Wishing the world a wonderful start to the true new year

It’s April 1st and time for the world to celebrate the only un-hallmark holiday of the year by perpetrating tricks on the unwitting. Think about it, even secretary’s day and national pencil day get more love than April Fool’s Day! No cards, no candy just cruel jokes.

Like Garfield’s distaste for Mondays, most people are not terribly excited by the arrival of All Fools Day and sometime ago I began asking the question why?

For me April, or really the spring, has always felt like the start of a year. Flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing and birds are humping (as the old saying goes ;-). We all know that spring is the birth of a year and that winter is the death of the year, or at least I can feel it to be more true. So why is it celebrated by such a subverted, subjugated and subordinated ritual as pranking people?

Check out the NPR article below for some hilaria on the history of what might have lead up to the current disregarded state of recognizing the true new year.

The History of April Fools Day

I tend to go with my instinct that for eon’s humanity celebrated the new year as the natural cycle intended in the spring. Until the institutions of control lead by the Catholic Church felt it conflicted with their commercial interests and decided it would be better to disrupt God’s plan by putting all of humanity at dis-ease, fooling them into thinking the new year wasn’t here. Argue with me if you will, but it’s a fools errand at best to suggest otherwise.

In fact, why argue at all over a holiday that no one seems to care about anyway? This is the perfect palate for us to paint our own perspectives. Open your heart to making this holiday one of love and celebration for the start of new things. Embrace the day as new beginnings, make it a tradition for trying new things, taking risks and releasing the entrepreneurs within. Put on your best dress foolishness and come out to play! What do you got to loose today? It’s the one day of the year that the world has decided it’s ok to be a fool. It’s ok to just be you.

The artist formerly known as Gregory

A.W.M.

#1 (UnHallmark) Holiday of the Year

Whether you believe that winter is the death the old year and spring the birth of the new year or that Pope Gregory XIII really had it in for the pagans celebrating too close to Easter, you have to admit something is certainly absurd, daresay foolish, about April 1st.

I mean am I the only one that can see this for what it is?  How is it that such a famous holiday on the calendar hasn’t been fully consumed by commercialism yet?!!  Why is it your local drug store and grocery chain aren’t hocking cheap plastic decorations, over priced candy and cards, and ready made pranks for those not creative enough to come up with there own?

Franky, I couldn’t be happier that All Fools Day is overlooked by everyone from Walmart to Amazon. And honestly most of us are all missing out on what is the greatest holiday of the year for a several of reasons.

First, the spring is the true new year, celebrated for eons on the spring equinox until this over entitled zealot named Gregory decided he would change the calendar to begin the 1st of January.  Who wants to celebrate a new year in the winter when you can do it in style during the warming aspirations of a beautiful spring day.  So break out the champagne and toast to 2020 because now it’s on like donkey kong.

Second, when do you ever get permission to be a fool, act ridiculous, dress up and parade around, or try something new, creative or risky and it not matter if it ends up in total foolish failure?  On April 1st you can.  I like to call it the entrepreneurs and artists holiday.  Put on your best dressed foolishness and come out to play!

Third, and maybe most importantly, since history has discarded April 1st to ridicule [to the point that capitalists don’t even want to venture into making money off of it] then that means this holiday is open license to call it what you want and do with it what you will.  When do we ever get our own personal creative license to do that?  Not on the upcoming Easter holiday when you must first pay homage to the bunny that lays painted eggs for you to eat chocolate butts out of baskets before recognizing that God walked the earth and was raised from the dead.  Those traditions are neatly prescribed straight down to the Easter ham and dare thee not follow them than off with your head!

Now a moment for the pranksters out there.  Sure, there’s nothing wrong with having a little foolish fun on the patron saint day of absurdity, but lest you begin to go to far and turn your jokes meanness, might I point out that you are playing right into the hands of the man.  The point of putting this holiday down and making it the fool is to be cruel and get us all to lower our frequency to negativity.  Who can be the meanest and make someone feel the worst is often how April Fools days come out feeling.  And what good is that?  It takes all the fun out of it.  It squashes all the camaraderie and collegiality out of celebrating vicariously a vivacious spring day together.

Now more than ever in our sick times, we need positivity and playfulness to rule out fear and troubles.  COVID is not a ailment of the body but a disease of the brain.  The more you fear it the more we feed it.  And I can’t think of a better way to fight back than to raise our collective consciousness up to a higher level and all take a moment to laugh at mas cerveza de Corona, giggle at our youtube shelters and, from an appropriately social distance, chortle with our neighbors.

Join me this year in celebrating the truly greatest holiday of the year by turning this day, 4/1/2020, and these crazy days upside down and inside out.  Let’s recognize this Halloween of the spring to dress up and play, this Mardi Gras of the time changes to make some music and parte, this true new year that can never be forgotten because that which once was will always be begotten into a celebration of the one day that hasn’t been over taken by money makin.

I for one want to be the first to wish you all a VERY MERRY APRIL FOOLS DAY.  Put on your best dressed foolishness and come out to play!

Anthony “Trouble” Kaple (aka Gregory J.W. McDermott)

The birth of an artist

4 months later Gregory “Trouble” Kaple is headlining the Summer Solstice Show at The Au Lounge in Oakland.

The making of a musician

This was the Red House solo I took for my year of music 2018 spring exam in Hermosa Beach.

Put on your best dressed foolishness & come out to play!

No candy, no cards, no dinner or presents, hell there aren’t even any cards.   As I was shopping for thank you cards this weekend, navigating between Passover, Easter and Mother’s Day cards, I realized there aren’t any April Fool’s Day cards. Am I wrong here, or is April Fools Day (a holiday that stems back thousands of years to the celebration of the true new year) the only under exploited holiday of the year?! We spend more commercial attention on Sweetest Day and National Pencil Day (March 30) than we do on the spring time celebration of the true new year.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a fan of over commercialization.  I think the two month preview that every grocery, convenient and department store gives to the next best holiday before the last one even ends has really run its course.  I believe some of us have actually forgotten the turn of natures season and judge the time of year by whether its the 4rth of July, Halloween, Thanks Giving, Chrismas, New Year, Valentines Day, St. Patty’s Day, Easter, Mothers Day or 4rth of July chatchkas stocked on the store shelves. I just can’t believe some marketer hasn’t identified the looming vacuum and assumed the responsibility to make it there own.

So not one to miss a great opportunity, I’ve decided to make it my own.  Frankly, I believe April Fools Day has gotten a bad rap.  It’s considered an after thought, pranksters holiday left for most of us to completely forget about it until becoming the unwitting victim of a cruel joke.  I advocate we change that and harken back to the original roots of pagans celebrating the spring equinox, ending the death of the old year (winter) and welcoming the birth of a new year (spring).

Seriously, April 1st is a day to put on your best dressed foolishness on and come out to play.  Something made all the more sweet by its virtual neglect by popular attention.  Its the spring time combination of Halloween, Mardi Gras and New Year rolled into the one time of year you can throw caution to the wind and behave complete and utterly foolish.  April Fool’s is a carefree embrace of the infinite potential the new year holds.  Its a creators holiday, a chance to try something new with total permission to fail and at worst appear a fool on a day dedicated to it.  It is a national holiday for entrepreneurs and risk takers.  It’s the essence of being able to do whatever out of this world thing your mind and motivation can come up with and have total permission to have fun, make fun and be a fool.

Join me in embracing the natural start to the new year and celebrating the only unexploited Hallmark holiday of the year.  Enjoy the jokes and pranks, take a chance, create something, act foolish with no fear because today is the day of new beginnings and challenging the limits of popular expectations.

Getting ready for the CAS conference this week

Attending the Complex Adaptive Systems conference put on by Missouri University of Science & Technology together with Lockheed Martin this week in Dulles, VA http://complexsystems.mst.edu/

Friday’s grand finale will be a panel I moderate from the FBI, Boeing & Tata discussing big data and its impacts.  http://complexsystems.mst.edu/conferencepanelmembers/

From the chief scientist at Intel on complexity

http://wethedata.org

Cyber Center Innovation

I submitted an application for the “Pitch Your Idea” contest being hosted by CreateWV this weekend on Saturday, October 27, 2012.  I was selected to pitch in the semi finals which are open to the public beginning at 1:30.  There is a dinner following at 5:30 where they will announce the winner.  The winner’s pitch will get funding to create their idea.

Please come out for a great time to support a great cause.  The more people the better in person and online (tweet, blog or resend it to a friend!).  Go to  www.createwv.wildapricot.org to register for the dinner.

Here’s my Pitch!

Creating a West Virginia Cyber Center Club delivers an innovative space in thought, time and place that would enable young, curious minds to explore technology, its principles and applications, through hands on, professionally lead experiences.

• WVCCC will combine students with skilled specialists and access to advanced equipment to learn the extent of technology’s possibilities in an experimental atmosphere.
  • Students will be able to investigate many types of technology including electronics, programming in a variety of languages, defending a network, web design and multimedia applications among others. They will have the opportunity to compete in activities based upon their interests, which can include anything from music and fashion to entertainment and gaming.
• WVCCC activities will enable career awareness highlighting the importance of technology in a developing world.
  • Students will learn about technology through hands-on experience. They will gain real-world experience by directly interacting with professionals in the fields of technology, business and media.
• WVCCC will help foster opportunities for networking and development through job shadowing and co-opting.

Students will learn how technology impacts their interests and future careers, part of a key initiative for developing West Virginia’s future workforce.

Innovate, Create & Commercialize

Gregory J. Kaple

Startup Artist

GAK³

Greg Kaple is an entrepreneur and a strategy consultant known for innovating business models and solution delivery platforms for complex professional, technology and services organizations.  His expertise incorporates the discipline of process engineering and technology management with the empathy of social engineering and communications alignment.  Kaple is one of the State of Appalachia’s most dynamic forces leading a vision to transform the Appalachian region into the new global leader for workforce competitiveness and innovative economic development.

As a startup founder, Kaple has repeatedly succeeded at growing ventures like project management software platform TeamDynamix, mens’ barbershop franchise Kennedy’s All American, professional services provider Integrated Management Services (IMS) and new media for the new masses production company Nvision Performance Solutions.

As a strategy consultant, Kaple has consulted with hundreds of companies, including global leaders like Tiffany & Co, Time Warner, New York Presbyterian Hospital, AIG, LexisNexis, White & Case and WilmerHale and others.  This work has included improving shared service delivery models for infrastructure and risk management, redesigning business operations through insourcing and on-shoring and leading transformational change in organizational cultures and business development.

Kaple has developed a well-regarded methodology for innovation, alignment, creation and commercialization, which he has used repeatedly in different business environments and across a variety of market segments. He is the author of a professional blog reflecting his personal passions, initiatives and experiences, www.Kaple.wordpress.com.  His contributions include research on technology models for managing operational risk within information technology systems, managing multi-sided market platforms and generating value driven business models for service delivery.

Kaple is a founding participant in the Ohio University Ralph & Luci Schey Sales Centre and is a passionate supporter of investing in education and enabling the future of America’s competitiveness through programs that give back.  He’s been a governing member of several University programs for sales and entrepreneurship with West Virginia University, University of Dayton and Ohio University where he recently created a breakthrough class on Entrepreneurial Sales.

Kaple has a Masters Degree of Science in Telecommunications Management from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Ohio University. He currently resides in Parkersburg, WV at the center of the Great Ohio Valley with his wife, Stephanie, two young daughters, Charlotte Rae & Grace Ann and their two North American Appalachian mountain dogs, Rally & Ryder.

 

Ohio University Schey Sales Centre

Coach & Candidate Portfolio Competition

Championship

Winner:  Chelsea Kovak   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSLOzZLECf0

Amy Stafford                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWQC0-xpIYk

Final Four

Amy Stafford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmnkyS3oq6I

Chelsea Kovak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjTBV4qrth0&feature=youtu.be

Chanel Glenn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JGzbNOiLBo&feature=related

Rebecca Koch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUdLlpIgqu8&feature=youtu.be

2012 Candidate Portfolio Competition, Round One!

http://aspnet.cob.ohio.edu/isms/cobcontent.aspx?5155

Coach & Candidate Program Overview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5IFbLoBBvY

“More than Kaple-able” Award Winners

• 2012 Chelsea Kovak
• 2011 Chad Supers
• 2010 Greg Silverman
• 2009 Brian Yutzy
• 2008 Meryl Smith*
• 2007 Brad Hirsch
• 2006 Chris Knapik

* First year of the portfolio competition