Memorial Day...remembering our heros

...and supporting the economy. We saw X-Men this weekend. It was as good as the first, IMO

As for the former, I was personaly remiss. We didn't put up a flag or even take a moment to recall those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom and the safety of the world as a whole. More and more, our servicemen seem to be making that sacrafice for the latter, than the former. Hopefully, we'll soon have memorial days where the only servicemen remembered on this holiday, are ones fallen in wars years gone-by.

It's going better than I thought

Part 2 of the sale is going better than I thought...not as good as psrt 1 but not totally sucking either. I still think, due to our very lame web infrastructure and our inability to show after rebate pricing, that rebates are fairly ineffective for us.

Oh! And one of our channel partners (Buy.com) is applying the rebate to a T60 that they've discounted a ton...so it's really cheap. This has the brand folk all bent outta shape and their first reaction was "PULL THE REBATES!" This would just make matters worse, since we've advertised the damn things and customers would be pissed if we pulled them early. There's a lot of debate that this is hurting our sale, but that's going to be tough to prove. I think what it demonstrates is the channel can put direct at a huge disadvantage anytime it wants to...and that someone needs to look at how we do business with them.

May sale phase duex

We ran a very successful web sale the first half of May. It ended on Monday May 15. The second half is relying on rebates, rather than discounts...and while we need to produce revenue, I'm kinda hoping it fails terribly and we can do away with rebates for good. I personally hate the damn things and I'm guessing that the second half of the May web sale will suck wind because of them.

Nevertheless, if you're in the market for a new Lenovo laptop, visit our website and check the sale out.

Lenovo.com

New world. New thinking...

...at least that's what we're being told at Lenovo. I measure all taglines, slogans, company catch-phrases by the mutha of all of them, "Just do it." It resonates, which is the main reason it's likely the most recognizable tagline in the world. For a short time Nike abandoned it, but quickly came to its senses and now it's back where it belongs, at the close of ever TV spot and blodly shown on ever print ad. Why fuck with something that works. Something with that much brand recoginition, appeal and marketing collateral is extremely rare.

I'll run through the office nekked if "N.W.N.T." ever achieves even 10% of J.D.I.'s brand association.

Viva Las Vegas

We leave tomorrow. We haven't been in five years and this trip is going to be a birthday/anniversary trip for us. Just me and the wife are going. My dad is coming up to stay with my son. My wife and I have been married 15 years.

Hopefully...against all the odds...we'll win big and be able to pay down some med bills that stacked up last year. *crosses fingers*

Today, my son is having a birthday party even though his birthday was a month ago. This is fairly typical for us. He hasn't had a B-day party around his b-day in a few years. Still, we did take him snowboarding for his birthday this year. He really enjoyed it.

Long time, no post

I'm trying to get this thing started again, but I've never been much of a blogger. Heading to Vegas this weekend as a 15th anniversary trip. Should be loads of fun. My son's a Boy Scout now and I'm done with Cubs. I still have the khaki shirt though and will most likely put it on again some day...in another leadership role with the scouts.

My grass looks like crap. We haven't had much rain and so it's already dried out and it's only April. By August it should be crispy and brittle. Aleast my son has gotten big enough to push the mower, so the yard work that I despise is getting done quicker. Filed taxes at the last minute this year. Getting a decent return, unfortunately we'll be paying bills with all of it. No matter how much I make, it never seems to be enough.

Working from home

In the age of broadband, working remotely is a simple matter. With a PC and a DSL or Cable connection, the speed of online tasks, server access, etc. is nearly as fast as being in the office on the network. With the price of gas these days, this option is also a huge cost savings...especially for those employees with longer commutes. Mine is approximately 40 minutes of in town driving. I burn a tank up every 4-5 days. Working @ home one day a week saves me about $6-9 on gas and another $6-7 that I would have spent at lunch.

The only drawback to working at home is not working. It can be tempting to run errands, do housework or simply goof off. I find that "getting ready to go to work," the same as if I was driving into the office, helps me when I work at home. I'm also lucky to have a study which makes it easy for me to work in a separate room, door closed to the rest of the house. This also keeps me focused on work. And most of the time, I find that I'm more productive working from home than working in the office where there are significantly more distraction.

Why am I blogging about this...cause I'm worked from home today and I have nothing interesting to write about.