I’m the last of the generation that grew up bouncing around in the back of a pick-up trucks and riding shotgun without a child safety seat. And despite learning to ski and ride bikes before I could read, it wasn’t until we had the LoganCody that the ever-present helmet-hair entered our life.

“Today, my kids only look normal to me with helmet-hair. That matty-sweaty-knotted hair is a look of health, activity and safety. The LoganCody have an almost ever-present mildewy smell in their hair, and it’s that smell that I’ll probably remember them most for. I can smell it now as I write this.”

Helmets weren’t new to me. We wore helmets for downhill and super-g races skiing. But that was it. Never for freeskiing. When climbing, we wore them on big walls, ice climbs and chossy mountaineering routes. But never for standard routes and it wasn’t even a consideration for floofy sport-climbs. And it was never the subject of debate whether you strapped on the ‘ol brain bucket on for flying hang gliders or paragliders. Still, I rode thousands of miles on my mountain and road bikes throughout the 80’s and 90’s without a helmet as cars whipped by at 60mph or I rattled down 409 or the Tahoe Rim Trail on a no-suspension mountain bike.

It’s not like I don’t know the consequences. I’ve had my concussions. I’ve seen the sun-dried brains splattered on the rocks at the bottom of a route in Yosemite. And I helped transport the brain-dead body of a fellow paragilder that died despite wearing a helmet. There’s not much to protect that lifegoo inside our egg-shell skulls. One good smack and you’re a vegetable. Or worse.

Once the LoganCody arrived to the LaPlante Family Junkshow, it finally clicked with me. Helmets were mandatory. ‘Nuff said.

While Jessica and I joke that if I could surgically install helmets on the noggin’s of our every-bouncing LoganCody, it’s only a half-joke. Since we don’t own a TV or have cable, the LoganCody seem to always be getting their schralp on with their bikes and skateboards. We buy band-aids in bulk. Someone is always bleeding or at least picking at a scab. That’s our life.

I get pissed off and yell at parents that let their kids hit rails in the park at Alpine Meadows without helmets. Yeah, I’m an asshole. But I can show you the coma-inducing dings in the back of my helmet to perhaps convince you to the otherwise. One bad hit and you’re eating via a foodbag the rest of your life.

Today, my kids only look normal to me with helmet-hair. That matty-sweaty-knotted hair is a look of health, activity and safety. The LoganCody have an almost ever-present mildewy smell in their hair, and it’s that smell that I’ll probably remember them for. I can smell it know as I write this.

Even as late as four years ago I would still ski without a helmet. Jumping on rails and boxes changed that more than being that "role model" for the kids. Nowadays I can’t even pedal three blocks to Bibo’s coffee shop on the townie without the kids yelling at me to make sure I have my helmet on. While as dorky as it feels riding the red townie, it’s the right thing to do as a Dad.

I wrote a business plan in 1993 while in college to make smaller/stylish helmets that would appeal to kids and wish that I had followed through on that now. High profile deaths due to head injuries are a persistent reminder to shed the vanity and strap on the egg-shell. Yesterday’s unfortunate death of Actress Natasha Richardson following complications from the brain injury she incurred while skiing without a helmet should drive the point home. Her two grieving sons and husband can’t help but ask themselves why she wasn’t wearing a helmet while she was taking skiing lessons.

For the hundreds of hours I’ve logged on skis, bikes rock climbs without a helmet I feel both lucky and like hypocrite to become that much more of an advocate for helmets. While I’m not sure making it the law is always the answer, it surely is becoming a statement of stupidity to not wear one. Especially if you have kids.

Go ahead and leave me a comment about how "Helmet Laws Suck" and why not wearing a helmet is cool. I’ll still give huge props to Tony Hawk who skates with a helmet. He’s a Dad. He gets it. Athlete icons like Tony Hawk, Shaun White, and Tanner Hall who ride with helmets make it easier for us Dads to keep the helmets in the mix. It’s not like I don’t want to sympathize, I just can’t be an idiot anymore AND be a good Dad.

Still not getting it? Check out some vids of helmets in action. I’m not going throw up the gory scare videos. These should make the point!

These are my kids. These are my kids with helmets on.

Twenty  years ago (1988) today, September 24 we started dating. And we never looked back. We met on the second day of college on the campus of UNR with Billy who I grew up with ski racing. He liked you. I poached on that. Sorry Billy. You were the sooper hot Italian Vegas chic who could ride a motorcycle better than most of the boys. I was a punk skier from Crested Butte who wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to be in college healing up a blown ACL/MCL/meniscus. Every football player on the athlete’s floor in Nye hall wanted to date you and were pissed that you hung out with a scrawny Knoxed bleached hair computer geek. Your parent’s were concerned about you. I was concerned about your Italian family with names like ‘Uncle Frankie, Uncle Mikey and Uncle Babe giving me the shake-down. I survived, even though you nearly drowned me knocking me out cold on a waverunner on Lake Mead and then sticking me in 110 degree heat ’till I got a heat stroke.

We met a lot of people that September of 1988. From the UNR Ski Team, we met Martin. In 1995, we became partners…and in many ways my second wife ever since LOL. Still partners. I ran into a juvenile-delinquent friend of mine from Colorado ski racing circuit in Nye Hall. Dylan! He was with Matt whom he went to GMVS with. Matt. We started going to Matt’s Mom’s house and we hung out with Justin. Matt and I tried to start a ska band and failed. He hooked up with your brother Kenny and the Mudsharks were born. We met Johnny via the Ski Team. I introduced him to your sister at the Tour de Nez party in 1997 coming back from Jim and my bachelor party in the BlackRock desert where we rolled/totaled Martin’s truck. Nobody got hurt. You rolled with it as usual. Johnny started dating your sister, they got married and now he’s my brother in law and they’ve got Otto who’s a nut just like Cody and they’ll certainly be best friends for life shredding everything they do together. Everyone owes me BIG for that introduction. Never forget it.

I met Lanbone who had a crush on your highschool best friend and we met in September. It’s good to have a doctor in the house. Jim went to highschool with you and your sister. He’s up the street too, married to his HS sweetheart. And Matt and Jim’s kids are our kids best friends. If they all end up friends in 20 years it’ll be a pretty cool stroy arc. And if I listed all the friends we made in September, in 1988, in college, it’d take me forever to write this. We made a lot of friends. A lot are seemingly entering the life-long category.

Fifteen years ago (1993) I graduated from UNR and was all set to go to law school. I went climbing in Yosemite with Matt and decided to not go to law school to stay to hang with you. And climb and fly and camp and ride some more. I got a job at Fitzgeralds Gaming group and started to pay off all those student loans I blew on climbing, skiing, paragliding and biking gear that fueled our time together. You started your last year of civil engineering school. We skied Randonee in the Galena bowls every weekend (and then some) on Ramer classics and helped name the runs. I bought you a new Pieps avvy beacon. We still use those beacons. Maybe we should get new beacons for Christmas? My mom died. We got a cat from Billy BadBones and named him Makita. Named him after the drill I used to make that climbing wall in the back of the house. I got a cell phone so we could go climbing on weekends when I was on call for PR emergencies. Ended up at the Beer Barrel and ran into Martin and we started talking about Mozilla and HTML and a business was born a ‘couple years later.

Eleven year ago (1997) we got married in Incline village and no one got arrested but the party got a “little” out of control. The Young Dubliners played the wedding. Dozens of people crashed our party. Over 200 people ended up with severe hangovers, people passed out in planters and in beaches and cars everywhere. We took our gift money and cruised the shoreline of northern California to mid-Oregon and back camping, climbing, fishing and riding bikes. Ate fresh oysters and crab in Shasta. Best honeymoon ever. We bought our first car that was new and had a warranty. You had my Caddy towed away.

Ten years ago (1998): I made you this video. My father died. We celebrated our first year being married. We partied like it was 1999 for the last time. We went to Burning Man. We threw huge block parties at our new California street house. We have lots of photos of people wearing dresses. We weren’t as broke as we were. Aztech started making money and I think we got our sushi on again. Matt and Melissa got married and somehow nobody got hurt. I did get hurt at the X-Games in Crested Butte saucer-crossing and ended up with a lot of stitches in my face. ESPN played it on TV for two years and you weren’t so proud when people called to say I was on TV bleeding. Good times. Blame Martin and Matt. Not me.

Nine years ago (1999): We had an ‘oops’ late New Year’s Eve in Crested Butte…nine months later Logan was born with the legs and lungs of a kid conceived on the wildest night of the century at 9,500 ft. and now loves the snow and the cold as much as his Dad. You worked until the day before you had Logan. You solo-climbed Matterhorn Peak eight-months pregnant in a day. While I was helicopter skiing in the Rubies with Adam you went and bought us a house in the coolest neighborhood in Reno that most of our best friends now live in. It was 850 sq.ft. and had a garage to hold all our toys. You’ve always been the CEO of the house. I hung up the paraglider and we bought a stroller that we could hike with. We went car-camping which was strange but we quickly adjusted to having lots food to camp with. I learned how to cast a fly-rod with Logan in a backpack and not hook him in the back of the head with a #14 Timco. You dropped your career as a civil engineer for full-time Momhood. A lot of your friends give you grief for not working, but I don’t. Our kids kick ass because of it. We may not be able to afford a lot of nice furniture and other useless stuff for the house because of that, but who cares about furniture when you’re never home. We’re bag people. Always on the go.

Seven years ago (2001): You were pregnant with Cody. His hyperactive impatience began at month seven when you went into pre-term labor. For the first of like 19 times we made trips to the ER. You’re Mom moved in with us while you spent seven weeks on the couch all drugged up to keep the little snot baking long enough to come out in good form. Logan started to ski. With your Mom, a dog, a cat and Logan starting to terrorize the house, we decided we needed a bigger house. I decided I needed a bigger business.

Six years ago (2002): Cody was born. Twelve Horses began to run. We started to design an addition to our house. I spent a lot of time on airplanes and in airports. Still do. We started to go to the Balloon Races which I’m still trying to come to grips with. TommyV was killed in an accident and I realized our kids needed to spend a lot of time in Crested Butte. Our gear moved from the living room to the garage and basement like most people and it seemed really strange.

Four years ago (2004): Logan started finished pre-school. We moved out of the house while Johnny and Kenny built our new home. We survived the last time we ever do that again. Our average helmet per family member went to 2. With cousins Aden and Otto, kids and dirty diapers were everywhere and everything was sticky. Logan began to ski well. Cody began to ski. Neve died.They both began to bounce…and bounce…and bounce…will they ever stop BOUNCING!? We got a trampoline…with a net. Great idea that was…it was yours. We spent our winter at Mt. Rose.

Two years ago (2006): Logan started first grade and his second year of ski team. Cody started his first year of ski team and we bought more helmets and bikes and skis. You watched me hurt myself trying to learn how to ride rails. You ran a half-marathon. We spent two weeks in Crested Butte in the summer and we dusted off the climbing gear. We started to ditch the LoganCody and go for bike rides.We camped. A lot. We started made our second annual flyfishing trips to the Fall River with Lanny, Tim and Matt and others and that’s been our annual get-away from the kids.

One years ago (2007): Justin came back to Reno to shoot a video for a Modest Mouse ‘Little Motel’ song with Cody starring as a dead kid and we missed our first Memorial Day weekend camping trip for as long as we can remember. That was an odd and fun experience. Darin lost the fight to brain cancer and left Melissa and Max and Hudson behind. Logan was in second grade and Cody became a Kindergartner. Makita died. We started BMX racing and our helmet count went to 15. You won your first BMX race. Our gear started living in the house again. We spent 3 weeks in Crested Butte. We’ve still got the same furniture, but all new skis and some new bikes and we spent a killer winter living in Alpine Meadows.

Now: Now we start another 20…30..? Even if it’s half as fun as the last 20, it’ll be twice than most. Nothing’s really changed. We’re still pretty much the same we were twenty years ago, with pretty much the same friends — and a whole lot more, doing the same things we’ve always done…with two booger-eating kids…and I’m the luckiest guy.

It was a long weekend of shooting and we all had an excellent time staying up all night watching Reno native writer/director Justin Francis work his magic. A Flickr slideshow is here.

A year later, Modest Mouse is playing at the Grand Sierra Resort on Tuesday 5/27 the whole Twelve Horses crew is going to support and draw attention to GabrielsLife.org. Modest Mouse is an amazing band in the first place, but this whole experience has made them even more amazing with the attention it has brought to Reno and to GabrielsLife.org.

The Backstory:

Many of you know my best friend / local attorney Matt Francis. We met on the UNR ski team back in 1988. His younger brother Justin Francis is an amazing music video producer/videographer having done music videos for artists like Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keyes, Mariah Carey, the Hives and on and on and on….they guy never stops shooting videos and commercials.

Anyway, he pitched Modest Mouse on shooting a video of their song “Little Motel” in the town he grew up in, Reno Nevada with a script he had written. He asked Cody to play a role in it. If you’ve not seen the video, now would be a good time to watch it so the rest of this blog post makes sense!

Modest Mouse – Little Motel

For obvious reasons, the subject of the video was difficult at best. My wife and I had our reservations about having our son play a role in such a tragic story. I mean, would you? Every time I watch this video I tear up and cry. If you made it through this video and are still dry-eyed, you’re definitely not a parent!

Leilani, Twelve Horses’ Social Marketing Manager, talked my wife and I in to letting Cody doing the video. I work closely with Leilani every day and she’s been a tremendous role model in my life. If you have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know her, then you are undoubtedly aware of the tragedy in Leilani’s life due to Hydrocephalus and the amazing leadership and courage that has led her to launch GabrielsLife.org. If you’ve never read this story or met Leilani, please take a moment to do so and sup[port this organization. Also, there’s a great story that the local newspaper did here: http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080129/LIV/801290331.

Now it’s almost a year later and I’m reading the hundreds and hundreds of comments of how deeply moved people are by this video Justin wrote.

Our family is absolutely proud of being part of a project that has reminded so many people how precious life is and how powerful connections are. Through family, friends and the online social media, tragedy, writing, creativity and friendly helping people have all had an opportunity to inspire each other. That’s cool.

If you’re in Reno Tuesday, I hope to see you at the Modest Mouse concert! We’ll all be there!

This was a ski season I’ll never forget. BIG snow in Tahoe. And more BIG snow in Tahoe. New fat skis. New thooperphat skis. Seven a.m. KAAAHHHBOOOOMS as avvy control woke us up to unreal powder.

Dozens of days of good times on the hill with dozens of family, friends and colleagues. Hundreds and hundreds of runs with Logan and Cody. Logan can ski everything now. Cody’s almost there. It’s an unreal feeling to not have to wait for the kids anymore!

The free wifi in the lodge at Alpine Meadows made it a little easier to work/ski/work/ski. And the 450+ inches of snow made it easy to ski and ski and ski and ski.

Sad to see it end, but it’s time to get back on the bikes. Here’s some video clips from today with the LoganCody knuck’n around the hill. ‘Till next season!

Anyway, for those of you who know the little snots, there’s a cool video of the contest. Photos here. Cody’s in the red pants and green sweatshirt. Logan is in all black pants, green sweatshirt. He’s got the yellow Reno Bike Project sticker on top of his helmet. They all got Shane McConkey, Tanner Hall and Johnny Moseley huck dolls and were stoked!

Volunteers and donors make it all possible… check out Holland’s event calendar for April and May and support what you can.

Over the last three weeks, Reno-Tahoe’s seen several winter storms. As I write this, it’s cold outside and all the Tahoe peaks are covered in the good white stuff. This year will be Logan’s (8) third year on the Alpine Meadows ski team. Cody (5) will be starting his first year. Yay! Last year, Logan played hooky from school about 13 days to hit every day of ski team plus the few powder days we had. I expect Logan and Cody will be missing a similar amount of school again this year.

Skiing for us is a lot of time spent together as a family. (See post from 2004.) It means 50+ days of being together. The 50+ days of 1.5 to 2.5 hours in the car together is where Logan gets a massive amount of homework and reading. It means a lot of discipline getting out of bed at 6:30am to be on the road by 7:30am to be in the lodge by 8:30am booting up and ready for 9am ski team start. It means a lot of lodge-time playing foosball, wrestling, eating, goofing off and hanging out with friends and other family. It means a lot of time riding the chairlifts with my kids and good wife talking and singing/making up stupid songs. And, of course, it means skiing! Whether the snow is great or the snow sucks, at least we’re skiing!

Skiing also introduces my kids to mentors like Shane McConkey…who my kids idolize as an “educational role model”. Shane can read. He can also ski, too!

Here’s a video of Cody from last January (2007). He was 4 at the time…about a month before his 5th birthday. Juxtaposed to that is a video of Paul Dugan — the Washoe County School District’s Superintendent (who kicks ass BTW) — giving Logan a reading award when he was in kindergarten 2 years a go.

The point: ski for literacy <grin>.

Stay tuned for the audio/video we took.

Link to RGJ.com: Rodeo Kids Slideshow

Technorati tags: reno, nevada, cycling, chrome, tourdenez, cody, codylaplante

I grew up while BMX was just moving from Stingray concepts to a legit sport. When I was four the first BMX bikes were just hitting the dirt for the first time. Next to the “pavement-didn’t-exist-in-Crested-Butte therefore I never learned to skateboard” bummer of a childhood, I never really had the chance to race BMX. I went straight to mountain bikes. Unlike ski racing, this is a completely new gig for me. Cody’s one race ahead of me.

The whole race was good times and I like how the BMX season picks up as the snow turns yellow and melts away. I think as a family we’re about to become hooked. Long days at the soccer field listening to parents yap on their cell phones doesn’t seem nearly as exciting as BMX.

I may even have to get out there and start racing with the kids, too. Who else is in?

Technorati tags: BMX, bike, bikes, racing, kids, dads, carsoncity, nevada

My cell phone went minor-berserk with the Twitter community tweeting about Kathy Sierra’s post and a the tremendous rally of the blogosphere commenting on this situation. Kenzer — as always — beat me to the punch with a post. So here I am at 4:30 am playing catch up…

I received my new issue of WIRED Magazine this morning. The cover story is: “The See-Through CEO | Fire the publicist. Go off message. Let all your employees blab and blog. In the new world of radical transparency, the path to business success is clear.” For the most part, I believe the article to be fairly dead-on. My 3 favorite excerpts:

[1] “You can’t hide anything anymore,” Don Tapscott says. Coauthor of The Naked Corporation, a book about corporate transparency, and Wikinomics, Tapscott is explaining a core truth of the see-through age: If you engage in corporate flimflam, people will find out. He ticks off example after example of corporations that have recently been humiliated after being caught trying to conceal stupid blunders.

[2] “Online is where reputations are made now,” says Leslie Gaines Ross, chief reputation strategist – yes, that’s her actual title – with the PR firm Weber Shandwick. She regularly speaks to companies that realize a single Google search determines more about how they’re perceived than a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. “It used to be that you’d look only at your reputation in newspapers and broadcast media, positive and negative. But now the blogosphere is equally powerful, and it has different rules. Public relations used to be about having stuff taken down, and you can’t do that with the Internet.”

[3] The reputation economy creates an incentive to be more open, not less. Since Internet commentary is inescapable, the only way to influence it is to be part of it. Being transparent, opening up, posting interesting material frequently and often is the only way to amass positive links to yourself and thus to directly influence your Googleable reputation. Putting out more evasion or PR puffery won’t work, because people will either ignore it and not link to it – or worse, pick the spin apart and enshrine those criticisms high on your Google list of life.

Soooo…this brings us to Kathy Sierra’s situation and the overwhelming support and rally of the blogging community. Robert Scoble is taking the week off. Apparently he and his wife are caught up in this as well. Stephanie Booth, Michael Arrington, Seth Godin and hundreds more have weighed in on this already. I really hope they nail the person(s) involved. They need to go to jail and mingle with people like them who enjoy violence. Carve a feed icon in a soap-on-a-rope.

This stuff is terrifying. Especially for women. And I only say that having attended a workshop and learned firsthand how those fears play in to victimization. Our society all but trains women to be victims. How many rapists have had they eyes “nearly” scratched out…the women to afraid to “really hurt” their attacker!? I learned this from Tim Larkin, perhaps the world’s most famous and best self-defense trainer…Tim Larkin. (My Entrepreneurs’ Organization took a trip to Las Vegas and did a seminar with Tim Larkin a while back. And we’re doing another CCW permit class this year to qualify new members.)

Tim Larkin’s class really started me to rethink about personal safety and how to react to violence. His Target-Focus Training delivers real-world experience in dealing with violence and threats and is rooted in success stories and failures. How did that 90 year-old lady beat two robbers senseless? And how did the black-belt master get beaten and killed defending his family by a 125 pound teenager with no training whatsoever? Larkin has devoted his whole life to understanding how to win in violent situations?

Here’s a little background on his approach:

The one thing we’ve completely understood is that the only thing we can rely on is this: that violence is always going to be random. And therefore we have to take a principle-based approach. So what we do is give you good, grounded principles that are based in (and usable and understandable in) science… anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, physics… backed up with trauma data. Stuff that you could easily read about and the brain can easily understand.

I’ve seen a lot of folks in these Kathy Sierra posts talk about guns and CCW’s. Concealed weapons are not THE answer. I say that myself having lots of guns and having been trained back in ROTC/Rangers to use them to kill another human. Personal self-defense courses and TFT to use them as well, however, most violence is random and guns are usually out-of-the question. (Except for home-break-ins where they seem to give the homeowner a decided advantage.)

That being said, I believe that there has to be a certain “caution” by criminals to target gun-owners — particularly the loud and proud — knowing they’re not only most likely armed, but trained, able and willing to use their weapon in self-defense. I mean, why would you break in to a gun-owner’s house knowing that they are totally OK with filling you full of lead lest you get anywhere near their family!?

We take security and safety seriously. My wife is very practiced and capable with any of our many pistols, shotguns and rifles and she regularly carries when biking in the desert or traveling alone. And our kids have –and continue to be – raised properly around guns so that they treat them with the proper respect and safety they deserve. (I think I should blog on how to raise kids around guns sometime.)

With personal branding and transparency more than likely creating a lot of these “threats” online, there’s no doubt that these incidents of idiots throwing threats will increase. Hopefully IPv6 will solve a lot of this. Anonymity is OK…to an extent. Freedom of speech is to be protected so long as it does not infringe on another’s well being. God knows I’ve had my fair share of personal threats and they can be very rattling. There’s strength in numbers and community. The same transparency that has brought terror to Kathy can also bring safety. Maybe Tim Larkin can start teaching classes at BlogHer?

Technorati tags: kathysierra, kathy, sierra, blogging, social, transparency, privacy, security, guns, self-defense, CCW, permit, concealedweapons

Logan said, “Dad, we LOVE Nevada!!!” Then the boys proceeded to rattle off what they perceived to be their best reasons to love Nevada. I thought I’d share with you what 4 and 7 year old boys believe to be our State’s best selling points:

• Logan: “No school today!”
• Cody: “There’s lot’s of Eye-candy!” (He was referring to candy-eyeballs, however, he’s not entirely incorrect <grin>.)
• Logan: “We get to go camping!” (Yep..we’re headed out…)
• Cody: “Fireworks, marshmallows, and campfires!” (All true. Campfires are illegal in California, as are fireworks. I’m pretty sure they have marshmallows though.)
• Logan: “Clean air and water.” (He’s learning about ecosystems at school right now.)
• Logan: “Skiing!!!” (Except for Heavenly, Mt. Rose and Diamond Peak., all of Tahoe’s resorts are in California. Logan hasn’t figured this one out. But you can live in Nevada and enjoy them all within 20 to 45 minutes.)
• Cody: “Lots of chukar.” (Yep, we’re the chukar state.)

Of course things like no taxes and lack of traffic didn’t make their list, but I was impressed!

Yes, it’s Nevada Day. Actually, Nevada Day is October 31st. That’s when Nevada became a state — er, admitted to the Union — October 31, 1864 to be exact. That was during the Civil War — hence we’re the “Battle Born” state. We celebrate Halloween and Nevada’s statehood on the same day. Sweet.

Of course, with the passage of AB396 by the 1997 Nevada State Legislature we celebrate Nevada Day on the “last” Friday in October beginning in 2000. In other words, whatever it takes for a three-day weekend. That’s today. Pretty much the whole State takes the day off — unless you’re a service-based business or the majority of your customers are outside the State.

So, unfortunately, most of the Nevada-based Twelve Horses team is working today. Contrary to popular belief, most marketers in New York and Boston are not as enthused about Nevada Day as we are.

I must note, however, that over the years, most of the Twelve Horses team located in other states and countries have kindly offered to take this day off too and celebrate Nevada Day with us — how kind of them!

tags: Nevada, Nevada day, Halloween, holiday, Reno, camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, business

Quick event summary:

• The time, money and energy we –America– waste on the IRS and our ridiculous tax-code evasion game if invested in R&D and education would ensure our global dominating class-barrier-breaking affluent economy. We piss our advantage away on lawyers and accountants playing a stupid cat-and-mouse game with the IRS. Stupid we collectively are.
• Most of the most common practices of successful, profitable and consistently performing businesses– accountability, terminating weak performers, employee and management incentives, innovation culture, free markets, access to union-free labor — is absent in our public schools.
• Our H1B Visa policy is insanely bass-ackwards. “Let’s educate our global competitors here in the US and then kick them out so we can outsource our jobs back to them.” Sweet.
• Sarbanes-Oxley (‘Sox’) has exported our best small and mid-sized public capital offerings to foreign countries. While well intentioned, the lawyers and accountants again are making all the money while small businesses that used to be able to raise public financing in the US are headed to Canada, Europe and anywhere they can but the US.
• Safra Catz for President in 2012. What kind of person can put up with Larry “the Largest Ego in the World” Ellison? Safra Catz. Cool. Level headed. Smart. Witty. Plays the game to win. Humble. Self-depreciating. All the skills to lead one of the largest and most relevant businesses in the world…Oracle. Safra, please come back!

First-off, what a great event. Awesome. I jotted down notes for about about 15 blog posts. It really got me thinking…

About the the only thing that sucked is that because it was organized by Senator Ensign & Crew a lot of “binary” people of the “D” flavor will immediately discount it and get crimped in their R v. D Kos-style black-and-white politics that dominates most dialog in an October predating an November election. If Reid had organized the event, the 98% of the same things would have been discussed.

So, kudos to Ensign & Crew! He did this event in Las Vegas yesterday as well. Yeah, he’s trying to get re-elected. Duh. If you’re not a fan of R’s — then at least respect the marketing. Splendid marketing. But at least my ‘BS’ detector didn’t go off to many times today as I thought it would. The dialog was real and genuine. Education and workforce development is CRITICAL to Nevada. No matter what the attendees political flavor, everyone left with their thinking caps on.

The event stimulated great thought and dialog on education and workforce development to make help ensure that businesses (like mine) in Nevada can meet our human capital requirements. The silly thing right now is there’s no shortage of “capital capital”. We’re consistently challenged (like most growing western cities) with attracting and/or retaining enough “human capital”.

Again…kudos to Ensign. He’s the MAN on the High Tech Task Force. That’s a very good thing for Nevada.

While today’s event was very science-math-education oriented, I think that there were a few facets of this problem that were not discussed and I’ll pick those up in some future posts. Here’s the teasers:

1. The Internet is not through trashing the paradigms of society and social institutions as we know it. Mainstream media is under the gun today. Education — and our traditions built around education — are about to be blown apart as well. Homeschooling and socialschooling(C) (I made that term up) is going to reshape how we educate.
2. I bet you can name 10 people most likely featured in any given issue of People magazine, can you name the top 10 scientists and mathematicians? Why Paris Hilton, Bono and Angelina Jolie will have more influence in solving our dilemma than the gray-haired PHD wielding education majors or the unions.
3. My experiences with public schools and parenting. New thoughts on what matters…can you say THESPIAN?
4. If access to knowledge, education and information is ubiquitous and a commodity, what separates a Stanford from a UNR? And why “who” you know still matters more than calculating the area of a dodecahedron…

tags: ensign, senator, senatorensign, Nevada, Reno, Las Vegas, education, workforce, schools, hightech, high-tech, oracle, Safra, Catz, TMCC, UNR

Technorati : Catz, Las Vegas, Nevada, Reno, Safra, TMCC, UNR, education, ensign, high-tech, hightech, oracle, schools, senator, senatorensign, workforce
Del.icio.us : Catz, Las Vegas, Nevada, Reno, Safra, TMCC, UNR, education, ensign, high-tech, hightech, oracle, schools, senator, senatorensign, workforce

I love this…So I was flipping thru all of Logan’s kindergarten writings and came accross this self-portrait he drew last year. Note the SPIDR jacket and the ROSinNL logos…Spyder and Rossignol should be proud of their brand marketing awareness amongst the 6-year old skier crowd! Not sure if he meant himself to be inverted or if he just drew on the paper upsidedown.