A Few Short Laps
A few months back I had an amazing opportunity presented to me from a very generous coworker. My buddy Davis was picking up the new Mini Cooper JCW Coupe in South Carolina, and needed someone to tag along to drive the other car back. Being a car nut, I of course agreed, got the OK from my boss and we took off.
This wasn’t your ordinary “get it and go” trip. We were getting a very cool car, that few people had seen, and Davis managed to have the car delivered to the BMW Performance Driving School. The school is nothing short of amazing, and the staff was of course world-class. While standing around looking at our new toy, and answering questions by curious passersby we were asked, “You guys want to see the track?”
Any gear head will tell you that the words “see the track” bring joy to the deepest parts of your petrol-fueled soul, and the answer is always an enthusiastic “yes”! What followed was nothing short of awesome. We spent the next few hours putting the Mini through its paces along with one of the new M3s. We were accompanied by a BMW Master Instructor who promptly showed us that the Mini would hold it’s own on the short track we’d claimed as our own.
Despite the rain, we had a blast, drove the wheels off both cars, and learned a lot about the new JCW Coupe.
Like this:
Some Tough Mudders
It seemed easy enough to agree to participate in the Tough Mudder when I was asked back in November. “Sure, sounds like fun” I said as the grin crept across my coworkers face. I should have known then that he was just happy to have another poor soul participate along side him in this miserable race.
I didn’t really know much about Tough Mudder when I agreed to participate, but I’m always down to try new challenging things, so it seemed like a no-brainer. I had only met 2 of the 10 people in our team by the time the night before the event rolled around. We were all gathering to pick up our Hoodrich Princess team jerseys, and load up on some pasta before the big race.
Everyone was cool enough, and had a very positive attitude towards the next days events. We watched videos of people running the race, getting tazed, falling in mud and what not while keeping idle chit chat and laughing about our weaknesses. It was then that I realized that I was way under prepared for this event. These guys had been training, running half marathons, and drinking vampire blood in preparation for this thing. I had only cut back on my pizza and beer intake, and hit the gym a few times more than normal. I was screwed, and in 12 hours I would regret not taking this more seriously.
With a bum knee and no training my only hope was to kick someone in the head the morning of the event and render them incapacitated in hopes of having a teammate to maintain a slow pace with me. That, or pray for our car to roll over on the highway on the way to the event.
As we stood at the starting gate staring at everyone else in the 30 degree weather you couldn’t help but be happy with the fact that a few thousand other people were also dumb enough to subject themselves to this type of torture. It truly was nice to see my fellow lemmings standing around looking overly confident right before the inevitable cliff.
The race was tough, cold, fun, challenging, and somewhat evil. I don’t know what else to say. I won’t go into detail on the 27 obstacles, or the ins and outs of the 12 miles, because all you need to know is that it was freaking hard.
Needless to say the amazing, ragtag team of princesses finished the entire course, but not without some serious teamwork. These guys and gal were amazing, and I never would have made it all 12 miles with my knee had it not been for them. Matter of fact, I had to be damn-near carried over the finish line after being tazed 4 or 5 times in the last obstacle.
The race was tough, but mainly because of the cold. Other than that, it was a lot of fun, very challenging and an great time.
To Jack, Scott R., Scott S., Alex S. Alex W., Michael, Andy, Davis and Whitney you guys are amazing people, and I’ll hobble along side you anytime.
About half the obstacles incorporated water in some form or fashion
The worst of the many mud obstacles
The team after 12 miles
Like this:
Chicago Auto Show Fun
The Chicago Auto Show can be summed up in one word. Huge. The show is massive, and full of some amazing vehicle displays you won’t see anywhere else. The auto manufacturers bring out a lot of inventory, and really take advantage of all the space McCormick Place has to offer. The things you’ll see in Chicago that you probably won’t see at any other show include Jeep’s indoor rock garden, Chrysler’s indoor racetrack, and Ram’s indoor truck playground.
The show has all the usual goodies and a few extras, but what really makes it fun is the ability to see and explore so many different variations of vehicles. One person described it as a “manufacturers showroom where you see almost every model in every trim.” That’s not that far off. Chicago is a show where you won’t see many exotics, but you will find some over the top vehicle displays, and more vehicles than you can possibly remember.
Jeep’s rock garden
Mopar’s 426 crate motor
Dodge Challenger
Ford’s Laguna Seca Mustang
Dueling Cobras
Lexus GS project
Lexus LF LC
BMW 5-Series Hybrid
2012 Ford Focus
A slew of Lexus LFAs
The new Mustand 5.0 rocking a cool shaker hood
The 2012 911
Just one of the many SRT cars
A few from the massive Ram Trucks display
The Progression Of Wakeboarding
Defy trailer 2. The Danny Harf project from Sean Kilgus on Vimeo.
Every now and then you run across a video that inspires the heck out of you and brings back amazing memories. For someone like myself who watches a gazillion YouTube, Hulu and random videos a month it’s rare that you see anything you ever really come back to, much less write about.
Danny Harff’s documentary, Defy is simply incredible. Even the trailer is amazing. I grew up on the water, and loved water sports. My first word was “boat” and by age 3 my dad had me knee boarding. When I say I love wake boarding I don’t mean I’m just a fan of the sport, but I loved to ride. I missed 64 days of school my senior year because we’d skip class and head to the lake for that smooth weekday water. Good times.
This documentary captures everything that’s great about the sport, and all the amazing ways it’s evolved over the past 20 years. Not to mention it’s one of the most amazing soundtracks ever, coupled with simply stunning cinematography.
We’ve come a long way from the WakeSkurfer.
Like this:
Time To Move
We’ve been in our current home almost six years, and we really love the neighborhood. We’re within one mile of numerous grocery stores, Starbucks, a few restaurants, and every type of small specialty store you can think of. The only real downside to Woodstock is the commute into the city. “So what?” you might say. Well, my wife and I both work inside the perimeter, and so we spend a collective three hours in our cars every day. Multiply that times 5 days per week and that’s a minimum of 15 hours per week. If you really want to get nauseous that’s 30 full days we spend sitting in our cars each year. That’s assuming we take 2 weeks vacation every year. It’s sickening. Not to mention that we’re spending about $300.00 (at current fuel prices) per month on gas just to get to work.
Ok, now that I’ve bored you with basic math, and the sadness that is our commute I will say we’re not hell-bent on selling the house. We’re simply going to try, and see what comes of it. Stay tuned for some tips, and lessons learned when preparing to sell your home.
Like this:
Field Marketing At Its Best
Field, or grassroots marketing has been around for quite some time. While some companies gave it up years ago due to the expense and lack of a definitive ROI, a small few are simply dominating their respective verticals. When you think about companies that own the gorilla marketing space a few key players come to mind. The one that comes top of my mind is Red Bull.
Red Bull essentially made its mark on the world through quirky events, and associating the brand with extreme sports. While they’ve recently broken out into the mainstream sports and music arenas they always dominated the extreme sports scene. Aligning a brand with a certain segment to build affinity is somewhat genius, but it’s even more effective when an aggressive grassroots marketing component is thrown in.
Enter, Red Bull Field Marketing person. While Emily and I were surfing in Daytona a few weeks back with some friends, we were paid a visit. After a day of surfing and playing on the beach we staggered back to our blankets, board bags and coolers to find a surprise left by some ingenious marketing person. “Why are they ingenious?” you ask. Well, any good marketer knows their core audience, and the idea of leaving Red Bull for some surfers just fits all too well for the brand. It was discreet, tactful, tasteful and targeted. Not to mention we were totally OK with it.
As we drank the saltwater away, we smiled, chatted about Red Bull, and shot off photos of our presents to the Twittersphere and The FaceTube. Now, had I seen a billboard, advertisement or flyer with the big red bull on it; I wouldn’t have given it one thought But, some drinks left on a very appreciative surfers spread goes a long way. Just think… I’m here writing about it now, so it must have worked.
A Day At The LA Auto Show
I was fortunate enough to attend one of the press days at the LA Auto Show this week, and needless to say I had a blast. This was my first big industry show, so you can imagine what sort of googly-eyed, auto-induced haze I meandered around in. With all the shiny steel and new designs it was easy to get sucked into one manufacturers area. After walking well over 5 miles, and seeing everything from a dancing hamsters to a full sized Mini Cooper slot machine I was beat. As I boarded a plane back to Atlanta that evening I found myself reminiscing of a few particulars from the day.
Here are the 5 most interesting things that come to mind from the day.
1. Matte is in! You know a new finish is moving into the scene when BMW, Mercedes, and Aston Martin are all sporting the look.
The new BMW M5 sporting a beautiful silver matte finish. It looked almost like polished steel.
Aston Martin had the most unique matte finish with this beautiful white, that was acceded by the black body panels, and wheels.
The SLS grabs attention anywhere it goes, but the matte silver finish on this roadster had my attention from the second I saw it.
2. The life-sized Mini Cooper slot machine was a riot, and something I’ve really grown to expect and appriceate from such an innovative and irreverent brand. Too bad I didn’t win a JWC.
3. Now of course Porsche had some amazing cars on display, but the most unique part of their participation in the show was their exhibit itself. The exhibit wasn’t really part of the show, but rather it was off to the side as to say, “We’re different than the rest”, or perhaps “We forgot to reserve a marquee space, and we’re winging it.” Either way, it worked to their benefit as they were able to build this entirely unique experience that felt like nothing else at the show. Very Porsche of them.
4. Probably the most surprising car I saw at the show was this C63 AMG Black. This car reached out, slapped me, and grabbed my attention from 50 yards away. I just love watching a manufacturer step outside the box and push the limits of their brand all while keeping the price and usability of the car well within reason.
5. Electrified autos were a common thread woven throughout the show, but some manufacturers were already kicking their flux-capacitors into overdrive. Audi had the most drastic of electric cars on display with the e-tron Spyder.
Audi did balance the drastic looking Spyder with the ever so popular e-tron A3. After owning an A3 I couldn’t help but love this car as I sat there staring at it in the middle of the crowded show.
Of course BMW had a really cool full electric 1 series on display that would grab you simply because of the motherboard-like graphics all over the car.
It was an amazing day, full of hundreds of unique cars. I can only hope to go to a few more shows in 2012 and watch the evolution of the industry first hand.
First Day Fail
The transition to a new role is never that easy, much less when you’re changing industries all together. My first day was nothing out of the ordinary…you know how it goes. Say hello to the new team, get your credentials, find your seat, get your computer, try to keep up with what floor you’re on, and who’s who. Aside from that I had the pleasure of checking out a pretty slick new Lotus one of my coworkers just purchased. See, the culture at Autotrader.com is all about cars as you’d expect, and the building is full of motoring enthusiasts.
The Lotus Exige S is a car you’ve probably never seen, as they aren’t as common as their Elise counterpart. Either way, both cars are simply stunning, and look like something out of an auto designer’s encounter with LSD. We took a stroll to the parking deck, walking past a myriad of other drivers’ cars, and come around the corner to see this bright yellow shifter kart looking car. As I walk around the car drooling, admiring all the track friendly goodies, Meghan asks if I’d like to go for a drive. The only logical answer to a question like this is of course, “yes.”
The car drives like you’d expect a track car to drive. The gearbox is aggressive. The interior is sparse, the engine is loud, and the amenities are non-existent. Ok, it has a radio, but that’s about it. The short little drive around the residential roads was a blast, and the car was all I’d hoped… and more.
You see, I say more because not only is the car unbelievably fun, but also holds up amazingly well in a high-speed crash. Yeah, we ended up wrecking the car at a rate of speed that would have landed most people in jail if not a coffin. After losing the backend of the car in a switchback, we spun around a few times before doing a backside nose grind of sorts on the median, missing an oak tree by less than a foot.
The last hours of my first day were spent on the side of the road, with a wadded-up 2-day-old Lotus waiting for a tow truck and a Police Officer. You may be asking, “What did your boss say?” Well, I can only assume that he probably decided that I was lost in the building somewhere, and left to go home. But have no fear, he drove right past us on his way home and saw me standing over the car in the middle of the road with the Police Officer on site. That moment had more fail associated with it than any other in my life. The thought must have been something like, “Hey, there’s Ryan the new guy, with a wrecked Lotus and the police…. really?”
So that was my first day in a nutshell. Oh, let’s not forget that we were dropped back off at the office by the nice police officer… in his cruiser, for the rest of my new co-workers to see.
Hanging Up My Apron
It’s bitter-sweet when you decide to leave something you know well for uncharted waters. I’ve decided to take another path with another local company here in Atlanta. The past year with The Home Depot team was an amazing experience to say the least. The knowledge I’ve gained and the friendships I’ve made will be life-long. I can honestly say that after all I’ve learned I still can’t use a sock puppet to save my life. It’s been refreshing to work for people who truly “get” social media and the value it brings the company.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of the madness that ensues when you grow a team of 30, from scratch. The social efforts at Home Depot are about to take on a whole new face in a very exciting way. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of that growth, and now I’ll get to watch it evolve from the outside looking in.
It’s been an awesome ride and I’m very grateful for the opportunities I had with the Home Depot team. Keep knocking it out of the park guys.
Like this:
The Woodfire Experience
We finally did it. Emily and I were able to get reservations at Woodfire Grill for our anniversary. We’ve tried a few times to get into Chef Kevin Gillespie’s restaurant, but it’s typically booked weeks or months in advance. The restaurant was everything you’d expect from a top-rated restaurant in the city. The food was divine, and by far the best meal I’ve ever had.
The food, atmosphere, and wine were simple, well thought-out and paired perfectly. We went with the Chef’s 7-course grand tasting on a recommendation from Melissa Libby. Melissa knows food, and manages Woodfire’s PR efforts, so I knew she’d steer us in the right direction.
You expect greatness going to a place like Woodfire Grill, but they have a secret that makes them a step above the rest. What puts this dining experience above all others is the level of customer service and pride the staff takes with the guests. The staff was amazing, and even went as far as calling me the afternoon of our reservation to see if we were celebrating anything special. When we arrived to our table that evening we had personalized menus waiting for us, as well as an amazing amuse-bouche compliments of the chef.
Our Sommelier recommended a great old-vine red Zinfandel to accompany dinner, and our server was spot on with the plates. The whole experience was more than I could have hoped for. We even had the pleasure of shaking the Chef’s hand on the way out and thanking him for an amazing anniversary dinner.
This was definitely one of the better evenings we’ve had in the past four years. We can now check the box on a Top Chef dining experience.
