This lady has 2!
Filed under: Uncategorized
March 10, 2010 • 7:30 pm 0
Another satisfied Tommy’s Malt Shop customer
This place needs more booths — at least stools along the bar area. It was a packed house by 6 p.m. tonight.
Filed under: Uncategorized
March 9, 2010 • 5:05 pm 0
Chaska needs a clear brand and an actionable mission statement
The Chaska Herald published the first in a series of “Downtown Turnaround” editorials and touches mostly on Highways 41 and 212, biking trails and handicap accessibilities.
Here’s my point of view:
Downtown Chaska may have utilitarian issues like unnavigable curbs and uncrossable streets. We may have empty storefronts on mainstreet and foreclosed homes throughout the community. We may have a river we can’t enjoy and a potential highway through our baseball stadium.
But I think the more pressing issue — arguably easier, faster and cheaper easier to address — is Chaska’s brand.
Frankly, Chaska has an identity crisis. In my new resident experience, unfamiliar outsiders think Chaska is either another yuppie Eden Prairie or a rural ghost town. Many don’t even know Chaska has a historic district.
Our brand is disjointed, contradictory and sometimes counter intuitive.
Who are we, my beloved downtown Chaska, and how is that communicated to potential businesses, patrons and residents? What are we selling and who do we want living and shopping here?
Let’s settle on our brand. Then let’s work together to set the measurable objectives to turn downtown around strategically.
Filed under: Chaska , Chaska, Downtown Master Plan Task Force
February 28, 2010 • 7:55 pm 0
Sunday night mixed drinks
Have a whole different meaning after kids.
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 25, 2010 • 5:38 pm 0
Have you packed your sandbags today?
According to the Chaska Herald, downtown could get a bit wet this spring:
“A wet fall and heavy winter snow indicate a potential for flooding in the Twin Cities and across Minnesota,” stated a press release from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.That could include the potential closure of the Highway 41 bridge just south of downtown Chaska. According to the National Weather Service’s spring flood outlook, there is a 72 percent chance that the Minnesota River will encroach on Highway 41, and a 95 percent chance it will inundate Highway 101 in Shakopee.
The river crossing last closed due to flooding in April 2001. Back then, the Minnesota River rose to its third highest level of the century, peaking at 14.27 feet above flood stage, and leaving the roadway out of commission for nearly a month.
Using National Weather Service data for Jordan (the nearest measuring station) there is currently a 90 percent chance that the river will reach 6.4 feet above flood stage, requiring closure of the Chaska’s three flood gates.
Chaska city officials are confident that the levees will be able handle this year’s potential high water. “The city is in excellent shape since we did the flood control project,” said City Engineer Bill Monk.
However, at 6.4 feet above flood stage, the water is well on its way to reaching the Athletic Park grandstand.
We’re still new to downtown, so we’ve never experienced the Minnesota River at flood stage. We heard when the bridge is closed that downtown gets eerily quiet.
We have what you call a “wet basement,” with no sump pump, so I’ve built shelves in my basement to ensure things aren’t on the floor. Hopefully that will be enough.
I don’t really want to go fishing off my front porch.
Filed under: Chaska , Chaska, fear-mongering, flood
February 22, 2010 • 7:37 pm 0
Grandma busted out the Bicentennial napkins
In honor of my sister and brother-in-law’s big move from ND to WV.
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 6, 2010 • 7:51 am 0
TSA found our kilo of baby food
Just opened our suitcase and found this little prize. We’re so busted, man.
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 5, 2010 • 12:43 am 2
Forget Chaska.net wi-fi, let’s go fiber
Today I was quoted in this Chaska Herald story about Chaska.net today.
Chaska was one of the first U.S. cities to offer city-wide wi-fi, and the articles goes in-depth on the history and technical upgrades that got the network where it is today.
When we moved to town 17 months ago, we were willing and eager to try out the service. Unfortunately, as my comments in the paper indicate, our experience with Chaska.net was it was too slow and not accommodating for a net-savvy household (3 computers, DirecTV, Wii, iPhone — all requiring Web access – often at the same time). We live across the street from a tower and used an external antenna, but if you want to download movies and music, upload pictures or Skype with a friend, you’re not going to want DSL’s kid brother for service.
Beyond speed, you 1) can’t use routers to share the net with devices like DVR and video gaming systems, and 2) can’t use a router to have more than one compute online at once. These are total deal breakers.
Okay, so why does it suck so badly? I thought the article’s history lede summed it up nicely:
Rewind to 2004 – that was before Twitter, back when Facebook was a fledgling operation that few had heard of, and when saying you connected to the Internet using dial-up didn’t get you laughed out of the room.
Okay, so we’re at 2010 and cable internet is adequate for a digital native’s needs. Rather than upgrade all the wi-fi antenna towers, let’s think out six years from now. My idea? Take all that fiber aroudn town and hard wire the fiber direct to every home. Depending on the infrastructure, it could be as fast as 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream and carry hundreds of HD TV channels to every home…like Verizon’s FiOS (full disclosure: I used to do PR for Verizon FiOS, and they are still a client of my employer).
You can’t get FiOS in Minnesota, but I’d love to see civic leaders exhibit the thought leadership that made Chaska a municipal case study for city-wide wi-fi and build the next generation of online infrastructure to handle the bandwidth of technologies and social applications of the future we’ve never considered.
Meanwhile, I want to give major kudos to the Herald for building and maintaining a Facebook community where it leads discussions and adds value that leads to reporting like this story. A comment I left in December was repurposed — with my permission — for the story. Great stuff.
Filed under: Chaska , Chaska, chaska.net, fiber optic, internet, minn, minnesota, mn, verizon fios
February 2, 2010 • 5:28 pm 0
Huffington Post, Good Morning America, National Geographic, Urlesque and more pick up @groundhogphil
It’s safe to say this year’s tweeting as Punxsutawney Phil greatly eclipsed last year’s experience.
With a dramatic increase in followers, more than 1300 retweets and some major news pick-up, I’m pretty thrilled with the response to me posting sarcastic tweets on behalf of a groundhog this year.
Here’s some of the media coverage:
HUFFINGTON POST
Huffington Post wrote about my beloved @GroundhogPhil yesterday afternoon, Punxsutawney Phil: Groundhog Day STAR Shines On Social Networks:
There is also plenty of Twitter activity. Some unofficial Punxsutawney Phil Twitter accounts can be entertaining, such as @GroundhogPhil, who tweeted just moments ago, “You try forecasting underground while asleep, chump,” in response to this tweet: “Prognosticating PunxsutawneyPhil has only been correct 39% since 1887.”
GOOD MORNING AMERICA
And this morning, Good Morning America retweeted the tweet we were all waiting for (to its 1.7 million followers):
Eek! A horrifying shadow! I’m going back to bed. Guess that’s 6 more weeks of winter, chumps!
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
National Geographic Daily wrote Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Sees Shadow–And Long WinterThis year “immortal” Punxsutawney Phil—supposedly born no later than the 19th century—broadcast his Groundhog Day prediction in some decidedly 21st-century ways…
People interested in Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction also had the option of receiving his forecast by text message or through Twitter.
URLESQUE
Urlesque wrote Meet the Internet’s Social Network-Savvy Groundhogs:
When Minneapolis blogger Greg Swan noticed that Pennsylvania’s most famous rodent doesn’t broadcast his prediction on Twitter, he set up the GroundhogPhil account to help the little guy out. Greg’s since learned that despite a cushy life, Phil is a bit of a curmudgeon:
“Lots of folks think Phil is a cuddly, happy woodland creature, but in actuality, he’s a grumpy, sarcastic little woodchuck who doesn’t appreciate humans pestering him out of his warm burrow. As @groundhogphil’s tweets indicate, life isn’t all grasshoppers and grubs up on Gobbler’s Knob. And that Al Roker better stop talking smack, or he’s going to find himself a Groundhog Day’s surprise.”
PHOENIX NEW TIMES
The Phoenix New Times wrote Punxsutawney Phil “Tweets” About Seeing His Shadow; For Phoenix That’s Probably a Good Thing:
Normally we would rely on morning shows like Good Morning America to broadcast Phil’s findings but this year the groundhog took his message mainstream — he “tweets.”“Eek! A horrifying shadow! I’m going back to bed,” Punxsutawney Phil “writes” on his Twitter page. “Guess that’s 6 more weeks of winter, chumps!”
Joke’s on you, Phil, you’re only a “chump” if you don’t live in Phoenix.
What a fun run, but I’ll admit I’m glad it’s over. Here’s hoping my alarm clock doesn’t play “I Got You Babe” tomorrow, and we do this day over.
NOTE: If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will gladly turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.
Filed under: In the News, Me Being Stupid , @GroundhogPhil, Good Morning America, greg swan, ground hog phil, groundhog tweets, groundhog twitter, Huffington Post, National Geographic, phoenix new times, Punxsutawney Phil, punxsutawney phil on twitter, urlesque
January 28, 2010 • 11:40 pm 1
Punxsutawney Phil’s on Twitter, just in time for Groundhog Day
Do you follow @GroundhogPhil on Twitter yet?
Last year around this time I realized there was a huge missed opportunity for promoting Groundhog Day in social media.
So I went ahead and set Phil up with a Twitter account. @PunxsutawneyPhil was one character longer than Twitter allows, so I went for @GroundhogPhil.
To be fair, at the end of last year’s Groundhog Day, I wrote, “If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.” But I never heard from anyone.
This year I’d forgotten about the account until I got a new follower e-mail notification indicating Laura Fitton (@pistachio) was following @GroundhogPhil.
This is hilarious for a couple reason: 1) no one had followed Phil for nearly a year; 2) at SXSW a couple years ago, my friend Nathan and I (virtually) stole Laura’s shoe, and she ended up slapping Nathan; 3) Laura is a Twitter expert and who knows what she thinks of character Twitter accounts.
So I busted out the password reset and started tweeting for Phil again this year. Here are some of my favs so far:
Hugo Chavez reportedly accusing US of testing weapon of mass de-sunshine in Punx, PA to mess with my prediction.6:48 PM Jan 22nd from UberTwitterMustache guy just stuck a hose in my burrow attached to his jeep’s exhaust pipe. I think the stress is getting to him.3:24 PM Jan 22nd from web
They say we’re young and we don’t know, We won’t find out until we grow… Babe…I got you babe.. #musicmonday
10:18 AM Jan 19th from webWinter! I just love hats, coats, mittens AND sniffles! Let’s do this the rest of the year.
8:05 AM Jan 19th from UberTwitterMoustache guy just dropped off a Snuggie and Mad Men on Blu-Ray. I aint coming out for months.
8:35 PM Jan 18th from UberTwitterAnd…. still winter. In your face, people.
8:49 AM Jan 18th from UberTwitterMy prediction: Chuck Norris will get sick of winter and roundhouse kick the earth to tilt its axis and make it summer.
8:30 PM Jan 16th from UberTwitterSaturday night, and I’m about to prognosticate up some pizza rolls.
4:59 PM Jan 16th from mobile web
A week ago, the tourism folks at VisitPA.com have moved Phil into the 21st century with a sweet text campaign:
Sign up to get a text of Punxsutawney Phil’s Febuary 2, 2010 Weather prognostication from Gobblers Knob via your moble device by texting “Groundhog” to 247365 between now and Groundhog Day.
They have a Facebook Page and @visitpa Twitter account, too. However, they’re both overtly tourism focused and don’t follow through on the social character personality promise of the text campaign.
So I’ve continued tweeting as Phil. Yesterday, on the same day as Apple’s iPad announcement, PETA suggested Phil be replaced by a robot.
So Phil had some fun with it:
@PETA The idea that a robot could predict weather better than a rodent living beneath the ground is simply foolish. #iPhil
about 10 hours ago from webMoustache guy is pretty shook up about this PETA robot thing. I’m getting a burrow makeover, complete with HDTV and a Wii!
5:08 PM Jan 27th from UberTwitterInstead of a robotic groundhog to replace me, how about PETA sends over naked Pam Anderson from those anti-fur ads?
9:49 AM Jan 27th from web
And it was a surprise to get an @-reply from @peta!
@GroundhogPhil How lovely 2 hear from u Phil. Hope u get that holiday u deserve! http://ow.ly/11r38
about 11 hours ago from HootSuite in reply to GroundhogPhil
There have actually been quite a few interesting people to strike up conversations with Phil this year. See some of the better ones here.
Okay, so I’m in year two of brandjacking Punxsutawney Phil. As I said last year, this is yet another example of why it’s critical companies, brands and individuals proactively stake out their online reputation.
Meanwhile, I’m not clever or entrepreneurial enough to keep this up. I’m hoping someone will respond to the note below and take it from here. Otherwise, who knows? Perhaps Phil will start speaking Spanish next year.
NOTE: If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.
Filed under: Me Being Stupid, digital reputation management , ground hog, groundhog day, groundhog on twitter, peta, punxatony, Punxsutawney Phil, punxsutawney phil on twitter, punxtawney, punxtawny, sms, text, Twitter, txt, visitpa
