We Traveled to Savannah for Work!

Back in September of 2023, I took a lot of videos about all the fun I was having on a work trip. It took me a while to get to a point where I wanted to work through that video footage and share it. In fact, I grew a beard for no shave in November and have since shaved it off for my wife’s birthday. So here we are a whole beard later.

Are work trips always fun, well, not really, especially if you have to travel all the time for work. I have done that and after a few months, it gets old. However, there is a secret weapon that I plan to explore further and it threatens to be a theme for me moving forward. That concept is the one of Novelty. Specifically how novelty can increase your lifespan, or at least your perception of your lifespan, which to be fair is the same thing… more on that later, but for now, let’s talk about how amazing this short work trip was. I flew out to Savanna with a layover in Nashville on Southwest Airlines on a Wednesday morning. That night we had dinner with the whole team and on Thursday we had our big meeting. I could have flown home on Thursday but I snuck in a bit more novelty by hanging around Thursday night and flying home Friday morning.

I do not want to downplay the Pirate Nature of this work trip. So look out for the pirate themes… Not sure how ya could miss it ya
SWAB! offen’ ya goes ta swab Vee starbird bow. Make Haste! A.I. review shared that I jump around aimlessly from topic to topic here and do not have a point. How else should a good Pirate behave?

Skull and Crossbones Pirate Flag
AdobeStock_467304940

So, off to a good start on this business trip. We were in a fun town. It’s not easy to have such a novel experience when you are stuck in the belly button of Newark.
Luckily the video below starts at the Savannah airport and quickly progresses a restaurant called The Pirate’s House – ARGGHHH.

Yes.

Well, why can’t it be both? With a bit of intentional effort, it usually can.

Although the reason for this trip was to capture feedback from our talented SMEs on the EPEC training content provided by NAED, the footage I captured had very little to do with that process. This is in part because I simply didn’t think to capture that video of us working, but also because we were discussing learning content that is developed for sale by the National Association of Electrical Distributors, so I didn’t feel comfortable doing so.

In hindsight (Which is normally in 20/20 they say) I should have captured more video of us actually working on the training project itself. It is not exactly exciting, (unless you are a learning nerd like I am or an electrical products nerd like our SMEs,) but it is nice to see how passionate our reviewers are about being factual and transparent in presenting the landscape of the electrical distribution market. Moving forward I think our Marketing team would enjoy having that sort of content on hand, so I might make an effort to start capturing it.

Now I have only been on two of these trips, but from what I gather we normally find time outside of working hours to just walk around. This time we were tipped off by one of our talented SMEs that there was a Prohibition Museum within walking distance of our hotel. So we definitely hit that up, and that is definitely represented in the video above. My leader, Kitty, found a fantastic restaurant to dine at called The Pirate’s House – ARGGHHH. (I would like to point out that this “ARGGHHH” was not added by me but by the top Google result for the restaurant’s home page. So, yeah, that says a lot about how cool this restaurant is.

Also, while wandering around we ended up in the Adjacent hotel lobby …or the Hotel lobby that was adjacent to ours. Actually, I am not sure if it was adjacent or what would even make it adjacent, but I do like the word adjacent a lot. It makes me sound smart-ified.
That Marriot Hotel Lobby which was adjacent to our Boutique hotel lobby was filled with Geode Gemstones. I will say, that I did read some of the words found on signs in this location. This was done to make me look more smart-fied in front of my Boss, Kitty, pictured right. While doing this reading of words, I learned that most of these GEODES are the largest samples of such crystals in all of the globe. That is laden with novelty!

Picture of Improvement Dave (David Kolmer) and Kitty Lasinski, Dave's boss in front of the largest of this type of Geode known to the human species in all of existence.
Picture of Improvement Dave (David Kolmer) and Kitty Lasinski, (Dave’s boss) in front of the largest of this type of Geode known to the human species in all of the known meta-verses.
Improvment Dave

So, when I exported these images from iCloud to my PC laptop running Windows, they exported as HEIC files. Normally they do not do that and I am still not sure why they did that this time. I have seen HEIC file format when I export original files from the Mac “Photos” app to my Mac computer, but I have never seen that working on my PC.

At any rate, when I loaded Mac format images into ADOBE Premiere RUSH to create the video they all imported inverted (or upside-down for the uninitiated.) Maybe, I was holding my phone upside-down when I took this mess of selfies and my phone auto-rotated them? I normally only see this file suffix for images I have edited…

Color me Confused!

…and in awe of this ginormous silver Dinosaur skeleton!

So, I say all this to explain, that there is a group of photos I opened as a batch in my Microsoft image viewer and attempted to export as a batch but the batch export didn’t work. I still had to export them one at a time to convert them to PNG files, but at least they were not inverted like in ADOBE for PC.

Now, I could have probably used the HEIC files on my V-log here, because WordPress and the internet are both awesome! …but let me tell you I have had more problems working with these HEIC files than I can share here. I can’t submit them on government web pages, and they never work on the apps for my kid’s school, and that is being done on my iPhone that created them. So, I tend to go out of the way to avoid using the HEIC file format. Yes, Apple, I said it, your format stinks! It smells of wet lettuce. I am sure it is great for all these groundbreaking early-adaptor reasons that I don’t know about. Like some layered spectral benefit that will most likely never benefit me. Mostly they just make me wish I didn’t have an iPhone, and that says A LOT, because I love my iPhone, but I am a simple man.

For example, this is the largest GEODE of this chemical format in the world and it looks like a certain part of the male human anatomy which I will leave unsaid and unwritten at this juncture! Heh! it doesn’t even fit in the shot!

So, either way, many of the exports that I opened as a batch had the tint all messed up, but those are actually kind of cool! so I will post those now to add a dramatic effect to how cool these GEODES were! …I guess the tip was broken off. Oh Well! It’s still the biggest! Does size matter? Not when you are the biggest!

Kind of reminds me of something. It’s on the tip of my lip…

There was a gigantic skull in the floor! (Grammarly wants me to say “on” the Floor. No, Grammarly, NO, bad A.I., it was IN the floor, under glass, lying on a bed of sand… and some rocks and shells and such.)

Crazy Dino-Fish Skull IN the frakin’ FLOOR

So, of course, I laid my body down parallel to the floor for to photograph mine-self.
Hello!? I am Dave, have you ever met me!?

Remember the featured image of this VLOG post!? Well, it even got caught up in the Multi-dimensionally powered MAC/PC image tint fuede!

Who is in this photo!? Wouldn’t you like to know!
Do you really think they want to be associated with this disaster!?

Break down the Tiled Gallery Mosaic with Curved edges SELECTOR!

So, in conclusion, traveling with the National Association of Electrical Distributors of the United States of America is an Electrifying experience.

OK, I’ll stop. In all seriousness though….

It was a real gem of an experience!

Improvement Dave

Measurable and Quartzified.

MUSIC
Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni
French 79 – Quartz

Happy Halloween!

You might not be aware but for October, I continued my consistency challenge. I paid homage to the great Chinese philosopher Lau Tzu by consistently NOT posting on my blog for a whole month.

Sometimes the best action is to not take action and I must say, a break was nice, after a month of posting every day for my pushup challenge and posting as frequently as I could for a biking challenge.

Some pumpkins I carved with my kids. and some pictures of them moving in a slow shutter speed shot to look like “Ghosts.” Fun stuff as we prepare for Halloween!

I will say that I have not shaved for the end of October and I will continue that for no shave in November. So I will be consistently NOT shaving the hair off my face for November. I want to share my inspiration. (Please read my response to this initial FaceBook post.

So you can see below that I have gotten a bit of a head start. My social media is not flattering. I am very transparent about how amazing my life is not. Here I have tagged myself #iswalking. I walk a lot and it is my most frequent tag on Facebook:

Here I am at the checkout at the local “Schnucks- the friendliest stores in town” They are inexpensive and their produce is sometimes OK. I am back on not drinking alcohol, so this is a very special #iswalking selfie.

I think I should be consistent in this #iswalking. I did not do that when I started, but I think I might. Well, I should, just to be consistent.

So, as you might have guessed, October was the month of consistently not doing. I will continue to not do something in November by not shaving, but I will continue to start writing again. I am thinking about how I did 16 days of learning to design in 3D and then I completed the training modules and worked on an art piece, had trouble exporting to other Adobe applications, and then just stopped. Well, I was feeling tapped out. I was feeling very vulnerable for not knowing how to export and I didn’t want to force any creative ideas. However, now I have some ideas I would like to pursue in that space so I plan to return to that 30-day challenge and even though it is not 30 days back to back I can at least still follow through and be consistent in completing the challenge.

I love you!

Lau Tzu [Tao Te Ching chapter 48]

Exercise is a Good Way to Generate Creative Ideas

Cycling through the woods is relaxing and enjoyable

So even though this was on October 10th, and my Cycling More Consistently in September Oddesy is over, I still recorded some video footage. In this episode, I make a recording while riding and then nearly flip my bike into a hole in the ground. I comment on how I need to get a better setup if I want to keep recording rides.

Then I turn onto the street, drive down a hill flip my bike and bust open my lip. I was holding the camera with my right hand so the sun would be on my face, and my left hand was on the bike and controlling only the front brakes. I noticed I was going a bit too fast down a hill and so I squeezed the brakes on my new bike. I have disc brakes now, not the old caliper brakes with the pads. These disc brakes are way, more responsive, and I knew that, but I wasn’t aware I was just slamming the front brake.

At any rate, this was a good lesson to learn. I need to focus on my safety and I am glad I only busted open my lip out in an open space and didn’t break a bone somewhere in the woods.

There is a biking school that has been marketing to me on Facebook and the advertisements are good. I have looked into attending classes but I can’t justify spending money on learning this when I am a learning and development professional. I plan to locate some good learning content on YouTube and double-check my LMS at work. As a long-term goal, I plan to volunteer at NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association). This program offers me an opportunity to become a coach in training in a local team of student learners, then when I graduate I can lead a pack of cyclist students and perhaps include my kids in the team if they are game.

Check out the video to see me bust open my lip and make video footage in a state of shock! LOL!

This was easy. The bootlegger’s trail is a quick 5-minute ride from my house. Easily the second-ranked off-road trail in the Saint Louis area and is right next to my house. That’s lucky!

The Bootlegger’s Run is a 4.7-mile trail through the woods of the upper level of Creve Coeur Park. All Trails has a lot of comments that it is not the best trail for hiking because there are a lot of Mountain Bikers. When I ran there the bikes didn’t bother me but I guess I am a walker and a rider.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/missouri/bootleggers-run

One thing I have liked about these solo rides is they give my subconscious mind time to speak up. I have gotten several ideas while on these rides. Many of them are about the Blog or my day job as an Instructional Designer. One that popped up during this ride is especially interesting. It pulls on my background as an actor and an English as a Second Language teacher. I did a lot of theater in high school and received my BA in Theater Arts. While getting that degree I also studied Japanese using a curriculum called Japanese, the Spoken Language (Authors: Eleanor Jorden, Mari Noda) developed by the US government for spies and the like. It was a great language learning platform because it systematically used simple dialogues to reinforce crucial grammatical structures. You relearned how to think and build thoughts according to the Japanese grammar system. (*I used this concept a lot when I worked in Thailand for 7 lucky years teaching English as a Second language ESL.)

In this JSL curriculum, the learner looks a small clumps of very useful conversations and memorizes them one line at a time. These are backed up with well-written explanations of the grammar being introduced. Then you listen to recordings of native speakers saying these lines. After that you work in class and the teacher sets up given circumstances that support the same language (notice the teacher term I used there?) Once the scene is set the students take turns acting out the dialogue with the teacher. The benefit is you get to hear the dialogue multiple times in class and you get to participate. My basic conversational Japanese is not bad to this day, if I had pursued it I would have been set up for success. Instead, I decided to start over and learn Thai from scratch while living and working in Thailand.

So, my idea would work at this point in the curriculum. I came up with the concept to call “Play Right”. At this point in the language learning the students would take the simple sentences that we learned in class and each week, create a video of them speaking the dialogue with themselves or other students in a real setting. Throughout the class, the students could build a video scene of their achievements. This could even become an online resume of sorts the showcase their language skills. Very useful in a country like Thailand where tourism is a large part of the national income. With English being the universal language, That is one of the most useful languages to support tourists.

Another thought that I had that brought more of the theater into the idea was using simple plays as the dialogue. Like a fun play by David Ives. This part may maybe more of a useless pipe dream, but I think it could open the door to more creative results. The Tourist application would be more useful for a resume, but using actual plays would be more valuable for artistic or aesthetic reasons, which is what I am more interested in.

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni (CC)

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

CYCLING ODYSSEY – DAY 31 of 30

So even though this was on October 1st, I will consider this the final ride of my Cycling More Consistently in September Odyssey. We drove over an hour and a half total for a 1-hour ride along the Katy Trail just North of New Haven, MO.

That being said, this might be the last official tour of the challenge but I have already recorded the next installment of Improvement Dave cycling. It is in the woods, it is mountain biking and there will be blood (literally). So, yeah, I am not going to stop cycling or making cycling videos anytime soon.

This Video Highlights the Content Below

Google Maps recommends a route that is just over an hour.

We took the scenic route for 41 minutes.

My daughter threw up right around Balducci’s winery, which was one of our favorite wineries and pizza spots until it was bought by a large conglomerate and they ruined it. Sorry, not going to pay top dollar for frozen pizza. Now the only thing useful at Balducci’s is the dumpster.

We stopped at Quick Trip to get coffee and slushies. (The slushy and the crazy backwood roads are probably what caused my daughter to “blow chunks”.) …at any rate, I was so very excited to see that the bill was exactly $5.55 after tax. I explained to my family that 5 is my lucky number.

In the United States (and most of the West) 7 is lucky. In China, Thailand, and most of the East 9 is lucky. So I figure I can like any number I damn well, please.

  1. The number of men is “5”. (6 being the number of the Satan, and GOD is 7 in traditional Judeo-Christian thought.)
  2. The number I swam for as captain on the J.V. water polo team in high school, was “5”.
  3. Our numerical system is based on repeating 10s so “5” is the center, to me this represents the “middle path” or the “straight and narrow”.
  4. I spent 7 lucky years in Thailand and saying #5 in the Thai language is “Ha”. So “555” is synonymous with laughter or happiness.
  5. I don’t really have a 5th reason, but I want a list of 5 reasons for why I like “5”. So, I imagine being 5 years old probably is one of the best ages to be. Self-aware, but you still have that “Child’s Mind.”

Well, on my Google Maps, I dropped a pin long ago and named it “Riverside Jamz“. More specifically, we were north of New Haven, MO, due west of St. Louis, MO. Just south of a little town called Pinckney, MO. If you have never heard of Pinckney, that’s because it is in the middle of nowhere. Neither Google nor Wikipedia have a single picture or even a population count. Google Maps does not go through Pinckney and the best picture I could find online was this. (below)

The Road to Pickney, MO.

When we arrived I started by getting all the bikes set up.

There was only one picnic table in the shade and the table top was not level. I didn’t get a good picture of the table before I started to level it with the pile of limestone rocks nearby, but trust me it was not useable. I then leveled out the benches as well. We threw a quilt over the table and had a nice lunch of spring rolls, salad, and melon.

While we ate a few families drove by the road on little buggies, and then a family drove up in a truck pulling a pontoon boat. This made the trip feel like a short vacation away from our normal routine.

After we ate we packed up our picnic stuff and got on the bikes. For a 41-minute drive one way we did a nice 1 hour ride on our bikes. So, that was a lot of driving for a 1-hour bike ride, but we just really liked this spot because of the old bridge right on the river. We have stopped at this little spot on the side of the road 3 or 4 times now.

The only issue we had on the ride was that a chain fell off the gear so we had a fun time working on getting that put back on as a team.

We found it one time while driving home from my uncle’s farm out in Osage County, MO. This is also known as the middle of nowhere, MO.

It was another perfect day. Living life to the fullest, sucking the sweet marrow out of life, and making great memories.

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni (CC)
Polo & Pan – Feel Good (CC)
John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music (CC)
To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco Free Music Archive (CC)

Consistently Cycling More Often in September 2023 – Day 30

This was the final day of the cycling more often in the September challenge.
Getting out and riding around the park right next to our house was sublime.

This challenge has taught me that the process is more important than the destination. I never really rode to any specific place while riding as much as I could in September. Spending more time with my family, getting some exercise, and seeing places I never would have seen otherwise. These were the benefits of cycling more frequently in September. Being grateful for the simple pleasures in life and recognizing them as the moments that make up our life, is the secret to happiness.

John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Wandering in the Woods

In this video, I share my experience as a father. As a member of a family where we all have aspirations and we all have goals. Everyone in our family unit has their perspective and their set of objectives when I get out of any given situation. This post is a continuation (Day 25) of my September Cycling Challenge.

Consistently Cycling More Often in September 2023 – Day 25

In the video, I focus on how we chose to walk through the woods on this day because the day before I planned a bike ride in my mind where my daughter would not ride as the third wheel behind my bike. That is a format that we call the copilot in which my daughter’s bike only has one wheel and is attached to my seat post. my mind it would be great if we could go out on a bike ride and she could ride her bike by herself. This was a large leap that I made on my own because she’s really only written on her bike a few times and her confidence is still low. We can add that, but it was late in the day she hadn’t had a nap, maybe not eaten the most healthy food and she wasn’t in her best form. More importantly, I packed the car without consulting anyone and when we got to the bike ride, that’s when she realized that she would not be riding with me but she would be riding on her own. This was met with unhappiness, tears frustration, and of course, I ignored all of that, because this was going to be the best thing ever.

In this post on my Vlog, I resolve to better include my family in decisions, that impact outcomes that they will be a part of. I will attempt to pause and plan with everybody included. This idea of mine, to have my daughter ride her own bike, which was not malicious, or in any way an act of me wanting to negatively impact her experience; doesn’t change the fact that it did negatively affect her experience. It was hot and sunny in the only empty parking lot we could find, and she fell numerous times. She was angry, frustrated, thirsty, tired, and she cried; and then, of course, I was frustrated and angry at myself because I didn’t get to ride my bike at all or exercise.

What I learned
Don't make big decisions in a silo.
Include the whole team/family
Be open to possibilities you didn't expect

We didn’t cycle the following day. My wife had a great idea to lower the bar and just go run through the woods. This turned out very well because everyone in our family is good at running in the woods.

Stepping down off the bike also enabled us to talk more, and I realized that maybe my children would like to be more of a part of my video creation. You can see in the video that the kids are interested in being involved so I started including them more.

In the video, I talk quite a bit about wanting to have consent from my kids. While also not asking them to speak, or asking them to do something for the benefit of my videos.

Consent is something that came up while I was on a business trip last week. We were all at a table, eating and drinking and I started recording my colleague.

I had no ill intent in this act, I just really liked what was being discussed at that time and the designer in me had an impulse that I should record the conversation.

The second time I hit record on my phone the recording app stayed on the screen and I laid the phone on the table. My colleague noticed I was doing that, and he politely said, “You need to ask before you start recording me” he was 100% accurate, especially in a business setting. I will add that we have discussed the idea of starting a podcast together, so this is a person that I know rather well, but that doesn’t change the fact that I need consent and can’t just start recording without sharing what I am doing.

I will say that I had already had a few cocktails and did not make a good choice at that moment. The next day I felt very guilty about my behavior. I apologized and he said that he was kidding, which felt good but didn’t change the fact that had a good point. Moving forward I will commit to always asking for consent before, including anyone and one of my recordings.

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Day 37 – Push-Ups for St. Jude

My goal WAS to do 50 pushups every day for August 2023. It has been one week since I completed this challenge. I have done at least 50 pushups a day past the 31-day challenge. On day 36 (yesterday) I did 100 pushups! Then I took a hot bath and had to ice up my arm.

Comparing Day 1 to Day 31

Today I compare what my 1st day of pushups looked like up against my 31st day.

Here are the main points I make in this video:

(I am sorry they are not composed as learning objectives! HAHA!)

What I learned by Improvement Dave

Think ahead - be proactive
Vlogging Takes Time
Consistency Hold you Accountable

In the video, I fail to mention that this 50 pushups a day challenge not only made me commit to holding myself accountable but I was also motivated me to build other skills.

For example, I wanted a logo for my blog but have not been very active in developing it. The energy generated from this project motivated me to sketch out my logo, scan it in, and then design a PNG file in Adobe Illustrator with a transparent background. I actually recorded my screen while designing my logo and plan to release that video next week. Once I got the ball rolling on the pushups, other projects didn’t seem as daunting as they did before. The first step is the most difficult.

Not Too Late to Give to the Children!

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1690575421423292/?fundraiser_source=external_url

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Day 27 – Push-Ups for St. Jude

Today again was a very rough day of doing 50 push-ups a day for Saint Jude. I make a good point in this video that you know if I was just healthier and if I had been doing this since I was young, this would be easy. I then get on my soapbox and preach how it’s never too late to start.

I’m going to be honest my cheat day has turned sort of into a cheat weekend. Saturday night, I had a couple beers, and a glass of wine and didn’t eat very well (Pizza, ice cream, Peach cocktails, etc.).

Normally, this really wouldn’t affect push-ups the next day, but since I am old, and I have been eating, very healthily and not drinking alcohol, I can really tell the difference when I do add these things back into my routine. You will notice that in the second set, my kids come down to help in my first set. You can hear them screaming upstairs in the bathtub, but please don’t worry my wife was watching them.

I did a 5-minute breath work session between the two sets, which is available to view after the two sets of pushups. In this video, I do the basic 4-count in, 4-count hold, and 4-count exhale. Then when that feels comfortable I up it to 8-counts for all three. Normally I would do a 4 or 8-count hold after the exhale but having just done pushups and preparing to do more pushups I do not tend to hold on the exhale. In this video, I didn’t do the full 5-minute breathwork because I was very pressed for time.

I am doing 50 pushups a day for August 2023. I am now including all my breathwork in these daily video updates and owning the fact that this is a form of meditation. I am sharing my experience with the practice and the benefits I receive from it.

I’m Doing more than 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1690575421423292/?fundraiser_source=external_url

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Music by Khruangbin Live at Boulder Theater on 2019-05-08
https://archive.org/details/Khruangbin20190508017/Khruangbin2019-05-08-008.flac

30-Day 3D Model Challenge 17/30

Day 17 – Creating a Wheel

Learning From Failed Goals

In this video, I discuss how I am refining my approach to being consistent. I am no longer focused on consistently posting on my blog daily but instead consistently minding my priorities and waiting until I have time to create a higher-quality post.

Back to the Basics

I am glad I decided to backpedal from trying to export Adobe Substance Modler files into Adobe Substance Painter and just focus on getting better at Modeler. I like how this more advanced tutorial made use of the boolean functionality, symmetry, and repetition. This video also showed some simple yet creative ways to quickly create dynamic shapes only using the clay and erase tool.

Work Cited