Image courtesy of Barnes & Noble

From My ESPN Blog:

WYRRB?! – A Series of Fortunate Events

So, how did I get to this point?! Well, here’s my tale of how a series of fortunate events unfolded to create this opportunity to publish another book with the Worldwide Leader In Sports. This moment is equally filled with a anxiety, exuberance, and satisfaction:

Follow the link below to read the rest of my post…

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

Thursday Shoutout is our time to feature those who have given us love on their websites or blogs.  This is our way of saying: Backatcha!

From the Schoolhouse Blog, online resource for the Texas Elementary Principals & Supervisors Association:

TEAM TEPSA...in the Game for Kids!

“Live each waking moment as if it might be a ‘teachable moment’, a chance to expand your mind and strengthen your abilities.” ~Kevin Carroll, Rules of the Red Rubber Ball

TEPSA volunteer leaders gathered this month to discuss ideas for the association and learn new ways to energize school leaders at the local level. One idea that was shared was having teachers read “Rules of the Red Rubber Ball” by Kevin Carroll as an inspirational book study when the school year begins.

It’s always validating when people read Rules of the Red Rubber Ball and find something in it that resonates with them; to have it considered for use as a teaching tool or book study text is icing on the cake.  Thank you for your shoutout and know that it inspires me to dig more deeply and put out more material that will have even greater impact.  Speaking of which: Stay Tuned for a BIG announcement along those lines!!

Stefan Bucher’s Daily Monster is our Wednesday staple of creative, hairy fun.

Stefan has gone straight artiste with his new masterpiece, the ”Omakase Monster”:

Just call him the ‘New Millenium Van Gogh.’

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

All good things begin with a plan.  ”Kicking It”, the just released documentary on the 2006 Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa was a part of a plan by AOL executive Ted Leonsis:

How Ted Leonsis’ Snag Films Came To Be:

“I wanted to make films that had a double-bottom line - movies that had a return on their investment, but which also righted a wrong, or spurred viewers to social action. I began to think about the concept of ‘filmanthropy,’ believing that filmmakers could transform the energy created by a film that shined the light on injustice, or which exposed a social need, into greater audience participation...I learned that many great documentaries, released even two or three years ago and having run through their traditional distribution, are now hard to find, and large media companies want an easy way to have these films connect with an audience.”

Go to the Snag Films website and “watch full-length documentary films for free...and put them anywhere on the web. When you embed a widget on your web site, you open a virtual movie theater and become a “Filmanthropist...” With a library of 225 documentaries, and rapidly growing — browse by topic or go through the alphabet from A-Z — you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests.

For some, art is excessively highbrow, while sports is looked at as the domain of the uncultured.  What do you get when you combine the power of the artistic & athletic mediums with a powerful socio-political motive?  A third stream, ‘Filmanthropy,’ awareness, social change.  We’ve already seen this hybridization occur and we’re destined to see more in the coming years: seemingly incompatible disciplines cobbled together out of creative necessity and brought to bear on real problems in a rapidly changing world.

Sounds exciting.

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

Jostens Renaissance event, Phoenix, AZ:

(Photog credit: Ted Roseen—Roseen Cultural Photography)

“Founded by educators in 1988, Jostens Renaissance is the first and only national education-focused program created to recognize and reward the academic achievements of students from elementary school through college. Its primary goals are to increase student performance and teacher enthusiasm, and raise the level of community participation in schools.”

If you want a little video cup of Jostens Renaissance, a Monday morning pick me up if you will, follow the link below and watch the teen spirit unleashed.

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

From the State.Com:

About a year after being drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the No. 2 pick of the 2002 NBA Draft, (Jay) Williams was flung from his motorcycle when it smashed into a utility pole at 75 mph, seemingly ending his once-promising basketball career and almost killing him.

Williams, who had just completed his rookie season in the NBA, suffered severe ligament damage to his left knee, nerve damage to his leg and a broken pelvis. Just days after the crash, Williams was told by his doctor that he would be lucky to walk again, and the damage required 13 surgeries in three months.”

Williams, a Duke University graduate, came back from his injury and attempted a comeback to no avail.  Today, Williams works for 24 Hour Fitness and does the next best thing, speaking to young b-ballers at basketball camps and giving them the benefit of his hard earned experience.  His message: stay in school and “you can do anything that you put your mind to.” Words to live by.

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

Thursday Shoutout is our time to feature those who have given us love on their websites or blogs.  This is our way of saying: Backatcha!

From the Christopher Scott blog:

Make it Fun!

One of my favorite presenters from this year’s Maximum Impact Simulcast (MIS) was Kevin Carroll. Mr. Carroll presented a great idea to have Olympic themed “game days” at organizations as a way to boost creativity and encourage play at work.

At our local United Way we already have Game Days once a month, so our COO and I worked together to create the United Way “Unique” Olympics. Below are some pictures of month one, from our three month long United Way “Unique” Olympics. I’m not in any of the pictures because I was holding the Camera (thanks Jason), but my teammate and I are in first place. Our team name is “Go for the Gold!”

Thanks for the shoutout, Christopher and good luck to team “Go for the Gold.” Look for more United Way-Olympic pictures in our Flickr slide show (right margin) very soon. 

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

Stefan Bucher’s Daily Monster is our Wednesday staple of creative, hairy fun.

Stefan recently appeared on the local (Los Angeles) Public Access TV show of Larry Crandall.  Here’s the interview:

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

(Staff Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz)

Artist turns tragic crash into art, inspiration
By Alfred Lee, Staff Writer

Martin Vogel is a racer. He raced motorcycles as a youth until a crash with another biker paralyzed him from the waist down. He was 21 then, and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

His voice steels when recalling how he woke up two weeks after the crash to the news of his paralysis.

“I wasn’t depressed. I didn’t care,” he said. “That’s where I got it all. The answers to life. I got a little clarity.”

Vogel, now 44, still races for the Los Angeles Kart Club, using hand controls he built himself. He lifts up his shirt and points to one of his ribs. It juts out at a sickening angle.

“The g-forces are the equivalent of Indy car racing,” he said, with more than a hint of pride. “I’m fifth in points.”

Immediately next to the garage that Vogel keeps his go karts is a new art studio. These days, Vogel’s primary focus is on painting. He creates abstract images using the wheels of his wheelchair.

He first got the idea about 15 years ago, he said, when he and his friends went up to Cheney Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains.

“I would get ahead of my friends, and have to stop and turn around and wait for them. Then I looked down and saw all these patterns I was making in the ground,” he said. “I thought, `That’s me.“‘

He went down to a nearby baseball diamond to practice making various shapes and forms. In the years since, he’s refined the rhyme and reason to his technique: First, he sketches out the moves he needs to make on paper. He then paints the lines with his wheelchair on a canvas taped to the floor, stretches the canvas out on a stretcher board - which again, he builds himself - and hand paints the rest.

I marvel at how often certain people, dealt an incredibly difficult hand in life, end up being MORE productive than the average person.  Let’s see: motorcycle racer.  Paraplegic.  Kart racer.  Painter.  How many of us allow some kind of slight to ruin our day, our week, our year?  On television this weekend, there was the story of a kid born without eyes and unable to walk, who played two or three instruments, was in his university marching band and was an inspiration to all around him.  He said that he was not “disabled” but “able,” because his so-called disability allowed him to ‘see’ the heart of people and not be distracted by externals.  The petty slights, insecurities and excuses fall away (or never take root), replaced instead by a clear, keen vision of the goal at hand. 

If they can do it, why can’t I, or you? 

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

The Homeless World Cup in Melbourne is in December, but the tryouts, training camps and tournaments preceding the Cup are going on now:

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

From my friend, my idol, Paulo Coelho:

“Dear readers,

I wish to make a virtual exhibition for the 100 Million Copies sold. And invite you to participate. 
Based on an idea that I saw in an exhibition in Aviles - dedicated to the 20th anniversary of my book The Alchemist -
I would like to extend it to the virtual space and invite you to take part.

The idea of this physical exhibition that I saw in Aviles (and that will be reproduced in Milan this week) is the following:
a reader would pose for a picture holding his/her favorite book of mine.
Please then take a picture of yourself holding your favorite book of mine and send to us.

You should include in your email your name and country and send it to the following email address:

(don’t worry about the quality).

My team will be up-loading the pictures in this page throughout the year.

Love
Paulo”

100 million inspiring, moving, provocative books authored by the ‘Crazy Magician.’ Mr. Coelho has conquered every continent, not with the sword, but with the well chosen word.  As one who gifts Paulo’s classic book, ’The Alchemist’ at every opportunity, I can personally vouch for the fact that his books change lives.  A hearty congratulations to you, Sir, and I am confident that 200 million is right around the corner!

And one more thing: if you have - and I know that you do - a Coelho classic, take a digi photo and send it to the email address above and become a part of Paulo’s beautiful, global quilt.

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

Thursday Shoutout is our time to feature those who have given us love on their websites or blogs.  This is our way of saying: Backatcha!

From Kenya over at the Info Spot blog:

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Great Book! - Rules of the Red Rubber Ball
I recently read a very inspiring book titled, “Rules of the Red Rubber Ball” by Kevin Carroll. This book was about how we all must find our passion in life and learning how to apply that passion to our careers, whether an entrepreneur or working a 9-5 for someone else. It’s important to have a career that you’re passionate about. Ultimately, the book is uplifting and definitely help me put some things into perspective and it’s very creatively written. If you get a chance to read it, let me know your thoughts.

Kenya, thanks for your kind words and I’m glad that Rules of the RRB inspired you.  Good luck with your real estate career!

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

Stefan Bucher’s Daily Monster is our Wednesday staple of creative, hairy fun.

Stefan is inspiring friends and acquaintances left and right.  Here is an homage of sorts, a re-interpretation, ‘channeled Stefan,’ from Marguerita at ‘The Poignant Frog’ blog:

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

From the Sports Academic blog:

Sport as Socializing Agent

I would like to begin a conversation on sports acting as socializing activities. Scott and I have talked around this issue some in other posts and comments. The general theory is that sports serve the interests of society by teaching practitioners and spectators behaviors needed or prized in a given time and place. This means that the same sport may socialize practitioners and spectators differently when the historical and social contexts change.

Speaking generally, Victorian era British sports, for example, emphasize social etiquette and restraint. American sports, on the other hand, tend to blatantly defy British decorum and, in the case of baseball, attempt to erase European genealogy. Instead, craftiness (cheating?) and a dogged determination to win are prized. “Stealing,” is even permissible.

I attended a “Philosophy of Sport” conference in England in 2004. Most of the attendees were European and I surprised some when I mentioned that in America, soccer is largely a sport for the upper middle class, played in wealthy suburbs. In Europe, it is a decidedly working class sport, and the matches often attract many disenfranchised, unemployed young men looking to take their anger out on the opposing team or its fans.

I offer these two general examples merely as primers. Over the next few weeks, I invite you to join me in analyzing the socializing effects of a number of sports and games: golf (yes, there is more to be said), tennis, soccer, baseball, fencing, trictrac, football, basketball, and maybe racquetball, rodeo, hockey, and others you might suggest.

What societal values are transmitted through sport/play?  How does that process vary by class, race or gender?  How do sport and play impact the maintenance of, or evolution of societal values?

Observed superficially, sport and play seem trivial, but as the “Sports Academic” demonstrates, sport is a mirror of who we are and studying sport and play can offer unusual insights into our culture and ourselves.  Those careful observations and insights can help lead - if we are motivated and wise - to change.

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!

These are some of the faces of Team USA, the Homeless World Cup all star team that will represent in Melbourne, Australia:

And this just in from our friend, Jeremy Goldberg XD of Global Youth Partnership for Africa:

“The Homeless World Cup has confirmed the Global Youth Partnership for Africa’s “Team Gomo Tong” participation in the 2008 Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia. Team Gomo Tong will participate in the first ever: “Female Homeless World Cup.”

Team Gomo Tong will organize a team of seven young women with the objective to both bring the cup to Uganda, but also to develop new relationships and friendships with players from around the world.

The 1st Female Homeless World Cup will feature teams from: Cameroon, Colombia, Kyrgz Republic, Ivory Coast, Philipines, Paraguay and Zambia.

As part of our Girls Kick It! program, GYPA will commence recruitment, education, training and futbol practice by this Summer 2008.”

Having seen some of the women of Team Gomo Tong play - they’ve got a good shot.  If you want to support Team Gomo Tong 2008, go here and do what you can.

What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!