Mother’s Day – @smyers0019

Today is the day that we get once a year to say “thank you” to that one special person who gave us life. The one that changed our diapers, packed up our lunches, and made sure we were okay after we had fallen down.

They remain the person who wants to check on us constantly to see how things are, knowing we’ll always say ‘fine’ and sensing when we aren’t.

Today we celebrate those people who we should celebrate every day, our mothers.

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms out there!

A special Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, Stacey Myers. You’re the strongest person I know and a beautiful human being. You’ve always been there for me and Kristen, even when you knew we could handle things on our own. You take better care of us than we deserve. How you’re surviving an (almost) empty house with us away at school, no more games to go to, our friends constantly coming through the door, and the ever-present “what are going to eat for supper?” argument, I have no idea. Just know that we love you and that Mother’s Day is just another day to say so.

4 Essential Skills for Millennial Leaders

Everyone needs to give this article a read. It is a write-up about millennial leaders that we should all strive to embody!

4 Essential Skills for Millennial Leaders.

The new position in social media

By: Zack Myers

“The reason I moved into social media was I saw it emerging as a significant technology within the marketing arena,” said Jeff Sheehan, owner of Sheehan Marketing Strategies. “I envisioned traditional marketing as diminishing in importance relative to social media.”

What is social media? We hear about it on a daily basis. It is practically forced into our lives whether our jobs have a need for it or we are just watching television. “Like us on Facebook” used to be a tag on every newscast and product commercial. Now, we see hashtags on our favorite programs, newscasts, and sporting events.

Merriam-Webster defines social media to be “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).”

“If you look at social media, there are just so many tools, it’s like having a portfolio of stocks. ‘Which stock is getting me the best bang for my buck?’” said Sheehan.

As the owner of Sheehan Marketing Strategies, Jeff Sheehan is a self-employed social media consultant. What does that mean? What does “social media consultant” entail?

“Working with companies and small businesses establishing their presence, making sure they have visibility and awareness, and that they know how to use the tools to help promote themselves,” said Sheehan. “I’ve done a lot of volunteer work: nonprofits, cancer societies, Parkinson’s, veteran societies, about half a dozen charities, with regard to their social media efforts.”

(Jeff Sheehan shows the process of what he goes over with clients.)

“A lot of people are overwhelmed. They don’t have the time and see the benefit of it.”

Sheehan says that it is a tough job to try and sell the concept to those who do not believe in the advantages of social media efforts.

“It’s marketing. It’s just evolved and morphed into a different form,” said Sheehan. “They’re tools. You have to think about it as ‘what is it doing for me?’”

The social media consultant says he doesn’t think of himself as a “social media expert.”

“That’s one thing; I don’t consider myself to be a social media expert. I think it’s totally disingenuous, or unethical, because you cannot be an expert in social media. It’s changing on a day-to-day basis. You can’t keep up with it,” said Sheehan.

“I put down that I was a LinkedIn expert. I didn’t want to do that to be quite honest with you, but I was forced to because there are people who didn’t have the background and experience who are trying to sell themselves as LinkedIn experts.”

Though he does not believe that there is such thing as a social media expert, Sheehan says that there are some out there who are doing well for themselves. What is propelling them ahead of the pack? In his opinion, Sheehan says it is books.

“The ones who are out there that seem to be doing quite well, the ones that are differentiating themselves have written books. Being published clearly helps them differentiate themselves, accelerates their careers and develops credibility as well,” he said. “Though if you look, if you peel back the onion, there may be nothing there. There are some that the experience level is not there but they’ve managed to position themselves through books.”

When asked if experience has taken backseat to having a name, he said, “Correct, a brand.”

What is your “brand”? A brand, whether it is a company or personal, is how the public sees you. How well recognized a person or entity is for what they do or how they do it. For instance, Coca-Cola’s brand is exponential. Nearly anyone around the globe can see that famed logo and know what it is and what it stands for. How does one build their brand?

In just two years, Mr. Sheehan says he has never bought a “follower” or a “like.” Both, unfortunately, are done every day by companies and individuals. However, he said that he was at 1,700-1,800 Twitter followers when he decided “I’m going to expand my network on Twitter.” He is currently nearing 200,000 followers on the social networking site. How, you ask?

(Jeff Sheehan talks about his aggressive move to increase his Twitter network.)

“Just publishing good content, commenting and trying to engage people as much as possible,” said Sheehan.

His hard work has not gone unnoticed.

“As far as marketing, I was ranked by Evan Carmichael as number one in the world to follow as far as marketing on Twitter,” said Sheehan with a smile on his face and a discernible happiness in his voice. “That was quite a compliment.”

When he is not doing individual consultations, Sheehan speaks about the use of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google for the daunting task of job searching. He will be giving a speech at the Digital Summit in Atlanta in a few weeks.

He says that there is one way to help make sure that you keep a positive face on social media and don’t scare off any possible employers.

“What you need to do on social media is to conduct yourself as if it were a professional office environment because you never know who is going to see it and you don’t want to do anything to alienate any potential people”

When asked if there was a site or service that many people don’t see as “big” and useful right now that will be big in the future, Sheehan said, “I think Google+ (Google Plus) is going to continue to expand because it’s Google property. Whatever you have on Google+, Google gives it a higher rating within their search algorithm, so that’s going to continue to expand.”

Social media is always changing. Whether it is learning a new application for a phone or picking up on a new website, it seems as though the social world is the only thing to match, and possibly exceed, the pace of technological advancements.

“I’ve found that the social media avenue is much more difficult than I expected.”

The next big thing is always around the corner, but, after that big thing comes along, there will be another after it. It is a never-ending cycle that current, including Sheehan, and future social media consultants will have to stay on top of.

An Engine for your wallet and your world

By: Zack Myers

“Direct injection is designed to get a better fuel economy so it would save the consumer money, but fuel injection was designed to do that,” said Marcus Smith, lead direct injection service technician at Cobb County Kia. “The way we’re going now, direct injection is the way to go.”

The next big thing in automobiles may already be powering the vehicles you see on the road every day, and we are not talking about ethanol. This is about gasoline engines. Direct injected (DI) gasoline engines, to be exact.

(A view under the hood of a DI engine.)

For an engine to work, three things are necessary: fuel, oxygen, and a spark. Both, standard and DI, engines work this way. Where the difference comes in is the delivery of fuel and how the fuel mixes with the oxygen. Though this sounds very simple, the efficiency of the two types is vastly different.

The standard engine, as the world has come to know it, takes a roundabout way to get the fuel into the combustion chamber to burn. First, gas is pumped from the tank, through the fuel line, into injectors that are mounted in the engine. Those injectors spray the fuel into the air intake manifold. Here, the fuel and air make a mixture of a fine mist before a piston descends, sucking the mist into the combustion chamber. Then the piston ascends inside its cylinder to compress the air-fuel mix until it is almost nine times as dense as it began. The cylinder’s spark plug ignites to create an extremely pressurized, intense blast. The pressure pushes the piston down again with incredible power, triggering a turn of the crankshaft to send power to the wheels.

Direct injected engines work much more efficiently by skipping the air intake manifold step. The fuel is pumped straight from the tank, into the injector, and into the combustion chamber. This causes the fuel to be burned where it needs to be burned, helping with fuel economy and emissions.

“As far as emissions, the design is to get better emissions,” said Smith.

“From what I’ve read, direct injected engines are supposed to burn more completely with more air, so there are fewer emissions,” said Ethan Shirley, owner of a Volkswagen Jetta TDI.

Standard engines use a “rich” fuel mixture, meaning that there is a lower ratio of air to fuel in the mix. Direct injected engines allow for a “leaner” mixture, using a 40 parts air to one part fuel, or 40:1, ratio. Standard engines burn a mix that rations out to about 14.7:1. Fuel is burned more cleanly in a leaner mix. The cleaner the fuel is able to burn, the better gas mileage your car will get in the long run according to HowStuffWorks.

“To be honest, it doesn’t burn cleaner,” said Smith. “Like I said, it just directs [the fuel] directly into the cylinder versus into the intake. It’s a faster injection instead of having to go mix with the air and then come in. That’s how it gets better fuel economy.”

(Marcus Smith showing the intricacies under the hood.)

“I have noticed better mileage since switching to a direct injected engine,” said Shirley. “The TDI model, on average, gets a little over 10 more miles per gallon than the non-TDI model Jetta.”

“I didn’t know that the car was direct injected when I bought it, but found out after doing some research,” said Shirley. “My favorite thing I found out when doing my research is how durable the engines are. This engine should be able to take more abuse than a standard engine. Because of how durable these engines are expected to be, I would definitely recommend them.”

The computer systems that run the direct injected engines are running completely different, more sophisticated software than their counterparts.

“We’ve been using computers in cars since, like, 1983. Of course the software gets newer because it has to run different programs especially with the emissions that we have now. [The computer] plays a bigger role but it’s basically the same concept,” said Smith. “The computer regulates how much fuel [is delivered], it times the engine, it puts fuel in at a certain time, it runs a lot of things. They’ve been there for a long time, but it plays a bigger role now. Between the two different engines, the computer is probably the same, but the programming is different because of the timing and the fuel injection.”

Many car manufacturers are introducing lines that use DI engines. General Motors is adding them into its 2014 models of the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and even in the Chevy Silverado full size pickups. They currently have the 2013 V6 models of the Chevy Camaro using DI technology. Another GM manufacturer using DI technology is Cadillac. Cadillac’s entire line of vehicles, with the exceptions of one sport wagon model and any of its Escalade models, is using direct injection. Ford, another American car producer, has a full line of vehicles using DI. Any of the cars that boast to have “Ecoboost” technology have DI engines in them.

Marcus Smith also said that he has yet to see any more problems out of direct injected vehicles as opposed to their standard counterparts, which is good considering how many manufacturers are beginning to implement these motors into their lines of cars.

“All cars have issues,” said Smith with a smile.

The American automobile producers are not the only ones implementing the use of these engines. The manufacturer of Mr. Shirley’s Jetta, the Volkswagen Group, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, has been using the technology for some time now. They produce Volkswagen and Audi, among others. The difference in these models that use DI is that Volkswagen and Audi use clean diesel as opposed to gasoline. They list their lines as “TDI,” or Turbocharged Direct Injection. By turbocharging the engine and using direct injection, the company is able to use smaller engines to increase fuel economy. For example, the base model of the Volkswagen Passat TDI SE uses a 2.0 liter engine, allowing the car to get 43 miles per gallon and 795 miles per tank.

Why does Smith say that DI is the way to go? For him, it is about the long term savings at the pump.

“Overall, over a year, you’re going to save more money on your fuel,” said Smith. “It doesn’t get a better burn, per se, but it runs better.”

Smith does give one way that everyone can gain gas mileage with the car they already have.

“The way to get a better fuel economy is to use a higher grade of gas. The higher grade gas burns better because you don’t have all of the additives in it. The 93 [grade] is the best thing you can get. It’s a pure gas. That’s how you really get better fuel economy.”

How do you feel about making the switch to a direct injected engine against the standard engine that you are already driving? Would you make the switch or just use Mr. Smith’s advice and use higher grade gasoline? What reasons do you feel are worth switching for?

What is today?

Today is the day that we get freedom back. Today is the day that America bands together to welcome back its pastime. Today ends 155 days, or 3,720 hours if you will, of suffering since the last pitch was thrown and the Giants took the World Series from Detroit in October.

For Braves fans, like myself, today is a welcome back. Today, we welcome new fans, old fans, old friends, and even the ones that we make for nine innings at a time. Today is the beginning of a new hope after five months and 27 days of wondering what might have been. Today brings a chill of over 50,000 of your best friends doing a simultaneous tomahawk chop.

For all fans, today brings with it the smell of freshly mown grass, over-priced hot dogs, popcorn and a sweet tooth that cotton candy can’t fill. The buzzing of stadium lights, the roar of a packed house, the bright smiles of young kids taking in their first game, and overwhelming joy of the parents who brought them there.

This day is one that brings a happy tear to the eyes of all those that have long awaited another first pitch. But today isn’t just another first pitch. The first pitch of this day is the first pitch of our new baseball lives. New Year’s Day doesn’t compare to today’s sense of new beginnings in the eyes of baseball fans.

Today starts a seven month joyride through ups and downs with your respective teams. Today is a day that we all celebrate as one.

Today… is Opening Day!

Enjoy it everyone! We only get one a year!

What does today mean to you? Let me know below or follow me on Twitter to chat!

Belmont flexes muscles as new kid on the block

The Belmont Bruins are conference champions for the third straight year, but, this time, it’s different.

A year ago the Bruins had just won their second of back-to-back Atlantic Sun Conference championships. Tonight, they took the Ohio Valley crown with a 70-68 win over Murray State and clinched a spot in the big dance later this month.

With just one second left on the clock in overtime, Kerron Johnson hit a fade-away shot from inside the paint that proved to be the game winner. Johnson also hit the shot that sent the game into the extra period.

The game was one of runs and Belmont had the biggest one when it counted.

Murray State missed out on its third OVC championship in four years, as well as its 1,500th win, with the loss.

Selection Sunday (March 17) is just a week away and the Belmont Bruins are sure to be in the among the seeds to choose from when filling out your brackets

Look out Alabama: Here’s Johnny!

With Johnny Football coming to Tuscaloosa next weekend, there are a few stats that head coach Nick Saban and the Alabama defense should be focused on.

Freshman Johnny Manziel and the Aggie offense have been tough customers for many teams this season, not to mention giving LSU a scare in week eight.

On Saturday, the Aggies enjoyed a big 38-13 win over Mississippi State. That game saw Manziel throw for 311 yards (32-39) and run for 129 yards with two touchdowns.

The team averages over 45 points and 540 yards-per-game. Their passing attack has been good enough to see more than 305 yards-per-game and 17 touchdowns this season. Their rushing game has amounted to almost 240 yards-per-game and 27 touchdowns through their first 8 games.

Averaging nearly 39 pass attempts comes with its consequences, including seven interceptions and 16 sacks given up this season. This is where the Tide must take advantage.

Averaging 2.5 sacks-per-game in their first eight, the Tide have to pressure and contain Manziel to make someone else beat them. If they allow him time to stay in the pocket, he’ll pick them apart if the secondary plays the same way it played against Zach Mettenberger and LSU on Saturday night.

Saban’s crew will also have to respect the run game of Texas A&M, especially since they average more than four times the yards that Alabama gives up per game.

I would love to see this kid be the one to take down the almighty Alabama from the pedestal that college football allows them to sit on. I’m ready for the SEC streak of BCS titles to end. I mainly wrote this out of excitement to see what Johnny Manziel can walk into Tuscaloosa and do to the vulnerable defense that was exhibited on Saturday. To A&M: Gig Em!

I realize that Manziel and the Aggies’ numbers are all based off of past games and none of which, except maybe LSU, have been at the level of competition that Alabama will present them with, but Johnny Football is magical, folks. He is an athlete and a playmaker and he’s played his part well all season. There’s reason for concern in that Alabama defense and, after what we witnessed against the Tigers, I really hope he takes advantage.

 

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The Tide rolled away with a comeback win

With the help of a defensive blunder by LSU and a strongly lead drive from A.J. McCarron, the Alabama Crimson Tide came back to beat, SEC West rival, LSU and retain the lead in the division.

For most of the night, it looked like the number one team in the land was going to suffer its first loss of the season, and fall from the top spot, at the hands of the Bayou Bengals. Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it whatever you want, but, at the end of the day, the Alabama Quarterback was able to focus his team and direct them down the field.

McCarron showed up when it mattered, tossing a 28-yard touchdown pass to freshman T.J. Yeldon, who scored with 51 seconds left on the clock.

The game winning strike proved to be McCarron’s only passing touchdown of the game. The junior’s final drive (4-5, 72 yards) has many people on Twitter crying for a Heisman.

But he only completed 14-of-27 passes. For 165 yards. Does that really scream Heisman to anybody? Really? I don’t think so.

Let’s be honest here, I think LSU beat themselves anyway. Seven penalties for 51 yards compared to Alabama’s one for 15 yards and senior kicker Drew Alleman missed two big field goals that would have extended the Tigers’ lead. Les Miles aided in the self-defeat by going for a fake field goal, which Alabama saw coming for days, and lost his team two yards.

LSU did not take advantage of opportunities either. The Tide lost two fumbles and their defense was very suspect, especially in the secondary.

One of the biggest keys to the game for the Tigers was for Zach Mettenberger to play under control and limit mistakes. He did that very well. He completed 24-of-35 for 296 yards with a touchdown and zero turnovers.

According to rivals.com, Bama only allowed 145.9 yards/game through their first eight games. Mettenberger doubled that number and the offense, as a whole, more than doubled the total yards-per-game average that the Tide’s defense had allowed with their 435 yards.

This turned out to be a better game than many people expected to see, including myself. I figured that it wasn’t going to be the field goal fest that we saw last season between the two teams, but most football fans expected an Alabama runaway, statement win. I guess that’s why they say “anything can happen in Death Valley at night.”

 

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Brett and Zack’s Sports Chat 11/2/2012

Brett and Zack’s Sports Chat 11/2/2012

Brett Mixon, lead Auburn writer for the Bleacher Report, and I talk last week’s hot topics. We hope to bring a video to you each week. Follow Brett on Twitter at @TrueBlueAU and also at the bleacherreport.com. Follow me on Twitter at @ZackMyers11.

Saturday sets up the West and shapes the East

It’s no secret that ESPN, the computers, and everyone who gets a vote in the standings has a love affair with the SEC.

This weekend could set up one of the better SEC races to be ran in the last few years. The East is starting to flex its muscles as the West continues to show why they, mainly Alabama, are at the top of the voter’s rankings list week in, week out.

First with the East:This is the week that the pack leaders play each other. #3 Florida will host #9 South Carolina. This matchup is huge in terms of how the division shapes up for the rest of the season and has been set up well.

The Gators welcomed the Mad Hatter and his Bayou Bengals into Gainesville and showed them the way out after tagging them by eight points. That same day, College Gameday showed up in Columbia, SC to watch the Gamecocks dismantle Georgia. One week later South Carolina headed into Death Valley to play LSU and left disappointed.

This week has two outcomes:

• A South Carolina victory ties them with the Gators with a conference record of 5-1 but puts them in the lead because of the head-to-head win.
• A Florida win puts them in sole possession of the East and leads them to the SEC Championship game.

But there’s another player here: Georgia.

Georgia heads to Kentucky, which has been pitiful this season. The Wildcats have just one win, a 33-point decision over Kent State, versus six losses, including getting shut-out at The Swamp and beat down in Fayetteville.

Georgia, on the other hand, has the aforementioned loss, albeit a 35-7 thrashing, from South Carolina. This team is far from what it was expected to be in preseason. This defense was expected to be of National Championship caliber, but that was before it lost Bacarri Rambo and Alec Ogeltreee to suspension. The two came back in time to give up 44 points in a close win to Tennessee and more rushing yards to Carolina Quarterback Connor Shaw than the Dawgs two freshman studs, Gurley and Marshall, combined.

So why does Georgia at Kentucky matter? With a victory, the Bulldogs will improve to 6-1 on the season and 4-1 in the conference. This, combined with a South Carolina win over UF, puts UGA one game back of Florida heading into the rivalry game next weekend. Setting them up to take control of the East with a victory over the Gators and the head-to-head tie breaker.

Of course, all of this is circumstantial, but it does mean that Georgia fans have to suck it up and pull for the Gators this week! Then they must pray that their defense learns how to contain a mobile quarterback before they see Jeff Driskel in Jacksonville.

The West turns in some interesting set-up games as well as a street cred battle for Texas A&M this week.

First, #6 LSU has to travel to College Station and fight off a #20 Aggies team that is hot on their trail in the division standings. Both teams are sitting at 2-1 in the conference standings. If A&M is able to pull off the upset, it would be a big step forward in the process of proving that it is a true SEC team.

The next matchup that should be on every SEC West fan’s radar is Middle Tennessee State at #15 Mississippi State. Then everyone should take a peak at the #1 Alabama Crimson Tide heading to Knoxville to take on Tennessee.

Why would anyone list these as games to watch? Because they set up a potentially huge contest next week in Tuscaloosa between the Bulldogs and the Tide. If both teams win this week, and there’s no reason that either team should lose, then the pair come in undefeated to fight for the lead in the West.