Dear MLB...

Dear Major League Baseball,

Image via Wikipedia

My team, the KC Royals, haven't been any good since the 80's. Hold on now, I don't blame you, the best decisions haven't really been made in this town to create a small market powerhouse like the Twins often are, but... unless you're going to figure out how to give us some better parity like they've discovered in the NFL (for some reason my Chiefs seem to be exempt from such luxury, but that's another post), then we've prepared a plan of action that will bring more life to teams that are on the verge of being mathematically eliminated from post-season play.

1. As soon as a team is mathematically eliminated, tickets to the remaining games are either free or $5 a pop for any available seat in the stadium. First come, first-served. Get fans in the gate, let them spend their dough on concessions and souvenirs, build loyalty.

2. Reimburse season ticket holders with concession vouchers or a discount on next season's games based on the number of "free" games that occurred. Remember, it costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain one. If you have a losing season (or 20), think "retention."

3. Require all of your players to sign autographs before every "free" game. Get fans to the park early, reap more from concessions. Duh. But, it also creates a personal connection between the fan and the player, an emotional connection that draws them to make the logical conclusion to come back to the park to see their new friend.

Now, when a team is on the verge of being mathematically eliminated, I realize that the home towns might actually BOO if they stave off elimination. In order to combat that good-natured ribbing...

4. Create sponsor-based incentives when the team avoids being eliminated. For instance, let's say my Royals are 18 games out of the Wild Card and 20 games out of first place in their division, with a loss, they'd be eliminated making, say, the last home games of the 17 left in the season "free." Should they WIN, then get McDonald's to give a free sundae with a ticket stub from that game to people on their way home. Or, if they WIN, then give out grab bags of all the left-over free souvenir crap that didn't get handed out during the season. This gets people to the park to see what will happen before the team is actually eliminated. It's a win-win situation for the community, either you get free crap or you can come back to the next home game for free.

FREEMIUM business model, dudes. For those that don't know, that means you give away something for free and then promote paid upgrades (like get in the park for free and then expect people to pay for concessions).

It's a HOME RUN.

Sincerely,
B & Pops

Dear Tea in My Cup...

Dear Tea in My Cup,

Image via Wikipedia

I don't need you everyday, but you've become a part of my day. Our time together is always short, for some reason you grow cold towards me; you are truly a picture of the concept of being in the "now." And by that I mean, when we're together it reminds me to focus on you, not on my phone, not on email, not on someone else... wait, strike that last item... I know how much you love to listen in on conversations that I have when we're together with someone else. *wink*

I also love the fact that, even when you do grow cold, you stay by my side. I enjoy your company so much that you've become a habit, so I'll touch you and bring you to my lips having forgotten that you're already off into hibernation; your energy output with heat and water as catalysts must be incredibly tiring. Just know that I don't mind you sleeping next to me. And I never cringe when you've gone cold, heck, there are even times when I go to get more hot water so that I can wake you up again. Please accept my apology because I often do that, but then I don't drink from you as much (please realize that I don't caffeinate often and a double dose makes me bounce off of the walls. You don't want me to be crazy, do you?).

Anyhow, I just wanted to tell you that I always enjoy our time together.

Thank you for always being there for me (or just a few steps away at the nearest cafe). I look forward to many moments, hot and cold, in the future. We have much writing and talking and theorizing to do in our future.

Hug,
B

PS: Don't fret when the server mixes coffee with you. That little dash of milk that we both love (that we learned to use after burning my mouth a billion times in Europe) makes you look like coffee and we both know how U.S. Americans love their gallon of burnt coffee loaded with cream and sugar to mask the fact that it tastes like crap. In those cases, you and me, we'll just start over again from the beginning. Deal?

Dear Dad...

Dear Dad,

Image via Wikipedia

I'm glad that we've found my book to bond over. It's a combination of my life and the crazy that I inherited from you. I've always said that you're the most creative person that I've ever known and always wanted to find a way to help you apply it. As you might recall, I sent you something that I wrote years ago as an invitation to toss it back and forth over the fence; a cumulative creation from two. Yet, I never got anything back.

Did you know that you weren't supposed to respond back then?

What I've written over the past 17 months actually has its genesis in what I sent you many years ago. I think you knew that something greater was coming. And now, we have this... 150,000 words about a man's journey to find true love... a merging of the real and the metaphysical, the drama and the dream, a puzzle with purpose... Soupy and his Promise.

True love.

Paulo Coelho has written a manual for my life, Warrior of the Light. And, with all due respect to his great belief in religion and love, he almost got it right. A bold statement, I know. But as time continues, so will I continue to walk down my Path, sometimes being bounced back into play like a pinball and other times taking direct steps toward my true calling. My book is only the beginning of the world that I'm discovering. Yes discovering, not creating.

Since we last had an editing session, so much has changed. That was a completely different draft, a different story, more like a journal than what we have now--a world that the characters live in that has history and rules and dark and light... and future.

I do not know if the world around us will accept what I've written. I didn't start with the intent that they needed to. I wrote for myself, but what I've written is getting praise. I want my story to be read and told and I hope that it generates conversation, two sides of a coin, a deluge of opinion about what I meant and all of the layers that haven't been written, but are there to be discovered because they exist underneath the surface of one night's simple conversation with one man's true love.

Thank you.

Your son,
B

Dear Blue Sky...

Dear Blue Sky,

Image by [xinita] is the cobrasnake's pathetic copycat via Flickr

I looked at you when someone else was looking at you today. The significance was more than you know... wait, of course you know, you are the sky. I've always said that you are one of my favorite things because you encompass my favorite color and my favorite color represents things that make me think.

How's that for a pie-in-the-sky argument?

Blue. It's been a few days since we've seen you. I love weather, that's for sure, but I smile at your return and the expanding energy that you provide to me and to the world. I can stare at you for hours, wonder how many miles I'm actually able to see. Is that patch of sky on the horizon Atchison or Oz?

There's no place like home, and when I'm beneath you, then I am home. You let me look at you and never judge, nor chide me for my excessive adoration. You just let me get lost in your expansiveness and neck-deep in my own thoughts.

I like things that make me contemplative: Blue Sky, Ocean Blue, Blue Sorrow, Blue Denim... blue bird, simple and free, nothing but blue sky, do I see... I love your family of Blue. You are my Black, fer sure.

And, I will always be true to you, my Blue. True Blue. How about you?

Love,
BBB

33/52: Coincidence by David Ambrose

Coincidence, by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars

Dear Mr. Ambrose, what the hell was that?

I overcame the feelings of reading what you wrote like I was watching Duplicity Multiplicity and The Matrix, and man, I have to say, I was gellin' with your verbal flavor until then, but like I said, I overcame and kept up the fight to push through to this scientific theory that you were trying to purport... but then, you made it all a simulation. That's like watching an entire movie and then having it revealed that it was all just a dream. It makes the viewer feel like they just wasted a couple of hours; it's overplayed and disappointing. And then, in the end it's just all hunky-dory? I'm gonna take this fate because I don't care, because none of it's real and I want my wife to be happy even though she cheated on me... man, if you woulda told me that's where the book was going from the beginning, then I would've taken it off of my list and spent a few hours elsewhere. Unfortunately, accepting their fate is the way most people live their lives, reactive, led by some invisible hand, puppets in some silly game trying to get to someplace else when, in reality, we should enjoy the now, do good in the now, live in the now.

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #32 = "The Discreet Charm of Charlie Monk" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars
Book #31 = "Fish" by Lundin, Paul, Christensen, Blanchard, 4/5 Stars
Book #30 = "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, 3/5 Stars
Book #29 = "The System's Bitch" by John Wright, 3/5 Stars
Book #28 = "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars
Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

Nice Night at The K

Go Greinke!

Dear Bee...

Dear Bee Outside of My Window,

Image by Lydia Elle - barely flickring :( via Flickr

I thank you for coming to see me. I thank you for the transference of thought. From you to me, I sense the fact that you are lost. When you saw your reflection in my window, I knew that you, if only for a brief second, recognized yourself and thought that you were home.

You thought you were home, that is, until you received what thought I sent to you; your journey is far from over, but you must continue for there is no time to linger on my sill. The time that you have to find your destination is much shorter than mine--days compared to years--so you must be on your way.

I know that the contemplative sounds of Radiohead in this temporary world that I've constructed for myself are what brought you here, intuitively on both of our parts. No coincidence in manner, but a calling for that moment of transference that I previously mentioned. Thank you for listening and heeding the call. There was purpose.

And now, we can both be on our way, each to our Queen--and her true love.

Safe journey,
B

Books 30-32 on Journey to 52

Books 30-32/52...

I don't have a ton to say about the books that I've not written reviews on over the past month. They were good reads, quick reads, but I haven't really been in the flow for reading, which is very bad for me because I believe that reading is the key to my creativity. When I read, I write... or come up with new business ideas. I discovered that the problem was partly that I was following Tim Sanders advice and reading every business book that I could get my hands on, but had no business to which I could apply what I was learning... it burned me out. So, I've stocked the shelves with some David Ambrose and some Cormac McCarthy and I'm gonna dig out of this hole.

What hole? Well, I've read 32 books and we're in the 38th week of the year! That makes me 6 books behind schedule!

Book #30: "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, 3/5 Stars
Book #31: "Fish" by Lundin, Paul, Christensen, & Blanchard, 4/5 Stars
Book #32: "The Discreet Charm of Charlie Monk" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #29 = "The System's Bitch" by John Wright, 3/5 Stars
Book #28 = "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars
Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

What I wrote or what you read?

One of my favorite things to say is, "Read what I wrote, not what you read." If you're reading my book or something like this blog post, then I do want you to read what you read. I want

Image by Darwin Bell via Flickr

you to take the world that surrounds you and apply what I've said to that world. I want you to insert your own characters, your protagonist and antagonist, your good and your evil, and play out the plot to a point of understanding how what I've said fits into your life. I want you to think about your own story-- from my fiction to your non-fiction.

But, if I'm talking to you or writing specifically to you, then it's important that you read what I wrote and refrain from inserting whatever world you've conjured up as a means to translation. When I'm talking to you, I'm not trying to make up a story that I want you to interpret; I'm telling you exactly what's going on in my world... and I'm probably telling you about it because I want your opinion. I'm not telling you about it because I want to be judged. In fact, I want your opinion, not from the story that you think I'm trying to tell, but from the unique set of circumstances that make up what's going on in my life. I want you to jump from what's going on in your life to what's going on in my life--stay out of your fiction and be in my non-fiction.

To do this, you will definitely draw on your personal experiences and those of others, but you won't assume that my situation is exactly the same as theirs. Why? Because as soon as you make that assumption, you are going to be wrong... there are too many variables, too many levers and buttons and switches, that define a moment and no two moments are ever exactly the same.

Myers & Briggs say that the last letters of their personality test define how you output the information that you've already gathered and processed. Perceptive (P) people are open to conclusion, sort of going with the flow, while Judgmental (J) people are the list-makers, structured and goal-focused. I struggle with strong J-types if their focus on the goal is so strong that they have to pass judgment in the now; hearing what they heard instead of what I said and reading what I wrote instead of what they've read.

By all means, go back and reread this if necessary. ;-)