So What Does one TRILLION dollars look like Anyway?

With all the talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”, “economic recovery” and a “$3.8 trillion budget”…

A billion dollars…

A hundred billion dollars…

Eight hundred billion dollars…

One TRILLION dollars…

What does that look like? These various numbers are tossed around like puppy treats.

Hang with me for a little bit and we will get a sense of what a trillion dollars actually looks like.

We will start it slowly and….

Let’s start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Everyone has seen them, even fewer are owning them these days.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for a week or two of fool hearty fun.

Believe it or not, this little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While the lowly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on your standard pallet…

Now $1 BILLION dollars… we’re starting to get somewhere…

Now let’s look at a TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing about so much. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.

$1,000,000,000,000.00

You ready to see ONE TRILLION dollars?

(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)

It’s pretty darn amazing.

Here you go…

1 TRILLION dollars…

(notice those pallets are double stacked and how small the man looks.)

So the next time you hear the phrase “one trillion dollars”… that’s what they are talking about. And some say they are proposing a 3.8 trillion budget.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

A friend of mine John Poling of BizNet fame sent me this information.

Make sure and share this post with your friends. If they are anything like me they had no idea what one trillion dollars looked like.

$3.8 Trillion Budget – How Much is a TRILLION Dollars? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

We Moved 3 Miles to the West and with Uhaul, Moving Boxes, Carpet Cleaning, & the Locksmith it Left a Gap in My Blogging

Well, as you have probably noticed my last blog post was pre-move. I had forgotten what a hassle moving was.

I never had to have my carpets cleaned before when we moved out.

Our old apartment management company required us to have the carpet cleaning done professionally or pay $150 per room for them to get it done.

Some of the things we considered when looking for carpet cleaners, other than price, was professionalism. Just how knowledgeable and reliable were they? With $150 per room on the table we didn’t want to make a mistake.

The door locks on our old apartment will need to be changed but at least that’s not our problem. We just turn in our keys and the rest will be up to our old apartment’s management company.

We will need to call the locksmith for any re-keying of any locks in our new place that we will want to change and to make new keys for our new digs.

We still have moving boxes all over the house. They are organized in neatly segmented areas by category. I didn’t realize we have so much stuff!!!

Over all the move was painless… We found the local Uhaul of great assistance. Not only did they supply the truck rental but, they also had a bin for recycling moving boxes and we scored there. We plan on returning not only the boxes we got there but others we were using when they are finally empty. We have already returned just short of a dozen. When we arrived to return the boxes we didn’t even have to go inside. We just handed them off to another young couple who had just rented a truck.
(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)
We are sure we have made the right move. We have a great home overlooking the Columbia River if you are standing at the kitchen sink or at certain places on the front patio.

So there you have my moving saga.

When I thought about creating this post I figured it could have a marketing twist but I gave up. Well now that I have finished it, I see that the part about our local Uhaul having a moving box recycle bin is a blurb on one example of very good green marketing.

If you will just treat your customers with care you can have them help you give better customer service by giving them better customer service. You give your customers a place to recycle their moving boxes when they are finished with them and your new customers a place to pick up recycled moving boxes when they are just beginning.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

Making the Right Move – Uhaul, Truck Rental, Carpet Cleaning, and Locksmiths is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Merry Christmas from All of us at SEOPDX

I would like to take this time to say Merry Christmas to all the Search Engine Optimizician readers.

Be sure to check out the Costco Christmas Singer.

Merry Christmas from me and my family.

Late,
Gary Pool

Merry Christmas is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Merry Christmas Everyone

White Christmas

Sung by The Drifters.
Cartoon by Joshua Held.

Merry Christmas,
Gary Pool

Merry Christmas to ALL 2008 is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Here are my notes from the sessions I attended today at Cre8Camp.

Web Design Process:

1. Get to know your client and their potential customers and clients
2. Have your client give you a few websites they like and don’t like and why
3. Develop a color Pallet and have your client sign off on it.
4. Develop site flow chart
5. Develop wire frame
6. Have your client sign off on both the flow chart and wire frame
7. Build site have client sign off again
8. Launch site
9. Make any adjustments required

Best Practices for Interactive Marketing:

Use available tools:

• Twitter
• YouTube
• blogs
• Any Social Network
• New and innovative ideas

LUNCH:

Special thanks to Rick Turoczy and Silicon Florist

CSI Oregon:

Cascadia, Establishing a Creative Sister City, Creative Community PDX

• Creative Services Alliance
• Unified Statewide Voice

Facility – Studio:

• virtual artists presence
• start with Portland?
• examples from other industries & cities

Green Light Portland
PEC

Cascadia:

• high speed rail! (transportation more connected)
• Portland branding on a global scale
• Portland’s DNA

late,
gary pool

Report from Cre8Camp Portland is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

“Cre8Camp is a series of unconferences for creatives. It is an ad-hoc gathering for participants to learn, network and share in an open environment. The magic happens in the interactions between participants.”

I am attending the inaugural Cre8Camp in Portland today and I hope to be able to get some tidbits to be able to share with you. The unconference will start out with an open grid schedule (see image below) and launches from there. I have no idea where we are going to go but I know it will be fun and rewarding.

photo credit: Roland on Flickr

This will be a valuable learning experience. I have never attended a conference an unconference where the passengers actually steer the ship. This will be very interesting. I hope we don’t hit an iceberg. I will give you a full report on the days activities when I recover from all this learning.

Oh yes, a special thanks to Silicon Florist our gracious lunch sponsor!

late,
gary pool

Cre8Camp | The UnConference is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Tijuana Police Armed with Slingshots?
Tijuana Police Face Death Threats
The Police in Tijuana, Mexico have begun patrolling with slingshots in place of their guns. Their guns were confiscated by federal soldiers.
I saw a clip on CNN about this and I had to pass the story on. I personally think this is the sort of thing that we would hope our police force would do. “To Protect and Serve” despite the odds. I would like to congradulate these unsung heros on displaying bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
late,
Gary

Bravery Above and Beyond the Call of Duty! is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Well I’m in Vancouver and settled in. I am still looking for places to get WIFI. If any one knows where any of these are please let me know. It has been just too hot.

Gary

North of the Columbia River is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

This is the second night at the Courtyard Marriott on Nimbus Avenue in Beaverton.
Interesting place, they have no WIFI in the rooms but, they do provide you with a hardwired DSL connection (My IBM freebie retractable ethernet cable works). They say they have WIFI in the loby but I haven’t tried it there yet.
They have a very nice pool and jacuzi, I have really enjoyed them. They also have a train that runs right behind the parking lot that is just outside our room.
We have completed a deal to develop the website for the new Alliance Charter Academy of Oregon City. It’s back to the Adobe Suite for now.
Later,
Gary

Ahh! the Hotel Life is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician