I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
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July 2007 Archives
July 26, 2007
The Palestinian View
Filed under: Life's Journey
With the convention ending yesterday and our touring that begins tomorrow, Jamaica and I had a free day. We decided to take a trip off the beaten path and get a little different perspective on life in Israel. Through some connections Jamaica had made back in the States, we made a trip to the West Bank. Hebron to be exact. Just saying the words "West Bank" is making a political statement because it refers to the West Bank of Jordan and Israel doesn't recognize that as the West Bank--it's actually east Israel.
Jamaica and I boarded a Palestinian bus (without air-conditioning!) early in the morning and made the 30-mile, two hour trip to Hebron. We were lead around the city for several hours getting to know the other side. And boy was it another side. If ever the quip that says "there are two sides to every story, and then there's the truth" rang loud and clear, this would be it. Among our observations:
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July 25, 2007
Foursquare Convention Israel
Filed under: Brad Works
The Foursquare convention in Jerusalem just finished up today. This is my sixth convention and every year it seems like the load gets bigger and bigger. This year was no exception, especially considering we were in a foreign country and our normal crew was unavailable this year. I am grateful for the core team that was here because it took all hands on deck to make this happen.
Overall I feel pretty good for how things went from a logistical perspective. Feedback from some of the nearly 3,000 in attendance has all been positive. Being the perfectionist that I am, there were a few too many mistakes, mostly having to do with the load time for words on the screens.
It was a pleasure working with the local Israeli crew. The language and cultural barriers were frustrating at times, especially in moments of panic that are typical of running live events.
I am looking forward to winding down over the next week as Jamaica and I get to tour the country with the rest of the convention staff.
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July 22, 2007
Israeli Customs, Continued
Filed under: Brad Works
It turns out that the nightmare with customs was exactly that. We ended up getting our pallet just hours before the event began. The printed materials were for the opening night (we couldn't change it around because of a bylaw requirement that necessitated that these packets be distributed).
The re-printed materials that we had set in motion on Friday arrived at practically the same time that the pallet did! We had dozens of volunteers waiting and ready to assemble the packets--it was quite the fiasco!
Israeli customs ended up fining us big time for the shipment, claiming we had tried to sneak things through. They held back some of our stuff--including the box of electronics. That stuff is still held up in some shipping nether-world...
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July 20, 2007
Nightmare With Customs
Filed under: Brad Works
It was about a month ago that Cheryl Johnson (one of the Foursquare admin gurus on my team) began working on the logistics for shipping a pallet of stuff from Los Angeles to Jerusalem for our convention here this coming week. We had done everything we could to avoid shipping and customs hassles. I had already been to Israel several times to setup local contacts--including printers--for this very reason. Unfortunately, there were a handful of print jobs that were going to be cheaper to print in the U.S., and then ship to Jerusalem. No problem, we printed them with plenty of time to ship and arrive safely. A nice little savings of $10,000.
At the last minute before the shipment was set to go, one of the IT guys saw the pallet and asked if he could throw a small box of electronic things on so he could avoid carrying them with him on his flight. No big deal, throw it on.
Wait. Very big deal.
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July 14, 2007
And We're Off
Filed under: Abare News
Jamaica and I are sitting in the LAX airport awaiting our flight to New York. This is day number one of our four-week journey ahead. We'll arrive in Israel on Monday and be there through August 2. From Israel we head to Istanbul for a few days and then on to New York for five days before returning home on August 11 (our six-year anniversary).
The primary purpose of the trip is for the Foursquare Convention in Jerusalem. I am a part of the team producing the event. We'll have 3,000 people from nearly thirty different nations present.
After the convention, Jamaica and I will get to spend a week touring all around Israel. Our few days in Istanbul will be just us as we explore a country we've never been to. The New York crescendo will be spent with friends as we get settled back into life on U.S. soil.
Here we go...
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July 9, 2007
Surnames
Filed under: Reading Room
One of the other things I liked about reading Benjamin Franklin was the tangents that Walter Isaacson goes of on. For example, Isaacson gives a little background about surnames, and how they were a reflection of their context. The upper classes tended to take on the names of their domains, like Lancaster or Salisbury. Tenants of the wealthy would reflect their own little turf of land like Hill or Meadows. Artisans would assume a title of their trade like Smith, Taylor, or Weaver. Franklin comes from the Middle English word "frankeleyn" which means freeman.
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July 8, 2007
Benjamin Franklin
Filed under: Reading Room
I don't make a habit of picking up books with more than a few hundred pages, but I've been wanting to read former Time editor Walter Isaacson's 590-page Benjamin Franklin for quite some time. Thanks to a long flight back and forth between Israel last month, I was able to do just that.
"Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us," says Isaacson in the opening pages of this truly engaging read. I definitely appreciated the first half of the book more than the last half, most likely because the first half had so many details about Franklin and the historical events surrounding his life that I was not aware of.
Franklin is credited with doing a lot. From coming up with the idea for fire stations and libraries, to establishing the matching grant and the middle class, he would also, in January of 1751, start what is known today as the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to being "American's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist...," Isaacson says Franklin was also "America's first great publicist who continued to reinvent himself."
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