baty-barr.com

Wow, so 2009 is here... time for resolutions, life changes, business plans, etc.

I hope everyone that visits my sites and reads my blogs, truly has a wonderful 2009. I know things are shaping up to look a little tough to start out this year, but I honestly believe, we can all make a positive diffrence in all that we do!

So, my topic for this blog post, relates to a twitter post [you are all following me on twitter, right :)] I made earlier this week regarding a new year's resolution I was going to make - spend time [actually I think I said an hour] each day blogging.

Well, as it is January first and all, I guess I should get to the blogging.

For those of you that don't know... I really should be maintaining three blogs - this one, the malicious thinkTank blog and the thinkTank mail blog. Come to think of it... I actually have four blogs... can't forget the maliciousMedia blog! I wonder if i should consolidate a couple of those... but with four, I could dedicated 15 minutes per day and cover my hour! Oh, the decisions.

So what are all these blogs about?

This one is pretty simple to explain, it is about anything I want it to be. It can cross over between family, work, and my personal views of the world around me. I think in 2009, I will try to keep the focus on the observations about my childeren and our family -- how we interact with the world and grow.

the Malicious thinkTank blog will focus on the marketing challenges and interactive media [web] development challenges found in this current economic environment. My hope is to focus on the triumphs of my clients and asscoiates throughout the year in an effort to give thought provoking commentary and hope for other companies/marketers in this challenging time.

the thinkTank mail blog will focus specifically on direct email marketing, which I believe is a true beacon of hope for marketers looking to still stay in contact with prospects and customers while being mindful of ever slimming marketing budgets. Done well, email marketing can be very effective. the thinkTank mail blog will highlight these points.

Lastly, the MaliciousMedia blog will focus on highly reliable and affordable solutions to digital media marketing issues. Maximizing your web site's potential and disucssions on technology in the workplace and how to manage and maximize your technology resources.

First things first, however... I am currently workign on a NEW version of a blog package for the latest release of umbraco. As you know, umbraco is the open source, asp.net content management system that I utilize for many of my client websites.

Happy New Year to all! See you in the blogs :)

As the holiday season rolls around each year we get the standard.. 'send us the kids' Chistmas wish list - we need to get our shopping done'

This year, I decided to put some thought and reflection into that request and here is what I came up with... a brief description about each child's passions and a suggestion based on those passions.

I realize that giving is the very nature of what the spirit of this holiday season is all about – and most importantly each of us is free to choose how we want to express that spirit of giving. All have expressed a wanting for gift giving ideas for the kids and I have asked each of them for gift ideas to pass along to you all. For the most part [referencing back to some of my earlier points in the other email] they had some difficulty coming up with ideas and I attribute that to the fact that they actually do not want for many ‘things’ in this world – and for that, I am very thankful!

So, what I thought I would share with you [thanks very much to my dear sister for her very well written email last night] are some of the things that the baty-barr children are very passionate about. I will also share with you some great resources that may help you with your choices for giving this holiday season.

Let’s start with Joshua and work our way down the timeline...

Joshua is very passionate about music right now and more importantly his guitar – he reads tabulature [guitar shorthand] and actually rights it as well. He truly has the gift for music – he can visualize it, he can hear it and he can not only re-produce it, but understand what he is reproducing. It brings him a great sense of calm and I have often realized that it helps him to bring some of the chaos of his incredible mind into a focus that is so desperately needed at times in our busy lives.

Joshua takes music lessons every week at a guitar shop that he can walk to in our town [you will see a recurring theme here later] the music shop is called The Instrument Exchange [http://www.musicalinstrumentsus.com/instrument-exchange/1089/] phone: 630-879-2815

Joshua takes lessons here from a wonderful young man, Ryan. We have searched for many years for an instructor that teaches the way joshua learns and who joshua truly adores. For that we adore him too. He is a young kid who works with other kids for a very small amount of money – and if you know any musicians, you can be sure he pumps that money right back into the music store to purchase more gear to feed his passion :P Joshua has learned a great deal about many things surrounding this shop and his lessons. He put an amplifier on lay-a-way this summer and scrapped and saved and did odd jobs and babysitting around the neighborhood to bring it home as fast as he could.

Anyway a great idea for joshua this holiday season – which would also help Ryan – check that out, you get a two-fer give – a gift certificate for more guitar lessons would be great – and you could throw as many guitar picks as you want – he is an 11 year old boy after all and loses those things all the time!

Moving on to Owen….
Owen is passionate about quite a few things and most of them revolve around athletic activities. He is a great rock-climber and he is extremely gifted when it comes to his martial arts. He has been studying for over two years now and has nearly achieved his red belt rank – which is one belt [however several stripes and tests] below his first black belt. Currently, several members of our family have been participating with owen in his martial arts and we have a great appreciation for how much it takes to be as dedicated as he is. Owen initially started his martial arts through our park district program. He began his training with a young man, Jesus Maseus – and yes we have walked to our park district classes in the past .  Jesus has been a huge influence in owen’s development – not only in martial arts, but as a young man. I say young man, because they way he carries himself both during and away from the dojang truly places him among the ranks of men. Owen takes a very active role in the leadership aspect of his training and has mentioned on several occasions how he wants to be a teacher of martial arts when he reaches his black belt rank. As I have been attending classes with owen, some weeks 4 classes I see that he will be one of the most well rounded black belts to come up in the school in nearly a decade.

Owen is a student of Mike Neil Traditional Martial Arts [http://www.traditionalmartialarts.com] 427 Hamilton St. - Geneva, IL. 60134 (630) 845-9702 – Martial arts is a lifetime pursuit and very much an investment in self and the school you attend. Jesus [his soon to be master – also always in training] is much like our friend Ryan we mentioned above for Joshua. Jesus wants to have his own martial arts school [a subsidiary of Mike Neil Traditional Martial Arts] and has often mentioned how proud he will be to tie Owen’s black belt around his waste. So once again, we have a two-fer opportunity here. I don’t think that you can purchase membership gift certificates, but Owen will always need new uniforms as he grows and new weapons as his training advances. A gift certificate from his martial arts academy would be a great gift. Also, he always needs white t-shirts or underamor to wear beneath his dobak.

Owen is also very passionate about animals, but we will not be accepting any pets

Ah, finally my dearest Lillian. She is passionate about everything [which will be the death of caroline and myself ]. Lillian is very gifted and pretty darn dedicated to her gymnastics training… now, her gym is not in walking distance [realistically] but we could if we had to... Anyway, she has recently been promoted to a level that trains for an hour and half on Wednesday nights and she loves it. Her progress in the past six months has been amazing – her flexibility and strength really leave me with a sense of awe. We will be taking her to see her first gymnastics meet next week to see one of our babysitters compete at the high-school level – I can only imagine that this will fuel her passion even more. Lillian attends Excel Gymnastics [http://www.excelgymnastics.com/] 2301 Main Street, Batavia IL (630) 482 – 3738 – and yes they have a pro shop, so a gift certificate to their proshop would be a great gift idea for Lillian. As you know, in places like her gym, the instructors are [yep you guessed it] young kids paying their way through school, etc. who just love gymnastics and working with young kids. So yes, once again… a two-fer, feel good opportunity.

Caroline and I are really trying to be more involved in our local community and supporting our local economy and the people we live with every day in our schools, sports teams, etc. Owen’s orthodontist is in walking distance, our bank is around the corner, etc. I have become very involved this fall in working with the high school robotics team and their website which is a requirement for their national competition – I dedicate well over two hours a week with a meeting on Monday evenings and support throughout the week. Caroline will be having a pottery show/exhibition at our favorite coffee house in Batavia that we walk to several times a week during the summer monts… It is a lifestyle theme we are trying to make a part of everything we do [within as much reason as possible]. So it would be wonderful for all of the baty-barr family if you could help us in supporting our children and the very important activities and people that they are with every day in our community.

To close this email, I want to thank you all for giving me the chance to write all this down… I have had tears of pride and joy rolling down my cheeks since the opening words of Joshua’s section – and right now, that is the best gift I can ever ask for this holiday season.

Okay, more like 37 eggs... more to come.

I will cover this more shortly, just need a test post to work with.