If You Get Confused, Listen To The Music Play
Posted on | February 18, 2010 | No Comments
Things are slowly moving forward around here. We got knocked out by the snow, but the diamonds are still coming in. We just cut a 4.60 carat round diamond into a 3.63 fancy yellow radiant cut that’s now at the lab. I will post some pix of a before and after very soon.
For now, I look forward to seeing Furthur at Radio City next week. Here’s a clip from 10/31/80 which was the last time the Grateful Dead played that venue. Jerry’s replacement, John, is a GREAT player..
Tags: frankin's tower > grateful dead > new york city > radio city music hall
You Gotta Be Lucky
Posted on | February 13, 2010 | No Comments
My grandfather used to tell my father every day, “You gotta be lucky”. My father used to wonder to himself, “Why is he telling me this every single day?” Well, because it’s true. My father is realizing it as he gets older, seeing his friends get older and some becoming sick. I am realizing it now because of some recent family tragedies. What does it mean? You can do all the right things – eat right, no smoking, no drinking, exercise, but if you don’t have a little “mazal” you’re in trouble.
I wish for all my friends and family to be extra lucky in this new year…
Looking At Diamonds…And Myself
Posted on | February 1, 2010 | 4 Comments
I had an enlightening experience today with a customer. He came in to look at some diamonds we were holding for him, only to tell me that he found another diamond from an e-tailer and just wanted to look at settings. I explained that we don’t just sell mountings and set other company’s diamonds in them. Setting a stone in an engagement ring is the riskiest and most important part of the process. As a policy, we only set diamonds that we sell or, in some cases, a customer’s family heirloom. And, regarding diamonds, we don’t just sell paper, but provide an opportunity to view a selection of diamonds up close and answer any questions. When this customer, in my opinion, lacked an appreciation for this, I was actually offended, and I even responded to him in such a tone. As I reflected on my reaction, my first thought was, “oh no!” The last thing I need is to compromise my brand because I may have come across like a jerk, but I am so passionate about my business, and I want to get through to young people about how to buy a diamond, so that’s how it came out.
I’ve been taught by my father and grandfather this tradition of community, giving back, and standing behind my product and my word as a staple in our business. And it posed the question that maybe young people aren’t learning this lesson. It seems that in this virtual world, everything is just a number, or in this case a piece of paper. And it’s very frustrating. Hopefully, that’s what social media is doing, giving a human touch to what used to be an information driven internet. So it’s not just a sale, but a business philosophy down here. A diamond is not what a laminated piece of paper says, but each has it’s own beauty and uniqueness.
It reminds me of this blog post I wrote back in November 2008 entitled, “How to Look at a Diamond”.
Francois Curiel, head of Christie’s international jewelry division says this:
Question: What makes a stone great?
Answer: “Its ideal proportions, its life and whether it talks to you or not. We had a group of young gemological students come to our New York viewing in October. We sat them behind the showcases, like real professionals, so that they could examine the diamonds. What struck me was that the first thing they did when they picked up a stone was to loupe it. I smiled because this is what I did when I started in the business and this is what all gemological schools teach you to do. When one gets a bit older, the loupe comes second and one first looks at the diamond in one’s hand. Do I like it? Even though the proportions might not be perfect by GIA [Gemological Institute of America] standards, do I want to own this stone? Ten people look at a gem, 11 opinions. So, what makes a stone great? Your eye and appreciation of it.”
We are real people. We would love to meet you and talk to you about diamonds and explain what you should really be looking for!
The Baltimore Ravens Made a Good Run
Posted on | January 22, 2010 | No Comments
I just got back from Florida for a nice family vacation. Weather was great, kids were great, the only bummer was the Ravens loss to the Colts on Saturday night. I was happy to be watching this game sitting outside at a sports bar with my good friends, but what a terrible game.
Ravens RB - Ray Rice
So what can we say about the Ravens season? At the QB position, Joe Flacco looks ok. He’s only in his second year, so he needs time to develop. However, if he can play mistake free football, much like Trent Dilfer did in the Ravens 2000 Superbowl season, and rely on defense and the running game, we have a shot to win it all in 2011.
That gets me to my next point. The running game is the real deal! Ray Rice is a player. I love that a small guy can bulldoze defenders and do some power running. And of course we have Willis McGahee as our second runner, who is a starter on most teams in the NFL.
So I’m looking forward to next season. I wish I could say the same for my beloved Orioles. They need some serious help and raising ticket prices was not the place to start…
Tags: baltimore orioles > baltimore ravens > flacco > mcgahee > nfl > orioles > ravens > ravens football > ray rice
Sure Don’t Know What I’m Going For, But I’m Gonna For It For Sure
Posted on | January 7, 2010 | 2 Comments
Happy New Year! It was a great year for me personally and for Samuelson’s Diamonds. We are growing as a company in all directions both locally and online. In my first post of 2010, what better video to post than one of the Grateful Dead’s most meaningful songs, Saint of Circumstance. This was performed at Giants Stadium 6/17/91. Note Bruce Hornsby on piano and Jerry’s horn effect which he used so well in my first blog post where I posted a brilliant “Ramble On Rose” video. I was not at this show but I was at the show right before it at RFK 6/14/91 where they opened the second set with Help->Slip->Franklin’s, and of course a great Jack-A-Roe->Big River->Maggies Farm in the middle of the first set. (available on DVD “View From The Vault II”) This was a great run of shows which was the summer right after my first show on 7/12/90 that I talked about in a previous blog post. Anyway, listen to the words in this song. They are very inspiring and they inspire me grow and evolve to have an even better 2010.
Tags: bruce hornsby > giants stadium > giants stadium 6/17/91 > grateful dead > jerry garcia > saint of circumstance
I Changed My Twitter Handle, Have You?
Posted on | December 29, 2009 | 7 Comments
I think I may have an identity crisis. I just changed my twitter handle, user name, whatever it is, to @ronsamuelson. Isn’t that exciting and creative? It’s just my name. Let me tell you the history of my twitter names, so maybe there is some rhyme or reason for this change.
When I very first started on Twitter I was @ronniediamond. I have developed that nickname among some friends, always getting the, “Hey Ronnie Diamond!” when I walk into the room. Didn’t mind it. But Diamond is an actual last name of someone, so I thought of another. I came to @diamondbuyer, in hopes that it would help me in search. I’m not sure that it did, but I do know that I’ve always felt a little whorish about it. It’s kinda salesy too and not that cool or edgy. So I figured that I would do what most other smart people do on twitter and just go by their name. Plain and simple. I’m pretty happy with it…I think.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together
Of course, I reserved @diamondbuyer as well. Maybe I’ll make him into some sort of diamond buying character…or not. Who knows the right answer here? Twitter is pretty new so there are no right answers. But like Lennon/McCartney say,
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”
So I am me. Or I Am The Walrus. But the walrus was Paul, so that answers that question. Maybe I’ll change it a few more times. Does it really matter anyway? Please share your twitter name thoughts. I would love to hear them!
Tags: i am the walrus > john lennon > paul mccartney > the beatles > twitter > twitter handle > twitter handle changes > twitter name > twitter name changes
My Baltimore Blizzard Engagement Ring Story
Posted on | December 24, 2009 | No Comments
The seventh biggest blizzard in Baltimore history and the biggest blizzard ever in December couldn’t have come at a worse time for retailers. It was the Saturday before Christmas, and to make it even worse we were having our Holiday Party on Sunday, complete with live music, food and drinks. Well, I had a diamond appointment Saturday morning. This customer was coming to see me from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, (about 2 hours away) so on Friday I sent him an email to see if he was still coming. He told me that he would come to Baltimore Friday night and stay at a hotel so he could avoid the snow Saturday morning. Well, if a customer is going to do that just to see me, I will be here, blizzard or no blizzard. So he came in Saturday morning with his girlfriend, in the snow, and bought a diamond ring. He was outta here by 11am and decided that he would go ahead and make the drive back. I sent him a thank you email and said “drive safely” and went home. So I’m home with the family by the fire relaxing, and I got this reply:
Ron-
Speaking of driving safely, a car slammed into ours on our way back and we just got a room in the Comfort Inn in Bowie. Christmas is officially ruined.
So how do I reply to that? It’s not my fault that he got in an accident, but I was honored that he would go through the trouble to come to Samuelson’s Diamonds. After all, he made our day. So I called the Comfort Inn in Bowie and paid for his room. It’s the least I could do. And here’s the response:
Ron,
Tara and I greatly appreciate your help. Like we said it was not necessary to take care of the room, but it is very nice of you. We are very excited for the ring to come in- I know it will be perfect. Expect our business for wedding bands- going through all this trouble, we still feel, is definitely worth it. Thank you for everything! Talk to you Monday.
So I think I did the right thing. And if you want to come to Baltimore and buy a diamond from us, we’ll put you up for a night too!
As far as the party went, I had every intention of not letting the blizzard bring us down. I even made this video.
Unfortunately, it snowed about 2 feet, so we had to postpone the party. Stay tuned though, if there’s one thing we know how to do down here, it’s have fun, and we WILL have another rockin’ party real soon!
Tags: baltimore blizzard > blizzard 2009 > diamonds > engagement ring > snow
Tip: Why You Should Have An Outside Admin On A Facebook Event Page
Posted on | December 14, 2009 | No Comments
Just a quick tip that I figured out this weekend. We’re having a Holiday Party down at Samuelson’s Diamonds and of course I created an event on Facebook for it. This event was created off of our Samuelson’s Diamonds Fanpage. As an admin of my fan page, I can edit the event, but there is one very important thing that I cannot do…message (email) all of the invited guests. I can only send an “update” to my fans about the event, which is pretty useless because no one reads updates. I made my wife an admin of the event and she can send emails to the guests.
So that’s my tip of the day. Make another person outside your organization (like a spouse) an admin on your events. Facebook does some very quirky things and this is one of them. Another tip – I made my wife an admin from the get go so she could send emails and not me. Why? Because people respond to women better than guys like me sending emails about diamonds and parties! Trust me, it works…
The Herman and Walter Samuelson Foundation
Posted on | December 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
It’s always good to see the legacy of The Samuelson Family doing good for the community. Herman and Walter Samuelson were my grandfather’s first cousins. My father just attended the ground breaking of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore’s $29.5 million expansion of its Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital.
Herman & Walter Samuelson Children's Hospital
Here’s the article from the Baltimore Sun:
Sinai Hospital of Baltimore will break ground today for a $29.5 million expansion of its Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital.
A two-story wing and related upgrades were designed to help Sinai improve the range of services it provides for patients from birth to age 18.
When complete in March 2012, the facility will feature a larger children’s diagnostic center and all-private inpatient rooms with space for parents to sleep overnight. Sinai’s pediatric intensive care unit will be renovated, and a larger pediatric oncology clinic will be built.
The children’s hospital expansion is the latest in a series of improvements that Sinai has made in recent years to its Northwest Baltimore campus, along with a new south patient tower and atrium.
The project is driven by a need for more space and a desire to enhance the quality and efficiency of care for infants, children and adolescents.
“We’re going to be able to significantly improve our ability to serve kids and their families because we are going to be offering private rooms for everyone, to give not only a richer, safer environment for patients but also to give more flexibility in staffing and in providing the array of services that children need,” said Warren Green, chief executive officer of LifeBridge Health, Sinai’s corporate parent. “A big part of what we’re trying to do with this new hospital is provide an environment that puts its arms around the entire family.”
Beginning around 2003, “the number of admissions that we could accommodate per year capped, because we really had no more room,” said Joseph Wiley, chairman of the children’s hospital. “There are many weekday nights … in which we were maxed out. We had patients in the emergency room waiting for patients to be discharged, sometimes as late as 11 o’clock at night, sometimes as early as 5 or 6 in the morning.”
The expansion, designed by Hord Coplan Macht of Baltimore, also will enable Sinai to keep up with the latest technological advances in pediatric care, said Sharon Rossi, director of patient care for women’s and children’s services.
“Technology changes, and with that the demands change,” she said. “So to stay cutting-edge, we want to have the very best in technology.”
Administrators say Sinai has the capacity to treat 2,635 children a year as inpatients and 30,600 children a year as outpatients. They project that the expansion will give Sinai the ability to admit 135 more pediatric inpatients each year, an increase of more than 5 percent, and treat an additional 600 pediatric outpatients each year, an increase of 2 percent.
In addition, they say, creating all private rooms for patients will enable parents to be with their children throughout their hospital stays. Now, Sinai’s children’s hospital has 22 inpatient beds, but only 10 of them are in private rooms.
The project is being financed by a combination of philanthropic contributions, state and federal funding and hospital funds. To date, Sinai has raised more than $17 million to build the project, including a lead gift of $4 million to name the children’s hospital after the late Samuelson brothers, who were active in Baltimore’s real estate industry.
The project’s design is based on a philosophy of “family-centered care,” which means the patient’s family takes part along with the physician in the diagnosis, treatment and care of the child.
“Family-centered care has always been integral to the children’s hospital at Sinai,” Rossi said. “We were one of the first hospitals in the nation to allow parents to sleep at the bedside” in the pediatric intensive care unit.
The way Sinai approaches pediatric care, “you’re not just treating the patients,” said Laura Cohen, coordinator of child life services. “You’re treating the whole family. It’s a team.”
So that’s the leacy that they leave and I love to see it going to a great cause! We hope to continue to support good causes and keeping the Samuelson name alive.
Tags: Herman & Walter Samuelson Children's Hospital > herman and walter samuelson > herman and walter samuelson foundation > samuelson family > Sinai Hospital of Baltimore
“Unfriend” is Named Word of the Year And I Invented It!
Posted on | November 26, 2009 | 9 Comments
“Unfriend” was named the Word Of The Year by Oxford Dictionary. And guess who broke it first? That’s right, RambleOnRon will take credit for that one. It was this blog post titled “Unfriended On Facebook – Compliment or Diss?” that got the attention of Wall Street Journal tech reporter Jessica Vascellaro. She then interviewed me and I ended up getting the infamous “hedcut” in the Wall Street Journal in a story titled, “OMG, We’re Not BFFs Anymore? Getting ‘Unfriended’ Online Stings”.
WSJ 12/24/08
That article really changed my life in a way. It got me a lot of media attention and actually ended up spawning a new and very real friendship with a family member of the person who unfriended me. All because of my Larry David like analysis of a loss of virtual friendship.
So how can I claim that I invented “Unfriend” you say? Because after I wrote that blog post, which got THOUSANDS of hits, I got emails from little nerdy know-it-alls saying, “It’s DEfriend, not UNfriend!” Well guess what? It’s UNFRIEND and the Oxford dictionary says so! If you’re playing scrabble guess which word you can now use?
So on this Thanksgiving Day let’s be thankful of all of our friends, real or virtual. And think about using your privacy settings before unfriending. However, I have been unfriended since and you can be sure that I will have the last laugh with those people too!
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