You may have noticed that recently, I have hit a lull in my blogging.

There are a few contributing factors to this. One, I have a ten month old son1. Two, I have a wife, who, coincidentally, also has a ten month old son. Three, I have a job, which has recently become very time and energy consuming.

So, here's how the math goes, for good or bad. I have been spending more time and energy on work stuff, which means I have less energy when I get home, but I have a family, which I love more than I love to blog. Therefore, my energy has been directed towards my wife and my son, and thus not toward my blog.

I have, however, found another way to keep the world up to date with the goings on of my life. A week, or so, ago I signed up for a Twitter account. For me, Twitter is in the realm of away messages on AIM, or text messages. Twitter allows users to provide updates of 140 characters or less. So, in a time when I am low on time and energy, Twitter's character limit provides a way for me to share without having to put together a thought through post.

Twitter has some great features that make it even more appealing to me. My Facebook status is now updated every time I "tweet". That's what the cool kids call it when you post an update. Also, I can link my gchat account to my Twiiter account, and I can post to Twitter by sending an IM.

All of that is to say that I am miss blogging, but I have found an outlet in Twitter. So, you should follow me on Twitter. Better yet, you should sign-up, and I'll follow you.

1. backFor those who are unaware, children becoming increasing more difficult to contain and entertain. Our Son can now crawl to , pull-up on, and shimmy across anything that is three feet and below.

Labels: blogosphere, indiscriminate

Has anyone heard about this?

I plan to flip the main breaker and shut the house down. It is amazing how quiet it is when all the appliances, TVs, comuters, etc. are off.

Labels: green

A friend of mine tagged this well put together video about why one person chooses Obama over Clinton. It's twenty minutes long, but well worth the watch.

Labels: politics, video

SAS, the company I work for, does not do much advertising. Occasionally, I'll see an ad in a business magazine and rarely, I'll see something on television. However, today, I saw an ad in an interesting place. An ad for SAS showed up in my Google Reader. I saw this at the bottom of a feed.

Labels: business, marketing

This morning I started reading Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill. Underhill and his research company have spent two decades compiling and analyzing data, trying to determine if there is "a method to our madness when it comes to shopping".

They have been gathering data around the globe in malls, grocery stores, banks, fast-food peddlers, and anywhere else you make purchases. The data is collected methodically via cameras, interviewers, and "trackers". Trackers are the people that follow you around the store marking your every move without you even knowing it.

Here's an example...

[A] tracker can record... that a bald man, in a red sweater and blue jeans entered a department store on a Saturday at 11:07 a.m., walked directly to a first floor display of wallets, picked up or otherwise touched a total of twelve of them, checked the price tag on four, then chose one, moved at 11:16 to a nearby tie rack, stroked seven ties, read the contents tags on all seven, read the price on two, then bought none and went directly to the cashier to pay. He paused for a moment at a mannequin and examined the price tag on the jacket it wore. He entered the cashier line at 11:23 as the third person in line, waited two minutes and fifty-one seconds to get to the register, paid with a credit card and exited the store at 11:30.

It's kind of weird to think that someone could follow you and keep that sort of detail without you even knowing it. It might make you think more about how you act in a store.

I'm reading the book because it relates to a project that I have been assigned to at work, but beyond that, I am a dork and this sort of stuff interests me.

Labels: books, business

Both Traci and Justin have already written about this, but I thought I'd write about it here, too.

Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, gave a brilliant speech on Tuesday in Philadelphia. If you haven't heard or read it, I highly suggest you check it out. It is about forty minutes long. So, it may be easier to download the mp3 of the audio and listen to it on your iPod. I was able to right click on the mp3 link and select "Download linked file" in Safari.

For me, it was long. I don't have a great attention span. At some point I was kind of bored with his delivery, which, oddly, for me is was a good thing. Often he is so impressive with his delivery that he could be saying heretical things and people would applaud.

With this talk, it seemed to be more about content. There were flashes of his eloquence, but overall it was as if he was more interested in getting the message out, than igniting passion within the listeners with a fiery delivery.

If you haven't heard it, take the time to listen to it.

Labels: politics, video

It's that time of year again. The field of 64 is now set. Tip-off for the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is a little over a day away.

I've set up a group in the ESPN tourney challenge called "People who know Shannon Smith". If you are reading this, you are invited to fill out a bracket and join.

Group Name: People who know Shannon Smith
Password: turtlesoup

Come join the fun.

Labels: sports

This is my new desktop at work. Kim's not a huge fan of this picture. I think she laughed right before it was taken. I love this picture, for the same reason she doesn't like it. It brightens my day when I see it.

Here are a couple more photos of all of us...




You can see the rest of the photos from our most recent trip to Portrait Innovations here.

Labels: family

Yesterday, our friend Tim Catlett sank a half court shot, live on College Gameday before the Duke-UNC game. He won $17,500. $10,000 went to Duke and he got the other $7,500. Afterward, he ran straight to his family and celebrated with his son, Coleman.

ht: Daniel

Labels: sports, video

Friday night, we felt like having a beer, but we didn't have any in the house. Kim had even went as far as to put beer on the grocery list. I'm sure this isn't anything new for a lot of you, but around our house, I'm usually the one who buys the beer. So, when my wife adds beer to her list, that's a day worth noting. In my mind, that's a good day or in her case, it could mean that it was a really bad day. Having a kid can drive you to drinking some days.

So, I go to the store to buy some beer and I decide to let Kim choose. She chooses her new favorite brew, which is Magic Hat #9. When I get to the store, I am surprised to find that they carry it. I went to the closest grocery store, which is not the kind of place you expect to find much in the way of a beer selection. At first, I was going to get a sixer1 of #9, but then I saw Pandoras Box. So, I picked that up instead.

I've been pleasantly surprised thus far. I have tried the Circus Boy unfiltered hefeweizen and the Spring '08 Odd Notion; both have been pleasing to the palette. I really dig their beer and their vibe. You should give them a try next time you are perusing the beer aisle at your local grocery mart.

Have you tried any beers of note lately? If not, you can just list your favorite beer.

1. back I watched Dazed and Confused on Thursday night. A kid in the movie goes to the store to pick up some beer and calls it a "sixer". Awesome movie.

Labels: beer, food

About a week and a half ago, I put out my traffic survey to try and determine what kind of drivers you all were.

Probably the most interesting comment in the bunch was Amanda's comment that made it seem like it is impossible to survive as a #2 in NC. This was most interesting because other people made NC out to be a safer environment for #2's, as compared to LA. So, I guess it comes down to point of reference.

Percentage of #1's in LA > Percentage of #1's in NC > Percentage of #1's in Ohio

Here are a few charts that give you a picture of the kind of drivers that read, and are willing to comment on, my blog. The "Line Walkers" are people that claimed one side, but admitted tendencies on the other side. I was in the #2/#1 camp, though I am rarely on the #1 side; pretty much only when I am feeling like Ricky Bobby and want to go fast.




I was a little disappointed that I didn't find anything super insightful in the data. Maybe you can come up with something better. Let me know if you do.

Labels: indiscriminate, questions

This Sunday, you have another chance to put your mouth and stomach to work for the AAS-C. This Sunday, March 9, the Moe’s at Cameron Village will be hosting a fundraiser for the AAS-C and the AIDS WALK+RIDE. Between noon and 3PM, if you present the flyer below at the register, 10% of your purchase will be donated.

If you can't make it out for lunch, you can still donate to the AIDS Walk+Ride by going here and making a donation to help me reach my goal of raising $1,000. Thus far, I have raised 16.5% of my goal. Every $10 gets me 1% closer. I need your help. Please consider donating.

NOTE: Click on the image to open it in another window for easier printing.

Labels: activism, aids, food

I've mentioned the American Consumer News blog a few times before on here. In a recent post, they highlighted an interesting new service that allows you to get paid to blog. Here's the amazing part, you get to choose what you blog about.

The site that is offering this service is Snapbomb.com. The goal of Snapbomb is to connect advertisers who want to create buzz about their product with bloggers. The overall concept is called blog marketing. You can read more about what Snapbomb is doing on their blog.

Here's the gist of how Snapbomb works. They, Snapbomb, have a group of advertisers who sponsor campaigns to create buzz about a new release, an event, or just to generate brand awareness. Then, they have a group of bloggers who have signed up to blog about the aforementioned campaigns. As a blogger, you get to choose which of the campaigns you want to blog about and what you say about them.

The goal is not to turn your blog into a bunch of posts about products or services you, or your readers, don't care about. Optimally, you would be able to select buzz building opportunities that fit in with your normal blog content. That way you wouldn't chase off all the readers you have worked so hard to gain. In my case that's you.

So, what do you think about the idea of blog marketing? Have you ever thought that you could use your blog to generate extra income? I mean, you're going to write about something. Why not get paid to do it, right? I'd love to know what you think of the idea.

Labels: blogosphere, business

Today, Brett Farve announced that he is retiring. If this doesn't bring Jeff out of his blogging retirement, nothing will.

Labels: blogosphere, sports

Artistically, this is an awesome commercial. I wouldn't say that it makes me want to go out and buy a Louis Vuitton bag, but I love the commercial.



ht: Justin

Labels: video