great lakes lighting

www.greatlakeslighting.com is LIVE!

2009-07-07T10:06:00.003-04:00

For those of you making your way to our website for the 1st time: WELCOME! And thank you for stopping by! If you have gotten to this blog by way of our website and clicking on the "Green Lifestyle" tab, this is my personal blog for Great Lakes Lighting. I am a novice blogger at best but I love it as it helps me get some thoughts out and in addition to that hopefully will teach you some ways to "be green" and in addition to that, maybe entertain you just a bit!
Great Lakes Lighting was started in the early 1980s and in the beginning it was a total lighting source (meaning fixtures, bulbs, and any electrical components). It has evolved into today's version of the company over the past couple years. We decided that providing lighting wasn't enough. The lighting that we provide has to be as environmentally friendly and energy efficient as possible. The result is a company that specializes in LED and Compact Fluorescent light bulbs that are the best quality out there and the most green. I believe in being GREEN so much that in every aspect of my life, I am making strides to be green. From Solar Panels in my house, to the Hybrid that I drive, to just using cloth bags every where I go instead of taking the bags from grocery stores, etc. I am trying to be green. We will be offering other green products in the future as I truly believe in this movement. I believe also that if we do not do something now, there will be no future for our children. And more and more, I am worried about the kind of footprint I leave as I am now exactly 1 month to the day from having my 1st child. My wife and I are expecting our daughter in early August. So thank you for visiting my blog and our website. I promise to keep you up to date and informed. So please come often! And if you haven't already, please give our products a try. They are backed by a full warranty and are truly the best available. With lighting, you get what you pay for. And with Great Lakes Lighting, you get the best.

Body Fit Challenge

2009-06-11T09:56:00.003-04:00

Starting a "Fit Challenge" this weekend. It is an 8 week deal. I will work out 6 days a week for 2 hours. For those of you who don't know me, about 2 years ago I lost about 35-40 pounds. I have kept that weight off but I have had a difficult time building lean muscle. My metabolism has increased so much that I just burn off any protein that I take in. So I have decided to take on a professional's help instead of doing it myself (I run 3 days/week and lift weights or play basketball 3-4 days/week too).

I will be following the "Zone Diet". Anyone know a lot about this? I tend to eat really well. I do not eat red meat or really any sweets. I drink a ton of water and no soda or anything else really beside water (and the occasional Apple Chai from Starbucks)....So it doesn't sound like it is going to be a large change in lifestyle for me. I will just have a professional trainer in front of me 6 days/week. They estimate that I will lose 4-10% body fat (currently I have about 13% body fat at 159 lbs.) and should attain quite a bit of definition in my chest and arms which I have been lacking...

So I am excited to do this. Hopefully it pays off! More info to follow in the coming weeks.

Bitch Pleeeeese #2 (actually 1st time on SNL)

2009-05-27T20:18:00.001-04:00

Here is the other video. To the best of my knowledge she has only been on 2 times....

GREAT STUFF!

Today's funny post...BITCH PLEASE...

2009-05-27T19:53:00.002-04:00

This absolutely my new favorite thing to watch...

HILARIOUS! SNL is frequently not worth watching, but the "BITCH PLEASE!" segment is absolutely great. Can't stop watching it! I will post the other one as soon as I locate it. She has been on 2 times....

American Airlines SUCKS...Continued....

2009-04-27T09:12:00.004-04:00

New Info on my claim against American Airlines....

They offered me a whopping $200 voucher toward my next ticket....

NEWSFLASH: $200 is no where near the price of a ticket!!!!!

My laptop costs exactly $3327 to replace (had to purchase one from Apple over the weekend - that is why I know to the dollar!)

My next move - Another letter to American Crappy Airlines stating exactly what I feel about their "Gesture of Goodwill". They simply restated their policy to me which in my opinion does not even pertain to this particular experience as my bag was basically ransacked! Nothing was in the same place as I put it!

I promise that I will post more GREEN items and some info on Great Lakes Lighting in future posts. This is sort of consuming me at this point. And until there is a proper resolution I will continue to keep you abreast of the happenings. If nothing else, I am learning how NOT to serve the customer!!!

American Airlines SUCKS

2009-04-21T10:58:00.003-04:00

So I travel quite a bit for business. I flew to Washington D.C. on Thursday and back on Saturday. I understand all of the security and stuff that we have to go through and for the most part, I agree with it and appreciate it. With that said, I am appalled at how a company like American Airlines could handle something like this. Unfortunately I needed to check a bag (which I hate as they make you pay for it now and never did until about a year ago). In my checked bag, I had clothes, some light related products, my laptop (which I needed to check as I did not have any room in my carry on for as I take a lot of reading material), and some promotional material. Now as I said, I travel quite a bit so I know how to pack a bag so that things do not get damaged. I wrap my breakable items in cloths, boxes, that sort of thing. All of my promotional material was shrink wrapped and placed flat between clothes and my laptop. My laptop was wrapped in a sweater, with plenty of stuff around it so there should never have been a problem. When I got my bag back my laptop was in a completely different spot in my bag (in the little zip sleeve on the side that zips) with exactly NO covering. It was chipped on the corner. My promotional material had been unwrapped and was all over my bag. When I tried to turn on my computer, there was a big spot in the middle of the screen like some of the pixels had been broken and I can no longer connect to any networks.
When I contacted American Airlines they informed me that the cannot help me. I apparently should know better than to pack expensive electronic items in there and they are not responsible for any damage whatsoever. They also told me that I should contact the airport (Flint, MI) which I did and received the same treatment. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions. I am not out $2500 for a new Mac book Pro. American Airlines will NEVER see a red cent from me again! I am going to also send a letter and fax to their corporate center in Texas expressing my distaste.

Wednesday

2009-04-15T08:01:00.002-04:00

I have spent the past couple weeks of my life getting an AMAZING project up and running. We took a local franchise and put in LED lights throughout the facility. And WOW! It looks GREAT! The overhead lights in the lobby area do need to be a bit brighter so we are working on that but the light quality is wonderful. That project will be finished tomorrow and after its completion I will have the opportunity to speak in front of 100 owners of these franchises which is just a HUGE opportunity and I am very excited about it...

More info to follow!

Wednesday - Sun (Finally in Michigan)

2009-04-08T16:14:00.002-04:00

Finally got to see SUN and have it actually feel like Spring is on the way! HOORAY! It is amazing what sunlight will do for one's outlook on life!

I purchased www.whatifonecanmakeadifference.com yesterday. I am hoping to work on that website after www.greatlakeslighting.com is up and running. Have them run kind of side by side. The whatifonecanmakeadifference.com site is probably going to take a decidedly inspirational direction as looking at making the world better, cleaner, GREENER, etc. seems overwhelming if we look at it as an "everyone" project. EveryONE can do something and eventually the world will become better, cleaner, GREENER, etc. More info to follow.

Thank you for stopping by!

Dan

2009-04-01T09:41:00.003-04:00

Working hard today. Great Lakes Lighting has been a little different type of company for a long time than what we are trying to make it today. It was a very centralized company focused on a customer base within 50 miles of Bay City, MI. I am trying to expand it to national by changing our image, adding distributors throughout the states, and creating a phenominal website. All while helping the world go GREEN! That is all for today. Hopefully the website will be up and going QUICKLY!

Monday - Checking in...

2009-03-30T08:39:00.002-04:00

Monday!
This week is a very important week in my life as I am hoping to get our website (www.greatlakeslighting.com) up and running! Hooray! After 1 year of owning and operating this entity we will finally have a website that our customers and friends can go to and learn about the benefits of being green!

I hope everyone is having a great day out there!

On a personal note, my wife Sara and I found out that we are having a little girl on Friday. The due date is August 8, 2009! Couldn't be happier! She will truly be "daddy's little girl"!

Great Lakes Lighting - GREEN Lighting

2009-03-28T16:02:00.000-04:00

Hello!
My name is Daniel Dimitroff. I own Great Lakes Lighting. We are the "green" lighting company. We offer a full line of LED products as well as Compact Fluorescents. In future posts I will be posting on various "green" topics as well as our company. And if anyone has any questions regarding all things green, I will make every effort I can to answer them! Thank you for taking the time for checking us out!