Business Casual

How is online changing traditional real estate marketing?

I came across a thread Stephan Swanepoel started in the Real Estate Trends group on Inman News.  The subject of the thread and the title of this post were one in the same. While Stephan's article was insightful by itself, I was also intrigued by some of the comments.

In response to an underlying theme about leaving "virtual bread crumbs" as a way of establishing agent credentials, readers offered the following:

• The MLS has expanded to become a B2C ("Business-to-Consumer") medium...

• The internet hasn't really changed real estate in the sense that it remains a relationship-based business.  However, what HAS changed is the nature of relationship building.  That is, the internet has enabled a much faster, efficient and scalable process than previously achievable by any single marketer.

• The marginalization of the MLS will result in the marginalization of the listing agent... 

• The emphasis for real estate marketing will shift from "who has the most data?" to those with more insight TO the data, expertise and local knowledge.

• "The advantage that Web 2.0 tools give is that they allow the agent or broker to establish and cultivate relationships, to create a customer experience that is positive before that customer even becomes a client."

I think that last one especially resonates with me because it relates to the "virtual bread crumb" Stephan alluded to, and the term "virtual footprints" I've used in other circles when describing the activities associated with blogging, posting comments, creating professional online profiles, establishing web sites, and so on.  I've posted before on the insight gained about your virtual persona through the simple act of googling your name.  The results of that search read like an online trail of footprints about where you've been/what you've done, how visible you and your business are online (or not!).

I don't necessarily agree with the comment that the emphasis will shift from who has the most data to who has more insight and local expertise.  I say that not so much because I disagree with the statement, but rather that I think that shift has already happened.  I also think it has always been about consumers migrating to professionals with insight and local knowledge.  But that may just be due to personal biases I have about the importance of skills development, life long education and professional networking.

I wonder, though, is it really so much about online (technologies) changing traditional real estate marketing?  Or can we just as well say technology, in its boader context, changes traditional real estate periodically.  I mean, to the extent that the proverbial "MLS book" of old, though not an online technology was, in its own right, a technology innovation of its time; couldn't that be said to have changed "traditional real estate" as it was defined back then? 

The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to believe that a unique aspect of online technologies (web sites, blogs, social networks, etc.) is in its enabling aspects.  It enables users to be at once authors AND readers, consumers AND service providers, mentors AND mentees.  It also enables the quantity and speed in which individuals touch other individuals.  As for quality of touch point, I'm not so sure.  Certainly I'd say online technologies enable the potential for quality touchpoints; but I think people only experience the realization of that quality at a personal/one-on-one level.  To that extent I could agree it (online technologies) is efficient -- but not always -- or even "usually" -- effective.

For example, have I effectively convinced you to hire me by the simple act of posting this blog article?  I'd say not.  But, by virtue of the fact that (many of) you now know more about who I am than 10 minutes prior, if even marginally, makes this activity at least efficient.  Especially since it didn't really cost me anything. 

But, I'm just one guy who doesn't profess to have all the answers...

Thoughts?

[for syndication: originally in BusinessCasualBlog]

Avoid death by PowerPoint

I just sat through another one of those loooonnnggg, droning presentations... you know, PowerPoint, no pictures, LOTS of text, LOTS of bullets, did I say no pictures?

It's in that spirit that I thought to share the online presentation above.  It's from Karl Kapp. Karl is a leading personality in the learning industry. The information in it isn't specific to an industry, rather, it's geared for presenters in general.

Some of the graphics are a little heavy on clipart, but don't take that as evidence of the preferred media.  Rather, they function more as quickly produced placeholders to communicate the features that could make your presentation speak more about concepts you want to convey in favor of showing text that tend to bore.

I'm especially partial to the following slides because they address my personal pet peeves about presentations I've seen:  4 & 5, 6 & 7, 8 & 9, 14-16.

Now, when you're done with the serious stuff above, here's a little levity below. It's still on the topic of how NOT to use PowerPoint in your presentations.  It might even be good as an ice breaker in your next presentation.

Getting famous. One bit at a time.

I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do any thing. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.

~ Dorothy Parker

I have no expectations about becoming famous through blogging.  Or even famous (period).  I think I'm fairly satisfied making a decent living and contributing to society in various ways.  Outside of the few non-profits and/or charities I affiliate with, and the cool online training courses I enjoy creating for the real estate industry, I think blogging is another way I feel I'm able to give back to society in some way.

When conversation turns to blogging (yes folks, be cautious about inviting me to your dinner parties, I'm a conversation killer) I align with those who're pretty positive about it.  In every conversation I've had -- every, no kidding, and without fail -- there's at least one or two who'll say they'd like to blog but are scared or don't know how to start. They believe it could be good for their business by increasing their visibility to clients and customers in the communities they serve.  I believe that too.  But I don't believe everyone who wants to blog should.  At least not right off the bat.

I usually suggest that folks start "light" by first finding a handful of blogs with topics that share their interests.  Then post your own small contributions to the community through the use of comments.  It's a great way to offer your own snippet of enlightened thought. 

You can use Google Blogsearch to conduct keyword searches for blogs that share your interests.   Once you have your handful of "go to blogs," you can set up alerts or RSS feeds to keep apprised of new topics.  In a previous post, I discussed how to set up Google Alerts to set up e-mail notifications whenever certain words you choose show up on blogs (or on the web, video, etc.).

If visibility is one of your objectives, then you might first consider creating an online personal profile either on a website you already own, or, for my real-estate-agent-buddies, an agent site provided by your broker, or through any number of online social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, eCademy, ActiveRain or LinkedIn.  I personally prefer LinkedIn for its business culture and the ability to build a network of trusted contacts.  There's even a new LinkedIn "Services" area where service providers (you?) can have recommendations be displayed. For my friends in the real estate industry, did you know there's a category for Real Estate Agents?

Armed with your thoughtfully crafted online profile, you should then include it as a signature line at the end of your posted comment.  That gives a backlink to your profile that not only helps a bit with internet search engines, but also begins to associate you in the minds of online readers as a helpful and knowledgeable professional.

Just a couple of quick caveats: it's worth just taking a quick pulse of the culture of the blog your commenting on to gauge if it's okay to put a one-liner signature at the end of your comments.  Most blogs don't chafe at this provided you don't light it up with logos, slogans and gaudy marketing pitches.

So, before diving in and committing to the daily publishing responsibilities of a blog site, consider first the small moves you can make.  Comment your way to visibility.

Thinking of your success.
Mel  

"RealTOR"!

"Reel-a-tors" bug me.

I used to just ignore them.  But in recent years I've been known to blurt out an occasional course correction whenever someone does the deed.  They say "Reel-a-tor" when they should be saying it as it's spelled, "Realtor."  Unfortunately, and more often than not, I find the person saying it is a card-carrying member of NAR!

Reminds me of something David Fletcher wrote a couple of years ago.  The gist of which was:

You would think after spending no doubt multimillions of dollars establishing the Realtor brand, that members of the NAR would know how to pronounce it... It is awkward to say the least to be associated with an organization that its members cannot pronounce and the public doesn't understand. What's even worse is to be in front of a very sharp agent, fully competent in every way, who is introducing herself or himself as being a REAL-A-TOR when the consumer knows the agent is mispronouncing the word...

Okay, that's my rant for the day.

Thinking of your success.
Mel

Who's talking about you?

One of my siblings recently launched a training/coaching web site over at goalgettergirls.com.  One of my contributions was to suggest that she also start an automated search with keywords that she thinks are worth tracking.  The name of her web site, for example.  In so doing, she can be alerted whenever those keywords show up on the internet.  As in the opening sentence of this blog post.  (As her annoying brother, I plan on asking her in a couple of days if she was alerted to this blog post... just to see if she followed my advice.)  ;-)

I've recommended the same thing to other friends and colleagues who run their own business.  I mean, it makes sense, right?  If you're out and about and you're visible to your customers and clients -- as you should be -- I imagine you're making some kind of an impression. Depending on the effectiveness of your campaigns, how you network, where you add your voice, or the quality of your customer touch points, I further imagine your hope is that folks will remember you.  And if that impression is strong enough, they'll write about you.  Good or bad, if they write something, wouldn't you want to know?

So, if you've never googled your name, for example, I'd recommend you try it. It's an interesting experience.  Now, certainly, if you remember to, you can go in and Google yourself every couple of weeks.  But I'd say that if you have any kind of online presence, or, let's say you blog fairly regularly, then it's possible someone may quote you, or comment about your service, or reference something you're affiliated with.  When that happens -- good or bad -- an opportunity opens up. You have an opportunity to reinforce a message or mitigate it. 

Let's say someone posts a blog article and comments about something you've written, something you did or something or someone you're related to.  If favorable, reinforce it with your own comment of a simple "thank you," or an offer of additional information.  If it's unfavorable, you have an opportunity to set the record straight.

As fast as things move today, waiting for two weeks to go by before discovering these things with a "manual" search may be too late to be effective.  So, an alternative to doing a manual search is to set up an "alert" on a search engine such as Google's.  By setting up an alert, you can let the search engine do the work for you.

Simply set it up with keywords you want to look for (hint: include quotes around your name to make sure the engine gets the literal spelling, i.e., "John Smith" or "John Smith Company").  Once the setup is complete, let it run.  When it finds something, it'll e-mail you a headline with a link to the site on which those keywords are found.

I'd love to hear comments about other favorite tools some of you use to manage information overload.  If I get enough of them, I'll be happy to post a summary in a future post.  Or, if you want to blog about this article, go ahead and quote me.  It's okay...I'll know. ;-)

Is it okay to Drip to your LinkedIn contacts?

Recently I was invited to connect on LinkedIn by a real estate agent who was switching tracks as a mortgage broker.  Where I frowned a bit was the pretense I felt about the request to connect and how that “relationship” evolved. 

The initial request came from a mortgage broker who introduced himself as someone who once worked for the same real estate company I worked at.  The reason for connecting:  to stay in touch with past colleagues, share knowledge, share potential opportunities where they might arise, and offer mutual support.  I figured, “great,” all the things I find valuable about networking. 

So, I accepted.  I sent him an e-mail reply thanking him for the invitation.  And, since I noticed his business was in the next county over, I suggested we meet sometime for lunch when he was down in my neck of the woods, or me in his. 

I received no reply -- not even a non-committal “sure, sounds good.”  But, no problem, as these things often go, they remain open invitations. 

But here’s the deal:  Within a week after connecting with this guy, and with no further inquiries about me or what I do, or what I stand for, I started getting e-mails pitching his mortgage services, rate quotes, fee quotes, “mortgage broker for life,” and on an on.  Clearly, I was now in some e-mail database drip campaign.  And though I didn’t much like it, I have to at least concede his e-mail drip was at least consistent.  Every few days, there’d be another one reminding me of his services, new rate quotes, “mortgage broker for life...”  His drip campaign was definitely working as designed... to be in my FACE.  And he was.  Until I removed him.

Now, I have my own thoughts about why/how I participate with my online business connections.  But, I’m curious what your thoughts are and your philosophy of online networking?  Am I too sensitive about e-mail drips from LinkedIn business connections?  Should I be more forgiving?  After all, isn’t networking about getting opportunities for more business leads?

The future of senior fitness is...

... good!

Coming on the heels of my dismal performance at the San Diego Rock-n-Roll marathon a couple of weeks ago (about 45 minutes off from my training pace... and about an hour off from the guys I trained with!), I decided to work on shorter distances for a while. 

(That's me, btw, #9807 at the SD Marathon.)  Anyway, I needed a quick personal success following my 4:53 finish.  So last Sunday I ran a 5K race in Downtown Anaheim. 

The 5K pick-me-up helped.  It took me a bit out of my funk with a personal record, showing up at the finish with a 7:17 per mile pace for a 22:35 finish.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I had no illusions about winning the race for my age group.  I just wanted a personal success.  And I got it.

But here's what's so cool, the guy that won in the 45-49 age group (yes, I am of that age group... WHAT OF IT?!) got it in 17:09.  That's a cool 5:32 per mile pace.  Just to show the range for the gray-templed Top 10:  the guy in 10th place finished in 20:46 for a 6:42 pace. 

Now, I'm not Lance Armstrong, but I consider myself in decent shape for my age.  But here's the coolest part, in the 60-64 age category (Males), the top 5 finishers did so in a time comparable to my finish time.  Look up times for the 75-99 age category and we find the top finishers did it with with per mile paces in the 8:30 range.  That's great even for many folks in the under 20 age set and shows that, for those who put in the work, there's lots more miles ahead and lots of elbow room for personal/physical improvement. 

Getting paid to be interviewed for a job.

I know I'm risking the ire of employers -- especially mine -- by posting this, but hey, this is a water cooler-type blog about business.  And, lest anyone get the wrong impression, I am happy in my current profession and not looking for a change.  (At least, not today.)  ;-)

Having said that little caveat, some of you might be interested that a company called NotchUp, currently in Beta, is offering a service that lets you get paid to be interviewed for a job.  What is this world coming to?  Actually, I think it's kinda slick on their part and creates an interesting little niche.

Don't know what you'd charge to be interviewed?  Find out here.

Until recently, it was a bit of a pain b/c it represented yet another site on which you were asked to fill in a profile, update your professional history, write a summary, yadda, yadda...  But now, they just implemented a new feature that allows you to import your resume from LinkedIn.  You can also upload resumes written in Word, PDF, Text or HTML.  Those upgrades, I think will allow them to hurdle a previous barrier to having complete profiles. 

On the other side, the value proposition NotchUp pitches for companies is that they can actually save on recruiting costs by paying qualified candidates to interview.  The theory is you can save up to 75% by using their service instead of a recruiter and perhaps 66% over the costs of using a job board.  (Click below to zoom in.)

 

How NOT to build a web site...

This thread over at realestatewebmasters.com shows the pitfalls of taking ethical shortcuts and contracting work to a company without having performed due diligence.

It seems, Mr. Park learned a valuable lesson when he paid an offshore company $10.5k to create for him a clone of a popular real estate site called Redfin.com. 

>>"My name is Ron Park and I have been working with a service provider...to create my real estate mash-up site. My project...was for a Redfin.com clone, in all functionalities and appearance. They were supposed to finish the site by January 25th, 2008 but yesterday, 4/24/08, I told them I'm through with them. The site is nowhere near being a Redfin clone, and they've just been problematic from the start. I have given this company a total of $10,500..." <<

When his plagiarized version didn't materialize as expected, he proceeded to ask for help through a public discussion forum of web developers; he was trying to beef up his claim to recoup his "investment" from his credit card company.  (If successful, who would've ultimately paid for that mishap, I wonder?)  Not surprisingly, not too many sympathizers there.  (Another lesson learned.)

At the end of the day, I have to hand it Mr. Park.  He does seem to have learned his lesson and finally seems to have written off the $10k+ outlay as a sunk cost... and probably a relatively inexpensive lesson to boot if he doesn't get sued by Redfin. 

When asked this question by another forum member,

>>"Curious as to what that lesson learned was... that you "get what you pay for" or that "cloning" a site "in all functionalities and appearance" is horribly unethical and likely quite illegal?"<<

Mr. Park replied,

>>"The latter along with the former. To tell you only the latter, would be a lie. And to tell you only the former, would be a lie too. I learned that copying a site is wrong, and that I wouldn't want my name and business to be associated with trouble and copycat-ism. And I also learned that outsourcing, like Tim Ferriss made it sound, isn't as easy as pie. That's what I learned..."<<

At the end of the day, that's a good outcome.

Just one additional note before I let this one go.  During the course of the discussion thread, I felt an unfortunate thematic byproduct that outsourcing work to offshore companies results in the kind of outcome described above.  I personally don't think that should be one of the takeaways from this lesson.

For my part, I think some of the lessons that should be gleaned from Mr. Park's unfortunate business expansion strategy is not that he chose an offshore company, but rather that he contracted with a company -- whether onshore or offshore -- that:  a)  Was untested; b) Was all too willing to accept a gig without specifically defining business and technical requirements of the project, as well as documenting measurable success criteria, and c) Seemed all too willing to be complicit in an unethical business practice.

Video resumes... not yet time?

I was recently interviewed for a trade magazine in the staffing industry.  The subject matter was about the use of video resumes.

In included below some highlights of key quotes from the article along with my comments immediately below the quote. 

Just curious, have you used a video resume before, or know someone who has?

• Lights, Camera, Action? SI Review May 2008 | Staffing Industry Analysts Articles / Research Topics | ArtIcles/News | Staffing Industry Analysts - Annotated

  • "If they do it well, it can be a good differentiating tool for them," says Aclaro. "If they don't do it well, it can be a bad differentiating tool for them."
    • My comments:  There's also an implied caution here for teens and college-level adults about NOT creating those beer-binging videos and posting them up on MySpace, etc. It will be found. - post by melaclaro

  • "...by watching videos of them provides an uneven playing field for our associates."

    • My comments:  While I somewhat agree with Jozwiak, it's worth mentioning that, from the candidate's perspective, creating a playfield advantage is exactly on point. - post by melaclaro
      
      
  • "It's too time consuming. It's way too selective. ... There's no format. You don't get to see career trajectory."
    • My comments: I would agree with this. Though, even this will likely change with new technologies... For example, a company called "Everyzing" (www.everyzing.com" is now making the spoken word within video searchable by search engines. So, when a staffing professional searches for certain keywords and the video appears in the search results, a pointer will take the viewer directly to the timecode in the video where those keywords were uttered. That can save time for recruiters... and, it will also necessarily mean a change, I think, for candidates in terms of how they structure their video presentation. - post by melaclaro
      
      
  • the only people he's seen advocate video resumes are the people who produce them.
    • My comments: LOL.  I would actually agree with him.  :-) - post by melaclaro
      
      
  • "In order to create one, you have to be good at talking to the camera. The average person isn't good talking to the camera. What the employer really wants to know is: Does this person have skills that are relevant. You're handling a lot of large files (when a video is sent to you), and why would you do that?"
    • My comments: True. I don't think video resumes are for everyone. Nor would I say they are an appropriate tool for every employment opportunity. However, consider the opportunity for those who are in the creative field, broadcast industry, entertainment, or even some stodgy career tracks such as training/e-learning industry. There's an opportunity here to show a portfolio of past work samples and creative technique in an attached video. - post by melaclaro
      
      
  • $30,000 to $60,000 for a five- to seven-minute recruitment video
    • My comment:  WOW! - post by melaclaro
      
      
  • Young professionals seem to look at employer videos the most, according to Luttemo. "They live online, so to speak."
    
  • His company currently charges $10,000 to produce a standard 90 second to three-minute video
    • My comment: Again, WOW! - post by melaclaro
      
      
  • Interesting tips and stats:
    > Eighty-nine percent of employers polled said they would watch a video resume if it were submitted to them
    >  yet a whopping 81% said they had never viewed one.
    >  Fifty-two percent of employers said they would watch a video resume to assess a candidate's professional presentation and demeanor
    >  14% said they would see it to get a better sense of a candidate's job experience and 9% would use it to gauge a candidate's speaking manner
    >  About 76% of employers said they advise candidates to keep their video resume under two minutes, and 47% recommended getting the job done in less than a minute.
    >  56% of employers indicated they believe video resumes will be a common addition to future applications.
    
  • Many companies that are interested in a candidate who lives out of state or out of the country are saying no to flying the candidate in, and saying yes to doing a video interview with the person. It's a way of seeing the candidate without having to pay the airfare and hotel costs.
    • My comments:  Great opportunity here for candidates with the wherewithall to offer this as an option to potential employers. BUT... tip the odds in your favor by learning to set up a camcorder as your video source, rather than the cheesy built-in cameras on many computers. Also, learn now about the power of good lighting. - post by melaclaro

 

Amazing... this little guy paints better than I!

I couldn't believe the video below.

So I looked it up on Snopes.  Apparently, true!

Where we turn to for answers.

"Is Buddhism a faith, a belief system or a religion?"; "What's the diference?";   "What are Bloom's 6 stages of learning?"; "Whatever happened to Tara Reid or Britney Spears?"

These were a few of the questions that popped up in the last several days to which the first response we (whoever I was with at the time) blurted out was something akin to, "google it," or, "you can probably find it on the 'net."

During one of those times I made a mental note to see if there were any references or studies done that would suggest any trends there.  Just for grins and giggles...I googled it.

It was interesting to find that, a study was conducted last Fall by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, that included a question about sources of information people go to when then need to address problems.  Of nearly 2800 respondents, 58% said the internet.  This was chosen above professional advisors (53%), friends and family (45%) and newspapers, magazines and books (36%).

(Read the report.)

Instructional designers' recommendations for questionbank software.

I asked the professional community of instructional designers (IDs) on LinkedIn and others in the learning industry to help me out last week.  I needed some suggestions for an off-the-shelf solution to help me manage a bank of questions I'm creating over several online courses for RealtyU.  As I develop them, the idea is to link each question to the learning objectives we've developed for each topical area.  So far, I've been managing these associations using a simple desktop database I created from a Filemaker variant called Bento.  But, as the question bank grows, I wanted to look down the line a bit to see if there was something off-the-shelf I can migrate to. 

As expected, the professional community came through.  (If you're on LinkedIn and not using the Q&A forum, then you're missing out on a great professional and support community at your fingertips.) Though, I don't think the responses will help my immediate search for the off-the-shelf solution I was hoping for, they did help with future growth plans for a bigger and better LMS (Learning Management System) platform.

A few asked if I could keep them posted on a summary of responses.  I'm glad to reciprocate.  Especially since, as some have pointed out, there will likely be other IDs who have the same question.  Below is a summary of the recommendations that were given:

• Questionmark Perception (www.questionmark.com)... # of recommendations: 5
• Articulate Quizmaker (www.articulate.com)... # of recs: 2
• Moodle  (www.moodle.org)... # of recs:  1
• Articulate Online (www.articulate.com)... # of recs: 1
• Testcraft (www.testcraft.com) ... # of recs: 1
• Lectora ... (www.trivantis.com) ... # of recs: 1
• Zarca (www.zarca.com) ... # of recs: 1
• Expand Media's L-Train (www.GetExpanded.com) ... # of recs: 1
• CLiKS (no URL reference found) ... # of recs: 1

I looked at a number of the ones above including:  Questionmark's Perception, Moodle and Lectora.  (I'm already using Articulate Studio so I'm quite familiar with it's product line -- Quizmaker, Engage, Presenter, Online.  I recommend it, btw, for rapid development and relative ease of integration with other solutions.) 

I liked the feature set in the Questionmark solution and can see why there were 5 mentions of it the responses I received.  There was something to be said, too, for Moodle and Lectora.  Much more than a simple question bank, these are all more robust LMS solutions and will definitely be something to keep on the short list as we consider our move from our current proprietary platform. 

Thanks for all who responded.  You helped a lot.  And, for others who may be on the lookout for LMS systems, thank the community of IDs on LinkedIn.  And, I hope this post helps.

Everyzing lets your customers search your video and audio content

We know the major search engines do a great job of indexing text to make it easier for you and me to search stuff, right?  Putting "crawl blockers" aside for a moment, if it's a document with text in it, and it's on the web somewhere, then it has likely already been indexed.  If so, it can be found through a boolean keyword search.

But what about words that are embedded within the content of the video or audio file itself?

To a degree, search engines have traditionally been able to index multimeda files primarily through the text-based keywords, tags, titles and descriptives we associate them with when they're uploaded.  But, until recently, there hasn't been a widely available method to index the spoken word within those media files. Now, with Everyzing's ezSearch service, you can.

Recently, Everyzing, launched a service that converts all audio in a media file to text so they can be indexed made searchable.  But that's not all.  One slick feature is in the way the search results are presented. 

When video, say, is found with the keywords you're looking for, the results page returns not just a simple link to the video, but also a pointer and timecode to the place in the video at which the keywords were found.  The image below, for example, is a snapshot of search results on Everyzing's search site on keywords "New York" AND "bicycle".  Notice the pointer and timecodes. (Click image below to zoom in.)

I think that's slick.  It makes for some compelling applications for advertising.  But more than just advertising, it also makes for some compelling applications in the eLearning and real estate professional circles I run around in. 

For example, in much of the online learning content I help produce, it's not uncommon to have the audio/video content span several hours of total runtime.  While that length is made much more "consumable" to our learners by breaking it up into manageable "learning chunks" of about 10-15 minute segments, it can still be a chore to try and recall in which segment a particular example was given or the segment in which a reference was made.

With ezSearch, all the learner needs to do is recall a spoken phrase and the search results will show the video segment, timecode and pointer to the spot in the video stream at which it was spoken.

Everyzing has implemented their technology while working with boston.com and weii.com.  You can click the respective links above to see customer examples, or you can also search Everyzing's search site at search.everyzing.com to get a feel for how it works.

Definitely something I'll be recommending for my future rollouts of our online designation courses. 

Check it out.  Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

"10,000 B.C." and the Bronze Age

Roland Emmerich's movie, 10,000 B.C. came out in theatres today.  I didn't think it was possible, but it rated about as stellarly as Paris Hilton's "Hottie/Nottie".  I think it beat Paris by about one (1) percentage point to a whopping 8% on the Tomato Meter. 

Hmmm... I wonder if it had anything to do with people noticing that, with all the metal being thrown about, the movie setting actually predated the Bronze Age by about 7,000 years?