Andrew Artemenko is a marketing professional who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the kind of person who requires only a few, very good friends. He includes his wife Laura and their two dogs Oreo and Holly in this select group.
Hi – It’s Laura here! It’s been a while since I’ve posted and I wanted everyone to know what I have been up to. As most of you know, I resigned from my job on Aug. 31st. The decision in my case was not an easy one and fairly bitter sweet as the past four years have been very special, not only strengthening my confidence and ability in my craft as a writer, but also teaching me about life, adulthood and the meaning of true friendship. I feel truly blessed to have had such a rewarding experience and to have made relationships that I anticipate to be life long.
The question then becomes – what do I plan to do now with all of my spare time? Besides taking some time to learn how to cook, play with my dogs and exercise, my mission is two-fold: Focus on my freelance writing and prepare for a new career entirely – motherhood.
That’s right. Andrew and I are in the family way. We are about 12.5 weeks along with a due date set for the first week in April. We are of course overwhelmed with excitement and joy and also fear and anxiety. Our nerves were somewhat put to rest this morning when we got to see our “wee nugget” in action. A few of the shots from this morning’s photo shoot are below.
You can’t really see it in these pictures, but the baby already has a strong Artemenko chin. I’m pretty sure its a little Andrew Jr., but we will find out for sure in about six weeks.
Last night we went to Kabuto, a Hibachi style Japanese restaurant.
Laura's parents were in town for the weekend, so we built up our appetites earlier in the day at the Charlotte Mint Museum and a local rose garden. By the time we hit the restaurant, we were ready for some flaming hot food and cold beverages.
I found an incredibly inspirational video online and I think it's fitting to share. The topic of the video is 46 year-old Professor Randy Pausch. He is dying of pancreatic cancer. With only weeks to live, he gave this final speech at Carnegie Mellon University:
To wrap up my first week of work and the new commute to uptown Charlotte, Laura and I settled in for dinner at our favorite bellwether Mexican restaurant: Zapatas.
In a cruel twist of shopping cart karma, someone sailed their retired cart into the side of my car while we were at dinner.
I was upset at first, but then realized it could be much, much worse like the time I crashed my car into a parked car when I was 16. The funny part is I actually have a picture of the car:
Don't ask me why I keep these things around, but I have a bunch of black and white photos I took in highschool with the Mamiya NC1000 camera my dad gave me. Dad was probably equally confused and frustrated when his idiot son wrecked his car and then started taking pictures of it.
Here's another classic circa 1996:
That's my mom with my older brother bill using a stick as a mustache. Hey Bill, Paul Bunyan wants his shirt back.
Last night I defeated the Chinese Empire, along with every other civilization after about 8 hours of playing Civiliation IV.
According to the game, as an American leader I have the leadership ability of "Dan Quayle." Incidentally this is the lowest possible ranking, because my virtual society made it to the year 2050 without constructing a spaceship or any other hallmarks of a modern society. The game literally just ended after a predetermined number of turns.
To give you perspective, it took my people until the year 2020 to discover "plastics."
Eventually the game gave up and I won by a timed victory. I did however truly enjoy playing the game over the last couple weeks, building cities, starting wars and engaging in diplomacy.
Civilization IV is an exceedingly detailed, turn-based game which requires a dozen or so decisions be made per turn. If you just "zone out" and start a bunch of wars each turn, you end up with a backward civilization like mine.
I picked up the game from Target for about $40, I'm sure you could find it for a lower price, especially on the net.
I'm trying out an alternative to Youtube called Vimeo. Everyone loves Youtube, and it's great for distributing snippets of viral video and rampant copyright violations. But for sharing personal memories etc. I wouldn't say it's my favorite.
Enter Vimeo, owned by Connected Ventures, which is owned by Interactive Corp (Nasdaq: IACI)
See for yourself, I think the video quality is superior to Youtube. I also was able to upload a 200 mb file, 2x the 100 mb limit of Youtube.
There something special about inhaling the odor of your own vaporized teeth. Add to that a pinch of hangover, and you've begun to understand my experience at the dentist this morning..
In addition to the two fillings I was promised at my last visit in March, we decided to drill out my last remaining metal fillings and replace them with composite material. These were located on the second and third molars on my lower right jaw:
I couldn't help but think "does anyone else consistently spend 2 hours at each dentist visit?"
I am certainly glad it's behind me! See you in 6 months, and I am not drinking the night before. I learned my lesson!
At the advice of my friend Greg (who still has my tennis raquet), I've begun reading and will hopefully finish a book called All Marketers are Liars, by Seth Godin.
If I could summarize the book thus far, it's about marketing relevant ideas that cause the listener to interpret them within the frame of their world view, and make a snap decision to spread and defend their purchase.
The title comes from the notion that we live in a society with so much information, you can't pitch all the facts availalbe, so you tell a story. The lying, or rationalization happens in the mind of the consumer once they accept the product/service/idea as desirable within the context of their world view.
If your story is authentic, meaning you were honest in the facts you presented, it will enhance the product or service you are marketing and prevent cognitive dissonance (aka "buyers remorse"). The irony is that no lying happens on behalf of the marketer if this is done correctly... the consumer quite naturally does this on their own.
An example of this is the story Seth writes about factory outlets. People lie to themselves every time they walk into one with the assumption that the goods they are purchasing are of equal quality to a retail store:
Ralph Lauren generates a huge portion of its sales from seconds and job lots sold at the many Polo factory stores around the country. There are so many of these stores (and demand is so high) that many of the items sold aren't seconds at all. They are designed and produced for the factory stores. People tell themselves a story about finding a bargain, they build up the expectation by driving thirty miles out of their way (while on vacation, no less) and then are delighted to spend $40 for a $400 jacket that was never intended to be sold for $400 and probably cost $4 to make.
Is Polo authentic in their story? Absolutely, they never claimed their outlet stores were of any better quality than the regular store. I think that is the magic of Seth Godin's argument: people lie to themselves every day when faced with a lot of information and a well timed story.
Will I ever shop in a factory outlet again? Sure, but I probably won't go out of my way to find one.
I hope you dig it. I based the design off of a template called Pixel Green by Erwin Aligam who authors a site called Styleshout.com.
The color palette is called Antique Red, which I found at COLOURlovers.com.
I came up with the idea for cleaning up the design this morning, while I was mowing the lawn. Hence the amateur sketch for this month. I'd like to think my drawing is 1 part Wes Anderson, and 2 parts highschool Spanish book cartoon.
It is not supposed to be serious in any way. I think Laura will have a good, mocking laugh at it.
Above is a shameless picture I took after mowing the lawn to show how happy I am that it is slowly coming back to life.
Meanwhile Laura is on a mini-vacation visiting family in Florida, so I get some time to tinker with web design and other projects that I like to spend time on.
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