Performed Well

After enduring the very trying experience of mid May this year (see my June 5 blog post), I determined to be more of a family man and less driven by outside pursuits.  I have been living a less busy life and spending a lot more time with the kids. Admittedly, I've also been spending more time playing video games (usually with them), and it gets surprising how fast the time can fly by while engaged in mindless activities like that. A recent example is that Tony and I discovered we both enjoy playing Pikmin 3 on the Wii U together and working toward personal record speed run times.  I bought a game capture device so that we can record our games and upload them to a site that collects speed run data on various games.  We don't have any delusions of being truly outstanding in challenges like this, but the act of creating the speed runs, I hope, will be a fun bonding experience for us and hopefully teach him a bit about video editing, commentary and confidence.  It's ...

The middle of last month (May 2016) gave me the most challenging week I have ever experienced.  I was faced with a forced business decision where I could either make the popular choice or what I believed (and still believe) to be the principled choice, the latter of which would lend myself to backlash from dozens of people. My pastor told me that because I do business in the arts, I would be confronted with decisions such as these earlier than most, but that these things "are coming for all of us here in the church."  Ironically, those who profess tolerance often show absolute intolerance for those of us who hold to conservative values. This spread through the Kansas City theater so fast, and libelous statements were made about me by some who I had trusted for years and had even been on my payroll.  And all of this was not because I changed anything about who I am or the way I had presented myself for years.  It was all because my open, outspoken, unchanged belie...

My daughters Angel and Harmony in the latest DeerAngel video on homeschooling!

Last week, I turned in my letter of resignation and two weeks' notice at my current employer.  I have switched jobs several times before, but probably never with as much hesitation as I've experienced this time around. I really like where I'm working now.  I'm quite happy here, and I really believed I would be at this company for years.  What ultimately enticed me to leave was something I hadn't given a lot of consideration to until recently: the new job appears to offer a very attractive work-life balance.  Most of the employees at the new place--where I'll start in 2 weeks--compress their schedules to accomplish a full work week in only 4 days.  While the days are almost a couple hours longer, this effectively gives everyone a 3-day weekend every weekend. The thought of this is very appealing to me as it would give me more time with the family and also more time to finish many of the extra things I've had on my to-do list.  My Action emails folder is ...

I wonder sometimes if I should focus this blog on something specific.  Keeping an open-ended blog (about "whatever I happened to care about at a given point in time") certainly makes it harder to invite readers, and in many ways it makes it harder to write.  But whenever I think about focusing attention to one topic, I struggle to let go of all of the other topics that don't fit.  I suppose this makes my blog more like a diary.  Life is complex and varied, and so are human thoughts. Sitting down to write today, I thought about how grateful I am to be living my life.  I thought of how much I love my wife and kids and my job and extended family.  But just before I began to write, I thought about the upcoming Presidential elections and the angst I've felt recently for our country.  I'm quite concerned about the path the USA is headed down as it becomes more and more likely that we will be faced with a choice of two terrible candidates.  On the othe...