Show me the MONEY!!!!!!!

We live in a world than is all about the here and now, but every once in a while I find myself taking a little trip down memory lane and more times than not it's enjoyable.

My most recent "time traveling" adventure happened a few hours ago when I happened to come home to find my Mom watching "Jerry Maguire," a great flick from 1996. Now it's been awhile since I've sat down and watched the exploits of Tom, Cuba, and Rene so I decided to get reacquainted with my old friends.

After settling into my custom made Adirondack chair, popping open and Diet DP, and putting the phone on vibrate I started watching. To my surprise I forgot how much I enjoyed this movie. I might go out on a limb and say everything you need to know about life you can learn from "Jerry Maguire."

-How do you get out of a fight with you're significant other...you say, "You complete me."

-What do you say during contract negotiations...you say, "Show me the money."

-When you're stuck in an awkward conversation and have know idea what to say...you say "Do you know the human head weighs eight pounds?"

Boom, case closed.

Chris "Ambassador of Kwan" D.

Lead where you are

'Ello 'ello my beautiful Candorteers. Wanted to hop on to assure all my loyal fans that news reports are not correct, I am alive, I didn't drink myself into an alcohol induced coma over my Birthday weekend =)

I also wanted to recap how the Leadership Summit went this past Thursday and Friday. Overall I had an enjoyable experience listening to people that were as different as you and I, but came together under the common bond of Leadership. The speakers not only talk the talk, they walk the walk.

I found more than a few valuable pieces of info while I was there and I hope after you're done reading, you will leave with you're own nugget or two.

Please to enjoy.

First up was a man by the name of Bill Hybels, besides being a well renowned author he is also the founding pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church.

Pastor Hybels talked about navigating through the Rouge Waves that life sometimes brings. When these Waves threaten to throw your boat of course what do you do to get back on course?? What is your replenishment strategy?? A leader has the innate ability to give of him/herself, but there is only so much in the bucket. We need to have a plan to fill up the bucket once it starts getting low. Ask yourself what fills your bucket, is it vegging out in front of the TV, is it taking a long walk, it can be anything.

Make sure to have a Replenishment Strategy.

Next up was visiting professor from the London Business school, Gary Hamel. Prof. Hamel had a wealth of knowledge to pass along that had to deal with management, success, and overcoming denial.

Much like everything else in life, denial has a pattern, and if we are able to recognize this pattern we can break past denial and get on with correcting the problem.

Denial Pattern has four steps; 1) Dismiss- we tell ourselves nothing is wrong, 2) Rationalize- this is where we make excuses, 3) Mitigate- this is where we realize there is a problem, 4) Confront- well this is self explanatory =)

Harvey Carey wrapped up day one with an impassioned speech about breaking the huddle and play the game. Carey explained that you can have all the tools and plans of attack in the world but if you don't get out there and start using them, what's the use?

Some people suffer from Paralysis of Analysis. Which means we are so busy thinking everything through we fail to get off out butts and go do something, and Pastor Carey knows a little something about getting out there and acting. He leads a congregation in the poorest zip code, in the poorest city, in the state in the country, but does that stop them from breaking the huddle and playing the game?? No way, if you want to learn more about how Harvey Carey breaks the huddle and plays click here http://www.harveycarey.org/

There were other orators that had interesting things to stay and I will be incorporating what I learned from them in later Blogs, but I wanted to highlight these three people to get you thinking.

Remember to replenish your bucket, break the denial pattern, and get out there and PLAY THE GAME!

Dear Liver,

Hey, I know that we’re not on the best of terms right now, so I thought I’d drop you a line to see how everything was going. First off I do want to apologize for this weekend. I know I’m not a kid anymore and you, along with stomach and brain, have “gently” let me know that our prime partying days are behind us. I feel like every time we hang out and get “loose” it takes us longer and longer to get back on speaking terms and I think that’s partially my fault. I say partially cause Brain is a really convincing and it’s hard to say no to that guy. But I’m not writing you to point fingers, I’m trying to tell you I want you back. I swear I’ll change, I promise I won’t keep you out to all hours of the night, keeping you busy filtering this and that. But we had some good times right?? I mean last year’s Mexico trip was pretty fun, and how could you forget Century Club of ’07?

Just try to remember the good times huh?? I don’t think I can go on living without you, it feels like you’re a part of me and I wouldn’t know what to do without you. So please baby come back I promise it will be nothing but Spinach, Garlic, and Wheat germ from here on out.

Love,

Chris “you’re not Chopped in my eyes” D.

Two greatest words in the English Language

De-Fault. So I received a call yesterday from Steve, a representative for Karaoke Star Magazine, and he had some exciting news. Steve explained that the finalist in the Standards and Broadway category had a previous engagement and couldn't make it to the competition. Since I was runner up, Steve wanted to know if I would be interested in competing in the Finals. I told him I would have to think about it and would get back to him.

I've been in a weird mood lately and didn't feel like "performing," but I wanted some advice before totally turning down the opportunity. I decided to call my local go to guy, Frank, to see what he had to say on the subject.

Frank explained that if you see an opportunity it's your job to take it. He also said that just because you feel crappy (not the exact word he used) today, you might not feel crappy (again not the exact word he used) on Sunday, then you'll really kick yourself for not taking the opportunity.

I thanked Frank for his sage like advice and called Steve back and told him to count me in.

I'll be performing this Sunday at the Orleans main ballroom at 4pm. Don't know if it's a free event, but if it is, you should come down and cheer me on.

Still don't know what song I'm going to sing but I know it won't be anything by old blue eyes. I might bust out some Bobby Darin.

Wish me luck.

What's in a name?

On Wednesday I was invited to be a guest on the Alan Stock radio show here in Vegas to discuss the proposed banning of the dreaded "M" word that's Midget to all you people out of the know.



If you're not familiar with what's going on in the news I'll give you a recap. NBC aired a episode of Celebrity, I use the term Celebrity loosely, Apprentice where they were throwing the "M" word around like it was going out of style.



A few Little People (appropriate term btw) got up in arms about the episode and started a letter writing campaign to NBC as well as the Federal Communications Commission.



Alan Stock, much like most of you giants out there, didn't see what the big deal was about the word. His Board Op, Nick Steele, explained that the "m" word was just as bad a to a little person as the "n" word was for black people.



Alan was intrigued by this and Nick told him he knew a real live LP (that's me) and said that he would be willing to come on air and school the thousands of uninformed people in Vegas.



So I went on Wednesday morning to talk about the history and try to shed some light on a very sensitive subject. I'm sad to say that I wasn't as prepared as i like but I thought I Championed the cause well.



Of course there were some people that didn't understand why the term was frowned upon and thought that "we" were being over sensitive and what about free speech and all that stuff?!?

But a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step. So that was me stepping =)

You asked for it you got it

Every since the 3rd annual Summer Solstice Streetball Spectacular completed last Sunday Candorteers from all around the globe have been asking for yours truly to post what happened. I've tried all week to fully capture what happened that sunny day, but every time I start to think back, my hand starts to shake, my mouth gets dry, and I get light-headed.



Since I couldn't write it myself I asked my friend, Sunny Stevens, reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, if I could copy and paste his story. Being the good friend that he is, Sunny was more than willing to allow his story to take up residence at Candor Corner.

If you like what Sunny wrote let him know, you can email him at Myimaginaryfriend@fakie.com



Location, Location, Location. These words hold as true in the world of realty as they do in the Streetball world. Location played a big part in the 25-to-9 massacre that took place at Old Castle Field, last Sunday.

Veteran starting pitcher Chris "Can't Miss" Della Valle seemed to have trouble locating his pitches. When asked if anything was wrong Della Valle replied, "Ya I had a tough day out there, I had trouble throwing my change-up for strikes, but you really have to tip your hat to Matty's team, they played better than us today."

Della Valle went the distance giving up all 25 runs, only 7 earned, while striking out 13 batters. A depleted Home Team bullpen forced Ryan Flynn, manager/third base, to keep Chris in there for the duration, "I felt bad having to leave Chris in there so long, but I thought he was our best option and our defense let him down on more than a fair share of plays."

The Home team committed 18 errors on the day, a StreetBall record. "All I'm saying is that it looked like we were playing with frying pans taped to our hands," explained Flynn.

This was Della Valle's worst outing in his 20 year career, begging the question is it time for "Can't Miss" to change his name to "Can't do this?"

"Sure I know what people are saying, that I've lost some velocity on my fastball, or that my life away from Streetball is getting in the way, well I only have one thing to say to my critics, [expletive deleted]."

This reporter wonders if Della Valle showed the same amount of intensity in the interview room as he did on the mound, the outcome might have been different.

The main low point in the day for Della Valle was in the 5th inning when he gave up a grand slam to arguably the worst player in StreetBall history Jose Duran. Duran, a career .083 hitter against Della Valle, connected with a hanging change-up and hit it an astounding 408 feet, putting the game well out of reach.

"Streetball been very very good to me. Mr. Chris is a great player and a great human I am very very happy that I was able to hit grand slam off him. Today I am happiest man on the face of the Earth," explained the struggling Duran.

To put in perspective how improbable the Duran grand slam was, sports historians are ranking the feat between the 1980 U.S. hockey team defeating Russia and Michael Phelps performance in the 2008 Olympics.

"Hey every dog has his day in the sun, let [Duran] enjoy it. I'll take the winter off and re-evaluate things. I don't want this one start to tarnish my legacy," Della Valle explained.

There's always next year champ, always next year.

There is no joy in Mudville

I boast of many things that are more true than not,
Flip cup champ, Jack-of-all-trades, a real big shot,
But the thing I'm most proud of that gives me a kick,
is that fact that I hardly, if ever, get the flu or get sick,

The last time my immune system failed me,
was my 7th grade year back in 1993,
Pink eye, a cold, both at the same time,
and when I sneezed out flew a mist of green slime,

Most wondered how I could have gotten bit so hard,
By the flu bug when my white blood cells stood guard,
the culprit was something that came out of Reno,
It was the atmosphere phenomenon known as El Nino,

The reason I bring up this story I would like to forget,
is the flu bug's bite is once again a big threat,
Unstable temps this week are taking their toll,
In my future I see chicken soup in a big bowl,

But do not fret my loyal cadorteers,
cause I'll kick this "thing," and we can once again cheer.