Alexander

Blog

  • My journey thus far into 2016…

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    Food for thought:

    “Remember that it is we who torment, we who make difficulties for ourselves – that is, our opinions do. What, for instance, does it mean to be insulted? Stand by a rock and insult it, and what have you accomplished? If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective?” – Epictetus Phrygia

    Couple life updates:

    1. I got engaged in Venice, Italy!  Island of Burano. September of 2015. I’ll share photos soon. 
    2. Getting into surfing again. Attended Vans US Open in Huntington Beach, California (ton of fun to watch).
    3. Online achievements (2k+ in every bracket, WoW).
    4. Saw Niagara Falls, Canada. 
    5. Truly visited Canada for the first time, Toronto.
    6. Experienced upstate New York, Rochester and Buffalo specially. Didn’t eat a garbage plate, too much garbage in it I guess you could say. 

  • April 03rd, 2016

    I accepted a job from Kelley Blue Book back in February of this year. It’s been awesome so far.  It was KBB or moving out east to take a job with Vanguard (which would of been awesome too).

    I also relocated down to Irvine, CA.

    I greatly prefer challenging jobs that serve to teach me new and upcoming technologies. It gives my life additional meaning. My first two weeks they helped me obtain my First Aid, CPR and AED certification too. Which is super, super refreshing to have.

    Soo awesome.

    After getting more comfortable in my role, I may have some Netezza and Big Data on the horizon, we shall see.

    Upcoming certification: Adobe Analytics Developer:
    http://training.adobe.com/certification/exams/analytics_developer.html

  • Analytics Blog

  • Analytics Business Practitioner

    July 31st, I’ve taken the dip, forked out $180 bucks and I am going to get re-certified on my birthday. Kind of like a birthday present to myself.

    When I had this back in 2012, it was a BEAST of a test. Not fun to say the least. One of the hardest test I’ve taken. They’ve also started publishing whom is certified on their website. Not a ton of people, which makes it even more exciting to obtain in my opinion:

    http://training.adobe.com/certification/ace-finder.html#p=1&country=united%20states

    Next order or certifications I’ll be shooting for in the ACE Analytics suite:

    1. Analytics Architect
    2. Analytics Developer
    3. Adobe Reports and Analytics Implementation ACE Exam

    I think then I’ll start branching out and look into Google Analytics certification as well.

  • Non Omnis Moriar

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    Boy oh boy. Been a heck of start to the new year. To answer your question, yes I love Game of Thrones, April can’t come soon enough. I’ve been soo busy, soo mentally drained that it’s physically exhausting me. I’ve started a new job. After almost three years with Seagate, I moved back to Analytics full time. I’ll tell you what, I have missed doing Analytics. The challenge is awesome. Finding out what’s happening through data, even more awesome. I’m still running my own LLC on the side and being presented with even more opportunities. Like whoa. Any of my like minded Analytics friends/previous colleagues, ever done an Audit? I hadn’t either, but I created a template for one from the ground up and it is amazing the things you can learn when you invest the time to care and dig a bit. Learning to do selenium scripts has been a kick too. 

    I love learning new stuff. I must say, I feel way more challenged mentally. I also like that a lot of what I work with is code based and allows me to grow in that way too. 

    I’ve considered going back for my Masters degree. I am torn however. I don’t believe that I can honestly increase my pay potential (here in Utah at least) with more papers on my wall, but…I want the learning. I also want to go back to school just to learn things that I am interested in. I’d love that ability.

    Onwards. I got into a car accident (yes my fault and yes it tickled) and had to purchase a new car.

    Trip soon. Carisa and I have a lot in store. Going to Italy and Greece for a 12 day trip in September. Tosh.0 next month in Vegas. Maybe a trip to NY this summer to see the Niagara Falls? I want a nice road trip in there some where too. Take a week off and just travel East somewhere. 

    Stay positive. 

  • Adobe Campaigns & Association to Google AdWords

    Google Adwords & Adobe Tracking Code Associtiation

    Question: “How do we get Adobe conversion data (Campaigns) associated to Google AdWords”?

    Answer: This answer has multiple elements and not one answered with a one liner. Google Gclid’s is the start.

    To save you the time of having to parse both the Adobe Blogs & Google AdWord blog, I’ll put the steps you’ll need to get this working.

    1. Starting with Google Adwords, you’ll need to ensure a function called Auto-Tagging is enabled within Google AdWords
    2. Next, we need to start capturing the Gclid into Adobe Analytics. This will need to be done alongside your Campaign variable within the getQueryParam. I’ve included a excerpt below for you and or your developers:
     
    s.campaign=s.getQueryParam(‘cid’); 
         if (!s.campaign) {   
         s.campaign=s.getQueryParam(‘gclid’);  
         if (!s.campaign) {           
         s.campaign=s.getQueryParam(‘utm_source,utm_medium,utm_term,utm_content,utm_name’,’|’);   
         } } 

    3. This will require SAINT classifications once the data does start to show within Adobe Analytics (Tracking Code report). With Saint, we will be able to associate the data into it’s proper groupings.

    More to come…

  • Religion, Information Age, Globalization, Racism

    I feel the information age will continue to kill religion. Globalization will help in ending war. Ending reverse racism, will eventually help end racism, coupled with embracing and loving difference.

    Why is it I almost feel guilty for sharing my thoughts? We live in such a belittling atmosphere, we live in fear of backlash. Fear, that’s the enemy. 

    Stop the glorification of shootings in media. Don’t give a name or face to the people doing these things. Don’t put them on Time magazine, or on the top headlining news story. I am not saying don’t grieve. I am not saying don’t pour out support. I am in no way de-valuing those that have been lost. I am simply stating, deny those seeking the “bad guy” attention. 

  • Evangelize?

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    When did marketing miraculously get into converting people to Christianity? I don’t get it. 

    Yes, I get what they’re aiming for and attempting to high-jack the word, but still, pretty hilarious and it makes me chuckle every time I see it.

  • Boston, Massachusetts 

  • Rant on Flying U.S. Airways

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    Warning: This is a rant (probably tl;dr for most). Feel free to ignore. Anyways, I am posting in flight to SLC, at 30k+ feet in the air. Gogo internet? AVOID flying US Airways. I’ve had an absolutely horrible experience thus far, all flights, this wasn’t isolated to just one flight (Providence, Charlotte, Atlanta, etc). I’ve been flying quite a bit lately too.

    Delta > South West > U.S. Airways (craptastic). They’ve been rude (oh your gate was changed to the other side of the airport, not my problem my company didn’t notify you), not on time, don’t care if you miss your flight because they book connecting flights soo close together (they’re magically late, but their connecting flights are surprisingly on time), not accommodating. On wards. The planes feel like they’re coming apart. I got an exit window and there was water coming from the window itself (raining outside). Like wtf? Red flag, right? My last connecting flight, they came over the intercom and asked all passengers if anyone had money to break a $20. Like really? Why in the hell are you selling items to customers and don’t have enough change for a $20? This isn’t a Domino’s delivery driver going to get robbed, people are paying hundreds to take this flight (first class, thousands). I literally lol’ed.

    Exiting the plane, the flight attendants put on these snarky attitudes, in these overly high pitched voices “fly again with us soon”, as if they know exactly how you’re going to have to literally run to not miss your connecting flight. Yea, I am grumpy, haven’t eaten anything in 7 hours, due to my 50 minute layover, disappearing due to “congestion” at the airport.