Alan T's Quest to the West

Isn't technology wonderful? - My weekend in Tahoe

2008-02-24T17:38:00.002-05:00

Because I am new to San Francisco and don't have a broad social network yet, my weekends tend to be dull. Therefore, when my friend called on Friday afternoon to let me know that a friend backed out of their trip to Tahoe, I was more than happy to take the seat.

The weekend was great! I spent Friday night gambling and drinking free beer in the casino* until the sun came up. It has been a long time since I had one of those nights, but somehow my friends actually went skiing on Saturday morning. On the other hand, I just loafed around and wrote a blog entry. After recovering all day Saturday I was ready to go skiing on Sunday, but unfortunately there were whiteout conditions.

The reason for the title of this blog is that I am writing and posting it from the back seat of my friends truck as we inch towards a snowy mountain peak on Route 50 in California. Isn't technology wonderful?

*Sarah, you will be pleased to know that I stayed in a Wyndham resort and the experience was pretty good. ;)

Happy Birthday Big Dog

2008-02-24T12:20:00.002-05:00

I call him big dog and he taught me more than I will ever remember. Today was his birthday, but I was more than 3000 miles away. Being so far from my friends and family is the hardest part of living in California, but luckily the Internet helps me stay in touch.

Anyway, I just wanted to say Happy Birthday Dad!

On the Scene in California - Background about my situation

2008-02-23T17:34:00.005-05:00

I know that it has been a while since my last post, but I am finally in California and am comfortable with my situation. Therefore, it's time to get back to blogging! This article sets the stage for my current living arrangement.

I am currently staying in the Mission District of San Francisco, which is typically just called "The Mission." As you might have guessed, it got its name from Mission San Francisco de Asis, an early spanish mission founded in 1776. During March I will move into an apartment close to work and the SF Giants baseball stadium to a neighborhood called South of Market or SoMa for short. This is another one of those inventive names because it is the district situated immediately South of Market Street.

The weather in San Francisco is very mild compared to anywhere on the east coast. During the winter (the rainy season) days are typically in the 50's/60's while nights are in the high 40's. The spring and summer however, warm up to 60's/70's by day and 50's at night. Mark Twain is often quoted as saying "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," but as long as you layer it seems pretty nice to me. San Francisco is so mild because of the Pacific Ocean's cold Alaskan currents and the high heat of California's mainland. It is exactly this combination of temperatures that creates the fog that San Francisco is so well known for.

The topography and physical location of San Francisco create a unique system of "microclimates" where each neighborhood can have radically different weather at any given time. Lucky for me, the neighborhoods that I live and work in are on the sunny side of the city and are therefore clear more than 2/3 of the year.

*Most of the facts in this article are confirmed by wikipedia.

E-business Consultation

2007-09-27T21:39:00.000-04:00

Recently I reconnected with a friend named Meredith from my days of the internship. When I first met Meredith, she was starting a career as a personal trainer with Gold Medal Fitness but in her spare time she occasionally trained me for free. Meredith was a fantastic gymnast and therefore helped me learn a lot about physiology and movement.

When we reconnected, Meredith told me that after 2 years as a personal trainer she was ready to apply her skills and training more positively to her own life. One of the many things we spoke about that evening was creating a demo video she could use to promote herself. Because of my media production and Internet publishing experience, I saw an opportunity to help Meredith. I gave her a few pointers, lent her a video camera for experimentation, and kept in touch for support. After a few months of self-exploration, Meredith connected with a band that produced a music video featuring her freestyle dance moves.

Lady's and Gentlemen, I am proud to introduce my friend Meredith's YouTube.com debut in Rumi's Song by New Atlantis!

Jersey Tomatoes

2007-09-13T09:04:00.000-04:00

Among the things i will miss most when I relocate away from NJ are the awesome tomatoes that appear at farm stands during the close of the summer. Believe it or not, New Jersey was deemed "The Garden State" for a reason. Jersey tomatoes are so plump and juicy that they melt in your mouth. In fact, tomatoes grow so well in NJ that the Cambells Corporation grows most of the tomatoes for their tomato soup here.

This memoir was inspired last weekend when one of my older neighbors pulled me aside from a long walk. While chatting, he invited me into his backyard to show me his garden. There must have been 30 tomato plants in full bloom. There were so many more than he could possibly eat, cook, pickle, or etc. that he invited me to pick as many as i wanted. I was more than happy to take a dozen or more, softball sized, perfectly ripe Jersey tomatoes off his plants before they fell on the ground and rotted. For a week straight I had a tomato with almost every meal!

The I-95 Sentiment

2007-09-13T09:02:00.000-04:00

I was born and raised in New Jersey and am therefore well aware of the anti-Jersey sentiment around the US. This unfortunately stems from what i have deemed the "I-95 sentiment;" that is, most anti-Jersey opinions were formed while whizzing past oil refineries and manufacturing facilities at 65 mph along the NJ Turnpike.

The I-95 Sentiment is unfortunate because from a local's perspective NJ has everything. In the southwest there are fantastic farmlands, in the southeast there are white sandy beaches, in the middle there are endless pine barrens, in the north there is the Appalachian Mountain Range, on the west is Philadelphia, and on east is New York City. In addition to these natural benefits, New Jersey also has a great economy with manufacturing and corporate industry, as well as convenient public transportation. What else could someone want?

My Favorite Quote from The E-myth Revisited

2007-08-19T22:24:00.000-04:00

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber was the first book on business I ever read. It opened my mind to a whole new way of thinking about business. In fact, I was so impressed with the book that I can still recite my favorite quote on command, even though I memorized it nearly 4 years ago. It goes like this:

"If your business depends on you, you don't own a business, you have a job, and it is the worst job in the world because you are working for a lunatic."

I think that is a fantastic editorial insight on operating a business. It highlights what I believe to be a major flaw in many small businesses started by technicians who are knowledgeable on how to do work, but not how to run a business that does that work.

An Entrepreneurial answer to: "Who am I?"

2007-08-19T22:09:00.000-04:00

I am currently an Analyst and Strategic Planner for B&H, a major multi-channel retailer in New York. I will graduate this May with a Finance MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Originally, I was focused on Entrepreneurship but decided a financial toolkit in conjunction with my Entrepreneurial spirit would be of greater benefit.

My Entrepreneurial Internship

2007-08-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

Growing up I was chronically overweight. Finally after graduation from Rensselaer, I decided to change my lifestyle. Nearly a year later, I had lost more than 100 pounds.

To achieve such remarkable progress I spent many hours in the gym. My gym, Gold Medal Fitness, has been in business 25 years and remains independently owned and operated by one man. Since reading that eighty percent of independent businesses fail in the first five years, I knew that Gold Medal Fitness' owner, Gary, was doing something right. I asked Gary if I could spend a month as an intern observing his business model and day-to-day operations. After agreeing to my request, Gary recommended that, in addition to my internship, I read The E-Myth Revisited a follow-up to a book he read 25 years earlier before starting his business.

Etail 2007

2007-08-11T19:10:00.000-04:00

This week I attended Etail 2007 as a representative for my company B&H. Etail is an electronic retailing industry conference. I went with the goal evaluating Live Chat vendors, but there were none in attendance. None-the-less, the conference was not a complete loss because I continued to build my network and deepen existing relationships.

I reconnected with Andy, the founder & CEO of a B&H affiliate, PowerReviews. I also met Cathie a marketer for the company. They are a great group of people to work with; I’m glad they have a great product to boot.

I met three others worthy of note. Two, Cynthia and Paul, work for Amazon.com in the Electronic/wireless division. Both are very nice people that want B&H to participate as a merchant in Amazon’s marketplace. For the time being, Management feels that although the deal could make a lot of money, the opportunity costs are to great to participate.

The third person worthy of note is Michele. She is a director in the web division of a mid-market direct-response music retailer and publishing house. We met on the Amtrak platform waiting for the train home, sat together, and talked the whole ride home. She is a very nice woman that helped the train ride fly by.

Where is the Grass Greenest?

2007-08-11T11:22:00.000-04:00

You often hear people say that the grass only looks greener on the other side of the fence. Maybe this is true, or maybe not. One way to know for sure:

Use a light meter, measure the color temperature of light reflected from the lawn on both sides of the fence in equally sunny locations, compare those results to the average temperature of green light observed through a prism at the same time and trajectory. Whichever lawn’s color is closest to the prism is greener.

What I am trying to say is, unless you experiment on both sides of the fence, you will never really know which is greener. This analogy is appropriate to me, because I have heard the following sentiment many times: “You have a good life here, why would you want to leave, the grass in the west only looks greener.”

Welcome to my Blog

2007-08-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

Hello,

My name is Alan Trzuskoski and I am 26 years-old. I work full-time for a multi-channel retailer in New York while studying for an MBA. I will graduate with a Finance Degree this coming May; shortly afterward, I plan to relocate to North America’s West Coast.

This blog was created to chronicle the twists and turns my life takes as I prepare to leave the North East, a region I have called home my entire life.

Thank you for reading!
Alan