New House, New Office, New Clients

A lot of happenings going on in my life since my last post. Here's the quick view:

Sold old house & bought a new one
> Sold our house
> Found a new house & put in an offer
> During inspection found structural problems
> Withdrew our offer
> Found another house & bought it
> Moved out & into the new one

Moved into a new office
> Found a gem of an office just 0.8 miles from the new house
> Negotiated a great deal
> Picked up three Free desks for the office
> Moved out of the hot & inconvenient Main St. office
> Moved into the new one

Grew the Biz
> Picked up three new significant new clients
> Hired a new Account Manager
> Found two other new leads

Things are going well. I'm happy things should start to settle down now. We've nearly unpacked all of the boxes at home - and it already feels like home. With the current state of the U.S. housing market, Alicia & I were lucky to not only sell our house, but find a good deal, get financed ... and move.

Participate - or shut up

Over the past few months, I've decided that it is time to be a Participant, instead of being a side-line complainer. I'm focused on two areas for this: 1. Politics; and 2. Social Media

POLITICS
So, like most Americans, I have been what I call a quiet complainer. I've grown up in an age of extreme political correctness, where it's become a bad thing to offend anyone, for any reason ... at anytime. I believe this is one of the reasons for the so-called silent majority, meaning the large number of people who do not express their opinion publicly. The term was initially coined by Nixon, unfortunately, when speaking of all of those who were not protesting the Vietnam War. Today, I believe there is a different group of silent level-headed folks in America who, because they are not extreme, stay quiet on most issues.

Anyway, I have been quietly complaining about U.S. politics with my wife & friends who I know share my views for years. In fact, I recall, I was quietly outraged when President Bush began beating the war drum for Iraq, just after our troops had been deployed in Afghanistan (which I agreed with). I believe I yelled at the radio in my car when I was driving alone when I first started hearing the Weapons of Mass Destruction talk. My voice went unheard.

Well, with new elections coming up - I decided to Participate in Politics this round. With this being a major election year, I attended a Democratic caucus for my precinct in Salt Lake City, which was amazing! For anyone who feels they don't have a voice, they need to shut up and participate! I was elected as one of two delegates to represent our precinct and will have the power to help select who will be on the ballet for Utah elections come November. Vying to be on the ballet for a seat in the Utah House of Representatives on the Democratic side are Kelly Ann Booth and Brian King. I have since met with and had a chance to sit down and discuss real issues and concerns with those running for a seat in the Utah House. I plan to post a few more blogs about my experience, but this is as grass roots as it gets. And I'm convinced that if people actually Participated in Politics, special interest groups would not have such a strangle hold on our political system. They say, elections are won by the people who show up, I'm starting to believe that.

At this early stage, I can see the process is run by citizens & seems fairly transparent. Can it be possible that this can occur at higher levels of government too ... ? So this round, instead of quietly complaining in my kitchen and scaring my dog, I'm going to be a part of it. If you don't participate, then you have no one to blame but yourself. At this level, at least I'm trying to make a small difference ... We'll see how it goes.

SOCIAL MEDIA
So, I've been wanting to learn about this new so-called Social Media partly as a way to stay atop of trends in marketing - but, now I'm finding, these new technologies are a great way to stay connected with friends & also a way to find people who are interested in the same things I am interested in. Very cool.

After attending several lunchin seminars and reading blogs about Social Media, I quickly realized the only way to learn about this new movement, was to actually roll-up my sleeves & participate. A well-read blog manifesto clearly sums up this new form of communication in its headline: The People Formerly Known As the Audience, where media has transitioned from one-way communication - to two-way communication. Whether it be through article talk back comments, blog posts or numerous other means of communications, the people have been empowered to publish their voices & opinions. No longer can a company simply blast out key messages to their target audiences & hope to get the same old results. No longer does the audience listen quietly with blank stares on their faces, and blink, then wait for the next set of messages. Today, we can TiVo through unwanted commercials, blast those we don't like, and with some emerging technologies, even vote down the ads we hate the most! The world of media has changed ... for the better.

So, my understanding of this, is that it takes people to participate to make it powerful, meaningful & impactful. If no one used LinkedIn, it'd be a useless waste of software code. And the only way to learn about it is, well to participate too; thus the kickoff of my blog, which you're reading, my Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and my tinkering with Digg, Twitter, etc. Fun stuff.

Our Fallen Brothers & Sisters

At the Five Year Anniversary of the U.S. invasion & occupation of Iraq, I think every American should spend time reading the Obituaries of the soldiers who have lost their lives. I'm afraid it's too easy to simply go about our daily lives & forget what is happening to our soldiers, friends, neighbors & families.

The Salt Lake Tribune put together a great article this week entitled Remembering Utah's Fallen that features a picture, brief quote & bio about every one of the Utah soldiers who lost their lives.

The Tribune article cites that 46 Utahns have died in the various U.S. conflicts since Sept. 11, 2001. Please take a minute to read the article, Remembering Utah's Fallen and the bios of each person. There are several photos of lonely children included with the bios, which is heart-breaking.

I've had a few friends do military tours in the Middle East, and thankfully return safely. A couple who are close to my in-laws had their son die - Blake Stephens was the first soldier to die from Pocatello, Idaho.

But the total casualty count is much higher. U.S. casualties, or those wounded or dead, are nearly 30,000 (29,314 as of March 25, 2008), according to icasualties.org . And a recent Reuters story cited a scary & very sad figure:

Precise Iraqi casualties in the conflict are not known but the widely cited human rights group Iraq Body Count said earlier this month that up to around 89,300 civilians have been killed since 2003.

I won't get political here - but we all need to seriously think about how the decisions of our elected leaders can affect us all.

The Black Diamond Wasatch Powder Keg

I've been Jones'in to do it for a few years now - finally 2008 was the year I was stupid enough to do The Black Diamond Wasatch Powder Keg. It was EXTREMELY painful, due to the horrible shape I'm in, but well worth the experience.

The Wasatch Powder Keg is a Ski Mountaineering Race, apparently very popular in Europe, but only just catching on the the U.S. So, what this entails, is a bunch of folks who love backcountry skiing, line up to "race" a grueling snow-covered mountain course as fast as possible. Using skies with skins on the bottom to hike up to 10,000+ foot peaks, people then peal off the skins & ski down as quickly as possible. Our course included three peak hikes & ski downs.

On Black Diamond's FAQ they describe the course as follows:

The race starts at 8,553', goes up to 10,619’ for both race and recreational categories (Overall vertical – Race: 5,514' / Rec: 3,811'). Both courses finish at 8,553’. The Racing Division course is 8.34 miles (13.4 km); the Recreational Division course is 5.73 miles (9.1 km).

Wisely, I participated in the Recreation Division - so bottom line: 5.8 miles and 3,800 feet of vertical.

Since I didn't decide to do the race until the Sunday before, my training consisted of four days of running between 3-6 miles & lifting weights once. With a new baby in my household, I had only been backcountry skiing three times before the race. Generally I can hold my own, but I quickly realized (about 2 minutes after the start of the race) that the people who are crazy enough to do the Powder Keg are in pretty damn good shape!

I was in the Telemark Rec division and finished in 2:37 (2 hrs 37 min.) - and 13th out of 21 in my division - and actually finished ahead of about a dozen men in the Rec division (both Tele & Alpine Touring) - so better than I feared I'd do!

Well, I wasn't in it to race, but to finish, which I did - yeah!

I have to say my favorite parts of the Powder Keg were being up at Alta at sunrise - watching the sunrays hit Mt. Superior at 7:30 in the morning was spectacular! Quickly hitting three peaks & the views they offered was amazing. And skiing in 14 inches of fresh powder on the first run down Patsy Marley was a blast. The following two runs down Black Bess & Davenport (course map) were really painful, as my legs had lost their juice by this time. In fact, my biggest weakness in the whole thing was my downhill skiing - I had no leg muscle left & had some decent wipe-outs, which sucks.

Best Part: The best part of the whole thing was pushing through the final little uphill to the finish & seeing my wife Alicia & our 11 month-old son Finn - along with some friends like Jimmy Mac & Pete there to support me & others who did it. Way cool.

I'm planning on doing it again next year - but being in better shape will help me feel mucho better.

Utah Backcountry Skiing - Days Fork

Since I'd only been backcountry skiing once this year (on a day when the snow was horrible & we missed our trail) I decided to have another go at it with my buddies Marty Tuttle & Ross Hager. Surprisingly, the Utah Avalanche Report came in Saturday morning with a Low rating - on most aspects. We decided to hit Days Fork, a normally avalanche-prone area.

We got lucky & followed an established up track from a few days earlier - only a few inches of snow covered it. The hike was pretty difficult with multiple deep switchbacks & lots of steep ups. It took us some time to reach the Reed & Benson Ridge, which is about 10,000 feet - but the hard work proved to be worth it.

Marty hiking up.

The picture at the top is me taking a tight turn to spray Ross with a pile of pow. Ross' photography skills actually made me look like I know what I'm doing.

The ride down was amazing with lot's of deep powder, face-shots & untouched snow everywhere! We stayed in the trees for safety & smiled all the way down.

Ross getting a face-full of Pow on his split board.

Me, pointing the way up to
Reed & Benson Ridge.

Free Your Heel - Telemark Ski!

The Emperor's Pants Have No Knees

One day I woke up & went to put on some jeans for the day, and a bad realization occurred - I didn't have any jeans I could wear. All of my blue jeans, including the ones that fit well & were fairly new, suddenly had holes in the knees!

Well, obviously, I can & do wear these on the weekend - but pants with holes aren't especially good for work. The reason for my holey jeans is that I've been spending a lot of my time on the floor on my knees, with my 10 month-old son, Finn.

So, in a way, it sucks that I went through some good jeans so quickly. But on the other hand, I'm glad I'm spending so much time down with the kiddo! Seeing the world from his perspective is one of my favorite things to do today!

My poor sick buddy

Two weeks ago, I picked up my 10-month old son Finn from day care & they told me he had a fever. He was obviously very fussy & upset that night, didn't eat much & really didn't sleep. During the daytime over the weekend, he seemed to be okay, but at night, he wheezed & coughed & had trouble sleeping.

Finally we took him to InstaCare on Sunday. The Doc checked him out & said he looked fine & sent us home with some other meds for his childhood asthma (reactionary airway disease).
Well, after two more sleepless nights, Finn was really struggling to breathe - so we called our pediatrician & the nurse told us that if he was having a hard time breathing to bring him immediately to Primary Children's Hospital.

They immediately identified that Finn had RSV, which is really bad with a little guy who also has asthma. Well, I don't want to go over all of the horrible details, but pictures tell the story:

The good news is, the little rascal is back to normal, & as happy and funny as ever.

In all, seven kiddos in the infant class at day care came down with RSV. One baby has been on a respirator & is still in the hospital. It just goes to show how quickly things can go bad. We feel lucky to have the good health care we have today.

By-the-way, our home thermometer doesn't work at all. For the entire weekend, it said Finn never had a fever!

It's been a few years coming, but I finally have taken a few minutes to set up a blog site - soon to be located at www.bradrutledge.com.
I intend this site will cover the following topics:

• Integrated & Strategic Marketing
• My Writing (freelance & creative)
• My Family
• Backcountry Skiing, Motorcycles

We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!