Margaret Flanigan

Mad Magazine has announced it will no longer publish monthly issues but instead will publish quarterly.

To be honest, I no longer read it but my 17 year old son does and my father did until he passed away.  My father had Alzheimers, and often toward the end he found a lot of the features very confusing, but he still enjoyed it and greeted each new issue with delight.

I have to admit that during my childhood, Mad Magazine was probably the greatest single formative influence in my life.  I was never much of a TV watcher and although I read many other comic books (Superman, Batman, Archie, etc) they were just something to pass the time.  I felt that Mad Magazine was somehow a window to a greater reality.  In time I discovered National Lampoon Magazine and science fiction pulp novels and then, I guess inevitably, I “grew up” and started reading “literature” and turned into the voracious reader I am now.  But, for what seemed then to be many long years of childhood, Mad Magazine was the staple of my intellectual diet.

Mad Magazine was also special to me because it was something shared between my little brother and I.  Older sisters and younger brothers are not always able to find common ground but Mad Magazine cemented our relationship.  We bought them and read them together.  Being very young, we often did not understand many of the cultural references and we spent many happy hours together trying to puzzle them out.

Mad Magazine was also a big part of our summer vacations.  My dad worked for the government and got 5 weeks of vacation every year and each summer he took them all at once so that our family could take epic road trips around the country.  My parents called them camping trips, but although we did have a camper and stayed in campgrounds, the purpose of these trips was really just to cover as much ground and see as many “educational” sites as possible.  This involved driving at least 500 miles every day and then jumping out of the car to visit and photograph every monument, museum, parade, battleground, rodeo, waterfall, diorama, zoo, scenic vista, stuffed buffalo, log cabin, changing of the guard, ghost town, canyon, old church, re-enactment, tee-pee, silver mine, geyser, civil war cannon, glacier, covered bridge, historic cemetery and tourist trap in the U.S. and Canada.  Needless to say, every summer my brother and I went numb after about 3 days of this, so we spent the rest of the 5 week trip curled up in the back seat re-reading our Mad Magazine collection.  To this day I cannot think of the Liberty Bell or Mount Rushmore except to remember seeing them with a well worn copy of Mad Magazine in my hand.

Another thing we did on these trips was “visit relatives.”  Most of these were little old ladies, so we were just expected to sit quietly for a few hours which wasn’t too bad.  What we were really worried about was meeting the relatives who had “nice kids our age.”    Most of our local cousins were dorky religious goody-goodies so we were really dreading these visits.  Imagine our delight when we discovered that our Arizona and Virginia cousins were actually even naughtier than we were and had vast collections of Mad Magazine paperbacks to share!  Aahh, so many happy memories!

So anyway, as I think back, many of the important events and relationships of my childhood involved Mad Magazine.  I know it influenced me deeply, even though, when I look at myself now, I seem to have become the kind of “dorky religious goody-goody” that would have appalled the 10 year old me.  I don’t know what to make of this radical transformation.

I guess that is part of why it makes me so sad to see Mad Magazine in decline.  I suppose I regard it as a fragile link back to the naughty little girl I used to be.

One of my favorite things to do when I want to relax is poke around in Twitter looking for interesting Tweets and then reading the blogs of the people who made them.  There are so many talented, witty, unusual, generous and delightful people in Twitter-land!

I especially look for people who:

• Have an unusual point of view
• Have something interesting to teach
• Have an uplifting or inspirational message
• Might be a potential business associate
• Have something important in common with me
• Have a wild or wicked sense of humor

But it is so disappointing to read a great Tweet and then go to the Tweeter’s Twitter page only to find that they have no website listed in their profile!  A dead end!

What is even worse (in my opinion) is when they have a page in their profile, but it turns out to be nothing but a sales page!  BOOO!  HISSSSSS!

There should be a rule that if you are on Twitter and you post great Tweets that you should be REQUIRED to have a blog so your readers can get to know you!

Come on people! It takes 5 minutes (and zero money) to set up a blog!  You don’t have to post to it if you don’t want to…  Just put up an “about me” page, if that’s all you can manage for now.  Or I guess you could even put your Facebook or Myspace link in your Twitter profile…  Just something friendly so your fellow Twitterers can get to know you better.  (Anything but a sales page.)

If none of this made any sense to you, you need to join Twitter!  It is fun and easy and opens up a whole new world full of fascinating people!  Go to Twitter now and sign up for an account.

After the Christmas holiday is over we settle into a long winter of hard work…

This year’s blahs seems worse than usual to me, I guess because of the harsh winter, the economic crisis and the ominous changes in the direction of American society.  I am also mourning the recent passing of one of my heroes, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus of First Things journal.

So I have been looking around for something to cheer me up and point me in a better direction and I found something wonderful…

The Happiness Project!

I stumbled across Gretchen Rubin’s wonderful website over the weekend and it is just taking all the self discipline I can muster not to throw away my to-do list and drop everything else and just completely devote myself to reading every word and following every link!  Happiness is addictive!

I want to urge everyone to go check it out but I have to warn you that you might want to clear your calendar first…  Once you get started you can’t tear yourself away!  So much great, practical advice!  I especially love the list of Wednesday Tips in the left sidebar.

Now I feel like I’ve gotten an enthusiasm transfusion and I am ready to take on the Winter of 2009!

I just found a very cool way to get a great deal on Camtasia Studio.  (The REAL Camtasia, not a pseudo Camstudio thing.)

There is an expensive ($547) program in prelaunch until tonight at midnight for only the $97 admin fee.

This program includes a ton of stuff (way too much to list) but one amazing thing I noticed is that the full version of Camtasia Studio is one of the software packages you get when you join.

Camtasia Studio is a $300 piece of software!  Every serious marketer should have it.  Even if you never use any of the other stuff or work the program you are still $200 ahead on the Camtasia alone!

Yes, this is my affiliate link http://www.123-simple.com/ecc (because you can’t get in without a link) but I don’t get any commission since you are paying only the $97 admin fee. (If you get in tonight)

It is up to you if you want to download all the other stuff (I saw Flash Video MX Pro, a $90 piece of software in there too, btw) or work the program.

But I just wanted to share this great deal on Camtasia Studio before it disappeared.

Enjoy!

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Wait!  Before you go… Here is another neat thing I just found:  Here is a great FREE Firefox addon that allow you to easily spy on your competition.  You can see all their adsense keywords and how much they are paying.  All completely on the fly!   Super cool!  I just love it!  http://www.123-simple.com/spy

And did I mention that it is FREE??

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I need to drive down to Green Bay on some family business so I will be away from my office most of the day.

If you need help with something please email me or leave a message on my voice mail.

I expect to return this evening and I will get back to you then.

Have a great day!

I’ve been pretty sick with some kind of cold/flu bug since the weekend but today I’m feeling a little better.  I just checked this blog and noticed that the free software of the day is something really amazing today!

If you never noticed it before, you can find the free software giveawayof the day over in the right sidebar, about halfway down.  There is always a description and link to a place where you can download a different piece of software free for 24 hours only.  This is not junky “free software.”  It is usually very worthwhile stuff that regularly sells for $20 – $50.

However, today the software is really something special so I wanted to call your attention to it.

Today only you can get Edraw Max 4.3, a $95 software package completely free…

Edraw Max is a versatile graphics software, with features that make it perfect not only for professional-looking flowcharts, org charts, network diagrams and business charts, but also building plans, mind maps, workflows, fashion designs, UML diagrams, electrical engineering diagrams, directional maps, program structures, database diagrams… and that’s just the beginning!

With more than 4600 built-in vector symbols, drawing couldn’t be easier! Create a wide variety of business charts and presentations based on templates and examples while working in an intuitive and familiar office-style environment.

Installing it is a breeze and there is great online documentation.

So grab it quick before it’s gone…