trip to the Houston Zoo African Forest

Today I HAD to go to work at the Houston Zoo at the African Forest. Tough Day right. well, I absolutely am in LOVE with the African Forest. I took my new "big girl" camera with me to work and took some interesting shots. I then had some fun editing and will jut keep working on getting comfortable with the camera and editing everything. If you have not been to the African Forest at the zoo, this might not be the week to go because it is so cold and the animals are trying to stay warm, but it is definitely worth the trip. I purchased a membership this year because of the new giraffe habitat and the restaurant that overlooks the giraffes! Those that know me, know that I LOVE giraffes and really am in total awe of them. The are amazing creatures that always seem so wonderful. As a child, at the San Antonio Zoo I remember watching the mama giraffe take care of the new baby. Now I am going to have the privilege of taking my niece Téa to the Houston zoo to meet the giraffe family.

Every once in a while, it helps to have something that takes you back to your childhood, something that makes you smile and helps you remember that life really shouldn't be that serious. As we like to say at the office, it is just radio, no one is going to die today. There is something to be said for that, we all just need to enjoy our life, our job and our friends. Here is to getting to spend a day working, with amazing clients and in an amazing setting, one that always makes me smile.

The Big New World is here. amazing internet facts

I recently was forwarded an article from my friend Josh Lee, an internet marketing expert in Dallas. It is from royal.pingdom.com and talks about what happened with the internet in 2010. The article has more information that you could possibly want to know, but some of the facts were mind blowing. There were 107 trillion emails sent on the internet in 2010, that is an average of 294 billion per day. The report that 89% are spam! that makes a lot of sense considering all of the hotmail accounts. (just kidding hotmail, but really, who uses hotmail except for your spam emails when you sign up to win something.) There are 255 million websites as of December 2010, 21.4 million were added in 2010 alone, including mine, www.missyalwais.com. although not much information there,  it is registered and i do plan on working on it this year!

There is a lot of information on this report that i do not understand, web servers etc, but one thing i do see on the report that makes sense is the 88.8 million are .com, compared to just 13.2 million are .net. .com is still so much sexier than any of the others, and it is a good idea to go and get your .com address before they are all gone.

The number of internet users reported by country is amazing! No surprise, but the increase of 14% of internet users since the previous year is very interesting, i wonder where the ages breakdown for that 14% would be. the younger generation that is born and now using the internet by age 6? there are 825 MILLION internet users in Asia, 475 MILLION in Europe and 266 MILLION in North America. That is a HUGE number of users in Asia, makes North America and the U.S. look small.

Social media is growing by leaps and bounds, 152 million blogs on the internet as tracked by BlogPulse. 25 billion tweets on twitter ad 100 million new accounts added on Twitter in 2010, including @malwais. (yes, another shameless plug). 7.7 million followers of @ladygaga, Lady gaga is Twitter's most followed user! really- Lady Gaga!

70% of Facebook users are located outside the United States and 20 million facebook apps are installed each day!

I know this is a lot of facts, but the information is just amazing to me. I work with companies brainstorming on ways to increase their business using radio and partnering internet and streaming audio, including iheartradio apps and the number of users on the internet is staggering.  You Tube is not something that I spend a lot of time searching, but apparently people do... all day long. Tosh.0 is a program dedicated to funny internet videos, you can even follow him on twitter @danieltosh.  there are 2 billion videos watched per day on You Tube with 35 hours of video uploaded to You Tube every MINUTE!

To sum it up, even if you are an average user, there is so much more on the internet since we all started using it, and no matter how much time you spend on the internet, you will NEVER reach the end of the internet!

My goal for 2011, is to utilize the internet more for my clients and to learn new and creative ways to provide marketing solutions for my clients using these tools that have become so incrementally popular in 2010.

facebook: it's not just for kids anymore

Facebook, it isn't new, but it keeps increasing in users, usability, and pop culture.  several recent TV references to Facebook, or if they try to get clever, calling it Facespace to throw off the legal eagles. What is the cause of my recent interest in blogging about Facebook? I found an interesting article while google searching today. 10 little known facts about Los Angeles Facebook Users. This is great information for the advertising world. Who actually uses facebook- how can we monetize facebook users to our clients? We all know that social media is in the forefront and groundbreaking the old "grassroots" word of mouth advertising. The website, allfacebook.com lists some interesting facts that can most likely go across the whole facebook community, not just Los Angeles.

According to the US Census bureau, there are about 9,862,049 people living in the LA area, 6.173 million are on facebook- nearly 63% of the city is on FACEBOOK! they site that over 50% are women, so does that mean that nearly 50% are men... a 50-50 split...even though many believe that women are on facebook more than men as it is the true "gossip central" like going to the neighborhood nail salon and swapping "did you see what she was wearing" stories.

Many have thought that facebook is a way for teens and college students to communicate, not so fast.... according to www.allfacebook.com the 13-17 age group has 600,000 users, the highest are group is the 25-34 year old with 1.6 million, second is the 18-24 year old with just under 1.6 million, third is the 35-44 with over 1 million, even the 45-54 beat the 13-17 year old.I thought this was extremely interesting that with this research, we can now target advertising to companies based on this data, the money demographic of A25-54 has a great showing in the Facebook world.

Speaking of the college age group, about 20,000 users on the site are currently enrolled in college, 30% will be graduating in 2011. there are many academic universities in the LA area. Note to businesses that cater to college kids...hello IKEA, facebook is a great place for you to try to attract this group.

Love the article's mention of Print media being a dying breed, the LA Times only has about 7,000 fans and only half of those are in LA.

The LA Facebook community is the same size as the fourth largest city in the country, Houston!

Houston is Among the Worst Commutes in the US

During our training this morning, one of my co-workers reminded me of something that all Houstonians know, just probably have never seen the numbers. Forbes Magazine ranked Houston as the 8th worst commute in the country. Lots of statistics to back this up, but more from personal experience and the stories of my co-workers every morning. People from Sugarland typically depending on the time of day can take 30 minutes to 2 hours! Cypress area, or where I used to live in Spring it takes on average 45minutes to an hour. A lucky few live in the city and it takes about 15-20 minutes depending on weather. The statistic from Forbes quotes that 45% of Houstonians commute more than 30 minutes to work each way- pretty sure that number should be 45 minutes or more.


Only 13% of people carpool, Forbes reports that percentage is the highest number for cities with over 2 million workers, and 3rd for cities with 1 million or more workers. Unlike Dallas and Austin, Houston continues to resist mass transit in favor of more tollways and expanding the highways to accommodate more cars.

NEWS FLASH! Americans spend 11 hours in their car every Monday-Friday.  96% of Americans listen to the radio in their cars, with in-car listening growing 11% in the last 4 years!  Local traffic and weather information are the most frequently mentioned reasons for liking conventional broadcast radio.


Anyone want to buy some radio advertising?

There are a lot of ways for businesses to deliver their message to consumers, Television (broadcast or cable), Newspaper (does anyone read this anymore, less than 10% of the Houston metro area actually receives the Houston Chronicle, their readership is under 400,000, in a city of 4 million that is not great. PLUS, how many people just throw it in the trash without even opening it.), Billboards, Direct Mail (again, the mass mailings that are in your mailbox, do you read them, or just throw them away knowing it is "junk-mail") and the Internet.

What will work best for your business is something only you can decide- gather information and make an informed decision.

perfection- Shrimp Paesano!

as many San Antonians, I grew up eating at Paesano's. Ordering the same meal every time, never stray from the original. As friends would come and visit, or i would entertain on business, i would strongly encourage Shrimp Paesano to my guests, sometimes, they would partake in this perfection of a meal, and sometimes they would not... if they did not, i would offer a bite of my meal, and they immediately would regret their choice. Needless to say, i have googled searched and searched and found a few that came close to the greatest meal ever- always to be slightly off...NOT TONIGHT my friends. Tonight's attempt was perfection!

i will share the variation of the recipe that i used tonight so those who cannot just run to Paesano's when the urge strikes, can have a taste of Paesano's in their home, no matter where you have moved.

this served 2: preheat to 400
12 shrimp de-veined and washed
soak in 1/2 and 1/2, for 15 minutes or longer enough to go 3/4 over the shrimp ( 1 pint will be plenty for the soaking and the sauce)
roll in flour on both sides
saute in olive oil on medium heat for 5 minutes on the first side
saute for 2 minutes on the second side
mince two cloves of garlic (fresh) and sprinkle in the glass baking dish
put the shrimp 5 minute sauteed side down
broil on high for 5 minutes

sauce: this is what is always tricky in a medium saucepan
1 large egg yolk
lemon juice from 1/2 of a medium lemon (use the lemon not lemon concentrate)
1/2 stick butter
heat these until melted and take off the heat

add 3 cloves of minced garlic (fresh)
1/2 stick butter
stir briskly until melted
add 1 more squeeze of the other 1/2 of lemon
add chives (probably about 2 tablespoons)
add a little 1/2 and 1/2 to thicken sauce (about 1/4 cup or so)
add a few sprinkles of garlic salt to taste

it was amazing. good luck!

Perfectionists- there are levels, which one are you?

Interesting article today on msnbc.com regarding perfectionists. Which type are you? For years perfectionists have been labeled, "OCD", "Type A" and "high-strung". Perfectionists by definition, believe that perfection can and will be obtained, I would like to think that everyone always strives to be the best, the best that they can at everything they do...apparently this is not true?

For years, it has been believed in the psychological community that being a perfectionist is bad, it will hurt the individual mentally and physically, and their family members.Some research has surfaced that being a perfectionist can actually have benefits for some people. Perfectionists will stick with the program typically until they achieve their goal, health and fitness, or for diabetics, following the suggested food program. Most athletes are perfectionists, they have to be, they are required to be committed to their work-out, to their rules, and expect perfection on the field/court from themselves and their teammates (except the Spurs with free throw shooting, no one expects perfection there.) Perfectionism has a down side, in that perfectionists expect others to be striving for perfection in others, and consistently are disappointed in their peers.

More research is being done, but being a perfectionist is not always bad, sometimes it can lead to positive impacts on people's lives.  Here is the link to the article if you want to read more. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38170039/ns/health-mental_health/

As someone who does have some traits of a perfectionist, it is an interesting article to know that other people are trying to control their "perfectionist" ideals and not expect others to be the same, and it is funny to know that others are frustrated by people not doing their best.

Passion and Enthusiasm

Just watched a million people get their hearts broken all at the same time. LeBron James just made his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to go play for the  Miami Heat. Immediately upon hearing the news, I felt badly for the fans of the Cavs.  I know what it is like to root for a small market team, that cannot compete when it comes to the splash and cash of the big cities. The best that fans of small market teams can hope for is a little loyalty and a strong conviction to stay in the town where the players have built a home and a family. Thank you David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili (we will wait and see with Tony Parker.)

LeBron has a passion for winning and a passion for helping others, you could see his excitement when he announced the donation to the Boys & Girls Club at the end of his hour long "Lebronaganza Love Fest." He was extremely uncomfortable making the announcement that he would be taking his talents to South Beach. I truly believe he did not want to hurt the fans of Cleveland that had been so good to him for the last 6 years- but his passion to win overtook his loyalty to his hometown and home state. We will see how much money it cost him to not take the maximum and stay with Cleveland versus earning less and making the move to Miami with Bosh and Dwayne Wade. Although no state sales tax - according to some reports will save him $1 million a year!

Getting back to passion- all professional athletes have a passion, just like all sales people have passion. is it a passion to win, a passion to make a difference, passion to make money, passion to be the best, or a passion to be happy and enjoy life. You cannot always choose your passion, it chooses you, you do choose to follow your passion as it might not always be the easiest route.

Congratulations to LeBron James, may he be following his passion, the passion to win, the passion to be the best, not the passion to be greedy.

LeBron James disappointed millions of people, including some friends, family and co-workers to follow his passion, do you have the guts to follow your passion?