nate's blog: March 17, 2009 - Happy St. Patty's Day!

Hey there, hi there and hello there everyone ... wow, it's been a long time indeed! A big hello to our pup Doc back home, I hope you got something for your one year birthday that you can chew on and most likely destroy in a couple days:)

Had a pretty dern good week at Aflac last week, really steady throughout. There seems to be a lot more collaboration going on between our Process Innovation & Control (PIC) teams as of

late, in addition to between the departments because of a few big projects. It's pretty exciting to see people get pumped up for new ideas and forge new partnerships to get work done. The team is now rockin'-n-rollin' and I can't wait for Haleigh to get back so we can have a full roster. We had another great SIFErs in Action meeting this past week where we identified our Leadership Statement and were tasked with coming up with our strengths/weaknesses.

Even today was a great come back to work day where I think I facilitated one of the best meetings I've had for a very long time. It's such a great group of people from about 10 different business units from about the company, the infamous OLS Advisory Council (sounds so sophisticated:).

The best part of work over the last week though was yesterday at the Charlotte SIFE Regional competition in North Carolina. Since I am still a part of the program, I had the chance to travel to North Carolina to help recruit the next batch of SIFE Analyst, of which we are getting three ... promising given the times I must say. I was able to watch some pretty good teams present and it brought me back to the good ol' days! It's always amazing to see what these kids (I know, I'm only a couple years older but I can say it), are able to do ... very inspiring. I spoke with a couple rock starts during our Top to Future Top forum and whilst at the Aflac booth. We most definitely gave away a flock of ducks ... get it? It was good times and I met some amazing people; it reassures me that SIFE was the best thing that I have probably ever been/and will continue to be a part of.

Last week I also had a chance to pull all the Literacy Alliance folks together to chat about our "Real Heroes Read" program happening on May 2nd. We've ordered almost 2,000 comics to reach the 4-6 grades to get them excited about reading. We're inviting local heroes that will include the Columbus PD, Fire Dept., a military man, EMT and even Batman to read to the children. In addition, we will have super hero drawing sessions for the kids and a motivational speech all for free at the Library. It's going to be an amazing event. Mom, you will also be proud to know that I am going to present the Volunteer Youth Camp to our United Way folks

on Thursday, so keep your fingers crossed! We finished up a bit of shelving for Easter Seals

this past weekend as well, which is always a good time working for those folks!

The ol' En Fuego team has yet to pick up our first victory, but the kids are still having fun and learning along the way ... I just hope all the fun pays off with a victory some game soon! I also started playing this last week. You all would've been proud, I didn't even say a word to the ref and only had one sarcastic comment for the other team and that was only after a guy got up and kicked grass at me like a bull behind him ... it was too great of an opportunity to let pass by without poking fun:) O yeah, I scored our team's only two goals ... which you can probably imagine, if I'm the only one scoring, that's not good:(

O yes, and I can't forget about the great time I had this evening with the Columbus Contemporaries at the Columbus Museum. They had a networking event with an artistic twist. I met some very cool cats before we all got together to learn how to paint a pear ... sounds simple enough right? Well, all the ideas started flowing through my head and I figured if a smashed car window could turn into art, then I most definitely could create something worthwhile. Shown here is the piece I entitled, "Stars at Sunset." It's a pear sitting outdoors on the grass at sunset with the snow falling. You'll notice the sunshine with the flock of birds and a cloud that cast an inproportionnate shadow on the pear that sits among the Bob Ross happy trees. Funny thing about the trees is that they are in the background, but if you look closely ... one of the pines actually creeps in front of the pear. It was a majestic experience and now I know why I stick with spreadsheets:)

Bob Ross left thousands of the nin-gen kids inspired to lead a happy life with his show, "The Joy of Painting." I leave you with the morsel of the week from a childhood idol, "Little bit of black, a little bit of blue. Some criss-cross strokes, or little x's, whatever you want to call them.