For a Wednesday, I’ve had a rather strange and busy morning and it is only 9:30.

• Hit the treadmill while listening to the latest episode of Nocturnal. That thing is going to have one hell of a bloody ending!
• Lead a massive search of the house for a one piece bathing suit that we never did find
• Chatted with Julien while he was site seeing in France
• Wrote this blog post about everyone expecting quick new jobs in this space
•  Brainstormed around an event happening in LA that is certainly different then anything I would have imagined
• Bid on an eBay auction for a piece of paper to help a friend.

If that all happens before 9:30, I’m scared to think what the rest of the day holds.

A new month, a new focus. Do you have one?

I woke up this morning full of inspiration and drive to make this month extra productive on all fronts. I’ve got some projects in the back of my head that I want to see move up in the priority list. I want to continue to deliver results for my clients and find a few new ones in the process. I want to take more photos. I want to record more audio content. I want to do lots of things and on the first of the month I always find it best to look at the calendar, see what needs to be done, what is scheduled and then fill in the cracks with other items that I want to get done.

I can’t be the only one who does this at the beginning of a new month. Am I?

I also realized for some that this will be the start of a new quarter. The real start of summer for some. Seems many friends are having new babies right now and that is a whole other sort of new start.

I’ve also begun writing again. I had paused for way to long. I think it was being one of the 237 Age of Conversation 2 authors that kick started it all.

A new month, a new focus. Happy July.

Wow, where did Friday sneak up from? I totally wasn’t ready for that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, but I just wasn’t ready for it.

Even though I’m feeling less then 100% today it feels good to get some new content out there. I just imported a huge batch of photos into Aperture that I’ve got to get to some time this weekend, but I’m most psyched about getting Accident Hash #270 out there. WAY overdue on that one and it felt great to do a late night podcast full of new music.

I just put a new post up on my Entrepreneur Magazine blog about Evernote and how I’ve found using it for the past month. It is a product that I find myself using more and more.

Nothing too productive on deck for this weekend. The kids both have birthday parties and play dates going on and we are hoping to check out Wall-E before the weekend is done. We’ll see if it happens or not.

So earlier today I tweeted about someone asking me for a Noodle Favor and how great of a term I thought it was.

I noticed some people asking what it was, so I figured I’d post here what it is all about.

FULL credit goes to my good buddy J.C. Hutchins for being the first person to ever use it that I know of.

What he was referring to was he had a question that he wanted me to think about for a bit and come back to him with anything good I might come up with. He, like me, uses the phrase “to noodle on” when talking about going away and thinking about something. Not always focused right in on it, but you put it in the back of your head and see what comes of it. I also use it to refer to what I do with a guitar from time to time. I am certainly not playing it, but I do a lot of noodling.

I’m sure that we all have friends that we bounce ideas off of and go to when we want to gut check something. I know I have a small group of very trusted individuals that I can go to. J.C. certainly got added to that list after we hung out at SXSW.

So when he asked for a “noodle favor” I was more then happy to give a little bit of my brain time in his direction.

And that folks, is what a noodle favor is.

I just finished having breakfast with Scott Monty. Rather then one of our excursions out to a diner somewhere I had him over to the house and I cooked Accident Hash for us. Over coffee and hash we caught up on a lot of things, talked about his new job at Ford and life in general.

Since we first crossed paths at an Ad Club event we’ve become good friends. I’m really proud of all he has done and all that I know he is going to do for Ford. It is NOT going to be an easy road for him. BIG company and a huge brand. But, I can’t wait to see what he does with it. I’m really going to miss having him local, but I doubt we’ll ever be that out of touch.

I also read that there is going to be a Scott Monty Roast in the coming weeks. That day is when the family and I are suppose to be camping, so I doubt I’m going to be able to be there, but I’ll certainly be there in spirit.

Life is going really well. Lots going on as you’ve seen from the last couple of posts about client work that is going live. It was cool to see the first videos come in on the What Would You Say channel last night. I’m hoping to see some more.

Last night was cool in that Tom Acousti stopped by and stayed over on his way to NYC. I’m a good half way point for him and I wasn’t about to let him stay in a hotel when we have a guest room he can crash in. It was a quick arrive last night, crash and leave early this morning. But, always a room for a friend in the Chapman house.

In other late breaking news *grin* I got CastBlaster up and running on the Mac. Still can’t hear myself through the headphones which is weird, but I can deal with that. I can hear the music which is the most important. So yes new podcasts forthcoming. Man, I can’t wait to do some. I’ve got the itch!

The kids are a little wired today. They don’t start day camp till next week. I have a feeling these next three days are going to be a bit stressful for me. But, I’ll roll with it.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a big supporter of anything that helps a good cause.

That is why when The Advance Guard began working with the Campfire and Verizon FiOS My Home 2.0 teams around the Twittering Teddy idea, I was psyched that at the end of it the plan was to auction off Teddy for a good cause.

If you haven’t seen Teddy yet you can watch him/her/it speak the tweets of those that it is following right here.

So, if you’d like an animatronic bear sitting on your desk or in your office lobby speaking the tweets of whoever you want it to follow you should consider placing a bid. I can think of several companies who are supporters of Twitter and I think this would make the perfect front desk or conference room accessory.

100% of the money raised is being donated to the Homeless Children’s Education Fund. Best part is Verizon FiOS has agreed to match up to the first $1,000 bid. So on top of getting a cool new friend you are helping out a great cause.

How 2.0: Make a Twittering Teddy Bear from My Home 2.0 DIY on Vimeo.

The auction ends on Monday, June 30, 2008 so get those bids in now. I really want to see this raise some good money for charity and with the interest already generated from people like Chris Pirillo I can’t wait to see what the winner does with it.

It has been a busy week of client initiatives going live around here and this one I’m especially interested in seeing what people think of it.

Before we began working with mDialog, I had never heard of the J8 Summit that happens each time a G8 conference goes on and is organized by UNICEF. It is a powerful idea and I’m not sure why the media doesn’t cover it more. As I’ve talked about this with people, I’ve discovered I’m not the only one who was not aware of J8.

Rather then me telling you about the program, I’ll let the Canadian representatives talk about it. Watch the video below (or watch here in high-res)and then next month watch this channel as new videos come in from Japan. There are already some great videos from past years.

If you have children between the ages of 13-17, I hope you’ll consider having them upload a video. Dylan and Emily were a little bummed that they can’t participate, but perhaps I’ll film them for a One Guy’s Thoughts answering the question. I’m actually curious what they would say.

Full Disclosure: The Coca-Cola Company is a client of The Advance Guard and we are currently working with them around the CokeTag initiative.

I’m going to be honest that when I first saw the CokeTag application my reaction was along the lines of “nice and easy to use, but it would be better if it wasn’t only on Facebook.”

It is never fun when you first see something new from a potential client and that is what you say. But, when asked for an opinion on something I always speak from the heart. The best part is that they were ready for that and explained to me that Facebook was just the beginning.

CokeTag went live as a beta starting on Facebook in conjunction with promoting their we8 Artists and there are plans to expand through the OpenSocial network and then perhaps beyond. You can read more about this on the CokeTag announcement page.

I was happy to hear this because any time you can manage content from one place and it expands out to update everywhere is a good thing. Simplicity in keeping data updated across the web is a feature I’m always looking for more of.

I’ve added a CokeTag to my personal profile (as shown here) and you can also add them to any Facebook Page as well. That for me is where I see this being really useful.

As a music junkie and indie music supporter, I love any time a new tool comes out that helps an artist get more exposure.

If an artist or band has a Facebook Fan page they could create a CokeTag and fill it with links to their concert calendar, links to buy their music, podcasts that have played their tunes, band blog, fan pages, photos or anything else they could think of. THEN any fan could grab that CokeTag and put it on their personal profile to show their support for the band. That is the part I love.

It is similar to hanging a band poster up on your bedroom wall, except now it can be updated by the band whenever they have new information they want to promote. That final piece is where the power is in my opinion.

I find myself tweaking mine on a regular basis to figure out which links to put in. I think I might have finally got it, but I’m not sure.

If you come up with a creative use for a CokeTag let me know about it so I can check it out. I’ve already seen it used to share details about a wedding which is certainly an angle I hadn’t thought of.

The Chapman Clan had a busy weekend.

Friday night, my parents came down. We ended up sitting by the fire place out back, roasting hot dogs and eating cannoli I bought the night before from the North End. Not a typical fireside dessert, but it sure did work!

Saturday Dylan had a soccer game that we had to leave early from to shoot over to Emily’s play. After that we came back by the house and headed to New Hampshire for my nephew Scott’s high school graduation party (seen here opening presents). Sunday morning we got up early and went to breakfast at Lou’s with both sets of parents to celebrate Father’s Day.

All in all it was a great weekend and it was awesome see so many people in such a short time. I honestly can’t get enough family time.

This is a big and busy week with several things going on. Excited about it all.

Wow did it feel good to wake up this morning and not be drenched in the humidity that we’ve been dealing with for the past few days. The heat wave has just been sucking my energy right out of me and I hope it doesn’t come back any time soon.

Had a business trip to Nashville on Monday. One of those commuting type days where I fly down early in the morning, have a day full of productive meetings on site and then fly home late that night. This time around it got a little longer as I got stuck in Charlotte due to bad weather. Had never been there before and with the five minute shuttle from the airport to the hotel I didn’t see any of it. Glad to be back.

Lots of great stuff going on and plenty of work being done or else I’d write more.

Really looking forward to this weekend when Dylan has his last soccer game of the season and Emily has another play. Then we jet up to NH for my nephew’s high school graduation party. Going to be a hectic weekend, but one spent seeing a lot of family so I’m psyched about that.

Last night was one of those nights that I’m not going to forget any time soon.

I sat and watched CNN as the numbers came rolling in. When we got home and I turned on the TV the first thing I saw was a line about Obama only needing 4 more delegates to get the nomination. I knew this was going to be a special night.

I’ve always been into politics and this year I’ve been even more passionate about the election. So much needs to change in this country and whoever becomes the next president is going to have a huge uphill battle to make those changes. Doesn’t matter who the president is, it will not be easy.

It was fun to watch the three speeches last night and follow along with the conversation on Twitter as it happened. Here was this community from all corners of the country sharing in an experience. The last time I remember such a sharing was during the Red Sox in the World Series. You could feel the emotions. People shared what was on their mind, reacted to others and collectively mind dumped around one special happening.

I’ve supported Obama for a long time. I firmly believe he is going to be the next President of the United States. I’ve believed that for a while now and last night confirmed it for me. I don’t know yet how he will do in the job, but I have more faith in him then I do in the current administration.

Last night I witnessed something special. Something I’m going to remember for a long time.

I’m listening back to Accident Hash #269 which features Tom Acousti’s set from my house concert from Friday. Perfect writing music this morning.

You can see the show notes here or download the MP3 directly.

Really looking forward to getting some video out from the night as well. That is going to be fun to see. I looked at some shots that Steve got and it looked beautiful. Then again it was 3 am when I was looking at it so I might have been a little foggy on it all. *grin*

Will get Matthew Ebel’s set up later this week most likely.  Still psyched we got to get him over for the show before he heads off for the summer in Block Island. Looking forward to taking a day trip down to see him play again. The kids had a blast last year and are already asking when we’ll be doing it again.