Tomorrow morning, at 7:55, I’ll be running in the 39th Marine Corps Marathon. It’s my 2nd MCM, and 3rd Marathon….although it’s been a while since the last one. I ran my first marathon in 1989. I got into NYC, and woefully undertrained for it. On top of that, I made the mistake of starting near…
For the past 6 months, I’ve been training for the Marine Corps Marathon. I’m doing it for a lot of reasons – it’s the 10th anniversary of surviving a major accident, 20th anniversary of the first time I ran the MCM, and the 25th anniversary of my first marathon (NYC in 1989). A lot of…
I’m sure lots of us have seen the GEICO commercial where car insurance customers are ‘happier than a camel on Wednesday’. The middle of the week is a place where we’re more focused on the upcoming weekend than the start of the week. Thursday and Friday, things seem to go just a little bit smoother…
How many times have you set out towards a goal, only to have life throw an obstacle in your path? Did it stop you, slow you down, or send you in a different direction? I can’t count the times that I’ve set a goal, committed myself to it, made it public……only to have something get…
Many of us have had to wade through circuituous interactive voice response (IVR) systems, or struggle through clunky call agent scripts to deal with a customer service issue. Few people, however, have experienced the epic service battle that AOL VP Ryan Block experienced. After 9 years with Comcast, Ryan chose a new provider, and called…
Have you ever been stuck in one place, without making any progress? Whether it’s writers’ block, losing weight, or moving towards a goal, I think we all have had times where things just seem to be ‘stuck’, with no way to move forward. There have been many times when I’ve sat, motionless, staring at a…
The first Star Trek movie completely featuring the Next Generation cast, Star Trek: First Contact is probably my favorite Star Trek movie, with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan being either tied for first, or a close second. It has a strong combination of action and character, with an easy villain to root against.…
July 9, 2004 – A normal day, or so it seemed. It was a sunny Friday. The kids were watching TV, the babysitter had the afternoon off, and had gone off to a concert. I was casually practicing riding my motorcycle in the elementary school parking lot. I didn’t have my license yet, but was…
As the Star Trek movie series episodes evolved, a few things became apparent – the cast was aging, and special effects alone couldn’t make the movies stand out. It was a hit and miss formula…which generated the axiom that if you wanted to see a good Star Trek movie….just watch the even numbered ones. That’s…
After dealing with Spock’s heroic sacrifice in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I was excited to see that the next Star Trek movie was titled “The Search for Spock”……maybe he wasn’t really gone! That was enough of a hook to get me back in the theaters. This movie was the first to be…