Tyler Jorgenson

Washington, who served as commander-in-chief of the Continental army in the American Revolution, was elected the first President of the US after the adoption of the Constitution. His two-term administration was marked by the establishment of a number of key American institutions that continue to operate today. Because of his central role in the founding of the US, Washington is often called the “Father of his Country.” Can you think of 5 places or institutions that are named after him?

George Washington remains the only President to receive 100% of the electoral votes. That certainly is a stark contrast to this years race. In this time full of war, economic crisis and general uncertainty it would be nice if we had clarity as a nation on who is best suited to lead us out of the mire.

This first quote was included in an email forward, and I really enjoyed the visual it stimulated in my mind. Which of our Presidential candidates is most like the man in the bucket?

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

This second quote is one of my all time favorites. I believe in persevering through challenging times and sometimes a simple quote like this reminds us to do just that.

Ben & Jerry’s is having their free scoop day on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008. Enjoy.

Click Here to locate a participating store

I love California. I count myself very lucky to live in such a diverse part of the world. Within an hour or so from our house we can find just about anything. We can shoot up to our cabin in 45 minutes, head to the beach in under an hour, cruise to San Diego in a short jaunt, etc. Last night my wife was trying to figure out something to do today and we somehow ended up planning on a trip to UCLA for a book fair. The fair was huge and was spread out across the entire, large, UCLA campus. Unfortunately there wasn’t a ton to do there for kids, other than watch their parents buy them books, so we didn’t stay too long. We decided to head towards to beach, 4 miles away and ended up at Dukes in Malibu for an early dinner. Dinner at any restaurant with two 15 month olds and a 3 year old is a challenge, but our waitress was great and just smiled the whole time as she watched us deal with our masticating maelstrom. After our great dinner we went looking for a place for the kids to play and ended up having a great time on the beach. Not only do I live in a great place, but I get to do so with this great family! Lucky? Oh yes!

I caught part of the movie Spanglish on the tele last night and the main family in the movie moves to Malibu for the summer… I don’t think that’s such a bad idea. Maybe I can house swap my cabin for somebodies ocean front property for a few months!

I’m not much of a favorites type of guy. When it comes to quotes and poems I love that one can find it’s way into your life at just the right time. Today I was reminded of this poem:

Do you have a favorite quote or poem? One that has helped you through a challenging time, or that provided inspiration when you needed it most?

So some guys ‘stole’ my law, named it the law of attraction and made a killing marketing the concept that the things we dwell upon become bigger in our lives. The Law of Expectation that I began formulating in 1999 while living in Africa is a little different, and I plan on expounding on it in a post shortly.

I have been waiting on some pretty big deals to close recently. Three big ones and a couple little ones, but they’re all big to me right now. With the real estate market in turmoil none of these deals have gone remotely close to as planned and this has been the source of a small *cough* amount of stress in my life. But today things begin to change in my favor. There may not be one specific thing that will change today, but I believe that the momentum will finally be picking up and moving in my direction. I’m ready to unload these three so I can focus on new projects and spend some quality time with the family that has been so patient with me.

So if you woke up this morning and smelled something in the air, it was the winds of change and it smells GREAT!

Pulling into a parking lot the other day I noticed this nice new sign on the dumpster area door. This is in a new commercial complex that is overall a pretty well done project, but this just cracked me up.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
– Thomas Jefferson

Readers of this blog know that I am a proponent of liberty and limited government. In this election year the above quote stands out to me for I feel that we are faced with candidates that are not overly concerned in our individual freedom. I agree with Jefferson. In both the case of the people having ‘too much’ liberty and in being overly limited there are inconveniences. I much prefer those accompanying liberty than of being led blindly into socialism and heavy handed government.

We spent the afternoon down in San Clemente at a friends house and took the kids out for a stint in the sand. I usually take all of the pictures so I was very pleased when Tanya snapped this one of me showing my little man how to skip stones. I love being a father and I really love the idea of showing my little boy how to do ‘guy’ things like skipping stones.

My girls are awesome and the weather was blissful so I got a couple good shots of them too. This one is of my oldest and her best friend.

I made a nice cheese fondue for our pre-lunch snack and it seemed to be pretty well received. 1 lb Swiss, 1 lb mild chedder, 2 cups white wine, 1 tsp nutmeg, and a couple dashes of chives. We enjoyed it with apple slices, 1 day old french bread, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. Mmmmm!

The Mrs. and I were getting a bit stir crazy in the house today with all of the kids running around so we decided to go get a cookie and then play at the park. There is a new cookie store, the Nestle Toll House Cafe, here by our house so we went to try it out. The staff was polite and courteous, the store was clean and the overall presentation of the store was positive. We ordered some delicious looking cookies (that were as good as they looked) and then went to pay. The total came to $9.44. My wife asked if we could get a cup of water for the kids and the reply by the cashier was “we don’t give out cups of water but we do have bottled water for sale.” After she heard me chuckle at what I feel is a huge marketing blunder the cashier said sheepishly, “sorry, it’s not my call.” She was really sweet so I made sure she knew I wasn’t laughing at her and that she was doing a great job.

I’ve been a small restaurant owner and I know the importance of the up sell. In trying to get the customer to put avocado on their sandwich and get a large drink. I understand that completely… but are we missing something. I just spend close to Ten dollars on cookies and the last thing I remember as I leave the store is that they just wanted more from me. I wonder how much better the customer service would have been if the policy were to give out cups of water for free (or even 10 cents to cover the cup, lid and straw).

If I ever open a cookie store (don’t worry, I’m not planning on it anytime soon) it’s going to have a milk bar. Picture buying a couple of fresh jumbo chocolate chip cookies. As the cashier hands your the bag you can feel the warmth of the cookies radiating from the cute little bag. The sweet smell of the round bit of heaven rises up and you can nearly taste the perfection that is waiting for you. Just as you are about to leave the smiling baker hands you a small glass of ice cold milk (sure you can have soy or low fat if you’d prefer… you’re the customer). Now the treat is complete… you wander in dreamlike trance to the nearest table and begin to savor your snack, dipping it in the cold milk and letting the chocolate chips cover your fingertips.

I don’t know about you, but I’d go back to that cookie place a lot more than the other one. As a marketer this is, in my humble opinion, genius. As a capitalist I am still happy. Sure I lose the milk up sale, unless somebody is wants a larger thing of milk, or soda, or coffee or hot chocolate, etc. but I know that the number of customers will increase and I also know that if my customers have a positive experience they’ll be back sooner to drop another $9.44 on a few cookies.

Last weekend my wife and I took off to our favorite local getaway destination. Apparently we didn’t name the place, so I thought I’d share what makes the Marriott Newport Beach Hotel & Spa our favorite local hotel.

So here’s my top 10 list.

10. They comp us in some way every time we go there. Seriously, everything from room upgrades, fruit plates, cookie plates, VOSS water, etc.
9. The staff is always exceptionally polite. The free in room amenities aren’t for making up for a lousy customer experience, they just enhance it. (sorry to end the sentence with a preposition grammar people.)
8. Pure Blu Spa. We haven’t had a bad massage yet
7. Pure Blu Spa. It has it’s own pool, away from the noise of the family pool. The double lounges under private cabanas are a perfect place to order a light lunch too after a massage and a swim.
6. Pure Blu Spa. Cold water foot bath, hot tubs, sauna, fancy shampoo, the relaxation room with tons of magazines, the individually packed combs, and the little glass Q-tip holder… the list goes on.
5. The view.
4. Location. Walking distance to all the restaurants and shops that Fashion Island has to offer.
3. Location. A very short drive to Balboa, my favorite beach town.
2. Atmosphere. The rooms are relaxing, the air is energizing, the views are inspiring and the ambiance is soothing.
1. Great memories of time ‘away’ with the girl I love.

So well done Marriott, you’ve created a stellar product there in Newport. We’ll be back as soon as we can.

For some reason my Mom let me read MAD Magazine growing up. I loved SPY vs SPY, the cartoons in the margins, the spoofs on current events and movies and always loved the back page fold in. I was always mad (irony?) when some kid would fold in the back cover of a copy in the store. It seemed to take the fun out of it for me so I had to dig around for one that was unadulterated.

“The NY Times recently ran an interesting story on Al Jaffee, the mastermind behind the fold-in. Since its first appearance in the April 1964 issue of Mad magazine, the 87 year-old Al Jaffee has drawn every one of these backpage fold-ins. WOW!

Take a few minutes this Tuesday and rekindle your MAD magazine fold-in memories with this wicked cool digital gallery.” – John Moore

My wife and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary with a little jaunt down to Newport Beach for a stay in our favorite hotel. After sleeping in with no children waking us up we drove up and down the coast checking out the gorgeous views and homes. For lunch we enjoyed The Cheesecake Factory. I tried the Miso Salmon that looked so good last time I was there and it was great. Upon the recommendation of one of my wife’s friends we had a little sweet fix at Sprinkles. (Entrepreneur side note: They are doing this right! They have one product and are delivering phenomenally. They currently have 5 stores and are opening 16 more! I hope they don’t lose sight of their foundation and start offering cakes and pastry’s, only to become just another bakery. Great cupcakes Sprinkles, good work!)

We somehow worked our way up to Long Beach around dinner time and walked around Shoreline Village to see what restaurant would tease our taste buds. It wasn’t hard to miss this:Meet Paraffin, a 197 foot yacht that had all who gazed upon her beautiful hull drooling in awe and a little envy. My curiosity was peeked, what type of person owns such a yacht? Google gave me the answer and a great story or two.

Like many teenage boys, 17-year-old Mike Kittredge couldn’t aford a Christmas present for his mother. His solution was to melt a bunch of crayons and make the into a candle. His neighbour liked it so much that she asked to buy it, and so the first candle of the Yankee Candle Company was sold. Mike made another for his mother and one to sell, and the company found its wings.

Nice work Mr. Kittredge, but I hope you’re not still making make-shift candles for your Mother’s Christmas present anymore.

Here are a couple more photos: