MMP

The nice thing about living back in New England is that there’s this gigantic body of water called an “ocean” and you can do some pretty awesome things on or in it. This past weekend, I spent some time doing some stereotypical white-boy things.

• Wearing plaid shorts.
• Drinking craft-brew seasonal beer like Sam Adams Summer Ale.
• Rocking a pair of boat shoes.
• Sailing

Individually, these things are all great, HOWEVER when you combine them into one big simultaneous event you’ve got the makings of the ultimate whiteboy day.

Related Reading: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

I own it. Softgoods coming soon? You bet.

Snowcial 2011 is coming up quick, January 6th, 2011 at Heavenly / Harrah’s Resort Casino in Lake Tahoe. I spoke at the conference last year, this year I’m on the planning side. We just went live with the big push, video, info about our first round of speakers, etc.

I don’t have the time right now to make a big-ass post about Snowcial, so just watch the video.

Like it or not, the web is undergoing a phenomenal change right now. No longer is it about individual pages, links or how you integrate with websites. It’s about you, your information, your connections and how that information interacts with other websites.

Paul Adams (User Experience engineer at Google) knows this and has released his findings about how we connect with our “friends” using popular social media sites. Turns out it’s not as simple as you’d think. His presentation is a must-read for anyone who is designing user interfaces and works in the social space.

Weighing in at 216 slides, it’s a bit of a biggie. Hang in there, the research that The Goog has done with regards to social influence, online and offline friends, strong vs. weak ties is information that you must be armed with.

Here are some of the highlights…

• People have multiple independent groups of friends that form around life stages and shared experiences. (Example: College friends, work friends, family, hobbyists.)
• There are three types of social ties: Strong, Weak and Temporary.  
• The stronger the social tie, the higher they influence us to buy products and services.
• Our brains can only keep up with a limited number of weak tie relationships.  For most people, that number is 150.
• People are increasing their reliance on social networks to make decisions.

Go get a look at the presentation on SlideShare.

The best show on television returns.

Detailed the hell out of the Jetta this past weekend at the Amirault waterfront compound in Rhode Island. A quick wash, full hand-wax, vacuum, q-tip interior detail, and a bleach-white of the tires. I’ve been driving this car for almost 8 months now, every time I turn the key it’s an absolute delight. Powerful, stylish and refined. Just wish the leather wasn’t so damn hot in the summer. Then again, I should never complain about a problem like that.

Boulder.

This is how you punk a few hundred people with something as simple as a bucket of paint.

Got really cagey in Boston this weekend. Ventured down to the parents pad in Rhode Island for summertime shenanigans by the bay.

The view from the Amirault compound. Sunset.

We cleaned up the Boston Whaler and slapped her in the water for the first time this summer. Solid.

The high seas. Well, not really. Just Narragansett bay.

Spent this past Friday evening with friends and family at the Sox game. Many thanks again to Sunday River for letting me occupy their seats for the evening. The weather was amazing, the beer cold and the sox were on fire.

Summer in Boston. This is America

Sunset on the best ballpark in the world.