Alfonzo

So some news happened in the world of Edgardo Alfonzo. He was released by the Angels, and signed to a minor league contract with the Blue Jays a week later. I went to wikipedia to update his page but noticed that someone had beaten me to it. Not only that but they added some other interesting content. It contained information on why he really is my favorite Met. He is so clutch, and the paragraph someone added, identifies just that. It's funny that no one has edited his page all semester and I check a week or so after the semester ends and there have been some pretty significant changes to a relatively dormant page. Interesting.

ClickZ

I was looking through a number of articles on ClickZ and stumbled across one that really caught my attention. The article was about the increasing revenue and success of women. This demographic has "gone from being a minority market to majority players in virtually every industry you can imagine." Not only that, but way back in 2000 women overtook the number of men using the internet. This looks like an untapped market. Out in the real world McDonald's has made a killing off of its addition and marketing of salads to women.

With women's increasing use of the internet, and the increasing popularity of the internet in general, it is essential for businesses to realize this opportunity. It is also essential to realize that not all women are into shopping, shoes, and makeovers. It is important to realize what your specific market is interested in. For example, if you are looking to advertise to new mothers it would be a good idea to advertise your product on children's nutrition, learning, and gaming websites. This concept is just the same as is in any channel of entertainment. If you know your target market listens to a certain radio station, advertise your product on that station. Magazines like Parents may want to advertise toys for children. Pending on research, it may even be a good idea to advertise gambling or even new television programs. Using these ideas, marketing personel should look specifically into who is viewing each website. Based on the specific demographics of the website the company can determine whether or not its product could generate interest on this particular web page. Companies that are not in competition with each other but generate the same audience may want to work together. A jewlery company such as DeBeers, a shopping bag and shoe company like Gucci, and a clothing store like Victoria's Secret, could team up together. Since they are not really in competition with one another they can advertise each other's products on their websites. If they work together they can generate a significant increase in sales. One typically would not see advertisements on any of these sites, but as time moves on advertisers will find a way to advertise more thoroughly on the internet. And as the future will see more internet advertising, the smart money would be to focus these advertisements to women as they are taking over. Sorry boys.

Naked Conversations

Today I decided to check up on our old friend Shel Israel. Apparently, there is a Boise Bloggers Dinner, and he attended it Monday night. Believe it or not the story does get more interesting. At this dinner, he met Jim McKeeth who works for Washington Group International (WGI). I have never heard of this company and neither had Shel. According to their website, they are an Integrated Engineering, Construction, and Management Solutions company. Apparently, WGI is one of the largest companies in its field doing business in 40 states and 30 countries. WGI's mission statement, which can be found on the website says, "We provide the talent, innovation, and proven performance to deliver integrated engineering, construction, and management solutions for businesses and governments worldwide."

So what does this all have to do with Shel? Jim wanted to ask Shel's expert opinion on starting an internal blog for two reasons. The first being that many of the current employees and nearing the end of their career, and Jim wanted a good way for these essential employees to help pass their wisdom down to the current, and future employees. Personally I think this is a great idea. The older employees have much more experience with the company and have tried things that work and have tried things that don't work. By sharing this information, it can allow the current employees to focus on what has worked in the past, and can anaylze what has gone wrong in the past and work on improving it for the future. When this knowledge is shared, it saves an exorbitant amount of time and allows the company to continuously move forward. The second reason for the internal blog was for interdepartmental collaboration. The company had spent a lot of money hiring outside experts to help solve an error in a project. It turns out that these experts learned their trade by reading a book that was written by a GI employee in another division! This type of error should never occur in a business. By using a blog, employees can blog about a particular problem. Someone in every division should be responsible for reading the blog. This person should be in charge of doing everything that they can to help other divisions in need of their services. Costly mistakes like the one described before would never happen if this system was enacted. Sharing knowledge and keeping all of the departments on the same page will undoubedtly lead to a more successful business.

My question is why stop here? The company should have an external blog as well. They can let the public know about what they are doing, what the company is about, how they are helping the community, and so on. Neither Shel or I have ever heard of this company before, so setting up a blog might be a good idea to let people know about the company. A positive spin can be established in the blog which in turn may attract more potential customers.

On a more selfish note I can't help but notice all the job opportunities that will shortly be opening up in this company. I also can't help but notice the lack of blog or any sort of marketing to help get the brand name out there. I'm a marketing, management, and operations management major, which are all skills that may help this company out. Maybe I should do a little more research on the company and send in an application next year. Oh, and here's the permalink for the article. Enjoy that.

JAWS Summary

This blog was the most difficult for me to work on. JAWS is my all time favorite movie. I mean what's cooler than a man eating shark terrorizing some poor beach community? That is entertainment. I have always been a fan of the water. Most people see Jaws and never want to go back into the water. Well this movie did pretty much the opposite for me. I found the life of sharks extremely interesting. Ever since I saw this movie, I always watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, I have read many books on sharks, and always want to see any new terrorizing shark movie. But nothing will ever compare to Jaws.

The first thing I wanted to edit was some information on the book's author, Peter Benchley. Sadly, I found out that he had passed in February. I added some information on the topic onto the Jaws site, but it was removed. I saw that peter had his own page, and all of that information was already available on it.

On a more positive note everything else I had added continues to thrive on the site. I added a Deleted Scenes link, which played most of the scenes that didn't make the final cut. If footage could not be seen, the scene that was deleted was briefly summarized. I also added a Trailers section. I was searching the web and I came across the original Jaws trailer. I thought adding this link to the site would be interesting for the many fans of Jaws. I found a second trailer to the movie and I included that as well.

As I discussed in my True Romance post, I am a sucker for Memorable Quotes. I believe many people would love to see their favorite quotes verbatim. As I did for my True Romance Memorable Quotes page, I googled quotes from Jaws, and read through the script. I found many great quotes. I added my favorites to the page. Since I have made this post I saw that someone added quite a memorable quote that I seemed to have left out. I think it's really cool that someone else added onto something I created to make the Jaws site better. Overall, I am impressed with the variety of content I was able to bring to the page. I also enjoyed learning more about my favorite movie.

True Romance Summary

At first I wanted to write about Pulp Fiction, my tied for first all time favorite movie. Obviously, anyone who has been keeping up with my blog knows the other is JAWS. But True Romance and Natural Born Killers are my next favorites. This semester I have been talking more and more about True Romance with many of my friends. A lot of my friends that have never seen it now have and love it. Some of my friends who I didn't even know had seen it, told me that they loved it. It certainly does have a cult following. Based on what I have seen on Pulp Fiction's page on wikipedia, I had become inspired to add as much quality and depth onto the True Romance page.

After seeing the movie at least 20 times, I have most of the thing memorized. Based on what I knew about the movie, I added an entire plot summary, with Parts 1 & 2 being separated by the famous Sicilian Scene. A section for the Sicilian Scene was already there, but I changed it a bit to make it flow more with the two plot summaries I had written. The plot summaries I wrote were extremely in depth, and included most details of the film. I realize my writing skills aren't exactly my strength, so I had actually hoped someone would edit my work and make it flow better. No such luck. Since I have been making edits to the page, my edits were the only ones I noticed. I plan to look into improving the quality of my work sometime in the future.

Another section I added was Memorable Quotes. I'm a sucker for memorable quotes. I find myself often quoting movies without people even realizing it. The writer of this film as well as many other of my favorites, Quentin Tarantino, writes very powerful and clever material. I love his style. I enjoyed searching the web and reading through the script, and picking out my favorite ones. Anytime I want to see an entire list of great quotes from this movie I can just check it out on wikipedia. I think that's pretty sweet.

Edgardo Alfonzo Summary

Editing the Edgardo Alfonzo page was a delight. When Alfonzo came up he instantly became my favorite player. He played third base which was my position, and he played with a lot of heart. He was a quiet guy that always worked hard, it was hard not to like him. For my Bar Mitzvah I bought myself an authentic Edgardo Alfonzo jersey, which I still have and treasure. Oh, and he wears number 13. That's my favorite number. Onto the wiki. All of my edits are still up. Here is a summary of what was added.

I added 3 highlights.

* Finished second in Gold Glove balloting on 3 occasions; in 1997 as a third basmeman, and in 1999 and 2001 at second base. Alfonzo finished third in the voting as a third baseman in 1999 and fourth in 2004 at second base.
* Currently ranks third in New York Mets franchise history with 1,136 hits and fifth with 538 RBI.
* Currently ranks first in New York Mets franchise history with 123 runs scored in a single season. This feat was accomplished in the 1999 season.

The exact edits I have made are in italics.

He bats and throws right handed, and is 5'11 and 187 pounds. Alfonzo has worn the number 13 throughout his career

* .......and made his debut on April 26th of the 1995 season

* During his rookie season, Alfonzo spent most of his time at third base while accumulating a .310 batting average after the mid-season break.

* As a member of the Angels, Alfonzo's playing time continues to decrease in favor of younger players.

I believe these edits have all really increased the value of this Edgardo Alfonzo page. Hey, I've been hearing some rumors you may get traded back to the Mets! Make it happen Omar!

New York Mets Summary

From the time I started editing The New York Mets wikipedia page until today, there have been some major changes to the page for the better. I can proudly say that I am at least 1% of the reason this site has improved. And that makes me happy because I love the Mets and sharing my knowledge of them with whoever will listen. Apparently there are a lot of Mets fans out there who care, due to the vast changes the site has seen. Here are some of the changes that I have made specifically, and the alterations made to my changes.

General Manager Jim Duquette brought in Kris Benson for Ty Wigginton at the trade deadline just before sending highly-touted pitching prospect Scott Kazmir to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the disappointing Victor Zambrano. I had called Kazmir a jewel pitching prospect, otherwise this sentence is the same and has stayed in the article.

..........in exchange for prospects Mike Jacobs, Yusmeiro Petit, and Gaby Hernandez. This stayed the same. Yes!

Minaya also made major changes to the pitching staff, signing star closer Billy Wagner and trading starters Kris Benson and Jae Weong Seo for hard throwing relievers Jorge Julio and Duaner Sanchez and minor league pitching prospect John Maine.
I had included " But despite improving the quality and depth of the bullpen, the Mets lost 2 good starting pitchers. As the 2006 season draws near, starting pitching has become the biggest concern for the Mets. Ace Pedro Martinez has an injured toe, but Nike is developing a cleat that should ease the pain." after that sentence. Unfortunately, this information is no longer there.

This edit "The Opening Day Line-up was 1.Reyes SS 2.Lo Duca C 3.Beltran CF 4.Delgado 1B 5.Wright 3B 6.Floyd LF 7.Nady RF 8.Hernandez 2B 9.Glavine SP." is still on the site!

I had included a list of all of the Mets managers and their records for each season. This was removed in favor of adding a link specifically for past Mets managers.

I also included several interesting facts about the Mets on the page as well. All but 2 of them remain. One of them was removed because it was a record and there was a specific link of the page to see Mets records. The other fact I had included now has it own box at the top right of the page. This includes all the numbers of Mets who have been retired.

I believe I have made an impact on this page for the better of Mets fans. This was an interesting experience to deal with a website that was constantly updated by so many different people. I will continue to keep an eye on this site in the future.

Jam Cruise

Fortunately, I had the absolute pleasure of getting to meet Rob last spring as we had about 3 of the same classes together. I one day noticed his tie dye Grateful Dead shirt and decided to strike up a conversation, as my parents have really got me into The Dead. We then became friends talking about all different types of music. Rob is more into the bluegrass/folk/jam type music than I am, but he was able to broaden my musical horizons. One day he asked me if I had ever heard of Yonder Mountain String Band. I had not, so he burned me a copy, and I really enjoyed it. Not quite my type of music, but it's still pretty good stuff. Fittingly, I am listening to it as I post on Rob's Jam Cruise post.

Rob is definately helping me continue my musical learning with all of his great posts. Jam Cruise is something that I had never heard of. Imagine being on a cruise where all you do is play music and listen to other people play music while visiting some of the most gorgeous islands the world has to offer. I really couldn't think of anything I'd rather do. That sounds like a boat load of fun. (Did you catch that pun......I crack myself up.) For some reason, after hearing about this it reminded me of Festival Express. For those unfamiliar with Festival Express, it is a great tour of many fantastic bands that traveled across the country and Canada. It is just cool to see how jam tours have evolved. Back in 1970, they took a train, and now they take a cruise ship. Granted the concept of Jam Cruise is slightly different as they are not playing for a packed audience, but it is interesting to see the progression of different types of jam bands and types of tours they take.

It seems most of the artists are into a bluegrass, funky style, jam band type music. It must be so cool to see a bunch of different artists just getting together and jamming, and making all sorts of new music. The only thing I was confused about is whether this cruise is open to the public. Rob mentioned that the artists are also passengers and that passengers on the boat are performers like everyone else. If this is the case, i should learn how to play an instrument and get myself aboard! Otherwise, where can i get some tickets?

AdSense

I added that AdSense jazz to the bottom of my blog. Maybe I'll get paid for that. That would be flippin' sweet!

Tres de JAWS

I was running out of interesting things to add to the wiki for JAWS but as I was googling JAWS and searching for ideas, I came across the idea of adding trailers. I found the original trailer and a second one as well, so I added them to the wiki.

Trailers
The original trailer can be viewed at http://www.retrojunk.com/details_trailer/54/. A second trailer can be viewed at http://videodetective.com/home.asp?PublishedID=1756.

For a fishy good time check out the entire JAWS page!

True Romance

Since I love this movie so much, and there are so many great quotes from it, I thought it would be a good idea to add a memorable quotes section. So here it is.

Memorable Quotes
"You know who I am, Mr. Worley? The anti-Christ - you get me in a vendetta kinda mood. You tell the angels in Heaven that you've never seen Evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you." Vincent Coccotti
"What I have to offer you. That's as good as it's gonna get and it won't ever get that good again." Vincent Coccotti
"Woulda got away with it. But ya son ... FUCKHEAD that he is, left his driver's license in a dead guy's hand." Vincent Coccotti
"I haven't killed anybody since 1984." Vincent Coccotti
"He must have thought it was white boy day. It ain't white boy day, is it?" Drexl
"If you gave me a million years to ponder, I would've never guessed that true romance and Detroit would ever go together." Alabama
"No thanks? What does that mean? Means you ate before you came down here? All full. Is that it? Naw, I don't think so. I think you're too scared to be eatin'. Now, see we're sittin' down here, ready to negotiate, and you've already given up your shit. I'm still a mystery to you. But I know exactly where your ass is comin' from. See, if I asked you if you wanted some dinner and you grabbed an egg roll and started to chow down, I'd say to myself, "This motherfucker's carryin' on like he ain't got a care in the world. Who know? Maybe he don't. Maybe this fool's such a bad motherfucker, he don't got to worry about nothin', he just sit down, eat my Chinese, watch my TV." See? You ain't even sat down yet. On that TV there, since you been in the room, is a woman with her titties hangin' out, and you ain't even bothered to look. You just been starin' at me. Now, I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties." Drexl
"I'm not eatin' 'cause I'm not hungry. I'm not sittin' 'cause I'm not stayin'. I'm not lookin' at the movie 'cause I saw it seven years ago. It's "The Mack" with Max Julian, Carol Speed, and Richard Pryor, written by Bobby Poole, directed by Michael Campus, and released by Cinerama Releasing Company in 1984. I'm not scared of you. I just don't like you. In that envelope is some payoff money. Alabama's moving on to some greener pastures. We're not negotiatin'. I don't like to barter. I don't like to dicker. I never have fun in Tijuana. That price is non-negotiable. What's in that envelope is for my peace of mind. My peace of mind is worth that much. Not one penny more, not one penny more." Clarence
"Hey, get some beer, and some....cleaning products." Floyd
As the sun sets slowly in the west we bid a fond farewell to all the friends we've made... and, with a touch of melancholy, we look forward to the time when we will all be together again." Clarence
"Unloading? That's a helluva way to describe the bargain of a lifetime." Clarence
"Do I look like a beautiful blond with big tits and an ass that tastes like French vanilla ice-cream?" Clarence To which Elliot responds "No. No, you don't." Clarence replies "Then why are you telling me all this bullshit just so you can fuck me?"

The full page can be viewed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Romance. Enjoy!

DuPont

On Monday in class, Gary Spangler, E-Business Leader, DuPont Electronic & Communications Technologies, spoke to our class. He spoke about marketing the company as well as marketing the product. The idea of marketing the company is an excellent decision in light of scandalous companies such as Enron. If a consumer likes your company and sees that your company is doing good things for the community, this consumer will not only want to purchase your product, but may end up being a life long customer. DuPont does just this. They have a community involvement section to their website which can be viewed at http://www2.dupont.com/Social_Commitment/en_US/. If companies are just trying to sell their product, what do they have that differentiates them from the competition. By selling the actual company people will be loyal to them and the many different products that the company may develop.
Another point that Gary brought up was providing web content to address reader’s problems. If your customer can easily find the answers to the questions they may have, they will be happier, and they will be more likely to use your service. This service will increase value to the customers. When running a business it is essential to keep the customers happy. Anything the company can do to increase value to customers will certainly pay off in the short and long term.
Gary also talked about the Social Media Revolution. Markets are conversations. Marketing, e-marketing, and interactive marketing are all examples of this. Along these lines there is mobile marketing. Some examples of this are blogs, RSS, streaming video, online sponsorships, and word of mouth. Companies are able to deal directly with their customers by actually interacting with them. By blogging companies can let their customer know what’s going on in the company. After searching DuPont’s site I was unable to find any type of blogging. Blogging does have the potential to change your company’s image. For example, Microsoft was seen as an evil empire, but when they started blogging, people started to realize that they are not so evil after all. By blogging, people can see what your company is really all about, via posts by employees on the type of work they do on a typical day. This makes every company seem more human and easier for customers to relate to them. When looking around for companies that blogged, I stumbled upon this article, https://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi. This shows Fortune 500 companies that blog, and sample blogs. If customers find a company’s blog interesting, they may do some more homework on the company and eventually buy the company’s product. This in turn will lead to word of mouth. Potential customers checking out company’s websites and reading their blog, and watching streaming video on what the company is doing and what products may be available in the near future. These potential customers may spread what they hear via word of mouth or on consumer generated media such as their own personal blogs. When people read other people’s blogs raving about a certain company, it will in effect gain more customers for that company. By reading the blogs, and getting customer feedback, companies can engage influencers. For example, Xbox had developed the best game system technology wise. The only problem with this was that customers wanted to go after the system that had the best games. Playstation knew that this was the customer’s preference, so they developed excellent games for their gaming console, and they ended up destroying Xbox in sales. Every company can take a page out of Playstation’s book, and listen to what their potential customers want, and provide it for them. This will help companies tremendously.

Marquee

As you can see a sliding marquee has been added to the sidebar of my blog. I thought this would be an excellent addition to my blog. One problem that occurs is that some pictures seem to work at first, and then when I check them later they don't show up. I'm not sure why this problem is occuring, but I'll continue to keep an eye on it. I also added a sitemeter. I got it from www.bravenet.com. This does not include when I view my own page. I think the additions have vastly improved my blog.

E-Commerce

Today I applied to become an affiliate for Amazon. I'm really not sure why they needed so much of my personal information. I was extremely hesitant to give out this information as I don't even know what I gave it for. I would hope Professor Brown wouldn't have us do all of this for a website he didn't trust. Anyway, after I applied this screen came up. While I was at it, that is doing things I wasn't sure of, I went ahead and applied to host google AdWords. After I applied I verified it via email and this screen came up. I hope this is enough to meet my e-commerce requirement. Although, I would love to see what comes of all this.

3 Mets

I added some interesting facts to the Mets wiki. I personally found these facts interesting, and I believe most other Mets fans would be interested in this information as well.

The Mets first ever scheduled game was postponed due to rain on April 10, 1962 at St.Louis.
Gil Hodges hit the first home run in New York Mets history on April 11, 1962 at St.Louis.
Roger Craig is the only Met to have lost 20 or more games in a season twice (10-24 in 1962, 5-22 in 1963).
Jerry Koosman is the only Mets pitcher to have won 20 games in a season and lost 20 games in a season.
Ed Kranepool has played the most games as a Met with 1,853.
The Mets have retired four numbers; 37 for Casey Stengel, 14 for Gil Hodges, 41 for Tom Seaver, and 42 for Jackie Robinson.

Alfonzo 3

There was one more fact I was able to find on my all time favorite player and I added it to wikipedia.

Currently ranks first in New York Mets franchise history with 123 runs scored in a single season. This feat was accomplished in the 1999 season.

You will always be a Met in my heart Edgardo.