This is a great looking site with some easy to read and short useful articles.  One of the only issues I found was that there were no agents listed for where I live and work, mid-Michigan.  So local agents from the Great Lakes Bay Region may want to contact the site owner to get your insurance agency listed on this fantastic resource.

So check out this website.  What have you got to loose?  It won’t cost you anything to find out if you can save some money on your auto insurance.

Now that I’ve moved into a new photo studio I wish that I had the money to make it look cool and comfortable.  Right now the space is simply that . . . a space.  It is great for shooting but there are no chairs, no desk, no anything – but lights and other equipment.  I’ve seen pictures in the magazines of these really cool studio setups with great client areas and have drooled.

So searching the Internet I can across a website for a company that specializes in “office refurbishment”.  They have some really cool designs.  I don’t need a refurbishment I need a design from scratch, which I’m sure the complete group does also.  Well this company is in the UK so for me they are kind of out.  But hey you never know!  Perhaps they’ll find this post, allow me to email them some pictures and dimensions of the space and they could put together an idea.  So if anyone from the Complete Group in Kent wants to contact me about an office refurbishment please contact me using the link above!  If you live in the UK and especially in the Kent area and need interior office design you may want to check these guys out.

Rather than take a new screen shot I just took the one from SEOmoz:

We started out with a cucumber appetizer and some steamed edamame.  Both of these dishes were presented well and tasted fantastic!  Then came the sushi.  We all decided on some rolls.  My daughter got the veggie roll and I got the house Midori roll and some other one that I wish I could remember the name of.  The rolls looked great were a veritable plethora of palatability!  When we had finished the rolls we were full but wanted to eat more just for the taste.

Anyone going to the Mount Pleasant area should definitely check out this newer restaurant.

I tried to look up the name of the roll that we had but the website says coming summer of 2011 and now it’s winter 2012!  Ahh Michigan businesses can’t ever seem to get this Internet stuff worked out.  (if the owner of Midori sees this post call me I’ll put together the website and do the food photography in exchange for food!).  I didn’t have my good camera and flashes with me so the pictures here were taken with my Android phone.

Midori can be found on Facebook at – https://www.facebook.com/midorimp

And while you’re on Facebook be sure to like my photography page – https://www.facebook.com/defoephoto

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the job I do and have done for the past 8 1/2 years is in the top five: Marketing

“I’m not talking about old-school marketing communications. Companies are looking for expert online marketers who know how to create a buzz of inbound marketing or viral traffic through the web, social media, and content discovery.  Writing a good press release just doesn’t cut it anymore, as everyone is looking for the savvy online marketing professional who understands how the current state of the web operates and knows how to make it work to their benefit.”

Not only have I been full time employed doing inbound marketing but I’ve been doing it in an extremely difficult and competitive market – automotive.

Perhaps I am under paid (don’t we all think that we are) and it’s time to market myself to the business owner and get a big fat raise or at least a company car!

It is sites like this that show the real power of the Internet.  Traditional media makes one would think that the Internet is just full of rip off artists trying to sell us knock-off hand bags and a place for people to steal music and movies.

In the post where I became familiar with this website the site owner, Noah’s Dad, stated a very disturbing statistic, “90% of babies born with Down syndrome are aborted because they are often considered to be "a burden" on the family.”  WOW really!!!  He also went on to say, “In my case I was very surprised to learn it was not only not a burden, it was the best year of my life.”

If you are a parent with a down syndrome child be sure to check out the http://noahsdad.com/new-parent-guide/.

Driving into work this morning I followed a car carrier down I-75 off the ramp to M25 and all the way to Labadie GMC.  Because I was on my way to work and I thought it was kind of funny that this truck was going to the same place I had to snap a picture with my cell phone when we got to the stop light on Euclid Avenue.

This is the logo that was created by the SVSU student:

I like this logo a lot.  But since I can’t get info from the creator (Katherine Karnes) I decided to try a few derivatives of my own.

This was my first attempt:

I like it as a stand alone logo but it does not look good when watermarked on a picture.

So here is my second attempt:

This last logo works well when used as an image watermark.

But is it to generic? 

In general chocolate is not my favorite but when the order went through they shipped me chocolate.  Looking at the recipes online for chocolate Shakeology I decided that I can make a morning coffee shake and see how it goes.  Now on my second day this was a good purchase.  A cup of cold Starbucks coffee with some frozen blueberry’s and a scoop of Shakeology is my new “wake me up” morning routine.  I’m looking forward to seeing the results that are posted on the Shakeology website take place in my life.

The morning drink is the easy part.  Now can I fit 6 days a week of exercise into my life!