A BlackBerry Weekend to Remember

It’s Monday, I’m back to the CrackBerry offices and hard at work once again, but I just cannot help but think back on the awesome weekend I had. Friday evening was kicked off with a killer workout followed by dinner with friends and a much-needed quiet evening at home with my girlfriend Erika. Saturday I attended a wedding (and helped take care of some SuperBowl party preparations between the ceremony and reception) and Sunday was of course the Big Game – what a wicked football match to watch, unless of course, you had money riding on New England.

It was also a weekend intimately intertwined with my BlackBerry device – each day this weekend elicits a BlackBerry recollection. Friday I made a BlackBerry discovery for myself, Saturday I saw an example of just how far the BlackBerry has impacted our lives and Sunday I used the BlackBerry to do what wasn’t possible even a few short months ago.

Friday Night – E-Books
By the time 11:00pm rolled around on Friday night, I had already turned in for the night - the bedroom lights were off and Erika was sound asleep. I was exhausted and ready for bed, yet somehow was too tired to fall asleep (I think the trip to the gym earlier that evening had me wired up). Reading a book is usually the cure that knocks me out me out for the night, but with the room in total darkness and my not wanting to turn on any bright lights (and risk waking up Erika) that wasn’t an option. A few minutes later it donned me that I was wrong… I CAN read a book in the dark, an E-Book!

Somehow I had never jumped on the E-book bandwagon. Even with lots of E-Book titles available in our ShopCrackBerry.com Software store, I had just never really thought about reading a book on my BlackBerry before. That was, until Friday night.

I always take the cop out that I’m a BlackBerry Addict (not a writer), so in the hopes of becoming a better blogger I downloaded the E-Book How to Speak and Write Correctly. I figured if it didn’t make me a better writer it should at least put me to sleep.

Wow. Reading Books on your BlackBerry is AWESOME. Here’s what I immediately discovered:

• You can read in the dark - No need for a lamp or light.
• It’s easy on the eyes - I set the E-Book screen to a Black background with white text on top. 
• No noise - Flipping pages is loud but scrolling down on your BlackBerry can be done in stealth mode.
• Your arms don’t get sore – I could hold up my Curve all day while reading in bed.
• It feels better – I just love holding my BlackBerry in my hands.
  
• It's Portable - You can take your book anywhere your BlackBerry goes
• Always with You - You always have your BlackBerry with you, hence you always have a Book to read with you.

I’m only 14% finished the book, so I’m not a better writer YET (and don't get your hopes up that I will ever be!), but I am sold on E-Books. Give it a try on your BlackBerry and Spread the Word. You’ll be thanked!

Saturday Night – The Wedding
Saturday night I attended the wedding of two friends (Congrats Marco and Jen!) and while I was a good boy and had my Curve turned to silent and tucked away in my pocket for the night, I can’t say the same for the Best Man!

He didn’t get in trouble though, as it was part of the plan. He started his Best Man Speech with the following…

“When it comes to Wedding speeches, it seems everybody is always searching for the piece of paper they wrote it on. I figured I’d be safe and just email it to myself and read it off my BlackBerry.”

Now that’s my kind of Best Man. RIM’s marketing team can take the week off I think – word of mouth is best kind of advertising there is, and so when you see devices getting plugged during wedding speeches I think its safe to say your products have made an impact.

SuperBowl Sunday – Facebook Turducken
My friend Sailesh got the idea a week ago that we should get a Turducken for our SuperBowl party. If you’ve never heard of a Turducken before, it’s a Turkey that has been stuffed with a Duck that has been stuffed with a Chicken (with some stuffing in between of course). You can check it out on Wikipedia.

With the Turducken specially ordered, it became our topic of fixation. How long should we cook it for? What should we eat with it? How do we carve this bad boy up? By the time the weekend rolled around, our focus was more on the Turducken than on who was going to win the SuperBowl! Even at the wedding Saturday night, talk of Sunday’s Turducken was in the air.

That being the case, I did the only thing a BlackBerry Addict would do – I shared the Turducken Love by live-facebooking the prepping, cooking, carving and eating of the Turducken straight from my BlackBerry! And if you were wondering, YES, it was delcious! I highly recommend it for your SuperBowl party next year (big thanks to Sailesh for all the time and effort in the cooking of the Turducken. I’ll be over for leftovers tonight).

And there you have it – my BlackBerry Weekend to Remember.