More chatter

I've been doing most of my commentary on Twitter and Facebook. I can get the Tweets into the FB status, but it would be even cooler if I could have tweets appear here as posts. Ideas?

We'll also be launching additional online content with Cartridge World (online blog and tweet persona) and we'll be needing followers. You've been warned.

As for Call Your Help Desk, its been a consistent hum of activity; not too much, not too little. Could be more, but when would I find the time? I think things will settle down after I get some more groundwork laid, but it will be awhile yet.

So, thats it. Did you think I would talk about politics? Not likely. Maybe we'll start talking about recycling. There's a topic on which we can all agree... mostly.

What Next?

We've been exhibiting at the Home Builder & Improvement show at the Farm Council grounds in Saline. Pretty good crowd - a lot of people stop by to chat about computer issues. I'm trying to attract attention by soliciting their PC questions... most people still look askance and wiggle away. Some talk and talk and talk... but thats OK.

O, btw, go get yourself a look at the Sunday AA News, business outlook section, p10. Not near Ann Arbor? Go to
the web site .

I think its pretty cool.

We'll be at the Expo through today, Sunday. I'll also spend a couple of hours at the Washtenaw Business Expo at the Four Points on Tuesday (3/24).

Come on up and see me sometime...

Checking in

Well, I've successfully avoided posting for about three weeks! W00T!

Sorry, but it occurred to me (ok, it occurred to others to tell me) that my blog was getting a tad, shall we say, Dull? Yes, we shall. It was dull. Anyone want to read about the hard drive or CD I installed? Viruses defeated? PCs and networks set up?

I think not. Not all the time anyway. So I'll break the fourth wall and let you in on what else I've been doing. Its a bit more exciting.

I've joined the Saline City Environmental Commission as an interested community member. I don't actually live within the corporate boundaries of the city, so I can't be a sworn member, but I'm still very interested in the environmental affairs of the city.

I do live within York Township, so I've joined the township environmental commission. We've got a really interesting program on tap for our Earth Day workshops. More info can be found on the township web site or on Facebook. I've created an event page for it; get on Facebook already!

I'm the chairman for our annual Friends of NRA Banquet; it is held on Wednesday, April 22. Funds raised at this event help us at Tri County to have educational and recreational events for the community, for no or low cost. Tickets are on sale now, but don't delay.

We at Cartridge World are manning a booth at the Home Improvement Show at the Saline Fairgrounds, March 20-22. We're also at the Greening of Milan Expo, April 20-21.

Looking to May, I will help organize the Taste of Milan event, on the 14th, then immediately drive to Nashville for our corporate annual meeting, 15-17th.

June, we at Tri County host Women on Target the 13th. Its a good over view-type event for women of all ages who might not have any experience with various shooting sports, but are curious. Since I'm a NRA Certified instructor, I always help out.

In July, we have Celtic fest on the 9-11th. I'm helping with gate control this year.

August, Saline Summer Fest will feature a 5k Run. I've done a few runs, and am proud to have been approached to help out.

See? Lots of interesting things going on. Arguably, I might be stretched a bit thin. We'll see. I'll update status on the goings on of these various events and commissions as things happen.

It won't be boring. Promise.

Hold Tight!

Not too tight.

So what did we do for Valentines, you ask? We went to the Beale St Smokehouse and saw ass-kickin blues courtesy of the Witchdoctors. They were murdering all my favorites, and I mean that in a good way.

This week, there's the usual networking (Morning Edition, A2B3, WRN, HBA), and many evening meetings. Mon - FNRA Banquet, Tues - York Twp Environmental, Wed - Air Rifle and Saline Environmental, Thur - Tri County general membership meeting, Fri - Artini Martini Crawl. Alright, the last one isn't technically a meeting. But there is booze, so theres that.

I even have a couple of virusy PCs to fumigate.

Larger news, we're one of the featured businesses in the upcoming Business Outlook section of the AA News, due out in March. How cool is that?

Peek into the chaos

Lessons from this week:
* If your PC tells you to download some very-convenient solution to a problem you didn't know you had, you're in too deep already.
* If your PC runs any operating system, the age of which can be measured in decades, you need to just let it go.
* Laptop DC Jacks are fragile as hell. I've replaced many of them now and I'm just appalled at how easily they break. Makes for good cash flow over here, but still.
* If you have a server at your business, and I mean a business you own in this case, so the server is your property, but you don't know the server's password... well, where to start? Its like not having keys to your own car.

And so on and so on. Its all common sense stuff, but I think people panic when their computers stop cooperating. We rely so much on the wee beasties that we can't cope when they die. The answer, of course, is to accept their mortality and back up all important data.

This coming week, I've got no scheduled PC work (scary!), and a few networking opportunities. I'm not looking forward to a break in the pace, but we can't always choose, can we?

Breathe Easy now

You will be no doubt relieved to read that the rain held off, and the fireworks were indeed spectacular. The sustained shelling went on for over ten minutes, with a backdrop of all the air horns from the boats in the marina. Absolutely fabulous.

And now this morning, shall I make resolutions? Isn't it a waste of time?
Will you make resolutions?

We sat out on the balcony, listening to the ruckus. The wind began to blow just after midnight. It was a cool, sustained blow, and there was something on it. I couldn't tell quite what.

Next Thrilling Installment

We went into Nassau today and did a little shopping. Or, rather, I watched shopping occur, and supplied a credit card from time to time.

And now, boooo and booo again, it is raining on and off. The fireworks tonight will be spectacular, but it looks like we'll have to get damp to see them.

Oh well. Beats shoveling snow.

Tuesday is Haiku Day!

sunny all the time
I lose the stress floating on
a puddle of rum

A bit further south

We are currently in Nassau, where the temp is a humid 81. I think we're heading off for where the drinks are cooler and the pools are filled with girls who should know better.

We arrived yesterday, on NWA. Whomever said getting there is half the fun, had no intention of applying the sentiment to modern air travel.

More later...

Don Likem One Bit

Mondays. Freezing bloody cold Mondays. I can deal without them.

Why: Well, simultaneously, we have the garage door at home stopped working, the furnace at the store stopped working, and a piece of important equipment at work just up and broke. The story of Job is not lost on me, but c'mon now. Throw me a frikkin bone here.

So the door required some better lubrication as the cold had stripped it clean (there's a pun in there, for the discovery of which I offer no rewards). The furnace had a bad blower motor, which is what I told the repair dispatch lady; and it cost about 4 to have it replaced. I was lucky to get a guy out here during daylight hours.

Ah, well. Its the week of Christmas, and Chanukah just started. And we have heat, and family and its all good.

It is all good... right?

And in other news

I would have rather and more immensely enjoyed myself and found my time useful had I begged off of SLI the other day, and gone to AA NetWorks. That is all I will say on that.

On Shuffle: Matthew Sweet, I've Been Waiting. Bubblegum? Yes, yes it is. Still like it tho.

I've got a big ol PC on the test bed, it suffering from the usual malaise of the older PC: application bloat. There's just too much stuff to let a P4 with 512MB work smoothly. Among the gunk was a full set of Norton System and Internet Works. Bloody Hell. Look, seriously, if you must use Norton, don't kid yourself about minimum requirements. Have at least one GB, two would be better.

Shuffle: Pixies, Allison. Jeez, remember the Pixies?

I added 2x256 PC3200 SIMMs that I had laying around, cleared out all the rubble, and it is a bit faster now. Another thing he's running is SQL server and a DB preloader that both take up a fair amount of resources. It should be noted that this PC is not really a server, its a converted desktop running XP Pro SP3.

It belongs to a local small business. I'll be there all morning Monday setting up a new network. Not a proper domain, mind you, but basically a home network used for business, so its a few desktops, peered around a router.

Shuffle: Kristy McColl, Treachery. Cool latin rhythms there, boss.

Our networking group had their Holiday Festivus last Friday. Whereas what happens in Trindy's basement stays; there was rather a lot more groping than I would have thought appropriate.

Appropriately enough, shuffle goes to Ziggy Stardust.

This week, the run up to the Giftivus Holiday, features a few meetings and such, but not much. I will attend a meeting on Wednesday, concurrent to the youth air rifle session at TCSL, with the Saline Environmental Commission. [If you're wondering, the shuffle went to Blues Traveler, The Mountains Win Again. You're Welcome.] Anyway, the SEAC (I think the acronym is) is something I am keen to be involved with. It does affect us all, and what with my participation in environmental affairs in other venues, it could be a very natural fit. I suppose there will be some discussion as to whether I should be allowed to be on such a board, because although I have a Saline address, I live in the hinterlands of York Township. As an aside, I am thinking it might be a good idea to get on the York Twp Environmental Committee (YTEC) or perhaps the planning commission, as well.

We end this narrative as we began, with Matthew Sweet, Nothing Lasts. Hopefully that selection is not appropriate at all.

New Circuses

The busy, busy week, in review:
* A custom built machine stopped booting when it couldn't find a keyboard. I think the owner's habit of shutting it down by yanking the power cord has something to do with it. Its all better now.
* A clients machine that only works here. It runs fine here, but won't boot up at his home. I'm going there Saturday (Pinkney!) to figure it out.
* A client's laptop that won't connect to any wireless networks outside his home. Well, it connected to mine just fine, and when I've shown him how to do it, I think the mystery will disappear.
* A client lost his Comcast business connection, so he called them to fix it. Fix it they did, by sending, among other things, a reset signal to his gateway. All his network settings went away, and he called me in a panic.
* Got a new local business client, also from Comcast. They had a few network issues and a new laser printer to install. Laser - Hey, I know where they can get toner! How convenient.
* A client who would like to access some files from either of his two laptops, have them backed up, prevent out-of-date revisions, and not have to buy any hardware. His docs reside out on GoogleDocs now and he is happy.

So its been pretty busy, and cartridge sales keep inching up. I'm ready for the pace to increase.

Sudden Sickness Madlibs

I'm absolutely [pretentious adjective that means full, but is more Dennis Miller exotic] of [noun that more or less refers to mucus, but is much less attractive] and feel very [another adjective, this time meaning 'like crap', but pithier. You get the idea.]. If only I could [verb - keep it clean] with my [body part - you've been warned] I could have appreciated the Bears [descriptive intransitive adverb, keep it simple] of the Lions. At least I don't feel like Marinelli; I'll get better tomorrow.

That was fun.

Now, I'll need a good lie down. My strength needs conservation.

How Many is Enough?

I've got accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Plaxo. How many is too many?

Further, what are the relative strength/weakness of each? LinkedIn is better for business, Facebook is more social, and Plaxo is, well, I'm not sure. I'm seeing the twitters on Plaxo, so I think its more social. That begs a question: Can I link (RSS, or whatever) this blog to Plaxo? Or any other platform?

I mentioned that LinkedIn is more business-oriented, and I think it is. You keep occupational data on it, and make connections to others in your field or company, but what then? I haven't found anyone yet who can answer that, and I've asked a few. I'm linked, in one way or another, to over two million people. What do I do with them? Would they send me a quarter each?

It takes a lot of time to keep it all up to date, and I'm not sure they offer sufficient return to keep investing. It would be nice to know what others think.... since no one comments here (besides Keith) I suppose I'll have to ask on another channel. Maybe I need a MySpace page....

We Get Letters

Yeah! I got an email from 'IRS' that states that the government owes me $650.50. I just need to click on the embedded link that redirects to a server on yahoo.jp. I'm sure the IRS has a very good reason for using a free email account in Japan.

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.

Erm... A Week... Are you sure...?

Uh, sorry. You get what you pay for, I suppose.

So, in the last week, I've worked 11.4 million hours at the store, fixed a half dozen computers, told several thousand people about the great deal that is Cartridge World, and got about fifteen minutes sleep. Cuz I'm a slacker.

Yeah, we livin large here, boss.

Interviewed a lad today for the store, and we interview a lass tomorrow morning. We needs us some hep in there afore we combust. I've lined up a few business customers, and sales volume is increasing. But so is the tension to get more inventory, and make sure we are capturing useful sales figures.

So while I do all that, I also try to fix and upgrade the PCs of the world, and sell them ink. Yeah, I'm crabbing. Where else will I complain? Get yer own blog, Gary!