Risley Ranch

Joe holding history

Joe is holding one of Jackie Robinson's bats at the Louisville Slugger museum. Awesome place.

It's gray in Louisville

We've got a great view of the Ohio river from our hotel. We're going to start at the Louisville Slugger museum, then the science museum.

We made it to Louisville

Having some dinner, and yes, a Maker's.

The adventure begins

We're off. I'm holding two Kentucky icons: Hunter S Thompson and Maker's. And Joe is holding on for dear life because he knows this is going to be a crazy gonzo trip. Well, a 40 year old version anyway.

The adventure begins

We're off. I'm holding two Kentucky icons: Hunter S Thompson and Maker's. And Joe is holding on for dear life because he knows this is going to be a crazy gonzo trip. Well, a 40 year old version anyway.

The Kansas Cosmosphere

We attended the 9th annual Risley Family Reunion in Hutchinson, Kansas, this past weekend.  On Saturday we spent the morning at the Kansas Cosmosphere.  If you're a space-buff, and you've never been, go.  Because in the middle of Kansas, you can see the coolest space museum next to the Smithsonian Air and Space in DC.  I hadn't been since I was a kid, and boy was I amazed at the progress it has made.  Here's what we saw:

• A replica of the SR-71A Blackbird, the world's fastest syplane.
• A replica of the Titan Rocket.
• THE Liberty Bell 7 -- the actual Mercury capsule flown by Gus Grissom and recovered from the Atlantic in 1999 and restored by the Cosmosphere.
• THE Command Module, Odyssey, made famous by the Tom Hanks movie, Appollo 13.  It was purchased and restored by the Cosmosphere in 1996.
• And actual moon rock brought home in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from the first moon landing on Apollo XI.

Check out the photos:

On the rocks

If you know me, you know I'm a whisky fan -- bourbon specifically, but I like to try different scotchs as well.  I'm no connoisseur, just a fan.

I recently discovered Whiskycast, a podcast from journalist and whisky fan Mark Gillespie.  I love it.  He focuses on whisky news and interviews with industry insiders, as opposed to tastings, ratings, etc.  He also has links to other whisky-related information. 

If you're a brown-spirits fan, check it out.

technorati tags: whisky, whiskycast, bourbon, scotch

This site is for you Mom

Our local media company, The World Company, continues to lead the way in transforming MSM into new media.  Today they launched a new social network for Boomer women:  Boomergirl.  Here's the story.

I'm impressed by what the Simons family has done.  This project, like many others, was born from the idea of an internal staffer who saw a niche and a way to fill it.  Who knows if it will catch on (it does seem to have all the right elements of a good social network), but there are 41 million women betwen the ages of 40 and 60, and they look to their peers for advice.  Plus they make or influence gobs of buying decisions in this Country.  I gotta believe this particular social network -- if managed properly -- will thrive.

technorati tags: newmedia, socialmedia, socialnetworks, simons, lawrencekansas

Time for a cool change

In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman talks about the new skills people in America will need to compete in the future.  One primary skill will be adaptability.

"Being adaptable in a flat world, knowing how to 'learn how to learn,' will be one of the most important assets any worker can have, because job churn will come faster, because innovation will happen faster," Friedman writes.

So how do you become more adaptable?  By becoming completely comfortable with constant change. 

I think it's human nature to resist change.  The familiar is comfortable.  Routine is reassuring.  Predictability is safe.  But if the world is constantly changing, and our workplaces are constantly changing, it's it a bit maddening to be in conflict with that change?

Although I believe I'm a change agent and able to cope well with change, my wife and I took a good look at our lives on the six-hour drive to my parents this past weekend, and it's pretty clear we're the poster children for routine.  "Rut" is the word my wife used.  So we committed to getting out of the rut and becoming more comfortable with constant change.  (With a four-year-old in our family, you think we would have figured out by now that change is the new normal anyway.)

We decided to start slow and get some quick wins.  So we made a list of all the things we want to do differently in the next few weeks.  Here's some of the items from our list:

• Trade cars -- I'll drive hers to work, she'll drive mine.
• Sleep on opposite sides of the bed -- tried it last night.  It was tough.  I've been sleeping on the same side of the bed for 12 years.  If you think it's easy, give it a try tonight.
• Have lunch with someone I've never had lunch with before.
• Rearrange our furniture.
• Write a letter to someone -- a hand-written letter on real paper with a real pen.
• Read a magazine I've never read before.
• Run a different route (this is my wife's; I don't run).
• Drive a different way to work.
• Take Joe to a park we've never been to before.
• Listen to new radio station.
• Eat a type of food we've never eaten before.
• Pick one night a week were there's not videos, no TV and just listen to jazz all night.
• Pay the person's tool behind me in line every once in awhile, or feed an empty parking meter so someone doesn't get a ticket.

They're little things, but little things matter.  And if we can keep this up, we'll be varying our routine so often that variance will be the new routine.  And I believe that has to make us more adaptable, more open to change.

Please steal our ideas if you want, or add to the list.

I hated the 80s...

except for the music.  I was a heavy-metal, hair-band guy.  So thanks, Andy, for pointing to this site.  I did a quick run-down and played some long-gones:

J. Giles -- Centerfold
Molly Hatchet -- Satisfied Man
Quaterflash -- Find Another Fool
The Cult -- Rain

And one of the best tunes ever...

The Violent Femmes -- Blister In The Sun