Motorola Droid - $110

Was looking for my next cell phone - finally decided on the Motorola Droid over the Google Nexus One and Apple Iphone 3GS.  I was checking on Amazon and saw they had it for only $110, while verizon.com had it for $199.  I know what toy I'm buying myself soon.  :)

Lovely Charts

Just found this site, lovelycharts.com.  It's a web-based program that lets people make charts and diagrams.  Thought I'd share it, cool tool to have if you don't have MS Visio.

Things Left Unsaid

Things Left Unsaid - Personally, I think as people become more socially intelligent, lots of things are left unsaid but still communicated clearly. I had an instance of this today while going out to lunch. Coworker1 and myself have decided to go to restaurant x, and were talking to coworker2.

Me: Coworker2, Coworker1 and I are going to restaurant x, would you like to join us?
Coworker2, while smiling: I don't like restaurant x.
Me: [pause] I understand.
Coworker2: [pause] Have a good lunch.
Me: Thank you.

Just thought it was funny while analyzing it, what we really meant were:

Me: Coworker2, Coworker1 and I are going to restaurant x, would you like to join us?
Coworker2, while smiling: I don't like restaurant x.
Me: We will not be changing our plans to be socially accommodating to you.
Coworker2: In that case, I will not be joining you guys for lunch
Me: Okay.

Funny stuff, things left unsaid.

Candy Shop by The Dan Band in The Hangover Movie

I stumbled across this, it's "Candy Shop" by Dan Finnerty and The Dan Band. They played in the wedding scene in the movie "The Hangover". It's a vocal version of the Fifty Cent song. I remembered I really enjoyed that scene because of that song, thought I'd share it.

Eddie Hotra & Reputation Management

My friend Eddie Hotra and I had a small chat about Online Reputation Management. In my experiences, ORM is all about "taking as many top spots in search engines for your name as possible". This isn't a huge concentration of my career, but still something to keep in mind.

The following are big candidates for ranking on your company's name:

Sites you own:

• Company Website
• Subdomains of Company Website - Company Blog, etc
  
• Auxiliary Sites - mysitefacts.com, mysitegear.com, etc

Sites you don't own, but can put your page on:

• Social Networking Sites - Myspace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Meetup, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc
  
• PR Release sites - Ezinearticles, etc
  

Others

• Being a "guest author" on someone else's site (and have your name / business name prominent)
  
• Actively comment on lots of blogs / forums / newspaper sites, with intelligent things to say, leaving the name you'd like to do ORM on. This one's more of a "shot-gun approach", you leave 100 comments and hope 3 of them get ranked in search engines for that name.

Cheers to Eddie Hotra for sparking that chat.

Neat Phone Number Math Trick

Just saw this, worked out for me. I'm sure there's a bunch of math stuff behind it, but let's just be kids again and enjoy the trick.

1. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the Area code…)
2. Multiply by 80
3. Add 1
4. Multiply by 250
5. Add to this the last 4 digits of your phone number
6. Add to this the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
7. Subtract 250
8. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer ??
O.M.G. like magic!!!

Source: http://mymomisafob.com/2008/12/02/always-giving-us-more-math/

Greensboro Grub

I got invited to a dinner party, called "Greensboro Grub". It was a month dinner hosted by my neighbors that live in the building next to my downtown apartment. They have a great apartment with many rooms, and there were approximately 50 people there. The hosts Charlie and Ruth are great people - very friendly, confident, and were great hosts.

The atmosphere was very friendly, there was no ounce of negativity, and everyone was there to enjoy themselves - that, is the beauty of Greensboro Grub.

I arrived at 6:30 and there was a small mixer of approximately 15 people, and people kept on coming during the next hour or so. The people were diverse - all ages and professions, both local and recently moved. I mingled a bit and made some small talk before everyone were seated. The table setting was beautiful, and they had about 5 different types of dishes. After dinner, we picked out our deserts buffet style from a different room, and they were delicious.

The best part is the "sharing" after dinner. People brought their chairs to a different room and formed a "stage" for different performers. A band played a few mellow chilled out songs. I've never been big into southern music, but listening live without loud speakers was a very enjoyable experience.

There also were a few different people reading poetry, and then the hosts Charlie and Ruth did a great Abbott and Costello routine, "Who's on First".

They also did a small skit comedy, about an autistic guy meeting a girl. The guy started a conversation with the girl almost like a pick-up approach, the girl wasn't receptive, but the guy "plowed on" in a "funny" way because he's autistic. The girl became more receptive and revealed that she's got a brain tumor and won't live very long. The guy sympathized, and was extremely optimistic due to his unquestionable faith in religion and was happy to be going to heaven. He innocently told the girl it would be like her taking a nap, waking up with Jesus, and Jesus would sing her favorite song to her, and her brain won't hurt anymore. A lot of people were laughing at the great performance of the childish innocence of the autistic guy, but I wasn't for some reason. As one of the youngest guys in that crowd, I think I have a bigger problem than most about the concept of dying. I found the performance extremely moving and the couple were great thespians.

The night was finished by the band that played before. I'm really glad I went to this Greensboro Grub event, and I feel truly fortunate that I had the privileged to have had the great experience.

Gas Shortage In The Carolinas

Even though gas is plentiful in Greensboro, I hear there's a real shortage in other areas of North Carolina and lots of gas stations ran out of gas.

How does a company "run out" of a popular product in today's economy?

If the supply overwhelms the demand, shouldn't the price of the product increase until it reaches a price equilibrium? If a gas station only has 25% of "normal amounts" of gas available , shouldn't the station owner increase the price to $10/gallon? As an inelastic good, people will still buy the $10 gas, they'll just buy 25% as much, probably just enough to do their necessities.

In a free economy, goods shouldn't ever be "sold out" for long, the amount left should instead get lower and lower into an asymptote, as the price increases until people can no longer afford it...

My New Shower Panel

So my shower panel arrived and I installed it. Having one of those has been something I've been thinking about for a couple of months now, so I finally decided to get one. After some random hiccups on the installation, I finally got it working.

The Good - Does exactly as described

• Multiple shower adjustable jets coming out of the panel
• 2 shower heads - one "standard" and one handheld
• Great "gimmick", most people (especially women) would be intrigued.

The Bad - Mostly a novelty item

• It's not nearly as exciting after you use it for a while
• Water only comes from one source - you have to decide whether it comes from the standard shower head, the handheld shower head, or the body jets
• I didn't compare it to my previous shower head, but I think this one reduces the water pressure a bit
• It's taking up the space I used to use for my shower catty, have to be more "creative" with all kinds of shower products I have now - normal shampoo, conditioner, body wash, fancy shampoo (Paul Michell), fancy body wash (Bath & Body Works)

Online Search Program Manager - Natural Search at REI

Since I've been writing a lot on my other blog and been ignoring this one, thought I'd update this one with something quick, another job opening. If anyone's interested in moving to WA (and be closer for interviews for Microsoft), this might be the way to go.

Company: REI
Job Title: Online Search Program Manager - Natural Search
Location: Kent, Washington
Salary: $80-$90K, potentially more


Company Description: At REI, we inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship. What began as a group of 23 mountain climbing buddies is now the nation's largest consumer cooperative with more than t hree million active members. But no matter how large we grow, our roots remain firmly planted in the outdoors. Our passion for outdoor adventure is clear, whether you walk into one of our 80-plus stores, phone us, or visit the REI website.
Job Description: At Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) we aim to create a retail environment that inspires, educates, and outfits our customers for a lifetime of outdoor adventure. We’ve been recognized for the eleventh consecutive year as one of Fortune Magazines “100 Best Companies to Work For”, and we credit our continued success and trusted reputation to our dedicated employees who work each day to share their interests, friendly expertise and passion for the outdoors with people of all levels of experience and ability.

The Online Search Program Manager – Natural Search contributes to REI’s success by helping to define and implement search engine optimization (SEO) strategies that drive traffic to REI’s digital properties, facilitate conversion and support the core co-op’s core values. This talented individual will apply their expertise to meet optimal architecture, link, and design criteria of the latest search engine algorithms, improving visibility, rank, and relevance in search engines. The Online Search Program Manager will effect change by representing the Online Information Architecture team in cross-departmental efforts and by partnering with peers in marketing, merchandising, editorial, usability, design and production.
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Responsibilities
- Oversees the strategy and execution for all aspects of REI’s natural search optimization programs.
- Provides technical advice of website strategy and development for natural search optimization, including HTML, error pages, re-directs, etc.
- Partners with Public Affairs to pursue potential linking opportunities that drive qualified, brand appropriate traffic.
- Uses social media marketing, press release distribution, etc. as needed to enhance REI’s search engine ranking and visibility.
- Partners with editorial and subject matter experts to develop search engine optimized content, structure and metadata. Responsible for formalizing natural search strategies and tactics.
- Collaborates cross-divisionally in keyword research and testing to develop holistic term and keyword strategies for continuous natural search traffic and conversion improvements.
- Manages tracking, reporting and analysis of natural search metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Reports findings to cross-divisional audiences of all levels and makes actionable optimization recommendations.
- Provides top-to-bottom natural search optimization strategies and tactical requirements for REI’s digital assets, including: site structure, page construction, site features, site content, keywords, site maps, inbound link generation, ranking referral reports, site audits and more.
- Monitors trends in search engine algorithms. Maintain up-to-date knowledge of navigation changes and assess how new oppor tunities in the SEO industry could be leveraged to improve web pages’ search results positioning.
- Creates ongoing natural search optimization assessments and recommendations for rei.com and digital content assets including text, video, images and user generated content.
- Monitors competitor sites and the general search engine landscape and marketplace to ensure competitive advantage in natural search.
- Researches and develops natural search optimization best practices to identify new opportunities and maximize program profits with improved organic rankings.
- Works with third party SEO vendor(s) on researching/implementing SEO projects as needed.