I know it's early, but people have already been asking for...

Camera bag
I like to go skiing. I'd like to bring my camera. I don't want to break my camera. I need a small, sturdy, over-the-shoulder camera bag, like the one I linked to, that I can fit in my backpack. It just needs to fit a Canon 40D with a lens, capiche?

The Flip
Basically this year's "It" tech gift, The Flip is a flippin' sweet, inexpensive digital video camera. It holds up to an hour of video and has a built-in USB. Now when I say "inexpensive" I mean "can be split three-ways to become affordable."

Slippers
Good idea, huh? I like to keep my talons warm.

Socks
Who doesn't need more of these diplomats between feet and shoes? The funkier the better.

Restaurant gift certificates
As I've explained in the past, dating can put a dent in the old wallet, and Amanda LOVES to go out on the town, so gift certificates to your favorite restaurants would help my game.

Toilet paper
I swear, The Wives go through a ton of toilet paper. I think for every roll of toilet paper I use, The Wives use at least 14. We're always out of TP. We could always use some more.

I would also appreciate just about anything related to playing bass guitar, skiing, sports, UW, etc., or from my favorite local clothing brands like Casual Industrees, Soy Clothing and CrisisNW.
Although I love music, absolutely do not buy me any CDs or movies for that matter. I have other, free ways of obtaining these... I'll give you a hint: "[Blank] of the Caribbean."

Now, you may be asking yourself, "How do I know someone else hasn't already bought the gift I am thinking of buying you, Paolo?"

WELL, I have implemented a solution so effective that it will be of use far beyond the purposes of this year's holiday shopping...

I have created paolomottola.com email addresses for everyone!

Just add "paolomottola.com" to contact each of the following people:

• Mom - mom@
• Dad - dad@
• Nina - sister@
• Sergio - brother@
• Amanda - girlfriend@
• Scott - scott@
• Wives - wives@
• Santa Claus (Courtney) - santa@

Of course, I'm at paolo@. These email addresses auto-forward to each person's respective personal email address. Pretty cool, huh?! (Functionality of these email addresses is not guaranteed. They weren't working for some people this morning. Hopefully they're working now.)

If you want your own paolomottola.com email address, just let me know. It's an early Christmas present from me to you.

I took the day off on Friday and went north with Amanda for a weekend in Bellingham. We did the usual -- visited with Nina and Sergio, went to the parks, ate at all the great local restaurants, etc.

We happened to stroll into the cat shelter at the Feed and Seed and Amanda fell in love with two cats, Finnigan and FDR (Franklin). I'll keep you posted on if she goes back up to Bellingham next weekend to pick up the cats. I also welcome your advice on whether Amanda's adopting a cat is good idea, let alone two cats.

See the slideshow here. (If the slideshow images look distorted, click "Options" in the upper-right corner and uncheck "Embiggen small things to fill screen.")

Obama takes fireside chats digital, viral

After posting more than 1,800 videos to YouTube during his campaign, president-elect Barack Obama will post weekly “fireside chats” to YouTube, TechCruch reports.

According to Wikipedia, the original fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio speeches given by president Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. Obama hopes to re-purpose this once-popular communication to reach the digital generation.

Much has been said about Obama’s success using social media to excite voters, but the president-elect has some work ahead to maintain the enthusiasm he earned from Americans during his campaign.

Of interest is Obama’s use of YouTube. Obama doesn’t need YouTube to host these videos because he will also host the videos on change.gov. His choosing a primarily amateur social media site to additionally host the presidential communications validates the use of YouTube as a mainstream communication channel and levels Obama to the common Americans who also post to and visit YouTube. YouTube also helps Obama leverage social media — change.gov doesn’t offer the interactivity of YouTube. By allowing people to comment on and repost the videos from YouTube, he’ll likely increase the visibility and impact of the digital fireside chats.

We still have yet to determine how much Obama’s successful social media campaign contributed to his campaign, but Obama is keeping to his winning formula and already rolling out social media in his transition to the presidency. These digital, viral fireside chats are just the start.

I may be one of the most connected people you know.

Between WIB and presence in multiple social networks, I'm not hard to find and am frequently online.

This must be my American-mutt side coming through because, according to a Guardian article, Italians are shunning all that is online.

Although Internet connectivity is up in Italy, still only 32.8 percent of the population has access to the Internet, according to ComScore, and the median amount of time Italians spend online has actually decreased between 2007 and 2008, according to JupiterResearch.

Italian culture is slow and unhurried by reputation. But why so slow to adopt the online lifestyle?

Having had the sand of the Amalfi Coast between my toes and been drunk several times over by way of Tuscan Chianti, my guess is that there's no desire to escape online when reality is so sweet.

On the other side of that argument, it's no wonder why everyone's online in Seattle in November.

You may have heard the story about a 16-year-old girl who lost control of her car and drove it into Green River last Friday. She was unable to remove two boys in the car with her, 2-year-old Hunter Beaupre and 13-year-old Austin Fuda, before the car completely submerged in the river.

Today, more than four days after the it went in Green River, rescuers were finally able to recover the car and the body of the 2-year-old inside it. Rescuers are now trying to find the body of the 13-year-old.

Danny (focuspoint drummer) is a friend of the family of the two boys and has been at the site of the accident since it happened, frequently providing interviews for press. He's kept us updated via texts.

On Sunday:

"I don't know if you have seen the news on all the channels, the other local jersey rat [Danny's biker crew] Nomad Chad's son was in a car that went into Green River Friday. I am here with them until the divers quit being [word deleted] and get his son's body recovered along with the other kid. Here last night, real cool cops, 60 abate members on bikes came through with coffee and food, huge out pour from so many people. See online komonews.com to get the story. We are on the bikes and rain is a drag! Watch the 5:00 news if you get a chance tonight too."

On Monday:

"Gonna be here through tonight too, just did komo and fox interviews and am zombie."

Today (Tuesday):

"Update from the Green River mud- Being awake consecutively for over 37 hours takes a lot of thermogenic pills and coffee! Up through last night manning the fire and keeping flares down the road so they could sleep without speeding cars. Also kept wandering chaplains from knocking... Some crazy [word deleted]... Then mobbed by the cameras and media clowns bringing me coffee. Can't remember what I said on the interviews but how they said, 'It's too high to go in; now it's too fast,' eight hours later. There will be more water tomorrow you political jackasses. Get them our of the damn river before you devastate fellow Jersey Rat Chad and both families even more... Bringing up the remains that resemble [word deleted] isn't good. They said recovery is at 8 and hope it is done by noon. Chad is a tough dude."

Please keep Chad and his family in your thoughts. Thanks.