Rothacker Reviews

Hope, Love and Remembering my Dad

My Dad passed away on the fifth of November. He was seventy-nine years old. I wrote a remembrance and recited it at St Joan of Arc church, located in Streetsboro, Ohio, on November 11th. My sister Debra, encouraged me to post it here.

Debra, our brother Michael and myself were the victims of parental(s) alcohol abuse as children. It is important to reveal this personal detail because as you read through my words, you will not come to this conclusion on your own. Growing up was hard, damn hard. And the demons that visited the doorstep of our youth sunk their talons in and rode our backs into adulthood.

Respect and love paralleled the abuse. This took our brains and emotions and, with bone crushing centrifugal force, distorted our reality. In the end however, respect and love prevailed.

The end began in the mid-seventies. But first, here are my words:

Hillsborough County Schools Receive Gates' Foundation Money

Titled "Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching," Hillsborough County Schools received a $100 million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The entire grant totaled $290 million dollars with the balance awarded to: Memphis City Schools, Pittsburgh City Schools and The College-Ready Promise.

The Hillsborough County School weathered a year long application process, competing with other school districts throughout the United States. Melinda Gates said, "These communities have shown extraordinary commitment to tackling one of the most important educational issues of our time. We must do everything we can to understand what makes teachers effective and cultivate those qualities across the profession, in every school and classroom, so that all students can benefit." Melinda's comment here supports our school district's effort to help our kids.

The HCS district, school board and teacher union leadership worked together to make this happen. It will be interesting to watch this program unfold. I suspect that there will be a contingent of teachers who protest. After all, it is they whose effectiveness and performance will be evaluated, and ultimately dealt with.

I say this with cautious optimism, but it is good to see that the teacher's union supports this.  We are not dealing with the handling of factory widgets here, we are dealing with our kids' future. Pay particular attention to those teachers who do oppose this plan. Listen carefully to their arguments. Evaluate how their case benefits your kids and their education.

The Gate's Foundation is also including the HCS in a $45 million dollar grant titled Measures of Effective Teaching.

Congratulations to all those folks who worked hard here to provide a better level of education for our kids!

Hillsborough County Schools press release

Go Greyhound, and leave the driving to us

Random dave bus facts:

• I never rode a yellow school bus to school
• I rode in a ton of them when I went canoeing
• I rode city buses to school
• I rode city buses to Cleveland Indian ballgames
• Once, a pack of us 8th graders took a bus to a ballgame. We missed our bus coming back. We navigated our way to the light rail (rapid transit) station in the middle of downtown Cleveland and took a train out to the suburbs. The train didn't go to our suburb so we had to call our parents to pick us up.
• I thought riding in a Greyhound bus was the coolest thing in the world. That same 8th grade class traveled to Washington D.C. in one. 

Check out the new Greyhound Bus design: 

More on the new Greyhound

Greyhound the early years -Download Greyh1

Greyhound the early years - Download Greyh2

Coyote in Flatwoods Park

I am riding on the back side of the seven mile loop yesterday, one mile before the two mile cut-off to Bruce B. Downs Blvd., when a ranger signals me over. He says, "you want to see something really cool?" He tells me to look right, down the service road at Clay's Gulley. He says there's a big coyote sunning himself about one hundred yards down.

So I get to Clay's Gulley and look left down the service road where I see three deers grazing. And then I look right, and see the coyote, and he sees me. I've never seen a coyote this big in my life. He trotted a few feet in the opposite direction and turned back to look at me. He repeated this twice more and then trotted out of site.

I get that coyotes are skittish and encounters with humans are generally rare. But the sheer size of this one... If you walk, bike, jog or roller blade in the park, make sure you are aware of your surroundings.

Ironically, last week in this very section of the park I ran over a pygmy rattler. I usually cruise at 11mph, but for twenty seconds in the middle of a long bike ride, I get the notion to crank it up. I came around this one turn and was on the snake before I could make an adjustment. It slithered off.

Three deers

 

One big coyote

How do you do? Why, I'd like you to meet my numbers.

Imagine... the cement deck off the mansion's south side is appointed with luxurious fountains and greenery. Tables topped with marble, draped in white linens and umbrella'd in shade dot the landscape. Servants dressed in silk blouses, short skirts and white gloves serve finger food and drinks. Socialites schooled in etiquette and branded in fashion politely converse on polite topics. A dashing young man approaches, intent on spreading good will and harmony says, "how do you do? Why, I'd like you to meet my numbers."

NOT!

You don't have to imagine - bands and bands of frustrated little men wearing gray suites, starched white shirts and boring ties bunch close together while jumping up and down while clutching their blackberries while talking to their minions on pieces of plastic jammed in their ears while jumping up and down, while jumping up and down -- in a mad frenzy while all looking straight ahead while worshiping the gods of their corporation while now yelling into their plastic ear pieces at their subordinates in a frenzied desperate pleading demanding pissing themselves voice, "meet my numbers! meet my numbers - before the end of the month, before the end of the quarter!"

NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Old People Who Run the World...............,

"We want to be doing great stuff that matters."     Umair Haque

Me too Umair, even though I'm kind of an old people. Rock on brother.

I think I'm with Jimi on this one:          

          White collared conservative flashing down the street,

Pointing their plastic finger at me.

They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die,

But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high...

What Barack Obama Means to me?

Before talking about Barack, I must first tell you how I feel about politicians: Older men in gray suits who smile while they are talking to you and after they've finished talking to you, you come to find out they haven't said one meaningful thing; the stuff they talk about in public never comes true and they help rich people out. So, while America told me that my vote counted, I thought, NOT. Like a newspaper advertisement I tuned it all out. I would have been lucky to name our country's vice president at any point over the last forty years.

I did however, feel politically passionate about one thing: I could never be a....a republican, a democrat,  a anything other than a American*. I agree at times with stuff the herd agrees on. But when it comes time to jumping off the cliff, drinking the Kool Aid or saying, "I believe this because I am Democrat", you can bet davo will have a parachute strapped to his back.

Barack Obama means my voice, opinion and click count for something. Some say that Hillary Clinton ran a strategically correct campaign for the Democratic nomination, raising more money than anyone before, lining up the right supporters and consultants. Hillary and her old world politics were set to steam roll Washington D.C. Hillary however, forgot about you, I and a few of our friends. Hillary forgot about the power of social networking. 

Due to Barack's willingness to harness social networking and the obvious results, I began to pay attention to our government - more so than any time in my life. I realize that this might not be an admirable thing to admit, but it's the truth. 

The power of social networking is a wondrous thing to behold. If it can help to move Barack, a minority, into the White House, imagine what it can do for social causes in desperate need of you and I.

*poetic license :-)

Ideaspotting

Ideaspotting by Sam Harrison

Ideaspotting is a book designed to help you generate ideas and to become more creative.

Did you ever dig into a book that was supposed to help you be more creative, and find yourself entangled in exercises so complex and tedious that they forced you into being creative, like using the book for a door stop? Well, Ideaspotting is not like that.

In another book of his Zing!, author Sam wrote about the following five-step process for generating ideas:

• Explore
• Freedom
• Pause
• Embrace
• Life

Ideaspotting focuses on the Explore stage. Sam underscores to explore with the actions of observing and listening. Please allow me to back away from Sam's book for a second and try to capture a 60,000 foot view.

Pretend that you have a problem that is contained in one room and you need a solution. Or you need to come up with an idea in relation to this room. The first thing you need to do is to observe and listen to the room. You need to be aware of details, ambiguities and nuances. Then you need to go out into the world for answers. Sam labels this Firing-Range exploring.

We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.                                             John Hope Franklin

In Free-Range exploring, Sam says to fill your work with life. This means to go out into the world and by way of a multitude of experiences, fill your life well. For the most part, how to fill your well is what the book is about. The following are examples:

360-Degree Exploring - Dive into your world and understand how wide it is. Sam lists categories of suggestions like personal surroundings, entertainment, internet, nature, customers, kids and a whole lot more to get you started.

Look into lifestyles - What publications, Web sites and events can help you monitor lifestyles?

Watch where people are and watch what they do - It ain't gonna happen sittin' on the couch.

Really listen - Sam uses this quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti: When you are listening to somebody completely and attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

Ask a ton of questions - Do I really need to elaborate on this one?

Watch what thrills people - Make note of what people are WOWED by.

Make notes - When out in the world make notes in notebooks, sketchbooks, index cards or by camera or voice recorder. Be a reporter to your editor self.

Build and work your network - You know the drill.

Learn from your mistakes - Mark Twain says it best: I knew a man who grabbed a cat by the tail and learned 40% more about cats than the man who didn't.

Get out into the world - Travel to the corner of your street or to another continent. The world is your classroom.

Ideaspotting is one of the best books of its kind that I have ever read. And on a personal taste level, the book's design is absolutely intoxicating.

Ideaspotting was smoked-n-signed.

You Get to Choose a Sister

If life has treated you right, you've experienced the unique emotional bond that is part of having a sister. Regardless if you are a guy or girl, a sister is a friend, confidant, support-system and cherished companion. There is no other human being on the planet like your sister - even if you have a bunch of them. No one can take her place. Although in earlier years I didn't cherish my sister for the remarkable person she was and is, I do now and I am blessed beyond words to have her in my life.

But this isn't about that special sister by blood nor is it about replacing her. This is more about perception, indirect branding and who, given the power, you would like to have as a sister. This can't be a person who you personally know however, or one who you have interacted with online.

So, whether or not you are a girl or guy, who would you like to have as a sister and why?

My choice, based solely upon the works of hers that I've read, is Julia Cameron. As an author, Julia has revealed much about her personal life and, in ways that I am not like my own sister, there are many things that I don't share with Julia. Although I am not in her league, we do share the ability to absorb life, run it through our personal filters and watch it come out the wet end of our pens. I would so cherish the ability to pick up the phone, call her and rap about life and writing in a casual, sibling type of way.

As I said, this exercise is more about perception and indirect branding. I do have women in my life who I consider as sisters, who I can call up and rap about life and writing and who I am most thankful for.

Who would you like to have as a sister today?

Lassoing Success

When you were a kid and had hair and dried your hair with a blow drier and wore platform shoes, did you ever lasso the drier's cord around a drawer knob or some other object in the bathroom?

When you were a kid and played pretend cowboy, did you ever try to lasso an object in the yard, one of your mother's flower pots or your little sister?

How many times did you successfully lasso that flower pot? How many times did you successfully lasso something in the bathroom? My success ratio in the bathroom was prolific. That cord wrapped itself around stuff in such ways that I could safely rappel down a mountain.

I wonder if success isn't much like lassoing? The harder you try, the more it slips away from you. The less you try, the more likely it will come.

Speaking of hair driers, did you ever drop the cord end on your toe? How could something so light hurt so much?

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkirkhart35/ / CC BY 2.0

Networking in Tampa

How comfortable do you suppose a baby deer would be in a den full of wolves?

I thought this was about networking Dave.

Well I was about to present a networking tip when suddenly I realized that I was about as qualified to dole out networking tips as a baby deer is at negotiating itself out of a room full of wolves.

Rosemary and I attended a Less Than Six Degrees networking event the other evening at Cheap in South Tampa. Take a guess who is more uncomfortable at a networking event than a baby deer is at... So, as I settled in to an evening of daveawkwardness, I did what I always do - I watched other people. 

I should say, prior to slipping into full blown daveawkwardness, a few of the event's hosts introduced themselves to us and made us feel most welcome. Rosemary is not a social misfit. So as she begins to talk to people I look for cover and begin to observe.

The first thing I notice is how many people are at this event. A lot. A friendly atmosphere courses through the room. This speaks volumes about the organizers. I've been to other events where a much colder crowd prevailed.  While there were probably some affluent people there, the general sense that I got about the average attendee was that of a middle class professional in age groups all over the spectrum. 

The second thing I notice are the smart phones and the skill in which people whip them out, dial into a screen, balance their drink and use them, and use them over the din of the music and in the close proximity of others. 

Here is my tip for folks like me. Look around the room for others who appear to be as uncomfortable as you. Suck it up, walk over to them and welcome them to the event. This will break the ice for you and will make them feel more at ease. They'll think you're an old timer. When you tell them that it's your first time there you'll all get a good laugh.

Next time I'm at one of these events, I'll get Rosemary to do this and then I'll report back to you.

By the way, all proceeds from the Less Than Six Degrees event were donated to All Children's Hospital. Very cool.