Indianapolis is My Home

08
Jan

Bob Sanders wins Defensive Player award - Yahoo! News

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, Sports

"Over 75% of the earth is covered by water. Bob Sanders covers the rest." - Unknown

A big congratulations to Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis Colts. He won the Defensive Player of the Year Award by a landslide! Of 50 votes possible, consisting of a variety of media personnel that cover the NFL, Sanders won 31 of the votes.

Here’s the full breakdown on votes:

1. Bob Sanders, Indianapolis Colts (31 votes)
2. Patrick Kerney, Seattle Seahawks (4 votes)
3. Albert Haynesworth, Tennessee Titans (4 votes) [And face stomper!]
4. Antonio Cromartie, San Diego Chargers (3 votes)
5. Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots (2 votes)
6. DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys (2 votes)
7. Ronde Barber, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1 vote)
8. James Harrison, Pittsburgh Steelers (1 vote)
9. Patrick Willis, San Francisco 49′ers (1 vote)
10. Mario Williams, Houston Texans (1 vote)

Read the rest of this entry »

31
Oct

Vote for the Colts on Fox Sports Power Rankings

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, Sports

As you can see we need some votes over at Fox Sports NFL Power Rankings.

Go now and vote!

03
Sep

Vote for Indiana’s "BEST" Local Businesses

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, Dining, Local Establishments, News

Last week I enjoyed one of my favorite meals in the city: pad Thai, massaman curry and pad gra pao from the Thai House restaurant up on Michigan and 86th street. While we were checking out, the owner encouraged us to vote for him in the A-List voting. We said absolutely no problem!

You can vote for various businesses in the following categories:

• Arts and Entertainment
• Auto
• Beauty
• Cheap Eats
• Fashion
• Great Meals
• Health and Fitness
• Nightlife
• Shopping
• Specialty Food and Drink
• Weddings

Thai House is listed under “Great Meals” so be sure to go vote for them. It’s a tough vote for me though because I also really enjoy Thai Spice on the southside. But nobody can beat the pad thai and massaman curry at Thai House.

11
Aug

Indianapolis #1 on Forbes

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Awards & Recognition, Business, General, News, Real Estate

Even with all of our local tax uproar and questions, Forbes magazine still ranks Indianapolis as #1 in housing affordability.

If you’re not sweating your monthly mortgage payment and don’t obsessively check refinancing rates, chances are you live in one of America’s most affordable areas.

Homeowners in Indianapolis know what that’s like. Its residents don’t have to scrimp and save to afford a home at the median price. There, the bulk of the housing stock is well within reach of the average household. Savings depleted? According to our calculations, it would take just two years of gross salary to become a homeowner there.

What I think is scary is that there are probably still 1,000’s of people that struggle with their finances every month. It doesn’t matter what things cost, it matters what we save and don’t spend doesn’t it? Doesn’t matter where we live, we all seem to have a talent for living above our means and stretching the almighty dollar ever too thinly.

Here’s how the Top 10 cities played out.

1. Indianapolis, IN
2. Cleveland, OH
3. Detroit, MI
4. Pittsburgh, PA
5. Cincinnati, OH
6. St. Louis, MO
7. Atlanta, GA
8. Greensboro, NC
9. Dallas, TX
10. Austin, TX

The photo of Indianapolis was that was available on the Forbes website slide show is a beautiful one. I can’t place where it’s at though. It doesn’t look like it’s actually the canal, wrong angle. Does anyone know where this is from?

• Article: Indy tops Forbes’ most-affordable list
• Source: Most Affordable U.S. Real Estate Markets on Forbes

10
Aug

ExactTarget Makes Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 500

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, Business, Business Entrepreneurs, News

Local Indianapolis company, ExactTarget, has received recognition as one of the Hot 500 by business magazine, Entrepreneur. Here’s what you need to make it into even running for the honor.

This is how it all begins: The Hot 500 rankings are compiled with the help of Corporate Research Board, a research organization. Entrepreneur and CRB started with CRB’s database of more than 19 million U.S. businesses and considered only those businesses that met the following criteria:

• Must have been founded no earlier than 1998 and no later than 2002
• Company sales in 2002 must be $100,000 or greater; 2006 sales must not exceed $1 billion
• Must have positive job growth between 2002 and 2006
• Must have a minimum level of sales growth or a sales growth quantifier of 1 or higher between 2002 and 2006; the growth quantifier is a measurement that combines percentage and absolute growth.

Of the millions of businesses to choose from, only 95,000 qualify, so making it in the Hot 500 is a pretty great accomplishment for this local firm to the city.

Here’s a quick blurb about ExactTarget from their website:

ExactTarget is on a mission.  We’re dedicated to providing the most powerful on-demand software for email communications and finding the best and brightest marketers on the planet to revolutionize the way people think about email.

Source: Indy’s ExactTarget among mag’s Hot 500

09
Aug

Anderson Highland Wins Band Day

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, High Schools, Indiana State Fair Grounds, Local Musicians, Things To Do in Indy

As a follow-up to my previous post about the Indiana State Fair, Anderson Highland high school wins the Band Day competition at the fair last night for marching.

Congratulations to the kids who suffered through the heat of the day itself, but also all the long hours of work and practice to achieve this result.

I spent 7 years in my high school marching band. No, I’m not stupid enough that it took me 7 years, I just had the opportunity to start marching in the band when I was in 6th grade and did it all through high school.

My closest claim to fame is that our high school was chosen to participate in the 200th centennial celebration for the state of Kentucky as well as representing the state of Kentucky in D.C. for the 4th of July parade. That day the temperature on the street was above 100 degrees and we were feeling it for sure.

Congrats again to Anderson Highland band and a specific shout-out to the trumpets!

31
Jul

Congratulations to Tony "Bad Mouth" Stewart

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, Brickyard 400, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, News, Sports

I’m certain that Tony Stewart isn’t the only professional athlete with a little sailor mouth. He seems to be the most popular one lately for not knowing when to keep his mouth shut or pay closer to attention to what he’s saying.

A hearty congratulations to him for winning the 14th Annual Brickyard 400 this past Sunday. That is of course where his tongue got going a little faster than his brain could keep on the track of media boundaries.

It does seem pretty accurate though what he was saying. It seems in NASCAR you either love or hate him, and if you hate him, you’re probably a Jeff Gordon fan instead.

Perhaps even more interesting is what was accomplished by Juan Pablo Montoya on Sunday.

Montoya made history immediately after “Desperate Housewives” actor James Denton waved the green flag to start the race, as he became the first driver in IMS history to compete in three major events at the track. In 2000, he won in his only Indianapolis 500 start. He started in six Formula One United States Grands Prix and his first Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on Sunday.

I’ve yet to attend a Brickyard or Indy 500 race. Up until this year, I’d never missed an F1 race at the track. Guess I’ll have to get my racing fix on one of the other races next year.

Photo Credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Article: Stewart Uses Late Pass to Win Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

18
Jul

Where In Indianapolis Are We?

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, General, People, Sports, Things To Do in Indy, Venues

I was thinking the other day that it might be fun to play a little game with our readers every now and then, maybe every Friday or something.

I was going to take pictures of various, random locations I was in around the city and see if people could guess where I was. For those that guess right, maybe we could rustle up some prizes or woobies or something and give them away.

Then I thought, the places I go may get old and boring after awhile, so what if I had other people submit photos of places they’ve been around the city and we’d share those.

The photos could be from anywhere. Events you were at, restaurants, sporting events, concerts, driving in traffic, funny signs, funny scenery, just about anything.

What do you think?

25
Jun

Indianapolis Business Journal National Award

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, News

One of the ways I’ve stayed informed in Indiana when I moved here and began working, was in subscribing to the the e-mail newsletter of the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ). I feel their layout, design and writing is superb and I’m not the only one that’s noticed.

The Alliance of Area Business Publications over the weekend named IBJ the nation’s best large-market weekly business journal. The gold medal was among six awards the newspaper received during the association’s annual conference in Denver. Judges from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism evaluated 772 entries from 59 publications, including papers in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Congratulations to everyone on staff at the IBJ to make the newspaper all that it is and for rightfully earning this award.