Over the last couple of months I have been running around like a crazy person.  I have spend the last couple of days looking back and realized I have lost focus on the things that I enjoyed the most, and I am going to make a concerted efforts to make the change to get more involved in the things that make me happy.

I really enjoy reading all about social media, and I have been out of the loop for a bit and it is time to change focus and regroup.

More to come soon.

Saw this very interesting article on the Top 10 Places You Can’t Go and there are some very interesting place on this list. Was working my way down this list and was surprised to see the number 1 item on the list. RAF Menwith Hill in England. Not only did I live on the base for 3 years my back yard was all of those white radomes. Was very surprised to see this on the list.

Top 10 Places You Can’t Go
http://listverse.com/2010/01/06/top-10-places-you-cant-go/

The Brave may not live forever – but the cautious do not live at all.

- Richard Branson

As with each person I always want to have a New’s Years resolution.  I think it is not so much of starting off a new year but more of changing some of the focus on where I spend some of my time and energy.  For me the timing just falls more around the new year so this would seem like a good time to try and make some changes.

While these efforts all respresent things I think i need to change i do recognize that I am human, and I am sure that some of the items that I list below will be on my list again next year.

So here we go, a small list of items that I want to change in the next year.

1. Blog on various sites more often.  I have a couple of ideas for blogs and I really want to try and do this more often.
2. Spend some time each week trying to do some exercise a couple of times a week.
3. Trying to become more laid back with EVERYTHING I do.  I want to channel an inner hippie and try and relax more on things that happen.  It seems as though this is something that easy to do with work, but not as easy with my kids.  I think my biggest fear here is that I will screw something up, in the end I want them to be more then I ever was, which I think is every parents dream.
4. Spend some time volunteering to help out my fellow man.  I believe in this thing called Karma, and I think good things come to those that help others.
5. Spend more time doing something creative…..I need to use the other side of my brain.
6. Create a great environment for my employees at work…….I want them to love coming into work each day.
7. Start more lifecasting, I love all of the social media options that are out on the market today.
8. Care less about what people think about me.

So with the New Year almost here, what do you want to do to change the habits or things in your life that you want to improve on?

I hope you have an AMAZING New Year!

Photo Credit

If you have not had the chance to see the Did you Know video I have posted it below. The video highlights some of the statistics of the modern technological workd we live in today. The numbers and things being said in this video are amazing, and worth watching the video all of the way through.

Recently I went back up to college and visited some of the fraternity brothers for an anniversary, and it made me think how much things have changed in our lives in just a short period of time. They all had cell phones, and wifi and laptops in their apartments. I can remember not getting my first cell phone till I was just about finished college, and it was huge. We did not have laptops, and those that had computers were considered the lucky ones.

My how times have changed.
Frank

So I was looking at an article over at Tech Crunch about is RSS dead, and I started to wondering are people still using RSS.  I used to use RSS all of the time but I think now that I never use them today.  I have begun to rely heavily on using Google  Reader as my tool of choice to keep up to date with all of my blogs.

I think as we begin to see Twitter take off we will begin to see other type of publishing platforms that will allow people to share infromation more easily.  The observation I am starting to notice is that technology is allowing more people to have their voice heard, and share that message to multiple people in an exponential way.

What are your thoughts?

Frank

My Mother and Father (my Mom is the one sitting and Dad has the red bowtie)

All growing up I had such a very happy childhood. I have lots of memories of me and my family doing things together and always making time for one another. As a rule we always had dinner together, and would talk about what went on that day. Our family lives were always filled with love and respect for one another. The funny thing is when my wife first met my family she would even joke and call us the white picket fence family. Made me feel real good and proud of the way I was raised. I even remember after I left the house I would still come back on Sunday for dinners with the family. I was and always will be a momma’s boy, and never had a problem with that. Looking back on things I think you can say we had the perfect life.

Once I got engaged to my wife I thought everything was going perfect, and then one day my world came crashing down. I went to the funeral of a good friend whose mother had passed away from Cancer. I never really met his mother but went to the viewing to show my support for him. That weekend I came home and was talking with my parents, and they asked me to come and sit down with them in the living room. My sister had gotten to my parents house a bit before me and was in a room and I did not really even think about where she was at that moment.

I sat next to my mother and father and we started to talk about things, then they told me they had some news for me. It was bad news, and I could see my mother starting to well up in her eyes. It was at that moment that I could sense something was not right. My mother looked at me and said the 3 worst words I have ever heard her say…. “I have Cancer”.

Dam my world just stopped still, and I just heard the worst news of my life. I did not even know how to process what she had just told me……I went into the other room and looked for my sister. She was in her old room crying about the news that Mom and Dad just told us. It was the most helpless feeling I had ever had to that point in my life.

Over the next couple of months my mother would begin the process of chemo, and all it began to take a toll on her as well as the family. Over time she began to lose her hair, and started to get it cut shorter. As time passed I could see that her overall health was getting worse. The color in her face was starting to go and I could tell it was not going to get any better. Close family friends were starting to try and spend more time with her and the family.

One night I had come home after visiting with my parents and late at night I got a call from my father, and it was one of the scariest calls he had ever made. He called to tell me that he needed me to come back to the house. Mom had gotten worse and he wanted me to come over to the house. I got in the car and went over to my parents house, and when I got there I remember seeing my father in the doorway to their bedroom looking into their room crying. He looked so helpless, and not sure what to do. When he looked up at me he said my mother does not know who he is at all. She was slipping in and out and does not know who she is or where she is right now. When i went into see my mother she did not know who I was. She just looked up and me and said hello, as she would have said to any stranger. This was one of the worst feelings I have ever felt. You go to your parents for support when you need them, and you always expect for them to love you unconditionally. I did not know what to say to my mother, or how to handle it when I looked at her.

Later that day we had to take mom to the hospital and when we got there we learned that the Cancer had spread to the brain. The progression from there on out went down hill extremely fast. My mother would slip in and out of awareness, and then soon slipped into a coma. It was the most gut wrenching experience of my life. I wanted to be there all the time to be with her, but on the negative side I saw her as she got worse each day. I know that when some people go through something like this some choose to stay away from the hospital. Now after going through all of this think I can understand some of that a bit. You see the images that are stuck in my head the most happen to be all of the final imagines of her in the hospital. Not that this is by choice, and I try to constantly look at other photos to get those images out of my head.

My mothers funeral ceremony, and when they lowered her into her grave is the single worst day of my life. I cannot explain to any degree the pain and sorrow I felt on that day. My mother died approximately 3 month before I got married. She never got to see my wedding day, never got to see the birth of my two kids, and watch me build a family.

I love my mother very much and not a day goes by that I do not think about her. My oldest son told me and my wife once that he can feel the presence of my mother sometimes. I miss her more then words can ever describe. In looking back at things I think my mother was the glue for the family. She made sure we all did things the right way, and had respect and love for each other.

Cancer is what killed my mother, and she got it from smoking. A habit that we have stressed with our kids, that will NEVER be tolerated in our house. She tried several things to quit but none of them ever worked.

The point of this post is both to act as a therapy tool and tell people what my experience was like. Make sure you respect and love your family and spend less time working and more time with them. We hear it all of the time that it is not how much you make but your family that matters. I can tell you now I would trade everything I have to have spent more time with my mother, to have my mother at my wedding, and to see my kids grow up.

I miss and love you Mom more then you can ever imagine, I will always remember the good times we had. You did a great job building our family and I can only hope that I can do half as good as a job as you and Dad did with us.

Love You

Frank

Wow the end of summer is proving to be a very busy time.  All is well with the family and everyone is getting ready to go back to school.  I am working on  number of things for my fulltime day  job as well as  couple of exciting new projects which I will share with you all soon.

I am looking forward to getting these projects moving forward, and am starting to get some creative vibes moving again.  Should prove to be a great fall season.

Frank