• Memorial Tattoo for Rocky

    Rocky Kees (December 20, 1949 - August 14, 2013)
    Rocky Kees (December 20, 1949 – August 14, 2013)

    As you know, my gymnastics coach and mentor of 24 years – Rocky – died earlier this year. Shortly after he passed away, I started thinking about whether I wanted to get a memorial tattoo in his honor. Surprisingly, I’m still leaning towards “no,” but I’m entertaining the thought process.

    I had a conversation with Rocky’s daughter and my teammates about some of the imagery that we associate with Rocky. This list we came up with definitely showed what a unique and special guy he was:

    • Leg warmers (that he would wear over his sweatpants)
    • Coffee in his left hand, cigarette in his right
    • Baby duck (his nickname for a lot of us)
    • Altoids (that he would eat 6 at a time)
    • Dancing – he was always dancing

    And there are the great lines he gave us:

    • “Get a helmet.”
    • “Turn the page.”
    • “It’s only hard.”
    • “Do what you know how to do.”

    The hard thing about picking a tattoo is it’s challenging to capture a feeling in an image. What I loved most about Rocky wasn’t the way he looked like or what he said, but how I felt when I was around him. He knew how to make everyone feel special. When you were talking with him, you knew that he genuinely cared about how the topic affected you. We talked for hours and I always felt that unconditional positive regard from him. How do I put that into a tattoo?

    I recently saw a video from best-selling sci-fi author Scott Sigler. He’s an incredible guy with a loyal fan base (called Junkies). These guys love his work so much they get tattoos of images from his book. (If you get a Sigler tattoo, he’ll write you into one of his books.) Two of his fans have had Scott sign their skin with a Sharpie and they immediately got it tattooed into their bodies. It’s pretty cool actually.

    Rocky SignatureThis got me thinking – I have Rocky’s signature. My gym did a big annual show and I had my coaches and teammates sign my program each year. I could, if I wanted a memorial tattoo, get his signature inked into my skin. He had such a profound influence on my life that it would be an appropriate way to honor him. Like an artist gets to sign their paintings, it wouldn’t be weird to say Rocky get to claim his impact on me, and so many other people.

    So where would I put it? Probably on the back of my left leg, just above my ankle. Rocky always had my back and usually stood just over my left shoulder so it would be sweet to put his name on my left side.

    I would probably add “1949-2013” beneath it so anyone who saw it would know it’s a memorial tattoo, not a love interest. We’ll see if I get the sign that I’m supposed to get this.

  • What’s the Better Rush: Skydiving or Litigation?

    Last Friday, The Namby Pamby tweeted:

    Namby Tweet

    My response: “You know there’s this activity called skydiving – does the trick too with a lot more fun.”

    Namby claims he won’t “jump out of a perfectly good airplane,” but I think he’s denying a parachute its destiny.

    The closest things I’ve done to litigation is trial advocacy classes where the final was a mini fake trial, so I can’t say whether litigation prep or skydiving is a better adrenaline rush. But here’s the breakdown of the experiences from my perspective and based The Namby Pamby’s and The Mrs. Namby Pamby’s tweets.

    SKYDIVING LITIGATION
    It’s Saturday I’m doing whatever I want You’re working
    The View Amazing view from the plane and on the way down I hope your office has a window
    The Company Handpicking my group, including inviting the awesome Peter Shankman if he’s in town Dealing with potentially annoying coworkers, opposing counsel, and clients
    The Significant Other Can come too Has trouble remembering what you look like
    The Money Paying for the experience Getting paid – but how much do you really make per hour?
    The Risk I could die – but it will be fast You could be dying a slow death – due to stress, substance abuse, poor diet, etc.
    The Social Good Probably minimal Righting a wrong

    Created with the HTML Table Generator

    I asked my legal eagle friends whether skydiving or litigation had a better rush and they agree that skydiving is better than litigation.

    Mike: “Skydiving. I’ve done both, and there’s no comparison.”

    Chad: “I am going to say skydiving. After several years I began to dread litigation. I can’t imagine skydiving losing its appeal because the other skydivers are unprofessional poorly trained ass hats.”

    A criminal defense attorney recently told me that hearing the phrase “Not guilty” was better than orgasm and I get that given that that might be a live-or-death situation. However, I remain unconvinced that doing litigation prep all weekend has a better adrenaline rush than skydiving.

    What do you think?

     

  • Just When I Thought My Book Was Finished . . .

    Everyone who knows me or follows me on Twitter knows I’ve been writing up a storm this year. I did a revision of my self-published ebook The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed and published Flash Mob Law: The Legal Side of Planning and Participating in Pillow Fights, No Pants Rides, and Other Shenanigans through the American Bar Association (ABA). (I’ve got to get shorter subtitles.) I finished the first draft of the manuscript for The Legal Side of Blogging for Lawyers in August and I thought the majority of my book writing obligations were done for the year. I was wrong.

    Editing a Paper by Nic McPhee from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
    Editing a Paper by Nic McPhee from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

    My book is being published by the Law Practice (LP) section of the ABA. (For you non-lawyers, this is the section that’s all about how to run a law firm more effectively.) When you write for them, you get a team of people who work on your book. Here’s a glimpse of who I’m working with:

    • Shawn my project manager
    • Evan and Dennis my peer reviewers (who make sure everything I wrote is legally sound)
    • Tom the head of the LP publishing department (who makes himself read everything before it gets published)
    • The copywriter (who will fix all my bad grammar)
    • The marketing team who is charge of my cover and promotions

    I got to see a lot of my team at the recent LP fall meeting in Phoenix. When I turned my manuscript over to them, I thought I was basically done except of approving my cover art and proofreading edits. The team loves my book and said it’s a great first draft, but they’ve asked for a re-write which might include a re-arrangement of chapters, a new forward, and changing the forward into an afterword. I appreciated the feedback and I’m all for putting out the best book possible, but it’s going to be a challenge timewise.

    The LP section wants my book done and published by the ABA TechShow in March 2014. I responded that I’m meeting Gary Vaynerchuk in person when he does his book signing for his new book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook in Arizona in December and I promised him a paper copy. (Yes, I’m fully aware and embrace the fact that I have a massive professional hard-on for Gary Vaynerchuk.)

    My mug from the Space Age Cafe in Gila Bend
    My mug from the Space Age Cafe in Gila Bend

    My calendar is pretty full for the rest of October and November that I’m at the point where I have to think hard before agreeing to go to any events or activities that aren’t already on my schedule. And now I need to figure out how I’m going to do a re-write by Halloween on top of all that so it can get through peer-review, copy editing, and get a galley printed and shipped to me by December 5th.

    This is going to be fun . . . and by fun, I mean high-caffeinated. 😉

    I had a chance to speak with Tom at the LP fall meeting. He said he really liked that my first draft was easy to read and then he asked if I had more books in me. That was a very flattering statement coming from him, but at the same time my first thought was to punch him in the face. After working on three books this year, I’m going to need a break from book writing once this book is done before I start thinking about the next one.