Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

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The Greatest Gift: Pictures

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Well, yesterday I had a busy day in Thomasville at a meeting with the tourism group that represents the 11 county region we are working with for the www.alabamafrontporches.com website. After the meeting, I zipped out to my sister Julia’s house for a minute (really about 20 minutes) for a quick visit. She had some great birthday gifts for me and for Ann. But what was the greatest gift of all was a photo album she had of Mama’s. Loads of great photos to add to my blog. Starting with these two: on the left, Uncle Bud Hinson (Mama’s brother) and on the right Mammy, Papa Hinson and an unknown man holding a shotgun–can’t tell if that is Mammy’s shotgun or not. Great stuff and much more to come!

The Greatest Birthday Ever

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Well, that would be some years ago. I was driving up Highway 5 yesterday through Centerville and saw two of my favorite birthday spots. We went there SEVERAL years. The Sawmeal Restaurant was one. We would go there and have chili and saltine crackers. Great stuff. Thankfully, the Sawmeal is still there. The other, the most wonderful place in all the world, the best place to find anything, was the Army-Navy store pictured below. Anything you could imagine would be there. Well, if you could, as any healthy young boy would, imagine only things in camoflauge or knife-like. Mama took me some years. Aunt Gladys and Uncle Edward took me several times (once after Mama was convinced that Uncle Edward wasn’t the world’s greatest driver anymore). Mama and Papa, Mama and some assortment of my wonderful sisters. It was a great ritual. I still have some of the things I got for my birthday. I suspect the old WWI gas mask is somewhere in Octagon still.

Sadly, the store is no longer around. A Mexican restaurant now, no less. I imagine that the original owners drive by and feel the same sadness.

Last Week’s Crazy Schedule

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Wow, what a busy week last week. First, I have way too much to do. Then, I get hooked on Flickr. (Even uploaded a few photos to the al.com photo section–they seemed to like my photo of the guys sitting in front of the Selma grocery store–they left it on their front page for almost 2 days.) But, I managed to get lots done, including a draft of a 48 page program manual for the Alabama Communities of Excellence program (ACE), photos for a new client (the American Society of Landscape Architects–Alabama chapter), ads for Underwoods, Florida sister company to Birmingham-based Brombergs and other things I can’t even remember right now.

Oh, and I finally got around to writing up a travel itinerary for a trip to Selma, Alabama, Gees Bend and Camden. It is posted on the Alabama’s Front Porches blog site: www.alabamafrontporches.com/blog. A little more work and I’ll incorporate it into the main site. I ordered a GPS (Garmin nüvi 750
) yesterday to help me better plot my travels around Alabama. (click the link to buy it through Amazon.com–and give me money!!!)

Busy Week So Far–Much Left to do…

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Wow, what  a busy week–little time for updates, though I admit to playing a bit more than I should on Flickr. I’ve added some additional photos (mainly of Birmingham–downtown and the zoo). This morning, I’m going through a training manual for the ACE (Alabama Communities of Excellence) Program and reformatting it for consistent use of fonts, sizes, styles, etc. I’m trying to give it a cleaner, easier to follow look without putting loads of hours into it (it is somewhere around 45 pages). Other than that, just the typical updates to my various blogs (I added several links to a Facebook Group about Black Belt natives yesterday).

Ordered the Adobe CS4 suite of programs yesterday–can’t wait to get that in hand. Oh, and picked up a new client as well: the Alabama chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. I’ll be developing a website for them in the next few months, but Friday night I’m off to one of their banquets to take pictures. That’s two months in a row with actual people photography work (a judge last month and now an event). I’m not as fond of taking people photos as I am of landscape or food photography, but I’m getting the hang of it more and more.

Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Oh My

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There are just too many social networking opportunities out there right now. I’m giving all the above a try. I’ve been on LinkedIn for a long time, thanks in large part to an old college buddy, Dale Kiefling years ago. I’ve been on Facebook for a lot less time, but still pretty interesting. Twitter is pretty new to me–I’m still getting the hang of exactly why I’m using it, but sort of secretly like it. Plaxo–pretty lame overall, but keep it up for a certain crowd.

And, I just joined Flickr today. Flickr is basically a photo-sharing website that lets you upload and organize your photos. Never been very into that sort of thing as I never saw a need–after all, I can post stuff to my blog anytime. Finally broke down and joined and uploaded some photos, though. It seems pretty cool so far.

And the reason for all this? I want to understand the social media networks in order to use them effectively for my own personal benefit and particularly to benefit my clients. There are many, many opportunities to market to a whole new crowd and in a completely different way. So here goes!

Three Out of Six Today

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Siblings: oldest (but never old!) Suzanne, middle child Julia, and Youngest (that’s me!) . I’ll go for the other three later–this was mainly an attempt to cover up my desire to show my awesome Easter outfit! Check out the shoes.