Intro:

Normal morning, my 4 yr old comes in our room with his animals wanting to play. I get up, make coffee, look over paper (will blog over here about interesting article later) and finally check my email.

In my inbox is a curious message from youtube.

Questions:

So it’s not as dramatic as “1984″, yet. I don’t have a problem giving credit where credit’s due. I gave Discovery credit for this video from the start, in the title and in the description of this video. This email leaves me with several questions:

1. How many others have gotten a similar email?
2. Under “Policy”, what are the others? (Will Not Allow content to remain, Send us your address so we can send the subpoena)
3. Line 8 of message, under the second paragraph, “Viewers may also see advertising on your video’s page.” What kind? (G, PG or R rated

Big Picture:

Now that the game has changed, Viacom win, companies are finding the copyrighted content you’ve uploaded. I turn to YouTube for movie trailers, news, professional development, show compilations/clips and childhood memories. So will Big Brother be Nice, continue to allow the sharing and remixing of their content, or Naughty making you pay and/or sit through ads to see their content? My guess is they’ll be somewhere in-between, regardless like family you have to deal with them.

Transparency:

I know the answers to some of the above questions for this particular video, I happen to work for Discovery Communications, LLC. I’m not worried about the ads from Discovery showing up or a subpeona, pink slip on desk would be more likely. If Discovery, through the YouTube Content Identification Program, found their content and can now place ads on that video’s page can anyone or any company(Viacom) do that? I’d say yes.

First full day of vacation and I still can’t shake thoughts of work.  I hope they all disappear by tomorrow, but something tells me the 1:00 pm conference call will blow that.   Seriously thinking about hopping on the call from the middle of the pool.  Maybe dropping the crackberry in the deep half-way through the call. 

Poor John Michael is sick.  Here in beautiful Flordia with toys, pool and grandparents and he’s sick.  I felt bad for him tonight, he’s so tired yet trying to stay up and play.  He’s so curious about anything to do with nature.  This trip a bird book has him enthralled.   It’s actually a really cool book, names the bird species, shows an illustration and even plays their call.  If into birds check it out here.  

Several years ago I stopped teaching, kind of.  I still teach, just teach teachers now.  I really love my job, but a visit a couple of months ago got me thinking.  I invited a group of 5th graders from King Middle School in Kankakee, IL to present some of their digital projects.  It was awesome getting to see some of the cool projects students are able to do now.  

There are days I wish I could return to the classroom, taking all I’ve learned and put it into use within my own classes.  I miss that feeling when you see the excitement in your students eyes after a cool experiment, a flame-throwing demonstration (gummy bear sacrifice) or that “I get it” moment.   Have to say I don’t miss the pay and right now with 1 kid and 1 on the way, I can’t afford to jump back into teaching.  

You can make descent money teaching, but usually only a decade or so in, no matter how much you have to offer.  That’s something that needs to change.  

Ok, I’m still on vacation.  Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!.  Kelly, John Michael and I are living it up in Orlando all this week.  A trip to Disney is a sure thing.  A date night is long overdue!!  Kelly and I will be hitting the town sometime this week, taking advantage of having the grandparents around.  

A few picks from the 5th graders’ visit and from our trip to the Shedd Aquarium afterwards. 

The past two weeks have been a blur.  Joliet, Bloomington, Minneapolis, back to Bloomington and now sitting in Orlando finally on vacation.  The last few weekends have been perfect for working in the yard.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally have a yard again, even if it is tiny.  Below are shots from over two weekends.   I played around our camera’s settings, some came out awesome, others not so much. 

“Man Day”, a day that John Michael and I spend together. My first blog post, non-work related anyway, in months and I couldn’t think of a better topic. I spent last Saturday in downtown Chicago with John Michael. Our good friend Jen was in town so Kelly, Jen, John Michael and I took the train in. The girls headed off to the Art Institute of Chicago, while John Michael and I embarked on a journey up river.

John Michael and I always have fun in the Loop. He likes to take the water taxi from the train station up to Michigan Ave. You get to go under bridges, it’s faster than taking a bus and costs less than a taxi ($4.00 for both of us). If in Chi-Town, take a water taxi.  I’ve placed the day’s photos below.

So I don’t blog a lot.

Excuse List:

1. dot Mac, host of blog, can only be updated from home computer (I travel a lot and when I’m home I don’t want to type all my thoughts down)

2. see above, just wanted to point out excuse 1 is the main reason.

3. see # 1 above, ok so I didn’t need a list, but sometimes a list comforts people makes them think, that guy has his facts together and makes a good point, I’ll be a sheep on his team.

Just a thought dot Mac, get with the rest of the blogging work soon or everyone will drop you.

Sorry… it had to be said. I did buy iLife 8, which is supposed to allow more flexibility. We shall see.

I spent this weekend reliving the 80’s thanks to Encore’s 80’s Weekend. Man, John Cusack was in everything. I think all kids of the 80’s should watch “Say Anything” again. What a good movie.

If .mac get’s it’s act togther then you’ll see many more blogs from me if not look for a move of the website.

I’m back!!! Wow has a lot happened. The snow is gone, I hope, the sun is out and I still have a job. I’ve been out of town on business and then thrown back into a company-wide reorg when I returned. Needless to stay, stressful and incredibly busy. Once again, I have a job!! A nice new,low stress role at that, instead of 4 states, I have 26. It is a good thing and I’m excited about the new challenge.

What’s with the “Ego Trip”? Have you ever googled yourself? I didn’t exactly google myself today, but I wanted to have a cool picture of our beach here on Lake Michigan to share as part of the post today, so I did a google image search. The first image I surf to takes me to SaruDama, another blog, kept by someone in my neighborhood, actually across the street. The link from google takes me to a post from last June where I find the above picture. The guy with the flower crotch, I’m sad to say is me.

The post simply uses me, “Dough Boy”, as the comic relief from the sexual drama that unfolded on the beach that day, read the post. My “Ego Trip” was a bad one.

Since SaruDama posts his address, as well as his name, I could have easily walked over, pounded on his door and demanded him take that post down. Sure, that’s what every southern bred, 6’, now 210 lbs. ex-bouncer does… demands a negative post be taken down. No worries SaruDama, my age, wife and son have turned me into a rather calm person. I also, as you can see, have reposted the picture, so rage is not what I felt when I saw this. It was embarrassment at first, then the quick realization that no one knows that’s me. Then came those ever so nice motivational thoughts, “Hey, fat-ass, you think now you’ll get your ‘Dough Boy’ self down to the gym!?” My inner narrator sometimes sounds like a cross between Bruce Campbell and Vinnie Jones.

I’m thinking about selling this little story to my gym, the EAC. Would make one hell of a commercial. I know I’ll be going everyday this week.

The family landed in Orlando a few minutes ago. It was hard to see them leave without me. It was harder knowing I won’t see them again for a couple of weeks. Even harder knowing that they will be bathing in the 80 degree weather while I fly to 6 degree weather.

Now that the truth’s out, I’m heading to Alaska tomorrow. An absolutely beautiful state, but rather cold in February. I’ll be at a conference most of the week and in meetings the rest. A little time for sight-seeing I hope, but not much. It’s an important trip and I hope things go well, so keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

I am getting to head down to Florida for a few days. It should be a nice break from my hellish three week schedule. I know all my Illinois friends are jealous.

That’s about all I’ve got today. There will not be another post until the middle of March, when I finally see home again. Until then, you’ll see me on Facebook and IM.

While my lovely wife and son leave this week for sunny Florida I journey to Alaska.











Anchorage to be exact for about 5 days. I was there last year and it wasn’t so bad. It was actually amazing. It was May and 60 degrees out, but February can’t be that bad, can it? I hear that it’s actually warmer there than it has been here in Chicago. It won’t be like flying to Florida, but any warmer than the bone chilling 15 below wind chill here is great.















I leave Anchorage on the red-eye back to Chicago, hop in a rental at O’Hare and book it out to St. Charles, IL for IL-TCE a major education conference in the state. I do a few workshops there then head to Plainfield, IL to speak at the state’s ASCD conference to finish out the week.










Whoa! I’m getting tired just blogging about it. So, I have a break over the weekend, then hop on a flight out to Spokane, Washington. Spend about 4 days there then I’m back for another weekend break. Next Stop!
I know I broke from the theme, but VEGAS BABY!! That’s right I fly into Vegas for a guys weekend. A much needed break from the crazy work schedule. A few days in Vegas will do me some good and I get to see and hang out with friends I rarely get to see.
If you don’t see a blog from me or get a response from a email the above is why. Oh, and I may squeeze a trip to Florida in the above somewhere. So if you want to see me at some point in the next 3 weeks, visit an airport.

That’s right they have snow alarms, sirens I should say. This southern boy never new such things were needed. It’s true the sirens blast and you know to move you car or it’ll be buried by the snow plow. I really mean buried!.

The above picture is from today and it means I love my job. I must to have walked a total of 6 blocks, waited for the L, and then walked through this, I LOVE MY JOB!!. Well, I may just not have known any better.

Just incase you didn’t know how cold it’s been the below shot is of the lake, Lake Michigan in Evanston. FROZEN!!!