There are 6 elevators in my building, serving only 14 floors. In short, you never have to wait long for one to pop open and magically whisk you to wherever you want to go. I’m sure there are wheels and pulleys involved or something, but it does feel wonderfully enchanted. I also have to point out that there are a lot of consulates in my building – Netherlands, Peru, Brazil and the list goes on. Most of these, thank goodness, are also on my floor. So I get to spend a large amount of time each day shooing lost souls out of my office as they wander in looking for notaries, photos or my favorite – the mythical ATM that is supposedly on my floor somewhere, possibly right next to a Yeti.

“Where ATM?!” is a frequent greeting within the front door of the office we pay over 3 grand a month to occupy. “Well hello there, little fella. Wow, they certainly don’t grow them big in the Yucatan, do they?” I offer him a chair, a donut and point to the coffee machine. No I don’t. “ATM. Where?” I usually shrug menacingly and point towards the broom closet on the other side of the hall. I think they keep Nessie in there.

Where am I going with this… Ah yes. Flocks of foreign folks come to my building daily looking for passports and the like. Fleets. Scores. It’s Ellis Island with fax machines. And should any of them ever Google Park Plaza and have a chance to read this post before arriving, I’d like to share with them 5 simple elevator rules.

1.) There are 6 of the fucking things. Don’t try and hold them open for your cousin who hasn’t even signed in with security yet like you’re fighting for helicopter space while being airlifted out of Hanoi.

2.) If you run towards the elevator when it is closing, and I make a concerned face and motion towards the side like I’m trying to hit the button that holds the door – I’m not. I’m pretending, and I’ve got to tell you it’s definitely always a high point of my day.

3.) If you’re trying to go back to the lobby, don’t get on an elevator that is going up. You just look like a silly goose and there’s nothing on the higher floors except more people trying to work who don’t want to talk to you and also have no clue where the Tibetan, braille ATM is.

4.) There are embassies and consulates in the building. Don’t look at the security guards like they’re stupid and ignore them, or pass right through the checkpoint so they have to come out from behind the desk like LT and tackle you. Actually, disregard that and keep doing it. It’s priceless.

5.) I don’t speak Spanish. I’m a nice guy and am actually inclined to help you find what you’re looking for. But learn the language. At least, don’t assume that my blatantly pale, caucasoid behind knows what the hell you’re talking about. You could be asking for a bite of my sausage croissant, for all I know. And that’s just unhygenic.

And the children you all keep bringing to allow to roam free in the halls and ring my bell or jiggle my doorknob until I’m forced to get up, walk over and give them the stinkeye – Are you trying to make me feel like my father? I’m just trying to get a little work done. Welcome to our country, now fuck off out of my office.

This is one of the most insane things I have ever read in a Boston newspaper.

“On the fourth anniversary of her brother’s slaying, a woman lighting candles at a makeshift shrine to him was gunned down, killed at about the same spot, on the same day and at nearly the same hour as her older sibling.”

When I read this headline on CNN, I assumed it had unfolded in Iraq or Israel. Nope – try Roxbury. If you read the full article, you’ll see that the poor woman wasn’t even planning to go to the shrine, but went back when she noticed the candles had blown out. Was someone following her, waiting for her or was this a stray bullet and subsequently the most bizarre coincidence in the history of mankind?

Wow – two boring, business-related posts in a row? You know the deal, people. I work in SEO and this site is a great way to get my new projects spidered – so please bear with me. You might even learn something.

The distribution of online press releases has become a major facet of search engine marketing. The practice can be as easy as it is effective, and my new site will strive to answer all of the most popular questions. I know a heck of a lot about this stuff, and decided it was time to put my thoughts and know-how down in one place. Click through, have a read and then suggest press releases at your next marketing meeting for an instantaneous hand-job from your CEO. Hopefully they will give you a raise… and are also of the opposite sex.

Blog this, and blog that. You’re sick of hearing the word. You’ve met 7-year-old kids who have told you your company needs a blog. And now you’re not allowed to be within 30 feet of 7-year-old kids anymore. What the heck are blogs, exactly – and why do they make a difference to your marketing mix? Why am I bothering to tell you? Show me on the doll where the bad man blogged you.

At its simplest definition, a blog is little more than an easily updateable, content management system (CMS). At it’s most effective, it gives individuals and groups the ability to become authorities in their chosen field. Coupled with a service or retail based website, an objective and original blog of quality can drive scores of relevant visitors who may then convert to customers, employees or new friends.

But how do blogs relate directly to SEO and SEM in general? The original content your company creates is ideally updated every few days. Indexing spiders are more likely to visit, and look favorably upon, websites that have changed somewhat each and every time the drop in for a visit. This will increase spidering frequency, and also improve your legitimacy in the eyes of the major algorithms. Not to mention all of the unsolicited incoming links that objective resources effortlessly attract.

Make it good and make it frequent. Add good, niche subject matter and the rest just may take care of itself. I’ll spare you the Field of Dreams analogy.