Todd’s 11 Rules for Technology in 2011

1. Your email address must have some relationship to your actual name, and the closer to your full name, the better.
2. If you don’t check your email at least once per day, we can’t be friends.
3. You don’t have to have a smart phone, but I can’t relate if you don’t want one.
4. It is time to get rid of Hotmail, AOL, and really any email provider that isn’t Gmail, Yahoo, or your business’s domain.  With email forwarding services, switching is much easier than you probably think.
5. You should have more than one charger for every digital device you own that runs on a rechargeable battery.
6. It is time that you own a portable device with a map function.
7. If you don’t consider yourself tech-savvy, your next computer should be a Mac.
8. You should have a Paypal account by now.
9. At only $5 per month, everyone ought to use Backblaze or a similar online backup service. Sometimes computers die or get stolen, and that’s a real bummer – you know what’s worse?  Having that happen and losing all of your files in the process.
10. The simplicity of services like Google Docs and Dropbox (both free!) mean that you shouldn’t bother emailing yourself files anymore.
11. You have to at least try the Kindle before claiming that you like “real” books too much to get one.

Home (brew) for the holidays (Part II)

Update: Beer Number 1 (“Todd’s Christmas Tea”) is done and ready.  Here’s what some people are saying about the new brew:

“If I paid money for this in a store, I wouldn’t be upset.”

“This is GOOD.” (in a shocked voice)

The packaging needs a little work.

Cheers!

Keep your eyes on the goal

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. As a general rule, I believe if you want to start (or stop) doing something, you should just start (or stop) doing that thing.  You don’t need to “resolve” to do it, and you certainly shouldn’t wait until January to start (or stop) doing whatever it is you want to start (or stop) doing.

I do, however, believe in setting goals.  A few years ago during our annual Christmas Tea, we decided to share our goals for the coming year.  The following week, we memorialized our goals via email, and at some point later that year, we all did a “goal check up” (again via email), before repeating the process the following Christmas.  We did this because it seemed like a good idea.  Little did we know that writing down your goals, making them public, and being accountable to others for your goals are considered some of the best ways to ensure that they happen.  I’d also add that specific and quantifiable measurements make a big difference.

Hopefully you can see the difference between making New Year’s resolutions and setting clear, measurable goals.  If not, let me show you:

Resolution (bad): I’m going to get in shape in 2011.

Goal (good): I’m going to run the River Bank Run on May 7, 2011 (great day, by the way).

There’s no good way to track “getting in shape.”  Does it mean going to the gym 4 times per week?  Increasing your bench press?  Lowering your average pace per mile?  Additionally, there’s no way to figure out when you’ve gotten in shape, and therefore, even if you do manage to “get in shape” you won’t get the benefit that comes from knowing you achieved your goal.

On the other hand, committing to running a 15-mile race on a specific day gives you an obvious, measurable goal to work towards, with clear signposts along the way (such as being able to run 3 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, etc.).  On your way to reaching that goal, you are very likely to “get in shape” (whatever that means), and, oh, by the way, it’s going to feel great when you finish the race and achieve your goal.

Now that you know how I feel, here are my 3 goals for 2011:

1. Run 365 miles.

After a 2-year hiatus, I’ve recently started running again a couple of times per week.  I’ve been exercising regularly since law school (thanks, Dad, for suggesting that going to the gym was a good thing to do when I was sick of studying), but my relationship with running has been very on again off again.  This year, I’m going to run an average of 1 mile per day (but not actually run 1 mile each day).  So far, I’m WAY ahead of pace, having run 3 miles in 2 days (547.5 miles per year pace for you non-math types).

2. Read 12 books.

This is year 3 of this goal.  In 2009 I finished about a week late.  In 2010 I had a lot more time on my hands and nearly tripled my goal, reading 33 books.  After getting a book from Kate for my birthday, and a Kindle from my parents for Christmas, I feel good that I can achieve this goal again.

3. Find a job/career path that I’m comfortable doing for the next few years.

I used to think that I was going to get out of school, go to work for one organization, stay there for 40 years, and then retire.  Well, that obviously didn’t happen.  So let’s try to simplify and find something that I want to do for at least a few years.

Happy New Year!

Home (brew) for the Holidays.

Kate and I were recently spent a weekend in Chicago, and while there, we toured the Half Acre Beery Company.  This kicked off a string of emails between myself and my 2 brothers about how we need to open our own brewery.  Mostly this consisted of me saying “We should start a brewery” and Joel and Scott responding with “Agreed” or “Duh” or “Why haven’t we done this already?”  Once we had established that it was in fact a brilliant idea, we mostly just bickered about what to name it.

The idea of starting a brewery is not new.   Ever since we gave up on the idea of starting ScrougeYou.com (an ahead of its time website where you could send coal to a person of your choosing at Christmas time), with the brilliant tagline (courtesy of Craig Neckers): “When instead of saying ‘Merry Christmas’ you want to say ‘You Suck,’” the Neckers brothers’ business plan du jour* has been starting a brewery.

*Every time I see “du jour” on a menu, I always think of this famous exchange from Dumb & Dumber:

Lloyd: What’s the soup du jour?
Waiter: It’s the soup of the day.
Lloyd: Mmm, that does sound good.

So after much debate about the name, 2 weeks ago I kicked off the initial phase of what Scott has dubbed “Silver Lake Brewing and Davenport Sales, LLP” (formerly known as the “Neckers Bros. Brewery”).

This isn’t the first time the Neckers brothers have gotten into home brewing.  I’m using a kit that Kim gave Joel a number of years ago, which he used throughout law school.  Scott’s tried his hand a few times, and in 2008, my then roommate Justin Mast and I made a batch of Russian Imperial Stout that Justin famously named “Fig Brewton” due to the fact that the beer tasted strikingly similar to the once popular snack food.

I picked up a kit from Sicilanos Market here in town, opting for a “Holiday Ale” and set off to brew.

Despite a few minor blips in the process (mostly related to the difficulty in trying to use a hose as a syphon while holding the ends in 2 different buckets that were about 3 feet apart), my return to home brewing was successful.  After 2 weeks of letting my Holiday Ale ferment, last week Kate and I bottled the Neckers Bros. Brewery, err, Silver Lake Brewing’s first batch.

In a week or so we’ll give the Holiday Ale a try, but in the meantime, Scott and I decided to give a 2nd batch a go yesterday, brewing an IPA together.  Now, if we could only get Joel to actually pitch in and help, maybe we could really be the Neckers Brothers Brewery.

(Special thanks to Kate’s sister Emily who gave me another beer kit (the soon-to-be-brewed Kate’s Kolsch) for Christmas.  Check out her new blog here.)

Goodbye, Grandpa Hendricks.

Two weeks ago my Mom’s Dad – Don Hendricks – passed away at the age of 91 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s.

Grandpa Hendricks was simply the kindest person I have ever known.  You can still see it alive and well today just by spending 5 minutes with any of his 3 children, who are now all in the running for kindest person on the planet.

Today I want to share with you 3 memories I have of my time with Grandpa Hendricks.

Memory #1

My brothers and I played tennis from the time we were little all the way through high school, and other than my parents, there wasn’t anyone who came close to attending to more of our matches than Grandpa Hendricks.  Dressed in his trademark khaki pants and golf hat, he watched quietly, and was always quick to congratulate on a match well-played – after a win, or a loss.  It didn’t matter to him, he was just so, so proud of us.  I don’t remember Grandma being at those matches very often, but I’m sure that’s because she was off shopping at Penny’s with Marge, finding something to spend 10 dollars on so that she could get a free mini-radio to give to one of us boys.  I never had the heart to tell Grandma that the items they gave away for “free” were unquestionably worth less than what she had to spend to get them.  Then again, I’m sure she wouldn’t have cared; she was too Dutch to think it was anything other than a great deal.

Memory #2

Grandpa Hendricks loved to play golf, and when I was in middle school, I took up the game for a brief while.  One Saturday morning the summer before my 8th grade year, I went golfing with Grandpa, and one of his friends – I’m guessing it was Arnie, since as far as I know, those two golfed together every day for at least 20 years.

While we’re playing, we get to a short par 3 that was about 160 yards long.  Grandpa and Arnie hit first, and then it’s my turn.  I take out an 8 iron, and hit the ball the right distance, but off to the side, away from the green.  While we were walking towards the pin, Grandpa asked me what club I’d used.  I told him it was an 8 iron – and he couldn’t believe it.  He’d used a 6 or 7, as had Arnie, and Grandpa couldn’t believe I could hit an 8 iron 160 yards.  Regardless of the fact that my shot missed the mark, to me, this was the ultimate accomplishment – in my mind, Grandpa was a golfer on the level of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas, and Chi Chi Rodriguez – whose name was on the golf clubs that lived in Grandpa and Grandma’s garage that I’ll always remember using along with Scott to imitate Chi Chi’s famous swash-buckling celebrations.

Memory #3

My final memory of Grandpa for today comes much later – sometime in the last few years, long after Alzheimer’s had taken away nearly all of Grandpa’s memory.  It was a holiday weekend in the summer, and being as such, we were at the Silver Lake cottage, and Joel and Scott and I had anchored the canoe not too far from the beach, and were attempting to hit plastic golf balls into it.  Grandpa and Grandma were out that day, and as he normally was at this stage in his life, Grandpa had been very quiet.  At some point he came over to see what we were doing, and at my Mom’s suggestion, he was given a golf club.  Now, for those of you who play golf, you know that the real golfers hold the club a specific way – not like a baseball bat, with one hand on top of the other, but in a very counter-intuitive way, with some of your fingers interlaced.  And sure enough, despite not knowing what holiday we were celebrating, or probably even the name of the lake he’d spent so many years on, when Grandpa picked up that golf club, his hands immediately went back to the familiar grip on the golf club, and after a couple of picture-perfect practice strokes, he started absolutely peppering balls at the canoe – far more successfully than Joel, Scott, or I.  That’s probably my last truly happy memory of Grandpa – as his Alzheimer’s only worsened from there.

Final Thoughts

As many of you know, I live year-round at the house on Silver Lake that Grandpa built so many years ago, and in closing, I just want it to be known that:

- I still sharpen my pencils with the ridiculously inconvenient pencil sharpener in the back closet;

- I still skip the traditional pizza cutter and use scissors instead

- I still call the yard that abuts the lake the “front” yard, despite it having no road access;

- I still call all of the couches at the cottage “davenports”; and,

- I still plan to play wiffleball every 4th of July, even though there are no more tomato plants to step on while fielding grounders up the 3rd baseline.

I’ll miss you Grandpa – you’re gone, but certainly not forgotten.

Toddbits – September 25, 2010

1.  The 2nd installment of Art Prize is taking place in Grand Rapids right now — which means that you all have the opportunity to see 10 years worth of dryer lint turned into a replica of The Last Supper.  (Thank you, Joel, for the photo)

Go figure: Joel met the artist and says that she’s a bit nutty.

2.  Over the past month, Kate and I have locked down the members of our wedding party – which falls somewhere in between asking someone to marry you and asking someone to go on a date with you.  We posted some pictures to our other website under the “Bridal Party” section.  Be sure to check out the picture of me and Leland.

3.  This morning, I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, along with Kate, her family, and extended family.  I took first.  Kate took second.  Kate probably would have won had I not pushed her down right before the finish line.

The shirt backs say “For Lor.”

4.  As many of you know, I’m working on Justin Amash’s political campaign (don’t forget to vote on November 2nd!).  While you’ve probably heard about one of Justin’s opponents, PLEASE don’t sleep on Ted Gerrard.

5.  Looking at Ted Gerrard’s website reminds me of (by far) the most entertaining lawyer I’ve ever met.  The illustrious David R. Justian.  True story: after the judge granted summary disposition against his client (and in favor of mine), Justian retired from the practice of law.  This guy was not only hilarious, but also a true renaissance man.  How many people do you know who can provide both legal advice AND subtitles for your YouTube video?

On Wedding Registries

Yesterday Kate and I spent a couple of hours at Target going through our first take at registering for wedding gifts.  With the wedding industry becoming a $40 billion per year juggernaut, there’s some competition for our registry dollars, leading to some very helpful changes (I’m assuming) in wedding registration in recent years.

First, the stores themselves have improved the registering process: you get a little gun and walk shooting items like you’re playing a giant game of laser tag, only you’re the only person with a laser.  Once you select an item, a touch screen pops up where you can edit the quantity (Todd: “How many bath towels do we need?”  Kate: “I don’t know, 6?” Todd: “Kate, you use 6 bath towels in 2 days.”), or delete an item (Kate: “No, Todd, we can’t register for a $60 toilet seat cover.”).  These features were great while we were in the store.  It wasn’t until we got home that we realized the ‘delete’ feature rarely actually worked, and Target has employed a family of monkeys to actually organize the items they sell (for example: our bath towels showed up in the games section, while our hand towels showed up under kitchen).  Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to fix (though rather time-consuming).

Second, the stores now give you gifts, just for showing up.  For example, at Target, if you register for a certain amount of various brands, you get bonus items of that brand for free.  The week after your wedding, everything on your registry is 10% off.

Third, and this one is legitimately genius, the big box stores now provide registry guides and checklists.  These come in handy when trying to answer the questions: “What constitutes the necessary items in a knife set?” or “How many turkey basters should one own?”

Below is a sampling of items we considered yesterday:

1.  The Shake Weight – AKA the most awkward-looking fitness device I’ve ever seen.  I love when infomercial products become so popular that stores start carrying them (see, e.g., the Snuggie, the Sham-Wow, and the Chia Pet).  Although I’m not sure how the business model works there — with informercials, you make a ton of money by charging exorbitant shipping rates.  Obviously, you can’t do that while selling your product at Target.  I guess the exposure alone must be enough.  No, we did not actually register for this.

Now just $19.95 (plus S&H)!

2.  Guess Who? True story: Kate and I nearly broke up over a game of Guess Who?.  For those of you who have played, you know that once you figure out the basic strategy (selecting the most common groups at the beginning, and then narrow it down), Guess Who? is a game of chance.  However, a few years ago I figured out a very clever strategy that has led me to claim myself as the greatest Guess Who? player of all time.  I’m not going to divulge my secrets, but let’s just say that I employed the strategy against Kate, defeated her, and she was furious.  She thinks it is cheating (which it certainly is not), I think it is strategic.  Thankfully, our relationship recovered – but we’ve never played Guess Who? again, so Kate wouldn’t let me register for this either.

3.  Mr. Coffee Optimal Brew Thermal Coffee Maker.  One of the 2 or 3 items (out of 50) that we registered for that I’m legitimately excited about.

4.  Turkey Roaster.  Someone told Kate that it is important to register for everything you will need to cook Thanksgiving dinner.  While this may have been good advice 25 years ago, it is a bit outdated.  First, these items will take up space in what is likely to be a cramped kitchen, wherever we live after we get married.  Second, if, someday, we are cooking Thanksgiving dinner, we can borrow the equipment from our families (who, presumptively, will be coming over for Thanksgiving dinner, unless 28 years of tradition breaks).  Third, and most importantly, it doesn’t fit with my newly created (and still being tweaked) “10 Times in 10 Years” rule: If we are not likely to use the items at least 10 times over the course of the next 10 years (excluding single/limited use items), we are not registering for it.  Seems like a reasonable rule to me.  What do you think?

On Men’s Fashion.

Today, Kate and I stopped at the Tangier Outlet Mall on our way home from Ann Arbor (happy birthday, Justin!).  I only made it into 4 stores: Nike, J. Crew, Banana Republic, and Gap.  It would have been 5, but apparently the Big Dog outlet no longer exists.  This was massively disappointing news as there was a Big Dog outlet in this shopping center as recently as 2006.

[As a quick aside: how on earth did Big Dog hang on for so long?  No Fear and the guys who made those awesome two-sided Looney Toones t-shirts went out of business (as far as I know) years ago, but Big Dog persevered...why?]

No, this isn't me. Yes, I did own more than one shirt like this in middle school. Yes, it had the backs of Taz and Bugs on the back of the shirt.

Back to the matter at hand, I realized a few things while shopping today:

Gap has been selling the exact same things for the last 10 years.  I’m not sure how they have an outlet store, since they could legitimately recycle everything in the store (minus the GAP sweatshirts from 1995 that they are still trying to sell) in 6 months and no one would have any idea if they had sold it last year.  I say this not to criticize Gap – because frankly I’m impressed.  They have not had to change at all.

All of the recent trends in men’s fashion are stupid.  Let’s go down a list of what I would describe as becoming “popular” for men in the last 2-3 years.

1.  Graphic T-shirts.  Probably the dumbest item on this list.  Every time you purchase a graphic t, you have to think to yourself “In about 6 months, there are going to be as many people wearing these shirts as there are wearing acid wash jeans.”

2.  Cardigans.  I have no problem with cardigans, they’re just not for me.  I’m not depressed/emo/indie enough.  Please note that by ‘indie’ in that last sentence, I meant “trying to be a punk while dressing preppy.”

3.  Vests.  Every time we see a vest while we’re out, Kate wants me to buy it.  She loves them.  I think they look like you forgot to finish dressing yourself.

4.  Big belt buckles.  While I don’t own any, these I can actually get behind.  Mostly, this item was an excuse to post this picture of Joel.

2 sarsaparillas, coming right up.

Thankfully, men’s fashion by-and-large doesn’t change, meaning I can still get away with single-colored sweaters and t-shirts most of the time — which is a good thing because I can only imagine how my graphic t-vest-cardigan-texas sized belt buckle look is going to go over.

Toddbits – Strange, But True.

We fly back to the United States tomorrow (are you ready for us?), so this will be my final post from Costa Rica, but don’t worry, the hugely popular Toddbits series will continue from the U.S.  With that said, here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:

1.  I can count the number of times I have shaved in the past 9 weeks on 1 hand.

2.  The  last time I went 24 consecutive hours without seeing Kate was in February, almost 6 months ago.

3.  The last time I went more than 2 (non-sleeping) hours without seeing Kate was at least 62 days ago.

4.  Last summer I watched at least the highlights of more than 100 Detroit Tigers games.  As of today, I have not watched 1 second of their last 53 games.

5.  I’ve had sushi more times with Kate in 2 months in Costa Rica (2) than I did with her in the last 18 months in Grand Rapids (1).

6.  My friend Justin Amash is running for Congress, and the primary election is tomorrow (August 3).  If you are a resident of greater Grand Rapids, PLEASE go out and vote for him tomorrow.  Click here for more information about Justin – but what you really need to know is that Justin is honest, hardworking, and cares more about doing what is right for West Michigan than any person I know.  Since we’ll be traveling tomorrow, I won’t be able to vote – so that means that you, proud followers of ToddAndKate.wordpress.com, are going to have to vote for me.  Please help me out here.  Thanks!

One Last Adventure

Today, Kate and I put on our tourist hats for the last time in Costa Rica and went snorkeling.  Ok, I guess they’re not tourist hats so much as tourist outfits (bathing suit, t-shirt, flip flops), which are actually identical to the typical tico outfit, minus the fact that Kate doesn’t wear her clothes 2 sizes too small.

After a bit of difficulty, we hooked up with Seabird Sailing in Playa Flamingo, and they provided us with a perfect snorkeling trip.  We set off for the Catalina Islands, along with a group of high school students, on Seabird’s catamaran.  On the trip over Kate and I were served snacks while we laid out on the boat’s hammock-like bow netting.  We were even treated with a front row viewing of 2 turtles mating.  Once we arrived, we geared up and started snorkeling.

Despite her illustrious career as a swimmer and swim coach, Kate is notoriously a ‘pool only’ swimmer.  She doesn’t particularly like lakes or oceans, as “you can’t see what’s underneath you!”  Nonetheless, she braved the open water, did a bit of diving, and ultimately declared snorkeling to be fun.  Though I hated competitive swimming as a kid, I’ve taken quite a liking to water sports over the years, and since learning to scuba dive a few years back, I’ve discovered that Sebastian was right: “It’s always better, down where it’s wetter.”

We had a great guide who found a lot of life for us to interact with: an octopus (don’t mess with the tentacles – they’re harmless but tough to get off you), a few blowfish (quite slippery), a sleeping turtle (it didn’t like our presence much once it woke up), a starfish, a few oysters (which I ate once we got back onto the boat), and a few scallops (which I also ate raw – while snorkeling).

The guide provided a real treat when he cracked open a scallop with his knife, and put it on the ocean floor — starting an absolute feeding frenzy.  There were easily 100 fish swimming around us pecking and diving at the scallop.  It was great to watch.

Once back on the boat we headed for home while they served us lunch.  An unexpected bonus to cap a great final tourist adventure.  Hopefully the pictures below will show how much we enjoyed this.