I have been using a little program called ecto for almost as long as I have been blogging--around May, 2004. ecto (yes, properly not capitalized) is a little desktop application (Windows and Mac) that links to a large number of the most popular blogging platforms and allows users to quickly and easily post content.

The program has many very convenient features. For example: the Mac version links directly to your iPhoto library to upload pictures from that source with just very little effort. From within ecto, you can also easily search Amazon.com for specific books which can then appear in your post as a picture of the book cover which can serve as a link to the book review at Amazon.com. (Teachers can use this for summer reading lists, recommended reading, top reads in the media center, etc.)

To make matters even better, the guy who writes the program, Adriaan, is just a really nice guy. He sold Mabry Middle School a very reasonably priced site license for his program because he said he values education. Now, that's just nice!

At any rate, he has been rewriting the program: ecto 3. The new version, rewritten from the ground up I believe, features many improvements and has a nice, new, clean look. For an example of a new feature: you can now save a pdf document in your pdfs folder on the server and save the thumbnail (a tiny picture of the actual pdf document) in your images folder on the server! You now have access to all of your media (audio, photos, and video) for quick and easy posting. You can also easily post straight to your flickr account from ecto 3.

Why would you use ecto? I've always found it to be an easier, faster, more convenient way to post content to my blogs. And it's very inexpensive, less than $20. By the way, I don't get any money for the recommendation. I have just found this to be a very useful, practical tool and highly recommend it. And for those who post to many different blogs, ecto is all but essential as access to posting to any and all of your blogs appears in just one place: ecto. In fact, I literally can't imagine blogging without it.

And yes, all of the blogs that make up drTimTyson.com are powered by ecto!

Black Friday, as the media has dubbed it, is this week: the day the shopping malls sell more "stuff" than any other. Crowds swarm the the overstocked malls in some maniacal quest for the least expensive and most desired. Here in Atlanta past, fights over parking spaces have even resulted in shootings. People show all of the ugliness that is packed into a major metropolitan area with too much traffic, unsustainable appetites, and too little time. Yes, this Friday, this Black Friday, we gear up for the upcoming festivities we celebrate in December. What a glorious season it is.

Frankly, I have grown to hate it. I think the malls here in Atlanta have sensed this growing disgust with Black Friday. In an unusual move, many of the malls have delayed putting up all of the decorations. In past years they were up as early as the first week of October!

And, truth be told, most Americans would probably abolish or greatly simplify these rituals that center more and more around the glutenous consumption of things and food, if they felt they could. But, exactly why can't we? Oh, we do talk about the "reason for the season" but, for all too many, much of our seasonal energy is spent doing that which has little to do with what we say we truly value.

Yes, I just hate it.

So why is my post entitled, "My Favorite Season?" Well, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite season, since my earliest memories in childhood. Aside from the Mr. and Mrs. Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers, Thanksgiving has somehow managed to escape the extreme commercialization of other holidays. Thanksgiving is a simpler, quieter holiday that focuses on celebrating our blessings--that in our life which has real value and meaningfulness to us.

From my childhood, Thanksgiving was a time to celebrate the love of family, the gift of health, the blessings of more than we ever needed. We took this season to visit with those family members who were unable to sit around all of the tables of food my mother, grandmother, and great aunts had prepared for the enormous annual extended family feast. This was a time to share by being there, by caring, by speaking of the rich depth of our lives, a time to remember and celebrate those family members who were no longer with us: the beauty of heritage.

Find ways to savor this, my favorite holiday, with those you love.