First Blog of the Year: If I Were President, & Other Stuff

So this is my first blog, up til now a blog virgin, but no more. This will be my attempt at mixing up some of my favorite things ; politics (from the perspective of if I were President), music-playing electic guitar is my release in life - and I will also discuss the good, bad and ugly in today's music scene. The other two topics to be blogged about are the daily grind (family and workplace issues) and issues about fund raising and philanthropy.

If I Were President is a thought probably most of us have had at one time or another, so I have decided if I were the president here is what I would do. Some of it might be serious, some of it tongue-in-cheek, ala Jon Stewart. I do believe President Bush may be ranked as one of the worst presidents in history, his leadership has been just dismal. And while I have definite liberal leanings, I won't let democrats off the hook either. I believe we need some balance, as the last 6 years with no balance has clearly demonstrated. But all viewpoints are welcome here. I love hearing from conservatives, especially right now. It is kinda fun to see the house of cards falling in on them. The election for '08 should be a fun show.

Music has been a passion of mine for a long time. It began with the violin (parent's choice, not mine) at age four and has reached the pinnacle today of the electric guitar. I'll be discussing the gear I have, and my GAS (gear acquisition sysndrome) pains I have. I am not very good, I am a hack in fact, but with some proper practice time and maybe a lesson or two, I could be decent. I don't play out live, just at home but maybe someday. I want to record some ideas I have. I am mainly into the blues, past and present players, classic rock is also making a big comeback with me, I still like some good hard rockin' tunes, and occasionally a bit of metal, but most of today's metal is not that interesting to me. But let's discuss this some more. What do you like and why? Country and rap have little interest for me, but we can discuss.

The daily grind will be about topics any of us can relate to; the career, family, friends and how it all works, or sometimes doesn't work. I have a wonderful wife and three very active children. My affectionate nickname for them are the Maggots. Ages 7, 5 and 18 months. They are wonderful kids but are killing me slowly, sometimes not so slowly. For example, today I was the volunteer parent at middle child's pre-school. During the recess time, I began playing tag with some of the boys. About four of them began chasing me. I thought I could dodge them like in the old days (I was wicked fast as a kid myself), and instead, both of my legs went clear out from under me, and I fell hard on the frozen ground. And then all four of the little bastards jumped on top of me while I writhed about in pain. Damn that really hurt. My back is all out of alignment. I also got wind burn on my face. When I got to work, my colleague asked me what was wrong with my face. Nice. I am out of shape, and I am getting old. And it sucks. I have a goal this year, to reach 165 lbs. I am about 185 at the moment, though without a scale I can't say for sure. Maybe I am only 170 now. Yippee, now I only have to lose 5 lbs and not 20+.

Fund raising and philanthropy. I know, it sounds real exciting and all, but contain yourself for a moment. I've been in the fund raising business basically since I've finished college. I've gone from getting small dontations for a local museum, to being part of team raising $4 billion for a certain Ivy League University in upstate NY. Yeah, that's b for billion, not chump change really. And so there are some interesting issues to talk about here. If you have a need for a fund raising consultant for your local nonprofit organization, as I've also done this type of work, I may offer some free advice (for now). At some point I may get back into capital campaign consulting, but for now, not enough hours in the day.

When Iwas a kid, my favorite in subect in school was recess. That's was this blog is about in a way, recess in Upstate.