Ryminate

33 Things to Remember When Raising Kids, From Coach Hawk

Dan Hawkins, head football coach of the University of Colorado Buffaloes, just posted a great list of things to remember when raising kids. Coach Hawkins has two boys and two girls, the last of which just left for college, and has worked with hundreds of young men through his football programs, so I respect his opinions.

Here is a taste of what's on his list. The full version can be found here.

1. Treat every event like it’s the last one, because soon it will be.
2. Make memories, DO things rather than HAVE things.
3. Get them to play a musical instrument- it will be a great developer of the mind and a way to express themselves
4. Encourage them to get a job (have a chore list).  Let them learn how to earn the things they want.
5. Less is more.
6. Boy/Girl Scouts is an awesome program – most Eagle scouts are remarkable people.
7. Hug your kids often/everyday-tell them you love them often/everyday.
8. Leave your coaching hat at the office, if they have questions they will ask.  They need a dad, not another coach.
9. After the kids’ games, be concerned about “did you learn something”? And “did you have positive experience” (then go eat some pizza and ice cream)?
10. Teach them to solve their own problems- and let them do it. 
11. Keep the computer out where you can see it and monitor it.
12. Teach your kids to love each other.  Make them hold hands when they fight, make them say ten nice things to each other when they are mean to each other.
13. Siblings in the same bedroom are better than separate rooms.
14. Your kids will follow more what you do, and less what you say.
15. Allow your family be around and involved in your work.
16. Dad’s talk to your girls early about sex and boys early- and keep doing it regularly.
17. Avoid the sock basket!
18. Talk to your kids regularly about sex, drugs, and alcohol use and abuse – regularly.
19. Use every example in life to point out to your children the consequences of behavior (good and bad) – use the paper, TV or your own.  Like spaghetti, keep throwin’ it against the wall until it sticks.
20. Eat dinner together as a family (regularly).

Running My First Marathon

 For the past four or five months I have been training for the my first marathon. Last Thursday I actually ran the thing, and now that I can walk again (more later) I wanted to share the experience.

 I decided to run a marathon at the beginning of 2007 for a number of reasons, including the fact that my life is perhaps as busy as it's ever been. Between growing law firm (and a family) the long days tend to blur together. This is dangerous in that you can get so caught up in "doing, doing, doing" that you fail to reflect on whether you are "doing" the right things or merely running like a hamster on its wheel. Training for a marathon has allowed me to regularly "check out" from the grind to both gain perspective and recharge.

I ran the Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake City, Utah. It's a smaller marathon with just over 500 runners. The course is mostly downhill beginning at about 7,500' above sea level and ends about 4,250', which I thought would be great for a first marathon.

I felt great for the first 18 miles, running at just over a 9:00/mile pace, but from then on each subsequent mile seemed to increase geometrically in difficulty. I guess I should have expected the last few miles to be tough, but frankly I was a bit surprised at how quickly my body went from "feeling good" to "what are doing?! stop now!" The last mile seemed to go on forever, but finally I made the final turn and somehow found the energy to pick up the pace crossing the finish line in 4:29.

My first thoughts after finishing were, "Wow, that was LONG; I am so glad it's over." (Profound, I know). But after 6 cups of Gatorade, a bagel, and a Fat Boy, the runner's high kicked in and it was amazing.

After spending some time with my fans (you know who you are--THANKS!!!), I took a seat along side the finish line and watched some of the other runners come in. There were runners from all walks of life--moms, retirees, soldiers, cancer survivors, couples, teens. It was very inspiring and I couldn't help but to wonder about their stories. (I shoud've setup a Facebook group).

I was wholly unprepared for how sore I would be. I'm not sure if it was because this marathon had some serious downhill action or if this is just how it is. The day after the race, I hobbled around all day somewhat amused at my uselessness.

There are certainly many things I will do differently next time, including eating and drinking more during the race, getting a hotel room the night before without the kids (I slept 2.5 hours), getting a hotel room with working air conditioning, choosing a marathon that doesn't occur during the hottest month of the year, avoiding chaffage, not eating a large meal the night before, meeting more of the other runners, and running a negative split.

Despite all of this, I had a GREAT experience and look forward to running another 26.2.

Facebook prohibits high school dropouts from using their service

Have you ever read Facebook's Terms of Use and Privacy Policies? Let me rephrase that: Have you ever read any website's Terms of Use or Privacy Policies? I'm guessing probably not, even though each time you visit any website, you are tacitly agreeing to whatever they contain. So... whether you realize it or not, by surfing the web you are entering into contract after contract with each click of the mouse. Crazy, huh.

Since I get to draft Terms of Use statements on a fairly regular basis, I do read them from time to time. While poking through Facebook's Terms of Use earlier today I noticed the following:

"[Facebook] is intended solely for users who are 13 years of age or older, and users of the Site under 18 who are currently in high school or college. Any registration by, use of, or access to [Facebook] by anyone under 13, or by anyone who is under 18 and not in high school or college, is unauthorized, unlicensed and in violation of these Terms of Use." 

In other words, if you're under 18 and not in high school or college, NO FACEBOOK FOR YOU. Hmm... maybe this could be the genesis of a new "stay in school" campaign: Stay in school... or lose all your 'friends.' 

Am I on to something here?

.Mac vs. Google Apps

Lately I've had a bit of a Google Apps on the brain; particularly since our law firm made the switch to Apps last weekend. Today Merlin Mann of 43 Folders has a very interesting post on the future of .mac in which he postulates a comprehensive backup/sync/cloud-computing environment that sounds eerily familiar.

I think Merlin is right, but while Merlin seems to think that Apple and Google will continue to skip hand and hand down the yellow brick road, I see some major conflicts. Google is also racing towards a very similar end with Google Apps. Certainly there is room for both companies in this space, but their similar direction may aggravate their already awkward relationship. 

Prediction: Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, will leave Apple's board of directors in the next 6 months. There are just too many conflicts of interest.

2008 Will Be the Year of Google Apps

2008 will be a breakout year for Google Apps. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. GDrive/Platypus will go live, allowing Google Apps users to store  their files online. The current backup and file sync solutions on the market are frustrating. While there are a few notable exceptions (Mozy, Memeo),  no one has put together the gamechanging solution. Google Apps will do this in 2008, and it will be integrated with the Google suite of products (e.g., Gmail, Google Docs, etc.). It is useful to note that M$ is scrambling towards its own solution in Live Drive, but as long as it continues to take a "one foot in, one foot out" approach in their commitment to Live Drive they will not beat Google. (Come on M$, you've been sitting on Foldershare and Groove for years without getting fully behind either!)
2. JotSpot, acquired by Google over a year ago, will finally go live as a key piece of Google Apps. Hopefully, the delayed integration means that it will be robust. I expect to see a something akin to a JotSpot-Basecamp mashup with a dash of Google ingenuity, and of course it will be well integrated with all of the other Google Apps tools.
3. Postini - When Google acquired Postini last year, it sent a strong message to me (and to others) that Google is indeed building a enterprise capable application in Google Apps. This acquisition gives Google a competitive advantage and legitimacy. Postini allows Google to sell Apps not only as a viable, but market leading enterprise solution when it comes to managing communications.
4. M$ Exchange is TOO much for most organizations. Why is it that if all I want to do is to keep my Outlook in sync between a few computers and my smartphone, I have to use this beast of a program? Not only is M$ Exchange too feature rich for most organizations, it is also very expensive to both setup and then manage. Conversely, Google Apps provides the most commonly used features from Exchange (e.g., shared address books and calendars), but they manage it, and it's available for a fraction of the price.
5. Security and Privacy concerns are overblown. It's a bit scary to make your organization so Google-dependent, but consider the following: A) For many businesses, moving to Google Apps represents an increase in security and stability. Why? Security and stability are the sine qua non of Google's business and they know it; they allocate their tremendous resources accordingly. B) As Facebook has reminded us over the past few months, privacy is a costs benefits analysis. If Google provides killer applications at unmatched prices, (which they do), organizations may grit their teeth a bit, but will ultimately trust Google to follow their informal corporate motto, "Don't be Evil."

Happy 2008! It’s Time to Update Your Copyright Notices

While the use of a copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, it is often very beneficial. Your copyright notices, whether on the web or otherwise, should include the following 3 elements:

1. The symbol ©, or the word “Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”;
2. The year of first publication of the work, and then the years that the work was updated, if applicable (e.g., 2000-2008);
3. The name of the copyright owner.

For example, in the footer of my firm’s site, you will find, “© 2007-08 Hedberg & Howell, LLC.”

Happy 2008!

Microblogging

Usually there are several times throughout the day when I think, "I ought to blog about this." Unfortunately, there are a finite number of hours in the day and blogging often gets bumped off the to-do list.

Enter the microblog. Just to the left of the main content on my blog I've inserted a microblog--short posts of a sentence or two that I usually post from my Blackberry. To set this up I use a combination of the Twitter widget on the blog and then Twitterberry on the Blackberry. It's been great to be able to shoot off a quick update or thought a few times a day as opposed to writing a regular blog post.

If you're interested in following my microblog (as if you needed more noise in your life) you can do so via Twitter or RSS.

Running Again...

2008 might be the year...  the year to finally run a marathon. I've run half-marathons and completed short distance triathlons, but never attempted the full 26.2.

Last month I begin running in earnest again, after a knee injury last spring, and so far it's going well. I put together a spreadsheet to track my progress, (you can access the template I used as a base here), and I'm slowly cranking up the mileage.

Here's to early morning runs through the Colorado winter!!!

Armchair Science

Recently I've been reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I must say is the best armchair science book I have ever read (with perhaps E=Mc2: A Biography, placing second). Bryson does a great job of taking my mind to places I've never been since high school science class, and then providing just enough novel information to provide my mind a "leaping off point" in terms of thinking about how the universe works.

I just finished a chapter on the asteroids and their many near misses with Earth, and now I'm onto earthquakes. Bryson paints a sobering picture of both that has me looking at force majeure clauses in a new light :). Highly recommended book!

JOTT -- My "Always There" Personal Assistant

I hate to admit it, but my work life can be a bit email inbox-centric; consequently, I think I've necessarily become quite effective at inbox processing. In fact, I kind of delight in plowing through my emails each morning, firing off responses, dumping some to my task list,  delegating...   until I get to that beautiful moment of zen when my inbox is empty.

Since identifying my proclivity for inbox processing, I've tried to channel as much "stuff" as possible to my email inbox. Enter Jott, a free service that allows you send transcribed messages from your cell phone to your inbox. It's kind of like having an "always there" personal assistant. Since getting on board I Jott on the road, while in bed, and sometimes on bike rides. Check out a video demo: