Raining Straight Down June 30, 2009
Posted by vsap in Poetry, Uncategorized.add a comment
Raining straight down,
looks like the wind has taken vacation and I learned in New York City
you don’t let the rain keep you in. Grab the umbrella, a ball cap,
or make a break for it who cares if you get wet, how much, for how long?
Raining straight down,
looks like semi-transparent curtains with the drippy humidity
that is fog hanging benignly between. The mail truck pulls around and
the motor breaks the silence which is not really silence,
just rain bouncing off gutters and draining.
Raining straight down, I feel like the forlorn kid wanting to play
but no one is outside and I feel forgotten in this place so I go.
Wandering up to the coffee shop or over to see how the park looks
newly painted, wet, and beckoning me to visit in my lonesome state.
Raining straight down, looks like the wind took a vacation.
Fix your gaze June 20, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll, Financial Crisis, Uncategorized.add a comment
There are certain things that have changed since the “financial crisis” and presidential election: I am more discerning about my sources of information and the time I spend with them. Until mid-September 2008, I was largely indiscriminate about my information consumption. Get every bit from anywhere and worry about filtering it later, if then. But, like bad drugs or unhealthy food, there comes a time when the body and soul so rejects them, becomes “sick” due to them, that you either must cease or succumb. I decided to cease.
That doesn’t mean I took monastic vows or decided for an Amish lifestyle, but I decided to abstain in a way I never did before. Purely for self-preservation. You see, when you are in a sales career, a continuing diet of bad news, ingested without filter, is certain death. I decided against that. I chose to preserve my soul and body to fight the next day and the next. I knew I couldn’t manage that taking in an ever-increasing amount of depressing information. I had to re-focus. I did it like this:
I remembered the story of Peter believing so strongly that, having seen Christ walking on the water, he, too, could do it, and did. As long as his gaze was fixed on Christ, the roiling waters didn’t bother him. However, once his human condition over-took him, he began to sink. I decided I needed to fix my gaze on Christ, not the roiling waters, and rely on His strength and guidance…His “information”…and I would be alright. I would make it through the financial storm intact, even if roughed up a bit.
It has worked. I have lost some clients and gained new ones. My commissions are as good as last year and my sales are just a little under budget, but not nearly the horror stories I hear from colleagues and peer.
It’s not a matter of circumstances. It’s a matter of where you fix your gaze.
Random thoughts June 4, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll, Uncategorized.Tags: Glenn Cook, Print as the new vinyl, Tom Glavine
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TOM GLAVINE
The Atlanta Braves released Tom Glavine yesterday. This will not make history. We will not need to organize a “tag day” to relieve the stress from this Hall of Fame pitchers’ financial burden. Yet, it is a career like any other.
Few of us reached or will reach 43 years old and say, “That’s it! I’ve accomplished everything possible. Cash in the chips!” Most of our careers don’t require the exact things a pro athletes’ lifestyle requires, so it is a bit foreign to us to hear that maybe someone should hang it up at what we might consider an early age. I suppose that’s what Glavine thinks. He’s not alone, of course. The “elder statesmen” in most sports don’t grow old gracefully and don’t know when to quit. The latter is an admirable attribute in the prime of the career but becomes more like a 90-year-olds’ dream of running a marathon — a wonderful sentiment but one that doesn’t merit serious consideration. Michael Jordan with the Washington Wizards. Steve Carlton playing in the “Senior Baseball League”. Retired football players going to the WWE. The attention must be addictive. The spotlight, very cold when turned off or redirected to the next hero, must be an unforgiving darkness.
A final thought: the Atlanta Braves pitching staff of the 1990s was an awesome thing to behold: John Smoltz, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine, and a cast of others who made the Braves the division and league winners they were. Maddox finally hung it up. Smoltz looks like he’ll be next. Tom Glavine, if he considers it at all, has to know this is good company to be in, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of in walking away a winner. He can prove he can pitch for somebody this year, if he must. After that, join the rest of us mortals. It’s really not as bad as you might think.
PRINT AS THE “NEW VINYL”
From a report in FOLIO magazine today:
Glenn Cook, editor of American School Board Journal says print will eventually be “the new vinyl”. He said, “People still want long-form and crave full body, tactile print experience.”
Naturally, I’m jealous that I didn’t think of it first. But I will say I think print is already the new vinyl. In the recording industry chronology, vinyl gave way to tape which gave way to compact disc which has given way to MP3s and downloads requiring only a hard drive or thumb drive to reside upon…no “media” required.
But just as Blu-Ray and HD 1080p can deliver stunning video, it can take the edge or romance from the activity being captured. Sure, we like to see the athletes sweat during a game, but we don’t want to notice that actor was filmed in front of a green screen with the background filled in later. Print may seem very flat earth to Gen X-Y-Z, but it isn’t, as Cook points out. It is that long-form and full body which does one thing better than all the advanced forms of audio and video and dazzling Web 2.0 “apps”: it leaves you to your imagination. It has some fuzzy corners that you can fill in with your own thoughts and opinions.
Print is the new vinyl. It’s always there. It may fall out of fashion for a season, but it will ALWAYS be there.
