Ned with Coach Lou Holtz

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Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

I was able to spend a significant amount of time with Coach Lou Holtz at the 2008 FABexpo. Coach Holtz was the keynote speaker for this event and I was able to spend time with him as we took him to the green room to meet with some of our leadership and then to his speech and back to the green room again to take photos. Throughout this process he was great to work with!

However, the more impressive aspect was what coach did that he didn’t have to do…he reached out and touched the life of a young boy. One of the participants had his 9-10 year old son with him and he is a huge Lou Holtz fan. The young man was patient and waited for almost 90 minutes to see if Coach Holtz would autograph the book he was reading. Not only did Coach Holtz give him an autograph, but he also talked with the boy and ultimately took a picture with him. All of these things weren’t required, however Coach did them because he is a wonderful person.

More of us should strive to be more like Coach Holtz and the world would be a better place!

Lisa at the British Museum

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Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

This evening, Lisa went to the British Museum. In the picture, she is outside the building and it looks SO neat! I’m so jealous of her six week adventure in London. Especially all of the time she is able to spend exploring London and the surrounding areas.

I am so proud of her, she has really adjusted well to being in one of the world’s largest cities all by herself.

Lisa in London

Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

Here is a photo from Lisa’s trip. She said all of the houses have great gardens around them no matter how nice or shabby…the gardens are always great. Lisa arrived back in London tonight and will be updating her blog tomorrow night after she goes to the Michael Palin Centre for the first day of work.

You can read all about her trip on her blog at http://lisalondon08.blogspot.com/

I’m so jealous of this adventure.

Lisa is getting ready to leave

Well, Lisa is getting ready to go to London for six weeks. She has been packing her stuff for days and getting ready for this trip for months.  However, the sad thing is - it is finally time for her to leave on Tuesday morning.  I’m excited for her to experience London for the summer and get the training she will at the Michael Palin Centre and the Oxford Dysfluency Conference (Oxford virtual tour at St. Catherine’s College) but I can’t wait for her to return.

We are ready to communicate while she is away, even with a five hour time difference, we have webcams, IM, a digital camera, video camera and email.  Lisa created her own blog http://lisalondon08.blogspot.com so she can communicate with everyone - family, friends and students. 

As prepared as we are for her being away I’m already counting down the days until she returns to Tallahassee.  Good luck Lisa and come home soon.

 

A surprise for Kaitlyn

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Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

Well Kaitlyn’s friends really came through for her. Kaitlyn told her mom and I that she didn’t want a party even though it was her 16th birthday. Her friends were about to let her birthday go by without a party. So they threw a nice gathering at Kaitlyn’s home.

Weber spent almost 7 hours hanging out with her dragging her around town while her friends decorated and got everything ready. It was great fun and in typical Kaitlyn fashion it took her a little extra time to figure out that this was a party for her. Everyone did a great job of keeping the party quiet.

Many thanks to Kaitlyn’s friends who did what she wouldn’t let her parents do - throw her a party!

Web 2.0 never ends

In our Web 2.0 world, there is so much on the Internet that is fascinating.

New applications pop up at a astounding pace.  Many of the Web 2.0 applications focus on community and connection.  Yet as I sit here pounding the keyboard entering these very words into a Web 2.0 application, I am by myself.  I wonder who I am communicating to…I know my girlfriend will read it and maybe a couple of friends and my daughter, but who is my community and who am I connecting to?

First and foremost I am my own community, albeit a small community, and I’m connecting to myself.  This application allows me to communicate what I’m thinking and feeling and get it out of my head.  I don’t particularly enjoy writing for work or even for fun, however, blogging seems to be different.  It allows me to blurt out whatever I want, whenever I feel like it.  There isn’t a class assignment requiring two pages double spaced or requiring me to keep it between 1,000 and 1,200 words.  I can say something in 160 characters or less, like a text message or Twitter.  I can continue on and on without ever ending.  Publishing, editing, re-editing, posting comments, deleting, updating, in-fact, I can change history by updating my blog.

This blog is about connecting with my own thoughts and maybe with others.  It is also about connecting Web 2.0 applications with other Web 2.0 applications.  For example, the pictures to the right come from my flickr account and I invite people to these applications from my contacts in Outlook, Google and Yahoo.  Also I can connect to others through LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is MySpace or Facebook for professionals.  Certainly not as engaging/fun/insightful or time consuming, but still fun.

I love the web and Web 2.0 features and I’m beginning to see articles on Web 3.0 functionality, so it really is a fascinating world wide web we live in.

All my girls except for Zoey

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Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

Here are my girls all dressed up ready for the party. We threw my mom a surprise 75th birthday party yesterday. We were successful and my mom didn’t have a clue about it until her first guests arrived. This is Kaitlyn, Lisa and Lindsey sitting on the coach in my parents living room.

We all had a great time, the girls were wonderful and really helped out and Lisa made the party a success. She did so much planning and coordinating.

Surprise mom, you are 75

We succeeded in holding a surprise party for my mom for her 75th birthday.  We succeeded because we threw the party four weeks after she turned 75 and held her party when she thought we were celebrating her grandson and granddaughter’s 16th birthdays.  Yes she has two grand kids who were born on the same day 16 years ago.  One a girl, Kaitlyn and the other a boy, Tyler.

It is a almost midnight and I am tired, so off to bed.  More on her party once I get photos loaded on the computer.