Homeschooler, Speaker, Blogger, Modern Media Coach from Lancaster, PA

In continuance of my new yearly tradition here are two favorite websites for 2008 as well as predictions for 2009.

There are so many I will give my two favorites followed by some runners up.

1. Twitter.com

Hands down my favorite website in 2008 and still going strong. Here are a list of my twitter accounts…

• @ethanD - main twitter account (politics etc.)
• @ethanD_local - follows local people in Lancaster, PA
• @MathUSee - Business account
• @KeystoneNews - account for my new website KeystoneConservative.com

I have connected with and met tons of great people via twitter. Not sure what will happen in ‘09 when it gets even bigger, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

2. Hulu.com

Want to watch your favorite TV show whenever you want? Before Hulu I rarely watched TV shows and then only if I rented or bought the DVD. Now I hook my laptop up to my TV and watch whenever I want. Favorite shows on Hulu…

• Heroes
• Chuck
• The Office
• Firefly
• Any Given Latitude
• The Simpsons

Honorable Mention

facebook.com was my pick for last year and is still going strong, they keep adding new cool stuff, most recently facebook connect and HD video. This is part of a push to integrate your facebook with the rest of what you do online. Videos are now embedable on external sites, how cool/scary is that.

Predictions

Two things are going to crazy this year.

1. Mobile phones: mobile browsing, text messaging campaigns, video on your phone, mobile blogging. In fact for the younger generation a mobile phone number will replace email and you will see more sites letting you log in with your mobile number or your email.

2. Online HD video: There will be more and more video, with facebook, youtube and plenty of other sites adding HD, the HD flip video camera it will be easy to post HD video of your dog, cute kids and stupid things you do. Combine this a high tech mobile phone and you will also see streaming video go mainstream. YouTube will most likely add streaming and facebook won’t be far behind.

Sure these things have been around for a while but in 2009 I predict they will go mainstream. We’ll see.

Have any favorites or predictions? Leave a comment and share.

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Trying my hand at video blogging.

As a side note I saw this on my local TV station and was ashamed at what was being done in the name of “Christianity.”

What person when asked for a loaf of bread (or oil) gives his neighbor nothing?

So in honor of today I will be visiting my local breweries and beer distributors to support them. Luckily for me we have a few around here.
Links to local breweries, support your local economy and buy local beer.

Lancaster

• Lancaster Brewing Company
• Iron Hill Brewery
• Spring House Brewery
• Union Barrel Works Brewery
• Bube’s Brewery

Nearby

• Stoudt’s Brewery
• Appalachian Brewing Company

Have a favorite local brew? Leave a comment.

cross posted at KeystoneConservative.com

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I use twitter and I use it almost all the time. A lot of my friends keep asking “soooo what is twitter” and it’s kinda hard to explain so when I saw this slide show I said to myself, “Self you need to blog this and educate people about twitter” long story short I listened and here is the slide show.

Oh and it my not import into facebook so if you can’t see it click here.

| View | Upload your own

Hat tip to Erin Norton @ErinNorton

So that is twitter, if you live in Lancaster, PA follow my local twitter [twitter.com/ethanD_local] or my other account (more politics n stuff) [twitter.com/ethanD] or I also run the Math-U-See account [twitter.com/MathUSee]

If you still don’t “Get it” that is fine we don’t want your kind on twitter anyway

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I know a lot of people who regularly listen to sermons online… I’m not one of those people. However, I did just listen to a sermon by Mark Driscol from Mars Hill Church. He has been doing a sermon series on the Song of Solomon called “The Peasant Princess”

So for all you married couples out there check this out.

Here is the Video

Also how cool is it that this church has embeddable video and audio from their website. Mad props to Mars Hill Church.

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I was thinking about the politics and the campaigns of Obama and McCain and realized that they are BOTH running campaigns that I dislike, it may be effective but I still don’t like it.

The McCain campaign is running ads and talking about: Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko etc. Essentially saying, “Obama hangs out with these people, they are bad people, therefore Obama is bad.”

The Obama campaign on the other hand is running ads and talking about: George Bush, Charles Keating, Phil Graham etc. Essentially saying “McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time, he hangs out with Bush, you all hate Bush you should hate McCain too.”

It’s in the talking points, it appeals to people’s emotions, it works but I still think it sucks. I mean if you take a look at who I’ve hung out with in the past and the present I am completely unfit to run for president Right wing conspiracy theorists, militia members, drug dealers, homosexuals, convicts, strange pastors, hippies, communists etc. These all are people I’ve hung out with and would respect their opinions on certain subjects while rejecting their ideas on others.

One of the problems with politics is we put our politicians on a pedestal and expect them to be completely different from us. Think about the kind of negative ads your opponent could run if YOU were running for public office.

I’d rather look at someones record, who they are and what they are planning to do, actions speak louder than words and much louder than associations.

Thoughts?

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The tag line states: “Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich” and if you write a bestseller you TOO could do that

Tim Ferris shares excitement filled tales of his life free of the daily grind of work. It’s fluffy, it’s the latest pop business book, it’s an entertaining read but it’s not that revolutionary.

Spoiler alert! I will now sum up the entire book so you don’t have to read it (unless you want to)

First Step (this is the hardest part)
Define what you really really want in life and figure out how much it really costs.

Second Step
Simplify your life so you’re not wasting your time doing things you don’t really want to do.

Third Step
Automize your job or business to free you up to do what you really want to do. Outsource everything, customer service to a customer service company, order fulfillment, etc.

Fourth Step
Check your email and voice mail once a week and make sure everything is running smoothly then go back to surfing or whatever it is you really really want to do.

The hardest part of all this is figuring our what you really really want to do with your life. This is a subject most people struggle with their entire lives, and what you really really want to do may change tomorrow.

I did like two points Ferris made in the book. You will notice in the tag line the phrase, “The New Rich” rather than put a dollar value on what “Rich” is Ferris rightly changes the definition, if your goal in life is to surf in Hawaii then it’s not really that expensive, however if you want a house, a car, 2 kids and spend your time surfing in Hawaii then it becomes more expensive.

Being rich is nothing more than having enough money to follow your dreams.

The other thing I liked was Ferris’ emphasis on totally eliminating non essential and non important tasks from everyday life. Freeing up 3 hours a week to follow your dream isn’t that hard and very rewarding.

All in all I enjoyed the book as it stimulated my thinking but there wasn’t really anything revolutionary in the book.

Score - 3 of 5 watermelons

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So I decided to take up a new hobby called slackline. The idea is to balance on webbing pulled tight between two trees.

Here is my first attempt, I was going to edit it and make myself look like I knew what I was doing, add some cool music but I was lazy so you get to watch the unedited version. Enjoy

Oh and my wife makes hilarious comments throughout

After filming this and later that evening I was practicing again when a little old lady walked by on the street and asked what I was doing, I told her and tried to show her how awesome I was. Then I fell off and hurt my right buttock.

FYI this is what Slacklining is supposed to look like…

So once I can walk without pain I’ll start slacklining again

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I’ve been pondering lately the many places I frequent online. So I’ve decided to redesign EthanDemme.com and have the main page be the blog and move all my posting here. This essentially cancels my photoblog, travelblog, tumblr account. I will also be cross posting here anything I post on any group blog I am on.

Basically I’ll be posting here often from now on,

Thanks for stopping by.

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I went to the Park City mall today to visit my favorite store there, Eastern Mountain Sports, alas when I arrived it was not in it’s usual place. In it’s customary spot there was an apple store being built. I was sad to not see my favorite store but my sadness was much asuaged by the coming Apple store

After wandering a bit more we discovered that Eastern Mountain sports had moved to the Boscov side.

Now I know that there are two, count them two! awesome stores at the mall that I can purchase high quality, over priced, really cool stuff at

I returned with a new techwick EMS t-shirt and that deserves a w00t!

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