joe bertino

The chickenoceros has landed…with a friend. Tack så mycket @ceciliahedin! #hightops #etsy #design #letterpress

I’ve been searching for useful navigation/planning apps to prepare for our journey. Besides Kayak, which I use to plan all our hotel and rental car details, I haven’t really stumbled across anything that blows me away. At least I got my Simple card in time; I’m hoping to use that for all our “on the road” expenses, like gas, food and any other random treasures.

So far, Cost 2 Drive has provided the most valuable data for our trip. It looks like we’ll need to set aside about $400 for gas alone. Couple that info with some budgeting help courtesy of Simple app and we’re off to a good start. More from the road. 

We’re moving! @cejennie and I are packing up and shipping out. See you in NY, with stops in Las Vegas, Ok City, Nashville & DC along the way. #roadtrip

It’s that time of the year again. Insights courtesy of JWT & Frog Design. Two thoughts:

1. Play is getting a lot of love. Rightfully so. We’re exploring how to build a program at Camp Nabby that enables more of it, for campers and parents. 
2. In Frog’s deck, “We face more tech disruption—by nature” is an interesting headline. But the reality is, “from nature” would have been a better way to end that sentence. If tech would invest more in learning from nature, we wouldn’t need to create as many utilities to save us from it (still swooning over my biomimicry book).  

Goat cheese and kale omelette by him. Oatmeal honey bread by her. #frukost

Peanut butter pretzel tartlets w/ @cejennie. (cc @sproutedkitchen)

Saturday reading inspired by #psfksf2012 (at Contraband Coffeebar)

What a joke. My 91-year-old grandfather deserves better. But the New York Times doesn’t think so. They decided to end his 50% teacher discount. They decided that he’s no longer a teacher. 

This, of course, makes my whole family upset. My grandfather served in the Navy from 1941-1945 and was Chief Petty Officer for a Destroyer Escort Ship, USS Stanton DE247. From 1953-1965 he taught poetry and American literature at Notre Dame. After South Bend, he spent a few years in DC working alongside Sargent Shriver to develop the Office of Economic Opportunity. He was a founding member of Upward Bound (Trio), a program to help disadvantaged high school students enter and graduate from college. He was the president of St. Norbert’s College in De Pere, Wisconsin and Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York. He was the Vice President of Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. When he retired to live in Virginia Beach, he began teaching poetry and creative writing at a local adult learning center and would later form the Albright’s Poets Group. And now, from his nursing home in Waltham, Massachusetts, he teaches creative writing to a small group of seniors. 

Teachers never stop teaching. And my grandfather is no exception. He deserves his 50% discount, but more importantly he deserves some respect from the only paper he considers “worth reading.” So what do you say New York Times, make things right? 

I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen. Not lately, as I am still majorly depressed about not being in Sweden. But over the last few months I’ve been on a quest to make the perfect batch of granola. I’ve set the ingredients list at 10 items or less; I’m still on the fence about adding salt. The recipes below are amazing (next up cinnamon and vanilla). 

Coconut

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats  

1/3 cup raw sliced almonds

1/3 cup raw walnuts

1/4 unsweetened coconut flakes 

1/3 cup dark honey 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 egg white

sea salt

Pumpkin

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats  

1/3 cup raw sliced almonds

1/3 cup raw pecans

1 tablespoon of brown flax seeds

1/3 cup grade a/b maple syrup  

1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 egg white

sea salt

This. Rainbow.

The two days we spent in Lidköping went way too fast. Marcus and Sofia have the perfect getaway cabin, and the view across Vänern is simply breathtaking. Here is a picture of Molly, patrolling the coast of Hamnö.

We made it in and around the city yesterday. We walked everywhere. We people watched. We fika’d. Stockholm is a beautiful city and so is the collective spirit of everyone who lives there, or at least it seems that way, kinda like San Francisco, but less in your face and naked. We ended the night at Gröna Lund, where we enjoyed öl, roller coasters and Lars Winnerbäck.

On our way to Stockholm. We’re visiting Jennie’s brothers and planning on fist-pumping our way through Södermalm.

Yesterday Jennie and I drove to Åre to hike and play outside. We took the cable car as high as it would go before climbing the final 800 meters up Åreskutan to have fika at Toppstugan (the highest fik in Sweden). After coffee and waffles we began our descent to Åre Centrum. Here is a picture from the long hike down.

Jennie and I spent the last couple days at her parents’ cabin in northern Sweden (Håckas, I think). This is a picture of their fishing shack, just one of the many red cabins that fill the lake-front properties on Storsjön.

Taking the train home from New York is pretty brilliant sometimes. Time to think and time to watch.

I left my job at Livefyre; it was a tough decision. But I always trust my gut. I have nothing but love for the crew though. They’re probably going to kill it in 2013.

Next up: Camp Nabby 

I’ll be responsible for taking the most analog of businesses and molding a digital footprint. To me, this represents a huge challenge. And to make things even better, I get to work with my parents.

Camp Nabby is where I grew up. I was a camper for 10 years and a counselor for 5 more after that. What we stand for and how we go about doing business means the absolute world to me. 

I better not screw this up. 

My nightstand is covered with books (and a kindle). I am great at collecting, but terrible at reading and finishing. Maybe this summer will be different. In addition to this stack of interestingness, the notorious CAM was generous enough to lend me his copy of Connected and a rave review of its content. It has now catapulted to the top of my queue where it will split time with Chronicles.

The problem is, it doesn’t end there. There are four more books I feel the need to mash into my head. The first is Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy, the second is Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken, the third is Tina Fey’s Bossypants and, finally, the fourth is Eli Pariser’s The Filter Bubble.

So, this isn’t really a summer reading list after all. It’s more of a challenge to myself.

Joe, stop twittering and start reading.

One of my short-term goals is to develop a long-term strategy for the family business. We need to address several issues, but none greater than our inability to stand for something.

This isn’t to say that we don’t stand for anything. We do. But we haven’t quite figured out what our brand values most.

I got the ball rolling with a post-it note brainstorm on Sunday.