By Will Strohl on 8/15/2010 |
By Will Strohl on 8/15/2010 I have been doing technical presentations and training for several years now. Like any level-headed person though, I know that I don’t know everything, and that I can always use more training myself, and do plenty of other things to make myself better at what I do. So, I came across and read a few books about presenting. This is the first of three book reviews. One of the first books...
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By Will Strohl on 8/4/2010
When I agree to come onboard at DotNetNuke® Corporation, it was understood that I’d have to move to San Francisco. This excited me, because I knew I would be able to change my commute of 30+ miles (when not telecommuting) to “Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain!” Anyhow, I made a commitment of walking and using public transportation as much as possible, with the possibility of upgrading to a bicycle and scooter in the near future. As a result, I am walking my Nike cross-trainers to death. The soles are coming loose now.  ...
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By Will Strohl on 7/5/2010
Tomorrow night will mark a full week that I’ve been living here in San Mateo (just south of San Francisco). I am not a resident yet, as we are still waiting for our chosen residence to become available, and the family is still waiting to join me from Florida. So, I’ve had plenty of alone time while exploring to ponder some of the thoughts that continue below… Walking I have walked more during this past week than I probably have all year long so far. This is mainly because I don’t exercise like I should, keep myself too busy, and – most of all – Florida is simply not walker-friendly. The only places where you can walk and feel relatively safe are the bicycle trails or beaches, if you’re lucky to have any near you. Let’s not forget that Florida is HOOOOOOTTTT too!!! I have been walking to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and work – and everything else in between. One thing I noticed immediately was that no matter where I walked, all of the cars consistently go out of their way to let me...
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By Will Strohl on 6/20/2010
I occasionally get requests from various people if they can repost one of my articles here and there. Usually, these requests are from those who want to translate it for their own sites or visitors. However, this is usually a win-win relationship. They always link back to the original article, and clearly post who wrote the content. However, I have just been made aware of my first known content thief who is blatantly stealing my articles and changing all of the links to go to their own categories. The unfortunate thing about those who steal content from other sites, is that if they do it right, they can easily generate a lot of visitor traffic to their website. In turn, they get a lot of revenue from their ads and embedded ad links throughout their site. This is the same traffic that some of us who work hard to provide a valuable service and meaningful content would love to have. I am sure that you will run across my current thief, and I really want to let you know who they are so that you...
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By Will Strohl on 6/16/2010
A very cool link was just posted by one of my Facebook friends for an interactive feature on the Forbes website. This feature allows you to click on a specific county in the United States, and it shows you how many people are moving in and out of that county. Unfortunately, this data isn’t even close to being recent, as it is using data from 2008. I am very interested to see 2009, and 2010 when it’s available. Regardless, this is a very cool, but interesting tool to use and play with. Map: Where Americans Are Moving (via Forbes) This is especially relevant to me since I am moving to San Francisco in a very short period. So, I decided to check Orange County, FL and San Mateo County, CA, which is my current moving path. First, I checked Orange County. (The red lines are outbound moves.)  ...
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By Will Strohl on 6/13/2010
A while back, I posted some pictures and information on how I painted my sons room, using the San Diego Chargers as inspiration. This was a long and tedious task, but it was very fun. I especially feel relaxed when painting, whereas I know many people who cannot stand doing it. I have since gotten some inquiries, comments, and e-mails wanting to know what the final room looked like. Unfortunately, I had procrastinated a lot in getting his room 100% finished. Between work, and everything else, the touch ups that were needed never were made. However, I did manage to take a few pictures before disassembling his room for our move – but not before some of the things were taken off of the walls. Getting the Paint Before we get to those pictures though, I thought that I’d post to you the colors I used. If you use Glidden, the official...
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By Will Strohl on 3/8/2010
My 9 year-old son has to do his first science project at school this year on his own. Until now, his science projects have been a class project. Having gone through this before, my only requirement to the kids is that they come up with their own idea for the project. I don’t want them doing what their friends are doing. This forces them to use their brain to figure out an experiment using scientific method – which is the whole point of the project in the first place. I am not a fan of any child using their friends or siblings ideas. Be as unique as you can! :) Well, the first part of the project is to turn in your idea of the project to the teacher. This involves handing over your scientific question, project title, hypothesis, and so on. The project he chose to do is about saving electricity. He wants to prove (or disprove) that you save electricity when all of your appliances that are not in use are unplugged. I love this idea! It shows that he cares about the environment, thinks about saving...
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By Will Strohl on 2/18/2010
Not too long ago, I mentioned on twitter how much I had accomplished in one day by multi-tasking. You never know what statements will return comments to you on the various social networks, and when they do, it is typically surprising. This was one of those surprises to me. As I remember it, at least 3 other people began sending me links and comments showing how multi-tasking actually makes you less productive. Here are a couple of examples: Multitasking May Not Mean Higher ProductivityMulti-Tasking Leads to Lower Productivity There are very valid points in every argument posed in this area. However, I do have to point out that studies like these are very subject to situational and contextual scrutiny. For example, multi-tasking is an entirely different proposition if you...
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By Will Strohl on 1/7/2010
If you don’t already know, I live in Orlando, Florida. This means different things to different people. First, most people think of the rat. Well, I guess that’d be Mickey Mouse or Disney to you. It’s the “RAT” to me, but that’s another story… Anyhow, it’s been uncharacteristically cold in Central Florida the last few days, and it’s supposed to last through the weekend. This morning, I got a real good dose of how cold it actually is right now. I woke up and got ready for work like I usually do when I have to work from the office. This morning though, there was a small layer of ice on my windshield. Well, in Florida, we do something that you’d not normally do to fix this. We get a cup of hot water, and pour it over the windshield. Problem solved. Actually, we usually can just use our windshield wipers to get rid of the frost, but that wasn’t working this time. I poured the hot water, and briskly walked the cup back into the house only to return to my truck windows already beginning to frost...
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By Will Strohl on 11/25/2009
The other morning, I was already running late for work. I noticed the gas gauge was at empty, but that I not completely unusual for me. I am very good at knowing how much gas I have, having only ran out of gas one other time in my life. Stuck In Front of a School This particular morning, I was on my way to the gas station when I chugged to a stop just feet away from the entrance of an elementary school, just as parents were beginning to bring their kids to school, on an already busy road that led to a major toll road. I immediately whipped out my roadside assistance card and called them to have someone bring gas to me. I was still 2-3 miles away from the gas station, and being in front of a school, it was not a good idea to leave my truck there. Yes… I own a truck. I used to have a relevant need to own a truck over a more fuel-friendly vehicle. I no longer need a truck, but having another car payment is not an option at this time either. :( After a few moments of phone options...
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By Will Strohl on 10/22/2009 In light of the recent changes in laws by the FTC, I felt that I should clean my slate to let you know about any and all compensation that I might be receiving for my content, links, words, and remarks. This includes, my blog, and my social network profiles. Even though I am legally obligated to mention these details going forward, you have no idea about my previous content, unless I have explicitly told you. (Something I try to remember to do anyway for credibility’s sake.) ...
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By Will Strohl on 9/11/2009
A while back, our house sprung a leak in the form of allowing water to enter the attic through the ceiling. The water does what all water does on earth, it made its way down until it found ground. On its way down, it made sure to soak the dry wall, and destroy the floor in my sons room. Fixing the roof was quite simple, as it just needed to be resealed at a joint. The room however needed a new wall and floor. Both the floor and wall were going to be taken care of for us, but I decided to do the painting of the wall myself. And since one wall was getting painted, all of the walls needed to be painted. Here’s what the room looked liked once everything was torn out.  ...
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By Will Strohl on 9/10/2009
I often elude to the fact that I favor patronizing small businesses on Twitter. This is true. If given the choice between a major chain and a small business, I will walk into the small business 9 times out of 10. Why is that though? In it’s simplest explanation, I like to spend my money in my community. That money will have a greater chance of staying in my community, and in turn, benefitting my community. Let’s give you an example. The biggest example of a chain store is of course Walmart. They have the largest retail reach of any other retailer. As a result, they are able to leverage their business size to create some of the lowest prices found on many products. Sounds great if only looked at on the surface. But when you buy a cart full of goods, how much of that money stays in the community? Here is a short list off the top of my head: Store Associates and Managers payroll Annual business license Annual business...
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By Will Strohl on 8/11/2009 I wanted to wait until it was actually out before I mentioned anything, but the most recent INETA newsletter was just sent out. I am very proud and honored to report that this newsletter happens to feature me in the first list of featured Regional INETA Speakers! It humbles me to see that they would choose me in their first round of featured speakers. Thank you, INETA. ...
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By Will Strohl on 8/11/2009
My Grandfather had cancer for a while, but more recently, his illness took over to the point where he wasn’t going to live for more than a week. At the time, we thought he wouldn’t make it past the weekend. As many family members do, we immediately made plans to fly out and spend some time with my Grandfather before he passed. We used RezHub for the flight, as we couldn’t find a cheaper flight anywhere else. (And I am not just saying that because I work there. It was literally the cheapest flight we could find.) As fate would have it, our cheap flight was through United Airlines. (Their name is not linked, because I do not want to give them the traffic.) We chose United not only for the cheap rate, but also due to their bereavement policy. This was certainly not a planned trip, and it wasn’t a vacation. We called their customer service line, and were told that we would just need to furnish a death certificate, or the obituary, and they would...
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By Will Strohl on 8/3/2009
If you follow my blog (which it seems that a few people do), you would have undoubtedly noticed that I haven’t been blogging recently. Unfortunately, this is due to a family emergency that occurred in my family. A few weeks ago, very late on a Thursday evening (really Friday morning), I received a phone call from my cousin. He told me that our Grandfather was very ill, and was not expected to make it through the weekend. Despite being 2,400 miles apart, I was really close to my Grandfather. Kim and I immediately began to try to plan to fly out to California the next day. We stayed up until 3 AM, trying to figure out what to do.  ...
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By Will Strohl on 7/4/2009
We made it just fine to the Denver airport, and despite a really crappy plane, the flight was smooth. However, once we arrived in Denver, we were supposed to have only a 1 hour layover. That hour turned into 2 hours due to what has been told to us was planned routine maintenance. However, if it was, then why wasn’t the layover scheduled for two hours. While waiting, I spoke to someone else who was waiting for the same plane. He mentioned that this happens all of the time at the Denver airport. He says that everyone he knows calls this delay the “Denver conspiracy” because it happens very often. If such a thing is true, it would make sense. Imagine how much profit the airport made once the delay was announced? There is already a major profit made on things such as drinks, alcoholic beverages, food, and everything in the gift shop. But in an airport, the mark-up on such items is higher than ever. Nice plan, Denver. Something else I noticed about Denver airport was that they recycle. I smile...
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By Will Strohl on 7/4/2009
My Grandfather has been ill for quite some time. Unfortunately, he has taken a turn for the worse recently, and isn’t expected to make it much longer. Initial reports are that he will not make it through the week. I have been expecting this for some time now, so I am not at all surprised. I will be making the best of this, and spend some time with him since it’s been a handful of years since I have seen him. That being said, let’s talk about how the trip has begun. Making the Decision We spent at least 8 hours yesterday trying to rearrange bills and such to determine who was going to my hometown of San Diego. It was a tough decision to make. After getting some prices and putting the information together, we narrowed our decision making to 2 possibilities. Either just Kim and I fly to San Diego, or we drive and take all of the kids on their first true road trip. We definitely wanted to take the kids with us, but we had to make the tough decisions and unfortunately, those decisions are directly...
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By Will Strohl on 6/19/2009
Do you not know what a “headhunter” is? Well, let me school you… A “headhunter” in the professional world is usually referred to as a recruiter. Their job is to gather up as many contacts as possible into a network of people, and in turn, they use their network to generate leads for employers looking for employees, and vice versa. This sounds innocent enough. It does. The fact is though, that the list of recruiters that I will talk to is very, very, very short. Over the past 8 months or so, recruiters have been getting more and more aggressive in their tactics of generating and building their networks. That in itself can be a good thing, but most often in this industry, it is definitely a BAD thing. This began for me as one or more annoying emails a week, asking me if I knew anyone who fit a profile for a job, or if I was looking for any new “opportunities.” I can tell from experience, I have never really had any luck using the services of a staffing company, from either side of the coin. I know...
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By Will Strohl on 3/16/2009
At a recent event, one of the people attending asked me why I do what I do. We were at the after event social party, and had just finished going over a lot of the volunteer things that I do. The fact is, I really do not realize how many things I volunteer for until that question is asked (or another like it). I indeed keep myself pretty busy, especially in the DotNetNuke community. So, I really haven’t answered the question yet. And I do not think that I effectively answered it when I was asked either. The question ate at me, as I hadn’t really reflected on it in a while. I just set myself in motion, and I have been going non-stop for a long time now. Before I can effectively answer that question, I need to really explain what brought me to the point of making the decision to speak. Point A to Point Now My career in my current profession began many moons ago, in a technical support position, supporting WAN and LAN environments, mainly ...
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By Will Strohl on 3/14/2009
I announced a class that was to be given by Andy Warren of End to End Training earlier this week. I just got home from it. I must say that I was very impressed and found several areas that I need to improve in my own presentations. The attendees ranged from those who have never spoken in front of an audience before, to people like me who have a decent background speaking. However, I would suggest that speakers of ANY level take this class, or another like it. Why Did I Go? Even though I am already presenting various topics fairly regularly, and speaking to members of the ODUG on a monthly basis, I still thought there was plenty that I could learn. I subscribe to the belief that no one knows everything on any given topic. I also have learned through leadership training that in order to achieve your goals as a leader, one of the most...
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By Will Strohl on 3/12/2009
If you live in the Central Florida area, an event just came to my attention that you should consider. Unfortunately, it is very short notice. If you are thinking about speaking to a user group or at a code camp event, or just want to brush up on your existing speaking skills, I suggest you attend. Here is the official event text: Technical Speaking Class oPASS President Andy Warren is teaching his free semi-annual class on Technical Speaking this Saturday (Mar 14) at the offices of End to End Training, 225 S Westmonte Dr Ste 2010, Altamonte Springs, FL. The class begins at 8:30 am and runs 4-6 hours based on the number of attendees, and is designed for the beginner to intermediate level speaker - perfectly appropriate to attend if you're wanting to prepare for the big step of doing a presentation for the first time, whether it's for a user group, SQL Saturday, or just co-workers. This class focuses on all technical speaking, not just SQL Server. Registration: http://www.endtoendtraining.com/public/classes/coursedetails.aspx?courseid=38...
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By Will Strohl on 3/11/2009
UPDATED! There is a video from a co-workers cell phone that captures me taking a picture of our CEO taking a picture of the commotion. Scroll down to see it... I wear noise cancellation headphones most of my day at work in an attempt to block out unwanted distractions, and to get some great sounds from my Pandora stations. This afternoon, there was a sound that I couldn't block out. I kept hearing the fast clatter of high heels in the office. I even saw a few of the women here talking loudly, and running past my office. Curiosity got the best of me, so I got up and followed the noise to its source. I made it to our back door, but on the way I began to get a whiff of a familiar smell. It smelled like electrical wires burning. Whew! Stinky! As I approached the back door, there were people circled around it, and it was clear that no one wanted to exit. I had no idea what was up, so I made my way out the door. Here is what I saw once outside: ...
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By Will Strohl on 2/21/2009Don't worry. Lowes is not on my boycott list yet, but they may snag you with a financial customer service snafu... |
By Will Strohl on 2/2/2009This problem happens all the time, but it still frustrates me... |
By Will Strohl on 2/1/2009I just moved my blog's RSS feed from Feedburner to Google's feedburner. |
By Will Strohl on 12/31/2008It is time to review this crazy year that I've had... |
By Will Strohl on 12/23/2008I have until this evening, always been a fan and regular customer of Best Buy. Unfortunately, that has changed. Now, they have lost a customer. This is one company that I didn't want this to happen to. |
By Will Strohl on 12/20/2008I have kept myself out of the social networking sites for quite a while, but I joined MySpace a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, I joined Facebook. |
By Will Strohl on 12/14/2008 Today is my 7 year anniversary. If you want to read some sappy stuff, then read on. (Well, as sappy as I'd get publically.) |
By Will Strohl on 10/31/2008
Here are a couple pictures of the kids costumes. They had a blast, of course!
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By Will Strohl on 10/30/2008
Here are a couple of REALLY good links that were sent to me recently... (CAUTION: Reading will be required.)
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By Will Strohl on 10/28/2008
Should I dress the same as last year? (There's a pic...)
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By Will Strohl on 10/28/2008
I haven't seen this in a while, but I will never forget it!
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By Will Strohl on 10/23/2008
Have you ever donated to a charity organization like this one?
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By Will Strohl on 10/21/2008
Aside from LinkedIn, I have been pretty good about staying away from the end-user fads. But here I go into a mainstream "fad"...
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By Will Strohl on 6/26/2008
My girlfriend was just laid off. She does clerical work. Do you know who is hiring?
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By Will Strohl on 6/19/2008
One of the ways that I think I have gone green is with how I handle my allergies.
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By Will Strohl on 6/11/2008
We are here and this is the first moment I have gotten to see my daughter in nearly a year. :(
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By Will Strohl on 4/13/2008
I just finished building a new PC at home, and I am nearing the end of the software installations. However, something caused me to stumble along the way. Here is a reminder piece of advice...
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By Will Strohl on 1/6/2008
The San Diego Chargers have been waiting MANY years to get a post season win in the NFL. They made that goal a reality today...
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By Will Strohl on 11/5/2007
A while back, the family and I had a wonderful day. Despite the scorching hot weather, we made the best of it and had a very inexpensive yet memorable time.
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By Will Strohl on 7/25/2007
I know I haven't posted any new blogs lately... As the saying goes, I have been really busy.
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By Will Strohl on 5/18/2007
I wanted to share an experience I just had with a major car repair chain. I have only boycotted 2 companies so far... Here goes number 3!
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By Will Strohl on 3/28/2007
I was at the CTIA Wireless Convention this week in Orlando. There are very prominent business people who were giving keynote speeches each morning. Today, we instead had the Former President George H. W. Bush and Former President Bill Clinton.
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By Will Strohl on 1/18/2007
We have all noticed in our places of employment times when we look at the actions of a manager, director, or officer within the organization and thought something like "what are they thinking?" At worse times, this supervisor may be your own. Experiencing this from your own supervisor firsthand will indeed have a lasting effect on your life. If you have ever had any leadership training, this impact would likely be multiplied several times over.
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By Will Strohl on 1/10/2007
I just came across a topic that I know I MUST let you know about. I have blogged about parenting one time before. I am going to do so again. However, I should do it much more often. Watch any news program or playground and you will be slapped in the face with how obvious it is that the word parent is no longer applicable to most of today's "guardians".
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By Will Strohl on 12/10/2006Not that any of you out there care as much as I do, but my daughter will be coming back to visit this week. I am really excited! I expect development to slow down tremendously while she is here. Also, there are new pictures in the online photo gallery. I have finally caught up on posting those. Enjoy! |
By Will Strohl on 8/5/2006
I was recently asked for pictures of my truck. To give you a bit of background on it, the bearings were bad in the original engine, so I was forced to let my truck sit for a while. Well, two and a half years later, several thousand dollars later and many new parts later (including an engine), you can see what she looks like now in my picture gallery. Enjoy! (If the pictures suck, blame my girlfriend. It was her first time using our new camera.)
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By Will Strohl on 7/14/2006
FYI - The link has been to the right --> for a few weeks now, but as of tonight I have just completed posting all of the newest pictures. Take a look! Enjoy, but don't steal! :)
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By Will Strohl on 7/4/2006
My daughter Paige has come to visit. Here is a family photo of all of us! Pictured (from left to right): Kohen, Kimbereley, Me, Paige, Kariann
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By Will Strohl on 4/21/2006
Well, it has been (once again) a while since I last posted. A bunch of cool things have happened. My new job is going well, I got my truck fixed and repainted (photos to come soon), and I have been working (which is playing to me) hard.
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By Will Strohl on 2/28/2006
Well, today was my first day at a new job. After being there for 5 years, it was a tough decision to make. I will miss you guys (and gals). For now on thoughout my entire blog, whenever you see me refer to guys or you guys, please know that I am referring to my beloved friends at my previous employer.
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By Will Strohl on 4/12/2005
I was on my way back from lunch with a couple co-workers and we were coming up on a gas station. Immediately, one of them got excited and exclaimed, "Gas is $2.19 here!" Our gas situation for the past 6 years has been very upsetting for me. The most obvious reason would of course be the amount of money that we keep having to fork out for gasoline. The secondary reason is because I know something CAN and SHOULD be done about it by our government. Gee, I wonder why nothing has been done...
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By Will Strohl on 4/11/2005
I just read a quote in MaximumPC from a game developer. If it is true, then my nightmares of customer service extinction are true as well.
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By Will Strohl on 4/10/2005
I have read several articles recently about a bill going through and getting passed in the house "preventing teens from buying violent or sexually explicit games". If you just leave it at that, then it sounds wonderful, right? How about NO! What is really happening is the so-called "hands-off" republican and conservative base looking for more brownie points during their politcal career. There used to be a time when these types of things were left to the discretion and responsibility of parents.
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By Will Strohl on 4/7/2005
Customer service is something that each and every consumer once took for granted. Now, most business owners, and supervisors wouldn't recognize it was if it hit them in their groins. It has seemingly become an endangered species.
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By Will Strohl on 4/7/2005
This is the same type of person that will run a red light 2 seconds after it turns. By the way, I know who this is. He preaches cancer awareness and wears a Lance Armstrong bracelet, but smokes whenever he gets a chance. There is a word for that, but and not sure if I can say it...
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By Will Strohl on 4/6/2005
Recently we in Central Florida have made the national news spotlight again. If it were only for a good reason this time...
Over the years, we have been featured for many things, but I am having a problem remembering the last time it was something positive. Yes, we dealt with not having sufficient support and supplies following the hurricanes last year, but that is about it.
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