For the most part, we usually hear the negative aspects of television. Too much violence, bad language, sexually suggestive ads, and poor behavior. Throw in all the commercials encouraging our kids to nag us for the latest Unicorn Princess or various stuffed animal that excrete one chemical or another and most parents probably have some belief that “No TV is Best”. The problem is what these kids should do with all that newly acquired free time. Surf the Net? Run the Streets? Sleep? If those are the alternatives…..how bad could TV be?

If I surf through the 100’s (and maybe 1000’s) of television stations, I see good stuff out there. Good is probably a relevant term. Good to me might be the Navy Seals documentary on the Discovery Military Channel where my wife might find 30 Minute Meals by Rachel Ray to be good. The point is that useful, educational, non-corruptive shows certainly exist. Unfortunately, I’m starting to come to the impression that very few people actually watch them. Now…..to the kids.

A few years ago, I picked up a book at the library. It is called The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids by Dimitri Christakis and Frederick Zimmerman. I liked the concept of accepting that TV is part of lives yet finding the best way to utilize it without it destroying us. We’ll probably see this same type of book for the Internet soon. From the book “Their research has found that TV can be both as bad as has been feared but also better than ever though possible. The key to making television a positive force they say, is to learn to use TV as a tool, not a crutch.”

I’m going to try to make this a multi-part blog diving into some of the research. One of the nice parts of a research-oriented book is the depth of reference material used and quoted in the notes. One of the good uses of the internet is the posting of many academic articles and papers. Some are free. For example….in about 2 minutes, I found this article called Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children. How cool is that?

If you are interested in buying the book, for some reason it is on sale at Amazon for $5.99 (Cover price is $24.99). You can always snag it at your library, but I think you’ll probably reference this multiple times….so for $5.99 it’s a bargain.

I’ll delve into television with education, aggression (my boy’s days watching Star Wars may be numbered as I re-read this book), body image, and the teen/college years (sex and alcohol). Just want to be clear that I’m pulling information from this book and references while adding my opinions and experiences to the mix. At a summary level, I’m definitely biased towards less TV than more. If I had to choose No TV vs. Unlimited TV, I would immediately save about $50 per month on my cable bill.

A good use of TV. When I was in high school taking Biology, I had a teacher (I’ll call him Mr. C. for privacy) that encouraged us to watch the Discovery Channel. Rather than just say “it’s a good channel” which would have done little or nothing, he actually allowed us to earn bonus points towards our grades. Though this wouldn’t work for every kid (maybe just the academic types), it definitely influenced me. We could watch any show on any topic (let’s say African Predators). While watching, we would document interesting facts. It wasn’t an English essay exercise….just putting down the pen to paper and probably some proof that we actually watched it. Next, we’d turn in the paper and get some points towards our grade. Did I become some great biologist or scientist? Nope, certainly not. However, this exercise created some sort of appreciation for these documentary/nature/Discovery channel type shows. To this day, I still watch these types of shows. Just thought I’d include a positive television story.

What shows on television do you consider to be a positive influence on your kids?

Are your viewing habits today impacted by your viewing habits as a child?

I have found a genre of book that I absolutely love to read. After having read non-fiction leadership, self-help (working on marriage, kids, and money), and classroom (Masters in Christian Leadership) books for the past four or five years, I first found Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell. Check out my review on that one. I surfed the Amazon website and cross-referenced Lone Survivor to find a few others that sounded interesting. I just finished Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior and have nothing but good things to say.

Where Lone Survivor explained the Navy Seals training and then Lutrell’s moving explanation of a Navy Seal mission, Chosen Soldier covers a short history of Special Forces then dives into the comprehensive training that makes these guys “heroes” in my eyes. In fact, at one point I told my wife that I missed my calling before confessing that there was no way in the world I’ve ever been tough enough physically or mentally to be in Special Forces. In today’s world, our kids are following well paid actors, sports stars, and musicians when the real heroes are silently risking their lives in the service of United States. Those heroes are in the U.S. military and the Special Forces are in the heart of dangerous territory.

Dick Couch (a former Seal) lived with these guys from recruiting into the X-Ray program (for guys with no military background) all the way through the final Robin Sage testing event. If you have ever seen the Navy Seals series on the Discovery Channel (Training of BUDS Class 234) and enjoyed it, then you will absolutely enjoy this book. The initial preparation and selection processes sound intense physically and mentally which I know a guy like me wouldn’t survive. However, when they get into the tactics and MOS training, I was looking up Special Forces on the Internet and looking to see if they had an over-the-hill X-Ray program (for out of shape old guys). Couch covers each MOS in enough detail. The 18 Bravo – Weapons sergeant – check out the list of worldwide weapon systems that they must know. The 18 Charlie – Engineer sergeant – closest to my old National Guard MOS of Combat Engineer. The 18 Delta – Medical sergeant – they have 12 months of training which is much longer than any other MOS. The 18 Echo – Communications Sergeant and finally a large chapter devoted to the 18 Alpha or Detachment Commander. This book explains all the hard work and dedication required to be Special Forces.

Even if you haven’t been in the military or aren’t planning to be, this level of coverage just makes you appreciate the intelligence and toughness required. When Couch covers the plan briefing with a hundred Powerpoint slides to be presented to the Commander….I felt a slight business parallel. However, when deployed, this training results in life-or-death decisions.

When my boys are old enough to read, I’ll put this book in their hands rather than Harry Potter or the Twilight series. Real world. Real heroes. Don’t get me wrong….not saying they are joining or anything like that (though I’d be proud if they did). I just want my kids to know where the real heroes are. While we are watching millionaires chasing millionaires for 3 hours and million dollar commercials in the Superbowl two weeks from now, our U.S. military is out…..there protecting our freedoms.

Language is much cleaner in Chosen Soldier compared to Lone Survivor making it a lot easier to recommend to teens.

For the Amazon stats, Chosen Solider has 42 reviews and a 4.5 star rating. Cost is $10.17 brand new (or somewhere around $5 used), although this certainly could be picked up from the local library.

I’m a daily reader of the USA Today. I think it’s a nice summary of the news that I can finish in about 15-20 minutes. In today’s Life Section (the Purple one in the back that no one probably reads), there is an article called Guys: Are you as fit as Obama?

Now today’s paper covers a lot of information about Obama and rightfully so. It’s a very exciting time and Obama is getting quite a bit of hype to save everything. I absolutely hope he does a fantastic job and delivers….but the expectations are set so high. He’s kind of a like a great college QB drafted with the 1st pick into the NFL onto a team that is struggling. All the fans want him to turn the team around the first season…..and we all want Obama to turn the USA around his first week in office.

Anyways, back to this article…..geared to fortysomething guys (of which I’m almost about to join). In the article, they have a shirtless picture of Obama after a game a basketball. I’m amazed that the press is following Obama like this….thank goodness we didn’t have the same coverage of past presidents. Maybe this will start an epidemic of men being body conscious by the media. I’m pulling some stats from the article. These are for the average 40’s male.
How much do you make?
Median income: $43,473
Do you have a college degree?
Fewer than 30% do.
What are you favorite sports?
Pro football is #1. Baseball is #2. Kind of surprised that baseball is holding on.
What is your weight?
189.8 is the average. The last time I was that low….was in my early 20’s. Of course the article lists that most men are overweight (there’s a shocker).
What is your height?
5′9” is the average. Wow…I’m taller than average. It certainly doesn’t seem that way on the basketball court when I play. I think Obama is somewhere around 6′2”.
Are you married?
67.1% are married. 15.7% are divorced. 2.6% separated. 1.1% widowed. 13.5% never married.
How many kids do you have under 18?
Average is 1.8. I’m crushing that number.

The article goes on to cover your chances of cancer…. 1 in 49 (higher than I thought). Also, it digs into all of our health issues (as we start to decline)….from the gut to heart attacks (3%-5% for a non-smoker) to hair (1 in 3 over 45 yrs old shows baldness) to wrinkles. Basically it’s a bit depressing. The only major positive I found is in the Brain where “a man in his late 40’s trumps his twentysomething colleagues in complex reasoning and decision-making tasks”. That’s certainly a good thing for Obama (and the rest of us) to have going for us.

Go Barak Obama!! I can’t wait to see this article in about 4 or 8 years and the onset of the 50’s.

When I graduated back in the 80’s, I was groomed to dive right into Engineering. I was certainly not a straight-A student, but I took all the college prep type classes and was in the top 25% of my class. So……for any current high school students wondering…..twenty years later, what was the best (most applicable class) that I ever took? You’ll be surprised.

It started in 9th grade when I scheduled a study hall into my day (negative, it wasn’t study hall). After a few minutes of study hall, the toughest meanest teacher in the school (that was his reputation) walked into the study hall. I don’t remember his name, so I’ll call him Mr. Tough. Mr. Tough asked “Is there anybody in here who would like to switch from study hall to keyboarding?” I was sitting with my friend Dave and for some reason unknown to us, we raised our hands and said we’d be interested. Mr. Tough asked “Did you guys take Basic Keyboarding?” We said we took the basic 8 week class in 8th grade. He said that there was actually another 1 year class, but to come on in and he’d get us set up anyways. We were the only volunteers.

Dave and I walked into the class and the first thing we noticed…..there wasn’t another guy in the class. There were about 20 girls all of them sophomores and up. Ok, since this is a clean blog, I’ll just say that thoughts of my yet-to-begin dating status crossed my mind (but that wasn’t why this was the best class). We sat down at the electric typewriter that we were assigned (typewriters back then….not computers). Mr. Tough had everyone turn to the page of some book and begin typing. The room was a buzz with the chatter of 20 girls typing 30 words a minute along with Dave and me barely finding the letters on the keyboard (maybe 5 words a minute). Mr. Tough told us not to worry about it as he would grade us on a separate scale.

As the semester went on, I learned to type faster and faster. Mr. Tough would have us put a piece of paper over the top of our hands so that we couldn’t hunt and peck for the hard symbols like “$” or “&” or “!”. By the end, both of us were topping out at 30 words a minute with perfect accuracy and never looking at the keyboard.

Of all the classes that I completed in high school including calculus, computer programming, English, and history, this one keyboarding class (instead of study hall) started me on my way to typing 60 or 70 words (including #’s and symbols) per minute. Twenty years later, this has paid off handsomely when responding to emails, drafting project charters, and creating presentations. My calculus has long been forgotten. As you can tell by my articles, my English is far from perfect. By typing quickly, I can concentrate on the response or draft and the words just appear on the screen (just like when I write this blog).

If I can make any recommendation to the younger generation, learn to type the “right” way (fingers on the home row I think they call it – basically fingers on ASDF JKL;). You may be able to hunt and peck quickly, but to get to the fastest speeds, you’ll need the solid foundation.

I actually moved after that first semester of my freshman year…..so none of those dating ideas ever materialized….once again verifying that typing was the key benefit.

A side note for all those engineers that are wondering why calculus isn’t tops on my list, I eventually switched to computer science and then again into product development. I do think that math and computer science have taught me how to quickly learn and problem solve, but the linkage is a bit more vague.

I just had a great exchange with my 16 year old stepson. He argues that Facebook is for teens (and hopefully we’ll see his response below – remember no bad language and this is a moderated site…). I argued that it is for adults.

Just so everyone knows, my wife created my facebook page just last week, so I’m no heavy user. My preference has been for LinkedIn which clearly is a business social networking site. I actually had stated that I thought facebook was more a pickup tool for the “single” scene of the 20-30 year old demographic. However, I must say that I’ve been incorrect. After having added about 40 friends so far, the majority are same demographic as me (35-49)…..not much of an argument though as those are the people who would probably “choose” to confirm my friendship.

Back to the disagreement, the primary crux of my argument is that the majority of advertising is geared towards people that spend money (other than the “nag” factor advertising towards little kids). Therefore, if Facebook, MySpace, or any other site based on web traffic was expecting to make a return on investment, eventually they need to reach a cash-laden demographic. A good example of this is how credit card companies target college kids to get them “hooked” on credit cards and eventually profit when they make higher-than-average wages with their college degree. So, I did some surfing……..googling……and research.

Now, it’s not entirely fair to write just one side of the argument on this blog….but then again teens have a lot more time and a lot less kids then I do…..so they can go ahead and write a well-thought out response in opposition. Here is what I found.

Facebook - The Complete Biography provides the history of Facebook’s creation. There probably are many different sites, but this seemed straightforward. Mark Zuckerberg and some Harvard buddies created a phenomenon among college students that spread quickly. Back when this article was written in 2006, you had to have an organizational email address which restricted growth. Obviously that changed at some point.

As I suspected, when it was funded by $500k by Peter Theil, then $13m from Accel Partners, and another $25m from Greylock (almost $40mil invested) to create an ad-based web traffic driven site, I’m sure they are expecting to reap some return.

I pulled up the Wikipedia history of Facebook which is more current. Initially, Zuckerberg restricted it to Harvard students (which kind of stops both sides of the argument - it wasn’t geared towards teens and it wasn’t geared towards “working” adults). It then expanded beyond Harvard to all Ivy League schools. After that, it was opened to high schools, then everyone.

The more I read….I have to say I’m impressed that Zuckerberg stumbled onto something so popular (I’m sure he’ll be well paid for it). I’ll certainly argue that initially it was geared towards college students (not teens and not working adults - I was wrong there). I’m sure once the big $$$ got into the mix, they shifted the plans toward better demographics.

From Facebook Growth Regions and Gender Split, it goes on to explain that Facebook is expanding faster in other countries that the % of US population utilizing the app is declining (just growing at a slower rate than overseas - no surprise there). Also from the article “With a commanding share of college-age users in its home country, U.S. growth has been strongest among working age users (26-59). I was expecting stronger growth in the teen market (13-17), but teens remain the slowest growing group in the U.S. “.

My final conclusion is that I’m incorrect in believing that Facebook was geared towards profit (working adults) and the teen is incorrect in believing it was geared towards teens. Zuckerberg was focused on college students. Facebook’s current focus is on Everyone over the age of 13. Their fastest growing demographics are adults and overseas (maybe because those are the smallest - I don’t know). However, I’ve read a few books on chasing “cool” and when everyone has a Facebook page, the “cool” people (whatever demographic they are) will move to something else.

Hopefully, I’ll get a few responses in opposition or support.

Have you ever walked into the house and found half-eaten bowls of food sitting on the table and thought “There are starving people in this world who would appreciate that food”? Have you ever sat and watched a football game (in which your team loses) for three hours and thought “I just wasted three hours of my life”. Do you remember times (when you were young) that you just took a drive and “wasted gas”? I’ve experienced all of these and still do somewhat.

After contemplating difference situations and resources, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are several different types of waste.

First, during my 30+ years of life, I have purchased 100’s of pens for home and used 100’s more at work. The odd thing is that I can’t ever remember running out of ink with any of them. Where do they go? Some end up down that catchall crevice on the couch. Others end up on the floor of the car. Still others end up in the hands of my children making marks on the walls. Think about this though, how often do you throw a pen away after it has run out of ink and theoretically served it’s purpose. Just about never. Therefore, you are wasting the ink and rest of that pen’s life when it is lost. I’m going to call this unconsumed waste.

In the past 12 months, gasoline has ranged from $1.50 per gallon up to over $4.00 in Ohio. However, you never accidentally dump you tank or “lose” gasoline. Therefore, it is really wasted in a different way. One time, I decided to take the family out for a pizza at Costco (yes, they really like the pizza there). We drove down on a Sunday afternoon. By the time we got there, it was closed. As we drove back, I considered that I had driven about 20 total miles roundtrip and in the minivan, that is approximately one gallon. Basically, I had just wasted $2.00 (let’s assume that was the price). The gas was consumed. However, it did not result in anything useful. I’m going to call this example expended waste.

I like all kinds of movies and usually can draw out some appreciation when viewing even the lowest rated movie. However, every once in a while, I will watch a film and as the credits roll, I will think I just wasted 90 minutes of my life. All of us have 24 hours a day. No matter what we do, the resource of time trickles away in our life. In those 90 minutes, I could have volunteered my time to charity, cleaned the house, spent time with the kids, or took a nap. Each of those has different values to different people. However, since I consciously realize that I wasted 90 minutes of my life, I will call this example immediate recognized waste.

There is a parallel that I can draw on from my childhood days. As a kid, I used to watch TBS and the Atlanta Braves all every chance I could. The team was horrible, yet I liked watching Dale Murphy. There are probably lots of things I could have done…..like worked harder on my homework or helped my parents. At the time, I certainly didn’t regret my activities. However…..now I look back and say “How could I have wasted all that time watching the tube?”. I’ll call that delayed recognized waste.

For the example of food that I mentioned earlier, I can’t only blame the kids. There are many leftovers that end up in the trash….because us adults don’t want to eat ham/turkey for 5 meals in a row. Those come to mind because when you make a large amount of anything and store the leftovers, there are many times that you become tired of that same meal. I’ll group my kids not finished their “plate” of food in this same category. Basically, the cook (my wife or I) have made too much food and it goes to waste. I’ll call this over-production waste.

In summary, there are so many different ways to waste food, time, gasoline, and almost every resource. If you are a golfer, just think about how many times that you actually “wore” the golf ball out so bad that it could not be used anymore. That never happens. It gets “lost” in the woods, water, or somebody’s backyard. Someone picks it up and uses it again. Maybe that is recycled waste. Anyways, just consider how much each of us waste and if we could just improve our efficiency a little bit every day. Things that reduce waste are worth their weight in gold. A good example is the DVR which allows me to watch TV without ever seeing a commercial, essentially saving me 16 minutes of time for every hour of TV watching.

Take Care.

For those of us who travel, work from multiple offices, or work from home, there are several critical weapons for productivity. Certainly, you need to have a laptop and a strong cell phone signal. Those are just minimum requirements for business.

If you spend any amount of time on the phone, then you are most likely aware of the Bluetooth capability. In case, you aren’t….just look around at all the people that seemingly are walking around talking to themselves and have a strange contraption on their ear (like a big bulky hearing aid). I tried that little single ear gadget and found that road-noise and co-workers talking was too distracting in the ear that didn’t have the gadget. Basically, the mixing inputs didn’t allow me to operate at 100% efficiency. However, about 2 years ago, I spent the best $80-$90 ever. I bought the Motorola H 98689 T820 Bluetooth Stereo Headset (Black). Essentially, they are just an extension of my cell phone minus the wires to each ear. I bought mine from buy.com and at the time there didn’t seem to be many choices.

Since I spend many hours a day on conference calls, if this device was anything less than perfect, it would eventually end up in storage (the back of my desk drawer). However, the battery life allows me to use them all day long (I just plug in the charger each night). Though there is no visible microphone wrapped around, I have never had anyone say they can’t hear me. Also, there is a volume control, so that I can crank up the sound if there is someone speak softly on the conference call. I don’t think I could ever go back to using a cell phone for any more than 10 minutes without these headphones.

The only downside is that I don’t believe these portray the “cool” look. They just look like you are walking around with a pair of headphones listening to music. One of my co-workers said that I had the “Princess Leia” look. Like I had a bun on each ear.
Princess Leia “Bun” Look
I just pulled these up on Amazon and shockingly you can still buy the same version that I have. It is down to $39.99. With over 200 reviews, it is getting 3.5 stars out of 5 which surprised me. I looked at some of the reasons that people didn’t like these and there are comments about not being comfortable when running, someone else had the earpad come off, and someone said they had a small head so they were uncomfortable. I can only speak from my experience that I’ve had these things for years and would give them 5 stars. However, I’m using them for work and while driving, as opposed to jogging or anything like that.

As an add-on suggestion, my wife bought me an iPod adapter that broadcasts the signal to Bluetooth. It connected easily with the HT820’s and I just play my music to the headphones. If a call comes in, I hear an alert signal. When I answer the cellphone, it automatically pauses the music and puts the voice through. Pretty neat product integration. There probably are all kinds of devices, but the one she gave me is the Sony Bluetooth Wireless Transmitter for iPod (White)($42.89 and 4.5 stars out of 5 after 12 reviews).

If your spouse spends a lot of time on conference calls (especially while traveling), get them an HT820 from Motorola. Throw in the iPod Transmitter if they use the iPod as well. For a total of $85, I believe they will really appreciate it (unless they have a small head or something).

Though this sounds kind “sale” oriented, I don’t work for Motorola, Apple, or Sony. I just found these products (especially the headphones) valuable enough to repeat to any friends or family looking for gifts. Believe me, I have many more stories of poor experiences….but am somewhat hesitant to post those kinds of things.

Has anyone seen The Matrix? Remember when they take Neo (Keanu Reeves) and plug a computer into his brain and basically load skills and knowledge into his brain in just a few minutes. Pretty cool? Unfortunately, it is pure science fiction. Loading knowledge and developing skills takes time.

Another example. If we take two evenly matched athletes and one receives 180 hours of training and practice while the other gets 220 hours of training and practice, most of us will agree that those extra 40 hours could possibly help (and certainly can’t hurt). Those 40 hours may be the difference between winning and losing. 40 hours is only 22% more training.

Ok. Last example. What if you had two evenly matched athletes receiving private lessons from the age that they were 5 years old. For the next 12 years, one gets 180 hours of private lessons while the other gets 220 hours each year….year after year. Can you agree that there is a substantially better chance that the one getting 220 hours will have a better chance of being better than the 180 hour athlete.

Where am I going with this? I’ve had some concerns that school children do not get enough hours of education. I did a little digging and found some comparisons of how many hours of schooling United States children receive compared to other countries. The results are a bit scary and my fear is that this will have a substantial impact 10 and 20 years out (we may be starting to feel the impact now).

Check out this presentation from the National Center On Time & Learning which is dedicated to dedicated to expanding learning time to improve student achievement and enable a well-rounded education for all children.
Average Number of Instructional Days in School Year by Country

It shows the United States coming in at 180 days with the average being 193. Now, maybe the U.S. kids are born smarter (or have better nutrition….when is the last time you heard our United States food was high in nutrients?). Maybe our teaching methods are better (I don’t think anyone would argue that our higher education universities aren’t some of the best in the world). However, when you see countries (Korea, Japan, China) coming in at 225, 223, and 221 days, how can there not be just a bit of concern? Of course, there probably is the Law of Diminishing Returns in effect. For example, going to school 250 days….or 275 days…how much more could you learn?

I have nothing against these countries for having their kids in school more. In fact, I agree that if I were trying to compete with the United States in the business world, I think I’d start by increasing the education of my workers. I think education is wonderful and appreciate all of the my pure U.S. experience. I believe the entire world should benefit. My concern is that our kids in the United States are falling behind. Unless we believe that we are far down the curve on the Law of Diminishing Returns (and basically 40 more days of education has little or no impact), how can we not increase the days of education for our children? In the upcoming years, we are talking about a major infrastructure stimulus package (building roads, repairing bridges, etc..). Here is my suggestion: How about a few years of trying out the 220 day model of education rather than 180 days? Give the teachers a 22% pay raise and ask them for 22% more days of work. I’m sure our teachers would miss that summer break, but their paychecks would certainly be more in line with the corporate world if they were 22% higher.

It might make life a bit easier on parents as well….not having to worry about kids running rampant during the summer months when we are all at work anyways.

Ok, I’ll admit I’m not a young hip teenager sporting the latest electronic gadget. However, I think my use of technology is somewhat above average as I do have the iPod classic and my wife created me a Facebook account. Hey….I even can blog without the Blogging for Dummies book. Our family has the unlimited text messaging plan for $30 per month. My wife insists it is critical for communicating with a 16 and 13 yr old. My definition of communication is that some information is passed from one person to another.

This is an example of a text message conversation. I’ll translate in the ( )
Me to the 16 yr old: Watcha doing (me using slang)
16 yr old to me: nm u (not much. What are you doing?)
Me to the 16 yr old: watchin tv
…………………….. (time passes with me expecting some sort of response)
Me to the 16 yr old: ne big plans this weekend (ne = any…)
16 yr old to me: n u (no. Do you have any?)

That useless conversation took 5 minutes of my life. If I were talking on the phone, it would have taken 10 seconds. At this point, my opinion of text messaging is that it is on the verge of electronic grunting. Just worthless noises between two organisms!!!! Of course, another possibility is that my stepson doesn’t want to talk with me…..and I’m open to that possibility.

So, is there an actual use for text messaging besides the former mayor of Detroit sending steamy text messages to his administrative staff? I have found that when I’m on a conference call at work and my wife calls my cell phone, I can quickly send a message back saying “On a call”. I also can send a text message to my cell phone company (AT&T) and they will tell me how many anytime minutes I have left in a month. Those two applications seem minimally useful. I found one other useful application and that is the NFL using text messaging for people to quietly report unruly fans to security. They call it the “rat line”.

I found an article where some teachers are starting to see teenager’s writing regress due to text messaging slang called Does text messaging hurt us in the long run? Instead of writing “you”, kids will put “u” and use other shorthand. I’ve also heard that text messaging is even more prevalent in other countries and has eclipsed talking as the primary form of communication.

My prediction is that scary times are ahead…..at least for us old folk.

C ya l8ter 2nite k

Many years ago…..16 to be exact….I was in Dallas, Texas for a training class. I have totally forgotten what the training class was….some computer technology that probably has long since been phased out. However, being somewhat of a sports fan (more so back in ’93 then now), I decided to go see a Texas Rangers game. I called Ticketmaster and asked for one ticket. When asked what section, I said how much does best available cost? $28 plus our normal fees. I said “I’ll take the best you’ve got”. They told me Row 9 behind home plate. “I’ll take it”. After paying all those handling, shipping, convenience and other creatively named fees from Ticketmaster, I was on my way.

After my class that day, I headed over to the ballpark for the game. I checked the schedule and Randy Johnson (that big tall guy that is actually still in the majors) was pitching for Seattle against Texas whose starting pitcher was some guy making his major league debut. As I went to my section (behind homeplate….oh yeah!!!), I found that the Row 9 directly behind home plate was actually the front row (yes, I was sitting 6 inches behind the net looking over the catcher’s shoulder directly out to the pitching mound). The rows tapered from Row 9 down to Row 1 as you went down the 1st or 3rd baseline. It’s hard to explain….but just trust me….I was in the front row!!!! First and only time.

I was there well before the game started and just enjoying the practice. I distinctly remember one guy practicing bunting off a tee. It looked pretty dumb….bunting off a tee….maybe the coach made him do it. I looked up his number in my program. His name was Jay Buhner. When they announced the players, I was quite excited to see Ken Griffey Jr in the lineup and big Randy Johnson starting. When they announced the debut of the starting pitcher for Texas, about 5 or 6 people sitting directly behind me stood up and cheered (everyone else yawned). I had to assume that this was his family or something. His name is Steve Dreyer.

The game was somewhat interesting in that Juan Gonzalez (back in his prime before all those injury marred seasons) blasted a homerun off Randy Johnson. Johnson proceeded to bean the next guy with a fastball. Coincidence…..I think not and neither did the umps. They threw Johnson out of the game. The funniest thing was watching Randy Johnson standing at 6’10” towering over some short ump arguing about getting thrown out. I actually took a picture….but lost it over the years. Texas was up 3-0 (I looked up the boxscore as I certainly didn’t remember that part). I remember Dreyer working in and out of trouble before getting the hook. In the 9th, Ken Griffey Jr jacked out a homer off some reliever making it an awesome close to the evening. Dreyer got his 1st major league victory. I thought wouldn’t that be cool if he went on to be a hall-of-famer or something and I was there for that 1st victory. He actually went 5 innings without giving up a run yet walking 6 and giving up 5 hits. Not pretty…but no runs and a victory against the Big Unit.

This gets a little more interesting. After my training that week, I flew back to Ohio and for whatever reason (because I didn’t live there), I was up in Cleveland. Being in a different area, why not take in another baseball game? So I went over to the park, bought a ticket and went in (unfortunately not front row…..back to my normal seats). Anyways, who is Cleveland playing….none other than the Texas Rangers. Who is pitching for Texas…..I couldn’t believe it….Steve Dreyer!!! By some strange coincidence, I’m watching his 2nd major league start. As much as I’d like to say he won again, he got pummeled. Looking at the boxscore now, he gave up 5 runs in 2 1/3 innings. Not so good.

How many people could have seen his first two starts that weren’t the Texas coaches/players/announcers? There can’t be many. As much as I hoped he’d go on to pitch 20 years in the majors, so I could say that I saw his first 2 starts…..it didn’t happen. Looking at his career stats, he made only 9 starts, pitching in 15 games for a total of 58 innings. He went 4-4 with a 5.71 ERA. His MLB career was done the following year.

Hey Steve (or Steve’s family)……if you ever Google your name and come across this page, drop a response to this post. I’d like to hear what you did after your baseball career. Hope all is well with you and yours.

Baseball stats are amazingly available. Here are the links to the actual game boxes.
Steve Dreyer’s 1st major league start boxscore
Steve Dreyer’s 2nd major league start boxscore
Steve Dreyer’s Career Stats

Who cares about Juan Gonzalez, Randy Johnson, and Ken Griffey Jr? In this blog, Steve Dreyer was the Man!!!!!