Welcome to Techguy’s Cambrian House and Entrepreneurship Blog

Here’s the Greedy or Needy Meebo Chat room I’m trying out.

I’ve often written about one of my ideas called Spoil My Spouse. Well, I’ve since decided to re-brand the idea to encompass a larger group of people that are interested in spoiling each other. I think we’ll still have plenty of focus on couples and lovers, but many of the things could very well apply to all sorts of people interested in spoiling someone special.

The new name is SpoilOn. We haven’t produced much content yet, because I’m waiting for the facebook application to be completed first. I want to make sure that we have at least a mild user base before we roll it out.

I think you’ll really enjoy some of the things we have available. So, let the spoiling begin.

The pest people came and sprayed the other day. They did a fairly good job. The millions of ants that loved to come in our house during the night have all disappeared. However, we are experiencing a problem with this big cockroach. Can’t seem to get rid of her. It is a good things she is cute.

This was a great blog post about the difference between marketing, PR, Advertising and Branding. Take a look for yourself. I think this pretty much hits the difference on the head.

Well, as you can see my blog hasn’t gotten much activity lately. I wish I could say that things were going to get better, but the fact is that you probably won’t see many posts from me for the next 2-3 weeks. I’m going to Italy with my wife. I will give you a little look at where we’re headed in Italy.

Rome
We’ll be flying into Rome arriving about 10 AM. We’ll spend most the afternoon going around Rome. I think that Trevi Fountains, and the spanish steps are tops on my list of places to see in Rome. I also love going to St. Peter’s and watching the painters.

Napoli
After touring Rome we’ll hope on a train and head down to my friend’s place in Napoli. She is the sweetest lady. She said she’d have dinner waiting for us and a key to her house so we can just come and go as we please.

The next morning we’ll be touring some of Italy and I definitely have to hit Piazza Garibaldi to get me a suit and some other Sunday clothes for church. I was also told that there will be a baptism Saturday night. This happened last time I went to Napoli (truthfully Pozzuoli). It’s so much fun, because I get a chance to see a bunch of the members all at once. The next morning I’m sure we’ll enjoy church in probably the most beautiful chapel I’ve ever seen. Well, at least the view from the chapel is the best.

Amalfi
Monday we’ve got a nice hotel lined up in the beautiful town of Amalfi. We’ll probably check in to our hotel as early as possible and then head up for a little hike to the waterfalls just above Amalfi where they use to make paper. It’s an incredible hike that feels like you’ve gone into a completely different world. Got to love Valle Dei Mullini.

Positano
After spending the night in Amalfi, we’ll be taking an early morning “chicken bus” up to my favorite place in Italia:Sentiero degli Dei (Trail of the Gods). It’s about a 4 and a half hour hike. At the end of the hike there are 1000 steps to reach the beautiful city of Positano below. We’ve got a hotel lined up in Positano which will be a certainly welcome relief.

Napoli - Pompeii and Vesuvius
The next morning we haven’t decided exactly what we’ll do, but we’re considering heading to Pompeii since it’s in the area. However, if we’re too tired we might head back to Napoli and go to Pompeii later. I would love to take the boat from Positano back to Napoli. The boat is a lot of fun and a nice soothing ride.

Venice
After spending a couple days with friends in Napoli, we’ll be heading for a romantic weekend in Venice. I can’t say anything about Venice. It’s absolutely the most unique place I’ve ever been. It’s Romantic. It’s incredible and I can’t wait to stroll the streets with my wife. Not to mention a nice gondola ride.

Bologna
I’ll be meeting a friend of mine in Bologna. We’ll be attending church in Bologna which should be interesting since we’ve never been there. I’d rather go to church somewhere else, but I really want to see my friend Maria Rosaria so we’ll do what we have to do. Sunday after church my friend will pick us up and after eating some of her mother’s fine fine Italian cooking we’ll be heading to Florence.

Florence
We haven’t decided how many days we should spend in Florence. We’ll stay at least a day and up to 4 days. I must admit that my wife and I aren’t that into art and so I’m not sure how long we’ll want to stay in Florence. I think we’re probably going to want to head back to Napoli to spend more time with friends.

Well, that’s the general round up of our trip through Italy. Most things are subject to change, but it doesn’t really matter. No matter where we go or what we do we have nothing to worry about, because the best part of Italy is….

THE FOOD!!

Hopefully I’ll be able to at least blog a little from Italy, but if I can’t then we’ll see you after our trip.

The kids and I are officially going to NY in July. We are excited. We bought our plane tickets this weekend. Any my favorite airline just happened to be the cheapest this time and so for the first time in a long time I am going to get ride my favorite JetBlue. If any of you have not tried this airline you have no idea what you are missing out on. Flying on other airlines after Jetblue is just not the same.

I was able to get really good tickets and so it made having to pay for Curtis a little easier. In fact I was able to get cheaper tickets for both Curtis and I than one ticket for me with a free voucher (for Curtis) from another airline.

We will be arriving in Rochester on Sunday July 22nd. And be in town until the 30th. We are going to hit Erin’s wedding. And maybe even the Hill Cummorah Pageant. And of course we want to see all our family. Aunt Karen and Aunt Donna-the kids and I may be visiting your pools a few times. And then there is the zoo, and the children’s muesum, the beach and abbott’s ice cream. Oh and my other friends who are there. So if you want to play with is just shoot me an email and I will try my hardest to get to see everyone. (Really we aren’t all that popular and so I am sure we will get to see everyone).

The only hard part is going to be waiting to July. But we have a full summer. We leave for Italy soon. And then my folks and Shannon and her kids will be back here in Vegas for the birth of Janeen’s third baby. So yeah. It is going to be a good summer. Let it begin!

I’ve been a bit overwhelmed lately with all the various things I have going on. I think I need to cut out some of my projects, but I’m not exactly sure what. Plus, today is my last day of classes until Fall and so I think that should give me a little more time to work on other things. Although, we’ll see what my wife thinks about that. Either way, I’m glad to not have to think about classes for a while longer.

In better news, things are really going well for my Marketing Mob idea. It’s got a bit of momentum and I think that it could really develop into something pretty powerful. I’ve always thought a mob of marketers could do a lot of good and spread the wealth amongst them. Right now I’m recruiting marketers to join the marketing mob and trying to work through the details of how to manage the various marketing resources and projects. The hardest part is definitely making sure that people with marketing resources get paid properly and that whatever revenue is generated is distributed fairly. It’s a major challenge, but new things usually are challenging. If we can get it right, then we’ll be in a blue ocean where we can revolutionize a company’s ability to market their product.

I hope all you bloggers, marketers, advertisers, public relations people will all check out the Marketing Mob and see how you can make money with the rest of us.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about people that overwork the simplest thing. You know the type of person I’m talking about. They are adept at taking a question that requires a simple list of pros and cons and makes a 10 page report on the subject and everything revolving around the subject. If you don’t know someone like this, then count yourself blessed. Unfortunately, I know far too many. Not that I have a problem with these people personally. Also, they are usually very thorough. I mean VERY thorough. Although please don’t get me started on those people that are like this and still don’t even get to the answer. That’s just so ridiculous that I try not to think about those people.

My real problem with people who overwork a question is that they think because they’ve worked so hard they deserve more credit and praise for their work. I’m sorry, but if you just spent 2 days doing a 1 hour project, then you should be fired and not praised. Unfortunately, most people that overwork a project don’t realize that they spent way too much time spinning their wheels. All they see is the long hours, hard work and time spent on that project. They don’t see that they could have come up with the same result in an hours work. Therefore, they feel unappreciated when their extra effort isn’t awarded and praised. I’m sorry, but there’s just something wrong with this picture.

If you have ever worked on a project and complained to yourself that you shouldn’t have spent that much time on a project. Then, you are probably not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about people who create a mountain out of a mole hill. The funny part is that if they read this post, they still wouldn’t get it. They’d be too busy creating a 5 page report on why this post doesn’t apply to them.

It looks like Cambrian House is really turning some heads lately at the Web 2.0 conference. They really do have a compelling story that just got even more compelling with their community owned initiative. Now, just by participating in Cambrian House you are able to own a piece of Cambrian House. A pretty neat concept that I’m sure I’ll talk more about in the future.

Turns out that a number of media sources are excited about Cambrian House too. Cambrian House has been nominated for The Next Web Award in the social category with the likes of Plaxo, XING, meebo, Twitter, Cyworld, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hyves, Friendster, Windows Live Spaces, ebuddy, Dogster and LinkedIn. Pretty nice company if I do say so myself. Here’s the direct link If you want to just go and vote for Cambrian House.

I’m excited to hear what else has happened at Web 2.0 in regards to Cambrian House. They have a cool tiki hut for their booth. That would certainly turn some eyebrows. However, if they don’t tell a good story then people will just be there for the drinks.

I found out today that Robin Hood Fund just received an Official Honoree in the Activism category of the Webby Awards. I think it’s great that the website is getting awards. I of course think it’s a great site not just because I had a wish granted for a trip to Hawaii, but also because it’s a terribly fun and viral concept. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see what happens with the website next. It’s definitely got a thriving community that grows organically. I’m glad to be apart of the site.