Anyways – my son Drew (8 years old) and my daughter Alyssa (6 years old) had a book fair at school the other day.  I get home from work and my wife asks if I have any cash.  Nothing new here LOL.  So naturally I ask why with the kids sitting right there.  Alyssa jumps right in and starts to explain at a frantic pace about this awesome book fair and how she needs tons of money to buy everything in sight.  Whoa girl.  Slow down.  All I have in my wallet is $20′s, one $10 and one $5…  Sarah said – give them $20 each.  Being the frugal dad I am I fought back on that a little.  That seemed like too much to give each kid for a book fair – right?

Once again – Alyssa jumped right in.  I need $20 because I want this, this, this and this…  Drew calmly said, “$10 would be fine dad.”  I chuckled inside.  After fiddling around with my money for awhile I finally decided to give Drew the $15 and Alyssa the $20.  Unfair?  Maybe?  But I confirmed with both kids that this was ok.  They both were thrilled.

So I get home from work and Alyssa is just smiling ear to ear and happy as can be about her book fair purchases.  All sorts of books, erasers and little treasures.  Spent every last dime and for all I know – had to put some on credit! LOL.  Drew was so pumped too, “Dad, I got a Jeremy Lin – Rising Star book!!!”  Cool dude!  Do you realize Jeremy Lin was a one month wonder?  Oh well – he’s excited.

Now for the real funny part.  Later that night.  Drew comes up to me with a sealed envelope with $9.66 in it.  Here is my leftover book fair money dad!  Oh my goodness.  Not only did he get less money.  But he didn’t even spend half of it.  And on top of that – he gave me back the leftover money.  Wouldn’t most kids have spent it?  Or at minimum – kept it?

I guess this just shows how all kids are different.  Especially when it comes to spending money.  I can already tell I better start a pretty hefty savings account for little Miss Alyssa!  Now the real question – what will Bryce be like?

p.s. – Late last night Alyssa asked if she could keep her book fair receipt because she was going to start keeping receipts.  Really?  You are a kid!!!!!!!

I’ve teamed up with my brother Rodney (and several others) to form SaintLouisSports.com! I was shocked to see this .com domain name available and knew from the beginning it would be a solid site to grow out. It should get natural traffic and be “legit” enough to get link backs from some notable sites as well. Very exciting.

So the basic design is done and we’ve been working to get some content out there. Now it’s time to spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, Guest Posts, links, emails and more. If you have a site – would love a shout out to SaintLouisSports.com! The site will feature the Cardinals, Rams and Blues. Basically it will be a blog, directory and more. Really excited about this project and hopefully it keeps me connected within the STL Sports cirlces as well!

Visit Saint Louis Sports today and see our progress.  Or follow us @SaintLouisSport on twitter.

Battery Life of the HTC Incredible is Terrible

Ever since the release of this thing, the battery life has been terrible. I would use this phone lightly for 3-4 hours and it would be warning me of low battery needing charged. I have made myself accustomed to plugging it in everywhere I go. I leave it plugged in at work. Plug it in in my car. Charge it at night. Is this really a “mobile” phone? LOL. I also carry an extra HTC Incredible battery around for emergency use or in case, God forbid, I need to go an entire day without charging.

HTC Incredible “low on space” Issue

Over the last couple months I’ve had another annoyance. I have very minimal apps and data storage running on this phone. I would check phone storage and would have 90% free everywhere. No problems right? Lately, the phone would warn me of “low on space” and basically shut off all notifications and updates. How annoying? This made the HTC Incredible nearly useless for Facebook, Gmail, etc… Basically any app that needs notifications and updates. I could still use the browser but that was about it. Very very annoying.

HTC or Google Released a Fix

So I used the trusty old Google to help me find some potential fixes for this last low on space issue. I tried and tried things but this darn message kept coming back. Finally, last night there was word that a new android software build has been available. 4.08 instead of 4.06 or something. In this build they addressed the “low on space” issue. And there was also a rumor that battery life seemed to improve with this build. Really?

The problem now was I could not get my HTC Incredible to download the new software build. Really again? Geez. Yeah I’m sure HTC wants to test all builds before pushing them out. But this one is important. To Google again. Luckily I found some life saving post on a techy forum talking about this specific issue. It mapped out how to clear my factory phone cache, clear up plenty of space, and basically force the install update onto my phone. It worked without a hitch!

So now I have the new build and guess what – it seems to have fixed the low on space issue. It’s only been 12 hours as I write this but that is way better than before. Hopefully it’s gone. The other thing… Battery life seems drastically improved somehow.

Isn’t it ironic that less than a month before I’m ready to get a new phone – they finally fix the big issues with my current phone. I’m happier now with this HTC Incredible than I have been in nearly 2 years. Sadly, I’m sure I’ll be the dumb one to go grab the latest and greatest (Google Nexus) phone when my contract is up in late December. Such is life.

I went to last nights Cub / Cardinal Sunday Night Baseball game and had an absolute blast. To my amazement, it was one of the most pleasant games I’ve been to in a while. I was bringing my 8 year old son (diehard Cardinal fan) to the game. This was to be his first game at Wrigley Field. It was his birthday and what better to do than take in a Cardinals game with him and some of his buddies. I had prepared him all week long for “THE DUMP”. Told him he has to see Wrigley Field once in his life before they tear that crap down. Warned him about the horse trough urinals. Warned him about the poles. Warned him about the STUPID “Go Cubs Go” song. Warned him about the Cub fans who really don’t care about baseball. Warned him about the bumper to bumper traffic we’d likely experience. And so on……. He was definitely prepared for the worst. But to our surprise – we got very little negative out of this game.

He and his friends had a blast. At one point during the game I asked my son, so what do you think of Wrigley Field? He said, “I’m having a blast.” I immediately questioned him and said – well – is it better than Busch Stadium? He was quick to say, “well, ummm, I guess what I mean is this place is a dump – but i’m still having a lot of fun.” There we go. Now my 8 year old son has taken on the attitude you Cub fans have. Accept the fact that the place sucks just because it’s a fun atmosphere. Haha! Back to the story. The kids had a blast. I didn’t have any obnoxious fans in my ear. Our traffic out wasn’t bad. All in all, it was a great game and experience. Helped that the Cardinals put up some runs and tons of hits and got the win. The kids even got to head down to the Cardinals bullpen area before the game and snag some autographs. Corey Patters, Skip Schumaker, Octavio Dotel and Mitchell Boggs were the brave few to sign autographs. Classy!

Reasons Why This Cubs Game May Not Have Sucked?

Kids

When you have kids with you at a Cubs game – does it shelter you from the obnoxiousness? People half heartedly joked around with the 3 little 8 year old Cardinal fans in my group. But all in fun. Nothing obnoxious. I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of cursing and loud mouthing going on. I think having kids with me helped avoid those situations.

Sunday Night vs. Friday or Saturday Night

This played a big part as well. It was a Sunday Night Baseball game. People had to work in the morning. Maybe Cubs fans were smart enough not to get absolutely plastered at this game. Made for a much more “fan friendly” environment to say the least.

Cubs Fans are Just Simply – Done

Another big part of my pleasant Wrigley Field experience simply lies with the fact that Cubs fans are done. They have moved on. This team sucks and they know it. It is football season to 95% of them. To prove this, two guys walked up our section with Packers jerseys on. The whole section started booing them and chanting, “Lets go Bears, Lets go Bears.” They are done with the Cubs and ready for the Bears. Being done with the Cubs means I don’t have to hear all the “we are awesome – you suck” comments.  Point to take away is – Cubs Suck!

Now for the Sucky Dumpness

Just because I had a positive Wrigley Field experience didn’t mean some things didn’t suck. It is still a dump. Don’t get me wrong.

Travel Into the Game

Our travel into the game was horrendous. This is more due to the massiveness of Chicago and the fact that the Air and Water show was going on. But still – just getting in and out of Cubs games is NO FUN. Period.

Kid Friendly Pre-Game Environment

We made several comments before the game about the entertainment around the stadium. Wrigley Field has a lot. They had bands, beer tents, booths and more. All in all a great time – FOR ADULTS. They had very little kid entertainment. It’s more of an adult playground if you would. Our kids were bored out of their mind up until the game starts. That is one flaw of Wrigleyville in my opinion.

Still Got the Pole

Yep. Never seems to fail me. Every time I go to Wrigley I have the darn poles somewhere in between me and the field. Oh well. That’s Wrigley.

All in all this was probably the best experience I’ve ever had at Wrigley Field. Let’s hope it happens again in 2012.

Facebook is still my most used and favorite social network. That is probably due to the fact that tons of my friends and family use it. But facebook is a huge part of my daily lifestyle right now. I follow friends statuses, update my own status, upload pictures, promote my businesses through pages and more. I think it’s safe to say that I won’t stop using Facebook in the near future.

Twitter is a growing trend because of the celebrity embracement. Movie stars, singers, and athletes all use Twitter. Personally I have a very hard time keeping up with Twitter. It moves so freakin fast. I also have twitter accounts for many of my websites so that compounds the problem. I’d say I use twitter a few times a week and that is mainly for marketing purposes.

I am 100% done with Foursquare. I even uninstalled it from my phone the other day. Check ins just seem like a big waste of time to me. In this busy world I’m trying harder and harder to focus on value added things in my life. Plus, my only goal on Foursquare was to be the mayor of Bww. Success. But then soon after someone overtook me despite me checking in several more times. I don’t understand. Done with Foursquare.

An up and coming social network is Google+. With the google brand running this it is sure to catch some users. They added the concept of circles which makes it slightly different than facebook. But it’s probably not enough different for the masses to use it. I have an account and will start using it sparingly.

Ok that is about it for tonight. What social networks do you use and why?

Living My Life Faster – 8 years of JK’s Daily Photo Project from JK Keller on Vimeo.

Our Team

We played a great game.  Better than the first game which is encouraging.  The kids are really hitting the ball well.  Myself and the other 3 coaches really seem to focus on encouraging and helping the kids.  I really think encouragement is huge at this age.  They are 7-8 years old and just need to hear “good job” sometimes.  So we really focus on doing that.  I think we “won” the game 24-11 or something like that.

Drew’s Game

Drew did well.  He hit the ball each time but nothing really to the outfield.  He played a great 1B.  I was proud of him.  Scooped one out of the dirt and caught another one.  Overall a good game for the Drew-man!

Next Game

Friday, 7:00 PM CST – Against the Cubs

p.s. – Make sure you “like” the MYBA Facebook Page!

Let me say – they did GREAT.  These kids seemed like they have been playing coach pitch for years.  They knew when and where to run, they knew where to throw the ball, they were respectful and listened to our coaches.  All in all and great first game.  The games last 1:30 or 6 innings.  We played from 7:00 to 8:30 which is a long time for these kids.  We have 14 games throughout the summer.  This week we play M-W-F and next week we play Tu-Th-Sat… So you get the idea – it’s going to be a LONG SUMMER!

Drew did great.  I was proud of him.  He hit the ball well and played the field well.  I give him a hard time because he didn’t catch the liner back up the middle.  But I guess I really didn’t expect him to catch it (just hoped he did).  Most of all, Drew and all of the kids seemed to have a great time.  They enjoyed it and were smiles the whole night.  I truly can’t wait for our game on Wednesday.

If you are in Morton and want to watch some kids playing a game they love.  5:30 on field 3 on Wednesday!!! Dodgers vs. Reds  :)

p.s. – We aren’t supposed to keep “score” but you know me.  What’s a game without a score, right?  Haha.  So don’t tell the kids but we lost to the Yankees 29-21 in our opener.