No, it’s not my marriage to the beautiful Mrs. BrandChef.  It’s not the anniversary of being hired at Love Scott. Nope.  Not even the anniversary of my first kiss.  Nope.

But it’s almost as exciting…

Today is the 15^th anniversary of my induction into the elite club of mobile device users. YES!  On this day in 1995, I was given a “Work cell phone” as “a perk” while working as creative director at a local advertising agency.

While I knew it was really so my boss could call me, guilt-free at 2 a.m., I didn’t care.  I HAD A FREAKIN’ CELL PHONE! I was on cloud nine.  I could drive down the “hustle-bustle” of I-235 while drinking my Jolt Cola and talk to clients, vendors, my wife, my mom and my boss… all on my bitchen-cool cell phone.

Momentous? Heck yeah!  It was my personal introduction to the most revolutionary change in communication since grunts and cave paintings.

Well, okay, maybe there were a few other more significant milestones, but this was MY revolution…

Think of it… (and this is just a snapshot!)

• 45,000 to 10,000 BC: Grunts and cave paintings
• 1450: Guttenberg uses block printing press to print a love poem
• 1841: The advertising agency is born (Then all hell breaks lose!)
• 1860: Pony Express carries mail between St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento
• 1865: Atlantic cable ties Europe and U.S. for instant communication
• 1877: Edison invents the phonograph
• 1887: Montgomery Ward mails out a 540-page catalog
• 1914: First transcontinental telephone call
• 1926: Permanent radio network, NBC, is formed
• 1939: New York Worlds Fair shows television to public
• 1940: Disney’s Fantasia introduces stereo sound to American public (Tom Brokaw is born)
• 1949: Magnetic core computer memory is invented
• 1959: The microchip is invented
• 1968: FCC approves non-Bell equipment attached to phone system (I was born)
• 1971: Wang 1200 is the first word processor (just fun to say)
• 1975: The microcomputer, in kit form, reaches the U.S. home market
• 1976: Apple introduces the Apple I to the Homebrew Computer Club
• 1981: The IBM PC (meh)
• 1984: The one-megabyte memory chip
• 1991: Baby Bells get government permission to offer information services
• 1994: Prodigy bulletin board fields 12,000 messages in one after L.A. quake
• 1995: Andrew B. Clark (The Brand Chef) gets his first Nokia 6100 cell phone -AND life changes forever!

Simplistic?  Dreamy?  Sure… but technology is evolving faster every day, and I’ve been trying to keep up since THAT day.

The vision of the future is in the palm of your hand – figuratively and literally.  If you take into consideration that my first cell phone (sporting capabilities like incoming & outgoing calls as well as all the dropped signals I could manage) was less than 15 years ago, and today I can create this entire post (excluding graphics) on a BlackBerry mobile device that hangs right beneath my love handles; think of what the next 15 years will hold!

What was the first technology experience that you consider to be “Life altering?” Was it a cell phone?  Was it an electric typewriter? Or was it the recent iPad?

What ever it was, I bet Twitter still crashes on it…

How does your technology future look?

Keep Cooking (with the latest and greatest)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Last time Iowa had snow like Tuesday and Wednesday’s storm was 1992. I was still cuddled warm in my dorm room at Coe College and didn’t see the need to venture out in the gale winds.  We had plenty of TopRamen,  plenty of Keystone Light, and cable television to keep up safe, warm and entertained for the two days we were snowed into our dorms.  Heck, I didn’t even need to shower if I didn’t feel the urge (although roommates made it evidently clear that one was needed.)

This time, circumstances were different. I’m now a “bonafied” grown-up with responsibilities like a family, home, and a real job.  I have a mortgage to pay, I have children to protect and keep warm and fed.  I even have a dog that needs to be cared for – a long leap from the last blizzard that crippled the area.

So, how did I get through it this time?

Winter-time brands, baby…

Here are 16 brands I’d like to thank for getting me through “Death Storm 2009:”

• Jeep – My trusty Liberty was sideways a few times, but that was probably operator error … probably?
• Toro – Without my trusty snow blower, I would STILL be shoveling through the 4′ drifts.  I *heart* Toro!
  
• Old Navy – “Economical” Winter coat…  ’nuff said.
  
• Thinsulate – mmmm…  toasty warm snow pants for the kids (and dad).
• Encore Movie Channels – what a great way to decompress from 4 hours of pushing snow…  some mindless classics (Die Hard, Step Brothers, and soooo many more…)
  
• Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon – although the kids spent most of the time outside (crazy!)
  
• Apple Computers – without = SOCIAL MEDIA PANIC…  No blog Posts!  No Twitter? No Facebook? The end of civilization as we know it!  Cats and Dogs living together…  complete, mass-hysteria!
  
• Pillsbury – two words: Christmas Cookies!
  
• Pork – The Other White Meat – The kids and I made “home-made” pizza… Between you and me, nothing goes better on pizza than oodles of Italian pork sausage!
  
• Skittles – Can you say “Taste The Rainbow?” and, no they didn’t go on the pizza… dessert…  ?
  
• TownHouse Crackers – a perfect part of a late-night snack… (kickn’ Web site as well!)
  
• Shullsburg Cheese – and what else to top those crackers?  Say Cheese!  And they’re a Midwestern brand to boot!
• KCCI TV8 – my favorite weather tracking team…
  
• Iowa DOT – the folks in those big, yellow trucks that kept burying the end of my driveway… but I’m DARN glad they’re there to get the city moving again!
• Aspercream – ’cause I’m not 18 any more… (OR: go out strong and don’t let them see you limp back in.)
  
• Serta – the best way to end the day…
  

So, by the list, you can pretty much tell what I did over the last 60+ hours.  Brands defined my day…

What brands did you depend on to make it through the storm?  Were there some that you counted on more during the storm than any other day (Toro, Aspercream)?

Here’s hoping you all are happy, safe and warm. Just think…  this Winter just started.

Keep Cooking (warm thoughts)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef