Miles Apart

It’s ok to stay cool

Chris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:26:24 +0000

When I was living in the dorms at Yonsei in Korea, we had a split system air conditioning unit in our room. It was really great because it was like having window-unit without having to take up a window or worry about getting drafts or any of that other stuff. It seemed to cool the room really quickly, too. I saw these Air Conditioners all over Korea and China. They are really great for the older buildings because most of them lack duct systems but they are becoming more modern and the inhabitants love creature comforts of the west.

Since then I have become really fond of the split-system air conditioners for the convenience and efficiency and the ability to install them in almost any building. In the hot summers in Seoul, I really loved being cooled off after a long day of hiking and studying.

Split-system air conditioners offers a ton of information about their online system purchasing and installation system. You’re able to upload pictures of the room where you want the unit installed and they will respond within 48 hours with a mock-up of what the installation may look like using your supplied pictures. You pay and they take care of the rest. It seems like a really great service. Especially for those who are short on time and frustrated with the heat!

It’s hot. Gross.

Chris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:07:32 +0000

I’m pretty sick of the hot weather already. It was nice at first…before it was 100+ every day, making me run my air conditioning just to be able to sleep comfortably. I’m slowly getting used to paying for all of my utilities….something I’m just not used to yet. But, needless to say, I’m already trying to conserve and keep my wallet fatter. At least less empty! Ha.

I’m eagerly trying to get things together so I can conserve energy and keep the cool air in and the hot air out! Tips? Anyone? Please?

Catching eyes and keeping them interested

Chris — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:28:58 +0000

I’ve seen firsthand the immense amount of work and input that it takes to make a trade show presentation into something memorable for the audience. It’s a tough business to be one of the hundreds of displays promoting your product when you’re lacking eye-catching and unique signage and booths. Are customers going to gravitate to the supplier who has a card table with a bland sign and a sheet over it? Probably not. They’re going to head to the exhibit that pulls them in with interesting designs, colors, and impact.

It’s really important to find a great trade show display company when things like that happen. You’ve got to make your name known and remembered, not just for your product, but also for your presentation. You can’t sell or market anything without making it appealing and it can make or break your whole business. Think of the possibilities of investing just a little bit more to stand out among the sea of average displays….the possibilities to pull in customers are absolutely enormous.

The Godfrey Group provides solutions for all kinds of budgets and goals. Anything from unique fabric covered displays to canvas, plastic, covers, kiosks, and even portable design galleries! From what I’ve seen it looks like they have offerings for any kind of product and business, regardless of budget or expectations. It’s not easy standing out in a crowd and Godfrey definitely has what it takes to do just that!

Hiatus completed

Chris — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:17:11 +0000

It’s been a while but I’m back in full force. My undergrad is complete, my first house is occupied, my first dog is driving me nuts and I’m finally turning into an old geezer. I love my job as a web programmer but I’m fighting to find ways to speed things up and keep on the edge of progress and trends. I’m really itching to travel more and more…and working all the time it’s kind of putting a damper on that.

Regardless, I’m loving working the intravel industry and learning some new things while I’m at it. Here’s to the future in life, love, and a fat belly.

Keeping it redundant

Chris — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:53:00 +0000

I always get sick of carrying around and losing my USB drive. For one thing there’s a ton of important stuff on there and there’s absolutely no way to keep someone from using the files on there to do all kinds of terrible things. I’m all about the new web apps that keep you from having to worry about things as long as you can get an internet connection and a browser. Something that marries new web trends with actual usable applications is great, which is what IDrive is doing with online backup. They offer many plans for automatic, continuous data backup to their servers over the web. They even offer a 2GB free plan which is great for us who have just enough stuff to backup that it doesn’t make sense for us to go out and buy a giant backup device like a secondary hard drive or some other device.

There’s a few different plans with various features but they all do the same basic function. All are fast, easy, and secure. Best of all you can access your stuff through the browser with fast searching!

Stop. Reheat. Rinse. Lather. Explode.

Chris — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:39:18 +0000

I’m at a point where I don’t know anymore. I guess you’d call it a crossroads. There’s about ten million different choices that I need to make and I can only make one at a time. It’s overwhelming. Life, love, and basically all of my future rests in the choices I make within the upcoming months. Most of the time, I just don’t know which way to fall.

Money is tight. Time is scarce. Emotion is dead. Energy is gone.

Resolution: Consult with the maker to get further directions.

Broaden your musical horizons

Chris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:05:57 +0000

I remember when I was in high school, the only thing I ever looked forward to was the weekend shows with local unsigned bands. The music was far from professional and was pretty raw compared to a lot of the big bands with record deals and expensive equipment and recording contracts, but I loved it.

Throughout the years since then I’ve tried to keep my eyes open for new blood and underground unsigned music. There’s so much great music that most of us never get to hear simply because there’s no avenue to broadcast it. I support independent artists in their quest to get themselves out there. I really see the shift from big corporate music to smaller, more local music scenes. There’s so much talent and not enough of a fan base.

In the past few months I’ve been checking out independent bands and trying to find some new and upcoming folk/americana. Unsigned.com offers a great venue for all types of musicians and artists to showcase their work and get their names out there to the vast expanse that is the Internet. It’s not as diluted and ad-driven as myspace or other similar sites, so it offers more of a music-only feel, whereas so many other sites are diverse in their media offerings. Musicians can showcase their music as well as generate revenue through the site with relative ease!

It’s a big deal for the kind of people who are interested in indie musicians and artists. We don’t want the ads and fluff that big business plop on all of their media and offerings. That’s why we like things indie in the first place.

Frustration

Chris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:56:02 +0000

I finally got into get my graduation advising done and they were supposed to release the hold on my account so I can finally register for my last semester of classes. Well, they didn’t release the hold. So all of my classes are going to be full and I’m going to have to go through the hassle of doing an all paper-registration and going from professor to professor and begging them to let me into their classes.

Ugh.

Corporate Christmas cards

Chris — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:15:00 +0000

I had a conversation with a guy at work about how he’s so relieved that we weren’t sending out Corporate Christmas cards this year since he would have had to design them and take away from other important projects that need a lot of time to finish. I kind of thought it would be so much easier just to buy some sort of bulk pre-designed package and slap a logo on them and mail them out.

Either way, I guess it can be essential in marketing and keeping business and customer relationships alive. I’ve gone back and forth with the idea a few times of making my own greeting cards and I finally came across a $10,000 greeting card scholarship contest. It runs from Oct 1 until Jan 15, 2008. So I think I might actually come up with something and try it out. I have a ton of photos and stuff that would make great greeting card fronts.

We’ll see how things go!

MOVING Along

Chris — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:04:09 +0000

Part of the weekend usually ends up being one day where I just sleep in and let the dog nap along side me. Today was one of those days until about 1pm when my buddy called me to help him move. At first it seemed like everything was going to be a breeze, but it turned out to be a lot more stuff to move than either of us expected. It’s not like it was an enormous amount of heavy furniture, just a lot of stuff in general.

Finally got it all loaded up but across three vehicles, one of them being a uhaul truck. I’ve got so much stuff to take care of for school this week that it makes my head spin. I’ve got to get my stuff in order so that I can graduate and get the classes that I need.