Then and now

My first day of Kindergarten, I remember being asked to find a seat of my choice. I sat across from a dark-haired boy named Steven who invited me to sit by him. I remember his name because I was amazed that either I introduced myself or he introduced himself. The formal act of meeting someone in the new world of public education still stands out in my mind. Weird thing is, I don't have a single memory of Steven after that day. Not in Kindergarten or at any other time.

In second grade, I had Mr. Drummond. I remember that he was the only male second grade teacher at Doherty Elementary, and I seem to recall I had some kind of vote in getting him as my homeroom teacher. He used to bet me a dollar (or maybe five) on the Ohio State/Michigan game...me being the only brave and contrary second grader to root for the Buckeyes...mainly just to spite the consensus favorite. (I cheered the Wolverines when we moved to Cleveland. Go figure.) I remember Mr. Drummond telling me, on a few occasions, that his favorite movie was Jeremiah Johnson. He never called in our bets.

What will my girls remember about Kindergarten and second grade? Emelie has Mrs. Platte. Sydney has Mrs. Pape. Those names will undoubtedly go down in their respective pantheon of teachers that we all manage to commit to memory. I'm really interested in the fact that the girls will be in the same school as each other from here on out....something Jeff and I never had the opportunity to experience given our five-and-a-half year gap.

I do love my girls.

(God, look what I just found.) That just gave me serious whirly flashbacks...

I'm easy like Sunday evening

I feel compelled to get bloggified tonight. Just returned an hour or so ago from my second all-day business coaching session. This is the second of three in our current five-month Entrepreneurial Edge program. For those of you I haven't verbally bludgeoned with the details, Tim and I have been actively engaged with a business coach for the past four or five months. The results have been tremendous. We have a new vigor and focus on running the business in a more energized and disciplined fashion. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but know that it has had significantly positive effects on Binary Pulse and my outlook about it. Good stuff.

I finished Olympos on Friday night and think it may be the best sci-fi I've ever read. It's not as original as the Hyperion books. In some respects, it is the same general structure and idea of Hyperion, but with another context and batch of characters mixed in. So, in that respect, I give more originality points to Hyperion. However, this book was so rich and immersive and, well, human. The fact that it is set largely on an Earth some two thousand years in the future, and the fact that we get to explore a concocted past that is both exotic and bizarre, but also strangely familiar and wrought with portent was really exhilarating to me. It was two parts Hyperion, one part Iliad, one part The Tempest and one part Time Machine...among other parts, I'm sure.

My next mission is to transport the book to Jeff as quickly as possible. I am sad I'm done with it, but thoroughly satisfied with the experience. A remarkable work.

Syd and Em go back to school on Wednesday. We found out Em has the same Kindergarten teacher that Syd had, so that is great. Lori volunteered in Syd's K-garten class weekly, and took Emelie with her. So Em will have the advantage of knowing the teacher and being familiar with the environment. I know Lori fears that, on her first day, Em will: a) burst into inconsolable tears, b) throw a fit and won't listen to the teacher, and/or c) burn the classroom down. I think she'll be fine. Kindergarten should really perpetuate the momentum Emelie's been displaying in her development, and should prove to be a real coming out party for her. I'm excited to see where she is in three months. Our biggest concern, and area we intend to work on, is her focus and ability to pay attention. Here's to hoping for the best!

We'll find out Syd's second grade teacher and class on Tuesday. Yes, the day before school starts. For some reason, they moved up K-garten notification a week this year, but everyone else must wait until right before school starts. Strange, but we're used to it by now. We think they do it to mitigate, or eliminate, the negotiations many parents would probably pursue trying to move their kids around. They simply don't have time to bitch about it this way.

So, back to work this week. My best to you and yours.

The boys are back in town

We have all returned to our homes, the Comic-Con crew. The weekend was a tremendous success. Comic-Con was definitely a spectacle. Something I'm glad I saw once, but would have only passing interest in attending again. Personal highlights of the day at the show on Saturday included seeing a preview panel of the Aeon Flux movie. This is a live action movie adaptation of one of my favorite animated features. The original creator of the animated series, Peter Chung, was there, along with the producers and two actors. One of those actors was the star, Charlize Theron. It was cool to see advanced footage and to attend a Hollywood-esque event. Along with 4,000 people in that particular hall.

I definitely missed the opportunity to document the sights of the convention since I didn't bring a camera. If you're interested, you'll be able to Google Comic-Con photos and probably see everything we did. Plenty of wacky costumes and every size, shape, color and age of dorks you'd ever hope to see in one place.

My personal highlight was attending a panel of authors discussing the portrayal of accurate science in science fiction. The panel included Orson Scott Card and Vernor Vinge, two of my all-time favorite sci-fi authors. Jeff and I just happened to see the listing for that seminar as we were sitting down for lunch, and it ended up being the highlight of the entire weekend... even if it only lasted a brief 45 minutes. Turns out Ray Bradbury was signing autographs, too, but we didn't have an opportunity to see him.

My lasting impression of the entire event was actually quite inspiring. After seeing all the genres of science fiction and fantasy -- delivered via movies, illustration, video games, board games, paintings, action figures, collectibles, books -- and hearing multitudes of people, young and old, geeky and seemingly normal, share their intimate excitements about what they were seeing, it struck me just how potent creativity is. How writers and painters and creative artists in general are so powerful and a necessity of civilization. They can create life-long memories and passions for throngs of people whom they'll never meet. It really was a motivational insight.

I then shelved that motivation for the rest of Saturday and proceeded to get thoroughly and satisfyingly drunk. Chad, Jeff and I topped last year's Gaslamp bar crawl with a renewed intensity and sense of purpose. Jeremy was feeling a bit crappy after his personal run-in with inebriation on Friday night, and he left on Saturday evening. Frankly, it was all the more alcohol for the three of us and there was much rejoicing.

Back to work this week, but I definitely got a recharge of my spirit with a weekend full of goofy boyhood.

All Quiet on the WestWeb Front

Greetings, all. It has been some time since I’ve blogged and I’ve become entirely negligent on ocmehls updates. I apologize. Just so happens that I’m in the midst of an intensely busy (and rewarding) period at work. I have not forgotten about your insatiable collective hunger for inane details of my, and our, life/lives.

I intend to rollout a new home page feature on the web site by next weekend. I intend to call it “Pic of the Litter”, and it will be a daily (or near-daily) single image feature. My current full-page photo essays take about two days per to complete. So this feature is aimed to get pictures out more frequently. Pictures not solely centered around any major event, just my brood in all their photogenic splendor.

I am off to San Diego and Comicon in about four hours. I am going to pick up Jeff at the airport and then meet Jeremy and Chad on Coronado. They spent the entire day there today, and I’m anxious to hear if it’s meeting expectations.

Actually, my anxiety about hearing about Comicon pales in comparison to my anxiety about getting a significant quantity of alcohol into my system as efficiently as possible tonight (and tomorrow). With workday hour counts of 13, 12, 20, and 14 so far this week (add 10 today), I’ve earned a Miller Time. Or Karl Strauss Time. Or screwdriver time. Or Night Train time.

Oh, by the way, Olympus continues to be amazing. I’m about 5/8 of the way through and it is starting to eclipse even my beloved Hyperion series in its sheer spectacle and wonder. It is hitting just about every hot button of mine and I couldn’t be more enraptured. Great freaking book!

That’s it. Talk to you all later.

The Gods are with Dan Simmons

The much-anticipated sequel to my much-enjoyed Ilium came out on June 28th. Yes, Dan Simmons' latest Olympus is in my hot hands (actually, not at this moment...typing would be quite difficult) and I am enjoying it thoroughly. 132 pages into its 690-page girth, I am enthralled. It actually already blows Ilium away. It just took the first of Simmons' patented thermonuclear plot escalations and called upon the most cryptic storylines from Ilium and threw them into the already boiling stew of character conflict. Awesome stuff!

If you are unfamiliar with Dan Simmons, I obviously encourage you discover him. Yes, it's science fiction, but it is great reading, nerd or not. Between these books and the two sequel series, Hyperion and Endymion, Dan (can I call you Dan?) has demonstrated this remarkable and unique skill to blend hard sci-fi, expertly-crafted character development, and classical literature references/storylines. A cybrid clone of John Keats? The hero Achilles as a nanotech-enhanced killing machine? Prospero and Setebos from The Tempest rekindling their blood feud across quantum space? Come on, people...this is great s#*t!!!

At least I'm happy. After taking some of the guys out for beers after work on Friday, what do you think we did? Go to a strip club? No, we went to Barnes & Noble and bought Olympus. I only hope I can be forgiven for waiting three days after release to buy it.