I’m reasonably fit. And, it’s likely I can outrun, and outfit, just about anyone reading this post.
However, I’ll grudgingly admit that even jumping from airplanes into the Jungles of Brazil, just to see if we can fight our way out is mundane compared to this:
I suppose I should add a warning not to try that without the proper training. On the other hand, it’s trying that makes most points. It’s not little league baseball. It’s okay to win. And, you do that by taking calculated risks.
When I was about ten, Curtis Burton the Third and I lifted his Mom’s new silk sheets and formed a parachute (of shorts). It worked good enough. When I came to, it was under the strain of my own Mothers words to the effect: “If you are okay, baby, I’m going to kill you!”
I always thing you have to try. So, does this mean we can run from failure? And, do I fear the result of not giving my best?
Next, I’ll admit that I’m not so sure where I’ll go with this particular post. I guess we’ll, collectively, know, only when our paths converge there. Along the way, I just might be looking for something we can all appreciate relative to what life’s twists-and-turns might offer us.
A few weeks ago I ran into Jane Pope and her daughter Madison at a Starbucks. I had my own little Emma Jo with me. We were hanging-out and running errands. We had only just climbed back into my Porsche, and I was looking at Emma Jo while she was describing one of her books to me, when I looked up and past her and saw Jane’s Jaguar. A lot can blow through ones mind in a whirl-wind. But, Jane looked great, and heroic, in light of, well, just everything. But, I started thinking about daughters, and paths, and the future, and the roles of Dads, in the lives of daughters.
So… I pay a lot of attention to my daughters. But, recently more so. It seems like my “spider sense” is up, or something akin to it.
Sure enough, Haley Anne was bit by a spider two weekends ago during a soccer tournament. She led us into the finals and apparently endured agony while doing so. The wound is still puffy and we are apparently at risk of staph – and, the fear of sepsis. Oooohhh God, help me. Then, on top of that she hauled-off and grew up on me a bit more, having just turned fourteen, and is statuesque and gorgeous, and all that. But, while I was fussing over her and trying to teach her, well, something, I was reminded that everything ends up …connected.
I’ve been tracking a group of entrepreneurs working on a very cool (and change-oriented) technology that Bill was championing. I had reached out to Jane to make sure she would benefit. And, then an old roommate of Bill’s found the post you’ve peeked at and likely shared with your friends already. And, I found myself forging pathways that I hope will intersect in a way that will indirectly help Bill with Madison. And, I pray that goodly men (did you know that behind every great man there is some woman rolling her eyes?) will rally to my own children (and, Joanne) if I don’t make it home one day.
Man… I am really struggling with this piece. But, this is transparency. Living the authentic life.
In any event, go to the comments section of the blog concerning Bill. Do it now! You’ll find the note from his buddy Bruce, whom apparently lost his way with Bill. But, maybe now he can shed some light on another path for Madison.
I’ll simply end this post, here, with my restated response to Bruce, within those comments, for the sake of posterity, with the hopes all of it means something, and the convergence is a good thing, given all the unexpected steps.
“Hello Mr. Waller.
And, welcome, here.
No matter your paths I’ll suspect Bill had you in his heart. He was a stout and loyal fellow, that one.
My immediate take-away from your comment will have me pondering the following words from Wayland – “…who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity; whose deed follows his word; … who appears well in any company; a man with whom hanor is sacred and virtue safe”, paints a good picture of “Willie Red”.
It’s also interesting to me that the type of man I most often like to bask with have inexplicably found themselves favored by a college professor at one point or another. I did not know about Bill’s relationship with your Dr. Gabbard. But, I can’t be surprised. Its likely along the same lines as my own with Dr. Pappas at Radford University.
I’m, and only just now, struck by a thought, that is possibly an inspiration… Deliver a hand-written note to Bill’s daughter Madison (via Jane of course). Tell her a story about Bill from his youth. But, make the best example of what a terrific gentleman he was, and how she should only allow for such a man in her own life one day. Bill had high standards. Lets work together to make sure Madison realizes those as well. So, regardless of your lost path with Bill, you can now help, in this small way, ensure his daughter walks the right one.
And, trust me, Mr. Waller… This will help you as well.”
Last week – let’s pin this on Monday – Haley Anne was still thirteen. Long legs, almond-eyed, and a fury on the soccer pitch. I’ll add adored by her Daddy, for good measure. But, that’s hardly news to the loyal followers of this Blog.
Haley Anne has always been wired for independence. She was never likely to hurl herself off of a four-story roof top with a home made parachute like I did at ten. But, she has her own mind and the steely resolve to realize it. She’s been a handful lately getting the sense of herself with all the trials-and-tribulations that come with being a teenage girl in the savage hallways of Middle School. All-in-all I’m quite pleased with her. Joanne takes the brunt and the heat of Haley Anne’s hormone-drenched temperament, while I still have more opportunities than not to be the hero. But, I’m navigating dark waters on any given day.
Mondays… They loom over us don’t they? Whereas Tuesdays are best for police raids, it’s Mondays that herald a week full of opportunity. …This includes life’s unexpected lessons.
Last Monday was the first day of the new school year and Haley Anne is now in the eighth grade. Middle school is tough, and the girls that are found in the halls are often colorful enough to put a New York City Vice Squad on edge. Haley Anne arrived safely home (she actually enjoys the bus) and was full of war stories. Most of them are of middling consequence, to me, any way – and, to yourselves, naturally. And, I was probably more focused on the evening’s soccer practice, and being content with the fact that her dress was evidently well regarded, her classes found without adventure, and her lunch crowd cordial.
We’ll step lively forward with this tale, acknowledging only that the above preamble is insufficient to signal the change of life that has forever altered my own world view. …That aforementioned, and unexpected, life lesson.
Dinner was a quick bite of lasagna before we were off to practice. That went swell as usual. Then home to a few quick emails and bed. Sleep comes fast in my head. The pillow and a death-like coma are quick and easy friends, for me.
But… With her uncanny ability to unhinge me from any deep sleep Joanne shoved my shoulder later that evening with a curt:
“you need to read this”.
What I heard in Joanne’s voice was a mixture of bemused angst (its possible, and Joanne, being English has it perfected). I wasn’t expecting a foreclosure notice or ransom note so I was a bit slow to pull myself together for thought leadership. However glowing in the dark, and hovering in front of my face was Haley Anne’s iPhone (I knew this because mine is an iPhone 4, while Haley Anne’s is a 3G, and emma Jo’s 3G [minus SIMs Card] has a crack in the screen). All this quickly spun out of my head as I was shocked into alertness by the message:
“I LOve You. Let’s get back together”.
I’m not sure if it was adrenalin, fear, anger, numbing shock, or unrepentent outrage that surged through my body like spinach might Pop-eye from the old cartoons. But, I must have read the message ten times before I simply asked Joanne:
“who the hell sent that to Haley Anne?”
The simple response was:
“_____ – the kid from summer”.
So… Here’s the abbreviated background scenario…
Many of Haley Anne’s friends are involved in some form or another with “boyfriends”. In our household, the rule is NO BOYFRIENDS until our daughters are fifteen years of age. None. That’s it. And, that means the stuff that goes along with boyfriends. Any of it. Period. Haley Anne apparently caught the eye of this young fellow last year, and he launched a deluge of texts at her all summer. Joanne had a series of talks with Haley Anne that I won’t burden you with. But, we were satisfied that Haley Anne understood the rules and we have a clear and binding covenant in our family. I trust my daughter. And, I’m developing trust and faith in her judgment. I’m training her to be a leader in both her thinking and actions.
All along the way, I’m also being trained by my daughters, and life, as seen through their eyes, to be more open-minded and open-hearted.
I drove Haley Anne to school the next day. I asked her along the way if she wanted to talk to me about “_____”. She paused before answering barely enough to gather her breath because she’s a quick thinker, and wit, that one.
“he’s only a friend Daddy. I know what I want; and, it’s not a boyfriend. I just like having a lot of great friends.”
That helped me. And, reaffirmed Haley Anne has her wits about me – or, is a brilliant actress. I’ll submit there is all that afoot. But, here is how I’m handling this matter:
“I love you with all my heart, and I’m more proud of you you each and every day. There is a lot of change afoot. And, I need your help. If you ever think you know what love is, or start to have feelings for some lucky lad, I want you to try something… In fact, let’s give it a go this week… Find a poem that you think and feel is about love. You can’t be wrong. Just try. Just like in football (soccer) – give it your best. You can never disappoint me with effort. It’s all about interpretation. All I really care about is your opinion, your thinking, and your feelings. You can write the poem if you want to. The only rule is that it has to be something you would be willing to read and give to a person you think you love. That might be a test that you are ready to share your heart with someone other than me.”
My voice cracked, just a bit. So, she knew where all of this was coming from.
She was quiet. And, looked at me. I got the simple, slow, gentle nod with the far away look behind the eyes.
I love being a Dad. And, I trust my daughter. I’m putting a lot of faith on the line. I feel great. But, I also have the same feeling in the pit of my stomach that I have before a big race or other competition.
For the sake of a balanced argument – and fair, possibly, unbiased opinions (think: informed decision-making), Electronista has a short article on the: lack of Flash for WebOS.
My views over Steve Jobs’ and Apples position relative to Adobe and it’s sagging Flash products are well considered, documented, and understood (consider my prior post:the Flash on apple debate isn’t PC). But, now that Adobe has finally released Flash 10.1 and released it from it’s beta status, allow me to sum-up the current state of Flash on Mobile Devices:
1. Every non-geek (and people that think they are, otherwise, informed, I have talked to thinks that Flash works on every current phone except the iPhone.
2. Adobe says that Flash 10.1 will work on every mobile device (except Apple). Is this passive aggressive behavior? Or, possibly a marketing twist that inappropriately paints Apple the villain.
3. Adobe has demonstrated a slow, buggy and very crash-prone beta of 10.1 on Android OS 2.2 that appears to ONLY works on the (Google) Nexus One (the phone that all of you know I tried in good faith, and then handed over to my eight year old daughter [who prefers her 3G iPhone]).
4. Palm says Adobe hasn’t given “any sign” it’s close to Flash 10.1 for WebOS.
5. And Flash 10.1 doesn’t run on any other phone, either.
Yet the lack of mobile Flash support is still seen as an Apple problem.
I love that. This continues to demonstrate that the collective we look to Apple for leadership – even in ways the masses (followers) can’t fathom.
The big news out of Madrid is that Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has married Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, his (on-and-off-again) partner for the past 20 years.
The wedding was apparently a big secret.
What is evidently no secret is that the prolific Iglesias is determined to single-handidy increase the population of Spain.
For me, the most interesting element of this fertile story is that Iglesias, who is sixty-six, chose to marry the mother of five of his children. He was previously married to Isabel Preysler who apparently only managed to have three of his children (evidently there was not enough “on” in this particular on-and-off-again relationship).
Rumor has it that the plucky Rijnsburger was actually narrowly out-birthed by the hapless, and thusly, unmarried, Theodora Ichibotty, who managed a whopping six Iglesias offspring, even though that relationship was clearly “on” a good deal. However, Ichibotty has a left eye that some times rolls back into her head – apparently the direct result of cranial pressure from too much baering-down. This apparently affected her ability to view Iglesias’ concerts or see him coming when he needed things to be “on”.
The wedding took place at the Virgen del Carmen church in the southern jet-set resort of Marbella.
Rev. Roberto Rojo Aguado, one of three priests who celebrated the ceremony (because one was clearly not enough), told The Associated Press on Friday that the couple were married Tuesday. He said the ceremony was attended by only two witnesses (about the size of his current fan base) – and, the couple’s five children.
One of my business partners advised me this morning that I remind him, and daily, of the “Dos Equis Guy” – who is apparently “the most interesting man in the world”.
I’m on my third consecutive day of virtually no sleep. Haley Anne’s spider bite and related issues, an international business schedule, and the crisis currently surrounding my Shockers threatens to put me on the ropes.
However, I’m wired to beat the odds, and my DNA more often than not defeats adversity. Character is certianly best demonstrated when tested, eh.
So… In the proper spirit of this type of man, I’ll without humbleness offer:
“No matter what life throws at me I always win the lottery, even though I’ve never purchased a ticket”.
And,
“I’ll deny sleep it’s own satisfaction, if I must, but only because its the closest thing there is to death. My super powers are so obvious that Mother Nature needs my internal clock to make sure the sun sets, and the birds know when to chirp.”
And, our favorite…
“God has tasked Mother Nature with a new marketing program for evolution called: ‘The Laws of Brian’s Selection’”.
I’m thinking it was either early 2001 or 2002 when David Gardner, the co-founder of The Motley Fool, and I were hanging out here in Atlanta in a local hotel bar pondering optimistic investment options, when it dawned on me how technology is, and will remain, a two-edged sword.
Between the two of us we had six gadgets scattered across a small table that included bulky cellular telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s), and one pager (his, not mine), and a camera (again, his not mine). Since, statistically, the odds are good you are reading this blog, and you are at least thirty four years of age, you are probably thinking back with the vision of a similar array of your own.
I was telling David how one of my investors (think Palm Pilot and then PalmOne) that I was coaching and a company I was recruiting for called Handspring had collaborated around the Handspring Vizor devices (that, as you might know, then evolved into the Treo line of products) working with a cellular company to form (what is now) a “smart phone”. The Handspring was a PDA that you could now also use as a phone using a Sprint snap-on module (and, yes, I was an early adopter)! So, you had the least amount of “stuff” you needed to do a lot of business on the fly. By the way… The Handspring and Palm collaboration realized one of the first efforts to utilize USB connectivity for synchronization, and worked brilliantly with the Macintosh operating system out-of-the-box.
I was pondering my gadgets when I looked at him and asked:
“Do you think all this technology simplifies your life and business, or creates more stress and confusion?”
That was another of my “Forrest Gump” moments as we subsequently witnessed that Motley Fool take a lead in driving a great deal of attention around convergence and mobile technology platforms.
With the advent of Apple’s iPad (and, obviously the iPhone) maybe the answer to my question today is: “as complicated as you prefer”.
I think Nicholas Johnson would appreciate that because he likes to fidget and tweak stuff, in the spirit of all things Windows and Google. He is also apparently offended by things “that just work (a la Apple).
And, this will bring me around to what is currently a continued bastion of confusion – the PC (to be sure all computers are, essentially “PC’s” – some are just more PC, or useful, or work, for that matter, than others) – all of them aspiring to be compared to an Apples.
I have an iPhone and I’ve owned hundreds of computers (mostly Apples).
Here is another question in this time of economic uncertainty, continued efforts around convergence, mobility and the unending quest for what the real “truth” is, any where:
“are computers portals to chaos or confusion?”
Today, if you are under forty years of age, and asked a question, you will almost always go to Google.com for the answer. And, this might be where we realize the true cost of chaos. There is an old rule that allows: “if it’s in writing, it must be true”. Print is a powerful tool or weapon – and, misinformation can be the result.
Picture the twenty five year old “techie”, all-sophomoric, to be sure, at a cocktail party when they get challenged with a great question. The first thing they’ll do is whip out their Treo (well… maybe not) or Android device, fire up Firefox and google the question. Whether the information they find is accurate or not, it will often be touted as gospel and spread like wild-fire.
Think about it… If you Google a topic, most of what you read as a result is from blogs (sic), websites designed to influence thinking, white papers based on uncertain facts, “chat” responses posted on written articles of uncertain origin, etc. Other sources of information those which you find on MSN that can include media-hyped head-lines about the stock market and other economic reporting that is rarely based in fact. And, this is what forms our thinking and opinions daily. Wikipedia might have some credibility due to its community-based self-regulation that suggests some integrity from the intellectual community. But, how do you know if you don’t balance the information against information possibly found in a library or research facility.
I studied Social History (not a widely promulgated course-of-study, and some what “unofficial”) – or why things happened at Radford University and through other programs most of you won’t have access too. And, that has helped form my super powers perspective and position as a heterodox and contrarian. For example, if I read about a certain stock on a blog or through an oped, I know how to verify the information – and, first via skepticism. I focus on what most people don’t realize what they don’t know.
I also ask a lot of questions and always cross-reference. And, that is where I’ll end this piece and hope you pass this on as both a historical perspective of reference, and a warning around how to absorb knowledge, form your own super powers for good use, and be part of the solution, and not the problem.
Peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.
Brian Patrick Cork
what’s all this about?
I can’t explain what that damn tree means - or, if it might stand for something.
However, here I do discuss events, people and things in our world - and, my (hardly simplistic, albeit inarticulate) views around them.
So, while I harangue the public in my not so gentle way, you will discover that I am fascinated by all things arcane, curious about those whom appear religious, love music, dabble in politics, loathe the media, value education, still think I am an athlete, and might offer a recipe.
All the while, striving mightily, and daily, to remain a prudent and optimistic gentleman.
brian cork by John Campbell
Current Quote
"Perhaps victory can be realized best when the heart changes."
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about this particular Theme:
I'll warn you now that Tarski is theme of this blog created by Benedict Eastaugh and Chris Sternal-Johnson. It is named for the logician Alfred Tarski. I'll recommend his papers ‘The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages’ and ‘On the Concept of Logical Consequence’, both of which can be found in the collection Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics.
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