LECHTANSKI.NET

Let’s start with this. I am connected. I have a Blackberry. I blog. I tweet. I’m on Facebook. I’m LinkedIn. I have my own domain. This is all for both work and personal reasons.

I’ve found myself opening my Blackberry RSS reader at red traffic lights. I’ve had my lovely wife pull the Blackberry from my hands during dinner with friends. I’ve found myself watching TV while being logged onto Facebook, clicking through emails on my Blackberry and talking on the phone.

Frankly, I’ve hit a wall. It’s OK to be connected, but I have made the decision to not live my life connected moment to moment. Two things led to this decision.

1. A few years ago I was on a whale watching boat ride. Camera in hand, and hearing the oohs and ahhs of other passengers, I would swing around trying to capture the jumping whale on a memory stick. I was not very successful. And I didn’t get to actually see many of the whales because I was too busy staring at the LCD screen of my camera. Finally, I gave up on the camera and just started watching nature.
2. More recently I went to a marketing automation seminar a couple of weeks ago. Participants were encouraged to tweet the event in real time… during presentations. This seemed like a good idea, but I noticed that in order to tweet I needed to stop paying attention to the speaker. And then to follow the Twitter event feed, I was staring at my Blackberry, not paying much attention to the event itself. And to top that, most of the tweets were simple regurgitations of some of the key points of the person currently speaking.

I’m done. It’s over. I check my email when I have a second. I’ll tweet when something comes up (usually when I’m traveling).

As a marketer, I’ve been curious how these hyper-connected tools will be monetized. There is more to think about here. I’ve had my toe dipped in this water from a business perspective for a couple of years, but still, I’ve got to marinate a bit more on this.

So, this has been bugging me since I read about it on Friday. I logged onto the soon-to-be former governor of Alaska’s Facebook page so I could read her statement criticizing everybody who was being critical of her impending resignation. But I got stuck reading to Wall Posts from her supporters.

Here are a few things that bother me about her decision and her supporters’ defense of it:

She says once she decided to not run for re-election, her role as a lame duck was pointless. My thought: bullshit. By not running for office again she would get the opportunity to put politics aside and work with whomever she wants to get things accomplished and display her “leadership” skills without worrying about campaigning, raising money or making interest groups happy. It’s an opportunity to do what you think is right, without the money, politics and influence that leads to compromise and homogenization.

President Obama resigned his office as Senator, which makes Palin’s resignation OK. Obama resigned his office because he was elected to a higher office. That’s pretty much how the system works! This would have been demonstrated by McCain had he won. Additionally this has happened with Bush II, Clinton, Ford, Johnson, etc. Voters tend to elect people that have proved electable.

Quitting now will give her the ability to accomplish more than if she was in office. Let’s use John Edwards to discuss this one. Edwards didn’t run for a second term in the Senate after the losing VP candidate with Kerry (but he did finish his term, as he committed to his constituents). His Titanic-sized ego wouldn’t let him run a losing campaign for Senator. He started the Poverty Center and worked on his Presidential campaign for 2 years. Look how that worked out. He was pretty much always running for 3rd place. And this was all before the love child/affair brouhaha.

Leaving office in Alaska will give her a bigger national pulpit. Again, ask John Edwards about that one. It gives her a bigger pulpit with the people that care about her already, conservative Republicans. She will have plenty of opportunities to preach to the choir (please forgive the metaphor). But once she leaves office, the newsworthiness of what she says on a random Tuesday will be significantly less.

Palin is getting judged so critically because she is a conservative family woman. Hillary got dragged over the rocks, through the mud and into the fire. Edwards got, rightfully, filleted. McCain got treated pretty roughly as a grump. Obama is still surrounded by crazy conspiracies. Media scrutiny and criticism is not exclusive to Party or gender. But it is an easy scapegoat. In fact given the pass the Bush Administration was given in the early aughts, I’m not sure the media is scrutinizing enough, holding our leaders accountable.

McCain decided to not win the campaign because he realized how bad the economy was, and whoever won would be limited to one term, sullied with the Bush recession. Huh? Someone ask Senator McCain about that one.

She quit because she foresees a higher calling. I hope that higher calling is her family or her religion. If she pursues any higher office, she better not expect her treatment to be any different.

This weekend was my chance to gauge my cross-country skiing skills. You know, my first thought to the question of where to cross-country ski is “anywhere”. But in reality, in April in Bellingham, there aren’t many options.

The Ski to Sea race is going to be at the Mt. Baker ski area, but I can’t go there while they’re still operating the lifts. According to the Nooksack Nordic Ski Club (bad, bad website, btw), there is a set of XC trails just after mile marker 46 on the Mt. Baker Highway. So I headed out at 7:30 Saturday morning.

Let me preface this. I’m in good shape. I run five miles a couple of times a week, with another long run of 8 to 10 miles. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week for an hour+. So I was curious how my fitness would translate to this endeavor.

It’s questionable.

I bought a one-day Sno-Park pass at a store near Silver Lake, and found a mile marker 46 parking lot. There were no other cars, but there was a fresh pile of broken glass from an assumed recent car prowling. Sweet! But I could hear the streams flowing around me. The air was crisp. The sun was peeking out. It was a beautiful morning.

If these were the official XC trails, it looked like a one-lane road covered with snow turned ice. Lots of uneven, chunky ice. Once I got past the wobbly walking feeling, I started falling down. I tried some different strokes, but felt like I should be wearing ice skates. More falling down.

It was awkward, and unsteady, and I was glad no one was watching. I kept trudging and adjusting. My shins started burning, and I quickly realized I was wearing too many clothes. I crossed my skis a few times (whoops) and lost my balance a lot (ouch).

But through it all, there were glimmers of hope. Moments where I felt the full-stride, I was pushing off and had full pole extension; it felt like it should. So now I just need to reduce the falling and awkward slipping.

I put in about a 90-minute workout. And I must have been working hard, because when I took my boots off, they were steaming.

And no one broke into my car. So overall, it was a success!

The Ski to Sea Race is a big deal in Bellingham. Memorial Day weekend, some 400+ teams compete in this multi-event race from the Mt. Baker Ski area to Bellingham Bay. People with Olympic experience participate. International teams compete. Ringers are brought in to best previous years’ winners. It’s really a big deal.

The legs of the event are Cross-Country Skiing, Alpine Skiing, Running, Road Cycling, Canoeing, Mountain Biking and Kayaking. Of all of those legs, I am in great shape to perform well in the Downhill skiing, Running or Road Cycling legs. My finishing times could be respectable, and fall in line with my current workout regimen.

So what leg did I volunteer for? Cross Country Skiing, the first leg, and bellwether event for the race. I will set the tone for the rest of my ridiculously fit team of Alpha Technologies personnel.

The last time I put on a pair of cross-country skis, I was about 15. I was most concerned with scoffing at how silly cross-country skis were, compared to the downhill skis I know and love. So now, 20+ years later, I’m going to be in a cross-country skiing race, where more than my ego is on the line. Seven other dudes are relying on my finishing, and though we say it’s all about the fun, I feel pressure to perform well.

I have about six weeks before the race and will be heading up to Baker just about every week to train, and try to not make a fool of myself.