Chris's Musings

I was reading through the posts on a technology vendor's marketing blog the other day, and was intrigued by a quote that highlighted one of their "recent" posts (I put this in quotes because they are not all that great about keeping their blog up-to-date).  I was intrigued partly because it was blatantly making fun at one of my old company's recent product launches, but also because of the genius that statement includes from a personal and a business marketing standpoint. By the way, the blog post is here: Netezza "Me Too" blog post The quote is this:  "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."  Obviously, it was intended to showcase their relevance in the analytics systems market upon the release of the incumbent data warehouse vendors' recent foray into the appliance market (by the way, that's all I'll say about that here because it's "technology talk" and I usually don't talk shop on this blog... if you wa...

This past Sunday, I took on the microphone of the Upstreet host role for the first official time.   For those that don't know about Upstreet, the "host" in the large group environment is the person that tees up the Bible story with a humorous situation, connects with the kids from the stage, and makes the large group time a very engaging environment for the kids.    I serve as a substitute because it's a regular job (which is filled across the environments right now) and my "regular job" at Upstreet is as a member of the worship team.  So, this was my first time to sub and I wanted to introduce myself to the kids in a way that would entertain and make it somewhat memorable.  So, when the regular hosts introduced themselves they brought up their favorite food to talk about... I did the same. Now, I grew up about 2 1/2 hours from Cajun country (SE Louisiana) and LOVE Cajun food... and have also been to Nawlins a number of times.  As you can imagine, I love Tab...

"A generous man will himself be blessed,   for he shares his food with the poor." - Proverbs 22:9 I ended up watching the Saddleback Forum on the Presidency this weekend, and then re-watched it with a couple of guys from my small group discussing the candidates, their responses to the questions, and Rick Warren's initiative in creating such a forum where we could at least attempt to get to know the two candidates that are running for President.  It was very good... perhaps one of the more authentic looks we've had (considering that this is a Presidential campaign, authentic is very hard to come by) I thought Rick Warren did a very good job of asking some penetrating questions that allowed us to discern the character of the two men running for office.  One of these questions asked at the beginning of each interview was:  "What was your greatest moral failure, and what do you believe is the greatest moral failure of America?"  In a way, the answers given by b...

In honor of my last post...  Bringing me to a time long ago A time when innocence reigned Life was new and Nothing was done in vain Ronald and friends calling my name Seeing the arches up in the sky The jubilation of kids knowing the fame Happy meals brought joy to our eye Hamburgers and french fries, oh boy! The taste of milkshakes made us insane But the best were the ketchup and fries They were addictive like crack cocaine (still are... Yikes!) I have to say the best thing I saw In my golden arches blast from the past Was kids and dads in quality time Moments in time that forever last Perhaps that's worth a few calories An environment pure and sincere Families bonding in a moment in time Moments that forever endear I got my own little french fry fix Packs of ketchup, relax with a grin As I left with craving satisfied   I signed myself up to head to the gym ;-)

Saturday morning, I woke up late after having and fun (and somewhat late) night the night before... and started to groggily migrate toward my usual Saturday morning "me and God time" routine... which is to make an omelet, coffee and just chill for a while.  There were a few problems with this on Saturday the 16 th .  First, I was out of shredded cheese... a critical ingredient in my patented omelets.  Second, I was out of coffee filters... even more disgraceful.   In light of that, I started thinking about options and started to crave one of those new McDonald's southern style chicken biscuits... I actually like them better than the Chick- Fil -A ones because the biscuits are much better tasting (of course, this is from the mass amounts of shortening they put in them so this is probably not so much of a good thing, but I was thinking about pure taste and not pure product quality at the time).  Okay, plan made.  However, there was one big problem with this plan... I woke u...

Wow! That's all I can say... Wow! Some pictures from the event... then some thoughts: The whole crew up front leading us in worship... Jesus paid it all...  Worshiping together Tonight's Buckhead Church worship and communion service was an amazing time to celebrate the reason we are alive and to glorify our Savior. I'm not sure if I have any deep thoughts on this, other than how great it feels to be in the place and doing the thing that I am created to do. Jesus is so worthy of worship because of who He is and what He has done.   Somehow, in that moment, little else matters.  At the end of the day...  God is bigger than the air I breathe The world we'll leave God will save the day And all will say... My Glorious!   Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead. Take my life and let it be All for You and for your glory Take my life and let it be Yours. Glory to God.  Glory to God.  Glory to God, forever!

Okay, I have been a member of the AMA (American Marketing Association) for about 5 months now (since March or April, I believe) and it's only now that I've had an opportunity to attend an event. This has largely been because I have been so crazy-busy at work in such a way that I'd usually be working 60 hour weeks on the road living out of a hotel and an airport. This isn't too beneficial for taking advantage of local (aka - your home town) networking events. The reason I joined AMA in the first place was (is) that over the last 2 years I have seen my career drift from the direction that I wanted to take it, especially after graduating from a top 20 MBA program with one of the best marketing educations in America (and I still believe that). However, after moving from the NCR Retail Solutions Group (Point of Sale devices and software) to the Teradata division (later spun off to become Teradata Corporation), I have seen my marketing career move off-track as my role b...

"Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?" - Proverbs 8:1 This past Friday night, I went out to Martinis and IMAX with a group of friends to go see the showing of Antartica at the Fernbank. For anyone not from Atlanta, this event is one of the really cool things to do on a Friday night and has been consistently voted as one of the "best first dates" in Atlanta. That was an aside... but the real meat of the blog comes from some of the conversation that was spawned before and during the showing of this IMAX movie. Before: I got the Evite a few days before the social and was very amused by the influx of political commentary that peppered the message board of the Evite. Most of it was anti-Al Gore, Barack Obama, etc. ranting about a previous experience watching the Grand Canyon's film's take on global warming and climate change and some calling it propaganda. I believe that there is propaganda being propigated on both sides, but ...