South Carolina

my favorite friend

Spring break is a great concept; with or without kids it's a timely recharge from the winter blues transitioning into spring. Thankfully, we still have a wonderful reason to go on spring break, even if it's a short break - Mackey.

Great deal found by rindy brought us to South Carolina. Great weather, great beach, and an extra treat. Honor and kids were in Gafney and driving back to Florida and we happened to be halfway on their road home - they came, they stopped, they partied. It was a treat to share a little vacation time together.

Long bike rides on the beach

new board games to master

rocking good ice cream

salty dogs

pool time fun

Eagles

I enjoyed working in boy scouts before my boys were in the program.
I enjoyed working in boy scouts with my boys.
I enjoy working in boy scouts after my boys were done.
I now have a couple of favorite eagle photos

napervillle eagles: mariano, parker, grant, jacob, keaton

5 wilson boy eagles

the evan eagle

med lake eagles:sean, stu, evan, jeff, conrad, brock

Favorite Photo for today

We haven't seen Baby June for a couple of weeks and must admit my heart melted when I saw this photo on Instagram. So much so that I was compelled to share.

Andrew of Naperville

We finally were able to meet the latest Naperville Wilson - Andrew Daryl son of Marie and Michael. He appears to have Marie's friendliness, Joseph's content disposition, Michael's looks, some distant relative's size and just an all around cute kid.

Welcome to the neighborhood Andrew.

Easter Concert

It wasn't a church service, it wasn't even on sunday, but clearly it was bad karma to take a picture in the chapel.

Saturday night our ward choir (40+ singers i'm estimating) put on song and the spoken word for an easter celebration. Sister Jolene hatch is an incredible musician and as chorister really gets the most out of a group. They decorated the gym tastefully, had decent food for a reception afterwards and all in all was a lovely evening.

Rindy sang in the choir - Mac and I were the attentive audience types.

Scout Training

I've been a Scouter for over 30 years in some capacity or another.

Saturday morning I shared training responsibilities with Wes Whipple (a great and committed scouter). It was a 5+ hour session for New Scout Leaders - with a focus on the varsity program. Scouting makes scouters better leaders of boys and scouting makes boys better men. I appreciate all that scouting has done to help me and help each of our boys. I appreciate being able to give back, and appreciate Rindy being supportive of scouting as well. ( She is probably, when all is said and done, a better scouter than I; I have to work at it - she is just plain good)

It was a great day in the B  - S   - of  - A.

Rapid proto-typing

I enjoy contributing and generating new ideas and then being part of bringing them to life. The more disruptive the idea the more fun.

ideating

The challenge of identifying the right target audience, the right positioning, the differentiating value.over the years I have had the opportunity and challenge of participating in many such sessions. Today working with Gravity Tank (go to the link and read about them -  As innovation consultants, Gravity Tank works with its clients to grow new business, define new products and services, and enter new markets through business analysis, research, and design. - they are quite adept at guiding a group and helping uncover the hidden gems)was one of them. We spent the morning reviewing research they had done on our behalf and then the afternoon developing concepts and lastly building models of how those ideas would come to life.

building models

Good stuff.

On a side note Gravity Tank is in the midst of interesting litigation with Apple and Samsung. read here

Spring Has Arrived

So we have had green things sprouting since january; but today marks the first bloom.

Formal Photos Revisited

if you are are serial visitor to this site you will note themes and subject lines that reoccur. Last year in these space we spoke of the Spring Formal Stake Dance; well its that time of year.

I think we had a better execution than last year. it was still a fours stake activity, still priest and laurels only, still formal dress, still descent refreshments, still photographer there taking photos - what changed was the venue. For a very nominal fee we were able to rent the owner's club house, smaller than the main club house at a local country club. It was a mid-sized hall, smaller than a stake center gym with little more that a kitchen, restrooms, entry way and patio. An ideal size for a group of around 170+ youth to feel full but not too crowded, stay in the dance hall without a lot of wandering space, and tasteful decor without a lot of decorating.

The most frequent comment I heard as kids were leaving "that was actually fun". My favorite part was being where my favorite daughter was (recognizing that as a kid it isn't necessarily a great thing to have your parent at every stake activity - i appreciate her tolerance).

mac and me 2012

Chicago Temple Presidency

My brother Paul found and shared a photo of mom and dad when they were serving as the Chicago Temple President and Matron  back in 1991 - 94.
They look great.

H.P Cardon, Virginia Cardon, June & Paul Wilson, Norma Woolley, Donald G. Woolley

Invisible Children.

Frequently the world of Blair & my work overlap in shared articles or thoughts or interest; occasionally the circles of my work and Brigham's become concentric; in candor rarely does it happen with Mackey and I but when it does it is significant. Last night before family scripture study she wanted to introduce a subject of discussion - and so she did:

Invisible Children: KONY 2012

In case you didn't watch the video clip an overview will help:

Make Kony famous.

With the help of Invisible Children, director/writer Jason Russell challenges viewers to "Make Kony famous" and stop him from kidnapping and murdering children in Uganda. The "KONY 2012" film was released on Feb 20th but didn't go viral until earlier this week, when the number of views jumped from 8 to 58,000 in 24 hours.
The "KONY 2012" film has been sweeping across social networks and claiming the likes, re posts, and tweets of people all over the world. Using cause marketing, the campaign has gone viral with 5.1 current views, up 87% from just 2 days ago, 3 trending topics on Twitter , and more than 271,000 Facebook likes.

The overview above didn't come from Mackey's YouTube link, which we watched, but from my CREATIVITY Email - a daily feed of top trending creative - the overlap of my and Mackey's worlds. Go back and watch the video if you haven't . It is a serious issue. Mackey is joining with her friends and shared belief people on April 12 to ignite a worldwide awareness of KONY and his atrocities. I had heard of similar issues with some of Liberian immigrants in Minneapolis - who came from similarly frightening backgrounds but never knew what I could do.

Now, I can heighten awareness  and include you in being aware and asking you to discuss KONY with someone, post it on your face book page, attend the night out, or whatever  - but chose to be involved. Thanks to Mackey for involving us.

Open Journalism

Could the Three Little Pigs get a free trial in today's journalistic turmoil? What do you think? Who's voice should be heard? Or -  Is this just a British issue?