Uncle Marv Returns: The Unfamous Podcast Relaunch

Hello, hello friends, Uncle Marv here. It has been quite some time since some of you have heard that music. That is right.

I am back with podcasting. On the personal side, it has been a while. Some of you may have caught the very last one back in 2022.

I did one in September, October, November. It was basically down to once a month, and then I took 2023 off, and I was going to take most of 2024 off, but decided I need to get back in here, share some news, talk about some stuff. So here we are.

We're going to be back with a few episodes that will focus on some reunion stuff, and I'll get a little bit more into that in just a couple of minutes. But the first thing I need to do is, of course, say yes. The podcast is back, and I've changed the name yet again.

And I'm not sure if it's going to stay, but it's now changed to The Unfamous Podcast. And I did that because one of the reasons when I started doing this podcast was based on the fact that all of us have friends that we've had over the years, going back to elementary school, junior high, high school, college, that we stay in touch with. And they're kind of important in our lives.

They're kind of milestones that we remember from time to time. And every now and then we wonder, what's happened with them? What's going on? So during COVID, when I started the show, that was pretty much it. I had not kept in touch with a lot of my friends over the years.

I got busy, just like a lot of us. Work is very busy. I run my own business, and it takes a lot of work, long days, and a lot of you have your own business.

A lot of you are very busy with the jobs you have. And then, of course, we moved, and we're not in the same space. So outside of looking at each other's Facebook page, there really isn't much more than that.

So that's one reason I started the podcast back then. Another reason that I did it was because a lot of my friends are in separate groups. Most of us, like I said earlier, we have friends from high school, friends from college, and a lot of times there are groups that don't overlap.

So I had that happen. I was involved in many different organizations during school, even in college. And then, of course, I did go to grad school.

I don't talk about that much, but there's three years of darkness that a lot of people don't know about. And then, of course, there's my work afterwards, and I worked with Junior Achievement, an organization that I'll be talking about in just a minute here. There was the National Junior Achievement Conference that is kind of separate from my work at Junior Achievement.

And then, of course, there's my IT business, and I do a lot of traveling, going to conferences there. And there's a lot of groups that I'm involved with, ASCII, some peer groups. And I know people from across the country, but again, all those groups don't overlap.

Although there are times where I'll visit a city, and when I reach out to people to hang out for dinner and stuff, sometimes I bring people together, and part of that dinner meeting is explaining how each of these friends know me and what's the overlap. So that was kind of where that started. And I'm going to get back into that.

A lot of times the stories are actually interesting. Some of us have some pretty, pretty famous or infamous friends. Some of us have some very influential friends that others should meet, and there are stories that we can share going down the road there.

So the show will be back. It's going to be a little bit of what it was before. It's also going to be some updating, some news-type stories of things that are going on.

Of course, we're all getting up in age, so keeping up to date with where our friends are is something that I'll want to do. So that's the first thing. So I wanted to give you that update.

If you go to the website, some of you have been in the last couple of weeks. I've changed it. So the podcast is going to be on its own separate page, and UncleMarv.com is kind of the landing page for all my podcasts, because I now have three.

I have this podcast. I have my IT Business podcast, which is probably considered the flagship podcast. It's the one that I do the most, that has the most activity, and that is because of the work that I do.

Then I have an unhealthy podcast, which is a project, let's say. So if you go to UncleMarv.com, you're going to see the three separate podcasts. That page will be updating with more stuff that will have more than the podcast on there.

There will be some updating, but that's what will happen when you go to UncleMarv.com. As for work, I still run my IT business here. Things are still going well. Kim still works with me in the office.

We have not killed each other yet. So I know that you guys see us on the Facebook, and we are still doing that. I still don't have any other full-time employees.

I use subcontractors. Some of them work directly for me. Some of them are actually other IT business owners that are in other cities.

So when I need help, I reach out to them. But the business is doing good. It is separate from my home.

We have a separate office here. And if you've seen pictures on the Facebook, whenever people visit, they get to take a picture in front of the sign, prove that they were here. So anybody in Fort Lauderdale wants to stop by, give me a shout, let me know, and we'll get that picture there.

And then, of course, those of you that are from Satellite Beach and grew up with me there, a lot of times we get asked, you know, how's mom doing in 2021? Mom got diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a bone cancer, and we had a little scare there for a while, but she is doing well. In fact, just this past Thursday, I actually drove with her or I drove her over to Tampa. She had a meeting with her cancer doctors over there just to kind of do an update.

And everything looks good right now. So in terms of where she is, her myeloma appears to be stable based on her light chain levels. She is still doing her dialysis, and she's doing it three times a week.

So you know, not the happiest thing for her, who, you know, she likes to be active, she likes to do stuff, but she's kind of limited with having to do this dialysis. She gets tired, obviously, but she is doing well. And I'll give you guys more updates on that later.

And let's see. Oh, I'm recording on Sunday, August 25th. This will probably be released Monday morning.

But the reason that it's a little bit later than I wanted to, I wanted to release this earlier in the weekend, but had some projects to get done. And I was here in the office getting some other podcast edited. And while I was editing, I was watching the Little League World Series.

And Florida, the team from Lake Mary, defeated China Taipei in extra innings to win its first Little League World Series. So Florida should be happy and proud. This is the first time.

They had previously gone eight times before and not won. This year they did. Scrappy team made things happen.

They were down until the bottom of the sixth inning, actually. And then they tied it up. And then it went two extra innings.

And they had a walk-off bunt and pretty exciting stuff there if you like baseball or just want to root for a team from Florida. So if you get a chance to go back and check that out. It aired on ABC, but I'm sure it'll be replayed on ESPN.

But congratulations to the team from Lake Mary, Florida. All right. So two other things that I really want to talk about in detail.

The first one is going to be the reunion that I just did for NAJAC. Now, I probably have to explain that to some of you. I mentioned Junior Achievement earlier, the volunteer organization.

They put together this conference called NAJAC, the National Junior Achievers Conference. It first started in 1944. And it was a conference that was highly attended.

It was basically the conference that delegates would attend to do competitions. They actually had national leadership. And they did a whole bunch of stuff there.

There was what they called a B-I-N-E day, a business, industry, and education where CEOs of some of the largest business, Coca-Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken, football players would come and speak to this conference. And it was a pretty memorable event, to say the least. So many of us that were on staff of that conference, when it ended years ago, we stayed in touch and we would put together these little mini events.

And we had our first big conference back in 2019. And then we had another one here just at the beginning part of August this year. So it's been five years since we did this.

So we went up to Indiana. And we stayed on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington at the IU Memorial Union. And I don't know how many of us went.

I'll get an update on that later. But we were there Friday, August 9th, Saturday, August 10th. We had a pretty good time.

So there's going to be at least three podcasts coming out based on interviews that I did while I was in Bloomington. I took my gear up there and I did 9, 10, 11 interviews. I don't know the number now.

But I will spend the next week breaking those down and combining some of those interviews, talking with people that were there, and just simply remembering what made NAJAC so great for many of us. Basically, what I can tell you is this. Every interview is going to talk about the deep and enduring relationships formed through NAJAC.

These were strong friendships. And what makes it so interesting is these were friendships based on the fact that you only saw these people one time a year for about 7 to 10 days. And the bonds that were created at NAJAC have lasted for decades.

Many people staying in touch, and then whenever they could see each other, would pick up right where they left off. And you're going to hear some stories about people that would, I mean, not just getting married from people that you met at NAJAC but being the best man or bridesmaid or something at the wedding, personal events. The people that you met at NAJAC were sometimes the first people you called, which is, it's kind of weird.

Sometimes you would think that it's people that you went to high school or college with and you spent all this time with. And I have a couple of those friends, but I have also many from junior achievement that I know that if I called them, they would come running and vice versa. So you're going to hear those interviews over the next probably couple of weeks.

I don't know exactly when I get them released, but those are going to be the focus of the next few interviews. And we'll talk about our time while we were there at IU. We got to have lunch with the Dean of the School of Business.

We, of course, did a tour of Indiana University, all the places that we went while we were there. We got an update from the National Junior Achievement Office telling us where things are going with junior achievement. If you paid attention back in October of 2022, I actually had a big story podcast at that time where we actually brought on some members of junior achievement offices that had received money as part of the Mackenzie Scott grant or money that she donated to junior achievement.

So we got an update on some of those things. And of course, just hanging out, catching up and reminiscing. But that'll be those stories.

The next big thing I want to talk about is for the people that I attended high school with, Satellite High School. We will be getting ready for a reunion for the class of 85. And the reunion is going to be on June 20th and 21st in 2025.

And it is going to be at the Melbourne Beach Hilton. And I want to start making sure that everybody plans in advance because they are doing the same thing that they did the last reunion. We actually had to postpone our reunion because of COVID.

And then we ended up doing a thing where the planning committee decided that we should combine years. And so this year, or next year, we are going to be doing the exact same thing. So the reunion is actually going to be a combination of classes from 1983 to 1987.

So you're going to want to make sure that you plan early because even though the Melbourne Beach Hilton is big, they are going to sell out of room. So you're going to want to make sure that you get your room booked. So again, this is going to be Friday and Saturday, June 20th and 21st.

I'm going to have a link to the Facebook group. And that's where you will want to go to get all of your information. To be honest, that's the only place you'll get it unless you talk to somebody specifically or listen to the podcast that I'll be doing over the next few months.

Because I will be giving updates there. But the Facebook group is where they put all the information. And they're going to talk about the events that we're doing Friday night.

We're going to be hanging out at the Ocean Grill. There's going to be live music with steel drums. The DJ they had last time sucked.

So they're going to have live music here, a 50-50 raffle. There is a cost to Friday night. And you want to pay that in advance because there will be a higher cost at the door.

Saturday, there will be activities at the pool, the beach, and the bar. And then Saturday night will be the grand ballroom event. There will be dinner stations, a DJ, along with a photo booth, another cash bar, 50-50 raffle, and much, much more.

And right now, the cost is $100 for Saturday night, $20 for Friday night. This is all in advance. It'll be much higher if you wait.

So those are the costs there. You'll want to look in the Facebook group. The payment options are all going to go to Tina Krakowski.

And I will put the links in for her. You can pay by Venmo. You can pay by PayPal.

And then you can contact the Melbourne Beach Hilton for booking. And I will tell you this. I did happen to do a glance.

I will probably be staying with my mom. None of you are welcome. But I did check the hotel in case we decided to stay there.

I am a Hilton honors member. And the pricing that Tina Veltri got is way less than I would even get as a Hilton honors member. We're talking my price would have been like $300 or $275 for the cheapest room, $200, $275 or $300.

She got rooms as low as $199. The highest is $214, which is a one king oceanfront view with a full size bed. $214.

So absolutely phenomenal rate that she got for that. So you want to go and book yourself there. Again, there is a link directly to the Hilton Beach site and you can book the room there or you can call and tell them that you were part of the Satellite High School reunion for 1984 and all of that.

So let's see. Now, I should also mention that the class of 1984 is also doing a reunion and they've been promoting it in our Facebook group that is coming up this October 18th and 19th. Again, they are also making it available to classes before and after them.

So I don't know if they're going, you know, 83, 84, 85 or 82, 83 to 45. I don't know but find out. I'll see if I can get a link for that.

That's a different Facebook group, but they are also doing their reunion where they are allowing multiple classes. And it looks like, I think, theirs is going to be cheaper. I see here Friday night barbecue for $20, which is also the night of the homecoming game.

So you want to go there. Those tickets, I think, are only $6. And then Saturday night, they're going to be doing a little buffet dinner for $40.

So check out the sites for those. So those are the two things I wanted to chat about the biggest, the upcoming shows that I'll be doing about the junior achievement reunion I just did. And then the fact that I will be giving updates on the Satellite High School reunion.

And of course, Class of 85 will be held June 20th and 21st, 2025. So that's it. I just wanted to get a quick episode out.

And there's going to be more coming. You can always head over to UncleMarv.com and check out the podcast links. Or you can go to the podcast page and subscribe on your favorite pod catcher.

And you can listen on your phone at any time. So that's it, folks. Good to be back.

Nice to chat with everybody over the last couple of months. And we'll look forward to seeing everybody soon. Till then, Holla!.