Gear, Gadgets, and Greatest Snow On Earth® 2.0

I've been around the Greatest Snow On Earth® for awhile. Although I'm not a Utah native, since 1993, I have called the Wasatch Mountains my home. And I've been doing this blogging and content creating thing for awhile too. 5 years as a blogger is an epoch. In addition to this new gig with Ski Utah, and running 4 other blogs, I have been a past contributor to Utah CEO Magazine's now defunct blog. I became interested in blogging from reading a book by Christoper Locke called Gonzo Marketing, circa 2002. There are a lot of books out there about the current phenomenon we call the social web, of which blogging is only a small part of the overall realm. But if you read this book now, you will feel like you were transported back a few years in a time machine, looking into the future through a crystal ball, and thinking, yeah, this Chris Locke guy got some of it right. Confusing analogy, I know, but it worked for me.

So what's my beat? What's my angle for this thing? I'm hoping to share insights on new and emerging web, mobile, and device technologies, and hopefully help readers of this blog embrace some of these trends, maybe even becoming tech savvy ski-related content creators. If you have a passion for Utah's mountains and winter resorts like I do, or let's say you take your first trip to Utah for a ski vacation and it leaves its mark on you, how lucky would we be if you shared this experience with others via the web? Maybe some of my upcoming posts will reveal old, new, or better ways to share those experiences. 

So here is one tip for you if you own an iPhone: check out the Hazel Mail app in the iTunes app store. This app allows you to send a real, printed postcard, using a photo that you take with your device or have stored on your camera roll, to anyone in the world, as long as they have a deliverable postal address. It's a free app to download, and it automatically comes with 1 HazelBucks credit to send 1 postcard, so you can try it out. If you end up digging it and want to send more postcards, you'll need to load up on HazelBucks through their website. You'll need to create an account and pre-pay for some credits. Let's say you are going on a winter vacation to Utah. Maybe you are going to ski all 13 resorts, and you want to rub it in to your buddies back home. Load up on HazelBucks from your computer before you leave. Then, each day, upload the best photo via the Hazel Mail app, address it as you would a traditional postcard right from your phone, submit, and Hazel Mail takes care of the rest, printing your photo on a postcard, addressing it, and dropping it in the mail with postage. Pretty sweet way to share your experiences, and you won't have to stand in line at the Post Office.