Good Day Google Plus - Black Friday Edition 2014

Hey everyone, welcome to Good Day Google+. I'm Chef Dennis Littley and today we have a wonderful show for you today and a great lineup of guests. Last week was the man show, other than me, today is the woman show. I can get touchy-feely sometimes, I'm okay with that, chick flicks and things, so we can have a nice discussion here. Let me go down my guests today and introduce everyone and say hi, and then we will come back and get started. So today from Cornwall, England, I have Sue Aston. How you doing, Sue?

I'm fine, thank you. It's great to be on the show with other girls.

It's always nice to see you on here. I'm glad you can make it today.

Thank you.

And I know Phil's in the background. You sent him to his place, I heard you say.

I did. He's on the floor doing his techie thing.

He likes to keep her men on the floor.

I love it.

I'm not even going there, but that's okay. Alright, so I'm glad. How's the weather today in Cornwall?

It's really cold actually, very cold and very misty, so it's getting a bit wild.

Oh really?

Hmm. What's it like where you are?

It was chilly, it was 45 this morning, so for us that's cold.

Yeah, sure.

It's going up to 65 today, so it'll be pretty nice out, but it's been feeling a little early morning chill. Yeah, but we'll take it. Sun's out, so I'm happy. And then we have a first-timer for the show, Roxanne Riskin. How you doing, Roxanne?

Thank you, Chef. Wonderful.

So nice to see you, and I see you got your Google Glass on.

I'm all set. I'm ready to go. Black Friday. Yeah.

If only you could shop on those. Can you get enough internet to do that?

Probably, but I haven't tried shopping. I'm just doing photography for now, and I get my messages and my phone calls.

Well, that's cool.

It is.

And where are you exactly? You're in—

I'm in Connecticut, Contrary, Connecticut, also known as the Constitution State, but some people call us the Nutmeggers.

The Nutmeggers, I love it.

I guess we have some good nutmeg here, Jeff.

Let's hope, that's what it's for. Did you guys get a bunch of snow?

We had some snow in upper Connecticut, but where I am, they said no snow yesterday and we had snow yesterday. So we never believe our weather people too often.

I was watching some of the stuff on the news and it looked insane up in some parts of—

Yeah, where I am, more northern, there's a A couple inches of snow, but where I am, I'm in coastal Connecticut, so basically rain, and it's beautiful today and it's about 55°F.

Great!

We're like in November right now.

Yeah, it's a nice time of year, so I'm glad you got some good weather. And then next to Roxanne, I have Maggie Unzueta. How you doing, Mag?

I'm great, I'm great. It's funny because I used to live in Connecticut. I went to school in Connecticut. And I hated, hated the weather there. Living in San Diego in Southern California, it was 90 degrees in LA yesterday. It was so hot. Here, I left here and it was about 80, and I went up to LA to be with my family for Thanksgiving. It was so hot. It was so hot. That's all I have to say. Hot.

Well, we had that kind of turn of temperatures earlier in the week, and it had been low, and we had 85. Earlier in the week, so it was warm, but now it's back down again. Just wanted to make up its mind and get a nice calm, maybe 75 for a while, we'll be happy.

Yeah, I don't— no offense to Roxanne there, but I really don't miss Connecticut weather.

That's okay.

I'll stay here. I think I'll stay.

I'm a sunny coast girl, that's okay.

When you said you lived in Connecticut too, it wasn't so much you lived in Connecticut as you went to Yale.

And my fiancé, I'm newly engaged, he went to Harvard, so we have this Yale-Harvard kind of thing. And you know, I have a son, so we keep saying, where is he going to go to school?

Dartmouth or something, you know. He'll have to find somewhere in between, or UCLA, there you go.

He'll go to Stanford. I'll accept Stanford. Close to home.

Stanford's not bad. All right, so good to see you today. And Alexandra, how you doing?

I'm good, Chef.

Thank you for having me.

And that's Reiki Gonzalez, right?

Reiki.

Nice try.

Nice try. It was close. It was close. I usually just let it slide.

I know.

I know.

Don't— when I, when I ask, I probably won't remember because I'm old, but that's okay. And you're out in the Midwest somewhere, right? Or you're in—

Yeah, I'm in Ohio.

And we're definitely getting— we're already getting a lot of our snow, and I'm not happy about it.

It's been coming too early this year. That's what it is. It's just nuts.

It is. It is. It's been—

I mean, at least right now the roads are pretty clear, but it's supposed to snow again tonight, and it snowed last night. But Sunday it's supposed to hit 50, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I could deal with that, yeah. Well, you know, here, like I said, it's 65, but for that time of the year, I remember being in Philadelphia and just wishing it was 45. I remember.

Well, that's what— when you said it's 45, so it's chilly, I'm like, God, I'd kill for 45 right now. It's like, uh, it's about 20 degrees here.

I remember too well, and December and January are still coming, so Yeah, buckle up, your parka, parka, Sparky has come. The people down here have their parkas on already and earmuffs and gloves. They think it's like really serious wintertime. It's a little cooler for me this year. I'm getting more acclimated, but ready. And Anna Hoffman just popped in. She wanted to— she was around, I asked her to join us so we have a fully functional woman staff here. There she is. Hey, Anna.

Good morning, Chef.

How are you?

Good. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. And good morning, ladies. You look all beautiful. I was just making a comment how good you make him look.

I love it. This is when I should wear the shirt that says, "The ladies love me." Well, at least in your dreams. I know. Well, that's the Gaston shirt from Beauty and the Beast. You know, I'd had that. In my dreams, and that's okay. Alright, so we're gonna get started, and Sue is gonna play a song for us, one of her new songs, and I hope everyone enjoys. And all of the people watching, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them and we will pop them up. Just like Christopher's saying, Stanford, the Harvard of the West. There we go, I love it. And that will pull up for you and give you a shout out. So let's get started, let's get this party started. And Sue, I'm going to turn it over to you and Phil, and you can play something for us.

Great.

Well, thank you. I'm going to play a new track. It's called Hollyburn's Lament, and it's a Celtic-inspired tune. And it was inspired by some, like, myths and legends that we have lots of that down here in Cornwall. And there's a legend about a giant called Hollyburn who lived on top of like a rocky outcrop called Carn Galva, and he was a very lonely giant, but he did have one little friend who was a little boy that used to come and visit him, and they used to play games together. And one day this boy, he won the game, and the giant was so pleased for him that he patted him on the head to say well done. But unfortunately, being a giant, he was a bit heavy-handed, and it killed his friend. So Holly— Bill's laughing! It's sad!

It's not sad!

Anyway!

It's typical of Cornish myths and legends.

Yes, typical of Cornish, it's all dark. But anyway, so this melody I'm going to play you, Hollyburn's Lament. So hope you enjoy it.

Thanks.

I'll just change the settings over.

Oh, beautiful!

Yay!

Awesome!

That was beautiful, Sue. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I've just changed the settings.

Whoops, dropped my earplug.

I can hear that haunting melody. Yeah, it was very much a lament.

Oh, thank you.

Thanks.

I can only imagine hearing you play that up on the cliffs.

I know, with the wind blowing everywhere. It's very atmospheric playing outside. It's quite fun actually. You kind of feel all the energy of nature and that sort of thing.

Do you have any favorite violinists that you enjoy listening to?

Yeah, I absolutely love Nigel Kennedy. Have you heard of Nigel Kennedy over in America?

I have not, but what does he play?

Well, he's a violinist, but he's classically trained, but he plays all sorts. He plays jazz electric violin, folk. He writes his own music, and he kind of looks a bit punky. He's got really spiky hair, and he wears like really mad clothes, and he supports Aston Villa football team, and I do as well. So yeah, he's my favorite performer because he's, he's not like just a typical violinist. He's an all-around amazing musician.

Growing up, one of my favorite bands was a band called Seatrain when I was a teenager, and they had— there was a guy, Richard Green, and he was an electric by Dennis Littley, and that was like my first exposure to it, but it was just so good. And then I actually got to meet and cook for Alison Krauss.

I don't know if you've ever heard of her. Yeah.

And spent some time with her, and she is just amazing.

Wow, that's really nice.

Yeah, so I always have— and Kansas, of course, I guess you've heard of them, you know, always—

Yellow.

Yellow, you know, just—

Oh, lovely yellow.

Yeah, fantastic.

So I don't listen to too much classical of anything. I do enjoy the music, but it's got to be the right time, I guess, and the right place for me to hear it. My wife, on the other hand, loves it. And when I play heavy metal, she goes, oh, thank God I didn't know you when you were into that.

Oh, dear.

Yeah, she's not a big fan of Metallica.

Oh, the School of Rock would not be happy about that. They'd give her Metallica education.

Yeah, you know, I take pretty much everything. The only— even a little Nine Inch Nails from time to time. The only thing that really threw me was Pantera. I remember getting their first album and it was okay, and the second album kind of melted my ears, and I took it back and I can't listen to this. I'm not that old, but I can't listen to this. But I like a nice variety of tunes, so if you hear my iPod, you'll get everything from metal to country to Dean Martin. Just kind of an eclectic mix.

Excellent. No rap? No electronic music? No glow sticks?

No stuff? That's the other one I've had a hard time getting into. I like when they pull up next to me because I'll be doing— I'll start— to aggravate them because they'll look over at me and go, If she likes it, I should be listening to it.

Homey in Orlando.

Oh, we've got a lot of Hispanic rap in Orlando, so that really gets interesting. That's taking it to a new level.

I think I learned one more thing about you, Chef. You're undecided and non-committal.

I'm not sure about that. Let me think about it.

No, metal, country music, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know, that's just—

yeah, any genres.

I enjoy music, and like I said, classical has its place. I was a big fan of piano classical, and Rachmaninoff was my favorite at one point in that. I like violin piano work too.

So have you noticed how people in movies anyway, when they cook, they kind of tend to create the mood for their cooking by a type of music that they prefer. Do you have something like that in your kitchen going?

You know, I don't have anything playing in the kitchen because there's nothing nearby. I don't have my iPods out in my car, and I usually don't have anything there. I need to rectify that because in my old days in the restaurant when I would cook I had a disc player that went inside my jacket, and I'd have one earphone in so I could still hear the people talk, but I cooked to music all night long. That's what got me my rhythm, you know, when I was doing 200-300 dinners a night by myself. That just got me through the night, and it was a strange variety at that time too of different things.

Oh, I totally jam out. I jam— when I cook, well, first off, I always have wine. That's a must. That's a must. And I'm jamming out. And I'm cooking. And I love Latin music. We just had the Latin Grammys last week. Last week. So I cook a lot of Mexican food.

Well, that's understandable.

Yeah.

I don't know if you saw that movie with Russell Crowe. It's a little bit older movie. It's called The Good Year. And it's all about him inheriting an estate in France where they make wine. So the whole movie is all about wine, good food, and just enjoyment of life. And the main music theme there is wedding samba, which I absolutely love. And it's kind of the tempo that gets you going when you cook. And it's incredible. A glass of wine, good music, pretending at least that you're making good food. Well, in my case anyway. I'm sure, Chef, you actually know what you're doing, I hope.

Sometimes. Sometimes I just go with it. Here's— I love this, I have to put this up. Christopher said, Hispanic rapping, Santa's little Spanish elves.

Very good.

I love that. And then now where is her— I lost it— Kristen. It said, How about some nice Rammstein or Type O Negative?

Oh yes, we like them, don't we? We listen to that.

I must have missed them. I don't know either one. I'm like really feeling old. Katherine is in the house and she says Latin music, she likes that. I like my Latin music too, but I like a little Tex-Mex variety of Latin music.— what do we call that? I forget what the official label of that is. But anyway, from San Antonio, we would have that accordion in there and the violin and then the guitars. It was kind of fun. All right, well, let's talk to Roxanne for a minute. Now, Roxanne, you're a newbie on here, and you got your Google Glass. You're all set. Why don't you talk to us a little and tell us what you do on and off the Plus?

I'm working at, I work at Fairfield University and I'm the technology specialist. So I actually get to try all kinds of new technologies. And my office is in the library. And we just entertain lots of new innovative things as much as we can. And just bought Glass in one day and everybody was thrilled to try it. And I've been demoing it around campus when I get a chance. Right now everyone's on break, so we're just kind of chilling out right now before finals begin, and it'll be a very busy time. So basically, at work, I'm really busy all the time with innovative technologies and supporting technologies on the campus.

How are the students to work with? I guess they really know technology.

They do. They're basically— we're in We're a campus that's in a hybrid mode. We have a lot of mobile devices, like who doesn't? And some tablets, and anything that can connect and have internet connectivity. I've about seen it. We have a couple of students with Glass on the campus. I haven't seen them, but I've heard about it.

How many students do you have at the campus?

We have, I think, roughly around 5,500 full-time.

Well, that's a nice size school then. Yeah. You know, some of them get so big at the end you just get lost in the shuffle of numbers, but that way you get to keep it a little more—

It's a very comfortable school and we personalize everything that we can. Really do. It's a beautiful campus. We have, I think, 30 acres, 35 acres. We're right near the sound, Long Island Sound, and it's beautiful. There's also a couple other schools schools, both spying on me and making noises.

You just keep fading a little bit. I wasn't sure what that was.

The wind. Just having fun with Google Glass has basically been fantastic. I became an Explorer in January. I was one of the last to be accepted into the fold, I guess. I guess there were a few more after me before they opened it up to purchase. It's still beta, I guess, for the public. It's been quite a journey, quite an exploration meeting everybody on the Gverse. Fantastic people, you just reaching out and having a conversation is something that I never did before. You can't do that really on Facebook. I'm really not trashing Facebook totally, I'm not. I prefer to be on the Gverse. It's just a beautiful community. I mean, if you find someone undesirable, I guess you just mute them or boot them off. But like in anything else, you just can deal with that accordingly. And there's not a lot— I've seen some spam coming in and out of the GFirst, but Google's done a fantastic— in my opinion, they've gotten rid of a lot of spam at this point. I hope they keep that up. It's excellent. Google Glass. Has been fantastic. It's, it's a device that's been well received where I am, and not— there's not a fear factor. It's, it's just another mobile device. A lot of the, a lot of the things that people read and report, I tend not to want to jump on the bandwagon to defend it because I think it's a product, as the founders wanted us to go out and present it and see and deal with what we, what we, um, what we get. We deal with the responses and in both positive and in the natural, in the real world, and, and, and the contrived stories that are, are made up, or elements of those that are, are in those stories that are true. We have to kind of take those apart one by one and see exactly if it's a more emotional reaction or if there's any something real to it. I can go on forever, but—

I know, and you know Alexander's a glass explorer too.

Actually, Alexander, yeah, fantastic.

Yes, I have it, I have it with me right here, I'm just not wearing it. I'm now in the stage of glass that I've kind of, I don't know, I wear it when I need to and I don't wear it when I don't need to. It's been a— I mean, I like it, but I think that it does still have a ways to go before— I was really surprised that they offered it. They had that day where, you know, anyone could purchase it until they sold out. I was surprised that they did that because I think that they opened themselves up to the criticism that we're seeing. We're seeing a lot of "Google Glass is dead," "It's not worth it," and I think part of that is because they opened it up to the public, so the public expected it to be ready for the common consumer, and I don't— it's just not there yet. They're doing a really great job, and if you ever have issues with it, I have never had a better support team. The support team for Google Glass, they're so nice. They walk you through everything, they're immediate to respond. But yeah, I, I think it's a, I think it's a great product and I think it will get to where it needs to be. But my personal opinion is that it's definitely still in beta.

Yeah, I think it's, it's got such potential and, and I was gonna buy it too, and the first time I had was waiting for them to approve me. And then we moved and I had to hold off on the money for a while and then I had the money again and they approved me again and I went, "Ah." But I keep hearing these things that they still need to work on, like the battery not lasting that long. And what I would want to use it for, like recording one of my cooking shows or something, it didn't seem like it would last long enough. So I figured, I know they're going to get it right. Let's just give them some time and then, you know, then I'll buy it. Because it is an investment. You know, and, and at the time it was, you know, get that or a new computer and something else, so I just went with the new computer. But you know, you used it in your classes and stuff, didn't you, Alexandra?

I did, I did. So I tested it out in my classroom for, um, I did it for 2 semesters, and I didn't do it this semester, one, because I am in my thesis, and anyone who has tried to write a thesis knows that I get no sleep at all. I am exhausted. Writing like a 75-page paper on a specific theory and research is a really taxing experience. So on top of that, I teach 3 classes, and then I do my work for SEO Wise and School of Rock. So I was just like, I don't want to deal with classes this term. But I also— half of the feedback I got was really positive. And the other half of the feedback that I got from my students was that it just didn't do anything for them. So that's, that's the other reason that I decided to hold off. And I was like, okay, let me see if I can, if I can rethink this. I do still bring them into my classroom and I offer my students, I'm like, if you want to wear them, if you're interested in them, you're more than welcome to. And I've had a couple students this term put them on and just see what it's like. And they're, they're almost scared to do anything with them. Like, they put them on, they're like, oh cool, and they give them back. I'm like, you didn't do anything. What? No, no, no, no, go ahead, play with them. I mean, if you break them, it's OK, we'll figure it out. It's not a big deal. But it's interesting. They're more in awe of them than really wanting to use them. And I think that, again, goes back to all of the stories that are coming out about it that make it sound like something that nobody wants, that's really difficult to use, that has all these issues. So I think, I mean, part of the reason that they have the Explorers is to help negate those things. I mean, it's Google. They know that people are going to have bad things to say. I mean, how many times have we heard that Google+ is dead, right? They knew what they were doing. Part of the responsibility of the Explorers always is— has always been my stance on it is to educate one person at a time. That's always been my personal take on it. And that's what I try to do in my classroom. But yeah, I stepped back from what I was doing because it was so much work and I found out that about half my students didn't feel like it was worth it.

They weren't buying into it. That's it with Google too, just about anything they do as well as Google+. It's just one big experiment. I try to make people realize that. They're going, "Is it going?" I said, "Well yeah, it might go away, but as long as it's something Google is getting something out of, it'll be here." I said, "I don't think Hangouts will ever go away. They're just going to keep getting better and better because they've found out how valuable they are and people are using them." using them and more people are going to use them. But for Google, when they lease that hangar from NASA for 80 years, what are they doing? Now we're getting Google into space exploration, they have the longevity program for extending our lives. Their hands are in so many different things. I think everything they do is just an experiment.

Yeah, I mean they're big enough that they can do that, right? That's the awesome thing about Google. They're like, this seems like a good idea, let's just try it out.

See how it goes.

I'm waiting for them to take over the phone networks because, you know, then I think we'll see something positive.

Yes, please. I'm so excited about Google Fiber, and I want them to create their own network. I'm like, Verizon, I'm not happy with you. I'm not happy with you.

Tell me about it. And expensive. It gets crazy. But it is what it is.

I would really like to see Google, um, look at Africa and the places that are really not connected, and they have a project called Loon launching balloons up into the upper atmosphere that would probably provide coverage for the very remote places and rural places. And I think that will— we'll see that develop over the next few years. That's my wish.

Oh yeah, I have actually—

everyone needs to be connected. The One Laptop Per Child was developed at, I think, MIT by Nicholas Nergoponte. I'm probably saying his name wrong. But yes, a lot of places are still invested in providing laptops for every children. I love that.

It's part of what they need to learn anymore, you know, the world has changed, so we have to get technology into people's hands so they can— and move forward.

I think Google is an amazing platform for that, and look at— they've gotten us together. You did. We're a global community when we could talk to someone in India, Africa, China, and Hawaii, and all voice our opinions on our own perspective.

I know, every time Amarnath and I talk about it, I want to break into, "It's a small world after all," but Disney would probably have lawyers calling me right away.

I mean, I can't complain. I love Google, and I love Google+. I met my fiancé on Google+, as some of you guys know.

Oh, wow.

I love— on Hangouts.

Really?

That's awesome.

That's cool. Who is it?

You have to tell us now. We want to know.

You have to provoke him, and he's on there right now.

I saw your picture yesterday, or last night. Where's your ring? Do you have your ring? Yeah, there it is. Congrats.

Yeah, he's around here somewhere.

That was beautiful.

Here he comes.

Hey, hey. Hey, don't be showing us the—

okay, that one. I thought Phil was giving us the finger.

No, no. No fingers.

That was the middle finger.

That wasn't the middle finger.

Oh, I know. It was the ring finger.

No, but he does this thing where he— what is it? The Auto Awesomes. Oh, I love the Auto Awesomes. Some of the Google elves get together and they put these pictures. And we've been traveling a lot lately, he and I. So you see us in different spots. We're up in Napa and Sonoma, wine blogger, the whole thing. So we have some pictures up there with these auto awesomes that just came out brilliantly. And we haven't even published a lot of them just because we didn't want to annoy too many people. But we get— yeah, I had to switch over to the hotspot just because my Wi-Fi went down. Like, what's wrong with you, Google? We love you. Come back to us. But anyway, so yeah, a lot of celebrating right now.

Your signal's—

Lots of celebrating. What's that?

Usually your signal is very good when you're on.

I know, go figure. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm so lucky that I have the hotspot. Absolutely. If not, I would be on a phone trying to chime in with you guys.

I wanted to mention we have some wineries in Connecticut.

What's that now?

We have some wineries, we have a Connecticut wine trail with 26 wineries in Connecticut.

I write for 3 wine blogs, and one of them is based in Rhode Island, and I never— and he's from New York originally, from Buffalo, where it was pouring snowing. Anyway, so it's interesting because we were up in New York not too long ago, and I saw these different New York wines. And back when I was, you know, at Yale, I really wasn't interested in— I wasn't as interested in wine as I am now. I always enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but It's fascinating to see, you know, if you can grow a grape, people are going to make wine. I figured that part out. This one, this one's different. This one is from Spain. I'm going to promote it on here. But this one's from Spain. It's a cava. So we've been doing a lot of celebrating. Yesterday we actually had this for Thanksgiving just because, you know, my family— we got engaged Wednesday night. Yeah, he can't be on the comment tracker because I stole the hotspot. So he doesn't— yeah, anyways, he's not on there doing his goofy stuff. But Wednesday night— so Thursday, my family's like, oh, Happy Thanksgiving. We're all like, boop, we're engaged. So yeah, we're having a wedding here soon.

So how do they react to the gringo?

Oh, they're excited. They're really happy. They love him. My son loves him. My family loves him, my friends love him, so yeah, hopefully they like me too.

I'm sure they do. Much happiness to you both, you deserve it. And I'm so happy that you found each other on Google+.

Yeah, you were probably— we didn't want to announce it on Google+ because we have so many people who know us, and you were probably the first person or one of the first people who knew about us just Because I think it was on a Good Day Google+ show, and you were, so who's your special guest, Maggie? Who's your special guest?

I knew who it was. I was just trying to get you to say it.

Yeah, yeah. Blushing, I'm like, uh, I can't tell you, Chef. So yeah, I sent him a text message later on, and I said, it's Christopher Walken, man. Here's a picture.

Well, I kind of knew. I just went—

Just right now.

We're out in the open. We're out of the closet.

So good.

Yeah, but Google+.

Google+ Hangouts.

We've been chatting for a long time. I mean, Google Chat. He lived on the East Coast. We have a love story. So I'm going to publish our love story. It is— Stop it. Yeah, he's telling me to stop it, just because it's a really crazy awesome love story. I will be publishing this web story. I'm starting to blush just thinking about it, because it really is a really cool web story. But OK, enough.

Enough. Cheers.

When you get married, can we watch it on a Hangout On Air? Maybe.

That would be so interesting. We've actually been talking about getting married for— I mean, longer than a couple of days. So we've been looking around. Here in San Diego, Coronado. So I'm sure everyone will hear about, you know, all the wedding planning. I'm a blogger, so I'm very public about certain things that I do. Especially us, we check in everywhere. I have to think about a wedding dress and, oh God, wedding favors. Oof. Okay, so help. Anybody has any ideas? Please help me. It's stressful. It's a stressful time.

So—

stressful, happy, music, Sue. Of course.

Well, if we could do a Hangout, we could get Sue to play something from Cornwall for you there. That would be cool.

That would be cool. You wear glass? I do.

Just make sure you take them off before the honeymoon starts.

You don't want to record on.

That would be cool.

I would be interested.

There was actually an app for that. I don't think it lasted, but there was an app you could sideload. Just saying. No, I did not sideload it.

Come on, guys.

I don't remember that one.

I love it.

I know nothing about that.

Maggie, Richard wants to know which cava was it?

Oh, which cava? So this is Aria. It's Segura Viudas. Segura Viudas. That's terrible. Sorry. I'm a native Spanish speaker. So viudas are widows. Segura means sure, or certain. A certain widow. This is extra dry. It's an estate brew. I really like this. Yesterday it was just very nice. It's very soft, it's very bubbly, very good acidity. Sometimes you get that with sparkling wine where it's too acidy and too lemony, so it's too citrusy. This is nice. This has a very nice balance. Yes, I like. I recommend. Fervidus.

What would you pair that with?

I— oh. Definitely some cheeses. Because of the acidity, you can actually go into cheeses. I love my Prosecco. I love Prosecco and wine and so forth, sparkling wine. But definitely cheeses, maybe something shrimpy-ish, like scallops wrapped in bacon. Yeah, that's Christopher Volkan's favorite, by the way. I have yet to make that for him. He's been eating a lot of Mexican food. Oh, yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner— this is the Mexican Thanksgiving dinner for you guys— we had turkey, which, yum, right? Turkey. And tamales. And birria, which he had never had. Birria is stewed beef in sauces. You just have to go into my Instagram and check it out because it was just, oh, yeah. Yeah, it was good. Delicious. Delicioso.

You're killing me. I have to go home. I have to go to San Antonio and get some good Mexican food. Although I have to not eat for a week when I go though, because every place you stop, they try and feed you a whole dinner.

That's my mom. So here we're celebrating engagement, woohoo, the whole thing. My mom, normally she'll feed you like just side of beef. It's like, here, eat food. Aren't you hungry? Why haven't you eaten? It's like, ugh. 3 hours later, we're still eating. But yesterday was a special, special, special occasion, so more food, more tamales. I came home with baskets of food. And my son this morning, he saw the basket and he said, that was Grandma, wasn't it? I'm like, yeah, that's Grandma. Just leave her alone.

Yeah, let the tamales roll. Gotta love it.

Yeah.

So Anna, you're here, and you had sent me a message about something you're doing, and I will give you some time to talk about that. The links you wanted to talk to me about?

Yeah. Well, I hate to bring it back to business, but, you know, in all this American or cultural consumerism, I should say, you know, the one thing that I love to think about is how can we apply that to our businesses and how can we put that to work for us, you know, beyond buying a new pair of shoes or the bigger, bigger screen TV, which is usually what Black Friday is about. So anyway, for those of you who don't know, I am the owner of Traffic Generation Cafe, The Traffic Cafe where we— all I talk about is traffic to our websites, you know, and most of us are online for a reason because we want to promote ourselves in one way or another. So that's kind of where I try to come in and help people to do it better and for less money. And that's what I've been doing in the past couple of weeks. I've been contacting different product creators that help you build a better business, online business. So some of them, a lot of them said, yes, absolutely, I would love to give your readers, your viewers special deals on our products. And some of them said no for good reasons. But those who said yes, you can find them at Traffic Generation Cafe. And that's basically what I wanted to make sure that I get to you guys is that as we get off and maybe eat more turkey turkey, which I had family gathering yesterday. I made a huge turkey, and it's gone. I don't even have leftovers. It's so sad. But whatever we have leftover, we'll have that with a lot of wine, of course. I think yesterday was the biggest wine-drinking day in the Hoffman household. I think we killed between 6 or 7 bottles.

Wow.

It's insane. I'm like Maggie, you know, I love good wine, and when we have people around us who appreciate that, I tend to kind of, you know, especially after the first or the second bottle, I just open all the expensive stuff and like, here, enjoy it, let's drink it. That's basically what happened yesterday. But anyway, going back to business, you know, I hate to do a plug because this is kind of relaxing, you know, let's talk about food and wine and listen to good music. But just come to Traffic Generation Cafe if you want to grow your business next year, check out the marketing deals I've got for you, and enjoy your weekend, enjoy family and friends, and just remember why we work so hard during the year, so that we can do this, you know, take time off and just hang out and Yeah, put our energy into things that actually matter.

Well, you know, we look for ways to improve ourselves, and we look for ways to, you know, so we can do this. And what better way to do it than to do it with friends? I mean, we network for a reason. We network because we like each other, and we should support each other. And if we're going to buy something, we might as well buy it from a friend. Rather than just go out and do a Google search and just grab it. So someone you can trust, someone you can talk to about it. I never see anything wrong with promoting each other because we're here for that reason. We have this time together because as a business we're successful at what we're doing so we can spend time talking as friends talk. And it's just part of life. Right.

And you know, I was just hanging out with Mia Voss and she kind of reminded us, me, of something very important. As we go into the shopping season, we all love a good deal, that's for sure, but we also, what we forget sometimes is a lot of small businesses in our areas that might be struggling or You know, the backbone of our economy is people like us who are trying to build a business, you know, have a store around the corner, and maybe you spend, you know, $10 more shopping there versus going to a big chain store. But you know what, really just go support your local businesses, your mom-and-pop shops that work there to make your life easier and what it is. You know, we don't want all huge malls all around us where the big chain stores take over. You know, we still want those little wine and cheese shops and little toy store down in my village, down the street. That's what life is all about. So let's support each other and put our— pump our money back into small businesses versus, you know, going storming Target on a Black Friday.

—And this is—

is this Small Business Saturday?—

I think it is, I think it is, yes. But either way, you know, it doesn't have to be a special day.

You don't need an excuse to do it, and that's like supporting local restaurants rather than chains as well. You want people to do well in your area because you want your area to prosper. You want to hear this about Coronado?

I have to say this, I'm going to plug my little town because I love Coronado. And I talk about it all the time, of course. Oh, and first off, Anna, love you. We got to do some clinkies soon.

Absolutely. Love it. Yes, absolutely.

But I was going to mention about Coronado how we have 2 fast food restaurants, and they're not drive-through. We have no drive-through restaurants in Coronado. But the 2 that we do have, fast food restaurants, you have to get out of your car and walk in. And they're next to each other. So it's the whole come and eat at the farmer's market, or hang out at the farmer's market, or support this local restaurant. I love that about this place. Of course it makes it kind of difficult, you know, because sometimes every now and then you feel like, ah, I just want something fast, such as American life, I guess. But, oh, and then they make it difficult to get off the island, so you really have to schmork here, and yeah, you do pay an extra buck or two, whatever, but Yeah, getting off the island, you may have to ferry across or take the bridge or fly. No, I'm just kidding, no flying. But anyways, yes, local, shop local.

I agree. In Connecticut, we have a vineyard close to my son's house. He's about 20 minutes from me, and it took about 10 years to actually plant the plant the grapes and harvest. And he actually has— he's on the Wine Trail and he has an estate wine. And I would think to purchase some of that for gifts and support our— we have 26, like I said before, on the Wine Trail in Connecticut. And one's actually— we'll have the 27th hopefully in Orange, where I am, right in Fairfield, New Haven County. And I think what you said is so valuable. You have to support your local community's businesses. It's very important. I get it.

We all love walking through the center of town. We all love doing that and looking in little shops to relax. At least this generation still does. And if they're gone, you're looking at all empty shops.

That's happening too here where I am, but slowly. Some are coming back in, they're taking a chance and they're coming back in. It's still very expensive. Connecticut is not— it's a high-tax state, let me put it that way. It's pretty nasty with their taxes. New York may be worse, but we're pretty bad too. But it's— as long as you could try and you have the ability to get your funding from the banks or wherever your loans come from. It's pretty good if you can give it a try. It depends on where you are too in Connecticut.

Absolutely. Do you think it has something to do with us aging? I mean, I hate to admit it, but we are getting old, right? Older every day.

The baby boomers are 50 this year, let's put it that way. The country is older, so I don't know if age has anything nothing to do with it. I think it's— it may be a statistic correlated somewhere.

For us personally, I think it takes certain wisdom to understand the importance of small businesses around us and the importance of us supporting them versus, you know, when you're younger, maybe money is the issue. I don't know what it is, or maybe we just love a good deal that it's so much more fun for us to You know, go to Amazon. So that's a great example of online shopping, right? And a great example of us of going to Amazon and buying something there, or a little bit more research, we find some smaller websites that actually are the vendors for those particular products, but it's more convenient for them— not convenient It's easier to be found if they sell their products through Amazon, but Amazon takes what, 30-40% off the top for them? So why is it that we still go to Amazon versus supporting smaller websites, smaller online businesses and shop through them? It takes a little bit more legwork, but it's just, you know, it drives me nuts when we choose what is easy for us And I understand that, I do that all the time myself too. But why not go that extra step and find the people who are building Amazon by producing all those great products and writing all those great books? Why not give the money directly to them, right? So it's got to be a better way of doing it than just going to a big chain, anything online or off, and pouring our money into them. Versus our local economy.

I like the big chains. I think there's a place for everybody actually. That's true. I may be contrary because I'm from Connecticut, so like I said, Connecticut is contrary. So there's a place for all of us, and I think that's important to keep in mind. And whether you want to support a local business or go to a Walmart, there's an app for Walmart that will cross-compare. My son who's 24, he's our Actually 23. He's a CPA, he has his own small business, he left one of the big 4 firms in accounting or whatever, 5. He left Deloitte to go on his own to help young people with college advisory and with families and he's in my own town with my husband. We're very small-minded business community people. That sounds weird. But I love my Walmart and I love my Costco and I love my big box stores, but I also think that we have to remember where they come from. There's people everywhere in the community and we all need to support each other and not exclude stores or brand stores is bad. I really, I really don't like it and I shop very methodically when I make a purchase. And I do want a good buy, but I will keep in mind many different factors depending upon where I'm buying it from. And I will actually pay more if I feel something, like a cosmetic, a mascara was made with animal research. I don't like that. I will look for one that doesn't particularly do research with animals. So I have my own things that I look for that are special for me. But I also like to include as many people as possible in this world. That's the—

I think what Roxanna's really hitting on is that I'm going to defend my generation. I am 24, will soon be 25, not looking forward to it. Everybody's like, come on. OK, but remember, when you were my age, 25 is scary, okay? But it's worse.

Those are great years, Alexandra. Those are beautiful years.

But I think part of it, at least for people that are my age, is that we do understand the necessity to shop local. We do understand that that does have a certain— and I think it's coming back. I hate to call it a fad, But the whole recycling is becoming a bigger thing. Eating clean is becoming a bigger thing, which I'm really excited about because in Ohio they have a lot of fast food. And I'm like, this does not function with me from Hawaii. My mom asked me, she's like, what do you want when you come home? I was like, fresh anything. Fresh anything. It's really hard to find fresh in Ohio. But I think the biggest thing is that it's Throughout your years, your values change. And, you know, Roxanne mentioned that she really values animals. She's a big animal person, so she looks for particular products that are animal-friendly. Someone who isn't a big animal person, maybe, you know, their big value is shopping local, so that's why they shop local. The issue with people my age is we are broke. We are just We're going to school, we're taking out tons of loans, we don't have a lot of money. So a big value for us is we're trying to save money where we can. I mean, I know people that are my age that are $60,000 in debt. So they're going to do whatever they can to save every penny.

That's about right when I married my husband, after all the law school student loans.

Yeah. So it's, you know, it's a change. I think it's this change in values. And then I've noticed a lot of people, once they have kids, even though they do have that strap for cash, there's something about having kids that makes them more aware of things like shopping local and being healthy. I don't have kids, so I don't know what it is, but I've noticed a lot of them, even though they are recognizing the monetary value, what becomes of higher value for them is supporting the local community and feeding their family in a way that is healthier to them. So I think it's just a change. I don't know if it's a generational thing or an age thing, but I think that it's, it's a value thing for each person.

One of the reasons I like shopping at some of the big box stores is that they have organics at a less expensive price. I can eat organic, and I can save some money, whereas if you go to the options, if you don't have farmers markets or Whole Foods— really, I would rather— Whole Foods, to support them isn't any better than supporting anyone else. I'm getting a lot better value, and I'm eating better because of it. I also understand the fact that I still want my little shops and I want them to stay there, so I try to support them as well. But every business that we're supporting has employees that generally live locally, so we're still supporting the community no matter what we shop. It's just a matter of, like you said, priorities, what means the most to you and how you express your interests. But I remember being broke. I remember being that age and not having any money.

It's not fun.

You know, you literally like just have to watch your bank account like crazy and someone's like, "Oh, there's this awesome concert," and you're like, "Oh, I'd love to go, but I'm broke and I have no time." Yes, it's completely understandable.

We've all been there. And you know what, there's no such thing as really truly growing up. You know, we're in all kinds of stages of our lives. Things change. You know, we lose jobs, we move, with this and that. So, you know, I completely understand. I completely understand reading the menu from, you know, not left to right, but from right to left, starting with prices. Can I afford to eat that? You know, my husband and I only recently started actually ordering drinks and appetizers at restaurants because we always, you know, you get your entree and You stay there, that's it. You know, so it's kind of nice to get a drink every once in a while. It's like, ah, I'm so glad I got to the place in life where I can afford to get a drink.

If I add a drink and a cup of coffee to this dinner, the price just got doubled or something.

Well, it shows, I think research actually shows that most people buy wine based on price. And I wish people would stop doing that because I've had some amazing wines. I don't know how much this is— say whatever you guys are shooting out. But you know, I've had some $200, $300 bottles of wine, and one of my favorite wines is less than $10. You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be prized. I could talk about wine all day long, obviously. Sorry.

I want to pop this up because I like the comments for Alexandra. You made your bed, Alexandra. That's a great thing for an almost 25-year-old.

Oh, that's good. I did. I do have to admit, though, I do it only when I have to do HOAs. Otherwise, it's a mess because my dogs sleep on my bed.

Very tidy room.

Well, yeah, I don't have a lot of stuff here. I'm only living here for another 6 months. 7 months, and then I'm moving back to Oregon. So yeah, I don't have a lot of, a lot of things. It makes, it makes it easy to keep things tidy.

Is that where you're from originally, Oregon?

Originally from Hawaii, and I'm making the long trek back from Ohio to Hawaii on December 16th. I'm, I'm really excited to go home because I haven't been home in like 2 years, and that's where my whole family is, and there's like 30 of us. So I'm really excited, but I'm not excited for the flight. It's going to be an entire day event. I told my mom, I was like— she's like, what do you want when you land? I was like, I don't know. Just know I'm probably going to be angry. I'm not going to be a nice person. Just going to be honest with you.

It's not going to be pretty. Drink water.

Have wine. Moral of the story, wine.

Wine. Although airplane wine— Yeah, airplane anything is just— that's the thing. It's horrible. And when you're flying to Hawaii, you can't bring fresh foods on the plane. You can't. That was a revelation to me when I flew from one state to another. I was like, I can bring a banana with me? Because you can't do that when you're flying to and from Hawaii.

They take it away from you.

Yeah, they like to protect the local environment.

Well, they do the same in California, of course. You know, when you drive in and out of California, they have Agricultural Patrol where they stop you and ask you if you bring in any fresh fruits, vegetables. They will take them away from you. So, you know, Hawaii, maybe I understand it a little more, but California, really? The things they do around here are just crazy.

In New Jersey, they worry about you bringing other things in and out. It's never fruits or vegetables.

Is it liquor? Is it beer?

Beer, I guess.

Only if you're taking it into Pennsylvania. I think Massachusetts had that years ago, but I think that doesn't exist anymore. It just sounds like antiquated. It sounds like strange. I don't know.

In Florida, it doesn't exist. They don't seem to worry about anything.

They kind of roll with everything. We lived in South Dakota for a while. My husband was in the military for a few years, so we lived in South Dakota and we were moving there from Germany. We bought a bunch of wine from Germany and they wouldn't let us bring it into South Dakota because there's a law where you you can only bring in 2 liters at a time per person. So what we did, just for the heck of it, so we shipped it to Colorado, and then we drove from Colorado to South Dakota. And you can literally take 2 bottles at a time, cross the border, put it down in South Dakota, go back, cross the border, put it— I mean, how ridiculous is that, right? I mean, some states are just so stubborn with their laws. And it's only because South Dakota actually, believe it or not, produces wine. It's the worst wine. I'm sorry, guys, if you're from South Dakota, but it's the worst wine. It's the kind of wine you want to spit, not because, you know, you're tasting it. It's because it's that bad. But that's the reason why they don't let you bring in your own wine. You have to do it through the retail chains to you know, buy the wine there, so you can't bring it into South Dakota. So every state is just those ridiculous rules that were established years and years ago that make no sense, and yet they live on.

I will never move to South Dakota. I'll never go back.

I had enough. My daughter was born there, and I'm like, okay darling, this is it. You know, take it all in because, you know, never coming back.

Unless for the great zombie apocalypse, and then there will be places to hide there.

It's too flat to hide, I think.

Well guys, this has been a fun hour, and it went by faster than I thought, so I'm going to run through the panel real quick, and if you have any calls to action or anything you'd like to share with us, now's the time to do it. So Sue? What do you have coming up?

Well, I have my show, The Sue Aston Show, coming up on Sunday, so please tune in for that. And I'll be playing my new tune again, and Dan will be accompanying me, my son. And I've just launched my Patreon campaign where if you subscribe to me for as little as $1 a month, you can be kept up to date with all my new releases and get video podcasts. And all sorts of goodies. Ooh, that sounds like a good deal.

Yep. Absolutely. And Roxanne, anything you've got coming up, any calls to action?

Calls to action, #26DaysOfKindness. I'm photographing a local playground for Sandy Hook. It's Charlotte Bacon's playground. She was one of the little children from the Sandy Hook tragedy. A couple of years ago, and I'm doing #26daysofkindness if you want to take a photo with or without Glass, any kind of mobile device is fine. Just post it with that hashtag and I would love to see your photos.

Sounds good. And any of you want to leave these in the comments section, please feel free to leave any links that you would like. Maggie, you got anything coming up besides the big wedding, which we don't know about yet?

Well, I, I'm actually going to Tell Our Story. I've already written the blog post, I was just waiting for this to release it. So #epiclovestory. Christopher's business is Epic Wind Systems, so he hashtags everything epic. So epiclovestory. And also my recent trip, or our recent trip to Napa and Sonoma, so I have that coming up also on my blog. Oh, I didn't put my lower third when you guys asked me, so in my Mom Maggie's Kitchen, a lot happens in Mom Maggie's Kitchen. More than just wine and food.

Yep, absolutely. And sometimes a little Barefoot Mexican Girl cooking. Yeah. Anna, I know you had your links.

Anything else you'd like to leave us with? No, that's it. Just visit me at Traffic Generation Cafe. Over, check out the latest marketing deals, and I'd love to see you there.

And, uh, feel free to leave that in the comments for our viewers too. Will do. Alexandra, anything you'd like to leave us with?

Well, I'll be on Network Roundtable in about 40 minutes, so if you guys want to follow me over there, it's actually— they're doing their Grateful Edition, and I get to be on a panel of just incredible people that they've interviewed. So far, and I just happen to be one of them. Who's on with you today?

Hmm? Who's on with you, do you know?

Oh my gosh, so many people. I know David Amerland, Theodora is going to be there. I don't think Gina could make it unfortunately. There are like 10 of us.

Is this with Dennis Littley?

Yeah, yeah, Dennis Duce and Stephanie their network roundtable show, and they're doing their Grateful Edition. So they had something set up, and I was like, I'll be there.

You'll explain it to me there.

I was confused about what it was. But yeah, it's in like 40 minutes. So if you guys want to meet me there, please feel free. Otherwise, just hang out with me on the Plus. I'm always there as either myself, SEOwise, or School Rocks. School of Rock's got some exciting things coming up. Very good.

If School of Rock would like to send me any acts, I'd be happy to feature them on Good Day. I love my music.

I'll let them know. I'll let Linda know.

Well, everyone, thank you so much for coming on Black Friday. I know you should be out shopping and getting great deals wherever, wherever that might be, but for me I'm done with that. When you get old, one thing you realize is— ooh, I like that.

Thank you. That worked very cool.

But you know, one thing when you get old, I said, you just buy things as you need them. You don't wait anymore. So have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and December's just around the corner, and we'll see you all soon.

Thank you, Seth. Bye.