We Are Penn State, and We Are Proud — A Message to the Pride

10. November 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: family, football, giving back, hope, penn state, struggles, tragedy

IMG_0092Brothers, sisters, friends and family; We Are Penn State.

We are not defined by the actions or inactions of a few members of the faculty and staff of the university, no matter how ugly the traditional media, the blogosphere, or other outlets may paint us in this time of crisis.

If you are like me, the news thats come out of University Park over the past week has been disturbing, confusing, and frightening. The news horrifies us because it runs counter to everything we believe in about our schools traditions and our heroes.

Lets not forget that our heroes can still be honored even if theyve been dismissed by the Trustees. Whether you believe that Joe Paterno was rightfully or wrongfully dismissed, we all agree that he did more for the students and the university than any other person in the history of our institution. None of us can imagine Penn State without Joe and we will miss him.

Ive been shocked to see some of the comments in the twittersphere which have called for everything from not sending kids to Penn State, to employers rejecting resumes with Penn State on them. Im sure some people may in fact choose to take these actions. If so, this will be unfortunate.

Penn State is more than football. Penn State is more than Joe Paterno. And Penn State is damn sure more than the pedophile, Jerry Sandusky.

Penn State has produced some amazing people who have given touched our lives: Mark Parker (CEO of Nike), Steve McCurry (National Geographic Photographer) and Richard James (inventor of the Slinky) to name only a few.

Penn State helps mankind. Penn State students raise millions of dollars each year at THON to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund. THON is the largest student run philanthropy in the world!

Fellow Penn Staters, we have many reasons to be proud. Please dont give up. Please wear our colors and support our school in these trying times.

We Are Penn State.

Personal Brand | On Message

19. October 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: frustration, internet, irritants, rants, struggles, technology, twitter

So many people who I follow on twitter seem to be constantly on message.  What I mean by that is that they constantly post about a singular subject.  It may be IP Networking.  It may be cycling.  It may be the environment.  They are on message.  They have a lot of followers. 

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time (which only a very few have) you’ll know that I kind of wander from topic to topic.  I’m almost never on message.  I don’t have a lot to say about the industry that I work in.  I don’t have a lot to say about the apocalyptic nature of our relationship to the climate.  I don’t have a lot to say about cycling.

I’ve got a little to say about each of these topics, and many more.

Recently, I noticed a number of my “followers” on twitter abandoned me.  I’m sure it’s because I wasn’t tweeting enough about what they originally followed me for.  Perhaps I pissed someone off with a few to many tweets about politics, the climate, or occupy wall street.

I don’t know.

But I do know this, I’m way more than one-dimensional.  And so are most of the people out there in the Internets.  I wish more people would take the risk of being “off message” once in a while.  They’d been more interesting.

A Good Plan, Interrupted

09. October 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: cycling, fitness, frustration, struggles

I woke around 5:30 yesterday morning with a bad feeling. It was in my gut and accompanied by some wicked heartburn. And I felt sore in my back. This happens on occasion, both the heartburn and the stiffness in the back, so I didn’t really think much of it, but tried to go back to sleep. Around 7:30 I got up and made some pancakes for Mr. Grey, Mrs. TKD and her mom who was visiting. Three pancakes for me and I knew that this was going to be a rough day. I was sick. Really sick. And I needed to lie down.

I am not one to spend a lot of time in bed when the sun is shining.  We had beautiful weather, as far as I could tell from my bed, yesterday.  I stayed in bed all day.  All i could drink was seltzer water and a bit of ginger-ale.   Forget about eating.

So, as you might expect, I didn’t get out on the bike yesterday.  So much for 30 days of cycling.  Here’s the thing though, as cool as it sounds to take on a challenge, there are limits.  Life throws curve balls, and “the rules” of a challenge need to bend.  So, while I won’t technically get 30 straight days in, I’m still looking forward to getting back on the bike, maybe not today as I’m still not near my peak, but perhaps tomorrow.

And when I am back on the bike, I’ll ride as often as I can, striving for a ride every day, and I’ll be better for it.

Can I do 30 days of cycling?

05. October 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: cycling, daily life, exercise, fitness, good things, self, sidetracks, struggles

IMG_0851Last week, I’d made a commitment to myself that I would ride my bike every day in October. My first ride was yesterday, October 4th. Track record, 1 and 3.

If there’s one thing I’m good at, its being hard on myself. There are a number of good reasons why I didn’t get a ride in on before Tuesday, not the least of which was spending both Saturday and Sunday with Mr. Grey. I’ve also got this pesky thing called a job. Monday I had to go up to Philadelphia for a meeting, which wiped out the entire day. In fact, today is the first day this week that I haven’t had a 2 hour drive in the morning. Tomorrow is a different story.

I’ve tried to do 30 day challenges and even 365 projects in the past, and I almost always end up failing for some reason or another. In the past I’ve been hard on myself about it. That’s counter-productive at best.

Maybe my life just isn’t set up for doing something every day. Or maybe I need to be less stringent on things like start and stop dates. Sure, starting 30 days of cycling on the first of the month makes it clean and tidy, but my life isn’t clean and tidy. There will certainly be at least one or two more trips to Philly in the next month, and that will effectively eliminate the possibility of getting a ride in, but even if I don’t hit all 30 days, at least I’ll be out there more than once a week.

Here’s hoping.

What I “must” do…

22. August 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: daily life, self, struggles, thoughts

Recently, I wrote a half-assed post about what happens when you change your internal dialogue from a list of “shoulds” to a list of “musts”. I got sidetracked at some point and really didn’t finish the thought. How often do you read this blog and wonder – why did he stop there? Is that all he has to say?

Well, no, it usually isn’t all I’ve got to say. I’m either consciously or unconsciously holding back. Should is a future conditional, whereas Must is an imperative. The word “should” implies that something is optional, the word “must” does not.

One of my friends asked the all important question, “what must you do?” in the comments to that post. Rather than answer that question in the comments, I decided to write another post about what I must do and why.

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