A few weeks ago, Claire and I went on the 4th Annual KISS Cruise. We set sail on the Norwegian Pearl out of Miami.

Now – I know what you’re thinking. Of all the activities we could be doing, why the KISS Cruise? My response: Why not? It was a great time! The experience was different and new for us.

Don’t get me wrong, I had been a KISS fan since their beginning. I was thirteen years old when I bought my first KISS album. But since then I moved on and somewhat forgot about them – until now.

Budweiser. AT&T. Chevrolet. McDonalds. Geico. Macy’s. State Farm.

What do these companies have in common? There’s no doubt you’ve heard of them all. You’ve seen them on Super Bowl commercials, you’ve heard them on the radio, you’ve driven past their bus advertisements.

These seven businesses all have colossal advertising budgets. They each claimed a spot on the Top 25 Biggest Marketing Spenders list for 2013.

“Yeah, that’s great Paige. What does that have to do with me? My company has (fill in blank) for a budget, not millions like them.”

Of all the phone apps available today, text messaging reigns. Apps that send messages through the SMS (Short Message Service) protocol are still by far the most widely used phone applications. 81% of cell phone users text, and do so just as often as they make phone calls. SMS use on today’s scale is a cultural phenomenon with its roots in a long series of technological advances.

It is crucial for a business to ensure that potential customers can easily discover their website through search engines. Optimally, a business website should appear within the first page of search results. This placement will ensure high visibility and an increase in website traffic and customer contact. Achieving and retaining this first page ranking takes time and effort. One technique that can help expedite this process is the addition of new content to a website on a regular basis through a news feed.

Work: it drives us, it provides for us and some of us thrive on it. In my personal experience, I moved from a job that simply paid the bills to a career that I love. As a programmer I can easily become engrossed in a problem or feature. I fully enjoy spending endless hours solving problems clients don’t know they have in a way most people would not understand. One may ask “What is wrong with that? It sounds like you have it great”. While that is true, with too much focus on one subject a person can lose their facets and become dull in both mind and body.

As a youngster growing up, my father, John James Weslaski, was an engineer for the Green Bay and Western Railroad. I cherish the moments of “riding the rail” in the locomotive with my dad at the helm. He was often “on the road,” spending nights in fleabag hotels away from home somewhere between Green Bay and Winona, Minnesota. But, when he arrived home, he always made time for me.

In the last few years, wearable technology capable of supporting complex applications has advanced from the realm of science fiction and R&D into real consumer products. However, the marketplace viability of “wearables” is still in question. How did wearable technology get to where it is today, and where can we expect it to go in the future?

Claire and I will have been married 23 years on September 21, 2014. I still remember the day back in 1990 when we moved to Racine. We moved from Stevens Point where we met and went to college together. I was to do a one-year internship in the Clinical Laboratory Science program at St. Luke’s Hospital. We were taking a chance on Racine and each other.

Since its popularization in the early 90s, email has become a fact of modern life. Email is a backbone of business communication, and many still look forward to receiving emails from friends and family. In many respects, email is simultaneously a more private, decentralized, and versatile format than newer technologies such as social media.

The e-commerce field is highly competitive by nature, spurring perpetual innovation as businesses try to shorten the gap between a user searching for a suitable website and purchasing their product. These include advancements in mobile design and the growing popularity of long-form content.