Author Archives: skipbensley

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About skipbensley

Unabashed father, AV genius, part time dark knight, foodie, amateur chef, antifascist, volunteer and rabid Boston sports fan.

Great seeing many faces… Thanks NU.

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I had the pleasure again to see some old friends over the weekend. I was part of the Sliver Masque theater group while attending Northeastern University and we had a reunion at Egan Hall for members from the 80’s.

Lots of people traveled to Boston for the event that included a play presentation, reception at Egan Hall and then dinner at the Stork Club in the South End.

Although the Stork Club botched our reservation initially, they tried very hard to accommodate us and in the end we were all sat around quite a few tables pushed together.

My thanks to Phil Mondello, and Vanessa Thorpe for putting together such a great evening. I wish I could have stayed longer. Here is a link to those pictures. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=348759&id=850525121&l=ec927c3f6a

Movember USA intro 07

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I officially joined Movember today and joined Team Boston in raising awareness and money to help fight men’s Cancer. Here is the original video introducing Movember which was started back in 2007.

http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.3909728

more about “Movember USA intro 07”, posted with vodpod

What 48 feels like….

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So today is my 48th birthday and it’s a day of reflection as all birthdays are. I still miss the phone calls from my mom and gram on my birthday, but I also know they are with me through good times and bad. This year has been a struggle on many fronts. The economy has affected my company and I am basically looking at all opportunities now to both promote my company (free sometimes) and freelancing doing other things to make it all work.

I worry about my Dad and his second wife lots. Both are not in perfect health and I feel I am too far away to help. I was in Chicago for work recently but was unable to see anyone in my family while there. People get older and things get complicated. I wish I had seen my dad but it was just bad timing. It still felt wrong.

I worry about my kids also and being able to give them a nice place to visit their dad the few times a week I am able to see them. This week is great for My Ex traveled for work and I have them both every night. I love spending as much time as I can with them.

My son CJ is growing into a man at 13 and is a size 12 shoe already. He had his birthday party recently and invited 5 guys and 15 girls. He appears oblivious to girls sometimes but when I heard they were looking for a bottle at his party, perhaps that has now changed.

My daughter Sabrina is 6 going on 7 and is still Daddy’s little girl. She is in 1st grade and learning to read and it’s a joy to be around her always. I love when she reads to me and I too her. These are the times I cherish most.

I miss having more friends in the area. I feel disconnected somewhat. Yes I am meeting people through social media but I am not sure they fall into “the friends” category. Friends to me are people I can lean on for advice and course correction. People you can say anything too and will listen understand and give advice. Real friends have your back.

Anyway, as I watch a video transfer, I wonder what is in store for me in the coming year both with nervous anticipation and guarded optimism.

Fly me to the moon or better yet to #mpdm

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From Post 10/21/2009

I used to fly as an account Executive a few years back and traveled quite well leaving Terra fir-ma, not the case now. I am in Chicago at the #mpdm Marketing Profs Social Media mixer and I flew from Logan this morning.

When I checked in my bags I was 6 pounds overweight. Not me personally but My bag. I was asked to pay 50.00 additional. I pulled my audio gear out of the main suitcase and voila. I then slogged to security.

A new gate inspector had never seen a field mixer, a video camera and 100 feet of XLR cable before so I was poked and prodded my carry on baggage violated. I was then allowed to proceed to gate still an hour til blastoff.

We took off on time and the flight went fine, very little turbulence. The drama started as we came in to land and suddenly our landing was aborted. We were rocked upward and that dread of oh crap set it. Pilot said there was debris on the runway. There was something burning off to the far side of the runway when we landed, but no mention of us aborting landing has been mentioned anywhere.

“ If men were meant to fly the would have wings” comes to mind. For this and other great aviation quotes see http://www.skygod.com/quotes/cliches.html

Humbled at the get go.

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I am not the fastest reader. I am not that well read. I wish I was sometimes but I am not. I am listening to Trust Agents the audio book and I just did the Technorati search from chapter 1 and nothing came up. Nothing for Skip Bensley or my company Brilliant Video Productions.

This cannot be a good thing for someone who has two blogs, twitter, linkedin and a Video production company that he has been running for 7 plus years. Not sure I am panicked but I am certainly humbled. I hope I find what it is that I am doing incorrectly from this book and can correct it.

#FollowFriday Spotlight follower

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A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was boycotting traditional #followfriday fair for a more concentrated approach. I would spotlight one follower that I thought was really interesting, and why. Then I got busy with work #ims09 and blah blah blah…

So, My first #followfriday mention and or victim is Jason Meserve. Jason and I met a few years back while he was at Network World. He produced video content for their website and was also co-host of the successful twisted Pair podcast and column at Network World. Jason left Network World earlier this year however and is now the “content guy” at Constant Contact.

What is most appealing about Jason is his sense of humor. He and I were simpatico from word go. We are both huge Boston Sports fans, and we are (ahem) both geeks. We also both love 5 guys and are always on the search for the ever better burger. We also like to try and stay up on new technologies and gadgets. He actually had the opportunity to demo many of the new cool tools stuff while at Network World.

The best thing about Jason however is his heart, he is genuine and just a great person to know. He is funny, sarcastic but in a way that you know where his heart is. He can laugh at you while laughing at himself as well.

I look forward to working with Jason again and just hanging out with him at 5 guys sometime soon. You can follow my friend and follow Friday spotlight follower of the week Jason Meserve at @jmeserve on Twitter.

The Redsox bow out

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Jonathan Papelbom blew a save against the Angels the other night and before you could say “Fore” our beloved Redsox were done. This is usually a great time of year for the Redsox, Bruins and Patriots and Celtics are all playing at once. Being a spoiled Boston fan I expected the anticipated NY /Boston showdown in the ALCS. The Angels had other plans.

All we can hope for now I suppose is that the Dodgers somehow win the NLCS and Manny goes Manny on the Yankee’s. It would be nice if the Angels took the Yankees out but we will just have to hope and wonder what if?

The Redsox offense was offensive in the Angels series and could not ammount anything against an Angels pitching staff that usually isn’t that good. The Redsox were not patient like in years past they were anxious. Confidence goes along way and our Sox seemed swaggerless this year.

We need a bat, Jason Bay is now a free agent so re-signing him is job numero uno. If he is hesitant to take the hometown discount however we have noone to blame but Theo Epstein. That idea that 3 old guys = 1 good young arm #failed. Let’s get a real free agent and lock up a real 5th starter for next year also.

I still believe in the Redsox however, see you in April.

Spying on people with too much money

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I spent the last two weeks freelancing in Boston on two shows the first at a Health care show at the Four Seasons Hotel and then at a the Intercontinental Hotel with Bank of America.

The Health care show was by Thomas Weisel Partners group ( the Forrester of Health care) and they had money to burn. The Show was very well done, organized and the AV support group I worked with was hi end or at least their drapery was. The speakers gave presentations about how well they are doing but many presentations included mentioning hundreds of millions in debt as if this was a good thing? I also wondered why none of the presenters seemed concerned that Health care is in the process of being overhauled.

Maybe they were being cocky, but they didn’t seem to think the reality of health care reform was genuine. I think I heard one mention Obama in 20 presentations. Also I have come to learn that you can leverage your million dollar debt to get more money, yes you heard that right. If you are millions in debt you can get loans to pay down that debt. Go figure and I thought carrying a 200.00 credit debt was risky.

The Second Show was for Mid Cap companies that showcased their performance for Bank of America and their investors. I was again surprised to hear about debt on the books in the Millions. There were companies that drill oil that were making money of course, why wouldn’t they? What about the lesser need for oil and gasoline as more hybrids, and EV’s hit the highways? What them worry? I just didn’t see any anticipation that anything is changing really. Debt is debt, we need oil so we drill for it and we will always need it.

Back in the 70’s we should have weened ourselves off oil imports and started making EV cars then. We didn’t do it then …. It seems to me that the companies with all the money also have all the debt, and if they need to pay their debt off we all lose. I am no financial analyst mind you but common sense tells me this economy hasn’t hit rock bottom yet.

Why I don’t see eye to eye with Lenscrafters repair policy

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I need glasses, for I spend way too much time looking at a video monitor editing at times,looking in a viewfinder, reading blogs, emails you get the picture. Anyway somebody recommended LensCrafters in Natick for glasses. I went got an eye exam and was given a pair of glasses that I had selected. When I tried the glasses (tri-focals) I could not get all three focal points to work. So they made a 2nd pair for me. This pair was not what I wanted but they said that these would be better for me.

I took their advice got them and they were better, unfortunately they broke recently. I took them back and looked to get them repaired. One of the nose pieces broke off.Because they broke at the frame level the frames needed replacement, but unfortunately the frames by Burberry were no longer available. Now I need to pay 50% for new frames but they will make the lenses. Even though the glasses were under warranty I still had to pay 50% for new frames for that old frame was no longer available. Does that make sense?

That’s great on paper but a large eye glass manufacturer can melt your glasses down and pour new ones much like a bottle is made in a manufacturing plant. The strange part is that I cannot keep the old broken glasses for that reason then they need the glass back to recycle.

I don’t see eye to eye with this what do you think?