Testing a caption feature

A beautiful rainy day to wait for the max!

Today is day two of WordCamp Portland 2011.  This year’s event is not as stellar as the last two years, but I am always happy to get around the other WP developers and hear tips and tricks others are using.

This past year, my business (like my waist) has seen a BIG expansion.  OK, my waist hasn’t really expanded, but I love to make fat jokes about myself!

BRIDGES Networking, the business relationships organization I helped start, has added three new clubs this year (Portland, Tigard and Sandy).  Lake Oswego looks like the next destination for this highly effective business networking organization.

Kay and I have faired well this year.  Sales this past summer were three times better than last year and the web-side of our business is dominating the business model.  At this point we are phasing out marketing of tradeshow exhibits.  We’ll keep carrying displays, but only for existing customers.

While the year is not over yet, I am really excited about how business and life is shaping up for the last four months of this year.

Today, ten year’s later, America still stands on guard and while the rainbow colors are missing, we are once again told by authorities of pending doom.  ”Credible Threat” is the term-dejure now, but we all know it means those who hate us continue to want to kill our way of life.  Never mind the idea that we elected a leader that touted his skill to change the views of America in the eyes of our enemies, I never believed a US President could hold much sway over religious loons.

While I do not fear the terrorists, I fear the media is focusing our attention in the wrong direction.  Today’s threat is for New York or D.C.  While I’m sure the terrorists would love to strike durring the memorials taking place this weekend, it is my believe that terrorists are much smarter than we give them credit.

Military leaders throughout history have written of battle strategies and I’m sure these wacko terrorists can read.  Strike your opponent where they don’t expect and you’ll score a moral victory.  Tomorrow, while the peaceful world focuses on the memorials back East, I’ll keep my attention out west.  It is my belief the terrorists are more likely to strike Seattle, Portland, San Francisco or LA.  While I doubt any such attack would not sting as much ten years later, the moral victory for the Islamic Extremists would be big.

Tomorrow we should all memorialize the lives of those Americans who were murdered ten years ago; but we should also keep a watchful eye in our own backyard.

God Bless America!

Thank you for all our friends and family who made 2010 a year to remember.  This year we will watch our oldest grandson depart for the Army, our middle grandson start driving, and our youngest grandson grow like a weed.

Last year I had an unsuccessful bid for City Council.  Glad I got that out of my system!  What was I thinking?  Me…Running for office.

This year will be another growth year in business.  In March I will venture to Memphis, TN to join Warren at a Robin Robin’s Boot Camp Training Seminar.  With that, we are making a HUGE push for more California web development business.

While I am not again running for office, you can expect I will continue to publish my political rants.

Kay and I both wish everyone a great 2011!

Do the years go faster, or is it just me?  Where did 2009 go?

I lost my calendar half way thru the year, so can’t remember details from the first half of the year.  (Guess that’s a senior moment!)  Let’s see what I do remember!

Christmas 2008 found us snowed in!  My brother and sister-in-law arrived from Salem before the Christmas storm, stayed for a few days, and friends from nearby came over for Christmas dinner.  We enjoyed watching the storm from inside our cozy home, ate wonderful food, played games and took lots of pictures!

Ed continues to play with the band at church.  I volunteer once a month to make coffee for Sunday morning services (13 pots), and we’ve joined a small bible study group which meets twice a month.

Kenny, grandson from New Mexico, flew out twice this spring.  He is a great traveler and we enjoyed going here and there sightseeing.  Because he was home-schooled, it allowed for any-time visits.  This September, his folks elected to put him in public school, which will make it more difficult for future visits to Grandma & Grandpa’s house.

I flew to New Mexico in October and spent two weeks with Sue, Bill and Kenny.  Visited the Durango, CO area.  Very pretty and fun!

In July we had another annual family camping trip (Kay’s family).   15 of us gathered in Bandon Beach State Park, near Coos Bay on the Southern Oregon Coast, for a week of camping, boating, and sight seeing.  We love to cook out and play games!  As we disbursed from camping, Ed & I drove our motor home on down to Santa Cruz, CA, caravanning with Dan & his family.  Our destination was Dan’s “compound” (tow yard) in Santa Cruz.  Made it to Hwy 17 between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz where our motor home broke down!  Breaking down at night on a turn on Hwy 17 is quite an experience…we couldn’t get off the highway and had 30 minutes of cars coming around the bend to find us blocking the right lane!  Thank goodness for Dan and his family!  He helped with our 911 call, tow truck retrieval, our transfer to his motor home (with two grandsons and two dogs), and towing our rig down to his yard.  Turned out to be a fuse which was easily fixed.

After a week stay in CA, we left our motor home at Dan’s yard in Santa Cruz, and drove home in the car.  We have since made two more trips to Santa Cruz, to see our grandsons (Wesley and Zachery)  play football.  Ed has been expanding business contacts in the Santa Cruz area.  We plan another trip down in January, and will be returning to Santa Cruz in June for our grandson Wesley’s high school graduation.

Ed has diversified his business more this past year.  Along with selling trade show displays and internet marketing, he also develops websites.  This area has taken off, and he is busier every month.  At the beginning of the year, he brought me on board as “Office Manager) to help out (bookkeeping – right up my alley) and to help keep him on track with organizing his files, scheduling, answering the phone.  It is nice to work from home, and I spend just a few hours a day.  We now have two computers.  Ed has moved his desk and office into the living room, leaving me the computer in the family room.  Works out well with us as he has clients to the house several times a week.

Kay is out many days “playing” with her “Red Hat Ladies”.   Kay and good friend, Donna, are the “activities coords” for the Fairview Red Hat group.  We come up with ideas and plan and organize trips to different fun places, parties, and of course eating out!  We also belong to the Gresham Red Hat group.  We visit local places of interest, go to movies, have picnics, and of course have lunch wherever we go!  We had our second Luau this summer in our back yard.  The Christmas party will be hosted at Donna’s house next week.  We’ve had a busy year and enjoy our fun groups. We are also in a Bunco group which meets once a month.  Love retirement!

Ed and I feel God has blessed us this year.  We are healthy, happy, and on a steady increase in our business.  We love Portland!  Love hearing from you all, and always have a spare room for visits.    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!!

Kay & Ed

In case you are not aware of what I am writing about, a criminal on parole was pulled over for a traffic infraction.  The criminal caught the police off guard and killed both officers.  Fleeing from the scene, police are let to an apartment, a shootout ensues and two more police officers are killed in the line of duty.  A fifth officer was wounded but is expected to recover.

Harry Harris, with the MercuryNews.com, wrote a good article about the Okaland Police Shooting.  He wrote, “…Mixon stepped out and began shooting with an semi-automatic handgun, hitting Dunakin and Hege…”

While Mr Harris did not write words that were overtly anti-gun, he did use language that implys the type of gun made matters worse.  What exactly is the different between a “semi-automatic handgun” and a “handgun”?

In an ABC report, Amy Hollyfield reported “[the salient]…used a handgun to shoot the motorcyle cops who pulled him over and an assault rifle at the apartment.”  Again, not overtly anti-gun, but “assault rifle” starts to introduce emotion in the reporting.

At some point in the not so distant future, someone will suggest outlawing semi-automatic handguns AND assault rifles is in the public’s best interest.  The suggestion will be that outlawing these guns would keep them off the streets.  The problem with such an argument is the criminal in question was already breaking the law by possessing guns.  He was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon.  What makes any sane person think a criminal will stop breaking the law by passing another law?

Disarming law abiding Americans only serve to embolden criminals to further impose their lawlessness on society.  The anti-gun groups are switching tactics and are now going after the ammunition.  The site slogan states, “Saving lives one bullet at a time”

Stay tuned, you can almost hear the anti-gun chant starting.

Ed

Initially I was resistant to the idea, but after installing a few games to test out the idea, I find that it fits with-in the Personality Based Marketing approach that I am creating.

If 62% of of the time internet users browse the net as a source of entertainment, then it makes sense to offer entertaining activities in addition to great blog content.

I’m not sure what the long term out look is for a platform that requires video games to hold visitor’s attention, but we shall see!

In the mean time, please enjoy the new games that I am testing on this site.  If you get a chance, please drop me a comment with your views on the online game playing idea.  I visited dozens of blogs per week and I haven’t really run into many that had online video games…  So I am curious just how effective the medium will be?