Category: Daily Life

So I’ve had a couple of emails about discount codes and the like for the Web 2.0 Show, March, in San Francisco.

If I remember correctly this is the show that I wasn’t cool enough to attend a few years back.

I’ve already got another event on the calendar, but if you guys comp me a pass I’ll see what I can do.

Jason Calacanis has an email list that he’s gone to as an alternative to blogging. (Jason’s Email list signup)

His latest had a list of 10 things he loves, and he asked for people to reply with theirs. Since I went to the trouble of doing my list I thought it would be good to share it with you. Feel free to share your favorites in the comments, or on your own blog and Trackback so I can check it out.

ps – I’d really like to hear from road warriors like Chip Griffin, who I have been meaning to email for weeks.
1. Chargepod
–> What it is: Charge 6 mobile devices at once
–> How it works: small hub, and connects to outlet or car power
–> Why it’s important: replaces a huge ball of cable from my travel bag
–> More info: http://www.callpod.com/products/chargepod

2. Johnnie Walker Blue
–> What it is: The Tesla of Scotch – smooth and efficient
–> How it works: You drink it
–> Why it’s important: it makes the pain go away
–> More info: Any better liquor store

3. Sony PSP
–> What it is: Best handheld gaming system
–> Why it’s important: Also great for watching movies

4. Skooba Laptop Bag
–> What it is: The lightest “real bag” you can get
–> Why it’s important: Every ounce counts when you are carrying it yourself
–> More info: http://www.skoobadesign.com/product/skooba-satchel-28/

5. Land’s End Cotton/Cashmere blend sweater
–> What it is: As soft as cashmere but cheaper and more durable
–> How it works: Chicks dig it
–> Why it’s important: Because wool is uncomfortable
–> More info: Now that winter is gone you can get them for $10 off ($39), but all the good colors are gone (Navy or black for me)

the rest of my 10, none of which are any big news:

Xbox 360
Apple TV
Sony Bravia
Platinum AMEX so I can use the clean bathroom in the airport club
Podcasts – TWiT and This American Life

I’m a tweetdeck and pandora fan, and I’ll be ordering some Green Tea Kit Kat, Thanks for the tips!
John

There’s been a lot going on lately, and of course that gets in the way of blogging here.

The good news is that Marketing Over Coffee continues to heat up, so much so that our host shut us down. The good news is that my co-host’s secret identity is CTO, so we shifted to a more able host and were back and running in less than a day.

In addition to the regular show I have some extra content coming along, including a great interview with author James Connor that I can’t wait to get posted.

Meanwhile the rest of the world found out about Facebook. Although it’s a little odd getting friended by people I’ve never seen in the tech circle before, I’m excited for them finally getting a taste of the blogging world.

On that note I’m very happy to say that I’ve signed on for Blogger Social 2009. The good news is that it’s here in my backyard in Boston this year so I’ll have an inside edge. For those who don’t know, Blogger Social ran for the first time last year in New York City, an event that makes no bones about the fact that it’s just about getting together to socialize with folks you probably have only met online. It’s a big Friday night event and then a formal dinner on Saturday, and any other social stuff you can pack in between.

I had a blast last year, including surviving an encounter with The Beast. Past attendees get first shot at tickets (there were about 80 attendees), and this year there will be 100 tickets, that will be opening up probably in the next week or so.

Just about a year ago I was discussing my annual goals on an Oovoo call. Among the attendees were Sherman and Sean, and we were discussing what we planned to accomplish, and reporting back on it.

So here are my results. The diagram above is generated from MindManager from Mindjet (although I am a good two versions back it seems). It’s a great tool for brainstorming and organizing information that tends to run all over the place.

The Rundown:

• Family – This tends to revolve around health and taking care of the people around me, 1 for 3 here, some room for improvement, the one I completed was critical while the other 2 were forward looking so things are actually going well enough here.
• Personal – The 25% hit was to work on Photography, which I did by spending a long weekend at photocamp. You can check out the results there on Flickr. The other 75% was 10% weight loss, and I’ve kept 5 pounds off for almost all year, but nowhere near where I wanted to be. My workout routine went through some radical changes. I spent the first half of the year doing my normal running, which was doing next to nothing for me. I switched to Crossfit, which gave me huge strentgh gains, but the muscle gained outweighed the fat lost. Great for power but no gain for my back or knees. By Q4 with another dog I’ve been walking every day and that is working well. There’s also the tale of the negotiation with my old gym, but that’s another post. After the New Year’s rush (I give it 1 month for the resolution crowd to crumble) I’ll be at a new gym by the office.
• Financial – The big goal here was to double charitable giving, and that was a big success. Of course many will note that any goal to spend more money is not much of a challenge and I’d have to agree. The other goals were to clean up and organize my investments – no problem there. The last goal was a savings target, and I only got to 30% of where I wanted to be. The backbreaker here was 5 weddings all over the US. I wouldn’t have traded those trips for anything, but they did make a financial impact. The interesting part is that after weddings and the cash spent on the charitable goal there’s no other category of spending alone that could have hit that traget.
• Professional – As you can see from the results this was weighted to the day job, and it was a strong year. Like any VC backed company, an “event” is always on the list and there was none this year, but otherwise a very strong year, even with the ecomomy being unpredictable. Locking down my name as a domain was done and important, I also had networking events there because the only time to network is when you are not in the middle of a career change, but I chose to spend free time on M Show Productions (made up of Marketing Over Coffee, The M Show and the best marketing blog) rather than random networking. It seems to have paid off, I’m meeting great people and the podcast is growing quickly.

Bob, the host of the Beancast, where I get to play 3rd rate John Dvorak, tagged me on the 7 Things Meme, so here we go:

1. I’ve already done a “Hey! It’s me post!”, here’s a bunch of J-Funk trivia.
2. I ran the Boston Marathon in 2002, and regret the fact that it’s far enough away that it makes me sound like a has-been. Just as important as running was getting to work with the Franciscan Hospital for Children.
3. My 2 favorite restaurants are The Greek Corner in Cambridge by the Arlington Line, and Tlaloc in San Francisco
4. I have only one first cousin on my Dad’s side of the family, 11 on my Mom’s side. The 11 are all out in Michigan, and when we go up north we go to the Dockside.
5. The secret unpublished reason I created Marketing Over Coffee, the best internet marketing podcast, was to get books about marketing for free before they are published. This sinister plot has been working perfectly.
6. I have almost no short term memory for random words or numbers, when tested I am in the bottom 5% for recall.
7. I used to have the top corner office in the 2nd tallest building on the Seattle skyline, could see the Piers and Mt. Rainier.

One thing that I’ve found is that when I tag my friends they are about as likely to ignore tagging as anyone else, so I might as well shoot at the A-List – I’d like to see 7 things from Seth Godin, Jason Calacanis (it’s ok, you can do it via email), Adam Curry,  John Dvorak (Channel Dvorak is what the future of Journalism will look like (how about some graphic design though?), and Chris Pirillo (if he has any secrets left after years of lifecasting). I’ll even throw in a meal at a good restaurant if anyone steps up.

One of the many reasons I hate the holidays is that invariably I’ll be sitting around doing nothing, except for maybe my conscience asking me “Why the hell aren’t you writing now?”, and probably end up eating. As I look forward to this inevitable event that made me think of some of the things that I have found over the years that I thought are worth sharing.

Garrett’s Cheese Popcorn – is astoundingly good, better than any other cheese popcorn I have ever had, by a long shot. You might want to eat it with chopsticks though because the cheese will stain your fingers. Once, while in Chicago on business my friend Tom had some and then went to the Sony story and played the PS2 demo units, leaving the controller covered in orange goo.

Stam Chocolates – Jim from Podcasting News brought us a box of these a couple of years ago and they are better than anything else I’ve tried, even stuff from Germany and Austria. These chocolates are so good that our dog when berserk when we bought a box as a Christmas gift this year and he ate the whole 27 piece box.  There’s a lot fewer gross ingredients, it’s kind of like the difference between fresh squeezed OJ and all other OJ, except for….

Orchid Island Juice Company – I am an OJ snob, but Orchid Island is very good and available at Trader Joe’s and my local supermarket, Roche Brothers.

Strawberry Hill Povitica – Fantastic bread, make french toast with this and you’ll never go back to regular bread.

Blues Hog BBQ Sauce – I used to work with Chris, who is a BBQ Jedi Master with the trophies to prove it. My nephew has said he can no longer use other sauces because everything tastes like a sad excuse after Blues Hog.

Enjoy!