
I’ve hung out in and dated girls from both places, and therefore I can assure you with certainty that this Venn diagram is accurate.
(Found at The Frisky via Buzzfeed.)

I’ve hung out in and dated girls from both places, and therefore I can assure you with certainty that this Venn diagram is accurate.
(Found at The Frisky via Buzzfeed.)

What’s a guy to do when his local Five Guys is a pain to get to and he’s working from someone else’s home, where there’s one a mere block away? He schedules a little “me time” and has himself a nice bacon cheeseburger, that’s what.
While pouring myself a drink, I took a look at the corkboard that they leave for comments from satisfied customers. This one jumped out at me:

“Five Guys is da shiznet.“ They never would’ve let a card saying “Five Guys is da shit” stay on the board, but apparently hip-hop variants like “shiznet” (and presumably “shizzle”) seem to pass muster. This may be one of those rare moments when making something more “street” makes it more family-friendly. Hollah!
If I worked at Five Guys, I might be tempted to post my own card in reply: “Thanks, biznatch!“

Colin Wright created this image; I found it via Joel Runyon’s Blog of Impossible Things.

…and it follows you around forever.
If you’re in the Toronto area and looking for a gathering of interesting people in the areas of SEO, social media marketing and selling stuff online, you should come down to Archeo restaurant in the Distillery District and catch the Search and Social Rank Symposium tomorrow night (Monday, January 23rd).
The organizers bill it as an evening where I and a number of other speakers will “showcase weird science at the intersection of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing”. Here’s a list of the presentations and presenters:
Leverage the Strength of Shopify to Build Your Dream Store, presented by Yours Truly, Joey deVilla, ShopifyAs the self proclaimed “Tech Evangelist” Joey deVilla’s offers his quirky technical genius through the new e-commerce platform Shopify. Shopify allows online businesses to create and design easy to use digital shop fronts. This widely popular platform is host to over 16,000 retailers, including Angry Birds, Tata, Pixar and Amnesty International. The Queens educated Joey deVilla splits his time as master of Shopify by also writing his immensely popular blog Global Nerdy. If these ventures weren’t enough for this fast-paced techno-king he also frequently rocks out onstage as the “Accordion Guy”.
Harness the power of the social coupon, presented by Geoff Whitlock, Direct Response Media Group and Click Clip DealsGeoff Whitlock is one of the top frontrunners in the interactive media industry. With over 10 years experience he has helmed many different ventures, including President and Lead Digital Strategist for Lifecapture Interactive in Toronto, Research in Motion’s new position of Director of Social Media, and finally striking out on his own to create Direct Response Media Group (DRMG). As well as leading the industry in social media marketing, he is the co-founder of Click Clip Deals. Click Clip Deals is the number one online coupon trading site, which has been adapted to become one of the most popular Blackberry and Apple Apps.
Optimizing the P3 Presentation for SEO, presented by Craig Backman, McLellan GroupCraig brings a unique juxtaposition of left and right brain business thinking to his work. He holds a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Studies from York’s Schulich School of Business. He spent 14 years at marketing giant Procter & Gamble where he delivered breakout results in Product Development, Advertising and Sales.
Don’t Talk to Strangers: The Art of Smothering Your Brand to Death, presented by Benjamin Allison, Jib Strategic Inc.Benjamin Allison is a graduate of OCAD University. He has worked in the advertising and design field for more than 12 years. He has been with jib strategic since 2004. He has worked on campaigns for clients such as Apple, Coca Cola, and Honda. Ben is an accomplished musician / composer and brings a unique perspective to his work.
How planting, tending and growing fields of content makes clients rich, presented by Rob Campbell, LenzrRob Campbell, the artist formerly known as Smojoe, is a relevance producer that handcrafts business stories to show up in search engines. He now manages a clever marketing company called Lenzr Corp that manufactures a natural ‘social relevance’ for clients using a mixture of proprietary tools that both collect and distribute user submitted content. People listen when he talks process because he’s one of the few speakers who will actually get specific with the science and teach empiric knowledge alongside anecdotal accounts of past failures and successes.
TBA, presented by Alex Blom, SalesChoiceAlex Blom is currently the CEO & Co-Founder of SalesChoice, a sales pipeline management and automation tool. Prior, he was the CTO & a Partner of Helix Commerce, where he lead large technology / web initiatives for public, global companies. Prior, he was an organizational troubleshooter and created / exited several web startups.
Want to know more about this event? Check out Rob Campbell’s blog entry.
I like to call him the “Italian Cruise Ship Captain of Matrimony”, but I’ll have to hand it to Jon Stewart for having the best line about him:
“First wife, cancer, second wife, multiple sclerosis? Can Newt Gingrich be reclassified as a pollutant?”
(In case you haven’t heard the “open marriage” story, here’s a starter.)

As I write this I’m on VIA Rail’s train 60 bound for Montreal. We pulled out of Kingston station a few minutes ago and are currently bounding through the snow-covered hills of eastern Ontario.
It’s quite a change of scenery for me. For the past two weeks, from New Years’ Eve to last Sunday, I was in Tampa, where my surroundings looked like this:

While I was there, it got as warm as 25 degrees C (77 degrees F) during the day. That’s almost a 50 degree difference from tonight’s expected low in Montreal: –22 degrees C (-8 degrees F). That’s still not going to deter me from joining friends for drinks.
Here’s what Union Station looked like in mid-morning:

Train 60 left Union Station’s track 17 at 11:35 this morning. VIA Rail is now asking that you check in large pieces of luggage, just like the airlines do. At least they’re not charging for the service.

Here’s the view from early on in the trip:

I’ll arrive in Montreal’s Gare Centrale at 4:20 p.m., making for a trip of almost five hours. The Toronto-Montreal flight takes only an hour, but once you factor in travel time to and from the airports – especially the one from Montreal’s Trudeau airport to downtown – plus all the airport and security hassles, as well as the fact that it’s easier to get work done on the train (there’s free wifi and you can use your phone), I find taking the train preferable to taking the plane.
Unlike the airport, the Gare Centrale is downtown and only a couple of blocks away from my hotel, the Delta Centre-Ville. From tomorrow until Saturday afternoon, I’ll be at the CUSEC 2012 conference, where I’ll play the triple role of attendee, sponsor representative (Shopify’s one of the sponsors) and host of DemoCamp CUSEC on Thursday evening.