Singapore

// March 10th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Brad's Life, Travel, video

I had the awesome opportunity to spend Feb. 20-26 on a trip to Singapore. I spoke at a higher education conference, and it also was a time for Matt W and I to get together! He flew in and we got to spend 3 days together. It was awesome, just like the good ol’ days at UIS.  Here’s a quick video of the first few days of the trip.  Working on the rest of the footage and uploading photos to Flickr. I’ll have more up soon!

Utah

// February 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Brad's Life, Travel

Had a chance to go out to Utah a few weeks ago to meet with the folks at Zinch.com for some meetings and brainstorming about future projects.

It’s beautiful out there!

Chile, Interviews, and Life

// January 21st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Brad's Life, Butler, House, Travel

The trip to Chile was absolutely amazing.  I had such a good time and had so much good wine.

You can see my ~500 pictures from the trip on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradjward/sets/72157612120022247/

On Monday I did an interview with the CBC (Think NPR, only for Canada) about the FacebookGate situation.  What’s FacebookGate? Get the full story on my other blog:  http://squaredpeg.com/index.php/2008/12/18/facebook-pay-attention/

The story spread all over the internet, with over 50,000 visitors to the post in a week.  It hit sites like Mashable, TechMeme, Reddit, CNET, Wired, Conde Nast, and many more.  I tried to bookmark what I could find, here are 101 websites about the story: http://delicious.com/bradjward/%232013

Here are some photos from the interview:

And here is the interview!
‘Spark’ Episode 63

The coolest thing for me was that I’m on the same episode as Seth Godin, my favorite business author. (Remember the book cover?)

Hmm…. let’s see… what else is new……………

oh

yeah

i

almost

forgot

to

tell

you

.

I quit my job at Butler.   As of Feb 1st I’ll be working out of the house on a new startup called BlueFuego. It’s a consulting company that will help colleges and universities use the internet to market and recruit students and connect with alumni.  I’m really… REALLY excited.

More information is on my other blog if you’re interested:

http://squaredpeg.com/index.php/2009/01/21/big-news-leaving-butler-university/

Hope things are going well for you, everyone! (all 10 readers? haha) Give me a call sometime to say hi.

Presentations ‘08

// November 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Brad's Life, Travel

‘Conference Season’ is over for me for 2008, except for a few webinars.  [Geesh, I did a lot this year.] I did a talk in Florida on Friday and it went great.  I felt so good about it, and thought it went well.  And it was even better to see what everyone else on Twitter thought as well. (This reads bottom to top.)

Phew.  Glad it went well.  If you want to watch the video, just click below.

Sleepless in Seattle

// September 30th, 2008 // No Comments » // Brad's Life, Photography, Travel

I was in Seattle all last week, it was pretty cool.  Other than jet lag and missing my wife and dog, that is. I saw the Pike Place Market, original Starbucks, Experience Music Center, Space Needle, Bainbridge Island, Mt. Rainier, and much more.

Oh, and I did some work too.    I am an advisory board member for Zinch.com so they picked up the tab and flew me up to Seattle and put me up in a sweet hotel (bath and body works soap and shampoos? Sweet.).  I helped around the booth and generally just shared my experiences with their site to schools who were interested.

I also networked my face off while I was there, and met of ton of business contacts, both new and old. Yes… you can have an ‘old’ business contact that you’ve never met before. That’s what I love about the internet. Got some more speaking requests for future months that I need to sit down and consider (Singapore and possibly New Zealand?), and basically had a blast in the Pacific Northwest.

After a 1am flight out and a long nap at home, I’m back and ready to tackle another work week.

3G iPhone < 24 Hours.

// July 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Brad's Life, Travel, iPhone

Yep, we’re less than 24 hours from the 3G iPhone launch.   Keep up with the next 24 hours of my life over at http://www.26dayswithoutaniphone.com.

Joe flies in late afternoon, and the adventure begins.  We were featured on BrandFlakesForBreakfast.com today:
http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2008/07/where-will-you-be-tomorrow-morning.html

Good times.  Looking forward to the adventure.  It won’t be as lucrative or profitable as the past PS3/Wii/etc. campouts, but it’ll be a heckuva good time.

Keep an eye on 26dayswithoutaniphone.com for updates.

Weekend Getaway at the Cabin

// July 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // Brad's Life, Photography, Small Group, Travel

So I’m really behind on blogging, and this weekend I am going to catch up.

A few weekends ago we went with our small group to a cabin in rural Indiana on Shelby’s parents’ farm. It was amazing.  Such a great getaway.  We fished (and slayed some monster bass), played Wii, chilled in the hottub, played yard games and volleyball, grilled out, and did a whole lot of relaxing.   Here are some pictures from the weekend.

To view the full set on Flickr, click here.

Tracking my Gas Costs

// July 1st, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Great Deals, Indianapolis, Travel

As you know, I love numbers. So then I saw a neat site that integrated into Twitter, and I was sold.

The site: www.fuelfrog.com

What I do: Send a message on Twitter to @fuelfrog, stating my MPG (Miles driven, price paid, gallons purchased). It looks something like this:

That’s it. It’s as quick as a text message, and it automatically gets put into my (free) account on fuelfrog.com. So when I log into fuelfrog.com, I am shown this:

(more…)

May is gone.

// May 21st, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Brad's Life, Photoshop, Travel

May.

Tomorrow = work retreat to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  We have our own tower suite including free food and drinks (alcoholic and non, should get interesting…).  Tours of the track, the pits, the garages.  Freedom 100 race will be going on, should be a great day.

Friday = 1/2 day (love my flex hours). Working Early Registration, so sitting at a table all morning and saying ‘hello’ to people.  Possibly meeting up with Kyle James for a late lunch. He’s driving up from South Carolina for the Indy 500 this weekend.  Picking Jen up after work, going back to Springfield.

Saturday = Becca and Trent’s wedding.  10+ hours of photography. Hoping I have enough memory cards/backup space.   Sleep. Sleep. Sleep

Sunday = Heading to Rushville.  See family, including Grandpa, who I haven’t seen since his turnaround.  Really excited about that.  Fishing. Fishing. Pizza. Fishing. Pizza.

Monday = Memorial Day.  No work.  More time in Rushville, then driving back to Indy. No class.

Tuesday = Work.

Wednesday = Leave AM for Bradford Woods Campground with Jen’s school.  Chaperoning an overnight camping trip.  No class because I won’t be here.

Thursday = 1/2 day at the campground, driving back for work in the afternoon.  Happy Hour starts at 4:30.

Friday = 1/2 day. Flex hours.

Saturday = Class 9-12 to make up for Monday’s missed class.

Sunday = JUNE?!?!?!??!?!?

That’s just crazy.   June 1 = We will have lived in Indiana for a full year.

NOOOOOOOOOO. Skybus Calls it Quits!!

// April 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Brad's Life, Photography, Travel

Just got an email 20 minutes ago that Skybus is calling it quits.

Dear Skybus Customer:
We regret to inform you that Skybus Airlines will cease all operations effective 12:00 a.m. Saturday, April 5. As a result, your Skybus flight has been cancelled.
Skybus will not be processing refunds directly. To arrange for a refund on your reservation, please contact your credit card company directly. If you purchased flight insurance for your reservation, please refer to your insurance confirmation from AIG for information on filing a claim.

Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.

We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on our customers, as well as our employees and their families, vendors, suppliers, airport officials and others in the cities in which we have operated. Our financial condition is such that our Board of Directors felt it had no choice but to cease operations.
More information will be made available on the Skybus web site (www.skybus.com).

I am stunned. We just flew to/from Florida on them and got back home at 4am last night.

Here’s the crazy part. We had tickets to Boston, leaving 6am today and returning on 8am Sunday. We decided to not go so that we could get some stuff done around the house. If we would have gone, we would have had NO FLIGHT HOME. Can you imagine what Portsmouth, NH to Columbus, OH would have cost for a next day flight? $425 per person. A far cry from the $70 round trip for 2 people that we paid. Now the sunk cost of $70 looks pretty good to the alternative of taking the flight.

In honor of Skybus, here are the pictures I took on my phone during our trip this weekend. I’ll miss you, Skybus. Now… I have to find new flights to eduWeb in July.

Outrageously low bankruptcy, just around the corner.

Farewell, Skybus Airlines. We flew you for $70 roundtrip during the busiest time of the year, Spring Break. First ATA, then , then you. I wish you well. Your orange planes were awesome. Your no frills style appealed to a deals-driven guy like myself.

On a more positive note, I guess I’ll be getting my money back for the Sunday flight from Boston to Columbus. So really, I’m only out $35.

PS – we’re back from Florida. Vacation pictures are here!

PSS – In retrospect to my previous post about Skybus… maybe they don’t get it.

PSSS – Just checked my email, and I got the bottom picture 42 minutes before the cancellation email, haha!