Backtime On The Front Porch

On Lincoln's Birthday I got plowed into someone's front porch. On Washington's Birthday, I was featured on The Front Porch.

I remember sitting down at The Creative Coast with Jake (ironically a George Washington grad) to do this a couple of months ago. He had obviously lined up a bunch of these so they would be his legacy before abdicating and bolting northbound. Sort of like the less celebrated President John Adams setting up Midnight Judges.

The Podcast is actually quite good, and I don't just say that because it features my own voice. It was the type of discussion a couple of people would have on the front porch and I enjoyed it even more the second time.

One of the topics we discussed was this blog, begging the question: What Is Backtime?

December 19, 2012

I was sitting on The Front Porch just a couple of days ago, and during our fireside chat Mr. Hodesh asked about the derivation of this blog's title.

Backtime, in TV terms, is the time left in your show. This is of course presuming that everything goes to format. You'll need to expand or compress your content to fit the show's length.

Life of course has no given length, but there are only 24 hours in a day. And if you're a Dad, a frequent business traveler, writer, researcher, and someone who wants to remain in reasonably good physical shape, that may not be enough time. So you learn how to maximize your time to get the best content on the air, which in this case means your life.

So my constant evolvement as a Dad, my road adventures, memoirs, perspective on sports, TV and book reviews, and not-too-serious political commentary are all a part of who I am. They all need to be cultivated, watered like plants, to keep my mind sharp and focus on whatever the hell comes next.

Yesterday was a good example:

7:30 AM - Homework at coffee joint

9:30 AM - Haircut

11:00 AM - Holiday Feast at the kids' elementary school

12:30 PM - Car wash

1:30 PM - Conference call (90 minutes)

3:30 PM - Conference call (60 minutes)

4:30 PM - Monitor kids' karate and gymnastics class

6:00 PM - Address and stamp 75 holiday cards

7:15 PM - My karate class

9:00 PM - Prepare food for Wednesday holiday party

10:00 PM - Write blog

Then I set the alarm for 6 AM, with a 7 AM personal training session hanging over my head. And a 12-day, 4-event road trip begins on Thursday.

My son is only 8, but he saw my "must" do list for the week and he was moved to say, "That's a lot of stuff." Come May, I'll likely be sitting on my own front porch devouring a book or just watching the traffic go by. But for now, this is the season. You can set your watch to it, I am the traffic.

What's missing from a Text? Context and Subtext

It's the start of an epic love story:

I saw you across a crowded room. I noticed your steely eyes, pursed lips, and striking intensity as you thoughtfully and meticulously tapped characters into your Smart Phone.


Then I watched as you paced anxiously.

I felt the vibration across the room when you received your validation. Your teeth gleamed, you flipped your non-dominant hand through your hair, and gazed approvingly toward the heavens.

I knew then you were a real human being, and not merely an extension of the handheld device you were attached to.

The inspiration for this post came this morning when I read Jake Hodesh's column on SavannahNow.com: Straddling Two Worlds -- Digital and In-Person and decided to hijack some of his message. Though Jake and his colleagues at The Creative Coast would probably soft-sell the thievery and call it "networking."

Anyway, the line that struck me was "In the digital world, emotion is difficult to interpret." Text messages are good way to steer clear of awkward conversations, but sometimes they just create more misinterpretation.  This hasn't just affected our interpersonal communications but our business ones as well.

For example, if I were to receive a text from my boss, I have not yet seen your report, a number of thoughts would go through my head.

1) Is he serious? Maybe he was being ironic in a follow-up to a previous conversation.

2) How come he used "have not" instead of "haven't"? He must be very serious.

3) Why did he use "yet"? Am I slacking?

4) Why did he text me instead of just sending an e-mail?

If we had a phone conversation about this I would've been able to judge his tone and get involved in some give-and-take. But to text him back would involve a lot more thought about how carefully to choose my words, right down to the contractions and characters to make it as succinct and expository as possible. Hey, Text messages are supposed to save time!

And on the interpersonal front when messages are mangled, the answer is to exchange more and more texts. Also time-consuming. Check out the sheer number of communiques from that cheating spouse or that public official.

I hope Tiger Woods and Anthony Weiner sounded out what they were going to say out loud before they punched the words into their phone. It would have saved everyone a lot of time and a lot more trouble.