Author: Carl Page 73 of 153

Long Distance Love

On July 6, 2015

Long-distance relationships are hard. This is not news to anyone who’s been in one. I’ve spent far too many hours driving through Virginia.

I met the woman who would become my wife when I lived in Richmond, VA and she was in school at Virginia Tech. Almost every weekend this meant driving out to Blacksburg or waiting for her to do the same. These were the longest drives ending in the hardest Sunday nights I’ve had. The tearful goodbyes and painful distance meant the weeks were full of video chats, IMs, text messages and as much remote contact as we could manage.

It didn’t get any better once she graduated. She was in Northern VA and I was still in Richmond. Our weekends were the same long drives, but different destinations. Instead of I-64, it was I-95 into the heart of DC traffic and back again every weekend (or as close to that as we could manage.)

I remember the stretches of three weeks without seeing each other feeling like the longest times of my life. The computer gives bad hugs. And it never kisses me back.

So while we couldn’t be close to each other, I got to know this wonderful woman deeper than anyone else. We talked. For hours. Everyday. About everything. We shared our loves and fears. Our taste in music and movies. Stories from our lives and our daily existences. I knew Annie and she knew me. We grew ever closer as we learned more and more about each other.

We didn’t have silent movie dates followed by mouths full of food. We had talked all week. We knew each other.

It made every moment we had together all the sweeter. We would spend every moment of those weekends together. The delays in traffic hurt so much because they cut into that precious time together.

It was a rough part of my life. And it lasted far longer than I hope it would. But I eventually found work in DC and moved closer. We eventually got married and moved in together.

The long-distance was the hardest part of our relationship but it also made it so much stronger. It’s always hard, but it will pay off in the end. Use the time you have apart to talk and really get to know each other. Make sure the relationship is worth it. You will be richly rewarded.

Bobby Bonilla should thank Bernie Madoff

By Carl

On July 1, 2015

In Links and Quotes

This morning, I came across the fascinating story of why the Mets pay a long-retired player a little over $1,000,000 every year. This is the tale of Bobby Bonilla, Bernie Madoff and the luckiest baseball contract ever signed. Enjoy your money Bobby, you’ve set yourself and your kids up to have a good life.

When it came time to negotiate with The Mets, Bobby Bonilla was smart enough to secure one of the most forward thinking contracts in sports history. He knew The Mets wanted him gone but technically owed him $5.9 million. He also knew he had a young son and daughter who would be looking to go to college, and as a 36 year old, he likely had many years worth of life to live. So at this point, Bobby and his agents offered a unique compromise: The Mets would release Bobby to play for another team and they would delay the $5.9 million payment for 11 years, with interest. In essence, The Mets agreed to pay Bobby a total of $29.8 million (instead of $5.9 million) in 25 annual installments of $1.192 million, starting in the year 2011.

Bobby Bonilla

So why would The Mets agree to this deal?

The Bernie Madoff Connection

In 1986, Real estate developer Fred Wilpon purchased 50% of The New York Mets for an undisclosed sum. He purchased the remaining 50% for $135 million in 2002. Wilpon was also one of the biggest investors in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme hedge fund. Prior to the fund’s December 2008 collapse, Madoff was returning a consistent (and completely fake) double digit rate of return every year.

With those returns in mind, Wilpon knew that The Mets would actually make a huge profit by deferring Bonilla’s $5.9 million. Even though that meant agreeing to pay him more than five times the amount they owed ($29.8 million), Wilpon could safely estimate that the Mets would make $60-70 million off $5.9 million over those 25 years investing with Madoff.

I hope Bonilla sends Madoff a Thank You card every year. This is a fantastic tale that I’d never seen until it was a Facebook trending topic this morning.

Trent Reznor on Apple Music: Other Services ‘Left Me Feeling Lacking’ | Rolling Stone

By Carl

On June 30, 2015

In Links and Quotes

Nine Inch Nails singer on Taylor Swift, creating Beats 1 and reviving the value of music

I want that feeling of walking into an independent record shop, if there are still any that exist, like Amoeba [Records], and being delighted by the choices and the way music is presented to you with love and care. It’s exciting. And you leave with stuff you wouldn’t have dreamed you wanted and you’re excited to listen and share it and experience it.”

I am curious about Apple’s Radio experiment. I’ve not used any of the streaming services more than the occasional background music.

I’m not lining up to tune into Apple Music or Beats 1 either. I am excited to see what artists will do with their Connect pages. Reznor mentioned something very cool he’s doing once the service launches.

Rolling Stone: How soon will you, as an artist, be putting new music up on Apple Music’s “Connect” or on Beats?

Reznor: When the service goes live, the first thing I’ve put up is something I couldn’t have done or wouldn’t have done anywhere else, which is the entire album The Fragile as an instrumental-outtakes compilation that plays like a regular album but sounds very different without my voice in the way. And there’s different arrangements to certain songs and oddly that makes for a different, complementary music experience. So that’ll be there as soon as you download the app, you’ll see that in, on my Connect page.

I’ve always been excited with what Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor) has done with music. It’s not just putting music out or putting it out free years after the records were released. It’s not just offering remix albums but there are interesting things like this.

I will get my hands on it as soon as I can, because I love that album and want to hear it in a new way.

Crate of Penguins — What The Church Can Learn From Apple

By Carl

On June 30, 2015

In Links and Quotes

I will never tire of reading Sid’s writing. He’s a smart guy with a view completely opposite of my own on many topics. He’s a great communicator and thinker. I love to debate with him because he comes from a place of love. I know we’re not going to see eye-to-eye and that’s not the goal.

The goal is to put our beliefs into words which both helps us reaffirm and refine them. But it also allows us to see where each other are coming from. I respect his views, even if I don’t agree with him.

In his latest piece, he writes about The Church (Catholic in this case) and Apple. There are similar communities around both and they’re both selling a product, an experience, and in many ways, an entire life style.

The Church, I believe, has some great products. The best, in fact.

WHAT ARE WE SELLING?

What are those products? Truth is one. Community is another. Depending on your tradition, Sacraments might also be available. Love is the flagship. It’s a rock solid lineup.

Even I have to agree, that’s a hard lineup to beat. But as he goes on to say, the message is often fractured and translated through many others.

Imagine how much you’d want to buy an iPhone if the only things you read about it were written by Samsung employees! This is precisely how the majority of the Western world hears the Christian viewpoint. So it’s not really surprising that in a lot of people’s minds the words “Christian” are synonymous with the words “hatred and intolerance”.

I won’t spoil his entire post, and it’s a good one. He’s looking for other writers to share ideas and write about their experiences. Authentic voices. Real people writing from their own place of love.

A sort of Read & Trust for The Church.

Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage front pages | Newseum

By Carl

On June 29, 2015

In Links and Quotes

#LoveWins. The Newseum is hosting a collection of 822 newspaper front pages from around the world. Check out the full collection from Saturday and Sunday.

The next time you’re in DC, you really need to visit. It’s worth a couple of hours of your time. There is a display in front of the building with the day’s newspapers displayed as well.

The Virginian-Pilot always does something special and they did not disappoint.
Virginian-Pilot front page after Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling