The Kids at the White House....

 

The Proud Dad...

It is days like today that make me really miss my Dad. I think today is, on the record, one of the proudest days I have ever experienced as a father, if it isn’t the top day, it is in the top five. Today was Dryver’s first ever official soccer game. He has taken classes for a year or so with Coach Bill and recently Jennifer signed him up for the Alexandria Soccer League to be a part of a pre-Kindergarten team. I was a little cynical and apprehensive that it would be stressful on him and he would have problems getting involved and being a part of the team and learning the game.

I have constantly worried about Dryver being reticent and thought that sports would be a great way to get him out of his shell. I also did fret that if he did not really enjoy sports that he would continue to struggle and would have a hard time fitting in with his peers. I have always been concerned that if he felt like he was not as good as the others on the team he would quit and really lose his motivation and the self-esteem that is so important at this age for kids. Dryver is such a sweet little kid and truly so caring of others around him. Dryver is the kind of kid that is incredibly self-aware and desires to make sure everyone is okay. He also has been a pretty anxious kid and he continues to lack some very important building blocks of belief in himself, which is critical when kids are growing up.

Well, today, I watched my little boy step out on the soccer field and come to life. This shy and worried kid was animated, energized, and confident. I have never in my life seen Dryver walk around and interact in such a secure manner. It was like the minute he walked out on the field he was empowered with some internal strength that just exploded onto the field. Dryver was empowered, proud, and was truthfully confident. It is a Dryver that we don’t see very often, but it is a Dryver that makes us proud.

Dryver was amazing out on the field and was a true team player. He was athletic, confident, driving, and joyful! He kept looking over at both Jennifer and me and smiling in a way that I have never seen before. He went after the ball on the field and played with a vigor that was just amazing. He was willing to take risks and be a true leader on the field. He scored goal after goal, and even made sure his other teammates were okay. Wow, what an amazing experience, I felt Goosebumps as he dribbled the ball, passed it, and scored. But the best Goosebumps came when he looked over to me and showed absolute elation in his smile!

It is days like this that I really miss my Dad. I miss him because I would have called him after the game and shared with him how proud I was of Dryver, and I would have known how proud he was also. More importantly, it reminds me of how proud he was of me when I was growing up and I would get excited about new things and would get involved. My Dad always told me how proud he was, he never forgot to tell me, I can remember almost every time.

I heard my Dad talking this evening when I was sitting in Dryver’s bed putting him to bed. I heard my Dad say ‘I am really proud of you chief, you did great out there today! I love you buddy!’ But, the voice wasn’t his this time, it was mine.

Alexandria Elections: Bullet Voting

This Tuesday, May 2nd, we will go to the polls in the city election for Alexandria City Council and School Board. There are six seats on the City Council and nine seats on the School Board. The City Council is an ‘At-Large’ election and each voter has six votes. The School Board election is based on districts, with three seats per district. There are eleven candidates running for City Council and thirteen running for School Board. Alright, complicated enough?

In district B, the central area of the city, there are five candidates running for the three School Board seats. The candidates include: Yvonne Folkerts, Art Peabody, Elynn B. Simons, Peter H. Smeallie, and some other candidate that I am not sure is relevant anyway. The top three vote getters will win the seats in the School Board race.

Anyway, I've heard from several people now that some of the School Board candidates in the B race are out asking people to "bullet" vote. Bullet voting means that a voter chooses to vote for a single candidate, rather than using all three votes they're allowed to use in this election. These challengers will say that if you vote for more than one candidate, it dilutes the vote and will hurt their chances of getting elected. There is logic to this, but it might work against you and does not really speak to the values of true voting.

The bullet voting mathematical issue is based on the fact that there are more candidates than there are seats, and each voter has more than one vote. So if we use district B as an example, each voter is entitled to cast three votes for their representative to the Alexandria School Board, but is it wise to exercise that right or should one cast only one vote, which is known as a bullet vote? (Intermediate positions — casting two or three votes — are also possible of course.) Below presents both sides with an example of what the outcome could be.

Suppose you and 100 of your friends and neighbors agree that your first choice is Art and your second choice is Peter. And suppose, before your 100 ballots are counted, Art is in a tight race for third place, just 80 votes behind Peter. If the 100 of you bullet-vote for Art, your votes put him 20 votes ahead of Peter for third place, letting Art squeak in. But if the 100 of you dilute your support by voting for both of these fine candidates, Art remains 20 votes behind Peter, who then pushes Art out of third place. Net result: your second choice would be elected and your first choice defeated. Bullet voting is clearly the correct strategy as it elects your first choice in this case.

On the other hand, there is also an argument against bullet voting. To understand this argument we have to consider a candidate of medium popularity whom you definitely do not want elected. Let’s call her Claire, to pick a name at random. Now suppose Claire is 30 votes ahead of Art for fourth place before the 100 ballots from you and your friends are counted. And suppose that Art is way ahead (or way behind, it doesn’t matter which), so your 100 votes for Art won’t make any difference in his election. If you bullet-vote for Art, what happens? Claire gets elected by finishing in fourth place! But if you each cast two votes — one for Peter and one for Art — then Peter finishes 20 votes ahead of Claire and squeaks in for a fourth-place victory! Net result of refusing to bullet-vote: your second choice would be elected and your last choice would be defeated. Bullet voting is clearly not the correct strategy!

So, to bullet-vote or not? The choice depends entirely on which scenario you think is more probable. If the race for fourth place is between your two favorite candidates, you should bullet-vote. If the race for fourth place is between your second choice and someone you strongly dislike, you should not bullet-vote.

Photo of the Week: The Really Big Cactus

When we were in Yucca Valley the kids were able to go to see the living desert. They loved the really really really big cactus and plants!

 

Alexandria School Board…. Who Do I Vote For?

I get a ton of people asking me who they should vote for in this up coming School Board Campaign. I must answer the question at least a few times everyday. I am not sure why people are asking me, but it is probably because I have done so much research into the school system and the candidates. I posted a lot on this blog about what is going on in the schools and how the current school board is working. This blog gets about 500-1,000 visitors per day, with many coming from Alexandria and the surrounding areas. I feel like I have a lot invested in the future of the schools and want to do everything in my power to make sure my children have the best opportunity possible.

I have spent literally hours every week understanding and drilling into the school budget, school board and how the Alexandria School System is doing. Overall the system is working. It is heavy at the top and a lot of money is being allocated to the Central Office with a lot of disorganization. The Superintendents office is not very organized and they continue to have communication problems at all levels of the system. But this is not a surprise to anyone.

But the way I look at this school board race is that we have a great opportunity to add some energy and accountability to the system. We have been really lacking both and this is not one person’s fault. We had a dysfunctional school board and a lack of community outreach from the school system.

Well, the board needs a well rounded set of people to continue some great progress we have made as a community. Now, let's be honest, we have a great situation, as all the candidates that are running are great and can help fill the holes. I think we need to fill these gaps with the best people to help expand our strengths and minimize our weaknesses. Note, some of the holes are bigger than others.

Here is how I look at it…

Money - We need someone that has budget experience. The school system is 30% of our tax dollars and is bloated at the top. We need someone that has budget committee experience and has been in the trenches for the last few years. The insights into how the money is spent and what works and what doesn’t are critical. – This person is Arthur Peabody Jr.

Passion - We need someone that has kids in the school system and are going to be in the system for the whole term of the cycle. We need someone that also has spent time, a lot of time, in the schools as a tutor and/or volunteer. The insight into the way the schools work and how the classrooms are working is critical. – This person is Yvonne Folkerts.

New Ideas – Last, but not least, we need someone that brings some new ideas to the board. Someone that has experience in corporate America and can help bring some new concepts to an old system. Bringing some best practices to the school system and creating a support system is critical. – This person is Peter Smeallie.

I can’t guarantee that these are the most important priorities for our children and community, but I can promise these votes will not be wasted. It is clear these candidates are the best and will help lead our community and schools to the next level.

Alexandria Elections: Ready… Set… Go!

We are in election cycle in Alexandria, Virginia for the city based seats. This includes the Mayor, City Council, and School Board. The election is a spring local election that has all the signs and money being spent of a national race. The signs are all over the town, the lit is being dropped at our door on a daily basis. We are meeting candidates at every possible forum. It has everything you would expect, except there is no mudslinging.

My dad sent me a note about 6 weeks ago after I had sent him some of what was going on in the city elections. He sent back a note saying that Chicago is the same, except everyone is talking about how bad the other candidate is. This is not really happening here.

It is great to see the spirit of the founders of this great country is running full speed. It is a great spirit and if we could pull this energy and spirit for all voters we would have 100% turn-out to every election.

This is a big week for the candidates. Everything the candidates worked on the last few months now is compressed into a week when most people are finally deciding who they are going to vote for. Everything the campaigns did, including lit drop, coffees, door knocking, parties, forums, events, debates, etc… all are going to be the building blocks for the last week of the election. Unlike Presidential, State, or even some regional elections, the last week in the local elections is absolutely critical as many of the candidates and voters have not interacted and exposure has been low.

I used to run campaigns in Chicago and we used to day that the last week was the real start of the campaign. Now, don’t get me wrong, the money and time spent over the last few months is not lost or wasted. This is the foundation for where the candidates will build. This is what the candidates will pull from. To make people finally decide, it is the many months, if not years of campaigning that makes a difference. Remember, 90%+ of incumbents win reelection to their seat. This is a function of them campaigning for so long, but also because of the exposure factor.

Anyway, the next 10 days are going to be great. We are going to start to see what these guys really are made of. I will keep updated on how people react to the situations and this will be telling of what they really will bring to the city. I am excited, and hope the voters all become excited to actually turn out and vote!

Poor Advertising Placement of the Week: eBay...

I am all for mass ad buys, esp as it relates to search and CPC ads. This keyword seems a little strange to me though...


I am not sure what you get when you click on the ad, as I was worried about being flagged by Bush and his team if I clicked it. 

Good Night David Lee Roth…

David Lee Roth ended his radio career this morning about 30 minutes ago. He was not able to say goodbye on the air and was replaced with music. This is no surprise, he is not a radio guy. The guys that should have been fired are Joel Hollandar and Les Moonves. They decided after hearing this guy on the air for months of test shows in 2005 that he was good for their flagship station in NYC. I listened for two hours and knew he was done.

I predicted that David Lee Roth would not make it through the year, back on January 3rd, 2006.

Unfortunately, there is no possible scenario that I can consider where Roth is going to be successful. Even if he starts doing very extreme stunts on the show and brings in high class guests, he is not a radio guy. His concert stories are going to dry up in a few weeks, his excitement for this job is going to wane, and he is going to die on the vine. Mark my words, January 3, 2006, David Lee Roth will not be on WXRK by January 3, 2007.

I thought CBS would at least give him 9-12 months. These guys amaze me on how stupid they are. Radio does draw the retarded. Many times you look at a company from the outside and wonder why they are doing certain things, but realize there is probably a good reason for it. Well, this time there is no good reason. These guys are incompetent!

Fire Les Moonves! Fire Joel Hollandar! Dump the stock. These guys will go down in history as the guys that killed the Radio Star.

The Missing Link...

We have discovered the answer to the question we all have been searching for. Why did CBS Radio choose to replace Howard Stern in their flagship station with David Lee Roth. Experts have been baffled about why such a large radio conglomerate would select a non-radio talent to do the most important time slot for their most profitable stations.

Well, Cold Kiwi has been investigating and has discovered 'The Hidden Link.' We have found that Sumner Redstone was born Sumner Murray Rothstein in Boston in 1923. He changed his name from Sumner Rothstein to Sumner Redstone later in life.

David Lee Roth was born in 1954 in the town of Bloomington, Indiana. His parents Nathan and Sybil changed their names from Rothstien to Roth in 1948. Nathan had two bothers, the well known Manny Roth, is who was an influential New York City nightclub owner and entertainment entrepreneur.

But, the family secret appears to be Nathan's older brother, and David's other uncle, Sumner. Uncle Summy, as David called him growing up, decided he did not want anything to do with the Jew's so he told his family he did not want to be associated with them and created his own, non-Jew history.

Well, Cold Kiwi, has uncovered the real story. David Rothstien and Sumner Rothstein are related. Sumner gave his nephew a nice gift for his Bar Mitzvah, a morning drive time slot. Cold Kiwi is asking for a DNA test to prove they are not related. This is the only way to be sure at this point.


Note - this whole story is not a surprise given the nepotism that is rampant in CBS. With Les Moonves hiring his wife to run the CBS morning show; Joel Hollander hiring his brother Les to run the radio group; and now Sumner hiring his nephew to be the morning drive time talent.

Look, the nepotism is so obvious; Les even used 15MM of the CBS shareholders money to hire away his wife’s morning competition Katie Couric.

I guess ‘The CBS Family’ is more than just a marking pitch.

The Egg Roll...

Well, the kids and Jennifer went to the Easter Egg Roll at the White House yesterday. A friend of ours gave us great tickets and they were able to sit and listen to Laura Bush read the story about sharing to them. Jennifer figured they would be on the news, though we never saw it.

Well, they all had a great time and were excited to see the President. They were in the Egg Race and Stryde started to push his egg down, and then decided to pick it up and carry it with the scoop. It was quicker.

The Egg Roll at the White House - 2006

Happy Easter...

We got back from LA and went to bed around 2am. We woke up on Sunday to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.



Happy Easter

Photo of the Week: Gotham Church

Gotham Church...

Product Of The Month: Find Your Kids...

This is a great product for parents. I am all for this as I know what kids do when they are out on their own.

Sprint Nextel has become the first U.S. wireless carrier to launch a location-based service designed to let parents use a phone or PC to pinpoint the location of a child carrying any of 30 GPS-enabled phones. To activate the service, developed by California-based WaveMarket, parents and guardians can list up to four phone numbers they want to locate. The service, which costs $9.99 a month, then uses GPS technology to pinpoint the location and display it on an interactive map, along with the street address and surrounding landmarks, on the parent's or guardian's phone or PC. The child is notified by a text message each time his or her location has been provided. Both parent and child must be subscribers to either Sprint or Nextel.

I love it.

This would be funny if it wasn't true...

A buddy sent me this link from the Post. It is a great example of how the politicals will get up and babble, even when they have nothing to say...

From the Washington Post In The Loop from Monday, April 10th...
Quick Loop Quiz! When is a lectern a car, a chair and a BlackBerry?
Answer: When Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) gives a late-night, way-too-late-night speech on immigration on the Senate floor Thursday.

"Mr. President, no matter how many times I call this lectern a car, it does not matter, this is not a car," Reid said. "This is a lectern, used here in the Senate for us to put our papers on and deliver a speech. This is not a car. If I come to the Senate floor and, day after day, hour after hour, call this a car, it is not a car. It is a lectern. If I come to this Senate floor day after day and say what the Democrats have done is unusual, unwarranted, unbelievable, it is wrong, it is as wrong as this lectern being called a car.

". . . The leader and I have gone back and forth so many times today that we are beating paths to our offices. There is no need that we -- I apologize to the chair and to Senator Byrd. I hope he's not watching. My BlackBerry. It went off a couple times, and I lost my concentration. I hope this legislation will move forward tomorrow. I know people feel that this lectern is a chair, but it is not. This is the Senate."

Then he sat down and drove off.

This is almost as funny as the clip of Larry King when the guy calls in and asks how tired Larry is and he talks in babble and makes no sense. Don & Mike play this clip and it is a crack.

This Blog Is Not Closing...

We are still OPEN for Business...

Note, I have had many people ask what is going to happen to this blog now that I sold Back of the Napkin.

The answer is.... Nothing. It will still be at this address: larrison.blogspot.com

We changed the name to Cold Kiwi already.

That's it. Keep coming and sharing.

Cool Building of the Week: The Luxor

This is a great shot from Google Maps in the Satellite view. It is a zoom of the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. I think it is a very cool looking building, though I prefer to stay at Westward Ho. Though the Ho closed last year, I need to find a new hotel.


Cool Building of the Week - The Luxor in Las Vegas

Photo of the Week: The Real McDonald

What is is claimed to be the world's most expensive sandwich goes on display at Selfridges Department Store in London, Monday April 10, 2006.

Named the McDonald Sandwich, after it's creator, chef Scott McDonald, the ingredients are Wagyu beef, fresh lobe foie gras, black truffle mayonnaise, brie de meaux, rocket, red pepper and mustard confit, and English plum tomatoes, all packed into 24-hour fermented sour dough bread - and it sells for 85 pounds (US$ 148.33: euro 122.53) each. (AP Photo/Tom Hevezi)

In Search of Great Writers…

Or even good story tellers. I realized the other night that I was burned out and needed to surf the web for fun and enjoyment. I figured I would go to my favorite blogs and read-up on what they were up to recently. It reminded me of when my Dad would go in the basement and read all of his New Republic and Scientific American magazines from the past month.

Anyway, I read all the most recent posts that I had missed over the past week while I was traveling. I still wanted more. I was having fun. In the past I would have gone to Google or Yahoo! and looked at the news for something interesting. I would have visited the Stern Fan Network or College Humor. I might have even gone to blogspot and just hit the ‘Next Blog’ button on the top to scroll through a list of blogs that really were about nothing. But this time, I found the Holy Grail.

I went to my favorite blog sites (Cultured State, DC Blogs, Kevin Mills, BuzzMachine, A VC), which I had read already, and looked at the sites they liked reading (aka their BlogRoll). All of a sudden I was opened up to a rich other world of bloggers. Now, most of these sites were either out of date (note – I do realize that just because a site has not posted in a week or two, does not mean it is not a good blog, blogs are more like magazines than newspapers) or not my cup of tea, but I did find a few additional sites that were good reading. They also were a lot of what I was interested in, since they were the blogs that people I liked to read, would read themselves.

I was able to read many new insights into topics that I enjoy. I updated my blogroll to make sure it was really up to date on the blogs I read. I also added a few blogs that I came across during my journey. I hope people start using the blogroll more often. It is a great way to discover great and exciting content.

I also hope one day, that I never have to see a blog roll that says: Google News, Edit-me, Edit-me!

Going Going Gone!

Well, it is done. I officially sold backofthenapkin.com. I am not sure what the company that bought it is going to do with it (they are in stealth mode), but they gave me a very generous offer that I could not refuse. It is enough to put my kids through college and buy that boat I have been looking at, well maybe not that much. Anyway, I bought it back in 2000 when the internet was hot and I always liked the domain. I like the idea of the back of the napkin for sharing ideas and concepts.

I went through many ideas, including a portal for people to share ideas with big companies. You would go on the back of the napkin and share a quick idea you had with a big Fortune 100 company, such as McDonalds. For example you could tell them to make a coffee flavored shake. We would send the info to McDonalds for you and track your ideas. The problem was the money. There were many ways to make money, just not enough. The best idea I had for the domain was a dating site. It would be like a personals site for people that lived in certain areas to connect. It would be like match.com meets Craigslist. That seemed like the best concept when online dating was exploding.

Anyway, the company that bought it has a good foundation of money to start the business with and what I have heard already it is a cool concept. So I have this money now. I bought the domain for 9.90 and sold it for 1000x’s times that amount in five years. 1000% return on your money is pretty good, like betting the Bears in the Super Bowl. Maybe that is what I will do with the money. Maybe I will buy 10,000 domain names and sell them as a broker. Well, my sister did not like that idea. Her quote was ‘you win the lotto, why use the money to buy lotto tickets.’

I am actually interested to see what they do with it. I never got around to doing anything with the domain. I had a few people offer a few thousand for it, but never enough to part with it. Mostly because I had my email on it and it would be such a pain to change. Well, cash is king. Plus this company has been nice enough to allow me and my family to keep our email for awhile. I am going to start moving our email and personal ‘web stuff’ sooner than later.

As for the money, I am going to donate a big part of it to Trilogy House in Chicago. See more at this link.

We are going to move our email to http://www.larrison.org/ – I set-up a site last night late that will host our email and our photos and other stuff for the kids. Check it out when you have a second. I think the idea of being an Organization in our family is a cool one. It is like we are the Swedish Mob from Alexandria. Anyway, our new emails are the same name, just different domain. So my email will be jim@larrison.org and Jen will be jen@larrison.org, and so on.
The only other thing I have to change is this blog. I told the company that I would rename my blog. I thought about it and decided to call it ‘The Cold Kiwi’ – since I have the domain and also it is a cool concept. So I introduce to you… Cold Kiwi!

Photo of the Week: Wanna Piece of Me?

Wanna Piece of Me?

Beverley Hills, VA - A Place Where I Wanna Be...

We live in Beverley Hills in Alexandria Virginia. It is a great part of Alexandria and we love the community aspects of the area. The Beverley Hills area is defined by the many trees and hills, while also the beauty of the spring Azaleas. It is such a great place to live and I am happy our boys will be able to enjoy the area as they grow up.

One of our neighbors came across a great brochure on eBay the other day that he posted for all people to enjoy. It is a sales brochure that talks about the Planned Community of Beverley Hills, Alexandria, VA.

A quote from the brochure: 'The property includes approximately two hundred acres of beautiful, rolling ridge land, west of the upper, or ridge road in Alexandria Virginia. It was once a part of the Alexander family estate, from which Alexandria derived its name.'


Cool 1920's Brochure from Beverley Hills, Alexandria, Virginia

It is still a great place to live, though the prices are a lot more than they were in the 1920's. The Washingtonian Magazine has listed Beverley Hills as one of the best places to live in DC over the past four years. Read the review from 2005. Here is a great quote from the magazine last year about Dryver's school...

In Alexandria, neighborhoods surrounding George Mason Elementary—Beverley Hills—is filled with kids. A quarter of the five-and-under teams in the city’s soccer program come from these areas. Many kids walk to George Mason, a once-flagging school that turned itself around in the 1990s under principal Lois Berlin, now superintendent of Falls Church schools.

Stryde The Exterminator

I have not written about the kids lately. Actually, I have not written about anything lately. The kids are at such a great age. I miss seeing them and spending every minute with them these days as they are such funny kids. If I did not have a company to help launch, I could write full time about what the kids are up to.

Stryde is 3 now, and he is a nut. He loves to be in charge and loves to push Dryver’s buttons. He is a stubborn kid and is the polar opposite of Dryver. He is aggressive, hard nosed, type A, competitive, tough, and wired. For example, we had to have him stop taking naps because he would stay up until midnight if he took a nap. Dryver could still take a nap and would go to bed around 7pm if you let him.

The other day Stryde decided to stay up late, as he has done many times. While Dryver goes to bed within a few minutes of his bedtime story, Stryde will sing, dance, climb on chairs, jump on the bed, climb under the gate, watch tv, crawl on the walls, etc… until late into the night.


Well, he was running around upstairs, even after Jennifer was trying to go to bed. He was jumping around, climbing on things and even playing run around game. He decided to go into the bathroom and close the doors. He was in there playing as Jennifer was telling him to go to bed. He thought it was funny. All of a sudden she heard him in the bathroom crying for mommy.

Jennifer opened the bathroom door thinking there was something wrong, and saw him standing on the toilet. He was looking down at the floor and screaming. There were a couple of ants on the floor and he was freaked out. He kept saying ‘Mommy those are scary.” Jennifer went and killed the ants and helped Stryde down off the toilet.

He decided it was best he went to bed rather than flirt with more danger. He is such a nut. It is funny to hear these stories and I wish I was there to see him on the toilet looking down at the ants. I am sure I will see him do another kooky thing in the near future.