MMP

Hello Boulder.

Just added a new Thule rack system and roof-box to the Jetta. This should allow me to bring an absurd amount of stuff to Aspen without having to crowd the backseat of my car with a whole bunch of junk.

2400 miles to Colorado. Let’s do this.

Can’t let them go empty.

My laptop is a 15″ unibody MacBook Pro. It’s a fantastic computer, however after you factor in the bag, power adapter, mouse and any other necessary accessories needed to make the damn thing useful you’re usually shouldered with 10-12 pounds of dead weight. It’s like carrying around a boat anchor. At the end of the day, when you find yourself using your computer to check email, chat with friends, manage your social networks and sometimes entertain yourself with some news and games there’s no reason you need to slog that entire production around. That’s why I bought an iPad.

My parents have an iPad, they’re both in their mid 50’s and have integrated it into their daily lives without any technological or operational hurdles.

Sure, it cannot do everything that my laptop does; Flash is nowhere to be found, my entire suite of content creation applications (Adobe CS5 Web Premium, Final Cut Studio, etc) are nowhere to be found and it doesn’t have a physical keyboard. You know what it does have? A 10+ hour battery, fantastic pre-installed apps and a zillion more on iTunes, a low sticker price, 64gb of storage, 3G access (my iPhone is jailbroken and acts as a hotspot), a tiny charger that also works with my iPhone and a total weight just shy of 2 pounds when you account for all the “accessories” that you need.

Riding the MBTA Commuter Rail from Providence to Boston, armed with nothing more than my iPad. Music, news, chat and whatever else I need for the 1.5 hour train ride. My MacBookPro would cook my crotch and die towards the end of this journey.

It’s the ultimate device for a road warrior. No longer do I pack up my laptop for a personal trip where I’ll be gone for a couple of days, it sits alone at home on my kitchen table. It is liberating to not worry about an expensive piece of hardware that contains your life’s contents and files. Being able to grab the iPad, a charger and fly out of your house on a whim is terrific. You know that if something bad happens, it isn’t the end of your life. When it all boils down, the cost of replacing my $2500 laptop and the data that sits on it (Yes, I have a backup) far exceeds the cost of buying a new iPad and syncing it with my Google Enterprise account and iTunes.

Reading the “paper”.

For those of you that bitch about the iPad’s shortcomings, and believe me it’s far from a perfect device, you have to appreciate all the things that it allows you to do. The ability to leave your laptop at home and still have 95% of what you need to get shit with such an ultra-portable device is worth the money.

Maybe in another post I’ll write about the way it’s changing media consumption and application development. For now, remember to try one the next time you’re at the Apple Store.

Even Leroy likes the iPad

Who the fuck is Jay Leno?

Even Kenny Powers knows that JPG’s are wack as hell when you’re living in the 300DPI land of print.

In the event that I produce some sort of offspring, these are going to be the birth announcement cards that I send out to friends and family.

Takes after his father.

Congratulations, it’s a girl!

Every skier has a home mountain. It’s where you’ll find them on a powder day, the first ones waiting for a chair on opening day and the last ones coming down the hill on closing day. Last season, I tried to spend every possible moment at Aspen Highlands, but due to a constant travel schedule at Freeskier and the often grueling drive from Boulder I was only able to be there for about 50% of my ski days. This season, I’ll be living a mile from the lifts of this magical place.

See you in a few weeks, Highlands.

Photo by Jeremy Swanson.

Just got back from a wonderful weekend at Sunday River for the annual Fall Festival. Spent some quality time with lifelong friends at a place that I credit with igniting my passion and career for all things skiing related. Only bummer for the whole trip was that I had to give up my board position at the mountain since I am joining the Marketing department at Aspen/Snowmass.

Took a hike with the Matthews family up Locke Mountain. Since there’s a boundary-to-boundary policy at the mountain this season I wanted to show them some secret stashes they could tear up this winter. Now that the kids are a bit older I think they’re ready to start venturing off the map.

Snow on Mount Washington! Winter isn’t far away.

Hiking up Locke with the Matthews fam in tow.

The snowguns did their yearly marketing appearance once the temps dipped low enough to make a snow-like substance. Photo by Nick “The Hammer” Lambert.

USGS Marker at the top of Locke Mountain.

Two of my favorite things on one hat. Love it.

Just accepted a position with Aspen/Snowmass as the Internet Marketing Manager. I start November 1!

Details coming soon.