This weekend my wife and I are riding in a charity bike ride.  We are riding the Pan Mass Challenge. It is a 2 day event covering 180 miles.  This is one of the best rides I will be a part of.  This is the 30th anniversary for the ride and it is amazing the support it gets from the state of Massachusetts.  5,204 cyclists- 3,000 volunteers and they raise over $30 million. 100% yes 100% of the fundraising goes for life-saving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  This institute is one of the best in the country... If you haven't heard of it.. that is good but unfortunately everyone has been affected by cancer.  We have some great promotional items for your next event to help support the fight against cancer.

Ladies this one's for you. Getting the office blues? Feeling more like a soccer mom then a reeeeal woman? Have no fear. The Stiletto Spy School is here. You used to have to travel to its origin in Vegas to feel like a hot commodity again, but now the real undercover you can come out since the Stiletto Spy School grand opening in New York City. Ditch the customized mug filled with hot tea and grab a hold of a serious energy drink because you're gonna' need it.

                                       

The founder, Alana Winter began the school with a hope to make life fun and interesting while instilling confidence and self esteem in women. If you visit the campus for a 4 - 8.5 hour mission you will learn everything from SWAT team-style firearm skills to seductive dancing. Wow. These guys have taken training skills right out of movies such as Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels.

Maybe you'd like to learn the Argentinean Tango followed by some revealing secrets of wine tasting and a lesson on survival skills. Or perhaps hand-to-hand combat is your thing. There's even knife fighting! Extreme stunt driving? Samurai sword fight? Oh my god, sign me up. I started writing this thinking about how fun it'd be to mock it. But now I really want to go. Unfortunetly for me, prices go as high as $500 bucks for a mission.

How about you Motivators create a mystery for me to solve? You've got all tomorrow to set booby-traps and hire trained fighters to hide around the office until my return on Monday. I mean it. I'm up for the challenge as long as you arm me with some promotional tools. Or forget that I'll just MacGyver it with office supplies. Of course I also request a delightful mixology course and testing in the break room and a handsome gentlemen to James Bond my life. A foreign accent would be nice too.
                                     
While they don't teach any torture classes I felt that our promotional 12 function knife was the most intimidating of our selection. There's even a link on the side so that you can attach it to a personalized keychain. There aren't any promotional products on their site but after looking at the stunts they want to have you pull, you'll go home with a wide array of cuts and bruises. Maybe even a gun shot wound. I'd enjoy that and some lovely promotional keychains. But wait; now I get it. They can't have promotional items because this is supposed to be a top secret organization. Woops!

And if you males read this even though I said it pertains to women, don't feel left out. They're in the midst of creating a MI6 Academy for the spy hunter macho man in you too. 

From what I have found, it seems that it is illegal to sell a phone number because it is the property of the carrier.  If the number is registered to a business, I suppose it is ok to sell because the phone number 867-5309, made popular by the Tommy Tutone song from 1982, is up for sale on ebay.  The bidding is already up to over $5000 and there is still 6 days left.  Just while writing this blog, the bid price went up by $105.  The idea is that buying this number will gets alot of phone calls so assigning to a business may be a good move to increase sales.  A plumbing and heating company in Rhode Island began using the number in 2002 and decided to encorporate the number into their advertising.  I wonder what the jingle sounded like ... "Jenny Jenny, do you need some plumbing?" ... "Plumberrr I've got your number."  I can't imagine any jingle being more successful than one with 867-5309 because it is already branded into people's brains.  My idea would be to print only 867-5309 on a toilet stress reliever.  With little information, many people would feel the need to call the number just to see what it is.

Curious to find more about the 8675309's of the world, I found this on rocketbook.com.  It lists the number tried in every area code, maybe just every state.  My favorite one is "250 (BC)--- called after a night of drinking...3 minute conversation according to my call log. I can't remember what happened...look for further updates to come."

Custom promo products

Earlier this week , what was months in the making , finally for the most part was finished. Myself and my roommate moved out from a large 2 bedroom , 2 bathroom that we lived in for two years to a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom. Moving is a very exciting time, but truth be told for all the excitement there is just as much stress. We hired a moving company to move everything over. If you have never moved before the way the process works is you go to one main website and fill out exactly what you need moved. Your information is sent all over and dozens of companies contact you with quotes. Therein lies the difficulty facing moving companies today. All the client sees is a cost. All the companies came to me with a price and I went with the best cost. It was Applause Moving, and to be quite frank they did a tremendous job. They got everything we needed moved and then some, quickly and easily. They took things apart and put them back together, they didn't break anything, they didn't get lost, they were everything you can ask for. If someone else had beat their price though who knows who I would have ended up with. It's all about brand identity. If I were in the moving industry nowadays I'd be finding promotional products  mailers to get into peoples' homes and do whatever possible to create a brand. There are a ton of great promotional products for companies in the moving industry. Pieces like promotional bag clips , promotional jar openers and promotional magnets are all low cost effective items that relate your brand to a home, which is exactly where a moving company's brand should be seen.

 

I consider myself more of a writer then a ranter. But today, I shall rant. I'm over the fact that half of the summer consisted of thunderstorms- one resulting in a broken promotional umbrella. I've even accepted that working a 9-5 results in little sun time. But what I'm not over and what I do not plan on ever accepting is the use of tanning beds. Seriously let's whip out the Skin Cancer Awareness Event items now, this can't wait until May.

Experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, located in England released their findings in a medical journal today and have deemed tanning beds as deadly as arsenic. I'm sure some of you use tanning beds regularly and I'm not looking to blow up your spot, I've laid down in those death traps before too. What I am trying to do is sway you from ever going back there again.

All the Hollywood tan girls might as well be sweeping chimneys or seeking a hepatitis B carrier because the study classifies tanning beds as a definite cause of cancer. In fact, if you use a tanning bed consistently before you're 30, there's a 75% increase in your risk for getting cancer. In England, the deadliest kind of skin cancer, melanoma is the leading cancer diagnosed in women in their 20s when it used to be most diagnosed in people 75+. Doctors are urging anyone under 18 to stay away from the tanning beds and are recommending spray on tans and creams as alternatives to tanning booths.

We can blame pop culture for a lot. Having that beach body with a glistening tan is attractive, but not when it leads you 6 feet underground. And seriously people, the rain's gone (mostly) get out in the sun! It's FREE. Definitely load up on the custom sunscreen and avoid tanning beds to the best of your ability, please.

And if you refuse to take my advise and long to be inside of that sweat cage try dressing like the lady below. The less skin the less UV radiation.

So I came across this Ad last night while I was watching Tv. A company call Myeex.com has taken Eco friendly to a another level. This is how it works. "Using MyEex is as easy as Measure, Reduce, Earn. MyEex.com helps members MEASURE their carbon footprint related to Home energy use. When you create your Profile on MyEex, you will be asked to enter your electric and heat usage for the last year.  MyEex then offers a variety of tips to REDUCE home energy use. As you begin reducing carbon emissions, all you have to do is enter your utility usage once a month.  MyEex does all the calculations for you and tells you how much you are saving on energy and earning on credits! MyEex.com will then certify these reductions and award members carbon credits similar to those currently granted to companies, states, and countries."  That being said Motivators offers a large variety of Eco-Friendly promotional items. Some of my personal favorites are the Custom Eco Friendly Digital Clocks and the Custom Eco Friendly Waterbottles.

While I enjoy my job and the people around me, I'm a little disappointed in the lack of good-lookingness around here. Though I'm well aware that looks aren't everything, I find a pristine pleasure and comfort in checking out you fine people. Now shush, shush with those sexual harassment suits, I'm really just talking about your smiles. Or lack of them.

People are better looking when they smile. It's a proven fact that I couldn't agree more with. Therefore, smile more you Motivators! Or don't. Maybe smiles are my thing and grimaces are your cubicle neighbors turn on. Hott. Having a really bad day? Forget about logo stress balls. Go see Marisa up at the front desk, she's highly attracted to tears and runny noses.

While your lack of smile has no proven effect on your paycheck or our customer satisfaction, others aren't so lucky. With a buzz for the latest in technology, Japan has instated computerized smile scanners in 15 of their busiest train stations. The machines measure the optimum curvature of the lips to approve or disapprove of employee’s smiles. Watch out, if you’re not sporting the joker smile, the computer may tell you, "You look too serious."

How this man didn't die during this stunt I have no idea.  Putting that aside, this looks like the most fun I've ever seen at an amusement park.  There's no better way to put decades of amusement park ride research and safety modifications out the window than to strap a pair of skates on and glide down a roller coaster track.  Oh wait, he's wearing a helmet.  He's probably fine then, all of those brakes and harnesses used on the actual roller coaster cars are probably just unnecessary extras.  Yes, I see that he seems to have a very well thought out braking system there.  I'm not sure if they're there just so he has something to hold on to help himself not die, or if they actually slowed him down.  Nonetheless, he seems like he's having a good time, I just feel like you don't have to hurl yourself down a rollercoaster without a rollercoaster car you know?  Would you bunjee jump without a bunjee?  Just my opinion though. Unfortunately all of the videos seem to have been taken down due to copywrite claims, but I'm sure I'll find one eventually.

I think he would have been alot safer if maybe they lined the whole coaster with promotional stress balls to break his fall if he did.  And if he did fall, and survive, maybe a promotional first aid kit to repair him for his next idiotic stunt.

If anyone has ever visited the Motivators Company Profiles, you can see that each department has it's own sort of theme. Over here in IT, we've been deemed super heroes. Now it's not an ego thing, it was just a fun way of theming (not a word) our department. We've got The Incredible Manager, MicroBoy, Graphics Man, Net Prowler, Mathy Mouse, Lightening Lady, HTML-Arella and the Content Crusader (yours truly). We've got another spot open for Mike Jolly, who's power has yet to be determined, but we also have an Incredible Intern, Jenn and this morning I figured out what her superpower is. It's not writing amazing product descriptions for promotional products or truly making you want to buy some promotional keychains. It's not writing some awesome article about the benefits of custom mugs. No, no. Our IT Intern...breaks technology. 

At first when she told me this, I thought she was kidding. But little did I know, she was not. When I came back from vacation, my Microsoft Word was all funky. My page breaks were gone and files were reformatting themselves. "What did you do?" I asked her innocently, since she had occupied my desk while I was away. She just wanted to be in the Bungalow, which I can understand. It's pretty awesome in here. But she responded, "I didn't do anything. It's just my aura. It breaks technology."

Yesterday, she'd sat at my desk while I was off for the day. The other H (Sarah E.) is vacationing upstate and Carolina was all alone. So Jenn came and sat here. She used my computer, and surprisingly it's okay. My phone on the other hand...has died. 

Somehow in the wacky scheme of things when we moved into these offices, the phone system became my responsibility. I think I've figured it out pretty well. Even our new phone technican Jason is impressed with my skills. I can re-route extensions, program system wide messages, even set up the voicemails for when we're closed for a holiday. But this...this I have never seen.

My phone just died. I called our company (on another phone obviously) and they suggested that I try plugging in another phone. I did that, and it didn't work. So I put my phone back in and all of a sudden, it was back. And then about an hour ago, it died again. So I called them back and they think it's the jack. And literally, while writing this blog, the phone came back. But the techs are already on their way. Can't wait til they get here and I have to explain why my phone IS working rather than not working. And how do I seem normal when I have to say that the intern who was sitting at my desk emits a mystical ability to take down any electronic presence in her path? Seriously, it's like a technological force field of FAIL. 

I'm chained to my desk until Jason or Steve gets here to help me out with this situation. And for now the phone is up and running. But if anyone needs me, IM me. Because who knows when Jenn's aura will waft itself back over here and take down my phone again.

And just a note to anyone who sees Jenn, don't let her touch your cell phones, cameras, iPods. She'll take them down, man. She will take them down.