Ed Icionsub

Next month we are going to the Bonnaroo music festival and we are trying to figure out what to pack and what to wear for the 3 days that we can be there.

This year’s festival will have about 100 artists and bands, with multiple stages and endless music. I wish we could go for the entire festival, but we’ll have to be happy with the couple of days that we can take off from work to attend.

We are torn between wearing a t shirt that declares us a fan of a group that will be at the festival, or should we wear more classic t shirts and just buy some new shirt while at the festival of the groups that we hear while we are there?

I’m leaning toward wearing a Bob Marley t shirt on the first day and then wearing Beatles t shirts on the next day.

I favor the Bob Marley t shirt because that is a classic and a statement about music and life that every music lover understands. Even the TV comedy show, Family guy, loves Bob Marley. Have you seen the Family Guy t shirts that have Peter in a Rastafarian do and a Marley rainbow? It’s too funny!

Have been in discussions about the Asus mini-laptop for several days. This is one of the new “netbooks” that everyone is talking about.

I can’t shake the idea that this mini is all we need for the kids to use. For the most part all they want is to surf the internet for homework help and to check or write emails. The Asus Eee PC is under $300 and looks like it can handle these simple tasks plus much more.

The CEO of the company where I work now is a former U. S. Marine and very patriotic. He has an American flag on display in his private office, and framed photographs of the American Bald Eagle on the wall behind the sofa in his office.

He invited all of the managers and officers to his house for an off-site meeting and retreat last week. We were impressed with his beautiful home out in horse country. I was not surprised to see that he has a flagpole in his front yard and the American Flag was waving proudly as we drove up his driveway for the meeting.

I like to send a small but symbolic thank you gift to people with whom I meet and talk with at conventions and conferences, and seeing these flags has given me the idea that I should order a couple dozen car flags to use as these thank you gifts. The flags are such a big part of our company and our CEO’s patriotism, that I would like to spread that American pride among our business contacts and clients by sending a gift of a car flag with a hand written thank you note. I know it is something that won’t be thrown in the trash and perhaps it will inspire them in other good ways, too.

Several years ago I took a sales position with a database marketing group. The job only lasted about a year, as the boss was impossible to work for, but I learned a lot about marketing and sales. I have to give credit to the people at that company for teaching me some important lessons. (By the way, the company is now defunct because the impossible boss went to jail for tax evasion and drugs – but that’s a different story.) The people who worked for him were hand picked and were the tops in their fields. Their expertise is what took the company to its high level of success.

One of the important things I learned while there was that the main thing you need to know about using database marketing for a sales campaign is the single biggest influence on the success of your campaign will be the quality of your leads. There are lots of companies that sell sales leads, but the lists have to be targeted to the right audience, with data as current as possible (within 3-6 months of verified acuracy) and very, very clean.

I love to travel but most businesses are cutting back on employee travel and using conference calls to conduct meetings. So I am stuck here most of the time instead of having the face time with clients that I think works better than a series of phone calls. But it’s not my decision.

However, our CEO is a high profile man who travels most of the time. His life is a series of airport to hotel to board meeting to airport type of days. He flies all over the country 5 days a week, even with the cutbacks, but he insists on being home with his family on the weekend. If he absolutely cannot be home on the weekend he often arranges for his family to be flown out to wherever he is meeting using his frequent flier miles so they can have some short trips away and spend time with him. I admire his resolve and dedication to his family.

When I lived in the Washington DC area I would go to theatrical shows, dinner theaters and concerts all throughout the year. It was not hard to get good seats for any of the shows, and it was exciting to be in venues like the Kennedy Center, the National Theatre, and Arena Stage.

One place I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting to see a show is Broadway. Although I have been to New York City many times, it was always on business that consumed my time there, with little time for anything personal, like taking in Broadway shows.

Broadway has a special appeal for anyone who is a serious fan of theatre. I would love to see the Noel Coward’s play, “Blythe Spirit” starring Angela Lansbury, with Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and Jayne Atkinson. For one thing, I’m a fan of Noel Coward and for another, I’ve been a fan of Angela Lansbury for over 20 years. I miss her “Murder, She Wrote” shows. They were great little murder mysteries, neatly solved in under an hour for many years.

I’m not sure how to go about getting Broadway tickets. I am worried that if I plan a short trip to New York that the Broadway shows will be sold out and I will miss the chance to see one of the plays.

I can’t afford to pay top dollar for show tickets, so I’m fine with going on a slow night. It doesn’t have to be a weekend for me to go – as long as I can get discount tickets and know that I have seats before I book my airline ticket and commit to the date.

My youngest brother is having a birthday today so I want to take a moment to wish him a Happy Birthday. It’s not a “Big ‘0″ birthday this time, but unless I am mistaken, it is a “Big ‘5″ birthday.

Back in the early days of his career, I got him him his first job outside of the family business. The big computer company that i was working for needed people for several different types of work. I brought him in to meet with the H R Director and he was hired on the spot. He worked for the company for almost 3 years and made me proud every day that he was there.

I got an email today from the San Francisco Chronicle with an offer to subscribe to their new online edition of the daily newspaper. It’s a fair charge for a good major market newspaper, so I’m considering being a subscriber.

The Chronicle is one of the sites that I visit daily and I enjoy reading their perspective on major news events. Even more, I enjoy reading the comments left by readers at the end of each article. It is very enlightening to consider other people’s point of view on a topic, whether it is a local, national or world wide story. Sometimes I’m driven to comment, as well, and it is interesting to read the flames that my comments start fanning when I feel a little confrontational.

A few years there was an excellent documentary on TV about World War II called, “Band of Brothers,” based on the true stories of a group of men called “Easy Company.”

This was one of the most true to life, engrossing movies about the War that I’ve every seen. I’m not even a big fan of war movies, but this series was totally captivating. Directed by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, there was top talent involved in every phase of production.

There is a DVD set of the series at Sams Club for $45, with a bonus disc with the making of the movie and a further documentary on the lives of the actual men of Easy Comapny many years after the war and at a small reunion for the survivors. It is an excellent set and well worth the $45.