2000 – The Year in Review

Let me start this update with a question: What the heck happened to the whole Internet thing? The NASDAQ? Tech stocks? Did anyone catch what happened there? I have a clue; I’m just not sure. I think it had something to do with the fact that I quit my job at a major, established, profitable, well-funded OLD media company to go to work for an Internet start-up company.

Saying it has "been quite a ride" is bit like saying this year’s presidential race was kind of interesting. Nevertheless, it HAS been quite a ride: From an extremely non-eventful Y2K turn (which, as predicted, saw me camped out in front of a computer screen at the CBS Y2K command center just three blocks away from Times Square where they were throwing the biggest party in history) to Teachscape. Yes that’s the new company name. No, not Cheapskate. Teachscape. Where to start? Well, why don’t I start at the end and just say that despite the Internet bloodbath (which, by the week, is turning dot-coms into not-coms), we survived and got our funding. It is not quite as much as we had hoped for (you can still invest by sending small bills to the return address on this envelope) and not quite on the terms we had hoped (suffice it to say I am back to wearing the lederhosen again), but nevertheless we are left standing. And despite the difficulties (which we now refer to as "the dark times" or "the troubles"), we even succeeded in launching the site and filming quite a few teachers around the country doing truly wonderful teaching. The issue now is how to get this wonderful product we’ve produced into school districts, which – this will be no surprise to those of you who are teachers – is an extremely time-consuming, difficult, political process fraught with perils. In fact, it’s rather much like Survivor, accept that you can’t ever get off the island. Oh, also the rats are not quite as tasty. Anyway, to find out more about what we are doing go to our website at www.teachscape.com.

On the personal front, Paul started first grade this year, and a schedule full of activities including Karate, Soccer, and Boy Scouts. We had to make a major adjustment by buying a family calendar. And giving up sleeping in on Saturday mornings. And buying a mini-van. (Well, OK, the mini-van wasn’t strictly because of Paul. It actually had more to do with me crossing over the 35 hump on the way to 40 and looking for a way to re-establish my youthful virility. The mini-van seemed to be the perfect answer. And not just any mini-van, mind you: A Chrysler Town and Country.) Where was I? Oh yeah, the activities. So Paul is having a lot of fun. He got his yellow belt in Karate, and managed to score a goal during his last soccer game. Aside from this, he learned how to ride a bike this year and spent a lot of time at home doing that and tooling around on his scooter. Mayumi started Kindergarten this year and by all accounts is ready to pass up her brother. It is awe-inspiring to look at her and realize how much she’s grown and how much she’s learned in the past two years. Every once in a while I stop myself and say “you know she’s only 5”. And after I remind myself of that fact, she reminds me of the fact that she knows everything. At the age of 5, she has it all figured out. I’m just hoping that some day she’ll be able to communicate some of that knowledge to me in a way that I can understand it. Sugayo continues her work at the church with the Japanese in our area, and in addition is one of the “class moms” for Mayumi’s Kindergarten class. She is also working at the school library once a week, which gives her a bit of chance to observe our kids in the wild.

In other family news, my sister, Michalle, opened a new store in a mall on Hayes and 21 Mile Road in Macomb, MI: "Paint and Blinds for Less". You'll have to ask her what she sells but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with paints and blinds, and that she’ll sell it to you for less. It really is a great place and you should all visit it when you get the chance. Tell her I sent you (I get a vig for that). It’s an amazing thing to watch your baby sister grow a business and open up her own store. Mark is also doing very well. He just accepted a new position at SE Johnson, moving from R&D to Manufacturing as their not-so-young-as-he-used-to-be hot-shot engineer, helping them set up manufacturing lines all over. His wife, Kara, has also just started an R&D job at SE Johnson (insisting that it is merely coincidence that she waited to accept the job until Mark left the department).

Big plans for this next year: Sugayo and I will be celebrating 10 years of marriage .We hope to do something special (like a commemorative potato sculpture) but will probably just end up heading to Japan again (perhaps with a stop in Hawaii on the way back). If any of you all are interested in seeing Japan, let us know. Aside from that, I’ll be working on a new TV pilot, with two guys from work, about a tough IT cop whose partner is Clippy – the Microsoft PaperClip. ("TV Guide says 'Gritty yet hilarious hijinks follow their quest for lost files. You’ll be lost too.'")

You can reach us virtually at mike@skorski.org. Of course, a much higher bandwidth experience would be a trip to New York and a barbecue at 112 Grove Street. Until that time, God’s blessings to you all in the new millennium.