Update-o-rama...

Big News: In an amazing blend of luck and the generosity of a friend, I am going to be a speaker next Friday, 2/22, at an AMA seminar- Beyond Marketing 2.0: Harnessing the Power of Social Media for Marketing Campaign Results. My very good friend, who is also one of the people I look up to and respect most in the marketing world, Toby Bloomberg, was instrumental in getting me involved with the seminar series. The other two stops are Miami and Chicago, but I am just speaking at the San Diego stop. I am not a member of the AMA, just because I have never studied marketing or been trained in marketing and have felt a little "out of place" because of that, but I have an immense amount of respect for the AMA and many of the people involved with the organization. So this opportunity to speak at an AMA seminar is more than a little bit of an honor to me... needless to say I am very excited and mildly terrified.

My topic of discussion? If you even need to ask, it's about blogging (and other social media) for business. So if you are considering attending the seminar, I look forward to speaking to you in just over a week... and I apologize in advance.

In other news...
The Princess remains under the weather still. Saw the pediatrician again today and got the same story; her lungs are clear, her breathing is great and there are no other signs of either the flu or pneumonia. It's just a strong virus causing her to feel crappy and have a fever.


In other, other news...
It's been a topic of discussion all over the place- ASO excluding Astana from all of their events. I had a couple conversations about it today, but I'm going to share my response to a good friend of mine over in Europe-

Astana doesn't surprise me at all. ASO and UCI are both so stupid, it drives me nuts. ASO is being their usual selves- stupid. They have a chip on their shoulders because of last year, so no matter how different the team and program is, they are going to crucify the team to make themselves feel better and try to wage a publicity/ PR war. It's so lame and shortsighted, but is classic ASO. UCI is lame for not stepping in and defending the new program, but they also have a pissing match going with ASO and the other Grand Tours, so it really doesn't surprise me at all. Cycling is a laughable sport sometimes. At least some good racing is already underway and the ToC starts in a couple days.

I mean... seriously... UCI and ASO are the two brattiest, most petulant children in the sandbox, threatening to take their toys and go home. It'll be a great day when both of them grow up and start acting like adults.

It's a very cold night here tonight, combined with rain, so I am trapped inside and not riding my trainer tonight. With all that's been going on lately and the Princess being sick, I haven't exactly been sleeping all that well- which explains why I am going cross-eyed at 9:00PM... so I'm packing it in and heading to bed.

Tim