I'm now Brand Manager

I failed to mention in my previous blog today that I am now transitioning to Brand Manager, overseeing KTM's brand marketing techniques specific to KTM's product line, print and online advertising, web presence, viral marketing, video marketing and PG&A. During the transition, I will continue to work on ATV and Husaberg dirt bike product management from conception to the showroom floor.

Here's a quick banner ad I made for our new bike / era in motocross starting this spring. Just one of the many I made today. Banner ads, either flash or static like this one, seem to be the norm for my job duties lately. I can count on one hand the amount of Brand Managers I know who actually do the design work too! It's a cool gig having complete control over the brand!

Oakland Was Already A Week Ago

It's hard to believe, but our trip to Oakland was already more than a week ago. We stayed in the town of Alameda at our friends Missy and Danny's house, so we didn't really make it in to Oakland. We did, however, hit up San Francisco for some sights and food.

What we didn't bargain for was an anti-abortion, pro-life rally to take over the city by the bay. Thankfully, we made our way over to San Fran across the Bay Bridge before the rally got under way. We had a ferry to catch over to Alcatraz and beat the crowd by an hour. It was my first in-person protest (we took no part in this one of course), so it was a unique experience.

Better was seeing Alcatraz. Once a maximum security prison and now a tourist trap, go figure. It was definitely worth seeing, though. The ferry ride took about 20 minutes and $26 round trip, your National Park dollars at work, to get to Alcatraz. Still, it was $26 well spent. The island is full of history, and the buildings are starting to show they're from another era. We definitely recommend doing the audio tour if you ever make it to the island. From the attempted escapes to the particular prison cells like Capone, the audio covered it all.

Outside of that, small things have kept us pretty busy lately. Somehow the weekend got burned up doing chores and running errands. We did manage to see Extraordinary Measures. Slow-paced, feel good movie. Recommended for rental, not worth seeing at the theatre.

We'll try and post some pics from our trip to Oakland tonight.

Lucky Post 100

It's taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but I've reached post 100 here on the blog. I guess I haven't had anything much of interest to say lately or there would be more posts!

In all reality, we are getting much closer to the launch of the Vebe Visual website. I've had some coding errors with different web browsers so it's in troubleshoot mode now. The basic foundation is there, however, so a launch around mid-February isn't unrealistic. The website works just fine in Safari and Firefox, but Explorer is providing a host of problems. I've never liked IE from Windows, and now I dislike it even more.

I'll be taking a weekend off working on the coding errors for a short little vacation. Tracy and I are heading to Oakland this weekend to visit an old friend from Ehlert, Missy. It's just a quick flight up on Friday evening and an early flight home Monday. No vacation needed for this one. Best of all, flights round trip were $89 and there's no baggage fees on Southwest. "Why do you charge for bags!" Oakland ... where neck tattoos are a rite of passage!

Merry Christmas to Us

Thanks to a gift of money from my wonderful parents at Christmas, Tracy and I were able to sign up at 24-Hour Fitness and pay for both our first and last month's membership with money left over.

We checked out LA Fitness, but didn't like the fact that their "manager" wouldn't budge on the membership initiation fee of $99 total for both of us. I was surprised that she let $60 a month ($29.95 per person) walk out the door in this economy over $99. She said she could make a deal with us and wave the initiation fee for $34.95 a month fees for both of us. Seriously? Terrible negotiating lady, don't lose your job at LA Fitness for a sales job at a car dealership. You wouldn't make it a day. At that rate, our initiation fee would have been paid for in 9 months.

So, we promptly went over to 24-Hour Fitness and scored the same deal ($29 a month) sans membership fee. The best part is, there's no contract. It seems fitness centers have wised up lately and are discontinuing the contract policies they previously had in place. 24 Hour Fitness doesn't have locations in Minnesota, unfortunately, so we'll have to end our memberships if, strike that, when we move home.

We could have bought 2-year memberships at Costco for $299.95 each, but we just don't have that commitment right now. That would have been roughly $12 a month, which is really hard to beat. But, let's face it, there's no way we'll be here 2 more years. At this rate, I hope we can hold out until after the Branger's visit in mid-June. Maybe it was just Christmas and seeing family and friends or Tracy's 2-plus hour commute to work last week, but a bout of home sickness has hit. Strangely, during 0 degree weather in Minny while we are enjoying 80 degrees here. Go figure.

Yuppy Photo

Tracy and I have chosen our photographer for the wedding. You can see his portfolio at Yuppy Photo. He shoots as a tandem with his wife, and we were pretty impressed with his work. Yapuncich Photography gives anybody who signs our guest book a $5 credit. All you have to do is go to this link and pre-register. This gives you the option to log in and view our photos from the engagement session or wedding. Our engagement session will hopefully be when we come back in February.