365 Thank Yous (REVIEW)

365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life
by John Kralik

My rating: 3½ of 5 stars

I first looked at this book in a college bookstore. It was on a shelf filled with books for graduates and students entering college. At first, I thought that perhaps it was a little out of place, immediately thinking it was a typical self-help book. I didn't buy the book then, but when I ran across it again at my local bookstore, I decided to pick it up based on the cover recommendation by The Last Lecture co-author Jeffrey Zaslow (whose NY Times column I frequently read).

Kralik's book is an accessible and easy read, and I was happy to find that it isn't really a self-help book at all; rather it is a personal memoir of a particular year or so in his life. It isn't great literature, nor is it a "step-by-step" guide to picking yourself up by the bootstraps—a Wayne Dyer-esque type book. 365 Thank Yous isn't really pop psychology, nor is it preachy... The crux of the book is Kralik's desire to try and look at his life through a different lens. Rather than continuing to be bitter and angst-ridden over all the problems in his life, Kralik sought to try and find things to be thankful for and to do so every day for a year.

As he goes through his thank you letter exercise, not only is Kralik able to gain a new (and better) perspective on his own life, he starts to equate the turn-around in his fortunes, as evidenced by some of the good things happening in his life, to his thank you letter writing campaign. Which not only reinforced his mission but recalled his earliest experience writing a thank you note to his grandfather:

He promised that if I wrote him a letter thanking him for this silver dollar, he would send another one. That was the way thank-you letters work, he told me.

I think that one of the reasons this book struck a chord with me is that I can recall being "chained" (figuratively, not literally) to my desk after my high school graduation, writing thank-you notes to all the people who sent me gifts. At the time, it was the last thing I wanted to do, but I remember my mother explaining that not only was it the right thing to do, but that good things would follow as a result...

As I read through the book, I found myself drawn closer and closer to Kralik's narrative. Initially, this had as much to do with our lives seeming eerily parallel. To begin with, we worked in the same part of town (at the same time he was going through his letter-writing campaign), and I've been to almost every place that he mentions in the book (in fact, we could have easily bumped into each other at any one of several local places). Our careers briefly intertwined when we worked for the same company in the early 1990s...

But most importantly, I can relate to how Kralik perceived himself in 2008. Like him, I had been through the divorce ringer; I wasn't happy with how my career was progressing and wasn't fulfilled by my work. On top of that, my personal relationships were at an all-time nadir.

Kralik's solution to these "problems" was to look for things to be thankful for (and to write his thank you notes). This is certainly a "therapy 101" solution to these kinds of challenges and isn't (or at least shouldn't be) an earth-shattering epiphany for most people. But for me, at least, reading Kralik's memoir has allowed me to look at my own life and consider all of the things in my life for which I am grateful, and if I choose to write a few more thank you notes as a result... then all the better.

View all my reviews

Memorial Day

In a 2008 blog post, I wrote that it has become passé to remember Thomas Jefferson's admonition that "Liberty needs to be watered regularly with the blood of tyrants and patriots." Almost three years on from that scribble, our collective memory seems to be fading more markedly than I first thought.

Today the immortal words of Winston Churchill ring more true than ever: "never was so much owed by so many to so few". The rights and freedoms that we enjoy are hard earned privileges, not entitlements. As Jon Meacham of WNET points out in this PBS Need to Know essay, the separation between most American citizens and those who serve (and pay) to protect our nation has widened almost to the point of non-recognition:

This Memorial Day takes place not even a month removed from the killing of the "most wanted man in the world", the face of the "global war on terrorism", Osama bin Laden. Yet Americans are decidedly removed from a sense of urgency in our current conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, let alone remembering the sacrifices of years gone by. Collectively, we seem to have forgotten the simple act of remembering the cost, in human lives, that has been paid to ensure that we have the freedom to enjoy three-day weekends, to eat hamburgers and hot dogs, and share the company of our friends and loved ones on this holiday weekend.

In his General Order #11, marking the first Memorial Day on May 30, 1868, General John A. Logan wrote:

Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

Logan's words are prescient. At the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, there are no longer living veterans who remember the sacrifices of their comrades. America's last World War I veteran passed away in February 2011, and World War II veterans are passing at a rate of 1,000 vets per day. Remembering—not just on the last Monday in May, but in the quiet, ordinary moments. I’ll remember when I see someone else stepping up to serve, or when I pass by a memorial that too many people don’t notice anymore, I'll remember when I speak my mind and disagree openly and without fear. It doesn’t have to be some grand gesture. Sometimes it’s just taking a beat to acknowledge that what we have didn’t come easy—and that someone else paid a price so we wouldn’t have to.

Memorial Day 2011, a photo by thrunance'seyes.

Without those who saw these sacrifices first-hand, it is up to each of us to put into practice General Logan's words.

Today, I choose to remember the sacrifices of the men and women, some of them my friends, who gave themselves for something we are allowed to take for granted. That feels like the least I can do. 

Hustle Ball

Back when I was a kid, baseball practice was boring (for the most part). Two hours of waiting for a turn to do something. We'd start by warming up our arms, but that was pretty much it. Then we'd take positions assigned by the coach, and he'd hit balls to us to simulate situations—runners at first and third, etc. After 45 minutes to an hour of this, we’d start some kind of batting practice. One or two players would come in off the field: one to hit, one to wait. Then rotate outfield to dugout, and so on.

I can still, three decades later, remember waiting all practice just for the opportunity to hit. The rest of practice was just waiting—punctuated by the occasional field or throw. Even when I played catcher and touched the ball more often, it remained a rather dull experience. And for the rest of the team, 8 or so kids were doing almost nothing for two hours. A wasted opportunity to build skills.

So, when I coach, I take a more methodical approach with rotating skill stations. But stations require supervision—not just for safety, but to ensure proper instruction. Repetition only helps if the technique is right. The problem is: many youth coaches lack the help they need to make this happen, despite having solid practice plans (which I highly recommend writing out in advance).

For those coaches with limited help, here’s a suggestion: most youth teams have 12 players—divide them into three squads of four. Then enlist three parent volunteers to help supervise. This breakdown makes practices more efficient and keeps kids engaged. With small groups, you can provide quick instruction, then let the kids work with one another or a volunteer to run the drill, allowing you to circulate and give guidance.

Uneven groups aren’t ideal but manageable. Just aim to reduce downtime.

Squads also foster competition—players strive to set or beat records. Most kids love to compete, and it helps you assess their progress quickly.

To wrap practice, we play a fast-paced game called Hustle Ball. The key is hustle (not just speed). Once learned, we can run a six-inning game in 30 minutes or less.

Equipment

• 4 Ball Buckets
• 1 L-Screen
• 1 Stopwatch
• 2 Coaches

Setup is pretty easy, empty 3 ball buckets into one, then place an empty ball bucket in foul territory behind first base; another behind second base; and one next to the catcher.

Place the full bucket of baseballs behind the L-Screen for a coach to throw. One coach will be the pitcher for both teams and one will keep time on the stopwatch.

Rules

• Standard baseball rules apply, with these adjustments:
• Start with generous time between pitches and innings (work toward 10 sec/pitch, 30 sec/inning).
• Hitters start with a 2-1 count.
• Catcher places balls in the bucket beside him, not thrown back.
• After a play, defense has 10 seconds to bucket the ball; offense has 10 to send in the next hitter.
• Countdown begins at 5 seconds: “5-4-3-2-1,” then pitch is thrown.
• Fielders bucket balls after plays—no returns to the pitcher.
• After the third out, 2B/SS bring their bucket to the mound and refill the coach’s bucket.
• Incoming fielders reverse the process. Failing this = automatic out.

Teams have 30 seconds between innings. If the first batter isn’t ready—helmet on, in the box—when time’s up, a pitch is thrown and counts as a strike. Same for unready defense: the pitch is live.

To emphasize hustle, call outs if bats or helmets are left near the field, or players walk instead of sprinting on/off the field. My players keep helmets on when fielding to simplify transitions.

Try this approach. After 60–90 minutes of drills, players enjoy actually playing. And they’ll be excited for the next practice.

Creating a star filter effect in Photoshop CS4

I found it interesting, that after posting my Christmas blog in December, I received several e-mail comments -- not about the writing, but rather about the photo of our Christmas tree.  Not exactly the response I was expecting, but flattering (I guess) none-the-less...

Most of the comments read something to the effect of: "I really like the [Christmas tree] picture.  How did you get the starbursts?" Well in the "old days" I would have used a cross screen filter on my trusty SLR's 35-70mm zoom lens, as I was taking the picture. These filters are easily available for digital SLR lenses, but I didn't happen to have a filter when I took this digital photo (and to be honest it was taken in the wee hours of Christmas morning, and I was too tired/exhausted to even think of putting a filter on at the time anyway).  So I manipulated the picture in Photoshop to get the effect (which has to be one of the chief advantages of digital photography over the "old days").

The Photoshop technique I used isn't as straight forward as applying a ready-coded starburst filter (mostly because I just don't like the results from the filters I have seen).  But this process has a finite number of steps, so that most casual Photoshop users can create the effect with a little bit of effort and, if I dare say so myself, produce some very nice images.  So here is a tutorial detailing this technique for those who expressed some interest.

DISCLAIMER: This tutorial assumes that you have some previous experience with Photoshop and understand simple concepts like selecting tools/procedures from the menus, using the magic wand, pencil and lasso tools, cutting and pasting, etc... Also, please note that clicking on the images will bring up larger, more detailed, versions.

image 1: original photo w/background isolated

To begin with, the original picture I started with needed some work. As you can see, there is a hideous shadow (the result of using the camera's flash in an unlit room), also the background is cluttered and detracts from the main focus, which is the tree.  So, my first step was to isolate the background.  This ends up being the most tedious step in the process (using a combination of Photoshop's magic wand and lasso tools).

After isolating the background, choose Select -> Inverse from the menu bar and then the copy/paste commands to create a layer that includes only the tree and presents (the foreground) then change the exposure on the background layer via the Image -> Adjustments -> Exposure menu until you get the desired effect.

image 2: after adjusting the background exposure.

As you can see in image 2, the result is a much improved photo which still retains some hint of the depth behind the tree (that depth would disappear if the foreground was simply placed on a black background).

Now that the photo is prepared, select Layer -> Merge Down from the menu bar (or type ⌘E) to create the new background layer. Then duplicate the background layer by selecting the Layer -> Duplicate Layer option from the menu.  Be sure to choose the "new" Layer 1, from the layers tray, then choose the Threshold option from the Image menu (Image -> Adjustments -> Threshold). The Threshold option converts your layer to black and white (not grey-scale, but actually black and white pixels). This will result in your workspace looking like this:

image 3: applying Threshold command to Layer 1.

As you can see, the lightest areas on the original image are now white and the remainder is black.  The goal, for a good starburst filter is to isolate the areas of white, so that they correspond to where you want the effect to show up in your photo.  I adjust the Threshold level in the dialog box to remove most of the black/white balance until the lights were the primary points of white:

image 4: adjust the Threshold Level to isolate areas where the star effect will be added to the photo.

After this step is complete, you will notice that there are still many white spots that do not correspond to the light spots where you wnt to apply the effect.  Switch to the Pencil on the Photoshop tool pallet (I used a 13px sized pencil) and blacken in any of these white spots.  To make your life slightly easier, you can zoom in and toggle the black and white layer on and off, to determine which areas to blacken out as follows:

image 5

image 6

After you have cleaned up all of the white spots on layer 1, to your satisfaction, duplicate the layer again, by selecting Layers -> Duplicate Layer from the menu.  Your layers tray should now look something like this:

image 7

Most of the set-up work is now complete, so you can get into the meat of creating the star filter effect.  To begin, select the copy of your first layer (the one that you just created) in the Layers tray.

On this layer, you will want to apply one of Photohop's pre-set filters called the motion blur.  Select the motion blur from the filters menu (Filters -> Blur -> Motion Blur).  If you have ever used motion blur before, the filter will have the last settings that you used pre-populated in its dialog box.  In all likelihood, these will need to be modified.

First, change the angle of the blur.  In this example I used a simple cross hatch where the rays of light emanate out perpendicular to each other (i.e, at 90° angles respectively).  You can choose to make your stars have more than two axes or non-perpendicular ones as well.

In this example, I chose to start by setting the blur axis to 45°.  After establishing the angle of the first axis, then you can adjust its length by changing the value in the distance box (I chose 850px).

image 8: adding the first motion blur

Now, as you can see from the accompanying scree shot, the layer appears to be solid black.  This means that the blur filter has done its job, blendeding the white spots into the black background.  However, do not fret, your streaks of white are there we just need to use the levels command to bring them back out.

Select Image -> Adjustments -> Levels to open the Levels dialog box which will look like this:

image 9: open the Levels dialog box.

Click on the white slider in the input levels chart and slide it to the left, as you do so, you will see the streaks of white lighten up as you move your mouse to the left:

image 10: bringing out the blurred streaks of light.

Now that you have "illuminated" the streaks, take a moment and jot down the values below the Input Levels graph.  You will want to use these values when you go to create the perpendicular (cross-hatched) layer. You will also notice that these streaks are fairly uniform in size and that they end rather abruptly (based on what you chose for the length in the blur step). The starburts formed on a real cross hatch filter taper off at the ends. To accomplish this, simply re-apply the motion blur filter. Since this was the last filter you used, it will be at the top of the Filter drop-down menu so select Filters -> Motion Blur (or type ⌘F):

image 11: 2nd motion blur pass.

The result of the second blur pass should give you a series of nice long, tapered, streaks:

image 12: first light streak layer complete.

Now you are going to switch from this layer back to layer 1 (the layer originally manipulated with the Threshhold level adjustment.  On this layer, you will repeat the steps above, to create another layer of streaks.  However, the blur on this layer should be perpendicular to the blur created initially.  Since I used a simple 45° blur on the initial layer, I'm just going to reverse that by changing the angle to -45° (the distance will remain the same):

image 13: creating a new layer with a perpendicular blur.

Once again, select Image -> Adjustments -> Levels from the menu, and this time type in the values you wrote down from the initial streak layer, then re-apply the secondary motion blur:

image 14: adjust the levels using the same values as the first time.

Now you'll need to blend the two "streak" layers together to create the cross-hatch effect.  I do this by using the screen option from the pull-down menu on the layers tray:

image 15: blend layers using the screen option.

The screen option works particularly well because the background on the image layers is black. The result of blending the two layers shows the classic cross-hatching that we are looking for:

image 16: after blending the "streak" layers.

Be sure you have the top most layer selected and select Layer -> Merge Down (⌘E) again, combing the two top layers:

image 17: merge the two streak layers to create the cross-hatch.

The last steps are to take the cross-hatch layer and blend it into the background image, then make any adjustments to the cross-hatch layer to "punch up" or "tone down" the starbursts, and finally to flatten the final image for the web...

Blending the starburst streaks into the background can be done using several different blend mode techniques.  As was done to create the cross-hatch layer itself, you can use the screen option to blend the layers together.  This may work for some kinds of images, but on images with rich colors the result of the screen blend maybe "too white" (it is for my tastes).  So for this example, I chose the color dodge blending option:

image 18: Blend the cross-hatch using the color dodge mode.

After applying the blending mode, use the Image -> Adjustments -> Levels menu to change the input levels on the cross-hatch layer to achieve your desired starburst effect:

image 19: adjust the levels on the cross-hatch layer before merging the layers and saving the image.

Merge the top layer down again (⌘E), and save the image in your favorite file format (JPEG or PNG for web) for the finished star filtered image.

QED