Posts Tagged ‘holiday’

eHarbor names final MVPs of 2009

Friday, December 4th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

We’ve had quite a few MVPs in 2009. MVPs are eHarbor, Inc. employees who go above and beyond their normal job requirements to accomplish something extraordinary. This month, eHarbor’s leaders selected winners for both November and December in preparation for the big announcement on December 10.

On December 10, at the Hawaiian Christmas Party in the Provo City Library, we’ll find out who is the MVP for the whole year. They’ll select someone from all of the MVPs who’ve been named in 2009. But that’s the topic of a whole other blog entry. For now, I’ll talk about November’s and December’s MVPs.

We had one winner for November and two for December. Designer James Gentry is the November MVP, and Developer Matt Walker and Customer-Support Representative David Smith are the December MVPs.

I can’t take credit for writing all of these MVP descriptions. I wrote the one on David while my coworkers Alyssa Udall and Britnee Nguyen wrote the spotlights on Matt and James, respectively. Britnee was actually last month’s MVP. You can read about her in my blog entry, “eHarbor MVP creates 6-month PR plan.”

On with the MVPs!

James Gentry
eHarbor, Inc. MVP James GentryWith hard work and dedication, James has really made an impression on his coworkers and earned the November MVP! Recent changes to the Design team opened up a position for a design manager, which James was unanimously appointed to.

Coworkers say that James “stepped in greatly” with his new promotion and continues to “go above and beyond and is always available to help and give his advice.” This new position enables him to “make sure customers are happy and that our Design team stays happy with their work,” his team leader said.

He loves recording and mixing music, eating peanut butter M&Ms, tacos, watching the shows 30 Rock and Community, and his favorite color is #669900… green.

Matt Walker
eHarbor, Inc. MVP Matt WalkerMatt’s Web-development skills have been valuable to eHarbor for the last three years he’s worked here. Matt’s the recipient, along with David, of the December MVP award for his combination of working hard behind the scenes and being a nice guy.

With the other developers, he’s been keeping things running smoothly throughout the company. He’s also a friendly guy who assists new coworkers around the office. “Matt always does such great work and is always so nice and pleasant to work with!” said one of his nominations.

Matt enjoys programming, which is a good thing since it’s his job, but he also likes to read, write and play video games. His favorite movie is Dead Poets Society and his favorite dessert is chocolate velvet. You can catch him watching Mythbusters and Doctor Who on TV or eating sushi at Sakura.

David Smith
eHarbor, Inc. MVP David SmithDavid works hard to give top-quality customer service to everyone who calls in. He goes the extra mile in helping customers by answering people’s questions thoughtfully and following up to make sure they are satisfied with their custom Internet-marketing solutions. Well done, Dave!

His favorite candy is Reese’s Pieces and his favorite food is gum. Interesting. Like James, his favorite color is green… forest green. For fun, he enjoys working on cars and playing sports, as well as listening to bands like Weezer, Pearl Jam and Saves the Day. His favorite movies are V for Vendetta and Gladiator, and his favorite TV show is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

eHarbor gives back with Food Drive

Monday, November 30th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Starting on November 2, eHarbor, Inc. has been hosting a Food Drive to help the needy in our local Utah County area. Christmas is always such a great time for charity and a spirit of service. Winter isn’t my favorite season of the year, but December might just be my favorite month because of all the awesomeness it contains.

eHarbor, Inc. logoWe have enjoyed an incredibly successful year in 2009, and so of course we want to give back to our community. It’s amazing how fast the time has gone. Can it really be almost 2010? Incredible.

The eHarbor Food Drive will end on December 10. To make it more interesting, we’ve divided the company into two teams: the Turkeys and Cranberries. We’ve all been donating canned items, toiletries, cereals, macaroni and cheese and other nonperishable products to see who can do more good. We’ll see who the winner will be.

Competition is a great thing, isn’t it?

Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for fun company updates like this. Check out the Submit Solution Internet marketing blogs for the latest on Web design, social media and PPC solutions.

Happy birthday, Firefox

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Happy Thanksgiving! I would love to write an entire blog entry on this wonderful holiday, but instead I’m going to talk about another celebration: Firefox’s fifth birthday.

Firefox 5th anniversary birthday cake

Imagine trying to beat Microsoft at its own game. Microsoft, the giant of software and Web browsers, seemed all but unstoppable in its dominance of the Internet with its Internet Explorer browser five years ago. However, a small browser, which was originally called Phoenix, debuted on November 9, 2004 and started giving Explorer a run for its money.

We now know this Web browser as Firefox. And it just turned five years old. Better late than never, I’ll wish Firefox a happy birthday!

I talked a little about Firefox in my Submit Solution blog entry, “Google Chrome is the best Web browser.” I mentioned that it’s my favorite browser, even if it’s not exactly as fast as Chrome.

I read about Firefox’s anniversary in the Webware article, “After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges.”

Many factors led up to the swift success of the Firefox browser. Microsoft got a little lazy on creating new features for Explorer. Plus, viruses were specifically designed to target Explorer, giving Internet users a strong incentive to try something new. Right on cue, Firefox arrived with its innovative tabbed interface, customizability and popup ad blocker. It was an instant hit, receiving 10 million downloads in the first month alone.

You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Web Design Blog on December 1, 2009. It will be entitled, “Firefox fights fresh foes after 5 years.” The photo of the Firefox birthday cake is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Christopher Blizzard.

eHarbor’s favorite Thanksgiving side dish

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Happy Thanksgiving next week! In that spirit, I’ll simply ask: Stuffing or potatoes? It’s a matter of taste which you prefer at Thanksgiving dinner. At eHarbor, Inc., we have a clear winner in this debate. I sent out a survey last month for the November issue of the eHarbor ePort (our company newsletter) and I got the following results.

November eHarbor, Inc. pie chart on Thanksgiving dinner

Potatoes, preferably mashed, are the best when it comes to complementing a delicious turkey dinner. If you combine the number of people who want solely potatoes with those who prefer both potatoes and stuffing, you get 65.1 percent of the voters, a clear majority.

I’m not sure what deep-fried Thanksgiving balls are, but someone likes those, too. There you have it. Potatoes go better with Thanksgiving dinner than stuffing for most eHarbor, Inc. employees. So which do you prefer?

This is the second time I’ve posted our monthly poll results. You can find our other pie chart in the blog entry, “The most colorful pie chart you’ve ever seen.”

Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for company updates. Check out the Submit Solution Internet marketing blogs for insights into free search engine submissions and other Web-design and social-media topics.

eHarbor MVP creates 6-month PR plan

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Content writer Britnee Nguyen (pronounced “when”) was selected as the MVP at eHarbor, Inc. at the Halloween party we hosted on October 30. You can read more about that party in my blog entry, “The most colorful pie chart you’ve ever seen.”

eHarbor MVP Britnee Nguyen

Britnee is extraordinary, even for an MVP. Take a look at her accomplishments. Within 90 days of joining eHarbor, Britnee has:

- Helped organize the Submit Solution website launch party.

- Obtained cool Submit Solution “S” stickers for employees to stick around the office.

- Gotten eHarbor CEO and founder Oliver Bigler into the Utah Valley BusinessQ as one of the 10 coolest entrepreneurs in Utah Valley. That will appear in an upcoming issue. I’ll hopefully keep you posted on when it comes out.

- Designed a six-month public-relations plan for Magellan Commerce.

And those are just her four most visible accomplishments. Yeah, amazing. When she’s not performing superhuman feats around the office, she likes to sit outside on a warm day with a Dan Brown book. You can find her enjoying enchiladas or an ice cream cone at the Chunga’s restaurant in Provo.

She also enjoys reading, writing (Does anyone ever like doing one but not the other?), bike riding and playing sports like volleyball. Her favorite color is pink and her favorite TV show is Scrubs. Her favorite movies include The Guardian, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Pride and Prejudice (2005).

You can read many of Britnee’s superb blog entries on the Submit Solution Internet marketing blogs. Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for updates on our company, and check out Submit Solution’s four blogs for the latest information on free search engine submissions and other topics, like Web design and social media.

The most colorful pie chart you’ve ever seen

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Do you want to see a pie chart that is full of colors. I mean Full. Of. Colors. You might have seen some colorful pie charts and graphs before, but I’m positive you haven’t seen one this colorful. I’ll show it to you at the end of this blog entry, but first I want to wish you a happy Halloween in two days!

eHarbor Inc. will have its annual Halloween party tomorrow at noon. I wrote about it in a blog entry, “eHarbor Halloween party to showcase culinary talents,” a few weeks ago. This will be a fun event. We’ll have a chili cook-off (hence the title of my previous blog entry) with several eHarbor employees vying for the title of best chili. Yum yum.

I think I’m most looking forward to the creative costumes people will wear. We’re having a competition for who wears the most creative costumes.

This is where the colorful pie chart comes in.

Each month, I send out a poll to my fellow eHarbarians to ask them about different topics. I then include the results in pie-chart form in the next issue of the eHarbor ePort, our monthly newsletter. We have another issue coming out at the Halloween party, so I’m excited about that. Anyway, for the October issue, we asked people what was the best Halloween costume they ever wore or saw someone else wearing.

And these are the responses we got.

There were so many different ones that I considered not putting them in a pie chart at all. But it looked so nice I just had to do it. Usually, there’s a clear winner followed by a few other responses. In this one, almost every answer only got one vote, offering a variety of results. Feast your eyes on the creative minds of eHarbor’s employees.

Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for company updates, and go to the Submit Solution Internet marketing blogs for the latest insights into free search engine submissions and other SEO and PPC topics.

October eHarbor, Inc. pie chart on Halloween costumes

eHarbor Halloween party to showcase culinary talents

Friday, October 9th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

On Friday, October 30, 2009, eHarbor, Inc. will host its annual Halloween party. I can’t imagine it being anything but a lot of fun. We’ll have people dressing up in Halloween costumes, decorating the office with plenty of orange and black decorations and, best of all, competing in a Chili Cook-off.

That’s right, we’re going to enjoy some hot chili just in time for the frosty weather that’s bearing down on Utah and probably other parts of the country. Several people have signed up so far for the competition and each of them will bring their chili concoction in on October 30 to serve it at the party. I’m not sure how the dishes will be judged, but the winner will be rewarded for their efforts.

I’m looking forward to the food and the costumes. I’ve never been too interested in dressing up, but I hear some eHarbor employees are quite creative. Last year, one employee dressed up as Severus Snape from the Harry Potter books, and another dressed up as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, who famously walked through New York City in the film “Ghostbusters.” It will be fun to see what they come up with this year.

This talk of Halloween costumes reminds me of something I would like to share with you.

Each month in our company newsletter, which we call the eHarbor ePort, I write a comic and someone else illustrates it. In the October 2009 issue, I did one on the upcoming Halloween party. You can find it below. We’ve been doing these comics since February of this year, so maybe I’ll post some of them on the eHarbor Blog for all the world to see. Some of them are pretty funny, if I do say so myself, but others are inside jokes.

If you haven’t seen “The Karate Kid” recently, I highly recommend you check it out. That’s one of my personal favorite movies.

This blog entry has been all over the place. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a little bit of my stream of consciousness. Be sure to keep coming back for company updates, and go to the Submit Solution Internet marketing blogs for the latest insights on Web design, SEO, PPC and social media.

October 2009 eHarbor comic

4 little-known facts about Pioneer Day

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Tomorrow is July 24. In my home state of Washington, it’s just another summer day, but here in Utah it is a holiday known as Pioneer Day. It marks the anniversary of the day the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

The Salt Lake Valley

I’ve written about a number of holidays, such as Independence Day and Memorial Day, so I want to continue that tradition by talking about some things I’ve learned about Pioneer Day. I’m new to Utah and its traditions, so I did a Google search for information on this holiday, and I found a Salt Lake Tribune article, entitled, “What don’t you know about Pioneer Day?

This article is quite informative, and it gave me a grasp of the details about this holiday. Here are some interesting facts I learned:

- Several pioneers actually arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, two days before the day designated as Pioneer Day. The reason the holiday is on July 24 is because that is the day Brigham Young entered the valley.

- The valley wasn’t as barren as some say, despite being a desert. According to some reports, some areas were actually covered in grass.

- Before Utah became a state in 1896, Pioneer Day was often celebrated by citizens reading and giving speeches on the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

- The trail that the pioneers used to cross the country to Utah was actually created by a group of immigrants traveling to California in 1846.

It’s fun to learn about history, especially local traditions. I hope you’ll have a happy Pioneer Day tomorrow! We’ll get back to ecommerce and Internet marketing topics in the eHarbor Blog next week.

The photo of the Salt Lake Valley is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Edgar Zuniga Jr..

Celebrating Independence Day in style

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence and went on to become the second president of the United States, wrote on July 3, 1776:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Fourth of July fireworks

What he was referring to was, of course, the Fourth of July. His words are literally fulfilled every year on July 4 as we celebrate our independence as a nation and a people. Few holidays measure up to the greatness of this one, in my mind.

Here are some interesting facts I recently learned about the Fourth of July, which I would like to share with you:

  • The first Fourth of July celebration as held one year after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. In Bristol, R.I. and Philadelphia, citizens fired 13 gunshots in honor of the 13 colonies.
  • Bristol is also noteworthy for having the highest number of consecutive Fourth of July celebrations, starting in 1785.
  • The term “Independence Day” was first used in 1791.
  • In 1870, nearly a hundred years after the country was founded, Congress made Independence Day a federal holiday.
  • In 1931, Independence Day became a paid federal holiday.

I must say I’m impressed by the Fourth of July celebrations I’ve encountered in Utah. As a newcomer to this land, I am excited to see what America’s Freedom Festival holds this year. It will culminate in the Stadium of Fire at Brigham Young University’s LaVell Edwards football stadium on July 4. I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend that event, but I hear it will be great.

Be sure to keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for tips on ecommerce and Internet marketing. But in the meantime, enjoy your Independence Day!

The photo of fireworks in Salt Lake City, Utah is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of deltaMike.

6 fun facts about Memorial Day

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Happy Memorial Day on Monday!

U.S. flags celebrating Memorial Day

This is a different kind of eHarbor Blog entry. To help celebrate this holiday, I’d like to share some interesting facts about Memorial Day, its origins and what it celebrates. Enjoy!

- Memorial Day was first called Decoration Day.

- The first Memorial Day celebration is believed to have occurred in Waterloo, N.Y. on May 5, 1866. Every business was closed and flags were lowered to half-mast that day to honor the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War.

- May 30 was designated the official date of Memorial Day for many years because no Civil War battle was fought that day. Organizers wanted to honor soldiers who fought in all battles.

- Many Southern states, including Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia, celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in addition to Memorial Day.

- Memorial Day didn’t become an official federal holiday until 1971. The celebration date was changed from May 30 to the last Monday of May.

- Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer movie season, although that has changed in the past several years.

We’ll return to ecommerce topics soon. Have a great three-day weekend! The photo of the U.S. flags is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Bart Fields.