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This is a special day. My little girl turns 20, twenty, TWENTY, t-w-e-n-t-y, the BIG 2-0. Where did the time go?

If you ever wondered what the phrase “Bitter Sweet” meant, this is it. On the one hand, I am so proud of my daughter and on the other hand, Lauren turning 20 has had a profound impact on me. Even as I type this Blog and look for the words to tell her how important she is to her Mom and I, I find my hands have a slight shake…my prose are stuck in my head, though words are boundless when it comes to Lauren. We don’t want her to grow up. We’d like our little girl back, thank you very much. We know that that isn’t going to happen. Bitter sweet…

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Lauren and lil' bro' Jackson

This Blog exists to force me to talk with one voice to customers, partners, employees, press and anyone else who follows Madbak and used to follow TitanTV. I believe finding that one voice helps keep my company on track. So, why then would there be a Blog about Lauren Perry, now aged 20, now a nursing student at the University of Iowa? Because she deserves it.

Lauren’s life spans the era technology startups. When people think of software, technology or Internet companies, they think of jeans, t-shirts, free pop and either extreme success or crash-and-burn. It is a far different world than the world her Grandfather knew at Rockwell. Where her Mom knew stability growing up, Lauren grew up in the era of PowerPoint pitches, business plans and defending projected EBITDA. I got my first job in the tech industry about a month before Lauren was born. She never knew the life portrayed on Leave it to Beaver, i.e. Hugh Beaumont and Barbara Billingsley.

So as I sit here today with so many words to say, yet those words are a jumbled mess stuck in my head, I am reminded of all those nights on the road, the late night greaseboard marathons, the stress of figuring out how to make payroll, the struggling to ‘hit the number,’ the nearly 2 million miles on United, the hundreds of lonely nights in hotels, the sweet feeling of a plan coming together, I am reminded of the place Lauren held in all that. She was my inspiration. Knowing she was at home making her Mom laugh, keeping her little brother in line and being the thorn in the side of her big sister, somehow kept me going.

Happy 20th Birthday, Lauren.

Love, Dad

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Jarl and Me (he looks great)

If you’ve followed my Blog for any length of time then you know my brain thinks about connectivity. In a way, the Internet is all about connectivity. Actually, it isn’t anything more than that…connectivity. I remember telling my board in 1996 that the Internet was like when they tied two tin cans together with a piece of string and played “telephone”…

Today is the perfect example of connectivity. My alarm went off at 4:55 A.M. Early… The reason was that I needed to make my way somewhere to talk with a broadcast industry heavyweight about something pretty important. By car he is about 6.5 hours away. Ironically, it is easier to get to his office than it is to get to other people in the industry that I need to fly to.

As I was driving in the dark towards Detroit, MI this AM I was getting email from my good friend Jarl Brey. Jarl had seen my postings on Facebook and basically said, “If you are going to be this close to home, then we are going to get together.” Trust me. When Jarl Brey calls, you listen.

Jarl was a year ahead of me in High School, but Jarl and I only traded email messages over the years. It wasn’t until Facebook that we became “adult friends” and friend is exactly what I would call Jarl. He is my friend. A good friend.

So Jarl and I met for dinner. Gina showed up soon after and then came Suzanne. For readers of my Blog that are not Ottawa Hills Indians, these are all people I went to High School with. Good people. Facebook brought us together tonight. It was fun.

During our dinner each one of us received messages from other people looking in. Mark Steele, a guy whom I’ve blogged about before, asked for an update. Update? It was a nice chat. Good times. Big Chill kind of night…

Ship and I talked about my brother Juan. Juan was an exchange student from Columbia that lived with me. He became my brother. He is my brother on Facebook today.

Gina is the girl next door. She is great. I figured that would be the case….

Facebook is an amazing thing. For me it came together on a simple Monday night in November. Friends? Yes. They are still friends… They always were friends.

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