The threats were there, rumors spoken, people speculated and finally it came. At the corner of La Cienega and Olympic in Los Angeles, just a short walk from the Beverly Hills border, a Union 76 posted up prices for the days gas. $4.89 for regular, $4.99 for 89 octane and…wait for it…$5.09 for Premium. Granted, I don’t use Premium, and the prices at this station are not reflected at other shops just a 2 miles south, but the line has been crossed. If the cost of oil goes up another $5.00 a barrel, you can bet that a lot more stations around these parts will follow.

According to GasBuddy.com, one year ago, the average price of gas for this area was $3.16 per gallon, nearly $2 less than today. I think it’s interesting and slightly hilarious trying to understand what Southern California drivers are willing to endure. A month ago, I was screaming at the idea of gas being over $4 and now I would kill for those prices. In a few months, oil companies like Exxon and BP will be reporting 2nd quarter earnings. I wonder how many billions in profit they’ll have made. If you think they’re struggling with these prices too, get real. They also find it hilarious how much we’re willing to endure.

This is insane. When will my motorcycle be ridable again???

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I’m not sure what’s going on, but lately I’ve been using Scribefire for my updates here, but something seems to go awry about every other time I post. I’m pretty sure I wrote something recently about Jay Conrad Levinson’s magnum opus, Guerrilla Marketing and how I decided to read it again, but damned if that post went completely AWOL.

I love Scribefire’s functionality, and it makes posting a whole lot easier than having to login to my WP admin every time, but having things disappear is a bit frustrating, as you can imagine.

Anyway, I wrote this really great piece about Levinson’s book. It was irreverent and insightful and you’re missing out for not being in whatever dimension the post went, but none the less, the book is awesome even after a 2nd time reading it. Go check it out.

And by “The Kids”, I mean your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. They may have good intentions, but they look through the world with PHP eyes and probably don’t have your marketing plan in mind when their working. They may know a ton about SEO, but do they know exactly what SEO is right for your company?

This is normally not my subject matter, but I found this great article on Hubspot that talks about 7 reasons why you can’t trust your webmaster with SEO. All good intentions aside, the web guy more than likely hasn’t looked at your marketing plan, nor has anyone given him specific direction on the subject. With these 7 reasons, you’ll be better equipped to lead him down the correct path.

In an effort to help, if a certain individual I know is reading this (DF), I’m hoping he’ll read the hubspot post because he’s just about breaking every single rule, that is if they’re even doing any SEO at all. So, DF, please call and tell me that you’re ready because time grows short.

I know it’s possible to have too many inputs when it comes to critical thinking, but what about for art and design? Because of the monthly rigors of my day job, the scope of my design work has been less than desirable. I pretty much shit out pages without much care for how well they are designed. For our magazines, it’s not in our nature to be that concerned. “Good Enough” is the mantra spoken company wide. Trust me, I have my issues with that, but it’s taken its toll on my design sensibilities. For the past couple years, I just haven’t had as much energy to do anything of value. The irony to that is I feel I am a much better designer than I was two years ago, go figure.

Tonight I find myself gorging on design work by Scott Hansen of iso50 and listening to music from Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith (don’t worry, I’m not going to off myself) and the more I take in, the better I feel, the more inspired I get. Scott definitely has a style all to his own, so much in fact that when others do work like his, they call it iso50-ish. I don’t want to copy his work, but it’s so visually stimulating, my mind just wants to do something just like it. Would I be a better designer for trying or am I just a hack riding the coattails of somebody better than me? Either way, I’m just glad that I’ve got the bug again even if becomes short lived.

Thanks Scott, Elliott and Jeff for the virtual kick in the pants.

Apparently, I suck much because I haven’t been by here to update in a very, very long time. I’m sure I’ve lost all my readership by now. If anyone is hanging on, thanks for sticking around. I owe you a beer or something flashy to show your friends. I’ll try to do better, but I can’t promise anything because, well, I suck.

On a completely unrelated note, sometimes in life its good to go back to the beginning and start anew. The first marketing book I ever read on my own volition (in other words, anything that I wasn’t forced to read in college) was Guerrilla Marketing by J. Conrad Levinson. It opened my eyes to the world of marketing beyond what I’d learned in school and it changed the rules for the industry. Without Levinson’s book, there might not be a Seth Godin or John Jantsch, and there definitely wouldn’t be any Dave Conrey Marketing Whizkid (even if he has been noticeably absent).

I hadn’t read the book in several years and since I’ve started doing a bit more freelance work for clients that are bootstrapping their business, I felt a need to read the book that corners that market. The original version came out long before the Internet became widely available, and I was a bit worried the book might not be as up to date, but thankfully Levinson has included new media trends within the pages of the latest version. I’m still working way through it, but it’s just as good if not better than the first time. Sometimes its good to go back to school.