Networkin Fooooo

Started the day with the Washtenaw Referral folks. I'm glad I joined the group - they're very active, very responsive, very involved.

Then got an emergency call from a client whose laptop was not behaving. Its Gateway Vista unit, and it had stopped booting correctly. He left the diag screen up for me to see (Exactly right behavior- Gold Star!) It showed that it stopped the Norton processes and aborted the boot. It had no error messages in the system logs, no core dumps in C:\windows\minidump, no further indication of error state. And, worse yet, it booted right up for me. I don't doubt my client's sanity, and I think I'll take seriously the only clue given me, so I removed Norton. First, I should mention, first I ran SpinRite for about 12 hours. Recommended by the way - its The HDD diag utility.

Then I went to the An Arbor Chamber's NetWorks luncheon. The featured speakers presented a nice overview of the differences between marketing to Gen X and Gen Y audiences. It was interesting and not as dry as some attempts to do the same thing.

So then I went to the store. I'm not kidding to say that we've increased sales by about 25% in the past four weeks alone. I went to a local business and dropped off a toner cartridge. People can't believe that I'll deliver - Look, why wouldn't I deliver to build a relationship with them? I want them to know me, to know us, and to be comfortable that we'll take care of them.

Then I went down to Milan and participated in the networking of their monthly meeting. I went to the Campfire restaurant, had a few beers, met a lot of people. It was an event well worth attending; Milan is a good group of folks.

So what else? I'm writing this at 2200 hrs, i still have a laptop to finish and about 30 minutes of paperwork/catching up. What makes it all worth it, is that its mine. Its all mine, and I do it on my own. I haven't worked for someone else in nearly two years. That right there, is a hell of a feeling.