Thank You

With all the hyper-marketing to buy stuff surrounding them these days, holidays in the USA seem to have simply lost the essence of their meaning. To many, Easter means candy and gifts, Christmas means food and gifts, and Thanksgiving means food, football, and Black Friday. Today I'm going to do my best to spend the day looking at the many amazing people who have been provided all around me to help me become a better person and to just plain enrich my life. So if you are reading this, chances are you are one of those folks and I'm just plain thankful for you.

Funniest Tweet of the Week: TNAuctioneer

TNAuctioneer gets my first entry as my favorite tweet of the week:

TNAuctioneer: just watched Dirty Jobs and poo eating Talapia! then wife tells me we are having Talapia for dinner! can you say loss of appetite?

What a blast! IgniteBoulder - Oct 29, 2008

Dan Borgmann (vendorHIPPO.com), Ryan Wanger (TheReluctantEater.com) and I at IgniteBoulder.com

Slideshow via Flickr

Video via YouTube

So last night, Dan of vendorHIPPO.com, Adam (AK my son), and I went to the IgniteBoulder event in Boulder CO. It was a blast! We hooked up with Ryan Wanger (of The Reluctant Eater) before the event began and got acquainted. Ryan and Dan had hooked up via Dan's new interest in blogging and Ryan may be a food reviewer for Dan's vendorHIPPO.com site.

Perhaps the most fun of the night was the look on Dan's face from about the third presentation on... (wish I had a picture) but it's that blank stare you see when it's obvious someone has been drinking from a fire hose of info. But he did great.

We heard/saw 20 slide (timed automatically at 15 second intervals) presentations on everything from what soap bubbles have in common with yoga (really a bizarre presentation, seriously), to info about Lucid Dreaming (maybe more bizarre than the yoga/soap), to instructions on branding yourself, perception possibility, what angel investors are thinking, and more.

Maybe next time I'll live blog the event. A video of the event is in process. I'll edit and post a link here when it's available for anyone interested.

Overall a great evening of branching out and exploring new stuff. There are Ignite events occurring all over the country (world?) and you should definitely check for one in your area and go if can.

Thanks to Andrew Hyde of Boulder for coordinating this event! Let's do another!

Fall 2008 Color Ride in the Rockies

Last Friday, October 3, Julie, our house guest Chris Papetti, and I took our two HD video cameras for a ride in the Rockies to see the Fall color. We ended up putting one of the cameras on the tripod bungied in between the front seats with the top down. We shot video for most of our trip through the mountains to Estes Park via Golden. We wish we could share GORGEOUS Colorado with all our friends, but since so many live in other parts of the country and don't get to enjoy it, I thought I'd share a little taste here with you. Since you probably don't want to watch 30 minutes of video I increased the velocity of the playback so 30 minutes is condensed down to about 7. Enjoy!

(this is the super high bandwidth version... which will take a little longer to load - see below for lower)
[flv]http://craigkendall.com/media/2008FallColors_1600.flv[/flv]

(a little lower bandwidth version)
[flv]http://craigkendall.com/media/2008FallColors.flv[/flv]

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Some events in your lifetime pass and are never remembered again. Well, the date anyways. You may remember what actually happened, but the date not so much. Those are not necessarily etched in your mind.

This date however will likely be etched in my mind for quite some time. One year ago today I sat in the office of my supervisor at the company I had worked at for 11 years and was informed that my position was one of three being eliminated to make room in next year's budget for other types of personnel. I cannot describe the rush of things that go through your head in a moment like that. If you've been there you know what I mean.

A folder is pulled out and you go over all the paperwork related to severance and all. How crazy is it that once you are told you will be without a job they go over all these details and expect you to sign a piece of paper agreeing to all the terms right there as this amazing thought-flood is going on. Anyway, I elected to have a lawyer friend review mine before I signed and left the office.

I was told I could go for the rest of the day, finish the week, and then, though I officially was not finished until July 31, if I had transitioned all the stuff I was working on I was no longer expected to be in the office after that Friday. I have to say, all this flexibility and a generous severance package was the bright side of the coin but there still is no rush like being told you are being laid off permanently. (I guess that's different than being fired. Fired would be if you screwed up or did something immoral or illegal. Laid off is when the type of service you have to provide is no longer needed or organizational changes mean your skill set is no longer part of the mix.) Either way, after Friday the 15th I was gone.

One of the interesting pieces of all this was how Julie and I had already discussed that we wanted to have our own business established by the date the severance was set to run out. Difference was rather than working full time and at the same time laboring to launch a sustaining business, we now had a severance period to concentrate on establishing the new work and would not be looking at a two week notice and transition.

On the way to lunch the next day before going in to begin the transition and cleaning out process it hit me that this was the perfect time to move back to Colorado (where we had lived before going to Nashville). And, if we were going to be working to establish a business, it was better to establish it where we ultimately wanted to live rather than establish it and then relocate later. Hence, the whirlwind escalated. That was June 13. August 1st our house went on the market. August 6th we had a contract. August 26th we were out and on our way to Colorado to find our way. So, here we are. One year later. Since this is getting long, I'll wait till August 1 to update the status and reminisce about where the business is now.

Thanks to everyone who helped us through the amazing transition train we've been on. Here are some of our transition support super stars to whom we are SO SO grateful:

Ray and Katie Carman who helped with the whole house sale/purchase thing (even so far as traveling to CO for a scouting trip Jul 26-31) as well as being amazingly supportive friends to lean on, and were gracious enough to host a drop by for folks who wanted to come by and say good bye before we left. Oh and hats off to Ray who was the packing/loading ANIMAL! We never could have gotten out of there if it were not for you guys.
Todd and Monica (as well as AJ and Ashley) Donaldson who opened their home to us in CO while we house hunted and were here for us to lean on at the CO side of our journey.
Scott Wendland, Chris Papetti, and Tripp Karrh who graciously labored to help load us up, drive out on the trek from Nashville to Denver in the dual-26-foot-Penske-truck-with-car-carriers-Pathfinder-motorcyle-trailer caravan, and unload and stuff all the stuff into storage buildings.
Our awesome kiddos Jes & AK who helped with lots of stuff and checked in on us to make sure we were making it okay (oh and have since relocated to CO as well... what sweeties!). You guys were so strong and never showed any nervousness which helped mom and dad not worry so much about leaving you in TN.
John and Debbie Revell who helped pack and were amazing pillars of support for us when the pressure began to mount.
Denver and Amy Bierman who were the rocks we leaned on. Though we know you were incredibly busy (Denver with the whole Next Great American Band thing and Amy months from delivering London) crushed by our leaving, you continue to be incredibly encouraging and full of support emotionally and spiritually through the transition.
Kathie Hill of Kathie Hill Music who was one of my first clients back in 2005 and who patiently endured during our moving right in the middle of her launching WAM! a whole new revolutionary product line for kid's music.
And everyone else who encouraged us and whose thoughts and prayers supported us in the transition.

So, we press on in Life 2.0 mode one year later.

We're gonna be in pictures!

Well, sorta anyways. Maybe only the backs of our heads or something. On Craigslist the other day I saw a post for movie extras for a feature film being shot in the Denver area so I replied... and check this out! We got invited to come today. YAY! Have no idea what we are getting into. Hope it's not some shady film production. We shall see! Heck, we get a free meal out of it and a final copy of the DVD.

Oh, and on a side note, referring back to my post about An Exciting Day for Kendall Media Group while we're still waiting for expertvillage to get our videos online, I had to get some samples up for another similar service we are working to get set up with so here's a link to some of the video we shot with Sam Brede of Carver's Ski Snowboard Sports in Breckenridge CO on Feb 22. You can't see them, but Julie's on one camera and Amy Bierman, a.k.a. The Super Amy, who was visiting with us at the time we did the shoot, is crawling around on the floor holding the boom mic pole. Oh, look... I found a picture! Love ya Amy!

Our friend Katie & her boyfriend Todd

Ever been to a "Let's all celebrate I didn't die!" or "Let's all say goodbye to my kidney, ovaries, and uterus!" party? Well, neither had we until last Wednesday night. Katie, a friend we met here shortly after we arrived back in Colorado, had what I would totally justify as a horrible month... well, several months really. Back in November we went to her engagement party and shortly thereafter she found out she was facing a recurrence of cancer. Her lousy fiance (not Todd who is pictured btw) dumped her with the "I can't handle a sick wife" line cleaning out their joint bank account and anything else not nailed down in the house. Her surgery to remove her uterus and ovaries was a success... well sort of. Seems they nicked something during the surgery which caused lots of bleeding and just when she thought she was on the road to recovery an urgent emergency room trip uncovered that her abdominal cavity was filled with blood. They had no idea from where it was coming. Two surgeries and two transfusions later, they had removed her kidney which had gone septic due to the enduring presence of all that blood. Next thing she knows, they diagnose her with a rare blood disease (von Hitler or something like that she jokes) which resists clotting in certain cases. Now she carries with her a small emergency injection which, should she be injured, will help her blood to clot.

The best news is our friend Katie is on the road to recovery. She met a great guy on Match.com named Todd and they are dating. We had a great time at her uterus/ovary/kidney wake a.k.a. glad Katie didn't die party and we are truly glad our friend Katie did not die!

And Then There Were Four (minus)...

Denver & the Mile High Orchestra made the final 4 last night at the taping. At least that's what the spoiler sites say. There is some shrouded meaning behind the title you can figure it out. But, I won't openly spoil it all, so if you don't want to know details of the taping Wednesday, Dec. 5th don't click this link to MJs Blog.

Suffice it to say we get to vote at least one more week. NOTE THIS: The time the show will be aired has been adjust this week. Watch The Next Great American Band on FOX at 9 Eastern/8 Central.

And only 6 remain! Way to go DMHO fans! Who will be in final 5?

Last night's show was taped on Tuesday instead of Wednesday for a number of reasons. The fans last week voted and kept the guys in for another week. Hope you got a chance to watch and vote last night. Here's a youtube recap of DMHO's performance:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV-rZ51MY8Y&eurl=http://heissufficient.net/2007/11/24/next-great-american-band-dmho-round-5/[/youtube]

Still in:

• Tres' Bien


• Light of Doom


• Clark Brothers


• Sixwire


• Dot Dot Dot


• Denver and the Mile High Orchestra!

After the votes last night only five remain... who will those five be?

I wondered if...

... anyone in Denver (the city) would catch on to the name play of Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. I saw this in the Rocky Mountain News:

And an interesting side note . . .

• Sure, creatively named competitors on The Next Great American Band include The Dirty Marmaduke Food Squad, Zombie Bazooka Patrol, Fifi Larue and The Light of Doom. But our pick for best band moniker is Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, pictured at right. DMHO, which bills its style as Christian big band, is not named after the Mile High City, though, but for bandleader Denver Bierman.

OH WOW!

Okay... some of you may be familiar with American Idol. Having lived in Nashville and had friends in the music circle we were privileged to have had acquaintance familiarity with both Mandisa and Melinda Doolittle through other friends, but this time... OH MY. Beginning Oct. 19 the producers of American Idol are looking for The Next Great American Band and one of my best friends in the world (like a brother) Denver Bierman, leader of Denver & the Mile High Orchestra, tried out! This photo was on FOX's web site and I've seen numerous video commercials (see best one below) over the last several weeks with Denver on it. At this point, all we know is that they tried out. Join me in watching on October 19th to see how they do. Hope the mean judge doesn't say anything mean to the guys! GO DMHO!

Meeting people

Yesterday, as we were leaving our house on some errands we stopped and actually backed up in the road to meet Judy. She was out watering in her yard. The first time we went by I waved and mouthed hello and she politely nodded back and offered a slight smile. We forgot something so had to go back and pick it up. As we were going by Judy the second time I realized we just needed to stop and introduce ourselves so I backed up in the road, rolled down the window and introduced myself and Julie.

As we were talking Judy said something interesting... I don't remember her exact words but it was clear she was pleased we took the time to stop and introduce ourselves... and discover a little about who she was... somewhat shocked as a matter of fact. People do this so little these days that we are usually met with skepticism whenever we do... "is this person a serial killer" or "are they asking all these questions because they are going to take advantage of me somehow" seem to be the looks on their faces. However, now when we pass that corner and Judy is out we can wave and use her name to greet her.

No one else is likely going to take the initiative so we just have to do it. Meet someone new in your neighborhood today. Even if its several blocks away and you see someone walking or out in their yard, just stop, introduce yourself, and get to know a little about him or her. It could be the beginning of a great relationship.

Christopher & Nicole of Christopher's Pizza!

Hey Christopher, Nicole & crew... we miss your GREAT pizza!!! The BEST pizza in the Nashville area with the greatest people making/serving it!



This is my first of a new category... shout out! where I'll shout out to folks we know and love. Christopher and Crew... you are the first! Check out Christopher's blog