Things I Learned in 2008

For the life of me I cannot remember who first told me that, a good measure of what kind of day you had is to ask yourself, "What did I learn today?" but it has stuck with me because at the end of most every day for as long as I can remember, I lay in bed and try to recall something new that I learned. Some days, especially when I was younger, it was easy-- and others I would struggle to come up with anything significant but, even then, I learned that you can't learn something new every day. 

Here, at the end of 2008, I thought it would be interesting to, similarly, think about the things I learned in the year to determine if we can consider it a success. Obviously, I will not be able to include all 300-some-odd things that I learned every day throughout the year, but after careful consideration, I have been able to categorize most all of those individual things into one or more of three basic themes:

You can teach an old dog new tricks-

When you lose the ability to do so much, as I did when I had the stroke, it is very easy to see the whole learning process. I had a new found understanding of how we learn new things that opened my eyes to what my two-year-old Son was going through.

I was very lucky that the brain attack had little-to-no effect on any of my cognitive abilities. Even the challenges with speech that I had were, mainly, motor problems in my face, mouth and tongue. My mental capacity was not affected so I didn't have to re-learn anything I knew and I could concentrate on re-learning how to do things like walking, talking, writing, typing, driving and anything else that we take for granted every day.

Stuff that I had seemed simple to master decades before, like juggling, were way too complex and, even though, my brain knew how to do it my body just couldn't pull it off. Most of that stuff did come back as I practiced and re-taught myself to do it, however not everything has been that easy as I found out at my niece's Birthday Party. I have roller skated very well since I was seven or eight years old, even playing on roller hockey leagues growing up, but when I strapped on the skates and stepped on to that familiar wooden floor, I was painfully reminded about the laws of gravity. I thought, for sure that would come back to me but, for some bizarre reason, I just couldn't get the whole balance thing down and I looked like Cox or a first-time four-year-old out there.

It was like a new experience all of the time for a while-- I had a lot of good days because I was learning so much and seeing, at least, some improvement every day. This inspired me to seek out other ways to gain enlightenment and learn about as much as I could. I think of myself as pretty smart, to begin with, but I really dug in to research things that I was interested in by reading books, searching the Web and talking with people. Having a, somewhat, obsessive personality anyway, it wasn't hard for me to get seriously into subjects like the brain, strokes, anxiety, health, religion and many others.

Feeling that spending too much time with these endeavors would be unhealthy I also set out to find some more creative outlets. What started out as trying to sell some of my designs in the SkeetzTeez cafepress shop turned into me getting involved with and learning about many other Internet applications. Squidoo, Twitter and Facebook taught me about social networking, guerrilla marketing and even some basic Web design and html and this blog has taught me that writing can be fun and I am not too terribly bad at it.

If there is a lesson I can say that can be learned from this it is: we are never too old to learn. I thought that I was, but when thrown into a situation that I was required to use my brain again, I liked it-- and even thrived on it. I can't help to think that many of the older folks that I saw struggling in rehab with me would have had a better time with it if they embraced the learning experience a little more.

Make what's important... important-

You are, probably, thinking-- just like I used to... "Oh yes, I do that. I have all of my priorities all ironed out and I'm sure that I would never second-guess myself." 

I hope that you never find yourself in the predicament, but until you are in a situation that you are sure you are going to lose everything you have... you can not, truly, appreciate it. As you can probably tell from reading this blog, I am quite the idealist--I am very opinionated and am not afraid to tell you what I think of anything. Whereas this has been true for most of my adult life and did not change when I had the stroke, the same cannot be said about the message that I was preaching.

I used to proclaim things like, "Work hard-- Play hard!", "Don't be a Wimp!" and "Nice Guys Finish Last!" but, now, I am singing a different tune. I have written about my feelings on this subject on several occasions but it is very important to me so it is worth repeating... tell the people that you love that you love them-- be so very thankful that you have them in your life.

There was a time when work was the most important thing in my life. Even after I was married and had a family there were times-- even if it was only a few minutes-- that work or a TV show, video game, sleep or one of a hundred other stupid little things were more important than the things that were supposed to be important. Even now that I have been through that experience when I knew I could have lost them, as a selfish person, there are still times that I make the wrong choice about what is important.

I don't feel like I need to drive this point home because almost everyone knows what is truly important and I think that they also know that they probably don't do a good enough job of making the important things most important. Most, however, could use a gentle reminder now-and-then to counter the effects of the things that make it hard for us to do-- selfishness, pride, greed, anxiety and shame, to name a few... I know that I can.

You are not in control-

This is, by far, the most important thing that I learned this year. It, too, was a lesson learned as result of my brain attack, but this lesson is what all the other ones are based on, the reason for such a remarkable recovery and why I am a stronger and, just all-around, better person from the whole experience.

I originally learned this lesson in Sunday School in first- or second-grade and it is the basic theme of what you are taught in church most weeks and everything we read in the Bible. I was listening to the lesson most every time I heard it but I was convinced being a strong, intelligent, experienced man, that I had at least some control of my life. It took a stroke to, literally, take all of that control away, for me to realize that God is in control.

Not only is God in control, but we have to embrace the fact that He is because it is only going to be harder for us if we do not accept it. I learned this, first-hand, when I finally realized that nothing I did was going to make my recovery faster or more complete-- not working harder or longer, any amount of money, worry, medication or treatment. No one else could do anything to help me either... except God.

I was given a second chance at, exactly, that moment-- a second chance to live and a second chance to take what I had learned from the lesson and apply it to my life. I took that chance (What other option did I have?) and I am still learning from it. Why, just last week, at church I learned that God has a plan for all of us and there is no way for us to change that plan or even find out what it is. All we can do is seek Him through His Son, Jesus, and He will meet us and change our lives. 

Trust Him. I have seen it happen!

Here's wishing that you and yours have a happy New Year and that you learn a lot in 2009! Peace.

What A Long, Strange Trip: 2008

I suppose, now that I have a blog, I am not going to be able to get through 2008 without doing some kind of Year In Review type of article. I thought I would be excited to put this one together but, for some reason, I can't seem to get in the right mood. I have started writing several times only to abandon the story partially done or scrapping the whole thing and starting over.

Most of the reason that I don't want to write a 2008 Review is that everybody does one-- not only bloggers but all kinds of Internet, print and broadcast sources will produce their lists of the most, least, best, worst and biggest person, places and things of the year. In addition, I want my articles to be real... but not too real. Not that I am lying to anyone out there but I don't feel the need to tell complete strangers (and some other acquaintances) my most intimate thoughts and every personal feeling. I am, however, enjoying that I get to write about interesting topics, funny stories and a important cause or two and get a kick out of the fact that, at least some, other people are reading the stuff.

Therefore, I am going to try, again, to do my 2008 Year In Review and, maybe, by Wednesday, I will have something ready that I am comfortable enough sharing with the rest of the world... or the very small number of individuals that find it.

2008 started out at home for us. We are not really a big party-type of family anyway and, with a two-year old running the house, we like to be as close to home as possible most of the time, but especially on amateur night. It was fun! We invited some friends (and their kids) over, played video games, ate munchies and enjoyed each others' company.

Having had a stroke just five-weeks earlier and, basically, being paralyzed on the right half of my body, it was amazing that I was able to do that much. I was in therapy every day I could get it from November 28 through the end of the year. We had to get as many visits in 2007 as possible to submit to the insurance companies and they couldn't work me hard enough as I figured that was the only way I was going to improve. We did see some improvement almost every day! It wasn't always dramatic progress, but it was almost every day.

By Christmas I could walk well enough to get around without the cane or any other aides. I could hold a drumstick with a modified grip on New Years but it was very difficult to keep up with my friends on Rock Band. MLW talked all of our guests into writing down their resolutions so she could mail them as a reminder in six-months but I was just starting to be able to write and it wasn't very legible so I just kept mine to myself.

I had already made a remarkable recovery and wanted my resolution to be a tribute to that. Without going into too much detail, then, I can tell you that I promised myself to do everything I could to be a better man than I was before the stroke. I wanted to work hard to be stronger physically, but it meant much more to me than that. I can get a little more into this later but, for now, let's leave it with... I wanted to be sure that what should be important was more important than what wasn't and I didn't want to waste my time with things that were unimportant.

There was a tremendous amount of progress made in the month of February. My therapists started dropping me, starting with my PT and then, although I was still having a difficult time speaking, my speech therapist. Most of my large motor skills had returned and, while I worked by myself to build strength in them, I still visited my OT for couple of hours a day, several days a week to work on my small motor skills. I was extremely anxious to be released to drive again because, although I was not looking forward to getting back to the daily grind, I had to get out of the house.

The first week in March I finally passed my drivers' test and was able to do exactly that, followed by going back to work at the beginning of the third week. Looking back, this was probably two-to-four weeks early as I was having a very hard time getting back into the swing of things. I did, however, begin to rid myself of some of the worthlessness that I had been feeling in the previous 13-weeks as I was a little less of a burden on my family and friends-- especially my wife, who was incredibly gracious, helpful, merciful, kind and understanding through the whole ordeal.

I made such a remarkable recovery that the doctors said I could only use the stroke as an excuse for a year. I used every last minute of that time but, for the sake of this blog post, we will leave off of it here in April. I think I am still recovering a little bit every day. I notice it most in my speech and endurance-- the two things that are effected most by the severe fatigue I was feeling as my brain shut down all other bodily functions in order to save energy so that it could heal faster. 

I had said from the beginning, part in jest-- part for real, that I only wanted to recover 99% so that I would always have a reminder of the event and the important lessons that I learned from it. I don't really find it odd, therefore, that the only real pain that I ever had was in my pinkie finger, of all things, and if you didn't know that I had a stroke, I'm sure that you couldn't tell, but that finger still hurts like it did the first day. Be careful what you wish for.

In May things started heating up... and I am not talking about the weather. MLW and I celebrated our our forth Anniversary with a date night. I really can't say enough good things about my wife. Before we met, I couldn't imagine me being married and having a family-- now, I can't even start to imagine what my life would be like if I wasn't lucky enough to have her-- but trust me... it would not be pretty. I am saying all of these things right now because she is so kind that she is one of the few people that regularly read my blog even though she doesn't always like it and I don't tell her (or show her) how much she means to me often enough.

This was also the month that I made some decisions about my life, the direction that it was going, and the goals that we wanted to achieve. Here, again, without getting into a lot of detail this is not going to make a lot of sense and I am not going to get into a lot of detail but let me say this... for now-- you have to have goals.

Some of my goals had to do with getting back to my roots-- doing art for arts' sake and because it was fun like I did when I was young. So in June I set out on a quest to find a more creative outlet than the corporate (par-done mi French) crap that I had to knock out at the office every day. I found this outlet in SkeetzTeez-- a cafepress shop featuring T-shirts and other gift items with unique, custom designs imprinted on them. Although this was filling that creative void that I was feeling, at least to some point, there was still something missing but all that would have to wait because...

I don't know if it was the date night or not but on the Forth of July, M2S got to tell all of our family his secret, "Mamma's got a baby in her tummy"! The rest of the world found out shortly after that because I was just so excited that I couldn't keep it a secret. In fact, this was the subject of my second blog post on the 17th of the month. I started the blog to help promote the SkeetzTeez shop and also created several lenses on Squidoo for the same purpose. If you have followed the blog, you already know more detail than I am going to be able to give you in this review but, please, feel free to continue through the rest of the year.

In August, our two-year-old Son became M3S. That kid means so much to me! He really is my best friend, my inspiration for doing everything that I have to do and my joy just to carry on. I don't know if it is just his age, that I got to spend a lot more quality time with him since I was not working, or that I usually have to sleep with him in his bed because Mamma's pregnant, but we have become so much closer this year. Not to get into the stroke thing again but, just to let you know how the recovery was going, at his birthday party, I climbed up on the roof and held up a 35-pound pinata in a pirate costume (me not the pinata) so a bunch of delinquents could beat on it with a Wiffleball bat.

I also wrote about auditioning for the church worship group in this month. Update: I made it! I have been singing at least once a month since then. I really, really like this church because I feel like we are all contributing to the community and we have been accepted into it. There are several changes that are upcoming that, I hope, will make the group stronger rather than weaker in the next year.

Most of September was spent on the Internet trying to learn all of the tricks of the trade to promote T-shirt sales. Overall, I think I did pretty good. In addition to the blog and Squidoo, I got involved with other social networking applications like Twitter and, eventually, Facebook. Besides getting somewhat proficient at most of the programs, I also got involved with and even lead a few groups to cross-promote members' cafepress shops. The way I look at it: if someone is going to buy someone else's stuff over mine, they would have probably done it any way. We might as well team up so every potential customer sees as many different designs as possible. Some shopkeepers agree with that philosophy-- others think I'm nuts.

October was a big month as I celebrated my 43rd Birthday, that I honestly thought that I would never see by learning that our second-(and probably last)born was going to be a son (Gabriel, I think). This brought about mixed feelings, as I wrote about at the time, but in the long run, I am so happy that I could just (par-done mi French, again) dance! This is also about the time that I started my crusade to inform everyone I could about the dangers of chiropractic stroke. I know... your tired of hearing about it, so I won't get into it... just remember... read this!

The presidential election took place in November-- finally! After three-and-a-half years of campaigning with such a disappointing outcome, I'm sick and tired about talking politics. I had more important things to address! With the Anniversary of my brain attack looming, I was reminded by my pinkie, of my resolution. Although, my attention had shifted to the probability of it being caused by chiropractic manipulation, I was still letting myself down by not fulfilling the promises that I made myself. Time to, among other things, get back to the gym and get a better overall attitude.

I have been doing better in December, but there is still much room for improvement and I am looking forward to 2009. I intentionally left my resolution a little vague last year and that is against all of the rules for goal making. I need to be more specific next year. Overall, though, I think this year has been a great one and, more importantly, I have made it through the 2008 Year In Review. Reading back through it, I don't like it but... I'm still going to publish because I took all of this time to write it.

I'm about halfway through with another one from a different angle, however. Maybe tomorrow I will try to finish that one up and post it: Things I Learned in 2008? If not... write to you next year! In the mean time... Happy New Year. Read this. Buy T-shirts. Peace.

SkeetzTeez Quarterly Report

Since the main purpose of this blog was to promote my cafepress shop, I thought that, now that we have been up and running for 90-days, I would take this time to review how things have been going. I don't expect many to be that interested in this but I do know other shopkeepers that check in from time to time and it kind of helps me evaluate things if I put them in writing.

SkeetzTeez has had 73 orders for 92 items. Volume has increased steadily each month, which is definitely a good sign, and I hope that trend continues. We have sold over $1000 worth of merchandise and I have made about $150. All of these numbers are extremely good as I have heard that most shops don't turn this kind of sales for six-months to a year. Although it's nice to make a buck or two it is not why I am doing this, which I will get into further, later.

I now have 153 designs available in the shop and, although this does include multiple variations of some, I still have close to half of that many that are unique. The biggest selling design, Big Brother and Big Sister, however, is a fairly common design. The second most popular design, McMaverick and Sarahcuda, is also somewhat common, but is at least a little different from most of the thousands of political stuff out there.

I need to keep up with completing and adding new artwork to the sight. It may be coincidence, but it seems as if sales are better if you are always updating the Site and with the holidays coming up, I want to make sure that anyone that is looking for something that I have, can be sure to find it easily.

Statcounter also tells me that SkeetzTeez has had 2,450 page loads from 726 unique visitors and 102 remaining visitors. Reports also tell me that this blog has had 249 page loads from 162 unique visitors and 35 returning. Between the two Sites we have seen hits from many countries besides the US and Canada, including Chili, Columbia, Hungary, Australia, Ireland, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Iraq, Iran, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and some place called Macedonia, to name more than a few. Pretty cool, huh?

Besides learning a little bit about html code, (which could come in handy some day) I am learning my way around the social scene on the internet too. There are several networks of cafepress people out there that I am now an active member. It is weird to say that you meet people on the Internet but I have come in contact with many others that have many of the same interests as me.

I am into Twitter and Facebook as well as this blog. I have lenses that get a lot of exposure on Squidoo on a strange variety of subjects such as Jorts Fashion, Shermer High School, the Encyclopedia of Immaturity, How to Make a Suck for a Buck Shirt, Urban Cougars, That's What She Said, the Urban Prankster Network, 110% and my newest entry Mix-Tape and I moderate a group that cross-promotes members' shops. 

I have mentioned the crossover blog several times and I (well... Mav and I) have the number one design on Teeblr, a T-shirt ranking Website. I have also been participating in a few other Tee forums and cafepress groups and, with my unexpected success, been a major supporter of the POD service in Web communities like Yahoo Answers and in real life too.

Overall, the whole experience of the last three-months has exceeded my expectations. (Look at that-- a sentence with three words containing the letter X.) I set out on this journey to find a creative outlet to comment on pop-culture because I still had something to say and, besides successfully accomplishing that goal, I had a whole bunch of fun along the way. No matter what sales are like or if I change a little piece of the world in any way, I hope that goal part, and even more importantly, the fun part--continues. I also wish that anyone else following along on the journey is enjoying themselves, too.

If you are a fellow shopkeeper remember: Exposure is the key! Check out some of these links to see how I am using guerilla marketing to promote me and SkeetzTeez!

If you are not a cafepress shopkeeper remember: Exposure is the key! Check out some of these links because... well because I need the exposure! ... and Buy T-shirts. Peace.

Let's Roll! 1.02

Before we get into this week's links, let's take a moment to review a few trends recorded with last week's featured link, statcounter:

Top five keywords that resulted in visits to SkeetzTeez or SkeetzTeez Blog:

5. Maverick

4. Barracuda

3. Jonah's Brothers

2. That's what she said.

1. How to make a suck for a buck shirt.

Top five designs sold at SkeetzTeez: http://www.cafepress.com/skeetzteez

5. Cubs Fans Wear Jorts

4. Shermer High School Bulldogs

3. Big Sister '09

2. Big Brother '09

1. McCain/Palin

That McCain/Palin design– or should I say McMaverick/Sarahcuda design, only went up yesterday, and is already selling like crazy! Okay... back to the link roll:

http://www.blogger.com

I am, by no means, even close to a computer expert. As I have gotten into this internet T-shirt shop endevour, I have learned a lot but any success that I am having is the result of highly-advanced user-friendly web-based applications such as this.

Blogger.com is what allows me to publish this blog. It is a free service that makes it extremely simple to layout a page, control all of the settings and create and manage posts and comments. The set-up is as easy as registering and then selecting from a couple of dozen formats, adding fun gadgets, naming your blog and answering a series of simple questions to adjust your default settings. From there you just write– just like you would in an email or Word. There are similar tools to edit your type, spell check, and add pictures or movies. The program, then, converts everything to html (web code) so you don't have to (but allows you to if you want to mess with it).

I started blogging to promote the cafepress shop but it has, probably, been more fulfilling to just have a creative outlet to experiment with. I highly recommend that you give it a try! MLW started and, I think, is enjoying it also. If you decide to give it a shot, yourself, be sure to let me know so I can check it out!

https://www.twitter.com

I originally signed-up for Twitter as another way to promote the shop. I have seen a few hits from it but have, primarily, kept up with it because it is, kind of interesting.

I would describe Twitter as similar to Facebook or MySpace– a social networking site, that's based on the question, "What are you doing?" I pop onto the site a few times a day and enter something like, "Updating my SkeetzTeez cafepress shop with a new McCain/Palin design: http://www.cafepress.com/skeetzteez" in 140 characters or less. The entry is then posted with all of my other entries and anyone that is "following" me can see what I'm up to. I, in turn, can also "follow" others that may be into the same things as me or write about something I like.

I said it's like Facebook or MySpace, but it seems to be a little more mature. I don't think people spend hours a day surfing the profiles to find people to "follow" and the hammer them with emails and personal messages. Most users seem have an alternative motive– like selling something or trying to get the word out about their cause or candidate. I am following or have followers like the local news channels, people into fantasy football or selling on cafepress.

Did I mention that this one is free too? You can check it out at the link above or anywhere that you see "Follow Skeeeeeetz on Twitter" on my websites. If you join, make sure let me know so I can "follow" you.

Note: I don't know why, exactly, I put quotes around the word "follow"... I guess because it makes it sound a little bit like "stalking".

http://4q.cc/index.php?pid=fact&person=chuck

MLW recently purchased a couple of posters with random facts about Chuck Norris. I am not really a major fan of his, but I found the facts to be hilarious! There are tons– and I mean tons of sites out there with Chuck Norris fact generators but this one claims to be the original.

By the way, enter "find Chuck Norris" into Google and click "I feel lucky".

Have a good weekend. Peace.