Category Archives: Personal History

“Internet thing” catching on

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Five years ago I used this elaborate timeline to illustrate where I saw myself in relation to others in terms of technology awareness. A little out front (at the time) of most of our company… waaay behind the Smart Kids.

For much of the past 15 years I’ve been annoying people (mostly at work) with the latest gadget or –more recently– app. There were early adopters like me; others who would get on board once they clearly saw some proven value to their current job; and still others who jammed their fingers in their ears, chanting “la la la la la la I can’t HEAR you!”

This group always referred to “the Internet thing,” and to this day think Twitter is about what you had for lunch.

But something has changed. People are starting stop by my office or my table at the Coffee Zone and ask for a crash course in all this stuff I’ve been yapping about. It’s as though they woke up one morning and realized, “Shit! I’m way behind!”

Let me hasten to add, there is NOTHING I know that any reasonably intelligent person can’t pick up. But just as you can learn to speek Italian from a series of CD’s, you won’t really understand the language until you live in Genoa for a few years. It’s a cultural thing.

If I had to guess at what has brought this on –if, indeed, something has changed– I’d say it’s the iPhone and the iPad. The web has moved from your desktop (which you leave behind every night at 5 o’clock) to your pocket.

These latter day Luddites are hearing more and more expressions (from customers!) the meaning of which they have only the vaguest idea.

I’m doing my best to purge any “I told you so” from my thinking, but the simple truth is, a lot of these folks won’t catch up. They’re trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide. By the time they scramble up and over… everyone will have moved on.

Ehi, aspetta per me voi ragazzi!

May 14, 1984

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The recent death of Derry Brownfield, one of our company’s founders, stirred up lots of memories for those of us that have been with the company for a while. Reflections on how decisions that seemed minor at the time we made them turned out to be life-changers.

Long before blogs –or personal computers– I kept a journal (sporadically) and came across one while cleaning my home office last weekend. The entry for May 14, 1984, was written (on onion skin paper) after accepting a job at Learfield. For some reason I listed the reasons for taking the job.

1. A great career opportunity. LC is into satellites, communications, etc.
2. More money
3. Opportunity to grow in position and money
4. Get Barb off the highway and to a city where she’ll have more more professional opportunities
5. Jeff City is a city of 32,000 more or less. A good size
6. I won’t have to get up at 4am
7. I won’t have to work every weekend forever
8. I will be challenged more than spinning a feew 45s, reading the weather, and (writing) a couple of dozen commercials every day.
9. I will get off holidays from time to time.
10. I will have an opportunity to work with very talented people.
11. KBOA can only get worse and worse

I hope that last one isn’t painful for those who do or have worked at KBOA in the intervening years. It was just my opinion at the time.

Most of us wonder about the road not taken. Interesting to see my specific thinking from 27 years ago. Barb loves what she’s doing; I still get up at 4 a.m. but just to pee; holidays and weekends off, check; and lots of talented people. Good call 1984 Steve.

A Valentine’s Day Story

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Barb loves flowers. So I sent her flowers on Valentine’s Day. But the arrangement was so “cheezy,” she sent them back. How bad does a floral arrangement have to be for a woman to return it on Valentine’s Day.

Years ago I started buying flowers from Busch’s Florist here in Jefferson City. I’d send flowers on her birthday, our anniversary and sometime just because I had “a love attack.”

Money was no object. Busch’s had my credit card and I rarely asked “how much.” I frequently asked that the person doing the arrangement “swing for the fence.” Really get creative.

It was a nice arrangement (so to speak), for Busch’s and for me. They did a good job and then a couple of years ago they suggested I try their “special events” plan (not what they called it). I’d pick several special days throughout the year and they’re remember to send flowers. Probably good for cash flow.

Yes, I put my love on auto-pilot and today it bit me on the ass. Who knows what happened. The florist probably has some excuses ready for when they return my call cancelling the plan. Rushed. A newbie did the arrangement, blah blah blah.

Doesn’t matter. Florists sell hard the concept of “this special day.” And when you fuck up, you pay the consequences. That’s life. And business. They let flowers become a commodity. Good enough.

I probably averaged two or three hundred dollars a year with Busch’s Florist, going back a dozen years? And I would have spent that much each year for the next dozen years.

Tomorrow they’ll probably send Barb a really nice bunch of flowers, “on the house.” But tomorrow isn’t Valentine’s Day. That was today.

I’ll be auditioning florists in coming weeks and I’ll post photos and reviews here. You’ve just read my review of Busch’s.

Time travel companion wanted

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The following listing recently appeared on the Springfield, MO Craigslist:

“I have a functioning time machine (i know it sounds unbelievable, but I assure you it works) that I need a 2nd person to operate with me. I’m looking for someone who is adventurous and reliable. Preferable a male; or a female that can do heavy lifting. I am leaving on January 20, 2011 , in the morning and plan to return February 3,2011. I am going to June 1983 to handle some business.

If you are serious about time travel and are reliable, then please contact me. You do not have to pay anything, but you would have to provide someone to watch my cat for the time we are gone. The only qualifications needed are that you are reliable and that the circumference of your head is no more than 64cm.

We will be leaving from Springfield,Mo. Let me know if you want to go with me.”

My friend David Brazeal responded:

I stumbled upon your advertisement on Craigslist on the afternoon of January 20, 2011 — too late to join you on your excursion into the past.

Fortunately, having dabbled in time manipulation myself in the late 1830s, I was able to travel to January 17th, one day after you posted your listing, from which time I am responding.

I am both reliable and adventurous, and well-acquainted with 1983, having spent that summer as an intern in the State Department’s Office of Botswanan Affairs. In addition, I have an elderly aunt who loves cats.

Regarding your qualification that my head be less than 64cm in diameter, I assure you that, although my head is slightly too large for a standard time travel headpiece, I have crafted an adapter from a 1960s Oster beauty-salon hair dryer and the innards of a PlayStation 3 controller.

Please let me know as soon as possible whether you still require a companion for your trip. If you have filled the position, I need to return to January 20 to take some brownies out of the oven.

One more thing…

David is leaving our company (after 17 years) in a month or so, to strike out on his own (uh, should I rephrase that? Fuck it). The post above is just one more example of what I mean when I describe someone as “too funny for their job.”

Hallelujah Chorus – Kennett,MO

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Announced this event on Dec. 19th in church, put on facebook and a little article in paper. This is the result. No rehearsal. Accompaniment being played in mustang convertible with the top down. (Which turned out not to be loud enough for all to hear, thus we almost had a train wreck in the middle) But it turned out to be such fun. We are making this an annual event on December 23rd, 5:30 pm on court house steps. We will be better prepared next year. Louder sound system for accomp., lights and more music. (see the famous Crows on front row, 3 sharing the same book).

Somebody else said it better

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In a month this blog will be 9 years old. Should be very close to 5,000 posts by then. My friend George has been following along for the last several years and he says the blog has changed. He says I’m much more likely to post a line or two followed by a block quote from some other source. Or a video. Or a photo. George is of the opinion that I used to write longer, original pieces. I’m not sure he’s correct and it would just take some time to check but I’m willing to stipulate that he is right. So, why the change?

  • I’m less sure of my opinions. And, more importantly, feel less need to share them or -thank god- be “right.” I’m pretty sure I would be unable to pass Scott Adams’ “Ignorance Test” on a lot of subjects I’ve expressed opinions on. Oh, and it has finally sunk in that almost nobody really cares what somebody else thinks.
  • More (better?) places to share thoughts/links. When I started this blog in February of 2002, there was no Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Posterous, etc. A lot of the links and block quotes that used to land here, are shared somewhere else.
  • Somebody else said it better. I think this is the Big One. I read more (and more varied) stuff now than at any other time in my life. The web has exposed me to an almost infinite variety of ideas and perspectives. From people who CAN pass the Ignorance Test. Who DO know what they’re talking about. And who express themselves clearly and powerfully. So, if there’s an idea that I think is worth sharing, I link to them with an excerpt to pique your interest.

George is right. smays.com has become more about aggregation and curation. Maybe a little like my personal card catalogue. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come back here to find a quote or a video or reference that would otherwise be lost (to me) forever.

Palace Theater goes dark

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The Palace Theater will close its doors this Sunday. It has been Kennett’s only theater for a long time. Growing up in the 50’s, we had a second theater for a while, until the Ritz burned (can’t recall the year). During the early 50’s, The Palace was “segregated” with people of color sitting in the balcony and colorless people below. I’m not sure if this was by choice or enforced. (Just the sort of question a white kid would ask, no?)

In front of the Palace Theater in Kennett, MO

In front of the Palace Theater in Kennett, MO

Based on the movies on the marquee, I believe this photo was taken in 1954. My father is the one riding in the wheelbarrow. Jimmy Haggett is pushing him (in the annual Fall Festival Parade, I believe) because pop won a popularity contest pitting “pop” music against country.

In its day, The Palace was a fine old theater. We were lucky to have it.

Covering election returns

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Election night was a big night for radio station news departments. Or, they were back in the 70’s in the little town where I worked.

The candidates would crowd into the county clerk’s office and watch as the votes were written on a big chalk board. The radio station news guy would setup a small transmitter and send back updates that were broadcast live. You were either there… listened to us… or heard the results the next morning at the local coffee shop.

When I started working with The Missourinet (a statewide radio network) in the mid-80’s, it wasn’t that different. One of our reporters would set up at the Secretary of State’s office with a dedicated land-line (before cell phones). Maybe they used one of the state’s phones, I don’t recall. But the reporter would phone in regular updates to the network newsroom where they’d go out to affiliate stations around the state.

Sometime in the 90’s technology improved to the point where we could Telnet into the the state computers (via very slow modem’s) and access the numbers directly. And then report them over the network.

Fast forward to the Web. No more Telnet but those early websites were very glitchy. And slow. But they got better every election. It was a wonderful thing. Anyone with internet access could see the returns as they were tabulated. But it was still easier for radio stations (and their listeners) to take our reports than produce their own.

Last week one of our news directors stopped by my office to talk about what we would do online for the upcoming election. Missouri’s Senate race is the Main Event and we’ll have reporters at both candidates venue. They’ll do interviews and feed those back to the network where reporters will be working the Secretary of State’s website.

One the other end of the information pipe, people will still be listening to the radio and watching TV but I expect Twitter and Facbook to be where many get their first information. (Does the Secretary of State have a Twitter feed?). And most of it will be mobile.

Eventually we’ll all vote electronically, without standing in line. And we’ll see the results in near real time.

Will this elections more susceptible to fraud? Girl, please! Is the TSA making flying safer?

Living in the cloud

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I’m no longer on the company computer network. My iMac is one of only a half dozen or so Macs in the building and I made very little use of the network anyway. And it’s something of an experiment.

I had one of the first personal computers in our company. I bought a Zenith back in the late 80’s and used it for word processing and for tracking affiliate stuff. It was connected to no thing and nobody (except my little dot matrix printer)

The first “network” in the company –as far as I can recall– was a peer-to-peer lash-up in the Missourinet newsroom. No network server, just individual PC’s (Compaq’s with 20 MEG hard-drives) talking to each other.

I don’t remember the exact evolution after that but before long the building was networked and as we added offices throughout the country, they came online. And we now have two full-time network administrators and the network has become critical to the operation of our company.

So why did I cut the cord?

As one of the “web guys,” most of my work has been taking place “in the cloud” for some time. I access company email from a web browser and can do just about everything I need to do, without being on the company grid.

Plus, anytime there was a software upgrade, I had to ask someone with admin privileges to do it for me. Sort of like having your mom come unzip your pants so you could pee. Unpleasant for everyone.

When coworkers need to send me a file that is too large to attach to an email, they drop it on one of the network drives I can no longer access from my iMac. I’m working around that and will eventually get them to put it up on my iDisk, Dropbox or drip.io. Which works in the other direction, too.

For me the Net has become the network. Lots of storage, nearly ubiquitous access, great tools. I feel like a dog that chewed through his leash. Woof!