I still can’t believe I made it an entire year with my picture-a-day experiment, Picalicious. You can read more about that here. Oddly enough, I’m pretty sad it’s over. But it’s okay because Dave is always thinking ahead. Not only did he buy me The Flip for Christmas,  he also surprised me with a new website…

Introducing VIDALICIO.US, a video a week for a year. OMG! I know!

So, if you liked Picalicious in all it’s fabulous photo and witty headline wonder – you’ll ADORE Vidalicious. Each week you’ll get to see THRILLING video such as my dog eating, my hubby painting, cookies baking and even me running down a hallway. And it’s not even January 1 yet!

Some details: I’ll be using The Flip for all of my videos, which are usually 10 – 25 seconds in length. I’ll post them to YouTube and then upload them to the site. At least one video a week, but I’m sure there will be more. Wish me luck! Not sure what the heck I’ll do for 2010; thankfully, I’ve Dave’s got a 365 days to figure that one out.

Oh! And it’s not a .com. It’s www.vidalicio.us.

I know, it’s very fancy. (Squeal!)

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Santa, who was very good to me this year, left J.K. Rowling’s newest book in my stocking! Yes! Over the weekend I read Tales of Beedle the Bard. I share my thoughts on this good, dark read as my alter ego, Chic Geek, over at Her Nashville. Here’s a sample:

I sailed through the page-turning stories of plagues, death, evil, trickery, and of course, magic! with glee. The stories are Harry Potter-odd, easy to read and offer up some unexpected twists.

Unfortunately, I found myself skipping over the Dumbledore commentary — and I think that part is supposed to be kind of a big deal. For me, it was more of a mind-bending challenge to try and remember what the heck Dumbledore is referring to most of the time. And I grew tired of that. (I even got tired of reading Rowling’s commentary attempting to explain Dumbledore’s commentary.)

Read more here.

Oh! And proceeds from the book go to Rowling’s charity, The Children’s High Level Group, so that’s $12.99 (or less if you buy on Amazon) well spent!

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There’s really nothing better than having a beer(s), watching the Preds beat the Red Wings, then walking two blocks home to sit on your balcony and giggle at all the peeps attempting to drive away after the game. It’s FABULOUS! And really great fun. You should join us. Unless you are a Red Wings fan.

Oh, and sorry about my voice on this video. I tend to get really southern and goofy when operating a Flip.

I’ve had a few folks ask me what program I use to tell who is finding FlackRabbit through searching for stuff on Google. It’s called Google Analytics and it’s free, but you are gonna have to have a web dude hook it up for you or be a web dude yourself. Thanks, Dave!

Anyway, Analytics tells me how many visitors I get to my site, what they click on when they get there, where they found my link (Facebook, Twitter, some blog, etc.), what state and city they live in, how long they stayed on the site,  what page they exited from, etc.  My favorite thing though is the list of terms called Google Keywords. I can scroll through the list and find the terms folks Googled that then led them to my site.

Like this one:

What? I know. I have no clue why my website pops up when someone Googles this. Or this. Which is why it’s so funny.

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Holy cow! My wish was granted and I got The Flip for Christmas! Thanks, Dave! Of course, I captured the Christmas joy right away. I had one issue though – for the love of all things holy why the freak did this thing always want to launch and import into iPhoto?

(sigh) I mean come on.

On a PC, you just plug the device into your USB thing and it launches the Flip Share application, which allows easy start and stop editing and YouTube uploading. On a Mac, The Flip launches iPhoto. WTF? Worse, once it imports your Flip footage, it converts it to a file format that Flip Share doesn’t recognize. Quality.

I was freaking out and so hubby figured out how/where to turn this auto destruction launch function off. Sweet man.

Attention Mac-loving Flip-users, the preference setting for this is not where you think it is. Here’s how to stop your Flip from auto-launching iPhoto and cramping your style:

1. Plug in your Flip
2. From Applications, open Image Capture
3. Select Preferences, then change open “iPhoto” to open “No Application”

Like this:

Ah! Doesn’t that feel better? Now you can go on with your Flip-tastic self.  And if you found this by Googling it, congrats! All I found when I Googled this issue was some dude on Amazon.com saying you could stop it in iPhoto preferences. LIAR!

Check out this well-written tale of uber-hacker Max Butler’s attempt to take over the credit card-stealing cyberworld. You’ll find it in Wired magazine’s January issue.  I particularly enjoyed the way author/Sr. Editor Kevin Poulsen hits all the nerdy high notes without going too tech speak on you. Trust me, I’m geeky but not actually techy – if that makes any sense. Here’s a sample:

The takeover was all business. The stolen-data market had become fractured across too many sites, and they were pocked with snitches and security holes. By taking control of the entire underworld, Butler had created a marketplace he could trust. Even more important, it satisfied his competitive urge. Offline, Butler was a gentle giant with a generous nature and hippie sensibilities. But in the privacy of his hidden redoubt, Iceman pursued his online enterprise with ruthless zeal. He wasn’t after money, not really. He just wanted to prove that he was smarter, bolder, and tougher than everyone else.

Read it in full here.

Seriously, it’s a fascinating story even if you aren’t geek-inclined. I’m surprised Fox hasn’t turned Butler’s life into a TV show yet.

The classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer never fails to set me firmly in the Christmas spirit. But for some reason, just now, this clip strikes me as a fabulous lesson on how NOT to manage GenY employees. Indeed, it should be shown at every middle management training session from here on out.

Dude, you are sooooo lucky Hermey didn’t show up with next day with his HR rep, scream “hostile work environment” and sue your pointy ears off.

And am I the only person who has spent the last 29 years of my life thinking Hermey’s name was “Herbie”?  Are we sure it’s not?

So, right about now my Granny and Grandpa are floating somewhere out in the middle of the ocean on a fabulous cruise to very warm places. For the next two weeks, their days will be filled with bingo, blackjack, variety shows, vodka tonics and the occasional run-in with a dude in a speedo.

Thanks to Google, I have a clear picture of how the journey began …

I’m sure it was during embarkation that a fellow passenger sees my Granny with her perfectly accessorized outfit, matching luggage and Evian water bottle. Then, he lays eyes on The Precious of iPhone accessories – the patented Margie Childers iPhone neck pouch/old purse she MacGyvered into an iPhone holder necklace thing.

The passenger, no doubt spellbound by the sight, begs of her, “Where in the world did you get that glorious neck pouch? I must have one!” To which my Granny most likely replies, “Oh, this old thing? I couldn’t begin to tell you. Maybe you should google it.”

And so he did, which of course, led him to me. Welcome, dude:

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As a handful of friends and co-workers are aware,  I embarked on a photo safari on January 1, 2008 with the intention of posting one photo a day for year until December 31. After a couple of months, it was always a struggle between fun and obligation. As of now, I’ve got 10 days left. Oddly, I’m really, really sad.

I set up Picalicious as a home for my daily photos thinking it would just be me, but then hubs joined in … then Jed, Becca and Cynthia. In the end, hubs and I are the last men standing, with the occasional guest post from Keith, Goad or Joe. On Jan 1, I will have I missed four out of 365 days. Not too shabby. Read More…