If I look at this movie from a single perspective, as a 23 year old guy living in 2012, I look at this movie and say wow. Wow, this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. When compared to my normal standards, the plot was bad, the acting was awful, and the special effects were also quite weak. Moreover, the fact that this is a sequel concerns me. The fact that it has the same main actor as the first movie confuses me. Even though I wanted to stop watching, I couldn’t, and that forces me to look at it from other perspectives. About 15 minutes into the film I looked at the IMDB rating, and was half-shocked by the 7.8 rating, that number confirmed my belief that Evil Dead 2 is a cult classic and needs to be seen as just that. When I look at it from that perspective I can enjoy the cheesy 1-liners, the crazy hillbilly, and the amount of blood usually only found in Quentin Tarantino films. I also have to pay my respects because, as any horror film should, it creeped me out and made me jump at times. I will never be able to say that I enjoyed the film but I can say that I appreciate it for what it is. With that I give it a 2 out of 5 stars, sorry to disappoint the mega-fans out there it’s just not for me.

Yesterday our internet connection went kaput. I still really don’t have a grasp on why it happened, but it did, and it was crippling. At first it was kinda of fun. There were no emails coming in to distract me and I knew my to-do list wouldn’t be getting longer. I also talked with a few people in the office - the socializing was great. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to be a quick fix, I sorted through my work and found several things I could do without the internet. I accomplished all of those in a few hours and again was at a loss. So, I fixed the basketball hoop, scavenged for Nerf darts, and even did a little cleaning. After those “high importance” tasks were completed, I scoured my to-do list and found a few other things to do. I even pre-completed a few things, like drafting emails and blogs for that happy moment when the internet would click on again. It was nearing the end of the day and I finally gave up and went home. There simply wasn’t anything else I could do.
In my personal life, I am completely fine being without the internet, it’s actually refreshing. However, in a work setting, particularly a social media work setting, it is impossible to do my job without it. As all of this is happening, I am torn between loving and hating the internet. We survived for thousands of years without it, and all of a sudden it seems to be essential. I love how easy and comfortable it makes my life but I hate the fact that I cannot be productive without it. I feel empowered by the knowledge I have gained from it and the connections I can make. But at the same time, I feel ruined as a person and useless as an employee. It’s an interesting place to be. Hopefully things change by tomorrow, because I know the longer it’s off, the more I will have to do when it’s on again. Apparently the internet runs my life - scary. 

—Jake

SEO:  I didn’t really know anything about SEO or link building before I came here. Within the first week I was told I was going to be building links. Being a bit confused and not wanting to look like a fool, I did some research and watched a few webinars on how to do it. Now, I do it almost every day. To add to this, I’ve learned that it is worth the money to invest in a tool that will help monitor all your links and also help you find new ones. I use Raven, which has been very helpful; it makes the task manageable and helps me organize everything.

Social Media:  I’ve learned that it takes a lot to maintain a social presence across the interwebs. I have love/hate relationship with the beast. I love it because it’s so quick and allows me to connect with people and the world instantly. However, maintaining that connection or trying to start a new one is an ever-growing task. It really has no end, which is depressing in the sense that there isn’t a finished product at the end. Though, I try to set goals and extend our reach, so to keep my spirits up I look at it from a different angle. Furthermore, I can imagine that as time goes on we’ll get into a routine and it will get easier.

Variety:  Don’t do the same thing for too long or you’ll die. I have a few tasks that I do every week. One week I did Raven one day, LinkedIn the next, research the next, etc. and it wasn’t that fun - the day seemed too long. I’ve learned to break the day up and do pieces of different tasks every day (more or less). With that though, I do try to focus on the given task for an hour or two to “get in the zone.” While multitasking seems efficient I don’t think it actually is, and the social media can be a big distraction. I try not to get sucked into the random articles about the apple android debate or anything relating to Justin Bieber.

FUN:  You’ve gotta have some fun here and there. Break the day up with a little fun, if you’ve been working hard you deserve it. Depending on my mood, I’ll take a stroll to the secret staircase or maybe shoot some nerf basketball. From time to time I like to send a co-worker a .gif or start a nerf gun fight. Don’t get wild, but don’t stay bored either.

—Jake

I watched the movie Lucas the other day - wow. I loved the opening scene, a close up on insects and then it flashes to this goofy looking kid with a bug net and an umbrella. I actually laughed aloud the first time I saw him. It was a wonderful movie. The main reason I liked it was that it was realistic He had an awkward school experience, he didn’t catch the ball to win the game, and he didn’t get his dream girl. Nevertheless, he made a few friends and had some good experiences. It was refreshing not to have a fairy-tale ending. I give it a 4/5 stars. Way to go Luke.  There was a “winning” cast too, Charlie Sheen, Winona Ryder and Tom Hodges. Who the heck is Tom Hodges you ask. In Lucas he was Bruno the bully, however, he is forever imprinted in my mind as Lars from Heavy Weights. Wow, it’s all coming together and it’s blowing my mind.

Speaking of winning, I looked into the life of Corey Haim the actor who played Lucas in the movie. Not only was he Canadian but he was addicted to hard drugs for a good chunk of his life. Apparently he started drinking beer on the set of Lucas at age 15, from there it moved to marijuana, then cocaine, then crack. He experimented with uppers but eventually settled on downers, taking up to 85 Valium pills on a day in addition to a few other things. Eventually he seemed to wise up and was planning to straighten his life around and make a comeback. Unfortunately, he was unable to because he passed away suddenly in 2010.  Wow what a life.

—Jake

As I worked on a list today I realized there were a few things I forgot to add to my last keyboard blog. With that, here are a few more nuggets of efficiency love for you.

Double click on a word - highlights the word

Triple click on a word - highlights the entire sentence or paragraph

Shift ctrl 3 - print screen to the clipboard

Shift ctrl 4 - print screen of an area you select, to the clipboard

M - minimize window

W- close window

delete - move selected item to trash

Option C - copy the style

Option shift V - Apply the style of the surrounding text to the inserted object (Paste and Match Style)

When using tabs in Chrome or Firefox 1,2,3, etc. - switches to that number tab.

When using tabs in in Chrome or Firefox Shift T - re-opens the tab you last closed, works for several tabs, keep pressing it.

When working in a spreadsheet document press Alt Return to create a new paragraph the same cell. Similar to wrap text.

Again do these things and you will be awesome; maybe you’ll be elected mayor of something.

—Jake

I have had some type of meeting every day so far this week. It makes me feel very official. The second best part about the meetings are that we typically get some form of lunch - awesome. The best part about them has been learning more about the company and the software we create. The first meeting was devoted to our company focus and the short and long-term goals Mike Brown (CEO) has for the company. On top of that, he emphasized what he is going to need from each department and each person to accomplish those goals. It was actually really encouraging and dare I say - inspiring. He used an “interesting” bear hunting analogy that he came up with on the spot. It worked surprisingly well and though it was strange, it proved a valuable insight into what we do and what we are striving to become.

The second meeting we had showcased the new software capabilities that Sanjev, Celeste, and Judy have been working on. I was very impressed with the strides we’re making and was thankful to have such talented people on the team. Until this week, I felt we were a small player in the marketing automation industry, but after these few meetings, I have a different outlook. Though we’re still a small-ish shop, I feel that we have a solid direction and we have an exceptional product. Those combined with some hard work, good leadership and creativity should be enough to help us conquer the marketing automation industry.

—Jake

These are the little things that make me smile and help get me through my day. Efficiency is a wonderful thing. It makes tasks easier, faster, and makes me feel cool. This also offsets some of the time I waste each day fiddling with Apple products.

(Command key) + A = Select All. It highlights everything so you can easily copy or delete it.

F = Find. This allows you to search for words.

D = Duplicate a file.

M = Minimize a window.

Ctrl A = Go to the beginning of a sentence or paragraph, this is if the “home” key on the actual keyboard does not work.

Ctrl E = Go to the end of a sentence or paragraph, this is if the “end” key on the actual keyboard does not work.

F11 = Go to desktop. It may be the increase volume button, if so, then it is function (fn) F11.

TAB (hold down) = Scroll through open applications

TAB (tap once) = Toggle between the application you are using and the application you last used.

These are just a few of the ones I use every single day. For a complete list look here  —-> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343  Be awesome and efficient.

—Jake

Yesterday was awesome, kind of. I had a lot of energy for some reason; my daily tasks were going pretty well, it was nice out etc. Around noon, the rest of the creative team came back from their MythBusting adventure in Chicago and seeing them again added to the excitement. To top it off, I had a Red Bull and was basically high on life. Near the end of the day, I decided I was going to write a blog, but not before I went to the bathroom. It was a pretty standard bathroom trip until I got back to the door, which happened to be locked. Either the last person left while I was in the bathroom (and didn’t turn any of the lights off), or someone had locked it earlier. It doesn’t really matter how it happened, just that it did, and I was now stuck outside the office. My office key, car keys, coat, wallet and backpack were all still inside, so I was a little concerned. I thought people were still in the office so I knocked on the door for a solid 5 minutes, and occasionally yelled under the door pleading that someone let me in. Eventually I stopped knocking and started calling random office number extensions hoping to catch anyone that might be in there. After 10 or so calls, I came to grip with the reality I had known all along, no one was in there. I gave up on the office and eventually found a maintenance person with keys to the suite, “hooray” I thought. Unfortunately, he said he wasn’t allowed to let me in, they are tightening security and I was out of luck. That crushed my spirit, “how am I going to get home I thought, no keys, no money, ahh this sucks.” I asked what he suggested I do. He asked my name and called the head honcho of security who, after hearing my name, decided I wasn’t a bandit, and authorized my re-entry into the Fision suite. I can imagine I might be on a list of building employees, or maybe he just didn’t want to give me a ride home. Whatever the case was, I got back in, decided I had had enough adventure that day and got out of there.

—Jake

Listed below area a few things I use on a weekly basis to help me through this internship. 

Google - Instead of asking my co-workers every time I have question I usually Google it first to see if I can figure it out on my own. Every once and a while I can’t get an answer, or I’m craving some human interaction so I trot over and ask, but more often than not Google has what I need. It makes me seem more independent and less like a nuisance, both of which are wonderful. 

YouTube - Coming into the internship, I had no idea what link building was and I had little knowledge of SEO. Being the cat loving, generation Y’er that I am, I YouTubed it and found a wealth of information and some insider tips. I can’t claim to be a master yet but I’m on my way. 

The ? help button - Raven has a ? button you can press when you are confused or lost. I pressed that little fella several times a day for the first 2 weeks. It was essential because no one else really knew how to use the platform either. 

Webinars - I’ve watched more webinars since I’ve been here than ever before - both live and pre-recorded. They have been incredibly helpful in helping me gain insight to the Fision product and the tools we use to make the company run. 

A notepad - I know we live in a digital world but I still write random notes everyday. Have one handy or you will fail. 

Lastly, my own noggin - Having previous knowledge of LinkedIn, Google Docs, and intermediate computer skills has kept me sane and feeling competent.

—Jake

A lovely story about Michael, the new kid in town, searching to find where he belongs. Love at first sight finds him and he ends up chasing a girl named Star. After a few more encounters with her, a motorcycle race, and a brief brawl, Michael finds himself with her friends in a lair eating Chinese food and drinking blood. He unknowingly becomes a vampire, but he isn’t too excited about it. Thankfully, his brother knows a couple of vampire slaying teenagers who are willing to help. They find a loophole in vampire law, which allows Michael to live and return to normal if they can kill the head vampire. Fortunately, the head honcho is dating their mother, making him an easy target. The ending is typical, but happy.

It’s a solid horror movie, and even though it was made in the 80’s, it still made me jump once. It was good to see Corey Feldman again. He had to play the tough guy role in this flick, which he tried to do mostly with his voice - quite entertaining. Kiefer Sutherland gave another star performance, as good as an 80’s vampire could give I guess. Honestly, I didn’t know he was such big deal in the 80’s acting world. I didn’t love it quite as much as this guy but I will give The Lost Boys a 4.2 out of 5.