And So It Begins ...

The other day, my daughter begins to draw on my whiteboard in the office. When she finished, this is what she drew ...

And so the Christmas Season begins in the Guadagna household!

Post Birthday Coffee and Scone

While the Wife and Daughter are enjoying a preview of the new Muppet movie, I'm enjoying some time with a Coffee, Scone and my blogs.

What Your Business Can Learn From Lady Gaga

Say what you want about Lady Gaga, but being a slacker is not one of them. She has propelled herself to stardom. But like most overnight successes, it was through her hard work, determination and some shrewd business tactics that she enjoys that success she has today.

So you think Lady Gaga has nothing to do with your business? Looking at her success, we can glean a few things that we can apply to almost any business.

Twitter Milestone

I just noticed that I have over 1000 Twitter followers. 1001 to be exact. I'm not very active in the Social Media scene, but to have amassed 1000+ followers surprises and delights me.

As their "reward," I followed them back.

My 1000th follower is @redheadwritrgrl and my 1001st follower is @SelenaSally1718.

I am grateful to all my followers. I hope something I tweet surprises and delights you.

Mobile Shot: The Crazy Guy

A portrait of me by my daughter. Not sure if I should be scared or not. She calls it "The Crazy Guy." It's a little dark because she did it on my whiteboard, my camera sucks and any light I had on gave me tremendous glare.

How do you want to feel?

For the past 5 years, Scott Smith over at Motivation to Move has been asking me and all his members, each and every Friday, "How do you want to feel?"

A question I never gave much thought to until recently.

New LNTC Post: It's Good to be the Turtle

Here's my NaBloPoMo for today. A new post on my Lake Norman Tai Chi Center blog: http://lakenormantaichi.com/blog/its-good-to-be-the-turtle/

Funny Vonage Transcription

Why should Google Voice have all the fun? Vonage has been transcribing voice mails for a while now. I got this message the other day from a recruiting firm offering me a pancreas!

Not sure if I should call them back considering I really don't need one right now ...

New LNTC Post:

Here's my NaBloPoMo for today. It's over on my other blog for Lake Norman Tai Chi Center. Here's the link: http://lakenormantaichi.com/blog/5-secret-earth-shattering-hair-raising-natural-ways-to-boost-your-energy/

The Time Change Effect

We just adjusted our clocks this past weekend to end daylight savings time and return to standard time. Did you notice?

I remember when I was kid when the time changed, we would wake up that Sunday and spend some time (pun intended) to reset our clocks: the alarm clocks, the kitchen clock, the living room clock, the VCR clocks, the microwave oven clock, the stove clock and all our watches. It was quite a feat to change all of them. In some cases, we'd have to dig up instructions on how to change the time on a particular device.

Nowadays, it's noticeably different. Yesterday morning I changed 2 clocks: the clock in the living room and the clock on the stove. I haven't changed the one in the car yet - I need to find those instructions first.

Most of our devices update the time automatically. Our laptops, tablets and cell phones update the time from the internet.  Even our cordless handsets get the time updated from our Vonage phone adapter. I don't wear a watch on a regular basis and my alarm clock is my cell phone.

Since we gained an hour of time, I got an extra hour of sleep and today, I'm not as tired as I usually am, so the extra hour did me good, which means I wasn't physically effected by the change. Unlike when daylight savings time starts and we lose an hour. Losing that hour is like jet lag, it takes a couple of days to acclimate.

My wife didn't realize that the time had changed until today. Because I changed the 2 clocks before she woke up Sunday morning, she had no indication of the change. It made me wonder if someone had no clocks that needed manual adjustment, would they notice that the time changed?

It also makes me wonder why we need the time change at all? I;m sure there was a good reason for it when it was implemented, but does it still make sense?

I guess that is something I can ponder as I change the clock in our vehicle. Now, how do you change the clock in a 2004 Jeep Liberty? Time to find the owner's manual ...

Blogging For Blogging's Sake ... Really??

This year, the NaBloPoMo theme is "blogging for blogging's sake." The point is to do a blog post because, well, I'm not sure and I guess that is my dilemma.

The point of blogging, for me anyway, is to impart my knowledge and expertise on subjects and to pass on information that comes my way that I might think is useful for you. Why would I write something, unless there's a reason for it.

Which leads to my purpose for doing this. To see if I can actually come up with 30 topics that you will want to read.

To help the intrepid blogger who has nothing to write about, the people running NaBloPoMo are posting a Prompt of the Day. The prompts they've posted so far are:

• What is your favourite part about writing? (Finishing)
• If you knew that whatever you ate next would be your last meal, what would you want it to be? (Pizza and a good micro-brew, or several)
• Can you listen to music and write? What song did you hear today? (Yes. Listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers at Caribou as I write this sentence)
• When you are writing, do you prefer to use a pen or a computer? (Both. They each have their purpose)

I see why this is helpful in case you have nothing to write about but, still need to do your post for the day. I'd like to get into the habit of coming up with my topics that are relevant to my blogs.

I could make the case that these prompts fit into my Incoherent Thoughts theme, but what would I do December 1st? I'd be so used to someone else coming up with my topics, I'd be lost.

Being able to come with topics and write about them with some level of competence and clarity ate what my goals are for NaBloPoMo. So, if you start seeing posts about my last meal (Food Posts are on the horizon though) or if I'd prefer pens or computers, you know I've run out of ideas.

NaBloPoMo: The Beginning

I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, well, at least in spirit. If you don't know what NaBloPoMo is, look here.

I heard about it on TWiT's Tech News Today earlier this week, but I had no desire to participate. But, the other day as I was walking out to my car with one of my students, he mentioned that he was doing NaNoWriMo. Now, I've no intention of writing a novel, a Great American one or otherwise. But, I do want to post more on my blogs. Something stirred in me, maybe it was left over from our Meditation class, but internally I decided that I should do NaBloPoMo.

It's not like I'm already busy working a full-time job, running a Martial Arts school and being a loving husband and parent. It'll be no problem setting aside time everyday to write a total of 30 blog posts and coming up with unique topics for each post! Yes, I'm joking :-)

Actually, I'm going to cheat a little. I have 2 blogs, this one and my blog for Lake Norman Tai Chi Center. I've been meaning to write more on that blog for business and marketing purposes. So this experiment will allow me to do that. What I will do is when I post there, I'll also post a link to it here.

Since it is already November 3rd as I write this, I technically already failed at NaBloPoMo, but not to worry. I'm only 2 posts down and I've no intention of winning any prize. I'm going to do this in the spirit of NaBloPoMo to see if I coud post something daily.

At least it's not 50,000 words ...

Fiery Beauty atop Grandfather Mountain

I took this picture during a family outing to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina this past weekend. We had a blast. It was fun to spend some family time together away from home.

QR-tastic Failure

QR Code Marketing Failure!

This came in my Valpak this week. Note to businesses: If you're planning a QR campaign, make sure the QR code links to an active web page BEFORE the mailing goes out!

Not All Heroes Wear Spandex - But It Helps

I never collected comics when I was a kid. I may have gotten a couple as gifts or my Mom bought some when we went to the drug store, but I never collected them. I remember reading the occasional Mad Magazine, Cracked and I saw the ubiquitous Superman and Batman. I was more interested in watching Batman and Superman on TV, than reading them in comics.

It wasn't until I was in high school and stepped into Fantasy World and met Norm that my eyes were opened to the world of comics and graphic novels. I fell in love with the works of Neil Gaiman - who remains my favorite author to this day. I was never interested in the super hero stories, but some of the remakes that portrayed the heroes as mortal everyday people did interest me.

My wife on the other hand grew up reading comics. She actually learned to read, much to the dismay of her parents, by reading comics. Her favorite comic was, and still is, Archie. I remember my wife purchasing an Archie's Double Digest on one of her visits to Bahrain to renew her Kuwait Visa. When she moved to the States, she brought this book with her.

It was this Archie's comic that that piqued the interest of our daughter. When she was younger, she would look at all the drawings, as she got older and started to read, she would actually read the comic strips within. There were more than a few times when I'd wake her up for school, that I found the book under her pillow. Last summer I bought a comic book for her from the library, which she has read several times.

I've been wanting to take her to a comic book store to experience the full effect of comics. When I discovered that Saturday May 7th was Free Comic Book Day, I decided it was time! I wanted to surprise her, so when we were finished with our errands that day, we went to Spandex City in Charlotte.

As we entered the store, her expression was priceless. She was certainly overwhelmed with all the selections. I let her pick out 2 books. It took her awhile and she chose the latest Pokemon and Bakugan issues.

As I was walking around, I was reminded of my many trips to Fantasy World. Fond memories, of which I have quite a few comic books and graphic novels to show for.

Since that trip, my daughter has been wanting to return to Spandex City. I'm pleased with that. I've talked with the owners and employees there and they have the same love and excitement for Comics that Norm did. I'm sure that they'll help my daughter discover new and interesting comics like Norm did for me.

I'm happy to support my daughter's love for comics just as much as I'm happy to support a locally owned business.