Author Archive
December 7th, 2009
A Few Tips for this Weeks Rain
Beware of burn areas as 2 major storms are on tap for Southern California
By: Roger Ewing
This is a friendly reminder to pay special attention during this week. 2 major storms will hit, the first on Monday, December 7th and the second, more impressive storm, will begin late on Wednesday, December 9th. Forecasters predict the 2 storms will cause widespread power outages and flooding in burn areas. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your home. Beware of clogged rain gutters and leaky roofs. It’s also a great time to shut the sprinklers off and save a few extra bucks on your next water bill. Drive safe and have a good week.
To view the rain and snow forecast go to Snow and rain levels.
EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.
- Roger Ewing
- Web Site
- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on December 7th, 2009
November 10th, 2009
Google’s 411 service
This is something we all should know about. Try this free, efficient service Google now offers
By: Roger Ewing
- Roger Ewing
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- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on November 10th, 2009
November 9th, 2009
You Googlin’ me
Nearly everyone is Googling, Tweeting, Facebooking, and Digging. Just about no one is talking.
By Roger Ewing
In Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic movie Taxi Driver, a deranged Travis Bickle, portrayed by Robert De Niro, asks his own reflection this now famous question, “you talkin’ to me?”.
De Niro’s character is a troubled and conflicted New York City taxi driver who has isolated himself from society. His aloneness allows Bickles’ demons to get the better of him and he lashes out at the decadence he sees in the city. Travis Bickle is emblematic of the struggle we face in our modern lives. Anonymity has become the desired posture. And like Bickle, we have created cocoons of privacy around ourselves.
Problem: How do we develop new business relationships in an environment where our customers and clients are demanding more privacy and seclusion?
Nearly 85% of all my business transactions are the direct or indirect result of someone recommending me. Sound like a large number? Do some research into the specific sources of your successful business transactions and you will discover, as I have, that developing and maintaining relationships is probably the most important aspect of your business.
At the end of the day, we are all in the business of relationships.
In a rapidly expanding web based world, privacy has become a scarce commodity. Modern man seeks paparazzi free space. The development of filtering software, and mechanisms to ensure our separateness, has become big business. No one wants to hear from anyone they don’t already know and trust.
The irony is that your business enterprise, regardless of the category, is probably dependent upon the continued expansion of your sales base.
Solution: “Micro Community Blogs” that provide meaningful, quality information to people on a neighborhood level. I have found this to be a simple and effective marketing strategy that gives me permission from individuals in the community to communicate directly.
Information is the drug of choice in our modern civilization. In an effort to satisfy their desire for information, modern humans Google everything and everyone. If information is King, then Google is surely Emperor.
65% of all inquiries on the Internet begin with Google.
Lets put that in perspective. According to marketing research company comScore, in the United States alone, some 14.3 billion Internet searches were conducted in May 2009. comScore estimates there were 9.3 billion searches on Google for that month, representing an astounding 299.83 million Google searches per day!
Micro Community Blogging involves an Internet strategy that provides valuable information to individuals in their cocoon like sanctuaries. Reaching out to people, community by community, will prove to be the successful approach for enterprising marketers.
Here are the basic rules of engagement.
1. The information we share with the community must be in the first person.
2. This information must be relevant and topical on a neighborhood level.
3. Never sell anything in the Micro Community Blog.
Blogging is the preferred means of communicating in a village-like environment. Blogging has replaced the chatter we used to share with our neighbors and it has become a replacement for the party-line telephone that served as the internet in our parents ancient analog world.
You Googlin’ me? Hope so, because I already Googled you.
- Roger Ewing
- Web Site
- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on November 9th, 2009
October 30th, 2009
Happy Halloween
In the spirit of Halloween, I’d like to offer a few creative Halloween decor ideas cordially presented by youtube. Happy Halloween all!
By: Roger Ewing
EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.
- Roger Ewing
- Web Site
- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on October 30th, 2009
October 25th, 2009
New Web Site Design Coming Soon
I am excited to announce the launch of our new web site design, including new features.
By Roger Ewing
In a short time we will be launching our newly redesigned web site at ewingSIR.com. It may take us a few days to get the kinks out and some of our links may temporarily not work as a result of the new theme installation. Please be patient with us, we are doing our very best to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Over the coming weeks, we will also be updating our Community Blog sites as well.
We will be adding a new link to our Community Newz sites, where you can subscribe to receive current statistics for your community by zip code.
When our new site is launched, please let me know your thoughts and your feelings about the new design. We greatly value your input and recommendations.
If you would like to see your community featured on our community blog list, or if you would like to become a Community Newz contributor for your neighborhood, please let us know.
Best wishes,
Roger Ewing
- Roger Ewing
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- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on October 25th, 2009
September 5th, 2009
Oak Park Has A New Water Park
Beat The Heat In Oak Park
My Grandson, Cameron Davis
By Roger Ewing
My six year old grandson enjoyed splashing in the fountains at the new Oak Park Water Park this past week. With temperatures in triple digits, the new kid friendly park was the perfect solution to a hot, humid afternoon.
The park will be open from 10 AM until 6 PM through September 30 and reopen in May next year. Don’t miss the fun, take your children, and maybe yourself to the water park for some wet fun.
The water park is located at the Oak Canyon Park off Kanan Road.
- Roger Ewing
- Web Site
- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on September 5th, 2009
September 3rd, 2009
Local woman’s Woodstock photo is a Sixties icon
Famous Woodstock Photo Features Local Business Woman
By Roger Ewing
Joan Bryant, owner of Indiana Joan’s at the Paraiso shopping center, 350 Via Las Brisas #130, Newbury Park. She sells fashion and jewelry—some of which she designs and creates herself.
She was a young woman passionate about freedom, love and music who left her home in Indiana to experience the “three days of peace and music” promised by the promoters of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The festival was Aug. 15 to 17, 1969.
To see the entire story visit The Acorn at http://tinyurl.com/mrsjfc
- Roger Ewing
- Web Site
- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on September 3rd, 2009
August 21st, 2009
BLOGGING: Lessons from the film Julie & Julia
JULIE & JULIA: “If no one’s in the kitchen, who’s to see?
By Roger Ewing
I put on my sunglasses and fake moustache, and walked quickly through the parking lot with my head down, thinking no one would recognize me when I went into the theatre. For two weeks my wife had been asking me to see the movie Julie & Julia with her and my 86-year-old mother-in-law. Not that I mind going out with the two of them, but being seen entering a theatre in my home town to see a movie about Julia Child and cooking was, well, somehow not very macho.
The Nora Ephron written and directed movie features Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell. The film is actually two stories in one. It flashes back and forth between Julia, as she begins her cooking career in 1949 Paris, contrasting her life to Julie, a woman in 2002 Queens, New York who aspires to cook all 524 recipes from Child’s cookbook. Stanley Tucci, brilliantly plays Julia Child’s husband Paul Childs, opposite Streep.
Less than ten minutes in, I suddenly realized this film is the first major motion picture based on a blog. Off came the sunglasses and fake moustache; on went the light bulb inside my head, blogging is something I could wrap my brain around.
It turns out, the real life Julie Powell started to blog as a means of getting in touch with her inner desire to someday become a writer. Her life had led her to an unhappy place. She lived in an apartment above a pizza parlor and spent her days in a sad cubicle-job working for the city of New York. She was in desperate need of some self-realization. Blogging became Julie’s passport to a meaningful existence. Her goal was to cook all of Julia Child’s recipes inside one year and to blog about it each day. The project quickly became an obsession for her.
I checked out Julie’s original blog, The Julie/Julia Project. Not that impressive. No exotic links, no theme, other than her first person rambling about life and cooking. Which leads me to an important conclusion for my own blog, www.rogerewing.wordpress.com.
There is no need to be fancy in delivery, only a desperate requirement to connect to your readers on a level they understand and identify with.
Compelling content is a constant requirement for successful blogging. Julie’s blog is very conversational. It’s as if I am in her kitchen listening to her while she cooks. Her written words are merely the extrapolation of her thinking onto a computer screen. Why is this so readable and why is everyone so interested in what she is thinking on any given day?
On Friday, August 13, 2004 Julie writes, “Without you here (Julia Child), I would be a different person – a smaller, a sadder, a more frightened person.” There were 238 comments posted to this particular blog. That’s impressive. It is clear she is willing to expose her true feelings to the world and has no fear of transparency. This is an important point.
One must blog from their true heart, without fear. Be willing to commit to treating the world as a welcome friend.
Julie Powell’s blog became a memoir for “Everywoman”. Julie’s writing is simply a revealing expose of a year in the life of someone just like you or me. She writes about herself, a real person, whose life is filled with joy, sadness, fear, pain, exhilaration, passion, and every other emotion that makes the human condition so complicated and entertaining.
This is a wonderfully simple film that is filled with delights, as well as a realistic sampling of the kind of challenges we all face in our everyday lives. It is also a lesson on the strength of social media and the power of the written word. I highly recommend Julie & Julia.
See it, you’ll be better for it.
- Roger Ewing
- Web Site
- " . $name . "
Posted by Roger Ewing on August 21st, 2009
