SMACKOFF 2010

One of my favorite radio stations is having one of the best days! THE JIM ROME SHOW! It's Smackoff 2010! These guys bring it!

On another note, I want to congratulate Brandon Graham on being drafted 13th Overall to the Philadelphia Eagles! He earned it and I hope the best for him. GO BLUE!

Anyways, the Winter '10 semester is wrapping up! Looking forward to having a great summer working hard and riding harder!

Josh

Be careful what you say!

One of the hardest things to do is keep your mouth shut. We tend to let things slip and regret it later. It is even easier to to let things slip when we are under the influence, case in point, Jerry Jones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHcK3D3HsEE

I am sure he woke up this morning, turned on ESPN and saw THIS!

My main point, try to keep your mouth shut, especially in today's day and age. Everyone has a cell phone that they can easily whip out and record you and post it straight to Youtube!

MISSED OUT!

So I recently started a Facebook fan page called WE LIKE TO RIDE! It's up to 162 Fans in the West Michigan area! Anyways, a bunch of them (15 or so) met tonight at 5:30pm for a 30 mile ride in Jenison/Allendale area and then had a hamburger fry afterwards! What did I do instead? I went grocery shopping and did some homework. Homework is important but it sounds like they had a great ride! I'm looking forward to this semester finishing up so I can focus on work and have nights to ride!

Random Blog

So it's Wednesday and I'm feeling pretty good about this week! The NCAA Championship game was definitely one of the best in a long time... we had a couple really cool storms roll through West Michigan - who doesn't love storms!!? .... and my last full semester of school is almost finished. I'm looking forward to a summer full of working (making some money to pay off debt), CYCLING (mountain and road), and grilling and hanging out with friends!

Anyways, I should get ready for my next class! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Josh

MIDWEEK

So it's almost Wednesday and this week is already flying by. What am I most excited about? THE WEATHER FORECAST! They are saying it might hit a high of 80 this week! Not bad for the end of March/beginning of April!

GRILLING

I received a new grill this weekend from a family member and let's just say, "I LOVE IT!" It's very nice to have a grill, especially of this caliber, at my new place. I have grilled a few times already on it and had some friends over to share the food! I love the weather... so glad Michigan's winter is over! Looking forward to many nights this Spring and Summer grilling steaks and having a couple cold ones with my friends! Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

- Josh

Health Care

The title of this blog from Mark Cuban caught my attention, "If Free Works on the internet, Can it work for Health Care Insurance?"

The nationalized health insurance debate these days is very important. If the nationalized health care goes through it will dramatically change America as we know it. Personally, I believe something needs to be done about our current health care in America but I do NOT believe in nationalizing it. In my opinion, a BIGGER GOVERNMENT = BIGGER PROBLEMS.

Mark Cuban is just throwing an idea out there in his blog post. He puts a relationship between how the internet uses advertising to pay for most of the expenses. He talks about cell phone carriers covering the couple hundred dollars for a cost of the phone in exchange for a multi-year commitment to buy phone and data from them. He then starts talking about Walmart and other businesses and he throws the idea out there of businesses providing health care to its customers in exchange for multi-year commitments to purchase all or most of their products from them.

This idea might be far stretched and it may be nearly impossible to implement but it is an idea nonetheless and credit Mark Cuban for throwing it out there.

http://blogmaverick.com/2010/02/27/if-free-works-on-the-internet-can-it-work-for-health-insurance/

The Science of Building Trust with Social Media

The title of this article caught my eye today. As great as the internet and social media is, it is hard for individuals to trust it because of so many scams and so many ways of easily lying to the general population.

It is hard to build trust through emails because you can not see the sender's facial expressions... they are comfortably sitting in their chair at home making the email sound as trustworthy as possible even though they could easily be lying.

The article talked about responding quickly to facebook/twitter to help build trust. It also talks about how you can use youtube in your facebook and twitter pages to build trust. Have hand made videos of yourself speaking to your fans/friends/followers. This way they can see your facial expressions and you can help build credibility.

http://mashable.com/2010/02/24/social-media-trust/

The Simplicity Test - Mark Cuban

This morning I read a blog post from Mark Cuban's blog. It was entitled, "The Simplicity Test: A Simple Guide for Job Growth." I couldn't agree more with his thoughts. The government has become far to big and is getting their hands in more than they need to. They are making it nearly impossible for small businesses to make a profit and keep their employees, let alone, keep them happy!

Why is this? Because the government is forcing them to file more paperwork than ever before. This involves business spending (time and money) on lawyers and accountants. Instead of wasting their money, effort, and time on every new government policy that comes out, they could be putting that same amount of money, effort, and time into their business... allowing it to grow and become more profitable. This will help them keep their employees and could allow them to hire more employees.

I wish everyone could see the fact that our government has become too large.

To end this post I'm going to quote Thomas Jefferson, "Most bad government has grown out of too much government."

http://blogmaverick.com/2010/01/31/the-simplicity-test-a-simple-policy-guide-for-job-growth/

New Week!

So it's a new week and I'm off to a pretty good start! I believe that staying positive and seeing the best out of every situation makes life more fun.

I started off the day putting in a few hours of work. After lunch I had a couple classes, including an exam. As soon as I finished the exam I was off to the YMCA for an hour of riding the stationary bike. It's not the most exciting thing to ride, all you do is sit on a seat and peddle without going anywhere! However, it's a great exercise and I felt amazing after going about 20 miles...

The television is on while I'm typing this post.

First of all, I want to say that I just watched the movie FRACTURE. If you haven't seen it I'd recommend renting it! It's pretty intense.

Secondly, I just saw a commercial. This commercial asked, "What do you want to do before you die!?" This question has me thinking... there are a lot of things I'd like to do before I die. I'd like to start my career and develop it... I'd like to fall in love with the woman of my dreams and start our own little family... I'd like to keep enjoying my new hobbies of running and cycling and possibly start racing in both categories...

I think this is a pretty good question to ask yourself on occasion. It gets you to start realizing who you are and who you want to become... just a thought! Hope everyone has a great week!

- Josh

Hope everyone is off to a great week!

I am almost completely finished with my move into my duplex. I love it! It will be nice when everything is done though.

I'm trying to stay on top of things at school, while working part time at a truck mechanic shop and finishing up my move! I hate getting behind on things... and having to play catch up!

Anyways, here is a quote I found today that I really liked! Hope everyone has a great night!

"Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind."

motivated

Started out this freezing cold day by plowing the residential properties that I am in charge of. Now, after being refreshed by a toasted bagel with cream cheese at GVSU, I'm ready to start my school day. I have a couple classes, then work for a few hours, then I'm heading back to my new place because COMCAST is coming to install my cable/internet!

LET'S GET THINGS DONE!

"POSITIVE ATTITUDES ARE CONTAGIOUS, IS YOURS WORTH CATCHING?"

Have a great day!

INTRODUCTION TO MYSELF

Hi! I'm a senior Business Marketing student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI. As part of one of my classes we have to set up a blog so here it is!

A few things I'm really interested in are the following: Michigan Wolverines, cycling, working out, running, basketball, soccer, baseball, and football. I also enjoy watching movies, relaxing with friends, working, mowing lawns, and I love keeping my car clean.

I participated in my first triathlon last summer and I hope to do more. I recently started training for the 25K RiverBank run and I'm also hoping to do the Holland 100 and the Reeds Lake Triathlon this year.

I am a huge fan of quotes whether they be motivational, inspirational, or spiritual.