Wednesday Morning on Tilly Mill Road

Between 8 and 8:30 AM is "witching hour" on Tilly Mill.  Local residents, commuters from elsewhere passing through, students getting to and from GPC, all lined up on a road that was not built to handle this much traffic.

While we're hashing out the best way to (re)configure the roads, priorities for paving, and other ways of expediting traffic, let us not forget the factors that we have the least amount of control over, but contribute the most to road safety:

The following pic was captured while stopped at the N. Peachtree stoplight.  (I threw the Mom-mobile in park while I got this - no balancing a gear shift and electronics at the same time for me.)  What is wrong in the scene below?

Look closely and you will notice dude in the public safety vest perusing the AJC behind the wheel.  While this image was taken while traffic was stopped, the aforementioned dude was reading his paper at the same time he was driving down Tilly Mill.

Paving, road configurations, synchronizing traffic lights are all necessary to get traffic through and out to where it's going expediently.  But the roads are not going to be any safer until the idea of personal responsibility and good driving habits gets pounded into a few more skulls.

So if you know, or are the supervisor of dude driving a brown Chevy El Camino Conquista (!!) with the license tag below, you might want to pull him aside and explain the benefits of driving safely.  Because clearly, he doesn't currently get it.

College Sorority 101

Atlanta Panhellenic has announced its annual College Sorority 101 informational event for high school girls and their families. Click the image above to download your own flyer.

No doubt if you are headed to college you've heard about sorority life - either from friends or relatives, or from TV and movies.

This is your chance to meet sorority women in person, including collegians, alumnae and some national leaders of NPC sororities and ask any question you have about recruitment, requirements and what to expect from sorority life in the 21st century.  And I do mean any questions.

This informational is important for anyone considering formal recruitment for sorority membership.  If you are not familiar with sororities in real life, you will learn first-hand what you can expect.  If your mom or aunt or other older relative were in a sorority, AAPA would love to see all of you because a lot has changed since their college days.

Please RSVP online at www.atlantapanhellenic.org.
Your information will not be shared; it is only to plan for the number of guests and to contact you in case of any changes.

MS Office Live free business websites is going off into the sunset

If you have been using Microsoft Office Live Small Business and their "free" small business DIY website service, get ready for a change.

Office Live is morphing into Office 365.  The key difference for you is that now it costs money to host your site with Microsoft.  The FAQ section at the site above quotes $15 per month with a free trial period.  You have until April 30, 2012 to decide what to do with your website.

If you stick with MS, you still have to manually move all of your text and images and whatever else you have on your Office Live website onto the new one with Office 365.

Before you decide make sure to read up on all of the features that are going to be available and take some time to determine if they are going to meet your needs.

If MS Office 365 has the interactive features that you need, then all you have to do is recreate your website.

Is the new offering is too much tool (or the wrong tools) for too much money?  You have other low-cost options.    Some small businesses can get away with using WordPress or even Google's Blogger to create their sites.  Or you may need a custom hosted solution.  Either way, don't forget a custom design to broadcast your brand.

Drop me a line if you need to review your options for your MS Office business site.  I can create a theme for your solution that looks just like or better than what you created in Microsoft.  While we're at it, let's make sure that all of your business communication needs are met in the transfer process.