To say that I am excited to see Black Panther would be an understatement. I love this character and he ranks in my top 10 comic characters.

When the character posters began to make the rounds online I was taken by the tagline on T'Challa's poster says, "His Father's Legacy". The mantle of Black Panther can be traced back through a single family lineage. Marvel even released an offical family tree this week.

I could talk for days about Black Panther and what he meant to me growing up as a little nerd that is not the focus of this post. I want to talk about legacy.

Honor the Legacy

Last night my wife and i were talking about our kids self-esteem. It seems an important part of the discussion I hear other parents discuss. I told her that my parents did think about my self-esteem that much. If anything I felt that my Mom wanted to make sure that I never thought too highly of myself. This was a good thing. She knew what I didn't think about until I was older. I was a pretty arrogant kid. Some of it was because of the mentality of youth. The other part was because of my family lineage.

This is going to sound way more arrogant than I intend it. I am a Matthews. Not only that I am the combination of Matthews and Butler families. Now that might not mean anything to you but my family has produced some pretty prestigious firsts in our area. There are streets named for the families in the area. Specifically I grew up on Matthewstown Rd where the neighborhood was once the sole ownership of my Great Great Grandfather Papa Nick.

Growing up I heard about my family's history and how we as kids were expected to live up to it. Many of my older cousins went on to careers in public service, law, engineering and entertainment. There was an idea that there wasn't anything that we couldn't do if we pushed towards it. Even for those of us who didn't push towards some crazy goal we knew there was something diffrent about us. Something powerful that we needed to honor. Something that shouldn't be forgotten.

What is Your Story?

So what is it about knowing your history that creates confidence. Knowing your connection to the things around you mean you don't have to worry about your place. Knowing who you are means you have something to push back against requests that are out of character. Knowing your family history can often highlight patterns you need to look out for.

I am not saying that everyone needs to become or hire a geneologist. Here is what you need to do.

• Know your IDENTITY
• Know your HISTORY
• Establish your STANDARDS

As far as the February declartion I missed the weekend posts. I will post them as they are available.

Go Out There and Do Something Amazing!

Go Go GO!

Image Credit: Marvel Studios

So my bride and I are both sick. That makes for an interesting time with our expanded family. With a teen and a double digit kid who are pretty self sufficient we could manage but with a 6 month old it can be pretty challenging. We don't want to get him sick because baby, but we can't just hand him off to his sisters either.

Fun Times :-)

On top of all of that there is also my February Declaration to consitently create. Today I am sharing a couple of items.

Life in the Clouds Episode 15 - Heavily Medicated

We fought our way through this one trying to finish before NyQuil madness set in for me. I don't handle medicine well or I should say it impacts me quickly. ;-) Enjoy

Graduation Invitation

I was trying to let my graduation go by with as little fanfare as possible. My wife and mother had other ideas. They both wanted me to walk the stage so I set out creating invitation but decided not to finish them. Here is the finished project.

Baby's 1st Dissertation

In a similar vein here is a funny want to tease your wife. We were having a disagreement about whether we should wake up the baby to feed him. My arguement is that you never wake a sleeping baby. My well reasoned arguement was met with disapproval and so off I went to feed the baby. I thought that a more scholarly approach, from a different presenter was needed.

I think I win this round.

Get out there and do something amazing!

Go Go GO!

Don't judge your life by someone else's highlight reel.

I love living in the future. I mean I named this blog Living in the Future because many of the things I dreamed of as a child have come to pass. The biggest driver of that has been the increasing influence of technology and the internet. I am part of the generation of straddlers. We straddled the line between life with internet and life without.

Do you remember when you touched your first computer? I remember it like it was yesterday. I tell the story often, in fact I shared pieces of it with a younger developer who just left our team.

cue flashback sound
Location: Harmans Elementary School
scene: 3rd grade class filled with some rowdy boys

Teacher: If you boys don't calm down you are going to be on the wall at recess today.

Recess was really best time of the day. After being stuck at a desk for what seemed like an eternity was about to come to an end. No one, I mean no one, wanted to lose recess. Especially not by being on the wall.

The wall was the worse punishment that there was. Going to recess was an event. We marched in a straight line from the classroom down a seemingly narrow hallway. The hallway was lined with lockers. Each set being a different primary color. The lockers were broken up by different classrooms. The 3rd graders were the last grade at Harmans that made this walk. It was torture because you had to be quiet. There were other classes going on. You couldn't disturb them. Imagine being a kid in this environment. This was your only time of freedom. You wanted nothing but to head outside, play with your friends. No matter what the game you wanted to get out and play!

So right before we could line up something happened, as it does with children. Somehow I got in trouble and was condemned to a recess on the wall. I wouldn't wall alone but there was no talking allowed on the wall. I immediately pled for leniency and upon receiving none asked if I could be sent to the library instead. Like briar rabbit I got my teacher to link that I would not enjoy this at all. Like Farmer McGreggor my teacher sent me to my punishment and like briar rabbit I was content to do read instead of being on THE WALL.

Little did I know that God, and the Anne Arundel School System, had something else in store for me. You see that year our school got its first set of computers, Commodore 64s. The librarian was installing the thing onto a cart as I came in and she put me to work helping. It didn't take long to plug everything in.

Image Credit: The Telegraph

She explained to me that the computer could do a variety of things faster than a person. the thing that I remember was her telling me the thing could play games. She even showed me how to load them. If you have ever used a c64 say it with me, LOAD * ,8,1

The screen flashed and I was greeted by the intro screen to some kind of math game. Number Crunchers maybe. My young mind was blown. I wanted to know everything I could about this thing. I went back to the library at recess over and over.

One day I asked the librarian how do you make the games? She mentioned that you had to enter in "codes". That was all she knew but there was a book that came with the computer. It had some "codes" in it. I spent the next few recesses copying these codes into the computer. After many typos I made my first square appear onscreen. I was so excited I called the librarian over to see. She was underwhelmed. This thing had become my obsession.

I begged my parents for a computer. They relented and bought me a TI-99A. They also got me this huge spiral book of different computer programs that I could learn. As new tech embraced it.

Hardware...
Software...
It was LIFE!!

I have now worked in technology for over 20 years. From gaming to the public service I have written code or built hardware that has been been touched by users around the globe.

So what does this have to do with my opening statement? While the future has allowed people to shortcut a lot of the early work, everyone pays their dues. Growth takes time and if you spend it worried about what someone else has done you will only hinder yourself. Put your head down and hone your craft. Stop looking at the scoreboard.

I know this is hard in our social media landscape. We see everyone living their best lives online but that is only the highlight reel. It is not the day to day. It is not, in many cases, REAL.

1. Know your Goals
2. Create your Plans
3. Pray and Execute
4. Repeat Daily

Sorry about the long story but I wanted to get it down as part of February's Declaration.

Go Go GO!

Header Image Credit: https://adrhighlightreel.wordpress.com/

One of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself is the ability to self assess. Can you take an honest look at yourself, see the beauty and the warts? One of the things that I am butting up against with folks around me right now is their inability to articulate their motivations. They are living life by default.

• Unable to make decisions.
• Unable to submit to accountability
• Unwilling to take criticism

Today we all need to take a good hard look at ourselves and ask.

1. What mistakes do I keep making?
2. Why do I keep making them?
3. What am I afraid of?
4. Who can I ask to hold me accountable?
5. What am I doing?

Are you willing to do the hard thing?

Go Go GO

I was listening to an episode of the Insanity Check Podcast from the MTR Network. On the episode the host Kriss was joined by Rodimus Prime from The Black Guy Who Tips. They were discussing their time podcasting. Both of these guys started in podcasting back in the dark ages. They had to learn on the fly and have grown their platforms over time.

One of the reasons that I considered getting into podcasting is because of Rod and his wife @SayDatAgain. Out side of being consistent and finding your voice my take away from their discussion was finding your fanbase. There is a notion that you have to have massive followings to be "successful" in podcasting. I don't think that Kriss and Rod agreed with this assessment. They said it was more important to have true fans.

A true fan is someone who is sold out on your content. You do not need tons of these fans. In his article 1000 True Fans, Kevin Kelly goes in depth on why you need to focus on building a true fan base. The below quote is the conclusion from the article. You need to go read this if you are looking to grow your influcence as a creator.

1,000 true fans is an alternative path to success other than stardom. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum bestseller hits, blockbusters, and celebrity status, you can aim for direct connection with a thousand true fans. On your way, no matter how many fans you actually succeed in gaining, you’ll be surrounded not by faddish infatuation, but by genuine and true appreciation. It’s a much saner destiny to hope for. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there. Kevin Kelly - 1000 True Fans

Just some thoughts for your morning.

Get out there and do something amazing!

Header Image Credit: 4Ever

All the hard work was worth it. I got accepted to Harvard at 16!! 😭😭😭 #Harvard #Harvard2022 pic.twitter.com/KjW3pAF0VG

The poet wrote, "No Man is an Island", an african proverb says, "It Takes a Village...", a president told us, "... when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together...", all are true and the collective cheers seen in the above video prove it.

Sure there was hard work. Sure there were solitary moments. There was also encouragement, mentoring, teaching and training. None of that happens if we don't work together. Providing the support needed in the rough times and the pipelines needed to fuel the engine.

I shout with my young brother today, excited to see him fly.

Who are you supporting right now? Who can you encourage? How can I lift you up and help you move forward? How can I cheer for you?

Let me know, I am here.

GO GO GO

Image Credit: Barbara Benson Keith

HT: Darren Novell

Much of those "expenses" he has no control over. The escrow numbers are part of his contract with the NBA and his taxes are part of this "contract" with America and the state of CA. His agent fees are a necessary evil and the 401K is a formality. ;)

My question for everyone is this, do the red numbers matter past a certain point? Curry is set to make 34.68 million dollars this season.

At what number, for you, do the numbers not matter any more?

When we were financial planners we spent a lot of our time talking to our clients about finding that number. I encourage you to at least know yours.

References
Sam Belden 19h 51,462 (23 Nov. 2017.). Stephen Curry will get less than half of his record $35 million salary — here is what happens to the rest. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-curry-salary-taxes-nba-2017-9