Cali Lewis The Blog of Cali Lewis

Those of you who have known me since the beginning of GeekBrief.TV know that answering email is a top priority in my life. I love that new media is a two way conversation. I love that I get to know many of you on a personal level through email, Twitter and comments. When we have meetups, it’s like catching up with old friends even when we’ve never actually met in person.

For the past four years, it has always been my goal to answer every email I get, and I’ve been very public about the goal. For the past year, though, it’s been a real struggle. I get so much email every day that I cannot physically catch up. There aren’t enough hours in the day and it makes me feel like I’m constantly failing at my goal. In February 2008, I declared email bankruptcy thinking it would help me get a fresh start, but it didn’t really fix anything.

If something isn’t working, it means things need to change so after a lot of back and forth with myself, I’ve decided to come up with a new email policy.

Every email is important to me! My new goal is to read each one, but I just can’t respond to all of them. If you want to get a hold of me and it’ll fit in 140 characters, please reach me on Twitter. Make sure you’re following me so I can DM you, and then if a conversation requires more than 140 characters, we can move to email.

As of today, I’m changing my main email address. If you DO need to email me, please use cali (at) calilewis (dot) com, and format the subject line as follows:

URGENT: short, descriptive subject (use only if it IS urgent)
TIP: short descriptive subject (story tip for GeekBrief.TV or my blog)
BUSINESS: short descriptive subject (use if you have a business opportunity you want to discuss)
SPEAKING: short descriptive subject (use if you’re interested in booking me to speak)
ADVERTISE: short descriptive subject (use if you’d like to advertise on the show)
REVIEW REQUEST: short descriptive subject (use if you’re interested in us looking at your service or product)
FUN: short descriptive subject (use for fun links that don’t fit in the Tip category)
BACON: short descriptive subject (use for…what else? Bacon!)

I’ll add to this list as I set up new Gmail filters any hopefully this naming convention will help me respond to more than I currently can.

Thank you guys for understanding my inability to respond to each email. Many of you don’t expect a response in the first place, and most of the pressure comes from me, but I want to work the best way to get back to as many of you as I can as soon as possible!

The other day I got an email on Facebook from Dennis Bellog. He showed me this Photoshopped movie poster that Doc Zaius made with my face. Apparently, I’m going to be in the new G.I. Joe movie, LOL! Although, don’t you think I look a little TOO happy that’s something’s been blown up behind me?

(Click to blow it up!)

I just got back from San Antonio where our friend Mark Lowry had invited us to shoot a behind the scenes look at the taping of a concert video. Some of you will know who Mark is, some of you won’t. I get asked all the time how I know him, so this post is for those of you who want to know.

Neal, my husband, is a gospel music geek. He likes southern and black gospel and since we’ve been married 10 years, I’ve heard my share of it. There is a guy named Mark Lowry, who is in, what I understand to be, the top southern gospel group. He wrote the Christmas song, Mary Did You Know, and he also happens to be very funny when he performs. When Neal would watch Bill Gaither videos and Mark would start talking, that’s when I would start paying attention.

A couple years ago, Mark emailed me. He said, “Slow down. You don’t have to talk so fast. Some of us are too old to keep up!” I emailed back and asked if he was Mark Lowry, Mark Lowry. He says he was shocked we knew who he was, and from that short and simple email, we’ve become friends.

Mark is a total geek, y’all! I love that about him, and we have a blast talking about tech when we get together. I’m sharing some pictures taken from our trip to San Antonio with our 5D Mark II. We showed the camera to Mark and he went around the dressing room taking a lot of them. Two days later Mark order a 5D Mark II camera and a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Mark took the shots of Michael English, David Phelps, and Wes Hamilton. Neal took the one of Bill Gaither wearing blue jeans. Apparently, this was the first time people had seen Bill in jeans.

Here’s the deal. Growing up, I was a total tomboy. I didn’t know the difference between flannel and Chanel. I didn’t know how to do my nails until I was 16 or 17. I didn’t wear makeup for the longest time. I played tennis, soccer and ran track, but mostly, I spent my free time reading piles of books at my local library. I just didn’t care about the “girly” stuff in life.

I’m getting better at it, but I’m not a shopper by nature. I am lucky, though. I have a personal shopper…my husband, Neal. He buys a lot of my wardrobe for GeekBrief.TV, with the exception of my bacon shirts. Those are a no brainer for me.

Below are five funny t-shirts that didn’t make the cut and one that came very close…

…The last shirt would have been perfect if we could have edited it to say “Everything You Like, I Liked Six Months Ago” instead of “five years ago,” since my interest in nearly everything starts before stuff is released.