blog.JacobBurke.com

Reflecting on 2008

Posted on: January 1, 2009 at 11:02 pm | Posted under: Life
Tags: 2008, 2009, new year, reflections

I have decided to take some time this past week to reflect on the past year.  A lot has happened for me in 2008 and I am sharing it with you.

Friendships
2008 brought a lot of new people into my life and a few left.  Thanks to the power of social networking and great sites like Twitter, I formed a number of new friendships.  Many of these people I have had the amazing pleasure of meeting, the rest I hope to meet in 2009.  You know who you are, no need for me to list every single person.  Each one of you has made an impression in my life and I am forever grateful to you

Work
In the beginning of the year I was still living on unemployment.  My departure from Elmira College at the end of June 2007 was to thank for that.  I was unsure of what I would be doing for money as the year ramped up.  I had the fortunate luck of landing a contract with La Tourelle Resort & Spa in Ithaca, NY to handle their Internet Marketing.  In addition to working with them, I have developed a number of business relationships and have a nice portfolio of work from 2008.  I am still working with a number of clients in 2009 and I hope to gain more as the year goes on.

Personal Growth
I have seen a lot of personal growth during 2008.  I am a year older and a year wiser :)  I have expanded my tastes in music and have been more adventurous in the things that I do.  My relationships with my mom and sister have continued to strengthen and I love them more and more each day.  I have done a lot of growing up and taken on more responsibility this past year, and it shows.  My writing still may be horrible, but I can work on that in ‘09

2008 was a year of re-building for me.  I have established my brand and I hope to connect with as many people as possible in 2009.  Thank you to all of you that helped make the past year an amazing one.

Cheers to 2009!

Goodbye Verizon, it’s been a great 7 years…

Posted on: November 6, 2008 at 12:16 am | Posted under: Life, Technology
Tags: AT&T, iPhone, Verizon Wireless

For those of you that don’t follow me on Twitter @jacobburke, then you are not aware of the switch that I made on Tuesday over to AT&T.  After 7 years of locked down phones, trying to sweet-talk customer service representatives and who knows how many handsets, I have walked away from the big V.

My most recent issue with Verizon over the weekend was the last nail in the coffin.  I had enough of being told one thing and then another.  I was sick of being financially stunned each month with crazy fees and outrageous charges.  I got an iPhone.

I took a sip of the Cupertino kool-aid when I purchased iPods, yesterday I took a gulp out of that same cup by getting the iPhone.  I have yet to drink the whole thing and buy a Mac, just not ready to fully join the Apple empire.

I will admit that in the past 24 hours, I am really liking the phone and the AT&T reps have been great.

I still can’t believe I did it, after all of the hating on AT&T and the iPhone - I just figured if I couldn’t beat them, then I might as well join.

Cheers!

Busy…

Posted on: October 6, 2008 at 6:54 pm | Posted under: Life

The title says it all, I have been busy.  I find this to be a good thing, since being busy translates into income and stuffing money under the mattress

Unfortunately, this has meant less time to blog about things that are important to me.  Soon, I promise.

In the mean time, you can keep tabs on me via Twitter.  If that doesn’t interest you, then put on CNN and watch how America is falling into a recession - something that is important to us all.

Finally, I hope those of you that read this have registered to vote.  We have the power to turn this country around, but only if we let our voice be heard in November.

Cheers!

A week of goodies!

Posted on: September 20, 2008 at 2:58 pm | Posted under: Life
Tags: goodies

This week has been full of goodies arriving in the mailbox.

First, my business cards arrived.  I consider these goodies as I did not pay for them.  My good friend Aron Po made the purchase as a thank you for designing his web site and business cards.  So I now have 1,000 professionally printed business cards for handing out at events, conferences, etc.

Second, shirts and a messenger bag from Tweet Tees.  I have been working with Albert on the site for a while now and have been maintaining all of the sites (store, blog, etc.).  An extra thank you from him was a messenger bag emblazened with the Eat Sleep Tweet logo and some tees.  I can now leave the house in style.

Third and finally, I received a boatload of tea and other goodies from Brandice.  I designed the new header for her site and she returned the favor by sending me oodles of tea.  I love tea and have been exploring new flavors as I have taken myself off coffee.  Also included were some monkeys and stickers

A big thanks to Aron, Albert and Brandice for the goodies this week.

Cheers!

My trip out west…

Posted on: September 11, 2008 at 12:50 am | Posted under: Life
Tags: Arizona, vacation

This past weekend I took a trip out to Casa Grande, AZ to visit my good friend Steve.  The entire trip was amazing.  Friday evening I got in at Sky Harbor Airport and we took off to Tempe for dinner at Rula Bula.  I must say that it is an interesting name for an Irish Pub and Restaurant, but the food was amazing.  After dinner we headed to IKEA to pick up a stove for Steve’s kitchen in the house he just bought.  The night ended with drinks at the Airport Tavern in Casa Grande - a total biker bar with cheap longnecks, awesome

Saturday was spent shopping and seeing all of the new development in CG since my last visit in January.  The city is growing rapidly and I was quite impressed.  We ended the day going to see the Pineapple Express and staying up all night watching movies and drinking - a great day

Sunday morning was spent at Dell’s watching the Jets game and enjoying beer & pizza.  That afternoon we traveled down to Tucson to kill time before heading back home for the night.

Monday was low key as I ended up napping most of the day while Steve was at work.  He is a teacher and I value the importance he places on his job, despite how much the education system in Arizona is screwed up.

The trip came to end on Tuesday as I flew back to Elmira and cursed US Airways the entire way.  More on that in another post, it was a nightmare!

Overall, it was a great, albiet short, trip out west to visit a good friend and spend time away from the everyday.  I was even successful in getting Steve to use Twitter more and got him setup with Brightkite now too

Cheers!