Almost Christmas!!

Well, I am now back home in VA Beach. I had a great time in NJ/NYC with some really great friends. The production of Les Miz was incredible, if it is coming to a city near you, I would encourage you to check it out. I was also really excited because I was able to see the Trans-siberian orchestra while I was up north and they always put on an amazing show! Tonight the family and I, plus my uncle, went to Christmastown at Busch Gardens which was also really nice and another opportunity to see some great friends that I have working there. I don't have too much planned for my days off. I will be spending the 25-28th in NC with my Dad and fam, but other than that just hanging out at home. Still deciding what my plan is for New Years. 

On a totally separate note, I am really excited for Christmas this year, which is rare for me. I'm not sure if it is just that I am excited that I will get to spend it with my family this year or what, but it is strange. I am enjoying seeing all the Christmas lights around town, and enjoying listening to all the songs, and hearing them play in the background at stores. It's nice, but strange. 

Junto:

After having discussed them with a friend this week I have decided to write about the 5 love languages. I do not remember where I first learned about them, but I feel that they are something that everyone should be familiar with. They come from a book, written by author Gary Chapman, that I have yet to read, but plan to do so in the near future, (especially since the Kindle addition is cheap). If you have ever had someone in your life that claims they care about you and love you dearly, but you do not feel as if they do, it could be that you speak two different love languages. The love languages are the ways in which we receive and give love. They are: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. Since there is a whole book and website dedicated to these topics I will not delve into what they each mean, but will refer you here. On this website, you can also take a quick assessment to discover your love languages. Anyone who knows me can probably guess my number one, but here are my results, and I would be intrigued if my friends would be willing to post their results as a comment to this blog post:

6	Words of Affirmation
9	Quality Time
1	Receiving Gifts
4	Acts of Service
10	Physical Touch

Break Time

So, I must first start with an apology. I logged into blogger today using one of my other emails and found out that I had started a blog a few years ago that friends had commented on and I never responded to. So, to those friends, I do apologize. But I have finally made it to our three week layoff. To finish out where I have been since my last post: On Monday the 6th I was in Opelika, AL playing a HS, Tues. was spent in Gainesville, FL where I got to see two wonderful friends!! Wednesday was in Daytona Beach, FL, Thursday in Tallahassee, FL, and Friday to Monday morning were spent in Tampa Bay, with a day off Friday which was nice. 

I am currently on a 3 week layoff from tour and flew out of Tampa up to Newark, NJ to spend some time with a friend of mine on the Les Miz tour. I will then head into NYC on Thursday to spend some time there. I am very excited to be on break and to get a chance to catch up on sleep.

Junto:

I read this article on cnn.com a few weeks ago and it got me thinking. It's by religious author, Philip Yancey, and how he had a near death experience and began questioning the worth of God. He asked numerous people about God's worth, and posted their answers in his book. In talking to one person they state, "It's not easy to be healed". I have found this to be very true amongst my friends and family. We all like to say that something hasn't affected us, or that we have gotten over something, but have we really? Have we really been healed, or have we just buried it? Have we come to terms with what happened to us and learned to accept it, or are we just burying it claiming to be healed? In his article, he even states that it is hard to stay healed. That while someone may have found healing, it is possible to fall back into the old ways and the old patterns. What is true healing, and how do we maintain that healing?

Back Stateside

Well I have made it back to the great US of A. The time in Canada was very enjoyable. I ate a bag of ketchup chips a day, so needless to say it is a great thing I am away from them, or I would get really large real fast. The week sit in Ottawa was nice, I did some shopping on black friday, even though it isn't celebrated there, which made the mall more bearable. Monday we were in Hamilton, Ontario, yesterday we had a day off in Michigan City, Indiana, and today we have our first arena show in Cedar Rapids, IA. We then go to a day off in Greensburg, IN, then on to Knoxville, TN for Friday and Saturday and Morganton, NC on Sunday. In Morganton we will have a matinee load in which means we will start working at 6, after having gone to bed after a load out in TN at probably 1:30-2. 

Junto:

I was reading an article a while back, I think it was in the New Yorker, and the author (Anthony Lane) wrote, "...but my guess is that, like so many blessings, it won't make us happy. It will make us want more." I wonder what it is about human nature that when we get a blessing/gift/whatever you would prefer to call it, we almost automatically go to wanting more. We totally miss out on the gift because we spend all our time focusing on how we don't have enough of it, even though we didn't have to have the gift...it was a blessing to get. Sadly, this occurs in a lot of life. We are given an unbelievable experience, but instead of recognizing the blessing in it, we complain about how we don't have enough. Why is it so hard for us as humans, and those that know me well know my love of cliches, "stop and smell the roses". Is it something we are born with that makes us ungrateful? Is it part of our society as Americans that make us always yearn for more? I have heard numerous stories of people who have gone to other countries that are in the throes of poverty, and yet they report that they have never seen people so happy with so little. Is never being grateful a curse of those who have?

Welcome

So, it has been years since I have blogged. If it gives you an indication, the last blog I updated was a xanga. I decided to return to blogging for a couple of reasons. The first reason is to hopefully give my friends a better idea of where I am and what I am doing. The second is that since I have learned of the Junto club that Benjamin Franklin founded (read more about it here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junto_(club)) I have always wanted to be a part of one. While I am never in one place long enough to start a sit down Junto, I plan on using the top part of each blog post to discuss my personal life, and then the bottom to discuss and interesting article I read, or quote I found, and hopefully get responses from friends about their thoughts on the subject. So, here goes nothing:


Personal:
I am currently writing this from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. We arrived here Monday and had a long day today, Tuesday, because our trucks got stuck at the border, so our load in started three and a half hours late. I am very excited to get back to Canada because they have Ketchup chips, literally Ketchup flavored potato chips, which I have missed greatly. I am afraid I will get fat the week we are here because I will probably eat at least a bag a day. 


Junto:
The night before our flight to Canada I had not been able to charge my kindle, so the first leg I read the United Airlines provided magazine, Hemispheres. In it they had an article interviewing the CEO of Yahoo!, Carol Bartz. The focus on this Junto is a question asked of her and her response. It read:


"HEMISPHERES: Let’s talk about your managerial philosophy. You’ve described it as “fail-fast-forward.” What is that exactly? I think I have the first two parts mastered…

BARTZ: Fail-fast-forward means you’d better be doing enough that you have some failures. In other words, you are taking risks. People talk about taking a calculated risk, but by definition that’s not a risk."

I personally disagree with this philosophy. I disagree with two main parts of her phrasing. Any good manager or leader will admit that there will be failures in what you do, as we all know we are not perfect. I disagree though that you have to do enough to fail. I guess I am trying to say, I do not believe failure should just be accepted because it means we are "moving forward" as it sounds like she is saying to me. Likewise, I would argue that there are such things as calculated risks, and that normally they should be preferred (this could just be my logical side talking). The definition of risk is, "exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance". So, to me that says anytime you do not have a guaranteed check, you are exposing yourself to loss. In business, even if you have done studies that tell you something will be worth it, until you actually have the money in your hand, it was a risk taking time to develop it and then a risk to manufacture and release it. 

So, please feel free to share your thoughts on the above. Due to my schedule I cannot make promises how often this will be updated, but I will try for at least once a week.

For the rest of the Carol Bartz article it can be found here: http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2010/11/01/the-hemi-qa-carol-bartz/