According to many reviews, the iPad will change everything. There are so many questions about what it means to the future of publishing and media-rich content. Is it going to change the way we watch tv? Is it going to finally make ebooks the new standard for reading? While questions abound, the most important question of the day for us is :Will it blend? Warning! This video contains graphic scenes of violence against an iPad. Apple fans and gadget freaks be warned: this will make you sick! Are you planning on buying an iPad? If so, why?

I just paid $10.90 for a 32 oz smoothie. Yep, that’s right, a smoothie. And it didn’t have a filet mignon steak blended in with white truffle oil either. It was mango/peanut butter flavor (I know it sounds terrible, but trust me it’s excellent). The whole ordeal started during my trip to Florida a few weeks back where an employee at the Smoothie King in Destin talked me into getting their locally created concoction. I loved it so much that I wanted my local Brentwood, TN store to make me one just like it. That’s when it all went wrong and the lack of flexibility and customer service ended up losing me as a customer. Since I knew the mango/peanut butter is not on the menu, I called the store in Destin and got the recipe: 7 squirts of water, 6 squirts of mango, 2 scoops of peanut butter and…

With the proliferation of DVRs (Digital Video Records) such as Tivo advertisers have been scrambling to find ways to get their message across and product placement has been the growing trend. Of course, this is nothing new. We’re used to seeing our hero driving the latest Audi R8 as in Iron Man or James Bond wearing a fashionable and surprisingly resilient Rolex. We even saw Will Smith upload a virus that wiped out an entire Alien mother ship that was set to destroy earth with, what else, a Mac. However, product placement has gone to a whole new level lately. Take for example this week’s episode of Modern Family, one of my favorite new comedies this season. The entire episode focused on Phil’s birthday, played by Ty Burrell, and his obsession with his birthday gift: an iPad. It was not a subplot; it was the plot. The word “iPad” was…

 There’s not much to say about this product only that it will save my marriage. After years of conflict and misery over my love of Mexican food and its unfortunate side effects, a solution has been found: The Better Marriage Blanket. I’m buying stock in the company. If this thing works, I have a feeling it will be huge for Mexican food lovers everywhere. Are you joining me in purchasing one? Who in your family is the most “deserving” person for the blanket?

It’s holy week for Christians everywhere and for me, it’s the week I see some of the worst direct mail pieces come in my mailbox from churches inviting people to their Easter Services. This year is no exception. It’s only Monday and I already had my share of poorly conceived and designed post cards. So here’s 2010’s top ways to ruin your Easter mailer based on actual fail attempts I’ve personally received: This is cute, but what do you want from me? Fail to include your website, or if you do, misspell the address. Yes, even today people still don’t proofread their mailers. I’m looking at a mailer with a wrong website address.  Include a bad picture of the preacher and his wife. Since most people decide on the church based on their perception of the teaching pastor, I can understand using the pastor’s picture on a mailer; however, if…

This is part of my random Friday collection. I don’t know what to say about this video, but it is as captivating as it is scary. It beckons you to watch it much like a train wreck that horrifies and yet compels you to keep looking and watch it some more. How would you describe this experience?

This week my whole family had to make a trek to the main Nashville post office on Royal Oaks Blvd, a 45-minute drive with two smelly boys and another two of their equally smelly friends. The boys needed new passports and the only way to renew them was for the whole family to appear live at the post office (I tried talking Gwen into conferencing me in with a laptop but she just gave me “the look”). I wasn’t looking forward to the whole ordeal, but I underestimated the postal service’s ability to disappoint.  We show up at 5:25 knowing that the passport window closes at 6. The line was 8 people deep and the lonely employee inside the small room was, well, slower than molasses. Gwen, in order to expedite the process, had pre-filled all the necessary paperwork she picked up at our local branch beforehand. Twenty minutes later…

Communication happens long before you open your mouth. Whether you’re a presenter, a salesman, a preacher, or a guest, people will make categorical judgments based on how you look long before you have a chance to have a meaningful engagement. It might not be fair, but, nonetheless, it’s what happens. You can choose to deal with it or live with the consequences. Recently I had a meeting at a very conservative client’s office where I was supposed to meet with a new team and the CEO. I dressed appropriately to the occasion, a suit and tie. But I forgot that I was meeting a potential new client, an author, during one of my afternoon meetings. Interestingly, one of her first observations was “I expected you to be dressed more casually, since you’re in marketing.” Some might say that you need to be yourself, dress the way you want and be…

This is brilliant. To me this video is a commentary on a generation of pseudo-talent that has, against all common sense, been affirmed into failure by well-meaning parents. If these guys are for real, then, well, bless their hearts! http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9625670&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1 Can we go too far in affirming our children into an unhealthy, unrealistic place?

You can’t  predict it. You can’t prepare for it. But when it happens you can choose to embrace it or reject it. “The encounter” is what I call it: a time when someone, a total stranger walks into your life and your worlds collide. For whatever reason you find thrust into the middle of another’s life story and the choice is clear: I either engage or choose to walk away.  If you know me, you already know the answer to that dilemma. I engage.  Just this past weekend I was reminded of a particular memorable “encounter.”  Greg and Joanie Anderson showed up at an event I was hosting in Palm Springs in partnership with a publisher. The interesting thing about them is that I didn’t know who they were and had not invited them. But they made it into the publisher’s list somehow and showed up at our event on…