Last week, while on business, I had one of the best seafood dinners I’ve had in months. We ate at a restaurant called Petey’s, in New Hampshire. Being from Kansas, eating fresh clam chowder, shrimp and lobster, it was heaven on a plate. The filling meal reiterated to me, all seafood is NOT created equal

I was with two of my co-workers, and when we were leaving, we mistakenly picked up what we thought was “free”. It was wrapped in a napkin placed next to the mints. As we were walking to the car, we realized we actually picked up something that was actually for sale. It was a plastic “lobster magnet”. Our better judgment got to us, and we all agreed we should give them back. So, we turned around and went back inside. Things actually turned out pretty laughable- we joked with the restaurant employees and actually ended up purchasing one of the lobster magnets.

On the car ride back to the hotel, I remember thinking about what it meant to “do the right thing”? For me personally, I knew it meant a lot. But what I realized through this silly “lobster magnet mix-up” was that I also held in high regards the value of knowing my co-workers did the same. I felt this sense of warm glowing pride knowing the company I work for, as well as my friends all were aligned with such a personal belief.

I, certainly am far from being perfect. I attribute everyone from my friends, my parents to Mrs. White from my days of Student Council VP in high school, as all people who have influenced and shaped what it means to “do the right thing”.

…and it means a lot. It’s that piece of your character of what you do when you think no one else is looking.

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Are you going to Free State Social? I’ll be there. It’s a social media conference being held in Lawrence, Kansas. Not only am I excited to be speaker, but I’m really looking forward to meeting many people IRL. All sorts of crazy important social media practitioners are going to be there, e.g. Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Ellyn Angelotti, Shawna Coronado, Sarah Evans, Scott Raymond, Shea Sylvia, Zena Weist and Tony Botello. They’ve got all the info listed at www.freestatesocial.com.

note: if you can’t see the video blog I shot, click here to watch it!

*BONUS* Not everything is perfect when I’m filming, here’s some of the fun outtakes from filming the original video blog…

The iPhone app called iTextSpeed allows you to clock your typing speed on the iPhone. It’s a lot of fun, and totally a great geek game to challenge your geek friends with (we’ve had some pretty heated games at the bars trying to beat each other). It’s free for the LITE version (limited to 15 second time-trials) and $1 for the full unlocked version.

Think you can beat my 47 words per minute!?! That’s the fastest I’ve registered so far on the LITE version …if you can beat it, take a screen shot, post a link in the comments, Tweet-it to @ramseym or email it. I need proof you can beat my record!

Last week when flipping through the TV channels, I couldn’t help but be fixated on the NFL Draft. When you sit down and think of all of the moving parts from start to finish for the NFL draft, it’s incredible. Coaches and teams analyze exactly the players they need and map out statistical strategies of how and when to draft them.

Somewhere in between watching the emotional reactions of the families and players, to hearing the coaches excitement in their voices speaking on their newest draft pick…

…I started thinking about what a galvanizing event the NFL Draft is for a team.

Think about it. So much faith and motivation is behind this 1 person being selected for the team. This underlying “hope” that this 1 person will change things, and make things better.

It’s incredible to think about the high value that is placed on 1 person.

I started extrapolating these thoughts…

• Do businesses understand the total effect of 1 person? 1 human; not software, not a system. How a new hire can effect not only their everyday business but shape the culture? Leaders within businesses could also learn something from the NFL in the sense that the “socialization” of adding a new hire is important, so the entire team feels comfortable and confident of how they fit in.

• I also started thinking about how 1 person does have the power to change any team in my life. I’m on several teams already; the company I work for is a team, I play on an indoor recreational soccer team, the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party steering committee is a team …all these teams are in my life.

The NFL draft reminded me that 1 person can make a difference on any team or organization. And the selection of a team member shouldn’t ever be taken lightly or undervalued. The same is true about integrating and socializing a new team member in your life. What’s your take?

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This is a photo I took of one of my best friends in the world, Lauren (every once and a while, she tags along to golf with me and my friends). I really thought this photo capture was particularly cool with all the spring blooming colors framed around the shot. Not to mention, the photo captures Lauren’s strength + awesome drive off the 13th tee!

One of my goals for 2010 is to take 1 creative photo each week. This has been a fun ongoing challenge for me, with mixed results (i’ve taken some really bad photos, and some good photos). Stay tuned to the blog for more photo blog posts in the future.

This past weekend, I continued my recent 2010 i-run-in-races obsession new hobby by participating in Brew-to-Brew. I took my camera with me to capture moments of my friends in their running glory. I’ve posted all the picture to my flickr.

So what is Brew-to-Brew? It’s a day long relay running race in which your team runs a combined 43+ miles from Kansas City to Lawrence, Kansas (you run from one beer brewing company to another). I had a blast at this race. It’s much more relaxed than most. I ran the last leg of our team’s relay. 4.6 miles of “remember-the-college-days-gloryness” running into gorgeous Lawrence, over the river and past City Hall

There is one unique thing about this race thing I observed; running is typically a very solo, individual, self-motivated sport. This relay race format, makes it very team focused (which is awesome!) You can’t help but be cheesy supportive to your teammates, yelling and cheering them on during each of their portions of the relay. If you’ve got a group of friends into running- check this out next year, it’s a great time.

This past month I’ve been using an iPhone app that literally has made me happier (or perhaps it’s just a placebo) The app is called Sleep Cycle. It analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase. Think of it like Google Analytics for your sleep!

Before I purchased the app, I wanted to learn more about sleep patterns- so I did some light research (which means I Googled a bunch of different things and read for 30-minutes about sleep patterns). The short and sweet of what I found out is that a typical person’s sleep patterns is to go from light to deep sleep (REM) about 3 to 5 times each night. I won’t bore you by going off on a scientific tangent about the details of REM sleep and how it works, but generally speaking, getting deep sleep is the most important.

The Sleep Cycle iPhone app can’t measure your eye movement (which is the best indicator of if you’re in a light sleep vs. deep sleep), BUT what this app does measure, is your overall physical movement when your sleeping. The bottom line is, when you’re moving in your sleep, you’re likely in a light sleep- and when you’re not moving- you’re in a deep sleep. This app tells you that.

(two of my own recent personal sleep patterns)

For $0.99, this app has replaced my alarm clock. It’s awesome! All you do is put your phone under your pillow while you sleep. The motion sensor will detects when you’re in your lightest sleep within a 30-minute window of the alarm time you set. If you start to drift into deep sleep, it wakes you up in that 30-minutes so you don’t feel tired, groggy or exhausted. How cool is that!?!

If you’ve got an iPhone, this app is worth checking out- I think it’s pretty darn cool to know in the morning if you had a good night’s sleep.
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The spring weather in Kansas City this past weekend was absolutely gorgeous. It was criminal to not be outside doing something (it was that nice). I had my camera with me when I was walking on the Plaza, and I noticed the numerous beautiful blossomed dogwood trees everywhere. I captured just a few shots with the dogwood trees during my afternoon walk.

**UPDATE**, it appears that I might have incorrectly identified the trees in the photos. We’ll just say a “tree enthusiast” sent me a kind-hearted email telling me that these are actually Bradford Pear trees, not Dogwoods. I fully admit and acknowledge I could have been wrong, I don’t claim to be an arborist! Thanks Mr. Anonymous.

One of my goals for 2010 is to take 1 creative photo each week. This has been a fun ongoing challenge for me, with mixed results (i’ve taken some really bad photos, and some good photos). Stay tuned to the blog for more photo blog posts in the future.