From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

Nicole and I visited the Williamsburg Winery this weekend for their annual Christmas Holiday Open House. Providing the proper mix of pleasure and business to your life allows your creative mind and ideas to regnerate themselves. Let’s all make a concerted effort during this holiday season to let your family know you love them, do an extra thing for yourself, and take an extra moment away from business to refresh your mind.

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Related information:
http://www.history.org
http://keithparnell.com
http://williamsburgwinery.com

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Praise You in This Storm by Casting Crowns.

Okay, I didn’t mean that as harsh as it sounded. But my life is digital. My family knows that. My friends know that. Most everything I do in my professional and personal life is captured in some way on some media platform.

I tweet my work. I tweet about meetings. I tweet about clients. I blog on several different blogs. I take photos like crazy with my BlackBerry and immediately email them to TwitPic which autoposts to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I take videos with my BlackBerry and live stream them to Qik which autoposts to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I tweet about my wonderful family. I tweet while on vacation. Heck, I even tweet while at Major League Baseball games.

I am digital. I am live. Hear me roar.
I get questions all the time about taking a break from being digital. And I always answer with the same response - “why?” I enjoy being digital. There’s no stress for me to being digital. I don’t need that break that some people might. In all actuality, I’m a bit uncomfortable not being readily connected.

Let me clarify a bit for you on what I mean by being “digital”. I don’t mean just having access to my social media channels, although they are important to me. My BlackBerry and notebook give me a safe place to write my thoughts, for my blog and for private. They give me quick access to my huge music library which is a great stress reliever for me. They give me a way to collect and view my vast photo and video libraries. They provide me a way to quickly Skype (audio or video) call with my Nicole or my daughters or my Mother.

So you see, being digital is not a burden to me at all. Being digital is my way of life that provides me the most efficient, profitable and comfortable way to manage my time, my daily tasks and my stress.

Besides, I love my job. My job is my life. My family and friends are my life. And my life is digital. So why would I want to change that?!

Mickey Mouse tweeted me. Don’t believe me? Look.

Thanks, Disney World, for a wonderful family vacation last week in Orlando. Our family of 19 thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

What can we learn from morning, rush hour traffic? Patience. Planning. Schedule appropriately.

There’s a silver lining to every challenge and test we face each day. Sometimes we just need to look a little deeper.

Photo taken in Atlanta’s morning, rush hour traffic.

This was a morning view one day last week during our trip through the south. The photograph was taken from my cousin’s (Susan) home in Marietta. Yes, “in” Marietta in the middle of the city that is a suburb of Atlanta. Can you believe this is in the middle of the city? Beautiful!

Nicole and I did a quick 2-day visit with friends to Nags Head (NC) this weekend. We did nothing! It was great.

On our ride home from Snowshoe this weekend we stopped by the city of Cass, WV so Nicole could get some shots of this old train station. The little town that looks to have about 50 people living in it, was swamping the main roadway heading through West Virginia on the path to Snowshoe. It’s scenery was stunning.

What a blast we had this weekend at Snowshoe! Nicole and I along our friends, Brian and Jen went to Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia. Here are a few pics from our adventure. More are on the Flickr site here.

Snow Report -
Temp @ Top 14
Temp @ Base 15
Snowfall to Date 73″
Surface Conditions packed powder, machine groomed
Total Trails Open 56
New Snowfall 4″

In 12 hours we’ll be on the slopes bustin’ a move. Well, bustin’ something. It’ll be fun though. Pictures in a couple of days …

2 days. Two days until we’re bustin’ a move on the slopes.