I don’t need to tell you about it when Emily Explains It better then I ever could.

Yesterday I was called by my business partner Steve Coulson and told, “hold on a minute while I conference in….”

What followed was a solid minute of silence while I waited for him to use the built in three way calling that the iPhone does so well. As I sat there waiting I pondered why the iPhone (a device that plays all sorts of media) didn’t have a built in hold music option. Sure, this would not be a major feature or one that would necessarily improve sales, but wouldn’t it be a great feature.

I twittered out the brain dump and of course some people brought up the licensing rights which would be a problem. But, rather then picking a random song from my library as I thought would be fun, what if just like a ringtone I could either buy or create a single track for hold music.

You know me and know that I wouldn’t pick something main stream but rather an indie artist who could use the exposure even if it is something as small as this.

So, could this be an iPhone application? Something built right into the OS? Who knows.

Please feel free to steal this idea. All I ask is if you DO go about making it happen please have me as a BETA tester because it would be a lot of fun to have.

For the last week I’ve been on vacation. On purpose I didn’t talk much about it, Twitter where we were or tell a lot of people what we were up to.

In my mind, a vacation should be about unplugging, recharging and having a great time. All of those things happened this go around.

I’m going to be doing a full write up on the vacation over on Digital Dads, but I will say that we had an absolute blast in Orlando spending time with Mickey Mouse and the rest of the Disney gang. There were a lot of people in Orlando that I would have loved to see, but there just wasn’t any time and this was about quality time with the family.

I almost didn’t bring my camera, but I did and brought it out on the last day for the first time. Besides that the iPhone did just fine taking the few pictures I wanted to snap at any given moment.

Being off the grid (for the most part *grin*) was nice and needed and I feel very refreshed and focused. With everything going on in the coming weeks I need to be so the timing was perfect.

Yesterday, we had our annual 4th of July Chapman Chill and while small, it was just what we needed and spending face-to-face time with friends made it all worth while.

Tomorrow mornig isn’t going to be fun, but it is days like that which make you appreciate the vacation time even more.

This past weekend Emily took part in the local production of Alice in Wonderland. She has been working really hard for several months on this play and it was great to see it finally come to the stage. They had two seperate casts, but she played the same characters in both casts so we went to two different performances to see both casts and of course my camera was in my hand.

I’ve created an Alice in Wonderland set on Flickr, but here are some of my personal favorites.

I spent a mostly unplugged Fathers Day yesterday and it was a beautiful thing. I had one piece of work that I needed to noodle on, but spending the afternoon in a theater filled with Wonderland creatures let the noodling happen whenever it needed.

The family let me sleep in and then they made me a French Toast breakfast. I read the Sunday Boston Globe like I always do with Coffee and then we headed to Emily’s final performance of Alice in Wonderland.

It was a lot of fun and since this was my second performance, I brought my 135mm lens and moved seats so I wouldn’t have the conductors head in my shots like I did the other night. I have roughly 1300 pictures from both performances to go through and I don’t know if I’ll get to that before vacation or not. We’ll see how the week goes.

We took Emily out to dinner afterward and as if they knew I was coming they had a special which is one of my favorite dishes on the planet but one I don’t get very often – Lobster Fra Diavolo. It was spicy and amazing and completely made for a great way to end the day.

After getting home I was given my presents and now I have a new Lastolite Trigrip reflector that I’m itching to use on a photo shoot. Emily also really wanted to get me tickets to a play so we’ll be out on the town getting some culture again really soon.

My hope for Father’s Day was to stay unplugged and spend as much time as possible doing whatever with the family. I got that wish. Granted I had to blog about being a Dad because I couldn’t get it out of the brain, but I’m ok with that.

All in all it was a great day. My noodling helped me write the one e-mail I had to before going to bed and that lead to a couple, but I’m still cool with that.

How did you spend your Dad’s Day?

I’m spending the day with my family, but had to share my thoughts on being a Dad.

I’d love your thoughts over on Digital Dads.

It took me all afternoon to watch this video because I did not have the time to watch it all at once, but I can tell you that it is worth every minute to watch the whole thing. I had never heard of Webstock before seeing this video, but after seeing the line up of speakers I’m hoping I can attend at some point or someday be deemed worth enough to speak at it.

If you’ve never heard of Ze Frank that is ok. He is a warped, twisted, comic genius mind that after watching this video I have a new found respect for.

Not sure how you could not be inspired by the stories he shares.

I just finished recording Accident Hash #290 and as I’m listening back to it I’m laughing about me talking about conferences and how some of us have a lot of work to do so we can’t go on the social media conference circuit. I certainly fall into that category lately.

All last week and earlier this week I couldn’t stop getting asked why I wasn’t speaking at the 140 Conference. Honest truth is that Jeff Pulver asked me about the conference ahead of announcing it and I was offered a place to speak at it. But, for lots of reasons it just wasn’t a fit for me. Then this weekend is Podcasters Across Borders and once again I won’t be attending. Between it being Father’s Day and Emily’s play weekend I can’t be away.

I’ve been doing a LOT of thinking about a variety of topics lately. It frustrates me where a lot of things in my industry are right now and because of that I’m making some big decisions on where I want to focus my energy. It is refreshing, but it isn’t an overnight thing either and thus why when I tell people I’m busy but good I mean it.

Also, for those of you that have wanted to hear me rant a bit, you’ll be happy to know that on this week’s Managing the Gray I went off on the whole Mommy Blogging focus and why it bugs me so much. With Father’s Day this weekend it is at the top of my mind.

I just snapped the photo for this post to capture some of the emotions I’m feeling, but at the same time I’m very upbeat and positive. I’m sick of a lot of things and it is time to change them. Watch out. *laugh*

When it comes to charities, I’ll do just about anything to help them. When they help the military or kids then you really will have me do almost anything and it is because of that when Dave Delaney called me up on the phone and said, “you know that stupid hottest women on Twitter blog post that is making the rounds? I want us to have fun with that and make a calendar of the hottest men.” Once I stopped laughing I realized he was serious and now I can let you know that from this day forth I can add Mr. #HotMen August 2010 to my resume.

Of course this is 150% tongue and cheek and I had a blast with the photo shoot. I’m a bit disappointed that so many of the other guys taking part in this went with a stock photo of them rather then having a lot of fun with it. I know we are all busy, but finding a couple of minutes to be a goofball with a camera can be done by anyone.

The money is going to DonorsChoose.org which provides students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. Teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn and this charity gives them money to execute them. I love the concept behind it all.

Two things I need you to do for me.

1. Buy a copy of the calendar (they make great gifts)

2. Tell everyone you know to buy a copy of the calendar.

The calendar is only going to be available for 30 days and I really want to raise a nice chunk of change to help out the kids. Plus, you get to laugh at all of us goofballs who took part in the calendar.

Watch this.

I don’t care if this is an ellaborate Skittles ad or not (I don’t know the answer to that question), but Augmented Reality is something that is here and is going to change a LOT of things we do beyond just gaming.

Stop reading this post right now and go and order a copy of Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod.

Now, that you’ve helped support an independent artist and all around smart ass you can continue reading.

I’m not sure where I first came across Hugh and his drawing on the back of business cards, but I liked his mix of snarky reality that he brought to all his drawings. They were not complex and the cut through all the bull shit to get right to the heart of the matter. If you’ve never seen his images then swing on by GapingVoid.com to get a feel for them.

I met him for the first time outside of a bar at SXSW and I have to be honest that he was NOT what I expected and I say that in a good way. That made me like him even more.

Now, I don’t know Hugh all that well, but I love the work he does. In this picture you can see one of his prints that I purchased which hangs in my office. His first book Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity is a pull no punches kick in the nuts to anyone that takes themselves to seriously.

It is a very short read that you could do on a flight or a long train ride without any issues. But, be warned you ARE going to read it again. You are going to go back and look for quotes that made you laugh. You are going to want to find the prints so that you can throw them as cube grenades in your office.

You don’t have to be into social media, art or anything else to enjoy this book. Honestly anyone with a brain, a sense of humor and any form of grounded reality will get a lot out of this book.

Thanks for writing it Hugh!

Like a good little Beta Clone, I pre-ordered a copy of Personal Effects: Dark Artas soon as I could and even though I’ve read the book already I was excited to get the official printing in the mail and wanted to capture the moment on video because I was psyched to see all the goodies inside.

Order your own copy today!

I’ve felt all out of whack lately without a way to record podcasts. I didn’t think it would distract me as much as it did, but damn it sucked for a long time. But, I’m back and even though I’m getting the whole Ubercaster work flow figured out for me, it is going really well and that means a new Accident Hash and a new Managing the Gray so I’m pretty damn psyched.

Photography has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve been reading more about it and watching a lot of video as well. Of course all this inspiration should then be channeled into playing with my lights and shooting a lot of photos, but there just isn’t time for that right now. I know the only way to get better is to shoot constantly and experiment and that is what I’m hoping to find some more time for, but it just hasn’t been there.

School is just about done for the kids and that means drama and lacrosse will be done as well which will free up some time. I’ve also got to clean up the basement a bit so that I can set up my lights and learn to shoot better with them. I might have to find some other “models” besides the kids because they will get sick of it really quick. Anyone in the area want some new photos of them? I’ve got some people in mind that I really want to get in front of my camera, but not till I’m sure I can do them justice.

I did get to have a fun photoshoot the other night for a secret project that is the brainchild of Dave Delaney. I still can’t believe he convinced me to do it, but the people that will benefit from it made it all worth while. The picture here is an outtake from that shoot.

We are also gearing up to head to Florida soon for a family vacation. This will be the first time the kids have gone and we’ve got plans to do Disney and Aquatica, but are figuring out what else to do. Let me know if you have suggestions. I have a feeling I’m going to get more then one Digital Dads post out of this trip. Hopefully all for the good! *laugh*

I couldn’t attend all the Internet Week New York events that I wanted to, but I did have the chance to attend the Digital Content Newfront 2009 that was put on by Digitas. Now, full disclosure that I was invited and attended because we were working directly with the team getting the word out about the event and thus I was there on company time.

I took a few photos while there, and was very impressed by the line up of speakers. Mark Beeching kicked it off and instantly got my attention.

I’m not much of a celebrity guy, but it was funny all the little encounters I had during the day:

• I had a nice long conversation with Justine Bateman who I grew up watching on Family Ties and who is now doing great stuff with her production company FM78. We compared some war stories about how hard it is to get executives to understand this space.
• I was editing this photo of Tom Green when in my ear I heard, “Is that really what my hair looks like today?” and I turned around and it was Tom Green doing the asking. He is everything you’d imagine him being and then some. He left me to go over and check out all the technology powering the stream from Revision3.
• Finally, I noticed at one point that Milo Ventimiglia was standing out in the hallway just chilling so I went up and said hi. I think I surprised him a little when of all the projects I could mention to him I lead with It’s a Mall World. We chatted for a couple of minutes and he introduced me to his producer from Divide Pictures.

All in all it was a really powerful event. I wish that there were more success stories and examples presented, but perhaps next year we’ll have more of that.

It was great to hear so many people talk about how the media landscape is changing, but it wasn’t so great to hear that so few have figured out how to monetize. I guess if I was to look for a silver lining about this it would be that no one has fully figured it out so it isn’t just the independent little guy and girl who can’t make a living doing this quite yet.

I was also very impressed by Al Gore and everything he  has going on at Current right now. I knew he was a great speaker, but seeing him in person was extra cool. For some reason we were not allowed to take photos during his speech, which is why you won’t see any here.

The entire event was steamed live and I know that a lot of people were watching from their homes and offices based on the comments throughout the day. I’ve had more then one person ask me if any of the content will be archived and available to view at some point and I’ve been told that “it is being worked on.” I’m sure that if and when some clips are the first place to find out will be @TheThirdAct twitter account.

I hope I get a chance to attend next year. I left psyched about the future of this space. (not that I wasn’t already *grin*)