Category: Personal

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, a Bass and Basketball


Earlier this week as I was traveling to the Association Forum Holiday Showcase I wrote that locating national headquarters in Chicago makes sense because travel is more convenient than it is for many cities. I still think that’s true, but my experience over the next 24 hours made me glad that at least I didn’t have to spend the night with John Candy as a bunkmate.

Our plane departure from Rochester to Chicago was delayed until about 7:35 p.m., and then we had an excellent flight, 45 minutes at most. But when we got there we were in for a rude surprise: the pilot announced that all the gates were full, and we weren’t going to be able to disembark for about 35 minutes. About 45 minutes later, he came back on the intercom and said we still didn’t know when there would be an open gate. This was no Jet Blue situation; at least we knew that we didn’t have a flight ahead of us after the delay on the ground. But it did take about twice as long to get from the tarmac to the gate as it took to fly 300 miles from Rochester to Chicago.

I immediately headed for the train from the airport to the downtown Hyatt Regency. This was uneventful, but still took about an hour. I checked in to the hotel at about 11:15.

When I woke up at 6:15 to prepare for my presentation, I turned on the news and saw that an ice storm was headed our way. Must have had something to do with our gate problem the night before. And by 7:45 I had gotten the news that my flight back to Rochester had been canceled, so I was going to have to stay over another night.

Or would I? That’s where the automobiles part of this journey came in, as I rented a car right after my presentation for what turned out to be the seven-hour drive home. It was rainy in Chicago, but at the Wisconsin border it turned to slush, which meant that I was maxing at 45 mph for about an hour. But then I drove out of it, and made it back to Austin by about 6:15.

These were expensive tickets, as the Hertz pricing for a one-way rental was about six times the rate for a local rental. But I got to see my son Joe’s orchestra concert at 7, and my daughter Rebekah’s basketball game at 7:30. Well worth it. Here’s the combined 1:11 highlight reel:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLBXfaqDYt0]

And here’s the post I wrote highlighting some key steps association executives should take in exploring Facebook. All-in-all, it was a memorable day. I enjoyed the great give-and-take of discussion about Facebook and social networking, and still made it home to watch the Packer girls execute the give-and-go.

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A Cluster of Concord Grapes

As a point of personal privilege, I want to share a picture I think is adorable. Mainly because I adore this little boy. I’m nuts about his five older siblings, too, but we all are enjoying John, who turns 9 next month. He attended our costume party at church last night as a Cluster of Concord Grapes.

John Aase concord grape

When you have…

…you realize how quickly the years fly by. So Lisa and I are determined to get our full quota of enjoyment out of Johnny.

When Labor Day almost WAS “Labor” Day

A personal note as I wind up the month and prepare to unplug from the grid for a few days.

Sixteen years ago today my youngest daughter, Ruth, was born. That’s why I took the day off from work, and look forward to a four-day weekend, including Labor Day. Ruthie arrived three weeks early, and 50 weeks after her sister, Rebekah. So, for the next two weeks, I have two Sweet 16 daughters. Here they are on either side of their older sister, Rachel, at her wedding last December:

labor day

When my wife Lisa was pregnant with either Rebekah or Ruth (I can’t remember which), I told her that maybe this year Labor Day really would be “Labor” day. She didn’t think that was particularly funny.
With one born on August 31 and the other September 14, we also have the unusual and maybe even unique distinction of having two daughters, not twins, in the same class in school. Others have kids who are the same age for a few weeks each year, but Ruthie beat the September 1 deadline to join Rebekah in the Class of 2009 by three hours.

Lisa and I are thankful for the blessings we have in these girls and their four siblings (two older and two younger), and look forward to a great, long weekend with family and friends.

Labor Day blessings to you all.

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Looking Back: One Year of Blogging

one year of blogging
It was a year ago Monday that I launched this blog with three posts, the first of which alluded to mine being one of 50 million or so. Now Technorati says there are something over 70 million non-spam blogs.


As you look in the archives, you’ll note that my first posts were on July 30, 2006 and then I went dark until September 21. I wasn’t sure it would really be “OK” to have a blog, but then I got the responsibility for New Media as part of my work portfolio, so I decided to really plunge in and learn. Since then I’ve done 212 other posts, or nearly two every three days.

Here are some highlights, themes and lessons learned from my first year of blogging.

I’ve done several book reviews, including The Tipping Point and Blink! by Malcolm Gladwell, Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter, I Dare You! by William Danforth, Pyromarketing by Greg Stielstra, Wikinomics and, most recently, Made to Stick. I recommend all of them.

One book I didn’t review, but which has been the concept behind many posts, is David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Click here to read my thoughts on GTD.

I’ve blogged, some of them live, several conferences and seminars, including a Ragan conference in Chicago (where I met Jeremiah), the WHPRMS conference for health-care PR and marketing professionals, an Advanced Learning Institute conference in October, and a similar one in April. More recently, a colleague and I attended and presented at a healthcare marketing conference in Orlando, and last week I was on a panel at the Frost & Sullivan Sales & Marketing East 2007 event. Liveblogging is a great way to take notes on presentations, so I can refer to sites mentioned by the presenters. If it helps others, that’s a nice bonus.

I discovered that my blog was a great place to share personal and family highlights, from our Bible Bowl vacation, to my daughter Rachel’s wedding, to our electronic, multimedia Christmas letter.

On the media front, this has been the year of the buyout and layoff, particularly with newspapers. That has lots of implications for people like me who work with news media.
My biggest surprise, though, was a post on a related topic, when Dr. Max Gomez lost his position as the on-air doctor at WNBC. I began to notice that this post was getting visits every day, even several months after I wrote it. Then I noted that my WordPress.com dashboard was telling me that “Dr. Max Gomez” was a phrase people were using to find my blog. I thought, wow, are people searching for Dr. Max Gomez on Technorati? That must be how people are finding it, right?

I was surprised when I did the search in Google and found what you see below:

picture-4.jpg

Somehow my blog post ranked ahead of Wikipedia’s entry on Dr. Max in Google!

I found something similar with my review of John Kotter’s penguin parable. Which just does go to show that blogs are naturally built for search optimization.

Most recently, I’ve been amazed by Facebook, which has led to several other posts.

It’s been a great year of learning, and while I’ve invested some time, the financial cost has been zero.

Where else but the blogosphere can you learn so much at no cost?

I’m looking forward to continuing my education!

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Bible Bowl 2007

Bible Bowl 2007 was a great experience for our family, as I took the week off and traveled with my wife, four of our six kids and my parents to stay at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City for the four-day event.

The Austin team took 10th place in the double-elimination team Bible Bowl competition. My daughter Ruth led the team, her brother Joe was the captain, and their sister Rebekah also participated. Here they are just before their first game on Thursday, against the eventual national Bible Bowl champions from Worthington, Ohio.

Bible Bowl Team from Austin

Unfortunately, Bible Bowl rules don’t allow videotaping of the team competitions, so I can’t show how intense and skilled these young men and women are. Worthington played exceptionally well, coming back from a Thursday morning loss to win two games in the finals Thursday afternoon against Kissimmee, Florida.

Here are Rebekah, Joe and Ruth on the Bible Bowl awards platform:

Bible Bowl awards ceremony
…and here’s the video of them receiving their medals. The reaction Joe got when everyone found out he’s only a sixth grader was pretty funny.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl3ZNLMctJs]

In a previous post, I showed the Quote Bee highlights, which gives you an idea of how well the participants committed the text to memory. Which leads into the next video and picture, from the Thursday afternoon Bible Bowl awards ceremony.

Each Bible Bowl tournament starts with a written test. During the monthly round robin events it’s a 150-point test they call the “Brain Test” on the chapters that have been covered to date. In the college tournaments in June, the tests get longer and more difficult, and at Nationals it’s a 400-point monster, and its formally called the National Bible Bowl Achievement Test. Here’s the video of the awards ceremony where the top 20 were recognized. (I pick up with the top 5):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZjiGdFGZBs]

And here’s a picture of Brandi Gass from New Life in Ohio, and my daughter, Ruth Aase, who tied for first with a score of 350. Brandi took first on the tie-breaker. Congratulations, Brandi!
Bible Bowl Achievement Test Winners

That’s another thing I wanted to highlight about the competition: it was intense, and everyone did their best to win, but everyone was honestly happy for those who won. After a game when they shook hands, it wasn’t easy to tell who won by their demeanor. All the kids are friends and wish each other the best. That’s a life lesson I need to apply as I’m watching Rebekah and Joe in volleyball, football and basketball.

I want to conclude my posts on this week’s Bible Bowl experience with a special thanks to Tracey and Geri Chamberlain and their son Jason for their coaching. Tracey and Geri have been doing this for more than 30 years, and previously had some larger teams, or multiple teams from Austin. This year the team has been just Ruth and Joe, until Rebekah joined them for Nationals.

Rebekah and Joe have their sports, too, but for Ruthie this is her extracurricular competitive outlet, and she takes it very seriously. We’re so thankful to God for the Chamberlains and their willingness to work with Ruthie nearly every day to help her become her best. They are a delightful family, and clearly they take delight in Bible Bowl and in having a competitive team, but still it is a wonderful blessing to have them pour so much time and attention into Ruth.

Psychologists say parental involvement is a key predictor of a child’s success in life. Our kids have had that, especially being homeschooled by my wife, Lisa. Another important success factor is attention from other significant adults, and the Chamberlains have certainly given that to our kids, too, as Rachel, Rebekah, Ruth and Joe all have gained from participating in Bible Bowl under their leadership.

Here’s a picture of Tracey with his Austin Bible Bowl team, just before their game against Yuma, Arizona.

Bible Bowl team picture

Thanks to Tracey, Geri and Jason for standing behind Ruthie and the rest of our kids!

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