Brandon J. Kraft

That's one way to do it... - The Journeyman

2010-08-10T22:43:43Z

File this in the "Things Everyone Has Wanted To Do At Some Point In Their Lives" folder.

In a story from The Chive, "possibly the best site in the world", according to them, a young lady named Jenny has just won the envy of anyone who ever worked for someone they couldn't stand.

She quit.

Via e-mail.

Sent to the entire office, boss included.

Using photographs of dry-erase boards.

That detail exactly why she can't work for her boss any longer.

Classic.

The story, complete with all of the pictures which simply must be seen, can be found on The Chive's site.

Pope Benedict XVI's Intentions for August - The Journeyman

2010-08-01T13:59:00Z

For the month of August, the Holy Father asks our prayers for the following intentions:

The Unemployed and the Homeless
General: That those who are without work or homes or who are otherwise in serious need may find understanding and welcome, as well as concrete help in overcoming their difficulties.

Victims of Discrimination, Hunger and Forced Emigration
Missionary: That the Church may be a "home" for all people, ready to open its doors to any who are suffering from racial or religious discrimination, hunger, or wars forcing them to emigrate to other countries.

The Old Days - The Journeyman

2010-07-12T22:42:27Z

For the second time today, I find myself at the closest coffee shop to La Casa de Kraft, which happens to be Starbucks. It isn't for the coffee, the atmosphere that makes me forget that I'm anywhere other than Anyplace, USA or wanting to be the butt of any Starbucks jokes. I need Internet.

Our Internet connection is not functional today and tomorrow morning, forcing us to life as it was in 1993. No Internet. No e-mail. This is even more difficult as the primary way I'm notified of work voicemail messages is via e-mail. It has been quiet in the house with no streaming Internet music. I'm antsy to check messages. The USPS only delivers once a day.

Taking a day to unplug every so often may not be a bad idea. I should be able to go 24 hours without Internet.

Coffee Bar - The Journeyman

2010-07-08T22:31:17Z

Image by Shannon Clark via Flickr

Last night, I was sitting in bed thinking and the idea of having a coffee bar came to me. This would be a coffee shop that would serve coffee, breakfast snacks, etc like every other coffee shop we've ever seen. All of the usual perks would be there--tables to work at, free WiFi, funky lighting.

But, what would make this place different is alcohol. It would serve beer, wine, and cocktails. Going out with friends and some can get a good coffee drink and others a beer.

I think there are a couple of places downtown that do this, but they're too trendy. Hard to find a table, loud--looking more to be the hot spot than a good spot.

Of course, I'm thinking I am on to something when I drive by Cherrywood Coffeehouse on 38 1/2 St. in Austin. I was on my way to an appointment, so I took note of it (as a coffeeshop I haven't visited that is somewhat near my home) and moved on.

As I type, I found myself with a few extra moments and decided to stop by. I walk in and it's exactly what I thought up last night. A coffee shop with the usual perks of a good coffee shop with a bar. Looks like they have maybe 8-10 beers on tap and a selection of wine. It doesn't appear they serve cocktails, but two out of three ain't bad.

I haven't tried the food, but the house coffee is good. Looks like it could use a couple of more seats near outlets, but I haven't explored the entire place yet.

I'll be visiting this place more in the future I do believe.

Of course, as I type this, I have a blogging assistant that pulls up recent stories/article from around the web that may be on the same topic. Apparently, Starbucks is doing this same thing...

FIC Ethics - The Journeyman

2010-07-04T19:15:46Z

As a field agent with the Knights of Columbus, I work with members access their fraternal benefits with us. The most valuable of these benefits is our insurance portfolio--various forms of life insurance, retirement annuities and long-term care insurance. Advising members on these issues require a great deal of training--both initially and continuing--and it requires members put a great deal of trust in that knowledge.

In the insurance industry, one way that agents try to quickly show the depth of their knowledge is through advanced designations. Basically, a set of coursework designed to help an agent advance in his knowledge of the field. I'm currently enrolled in a program that, when finished, would result in a "Fraternal Insurance Counselor" designation.

This initial program has an ethics requirement, which exams separately.

Overall, ethics is common sense when looking at work through Christian lens. Don't lie. Don't say a product is something it really isn't designed to be. Make sure members know what they're looking at, with all of the pros and cons outlined. Don't try to replace someone's insurance to help your numbers. (There are a few times where replacing life insurance makes sense, but it isn't the norm). Don't trash-talk your competition. It's fair game to discuss the difference in ratings between companies, to explain what it means that the Knights of Columbus are certified by IMSA, but be clean in your discussion.

Sadly, there is a reason this course must be taken and why it is tested separately from the rest of the material.

Insurance agents, generally speaking, have sometimes not played fairly. The general public knows little about how life insurance works, what different types of policies do what exactly, what policies have what guarantees, and so forth. Some folks have purchased a variable universal life policy without realizing their death benefits are not guaranteed.* When they get a letter in the mail saying their $100,000 policy for $30 a month that they purchased 20 years ago either needs to be funded at $150 a month for the same benefit or for $30 a month, their benefit would be greatly reduced, without ever realizing that could happen, it's a bad day for the insurance industry.

That's why I like working with the Knights of Columbus. First of all, we don't sell VUL policies. There are people and situations where those policies make sense, but, in my opinion, life insurance is to provide death benefits to families. It's there to take worry away. VUL/UL policies can't take all of the worry away because of the nature of the policy. The real reason I like working for the Knights is that, even if we did offer policies like that, we would be crystal clear on how they work.

Ethic courses shouldn't be needed. No one should think it is right to do anything that would violate the simplest ethical standard -- the Golden Rule.

* One disclaimer: Each company and each type of policy have different times of riders (subcontracts that "ride" on with the primary insurance contract). There are riders that can guarantee VUL benefits for certain time periods if certain conditions are met, almost always for an additional fee. Generally speaking, a vanilla VUL policy would not guarantee death benefits since the policy is tied to the market.

Family Website Back Up - The Journeyman

2010-07-04T15:28:33Z

Our family website (http://family.kraft.im) was experiencing a little problem where it wouldn't update if we posted something to it and you accessed it via casadekraft.com. The glitch has been resolved and everyone can now see the same content.

Pope Benedict XVI's Intentions for July - The Journeyman

2010-07-01T13:59:00Z

The Holy Father asks our prayers for the following intentions for the month of July:

Justice in Electing those who Govern
General: That in every nation of the world the election of officials may be carried out with justice, transparency and honesty, respecting the free decisions of citizens.

An Urban Culture of Justice, Solidarity and Peace
Missionary:That Christians may strive to offer everywhere, but especially in great urban centers, an effective contribution to the promotion of education, justice, solidarity and peace.

10 Months? Seriously? - The Journeyman

2010-06-30T20:26:51Z

Image via Wikipedia

Today, my little girl, O, is 10 months old. These past months have flown by. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was like Einstein, Doc Brown's dog who was the first time traveler into the future in Back To The Future who went a minute into the future without any idea time had passed for everyone else.

We sat for family pictures as part of our parish's photo directory and today, our copies arrived in the mail. Looking at her in the picture, it seems impossible to remember a time before she was born while it seems impossible to believe that she's graced us (outside the womb) for 10 months now.

You should see these pictures though. She's a child who laughs and smiles all of time. All of the time, except if there is a camera nearby. The little one is slack-jawed in any picture with all of three of together. I love her, but man, she doesn't understand she should smile when sitting for a picture.

She is finally sleeping through the night. She can't stay awake past 6 p.m., sometimes earlier. However, she's been slowly waking up earlier and earlier, now creeping closer to 4 a.m. ::sigh::

Even with that, her separation anxiety anytime V is in the room and not holding her, and all of her other quarks, I wouldn't change a thing.

Why Do I Blog? - The Journeyman

2010-06-30T19:13:05Z

Image by rita banerji via Flickr

Over on Michael Hyatt's blog, he discusses the reason he blogs, the mental games he plays about the practice, what it means when readership fails to grow.

Why do I blog?

I like to tell stories. I like to share information. I like to be connected and I like people to want to be connected to me. I believe I have an insight (on at least some issues) that could be useful or beneficial to someone else out there in the world.

Why don't I blog?

If you've been a reader for a long time [read: since the beginning of the blog via CMS in 2002 or when I was still hand-writing all of my HTML back in 1997], you'll know that I had a great period of writing a great amount of content. I would write short posts, long posts, rants and reflections. I would write about the Church, school, politics, TV, news, anything and everything. I didn't really worry about what people would think when they read the post; although, by nature, I'm not a person whose unfiltered thoughts would offend a great deal of people.

I stopped blogging, I believe, because I became afraid to say the wrong thing. I did not want to give anyone the wrong idea about anything. I did not want my position as a campus minister negatively influence someone if I wrote something challenging, something showing weakness, something "pissy". Now that I'm in sales, same thing again. I don't want to offend a client, or potential client, by being myself.

That's no way to govern a blog. Yes, a blog should appeal to the reader but the writer cannot appease anyone and everyone.

I am currently in a leadership showcase program presented by SOS Leadership looking specifically at goal-setting. As part of this week's exercise, I decided that I truly enjoyed blogging (when I actually did it well) and that I was a happier person when I was able to crystallize my thought via this process. Therefore, I shall blog once again.

MT vs WP? - The Journeyman

2010-06-25T20:06:01Z

Image by whiteafrican via Flickr

Movable Type or Wordpress?

I've been using MT forever, it seems. Since v. 2.5 (now on MT5.02). Overall, I've loved it. I like that I can manage all of our blogs (mine, V's, the family site, Catholic Thinker) plus a non-blog site (kraft.im, that, ideally, will expand in time).

Lately, I've been less than impressed with plugins. Seems like after MT 3, people have been jumping off the bandwagon. Many plugins in the directory are for MT 3. Some have been made in the MT 4 era. Few seem to have been updated for MT 5.

Themes/styles are another. I'm not very graphically talented, so I want a basic template that looks good and I'm comfortable tweaking it from there. It has been increasingly more difficult to find good themes for MT.

I've started playing on Wordpress,com with a blog. I've jumped over to adding WP to my site and running a beta blog on it. I'm impressed with the ease of adding templates (enter your FTP password and it's done). Same for plugins.

I won't drop MT old-turkey. I think my wife is happy with it for her and the family's blog. The kraft.im site makes me sense to me (at the moment) to run via MT, although I'd want to figure out a way to have my blog entries filter to the home page (done automatically now via MT's website-over-blog structure).

The commenting system differences seem not to matter. If someone is going to comment on my work, Facebook seem to be the way to go.

Any thoughts out there?

Stubborn as a Mule - V's Voice

2010-06-18T01:29:25Z

Image via Wikipedia

Last night was not great, to say the least. The Squeaker screamed off and on for 1 hour 43 minutes. She just would not sit down or lie down until she was so extremely exhausted that she slumped down. Here legs were out in front of her in a wide V and she was slumped forward as if she was stretching to touch her toes. And this is how we found her dead asleep. We didn't want to move her because we know she needs to learn how to do this on her own. So we made some noise so that she would wake up and hopefully just reposition her body and go right back to sleep. Nope. She woke up screaming and stood up in her crib again until she slumped down again. Not laying down, sitting down hunched into a ball.

What a stubborn ass. I am certain she knows how to sit in her crib. She goes from standing to sitting all the time. She is just so freakin' stubborn. I know where she gets it from but, man, this makes life so hard right now. She's not learning how to soothe herself. She is crying to the point of exhaustion and passing out. This does not teach her to sleep. In fact this is why all the other methods didn't work because they caused the same problem.

O, just go to sleep. Just lay down and go to sleep. Is it really that hard?

On the up side, she was so happy today. Made me feel like we're not scarring her for life.

Cry It Out - V's Voice

2010-06-17T00:04:23Z

Image by Sam Pullara via Flickr

We have no other recourse.

As much as I talked about how much I hate baby sleep books in the last post, we bought one more. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby by Marc Weissbluth. I know whenever I get a sleep book I am confident and eager to see it work and this one is no different. Except that if this doesn't work there is seriously nothing more to do.

This is complete and total cry-it-out. Put her in the crib and don't get her out til morning. We did some practice runs last night and for naps today and the real problem is that the Squeaker doesn't give up and lay down. Tonight for example. She cried hysterically for 10 mins and since then intermittenly every 5 mins. Why? Because she falls asleep standing up holding on to the crib rails and when she starts to fall she wakes up and cries hysterically again. She just won't sit down or lay down. And she knows how to. She pulls up and sits back down on her own all the time. The last month we have been showing her how to sit down and lay on her side. But she won't do it. Ack.

This is what prompted this method of sleep training. Everything that we have tried to teach her how to sleep has been completely ineffective. She still relies on us totally to fall asleep. She's only going to learn if she does it on her own. Eventually she'll get so sleepy she'll fall backward on her bum and hopefully lay down and go to sleep. That or she'll go crashing into a crib rail which I hope really won't happen because then we'll have to start the process all over again.

It's a little ridiculous how much we have fought this. We have literally tried every play in the playbook. We've tried Sears, Pantley, West. All different schools of thought, all different methods and all failures. Ok, we haven't tried Ferber but at this point we just need this done. The whole gradual thing doesn't work. It's been gradual for 9 months.

So here we are. Me glued to the video monitor (which our friend graciously lent us) hoping that the next time O cries she will plunk down on her butt and go to sleep. Kraft coming in and out of his office to look at the monitor. And O so so sleepy fighting a battle she can't win.

Saint in charge of sleep problems, pray for us.

Weaned, ER visit, Down with Sleep Books - V's Voice

2010-06-10T00:53:46Z

Image via Wikipedia

It has been crazy around this house. Lots to tell.

I had posted about the first couple days of sleep training. It got great really fast. Amen. Alleluia.

Until Day 8 or 9.

The Squeaker started teething. Damn. We couldn't get back on the sleep train since then. She teethed (toothed?) for a couple days. Then I realized that O was not eating very much. She wasn't nursing as much and not eating as much solid food. Then her diapers became lighter and she seemed to not be peeing as much.

Is my milk supply decreasing? Yup. I tried to pump about 3 hours after last feeding her and could not even get an ounce out. Damn again. I'm guessing the night weaning we did was too drastic of a change for my milk supply and when O stopped eating at night my milk decided to stop, too. That just shows how much milk she was drinking at night.

Ok, we need to buy formula. My friend sent me a link to Dr. Sears' formula comparison chart. After reading that I decide that buying a toddler formula that does not contain corn syrup was the best thing to buy. For some reason I guess that Whole Foods would not carry a formula that contains corn syrup so we go there. They only had two formulas. One was for toddlers and one was a regular organic formula. I try to buy O organic stuff and it had a DHA supplement which the other one did not contain, so we go with Earth's Best Infant Formula.

We get home and I make O 4oz of formula. She guzzles it down no problem. I tried for about 20mins to get her to burp with no luck so I stick her in the exersaucer. Five minutes later she projectile vomits, not just the 4oz of formula she just ate, but everything in her stomach. I didn't even know a kid could hold that much liquid in their body. Brandon picks her up and whisks her off the the bathtub. I'm not sure what to do so I call a couple people. While I'm on the phone with my mom and pouring water over O I see that see is covered in very red and raised hives. O has eczema so her breaking out in a rash isn't super alien to us but hives that are actual welts is totally different. I hang up on my mom and run for the baking soda to put in the bath water that a nurse told us soothes skin reactions. O is scratching furiously.

Kraft calls the after hours nurse line and we answer a gazillion questions. Short story, give her Benadryl and take her to the ER because if she has an anaphylatic reaction it will happen in the next hour.

Off we go to Dell Children's. O is fine but starts falling asleep in the car which worries us so we're both singing at the top of our lungs to keep her awake. Probably just the Benadryl but we know you're not supposed to let people who get concussions fall asleep, I thought that might be good advice to follow at the moment. We get there. All the staff is super calm and very nice.

Again, short story, Dell Children's is wonderful and O just had a super allergic reaction to that specific formula. The doc knows she is not allergic to lactose because she has been breastfeeding this whole time but we have to give her Alimentum formula just in case since we don't know what she is allergic to.

O was fine and the hives were slowly going away. After seeing her doc a few days later, we were told to see an allergist to find out exactly what she is allergic to. Phew. But overall, O is doing fine and guzzling down that formula. She is also almost 100% weaned. Only nurses when she wakes up and she is increasingly getting annoyed with it because she gets such little milk. Will probably not even offer it tomorrow. Her appetite is great now. Eating a surprising amount of solid food. Poor kid, she was hungry.

After all this you can guess her sleep is ridiculous. We tried to get back on the Sleep Lady's schedule which was working beautifully at the beginning but now is a total nightmare. After all this commotion it started taking a solid hour of screaming/crying to get her to sleep for naps and nighttime.

We continued in this horrendous pattern for a week until last night when I had a total meltdown. I can't spend 3 hours a day trying to get her to sleep and have her screaming at me the whole time consistently. We tried to get her back on schedule for about a week with absolutely no progress and if anything her sleep was getting worse. She was starting to wake up every couple hours at night instead of sleeping at least until 1am as usual.

Last night I declared a big F you to the Sleep Lady and said obviously O and schedules do not get along. I vowed to just watch her very carefully all day and only put her down when she was sleepy and not try to make her sleep hour-long naps. My very wise mama friend today told me that she's always done this. She doesn't go by the clock but by what her daughter needs and her daughter has been sleeping wonderfully for months.

And today, O has slept great. Sure her naps were only 20mins and 40mins long but then she went to sleep for the night in 8mins. You can't argue with facts. I have half a mind to pitch all these sleep books out the window. Them and their bossy, condescending advice that haunts you at night.

Last night in our misery we looked up sleep training problem solvers and found some really great links that are hilarious: Train Wreck and this one we found very interesting about too much attachment parenting and whether crying-it-out is actually harmful like Sears says it is: Baby Sleep Training Re-examined.

Moral of story - don't follow the advice of a "pert, blonde social worker" and just trust your gut and your baby. You'll both be much saner and much happier.

I will at least give Kim West a thank you for getting us to put O in the crib consistently and for night weaning. I am actually very happy to not be breastfeeding anymore, but that's for another post.

Late Night Poo - V's Voice

2010-06-04T03:38:18Z

Image via Wikipedia

Ok, so this is going into the "not a good mom move" folder and a copy is going in the "sometimes we freakin' rock folder."

After a minor setback called top tooth coming in we are finally back on track with the sleep training. It's frustrating that she is crying now just about as much as at the beginning because we soothed her more than we should have because she was just in so much pain teething.

So today after I put the Squeaker down she immediately sprang up and was standing up in her crib crying/screaming at me. Then she paused, made her strained poop face, then continued crying. Darnit. She pooped. I didn't want her to figure out that if she pooped we would pick her up and then use that against us later. Ridiculous, I know. I should have changed her immediately but I just couldn't. 4 minutes later she was fast asleep in her crib. I stood over her thinking about what I should do. I should just wake her up and change her. No, I should wait until she wakes up. What if she doesn't wake up until 1am? Shoot. I left her and figured she would wake up in a couple hours. I know, I know, when a kid poos you gotta change them right then. I just couldn't do it. Getting her to sleep is hard enough, I couldn't deal with this. So I closed the door softly behind me and went to cook dinner.

Kraft got home a while later and I confessed what I had done. What should I do, Kraft? He shrugged. So I decided we were going to try to change her diaper without waking her up. And can you believe it? We did it. We totally did it. She stirred a little but never woke up. We took off the diaper, wiped, put on new diaper and she stayed asleep. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Sure the diaper she has on right now is not the best put on diaper in the world but man, am I impressed with us.

I'm sure the self-congratulatory pat on the back will stop when she wakes up in the middle of the night soaked in pee because the diaper isn't on very well but right now I'm just going to revel in the glory.

Seeking Prayer - The Journeyman

2010-06-04T03:32:09Z

Image via Wikipedia

O God,

You are beyond my understanding. Your ways are known to you alone. Your ways are good and amazing. The gifts and blessings you have bestowed upon me are more than I could ask for, more than I deserve. Thank you.

Fr. Louis once prayed hoping that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. I pray that his words were inspired. I beg of your forgiveness and mercy. I am weak, incompetent, incapable without you. When my spirit is willing, my strength is your strength. My abilities are from you.

Prayer isn't easy. Prayer is hard. I know that there's no right or wrong way to pray if prayer comes from a sincere heart, but nevertheless, I struggle to find the right words, the right way to convey what I wish to share in our relationship; although, you already know and understand it better than I do.

I pray through Jesus Christ who is one God together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.