The holidays just did a sideways skid into my life and it could easily become overwhelming. Really? It is December? Instead, I find it easiest and the most fun to fall back on three words brought into my life this year. Simple. Living. Technology. These words aren’t new or unique, but when I was able to combine them, my life began to hum.
For your holidays and Friday Fun, let’s take a couple for a spin.
Simple
Holiday Shopping can be an awesome excuse to buy for yourself or friends and loved ones. If you can’t find the greatest gizmo or gadget this year, then click on over to Lehman’s for some classic toys for kids (and you can send me a Sock Monkey or twelve if you must!). You won’t need batteries for this list, there are some classic games and hand made toys. Lehman’s is really best known for their Simple Living products. Their natural goods and old style tools help remind of what life was like before microwaves. Yep … there was life before microwaves, I am sure it was sweaty hard work, with little in the way of leftovers, and not nearly romantic, but it was there. Not ready to go that retro yet, but it is fun to see some of the nostalgic products.
Living
Living well doesn’t necessarily mean better than your neighbor. This year has brought a wealth of good things to our Houston lives for better living and sharing. One of my favorite ways to live well in Houston is with good food. You can experience locally grown food at one of the many Urban Harvest Farmer’s Markets, including the Sunday edition at Discovery Green. If you live under a rock, or haven’t ventured out to one of the many markets, you are missing out. Put something good in your body, buy locally and live well!
This weekend also marks a recurring event in the Heights. Go visit the 1st Saturday Arts Market for ideas and unique gifts. Get it, 1st Saturday? You can probably figure out when these are going to happen. But, for sure this weekend you can visit from 11am – 6pm and fill a bag full of goodies.
Technology
Farmer’s Markets and stuffed toys not for you? No worries, we can always fall back on Technology to help with the Holidays. Deal sites and social media accounts help navigate the overwhelmingness of Holidays. There is a brand new crop of coupon sites offering discounts and memberships. Between @Grouponhouston and Houston on the Cheap, you can stay local see what deals are the latest and greatest. Love food much? Houston Entree from My Table offers foodie deals to help keep up your strength during the holidays. Need more deals? Don’t forget your old school Woot for consistently good deals and laughs along the way.
Holidays are a great time of the year, just remember to keep it Simple as you head into the first full weekend of December.
PR Day 2010 was an amazing day of teaching and learning centered on Promoting Relationships, Surviving Adversity.
Ed was one of the presenters and spoke on BYOB: Build Your Own Brand. The presentation explores how PR professionals adapt to the changing media landscape and promote their strengths using self marketing and branding.
Overall takeaways from PR Day 2010
Katie:
My favorite part of PR Day this year was getting to hear Andy Lark (@kiwilark), Marketer from Dell, speak on the Virtual Web.
He had great things to say around major business shifts that are shaping the way we do business today. From companies doing away with travel budgets (opting instead to publicly post everyone’s expenses to use social pressure to monitor spending) to the ongoing growth of social media conversations and customer services – we are in a great new era to do business with actual people.
Dell has used blogs to great effect – particularly after the Buzz Machine blog crisis (link: http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/cat_dell.html 😉 that turned from crisis communication to company triumph. Of particular note, Dell’s user supported forums save on average $90 a ‘that solved my problem’ click – meaning happier customers, great community feeling and major savings for their business.
The future of the web for business and personal use alike remains in video, but also in the creation of social currency and geo-targeted campaigns. Tools like Foursquare wouldn’t be as powerful without the gaming mechanics and sense of play, businesses should keep this in mind.
JJ:
My top take-away from PRSA Houston’s PRDay 2010 was from Keynote Speaker Paul Taaffe. With the numerical data to back him up, Taaffe spoke to the unbalanced allocation of communication resources to local markets in comparison to the markets themselves going global. The fastest growing countries both in population and economy are not the US, Europe, China or Japan’ they are emerging countries like India and Indonesia.
Taaffe’s presentation had me thinking about Daniel Pink’s ‘A Whole New Mind†which speaks to;
‘The era of ‘left brain†dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain†qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate.â€
Pink writes about a needed change in what Americans’ (both companies and citizens) focus on in terms of income. Pink makes the case for a shift to ‘right brained†creativity and design as the thing that will allow us to continue to be a global economic leader.
One of the points in Taaffe’s presentation is the idea that one of the greatest assets Americans can bring to this transition towards a global community is our ingrained and intuitive skill at communication. I appreciate Taaffe offering a tangible item PR Professionals can offer to companies both over-seas and here at home as global companies establish offices in the States.
Iris:
My big take away from PR Day was that while technology and business continue to change with incredible speed, there are a lot of fundamental principles that haven’t changed at all. It’s easy to think about new technology in a vacuum, but we have to remember that people are still at the core of our modern economy, and that human beings are the ones creating the technology we consume on a daily basis. While the world evolves around us, our basic desires stay the same. We still crave human connection. We still want to express our opinions and be understood by our peers. We still enjoy healthy competition. Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare may be relatively new, but the reasons we like them are thousands of years old.
Kelsey Reuger addressed this issue during his talk ‘Is There an App for That?†It might seem strange to bring up anthropology when discussing iPhone apps, but Kelsey made it clear that it doesn’t matter how beautiful your app is, or how fancy the technology is. If your app doesn’t address a fundamental human need, or solve a basic problem, no one will use it.
As a PR professional, it is important to keep up with the times, and be knowledgeable about the technology your target audience is using. That is a given. But if that is all you think about, and you lose sight of what makes us all tick, you, or your client’s shiny new product will go unused.
My Thoughts on PR Day
PR Day had a lot to offer and I had three favorite parts: the lunch keynote with Paul Taaffe of Hill & Knowlton; the media panel; and the breakfast keynote Q&A with Culture Map editor Shelby Hodge interviewing PaperCity Magazine co-founder Becca Cason Thrash.
Paul Taaffe was by far the most compelling of my three favorites. He painted a very clear picture of how the rise of influence in emerging economies relates to how our global community is expanding and what that means for PR professionals. What it means: we’ll be faced with advising clients who are informed, well connected, self-publishers.
The media panel featured community relations director of Channel 39 Yolanda Green as the moderator and Houston Business Journal assistant managing editor Greg Barr , CultureMap’s Shelby Hodge, 29-95 editor Syd Kearney, and KUHF-FM business reporter Ed Mayberry as the panelist. They shared the biggest challenges they face: relevancy, operating on multiple platforms and determining print versus online content. Right now the answer to getting the message out with a changing media landscape isn’t clear, and it’ll be interesting to look back in five years to see how it transforms.
Finally, Becca Cason Thrash pioneered the Houston PR scene without even knowing how to type. Fast forward to today and she’s still a relevant figure in the philanthropic community as a fundraiser and event planner. Funny and charismatic…though not entirely easy to relate to (short version: we don’t exist in the same tax bracket) she represents one of the main aspects of public relations that will not change: persistence above all else.
Listening to the panelists and keynotes reminded me that technology has changed the way we interact but won’t be a substitute for the the crux of public relations: understanding, developing and maintaining relationships.
Every year the day before Thanksgiving we have a little tradition. We invite friends and family over to the Schipul office and we eat food and hang out… but more importantly…. WE RACE!
Watch this year’s recap video and…
MAY ALL YOUR DAYS BE RACE DAYS!
Disclosure: we are also honored to have the PlasmaCar Company as a client too – check out their site and buy some cars for your own rooftop racing adventures!
If you’ve been paying attention to the news even a little bit this week, you’ve probably heard a lot about WikiLeaks. It’s tough to cut through the spin and get to the facts, so don’t worry if it’s all left you a little confused. To help you out, we’ve put together a few FAQ’s about WikiLeaks, “Cablegate,” and the security issues surrounding this latest news.
What is WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization that “publishes and comments on leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct.” Their slogan is “We open governments.” The site has leaked many documents incriminating both public officials and private businesses since its founding in 2006. Contrary to its name, WikiLeaks is not a wiki — content on the site is not editable or commentable by visitors.
Why are people talking about WikiLeaks right now?
A few days ago, WikiLeaks began publishing the first of over 250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. government and embassies around the world. The documents range in security level from unclassified to secret (a level up from “confidential”). The U.S. government is not too thrilled that all this behind-the-scenes talk has been made public, and some foreign leaders are not too thrilled about what they’re reading.
How did WikiLeaks get these documents?
Well, they were leaked. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst who (allegedly) supplied the documents to WikiLeaks, is currently imprisoned in Virginia awaiting trial for charges of unauthorized use and disclosure of classified information. There is, of course, a Free Bradley Manning movement, which WikiLeaks has been involved in despite refusing to name him as the source of these documents or other leaks he is suspected of.
What’s in them?
A lot, including evidence that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both instructed U.S. diplomatic officials to engage in espionage at the United Nations (which, by the way, is forbidden) and some not-so-great things said about foreign leaders.
The site has been hit by several DDoS attacks since publishing the cables. A “lone hacker” has taken credit for the attacks, but the validity of his claim is questionable. You can follow WikiLeaks on Twitter @wikileaks for the latest updates.
What does it all mean?
Will Hillary Clinton resign? What will happen to Bradley Manning? Not sure. The more thoughtful questions that this leak and much of WikiLeaks’ history bring up are about trust in government, security, and confidentiality. Governments and the people who work for them haven’t changed much, but technology definitely has. Whether you believe in absolutely open government like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange or you’re more likely to call Bradley Manning a criminal than a hero, it’s difficult to ignore the power that technology gives to passion. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange were both willing to take huge risks, using technology as a tool, for something they believe in, and they’ve got a lot of people talking and thinking about new ideas and questions as a result.
Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user opensourceway.
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship. ~Amelia Earhart
I am admittedly an odd duck with probably far too many random hobbies and a bizarre sense of adventure. And by adventure, I mean everything from trying out that weird unidentified leafy veggie at the Asian grocer to flying glider and motorized planes to climbing a mountain in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Growing up, I idolized Amelia Earhart as only a young budding aviatrix could – she was fearless, passionate, hard working and totally unique. She made waves in the male dominated aviation world all while rocking a unique fashion sense, supporting other gal fliers and being a mad publicity genius to boot. My hero.
To me, Amelia’s legacy is that of pushing boundaries in everything you do and discovering the adventure of every moment of every day. No matter the turbulence or how far away that landing strip might seem, “adventure is worthwhile in itself.”
What are we doing here? We’re reaching for the stars. ~Christa McAuliffe
Lately my mom has been telling me that I sound like my grandma. I guess I skipped a generation in the whole “turning into your parents” thing, but can I help it that my grandma is the smartest lady I’ve ever known? There are tons of books about how to be happy, how to get along with people, how to go on an epic journey to figure yourself out, and how to let go of your baggage. Even some from very wise people. These long-winded lessons are all valuable, but I think my grandma’s book would be about two sentences long: “If you feel bad, get up, get dressed, and do something for someone else. Smile.”
I heard this all the time when I was growing up, especially during the most unenthusiastic moments of my teenage years. My grandma was the youngest of eleven kids and had eight herself, so I doubt she’s ever had the time to feel bad or do much of anything just for herself. Growing up a little more modern, I had and took my share of opportunities to be selfish. I never consciously took her advice to heart, but it’s hard-wired into my brain anyways. It’s no accident that I became passionate about social justice, worked at a crisis hotline, volunteer all over the place, and always let people over into my lane.
That’s the cool thing about this lesson: it applies anywhere you take it. It probably won’t solve all your problems (that’s what all these other lessons are for), but it can change your perspective. So much so that one day your mom is saying that you sound like your grandma, and that’s a compliment.
I also don’t think it’s an accident that more and more companies are living by mottos like “Don’t be evil” and “Do good.” The philosophy of being happy and successful, for individuals and businesses, pretty much boils down to that. Get up and do something for someone else. Smile.
Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user: katerha.
Tuesday night I begin my seventh season with Katy Youth Basketball. About 2400 kids and 240 volunteer coaches create a league that plays basketball from December to March. The non-profit organization is holding it’s 25th year as Katy’s largest basketball league.
My seven years have been devoted to teaching my daughters and their friends (ages 6 to 13) the art and sportsmanship behind basketball.
But for me, it isn’t about basketball. It is about being part of the community. It’s my way of leaving a positive impression on youngsters and their parents. It is something that we keep forever. It is endearing to hear a kid refer to you as “coach” even years later.
Sure we learn skills… but it is more about the kid that tenaciously works their way up to the “A” team after being a “B” teamer for years. It is about being a role model to children and parents even in tough situations. It is a playground for talking to someone candidly while still being positive and uplifting. And it is about having fun. I love to have the kids and parents interact in drills, it is how we build family.
So with seven years of basketball I have helped 40 or 50 kids grow. Children watch and learn from adults, so I see it as my stage to serve them. Since London (my youngest) is only three, I probably have several years left to teach.
Also, my word of advice to you coaches. I have never had parent issues (knock on wood) or altercations at a game like you see on TV. Personally, I think you get out what you put in. So, make sure your attitude and motivations are positive and you will get a devoted group of parents and have less problems.
Our typical fun Friday posts take on subjects not often mentioned here on the Schipul Blog, and I am proud to introduce College Football into the mix.
December has always been Bowl season in college football. More recently, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has brought both excitement and controversy into the college football landscape. Here’s some brief information to catch you up to speed on college football bowl games:
The 1902 Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford was the 1st Bowl game
The 2009-2010 season saw 34 different Bowl games, matching 68 of the 120 Division 1 teams
The Bowl Championship series began in 1998 with the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta bowls
The BCS bowls match the #1 and #2 teams together, along with other conference champions
Recently (2006), the BCS has added a 5th game, the Championship game, to allow more teams into BCS games
The BCS process has been under much scrutiny every year
That final point is where I’d like to focus in on. You might assume that if the BCS contains 5 games, that the Top 10 teams at the end of the season would participate in the BCS games. This has in fact never been the case. The BCS teams are made up of the #1 and #2 teams in the country, along with the conference champions from the:
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
Big XII Conference
Big East Conference
Big Ten Conference
Pac 10 Conference
Southeastern Conference (SEC)
The additional spots are made up of other top teams in the country, chosen at the selection process. Top teams in the country that are not in one of these big six conferences typically have a much harder time making it into the BCS games (except Notre Dame, who has a special guarantee agreement if they finish in the Top 8 of the BCS rankings).
The BCS rankings are made up of 2 polls and an average 6 computer rankings. Currently the 2 polls are the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and Harris Poll (no link, because it’s a mystery why this poll is even used). The AP Poll requested to be removed from the BCS in 2004 amidst controversy of rankings in the 2003 season. This was just the beginning of controversy in the BCS. Below, I recap some of the controversy in the short history of the BCS.
1998 – #3 Kansas State was left out in the cold because of a loss to Texas A&M in the Big XII Conference championship (a great overtime win). Not all conferences play championship games, and if Kansas State did not have to play in this game, they would have been undefeated and would have very likely would have played Tennessee for the National Championship.
1999 – With only two undefeated teams, the BCS correctly chose Florida State to play Virginia Tech. Not too tricky.
2000 – Oklahoma was the only undefeated team, and Florida State was chosen as the best team with one loss, despite it’s loss coming to Miami, another one-beaten team who’s loss came to Washington, the third one-beaten. Florida State’s Strength of Schedule (combined record of opponents + some math) boosted them in the BCS rankings. Strength of Schedule (SOS) continues to be a key element in the computer portion of the BCS rankings.
2001 – While there wasn’t any controversy in the #1 and #2 selections, a 3-loss LSU team (from the SEC) defeated a 1-loss Illinois team from the Big Ten. This begins what will become the dominance of SEC teams in BCS games.
2002 – Again, a clear Championship game between undefeated Miami and Ohio State (a controversial double-overtime game). This year, Florida State was the ACC champion, despite having 4 losses. This begins the ACC’s separation from the other conferences as true college football powers.
2003 – Despite being #1 in both of the human polls (Coaches poll and AP poll), USC (of the Pac 10) was #3 in the BCS rankings and was left out of the National Championship game. The Coaches poll was contractually obligated to award LSU as the national champ after their victory over OU. The AP poll gave their championship to USC, who had a great victory over Michigan in the Rose bowl. This was part of the seed that prompted the AP poll to opt out of being used by the BCS.
2004 – Four teams finished the regular season undefeated. USC and OU played for the championship, while Auburn (from the SEC) was left out. The fourth team, Utah, is in the Mountain West conference, which is not one of the big six used by the BCS. This fact, combined with their SOS, prevented them from being selected in the top 2. This denial to non-major conference teams continues today. Utah won their game easily against the 3-loss Big East champ Pitt. The Big East also began to slide just like the ACC in 2002.
2005 – Texas defeated USC in a fantastic game of the only two undefeated teams. While no controversy, the selection of two of two undefeated teams doesn’t take a fancy formula. Florida State, with 4 losses, becomes the lowest ranked team (#22) to play in a BCS game, while 1-loss Oregon (#5) did not get a BCS bowl bid.
2006 – While there were two undefeated teams, only one of them (Ohio State) played in the championship game. Boise State of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), who went on to win their bowl game and finish undefeated, was ranked 8th behind two teams each with two losses (LSU and USC). This continued the trend since 2004 of not showing much respect to non-major conference teams that go undefeated.
2007 – The next to last week of BCS rankings had Missouri and West Virginia in the #1 and #2 spots, two surprises for the season, though both teams lost their final games to then drop out of the top spots. A 2-loss LSU team defeated 1-loss Ohio State, while undefeated Hawaii was only ever ranked as high as #10. It should be noted that Hawaii was crushed by Georgia in their bowl game.
2008 – An undefeated Boise State team and an undefeated Utah team both finished undefeated and in the Top 10 of the BCS, though neither team played for a national championship. Boise did not even play in a BCS game, while again a 4-loss ACC team was given an automatic bid.
2009 – Again, an undefeated Boise State and an undefeated TCU (#6 and #4), where not allowed in the championship game. This was probably a good decision, since there were other undefeated teams. Sadly, Boise and TCU were forced to play each other, which prevented them from showing the nation how we truly stack up against one another.
2010 – Will Boise State and TCU still be left on the outside looking in? Only time will tell.
Why is this such a big deal? At the heart of the BCS is money, and lots of it. Nicholas Bakalar of the NY Times took on this issue in 2009, highlighting the drastic difference in BCS game payouts compared to other bowl games. ESPN recently signed a $500 million 4-year deal to own the rights to the 5 BCS games. Michael Smith of the Sports Business Journal covers in detail the split of the money to the football conferences from the BCS pool of fund.
Now, some of you may argue that the BCS does work, since it has helped to make some tough decisions over the past 12 years. I’ll leave you to make your case in the comments below.
When I was around 12 years old I was given a Rockets jersey from my parents. And cried when I got it. I cried because we lived in Minnesota and my parents told me I could wear my new jersey at my new school, in our new house in Houston.
My entire 12 years had been spent in Minnesota and I hadn’t moved since I really started going to school and making friends. The thought of changing schools seemed like the end of the world and I had no idea what existed outside of our neighborhood in Woodburry. Moving to Houston was weird, new, and uncomfortable… as many good things tend to start. And like those same different, uncomfortable things tend to resolve, I wouldn’t change a thing.
I didn’t realize it then, but that was the start of an important life lesson for me. I’ve come to see more and more how important it is to experience new things in new places. While I’m not ready to up and move again just to go somewhere new, I do try to make the most of the places I get to go and not pass up opportunities that arise. Brooke and I have taken our fair share of trips lately and have done our best to make the most of our time in new cities and find ways to get off the beaten path.
Flying in to Washington, D.C. late the night before a wedding we were going to in Williamsburg, VA gave us a chance to spend a little time in our nation’s capital. Squeezing in a trip to Arlington National Cemetery was hard (and different for me since I’m a bit uncomfortable around cemeteries) but it gave Brooke the chance to see her grandmother’s picture in a memorial to the women nurses of WWII and gave me a chance to wait around for my favorite picture from the trip. Totally worth it.
Getting up to take photos at the Houston Zoo at 7:00am on a Saturday was definitely difficult (and a bit uncomfortable), but ended up being a great experience. Watching a lion walk out to start his day and hearing and feeling his roar as a wake up call to the zoo was something to remember.
When taking a trip to New Orleans, it’s easy to stay around the center of town, eating and drinking with the tourists. With a little desire to do something different though, and a good list of recommendations from someone who knows better, you can experience New Orleans in a whole new way. Hand grenades on Bourbon Street and lunch at the Hard Rock are fine but a local beer at Cooter Brown’s and a night around a candle light piano at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar are the experiences I will remember.
The title of this post is from the Pink Floyd song “Breathe“. It can come off sort of negative at first, especially if you don’t share my same school of thought. To me though, it means that life is what you make it. It can be whatever you want it to be and is totally up to you and those experiences. It’s because I was forced to move from Minnesota and forced out of my comfort zone that I started to see how important new experiences are and probably why I interperate “Breathe” like I do. And for that, I am thankful.
Appropriately enough for this month of thanks and lessons learned, Schipul generously sent nine employees to DrupalCamp in Austin last week. Speakers and attendees came from nearby and far away to get together and talk about all things Drupal for two days. We all returned to Houston exhausted but educated, and we’re excited to share some of the lessons we learned over the weekend.
‘Thanks to Ezra Gildesgame, I learned a lot about custom module development, including creating my first custom module right after his presentation. Using Drupal’s hooks system to tie my module into things like form redirection on submission.
Quite a blast, and exponentially better than the previous year. A lot of thanks to Four Kitchens for killing it this year.â€
Jason Smith’s presentation on Integrating Third-party Data was a great look at tools to use when mixing Drupal with other web systems. Kieran Lal really motivated the group with his presentation on Drupal in Enterprise by showing the power and reach of Drupal. And in Reuse with Drupal Features, Chris Chistensen shared the power of using Features and version control to save time and energy in development and in deploying code for Drupal sites.
I was inspired by Tom McCracken (@levelten_tom)’s presentation on building online users. It’s important to be a leader in your niche by innovation and creating great content. My favorite quotes:
Being a leader is: 1. being the best you can in your niche, 2. maximizing your returns, 3. maximizing good will
“Great companies are great at innovating.” “The software’s not done until the last user’s dead”
“CMSes transform subject matter experts into publishers.”
I basically learned a little bit about a lot of things. I was given a great starting point on how to begin to understand things like Jquery, PHP, etc.
I also learned about some processes that we can implement in order to streamline our Drupal process for both ourselves and our clients. I learned about some awesome modules that will knock my clients’ socks off. And I learned that figuring out Lone Star riddles while drunk is hard.
DrupalCamp was great and totally worth going for me. I became a lot more familiar with PHP from the 10 Themeing Techniques session (strings, arrays, objects, etc.). I still don’t think I can write them but definitely have a lot better understanding for editing and problem solving.
The other session I enjoyed, and was most helpful for me as a project manager, was How to Get Early Estimates Right. It really broke it down from estimating by feature, how to stay on track and why it is so important.
From Melissa:
Here are a few things I learned about:
Drupal has a Drag ‘n’ Drop Upload module that allows users to drag images and files from the desktop or a folder into the body area of the WYSIWYG while editing a content page. This gives users another easy option for adding these to a page. Here’s the Drupal Module info and download page: https://www.drupal.org/project/dragndrop_uploads. Kinda neat.
Kate Broussard, web developer for the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services at University of Texas and speaker for the session Developing for Usability, pointed out how she uses simplified themes and custom blocks based on roles to make administering sites easier for the foreign language professors. The clean admin theme she uses is Rubik. Kind of neat look at how to keep things simple for admins that are either not tech-savvy or do not have a lot of time to spend clicking around to find things.
As a first-time attendee, I was really impressed by the strength of the Drupal community. This is one of the major selling points for Drupal as compared to other content management systems, and it was exciting and inspiring to see it in action. My favorite session was Tom McCracken‘s Building Web Leaders with Drupal. He discussed how we can leverage Drupal to turn people who are already experts in their niche into publishers, and what else is the internet really for?
I’ve compiled as many relevant links as I could find, including lots of the presentations that were given, on Delicious under the drupalatx tag. You can also relive the weekend via the #drupalatx hashtag on Twitter. Geek out, guys.
Holiday Shopping can be an awesome excuse to buy for yourself or friends and loved ones. If you can’t find the greatest gizmo or gadget this year, then click on over to Lehman’s for some classic toys for kids (and you can send me a Sock Monkey or twelve if you must!). You won’t need batteries for this list, there are some classic games and hand made toys. Lehman’s is really best known for their Simple Living products. Their natural goods and old style tools help remind of what life was like before microwaves. Yep … there was life before microwaves, I am sure it was sweaty hard work, with little in the way of leftovers, and not nearly romantic, but it was there. Not ready to go that retro yet, but it is fun to see some of the nostalgic products.
