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Auburn University Spring 2009 Commencement Speaker Bo Jackson, Morning Ceremony

Enjoy this video of Bo Jackson speaking at Auburn for the 2009 Spring Graduation

This video is available on YouTube and I found it to be a very interesting overview on the history of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

I will be focusing on more unique technology initiatives located within our region in my future posts.  I hope these posts will encourage you to further investigate the history and future of technology within our region.

According to TechCrunch, LinkedIn  has added a new service where they will attempt to match whitepapers to potential users of such knowledge.  I find this to be an interesting addition to their portfolio and I will be interested to see how this proceeds.

I am most interested to see how this could/would translate to a business enterprise.  Just think of the opportunities in matching knowledge/information with the potential user.  There is an unlimited amount of knowledge out there to be found and used, but most people don’t have a clue about how to make the connection.

My eyes are open.

This article on Tech Crunch because it points out how just the littlest detail can make a huge difference in using Twitter.  CNN has almost 2 million followers, but the links they had been using were not good ones.

Some of the suggestions in the article are very easy and make total sense.  We’ll see if CNN is listening!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/21/cnn-loves-twitter-but-doesnt-seem-to-always-know-how-to-use-it/

When I think of today I think back many years to my childhood and young adulthood.  These were the years when my dad was still with us here on this Earth.  I’ll do my best to share a few memories I have and put them in perspective regarding how they have affected me.

I was the youngest of three sons, so my dad was a little older when I was growing up.  He was 36 when I was born, so most of  my childhood and young adulthood was my 40′s and 50′s.  I suspect that being the last child and one that came later made the novelty wear off a little, but I have no real complaints.

My dad was a veteran of World War 2, having served in the 3rd Marine Corp Division at Iwo Jima.  This singular event was something I never fully grasped until a number of years after his death.  Iwo Jima-Iwo as he called it when he referred to that time.  In comparison to today’s veterans, my dad and his friends rarely talked about these times and I suspect now I know why.  He commented shortly before his death that he was always thankful for his life, even though he died at 59, because he never expected to come back from the Pacific.  If the movie representations shown in recent years are anywhere close, I now know why.

My life growing up in the quiet town of Lincoln, IL was full of spending time with my dad and his friends.  I can remember so many of them very vividly; John Daugherty, Paul Yarcho and 3 of my four uncles; Paul Mahler, Greg Fitzpatrick and Lowell “Nip” Young, always come to mind.  They were all good drinking buddies, loved to play cards together and all great family men.  It is so sad that all of them have passed away except for Uncle Greg.  They were great.

The most important thing I remember about my dad was that he intervened when he needed to, but otherwise he kind of kept to himself.  My career path was going to be significantly different than his and I suspect it was challenging and foreign to him when it came to where I wanted to attend school and then what I wanted to do.

I feel very fortunate to have two wonderful sons and a fantastic wife.  The Lord has blessed me abundantly with these relationships and so many more that we have forged during this life.  I am grateful to both my biological and heavenly father for all that they have provided, and continue to provide to me.

I hope all of you out there that are fathers will have a wonderful and blessed Father’s Day!

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I almost fell out of my chair when I watched this video after reading about it today.

While I believe that titles are important, respect is more important.  Leaders Senators and Congressmen should worry much more about their service and less about their title.

Let’s get a grip!

It was a great victory by Arkansas in 12 innings over a strong Virginia team in the College World Series last night in Omaha.

Arkansas now gets the dubious honor of playing LSU-they must beat the Tigers twice to advance to the finals.

Go Hogs-Geaux Tigers-Go SEC!

I hate to write this post, for fear that I will jinx the Tigers, but they look like world-beaters right now in the College World series. This team appears to have it all; quality starting pitching, solid defense, great hitting and a solid closer.
It will be interesting to see if they lose their edge by not playing again until Friday in the Series.
My money, if I were a betting man, my money would be on the Tigers!

Well, we all survived….

Last night was the night when Facebook offered vanity URL’s for users and I joined the frey.  I expected it to be a mess and I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily it was done and how smoothly it progressed.

I encourage you to reach the blog at this link to gain more perspective.

My Facebook link is http://facebook.com/thatdanryan  What’s yours?