fragment

for morgan:

How Do You Like Your Steak?

Medium? Medium-rare? Well done....? Do you prefer your steak with seasoning? Dry rubs? Steak sauce? Hot sauce?

How picky are you when the steak comes out? Do you send it back if it's undercooked or overcooked? Do you cover up the poor cooking with more seasonings and sauces? Do you tell the server about your dissatisfaction?

The truth is like steak....

BLA, bla bla....

Wanderlust Courage

Stargaze. Wanderlust. 

Grateful for the courage you

Give me. I love you. 

(For mom, 10/27/2015)

#PinkMonkeyAdventures #TravelHack

Brain Freeze

Thoughts Trapped in My Head.
Knock Knock. No one home. Again.
Vocal Stranglehold.

-DMR//10-04-14

Tornado Touchdown

Tornado Fury.
Suffering Pronounces Sin.
Full moon. Rainbow Frowns.

(11/17/2013)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-IL-Tornado-Recovery/361545887315736

Boardwalk Blues

Windblown Shores. Rise up.
Salt Water Erodes the Core.
Cape Cod Summer Shock.

Saved by a Kiss

In this frame of mind,
I seem to be blind.
To the beauty around me,
And past memory.
Site seen makes me blush,
I think I have a crush.
Silhouette of darkness,
Eyes closed, I see the likeness.
Flawless flecks of glare,
Dart quickly to avoid a stare.
Heading for the edge of the abyss,
Saved by a kiss.

circa Oct.2007

Found an old Haiku scribbled on paper from 2007

Usually when I re-read old ramblings I can recall the exact frame of mind when I wrote it or at least recall the memory inspired by the language but this one is leaving me clueless.

fire pit fury.
too long for comfort. shave it.
vanilla twist.

Captivity of Circumstance

Captivity of circumstance,
Locked in a tango dance;
The circle closes in,
And pain buried within;
Tin can, microphone, megaphone...
Tone deaf, starry night shone;
Feint left, joust right,
Verbal sword is my birthrite;
The bottle - plastic and glass,
See straight through your ass.

Inspired Revelations

The canopy of tress,
Cloud the view to memories;
Flourishing branches,
Lonely soul wanders and watches;
To protect or conceal,
Sunlight pokes through to reveal;
Roots deep,
Secrets and secrets to keep;
Layers of truth unveiled,
The ship of salvation has sailed.

Grief as an Aphrodisiac

Aphrodisiac is defined by Webster as "an agent (as a food or drug) that arouses or is held to arouse sexual desire" and is commonly used to describe a state of heightened excitement. Many commercial organizations have sought to uncover and exploit the body's natural feelings of desire with chemical compounds - this is not a recent phenomena. Love potions in some form or another have been around since men began their conquest of women. The ancient greeks used love potions and the indians use herbal concoctions and incense (or peyote!). The modern day perfume can also be considered a "love potion" designed to attract the opposite sex.

The one-liner "grief is nature's most powerful aphrodisiac" was made infamous by Chaz (Will Ferrell) in the movie Wedding Crashers. As a pioneer in easy and sleazy ways to get women into bed, Chaz starts to crash funerals under the guise of a family friend and becomes a shoulder to lean on for the women he seduces.

This got me thinking about the powerful feelings of grief. People always say that near death experiences (car accident, etc) can cause a heightened sexual arousal - there is a whole separate issue with those that are into BDSM to achieve a staged environment in which to achieve this heightened sense, however, that is not the point of my post.

Does grief actually trigger something in our brain chemistry that follows with a raised sense of sexual attraction?

In my preliminary search it appears that grief can be a foundation for many sexual disorders. It can lead women and men both into varying states of impotence and can prevent them from achieving orgasm.

Was this just a convenient one-liner that made for good TV or is there any real truth behind it?

bad stuff is easier to believe

I heard this quote recently. I can't remember if it was from a book or a movie or what, but it struck me as an awkwardly true statement. What is it about "bad stuff" that people are always so willing to accept? Likewise, why is it so hard to believe the good stuff?

When we hear good news, there is always an attentive ear for the "but"...

I've noticed that people tend to look for the dark cloud instead of the silver lining. And even when the silver lining is shining bright, they wonder if its a problem with their eyes or some reflective material causing the glare.

Some say that our society has bred us to be self-effacing buck-passers that would do anything to avoid scrutiny or admitting a mistake. Not enough people stand up for what is right or lead by example. We expect people to fail or to be "exposed". There is an entire industry of celebrity gossip websites and magazines dedicated to "catching" people doing something wrong.

Then, there are the naysayers; the voices of others that say ‘this won’t work’ or ‘that will never happen’, the images of future events not turning out the way you would like them to, or possibly not happening at all. This is common for those seeking acceptance from their peers for new business ventures.

Worse yet are the folks that think negatively as a defense mechanism so they aren't surprised when bad stuff happens. Or some people simply have such low self image that it's impossible for them to believe good things can happen to them. Even worse than these two groups of people are the ones that are purely too lazy to think of anything positive.

OK, so now I think I have a good idea why some people find it easy to believe the bad stuff... do all of these reasons automatically justify why they can't believe in good things, too?

I believe that there is a cause and effect for everything. If you act with genuine sincerity, people will treat you the same... if you are positive and put out a healthy vibe, people will feel it and react in kind. I'm not so naive to think that this works all the time so I don't get frustrated when bad things happen. The negatively driven mindset is a slippery slope and it's easy to lose your footing.

Be strong. Be positive. Live for the silver lining. Good things will come.

Endless possibilities

During a recent re-run episode of The Office, the Dunder Mifflin paper crew attended a high school job fair where Michael (Steve Carell) has Pam (Jenna Fischer) bring a single piece of paper as their booth attraction; no fancy brochures, lighted booths or attention-grabbing signs.... just a single sheet of paper. Michael's justification for the single sheet of blank paper is that it represents "endless possibilities".

This quote has been ringing around in my head for a couple weeks now. It was funny at the time I saw it on the show, but now it continues to ring true to me. I mean, seriously, a single sheet of blank paper could be a paper airplane, or a menu, a report, a tax return, a doodling space for a child, a love note, a piece of evidence, a suicide letter, a diary, a page from a book, a formula or truly an endless list of possibilities.

Then I started thinking about other types of "endless possibilities". The first couple things that come to mind are oceans and fractals. Fractals appear similar at all levels of magnification and are often considered to be infinitely complex. Oceans are visually endless.

I don't want to go too deep or anything, but some may even say that life is an endless possibility - a series of choices that could lead to endless possibilities...

Professional Accomplishments

If you've landed on this page after interviewing with me and are interested in some personal ramblings, please read on. If you would like to see some additional professional recommendations and accomplishments, please click this link to my profile on LinkedIn:

David Rocci LinkedIn Profile

There is a public profile available but in order to read all my recommendations and see my profile in detail, you will need to create a free account.

I'm also a moderator/mentor with the Young Entrepreneurs forum. You can find my profile and postings throughout their website:

YE Forum Profile

I do volunteer work with the Shorewood Chamber of Commerce. I'm currently co-chair of the volunteer committee for the annual Crossroads Festival. You can find more information about SACC and the Crossroads Festival at this site:

Shorewood Chamber of Commerce

Feel free to contact Lora Markley, the Executive Director, if you have any interest in verifying my volunteer work with them.

Irony of the Airlines

As my travels (work and pleasure) have increased over the years I've found the intricacies and nuances of flying to be a delicate balancing act of a love and hate relationship. I recently traveled to Boston/Cape Cod and upon my return to Chicago was stranded at the airport. United delayed and delayed my flight for about 6 hours and then finally canceled it at 12:15am - they offered no hotel vouchers, meal vouchers or even a free flight voucher. In fact, every hotel within a 50 mile radius is sold out. Luckily, I had hedged my bets earlier in the evening by double booking on the 5:30am flight the following day and by registering as standby on every other flight to Chicago so when this flight was canceled, I was automatically booked onto the 5:30am flight the following day. Some passengers were not so lucky and were stuck in Boston for two more days!

With the flight canceled, no hotels available and a flight that required a security clearing at 4:30am the next day, I stayed at the airport and attempted to relax. This experience made me BITTER towards United. This was on Tuesday, June 24th.

Now, on my return flight from Orlando scheduled for Sunday, July 6th, I was booked to fly out at 2:19pm on another United flight. We received a call on Saturday from United telling us they overbooked the flight and asked if we would volunteer to take an earlier flight and we'd receive $100 certificate each towards a future flight. Sure, no problem. Then we get to the airport and the earlier flight we agreed to has been oversold, too. They are looking for volunteers and offering free flight vouchers this time. We volunteered and were booked on the 3:35 flight and standby on the original 2:19 flight.

Here's the kicker: we end up flying first class on the same plane we were originally booked plus we end up with $200 in gift certificates towards future flights AND two free ticker vouchers for future flights. United basically gave us $800 worth of flights and put us up in first class (where we had drinks for free the whole flight home) on the same plane we were supposed to be on from the beginning.

My scale of love and hate was tilted strongly towards hate after the Boston fiasco but United has tipped the scales closer to even with this Orlando deal. Crazy, crazy airlines!

IRS increases standard mileage rate

This should come as a relief to all those road warriors out there. Considering the current costs of fuel, the IRS has increased the standard mileage rate for deductible business miles from 50.5 cents to 58.5 cents per mile. For those of you that have hesitated keeping a log of your miles because it's a pain in the ass, you should definitely reconsider now!

For example, if you drove 10,000 business miles this year, you would have an additional deduction of $5850 - 5,000 miles is $2925. These are significant deductions!!

The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2008. This is an increase of eight (8)cents from the 50.5 cent rate in effect for the first six months of 2008, as set forth in Rev. Proc. 2007-70.

In recognition of recent gasoline price increases, the IRS made this special adjustment for the final months of 2008. The IRS normally updates the mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next calendar year.

"Rising gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans. Given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile," said IRS CommissionerDoug Shulman. "We want the reimbursement rate to be fair to taxpayers."

The new six-month rate for computing deductible medical or moving expenses will also increase by eight (8) cents to 27 cents a mile, up from 19 cents for the first six months of 2008. The rate for providing services for charitable organizations is set by statute, not the IRS, and remains at 14 cents a mile.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=184163,00.html

Horseback Riding in Orlando

Carve the sandy woods
Bell, Buckshot and Mystery.
Cadence to relax.

Bike Riding, round 2

After the muscle cramps and sore bottom wore off, I felt reinvigorated to ride again. As a kid I rode my bike all over town. The product of a single parent childhood, my dad was always working when I needed to get anywhere so it was natural to ride my bike to work or around town to get where I needed to go.

This time I took the bike down to the Cape Cod Canal. The ride was 13 miles - 6.5mi each way. The canal separates Cape Cod from "the mainland" of Massachusetts. There are two bridges that cross the canal, the Sagamore and the Bourne Bridge respectively. There is a marina where local fisherman dock their boats and a variety of sailboats, day cruise lines and even oil tankers that pass through the canal.

Cruising at my own pace, with no pressure of other riders, I had an opportunity to reflect. The swirling currents of the man-made canal were always something to fear when we were growing up. "Don't get too close to the edge, you'll get swept away!" Pedaling the canal brought back a lot of memories.

Relentless Power.
Riptide Current. Emotions.
The Crying of Waves.

I finished the 13 mile ride in 48 minutes. Not too shabby for my second time on a pedal bike in the last 10 years!

Bike Riding aka "Cycling"

I was back east on Cape Cod and the Boston area for most of June and was lucky enough to mix some work with some family and friend time. One of my oldest buds also happened to be in the area while I was there so I tried to fit in with his frequently changing hobbies. His current time waster has been "cycling". He made it a point to correct me every time I mentioned going for a "bike ride".

So one sunny day I set out with Jesse and his friend Ken for a leisurely "bike ride" through the upper cape.... or so I thought! These guys show up with their $2500 racing bikes, spandex (yes, I said spandex), race helmets, riding gloves and bike shirts... and I'm sitting there with my Dad's 10 year old Canondale, casual shorts and a wifebeater undershirt! Man, I know I'm in for it now...

We started out in Dennis and after only a few miles I was already struggling to keep up. We continued through to Chatham and rode through the beautiful downtown area and stopped to have lunch at the Chatham Bars Inn for lunch. The food was great if you don't mind paying $17 for a cheeseburger.

After lunch I was dreading the trip back to Dennis when I find out that we aren't going back just yet, we are going to wind up Route 28 to Orleans. As if riding on a trail made for bikes was not challenging enough, now we are riding on windy, overgrown roads with no shoulders. And, let's not forget I don't have a helmet... because I thought we were going for a bike ride! Cycling? Really?

I survived this trek and was only run off the road a couple times. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this was the first time I've ever ridden a bike (sorry, "cycled") with my feet LOCKED into the pedals. Ya! I had those shoes that lock your feet into the pedals. So every time I went to stop and put my foot on the ground I nearly killed myself - you have to twist your feet out and it takes some getting used to!

Anyway, we made it to Orleans with the pro riders a steady mile or so ahead of me. Luckily we picked the trail back up in Orleans and cruised back to Dennis. My butt was sore for 4 days after that! Holy crap. The good thing is the scenery was absolutely beautiful and you really see a lot more from a bike.

This trip ended up just over 36 miles. Find out more about the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

Tax Season is Finally Over!

After another long, arduous tax year, the season is finally coming to a close. It's been another exciting year with many lessons learned. I expect to be back in the full swing of blogging over the course of the next couple weeks. I'm taking a pretty heavy workload of graduate degree classes, too, so that is also sucking up a bunch of my time.

Motocross season has officially begun and the weather is finally starting to break out here in Chicago. I'm thrilled to be wearing flip-flops at the office today :)

Stay tuned...

Holiday Road Trip Summary

2791 miles! Holy Crap!

Pit stop at the Days Inn

It's 4am eastern standard time and I finally got sick of Adri's bitching and moaning so we stopped. I had at least another hour or more of driving but she's been complaining for at least 3 hours. I tried to trick her by changing the clocks in the car while she slept but she caught on. doh!

We covered about 550 miles in just under 8 hours; we were making great time! Many thanks to Keith and Jessie for letting us borrow their cooler and a high five to Michelle for letting us borrow her Garmin GPS thingy. Between these two essential travel items, it's made our trip enjoyable and on-track so far.

I'm still wired from the stress of driving so I'm taking advantage of the free wi-fi while I can. We will get about 5.5 hours of sleep and then head back on the road. Only another 150 miles or so to the in-laws.

Oh ya, for those uninformed about this road trip, we have embarked on a roadtrip that will span at least nine states and cover almost 2500 miles over the next 12 days. We will begin with xmas at the in-laws, then visit friends in Northern Virginia, Richmond and a business meeting in VA Beach, then to my Mom's in Greenville, NC, a quick stop in Raleigh at Phil's on our way to Charlotte to spend New Years Eve with Charlie and Ash-uh-lee, before we travel all the way back to Chicago.

To Mohawk or Not

I'm trying to kill about 20 minutes until I have to leave to start my afternoon errands; haircut, pickup dry cleaning, meet Ryan about some cold calling stuff for Liberty, go to my office to meet Terrence and a client, etc, etc. And I was thinking about doing a mohawk. Just a raw, buzzed up, hacked up and spikey mohawk. Nothing says "trust me to do your taxes" like a mohawk, right?

Well, here is my logic: I don't want to do tax returns. I want to do the market development activities; co-op advertising, joint marketing programs, charitable fundraising, press releases, interviews, media planning, waver training, B2B marketing and door knocking. Having the mohawk will certainly preclude me from staying in the office because I don't want to scare customers away... and if I am out in the field, dressed as lady liberty or uncle same, will anyone care that I have a mohawk? Probably not...

To mohawk or not
Crazy, Spikey. Liberty.
Taxes can be fun.

Startup Indiana - Rural Entrepreneurship Conference

Last week I was in Indiana for 3 days for Diabco work. On Wednesday, December 12th, we attended the first annual Startup Indiana conference at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. To start, we arrived nearly 2 hours before the welcome event began so that was a bummer - especially considering we drove an hour to get there. We listened to exciting advancements in the Indiana economy and bla, bla, bla. I wrote two haikus during the most boring parts:

Headwind of change
Bank and turn the ship around
Sail forward. Tailwind.

Rural business
Investing with confidence
Come quickly. Join us.

The interesting parts were when the entrepreneur experts shared their stories with the group. Wow! I have never seen so much passion among the members. The guy from Triton Energy was spitting with enthusiasm as he stormed around the room throwing out vials of biodiesel and the CEO of Lone Pine Farms choked back tears when he showed a slideshow of his father and four generations of his family working on their farm. Our presentation was professional and insightful but lacked the passion of these folks. Maybe it's because we still haven't achieved the success.

One thing I was reassured about is that many of these folks have been down and out, and plugging away for years, before they caught a break. Our little venture has endured a couple angel investor rounds and many setbacks but we keep on kicking. I keep telling myself that no story ever makes Entrepreneur magazine that wasn't "almost" a failure.

Our one-on-one pitch with the angel investor panel went well and we should hear something soon. Crossing our fingers as we head into the holiday season... wishing for a break!

Recent Haiku Revelations

I've mentioned the book Crypto-Nomicon in previous posts and this epic novel of 1100 pages is a monster. In fact, it's fascinating. One of the main characters injects random haiku poetry throughout the novel. Considering this and a recent inspiration, I've decided to apply myself to the art of counting syllables. A traditional haiku is three lines and is constructed of 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the second and 5 on the third.

The following is a series of haikus about my visit to Pittsburgh:

Tunnel thru mountain
Front door of city opens
three rivers converge.

Little big city
The former steel capital
Now title Pittsburgh

Walk briskly downtown
Before the bridge, on the left
Dance without blushing.

Go out of the Gateway
Around the hilton downtown
And pass the Highmark.

Lunch at Max Erma
Fun times had in Station Square,
Tiki and Fatheads.

Old Skool Ghetto

I was in Pittsburgh last weekend to visit my oldest college buddy Brent. We met freshman year in the dorms, lived together in various places with a number of different roommates over the course of 6 years and became best friends. We reminisced about old stories, ridiculous acts we barely survived and the touching moments that forged the bond of our friendship. It was awesome!

In the spirit of sharing old memories, Brent managed to find these old photos of us, from our freshman year in the dorms. These are from the Fall of 1998. Get ready to laugh!

Yeahhh, that's definitely Olde English 40oz's of beer and thug hats! The next one is even better...

This was our freshman year crew from the O'Shaughnessy (a.k.a. O'shag) dormitory at the Virginia Tech campus. And yes, I am wearing a sweater vest. Wow!

Life at a Crossroads

Ever heard the saying about coming to a fork in the road? Taking the road less traveled or being stuck at a crossroads? Imagine being stuck in a spot with about a dozen different roads. That's just about where I am right now. So many choices, too little information and gut feelings I can't figure out how to read. The map blew out the window a few miles (years) back and the windows are blacked out, covered in snow and I'm blindfolded.... and driving about 90mph.

Yeah, it's something like that.

Back to the Grind

For many people, yesterday marked the return to work after a long weekend, or maybe even a full week of holiday vacation. Today was our torturous trip back to reality. It began at 5am EST... and we finally arrived in Chicago around noon CST. I drove Adri straight to work and came home to prepare for my next trip which will begin tomorrow at 4:30am CST. I absolutely must be on the road by 5:30am tomorrow to reach my destination on time.

Welcome back to the real world! /me trout slaps myself. This saying may be a little old, or a little too techie for some of you, but wow did that just bring me back to my old irc days.

Anywho, the blogging will resume. I've got a few funny stories and some interesting things I've learned and explored over the past week on Cape Cod that I'm eager to share... when my eyelids aren't drooping so low you question my ethnicity.

Winning Streak!

Well boys, today marks my second fantasy football win in a row! I think two wins constitutes a streak, right? It sure beats my 7 week LOSING streak! In a league of twenty guys, I've been constantly getting pounded by the seasoned fantasy players in this intense league. Going in to this week my record was 2-8, the worst in the league. Now, with my second win a row under my belt, my record improves to 3-8 - tied with four other teams for the leagues worst records!

Nobody on my team had a particularly stand-out day today but everyone decided to show up for work and put in a solid shift today. The real disappointment of the year has been Laurence Maroney. For the entire season, he is my second WORST scoring player. With all the hype around him I hang on to him and play him every week waiting for the break-out performance... but it never comes!

And why should it? With Tom Brady and the New England passing game, they can continue adding wins week in and week out without Maroney! Randy Moss is a beast and Brady is not afraid to throw to everyone. I just might get the courage to drop Maroney from my starting lineup next week as I go for my third win a row.

My playoff hopes are a long shot but I can definitely be a fun "spoiler" for all the wanks that take this league too darn seriously!

Motorola Q

How many people have cellphones that can take pictures, video, browse the internet, bluetooth, infrared, beam contacts and do a thousand other features they will never use?

I've had a pda phone for over a year now and only in the last month have I begun the realize how much easier this little sucker can make my life. It had so many features that it overwhelmed me.... so I did nothing with the mini-computer except make calls. Well, occasionally I would snap a picture message and I love to text message.

A recent problem I had was the growing discrepancy between my calendar reminders in my phone and on my computer. I'm slowly stepping away from the paper lists and piles of sticky notes (I said slowly!) and beginning to rely more on my devices for scheduling my days. The problem was that I could be on the road and set a reminder or appointment into my phone or I'd be at my computer and copy/paste an event into my outlook and neither device was synced with the other.

I set out on the daunting task to install the Motorola Q software on my laptop and it was surprisingly easy. Then I thought that this software must be cumbersome and annoying to navigate... or at least hog my memory (RAM). And again I was surprised; the software was super easy to use, doesn't require a lot of resources and automatically detects when I plug my device into the computer.

A simple connection via usb, the phone syncs my contacts and calendar in about 30 seconds, does a cute little beep and I'm done. Voila! It's that simple to synchronize my life... I mean, my devices.

I had been holding out for an over the air syncing solution but for now, the manual syncing for contacts and calendar is OK. I won't even begin to mess with email until I can get over the air syncing. The possibilities for uber-cool scheduling over the air is nice for when I have a secretary, but for now, I'm glad I finally decided to install the software. It only took a year... who knows what I might discover about this device in the next year before my contract is up!

Lesson: maybe you should make it a goal this week to try one new feature on your over-featured phone and post the results of your attempt right here!