When KJ retired, and Kidd was eventually traded, the Suns fans went a season or two without “that guy” that we could really stand up for an cheer. Then, in 2004, they re-acquired a point guard from the Dallas Mavericks by the name of Steve Nash. And suddenly, Phoenix basketball fans had something to smile about again.

I feel blessed to have seen a truly gifted player grace our home court for the last eight seasons. We made a good run at the finals with Stoudemire a few years back. We pioneered a whole new style of basketball in which you shoot, shoot some more, shoot again without dribbling at all, play minimal defense, and outscore your opponents by 35 points each night. We learned a whole new meaning of “clutch” as number 13 effortlessly threw up running jump shots from behind the arc to seal (or steal) any number of victories for the good guys in orange. We watched him lead the league in assists for five of his eight years here. He made being a point guard look effortless. But mostly, he made his whole team better just by being on the floor.

All things must come to an end. It’s hard for me to see the value in trading a player away like Steve Nash, even for the possibility to retool the team for the future. But you can’t make a guy like that play for a team like ours forever. His talent for making everyone around him better is only seconded by his desire to be the best at what he does. And, reluctantly, I applaud the Suns for recognizing that it was time to let him try to achieve his dream of an NBA championship in a different uniform.

But, did he really have to trade his orange and purple Suns uniform for the yellow and purple uniform of the Lakers? I mean, thank-goodness it wasn’t the Spurs, but still…. kinda hard to take.

We’ve all watched Kobe, the golden-boy of the west, under Zen Master Phil, accumulate ring after ring until he was dethroned by a) his inability to get along with his center or b) inability to refrain from taking 40 shots a night or c) both. He’s talented, no doubt about it, but he’s become the guy I love to root against, for no reason other than that cocky I-make-more-money-than-you grin he wears on the court every night.

Nash finally has a talent pool surrounding him that is very capable of winning a championship. This season, right here, right now. And I have enough respect for him as a player to want to root for him to finally get the championship ring that he deserves (and that he would never have gotten in Phoenix had he stayed.)

But man… how to root for your favorite player when he’s teammates with a bitter rival? And how much love can you show a team that’s not your home team without completely flipping allegiances.

Here’s my solution. Let me know if you’ve got any other advice?

• Draft him in the first round of your fantasy draft, passing on the likes of Lebron, Mello, Howard, Kobe, Wade, Durant if you have to, because playing fantasy basketball with your friends without having him on your squad to cheer for is not fun at all.
• Stand up and clap in appreciation when he returns to US Airways arena next year for the handful of times the Lakers play the Suns.
• Still root like hell against the Lakers when they play head to head.
• Make good on your bets eventually. I think I’m still down three cases of wine, a few pints of stem cells, and a Ferrari to my Uncle Blaine for betting against the Lakers at every occasion. Really, I’m surprised that the guy agreed to marry my wife and I while I still owed him about $30,000 in gambling debts over the past few seasons.
• Inwardly smile when your favorite player does well for “the other team.” Realize that he’ll probably still be on Sportscenter every night, and that TNT will feature his games weekly.
• And finally, “Be ORNG” and proud of it. But, also…. hope for a high draft pick, come season’s end.

I will be making a career transition from a public safety dispatcher for Phoenix Fire Department to a career in the web development industry. I have accepted an offer to work as a Marketing Coordinator and Project Manager for a company called 10up, LLC (http://10up.com). In their own words they “imagine, grow and create amazing things with WordPress.”

As may of you know, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for quite some time now, dispatching calls for the PFD by day and hacking away at template files and web project specs by night. I’ve successfully launched over a dozen websites in my short tenure as a small business owner for Three Point Design, and have also embraced a role as a social media marketer for a project called the Virtual Incident Command Center at Mesa Community College.

I was given the chance to combine what I’ve learned in all of these different walks of life and put them into practice, working with perhaps the most talented WordPress development team that’s ever been assembled under one virtual roof. (We’re pretty much like the Avengers. Except, we managed to recruit Spider Man, Morpheus from the Matrix, and Roland from the Dark Tower novels too.) The folks at 10up are constantly pushing themselves to take WordPress to new heights and in new directions. They are community oriented as well, contributing regularly as members of the WordPress core development team, and to the plugin repository.

Excited just seems too small of a word for what I am feeling right now. I’m equal parts overwhelmed, apprehensive, anxious and psyched out of my mind.

And… grateful. I appreciate the support that my clients, associates, friends and family have shown to me over the past few weeks as I interviewed and prayed about the decision. Knowing that I had my own community of supporters cheering me on through this process is what has given me the strength to “advance confidently in the direction of my dreams.” (Henry David Thoreau, from Walden.)

I’ll be posting regular updates here about what my new role entails as I immerse myself into the new environment beginning on May 29th.

Extra extra, read more about it

The first step in the journey to improve what turned out to be a pretty good year is to use this space to devote more time to writing. For a long time, having my own domain was more about having a place to practice my WordPress development skills, rather than chip away at the cobwebs surrounding that thing which I used to call a “narrative voice.” I know I have it in me to write things that are in some combination entertaining, interesting, informative or thought-provoking. So, at least once a week, I’m going to post something new here.

My youngest brother toasted my marriage in 2011 with the jest that my wife Liz had landed “tech support for life” by choosing to marry such a self-proclaimed geek. And as I was thinking about ideas for what to blog about, it struck me as appropriate that I might write a “tech support for life’s problems” kind of column. Therefore, stay tuned to read more from the GeekSpeek Blog: Tech Support for Life.

Take a look, it’s in a book

As most of my friends know, I love pouring my attention into a good book and allowing it to transform my ordinary world into something filled with mystery and wonder. And as I hope to sharpen my word-slinging skills by writing more frequently, I can also improve the reach of my imagination by reading more as well.

But, the journey that you take into a book is only as good as those who you can share it with when you are finished. There are random occasions when I can talk about a plot line or story point with other guys around me. But, there’s also a need for a more organized way to do it? I am fully aware that a guy telling another guy that you joined a “book club” is likely to get your man card pulled in a heartbeat. But, if you happen to stumble upon someone else’s blog and they happen to be reading the same thing you are, there’s no harm in leaving a comment or two about the book is there?

Guys reads only: there will be no Robert James Waller or Stephanie Meyers discussed here. (Sorry Sal, I just can’t stomach having to decide which side of the Team Jacob / Team Edward fence I’d be on.) I’ll start with the first few books from my own reading list posted here, and I’ll leave it to you to add what books you want to discuss as well.

The idea of guys reading books is socially acceptable, but just gotta pick some different material. I'm considering this Facebook comment from my friend Sal a cry for help!

Making eye contact with my toes

I am pretty much in the worst shape of my life, as I enter into my thirty-fifth year. Lord knows that whatever first-step quickness I had on a basketball court was gone several years ago. I have added a waist size or two. Where there used to be a normal navel surrounded by a wall of functional abdominal muscle, there is now a small hole which houses debris gathered from the last week of watching American Chopper reruns all afternoon? I feel gross, and although I’m lucky enough to not have any impending health problems caused by my inactivity, I know that at some point my luck is going to run out.

So, to get myself motivated in getting off the couch, I am stealing an idea I found on Facebook about traveling a set number of human powered miles per year. The goal that was proposed was running 2012 miles in 2012. But, while visions of  Forrest Gump sprang into my head (I was run-nning!) I grabbed a calculator and did some math. Disappointed, I realized that that 2012 miles in a year is more than a marathon per week. Obviously, I’m not in anywhere good enough shape to run this much, so I came up with a more realistic plan for myself instead: 1006 human powered miles in 2012. I’m calling it the the half-marathon version of the popular pledge for the devoted joggers. Except my plan will not exclude miles spent in pursuit of tennis balls, running baseline to baseline, spinning my wheels along the mountain bike track, or (gasp) slogging along on a treadmill. I plan to log everything here in a nifty WordPress widget and show my progress as I get back into shape.

If I come up with more goals, i’ll of course revise the plan. But, this should keep me fairly well occupied for a bit!

The atmosphere of the building was cozy, but a little feminine for my tastes. The decor was 50′s Hollywood, complete with stars on the walls and plush red velvet accents. According the Liz, there were no remnants of the former nightclub. The once open building now houses two separate production spaces. The “Actors Cafe” stage seats 50 people in four rows of seats. A theatre at its best is an intimate experience and this will not disappoint; there are no seats in the smaller space that are less than 10 feet from center stage.

We got to peek our heads into the main stage as well. The emphasis on immersing the audience into the production was evident in the design of the main space as well. There are entrance points for the actors on all four sides of the space. The main “stage” was not a stage at all, but an open space on the floor surrounded on three sides by a few rows of seating. I’m really anxious to see a play done in this style, particularly if they ever decide to take on Shakespeare.

The play we saw was Mornings At Seven, which we were led to believe was a comedy. Since neither of us had much knowledge of the play or it’s reputation prior to walking in the door, it’s hard to say if the lack of humor was due to the acting or to the script. But, for as much as the theatre space itself was a pleasant surprise, the actual play was a disappointment.

The play was written in the 1930′s, and touches upon themes relevant to the lifestyle of the time. The plot device that was supposed to keep everyone going was the apparent mental illness of one of the male characters. But, at no point did I ever buy into the anguish of this character enough to sympathize with his predicament. Matter of fact, there were several soliloquies delivered within the context of the play which were moments forced upon the audience rather than earned by the actors on the stage.

I’m not quite sure if my inability to connect with the story was as a result of poor acting or just an irrelevant script. In the end it all results in the same thing though. My advice: go see a show at Desert Stage theater, just not this one.

All authors are writers; we love the practice of storytelling and the physical feel of being creative with words. That’s one of the reasons why this blog has been reformatted as many times as it has… for me, it’s kinda like working on the cover to your latest novel or story. And, although I don’t find too many occasions to devote more than ten minutes to the actual art form, the creative spirit still runs through my veins.

A friend of mine at work asked me what books or experiences that I have had that gave me the confidence to declare myself to be a writer. The request gave me some pause, because it had been a long time since I had read anything along those lines. But, I recalled a few titles and a few experiences that might help to get someone started along that path.

1. A book: On Writing, by Stephen King

Hile, wordslinger. Tell the story, and tell it true. I read this book when it was hot off the presses, and like most of his other works, it quickly found a home on my bookshelf shrine to my favorite author. I really felt a deep connection with some of the analogies that he presented when considering the practice of writing. The message delivered is at times overly simplified… but it is a great approach, and a good starting point.

2. Take a creative writing class

There is really no substitute for the energy created by a group of people who are all trying to do the same thing: tell a story. If you are writing for a grade or writing to bring something to a group it can sometimes sap energy the end product. But the structure of the class or the group can force you to write through the block or express yourself in words and themes that you previously found inaccessible. Writers can sometimes be their own worst critics. but if you are OK with a little bit of critical thinking about the words on the page, it can do wonders for establishing your own narrative voice in whatever medium you have chosen.

3. Buy a style guide, just in case.

The book most recommended in this regard is Elements of Style by Strunk and White, but there are others available. Actually sitting down and reading these kind of books is actually a worse punishment than watching paint dry, but they are invaluable to have on your shelf. You instantly feel smarter when you reference something out of the book for the first time. (For example, does the comma go inside or outside of the quotation marks when you are writing a dialogue?) And, as writer, it’s important to understand what the actual rules of style are before you choose to break them.

 4. Another book: Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

Very Zen. I remember reading this  book a while back and enjoying it. It talks more about what it feels like to be a writer, and intermixes steps to get in the to the correct “mindset” of developing a story with practical advice about how to physically get the words on the page.

5. Read enough to have a favorite. Don’t be afraid to “borrow.”

These two small things go hand in hand. Writers who write also read. And most of us have our favorites for one thing or another. Get to know those works that really grab a hold of your attention. The words that you can’t quite manage to put down once they gripped your imagination are the ones in which you want to bathe as often as possible. When you are fully immersed, ask yourself how that author or that character would see the subject which you are writing about. Then, do what they do to start. You’ll learn to use your own voice later when it is stronger.

I’ll open this up to whomever has other advice. In particular, if you have other books you have read that helped you along the way, leave a comment below with the title or author?