Monthly Archives: August 2009

Photo-A-Day

Eva’s 1st Pawsox Game

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Eva's 1st Pawsox Game
Photo-A-Day #1602

Tonight we took Eva to her first Pawtucket Red Sox, PawSox, game. Mu cousin Carissa has been home from California for the week and she asked us if we wanted to go. We went with Carissa, her boyfriend Sam, my cousins Shaun and his wife Morgan and my Uncle Rich. The game started at 7:05pm so yes, we were those parents bringing a 2 year old (essentially, she’s got less than two months to go and I can’t stand that weeks/months stuff), yikes, to a night game. She was so excited on the way to the game too. She kept saying “going to a baseball game” and she was wearing her Aunt Shelby’s pink Red Sox hat, she looked adorable.

I must tell you off the bat that I am no sports fan. If you couldn’t tell by the very small amount of sports talk on this blog but I’m not a fan. I think professional athletes are overpaid crybabies for the majority. There are some guys who love what they do and play for the love of the game, but not many. I do however enjoy the minor league games because these guys are working on making their way up so they hustle, the parks hustle and the fans get a good show for the money. We paid $10 a ticket for box seats and $2.00 to park. We were handed a sheet of baseball cards because it was a promo night and we had a great view of the field. I like that, I like feeling like I got something for my money.

The thing that I really liked about this was that we could take Eva and she could enjoy the show. McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket has a real family feel to it. They have a mascot and there is a picture place where kids can have their pictures taken with the mascot. Games are played up on the big screens and there are many fun things that go on that you won’t see in a major league park. Eva was up on her chair dancing, clapping and yelling. She was having a great time. It was really fun to watch. Despite my not being thrilled overall with sports (it does nothing for me) I did enjoy seeing Eva in her little hat enjoying a hot pretzel and watching the players. She sat with me and I pointed out what everyone on the team did. There was something really special about that. Allison can go and correct my mistakes later as she has years of experience watching baseball games.

We left the game early because it was getting late for Eva. She must have been wired because she didn’t fall asleep in the car. I think she was in that too tired stupor that we all end up in from being up too late.

I’ve posted the photos from the PawSox ballgame.

Photo-A-Day

Are You Wasting My Time?

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Are You Wasting My Time
Photo-A-Day #1601

Today as I did a job for a coworker who thinks they are are boss I listened to Tim Ferris’ 4 Hour Workweek on my iPod. Maybe it is the writing, maybe it is the reader but it has such an arrogant feel to it. There are concepts that are interesting and I will apply to my life but, well I need to listen to the whole thing to make my final decision. At Blog World Expo last year I saw Mike Shinoda and Tim Ferriss and Rohit Bhargava give a keynote. I liked it but I still got that way to confident vibe from Ferriss. I liked the talk but at the same time got that vibe. I just get the feeling that if I was to ask him a question it wouldn’t be a good enough one and I’d feel like I was wasting his time. Maybe I should read the book rather than listen to it. It may very well be the reader that is giving me this vibe.

Keynote Day 2 #Bwe08.

I did apply one of the things that I learned from listening to the audiobook. After I had finished my task, which was not mine in the first place but rather a “favor” for a coworker. By favor I mean this became my obligation to that coworker and their responsibility and task became mine. So I took care of it let the coworker know I was done. They looked at it and sent back a few minor changes that they could have taken care of instead of telling me the changes needed to be made. I made a simple e-mail back stating that I was swamped for the rest of the day and tomorrow and since they wanted things posted today they were simple changes that they could make easily. The e-mail response from them was “okay”. Problem solved, time waster taken care of.

I have a hard time saying “No” to people. I want to help people, that is my nature. I respond to every comment, every e-mail and every tweet. I like that. I like interacting with people. I don’t find that my online interactions are wasting my time because I am building relationships with people. I am also building relationships with people at work as well. I do these little projects to help out and also to make myself the go to guy for certain things. But I also don’t want to be sucked into useless meetings that waste my time.

At the same time I am reading Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Now Chris comes off more like a regular guy in his book, he’s a guy you want to hang out with. Reading Trust Agents gives me a much better feeling about the book and thus about Brogan himself. Trust agents isn’t about reducing people to time wasters and producers and it isn’t telling you to outsource your life to get what you want. So, Trust agents is the book I’m probably going to get more out of than 4 Hour Work Week. I think it will speak to me more I know they are completely different books and should be taken as such.

This must be book time for me because I am also very much excited about Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk. I’ve seen a video review of it already (by Sarah Evans) and I am very much jealous as I want an advance copy of that book to review. I already placed an order for my copy but I’d still like to review it early. Gary if you read this I’m asking you for a copy because I will put it to fantastic use. Look for a real review once I listen to the whole 4 Hour Workweek and when I finish Trust Agents and hopefully when I get that copy of Crush It (early… please… Gary)

What are your thoughts on the books, have you read them? Have you listened to the audiobooks? What is your take?