Poets Day US

This Wednesday in fairly decent heat (about 90F so 32C for the rest of the world) about 24 hardy souls from the Cary Claymores and Coach Chris from the North Raleigh Redhawks turned out for a couple of hours of running around (with plenty of water breaks) to play some touch rugby. Kids ages varied from around 6 to 14 with about 8 parents/coaches joining in. Everyone got the touch the ball, everyone got to run forward (some sideways and backwards but we are working on that), everyone got to pass, most of the kids got to score tries and everyone had fun - why weren't you there? We do it most every week. Touch Rugby is the sport you want to get involved with, it is the sport you want your kids to get involved in and all they need equipment wise is shoes, clothes to run around in and the want to learn about the game that will help them hugely in life, especially when it comes to making decisions, teamwork and respect. This week we had a new Dad bring his 2 kids out for the first t...

And don't be afraid to call a person an asshole if they are an asshole (or arsehole depending on whether you celebrate the 4th of July or not). Y'know it can be tough to write a weakly blog (and yes, I know, it was deliberate and I shouldn't have to explain that). It has been a few years since I started using this secret personal public diary to occasionally impart words of wisdom (if they can be called that) to the multitude of people who read this (pretty much Mum and her book club) and sometimes inspiration hits me right in the feels and sometimes it just passes on by. Sometimes an article in the electronic news inspires me, sometimes it is a song, a passing comment or just something that pops in the grey squishy matter then suddenly I am off to the races. Lately there has been little that has popped hence the sparsity of brilliance over the past couple of months. I try to pontificate on subjects I have passing knowledge of or some passion for, but lately my knowledge...

The above saying is attributed to 'Unknown' by the wonderful people that created the Archie Query Form - and based on many other famous sayings attributed to 'Unknown' he/she must have been one of the greatest minds that we have ever known. Anyway - enough about him/her - let's move on to this weeks word jumble. If you can't change the people, change the people. There are 2 ways to look at this statement and they are quite polar (which is a real thing as the earth is round and flat earthers are nuts). As a person who has had a few positions in management (to others misfortune), mainly on the sales side, changing the people often means interviewing for new employees however as a rugby coach (certified by USA Rugby) changing the people means something completely different as we don't hand out pink slips to kids learning the game. Since it is rugby season (it is always rugby season for me) lets look at that interpretation first. As a sports coach you hav...

And yes this is going to be about rugby with parallels into the business world - I can talk mildly intelligently about almost one of those subjects :) England rugby great Martin Johnson recently spoke about the All Blacks and what makes them so good - he stated 'the All Blacks capitalize by not making errors, doing everything well - those are what people call "the basics", the fundamentals of the game'. Rugby (as with most sports) is all about the basics, and the basics of rugby are pass backward, run forward, retain possession and support your team mates. Sure there are a few more components to to the game but bottom line is about those basics. Over the last couple of years I have been fortunate enough to help teach the game I love to an amazing group of kids in Cary, NC. This has been our first season with tackle and in a just over a week we will see how good we have been as coaches when we play the Carolina Cup at an amazing rugby facility in Pinehurst. It has...

I was going to write this week about friends, work friends mainly, and mainly the work friends that you still have at a company that you were asked to leave from 5 years ago (isn't it odd how weirdly specific these blogs seem to be, it is almost as if many of these stories are based on actual events that happened). You know you left a mark on a company when a person who you haven't seen seen in over 5 years asks you when you are having the next Poets Day as part of the opening 'Hello' statement - obviously he hasn't seen me in 5 years or he would know that every Friday is Poets Day. Anyways, so I am not going to give a shout out to Jet ski, Rivers, that Welsh Car Blog writer (no the Lions do not have a chance), Kelli, Tom S, Chris C and the beautiful 10 week old daughter of two of my favorite people - even if one of them is bald (and they never pop over for a beer). I am definitely not going to do that as I think only one of them even reads this damn thing - and sh...

And no that is not a euphemism I have some great neighbors. One couple, let's call them Keve and Stim (names changed to protect the innocent, not very well I may add) built a little walkway between the 2 houses that is known as Roberts Way, pretty sure the main reason for it was to stop me from stomping all over Stim's flowers when I wander over for a beer but it was still a nice gesture. Anyway - back to the lawn mowing. Keve loves to run but recently had some surgery that meant that running wasn't such a good idea any more so he decided to start riding a bike. He was doing pretty well riding through the neighborhood with Stim sitting in a cute little basket he had on the front of the bike (a la Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, not that Butch had Sundance in a basket because as we all know no one puts Sundance in a basket - or is it baby in a corner?). Anyway one day Keve, sans basket and Stim, decided to go on a more adventurous ride when a jackass in a black Subu...

There is a group of guys that I know pretty well who have decided to raise a child, but not in the typical way of raising a child and mostly because it is not a normal child. The one thing that they all agree on is how the child is going to grow and that they will work together as a village to make sure the child is nurtured, cared for and given the best opportunities to succeed. To just add a quick disclaimer I am one of those guys and the child, well it is a rugby club, the Cary Claymores - sponsorship opportunities available :) A quick history of the Claymores from my personal experience with them. Back a couple of years ago I heard of a rugby training clinic being held at the NC State rugby field. I thought I would pop over to have a look as rugby attracts kiwis a bit like blondes to Benjamins :) I met up with a guy we will call Matt (mainly because that is his name) who had recently started the Cary Claymores and had maybe 10-15 kids showing up to play touch rugby and work so...