I voted today at the NHC goverment center off of College Road. From the moment I got in line to the time I walked out the door, it took about 45 minutes. I probably could have shaved another 10 minutes off of that if I didn’t have to register too, but therein lies the beauty of One Stop Voting.

One Stop Voting continues through November 1st and here’s where you can do it:

• NHC Government Ctr.
  230 Government Center Dr.,
  Ste. 39
  Wilmington, NC 28403
• CFCC Main Campus – BIG Center
  805 N. 3rd St., Wilmington
• New Hanover County Senior Center
  2222 South College Rd., Wilmington
• NE Library
  1241 Military Cutoff, Wilmington
• Carolina Beach Municipal Bldg.
  1121 Lake Park Blvd., Carolina Beach
• CFCC North Campus – Applied Technology Building
  4500 Blue Clay Rd., Castle Hayne

I suppose that with this being a blog about marketing & such that I should talk about the presidential campaign this year and how very disappointing it was. But Honestly, it would just make me violently ill to do so.

I got this in the mail from Adobe enticing me to upgrade to CS4. (I’m thinking, I’m thinking… what’s with the pressure?)

It reminded me of those Advent calendars I always got as a kid. I guess that’s the point.

Underneath it is one of those official looking pieces of mail that looks like a check or official government document. It turned out to be an ad for a car dealership.

Adobe: Win!
Jeff Gordon Chevrolet: Fail

I attended the Meetup organized by the Star News at the Connection this past Saturday. It was great to meet so many people that I’ve been stalk– I mean *following* online for a while now.

Highlights for me were:

• Meeting Ian from The Grove Project
• Making good on the promise to shake @jimware’s hand if I ever saw him in person.
• The great discussion on social media and how it’s working online
• Trading “war stories” with other bloggers
• Meeting Wayne Sutton and actually hearing his say “FAIL” out loud when the power blinked.

Videos from @gwensutton can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=12733896B535B92D

First the Griswalds down the street are stringing lights & inflating things on their lawn for Halloween and now this?

The only form of non-fowl Peeps allowed are the little bunnies. Pumpkins are the obvious ploy of a marketing person that spends their entire per diem on crack.

Spotted at the Fresh Market in Mayfaire if you are so inclined.

The Star News has organized a meetup tomorrow morning for all of you blog/social media types.

The Grand Poobah of NC social media himself, Wayne Sutton, is promised to make an appearance. If you look up hyperconnected in the dictionary, Wayne’s avatar is probably there along with links to his accounts on Twitter & about 75 other social media sites that you haven’t even heard of.

The man is a beast.

10 AM – Saturday, October 24th @ The Connection

link: PARROT: Sutton to attend Wilmington meetup

No comments from me, just two links:

Stephen Crowley: McCain

Callie Shell – Obama

I had two clients with domain name problems this week. Both were the result of having someone else register their domain name for them. This seems to be the most common issue that I run across with clients, so I’ve got this one rule of thumb that I always tell people, usually in the first phone conversation. It goes a little something like this:

“Register your domain name yourself!”

There are a lot of good reasons for this, but some of them are:

• Ownership
  If you register it, there is no question that you own it. No need for lawyers or arbitration if problems arise.
• Renewals
  When the registration is up, you get the notice. Heck, you can even set it to auto-renew with most registrars. No pesky “Uh-oh, why can’t I find my website” moments.
• Immortality
  I don’t have it. Should something happen to me (perish the thought!), you are not left out in the cold.

I understand that registering a domain can be an intimidating process, so I usually walk clients through the process. If I can’t do that, I recommend that they do like Nancy Reagan and “Just Say No” to all the extras that they try to sell you. Just take the domain and run. They’ll try to sell you the kitchen sink if you’ll let them.

So, remember those two clients I mentioned earlier? I was able to resolve one of their problems in less than an hour with a phone call. The other isn’t so fortunate. Their website is probably going to be down for at least three to five days because the registrar (*cough* 1and1) will only get the domain out of its redemption status if they fax a form and wait a couple of days for the paperwork to be processed.

Oy.

Wilson’s Restaurant to close after decade in business

Economy takes toll on Cavenaugh car lots

Both via the Star News Website

It’s really scary to see the economy taking a toll on local businesses. We bought our first two cars from Bruce and I’ve done a little web work for Larry over at Wilson’s over the years (no, didn’t design it – just cleaned it up from time to time).

I’m more than a little concerned for those that lost their jobs over the past week. Pounding the pavement is no fun.