Mainelife...thru the eyes of someone from away

Is the iPad all that?

I'm still on the fence, but since it's getting me to blog again, it must have a little somethin', somethin', right?

OK, I'll Admit It.

We got a Flip for Christmas.  I didn't open it until just a few days ago, Christmas coming a little late in these parts.  I'm a little sheepish about admitting this because just after Christmas, Flip lust was a topic of conversation with some of my twitter buddies, and they already think know that I have too many toys. I didn't have one then, but I have one now.

Last night, RG and I went down to  Winnacunnet High School (every time I type Winnacunnet, I wonder if correctly spelling the school name is a graduation requirement) to see a girls' basketball game featuring two of the premier players in New Hampshire.  I took the Flip and within 3-4 minutes of uploading the video, created a movie on my Mac.  The music is pretty bad (rock bottom really), because I didn't have the external drive that holds my iTunes library hooked up.  I used the default music from the Flipshare software, instead.   I was really pleased with ease of use and Mac integration.  Oh, and remember the name Tiffany Ruffin.  She's the real deal.

Is It Really January 7th?

Yowza, my friends. Where has the time gone?  Unlike some points in my life, I know exactly where my time has gone.  On New Year's Day, S and her fiance arrived, just in time to watch Penn State get shellacked by USC and eat a bit of sauerkraut, spaetzle  and pork roast with us.  The next two days were entirely consumed by wedding reception visits.  We looked at the York Golf and Tennis Club, Wentworth By the Sea (shockingly more affordable than we expected), The Red Barn (surprisingly more expensive than we thought), The Cliff House, The Colony, and The Reading Room.   I don't think we've (actually not we, it's the bride's choice) yet reached a final decision, but I believe we're she's close.  Finalists appear to be the YGTC and Wentworth By The Sea, primarily due to available dates and costs. No matter what the decision, it will all be wonderful.  When you're this in love, how can it not be perfect?

In addition to wedding planning and enjoying a late Christmas celebration with the kids (we didn't open Christmas presents until January 4th), the job that pays the mortgage has been full out since the end of September.  As you might know, I pay the bills by publishing business texts for a college textbook publisher.  When the government bails out Wall Street, wrestles with bailing out the Big Three and the stock market loses one third of its total value, well, we have to react--and a standard old paper and ink text book isn't nimble enough to keep up with almost hourly changes in the Global Economic Crisis.  So, we've been working on a digital, web-based product that will provide professors and business students with just in time information on the crisis.  One component of that product is a blog.  It's been fascinating and challenging to hire a blogger, create a blog within the constraints of corporate parameters (branding, liability and myriad other issues come into play), and develop a digital product that I believe will begin to transform how college professors get their information from text publishers.   It's also been almost all-consuming.   The holidays were just a break between meetings, decisions and development.  The product launches this Friday and I'm optimistic that I'll soon get back to a more normal blog posting schedule and more importantly a more frequent blog reading schedule.  I've not quite had the time to drop in on y'all as often as I'd like. 

I trust that you all had a lovely New Year and that 2009 is off to a great start for you. 

I *Heart* Twitter, Too

Tonya has a spot on post about Twitter.  She  hits the nails it regarding twitter's addictive nature and she's includes links to the most useful Twitter tools.  It's worth a read, even if you don't twitter--and if you don't, why don't you? Beware though.  This post might get you to start

As an aside: one of the parts of Twitter that I find fascinating is the usefulness of the medium as a professional device.  My two worlds (personal and professional) have finally collided and I've been asked to sit on a task force to explore using social media to drive our business, mostly due to the fact that one of my twitterbuds (who is also a close friend) is the girlfriend of our Executive VP for Sales. He doesn't twitter or blog, but catches my tweets via her twitterstream and wants to know if we, like CNN or USAToday can leverage Twitter.   It should be an interesting few weeks. 

What Celebrities Would Look Like If They Moved To Ohio

A good friend just emailed me an extremely funny (and pretty much true) powerpoint deck called "What Celebrities Would Look Like If They Moved To Ohio." Of course, good friend is from Michigan, the part of Ohio that nobody wanted, and she finds this to be even funnier than I do.
My Favorite--Tom Cruise:

You can view the entire slide show here. Ohio.  A Good Place To Be From.

Trickly Little Mac Applications

For all y'all who drink of the Mac Kool-Aid, I just found this tricky little application from the folks who created Comic Life. It allows you to quickly share photos, screen grabs, web shots and drawings, either via mail or posting (I grabbed the below from my NYTimes homepage, and posted it to typepad in about 10 seconds).  Unfortunately, no Windows app is available, yet. 

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

UPDATE: OOPS....I guess I should learn more about an app before I post about it.  I deleted the link from my Skitch page and it disappeared here as well.  I've uploaded a new snap of the Times from tonight....and look, they've called Mississippi for Obama.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

I Love This Wedding Dance

Don't you think that if you knew them, they'd be your coolest, most fun friends?