Benedict Advertising - Business Building Solutions

Alright, Alright. It was only a matter of time before I had to give in. I didn’t really want to do it. I had a lot of excuses. I dreaded putting in the work. I put up a pretty good fight for a pretty long time. But in the end, you’ve got to give the people what they want. So with that thought in mind, I have joined the Facebook community. I am obviously way behind the rest of the world, but in an effort to catch up, I spent the weekend setting up my Facebook page.
I guess the eye-opener was when I attended a conference of advertising agency owners. When the speaker asked for a show of hands of everyone who had a Facebook page, I was the only one without a hand up. Let me point out that most of the people in the room were old enough to be my dad. The speaker even looked right at me to confirm that I, in fact, did not have a Facebook page. The majority of the material covered during the two-day conference was about social media and using it for the good of clients.
My goal for the weekend was to become somewhat familiar with all Facebook had to offer. I am excited about the idea of being able to track down guys that I had played baseball with over the years. It didn’t take long for me to start sending out friend requests and accepting requests that were sent my way. So I ended up spending a good chunk of the weekend chatting, checking out what friends had been up to lately and even taking quizzes. I still have a lot of info to add to my profile and a lot of features to explore. I haven’t even added a picture of myself yet for people to know it’s me. But it shouldn’t take me long at the pace I’ve been working at.
Maybe I’m not as much of a grown-up as I thought or maybe I’ve been wrong all along. It doesn’t matter much now because I’ve been sucked in. So because it was pointed out to me in a recent chat that my Facebook game is weak, I’m going to cut this off, go login and ask everyone to send me a friend request. I’m sure you’ve seen the number of friends these people have. I have a lot of catching up to do!
- Kellen Wholford

One of the joys of living in Florida is our perpetual sunny weather and warm temperatures with the occasional afternoon thunder shower.  How strange it was to see on the weather report chance of rain 100%!  You almost never see that unless a tropical storm/hurricane is coming.  I had often wondered what that percentage actually meant.  Well, I finally heard an explanation.   The % refers to that portion of the viewing area that could expect to see rain on that particular day.   Ok… so you hope that you don’t fall into that percentage especially if it is on the weekend. 

This week, however, Central Floridians felt a little differently. For most of us, it seems that is has been forever since we had any rain.  And none of us are complaining because we sure need it to help put out those fires for example that have burned thousands of acres.

But now after 3 days of heavy, steady rain, we are all ready for it to be done.  The fires are no longer in the news so of course the assumption is that they are all out (now it is all the flooding that is making the headlines).  The brown lawns have started to turn green again and the outside plants seem to be coming back to life.    And as Central Floridians, we are not prepared for this kind of weather.  How many of you have an umbrella, better yet, how many of you have a rain coat?  I have seen many people have to wait for the rain to subside to go anywhere outside because they have neither.  

One of the reasons we live here in Florida because we love the sunshine!  And in being from the North East originally, I sure do not miss the grey, dull, dreary rainy days which I have been reminded of this week.  I thank God for giving us the rain that we needed so badly but am ready for the sunshine and a fabulous weekend sitting in it!

 - Christine Byelick  

Last week, I saw an interesting article on MSN.COM. A woman was arrested for kicking her bickering children out of the car. If you have ever been trapped in a moving vehicle with two fighting tweens, you would probably speed up to 60 mph and hurl yourself out the door. Instead, this woman just had enough crap for the day and kicked them both out of the car.

The bickering teens were only a couple miles away from home. Maybe on their little walk, they would realize why they are got kicked out of the car. Instead, the mother gets arrested…and for what?? Teaching her tweens that their behavior is entirely unacceptable?

Tweens are horrible…it’s like the terrible 10’s through the terrible 19’s. I think it’s all Mickey Mouse’s fault. What has this world come to that children are so fragile and can’t be disciplined? Sometimes, they need a reality check. Heck, I remember once when I was fifteen, my mother left me at the Wal-Mart! She didn’t get arrested!

My mom was famous for throwing things…shoes, ashtrays, portable phones…if it wasn’t nailed to the floor she’d give it a chuck. That woman could hurl a portable phone 10-15 feet and she was a crack shot. I learned how to “matrix” way before it was cool. She wasn’t opposed to launching things at my friends, either, if she thought they were lying. My friend, Stephanie, can attest to how accurate my mom’s aim is. She’s been hit a couple of times. My step dad should have bought stock in Uniden; He could have been a millionaire. I’ve been kicked out of the car numerous times for “rolling my eyes” and being a “smart ass.” I’ve even kicked my precious 11-year-old cousin out of the car for talking back to me. You know what I say? “Come and get me, Coppers!”

My Grandmother, who is a Saint in every sense of the word, always said that when my Uncle Mark was little she would take him into the Sears Roebucks where he would act all crazy. She swore there was something about the florescent lights that made him crazy. She even admitted she smacked him in the face once and made his lip bleed. Now a days my granny would have been hauled off to the pokey, all because my uncle was acting a fool. Does that sound fair? That’s why I believe kids are such little smart mouths these days. Children need to learn that there are consequences for their actions. But the parents aren’t allowed to teach them, or they’re afraid to, because the kid might decide to call HRS or someone else will report it as child abuse. When I would threaten to call HRS, my mother would say “Here, let me dial the number for you.” Same thing when I would threaten to runaway. She would hand me black yard trash bags (she always said they were more sturdy so the wouldn’t rip when I was holding them and riding my bike to God knows where) and ask if I needed help packing my belongings. The disrespect that these kids display these days is absolutely not flying with me.

I think that this Supernanny and Nanny 911 is all a load of crap. What Jo-Jo, the Supernanny, needs to do is go pick herself a good switch (the thinner the better) and lay into those kids. I’m not saying its okay to beat children to an inch of their lives, but a nice little cuff goes a long way.

P.S. Don’t worry for my future children, because there will be none. The only children I have are furry woodland creatures.

- Sonja Dewees

H1N1 Influenza A. Probably the scariest virus I’ve ever seen. Oh wait! No it’s not. But if I were to believe the ridiculous hype that the media has generated about this strain of flu I probably would have quit my job, stocked up on gallons of water, pallets of canned goods and 1000s of those nice sanitary masks that you see people wearing on just about every news site on the internet right now. Seriously, this has been so over hyped it’s ridiculous. I read today that Mexico stands to lose 2.2 Billion from its GDP based on this so-called “Pandemic.” The United States has more confirmed cases of “regular” flu every month of ever year and you don’t see people avoiding us like the plague (yes, pun intended). So next time you turn on the TV for your hourly “Swine Flu” update take a moment and think about a few things.

Now I’m not saying that Influenza is by any means a joke, it has caused a few deaths and has infected a few people around the globe, but come on, let’s put this in a little bit of perspective here. Every year at least 39,000 people across the globe die from the regular strain of Influenza. As of today the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported 939 cases of “Swine Flu.” That’s right, 939. Yet somehow I can’t turn on the TV, read a newspaper or log on to CNN.com without hearing about this global “pandemic.” Just that word, Pandemic, conjures up thoughts of mass graves, zombie movies and the end of the world. But wait, once again, lets put this into some perspective. In 1918, a flu pandemic swept the globe killing around 1 million people. To date, this is the worst flu pandemic in history. There are around 6 billion people living on the planet today, meaning that even if “swine flu” were to become the worst flu epidemic in history less then 1% of the population would die.

Once again I am not insinuating that this would not be a terrible tragedy, but is it really necessary to create panic, fear and global paranoia over a new strain of bug that has a 10% mortality rate? I personally feel that this is ridiculous. Couple the media blitz with the fact that hand sanitizer sales have gone through the roof and I am left with a feeling that maybe people are using this little “scare” for their own gain. DVD sales of “how to prevent the swine flu” and “Swine flu 101” have been flying off the proverbial shelves and sales of surgical masks have posted better sales numbers in the 2nd quarter then diaper sales! Hmm, imagine that, people using fear as a selling tool?

Well all that aside, I feel that it is the media’s duty to report the news, not create it by causing panic and fear. I mean was it really necessary to declare a level five (and don’t even get me started on these crazy alert levels) pandemic for a virus that only has 1000 confirmed cases WORLDWIDE? Maybe we should think about the impact of today’s media and let that influence some of our decision-making processes. Oh well, I guess it is what it is.

- Darin Duehl