I love New Years resolutions and new beginnings. I’ve always been the kind of person who gets in a fight with his wife/mom/friend and then wakes up the next day completely over it. I’m not sure if it is the lack of energy for fighting and grudge-holding, a throwback to my athletic/coaching background or a very naive way to get through life. Either way, it works for me.

These are my personal goals for 2011. They don’t include family goals (who doesn’t want their kid to grow up healthy and smart?) and they don’t include work goals (need to nail that tech deep dive presentation). Some of these goals are measurable, many are not (I’m aware of the consequences of non-quantifiable goals). I am putting them in writing to keep track of them, and to hold myself accountable to them.

1. Lose 42 pounds. Totally doable and well overdue. Recently inspired by Tim Ferriss’s “4 Hour Body” book. The uneven number is so that I can remember how many. This goal includes some sub-goals:
   • Cut out soda, 100% (I did this successfully in 2008)
   • Take my lunch to work 80% of the time
   • Workout every night I’m in a hotel (I travel a lot)
2. Read at least 24 books in 2011 – I got a Kindle for Christmas so I’m going to use to take advantage of all that flight time
• Read 10 Presidential Auto/biographies – and have always wanted to read more about our Presidential history. This is the year to do it. I finished Decision Points and am about through with “His Excellency: George Washington.”
• Read five well-selected professional development books. This has never been an issue for me, but it’s noted regardless.
• Read five fiction books – I ALWAYS enjoy reading fiction and it’s a great escape from work stuff. I still need to finish Atlas Shrugged form last year’s goals.
3. Learn more about Venture Capital and the process of starting a “Start Up.”
4. Take more photographs – I took A LOT in 2010, I want to take better ones in 2011.
5. One post per week on this blog – not an average, but one per week to keep it fresh.
6. Spend half the time I do on Facebook – not that it’s that much, anyways, currently.
7. Join a Board of Directors.

That’s it for now. I may add a few as the year goes on, but I probably won’t remove any.

(This is my 100th post at www.whereisjohnwilson.com)

I haven’t taken as many photos as I’ve wanted to this year, but I did get some good ones at the Coastal Carolina Fair near Charleston, SC this year. This was Parker’s first trip to the fair. He got to pet all kinds of animals, ride his first carnival ride and watch his mother and I eat fried Oreos (very exciting for him I’m sure).

If you go next year, I highly suggest you go during the day. There was a shooting on the last night of the fair, and until they can prevent the hoodlums from ruining it for everyone, I don’t suggest going after dark. We went during both the South Carolina and Clemson Football games, so there weren’t too many people there.

Here are some photos from the Coastal Carolina Fair:

Parker on his first Carousel ride.

Parker and his Momma on the Carousel

Not thrilled with all of the animals making noises.

One MILLION Calories

Leaving the Fair (I guess he didn’t get enough of the Fried Oreos

You can see the other 25 photos here at the whereisjohnwilson.com flickr page.

Not really any good excuses for not getting more content up here. I’ve been doing lots of traveling and my son takes up a lot of what would be good writing time. Then there’s all the good games that come out at this time of the year… (excuses).

I keep a list of things I want to write about when I actually sit down to write. Here are a few of them:

• Free wi-fi for Delta fliers from Google
• Pictures with the family from this summer
• The Coastal Carolina Fair
• Daddy-Gamer
• Google Calendar for Families
• Divorcing the Emergency Row on Delta
• Going Platinum
• In-fighting at Delta
• Visiting San Francisco
• Alcatraz
• Halloween Horrors in Mt. Pleasant

Now I just have to take advantage of the free Delta Wi-Fi through Christmas and get some of these half written posts up.

Hopefully I can get a little help from my Director of Marketing (pictured below). He lays behind me on the couch when he’s napping, and I sit on the floor so he can’t roll off. Today, when he woke up, he was real interested in the document I was working on. Here is the picture I took from my Mac’s camera:

My wife entered our son into the “Gerber Generation Photo Search” to be the next Gerber baby for commercials. Here are the instructions on how to vote for Parker.

1. go to http://www.gerber.com/photo/#/vote/

2. Click “Search Photos” – do NOT be distracted by all of the cute faces – yes, I know they are adorable, but I need you to FOCUS

3. In the name field type “77331″ (no quotes)

4. Click vote (easier than voting for President)

5. Be sure to fill in your name, email address and the security code. You can vote once a day per computer per email address.

Thanks!

Vegas is smokin’, literally.

I was in Las Vegas this week for a convention in Caesar’s Palace. I had an outstanding room, ate great food, and had an enjoyable conference. I even got to meet Joe Montana. Tough to beat that.

I stayed in the brand new “Augustus Tower” of Caesars. It is on the southern most end of the complex (Caesar’s Palace is ginormous) with a beautiful view overlooking the fountains at the Bellagio.

The walk from the Augustus Tower to the convention ball rooms on the other end of the complex is a good 10 minute walk. On the first day of the conference I was walking toward the convention when a seedy looking guy started walking towards me smoking a cigarette. You can’t smoke cigarettes inside was the first thing that went through my mind (quickly followed by, why is this guy staring at me). I passed the guy and continued on to the convention, but I couldn’t shake the site of the cigarette in his hand.

I’m probably spoiled from living in cities with full indoor smoking bans. With all we know about the harm first and second hand smoke cause, I can’t believe people still smoke, period. Seeing people smoke indoors is entirely more foreign. Certain parts of Caesars (which I loved in whole) have very low ceilings, and you can feel the smoke burrowing into your pores. I’m also interested in if when people sit down and light up right beside someone obviously not smoking, do they feel self-conscience of their habit, or vindictive towards non-smokers who have taken over the rest of the nation?

Would a casino that disallowed smoking completely recognize a net gain or loss in gaming and food? I wonder if anyone has done this study? I would certainly sit longer and spend more if I was thinking about gaming and not about the sore throat I was getting from ingesting their bad habit.

Sound off below. Can casinos and other similar entities successfully market a non-smoking environment?

Picture credits: Superfantastic on Flickr

Dear South Carolina,

I hope this letter finds you well. Other than the Governor and his soon-to-be ex-wife on the television a bunch, things here in the “Low Country” have been going well. We’re getting our very own Boeing plant, the South East Wildlife Expo this weekend marks the beginning of the tourist season, and the recent oyster festival was one of the biggest yet. Not only those state-wide events, but something in the water caused my wife to get pregnant and now we’re expecting our first child, who will be a native!

I’m writing you today because I need to ask some questions about the pact we made when I moved down here. I promised you I’d pay my ridiculous tax rate, put up with the 107 degree summer days (it’s a wet heat), and learn to eat fish and all you had to do was hold up your end of the bargain.

You see, South Carolina, when all of my friends and family up north ask why I moved down here, I tell them it’s because it never gets below 50 in the winter. They’re buried in snow up to their eyeballs and I’m going for a jog in my shorts. I love to send them pictures of palm trees, and they think it’s funny when I tell them my friends from “down here” put on their heavy coats when the temperature goes below 50.

Now here’s the part I don’t understand. All the great times we’ve spent together, and when I’m not looking, you let it snow. LET IT SNOW?! Not to mention it is 30 degrees. You know no one knows how to drive when it gets like this, and you know that my Facebook page is going to be full of people who haven’t seen snow in ten years building snowmen and I’m going to have to say how cute their kids look… but I have to fake the smile because all I can think about is the fact that YOU LIED! I don’t even know if my house can stand up to this snow, the pipes could be bursting, the shingles could be falling off, my tree is already shedding branches…

South Carolina, do you know that they canceled school yesterday at 1:30pm because it was going to snow at 9pm? That is what I am dealing with down here. In West Virginia they go to school as long as the kids can see over the snow drifts. I swear the super-sized mortgage payment I pay each month has a “no snow” clause. I’m not even sure my hybrid car will turn on. I haven’t “warmed up” a car in five years and I don’t own a shovel, a scraper or a bag of salt.

To say I’m mad at you is an overstatement. Let’s call it “disappointed.” You promised me things that you haven’t been able to deliver on, and I’m not one to forget quickly. I can’t wait til it floods downtown Charleston today.

Cold with wet feet,
John Wilson

P.S. DirecTv doesn’t work in the snow. Lame.

See the rest of the photos at my flickr page here.

I probably should have known. A 7.5 hour road trip to see a band of 60 year olds is a bad idea. Not to mention it was on the same night as UFC 100, arguably the best UFC card in the history of the sport.

There was no way I could say no – it was on my wife’s bucket list, and she rarely asks for anything.

As I was closing up shop at work, a co-worker who knew I was going to the show pointed out that Aerosmith had canceled several of the last shows because of an “undisclosed injury to a band member.” I surfed the web before we left and found several sites that said, “Aerosmith confirms they will definitely have the Tampa show.”

I left work early, set my new GPS for Tampa, FL and started the 7.5 hour road trip. Of all the trips on the whereisjohnwilson.com Summer Tour, this was one I was looking forward to.

Upon arriving at the Holiday Inn Express in Tampa, the desk attendant guy says, “Hey, you guys going to the Aerosmith Concert? They canceled about two hours ago (insert evil laugh).” Mind you, they said, “we are definitely playing tomorrow night.” After doing a little research from the hotel room, Joe Perry called into some random local radio show and announced the cancellation. Nice. Don’t you think they probably knew early that morning. Wouldn’t you think they’d imagine people would be traveling to see them?

We did get to visit the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where neither of us gambled a dime (the place was packed and the lowest blackjack table was $25 a hand). We didn’t really find much to do in Tampa, though we didn’t look very hard. We drove back the 7.5 hour trip to Charleston just in time for UFC 100.

Update: Three weeks later and Live Nation still hasn’t refunded our tickets. They state they can’t give us our money back until the band reschedules the show. This makes no sense to me. No service, no pay. The way I see it, Live Nation is sitting on an interest free loan from the Bank of Wilson.

Update: see here for instructions on how to get a refund

Lessons learned:

• Never trust a rock star over 55
• Never travel more than four hours for a concert
• Tampa does a bad job of being appealing on the Internet
• Live Nation will hold your money hostage

The UFC Octagon

How Stuff Works is a great site. They have well written and well researched articles on subjects from all spectrums. They also have an excellent general subject podcast available on iTunes, including my favorite, “Stuff you Missed in History Class.”

The particular article I’d like to draw attention to tonight is “How the Ultimate Fighting Championship Works.” This article covers the basics including:

• The Octagon
• Fighting Styles
• How to win
• UFC Rules
• UFC today

Each section gives a broad overview of the sport and what to watch for in a pay-per-view, Fight Night or The Ultimate Fighter show. Unfortunately, there is no one in the UFC named “John Wilson.” However, when you put “John Wilson +UFC” into Google, my website is on top.

Other Resources for basic MMA
If you’re interested in learning more about MMA (mixed martial arts) or the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) research the following search terms:

• Jiu-Jitsu
• Muay-Tai Boxing
• Judo
• Freestyle Wrestling
• Official UFC Website
• Sherdog.com – news site
• MMA Mania – blog site
• Unofficial UFC rankings

Were there 10 people sitting around a boardroom congratulating each other because they all thought this was a good idea?

First up on this column: Aciphex.

Ass Effects?

I seriously rolled off the couch when this commercial came on for the first time. You’ll run into it on TV (see below), they play it a ton.

I’m not kidding – Aciphex is pronounced – (Ass-e-fects) Ass Effects.

To top it off – it is the most expensive of the acid reflux medicines currently on the market (sourced from http://www.destinationrx.com/)

I get that it is an acid reflux medicine, but SOMEONE at the company had to snicker when whomever came up with this said it out loud for the first time. I can see the VP of Marketing combining a few of the words from their brainstorming session together to spell A-C-I-P-H-E-X. What I can’t see is how someone didn’t blurt out: That’s what she said!

Tonight, a friend of mine saw a commercial for Bing - Microsoft’s new search engine. I was tweaking the new design of my blog and thought I should search “John Wilson” to see where I was. PAGE TWO! This begs the question – how could the number one blog in the world get it right and Bing get it wrong?

Great question. I was playing around with Bing and searched the word “search”. You’d think (at least if I was Product Manager) that Bing would be the number one result. Not so:

Where is Bing? Or Google?

Yahoo? Dogpile (I didn’t even know they still existed)? AOL? Seriously?

I thought this was weird until I ran the same search at Google…

Where is Google, Google?

Where is Product Management? This is either an example of the most pure product management or the silliest thing I’ve seen.