Category Archives: Uncategorized

Isn’t everyday Valentines Day?

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If you are in a meaningful relationship with someone is not everyday Valentines day? Does not the sight, sound or smell of the one you love close to you not elicit a reaction of warmth, fondness and caring. Why is it that hallmark beats us all down once a year with this mid winter obsession that saying I love you everyday to that special person means nothing unless it is also said with magnitude on February 14th.  

Why are we all acting like lemmings?  Why do we buy the cards, the roses, the chocolates? all at inflated prices on that one day? Are we helping the economy?
I read that people spend on average about 102.50 per person on gifts for Valentines day. Would investing that money not be a better idea?,  ok maybe not today but some day soon?
My daughter Sabrina made me a hand written valentine and I have it on my refrigerator. I adore it because it is simple, and written from the heart along with pictures she drew of me ( I am always round in her pictures) but the message is what counts. She has made me lots of art over the years but this one is special for valentines day… Ok I get it now,  I guess even I can learn from writing a blog.
Happy Valentines Day Everyone
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PS …  Sharon I Love and adore You !

Finding your voice on the internet.

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One of the things I think a blogger needs to do when starting out is figure out what he or she is going to write about. Is it going to be personal or professional? Funny , sad , full of factoids or just ramblings and gems from the cranium.

I have been blogging for a little while, I actually had another blog I started a few years ago but that became like a personal attack on any bad customer service experience and while funny and cathartic I think blogging negatively all the time is just bad karma. So be mindful if you blog negatively, it’s ok to be honest about your experiences but then let it go.
Blogs do not have to be long, in fact  short  "snackable content"  is preferred so your message is short, and sweet and too the point.  The only other  important thing I can recommend is hitting spell check before you hit publish post.
Write about what you like about, what you know about and don’t be afraid if the blog you write isn’t perfect. It’s about what you like and want to talk about. it can be about nothing in particular.  If Seinfeld wrote a blog would it not be about nothing? Nothing can be interesting. 
 

Do you know Zoe Foods?

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A good friend from college and colleague Karen Vigurs Stack of 602 communications asked me to sit in on a brainstorming session yesterday on how we can help her friend Tori Stuart save her company Zoe Foods. Zoe Foods makes all natural, healthy heart smart products such as granola cereals and  protein and fiber bars. They are local in MA based in Needham, and have fallen on hard times in this economy.
We thought maybe we should have people who are fans and customers of Zoe foods to write blogs about the products. While I am not a customer yet, I am now a fan.

Before yesterday I knew nothing about Zoe Foods other then what I was forwarded in an email about our strategy session.  I am also have never been a fan of granola, or energy bars. They all taste well Yucky.  I eat energy bars purely out of necessity before I ride 50+ mile bike rides and on the rides themselves to keep me supplied with energy. There is nothing worse then bonking while climbing a 60 degree grade hill.
The Granola’s are all natural, heart smart, healthy and don’t taste bad either.  I have opened all three boxes ( a big no no) but I had to try them all in order tow write this blog.  My favorite is the cinnamon raisin but the Honey Almond and Cranberries and Currants versions are both tasty and now that I have opened all three boxes I will be eating them in the days to come.
The Bars are good tasting also, better then I have had recently.  There are three choices and I liked the Chocolate delight best, but Chocolate peanut butter bliss and Peanut butter paradise were also both good. I fear I may have over fibered myself but this too shall pass.
All their products have 8g of protein, 7g of fibre and Omega 3s (100%). This translates into a healthy heart, and isn’t this National Heart Month after all?  Didn’t I hear that on Oprah?
One interesting fact I learned yesterday is that if you do not fart 14 times a day you are not getting enough fiber. I am not sure how this is calculated exactly but when the numbers were presented nobody in the room refuted them.
 If you are curious about finding out more about the tasty, healthy and heart smart offerings at Zoe Foods please check out their website
I am a fan of Zoe Foods now and I plan to be a customer once the boxes I opened are finished, which won’t be that long my kids haven’t tried it yet but that might be another blog.

Riding the Bolt Bus.

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I rode the Bolt Bus to NYC and back recently and I must admit it wasn’t bad. I rode the bus lots in college and I figured I would check it out. What you get is internet access on the bus, an electric outlet in the seat in front of you and a decent value on a round trip ticket for about 30.00. The buses are new, nice and the drivers seem skilled although the driver on the way back had a near miss at 70. Not good but I was way in bac
k and could be mistaken.
I tried in vain to video chat with my friend Phil. He mentioned I was drifting on and off so trying video from the Bolt Bus internet connection proved fruitless. Their connection to satellite must be intermittent as is the wifi. Sending email is fine however.
While a good ride, I guess the one qualm I have is the lack of trays like in a plane or train to support the weight of the laptop. You will need to use your knees for your lap hence the word laptop or across ones lap.  I know it’s a pain but you can do it. A pro book 17 is perfect for this situation.
Make sure you book in advance cause Day’s do sell out on Bolt Bus.  I enjoyed my ride on the bolt and would recommend it. It reminded me of my college days and travel that was more fun and less responsible. Only in this case I saved lots of money over the Accela which is much more responsible.

Software do’s and do nots.

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First off I don’t claim to be a software guru, I am not. I am a small business owner. What I write today I do because I have had some good experiences with software and some Horrific.

First the Good News. I am now migrated off of Windows completely. This was accomplished when quick books for Mac was created and I moved all the stuff I have for records over. Sadly I have not figured if I can migrate old Windows based QB databases over but if I can I eventually will.

I have also implemented Daylite which is like a robust ACT for Mac. I hope the people at market circle will forgive me but I love this product and so far so good. It would be nice if they created a conduit to the new quick books but I understand their internal push with Billings which is their own small biz accounting software. I kicked the tires of Billings but couldn’t really figure it out in the trial time they allotted (1 week). Quick books looks familiar and works just fine.

Daylite does everything, links email, calendar contacts all in one program. I was able to figure it out in 1 week and bought it after 2. Maybe they should think about extending the trial on Billings also.

All and all from a Accounting and Contact Management perspective I am off Windows on mac and on the run that’s the good news.

Now the Bad news..

If you are thinking about getting office 2007 and implementing small business accounting 2008 or 2008. Take your notebook and throw it out a three story drop. Better yet set it afire and roast marsh mellows with your windows machine.

2008 was the year of the database disasters not once but three times my database went so horribly wrong that it took down office 2007 once on a windows machine, and again on a Boot camp partitioned hard drive on my pro book.

Try as they might this program never worked right. Let me also say that I tried loading it on a third machine, a laptop for a woman that worked for me in sales for about a month. She was never able to get it to run on Gasp (vista) either. Where do you want to go today? no where if you buy office 2007. It was awful.

Once I have made sure I have all the data I can farm off the XP think Pad that currently has office 2007 on I will delete windows 2007 banishing forever and hopefully moving on in my life.

Friends don’t let friends drive Yugo’s remember that.

Friends don’t let friends use office 2007 or Windows (gasp) Vista.

Just my two cents noting more.

Friends don’t let friends buy Microsoft office 2007.

Happy New Year

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Lots of changes, It’s a new Year. We have a new President and renewed hope I suppose that the country will turn itself around. President Obama was sworn in not once but twice and we all hope he has the answers and the wisdom to lead us out of this funk.
It would be nice if the US took the lead in something again. We used to lead the world in everything now we lead the world in deficits, bad wars, and we outsource everything we were once a leader in.
Change will not be fast or simple, but we will need it the world needs it. We need new energy, synthetic gasoline, solar power, renewed exploration of space and solving disease. We also need to stop all the wars and get our troops home.  But we also need to create a country where people can earn a living and prosper again and that will be no easy task.
I have been to quite a few networking events and I take away the same from each. Everyone is doing what they can to remain positive, but are all holding their breath at the same time.
Colleagues in the video world have mixed things to say. One may have nailed it on the head when he said get a bunch of pencils and stake out your corner.  Kids graduating college with a laptop, a mini DV cam and post production software are all calling themselves production companies these days .  People who like myself have been around are having to find new and creative ways to find our customers.
I attended a NETSEA event last night and a crowd of about 80 people showed up at the Westin in Waltham. There were a few nice people there including a fellow kindred iphone spirit who I connected with on Twitter and linked in.  
For the most part it was sales executives I think, and a few CEO’s and such. Everyone who was with the group NETSEA itself as a host was listed as a VP’s which is interesting. One staffer mentioned there are 400 VP’s working for NETSEA.
I met a few nice people from Zoom info and I told them I am waiting on their i-phone button with Xinga.  The Kindred I phone spirit was Mike Damphousse CEO from Green leads. Mike showed me a great networking tool that was already on my iphone and I wasn’t using it completely.  Thanks Mike.
I was told by a few members that the NETSEA group has its cliques, and it can be a tuff crowd to break into. This might better explain the and one guy who asked a question and then turned around and ignored my answer.  Despite this faux pa, all and all the event was a networking success and I look forward to visiting NETSEA again.
For more information about NETSEA see www.netsea.org

Heading into the Holidays

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Thanksgiving is now a sweet and high caloric memory and we are all looking forward to the Holidays and the new Year. It seems everyone I talk with is guardedly optimistic. There is a real sense of we are all in this together. One friend said “ Things are more competitive and people are willing to go further distances to get your business. ”  They are going through all their accounts, making sure everyone is on board.  Taking stock in your business relationships is key right now and knowing where the cheese is or more importantly where it will be is more important now more then ever.  

As the new administration pushes forward into next year and various plans and bailouts are implemented I am hopeful our Country will rebound and that business will be get back on track, perhaps by 2010. I am realistic however and nothing will happen overnight.
Video Conferencing may be pushed again as it was after 911, I can see a real drop off in corporate travel occurring as companies scale back from 2008 heading into 2009, we will all have to wait and see.
We have been busy freelancing for other companies and recently did a shoot in Cambridge for Swagelok. We shot talking head testimonials with executives from Cambridge NanoTech about their relationship with Swagelok. 
Everything went very well on the shoot and everyone was pleased with the end result.

One week into History

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Last week we all stood in lines and waited patiently to do our civic duty in casting our vote for President. History was made as Barack Obama was elected the first African American President. He was quick to accept victory with the caveat that he is not in charge until January. Smart man, while I am not sure how the meeting with the bushes went except for blurbs about all smiles , but I am hopeful that now he is elected he will employ the same savvy that got him elected to the financial crisis. It’s interesting that the President of Iran was the first to send him a letter of congratulations. Hopefully Mr. Obama can restore our citizenship status with the world. I realize he cannot undo everything that has been done by the previous administration but he can try. He is already putting his team together for the White house, and I suspect he will continue to ramp up probably more aggressively then any president elect in history. His time is now, and will be official in January.

Big Shoot with Little Noodles

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I was hired yesterday by Director Phil Mondello and Producer Karen Vigurs Stack to assist with the digital importing of footage on the set of Etta Kit and Grace. The show stars Laura Osnes, as Grace and is an animation kids show that was shot in nearby Wellesley MA at the ELM Bank ( Mass Horticultural Society) Hunnewell building.
The shoot was also a reunion of sorts for 3 class of 1986 Northeastern University Alumni. Phil Mondello, Karen Vigurs Stack and I all graduated from Northeastern in 1986. Stopping by to lend his support was Professor Michael Woodnick from Northeastern University. It was great to see him and get caught up, He was one of my favorite professors that I had the pleasure to learn from while at Northeastern. We also had another NU alumni in Aileen Vicari from class of 2007 was also working on the set. So Go NU.

My role on the shoot was as Digital Image Technician. I imported the shot footage from Digital cards and transferred the data safely to hard drives and backup drives. I also had footage available to check and recheck for playback and continuity.

Overall it was a great shoot, it was great to see everyone and I look forward to seeing the finished product for some of the show will require intricate green screen post production and animation.

Thinking about Millenials

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A word that was not in my vocabulary two weeks ago has me thinking about it way too much. Millenials are the next generation consumer group, and will become the biggest in 5 years I have learned. How do I attract them as a small business owner, Will they like me? I hope so I have a company that is honest and works hard for it’s clients is that enough?

I am sitting Tech Directing in Lincoln MA today at the Dewey Gallery at the DeCordova Museum. The show is going well, and I was amazed at the weather today was just amazing. Thank you global warming I guess.

Dave Nickerson of Baystate Audio is doing sound and everyone has sounded great so thanks Dave.

Get Drop box is giving one of my client fits, not sure why he cannot see the files but I will contact them to find out what I am doing wrong. I think the shares are email dependent but I am not certain as yet. I love the abaility to share files, just want to share all of them.