C.C. Chapman's Blog, page 16

Putting My House on the NEST Platform

I’m excited about the wave of new products being released to convert our residences into “smart homes.”

Watching the space for the last few years has been exciting. While I enjoy bleeding edge technology, when it comes to my home I usually prefer to wait and let others be the first movers in the space.

When a gadget is only being used by me it is fine, but when it effects my whole family I proceed with more caution.

There has been enough trailblazing in this space that when Verizon offered to...

Tomorrow Is NOT Promised

Prince died and I’m positive he had more to create and do in his life.

Death is coming for all of us and none of us know when we’ll take our final breaths and that is why I hit record today so that you could listen to Managing the Gray #147.

Links from the show.

30 Days to Genius Digaboom Beyonce’s Lemonade

Listen, share and create.

Hope this nudge helps.

Rest In Peace Prince

Photo by Valerie Jardin.

There will be two songs played at my funeral. ‘Amazing Grace’ on the bagpipes and ‘Sometimes It Snows In April’ by Prince.

Thursday as I closed my lecture at the end of class, my inbox was in the background and the top email’s subject line read “Prince Dead at 57” and my first thought was “which Prince died?”

Opening the email, I blurted out “Oh shit, Prince is dead.”

The students all gave me a look and Dylan who happened to be in class with me after a college tour o...

Snapchatting While Driving Makes You a Dangerous Asshole

Every day I see people with one hand on the wheel of their car and the other on their phone.

They try to pay attention to the road, but every so often they’ll drift, swerve or slow down. It is obvious they can’t pay attention.

Every study has shown that it is not possible for a human to pay full attention to the road if they are using their phone.

Common sense should tell you that looking up and down away from the road is a distraction and not a good idea.

As the over twenty crowd starts usin...

Rockagator RG-25 40 Liter COVERT Series Bag Review

The outdoors are where I’m happiest and over the years I’ve had adventures of all sorts and in every sort of weather.

One of my favorite activities is canoe camping, where rule 1 is that you want everything to stay dry.

This photo is my view on a week long paddle in the Boundary Waters with my dad.

Because I don’t only hike, camp and canoe when the sun is shining I was excited to be offered a RockagatorRG-25 2nd Generation 40 liter COVERT Series bag to test and review.

If you’ve never owned...

Our First Year With Nadia

Dogs have a way of becoming an integrated part of yours where it is hard to remember life without them.

Today marks a year since Nadia’s ‘rescue day’ and in some ways it feels much longer and at the same time like yesterday.

Roxie passing occurred in the middle of dark days for me. On top of that, it was the worst winter we have ever had in New England so getting a new dog would have to wait until the spring.

The moment I saw Nadia on Petfinder something drew me to her. Looking back at thes...

SocialGood.Club

SocialGood.Club is a new venture that I’m the Co-Founder of with my dear friend Brad Powell.

The conversations began last year as we both found ourselves walking a career path motivated by doing more good in the world.

We both have years of experience conceiving, developing and executing marketing initiatives. The amount of content we’ve created over the years is staggering when we stopped to think about it.

This sort of work is exactly what I love doing. Consulting withcompanies and organiz...

Technology Shouldn’t Replace Your Humanity

Technology empowers us to do amazing things.

We can connect with people around the world. We can form businesses together. We can create together.

But, with all the technology around us, many of you are losing yourway and giving in to the automated tools to run your lives.

Yesterday, I added SocialGood.Club to my LinkedIn profile and instantly the automated messages of congratulations began coming in.

If you didn’t know, the LinkedIn app has a handy setting where with two clicks it’ll send a...

Connected Worry

Another morning starts with the news of another attack.

They’ve become too common and with the global climate as it is, I don’t see them slowing down.

My heart aches. My brain goes into overdrive.

Of course at the same time I think about my kids and my family. We’ve talked about how to react and what to do if ever faced with something like this.

I’m afirm believer in being prepared.

But, this morning as I thought about it I realized that Emily doesn’t currently have her phone.

Today, the pho...

SXSW Was Exactly What I Hoped It Would Be

SXSW is a festival of culture and creativity. My words, not theirs.

Up front, know that I’m an Advisor to SXSW. This means that every year I set aside several hours and go through and judge panels. In return, I’m given a free badge to attend. All other costs are on my dime.

I know that this week there will be posts about the good and the bad. How next year some people won’t be attending. How the glory days are over.

The funny thing is that most of these will be written from the perspective o...