Have you heard Kyle Blake?

I grew up around music; my mother was a fantastic singer, my grandfather taught music at a local college and taught voice lessons (later to me). I even thought one day maybe that's what I would do with my life (initially went to college on a vocal scholarship). For me its a hobby, which is why I respect those who have the talent and gumption to make it their work! I mean what better way to make a living than by doing what you love.


Kyle Blake, loves what he does....all you have to do is take a listen to him (I always prefer live) and you know it, instantly. I had a chance to hear him recently in downtown KC, where he preformed for Twestival an event raising awareness and money for Charity: Water.

Young, energetic...just his start, but what a cool sound and voice. If you are a fan of acoustic singer/songwriter types who like to mix it up by throwing in an occasional "white boy rap" take a listen. Some great catchy love tunes, and now you can catch this local KC kid with is self recorded debut album "Holding Doors & Pulling Out Chairs" on iTunes!

Hit him up on Myspace or Facebook too...



So check him out...better yet grab the CD and hit a show and you can say you heard him before he is too big to get close to!

Kyle, keep doing what you love! It shows.

Are There Consequences for Being Honest?

Today like a of days did not include a great deal of TV watching, however while at the gym I was catching up on some Sports Center (instead of watching Obama, still not sure why I chose SC). Dominating the news was Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) admitting he knowingly used banned substances during a specific period (3 seasons) while at the Texas Rangers.

A few choice quotes from the interview (mind you these are "rough" quotes not exact):

• "I was very naive"
• "I was very stupid"
• "Yes I knowingly used a banned substance"
• "I just want to turn the page and get back to playing the best baseball I can"

There are several things wrong with this picture; one, how do you "turn the page" when you admit breaking the rules?? Two, at this point there are no planned consequences for his cheating. Underlying all this is the aspect that the cheating was discovered by an anonymous test that turned out to not be too anonymous!

Normally the only sport I get lathered up about is College Football (Notre Dame, most importantly), but this story has been brewing for some time. It sets an example, do you have integrity or not. Seems to me admitting guilt is far easier when there are ZERO known consequences. Sacrifice and repercussions seem appropriate given that rules were broken, lies told and overall cheating engaged in for years.

Where I come from, honesty meant perhaps less of a "sentence" but didn't mean you got out of trouble just by owning up to doing wrong. Kudos to Alex for his honesty, but there are consequences for our choices in life, we can't get out of jail free just by telling the truth.

New Way to Give to Teachers

Imagine if you will, what it would be like to spend 50-70 hours per week; planning, teaching, struggling, being studied, being judged by the public, parents, administrators and anyone else with an opinion all while trying to educate a class full of different learning levels. Compound those challenges with behavioral and mental disabled kids vying for your and their classmates attention. While you're at it go ahead and throw in an added issue of being underfunded for some basic classroom needs and you will find many of our public educators.

My family is full of them; undervalued, misunderstood, under payed and in many cases they are springing for things they need in the classroom out of their extremely light pocketbooks. Yes beleive it or not our public school systems do have talented, thoughtful and imaginative individuals. But they need some help and support!



Enter: DonorsChoose.org a group that lets teachers post what they need (but have no budget for) and you and I get to choose what we want to help provide by funding all or part of what the project they post!

Sound cool? It gets better, you and I (the donors) get a tax break, the teacher and students get what they need. In my book, that is a winning combination. Charles Best, the founder of DonorsChoose.org received several awards for his cool new concept. And hey any non-profit who can get Stephen Colbert (yes from The Colbert Report) on their board of directors, has to be cool!

Kudos to Charles and crew for helping those like many of my family spending 50-70 hours, for little money in less than perfect conditions making a real difference in the lives of so many. So head out there and sponsor a project or two, trust me giving to these individuals who give so much will feel great!