Today was/is our 27th wedding anniversary. Barb and I have been together 33 years. I sent her flowers and she bought me a certificate for three massages. Barb has asked for a new, larger TV for the living room. Tonight we drank a few beers and went to Chili’s for burgers. You tell me, did I marry the right girl?
Category Archives: Personal History
PhilAtkinson.org
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. And now Phil is doing it. Blogging, that is. Phil is the head of the IT group at Learfield Communications and one of the smartest guys I know. So I can’t explain how he got close enough to the blog pool to fall in. He has resisted blogging because –he explains– he looks at computers all day and doesn’t want to spend one more minute than he has to in front of one. But he’s an interesting guy and I hope his blog reflects that. Drives a vintage GTO. Makes custom fireworks. Has the nutrition habits of a 12 year old. And I think that’s all I know about Phil but expect to learn more if the blog glue dries.
Road trip (2005)
Not sure if you can call 30 hours in the car a vacation but Barb and I are heading down to Destin for a long weekend (next week). There’s some kind of home-owners meeting at Gulfside Cottages and I’m tagging along because I desperately need to get off the grid for a couple of days. Uh, yeah, I’ll probably take the Thinkpad. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be online for the 14 hour drive down and back. I’m eager to see how Destin is recovering.
Don’t ask why we blog
Within the past week, two more of my co-workers (that I know about) started blogging. We’ll give them a chance to get their sea legs before we link them here. And two other friends emailed asking how to get started. What is the attraction? Is it just wanting to be involved in the latest “thing?” Why would some twenty-somthing feel the pull to start an online journal?
I suspect most of us have something to say but never had an easy way to express ourselves or a place to do so. Non-bloggers are quick to dismiss the entire idea. “Why would I want to read about somebody’s cat?” Or, “I’ve got better things to do with my life.”
It still amazes me how many bloggers share more of themselves in their online journals than in the course of their jobs and lives. Ben wrote that he leaned things about his father from reading his dad’s new blog. And some bloggers, like Dave, have a real gift for sharing thoughts and feelings.
Most bloggers would struggle to explain why they do it, but readily understand why others do.
33 years in radio
Frequent visitors to smays.com know that my pop was a radio guy. He was an announcer, news guy, sales rep and station manager during his 33 years. That always seemed like a very long time. A few days ago it occurred to me that I have been in or around the radio business for that long. Not quite, if you count the year I spent in Albuquerque trying to get a radio job (I do count that year). It’s really harder to count the last 5 or 6 years doing web stuff (for a company that provides programming to radio stations). If dad were still with us, I belive I could take him into a radio station and he’d still recognize what was going on there as radio. I wonder how much longer that would be true.
Brushes with Near Greatness: Captain Kangaroo
We’ve all experienced brushes with near greatness. These pulse-pounding moments can range from a drunken limo ride with Courtney Love to an elevator ride with someone you’re pretty sure plays for the Cubs. A brush with near greatness does not require that you actually speak to or with the great one, or that they even know you’re in the room.
Today we debut what we hope will be a sustaining feature at smays.com. David –a friend and co-worker– has had not one, but two brushes with near greatness and he was kind enough to share them here. You can download the MP3 file for now and we’ll podcast as soon as I can figure out how to do that.
Office make-over
They’re painting all of the offices along our hallway so I’m homeless for a couple of days and the webcam is offline. The office make-over is taking forever and god only knows the price-tag when it’s over but Learfield will be one very nice place to work when everything is complete. I can’t imagine working in nicer surroundings. And today the company had a cookout, just for the hell of it. Someone invited the the guys doing the work on our building so we were all sitting around drinking beer and eating ice cream and feeling fortunate.
Cliff Birklund
I’ve been thinking a lot about advertising these days. Radio advertising in particular. I have met hundreds of radio sales people during the past 30+ years. My father sold for many years.
Cliff Birklund (I don’t remember how Cliff spelled his name) was hired to do news at KBOA but eventually moved into sales. In a previous life, he was a commercial artist and I’ll never forgive myself for not saving more of his doodles. This one is a classic (have I posted this before?) but I’ve always liked this self-portrait.
Update: Bob Heater asks how Cliff could have –in 1978– doodled something on a 1989 calendar page. I left KBOA in 1984 so I must have salvaged the drawing on a later visit to Kennett.
Where is Mike Neely?
When we last heard from him, boyhood friend Mike Neely was living the good life in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. But the last email address he used is bouncing. Mike, send me your current address. Joe Browning wants it, too. If anyone else has any contact info for Mike, please send it to me at stevemays at Hotmail.com.
Update: Joe Browning came up with Mike’s phone numbers and address. Won’t post them here but will provide upon request.
Great places to work
The firm where Barb works had a fund-raiser today for the hurricane relief effort. Her boss, prominent attorney and fun guy Harvey Tettlebaum, agreed to wear a clown suit if they raised $2,400.
And everyone in my department at Learfield Communications received this email late this afternoon from our chief financial officer:
I’ve scheduled an off-site meeting the afternoon of September 14 at Clyde’s (our CEO) house. This is a very important meeting and I expect you all to attend if you can. We will watch the movie “Office Space” and drink beer. Please mark your calendars.