Proust Questionnaire Number Fourteen

Proust Quote:
"The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind."

Confessions Question:
Your idea of misery.

Confidences Question:
What would be my greatest misfortune?

Proust's Answer:
Not to have known my mother or grandmother.

I once stated that the greatest misery is waiting for something to happen and the greatest happiness is when that thing happens. Therefore I think the best way to answer this question is to think of what didn't cause me the greatest depth of misery this year, but what caused me the longest length of misery.

Or what was my greatest mistake in 2009?

To answer this question with one hundred percent honesty my greatest mistake is the same as it has been probably every year of my life. My inability to see and act on what is plainly in front of me. This year that inability lead to a huge mistake, but that mistake is one that I feel that I have been able to correct, more or less.

The mistake that caused me the longest stretch of misery was actually a mistake I made in 2008. I wasn't sure how much detail I would go into on this mistake. It is dependent on how deep into the well of bitterness I wanted to go.

However, of all the people I know that should actually loathe the organization that I could easily eviscerate with but a drop of that bitterness, is worried about what I will write. She doesn't want people to think poorly of this organization that she still loves.

Therefore, I will dial the bile back and just keep this simple and short. I will not go into detail about broken federal tax laws, lies, cover-ups, recriminations and witch trials. I will skate around the edges.

The greatest mistake I made in 2009 was joining the board of a community organization.

This organization exists (at least it is my understanding) to help people gain leadership skills. In essence, it is supposed to be a self improvement organization that does this through community service projects.

Self-improvement did not appeal to me. I belong to the Tyler Durden school of thought on self improvement.

I'm not in the need of enhancing my leadership skills. Running small projects isn't that interesting when you've run a million dollar business. Writing a CPG is somewhat of a joke after you've written actual business plans.

However, I was interested in community service. In fact, I would even say that I was happy in the organization until I joined the Board. In the 3 months I spent on the Board, I witnessed backstabbing, political maneuvering and the most ridiculous turf war I have ever witnessed in my life.

In short, it amazed me what I learned that one human being is willing to do to another human being to protect their small piece of the absolute insignificant part of a power structure for an organization that has 50 members and a budget well under $50,00.

Not that this organization isn't significant, but to quote George Bailey, "In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say (it) is nothing but a scurvy little spider."

In essence there is nothing in this organization that is anywhere near important enough to treat people the way that I witnessed people being treated.

After 3 months on the Board I quit. I can't stand quitting. It is something that runs contrary to the fiber of my being. But sometimes, you have to cut your losses and that is what I did. The Board had broken into 2 factions and the side that I was sitting on had all quit. All of my "allies" were much more passionate about the organization than I was ever going to be and if they weren't really willing to fight for it, then somebody of my nominal interest surely wasn't going to stick around.

But I did stick around the organization for the rest of the year to fulfill some of my obligations. In this time I have come to realize that there isn't really much community service being done by the organization. At least not in the way that I see it. There is a lot of begging other people for money so that they can turn around and give that money to another organization that actually helps people. I don't like begging people for money. Raise money in an honest way and then give the money to the people that actually help other people.

Although my faith in humanity was slightly shaken (I still really can't believe that people would act so heinously to protect something that is so insignificant.) I have decided to make my community service contributions to the world through my church. I will be the Vice President of the Methodist Men for 2010. I have been promised this job has no responsibilities whatsoever.

I figure that if I concentrate my activities on a Christ-centered organization there will be more concentration on actually helping people and less effort to worry about anybody's 3 inches of turf.

That is not to say that I consider my entire time in the organization a waste. Even though I am saddened to think about how much time I wasted on fruitless endeavors in 2009 (I've taken steps to correct that in 2010) I definitely met some incredible and wonderful people through the organization. I hope to continue some of those relationships from outside the organization.

Kountertop

I've posted some pictures from Kountertop's performance on Ames on the Half Shell on Friday.

The weather was a bit chilly but it was a solid evening.





For more pictures from Friday night, click on the link below:


Kountertop

Bonne Finken

Friday Night Bonne Finken played Ames on the Half Shell. Here are a couple of images.

















For about 50 more images, click on the link below:


Bonne Finken & the Collective


This Friday the band will be Kountertop.

4th of July

I had a pretty great 4th of July!

I woke up in the morning and headed to Ames at about 9 am. I met Shannon and her cousin Matthew for a pretty sweet breakfast of biscuits and gravy that Shannon made.

Then I headed over to Jen and Derrick's to drop off some cherry ice cream I made the night before for their annual 4th of July barbecue.

I got to Bandshell Park at about 10 am and worked on Ames on the Half Shell until about 7 pm.

I got a few photos of the event, but I'm just going to post my 5 favorite.



Peg and Angie with Mike Butterworth of The Nadas



Me with Teresa and Logan



Me with Willy



Geri D. re-enacting the stamping of Matthew's Tongue



Matthew and Shannon's Annual 4th of July Portrait (Destined to be used as a Facebook Profile Picture with the cute part cropped out of it.)


After Ames on the Half Shell, I headed over to the fireworks firing grounds. Lighting off fireworks was quite a bit more dramatic this year. I saw quite a few fireworks do things that they weren't supposed to do.

Becky signed up to do fireworks, but after the very first one that Shannon lit blew up only a few feet in the air and flew all over the shooting area, she changed her mind.

I have to admit, that was pretty exciting. The next day I talked to Melissa. She did security for fireworks, so she wasn't at ground zero. She told me that when she saw that first firework blow up and shoot fireworks all over the area, she said a little prayer. But figured everybody must have been okay, because the fireworks didn't stop.

Shannon never knew that her firework malfunctioned, but that is part of the training. You don't watch your firework.

After a couple of minutes, Becky changed her mind and joined in the fun.

Here are a few pictures from the fireworks:



Scott showing off our massive amount of communication technology we had a ground zero.



Hammering Rebar. Rebar is hammered in between mortars to prevent them from falling over and firing into the crowd. Or worse, at the shooters. This is an example of what went wrong in Charles City last year. They used rebar, but they only hammered it in a few inches into asphalt. Because all the mortars were chained together, when one mortar fell over, they all fell over.

Joe unpacking fireworks.



The 10 minute warning. This was the very first firework that Becky ever lit.



Last year, Sara asked me what fireworks look like from the other side. I don't have a good answer for that question, but this is what fireworks look like from underneath.



Shannon lighting a 5 inch shell. The 5 inch shells were the biggest that we lit off this year. I think this is actually my favorite picture from the day. Even though I'm sure critics will claim that it is slightly derivative of my earlier work.



This is an example of what it can look like when something goes minorly wrong. It might look to some people like this is a series of fireworks going off, but it isn't. This is what it looks like when a firework doesn't go up high enough before it blows up. It comes back to the earth before it has completely burned up. The strange thing about this picture is that if you look closely, you can see aluminum foil on top of the mortars. These are the grand finale mortars and they are covered by aluminum foil in case something like this happens. All the grand finale fireworks are fused together, so if 1 of them goes off, they all go off. If you look even closer, you will notice that there is not aluminum foil covering all of the mortars. This happened while people were removing the foil and getting ready to set off the Grand Finale. If you look very close, you can make out Joe on the very right side of the picture. Shannon was also in the middle of this, but she does not appear in the picture.

The Grand Finale going off.

There are a ton of other great pictures from the day. I suggest you either click on the picture below or the link below and check them out:




4th of July

It was a great and safe fireworks show. It was a spectacular show and nobody came close to getting injured!

I concluded the evening hanging out with some wonderful people at Jen and Derrick's barbecue. I didn't leave there until a little after 2, but I still woke up in time to usher at church. Take that sleep! Who needs you any way?

Otter

On Friday night, Ames on the Half Shell finally was not rained out and that was a good thing.

The band was Otter and they put on a great show. I've posted a few pictures from the show in the Snapshots Gallery.

Or you can click on the photo or the link below to check out photos from the night.




Otter


There is no Ames on the Half Shell on this Friday. Instead, there is a special 4th of July edition of Ames on the Half Shell on Saturday from 1-6. The Nadas play from 1-3 and The Box Brothers play from 4-6.

Burnin' Sensations

It rained on Friday night, therefore Ames on the Half Shell got moved inside. I have some pictures in the Snapshots Gallery from show put on by the Burnin' Sensations. Just click on the picture of me and Matt below.

Burnin' Sensations

This week the band is The Josh Davis Band. They are putting on a special acoustic show. It should be pretty cool.

Ames on the Half Shell

Last Friday was the first Ames on the Half Shell of the season. There was a pretty impressive turnout. I personally think that this can be connected to the incredible improvement in marketing between this year and last year.

For starters, there is a sweet new logo:





There is also a sweet new look for the poster:





Of course the website has been quite a bit revamped since last year, but I hate to toot my own horn on that one:


Ames on the Half Shell


But about last Friday, I have posted some pictures in the Snapshots Gallery. Click on the picture or the link below to have a gander:




Ames on the Half Shell - Vivace


This Friday the Burnin' Sensations take the stage and they are an incredibly fun band to watch play.

So come out this Friday and I will see you there!

Another One for the Awards Wall

On March 19, I got a simple 3 word text message from Shannon in Florida:

"I got it."

The "it" that she "got" was a Horiuchi Memorial Award for being an outstanding State Program Manager for the Iowa Jaycees.



Contributed Photo AKA I wasn't in Florida


Although admittedly Shannon wasn't the only member of the Ames Jaycees to come back with some serious hardware.

In fact if a person was to get together with 3 or so of their buddies and put together a press release on what transpired at the United States Junior Chamber 2008 year-end convention, it would include stuff like this:

Ames Jaycees named No. 1 chapter in the nation

The Ames Junior Chamber (Jaycees) came home with several First Place awards from the United States Junior Chamber’s 2008 year-end convention in Crystal River, Florida, March 19-21.

The Ames Jaycees were recognized as the No. 1 chapter in the nation in the Parade of Chapters, a means of tracking points for chapter programming. The Ames Jaycees were also recognized as being No. 1 in its population division and No. 2 in the nation for the chapter’s Annual Report, a year-end report that summarizes all aspects of the chapter including Membership, Individual Development, Community Development, Business Development and International Development.

The Ames Jaycees were one of five Iowa chapters that received a prestigious Silver Chip, awarded to a chapter for four consecutive years of completing the Blue Chip Program, a program that recognizes membership growth and well-rounded programming.

“I’m so proud of the Ames Jaycees. In 2008, we ran a lot of great projects and had a positive impact on our community,” said 2008 chapter president Peggy Nitchals. “The chapter has had consistent dedication by so many members — that’s what made us No. 1 in nation in 2008.”

In addition to chapter awards, two Ames Jaycees were honored for their work on the Iowa Jaycees level.

Member Shannon Bardole received a Horiuchi Memorial Award for serving the Iowa Jaycees as an Outstanding State Program Manager. Member Joey Benson received a Trafton Memorial Award for serving the Iowa Jaycees as an Outstanding Appointed State Board Member.

The Iowa Jaycees had a great year on the national level. Eight of the top 10 chapters in the Parade of Chapters were from the Iowa Jaycees. The Iowa Jaycees were recognized as No. 1 in the nation in the Parade of States and were No. 1 in their population division for the state’s Annual Report. The Iowa Jaycees were also recognized as the top “Support Our Troops” fundraising state.

The Jaycees provide leadership development opportunities through business and service projects. These effective personal and professional skills allow members to excel within their communities. The mission of the Ames Jaycees is to attract and unite a group of young, active, civic-minded professionals who have a clear vision of Ames’s future as a great place to live, work and play. The chapter hosts events targeting a wide range of interests including leadership, career advancement, community involvement, professional and personal development, networking and volunteerism.

For more information about the Ames Junior Chamber visit www.amesjaycees.com.

Some things that weren't included in the press release are:

• At the current rate of award accumulation, Shannon will run out of wall and ceiling space sometime in the spring of 2010.
• Shannon was the only award recipient that was cool enough to wear sunglasses on stage to accept her award.

Matthew 25:40

I began this Saturday morning (12-20-2008) by rising out of bed around 5:45 in the morning. I often don't sleep that well, but on this night I purposely slept on the couch so that I wouldn't sleep well and I would get up in time.

I was getting up at this awful time of day because I had to be at the Senior Citizen's Center in Ames by 6:30 to participate in the Jaycee project known as Holiday Food Baskets.

Despite my body's best effort to stop me from getting up, I did manage to fall out off the couch and stumble to the basement and take a shower. I hit the road and made it to Ames at nearly the right time.

The process of Holiday Food Baskets isn't really worth mentioning, but there are aspects of the day that are worth noting.

But before getting to those aspects I should make a confession. Deflation and the rapid falling of gas prices has put more coin in this guy's bank account. I have often noted that deflation is great, if you still have a job.

It is a poor joke and I do have more than a basic understanding of economics to know that deflation and hard economic times for other people could eventually lead to my not having a job. I do work in what is essentially a luxury industry. Nobody's job is safe, especially people that work's for a company thats services are hardly essential.

The Pastors at my church have made doing something about the homeless situation in Boone a priority for our church. As hard is it may seem to believe, Boone County has the 5th highest rate of homelessness in the state of Iowa. What makes the situation worse is that Boone does not have a homeless shelter.

There was one briefly, but the finances were mismanaged and it is no longer in existence. Now the best that Boone has to help its homeless is the Boone Biblical College, but they only take men.

I write these things because these are things that I think about lately and it can really happen to almost anybody.

The need in Story County for Holiday Food Baskets tripled from 2007 to 2008.

Andrea told us a story about a family that seemed financially secure. In 2007 they were teaching their children to buy presents for other children through the Angel Tree program. In 2008, their children were on the Angel Tree.

The first 2-3 hours of Holiday Food Baskets is basically grunt work. It is essential, but hardly rewarding. You do a lot of moving food from place A to place B to place C. After everything is organized, then people start coming in to pick up their Food Baskets.

This is the part of the project that is rewarding and I think it is slightly unfortunate that only a handful of us that participated got to take part in this one aspect of the project.

This aspect was carrying the basket of food from the Senior Center to the person's car. It is important to put a bag or rolls or some apples in a cardboard box, but I don't think you get a sense of what all of this really means or amounts to and why it is important unless you get a chance to interact with the people that are getting the food.

It can also break your heart.

While I was carrying a cardboard box of food across a street to an SUV for a young woman she told me that this box of food was really going to help her family. They had 8 people living in the same house.

It made me feel completely inadequate and helpless at the same time. I couldn't help but look into the cardboard box. Just a few moments ago it seemed like a lot of food.

A handful of apples and oranges.
A bag of celery.
A bag of potatoes.
A bag of carrots.
A ham.
2 cans of something.
A bag of rolls.

All of a sudden I felt that I should have run in and gotten them a second box. I should have gotten them a third box. The ham was nothing to sniff at, but I would be lying if I didn't say that the ham that we had on our Christmas table that fed 9 people was at least 4 times larger than the ham we gave out. I didn't do this though. The bureaucracy of such things precluded that people had to sign in with MICA and people were designated so much food.

I just wished the young woman a "Merry Christmas" and walked back inside. It is my regret that I didn't just go grab another box for this family. It was a regret that would be doubled and then doubled again.

We had made up 200 Holiday Food Baskets. At the end of the event around 50 remained. Here is where my regret doubled the first time.

We loaded up the excess food and took it to MICA. As it turns out, MICA doesn't really have that much capacity for storing frozen hams. Their freezer was already full and they needed to make room. To do this they gave each of us a turkey.

My regret doubled again.

So now I have this turkey weighing on my conscience, but I throw it in the trunk of my car and drive off.

My first stop is Becky's. I'm supposed to stop at her place to pick up some Christmas gifts. Some for me and some for Teresa. What I learn on this stop is that Becky thinks I'm going to end up in a ditch some time in the near future.

I know she has had this fear for quite some time. When Shannon and I went up to Cedar Falls she gave me an extensive quiz on what kind of safety equipment I had in the car in case we went in a ditch. It basically boiled down to a thermos of hot chocolate. This didn't seem to satisfy her.

She packed a gift bag full of food. Every time I would pull a new tin of food out she would tell me to "keep that in my car in case you go in a ditch."

I do not discount the possibility that I might someday go in a ditch, but the closest I've ever come to going into a ditch was in the middle of the summer and the reason why is because I was reading the newspaper while I was driving to work.*

If the weather is bad, I don't read the newspaper.

After I left Becky's I stopped at Shannon's to watch her make Christmas candy. She also bound my calendars for me.

Somewhere in between the "pink stuff" and the experimental caramel (which involved the use of a candy thermometer - who invented the candy thermometer??) the lack of quality sleep on the couch began to catch up to me in a massive way.

I bid my adieu since I was going to Des Moines for supper with Jeff and Yin and I was hoping to get a nap of Wentworthian proportions in before I hit the road.

Then on Sunday morning in church, Phil announced that a new family in Boone was homeless.

And I still have this turkey on my conscience.

*Not counting the skunk story.

Willy's Birthday

On Willy's Birthday I got a couple of unique photos of some friends.

Willy joined Jesse, Frank, Vest and I for lunch. In honor of Willy's birthday Jesse donned the shirt that Jay made to honor Willy. Then he posed with Willy.



Jesse donning Lone Wolf Gear with Lone Wolf


On Wednesday Andy, Melissa, Becky and Grace set up in front of the Fareway in Ames and Nevada to raise money for Holiday Food Baskets.

While I was sitting at Okoboji Grill having lunch, my phone rang (incidentally I was more popular than my mom last month, I had more used minutes on the cell phone bill!)and it was Shannon. Andy and Becky were setting up in Nevada and Grace was hoping I would be able to go over their and get their pictures.

I was not able to do this because I was celebrating Willy's birthday.

However, while I was sitting at work later that day I got a text message. The number was not in my contact list. Every time that I get a text message from a number I don't know it is pornography.

I'm not what you would call a fan of pornography. I understand why it exists (to demean women) but if I were a fan of pornography, I would make certain that I was sending it to a person I knew for sure. But hey that is just me and The Bennett Text Messaging Pornography Policy.

It ends up that the text message was not pornography, but a message from Melissa wanting to know if I could come down and take a picture of she and Grace at the Ames Fareway.

As it turns out, I could.



Melissa and Grace


Incidentally, you can still donate to the Jaycees' Holiday Food Baskets and help feed 200 families Christmas Dinner in Story County.

Visit the Ames Jaycees Website for more information.

Mr. Meeting

As I look at the year that is rapidly approaching, it turns out that 2009 is going to be the Year of the Meeting.

For starters, I will be the Marketing VP for the Ames Jaycees in 2009. That means two board meetings a month in addition to 2 membership meetings a month.

I will also be on the Board of Trustees at the church. I don't know exactly what the Board of Trustees does, but apparently it involves staring at water damage to the ceiling and then voting on it. I vote "yes" that is water damage. I'm not sure how many meetings that will entail, but I'm hoping that it isn't too many.

It also seems like I might end up on the Board of the Methodist Men. I'm not sure if this is a done deal, but I think that the meet twice a month in between church services.

That should be enough meetings for me, I might have to abstain from all meetings in 2010.

As it is, my years working for the Evil Clown Empire conditioned me to hate meetings. We only really had 2 Store Manager Meetings and we rotated through them.

The first meeting I will call the Boat Captain Meeting. The old man that owned the company would give a stirring story about how managers were doing to much work. My favorite was when he compared managers to boat captains.

If you were a captain of a boat and you saw that you were going to slam into something ahead, would a good captain run down into the boiler room and start shoveling coal or would they grab the wheel and steer the ship out of danger?

The point of the meeting was that he wanted more staff added to every shift so that managers could manage rather than shoveling coal.

The next manager meeting would always be about how labor was too high and we needed to cut labor.

This of course would be followed by the Boat Captain Meeting. It was an endless cycle.

The Least of Us

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. - Mother Teresa

Maybe you hadn't heard, but there are people struggling out there. Maybe you hadn't heard, you can help.

The longest running Ames Jaycees project is the Holiday Food Baskets program. Last year the Ames Jaycees were able to provide 80 families with Christmas Dinner. As the economy has tanked, the number of needy families in Story County has skyrocketed.

The Ames Jaycees are attempting to provide 200 families with a Christmas Dinner this year and you can help. For only 25 dollars you can adopt 1 family and provide them with a Christmas Dinner.

Here is some information that I've taken from the Ames Jaycees website:





As you can see, we are almost halfway to our goal!

Here is the condensed version of the information:

You want to request more information? Email Grace and Melissa at: holidayfoodbaskets@amesjaycees.com.

You are ready to donate? Click the this link: Holiday Baskets Donation Form

Fill out the form, drop it in an envelope, drop in your donation and mail it to the address on the form.

I've heard from two people that are going to donate. I hope to hear from more.

Nonvoting Position

I recently became the Webmaster for the Ames Jaycee websites. Perhaps it is because at times of have been correctly labeled a history nerd (although if you are over the age of 16 and you still feel comfortable using the nerd concept, I feel really bad for you) and improperly labeled a computer guy, but before I could redesign the Ames Jaycees website I did some research on what is used to look like.

I found 3 old-timey header images, that I thought I would like to share.











Even though not a single one of those headers is over 10 years old, they all seem to scream 1987!

It kind of reminds me of the old animated gif days.










The new Jaycee website is fully functional, but there is a tremendous amount of content that still needs to be added. However, I invite you to click on the link below and give it a perusal. You can even fill out a form to get more information about how you to could be a member of the Ames Jaycees (although you do have to be is between the ages of 21-40 and not be incredibly lame):

The Ames Junior Chamber


Truth be known, you can be incredibly lame and still join. I mean the Jaycees are about improvement and who needs improvement more than the incredibly lame?

Shhh...

I don't know if I should be telling you about this, but there is going to be a bonus Half Shell this Friday. Now you won't find it on the poster or the magnet, but you have to take my word on this one.

The band is going to be 35 South. They are a southern rock cover band. You might know this band because their lead singer is Dennis. You might remember Dennis as a guitarist in the band UnHingd or as one of the singers in Against the Grain.

Even if you don't like Skynyrd or Marshall Tucker, you should come check them out because they have, bar none, the best sound guy in the history of sound guys. That is correct Derrick Gorshe. Seeing this man work a soundboard is worth the 3 dollar price of admission.

As usual, the show will be from 5-8 at Bandshell Park near downtown Ames.

Now, I can't be there because I will be in Kentucky, so some of you are going to have to go and watch Derrick for me. It will definitely be worth it.

Kountertop Pictures

If you like pictures like this...






Then it is time for you to go over to the Snapshots Gallery. There are more pictures over there in the Ames Jaycees Album.


Snapshots Gallery

Friday with Kountertop

Friday night was another successful Ames on the Half Shell. The band was Kountertop and they were phenomenal. I even had a chance to catchup with an old chum named Todd Sawyer who is a Kountertop roadie. That was pretty sweet.













































I haven't loaded any images into the Snapshots Gallery yet, so don't go running over there. That will happen in due time.

Friday may have been my Half Shell swan song. I don't think I'll be able to make it to this Friday's Half Shell. I'm going to spend Thursday and Friday in Cedar Rapids with a small group from my church getting covered in dry wall and black mold. I'm not sure I will make it back to Ames in time to work Half Shell. Even if I did, I'm not sure what I would smell like.

So that means at least a couple of you are going to have to go to Half Shell and drink my share of the Red Monkey Root Beer. This week's band is the 3AM Band. As always the event runs from 5-8 at Bandshell Park near beautiful downtown Ames, Iowa.