Cedar Mill Communications

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I just got a harsh reminder of just how many nasty people there are out there.  Today while at the gym working out, a crook decided to bash in the window of our minivan (a minivan for crying out loud) and grab my fanny pack containg wallet, checkbook, keys and phone. Fortunately, I had dropped off the laptop at home. Still , what a huge, huge hassle this will be.

What’s odd is that whoever it was rang up charges at Toys R Us and Schucks Auto Parts, probably while we were talking to the cops.  I’m not sure of what to make of these locations for the buying spree with the newly stolen credit card. Could be a reflection of the tough economy. The cards are all worthless plastic at this point, but I now have to go through the many rounds of paperwork of trying to get my money back.  And the snazzy Nokia E61i smartphone is of course gone for good.

Mary always tells me not to leave valuable in the car — and she’s right.  I also had one of the Web sites I managed hacked into recently by a guy in Turkey.  Likely that was because I used too easy of a password.  Given that the crooks are out there, uncaring, selfish and heartless, I will be taking sterner measures to keep them out — wherever they may lurk.

The extent to which we depend on the Web was brought home to me over the weekend — as well as the risk of counting too much on the Web for reliable information. Ginny, our youngest daughter, needed to find her way through a convoluted section of Portland near Lewis & Clark college for a babysitting assignment. Inexplicably, Mapquest sent her down a narrow road directly into someone’s yard and up a very steep hill. It seems that this happens quite frequently and despite repeated attempts to get this mapping error fixed — the road does NOT go through — it’s still happening. This wouldn’t be that bad expect that hill is really steep and doesn’t have anywhere to turn around. In the course of backing down, Ginny managed to roll over a small retaining wall and get the car stuck on a boulder she dislodged.  While everyone was very helpful, it took Mary and me going over there — instead of a barbeque — and crawling around in the dirt shoving boulders around. Despite the frustration, it was a useful reminder not to believe everything you see, hear or read on the Web. Unfortunately, even established services still have a ways to go. It does seem that mapping services should have some built-in way to allow people to update and comment on bad directions. Now that would be a good direction.

Mary and I bravedPresumere che il online casino online gratis usa un generatore di numero casuale appropriatamente programmato, i giochi di tavola come il manganello hanno un margine di casa stabilito. the weather to head over to the coast this weekend and do some clean up as part of SOLV clean up program. While it was a little cold and rainy, it was overall a good experience.

Being reasonably hard workers, we decided to head down the beach a mile or so from the parking in area, thinking that the areas closer in would be debris-free from the many people already in the parking lot. As we wandered down the beach we came across plenty of stuff — plastic bottles, broken bits of plastic, rope, some underwear, Starbucks cups. The most interesting was a big plastic crate.

When our two bags were completely full we dragged them back to the main area thinking we would find big mounds of trash. Instead we found a pile of mostly empty trash bags. One heavily pierced young women set down a bag with maybe 2-3 items in it at most. Needless to say, there was still plenty of stuff to picked up further down the way. In all fairness, some people had drug up a couple of tires and a broken crab cage, but overall it was really lame. We had the only full bags there.

If this was any indication, I’m not sure how 55 tons of stuff got picked up. I can say that the Oceanside beach at least is NOT clean. SOLV needs to go the other way with its PR and talk about the problem of people volunteering and then basically not doing squat. Hey people, if you’re going to do beach clean up then you need to actually do some beach clean up. Oregon deserves better.

My how time flies. It certainly has been a while since I written anything for this blog. Now that I’m seriously helping companies with their blogging strategies, it may be time to get back into the swing wam poker comboite de jeu pokerjeu poker onlinedes règles jeu pokerpoker online 3djouer au poker sur mactexas holdem francetelecharger partie pokerles regles de poker,regles poker hold hem,regles pokeroù jouer au poker en lignejeu poker casinopoker sur internetregle de pokerregle pokerregles poker ouvertjeu poker freewarejeu de carte pokerpoker online francestrip poker online gratuitesjeu poker tour en lignetelecharger jeu poker texaspoker en ligne gratuites macjouer video pokersalle poker en lignejouer poker tourjeu poker lignejeux world poker,world class poker,world pokertelechargement gratuites jeu de pokerpoker en ligne,jeux poker en ligne,telecharger poker en ligneinternet texas holdemregles poker casinojouer poker sans argentjeu gratuites poker holdjeux 7 card stud gratuitestelechargement jeu de pokerhigh stakes pokerpoker gratuites débutantjeu de poker francaistapis de jeu pokerpoker tour reglespoker pc gratuitesyahoo jeuxjeux de poker virtuelpoker texas holdem gratuitesune régle du jeu pokerla règle du poker texas holdemun jeu de poker à téléchargerfull tilt pokerpoker enligne gratuitesdes règles du jeu du poker of things. Besides it’s a great outlet.

Needless to say, as publications fail or consolidate almost daily, it’s safe to say that blogging is here to stay. Should we stick with blogging?  Yes, might not be a bad idea.

Here at Cedar Mill Communications we are big users of smartphones. We love being able to get email and do Google searches while on the road.  Of course we also have laptops and desktop computers to go with our high-speed fiber-optic connections.

It’s safe to say that we’re wired in pretty much any where we go and at any time.  For real work, we use the laptops.  But the BlackBerry and Palm Treo are great for checking email on the go.  So from a mobile computing standpoint, I feel like we’re set.

That’s why the new Palm Foleo is such a head scratcher. If we’re at all typical, and I think we are, I don’t see why I would ever need or want a smart phone companion device like this. It’s not a laptop and it’s not a smart phone; it’s a tweener. And we all know what happens to tweener products — they don’t last very long.

Palm, if the lights are still on, get your act together and build a truly great smart phone.  I just switched to a BlackBerry 8830 from a Palm Treo, and make no mistake, the BlackBerry is better in the areas I care about the most, such as sound quality, stability and responsiveness.  But I do kind of miss some things about the Treo, and it’s a shame to see a company that once made some pretty darn good products get so sideways.

I’ve heard some crazy arguments defending gun control over the years, but this one takes the cake. The typical angle is guns don’t kill people, people do, or something similar. Fact is that guns make it heck of a lot easier than alternatives.

Now a Utah Republican state Rep. Curt Oda has new spin: swords might actually be more dangerous than guns. As quoted by the Associated Press, Oda says:

“A person that’s got skill with a sword in a very big crowd could put a lot more people down with a sword than a gun,” he said. “They’re silent. You’ll have people screaming, but nobody knows what’s going on.”

I honestly don’t know where to begin. Obviously Oda didn’t discuss this with his PR team before suggesting that swords are somehow more dangerous than guns. The truly scary part is that somewhere a guy with enough weapons to outfit a SWAT unit is thinking, you go Curt. Tell ‘em like it is.

Personally, I don’t own a gun and don’t see a need to ever get one. I would feel a lot better knowing that guns are very hard to acquire and under tight control. If someone, say a farmer or a hunter, has legitmate need, they should have access to firearms. But right now, it’s completely out of control. Oh wait, I forgot, if people can’t use guns, they will pick up the swords and slice us all to ribbons. Thanks for clearing that up Curt.

As anyone who knows me will attest, I’m a big believer in the value of training. I workout with weights, go running, cycling or play soccer almost every day. It makes a huge difference in my outlook on life. And as I increase my training levels, my fitness and ability to perform increases as well.

In my professional life, I spend time every day writing up blog posts, press releases and other documents. This activity keeps my writing skills fit. When I’ve had jobs where my writing volume decreased, I noticed a definite drop off in my speed and proficiency. Since I’m getting paid for writing, I have to do a good job and I get plenty of feedback on what worked and what didn’t.

In business today, good writing ability is more important than ever. With writing there’s natural ability involved. But I believe it’s also something that gets better with practice. If you don’t write for a living, firing off email all day isn’t going to keep you fit. Then when it comes time to write something, you’re going to be rusty. To shed the rust or boost your proficiency, consider starting a blog. It’s very easy at one of the online services like Blogger or WordPress.com.

If that’s not your bag, I recently came across a service called, appropriately enough, Communication Fitness. They offer computer-based training for $12 per month as well as group sessions. The approach is like having a fitness trainer who will assess your current level and then steadily move your skills forward. It’s proven and it works. Get fit!

 
 

  

One of the things I think a lot about is product or company messaging. I try to look at all the facets of a product or service, analyze the intended audience and then figure out the most effective messages. If I do this job well, the message will strike a chord and the product or company will be on its way. If we’re off, then it’s back to the drawing board until we get it right.  Sometimes it involves product design changes, or adding features based on feedback.

I was recently reminded of how important it is to understand what the customer cares about when I went scooter shopping with my oldest daughter Jessica. She’s been home this week for spring break.  After spending the last couple months without a wheeled form of transport, she decided that a scooter would be the ideal way to circumnavigate the University of Oregon campus and surrounding areas. 

As life-long fan of anything with two wheels, I was all for it. Scooters are inexpensive, reliable, fun and environmentally friendly.  What’s not to love.  First stop was a Vespa store in Portland where Jessica spied a pink Buddy Scooter made by Genuine Scooter. While this little made-in-Taiwan 125 cc model was good enough, I figured I could do better.

The next stop was the local Yamaha/Honda dealer to look at what the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers had to offer in the way of scooters. There we found a blue Yamaha Vino for about the same money as the Buddy. Then we saw that the Schwinn bicycle company had gotten in the scooter business, and we could buy a handsome grey Schwinn for less money. Moreover, the Schwinn had a 150cc motor which would make the scooter more practical for occasional freeway trips.  To me, this was a no-brainer.

Turns out it was also a no-brainer for Jessica. If there was a pink scooter available, then it was going to be a pink scooter going back to Eugene. Period. End of discussion.  And indeed, the pink Buddy is now cheerfully lodged in our garage. While my priorities centered on performance and price, Jessica’s centered on style.

 The moral of this tale to all you marketers and communicators out there: make sure you know what your intended buyers want and give it to them. Genuine Scooter company figured it out and secured our business over what could have been, in a number of ways, a superior offering.  Do you really know your customers, or just think you do? It makes all the difference.

That word has been on a sticky near my desk for a couple of months. I love that it’s a classic work of Germisch (or Denglish). Team is obvious, but geist means spirit. Put together, you’ve got team spirit. The German writer could have said Mannschaftsgeist or Gemeinschaftsgeist. Maybe what he was after was something more inclusive. Maybe he, like loads of Germans, is just enamoured with English.

Whatever the reason, he wanted more of it. In a survey his company commissioned, he wrote that the whole place needed “mehr Teamgeist,” more team spirit.

I hope he got it. It certainly brightened up my geist.

An interesting  study just out indicates that just 15 minutes per day is enough to keep kids slim. While intense exercise is better, even moderate exercise is enough to do the trick.

With the level of exercise needed to keep the fat at bay this minimal, it’s somewhat shocking to think that there are indeed fat kids and that it’s a growing problem. That means that kids aren’t even getting 15 minutes of exercise.  If they were, obesity in children wouldn’t be a problem.

I highly doubt that “finding time” is the problem. There’s a big chance that kids are finding plenty of time for sitting around watching TV.

By extension, I’d venture that same is true of pets.  Our dogs get daily exercise and they can pretty much eat all they want and keep their youthful figures. Here’s an easy formula for staying trim: a) get a dog b) walk the dog often.  Beats counting calories.