Rx7 Road Trip - Day 2

Got up around 6 this morning and got out to the garage by 7. Started clearing a bunch of stuff off of the buried rx7. It was pretty dirty, but it cleaned up- quickly with a little wiping off. We were able to push it back about 5 feet, but the incline stopped us there, so we used the jeep to pull it the rest of the way out.

Backed my truck in to place and went to jump start the rx7. Well the very dead battery, regardless of the jumper cables attached to my heavy duty truck and battery (which I then saw had a battery with close to 1000 cold cranking amps) together were not able to turn over the rotary motor fast enough. A quick trip to the auto parts store for an economy battery solved that problem. We went out for a while, drove the peninsula, saw some relic war ships, and saw steel head trout in the thousands swimming up a little stream off the lake - by the way, whoever calls these bodies of water 'lakes' is/are full of crap. These are sea's, definitely larger than lakes. See the picture with the Mitsubishi in the foreground.

After installing the new battery, she started hard, but she started. After about 15 minutes she was running and idling smooth. Cleaned it up a bit and put it on the trailer, to find that the door didn't open more than 8 inches while on the trailer. After a bit of finagling we got Uncle Chris out of the car. The trailer is awesome, and the ramps were great. Tied it down tight with ratcheting straps.

Now the truck, trailer, and car sit and wait for their trip to Selinsgrove, PA tomorrow, where they will spend the night waiting for the final leg home.

Time for some exercise and a nap.

Thanks for checking out my day! Enjoy the pictures.

rx7 Road Trip - Day 1

I set off this morning with one goal in mind - to make it back home sunday in one piece, and in good form, with a 1989 Mazda rx7 convertible.

My day began with picking up a car trailer from Performance Trailer in Flanders, NJ. Great people to work with there, especially Wayne. The trailer is virtually brand new. A full open deck long dovetail dual axle with surge brakes, and my f250 had no problem getting it up to speed or slowing it down.

After fueling up, I set out on to Interstate route 80 heading West, the road I would be on for the next 300+ miles. Even better, it is pouring rain, and I mean POURING! I thought that because I was heading West, I would lose the rain within a couple of hours. Nope, it rained HARD for a full 300 miles, barely ever letting up. So I put the cruise control on 60 mph, and just let it cruise taking full advantage of my 12.7 mpg fuel economy while pulling a trailer - expecting a bit less with a car on it for the return trip.

I made a few stops. One rest area, which had a men's room with people in Hazmat suits walking around, made me kind of worried for my health. Hit some pretty good traffic at one point, came to a dead stop for about 10 minutes until we moved along at 2mph. It turned out that a semi tried to fit itself into a small equipment trailer.

With 66.3 miles to go, only 20 miles from Ohio, I turned North on to rt. 79. This took me to within about 6 miles of my final destination. And what's even better, turning North brought me a nice sunny drive for the rest of the way.

That was the longest I had ever been on rt. 80 at one time, and the longest stretch I had seen as recognizable to my gps. It usually displays it in segments of 50 miles or so, resetting at a major split or merge.

Over all it was a great drive. Took it nice and easy. Longest trip I have taken in my 97 f250 so far. No problems except for a CEL, but that's ok, I just passed inspection last week!

Heading to bed now, looking forward to digging my new rx7 out of the garage tomorrow and getting her on the trailer.

Watching the Jets

Tonight I am watching the football team I have grown up with, the Jets.

Watching the players makes me realize what can be accomplished through true hard work and unstoppable determination.

It's time to take this life to the next level. It's time to really make it happen.

- Matthew Taylor

Company Social Media

One sentence blog: If you're a tech company trying to grow, and you don't effectively utilize Social Media, then you're not a smart company.

Personal Social Media Use

In the last blog I Spoke briefly about how companies leverage Social Media for ROI – which will continue on in a later discussion. But today I want to talk about the user group that Social Media initially benefitted most from, and that is individuals – as themselves, not as their companies or schools - Purely interested in meeting others in the Social space of the internet with similar interests.

This user group is not only the largest, it is also indefinitely valuable for companies to try and reach out to. To become a part of something that has the ability to scale your marketable presence through individual user interaction to global within just a couple of minutes is unbelievable. This relates to the phenomenon of viral videos, which will most likely be discussed in our eMarketing blog by Chad Bontrager (keep a lookout!).

The most exciting part of personal Social Media users is that many of the companies and opportunities you would like to reach out to as either a company or yourself have their own personal pages in the Social Media world which they use to communicate with friends and family, express interests, etc… This is a double whammy scenario – you are able to highlight whatever it is you may want to highlight straight to these personal users.

In the past few weeks, ProKarma has connected with good friends and partners from other companies which have been valuable and wonderful relationships all through the use of Online Communities. Hey, now we’re getting into the meat of this stuff! Social Communities – if you haven’t heard of these, get out from under your rock and stay tuned for the next blog I bring out on these new fangled community thingies, and more importantly, how your company can provide a valuable presence on them.

Corporate Social Media Use

The initial design of my companies' Social Media campaign included much research on how other companies are using SM. One of the most surprising things I found was that there are TONS of companies benefitting from a Social Media campaign of some form or another, especially the larger and more powerful companies. Hmm… they must know something!

Companies can use Social Media sites such as FaceBook™, Twitter™, Digg™, etc… for a variety of valuable practices. Common uses include community outreach, recruiting by posting jobs, general company information like news releases, and inner company connectivity through employee interaction. A great example is IBM’s company FaceBook™ Fan Page. This Fan Page has almost 20,000 fans - many of them are current and past IBM employees! The ability to bring together a company that is worldwide, which has thousands of employees, is now possible through an exciting Social Medium (get it!).

This doesn’t apply only to large companies though, this is for all companies. I can’t think of very many other initiatives that can reach a near infinite ROI. After all, what is the investment? A couple of hours a week of a Social Media savvy employee? If your company Twitter™ update or your company blog that has shown up on StumbleUpon™ sparks just one call that leads to one piece of business – BOOM, initiative paid for! Even if it does not evoke outside business, the ability to bring your employees together and inspire discussion among the talent which drives your company is infinitely valuable as well.

There is just very little downside when your Social Media leadership is responsible, efficient, and relevant.


- Matthew Taylor

Twitter: @mtaylord

One Year In, Welcome to Career Life!

When is the time to look back over your career and review? In terms of AGILE Software Development, you would be reviewing your initiatives constantly. If you don't know what AGILE is, then think of it as constant quality control, similar to the origional Ford production line, but the 2009/2010 version and in high level software creation.

I've been with my current company in the NYC area for almost a year now, and I'm looking back on what I've done, what I've learned, and what progress I've made. I want to be able to create a personal evaluation system that I can use year to year. I have decided on three key points to assess at each year end.

1. Impacting Experiences

2. Learned and Improved Skills

3. Has my experience maintained my personal happiness

After all, what is the point of droning on and working year to year if you can't maintain your own happiness? Too many young people in their careers fail to stay happy and find the power of positive and joyful thought in each day. The secret to life, careers, and unlimited success; leverage your happiness to motivate yourself to do the best job possible.

So after my first year, it has been incredible how I was able to take my initial position requirements of basic inside sales to building solid client relationships with global profit and nonprofit organizations, work with a development team in India every single morning to rebuild our company website, and completely design and manage the beginning of my companies Social Media campaign.

You can make your position what you want it to be. We are young in our careers, and there is a ton of competition, so make a name for yourself and build your brand as soon as you can.

- Matthew D. Taylor



follow me on Twitter - @mtaylord

my website - www.matthewdtaylor.com

Social Makeover!

I have been working furiously on my companies Social Media campaign. All of this Social Media has had me thinking about it's real value. Conclusions - oh just bits and pieces so far. But working so much on the company campaign, I have forgotten about my own personal SM.

So in the last couple of days I have revamped my Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Naymz, Spoke, Brazen Careerist, Brandyourself, and Blogger. There seem to be an infinite number of networking sites. I figure, the more I become a part of, the more possible it is that I will meet the right people sharing the right ideas to really make something of this life. There has never been a better time in history to network with other people. Economies may be shaky, but mentalities need not be. Get out there and share ideas and ideals with anyone you can.

After all, what's it going to hurt? Nothing - so might as well! Best part - it's pretty much free of cost, except for some of your time.

-MT

follow me on Twitter! @mtaylord

i2y.org

If you've ever wanted to get involved in supporting an organization, I have a great one for you - I'm Too Young For This - Young Adult cancer survivorship. www.i2y.org

The founder, Matthew Zachary, is a truly inspiring individual. He is conquering a world of people left behind and cast out, people from the ages of 18-39 who are or who have been battling cancer in their lives. There are countless programs for kids, and multiple for older adults; but it seems that the middle men and women have been left behind.

i2y.org is changing the game. Check out their website, feeds, and events. What a great organization!

Stupid Cancer!


follow me on Twitter: @mtaylord

Matthew D. Taylor

www.matthewdtaylor.com

ASUS EePC Netbook Review

At first glance this sleek black netbook looks like a great tool. First impressions proved correct this time around. Equipped with the Intel Atom processor, 1gb of ram, 160gb hard drive, and a 10.1" screen, this netbook is exactly what I need for day to day internet and basic application operations. It has a built in wireless card, windows xp, and a built in photo/video camera.

So far I havn't tested it much. It came with a 60 day trial of ms office, but i got rid of that quickly. I am interested in efficiency and speed. I downloaded open office which is phenomenal for what I need to do. I have also downloaded the latest versions of iTunes, Skype, CCleaner, Google Chrome, and Picasa 3 photo manager.

The keyboard is a good size and the buttons are smooth and easy. The mouse touch pad is a series of raised dots in the plastic frame work that responds nicely. An interesting feature is mousepad scrolling, where you can use your finger on the bottom and right edge of the pad to slide your page up/down, left/right. Another feature is two finger zoom in/out on the touch pad. The clicker below the touchpad is less than desirable, although having a nice polished face, it clicks hard. I have overcome this with an optical wireless mouse which I prefer using much more.

Overall I highly recommend this netbook. I have only been using it for a few weeks. If I come in to any issues, I will be sure to follow up!

- MT

Quantum Theory - Higher Learning

I decided to write a bit about a hidden interest of mine.

It began in 2006 when I picked up a rather entertaining novel by Michael Crichton (Rest in peace) called Timeline. In the novel, the characters travel through time - but rather the travel is based in quantum mechanics through different universes which exist at the same time. While reading this book my imagination took hold and craved to know more.

From then on my mind was opened to a very interesting world of Quantum Physics and other theoretical sciences. Since becoming interested, I designed my own independent study while in college, but it was derailed by my involvement with a not-for-profit company I started by the name of "Entrepreneur's for Alzheimers." I have skimmed through several books now and love to discover new ideas that inspire imagination and conversation.

My favorite theories are: Schroeder's Wave Theory and the theory and "proof" experiments of the multiverse.

The Office

In about 20 minutes i'll be watching the TV show "the office". I am thinking that I will be experiencing this type of tense and socially awkward environment very soon, at least I hope so. Except for the fact that finding a job is seeming exceedingly difficult. I have been speaking to some companies that I really like, and would love to become a part of; but the common answer I receive when asking about interviewing is: "Give us a call again when you are closer to graduating and we'll see if we have any positions then." The difference is 6 weeks. If I were to interview now, and then after consideration and infrastructure setup - it will have been 2 weeks already. Then I would be starting in little less than a month.

It is a frustrating mentality that this job market is sharing. There are tons of jobs out there; people complain that the job market is terrible. When it comes down to it, it's the people complaining that make it terrible. Get out there and make money one way or another, and stop complaining.There ARE jobs, you just may need to work at Taco Bell for a while, stop living off the government, it's an inefficient structure. Only then, with hard work and fundemental common sense, will our economy truly rebound... for the long term.

Social Media Blog Post

Social Media seems to be this year’s “hot ticket” to success. It’s easy enough to set up an account on any of the popular social networking sites and begin using it; but leveraging social media to create scalable value, now that’s an art!
My name is Matthew Taylor and I’m going to be blogging about the ins-outs-ups-downs of social media. Through this blog you will see statistics, user stories, successes, and of course fails! It will probably be a different perspective than what you commonly see on industry reports, other professional blogs, etc...
I was made in the 80’s and I grew up with this stuff. I remember when MySpace™ came out, at first I didn’t understand it, but then I thought maybe I could meet some people in the auto racing world. I was in to hobby auto-cross at the time, later to become quite a bit more involved in the autosport drifting which I am still very involved with.
I studied quite a bit of social media marketing in the small business management program in the Sigmund Weis School of Business out in PA, now living outside of NYC. I’ve been part of a growing world of necessary online profiles, validated friendships and relationships on FaceBook™, and 24/7 instant communication via hundreds upon thousands of text messages.
So how does a company, and better yet individual resources of a company, leverage all of this?

Good Morning World

I have been maintaining another Blog also titled "Higher Learning" with a different google account. I will no longer be using that one, so I am going to copy some of my entries from there to here. Keep in touch, and I hope you find some relevancy from my writings.

Follow me on twitter! @mtaylord

Matthew