Danger! Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I understand the desire to try new things but I think the KC Star attached itself to the wrong trend with its 3-D Halloween edition:
My focus group -- the bleary-eyed husband who was deep into the A-section when I asked him if he wanted to use the 3-D glasses. He had no idea what I was talking about.
It took both hands to hold the paper glasses around the readers necessary to enhance the work of my bifocal contact lenses. Handcuffed by the 3-D pictures, I couldn't drink my coffee.
The KC Star isn't "Avatar." I paid the higher ticket price, donned the goofy specs and saw that movie in an IMAX theatre. On purpose. It's called "content." Today's edition of the Star didn't have enough interesting material to drive me past the irritation of reading it.
I know most pundits are picking the Rangers. I guess it's because of my cousins Dianne and Doug, our former proximity to San Francisco, my friend Chris Healy and that crazy Tim Lincecum. I love 'em all.
It was beyond fun to be in San Francisco Saturday night for the Game 6 thriller. I'm really looking forward to Wednesday's game because it's a clash between two underdogs...
I'm field producing for our three-hour live show from the Crown Center Saturday morning. Our "real time live rehearsal" is at 6:25am. Live coverage commences at 7:25am.
I've missed Countdown on Beale but this is redonkulous!
I need to learn how to mix the sound so you can hear Elizabeth Alex lead the group in the Arkansas Razorback "Hog Soo-eee" cheer. This is a work in progress...
From the NY Times: The Twins took the opening game of their division series with the Yankees in 2003 and 2004, before losing three in a row both times. After a three-game sweep by Oakland in 2006, the Twins returned to the division series last year, bowing again to the Yankees in three.
I've made some mistakes in my life. I'm not ashamed to admit it. But, by far, the biggest ones EVER, have to be marrying not one but TWO Yankee fans. (Not simultaneously, mind you.) And when Clyde and I were married in the early 80s, my Twins were still re-building. John came along just in time for us to enjoy The World Series of 1987; still one of my fondest memories of that year. Number one was Charlie's birth. But the Twins squeaker over St. Louis was definitely in second place.
And so it begins again. Twins-Yankees. Wednesday.
I wish we had a pitcher like Frank "Sweet Music" Viola in the bullpen.
Go Twins. Beat those Yanks!
(To the friends of John and Clyde. This blog is meant to be tongue-in-cheek.)
The Game of Life? Here's a square that doesn't exist...Empty Nest. I can't decide if that's one that should send a player forward or backwards. I do know that nothing really prepared me for my newborn babies or the sense of loss when they moved away from home.
When our kids were small, John and I used to treasure the handful of solitary hours on a weekend. A softball game, a sleep over (somewhere else). Bliss!
TV news was no less the task master when I wasn't a news director. Most days were 10-12 hours plus the commute (I've always been salaried, somehow). Sometimes we stole family time from our kids by playing video games (Dr. Mario) on their time and I wish we had those hours back.
Carly is now in Reno with her partner Denis. She has a great job at Whole Foods. Chaz is a senior at the University of Tennessee. Both are adults who rarely need help from Mom and Dad.
This weekend, we'll all be together for about 52 hours. Sorta. Carly and Denis fly to Omaha at 12:50pm Friday and Charlie arrives there ten minutes later. All three depart Omaha Sunday evening at around 5:30pm. In between is the happy wedding of my niece Cheray to Tyler in Brookings, SD (Home of Endless Possibilities), which is about three hours north of Omaha. Subtract six hours in the car and sixteen hours for sleeping and it's about thirty hours of Together Time with our kids. Assuming that they won't spend every waking moment with us, it's like spurts of opportunity to make those important parental points that we might have neglected when they were growing up:
Balancing the checkbook is really, really important
We're already old and rather uncool so we have to do this without seeming obvious. It's not easy. Especially since I've written it all in a blog that my kids might/could see.
Sunday, the Chiefs will attempt what hasn't happened in a hefty handful of years. Going 2-0 to start the season.
They surprised many with their win over San Diego Monday night in the rain.
I hope these new Chiefs are for real. I'm fascinated by the young draft class and especially Eric Berry because he went to UT where my son is in his final year (fingers crossed).
EB's website proves he is interested in building a professional brand. That's great.
That's not a bad thing. It's just a thing. This is the time of year when news directors who work on a calendar-year-budget try to predict the future and guess how much it will cost to run a newsroom for the next year. I did not budget correctly in 2010 for two big events (Scott Roeder trial, Chiefs camp in St. Joe). Both were predictable and I'm challenging myself to do better for 2011.
I'm also challenging myself as a leader to learn (and help my team to learn) how we can improve our response to distributing news and information on "the set, net and cell." Not as easy as it sounds!
And then there's the personal stuff. Somehow, I didn't pay close attention to how our company health insurance works. Son Charlie is a full-time college student (in his fifth year; will graduate next May). His birthday falls at the wrong time of the year and he got too old (age 23) for the Scripps coverage. We were faced with a COBRA payment of $550 per month (not in the personal budget) through the end of the year. I, for one, am happy that the health care reform bill will allow me to cover his medical expenses as of January 1, 2011. And I'm thankful that the University of Tennessee has a health insurance alternative that costs just $350 for the fall semester that will take care of the minor emergencies. It's not the best but hopefully Charlie can avoid a catastrophic health crisis for the next four months.
New topic.
So what about those Chiefs!? I watched last night's game from beginning to end (and what the H happened with the KMBC signal for the first eight minutes?) I looked for an explanation on their website and Facebook page. Maybe I missed it? The station got thrashed in the Twitter universe when the "technical difficulties" slide came up instead of the game. I watched on ESPN2...and made a mental note that I'd always have a plan B and C if I had such a huge game to broadcast. (Please, NFL and NBC, please?)
