Scott Sanfilippo - eCommerce Pioneer - Co-Founder of Solid Cactus - Yahoo! Store Owner - Luzerne County - Palm Beach County

“The Pellican Brief (Visit).” Or, “Mommy, what the hell is that?”

While shutterbugs in south Florida trying to snap photos of visiting celebs on Super Bowl Sunday, a large pellican enjoyed a few minutes of stardom as he made a unexpected appearance on the pool deck at the Boca Raton Resort & Club’s beach club. After spending a minute in the pool, the large bird paused for photos as the paparazzi snapped away commenting on his unkempt quoiff of hair and noticibly worn coat of feathers.

Not wanting to be upstaged by any of the activity just down the road in Fort Lauderdale and South Beach, the big bird delighted those who were watching him strut around, obviously proud of illuding security and sneaking in through the front gate. Some spectators commented that he sneaked in almost as casually as Tareq and Michaele Salahi at a White House dinner.

After a few minutes of working the crowd, our feathered friend walked out of the beach and in a matter of seconds, flew due south. No word on whether or not he will play interference during tonight’s big game.

“Bimbos & Monkeys.” Or, “Interesting Sights of the Day.”

On my way to the Lehigh Valley International Airport today, I got behind a truck bearing a name that immediately brought a smile to my face. In November I wrote about business names after seeing a furniture store named “Badcock & More.” In the same post, I talked about the origin of the names of companies I owned. While none of those illicit a hearty belly laugh, I still enjoy pointing out ones that do, like this one.

Follow the BIMBO!

BIMBO! According to their website, “Founded in Mexico in 1945, GRUPO BIMBO has become one of the preeminent bread companies in Mexico and Latin America. With around 5,000 products and more than 100 known brands, BIMBO is present in 18 countries from the Americas to Europe and Asia. BIMBO BAKERIES USA has been operating in the United States of America for around 10 years with its headquarters in Horsham, Pennsylvania.”

They may have a funny name and a cute and cuddly little mascot (check him out on their website), but nothing was more cute and cuddly than what I saw at my next stop. Monkeys!

As I was driving out of the Park N Fly airport parking lot in Fort Lauderdale, I spotted an unusual sight that caught my attention. Animal lover that I am, I was overly excited to see these little guys walking around the parking lot like you and I would. The one in the picture below sat on the curb and stared at me while I talked to him. When I reached for the camera and started moving around a bit, he got a little nervous and decided to walk away. As I was pulling out I saw another adult monkey and three little one running around.

I asked a lot porter about them and he said, “We’re the only parking lot in South Florida with monkeys!” No, it’s not a marketing campaign, he went on to say that these cute, furry critters have lived there for years and provide plenty of entertainment for employees and customers.

As I drove away, I had a craving for a loaf of bread and wanted to take a monkey home as a pet. I guess it’s good I didn’t pass that furniture store on the way home.

“It’s A Great Piece of Hardware.” Or, “Not My Thoughts on the iPad.”

It takes a lot to get me excited over a new product.

In fact, today is the first time I tried the “new” Domino’s pizza. Loved the marketing campaign where Domino’s admitted their product was bad and needed to reinvent themselves. Made me want to give it a try. The only problem was, the Domino’s who delivered my pizza obviously didn’t get the memo about the recipe change. My hand-tossed pie with extra sauce and pepperoni lacked the garlic-buttery crust, the sauce didn’t have the “kick” it’s supposed to, and I never knew Mozzarella cheese was yellow like cheddar.

It’s reasons like this that account for my lack of excitability. So when Steve Jobs announced that Apple is coming out with their version of a tablet pc, the iPad, I didn’t get too caught up in the frenzy. Sure, I’m a Mac guy. I was driven to the other side not by drinking the apple flavored Kool-Aid, but out of frustration. Simply put, Windows is just too damn unstable and crashes way too much. Since switching over to a Mac, I’m off my blood pressure medicine and even kicked the anti-depressants to the curb.

So what’s all the fuss about this iPad? I turned to my dear friend, Dr. Michael Neal, who gets excited about things like this for his comments. The rest of this blog post belongs to him. Me? I’m going to email Domino’s and tell them their pizza sucks.

I was glued to the computer yesterday. Had 3 sites running on auto refresh so I got all kinds of info on the newly launched Apple iPad.

I think I’m slightly underwhelmed by it. On face value, the hardware is incredible in battery life, performance and the general look. But it isn’t magical as they state. There are other tablets that are very similar except for the thickness. I’ve got a 12inch Asus from 3 years ago that was close to that. But close isn’t good enough.

What’s remarkable about the iPad isn’t the device. Its the following:

AT&T is offering unlimited data for 30 bucks without a contract. That’s a first that everyone seems to be overlooking. That’s half price of a laptop connect deal. Possibly less even. But AT&T sucks so whoopee.

The iPad is unlocked. It will take T-Mobile less than a month to find a micro sim adapter and launch an unlimited plan so they can capitalize on this. It will be a boon for them.

You won’t be able to type on this for even short periods of time without a keyboard. Put your keyboard on your lap and look straight down at it. Tell me how long it takes for your neck to get sore. 5 min? That’s why they demoed it seated with their leg up. In that capacity it will rock.

So basically, it’s a great piece of hardware.

Oh yeah, the book reader looks great. Till you take it outside. Ever use a kindle? It seriously rocks if you are a book reader.

It will also be pretty cool to watch TV on but good luck downloading TV over 3G.

What everyone seems to be missing is that this is just a platform. The magic will come in the apps. There are 140,000 reasons this tablet will turn into something incredible. Wait until developers get their arms around this thing. Imagine all the things you can do with 10 inches of multi-touchable super fast computer. That’s Jobs’ magic.

Apple will take the 70 million iPhone customers and convince some, if not most of them that this magic is worth buying. And buy it they will.

Dr. Michael Neal, OD lets his tech side show as CEO of Wink Interactive in Scranton, PA.

“I Was Watching Dancing with the Stars.” Or, “The Private Life of Jack and Diane.”

I’m at Starbucks on 45th Street.

I’m at McDonalds on Main Avenue.

I’m at the Rental Car Center at LAX.

These are examples of Tweets and Facebook posts from dedicated users who like to share their every second of being with their friends and fans.

I used to be one of them. That was until a colleague said to me one day, “you’re crazy for letting everyone know where you are, what if someone…” that’s when I stopped her. I didn’t want to hear how the sentence finished, but I got the point.

I used BrightKite on my iPhone to “check-in” at different locations and my “check-in” would then be plastered on my Twitter and Facebook pages. The purpose was to alert others in my circle of friends where I was in an attempt to meet up or meet new friends. After all, this is what the “social” in social media is all about, right?

Jeff Stolarcyk, a member of the Solid Cactus Internet Marketing team did a blog post about a relative newcomer on the social media scene, foursquare.com. Foursquare is one of these “check-in” type sites which bills itself as “a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” Quite a concept if you understand it, right?

In a nut-shell, you load foursquare on your phone, you check-in at these various locations, meet friends and fellow foursquare-ers, and climb the social media ladder in foursquare as you visit new places or return to ones previously visited. An interesting and fun concept. If you’re a business owner, you can offer incentives for foursquare users to visit your location and capitalize on this new and emerging market segment.

While those of us who are into this kind of stuff become more and more connected, privacy becomes an issue. If you don’t mind letting people know that you’re at Mel’s Diner five nights a week for dinner, go for it. If you’re somewhat hesitant about sharing your location with your friends, you can always either not “check-in” or do so in “stealth mode.” Then if you’re completely freaked out by the openness of social media, this stuff just isn’t for you.

It’s interesting to see just how transparent people are willing to let their lives become. I can see some things happening that could prove to be interesting:

Diane: Hey Jack, what did you do last night?

Jack: Oh, nothing. I sat at home and watched “Dancing with the Stars”.

Diane: Really? Then why did your Facebook page say you were at the night club?

Jack: Um, yeah, well. Gotta go!

Social media is changing the way we go about our lives, we’re becoming more interactive. Whether that’s good or bad is yet to be determined, but one thing is for sure, as we open our every move to more and more eyes, we have to be more and more cautious about our surroundings.