007 - Bond, James Bond

For starters, the title has nothing to do with the actual blog post here, I just couldn't pass it up.

Well, it seems like no one is reading my blog, and I think I like that better than having tons of readers. This way, if I screw it all up, at least no one knows. I will press on, for my own mental health, because this is a good way to get thoughts out of my head.

Yesterday I acquired a PS3 from a friend of mine and got to play some games that I wouldn't have access to otherwise. For that, I am grateful. However, I will not return this game system anytime soon, because this game is pretty awesome. I will probably play it day and night for a few weeks until I bore of it, then I will get another one. So if anyone knows him, don't tell him. (You don't know him, and you wouldn't tell him anyway. I know you too well, reader.)

On another subject, my wife's school is out, but since she's teaching in this summer academy thing, she will get to keep teaching for 4 more weeks! Yay stress! In my opinion, they give teachers the summers off because otherwise, they would eventually go crazy and end up shooting up the post office, or drive their car into a farmer's market somewhere. It takes a special kind of crazy to be a teacher, and my wife has plenty of it to go around. We make a good team because of that. If I had married a sane person, all of my eccentricities would be exposed.

Other than that, work is fine, church life is fine, and everything is basically... fine. At work the other day, I read about 50 pages of an autobiography from a local war veteran / newspaper publisher. In reading about his life, I realized that my adventures have been SO dull compared to his. At first, I was a little disappointed in how little I had experienced in my life up to this point, but then I realized: I wouldn't change anything up to this point. I have done almost everything I had aspired to do (graduate college, get married, work in museums), and I really am truly happy with where I am at this moment. This is a big change from how I felt a few years ago. But that is another story for another day.

Now it's time to work for another 6 hours or so, and then prepare for the TRG meetup tonight. Thursday is one of my favorite days of the week!

006 - Monday, Monday!

So the museum was closed for Memorial Day, and I vowed that I wouldn't go by there at all. That I would take a true vacation day and stay away. Well, I broke that vow, and I ended up going anyway to put up a sign that said we were closed. After that, I spent Memorial Day with my family at my parents house. We barbecued some chickens and some ground meat patties (otherwise known as hamburgers). After that, we played with my nephew who just turned one and some bubbles.

So TUESDAY felt like MONDAY! When I arrived at work this morning, I was not in a productive mood, so I did some minor tasks to rev myself up. Overall, the day was less productive than a normal Tuesday, and I blame that on the "Monday was a Holiday" blues.

Overall, the day consisted of various administrative tasks, which I capped off by playing on my PSP for the last thirty minutes of the day.

Katie and I went to John & Bridget's house after that and had taco soup, followed by a healthy dose of Wii Bowling and Wii Golf.

All in all, I had a great day! I think I may start blogging this stuff in the mornings or at lunch, because in the evening, it's hard to concentrate (especially after having a glass of wine after a hard day!).

005 - No big post

Friday I didn't have a lot of time to give a big post, so here's a rundown of what happened:
-New City Hall Dedication Ceremony
-Jambalaya Cookoff final preparations
-Attempted to find a Flip UltraHD Camcorder somewhere in the Lake Area (to no avail)
-Had a nice supper with the wife at Johnny Carino's

Saturday's plans are as follows:
-Jambalaya cookoff from 9:00 - 1:00
-Big gap in the middle of the day
-The Terror Road Gang is heading to Luna's to be abducted by Mothership

Wish me luck, I'm in for a wild ride today!

004 - Busy Day!

What a crazy day! Museum stuff: spent a while trying to get a press release from the city so that when people call us to find out times for the events, we will know. It's really frustrating to have a festival right on your lawn, so people call you to find out information, but you haven't received any details yet! Well, we got it sorted out though.

Did some work in my little garden over lunchtime, got some green onions cut, everything needed water. Some of the onions went to my assistant, some went to the Admiral of the Terror Road Gang, as tribute. I also procured a bottle of 2007 Ste Michele Reisling for them. I am not quite a wine expert yet, but I do keep a list of my favorite bottles, and that was #1 in my Reisling list. It was so good, I even made a little note in my database that I'm never allowed to buy it for myself again, because the bottle empties itself into my face-hole too quickly!

Had supper with my family for my grandfather's birthday, which is the day before my nephew's birthday! I ate more than I should have, but it was very good. (so this sounds mundane, but it was important to me!)

After all of these things, Thursday was officially ready to begin. Met with the Terror Road Gang at about 8:00 p.m., and just got back around 12:30 a.m.! We watched the pilot episode of FarScape for the first hour, and then we basically sat around and talked. Conversation was all over the place, and was excellent overall. I feel very fortunate to have met these people, and I see good things coming from these friendships that I'm forming. I really hope that I can use the job that I have to benefit some of them in some way or another.

Admiral O had some awesome exhibit ideas, which may come to fruition next year sometime. I was also very interested in an idea proposed by the lady of the house (I really need a better nickname for her!), involving an arts program. I hesitate to divulge too much information, because I don't want this idea to get picked up by someone else!

All in all, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my new favorite days of the week, even more than weekends!

003a - Too Long?

Are my posts too long? I am attempting to keep them fairly concise, but when faced with an empty white box for typing, I always tend to fill it up. Let me know! Leave a comment, or send me a tweet with your opinion! I am new to this whole blog world, and I don't just want to vomit stuff onto the web here, I want people to actually read it!

003 - Buildup

Today I did quite a bit of planning for our cookoff this weekend, and noticed some very interesting developments: I had several judges cancel their appearance, so I had to call a few other people to fill in, and now it just so happens I have four judges: Mike, Mike, Marilyn, and Marilyn. I kid you not. I didn't plan it this way, but man, it's interesting to me.

I also met with a few ladies who are interested in getting an exhibit together for early 2010 that will be a display of photos of the Creole Nature Trail! I am very excited about this, because it's an important tourist draw for this area and I want to contribute in any way that I can! The meeting was a little premature in my opinion, in that they didn't have all of their ducks in a row yet (it was their first meeting!), but I suggested some ideas that they thought were good.

Also, I mentioned a "Ghost Hunting" exhibit in yesterday's post. I have new details that have developed since then. The exhibit is tentatively titled: "Ghosts of our Fathers." Also, after meeting with a few people about this exhibit, I have decided that we will probably host some kind of Halloween costume party / fundraiser during this exhibit, entitled "Fire and Brimstone." Let me know what you think of this in the comments, or if you have any suggestions for other events / names.


Unrelated to the museum itself (except that I watched it at my desk): After watching Gary Vaynerchuk's presentation at Big Omaha, I am beginning to question my impact on the world around me. I realize that realistically, I don't have much impact on the big wide world, or even on the nation itself, but I wonder how much influence I have on my local community. I would like to think that my social programs reach a good cross section of the population in the immediate area, but if I'm honest with myself, it's not as much as I would like.

Special programs are ok, but I want to be the guy who is remembered for something special, like Mr. Rogers, for example. I admire the way that he was able to make anyone around him feel like they were the most important person in the room. I want people around me (not just my friends, but the whole community) to know that they're unique in their own ways, and that I admire them for that. I have friends who can't compose an eloquent letter, or even speak clearly, but they can do many things that some of us can't, like fix their own vehicles, or mow their own grass. (I use these examples because I can do neither of those things very well.)

One of the ways in which I do this is by encouraging people that I know. I help with "recreation-time" during the children's program at my church, and I notice that a lot of the kids like me (or at least pretend they do) ever since I started praising them when they kick a ball, or run to a base. I make it a point to be the first to say "Wow, way to go! You really did a great job on that," or offer my hand for a high five. This is a very simple example, but I do this in every aspect of my personal life, from my job to my friendships. After a few years of doing this, I find it very hard to criticize someone publicly, except in a joking or sarcastic manner.

It is my belief that this method makes people want to perform at their best, and builds them up on the inside. More than that though, it changes YOU! I'm finding that the more I praise others, the more I see the good in myself! I could go on and on about this, but I'm not going to.

If you don't do this already, I challenge you to try using encouragement in the workplace today. Instead of telling someone they have made a mistake, praise them on the one thing they did right FIRST, then suggest the correction.

I wish this post were funnier... It turned out more serious than I wanted it to.

I will close with an advertisement I designed a while back:

I am available if you happen to need a tagline at short notice.

002 - Artifacts!

Today went exceptionally well! This morning, my breakdown only lasted about 15 minutes or so, after my appearance on the local television news station. I spent about 15 minutes in the car wondering how many of my friends saw me, and whether or not it looked like I was holding my crotch the whole time (I hate standing with my hands clasped in front of me, for this very reason.)

I happened to be at the TV station to promote an upcoming cookoff event which has been really stressing me out. As the day progressed, however, we had several people sign up for it, based on my TV appearance! Those few signups put me over my expected goal, and we're still 4 days away from it, which really got me jazzed. I work very hard at what I do, and sometimes I surpass my expectations for success, but SOMETIMES I just work very hard not to fail. For certain events, I am ok with this.

But you don't care about that. You want to hear about the artifacts, since this is the blog post entitled "Artifacts." There is a certain individual in my town who has a significant collection of Native American artifacts and armaments (spear points, arrowheads, dart points, etc), and my collections committee and I have been attempting to think of a way to get those from him on loan for an upcoming exhibit.

I attended an Archaeological Society meeting at his house, in which I threw all caution to the wind and asked him very bluntly if we could borrow them for an upcoming artifact show. He seemed a little hesitant, but he eventually told me that he would be willing to part with several of the cases for the duration of the exhibit. I am very pumped about this, because the man is VERY interesting to talk to, and I would very much like for him to be proud of his town's museum (and director!)

This "loan" for the exhibit may potentially turn into a "donation" if we can convince him that we will take good care of it. I really see an opportunity here to make our museum into a research haven for native American artifacts.

I then passed out a flyer at this Archaeology meeting with the schedule for the rest of the year, hoping that people would take note of the native American artifact exhibit, but many of them were more excited about the "Ghost Hunting in SWLA" exhibit in the months immediately following the artifact show. I really hope that exhibit pans out, because I see it opening new doors for us down here.

Well, it's been a productive day, full of hairgel (for the tv appearance) and handshakes, and now it's about time for bed. Another full day tomorrow, with museum all day, followed by church with kids!

001 - Skills: Marketing!

I don't know if I'm dedicated enough to keep a blog about work, but I'm going to try to use it to post things that I have learned in the course of my time as a museum director. I hope that after I die, and the laughter and cheers have subsided,* people can learn from my mistakes, as documented on this internet thing here.

I guess my first lesson has to do with skillsets. My passion is history. While that can be an important skill for a curator, I would rank it at #5 on my "Museum Director's List of Important Skills."™ I have been told that I give a phenomenal tour of my museum, and I have a great time delving into the myriad books in my archives. When it comes to events, however, I always wish I had more experience / ability in the realm of marketing.

See, I can totally plan an event months before it occurs, but when it comes time to talk to the media about it, my mind says "Hey chief, it's a little too early to be callin those guys,and messin with their work schedules, don't ya think? Who do you think you are, the president? Get off your high horse!"

I already have a hard time talking to people on the phone because I have this fear that the instant my mouth opens, the person receiving my verbal information has formed the opinion that I am mentally inferior. Maybe that's not what they think, but I think it.

What I really need to do is sit down, draft a thoughtful press release which includes all pertinent information, contact info for more details, and send it via email. I can then call them in an hour or so to see if the message was received. That's not arrogant, is it? If this were done for every one of my events, chances are we could have a great relationship, the media and I.

So there, first post finished. If it feels incomplete, it's just because I have to get up early in the morning, and needed to get that off my chest before I go to bed. I might add more to this blog, or maybe I'll just delete it!

Oh, the title of the blog is a play on the book title "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing"... I used "Second Grade" because that's what my wife teaches, and she says my handwriting is worse than her students'. (Also, "First Grade" sounded too pretentious, like... "I'm #1!" Have you noticed my inferiority complex yet?)

This was one of those ideas which sounded very clever as I was driving in my car, and then when implemented, just sounds dumb. I think that if this blog ever becomes interesting, people will look at that title and go "Jeez, he couldn't spend five minutes to pick a better title? Come on!"

*I'm pretty sure I'm going to die in a circus accident, or in some other crazy fashion. My life has been far too mundane at times to end in just a... pfft. Also, I haven't tested this theory, but in my opinion, thinking about your own death is probably pretty healthy? So that if I ever am faced with a situation in which I might die, maybe I've already experienced that scenario in my imagination and can be prepared!