The world around us

I’m looking forward to buying a completely new set of home furniture once we move. It was time for a change and this will allow me to create a completely new look for our home. While I want some traditional and classic pieces, I am basically looking for a more contemporary and streamlined look for our home. A combination of modern and urban, but without the hard edges of a modern look. In my opinion, a home must be comfortable and welcoming, a cocoon or a safe haven to retreat to from the world, and anything harsh will not look right. So it has to have a mix of strong lines and soft touches.

IHOP purchase of Applebees is expected to revive the ailing restaurant chain which was once the leader in its field. According to Julia Stewart, the company will be changing its outlets to distinguish them from its competitors and will be selling off around 508 company owned locations to franchisees. IHOP will be purchasing Applebees for an estimated $2.1 billion and will try to turn the chain into the country’s largest sit-down restaurant chain in terms of both locations as well as sales.

One of the core strategies that IHOP will be using to turnaround Applebees is to sell its company owned stores to franchisees, and increasing the company’s cash flow which will increase share prices. The challenge for Applebees will be to bring back customers again, as customers have become more specific about what they want and how much they want to pay for it.

Applebees was my favorite restaurant in college, along with Carlos O’Kelley’s which offered a great mix of tex-mex food. The last time I went to Applebees, it was in Providence, RI in 2005 and I was sorely dissapointed with the quality and variety of their food. I do hope they get back to the way they were, especially the great service at the Overland Park, KS stores on 95th street.

I’ve been wanting to track the stats more seriously of this blog, since I get a lot of traffic here and I’m not quite sure where the original source is. Today I added a Site Meter stat counter so that I can better understand who is visiting my blog and from where they are coming. Stat counters are a really great way to improve on a blog, as you get to know the specific search terms that people are using to reach your blog. I’ve been using Site Meter since 2004 and I really like their system, and find it even better than Google Analytics which gives me too much of the information that I don’t really need.

Social bookmarking and blogging seem to be forming stronger ties together. I came across a new social bookmarking site called Zlitt, where you can bookmark your favorite sites, share them with your friends and even have them recommended by friends. In essence, it’s a great way to promote your blog or website, which is something that all bloggers are definitely interested in. No matter how good your personal blog stats are, it’s always great to get new visitors. Another great benefit is a strong backlink from Zlitt as well as an option for revenue sharing through Google Adsense. I just joined Zlitt, which took me all of 20 seconds and now I’m all set to share some news and get some visitors to my sites.