Random stuff from Friday

Sep
05
2008

I’m once again in the air. This time I am en route to Dallas. I was fortunate to swap seats prior to take off. My original neighbor was heavily encroaching on my real estate. I won’t say he was frighteningly enormous in both stature and diameter, but I suspect that had we been in prison I would have gotten the short end of the stick, so to speak.

Anyway, it’s much more pleasant in my new seat. Here’s a bunch of random thoughts as I fly.

I NEED THIS FURNITURE!!- Thanks go to Jae for pointing this guy out. Chris and Tom, if I ever get to renovate my office I want this stuff.

Come shoot with me- I picked up Olympic style archery when I moved back to LA. I find the repetition and exactness of it a good release from the day to day. If any of you would like to come out and shoot, I’m actually a certified instructor and have access to the club’s gear. The range is directly across the street from the Fox Lot. Here are some pics of my bow and the range.

Ben is in a stacking phase- Lately, Ben has become big on order. For a drunken midget, placement seems to be surprisingly much on his mind. Behaviors include lots of stacking

Putting bacon in straight lines

Decorating drawer pulls with plastic rings

A-hole- Tee hee!

San Francisco- I’m going to be up in San Francisco for most of next week. Anyone have good suggestions of things I should make a point to see? I’m going to try to get out to the Exploratorium to check out the standing wave installation if scheduling permits. Otherwise it’s bound to be mostly a meeting extravaganza. Let me know if there is something else I should carve out some time for.

Disneyland is better with booze- We took Ben to Disneyland again over the weekend. I really like having passes. After several hours of maniacal running around he eventually crawled into the stroller and took a nap for about an hour. Did you know that California Adventure has booze? Well now you do. We headed across the way to Margarita Land for a couple of not too shabby frozen margaritas. We finished them up about the time he woke up, and I must say we all felt a whole lot better. Thanks for the tequila shot, Mickey.

Maker’s Mark has an amazing customer outreach program- I like Maker’s Mark Whiskey. It’s pretty good for not being too expensive. But even better than the booze is their customer retention program. Those guys are incredibly competent. The whole thing is pitched as the Maker’s Mark Ambassador program. You join through their website (it’s just ok). Then all kinds of crazy stuff is triggered. To date I’ve gotten:
- 2 sets of ambassador business cards with my name, ambassador number, and links to their website to hand out to my friends as I evangelize.
- Monthly emails newsletters written in a very personal tone with cocktail recipes and invitations to get togethers at bars around the country
- My name on a barrel that is currently fermenting at their distillery. I can login to their website and see pictures of it.

- An invitation to the distillery to tour and buy bottles from my own barrel when it’s ready.
- A seal and wax to stamp my first initial on things. They have a whole wax theme going.
- High quality printed product materials detailing the distilling process and history of the company.

How cool is that? It’s a pretty smart move on their part. I like Maker’s Mark but I usually drink cocktails so the whiskey brand is relatively interchangeable unless it’s really crappy. But at this stage I tend to always stick to Makers. I appreciate good high-touch marketing.

Minotaur Mannequins- God bless Texas!