Sparkatopia

DateLine April 26th, 2010

9:14 PM – Post ad of Criagslist – no photos in original ad

For Sale – 2002 GMC Envoy XL 4X4 – SLT. Black. Features: Bose Premium Sound System w/ 6 CD changer, Power Sunroof, Heated Leather Seats, Self Leveling Suspension, Rain-Sensing Wipers, Seats 7 with 3rd row seating, Rear seat DVD, Rear heat and A/C, 3rd Party Remote Start, 20 inch Black Rims with Good Year Eagle’s. I have original 17′s to throw in if interested.

101,000 miles, New water pump & electric fan at 95,000. Engine run great. A/C blows cold.

Body has a few scraps from years of love and wear. Rims show signs of wear from winters in Wisconsin.

Car is viewable in Green Bay, East Side during work hours, or Appleton after 6:00 pm by appointment

Call 920-205-0033 for more info

10:00 PM – 2 phone calls already

——

April 27th, 2010

3:00 PM- John R calls asking for VIN #, says he has needs to go to the bank. Will drive to see me with his sweetheart. Meeting me at 6:15 pm…

5:45 PM – Getting trusty Professional Grade GMC Envoy washed – get phone call from Green bay, guy says he has cash in hand wanting to see the car ASAP. Have to tell him another suitor is en route… call him later

6:16 PM – John R and sweetie shoe up for test drive

7:34 PM – Titles filled out and 60 crisp, sequentially serial numbers $100 bills in my hand…

8:00 PM – Old license plates come off…

8:05 PM – John R drives off into the sunset

8:07 PM – call Green bay guy, tell him car is sold. His reply “Bummer!”

—-

Less then 24 hours from posting to sale…. Wow that was easy…

This post is in response to a fellow N.E. Wisconsin, Kate Unger , who was looking for feedback on her recent blog post titled: Twilebrities, Comets and Tweets.

It’s just funny how good things happen. Everything seems to happen for a purpose and  the old adage that my father used to say, “Good things happen to great people” fits here- I’m not sure exactly how, but it does. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to take a look, a good look, inside myself to see why I do the things I do and where I find the time to do them.  Before I can help you understand why I handle myself the way I do in social media, I think it’s important to have some background information.

I’m the oldest of 7 kids. To this day I have the best parents anyone could ask for. My mom and dad spent so much time showing me how to love, teaching respect for others and to appreciate the things around me. Sometimes it was hard to do those things due to the fact I got picked on so much in school. There were days it was so hard to go at all. But I rarely, if ever, showed that negative side of life. I never wanted to be the one to make a wave or cause issues. I didn’t try to hide it; I just kind of became oblivious to it. Kids at the elementary age can be so cruel. I too had a hand in that. It seemed that every jab that came my way; I sent two or three more out back at others.

This was not how I wanted to live my life. There had to be a better way to deal with my frustrations. Slowly over time I became to see the error in my ways. I’m not sure whether it was, 7^th or 8^th grade, but my outlook started to change. I started to see that comic relief was one way of coping. I have always laughed since I was young, but in high school things started to evolve and in college I took my love of laughter to a different level.  From that point, making people happy has been an end goal of mine. I look at it as one key for my “meaning of life.”

How do you make people happy? Well, what do people desire and crave? We all want attention, to be listened to, and for someone to find interest in us, even if only for a moment. Whether it’s a technology problem someone is having or simply wanting to celebrate success- everyone wants to be acknowledged and heard.

Fast forward to our social media discussion… Social media is the perfect place to be heard and recognized.  It is an ideal way to be “part of the conversation”.    I want to be part of the conversation, but how do I do it? I have made social media part of my daily tasks. With tools like tweetdeck, pluggio, foursquare,  hootsuite on my iphone, and a simple Kodak Zi8 video camera, I can create videos and keep others informed on where I am,  what I’m doing, and to chat with others. I have made social media an integral part of my daily routine. I imagine social media is just like a huge party. You can’t chat with everyone all at the same time, but you can jump in here and there and add to the conversion at a moments notice. Twitter fits that bill perfectly. I have over 28,000 followers and very few are online at any given time, but I can jump into any conversation, add my 2 cents and then just keep on going. I make sure to reply to comments of tidbits that hit my timeline and DM’s. I keep my tech following up to speed on the latest happenings along the way and it just works for me.

Like Lisa Cruz said, there isn’t moderation in all things… but I need mrstommytrc to know she’s #1. I try to work my social media efforts around her and the family. It is important to be considerate of sacred dinner times and weekly date night. I know this may not always happen as planned.  I know that every so often I need a reality check, but I try. I try hard to keep things in check. My family is very tolerant of me and my social media habits… it’s a balancing act I’ll always be working on to be better- for my followers and for my family.

Today I had one of those experiences that you always dream about but rarely get to be a part of. I met the most amazing twitter gal. Rewind a few months ago. @lisaredshoespr and @jessdennis were at SXSW and tweeted about meeting @cathybrowne. The talked about what a doll she was… When I tweeted that I would be coming to Vancouver for business, she immediately tweeted back that she wanted to meet me. Of course Lisa & Jess said that I MUST meet her, so the bar was set high.

Cathy traveled half hour to my hotel to meet me, what a sacrifice. Its hard to put into the words how great the 60 minutes I spent with her. I’m really not sure what it is or why I feel this way, but I’m so humbled being able to meet her. What an inspiration to have chatted and traded social media war stories. This is exactly what social media is all about and taking engagement to the highest level. THANK YOU @cathybrowne for leaving a mark on my Vancouver trip and a mark on my life. You Rock!

A few days ago, Becky brought to my attention a family in her hometown of Idaho and their 1.1 micro premie Eden. Baby Eden Swenson was born on December 28th. Eden was only 23 weeks. 4 months early, boy that little one just wanted to meet mom and dad. Becky and I kept tabs on Baby Edens progress via a blog that was set up. Daily we would check the progress of that little one. Neither Becky nor I have ever met the parents, Jeremy and Rachel, but their strength is amazing. My daughter Clara was born 6 premature. She had to spend a few days in the NICU here in Wisconsin and I saw some pretty small people in there, but I do not recall seeing anyone this small.

Today during lunch, Becky IM’d me to say that Eden had passed. Against all odds, Eden held on for 10 long days. My heart was ripped in two. I had to close my door at work and just let the tears stream down my face. I admit it I’m a softie when it comes to children. How can a family in Wisconsin be so touched by a little girl in Idaho. How does that happen?

During my drive to get the kids for what I call “big kid weekend” I vlogged about Baby Eden and the impact in my life.

Then tonight when I came home and saw the good-bye posting, WOW, it hit me again. I had to just pick up Baby Drew and hug him tight. I wish I had the right words…but are there really right words for this situation? I know of no Hallmark cards that can help.

Baby Eden, you certainly must have been a choice spirit to only need 10 days on this earth. Oh how blessed you are!! Heavenly Father must have a lot for you to do to prepare for the rest of us! What a special family to help you on your short journey. Till we meet again!

My sweetheart and I went on a date tonight and we went to Wild Truffle Pizza behind Wal-Mart on Michael Drive in Appleton. The firs thing you notice is the look of the restaurant and the wood fired oven in the back. The decor and ambiance of the place look as if it belonged more in ski resort town like Park City or Sun Valley then Appleton, Wi…but I liked the overall feel. Large tables and dim lighting made it a perfect date night spot. The food was really great. This is the type of place where presentation of the food means just as much as the taste.Mrs had the “Wild Truffle” Mac and Cheese and I had the Sweet Italian Sausage Pizza. Wild truffle is known for its pizza and I had to give it a try. Our waitress mentioned that they use flower shipped from Italy for the pizza. This was certianly no store bought pizza crust.

What a great place for dinner. I’m so glad mrstommy suggested it. Wild Truffles has an outdoor patio area too, but it was much too cold to try this this visit. We will certainly be back! One thing they do need to do is to beef up their website. It only has phone numbers, address and a scan of their menu. They must add some social medial touches to it like a bog and add themselves to facebook. Feedback is the key to growth!

UPDATE: ok after posting this my wife said I was a bit harsh on the website comment… and I tend to agree. It does say at the top in big bold letters…” PLEASE NOTE OUR OFFICIAL SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.” I guess I need to give them more latitude but the restaurant has been open for over 6 months now.

Open letter to the team at Red Shoes PR

2009 has been quite a year from me and my family. One that will be hard to top.  But, looking back, I have to ask:  Why do we live in a society where people spend so much time writing letters telling people when they do things wrong, but never enough time writing when things are going right?

As 2009 comes to a close I feel compelled to complete the circle on a few things. Sending thank you notes has been one of my goals for 2009 and I feel that I have one a pretty good job. Many times it’s hard to remember, but it’s the small things that count! However, in one specific situation, a simple written card just would not do justice.

Let me explain….

Back in February I went to my first “tweetup.” I had no idea what this would be like. Would it be a fun event or load of guys doing nothing but dinking on their tech toys? Well, it was a bit of both. Picture this…here we are at the food court of the local mall. Just like a money drop in a kidnapping, we picked a public spot, just in case things got bad. We had 3 -4 tables pushed together in the center; ten to twelve males and three lone females in attendance. The sexes were divided like Moses parting the Red Sea- guys on one end of the table with the ladies on the other. The awkwardness of a 7^th grade dance. I had been following most of them on twitter, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into… I had never met any of them “IRL,” in real life.

This is where I had my opportunity of meeting the great ladies from Red Shoes PR. Lisa, her son Manny, Karen, and Maria were all there.  I think Manny was brought to provide protection just in case things got ugly So, that’s where it all started.

Fast forward a few months… May 22^nd was a big day in the life and times of the Tommy household. It started off like any other day…you know, a trip to the local hospital to give birth to our son. A few pictures, a few tweets, and an IV drip and we were off to the races. With all the attention on mom, dad needed something to keep himself busy and out of her hair.  So twitter was it. Keeping everyone up to speed was my new job. Soon tweets started coming in from the 4 corners of the globe. Needless to say the gals at Red Shoes had their ears to the railroad tracks. One thing leads to another and soon I was getting messages from a local TV reporter at WFRV saying they were coming down to do a story?

Coming to do a story? What’s happening here?!?!?!

You all lived it so I don’t need to rehash…

What I do need to do is express my deepest thank you for the love and faith you have put in me and my family.  What started out as a lark certainly has turned out to be no joke! The term social media has no greater meaning than in my  own life experiences. The ability spread your wings and fly is exactly what has and continues to happen.  To date, my sweetheart has always been my biggest fan and cheerleader, but I now have some new faces in my cheering section… and I love it. You gave me a chance… and chance to stretch and do something I have never done before. I was given the chance to speak in front of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce which has blossomed into other speaking gigs and workshops.

2009 has turned out to be such a whirlwind year. Many companies that were pillars in their respective industries have crumbled to the ground and small business like you have flourished and continue solid growth. Red Shoes certainly didn’t get any bailouts or freebees to get along, your hard work and dedication did the trick. Just a great team of ladies…working a little, laughing a little and giving your clients exactly what they ask for…exceptional service.

This secret sauce is one that needs to be captured and bottled. I bet others would pay top dollar for this secret to success!

So to the ladies of Red Shoes PR… THANK YOU! My life has forever changed. I have a new son, I’ve honed some new talents, but most of all, I have some amazing new friends who will be in my life forever. Can it get much better than that? No it cannot!!!

YOU ALL ROCK

-  Tommy!

[this posting originally ran back early January 2008...it was so fun i'm running it again so people can know more about me...Rock on!]

I have been really into Twitter for the last few weeks, learning and growing and making it a fun outlet to meet new people and build my “social network.” I was asked by Jamie to blog about 7 things that will help people get to know be a bit better… here goes.

1. I am the largest closet drummer in the world. I have always wanted a drum set. From my early formative days to this very day I am drawn to a drum set. Large or small, percussion always pulls me into the mood. I have always been a hard core RUSH fan. I’m pretty sure its the massive drum set Neil Peart uses that really makes me smile and gets by blood moving along. The way he maneuvers the drums..he is a master of his trade. Don’t believe me, check this out. I always meant to take drum lessons when I was young. I took piano lessons as prerequisite to playing drums, but for whatever reason, I never did it. Whenever I would go over to my friend Eric’s house, I would sit at his drum set and jam like I was a rock star. To this day there are still a set of drum sticks in my closet and whenever I’m feeling really in the mood, I’ll air drum to something fun just to let out some energy. Someday I will have a large digital drum set just to sit and enjoy.
2. 5 years ago I was sent to China for business. I had the opportunity of spending 17 days in Hong Kong and Shenzen, China to visit overseas printing operations. I visited so many places and saw so many things that I have never seen before its kinda hard to get your hands around all the new sights and sounds. I think of all the lasting impressions I will have from my trip to the far east the fondest would be the gracious Chinese people. Before my journey to Hong Kong and Shenzhen. China, my whole impression of the Far East was one that CNN, Fox News and USA Today had me believe. Soldiers marching in the streets, people working in factories like robots and systems that are backwards and technologically behind…. I was wrong…so wrong! My experience in China was nothing short of a life changing experience. I tell people that my trip to China was the best thing I have done since the birth of my children…bar none. What I saw paled anything I would have dreamed.My new found love, honor, respect for the people I met is unimaginable. My stereotypes were shattered from the very start. What I saw was a pure of love, love of life, respect for there country and for the people in which they worked and served. So many hard working people trying to get from Monday to Tuesday and from here to there…just doing there thing. My experience in China was one I will never forget. Both my personal and professional life has been changed…for the better I can only hope!
3. I hate, scratch that I loath walnuts. Nasty, icky, yucky!
4. I’m the president of the Graphic Users Association of Kodak Solutions or GUA for short. This users group started out in 1996 and now has over 4000 members world wide. Kodak is a leading prepress workflow in the printing industry. I have been on the board of directors for the past 6 year and president for the past 3 years. Along with the other board members, both from within Kodak and Kodak customers, I assist in putting together the yearly conference. Last years conference was held in Vegas and had an attendance of over 300 members. This years conference will be in Orlando, Fl – May 17 – 21.
5. I served a full time mission for the LDS Church. I served for 2 years in the Nevada, Las Vegas Mission back in the late 80′s.
6. I, along with 3 of my brothers, are HUGE eBay fans. I have purchased 3 of my last cars on eBay, Volvo 850 Turbo, GMC Envoy and Cadillac SRX. My brother Chris buys and sells used Honda’s Mercedes and Porsche’s on eBay and each one of my siblings is driving an eBay vehicle purchase.
7. I build a pretty mean pinewood derby car. With the help of some tools and skills from my friends over at Derby Champ, Tommy III, my 8 yr old son, was able to win 59 of 60 races last year. This years pinewood derby is in 2 weeks so we are actively building and crafting the vehicle as we speak. The mantra you need to say over and over is “wheels and axles, wheels and axles–weight in the back” and you’ll will win every time. See for yourself.

And just in case you didn’t care for any of the 7 above, I’ll throw in a few extras:

• Growing up I had pet cats named Fred and Barney, bothers. One day as I pulled out of the driveway, I accidentally drive over barney :<. Note to self, never fall asleep on the tire when someone intends on driving the vehicle.
• During my high school years I was in the AV club, hard to believe, but yes I was.
• I’m an Eagle Scout, Both me and my younger brother Mark received our awards on the same evening.

That all folks…

Rock on!

Santa’s Special wish for Emma…

Get your own at http://portablenorthpole.tv

Tuesday evening, a co-worker and his roommate were in a terrible car accident. My co-worker friend, Adam Weston was driving. His passenger was killed instantly. Adam had been rushed to the hospital but I was told things didn’t look good. Well this morning I found out that Adam lost his life also. No one ever expects to hear such tragic news and certainly it hits home hard. I’ll be fine, just a blow…

So I just took my seat on a flight from St. Louis to Minneapolis. Nothing new or glamorous about that. The flight attendants are making their rounds up and down the isles, and one in particular seems about as condescending as could be. I realize I’m not in first class and I know perfectly well that all my luggage needs to fit in the overhead compartment or underneath the seat in front of me THANK YOU!

So as others are still getting situated and hoisting luggage into the overhead bins.. one the finest attendants on a trip past me says, “Sir, please buckle your seat belt!” in a rather snotty tone, if I do say myself. Never being one for a loss of words I reply “With all do respect, you have yet to show me how to properly buckle. Once you show me how to do it, I’ll give it a shot.”

And with that… you could hear snickers and laughs coming from the peanut gallery aka other passengers and she scoffed off.  I think I may have heard an audible “DING” but I’m not 100% sure about that.

When was the last time someone gave you a test before you were shown the material? Seriously

Lesson learned I say…