Website Design

I am working with a company on project designing a new website for them. One of the central concerns for this company is and has always been, how to provide a positive user experience for the non-tech savvy users. The company has provided examples of how users might interpret certain terms or sentences. One of the comments was that a user thought by filling out a PDF and hitting ‘print’ that the PDF was emailed to the correct individual.

For each person in the company, the website represents something different. To the executives, the website is a marketing/sales tool designed to inform users of their services and prompt them to make purchases. To a support staff member, the website should provide a wealth of information that users might have. And to a person such as myself (with a background in marketing) it should showcase the company in all its glory and promote the overall goals the company has (marketing and sales). How do you support all of these expectations?

Answer is: you don’t. If you try and be all things to all people, your site will be cluttered and hard to navigate. Don’t get me wrong. You can market and sell while providing a good amount of information. But don’t kid yourself. You can place all of the drop down and submenus you want but people will still end up missing information. They will call you and ask questions. This is okay. Talking to your customers give you a fantastic opportunity to provide world class customer service.

When you are designing your new site, make sure everyone in your organization understands the role the website plays in helping to achieve goals. I think it also helps to look at the analytics. (You do have analytics don’t you?) What are people looking at? And more importantly, what are they NOT looking at? Spend some time looking the analytics and then talk to some of your long term customers/readers. They can provide some valuable feedback. Above all else: remember your goals. They will help guide your decisions.

I Eat Fake Meat

My name is Aleta and I eat fake meat.  You see I have an unhealthy obsession with the oven roasted chicken breast sandwiches. Now you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that the chicken breast is not 100% chicken. So what is it?

I sent an email to Subway after reading the article on Taco Bell’s newest lawsuit over their beef. The lawsuit claims that the  ground beef used in tacos, burritos, and nachos isn’t  100% beef. More along the lines of 35%. However Subway has yet to email me back.

It says Taco Bell’s ground beef is made of such components as water, isolated oat product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate, as well as some beef and seasonings.

I love me some anti-dusting agent. Just kidding. I honestly cannot remember when I ate taco bell last. I think it may have been about six years ago when I was still sneaking meat behind Andy’s back. Now I just eat it in front of him.

Recently I bought some frozen chicken breasts that were on sale at WinCo. They were ridiculously underpriced. The voice in the back of my head shouted “Antibiotics, hormones, Mad Chicken Disease!” But I wanted those chicken breasts. Andy left the house and I rushed to the toaster oven to pop in two breasts that had been rubbed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I have to admit that I was horrified to see how much water cooked out of the breasts. They were good though even if they were drippy.

I cannot afford free range, hormone and antibiotic free chicken. I know companies shoot the chickens up with water to get a better price on them per pound. I know the chicken breast from Subway is probably no better than the beef at Taco Bell which is no better than the Vande Camp fish sticks I buy at Fred Meyer. I work a lot of hours, run a lot, have little time to prepare food, and am supporting my full time student husband. Money is tight. Would I be better off eating better quality food? Probably yes. What do I have to sacrifice for that better food? Time and money. Where does the time come from and what can’t I buy because I’m buying better food? Sometimes the choices aren’t so easy.

You see, my name is Aleta and I eat fake meat.

{Below is the response that Subway sent to me. My question was: what is in the chicken breast. It’s obviously not 100% chicken}

Thank you for your interest in Subway nutritional information.

On our website http://www.subway.com you will be able to find our nationally offered products broken down by Nutrition/Ingredient information. For countries other than the USA visit http://www.subway.ca and select the country.

All information is updated regularly, unlike printed material they may be out dated.

A Printer Friendly Version can be found by highlighting the maroon Menu/Nutrition tab at the top of the main page. Select Nutritional Information on the right of your screen select Nutrition Data Tables

The local items may be found under the heading 6 Limited Time Offer/Regional Subs. For those local items not listed you will need to ask
at your local Subway.

Again, thank you for choosing Subway.

Sincerely,

Ann Harrigan
Customer Care Representative

Comment ID: 2227338

Post Office Fun

So the title isn’t an oxymoron. It’s true. I went to the post office to mail my momma a package. I went to the counter and asked the postman to please ship the package as slow as possible. I didn’t want to have to take out a loan to pay for the shipping. He smirked and retorted “Why don’t you ship it UPS then?” I laughed. It was funny.

I mentioned that if possible the package could go via pony express. The postman asked if I knew how long the pony express was in operation. I thought surely the efficient pony express system had been in operation for no less than 45 years. Nope. The postman told me it was closer to 18 months. Huh. Who knew? He then asked me what state had the most post offices. At this point my transaction was over. The postman on the other side of him and I both answered in unison “California.” You know. Biggest state. Most post offices. Nope. So I shouted Texas. Nope. The other postman answered Alaska. Even I knew that was wrong.

At this point other customers started answering “Florida” and “Oklahoma”. Finally the entire post office was shouting answers: “Colorado”, “Illinois”, “Utah”, and “New York”. The postman kept shaking his head. Finally he said “Connecticut”. The entire post office went silent. We were all very surprised. I have tried to verify that this is correct but have been unable to. I love that little post office and no, I’m not telling you where its at. It’s rarely busy because no one seems to know where its at. The workers are so nice and its my secret.

Hagg Lake

On Sunday I went out to Hagg Lake to run the loop. I will be running a 50k in a few weeks and needed to see the course. Hagg Lake is a beautiful area. I could have made much better time but I stopped to watch the bald eagle attempt to grab what appeared to be a small duck. The eagle was determined to get some breakfast but the small duck was faster and smarter than it appeared. It kept ducking under the water evading the eagle’s sharp talons. At one point, the eagle smacked the water so hard, the sound echoed all around the lake. But in the end, the eagle went away empty taloned.

Hagg Lake

Funny photos

Surprise!

This last weekend, I surprised Andy with a day of fun. We used our Groupon and went to Hash for breakfast. The food there is incredible. Really, really incredible. It is worth the wait. And I rarely will wait for a table.

After brunch, we parked at the Lloyd Center and walked around the mall for twenty-thirty minutes to kill some time. Andy had no idea what I had planned next. It was so much fun to watch him walk around with a perplexed look on his face. I gave him a few hints but he was still not able to figure out that I had grabbed a pretty sweet deal on two tickets to go see the Portland Winterhawks, our local hockey team. For those of you who don’t know, Andy loves hockey.

The Winterhawks played Seattle Thunderbirds. It was a pretty exciting game. The skating was very fast and numerous players hit the ice in an attempt to gain control of the puck. The Winterhawks ended up winning the game. And there were several fights at the end which made Andy very happy.

Look what they posted at half time-

After the game, we headed downtown and had some Thai food. It was a great day!

How to Be a Good Friend

Recently I was hanging out with my friend Amy and we were discussing women in our lives who weren’t good friends. You know who they are. They either ignore you until they break up or have a fight with their significant others. Or they just talk about themselves and their interests non-stop. Or (my favorite) they only contact you when THEY need you.They don’t ask you about what your occupied with or show any interest in you. You know, your basic fair weather friend. Why are we still friends with these people? That’s another blog post.

So how do you be a good friend? You need to regular quality time with your friend. Maybe you having a standing lunch date once a month or you visit the antique warehouse a few times a year. Perhaps you both enjoy the weekly spin class together. It doesn’t really matter what you do but it should be regular and it should be a shared experience.

Then you need to communicate with one another. In normal healthy relationships, one person talks and the other person listens. With bad friends, one person talks while the other one wonders when her turn is coming. Ask questions like “What are you working on now?” “What are you passionate about?” “How did the Brazilian waxing go?” “Did you ever get that infection cleared up?” (just kidding) Each person needs to feel that they are valuable and so are their thoughts and feelings.

A real friend will help you bury the body and never ask a question. You need to be there for each other no matter what. A real friend will pick you up from the drunk tank or from jail or perhaps from an abusive boyfriend without judging or making comments. A good friend will take you out for drinks to celebrate your promotion or bring you soup when you are sick or in the event of your death will clear the history on your computer. I’m being intentionally dramatic to make a point. It’s easy to celebrate the good times but you need to support each other during the downswing.

Have their back. This goes along with supporting each other during a downswing. Don’t gossip about them. Have their back when they aren’t around. If you know they are going through a rough time, call them. Send them a nice card. Take them out to lunch. Notice the small things.

I think being a good friend goes back to being the type of friend you want to have. You can’t keep score. You have to be a stand up kind of person. Have respect for them and their situation. If you can’t do the small stuff like phone calls and supporting each other, why are you friends?

Ultramarathon Running Blogs

I belong to a great email list dedicated to ultrarunning. It seems like each person has their own running blog. Here is a link to a page that lists all the blogs out. RealEndurance.com also maintains a list of blog as well.

Enjoy!

Funny

The link below shows a guy streaking and running into a door. It is incredibly funny. I highly recommend watching the video with the sound turned up as the guy filming the event almost has an asthma attach he laughs so hard at his dumb friend. Andy and I watched this several times laughing really, really hard.

http://www.liveleak.com/e/8fe_1294763413

Not Giving Up..

I’m training for the 50k at Hagg Lake. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to train as much as I would have liked for this event. This has left me with a lot of doubts about my performance on race day. I trained really, really hard for the Portland Marathon. In the year I spent training, I missed 3 long runs. 3. That’s it. Not bad.

I’ve had to miss a few long runs training for this 50k. I’ve been sick, I’ve been moving, and I’ve been out of town. I’ve been using Forest Park’s Wild Cherry and Wildwood trails to help train for Hagg Lake. I don’t like running Wild Cherry. It’s super steep and frankly it hurts. But I run it. Or should I say I walk/job it and pant up it. It’s been really cold in Portland and I don’t care to run in sub 30 degree weather. My sweaty hair starts to freeze. My butt gets super cold. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Part of me wanted to cancel my participation in the 50K and just throw in the towel. Regroup and start training for races in May. But I’ve all ready paid for this 50k and there are no refunds in the world of racing. I’ve gotten so fixated on this stupid race that I’ve forgotten how much I love to run. I’ve forgotten that I feel better after I run. I have begun to feel like I’ve failed before I’ve even gotten to the finish line. It’s been miserable.

So what’s a girl to do? Well, she doesn’t give up that’s for sure. She downloads “Eye of the Tiger” and gets her ass in gear for a 20 mile run on her favorite route. She runs and runs and runs some more. And that’s what I did today.

I may not be able to run Hagg Lake as fast as I want. But I refuse to give up.

New Year’s Resolution

I read a lot of blogs and most of the posts in the last couple of days are about New Year’s Resolutions. I have one. Yes. One. Take back my healthcare. I’ve had a few experiences in the last couple of months with my healthcare providers that have led me to be very unhappy with them.

Mainly, the host or CNA or whoever takes your blood pressure/weight/asks you the same freakin’ questions that you’ve all ready provided answers to – tries to make me get on the scale every time I come in. I weight myself once a week, same time each week, and same conditions. I am NOT getting on that damn scale again. Not unless my weight is super super low or super super high. (Okay not if its high!). If that person thinks she can make me…well it’s gonna get ugly.

There have been a few other things that have upset me but they are super personal/private. But that’s my New Year’s Resolution. What’s yours?