Kevin E. Kline

World-renowned artist Edgar Degas said, “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”I'd suggest that the same thing is true of adults and fun. We (adults, that is) know how to play. We can still remember playing and having fun. But it's so hard for us to truly play. First of all, we're to busy to stop and play. And on those rare occassions when we do roll up our sleeves to play, we just can't seem to really let go and fully enjoy the experience.So I've thought a lot about learning to play again. I'm of the mind that it'll help me stay young. Whipee!-Kev … [Read more...]

I've been having riding mower problems. And when you have a yard that is almost 2 acres, riding mower problems are big problems. My 15 yr old Snapper riding mower broke three times during the season, each time costing about $100 to fix. Well, in August, it broke a fourth time and this time the bill was going to be $275. That's it - I need a new mower. The repairman offered me $150 to part out my old mower. I said "That's a down payment on a new mower. I'll take it."Now the Snapper was a great mower for its time, but I've learned that mower technology has come a long way. My new mower was about … [Read more...]

I think 9/11 is one of those things that we all will never forget where we were when it happened. I was at work that morning and I recall a coworker telling me that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. I thought to myself "Some drunk idiot in a Cesna did what?" A few minutes later, the coworker came back and said a second plane had crashed into the other tower and that they weren't little prop planes, but great big 747s. I was stunned.I gathered my team and we all huddle around our PCs looking for news on the Internet. Many of us called home to find out more information. I … [Read more...]

Overall, the kids are doing great in school. Sometimes, however, one of them will ask me "Why are we studying xyz? We'll never use it in real life. Who cares about the date of a battle or when Train A left Station B?"How do you respond? I tell the kids they’re probably right in some instances. But I also go on to tell them that academics isn’t just about memorizing facts. It’s really about learning how to learn and building perseverance to get through circumstances they may not enjoy. Very few classmates master these character traits. And it’s these students who go on to change the world.I'm … [Read more...]

One of the guys that I've had the honor to get to know while at Quest Software is one of our SQL Server SC's named Darren Mallette. Darren is extremely talented with SQL Server and, without even knowing it, he's made my job a lot easier by doing things to make his job easier. For example, he's created scripts and demos to highlight certain problems on SQL Server. But by doing so, he makes it much easier for me to do the big webcasts and customer visits that I do all the time.One of the really cool things about Darren is that he's very active in the "World's Strongest Man" kind of competitions … [Read more...]

The AllProDad website quotes author William Hendrickson's 6 primary ways to embitter your child. Read this list and think about examples you've seen or experienced in other families:Over-protecting your kids Favoring one child over another Constantly discouraging your children Not letting your children be unique individualsNeglecting your kidsBitter words and physical crueltyIt's funny how so many of these behaviors, except for #6, crop up out of good intentions. So I'm going to list each of these again and then chip in a few cents of my own.Over-protecting your kids: Most parents who are … [Read more...]

Albert Einstein said, "Most people think that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong. It is character." This is true in so many ways and not just for the making of new scientists. To succeed in life you must have a cup of perseverance, two cups of integrity, a healthy dose of self-respect, a balancing dash of humility, and at least a teaspoon of goals/ambitions.Yet most parents are focused first and foremost on the grades and the scores on those standardized tests of their children. My kids' intellect is very important to me, but it's only the foresail their ship … [Read more...]

There's nothing more troubling to a parent than watch your child suffer. Sadly, I had to watch Anna Lynn suffer after surgery on her belly button hernia last Monday.Her mom kept her from the night before and took her down for an early 6:00 am prep. I got the other kids off to school and came down to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital straight away. I arrived about 8:00 am to find that they'd just taken her back for surgery. Kelly and I patiently waited and took the chance to catch up a bit.She came back quite drugged up, but still in a lot of pain. She gradually came around and, as she did, she … [Read more...]

In a Newsweek interview, Johnny Depp (that's CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow) says, "When I became a dad for the first time, it was like a veil being lifted...I was never horribly self-obsessed or wrapped up in my own weirdness, but when my daughter was born, suddenly there was clarity. I wasn't angry anymore. It was the first purely selfless moment that I had ever experienced. And it was liberating. In that moment, it's like you become something else. The real you is revealed."Let's face it, I became a dad at a rather young age. And it was something that I'd always wanted to do. But now more than … [Read more...]

The magazine Glimpses had an interesting true story: Nathaniel Hawthorne is famed as the author of one of America's greatest novels — The Scarlet Letter. But it was something entirely different, a small kindness, that influenced his daughter Rose the most. Nathaniel visited an English poorhouse where a diseased child rubbed his legs and held out hands in a plea to be lifted up. Although shrinking from the child's repulsive sores, the author nevertheless picked the boy up and caressed him.Nathaniel said later that he felt as if God had promised the boy that kindness, and if he refused it, he … [Read more...]