Friends & family frequently see Suzanne and me wearing our Life is Good shirts... they're some of my favorite. The company was featured on the Today Show this morning. Check it out...
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For Father's Day, I'd like...To give YOU a free book!
Yes, you read that right. It's time for a little GodInTheGarden.com giveaway.
From now (Father's Day weekend) through July 4, I'm giving you, my favorite reader, a chance to win one of three books of which I have extra copies.
The books:
First Comes Love (Scott Hahn) - A wonderful read on the basics of marriage, life, children, and family in the context of Christian doctrine.
ManAlive (G.K. Chesterton) - A (short fiction) book by my favorite English-speaking author of the last century about the sheer joy of being alive and how fun it is to push life's little boundaries.
The Online Advertising Playbook (the Advertising Research Foundation) - For my ad junky friends, this is the "textbook" of online ads that ARF released last year.
How to score a free book?...
From now (Father's Day weekend) through July 4, there are four ways to enter into the drawing for the free book:
1) Post a comment to any entry. Be sure to leave the correct contact info in your post so that we can contact you. Every approved post equals one entry into the blind drawing for the book.
2) Sign up for RSS updates via your RSS reader. A secret code will appear at the bottom of all entries via RSS. Email me your contact info and the secret code for an entry.
3) If you have a blog, link to this post. Email me a link to your post mentioning the contest so we know to add an entry for you.
4) Order an item from the God In The Garden Online Store (see the button in the navigation above.) Score one entry for each item you order.
You can enter one or all of the above ways - and you can enter via #1 multiple times (for multiple comments.) The deadline to enter is Friday, July 4 (Happy 4th!) at 9 PM Central (just as the fireworks should be kicking off.) The winner will get their choice of book from the above and will be introduced to you on Monday morning, July 7.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is the big GIMA panel discussion on Web Analytics, at which I'll be a panelist representing my employer (Omniture).
If you're in or connected to the industry (which includes most of my current and past coworkers, of course), please register and come out and join the event! It'd be great to see you!
The panelists (from the GIMA website):
Tim Doolittle
Tim Doolittle is the Vice President of Marketing Science for Charter Communications where he is responsible for Charter's direct marketing infrastructure, customer research, customer analytics, marketing performance measurement, and marketing finance. Mr. Doolittle has over 18 years experience in corporate finance, marketing strategy, marketing analytics, and direct marketing. His recent focus has been the development and application of customer specific insights to drive profitable revenue growth.
Prior to joining Charter Communications, Mr. Doolittle worked in management consulting with Ernst & Young, The Peppers & Rogers Group and most recently with CSC as a Principal in Customer Intelligence practice, specializing in customer interaction strategy.
As a consultant, Mr. Doolittle has worked with a variety of companies such as DIRECTV, SBC, Disney, Compaq, Schering Plough, The Vanguard Group, MetLife, Aramark, Cabela's, and Office Max. Mr. Doolittle holds a B.S. from the University of Missouri and an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.
Michael Halbrook
Omniture Consultant Michael Halbrook has been involved in interactive media in the St. Louis area for over 10 years. A decade ago, he managed and built the first websites for KPNT (105.7 The Point), WVRV (101.1 The River), and KXOK (97.1 The Rock.) He then moved into production, managing Interactive media projects and production for dozens of corporate clients at Avatar Studios. On the agency side of the business, he was a new media analyst and strategist at Rodgers Townsend, helping to grow the interactive discipline at RT, especially as a direct media discipline.
Seeing the power of the knowledge and analysis to support business decisions surrounding interactive media, he made the leap to a full-time analysis role. With media, production, and agency experience under his belt, he now supports Omniture Discover OnPremise customers as a business analyst and technical consultant.
His primary focus is on using Omniture Discover OnPremise to develop models for measuring and analyzing clients' online marketing and advertising efforts and the related web click stream data. His current client engagements include AT&T, Target, Cisco, Discover Financial, and Wells Fargo.
Colleen Zurliene
Senior Product Manager for Marketing Technologies at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. One of her areas of expertise is customer behavior tracking and analytics. In this capacity she plays a leadership technology role in implementation and ongoing management of various analytic tools used at Enterprise. These tools include a custom web logging and reporting application, CoreMetrics web analytics and the company's direct marketing database.
If you're in or connected to the industry (which includes most of my current and past coworkers, of course), please register and come out and join the event! It'd be great to see you!
The panelists (from the GIMA website):
Tim Doolittle
Tim Doolittle is the Vice President of Marketing Science for Charter Communications where he is responsible for Charter's direct marketing infrastructure, customer research, customer analytics, marketing performance measurement, and marketing finance. Mr. Doolittle has over 18 years experience in corporate finance, marketing strategy, marketing analytics, and direct marketing. His recent focus has been the development and application of customer specific insights to drive profitable revenue growth.
Prior to joining Charter Communications, Mr. Doolittle worked in management consulting with Ernst & Young, The Peppers & Rogers Group and most recently with CSC as a Principal in Customer Intelligence practice, specializing in customer interaction strategy.
As a consultant, Mr. Doolittle has worked with a variety of companies such as DIRECTV, SBC, Disney, Compaq, Schering Plough, The Vanguard Group, MetLife, Aramark, Cabela's, and Office Max. Mr. Doolittle holds a B.S. from the University of Missouri and an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.
Michael Halbrook
Omniture Consultant Michael Halbrook has been involved in interactive media in the St. Louis area for over 10 years. A decade ago, he managed and built the first websites for KPNT (105.7 The Point), WVRV (101.1 The River), and KXOK (97.1 The Rock.) He then moved into production, managing Interactive media projects and production for dozens of corporate clients at Avatar Studios. On the agency side of the business, he was a new media analyst and strategist at Rodgers Townsend, helping to grow the interactive discipline at RT, especially as a direct media discipline.
Seeing the power of the knowledge and analysis to support business decisions surrounding interactive media, he made the leap to a full-time analysis role. With media, production, and agency experience under his belt, he now supports Omniture Discover OnPremise customers as a business analyst and technical consultant.
His primary focus is on using Omniture Discover OnPremise to develop models for measuring and analyzing clients' online marketing and advertising efforts and the related web click stream data. His current client engagements include AT&T, Target, Cisco, Discover Financial, and Wells Fargo.
Colleen Zurliene
Senior Product Manager for Marketing Technologies at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. One of her areas of expertise is customer behavior tracking and analytics. In this capacity she plays a leadership technology role in implementation and ongoing management of various analytic tools used at Enterprise. These tools include a custom web logging and reporting application, CoreMetrics web analytics and the company's direct marketing database.
Photo by the nonist
This blog post - over at Art of Manliness - caught my attention and quickly zoomed onto my personal little "Top 5 Blog Posts of All Time" (although I can't name the other 4 off the top of my head.)
Although I think that the Bible should have been listed first (and I and several other commenters have noted that), it's still a great list, and reading through it brought back some GREAT memories of reading those books - from the way my imagination painted the stories to the places I was and the people I was with in life as I was reading them.
It also added a few more to my list of "I should read this book" books. Check it out.
I'll do another reminder early next week, but wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I'll be a panelist at the GIMA (Gateway Interactive Marketing Association) panel on Web Analytics next Wednesday evening at Monarch in Maplewood, representing Omniture. If you're interested, please join us!
I've collected a lot these last couple of days, and it's just been awaitin' a place to live... so here goes my little laundry list of interesting stuff, fascinating finds, and whatnot...
- The Washington Post hits another one out of the ballpark with some tremendous coverage of young (~30... hey! my age!) parents in NoVA (northern Virginia, for those unfamiliar with where my "main office" for my day job is located) that attend Mass in a very traditional, "old school", conservative Catholic parish. God bless them and this wonderful parish.
"Young, orthodox Catholics are more enthusiastic about Benedict than are many in the older generation, said Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of 'The New Faithful,' a book about the youthful set. 'They like his countercultural stance on a lot of things. . . . They also like his emphasis on Catholic identity and fidelity to Catholic doctrine.'
"Like Catholics of their generation, young conservatives grew up under the liberalizing changes to the church brought on by the Vatican II Council in the 1960s, but some rejected those reforms as they reached adulthood.
"Paulitz, 32, remembers 'lots of guitars and banjoes' at church services and priests who had fallen away from church doctrine.
'"I felt uncomfortable about it constantly,' he said.
"Those who eschew artificial birth control and have large families say they hear comments and rude remarks when they venture out with their children: 'Don't you have enough?' and 'Aren't you done yet?'
"Sam Fatzinger, a Bowie mother of 11, has learned to respond with a tart: 'No, I'm just getting warmed up.'"
- Try this test over at Ten Reasons that "every Catholic eighth-grader should be able to pass before graduating from a Catholic grammar school." If you don't get 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 without reference support, let me know so that I can flog you with a wet noodle (just kidding, of course.) Number 12 got me. For some reason, I've never been able to remember them all. But I know people at our church that can recite them like they can their own childrens' names.
- Former coworker and good friend Nicole Hollway is pregnant! I can finally say (even though I'm happy to say I've known for weeks) since she's shared it on her blog and is actively blogging about it now. Congrats and best wishes to her and Cameron and baby! I know of one other former coworker who's also expecting - due date at around the same time - but my lips are still sealed on that one. ;-)
- Insight Scoop pulls out some wonderful Pope Benedict XVI quotes from back in his days as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (before the good old Holy Spirit singled him out to lead the Church), from his book "God and the World" about "The Essential Nature of the Church." Invest two minutes to check it out.
- William F. Buckley is remembered as "truly touched by the grace of God"... check out this report on his funeral Mass at Catholic News Service.
- Matthew over at Creative Minority Report (whose writing and coverage I absolutely LOVE lately) talks about the joys of children and the wonderment that they cause in modern society.
- From the same entry at Creative Minority Report, this wonderful t-shirt that I'm wanting to buy. I have to go ask Suzanne...
In 1933, the Golden Gate Bridge was being built in San Francisco, book
burnings were starting in Germany, and the manufacture, transport,
import, export, or consumption of alcohol in the U.S.A. was illegal. Until today.Today marks 75 years since the first Budweiser Clydesdales departed the brewery here in St. Louis pulling a carriage heading to Washington, D.C. with the first post-prohibitino beer bound for President FDR. The old story around these parts is that the President was a fan of beer and that the first lady was a fan of horses, so AB made sure both were covered.
"When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before."
- John D. Rockefeller, 1932
Today's Belleville News Democrat covered the Lincoln festivities happening next weekend in Alton in great detail in the "Sunday Magazine." The cover article even included a quote from none other than Suzanne! See if you can spot the "Halbrook" name in this article.
A few weeks ago, Starbucks (love 'em or hate 'em) launched a new social networking / conversation with customers site where customers (with a Starbucks.com account) could post their ideas for the company to improve its Products, Experience, or Involvement. The jury is still out on whether all of the initial posts were legitimate or some were planted, but one (legit or planted?) is about to come true, even though it's still marked as "**UNDER REVIEW***" on the MyStarbucksIdea.com site:
Next week, it seems, you'll be able to get a little stick-insert in your to-go cup lid that'll keep your coffee from splashing out and spilling on you in the car.
Here's the "idea" on the site:
Tonight, at a Starbucks I happened by (I won't identify which location here to keep the staff out of trouble, since they made it clear they weren't supposed to pull these out until next week, but the package already happened to be open), I scored this:
So... I like the little device a lot. Suzanne has one piece of feedback though... she's worried that if she isn't careful about how she pulls it out of the opening in the cup, she'll end up with coffee and/or milk/creamer from her drink all over herself from it splashing out with the stick. One thing's for sure: it's nice, well-branded, multi-functional, and keeps in mind the MyStarbucksIdea concern over the residue left by little stickers over the hole.
What do you think? Good improvement on the old drive-thru coffee? Unnecessary? And was the idea a "plant" or legitimate and well-executed this quickly?
About this Blog
Michael Halbrook lives in Granite City, IL (a steel town suburb of St. Louis, MO) and loves his God, his wife, his two sons, his family and friends, his music, and his garden. He's pastoral council president and a music director at Holy Family Church in Granite City.