Risley Ranch

One Story

After reading Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind, I implemented some of the action items he suggested to help keep my right brain improving.  One interesting suggestion was subscribing to "One Story."  According to their site:

"One Story is a non-profit literary magazine that features one great short story mailed to subscribers every three weeks. Our mission is to save the short story by publishing in a friendly format that allows readers to experience each story as a stand-alone work of art and a simple form of entertainment. One Story is designed to fit into your purse or pocket, and into your life."

I received my first story this weekend and read it immediately.  Entitled "Muscle Memory" by Katherine Karlin, it was a tale about a young girl following in her father's footsteps to become a welder on the ship yards in Louisiana. 

This clever little short story was a welcome diversion from the typical business and marketing stuff I usually read.  Looks like it will definitely be worth the minimal subscription price.

Down for the count

Oh my.  I haven't been that sick in a long time.  Wednesday night it hit me -- some sort of flu-bug-virus-thingy -- I was out for three days.  Finally had solid food last night, and I'm feeling among the living today.  I know my body was rebelling...too much work, too much movement, too much, too much.  Even though I missed my fishing trip, the rest was worth it.  I didn't realize how tired I was.  Three days alone with your feverish thoughts puts life in perspective.  Time to stop sprinting.  Life is a marathon.

KC PRSA Presentation

I had the privilege of presenting to the Greater Kansas City PRSA chapter last week.  The subject:  "Building Public Relationships Through Social Media."  We hosted about 40 or so folks at Barkley.  It was a great crowd.  Very in tune with the subject matter, and very engaged.  I've posted the presentation below, along with an appendix of data.  Thanks to Tracy Richardson for inviting me and the chapter for allowing me to speak.

Download prsa_sm_presentation.pdf

Download prsa_sm_appendix.pdf

Technorati Tags: PRSA, Presentation, PR

Babies and Tai Chi

I had a great weekend.  So good, in fact, I didn't want to do any work, blog, twitter or anything else except soak in the sun.

Saturday Joe took his testing for karate.  We've had him enrolled in the local ATA franchise for close to six months now.  He practices twice a week with other 5-6 year olds.  It really is neat to watch him go through the moves, and I'm impressed with the positive, confidence-building and respect-generating nature of the program.  I studied Goju Ru karate in college and loved it.  My karate career ended when I destroyed my little finger in a sparing match and had to have reconstructive surgery on it.  Even so, I'd like to encourage Joe to follow martial arts for its mind-body-soul attributes, as well as the need to learn self-defense.

Also on Saturday, I finished an eight-week course in introductory Tai Chi.  I found the Lawrence Academy of Tai Qi through a reference, and decided to make it part of my "Tao Makeover," which I started back in February of this year.  The instructors -- Trish, Adam, Katie and Travler -- are wonderful folks.  They've been practicing this Taoist martial art for at least 10 years each, and it shows.  They teach a derivative of the Wu style, which is one of the five traditional schools of Tai Chi, all of which originated in China.  You probably think of old people in a park doing slow, long movements in unison when you think of Tai Chi.  It is a "soft" martial art; however, it requires all the things I'm trying to better in my 40-year-old self: balance, concentration, stamina and positive energy.  I'm definitely going to continue the training.

On Sunday we headed into Kansas City for the local March for Babies event.  The March of Dimes is a Barkley client, and one of the many brand-changes we helped them with was changing the name of their signature event from Walk America to March for Babies.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, and thousands of people descended upon the Power and Light district for the 1- or 3-mile walk.  We opted for the 1-mile, which went right past the Barkley building, which was decorated to the hilt to show off our passion for this client.  My hat's off to everyone who helped organize us for this event -- especially the MOD team and Jennifer Cawley, who put in all kinds of time organizing and rallying us.

Technorati Tags: March of Dimes, March for Babies, Tai Chi, Barkley

Hello Twitter

Yes, I'm way late to the party, but I decided to give Twitter a try.  My colleague, Dustin, and his awesome presentation yesterday at our brown bag, convinced me.  Follow me if you like.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, microblogging