I decided to make Ted’s Magic Turkey Chili Surprise today for a Superbowl party at my friends house. I realize that I shared the recipe on this blog before, but I thought a video may better demonstrate just how easy and fast it is to make chili. For those of you out there who are afraid to cook take a look at this video, it could not be easier. I am by no means a chef, but even I can make this stuff.
On my last trip from Las Vegas I was very vocal about my distaste for US Air. Imagine my surprise today when I received this email, completely unsolicited. I never complained directly to US Air, just Tweeted quite a bit. Is this the result of my Tweets? Are they monitoring customer feedback? Did everyone on that flight get one of these? I have been through ton of delays a lot worse than that one and have never gotten any sort of credit voucher. If anyone works for US Air I would like to know how this came together.
I am impressed with the customer service and have decided to give US Air another try.
Today I crossed a big milestone, I logged my 500th kilometer on my new iPod. That means I have averaged 6.6km (4.1mi) a day for the past 75 days. Not only that, but today I logged my fastest 10 mile run to date. The marathon is only 3 weeks away, I am fired up and ready to go!
Make it Happen! from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.
How about you? Are you sticking with your fitness goals?
I have been asked by multiple people to share the results of the IZEA / Kmart social media marketing campaign. Below you can see the case study, which I believe is quite impressive. The information shared below is all publicly available through one means or another. IZEA keeps other tracking data which we only share with the client.
I just received an email from Tara followed by a nervous phone call. It seems the brown color we thought we picked for the back house is actually more of an orange. Now we are faced with a dilemma; keep the house as is or repaint it something more brown. I am not sure if I like the color or not. I need your help asap! I have to tell the painter by the end of the day if I want him to finish or start over. It will run about $500 or so to repaint what he has done so far. Please leave a comment and tell me what to do.
I like the green....but what about the orange house?
Last month I wrote a post about Pancheros’ use of Twitter. In the post I described what I would do if I was tapped on the shoulder to help Pancheros develop an in-store social media strategy.
You should really read that post first.
Since then Joel from Pancheros and I have been tweeting back and forth, he even sent me some free burrito gift cards. I found out that Joel is heading back to school in the fall, but intends to make an impact while still at Pancheros
I am happy to report that Joel is making some real headway! Today I went to Pancheros to grab a burrito and was greeted by this sign.
FREAKIN’ AWESOME JOEL! It even looks similar to the design I mocked up for the T-Shirt (below).
As far as I know Pancheros has become the first national chain of fast food restaurants to integrate Twitter promotion with their physical store locations. I am pretty happy about it, I feel like I helped get the effort going. I wonder how long it will be before McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell follow their lead.
Keep going Joel! I want to see those Twitter screens soon : )
Four years ago I purchased a old, run down house with the intention of renovating it. The house was bad…. I mean really bad. When the owner showed me the house there was a giant pile of dog poo in the middle of the bedroom. One friend ran outside and puked it smelled so bad. My friends and my Realtor told me I was crazy for even thinking about buying the house… and that was pretty much all I needed to convince me to do so (I got it for a steal). Keep in mind that all the pictures below are from the showing:
The front of the house
Bathtub
Bathroom sink
Kitchen
Living Room
Fireplace
Bedroom
My plan was to remodel the house just enough to make it livable for a few years. Maybe some fresh paint, new carpet and some new fixtures. My thought was that I would live there for a bit, then tear it down and build my dream house. That was the plan, but let’s just say things didn’t turn out that way. First it was the carpet, then it was the walls, then it was the windows, then the bathroom and so on. I wound up completely gutting the house and doing the majority of the work myself. I added central air conditioning, bigger windows, a new kitchen, a new bathroom and combined the two small bedrooms upstairs in one giant master.
Knocking the wall down between the living room and kitchen
New bar between the living room and kitchen
Front of house window replacement
It took me a good six months to get the house to a point where it was livable. During that time I slept on a blow up mattress on the floor of a friends house. When I was finally able to move in I was so happy. I was proud of myself for taking a risk, turning my vision into a reality (and proving the naysayers wrong).
Living Room
Bedroom
Bathroom
I wish I could say it was over when I moved in. A few months later I decided to build a deck and dock.
Original Backyard
Under Construction
I have to say the deck ROCKs for house parties in the summer.
Party Pad
Decked out for my annual summer party
The changes have continued over time. I am getting the house painted right now (it is what inspired me to do this post). I am happy Tara convinced me to hire someone to do the work, but it just doesn’t give me the same feeling of accomplishment as when I do it myself. I feel like I am cheating. It makes me want to do more around the house. I need to build something!
My tools have been silent too long. Two summers ago I decided to build a floating dock because I was going nuts. I feel the same way now. Construction is like meditation for me, I don’t think about anything else… just the task at hand.
"Floaty Dock"
The crazy thing is the property I bought actually has two houses right next to each other (originally known as ghetto 1 and 2). While I renovated the one that I live in the other one has remained relatively untouched except some new paint and carpet. I can hear the other house calling me…. but I am torn. These houses are old, they were built in the 1930’s and no matter what I do they will never be the modern home I would like to eventually live in. Do I want to keep dumping money into them just because I desire to work with my hands? I still want to bulldoze these houses in a couple years. The more sweat equity (and hard cash) I invest the more they are part of me and the harder that decision will be.
I am not sure what to do. Has anyone else faced something like this? I have got to do something. Maybe another Floaty Dock? I need a weekend project people!!!
The people at the Limu Company invited me to help launch their new energy drink Blue Frog. I gave a presentation / pep rally on social media and I have to say it was the best audience I have ever presented to. There was a tremendous amount of energy in the room and I felt like it was all being channeled through to me. I managed to snag this awesome picture while on stage with my X-Shot.
It was no small stage, my mug was being blasted on the screens on each side. The entire event was recorded, I will share the video when I get a copy of it. Apparently people liked it : )
I had a blast with Missy Ward and the whole Orlando gang that showed up for the inauguration party at IZEA today. Special thanks to Quaker for all the oatmeal, my stomach is still full from breakfast. I am so proud of our country and the historic election of our first African American President. Obama rocked the inauguration speech… and Aretha Franklin rocked the biggest bow ever affixed to a human head.
