News from Mike Bates
It's been an eventful two years: One family addition, two job
transitions, and a new side gig, among other things.
The family addition: On January 4, Matthew
Alfred Ford Bates was born, weighing 10 lbs and measuring 21". He is a
healthy and happy boy, full of smiles and pretty easygoing. Joseph and
Katherine adore him and are good helpers. We were more than a little
surprised to learn last spring that we were going to be parents again
at our age, but Mikki stayed healthy through the pregnancy and the
repeat C-section went smoothly.
Joseph
turns 10 this week, and he'll start 4th grade at Regent Preparatory School this fall.
(He'll start Latin!) He joined Tulsa
Boy Singers last year and is enjoying it. He's looking forward to
the choir's planned tour of Britain next summer. He played little
league baseball again this spring. He had a lot of fun with his most
recent semester project: He created several stop-action animations with
an Intel Digital Blue camera, using clay and Legos for his models. He
has read through the Chronicles of Narnia series twice and is plowing
his way through the Harry Potter books.
Katherine
turns six later this month. She had her first year at Regent in pre-K
and will start kindergarten in the fall. She loves to draw and do
crafts. She wrote some songs -- a series of melodies each of which
remind her of an animal. She likes to play backgammon and to read.
Mikki is at home full-time and has her hands full with Matthew and the
big kids. Her hopes of returning to work part-time have been deferred
for a few years.
We're still involved with the same church. I lead singing during
morning worship about once a month or so, and Mikki sometimes plays her
violin as part of the church's worship ensemble.
This link
has a good family photo of the five of us from April of this year, just
after attending the city inaugural.
The two job transitions: Way back in 2003, I started doing some
occasional database work on the side for an DC-area political marketing
company. I got to know them through a congressional campaign here.
There was some discussion about offering me a full-time position, as
they were planning to open call centers in Oklahoma. In the end, they
acquired a couple of existing centers in Nebraska, and it took a while
before they were stable and profitable.
After the November 2004 election, they were ready to bring me on board
full-time -- they wanted someone who understood campaigns and
understood computers -- and after several months of negotiation and
hesitation on my part, we came to terms in April. 2004 had been a heavy
year for travel, and that helped me reach my decision. I left
FlightSafety after 13 years, and began the new job on May 1, 2005 as
Vice President for Data Management, working from home via the Internet
and cell phone.
Although I didn't know it at the time, within two weeks, it was
discovered that a subcontractor, a highly trusted friend of the company
president, who was handling order fulfillment, had been ripping the
company off, essentially keeping two sets of books. Cash flow took a
huge hit, and at the end of July, just as we were getting ready to
leave for a family trip to Florida, I was told that salary wouldn't be
paid for a while. We went anyway -- tickets were bought and in-laws
were paying for the condo -- and while we were there, I got a call from
the president telling me that salary would be irregular for a long
time, and that I should probably see if I could get my old job back. My
last day was August 31. I would miss having the flexibility to work
from home or a Wi-Fi equipped coffee shop, but the job itself wasn't as
advertised, and I wound up being more of a worker bee than an
executive. We parted on good terms, though, and they still come to me
for help from time to time.
(By the way, we saw Dave and Ruth Russ and their two girls several
times during our week in Fort Lauderdale.)
I toyed with the idea of going independent, doing a combination of
political database work, consulting in the flight simulation business,
and writing, but it seemed too risky, especially with a baby on the
way. I had an offer to go back to FlightSafety, but instead I took a
job with another simulator company called CymSTAR. It's a small business
devoted to upgrades of military simulators. It's headed by the first
boss I worked for right out of college. Since coming on board in
October, I've been working on the company's ISO 9001 quality management
system and a variety of proposals, with occasional opportunities to do
some actual engineering. So far it seems to have been a good move.
The new side gig: As I mentioned last issue, I have a blog at batesline.com. It's mostly a
place
where I write about local politics and urban design issues. In February
2005, the local daily newspaper, the Tulsa World, sent me and
three other websites a cease-and-desist
letter, claiming that I was violating their copyright by quoting
excerpts from their editorials for the purpose of comment and criticism
(aka "fair use") and linking to their website without permission. I
notified a number of my blogging friends around the country, many of
whom I met during the Republican National Convention, and the story was
picked up by a couple of the big-name bloggers and even CNN's Inside
Politics show. The attorney for the Media Bloggers Association wrote a
letter
to the World in my defense, threatening action if they pursued
an obviously frivolous claim. Without officially backing down, the
World
hasn't taken any further action.
Partly because of this, I came to the attention of the publisher of Urban Tulsa Weekly, the
local alternative paper. Their reporter interviewed me for a profile that came
out in July, and about a month later I was hired to write a
weekly
column on local politics. That's been a lot of fun, and between the
column and a weekly appearance on KFAQ radio's morning show, it allows
me to anger reach a lot more people than I could with
just the blog.
I'm still involved in politics as well, but not as a candidate myself.
I was a delegate to the 2004 Republican convention in New York, and
Mikki and I got to see Sam LaFontaine while we were there. Earlier this
year I helped a friend with his campaign for mayor. He fell short, but
we got some good people elected to the City Council. We're seeing some
progress -- city government is more open and is listening to ordinary
citizens, not just the big shots at the newspaper and the Chamber of
Commerce. Last summer we fought off a well-financed attempt to recall
two of the good guys on the Council.
Other than our lunch with Sam, it's been ages since we've seen any of
you. If you're ever passing through Tulsa, please let us know.
c., f., & s.,
Mike Bates