November 4th is finally over, and my 14 hours working at an election polling precinct is complete. It was a long, long day, but ultimately worth it.

Turnout in our precinct was strong, with nearly 72% of all eligible voters having taken their part in the election process, either through early voting or on the 4th itself.

With the results of what will no doubt be a historic election, it will be a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

I went down to the local Board of Elections for Poll Worker training today. It was interesting seeing the process behind election day preparations. I’m glad I volunteered, as looking around the room, I was definitely the youngest person there. And in an increasingly technology-based world, it’s important to get some tech-savvy volunteers there for the growing number of electronic voting machine questions.

The Meister House is busy with work put into its Halloween makeover. The above photo is of a table full of indoor decorations that we put on display inside our over-sized garage for both our annual Halloween party, as well as Trick-or-Treat with all the kids a few days later.

There will be more pictures to come as things come together. It’s a lot of work, but the reaction Halloween gets here at the Meister House every year is worth it.

I had a chance to head to Los Angeles this past week for an opportunity to take part in a holiday commercial for my employer. They had originally put out a request for employees to participate that received hundreds of responses, of which they picked 200 to fly into our corporate campus to do a video interview. From there, they picked 30 employees for the trip to California.

The flight in was comfortable and the September weather in Los Angeles was amazing, coming from Ohio. Although I was only going to be in town 2 days, and working most of the 2nd day, I made sure to get out into the Burbank area surrounding the hotel I was put in.

Monday came quicker than I expected, which meant lots of preparation before going into the stage area. There were wardrobe and make-up trailers to be gone through, forms to be filled out and directions to be given. Eventually, I was taken into stage 6.

The technology on the set was fascinating, with wires and monitors everywhere. Having a black and white uniform, with its stark and contrasting colors, meant that the lighting crew had to spend extra time trying to get the light and shadows in the area just right so that everything would look its best. However, the crew was polite and patient, so things went pretty smoothly and comfortably.

Once they were ready, I spent the better part of the next hour and a half standing in front of the green screen answering questions about my job for the director and following his directions on where to look and speak. It flew by, though, and before I knew it, I was back in the trailer where the other employees to be filmed that day were.

Although I have no idea if anything I filmed will make it into the holiday commercials, I’m still extremely glad I had the opportunity to participate.

August marks a very special anniversary for Apple in that ten years ago it introduced the first iMac to the PC market.

Walking through the PC aisle today with all the different and colorful design choices available might make it easy to underestimate the impact the “Bondi Blue” iMac made. However, 1998 was time where most computers were designed as boring beige boxes more at home under a company desk than in your home.

The idea of a simple to setup all-in-one home PC had been attempted before, but the iMac really cemented the idea that a personal computer could be an experience versus a simple device.

Beyond the outward design, the iMac turned heads with a number of technology decisions that were controversial at the time, but are now standards. Some, for example, balked at the lack of floppy drive, but now many see the iMac as one of the death knells of those drives. The iMac also dropped several common Macintosh ports in lieu of utilizing USB connections, which at the time were very uncommon.

The release of the iMac also signaled a revitalized Apple. Steve Jobs had just returned to the company, which had been dealing with years of poor sales and struggling stock prices. However, the release of the iMac, designed by a team led by Johnathan Ive, sold nearly 800,000 units in the last half of 1998 and brought Apple back to profitability.

In the decade that followed, Johnathan Ive and his team continued to innovate with the Apple line, including iPods and iPhones, but the iMac in particular went through some of the most striking changes.

Those changes also swept through the rest of the PC industry and consumers responded positively by basing buying decisions on design as much as performance and functionality. It’s precisely because of those striking designs that consumers can walk through the PC aisle and find a computer that not only fits their lifestyle needs, but their fashion tastes as well.

I’m currently typing away on my MacBook, connected to the Internet via a mobile EVDO connection that’s allowing me to surf the web at 65 miles per hour on the I-75 highway through Kentucky.

It’s kind of surreal to think about just how much has changed from the road trips of my youth, where our time spent in the family station wagon consisted of coloring books and games of calling out the states of license plates. I recall fondly trying to re-fold state highway maps before you miss your exit.

Now, however, I’m able to amuse myself by watching streamed television courtesy of Hulu, while the GPS automatically calls out directions to attactions, hotels and fuel stations.

I don’t even have to wait until I get home to have the film from my camera developed, as now I can take snapshots of interesting things I see along the way, then upload them to a photo hosting site like flickr or even just email them to friends and family directly.

Times have certainly changed, and I for one am enjoying it one digitally mobile mile at a time.

The New York Times had a Small Business section today with an article entitled You Can Call for I.T. Help Without Hiring a Whole Crew that talks about computer support options for those smaller organizations that can’t hire a full or even part time technical support person.

From the article:

Amy Wright, a collision repair consultant who works from her home in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, had Geek Squad set up her computer and digital camera and the wireless Internet connection in her home office, as well as the Sony video recorder her husband uses. When it came time to upgrade her computers, printers and monitors, she spent about $2,800 at Best Buy.

“You can call them for help, but you don’t have to have them on a full-time basis,” Ms. Wright said of Geek Squad.

It’s definitely a little weird seeing your photo in a major newspaper, but I’m glad I got the chance.