Most of my Friday was spent at the Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro. It involved a breakfast meeting, Bordeaux blending dinner and being lucky enough to get bumped up to the Presidential Suite. Saturday morning, with perhaps a judgement impairing hangover, I decided to launch a blog.
The day started with a breakfast meeting with a local blogger to talk about some web and tech projects we’re planning to tackle this year (websites, domain management and monetization, and the Beerby app we acquired). My longtime web developer is retiring and that, coupled with the new projects, has me searching resumes and reviewing proposals. We’ve reached out to UNCG and NC A&T, posted a job description on Monster.com (included in follow up post). Perhaps the interesting discussion planted a seed about blogging.
Apparently blog seeds need lots of wine to cultivate them. That night we attended the Proximity’s Blend Your Own Bordeaux Dinner. The winemaker, Trinchero, lays out four single grape wines – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot (they didn’t include Malbec, which was probably wise given the quantity of wine). These grapes are typically used in blending a Bordeaux or Meritage wine in the Bordeaux style. You have four small carafes of wine in front of you and the trick is to make your own blend. Typical blends are high in Cab Sav and Merlot with lesser roles played by Cab Franc and Petit Verdot. There is also a competition for best blend name, but alas our Cab Ride of Shame and Chat the Front Door didn’t win. The dinner was paired with rooms, so a group of us gathered in one of them and stayed up late (well 40-something late which is midnight). Have you ever noticed that people that have too much to drink sound and look like stroke victims?
We got back to our room and I vaguely remember going to sleep. When we checked in, we had the good fortune of getting bumped up to a very nice suite on the eight floor. I learned that President Obama had stayed in that room and that his entourage took the entire 7th and 8th floors. The room had several sitting areas, a dining area, two full baths, and a separate bedroom and sitting area. The view was amazing, with lots of open land in Green Valley below that could easily house a Trader Joe’s and shelves of their two-buck Chuck.
The next morning, thinking how odd it was that I too was pondering health care as I was searching for Advil, I had the presidential idea of starting a blog. I’m a big fan of technology and social media, so this seemed like a good idea. Of course, my blog may be as disastrous as Healthcare.gov‘s launch and my grammar as bad as Sal Leone’s. But I welcome any and all suggestions/corrections.
On Facebook, I changed course over the last couple of years and culled my friends list down from the hundreds to less than 100. I use my LinkedIn profile to connect with most of my professional contacts. I’ve tried Twitter, but I can’t look at my phone that often. Much of my posting is through my various companies Facebook pages – Kotis, Darryl’s, Marshall Free House, Pig Pounder, Burger Warfare and Yo Daddy. I enjoy reaching down past the layers of management and having short conversations with the restaurant guests. Each of those pages has its own personality, so this will be somewhat different. I picked Greensboro Observer because 1) I had the domain, 2) it will contain my observations, and 3) it’s as close as I’ll get to owning a newspaper.
I tend to gather much of my news by reading the News & Record, Yes! Weekly, Rhino Times, Triad Business Journal, WSJ, USA Today and BBC News on my iPad. For some local dish I also visit Greensboro101, Billy’s, George’s blog and Triaggregator, Fec’s and Ed Cone’s. Each has a different voice and I skim through for interesting stories or comments. Carolina Plott Hound has some conservative editorial headlines from all over the State, The Daily Tar Heel for UNC news, and I also use various alerts and search terms. I’m sure I’m leaving some out, but this isn’t an acceptance speech.
The topics I plan to cover in this blog include: Commercial Real Estate, Restaurants, UNC System, Government, Beer/Wine/Mixology, Travel, Social Media, Technology, and Architecture. I’m going to post a few articles at once to get it started, then likely settle into 1-2 posts per week. Again, I welcome any feedback and hope you’ll enjoy the blog.
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