sMoRTy71.com: January 2008

Back from Vegas & Memphis
It's been quite a week. I spent January 5th through the 9th in Las Vegas covering CES for CNET (See my blog posts and Flickr photos). I had a great time and got to hang out with people like Jeremy Toeman, Dave Zatz (both of whom I have known online for years, but had never met in person), Mehrshad Mansouri, Robert Scoble, Doc Searls and Marc Canter. I also spotted a handful of celebrities including Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, Michael Douglas, David Caruso and David Ortiz. Of course, I also got to see a lot of great products including the SlingCatcher, Bug Labs' upcoming modules and Netgear's All-Access Home products.


View from my hotel room at the Palms

Upon returning from Vegas, I learned that Amy's grandmother, who has been battling leukemia for years, was in very serious condition and wasn't expected to pull through. She was in septic shock, her kidneys had shut down and her blood pressure was bottoming out. The doctors encouraged family members to come to Memphis if they wanted to see her before she passed away.


Amy with her mom and grandmother in 2004

So, we packed the kids in the van and made the 7-hour drive to Memphis (about 16 hours after getting off the plane from Vegas).

After the family began arriving, Amy's grandmother made what her nurses described as a miraculous turnaround. Her kidneys began functioning again and her blood pressure stabilized. Of course, she was still in the ICU, so she wasn't completely out of danger.

Because the kids aren't allowed in the ICU, Amy went to the hospital twice per day (for a couple of hours each time) and I stayed with the kids. We were able to go to the Children's Museum, the Pink Palace Museum and explore downtown. We also spent way too much time in our hotel room.

With Amy's grandmother stable for now, we decided to head back to Louisville today. We arrived home tonight at around 9pm. We're all wiped out. I've got to get unpacked from both Vegas and Memphis and get ready to head back to work tomorrow. With holidays and CES, I've only spent 3 days in the office over the past 30 days, so I've got a lot of things to catch up on. So if I owe you an e-mail or a phone call, I'll be in touch this week (hopefully).

Sunday CES recap
My first full day in Vegas was fun and hectic.

The day started at 8am with a ton of press events. I went to events with LG, Netgear, Toshiba, Samsung, Monster Cable and Philips. Got a lot of great info, a free Blu-ray disc and photos of Dr. Dre.

Around 4:00p, Jason Hiner and I headed over to the Bellagio to check out Seagate and PodTech's BlogHaus. I had a really great time there. I was able to meet my friend Jeremy Toeman in person for the first time. He was introduced me to Doc Searls, Peter Semmelhack of Bug Labs and Robert Scoble.

I also met Marc Canter who founded Macromedia (and who once blogged about how much he disliked the name Profilactic) and Elaine Fiolet from ubergizmo.com.

I stuck around the BlogHaus long enough to drink a beer and watch about 3/4 of the Bill Gates keynote.

At around 7:30p, I walked from the Bellagio over to Caesar's for Digital Experience. I talked with reps from Netgear, VUDU, Logitech, and Sling Media. I was able to meet Dave Zatz from Sling who I've known online for a couple of years. He hooked me up with Matt Feinstein who gave me a demo of the SlingCatcher which was unveiled for the first time tonight. The SlingCatcher is definitely the coolest product I've seen so far.



Jason, Bill and I called it a night at around 10:30p and grabbed a cab back to the Palms. Once I got back to the room, I finished up 3 or 4 blog posts that I had started earlier in the day.

It's now 12:15 PST and my alarm is set for 5:30. Ugh!

First night in Vegas
I am in Vegas for CES this week. I'm covering the event for CNET.

I arrived last night at around 6pm, got checked in the Palms around 7pm, then meet a couple of colleagues for a late dinner (it was 10:30 EST) at NOVE. Before calling it a night, we shot a couple of pre-show videos that should be live this morning.

I'll be posting details on Practical Gadgetry, Twitter and this blog throughout the event.

Social Media Club kickoff is Jan. 22, 2008
Just a couple of hours after getting Ben Thomas' invite for the Louisville Geek Dinner, I got an invite from Jason Falls for the inaugural meeting of the Louisville Chapter of the Social Media Club.

The Social Media Club is a national organization that bills itself as a community for the champions of social media and those seeking to learn. SMC wants to begin a local conversation about the practice of social media that will foster discussion, sharing and learning for all involved.

Here are the details:

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Greater Louisville, Inc. (Chamber of Commerce)
Street: 614 West Main Street

Jason has created a page for the event in Facebook, so sign up.