electric cars and beer- how can you not read this post?

Sierra Nevada Brewing company has installed electric vehicle charging stations at its Chico CA facility for employees and visitor to use to charge the electric vehicles on campus. Thus combining two of my favorite things, beer and electric cars.. Although usually, I drink beer and discuss electric cars so it could be said that I'm practicing my version of sustainability by keeping the buzz going 

(about the electric cars of course).

SweetWater, your move.

For a cool and  compelling electric car concept click here or here to read about " Better Place".  This company has changed the paradigm by standardizing on the battery sizes of electric cars they produce and buy funding  'swap  stations' on a smart grid, so that you swap your used battery and replace it with a fully charged one.  Thus not having to wait around for the battery to charge.

Lets just hope the 'swap' stations will allow me to swap/ recycle my empty bottles of Sierra Nevada for full ones! (for my passengers of course, not me)

Twittering bad for you?

I don't even have time to contemplate whether  I care that  this story is right or wrong. Scientists at the National Academy of Sciences have published a report indicating  that subjects who used Twitter showed less compassion and admiration than non Tweeters.  

Happy 09! These are a few of my favorite things..

Happy New Year!

In keeping with my normal -once a quarter- schedule for my 'grits' blog I've held out until Jan for the update. 

So, here I am in early Jan.  Maybe I'll be more productive this year? Twice a quarter? Once a month? Who knows?  I do sort of enjoy when people approach me at cocktail parties and ask me if I realize that blogging is supposed done on a more frequent basis.  Whatever,  In the word's of one of my favorite cartoon characters ( Ignignokt from Aquateen Hunger Force- pictured here) " I do whatever I want, whenever I want").  

What can I say, I've been busy.

Rather than re hash a bunch of news stories from 08, here's a few of my favorite things I  discovered, bought, borrowed or did in 08.

1) Some of music favorites from 08 in no particular order:

Friendly fires, Tilly& the Wall, Santogold, Vampire Weekend,  Secret Machines, Adron, Of Montreal, Fischerspooner, Toumani Diabate',  Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco, Beck, The Raconteurs, Tegan & Sarah (pictured), Black Ghosts, Spoon, Jamie Lidel, Matt and Kim, the Whigs.

2)Listening to music - creating playlists on youtube, myspace, blip fm et al.  

Why is this important? Well, I'm currently on a music purchasing / downloading hiatus. I realized half way through 08 I was spending a lot on iTunes. So, a friend told me I should just find the stuff I like on Youtube. He was right; pretty much every artist or song you would like to listen to is there in some form or fashion- either a video from a record company or a live vid that a user has posted. You can simply create an account ( who doesn't have one already besides my grandmother?), then search on tunes you like and create a playlist.   The neat thing is that you have access to this where ever you go ( home, office, friends house etc).

Here's one of my recent playlists here.  I encourage you to send me one of yours. Yes, I'm talking to the two people who read this. You know who you are.

Anyway, you can do the same type of thing with playlists now with myspace. I know, I know, you say, 'dude you are nearly 40 and you use myspace'? Well, its not just for high schoolers any more. Tom and Rupert aka Granddaddy Murdock have cut deals with nearly ever major label. You can stream music and vids on your playlists for free, just by setting up an account.

Speaking of myspace, here's a band I've been listening to lately. See if you recognize anyone there?

Another fun thing to do is to find a blog or two you like so that you can find interesting, different, local , not so commercial tunes.  See number 3 for a couple of sources for delivering those goods.

3) Finding good stuff.. favorite music stations/ blogs:

 Kcrw.com is a community college in SantaMonica Ca. Their show 'morning becomes eclectic' is world famous and features many up and coming and well known artists in an 'in studio acoustic ' format.   The have a live music channel and an internet playlist.  I listen a lot and when I hear a song I like I can go to their site to see who the artist is. You can also find them on the 'radio' in iTunes under public and eclectic.  Then I'll go and spend the dough to purchase the tracks I really like.

Other music blogs I like which feature local, indie alt etc music info:

underneathica

cable and tweed

aqauriaum drunkard

stereogum

to name a few. 

4) Applied for a job in a non traditional way:  found an opening at Turner/TNT here in ATL for writer, producer of digital content- focused on viral videos. So I posted this in hopes it would make its way to the right people. I dont think the right people have gotten infected yet,  but check it out and forward to anyone you know who could help.

5) Bought an iPhone.

I know I'm nearly as sick of hearing about it as you non iPhone users are. But I bought one and its great.  I'm not a huge gamer so many of the apps are just 'nice to have' but the built in GPS, voice recognition, and fully functional browser are among the the features that make it a game changer. I'll get back to you on whether on screen typing is going to work out for me. One game I've heard will be released soon looks pretty cool: SuperWordFind.

Here's a blog post on iPhone and mobile device marketing that has figures on iPhone sales & projections of how and when it will take over the world.

 

So that's it. Quick and dirty five things I've seen, heard, done or bought in '08.  Savy readers will discern other activities which have kept updates to a minimum here.  Comments welcome.

The biggest news with Grits is that Mrs Grits is preggers and due in May. We couldnt' be more thrilled to have a lil Girl Grit running around.

Here's to a Happy and Healthy '09.