Here are a few mental notes from my hour without iPhone:

• First impression: FM radio is a wasteland. Seriously.
• Apart from Billy Joel’s annoying vocals, “Uptown Girl” is a rather catchy tune.
• I have a serious case of musical nostalgia for late 90s “modern rock.”
• How had I never noticed the totally 80s guitar solo to “Shine” by Collective Soul?
• Singing “Paradise City” at the top of your lungs is actually sort of fun.
• The Darkness would have ruled the world if they’d released “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” fifteen or so years earlier.
• Nickelback. I don’t even know where to start.
• The definition of “classic rock” may be getting broader–not to mention suckier–with every year that passes.
• Wow. U2’s “Magnificent” really moves. Maybe that should have been the first single.
• WUTC has a “DJ for an Hour” program? Where do I sign up?

One of the great people I met for the first time was Olympic gold medalist Joe Jacobi. Joe and I have been chatting online for some time about hyperlocal new media, and we had a great conversation at ChattUp. Towards the end of the night, we found a relatively quiet spot and he conducted a video interview with me about Chattarati and how new and social media could impact local politics:

Joe is a great advocate for new media, and I appreciate his support of Chattarati.

Introducing the Chattanooga Campaign Cash Maps, tracking financial contributions to all mayoral and city council candidates for the 2009 elections. To learn more about how we built the maps and why, read Making Transparency Local on Chattarati.

Chicago

I was in Chicago for WebTrends training as part of the job I started in late 2007. I love Chicago, and would like to visit in warmer weather. It could have at least snowed when I was there to make the cold more fun.

New York City

Genia and I went to New York to celebrate her 30th birthday. It was amazing, and I loved getting a few days with Genia apart from our daily routine. We need more long weekends like this! (Flickr set)

San Jose / Carmel-by-the-Sea / San Francisco

I visited San Jose for the Search Engine Strategies conference. My friend Wes happened to be there as well, and he had a car, so we took the opportunity to travel around in the evenings. We hit Carmel-by-the-Sea, a great little beach town, and San Francisco. Good times, plus, the Google Dance. (Flickr set)

Paw Paw, Illinois

Paw Paw is my dad’s hometown. I hadn’t been back in years, but we made a family trip there in September for a memorial service. While it was clearly a difficult trip to make, we had a good time with our extended family.

Charlottetown, PEI, Canada

Zap. What an experience!

Ellijay, Georgia

UnThanksgiving. Thanksgiving 2007 was incredibly emotional, in a positive way. Dad had just come home from a stem cell transplant at Vanderbilt, in full remission. None of us were prepared to do the usual Thanksgiving routine this year, so Genia and I took the girls to the woods and had a very relaxing (and distracting) unThanksgiving. (Facebook photos)

Now, who wants to be my patron so I can just travel around with the family in 2009?

• Spend more time just having fun with my wife and daughters
• Read the New Testament
• Read one book per month
• Reach 170 lbs. or less
• Successfully ride a century on my road bike
• Help Chattarati continue growing its audience and influence
• Grow my freelance client base or start a new business
• Travel somewhere new outside the USA
• Learn more about photography
• Learn more about wine

What are your goals for 2009? How can we help each other?

“Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.”

For a little balance on the last eight years, here’s Barack Obama on the worst of political times:

“When Democrats rush up to me at events and insist that we live in the worst of political times, that a creeping fascism is closing its grip around our throats, I may mention the internment of Japanese Americans under FDR, the Alien and Sedition Acts under John Adams, or a hundred years of lynching under several dozen administrations as having been possibly worse, and suggest that we all take a deep breath.”

And just because I liked it, here’s Andrew Sullivan on Fundamentalism:

“For me, fundamentalism is not just a distortion of faith but a negation of it. Faith, in my view, should not be blind. It should have the widest eyes imaginable. Nothing that is true should stand in the way of faith, unless one has already conceded that one is believing in a lie. And so science is not to be feared but embraced. And historical scholarship is to be plumbed not ignored. And debate is to be welcomed, not policed. It is only through this process of doubt and questioning that real faith emerges.”

Out of sheer curiosity (as an internet marketer myself), I had to click through to see the landing page. Go ahead, click through and come back. Did you notice the great headline? “ALL POLITICS ASIDE…this outfit gets our vote.”

I don’t keep up with Michelle Obama’s television appearances, but I do know she’s incredibly popular. The ad implies that she wore a J.Crew outfit during an appearance on The Tonight Show, so there are probably countless women out there who’d love to copy her look. And the call to action plays right along: “Buy it now, before it sells out.”

The only problem? Google AdWords are a little harder to target than display advertising on Hulu… A guy reading an article about Karl Rove’s prediction of an Obama landslide isn’t exactly who they’re looking for. Regardless, it’s timely and clever. Well played, J.Crew.

To twist a line we often use on Chattarati, this post is not satire.

First, this was not an easy choice. There are numerous policy areas where I part ways with Senator Obama, as there are with Senator McCain. Rather than hashing through all those disagreements like some sort of legal disclaimer, I’ll jump in to the reasons why I chose to vote for Obama.

Where Do I Go From Here?
Up until the last few days I was one of the mysterious “undecided,” perhaps because of my strong support of Ron Paul during the primary season. Throughout the campaign, I’ve obsessively followed the candidates and the unceasing news coverage. Does that mean I’ve bought into the hype that it’s the most important election in history? Not quite, but as Bono recently said, regardless of who wins, the new President has “a great chance to relaunch Brand USA.” Oh admit it, you’ve really missed hearing me quote Bono. Regardless, his point is relevant to my choice.

Let me be clear that I also reject any type of messianic vision of Obama. He’s just a man. However, he is also a remarkable and exceptional man in many ways (including some which can only be attributed to God or fate — your pick). The poster below should be moving for every American, regardless of political affiliation:

Exceptionalism
It is not merely, however, his American Dream story that makes him exceptional. A true intellectual in the best sense of the word, Barack Obama is highly intelligent, curious and thoughtfully deliberate. If you haven’t read about his time as a law professor at the University of Chicago, you should. It gave me a great deal of insight into how he approaches different sides of an issue and engages with differing viewpoints. Even better, Obama speaks to us as grownups, capable of understanding subtlety and nuance. It sometimes made for less than stellar debate moments, but I appreciated it anyway.

There’s a stark contrast here with not only the administration of George W. Bush, but also with the McCain/Palin ticket, which is practically campaigning on anti-intellectualism at this point. (That is, when their campaign is not completely in the mud, as it has also been of late.) I asked myself, what message would my vote send to my daughters? Should I one day tell my two bright girls that their intelligence is something to be ashamed of or that they need not strive for excellence?

Foreign Policy
Continuing on the theme of relaunching Brand USA (and you know I do love branding), the foreign policy approaches of Obama and McCain played a key role in my decision. Simply put, I believe Barack Obama will prove a more skilled diplomat and will preside over a more reasoned, thoughtful approach to foreign relations than would John McCain. And to return for a moment to his biography, the simple act of electing Obama will have a dramatic impact on how the world perceives our nation. In a globalized economy, the strength of Brand USA matters.

A Broader Christian Ethic
I recently mentioned reading N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope which, like Jim Wallis’s God’s Politics, has helped give voice to my frustration with the typical ways that conservative Christians merge their faith and politics. I remain strongly pro-life, but I am not a one-issue voter. My concerns about life include unborn lives, the lives of the hungry and homeless and the those of soldiers sent to a war in Iraq that I have yet to be convinced is justified or necessary, as well as the stewardship of the environment and a host of other justice issues. (Please hear this: I have the upmost respect for our troops; I simply disagree with the joint decision of President Bush and Congress to go to war in Iraq.) Am I saying every Christian who shares these concerns should vote for a liberal instead of a conservative? Not necessarily. God is not a Republican or a Democrat or a Libertarian (well, maybe a Libertarian). In this particular election, I feel that Obama best represents these broader set of values.

Paging Dr. Dobson: You Don’t Speak for Me
Furthermore, a vote for Obama is a conscious rejection of the idea that the Republican party owns evangelical voters because the GOP makes a lot of noise on one or two specific issues.

Wearing My Influences on My Sleeve
These are a few of the reasons I chose to vote for Senator Barack Obama. If you’re curious, here are a few articles that give insight into my choice:

• Andrew Sullivan: Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Support Obama
• Frank Schaeffer: Why I’m Pro-Life and Pro-Obama
• Jim Wallis: James Dobson’s ‘Letter From 2012 in Obama’s America’
• Colin Powell’s Endorsement of Barack Obama
• The Economist’s Endorsement of Barack Obama

Whether you agree with my choice or not, I hope you’ll vote make this post the beginning of a respectful conversation and I hope you’ll vote.

In case you missed it, the photo above is from a New York Times article about the differing business models of Twitter and Yammer.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Twitter and I use it every day. And if pressed, I’d probably be willing to pay a small subscription in order to keep using it. However, the caption absolutely cracked me up: “Mr. Williams is chief executive of Twitter, which has no revenue.” As a true fan, here’s hoping they find a revenue model before all the cash from Jeff Bezos runs out…

I’m slowly reacclimating myself to the so-called real world after an amazing weekend on Prince Edward Island. My journey to the unconference known as Zap Your PRAM took me through Atlanta, Toronto, Halifax and Charlottetown before I settled in at the charming Dalvay-by-the-Sea Hotel. By now, the weekend has been summarized, memorialized and philosophized across the zaposphere, but here are a few of my broad impressions.

Food
There’s something deep about sharing meals with friends, and our hosts (of silverorange and reinvented fame) were well-attuned to this fact. We had two hours allotted for lunch and another two for dinner, allowing us to linger and enjoy great conversations long after the delicious, artfully-presented meals had been devoured.

Focus
…or the lack thereof. This is one of Zap’s biggest strengths, that it was not merely a “tech” or “design” event. It was simply–and broadly–about interesting people talking to one another. Stephen DesRoches has a comprehensive recap, but to say my mind was expanded would be an understatement. In a truly head-spinning moment, I spoke on a “design matters” panel alongside Paul Kim (Mozilla), Peter Sikking (openUsability), Jes Sherborne (ZS Associates) and Matthew Domurat (Dow Jones). I have a feeling the near-overdose levels of intelligence and insight I encountered at Zap will be working their way through my brain for some time.

Friends
What I think (hope?) will last longer than the interesting tales are the new friendships which began over this long weekend. While I didn’t get a chance to talk with everyone, I made an effort to step outside my painfully shy nature and get to know as many of the amazingly cool people as possible. And what’s been interesting in the last couple days is that rather than rushing to connect on LinkedIn, we’ve been busy finding each other on Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm. Scotch tastings (Ian, you rock!) and fireside chats over live music have a way of encouraging that, I suppose.

One More Thing
A couple of choice quotes related to my standing as the southernmost attendee and the associated cultural assumptions:

• Dan James: “So, I’ve had a few people ask me this — since you’re from the south, are you a Republican? We’re hoping to have a token Republican.”
• Alan McLeod: “The sound of your voice makes me hungry for barbeque.”
• Keith Burgoyne: “Okay, I have to know — Sarah Palin, hot or not?”

Y’all are welcome down south anytime, y’hear?