heroes for 20 years!


My daughter, Makela.
At only 12 years old, she challenges me everyday to be the best dad I can be.  I love the fact that she's not too old to still call me daddy and still remembers to give me a goodnight kiss each night. It's hard watching your baby girl grow up.

Dad's Night at PreSchool

Tonight was the last time I got to go to a Dad's night at preschool for one of my kids.  While I had a fun time going on a Bear Hunt and watching Kyron sing little songs, it was also one of the strangest Dad's night experiences I have been on over the years.
The kids all fill out a survey about their Dad's before the evening and their answers are read aloud to everyone.  Here were Kyron's answers:

MY SPECIAL DAD

• My favorite thing to do with Daddy is: play games and play bb guns with him. We have 2 BB guns.
• His favorite food is: spaghetti
• His hair color is: whitish blue
• Dad loves to watch Star Wars on TV!
• Daddy is really happy when he is watching Star Wars!

There are so many things strange about this survey.  First, we don't have ANY bb guns!  Where is he playing bb guns at?  Second, I hate spaghetti! Third, 'whitish, blue'!? Fourth, Star Wars? I can appreciate visiting a galaxy far far away, but I'm no fanboy and I haven't seen Star Wars in years. I sat there in confusion when Kyron's teacher read his answers, but after she handed me his survey his answers became a little more clear..... at the top of the survey was the first question:

• My daddy's name is: Brian

BRIAN! Really!  My own child doesn't even know my own name or all his answers were for his other Dad.......Brian.  I don't know who Brian is, but from Kyron's portrait of his Dad, he's a clearly a handsome dude.