Thursday Night Beauty

It is Thursday and I’m off for a night of camping with friends and their families. The itinerary: Hit the trailhead, follow the creek, fish, eat, drink, sleep. Beautiful to say the least.

Six Degrees Of Separation Project – Round Two

Because this idea deserves its own blog, please continue here for updates, answers to frequently asked questions, and info on how to help.

Thanks,

Tim

(http://sixdegreesofseparationproject.wordpress.com/)

If you could drop everything what would you do? — My challenge to you

Answer this: If you could drop everything, without consequence, and follow one dream, what would it be?

Now think about what is stopping you? The barriers that immediately shut down your idealism. Are they able to be breached? Are they materialistic? Are they family based? Are they rooted in fear?

My dream?

The Six Degrees of Separation Project

The Mission: America needs to remember its beauty – The idealism that has captivated millions to risk death just for a chance to succeed. To jump borders. Leave family. Drive a taxi by day, go to school at night. America needs to hear the stories of idealism beyond Disneyesque packaged prime time. The need to see the faces of struggling entrepreneurs. Stay-at-home mothers. Hourly wageworkers. Wall Street wonders. The project will link together, using the philosophy of six degrees of separation, the everyday fabric of our lives.

Execution: I would start out with one person, and listen to their story. That one person would then be responsible for introducing me to the next individual. I would then listen, learn, and document their story. The individual would then be responsible for introducing the next person. The catch, however, is the person cannot introduce me to a person the previous person knows. I also will need to spend at least one night with the selected individual, so I can accurately portray a sliver of their life.

Deliverables: By meshing my love for storytelling with technology, I will produce a variety of multimedia components: video, written word, photography, podcasting, GPS oriented content to name just a few. The project would be available via a website, and social networking tools.

The Crux: Before embarking I would compile a bucket list of goals: be a guest on the Tonight Show, run a marathon in a major city, help a kid learn how to throw a baseball, learn how to sail, and have dinner with the President. That I wish to complete during the trip.

Barriers: Capital. That’s it.

My Challenge to You: If you feel as though reaching your goal is out of reach, help me reach mine. I will make a promise to fulfill on this. All I need is a little help. This does not necessarily mean just cash, though that will put some gas in my tank. A simple introduction may be more than enough.

What would this take? Honestly, I’m not sure. Startup costs would be roughly 5K to get the appropriate equipment and website built. Then it’s a matter of gas, food, and enough cash so when I stay with a stranger I can cook them dinner, or take their kids out for ice cream. Ideally I would start in Colorado, and work east.

It is also important to note that I am not just asking for a handout to travel without risk to myself. I am willing to put my own capital behind this journey, as well as my personal name and time. Several people noted that “this seems a little strange,” and “I’m not sure what my first impressions are,” which is more than reasonable. I will work on answering these questions in a more detailed post shortly, but for now I wanted to just put the idea out there.

Think you can help? Let me know. If I can raise 20k I will hit the road and follow a life-long dream, which will hopefully change one persons life for the better.

Note: 20K is also equal to 200 folks taking a $100 chance. Broken up, anything is possible.

Please feel free to circulate this post to whomever you like.

If you don’t know me and would like to talk, please feel free to give me a ring at 303.406.1876 or email me directly at timshisler (at) gmail (.com) – I will be more than willing to answer any of your questions.

Squeaky Shoes Guy

“Hey, you squeaky shoes guy?” He looked homeless, but then again his hair had the flowing quality of a man who just showered.

“Um, maybe?” If it was a line for lose change the guy was getting mine for originality.

“Yea it’s you,” he said. “I remember the shirt.”

I sat down on the bleachers across from him and bit into my apple. The air was crisp, the type of crispness that comes with a late afternoon storm. I could smell rain, but felt none. The sky was growing darker and the wind was picking up.

“I just showered you know.” He was proud. Glowing as if holding his first-born son. “The guys over there (he pointed at the YMCA), let me in. They see me out here drinking all the time, but I keep my distance. They are nice folks. You know what?”

“What?” I replied. My apple quickly disappearing as I kept an eye on the dodgeball game unfolding before me.

“I don’t know why people pay for this shit?”

“This shit?”

“Yea, kicking a ball. I ain’t never seen this before. We didn’t even play it in jail.”

“Yea?” The teams had switched sides and a twentysomething who obviously was a bit tipsy, was having trouble keeping her eye on the ball.

“You know what else?”

“What?”

“I got a shower in San Diego once. I was in rehab and snuck in a shower. They don’t like us sneaking in showers, but I stripped down butt naked and used the hand soap. They caught me but it was too late.”

The first crack of thunder could be heard off in the distance, rumbling against the flatirons. My apple was gone. The umpire behind the backstop had just smiled at me. The wind was still picking up.

“Dude.”

“Yea.”

“It’s hard to get a shower, dude. People don’t know. I’m a drunk, yea, but I also need a shower. I hate the shelters too. All those gross folks. Jail isn’t gross.” He paused as a tall lanky guy rounded third. “Jail is clean. Just jail you know, sucks.”

The raindrops started falling. The infield began to darken as the topsoil desperately soaked up the moisture.

“Game!” The ump yelled. I looked over at my new friend.

“Finished my apple, man.” I stumbled a second not sure how to finish our conversation. “Uh, have a good one.”

“You too squeaky shoes,” he shot back. I got up and started walking away. “Remember man,” he shouted. “Showers are hard to come by.”

And with that I turned my back. I could hear beer bottles being rounded up as the two teams dashed for cover in the unzipping downpour. A free shower of sorts.

Colorado Beauty: Indian Peaks, Mt. Massive and a Stop Sign

Forget Vegas, Colorado is where it’s at. This weekend was the typical go-until-I-can’t-go-anymore fiesta of 14ers, picturesque lakes, rugged trails and Cliff Bars.

We started innocently enough by driving. Once in Leadville, we camped out and drank Tequila awaiting an early morning wake-up call to climb Mt. Massive, 14,421-feet high and the second tallest peak in Colorado. (Read 3 a.m.) A few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches later we signed the register and took off. Nearly 4,500-feet of climbing later we summited to sweeping 100-mile views of rugged mountains. It looked as if God had reached down and pulled the earth upward with no symmetry or reason. Truly breathtaking to say the least.

Post-Massive coffee was enjoyed in Leadville, before we headed back to Boulder for some much needed rest. Of course that meant five minutes at home before heading up to Roosevelt National Forest for a night of camping and fly fishing.

Seven a.m. came way to early–my eyelids were still sealed shut and my head was throbbing–but the morning beckoned and so did Brainard Lake. A few intense hours climbing around the peaks ended with a spectacular storm system building up overhead and what was sure to be excellent get-your-ass-off-the-mountain weather.

All around nearly a perfect weekend.

3:25 a.m. beauty

Signing in

Early morning light (Jim)

View from the summit

Signing the register (Elisabeth)

Heading down (Elisabeth)

Coffee!

Day Two:

Stop!

Flowers

Indian Peaks

Brainard Lake

Monday Morning Reading: Stress, Online Stalking, and CNBC Genius

Griping Online? Comcast Hears and Talks Back – NYT – July, 25

Customers blog and Comcast responds. Interesting read about how companies are realizing they cannot ignore the online community. Of course there is a downside, some people see the commenting and responding as an invasion of privacy and creepy. My take? Genius . Finally a behemoth decides to take on the net and do something beyond putting customers on hold.

CNBC’s editing genius on display in Mark Zuckerberg interview – Valleywag – July, 24

Proof you can’t believe everything you see, this short post and two video insert displays the editing genius of CNBC. It is no secret Mark Zuckerberg is one of the worlds worst interviews, but CNBC polished him up and made the stiff CEO sound confident and precise. Worth just a few minutes of your time, if only to remind you the editing room is a powerful place.

The Last Media Tycoon – Portfolio – August 2008

A detailed, yet fluffy profile of Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, this piece talks new media, old media and the 800 lb. elephant in the room — the death of newspapers. Even though I feel Graham said all the right things, I can’t help but wonder if she has the vigor to change the industry. Money quote: “We are going to have to get smaller and better and still find a way to put out the best product we can. That may mean that we have to make some choices about what we can cover and what we can’t–and those are going to be hard choices.” — Ah, yeah, just one question… “What age demographic are you going to cut out? The twentysomethings? Because that’s your future….

Stressed Americans Leave 460 Million Vacation Days Unused – Marketingcharts.com

This one says it all. Please stop reading and go outside.

———-

PS: Shot from this weekends adventures (more to come shortly)

Drop everything – The next hour and fifteen minutes will change your life

We have all heard the story by now: Randy Pausch, a computer science professor, became an internet celebrity when his “last lecture,” video appeared on YouTube. The lecture discussed what matters most to individuals, and beautifully laid out the soul of a dying man.

Randy passed away today. He was 47. Describing him as brave is an understatement. No matter what you are doing, drop everything and watch the video below. It is an hour of your life that will live with you forever.

Lord have mercy for Randy and his family.

Goodbye New York Times, Wall Street Journal

Go figure: ad sales are down, subscriptions are falling, reporters are losing their jobs and newspapers are continuing to raise prices. Today the New York Times, the gold standard of everything news, announced daily rags will go from $1.25 to $1.50. The move comes in the footsteps of the Wall Street Journal’s newsstand increase totaling .50 cents to $2.00 a day.

Just last week I was seriously contemplating subscribing to the Times, but after watching the subscription rate climb 4.5 percent I can’t justify the purchase. Especially since I can read the paper online for free.

With the nations two largest papers becoming more expensive, and the LA Times looking more pathetic every day, it’s hard to imagine how younger audiences will begin to see the value in high-quality journalism. To be fair to the hard working and extremely talented journalists and editors who put these papers together, it is not their fault my generation is losing faith. That falls on the realization from a young age that Wall Street sees news as money.

For a young journalist scraping to get in, the harsh reality is not only frustrating but also disheartening. I can only imagine how all the journalists must feel as they get their pink slips as profits dip and publishers refuse to tackle online media with the vigor needed to change the world.

Colorado Beauty: Lazy Saturday Fly Fishing

Forget climbing 14ers, every once and a while it’s good to view the Rockies from below.

© Kris Wagner 2008

Monday Morning Reading: Debt, Foreign Policy, and Crack

Reads form the past week that may/may not appeal.

NY Times: Given a Shovel, Americans Dig Deeper Into Debt Sunday July 20

I read this piece while sitting in Starbucks desperately trying to escape the 100+ heat outside. Nearly a third of the way through it dawned on me that the $3.58 smoothie in my hand may be the reason I don’t have any money. The article, well researched and full of real-life stories makes more than one valid argument as to why Americans are racking up debt faster than ever. Make sure to check out the online multimedia components as well.

NY Times: Me and My Girls Magazine Cover Story, Sunday July 20

Cultural reporter and media columnist David Carr writes vividly about his dark past including: womanizing, drugs, violence and jail. I only made it four pages through before wanting to buy his upcoming book. The story isn’t for everyone, but the writing is vivid, clear, and racy.

Speak Up Blog: Richard Edelman Serious Works Thursday July 17

Richard Edelman, the man behind Edelman PR, speaks about the magazine Foreign Affairs. The post provides a quick snapshot of the magazines health and aggressive subscription campaign. Proof that not all magazines are floundering these days.