What is new in Twizzler-land?

It’s that time of year again! I’m pretty sure I somehow avoided setting resolutions in 2011, so I’m not going to let that happen two years in a row. Here we go, in no particular order…

1. Don’t avoid setting solid goals
   It seems like I am always cranking away at a 100 different things when I work at night. Sometimes I can get into “thrash mode” where I spin my wheels and feel overwhelmed on where to start. I’ve found that when I go into each night with some reasonable goals, I’m much more effective, so I need to remember to be diligent in doing so each night to make them effective. Online tools like Remember the Milk can help with this kind of organization.
2. Set aside time to hone my skills
   Don’t just write code for clients and projects where I’m on the clock – slow down some nights to read and explore new ideas and concepts to keep my skillset fresh and sharp.
3. Less DecaTech client work
   This is a huge one for me in 2012. After growing my DecaTech client list substantially in 2011, I realized after a heart to heart talk with Carrie in November that it was not the right direction for myself and the family. With a few additional possibilities looming, I briefly contemplated going back to being in business for myself again in 2012. To even consider that though, I’d need to take on more work and have larger clients/projects that I was involved in.
4. Communicate with family more often
   I am not much of a phone person. With that single fact, it makes it hard to be a very good communicator, but there are ways to overcome that, with a little effort. An experiment with using a private Twitter group went fairly well for awhile as a way to share short recaps of events of pictures easily. It fizzled out though, but found a replacement phone app called “Path” that appears to have replaced it and has been fun to use to share. My Dad and I are working on setting up a regular FaceTime or Skype video call with the Matthews in Indianapolis, Boulder, Englewood, and anyone other family that can join in. The really fun cross-country Baby Shower for Josh and Kelli Funk was the inspiration for that idea. Carrie is a great example for me in how often she talks with her family members – I could learn a lot from her approach.
5. My immediate family is priority #1
   I always have this as a goal in my head, but I could still do it better. I typically stop working on client tasks or my own projects from Friday night thru Sunday night, but I could stand to take on a little less during the work week so that I can have more energy for Carrie and Tobey and be less distracted. It’s all about balance.
6. Make good health choices
   Fitness-wise, I’m pretty happy with how I did in 2011, and I plan to continue that in 2012. I ran 140 miles according to my Nike+ stats. That’s up from around 85 in 2010, so that’s a nice trend that I’d like to continue to help combat the effects of Father Time. Assuming I can avoid losing motivation and regressing in my general fitness level in 2012, this resolution is more about lowering my cholesterol and learning more about my recently diagnosed  hypothyroidism condition. High cholesterol is something I’ve been battling off and on for the last 10 years, and I’m trying really hard to not just go on some pill that has way more side effects than its worth. I was able to get my cholesterol down thru a more refined diet and increased intake of good fats, and I had let that slide over the past few years. It also means steering myself away from my favorite food (shrimp) a bit more often since it is apparently quite high naturally in cholesterol. Need to do some more research there!
7. Organize my work area in the basement
   Ugh. This has been high on my list for years, and I haven’t really made any major progress on this in awhile. In 2011, I was able to move most of my CD’s and DVD’s into more efficient mass storage and throw away the old jewel cases and boxes. The clutter that surrounds my work area and desk is distracting and it weighs me down, especially in the area of creativity. It always seems like I have some other priority that needs to be worked on first, but at some point in 2012 – I need to make cleaning up the basement clutter a priority in itself.
8. Plan more social events
   Carrie is a planner, and a lot of times I lean too heavily on that fact by letting her make the majority of the plans. In 2012 I am going to help make more plans with other friends and families.

Okay, whew. Next year, maybe a few less resolutions will help me finish this a little closer to January 1st!

I look forward to re-visiting this post through out the year to track progress on these goals and resolutions, and will also attempt to judge how I did on them at the end of 2012.

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With Carrie and Tobey away in Michigan visiting family, my Dad and I decided to go catch a Sci-Fi movie at the Continental as the latest chapter in our annual Father/Son movie outing. I was anxious to put the previous year’s pick behind me and this seemed like a pretty safe bet that both of us were excited to check out.

Here’s my quick review of the movie:

Not nearly as witty as the world of Joss Whedon’s Firefly that you might relate this to, but still, a good time at the cinema. More action and less clever dialogue than I had hoped for. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford were both great in their roles, even though they weren’t given a lot to work with from the script.

Looking forward to next year or the next outing! In a few more years, or with a less “intense” SciFi pick, Tobey will be able to add a new generation to this fun tradition…

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Although it was a cloudy day in Boulder, it was a great day for a morning 10K! After many years of passing it up, Carrie decided to participate in the event for the first time. Carrie has never been a fan of running, but after participating in two 5K’s in the past year, she decided she was up for it this year.

And she did great!

So our “walking crew” was 4 members strong this year, with Tobey participating in his 2nd BB 10K and Gramps/Pops again striding with us. My Mom was the lone runner this year representing the Switzer family, and she did great. We were even able to run into her unexpectedly after the race and get some great family photos together.

Last year, Gramps, Tobey and I crossed the finishline at 1:48:18 on a sunny day. This year our goal, with Tobey a year older, was to better our time. We did just that – finishing in 1:43:21.

So don’t let the clouds in the photos fool you – we all had a wonderful event!

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Yes, you can almost sing that title to the old one-hit-wonder  ”The Vapors” song!

What, turning 42? Did I just admit that publicly?

I have a ton to be thankful for in life, and a birthday is actually a great reminder to take a moment and do that.

I am thankful for an amazing wife. My partner in life for the past 19 years (wow!) – honey, you motivate me, make me smile, are always up for a shared adventure – big or small, and still drive me wild every time I get to lay my eyes on you.

I am thankful for my children. Ashley and Tobey – I want nothing but happiness for you both now and forever, and I hope I’ve been able to pass on a little wisdom in how to be a good person in this world and be happy for yourself in life. Twizzler – you know you are in here too – your unconditional love and loyalty to the family is inspiring.

I am thankful for a loving family. Always there for me, always supportive, and pretty much made me into the man I am today. (I like to think you did a pretty fine job!)

I am thankful for wonderful friends. I have so many great relationships and memories - past and present – to draw upon it’s a bit overwhelming. One of the pluses of the technology in our lives today (i.e. Facebook) is that there are less barriers and excuses for staying in touch with friends – especially ones that live miles away.  Just recently I was able to reconnect with a friend from the 2nd grade. I’ve moved 5 times since then and covered 3 states. That is just really cool. Another recent example was being able to reach out and support a friend from High School that is embarking on creating his first original CD. He lives in Utah these days, but thanks to a web service called Kickstarter I was able to support him and eventually will share in his creation!

I am thankful for good health. It’s not something to be taken for granted. Especially at my advanced age. (See, I get that in there first and it takes the sting out of potential comments!)

So turning 42 (yikes!) is not bad at all. It’s just a number, and as just read, I have a lot to be thankful for!

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Social check-ins are not for everyone.

You may not be familiar with the term unless you own a recent smartphone – specifically an iPhone or an Android.

I’ll assume you fall into one of those two categories and continue on, or maybe you just are along for the ride at this point.

Just so we’re clear on the subject at hand:

A social check-in involves using an app or website like Foursquare, Gowalla, or GetGlue to “broadcast” information about where you are or what you are doing.

I go back and forth on whether or not this is a “vain” thing to do, but they are kind of fun to use and I keep coming back to the fact that its a great way to log your visits or activities for your own  memories.

Foursquare is a New York based location checkin service that has partnered with tons of retailers to distance itself from competitors. Retailers like it because its a unique way to increase branding, identity and loyalty, while giving them a new platform to inexpensively reach out to their customers by offering “specials” that can be earned from continued checkins. Users of the app are offered “badges” for accomplishing various goals via the checkins, and can earn a mayorship at specific retail locations if they are the most frequent visitor according to the app. Sometimes retailers offer those “mayors” unique discounts and specials when they return. There are 6.5 million users on Foursquare as of Feb, 2011.

Gowalla is similar to Foursquare, and is based in Austin, Texas. Gowalla doesn’t appear to have near the retailer clout and does not offer nearly the amount of retail specials that Foursquare does. Gowalla is more about the process of discovery, and does sometimes offer gifts or freebies at event checkins. For example – big web conferences often partner with Gowalla and offer up 10 free books to random checkins during the conference to participants. For awhile, I looked at Gowalla as the Facebook and Foursquare as the MySpace of social checkin apps. Meaning – Gowalla was more beautifully designed and easy to use, and Foursquare felt and looked more like the inferior MySpace. Foursquare has done a nice job of improving that interface though in recent months and I definitely say its UI has caught up with Gowalla. Gowalla is also known for its beautiful stamps – which can be custom created for vendors willing to pay a little for that extra professional touch. Gowalla also has unique things like “trips” where you set out to visit a related collection of spots and collect all the stamps along the way. Gowalla has around 1 millions users as of Feb, 2011.

GetGlue is a check-in service for entertainment – tv shows, movies, music, concerts, sports events and more. They offer a very tangible reward for loyalty and repeated check-ins. Stickers! You collect stickers along the way from the various entertainment sources who are looking to offer consumers a way to spread their brand. A common example is stickers that can be earned if you check-in for a new movie duing its opening weekend. GetGlue is *not* location based, since it doesn’t always apply (how would it know the proper location for you to check-in when watching a TV show – your house?) so its system can be “cheated”. There are definitely people out there earning stickers for shows they probably aren’t even watching just because they can. I try to stay true to what I’m actually watching because I feel like its another way for viewers to let the networks know which shows have loyal fans that should be “renewed” for a new season! GetGlue reached 900K users in Jan, 2011.

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Both of our children celebrated birthday in the past couple of weeks!

Ashley turned 23 back on the 24th, and we were able to celebrate with her and her fiancée at a nice brunch at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen a few weekends ago. Here’s a picture of lovely Ashley from the get-together:

Tobey turned 8 years old yesterday!

Tobey had a fun birthday morning opening presents from family. We then went to our favorite local Donuts shop (Donut Maker in Greenwood Village) and picked up 30 donuts for Tobey to share with his class and teacher at High Plains. After school Tobey played with some of his new gifts and then we went to a Den Meeting for Cub Scouts where his Wolf den sang to him. Tobey also received many calls from out-of-town relatives wishing him a Happy Birthday. This weekend he has a few friends spending the night on Friday and then a larger group of friends and classmates meeting up at Jump Street for a party. Here’s a picture of Tobey on the morning of his birthday:

So Happy Birthday to both of my awesome children. The two of you enrich my life in more ways than you will ever know, and I am deeply proud of both of you!

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The 8th annual Father/Son Movie outing occurred on November 18th, and for the second year in a row, included my friend and neighbor – Chris Smaling.

Based on an early summer teaser trailer, I had picked the movie, Skyline for our outing. In hindsight, I might have picked a little rashly, but from that initial trailer, it looked like this film had the potential to be a fun Sci-Fi film – one where aliens were coming to try and take over the earth, and the humans would fight back – e.g., Independence Day.

Skyline was directed by the Strause brothers, who have been responsible for the visual effects on some great films – (Avatar, Iron Man 2, Jumper, 2012…) but only other director credits for a feature length film before this was “AVPR: Aliens vs Predator – Requiem”. Unfortunately, this lack of experience really shows. The visual effects were awesome and stunning, just as the early teaser trailer showed, but the film and the story told was a complete jumbled mess that continued to get worse and worse as the film went on, to the point where I was squirming in my seat towards the very end, rooting for the film to just be over.

The two main actors of the film – Eric Balfour (Haven, 24) and Donald Faison (Scrubs) are both mostly known for their work in TV, not feature films. With the possible exception of Donald’s character though, most of the characters in this aren’t very likable. The basic plot centers around this group of friends and their significant others have gathered together for a birthday party in the birthday boys high-rise condo. When they wake up the next morning after partying a bit too much, they are greeted with an alien invasion that is going quite well for the aliens. In the first wave, they end up “sucking up” a large portion of the population of Los Angeles, the city most of the movie centers the story on. From here, the movie jumps from one borrowed plot-line or theme to another, never fully committing to any of them (you’ll recognize themes from Independence Day, Cloverfield, and District 9 – all great films in my opinion) which just leaves the viewers wondering why any of it matters. (Small SPOILER alert….) The aliens are basically indestructible due to regenerative powers, so the characters just spend most of the movie debating if they should hold up or make a run for it, and end up doing both rather poorly. Who doesn’t start rationing the working tap water when the world is under attack? Not these characters apparently.

Would definitely not recommend this movie to anyone, even hard-core Sci-Fi fans such as myself. The decent action scenes are not enough to compensate for sitting thru this mess of a film.

To end on a positive note though, the outing itself was a hit – proving once again, that good company and a fun tradition can overcome just about anything. My Dad, Chris, and I all enjoyed bashing the movie on the way out of the theater, and then moving on to other more stimulating subjects of conversation. Next year though, I’ll put a little bit more research into the movie selection!

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The following article was something I wrote back in May 1987 – fresh out of High School. I thought it would be fun to type it up and share it here. When I originally wrote this, I had been inspired by the fun I experienced while playing Frisbee with my sister. I submitted this article to “The Sportsmen Magazine” but they had unfortunately just stopped publishing and returned the article to me.

Now, over 20 years later, I’ve recently started playing more regular Frisbee again with Tobey, teaching him the same unique throwing style that my sister and I perfected oh so long ago. We nicknamed the throwing style the “Thumber“. Here is that article, in its unaltered, original state from 1987:

WRIST FLICKING FUN!

Frisbee throwing may be the most exciting, economical, easy to learn, and overall fun sport you’ll ever play. Or maybe you haven’t caught on yet and that’s why you’re reading this article. Then again, maybe you do know about it but you would like to find out more about Frisbee and the art of throwing. Either way, this article will show you new ways to explore this pastime growing across the nation.

Getting started in this sport may be the most surprisingly easy you’ll ever find. In my entire life, I have invested about $21 in the sport. How many activities can you say that about? I’ve tried Tennis – about $450 there for two nice racquets and several cans of balls.  I’ve tried Golf, but never been able to find the right set of clubs for my height. About $250 there just for clubs and green fees, not including what my parents pay for membership to the local country club. Enough said. There are just not that many sports that you can say – “I’ll take that up” and be playing it in under an hour later for under $10. You might even think that you need to spend a lot to have a good time or become real good at it. I played most of my life with a small, beat-up, lightweight Wham-O disc. I just recently added a trashcan lid Wham-O and an Aerobie to my small collection, but all you really need is a few bucks and you’re set for years. Most sports involve a court, a track , a golf-course, a swimming pool, or something else that is not available at a moment’s notice or on a whim that you and a friend have. Not so with your friend the Frisbee! All you need is space, and not until the year 3000 A.D. will we run out of that. You can use a front yard, a driveway, a cul-de-sac, a park, just about anything that meets your throwing specifications. I guess about the only other thing you need is a friend or two but I’ve never yet had that be a problem that’s stopped me from playing. As a matter of fact, my sister of three years younger and I have become very close just because of Frisbee.

Okay, now you are set. If you have read this far, you must already have the equipment needed. If not, what are you doing sitting here reading this? Well, how is the weather out, it’s too windy you say? Nah, never let a little thing like wind stop you! Some of my favorite memories have been in the wind when the Frisbee will do things that will defy nature. It will swoop and climb, go up and come back down behind you, and sometimes even seem to just float on a wind current for seconds. Oh it’s sunny out you say? Great! Put on some shorts, search for grass, put on sun-tan oil, take off your shirt (only guys now), even search for someone to impress! Have a ball! Dive for a throw on the grass! Talk to the person you’re throwing to, it doesn’t take so much concentration that you can’t gossip and catch up on the latest things in that person’s life. Try tricks! Who cares if you’re not that good yet, anybody has a chance of pulling off some fancy catch. There the behind the back, one hand through the leg, two handed between the legs, and for high ones, just hit in the center sending it spinning higher and hopefully back into your hand. For some real fun, try kicking it with you foot, then tipping it with you hand and then catching it, tough stuff!

What, you say you’re not having any fun and you can’t throw a disc? Oh, it’s easy! The only trick is to flick your wrist strongly while throwing it perfectly horizontal. All right, I admit it’s harder than it sounds. Is it going straight and then curving off to the side? You probably have the same trouble I used to have – you are having trouble flicking your wrist strongly enough. No problem! One of the reasons many trick throws have been invented is for practical reasons. I myself can’t even throw the normal backhand way everyone learns. I was heavily discouraged until someone showed me an unusual way many years back.

How to hold for the "Thumber" throw

Take your thumb, which is normally on top of the disc and balance the bottom edge on it so it hangs down and your hand looks like you’re giving someone a high five. Now simply grip the top of the frisbee with your four fingers and turn your hand like you’re hitch-hiking. Throw the Frisbee off your hand counter-clockwise if you’re right handed, the opposite if you are left-handed. This method is tough to perfect but helps if you can’t flick your wrist strong enough the other way.

Tobey demonstrates throwing form

Just make sure you throw it perfectly level; it sometimes helps to get on one knee and get into a sidearm throwing stance/action. This method helped my sister, who was quite young at the time and couldn’t snap her wrist enough.  Other methods of throwing are the sidearm and overhand methods. I haven’t quite perfected them yet but it’s fun to watch others who can.

Okay, some of you might be saying, I already know about all those things, I’m probably better than you so what else can I do with a Frisbee? Well, have you ever heard of Ultimate? Fast becoming a major sport, it has helped bring Frisbee throwing more credibility with the game oriented people. A game of two teams of around 7, you combine the elements of football, basketball, and soccer. In a brief summary, you pass the Frisbee to a teammate down the field who stops, attempts a catch and furthers the disc towards the goal. If a throw is missed or intercepted the other team takes possession. Many other games can be played, such as ’500′ and simple accuracy tests. They’re all fun, but I get the biggest thrill out of one-on-one flicking.

Go grab a Frisbee!

I hope this article has furthered your enjoyment of Frisbee or brought this sport to your attention. Is the weather nice right now? Grab a pal and your Frisbee and go toss a few! What do you know, you may have some fun!

Edit: Added a few current day pictures to help demonstrate the Thumber throw in action.

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