Starting a new job is pretty crazy. Some people do it every year, so they probably are used to it. The last time I did it was in 2001 and I’m not even sure that counts because nearly all the people I shared an office with in that physical location were not people I ever had to deal with. Eventually, by 2005 or so, I was working at home more or less full time. So I think I need to go back to 2000 for the last time I really had a “first day.” That’s ten years ago, for a company that flamed out in the dot.com collapse. I have forgotten how to be the new guy.
Anyway, I’m smack in the middle of it now. It’s very interesting, because I’ve been brought in to bring this company into the new millennium online. I must say, it’s great fun so far. Obviously everyone knows how important the web is, but nobody here really fervently lives it. It’s busy as all hell, but it’s ALL stuff I’m interested in. My phone rings a lot, too.
I find myself more interested, actually, in the warts. Not because I’m pessimistic, but because in order to really take stock, you have to know what’s wrong first. There is a LOT to do here. But the new guy thing can be intimidating. You don’t know the lay of the land – who is invaluable, valuable or unvaluable. You really don’t know anything and nobody knows anything about you. There is some common ground in that I’m pretty sure most of us are into sports. But no longer can I wax with a co-worker about Foursquare or the Bing-Yahoo search merger. Nobody here cares about that stuff – though if I have my way, they’ll care a lot about Foursquare soon.
The new guy. I’m getting used to it.
I’m fooling around with a photo tool called the “ToyCamera ColorAnalog.” Yeah, that’s a mouthful. These guys clearly aren’t marketers at heart, but the tool is neat. It can turn any photograph you take into something that looks like it was shot from a……toy camera. Hence the name. Yeah, you can do this in Photoshop, I know, I know. But not everyone can afford Photoshop. That’s the beauty of the web – you can download all kinds of apps that give a lot of neat Photoshop-esque stuff. Not as easy to manage multiple apps, but still……much cheaper!
Top picture is the un-edited one, bottom is using the ToyCamera app. The boy: Nathan.
This is my last week at Ask.com and the subject line of this post really says it all. Not because I hate Ask or anything, but because I’ve found a new challenge that really gets my blood pumping. Ask has been VERY good to me and I will be forever grateful to that company – I learned a lot, gained a ton of important experience, made some very good friends and made a damn good living doing it as a Director of Business Development. But after nine years, my brain needed something else. That’s pretty much it.
Many of you have asked me where I’m going, what’s next. It’s a decent story. I am always thinking about what’s next. What’s next in technology. What’s next in new media. What’s next in life. When is the next damn Band of Horses album coming out? What will my next job be? That last question is not one I’ve asked myself often during my tenure at Ask. When you are anywhere for nine years, though, you’re bound to occasionally question yourself and what you do. I did that a few times. There was a point, when “internet search” was very hot, where I had headhunters and recruiters calling me every few weeks. I said no to every single one of them. I talked semi-seriously to two companies in 2007, but I don’t think my heart was in it and it probably showed – both would have been essentially the same job. Deep down, I didn’t want to do the same job at a different address – I was loyal to Ask. I liked the work, I liked the people.
So I recently simplified things. Much like 1995 and 2001, I asked myself “what are you interested in?” The list wasn’t huge. I’m interested in hockey, local/organic food, alternative energy/cleantech and music. I already did music in the ’90s – and in the new decade, you don’t want to be anywhere near the music business, man! Alt energy and cleantech….I don’t know. I try to practice it, but not sure I’d love being IN it. Local/organic food brought out the worst greedy capitalist in me – there’s no money there yet (at least not in Mass), though I had some very nice chats with a very promising local food business.
That leaves hockey. My first thought was the Worcester Sharks or the Bruins or something, but then I feared the same thing may happen there that happened in music – a little too close to something I love. But then I remembered the the nine-store retail chain called Pure Hockey, based here in Massachusetts. They have beautiful stores, especially if you’re a hockey player. So I went to their website, which needs work. A LOT of work. The bell rung in my head. It was like those moments in the cartoons when the light bulb goes on in a little cloud over the character’s head.
I dropped a line to them, gave them the skinny on me, told them I could help and would love to talk. They were very responsive. I met with their president and he was terrific. He basically asked me to define the ideal role at the company for a guy like me and I told him what I’d like to do:
- Social Media - Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Video, etc
- SEO/SEM – optimization for search engines
- Website interface and user experience
- Business Development as necessary
- Marketing – online and offline
It’s the very definition of online/digital strategy. It didn’t take long to agree to everything and those bullet points above define my job description. I get to write! I get to do digital strategy, I get to do everything I like. I feel so lucky, not just because I got to define my role, but because people don’t get to do that in this economy, or even ever. So, to say I’m excited is an understatement. Oh, there will be challenges, trust me. Plenty of them. But that’s why I took the job – it’s a new challenge and I’m ready for it. I’m ready for fun and ready to get that blood moving again.
I wrote late last year about my appreciation for the band Field Music, a UK group made up of two brothers and whomever else they could rope into playing. Unbeknownst to me at the time, they had a new album in the can and not just a 10-12 song release, but a 20 song double album. Who releases double albums anymore? I guess Field Music does.
Anyway, like I said in my previous post, this is a very full-sounding, rich offering, much like their other albums. I would file Field Music under something called “Chamber Pop,” the same way I speak so lovingly of bands like Matt Pond PA and King Radio. However, when you have 20 songs to offer to a public that buys less and less full albums and more singles, well, you have a challenge on your hand. So there are departures on this album. They mostly stick to their strengths, but there’s branches here that extend out into things like Pink Floyd (the good version) and even Derek and The Dominoes. There does appear to be a slight classic rock wink going on here, but it works.
As always, I’ll let the files do the talking. Enjoy!
Field Music, “All You’d Ever Need To Say”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Field Music, “You and I”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Cripes. I drive a 2002 Toyota Camry, which I bought new off the lot. I’ve driven all 85,000 miles of it and I think I’ve had to bring it to the shop once, for a tweak on the brakes. Oh, there was that time it had to be fixed when our house painters dropped a ladder on it. Oops. Then there was that time when my neighbor side-swiped me in our shared driveway at our old house. Oops. But those weren’t mechanical failures. Of course, I bring it in every 5-6K miles for scheduled service and I’d like to think that’s helped with why I’ve had so little problems with it.
This recall, though, has so quickly spun Toyota from golden boys to rust faster than you can say “GM in the eighties.” It has turned the car industry on its heels! Suddenly it’s A-OK to buy American and Toyota will KILL you! Can you imagine saying that even one year ago?
My car is NOT on the recall list. But with all these stories coming out about how Toyota secretly danced around the fire on its production snafus and how they wiggled out of them, I find myself wondering what’s going on under my hood? Should I ditch the car? I paid it off in 2005 for god’s sake! I’ve been enjoying no payments and clean bills of health on it for almost five years now! But who knows?! And why should I even take .0005% risk when I have two precious boys often riding sidecar with me? Now that I’ll be driving to work every day soon, should I bite the bullet and get something else? It’s horrifying. It’s like the sweet girl from next door gets popped for robbing banks and selling heroin.
Then I read this, from this morning’s Boston Globe. Are there more out there that haven’t been recalled yet? I kinda think there are and that Toyota is just going to stretch out the recalls so the shit doesn’t hit the fan all at once for them. Who can you trust? What would you do?
This post today is a single post with two meanings. One is very simple: I absolutely love this song. I think I have listened to it nearly every day for six months now. I love the lyrics, I love the music, I love the voice. I love that organ that rolls in so abruptly and so beautifully at the 1:50 mark. The other meaning is more complicated, but it helps to explain how I’m feeling these days. More on that in the next few days:
The Avett Brothers – “Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
And it comes in black and it comes in white
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it
When nothing is owed or deserved or expected
And your life doesn’t change by the man that’s elected
If you’re loved by someone, you’re never rejected
Decide what to be and go be it
There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out
There’s a darkness upon you that’s flooded in light
And in the fine print they tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it
There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out
There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it
That US-Canada hockey game last night was captivating from start to finish. Not just because the Americans won it, either. Because it was simply an excellent hockey game, a treasure of a night if you’re a hockey fan. However, a word of caution. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Canada outshot the US by almost a margin of double, pouring roughly 45 shots on Ryan Miller, the US goaltender. It also shouldn’t be forgotten that Canada dominated the game at certain points. I mean, the way the US team was manhandled in the last ten minutes of the third period should be evidence enough. By no means should the US get too high and I don’t even have to say that next week, Canada will be in the thick of the medal hunt. Though I guess I just did say it, didn’t I?
But sometimes a game transcends who you are cheering for. When you see a game like the one last night, it becomes more of a deep appreciation for the game. If the Americans had lost, I’d still be just as blown away by the quality of the game, the intensity and the constant back-and-forth breathlessness of it all. A showcase, indeed. I’d even venture to say that there was only one single truly dirty play in the game – and that would Scott Neidermayer’s hold-and-throw of an American player as the second period ended. What a great night.
Oh, and Ryan Miller? Good god, man. Ryan Miller! He coolly handled everything the Great White North threw at him last night. His disposition was that of a second string goaltender playing an AHL game. What a performance. It’s rather obvious that he is the reason the US won the game last night, but that’s why he’s there. To put the team on his back if he has to – and last night he had to.
|
|
