I can’t remember exactly when I wrote this one, but it have probably been about ‘97 or ‘98. I wrote this short piano theme as a temp score for a movie about a famous model of the 1920’s that posed for Arrow Magazine. I put as much passion and 20’s vibe as I could find into this short piano theme. What ended up was a nice little song with a lot of atmosphere that I’m quite fond of.
“The person who knows how will always have a job. The person who knows why will always be his boss.” – Diane Ravitch, Professor, Columbia Univ. Teachers College
My Goals and plans for this year are going to be a little different. Instead of focusing on little “how’s”, and little to-do list style items, I want to focus on bigger “Why’s”. Why am I doing what I’m doing? If I can answer this question I believe the “how’s” will come by themselves. And, to keep things really simple, and focused, I want to concentrate on one, big, “why” question.
So here it is, the big “why” goal of the year:
Ask myself a dozen times a day (roughly once every waking hour) “Is what I’m doing right now helping, encouraging, building up, or prolonging at least one of 3 things: 1) Silvia/Family 2) Friends/People 3) Business/Work?
That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. I want to keep it simple, and something I can constantly think about and work towards. This way I’m really working on a habit, and a change of mind instead of a task or to-do list style item. My hope is that if I can steadily answer this question, “yes”, I will be accomplishing all the little goals and to-do list style that come up.
So there it is, my one big goal/plan/habit-change for 2009. What are your goals and plans for 2009?
Enjoy…
Merry Christmas Friends and Family,
Can you believe it’s almost 2009 already? It seems like this year just flew by. When I stop to think about what we’ve done this year, it’s amazing to think that all that happened in only one year. If I had to sum up this year in one word, it would be Noah. Our first son was born April 18th, and that pretty much changed everything, period. Now it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without him.
Silvia and I are doing fine. I continue to work at UCLA Medical Center, doing IT. Silvia’s is attending classes at Cerritos City College and working at Big Lots. I, along with my business partner, have done well. We’ve completed a bunch of websites and continue to have new business. We launched a new site called www.usfinances.info that we hope will become a major source of financial news and resources.
Here’s a recap of the significant events in 2008:
One goal we had for 2008 was to find a home church. Somewhere we could get involved and really feel a part of. As we sought out something close to us, we found a church called Cottonwood. We enjoyed the teaching, and felt God leading us to become a part of it. In October I went through the membership class, and became an official member. Silvia was working that day, but plans to take the membership class as well. Our next step is to become a part of one of their small groups. We really enjoy the church and look forward to the next steps God has for us there, as our family changes and grows.
Thank you all for your love and friendship. We enjoy each and every one of you, and look forward to seeing and spending time with you soon. I leave you with a verse that bring inspiration and motivation to us for 2009…
“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” – Hebrews 10:24-25
With Love,
-Russ, Silvia and Noah
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| Silvia’s Baby shower. She had a lot of fun, and felt so blessed by the encouragement and friendships. | Noah, 10 minutes after he was born. I think that roller coaster ride, also known as birth, made him tired. |
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| Family reunion in Pine Mountain CA. Kudos to Pam and Rex for organizing it. | Our visit to Reno. My Dad first meets Noah, and enjoys every minute. |
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| Our friends Dagny and Denny and family in Sequim Washington. | Grandma, Uncle Bill, and our visit to Arizona for Thanksgiving. |
Dear Noah,
I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for being frustrated with you yesterday. For some reason you were not eating food, but only from the bottle. When I tried to feed you food, you spit it out, and made a big mess, and I was frustrated. I know it’s not your fault, and you were not doing it intentionally to frustrate me. You are the most blessed thing in our life, and I love you, and I’m sorry that I was frustrated. I hope that you will read this someday, and forgive me. You are very special to us, and we both love you very much, I can’t wait to see you tonight when I get home from work.
Love, Dad.
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Noah in April, welcome to the world, his first day on Earth. What an exciting time. Everything changed that day…for him, and for us. |
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One month later, May. He’s now barely starting to look around, and realize his new world. We are not sleeping, and fighting a lot because of the added stress, and our own new world. |
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June, two months and counting. He’s now developing a relationship with his toys – making eye contact and ‘talking’ to them, making noises while he looks at them. We moved him to his new home – a seperate room with a cribe. |
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July, three months. We are heavily sleep deprived, and at our breaking point in terms of accepting our sentance as parents or not. Through some discussions and working together, we finally find our position as parents and as a couple. We begin to work together. He begins to eat solid food (baby food). |
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August: Now at four months, he’s starting to really become interactive. He smiles, and follows us with his eyes. He becomes much more aware of his surroundings, and we enjoy him all the more. |
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September we took a trip to Washington. This is when he really learned how to reach out and grab stuff. While in the car seat I watched as he learned to use both of his hands to reach out and grab the toys in front of him. It was amazing to watch him learn to use his hands, and to watch as his hand to eye coordination developed. |
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October, six months. He becomes even more of a joy. Even more eye contact, more smiles, and more interaction. It becomes almost easy to smile at him, and watch as he smiles back. He becomes even more cute and cuddly. Now he’s really like a cute little doll, with great facial expressions, and even more ability to reach out and grab stuff. Unfortunately now his teeth are really growing in, so he is teething sometimes, which causes all of us some discomfort. |
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November. As if he wasn’t already the cutest boy in the world, he’s now grown even more cute, more interactive, and more fun to play with. Now, when you play with him he smiles, he gets enjoyment out of spending time with you. He seems to recognize who we are, and smile immidiately when he sees us. He now has 5 teeth, 3 of which are coming out. He’s very good at grabbing stuff, and can now sit on the floor all by himself – easily, and for long periods of time. |
Photo by kwanie
Recently I went to visit my Dad. As we were talking an interesting song came playing on the radio. “This song” he remarks, “came out right about the time you were born.” He continues, “Once I started listening to the words, it was a very powerful song for me, and touched me when I thought of having you, my first son”. I had heard the song before, but had not really listened to the lyrics. Since I also just had a son (6 months prior) I was eager to hear something that had to do with being a father, and having a son. The song played on the radio, while my Dad and I listened…
My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home dad? I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time thenMy son turned ten just the other day
He said, “Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let’s play
Can you teach me to throw”, I said “Not today
I got a lot to do”, he said, “That’s ok”
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, “I’m gonna be like him, yeah
You know I’m gonna be like him”Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
“Son, I’m proud of you, can you sit for a while?”
He shook his head and said with a smile
“What I’d really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?”I’ve long since retired, my son’s moved away
I called him up just the other day I said,
“I’d like to see you if you don’t mind”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job’s a hassle and kids have the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you,
Dad It’s been sure nice talking to you”And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me My boy was just like me
- Harry Chapin
As we sat and listened together, the song was also very touching to me. Becoming a new father, my first thought was, “wow, I will never let this happen to me”. But I caught myself thinking exactly what my Dad once thought when he first heard the song.
Since then, I’ve been thinking about the song, and the idea of being a better Dad, and still I’m convinced I will not let this happen to me. But it is a constant battle. Anyone who is a Dad out there knows the simple reality that we feel the responsibility tugging at us. We feel the constant need to provide for our family, and support them. This often gets in the way of time spent with them. So this is our battle. I for one am fighting it. Our lot may be to provide, and support our family, but it doesn’t mean that with a little creativity we can’t spend time with them, and do the exactly opposite of this song.
Who’s with me? Who’s ready to fight against “Cat’s in the Cradle” syndrome!
I just wanted to point out, and direct you to a new site that I started – www.russds.com. It’s less family and pictures, and more information and tips on everyday life. I wanted to start something more general, and something where I could post information that I find interesting and that doesn’t necessarily have to do me or my family. The goal of the site simple: provide valuable information. So, you’ll find everything from financial tips, to computer tips, to productivity tips and book reviews. I Hope you enjoy it and find useful information. Feel free to leave comments, and if you want to be sent an email, subscribe to the mailing list.
Enjoy!
We recently had a vacation up in Washington State, visiting some very good, long time, friends of ours. Here’s a play-by-play, with pictures! Skip to all the pictures.
Our first destination was Reno Nevada. We left Saturday morning and arrived there that evening. Spent time with my Dad and Carol – there first time meeting Noah. Sunday we went to the Rib Cook-Off. Wow, great food. A little on the pricey side, but well worth it. Lots of people, and attractions. I think this is one of Reno’s best qualities, they have the ability to attract lots of people to these outdoor, fair type events. Also, great attraction is Hot August Nights.
Our next stop was Washington State, in the beautiful town of Sequim. Noah loved it:
We stayed in the Home of our friends, we had the whole bottom floor to ourselves, it was such a great place. This is their backyard:
The next morning, we had breakfast at a great little diner called “The 101 Dinner“. Noah loved it:
Actually, it was very good, and the place had a very friendly feeling. Everyone knew each other. And the customers who came in all semmed to know the staff. A very small town feeling. But also very warm to new-comers like ourselves. And I found my new favorite coffee: Tully’s.
We first took a small tour of Sequim, driving around, and seeing what we see. First interesting stop was Dungeness Wild Life Refuge. There we found a nice walk way overlooking the Peninsula:
With some benches to enjoy the view, Noah loved it:
The next day we visited Victoria Canada. What a beautiful coastal town. We saw the Royal British Columbia Museum:
and the famous Empress Hotel:
The next day we visited Seattle. What a great city. We enjoyed it a lot. A couple of touristy tips: Take the Double Decker, tour buss – it’s relatively in expensive ($15/person), you get to get on and off all day, and they go around all the major streets pointing out interesting things. It works great to see the city in one swoop, and then get off when you find something interesting. The underground city tour is also well worth it. Great history and information, also very funny and engaging tour guides. Some other things we saw:
The space needle:
The very first Starbucks store in Pike Place Market
The Science Fiction Museum, which didn’t allow photos. But basically had movie props, exhibits, and lots of information about science fiction stuff.
Sadly, our digital camera broke during some takes of the Space Needle, so from this point, we only had our phones for photos.
The next day we spent time in Sequim and it’s big neighbor Port Angeles. We walked down what is known as the Dungeness Spit, which is a long skinny strip of land surrounded by water. It’s 11 miles long with a lighthouse at the end. We didn’t walk the whole thing, but enjoyed the time.
Then the next day we left. We left in the morning, drove to Redding, stayed the night, then drove the rest Sunday. I snapped this cool shot early Sunday morning using my phone. I found the shadow very cool.
I just wanted to add a little post on a great resource I found recently. For the last 3 weeks I’ve been having an ongoing issue with Sprint because they couldn’t activate my new phone – something simple I would think. Every time they would try to activate it, they would get an internal error on their system, they would try many different things, but eventually have to open a help ticket with their internal network engineering to get the problem resolved. This went on for 3 weeks, and it was getting really frustrating.
Finally I did some googling and found planetfeedback.com. According to some forums I had found, this site would actually forward your complaint to the applicable customer relations department in a company, and depending on the complaint could actually turn into action. So I submitted a complaint about Sprint – the fact that it was taking 3 weeks to simply activate my new phone because their network-engineering group wasn’t addressing a problem on their internal system. After completing and submitting the letter via planetfeedback.com, I got a personal note from an executive at Sprint inquiring about my situation, and almost simultaneously the problem was resolved. It was a miracle. I was quite surprised that the site actually worked. And that I got a personal message from the executive with a direct phone number, and email address – something I could never get out of customer service.
Planetfeedback.com. If you have an ongoing issue, and aren’t able to get results the average way (customer service) give it a try. Seemed to work great for me.
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