You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
My mother owned a CPA firm back in the 1990s. I was working for Microsoft at the time writing courseware on Microsoft Exchange.
My mother’s office didn’t have an email system.
Mom, why don’t you let me install Exchange. It won’t cost you anything and it will help your employees be more productive.
We don’t need an email system. We have plenty of those red “While You Were Out” message pads.
You have to understand, my mother’s office was actually very technically advanced. They had a network and a central repository for client tax returns at a time when many offices were still working exclusively with paper. But, she just didn’t see the need for an electronic email system.
I eventually got her to use it, but only by winning a bet.
My office recently rolled out a new collaboration product from Adobe. Our network is very secure. Our firewalls deny all requests unless we have specifically whitelisted an IP address. Getting this product in was an involved process.
First we had to get our security team to sign off on it. Then we had to get the client’s security team to sign off on it. Then, we had to open ports in the firewall. And because our agents cannot type web addresses, we had to hard code the location into the start menu.
The tool lets managers and agents share a screen and listen to past calls for coaching purposes. We used to do this by having the manager walk to the agent’s desk.
COVID
Now, the manager and the agent might be in different cities. Technically, they could even be in different states.
Anyway, after several false starts we finally got the product installed, tested and configured. But, the trouble was getting the managers to trust it. They actually were required to use it, but like the horse coming to the water trough, they were hesitant.
That was three weeks ago. Today I was talking with one of the senior managers,
How is the Adobe product working?
The managers absolutely love it. It took them a little to figure it out, but at this point, they can’t imagine life without it.
Often that’s how new technically works. Well, and old technology as well. Remember Mom’s accounting firm?
Tell you what, Mom. Let me install it and I guarantee that two weeks from now, they will threaten to quit if you say you are going to take it out.
Okay.
It wasn’t even two weeks.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, NO, I did not just compare my mother to a horse. And I can’t believe you would even think such a thing!
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book
– Cicero. M Tullius circa 43 BC
Okay, maybe the tradition is 2,063 years old if we are to believe Cicero was the first to have this thought.
I’ve been “writing a book” for years.
Billy Joel was once asked about the characters in his song “Piano Man.”
“Every character in that song is based on a real person.
“What’s a real estate novelist?”
“Right, ‘Paul was a real estate novelist.’ He was this guy named ‘Paul’ who sold sold real estate. And we asked him, ‘So when you aren’t selling real estate what do you do?’
‘I’m writing a book.’ So that was a real estate novelist.”
It’s been a while since X-Files went off the air. One of the most interesting character in X-Files was a guy simply referred to as Cigerette Smoking Man. In the final seasons he came to symbolize the “others,” the “them” that FBI agent Fox Mulder was trying to expose. He was a seriously creepy character played brilliantly by actor William B. Davis. He’s especially creepy because we don’t know anything about him. We only know that he seems to know everything and he smokes cigerettes constantly. Often directly under the “NO SMOKING SIGN.”
Anyway, at the end of the series. As the storyline is being wrapped up we see the Cigerette Smoking Man at “home.” It’s a lonely hotel room. He has just gotten a rejection letter for a novel that he’d written.
I’ll tell you, every writer watched that scene and just felt terrible. We’ve all been there. We poured our heart and soul into something and the gatekeepers decided it just wants good enough. That one scene completely changed the Cigerette Smoking Man. He went from a threatening menance, to a failed writer. Talk about a twist.
My point is that I’ve started seriously working on my novel. Actually it’s a series of novels. Since you dear readers have put up with my scribblings to this point, I will presume to impose on you both as a sounding board and also an source for accountability. As I start this trip.
I’ve written books in the past. They were technical books. I wrote three and two were published. This is my first foray into fiction. I’ve always loved Science Fiction and that’s the story that I’m going to tell first.
Here’s a brief overview of the setting and the story.
The story is set on a planet named Syren. Yup, that’s a reference to the Sirens who tempt Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. The tie-in is that everyone on Syren is deaf, except for a few rebels. Our hero is a young man who can hear and must lead his two friends on a desperate mission to rescue a young boy before he will be surgically deafened.
It’s a little Percy Jackson, some Fellowship of the Ring, and definitely a touch of Harry, Ron and Hermoine from Harry Potter.
I don’t think I’ve talked here about my involvement with the deaf community. I’ve known sign language since I was about 15 years old. I spent two years working exclusively with deaf people as a missionary in Chicago. And I have many lifelong friends who are deaf or interpreters.
Deaf peole navigate a world that is designed for us “hearing.” I’m looking forward to building a world designed for deaf people. While a deaf person cannot pretend to be a hearing person, a skilled enough hearing person can pass themselves off as a deaf person. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a serious insult and even when I was that talented, I would never dream of telling someone I was deaf when I wasn’t. But, I also don’t live on Syren, where being hearing is a crime punishable by surgury, or even death.
Anyway, it will be a few weeks before I’m ready to post a chapter, but I’m excited to take you all along this journey. Both the writing, and the adventure.
If you have questions about the story, or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments.
And let me know if you’ve ever thought of writing a book.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m not sure if I felt like he was insulting my experience. Was I feeling he was disrespecting my position?
I don’t know.
The conversation was between my lovely wife, one of my adult children and myself. I’d written a response to an agreement that we’d entered into. My remarks were blunt without being bullying. Clear, but not overly accusatory.
My child didn’t agree. And the response took an interesting turn.
This is clearly emotional and biased!
Well, I’ll agree it’s based on my own bias, but it’s not emotional.
OH YES IT IS! If you were to show this to any English teacher. . .
You realize that was written by a professional writer, right?
Later my lovely wife suggested my response was not helpful. It was more tit-for-tat and seemed to come from a defensiveness on my part. I’ve been thinking about that for the last few days, trying to decide if she’s right.
The argument my child was making is called an Appeal To Authority logic fallacy. The idea that “an expert” would agree with them. My issue with the argument is that I really am an expert.
That sounds arrogant. I think it sounds arrogant, and I’m supposed to be the great writer.
As a famous conservative commentator likes to say,
Facts don’t care about your feelings.
But, that doesn’t mean all statement of facts are created equal. For example, never play chess for money against an Englishman who claims he “plays a bit.” It’s fact, but not like saying, “I achieved the rank of grand master when I was 21.”
Writers write. It’s what we do. Maybe it’s a blogger. Maybe it’s a New York Times bestselling author. Maybe it’s a guy writing the “great American Novel” in his bedroom. Writing is the easiest hobby there is. And one of the loneliest.
If you get paid to write you are a professional writer. You might be a songwriter. You might get paid to write greeting cards. You might get paid to write novels.
Not everyone who is paid to write is a good writer. Some are terrible. Some are great. Most are just working people, churning out their words.
I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words in my career, probably over a couple million. Some technical books. Hundreds of pages of Microsoft courseware. And these scribblings here for the past several years.
When I wrote the note to my child, I used the skills I’ve learned and developed over the decades. I wrote for clarity. I considered that it would be my child reading it. I love my child. I didn’t want to be overly harsh. I also considered that this would be upsetting news for my child.
Was my note written by a professional writer?
If not, I’m not sure who else we can blame for it.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I used to be. I’m not anymore. At least I don’t think I am.
You know those Facebook challenges that say to put an X next to every state you’ve been to? Or every country you’ve visited?
I don’t do them anymore. Partly because I don’t remember how many states I’ve been to. I also don’t remember how many countries I’ve visited. Does transfering in the airport count? Or does it only count if you’ve been through immigration? Or maybe a stamp in your passport?
I’ve lived in many states, and I’ve visited many more. I haven’t visited all of them. I know I’ve never been to Hawaii and I think there are some Southern states I may not have been to.
I used to care. I don’t anymore.
My friend Howard Tayler has been writing his web comic Schlock Mercenary for 20 years. He is now writing the last of the story. I interviewed him a couple years ago when he was still plotting out the last book that is now unfolding online.
He publishes his web comic in paper books. When discussing the end of his series he talked about publishing the final book,
And then those of you who want to collect all the things can finally complete your collection.
I collected his books for a while. Rare “unmarked” numbered editions. Eventually, I traded them back to my friend for ordinary versions and gave them to my son who read them voraciously, if not pristinely. I realized I didn’t want to collect all the things.
I collected odd things. When George Lucas brought out an updated version of the original Star Wars triology, I bought both the Gold box (Widescreen) and the Silver box (full screen.)
In fact, I remember watching a movie, I would decide if I wanted to buy the movie. So, that I could have it. I had a lot of movies. I have away a bunch of them.
The same thing with books. I bought entire series. I bought everything by a particular author. Now, I decide if I ever think I might want to read a book again. If so, I keep it. If not, I am more likely to give it away.
We 13 kids, many of whom are adopted, some of my friends joke that I collect children. That didn’t happen, but I have collected other things.
I used to collect Mustang models. I had over 300 “Hot Wheels” sized cars. They are 1/64 scale. And some of them were very rare and expensive. I recently gave my collection to my neighbor’s 6 year old son. He doesn’t appreciate the uniqueness of the collection. He only knows that there are lots of shiny cars.
I really only collect three things any more. The first is pocket watches. And this group is exclusive. Each watch was either a gift from a specific family members or belonged to a family member. I have a watch from my son, my wife, my father, my grandfather and my great grandfather.
I would imagine this collection will get passed down to my children and grandchildren. At least I hope so.
The second thing I collect are challenge coins. They aren’t true challenge coins. None of them are military coins. But, they have the form of challenge coins. Some are from my friend Howard Tayler’s universe. He made them to go along with the web comic. Some are from National or State Parks or Monuments. Some are from Scouting. Some are from other organizations. I’ll build a display case for them at some point. For now, they all sit in my desk drawer.
And finally, I collect baseball caps. I’m kind of a baseball nut and I have a baseball cap from every stadium that I’ve seen a game in.
But, it’s not really about the hats, or the coins. They represent experiences. I don’t buy a hat unless I’ve been to the stadium and watched a game. The hat is a reminder. That game in Pittsburg where we had to drive three hours through a rain storm and had no idea if the game would be cancelled. The game in Arlington, TX that I drove to from Shreveport, LA. It was three hours each way, and a great game with my beleaguered Mariners vs the Texas Rangers.
The coins are similar. I don’t simply collect them unless I’ve been to the place that they refer to. I have one from Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi. It was also a long drive from Shreveport. Yellowstone, Zions, Grand Canyon National Parks. Cedar Breaks National Monument. The Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. Goblin Valley State Park. And many others.
I guess I still collect some of the things. But my collections have changed. I don’t care if I personally touch every state. I don’t care how many countries I’ve visited. I don’t care to collect books, or models. Instead, I want experiences and mementoes from those experiences. It’s like art. I collect art. I have framed originals. . .most are from my kids. And a couple from people I know who are artists.
Stuff is just stuff and it can be bought and sold. But, memories, live forever. Experiences can’t be taken away.
Those are the things I want to collect now.
What are the things you collect?
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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One of the benefits of working from home is the fact that you can work in your pajamas. The commute changed from a trip down the freeway to a trip down the hallway. Your gas milage hasn’t gone up, but your gas costs have certainly gone down.
But, there’s a downside to working at home. Several, in fact. The lack of human interaction can be dehumanizing. No amount of Zoom meetings and conference calls can replace just the simple interaction of saying hello to someone you pass in the breakroom.
Oh sure, maybe your kids can fill that need. And depending on the age of your kids, that might be worse than no interaction at all.
But, one of the other problems with working from home is the calendar. I have a pocket calendar that I used to carry with me all the time. Now it just sort of sits on my desk. I open it occasionally, but I’m not sure what for anymore. Everything is in my office calendar. Not just work events, but family events, birthdays, pretty much everything.
And that’s the problem. I now live in my office. I don’t have the luxery of that commute to separate work life from home life. It’s hard to know when the work day ends. Plus, my job requires me to be involved with tasks at all hours. Earlier this week we had maintenance scheduled starting at 10:00pm. It went until 1:00AM.
Tonight we have testing scheduled to start at 1:00AM. That means I’ll be dragging myself when I get up for work tomorrow. Except, I’m not sure I have work tomorrow. Will I have to get up early? I check my online calendar and it looks like there’s an appointment with someone named Ruth at 9:45 tomorrow morning. Ruth works Saturdays, but generally in the afternoon.
Except that I have a daughter named Ruth. And since tomorrow is Saturday, maybe that’s not a work appointment. And I’m pretty sure it’s not a Zoom meeting since she lives in my house.
So, I’ll be up much of tonight with our testing and I’ll go to my meeting in the morning and I’ll struggle like many of you to keep night and day straight in this crazy world.
Stay Safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Follow The Flag is an organization I’ve written of often. They are based in Pleasant Grove, Utah. They also have a North Ogden chapter. It started with a flag.
Just a flag to surprise the residents of Pleasant Grove on the morning of July 4, 2015. The flag that day wasn’t the one that flies today. The first flag was “Little Betsy.” It measured 60’x30.’
And there was no events. No 5K run, no radio broadcasts. No Facebook live broadcast.
That first day, there wasn’t even an announcement. When people woke up on July 4, the flag was just there; flying over the canyon. They hadn’t even asked permission of the land owners. But, who is going to complain about an American flag on the 4th of July?
Two years later, they got a bigger flag and the events started. Each year the event got bigger. I got involved in 2018. My son had an Eagle Project to start the radio broadcast.
Last year was the biggest event yet.
And this year would have topped even last year.
But, COVID had other plans.
But, the flag flies again. It’s actually the fourth flag that’s flown over our canyon. One of the additions this year was challenge coins. I don’t collect a lot things anymore. But, challenge coins are one.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Worry: …When it’s an animal doing the worrying, it takes on a differe meaning. A dog will worry a bone or gnaw on it, for hours. The word worry comes from the Old English wyrgan, which originally meant “strangle,” and changed over the years to mean first “harrass,” and then “cause anxiety to.”
– vocabulary.com
I bought a skill saw shortly before Christmas. I used to make a bunch of Christmas presents.
A skill saw is the tool you use when you want to create letters and names and things.
My scroll saw broke. When you change the blade on a scroll saw you have to loosen the tension. You then need to replace the blade and tighten the tension. You have to do this a lot when you are creating an involved design.
At one point I went to tighten the tension and stripped the screw that created the tension. This meant the saw was inoperable. It’s no longer in warranty. So, I decided I’d fix it myself.
There are three parts to any repair: disassembly, repair and reassembly.
Disassembly went pretty smoothly. I basically kept unscrewing bolts until the two sides of the saw came apart. In fact, I removed all the screws I could see and the case was as tight as ever. It was then I discovered there were four more bolts hidden underneath the body of the saw. Okay, maybe they weren’t technically hidden. But, it sured seemed that way.
I found the damaged screw and removed it from the saw. It was a 1/4″ screw that was about 6″ long. All I needed to do was buy a new screw and I’d be good to reassemble.
I like Allred’s Ace Hardware in Pleasant Grove, Utah. They will spend as long as it takes to find just the right bolt.
They couldn’t match my bolt. Oh, they tried. They high school kid who helped me kept trying to fit it into a nut to find the right size. He finally called over one of the older guys.
It’s a left handed thread. We don’t have anything like that.
You know that old saying “righty-tighty, lefty-loosy”? That helps you remember which direction to turn a bolt or a screw to get it to tighten or loosen. (Mechanics use the same ideas.) Well, that’s only true for right-hand screws. A left-hand screws goes the opposite direction. And only a left-hand screw will fit on a left-hand screw.
I needed a 6″ long left-hand screw. They are not common. Ace didn’t have one. I knew none of the big box stores would have one.
And that’s as far as I got on my repair. The disassembled saw sat on my workbench for the past two months. But, I continued to think about it. The problem was that if I used a right-hand screw, I would need to replace some specialized nuts. And I had to figure out how to join two bolts together.
I had some ideas, but not a complete solution. So, it sat.
But, my mind continued to work on the problem. It was there in the back of my head everytime I walked into the garage. I thought about it when I was at the hardware store. I considered and reject options while working on other projects.
Finally, today, I realized the final piece I needed. I bent a washer into a “V” shape and placed a nut inside the V in such a way that it would keep the nut from spinning.
Step 2: Repairing went pretty quickly once I had the idea. I realized I needed to also repair a broken part of the frame. A little J B Weld and it was good as new.
The weld will set overnight and tomorrow I’ll finish up Step 3: Reassembly, and finally have my scroll saw back. I wonder if I could have fixed it sooner. Could I have figured out the bent washer yesterday? Last week? Last month? Did I require a certain amount of time to worry over the solution before I could finalize it?
I don’t know. I know I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. I have two projects half done that require a scroll saw to finish. I certaintly wanted to fix it.
I guess I just had to worry it enough.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Most people fail to understand how little extra effort it takes to be truly extrordinary.
I love baseball. I mean, probably more than any of your friends. I’ve been known to drive 3 hours each way just to watch 2 hours of a baseball game.
(Everyone has to have a hobby, right?)
The last three months have been killing me. The entire first half of the baseball season was wiped out. They might start up later this month.
In the meantime, I’ve watched old baseball clips and an occasional movie. Bull Durham, Eight Men Out, Field of Dreams. But, not Angels In The Outfield.
It tells the story of real angels coming down to help the Anheim Angels baseball team. And they need the help because they are terrible. They can’t run, hit, field or throw. There’s a line by Danny Glover, who plays the manager,
There’s a thing called talent. They don’t have it.
Why don’t I like this movie?
Because it asks too much. It wants us to believe that men who can’t catch a fly ball could be professional baseball players.
Bull Durham, on the other hand is an excellent baseball movie. Kevin Costner plays a minor league catcher trying to help the clubs hot young pitcher prepare for the majors. One of the lessons he teaches.
You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. Twenty-five hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, OK? There’s six months in a season. That’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week, just one, a gork, a ground ball – a dying quail a week and you’re in Yankee Stadium
The difference between a .250 hitter and a .300 hitter is the difference between going into the Hall of Fame and not making the ball club. It’s a tiny, tiny difference between being great and being just average.
9.58 seconds. That’s the world record for the 100 meter dash. Usain Bolt set that record in 2009.
400 milliseconds. That’s how long it takes to blink your eyes.
Suppose you were just “a blink” slower than Usain? That puts your 100 meter time at 9.98. That’s still fast. Anything under 10 is world class. But, where would you rank? Remember just a blink-and-you-miss-it behind the world record holder?
Second?
Third?
Ten?
Not even close. The 25th fastest recorded 100 meter time for men was 9.87.
It’s a tiny difference between great and merely good.
To be successful in business, you don’t have to be a professional baseball player or the fastest man in the world.
Two friends were hiking in the woods. The came upon a ferocious bear who started to charge them. One guy started to put on running shoes.
“Are you crazy? You can’t outrun a bear?”
“I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.”
If you are able to put in just a little more effort than the next guy, or the next company, or than you did yesterday, that’s success.
We are rolling out a new software tool at work. We have been trying to get it out for the past few weeks. We finally opened a bridge call on Monday and spent hours pulling in all the involved teams. And eventually, we got it installed. . .mostly. Seriously it mostly worked for most of our agents. Today I had a different crisis that took most of my day.
I did send an email and ask if people still had issues. But, I was focused on a new issue. And honestly? It mostly worked.
At 4:00pm I got a call from the VP. He rightly wanted to know why our new tool still didn’t work. . .completely.
So, we started another brige and invited all the interested teams back on. It turns out that we were 95%, possibly 98% of the way to the finish line. As we spent time on the bridge, I didn’t talk much. I wasn’t the expert on the tool. Instead each team talked about what didn’t work for them. For one team it was a mistyped network address. for another it was a reboot. For still another, the supervisor needed to switch stations.
We eventually got everyone working, but it was by tracing down each issue individually. It took a couple of hours.
And when we were done, We were done. Not 95% done, not 98% done. We were completely done. And everyone was happy. I got some of the thanks, undeservedly so, I think. My role was simply to gather people and be on the bridge. It was a small thing. But, it was the difference between providing a working solution and an almost working solution. We call that a broken solution.
You don’t have to outrun the bear. You just need to outrun your yesterday-self.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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What is the largest American flag in the world?
It’s called the Superflag. The Guiness Book of World Records lists it as 505 feet by 225 feet. It weighs 3000 lbs. The flag is too heavy to hang on a flagpole.
It has flown exactly once. It hung for an hour from the Hoover Dam on May 1, 1996. It only hung for an hour because it’s really hard to hang a large flag.
But, what about free flying American flags? What the largest free flying American flag?
For once, Google is not your friend. Google “Largest free flying
American flag” and you get a reference to a flag in Wisconsin. It was recently damaged in a thunderstorm and ripped in half. The flag is 70′ by 140′ and weighs 340 lbs.
But, it’s not the world’s largest free flying American flag.
There’s a flag in Gastonia, North Carolina that is 65 feet by 114 and weighs 180 lbs. It hangs on a 65 foot flag pole.
You can see it from 30 miles away. North Carolina is not known for tall mountains.
New Yorkers will tell you that the largest free flying American flag flies over the George Washington Bridge. But, that one is only 60 feet by 90 feet, although it weighs an impressive 465 lbs.
But, none of these are the largest free flying American flag in the world.
That honor belongs to a flag that is 75 feet wide by 155 feet long. It weighs 400 lbs and it is hanging not on a flag pole, not in front of a dam, or on a bridge. It’s hanging from a cable suspended across a canyon in the small town of Pleasant Grove, Utah.
The flag is named Lady Liberty. It was flown for the first time on July 4, 2020.
The flag is one of three identical flags. The first, Big Betsy was damaged last year in a microburst. Interesting, it was also damaged the previous year when a cable designed to deploy it, caused damage. Last years, damage was too much to repair and Big Betsy no longer flies. She does make appearances at parades and rodeos and even gets hung from a building occasionally.
The third flag is called The Major. It’s named for Major Brent Taylor, who was mayor of North Ogden Utah. In addition he was in the National Guard. He was killed in Afghanistan. The Major flew for the first time July 4, 2019. It replaced Big Betsy after she was damaged.
The Major flies in a canyon in Northern Utah. Ogden canyon.
The three flags are the result of an organization called Follow The Flag. The organization not only maintains the flags, but they put on events in and around Utah. This is a big week for them, although many events had to be cut back due to the virus.
I’m not sure why Lady Liberty doesn’t get the designation she deserves. The Guiness Book of World Records doesn’t have a designation for largest free flying American flag.
So, New Yorkers will look at a version of flag when they drive across the George Washington bridge. And the folks within 30 miles around that flag pole in North Carolina will get to watch the flag wave. And we can only hope that the group in Wisconsin gets their flag repaired.
But, if you want to see the largest free flying American flag in the world, you can find it hanging for the next week proudly across Grove Creek Canyon in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
She, or one of her cousins is there every 4th of July week.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Garth Brooks The Anthology | Part 1
The First Five Years
– By Garth Brooks
I’m a Garth Brooks fan. Most people who are willing to shell out $28 dollars for a collection of songs he already owns, is probably a fan. The fact that the songs came wrapped in a 237 book of pictures and stories was a bonus.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading through this coffee table style book. The book is pretty simply organized. It goes through the background of the writing of each song. And it talks about each album.
About half-way through I realized the format. I mean, I could have looked at the table of contents. But, even that ToC seemed random. But, at about the 105 page mark, as the book started talking about Robing The Wind, I realized that Garth was taking us through the songs on each album. Suddenly the format made a lot more sense.
One of the most surprising things about the book was realizing that Garth Brooks is a writer. I had noticed his name on many of the songs, but assumed that he had added a word or a phrase, and that was the extent of his contribution.
In fairness, I think I was unduly influenced by the live version of Brooks’ hit song, “Friends In Low Places.” The second verse includes the lines:
Hey, I didn’t mean
To cause a big scene
Just give me an hour and then
Well, I’ll be as high as that ivory tower
That you’re livin’ in
During his live show, Garth sings a third verse. It contains the lines:
Hey I didn’t mean
To cause a big scene
Just wait ’til I’ve finished this glass
Then sweet little lady
I’ll head back to the bar
And you can kiss my ***
I thought, “I he wrote that third verse I’m not impressed. I don’t know if he wrote the third version or not, but after ready Part 1, I’ve come to realize that Brooks is an exceptional song writer.
The other educational information was learning exactly how a team puts an album together. It’s not just finding nine or ten songs and sticking them on a CD.
It will be interesting to see if the album format will survive streaming and online sales. Albums used to be events. And to some extent they still are. But, who ever hears the six or seven songs that never get released as singles?
What I Liked
The book was extremely entertaining. I found myself, especially after I figured out the format, looking forward to the next album, the next year.
Being a Garth Brooks fan, it was wonderful hearing the stories behind my favorite songs. I especially enjoyed learning the stories of the less famous songs.
It was also enjoyable to get to know more about Garth’s collaborators and producers. The people and their stories are as intersting as the music stories.
Finally, it was wonderful to hear how a young kid from Oklahoma became the biggest thing in country music.
What I Didn’t
I’ve already metioned the issue I had with the format. While the pictures added a much fuller picture, many of them weren’t captioned. Many of the pages included pull quotes. The information in these pull quotes was also included in the body of the text. The format works well for browsing the books, but when trying to read they were very distracting.
Honestly though, these are minor points.
What It Means To You
If you are a Garth Brooks fan, this book is an excellent contribution to your library. However, if you are an aspiring song writer, or singer, or producer, this book is actually a great story of what it looks like when it all comes together. It won’t make you a successful recording artist. But, it will show you what a successful artist looks like before they become famous and how the road to success is partly luck, but mostly a lot of hard work and deliberate decisions.
My Rating
Four out of four stars. I really enjoyed this book and was surprised to find that I learned things I didn’t even know I wanted to know.
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Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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