Carl Bidleman Our good friend and master of aerial photography, Robert Campbell, has published a new book of stunning photos. When he brought Point Reyes and the San Andreas Fault Zone to the office a few weeks back, M Gee and I got so absorbed with it that we spent an entire hour ooohhhing and aaahhhhing over the stunning images. You can see many of them in this video conversation with Robert and Doug.

Stefan Ruenzel In 2004, Alder Yarrow typed the words “wine blog” into Google’s search engine and got zero results. A void to be filled, he thought. So Alder, wine lover, founded vinography.com and began to blog on the subject of wine. Red wine, white wine, cabernet, pinot, chardonnay, merlot, the perfect wine-to-dish match—all things wine have become an integral part of Alder’s life outside the box (where he is Founder and Principal of a design consulting firm). Fast-forward to 2008, type in “wine blog,” and you will find 941 thousand results. Vinography.com is first on what is now an interminable list. Call Alder the grandfather of wine blogging; he calls himself a “legitimate journalist” at the end of the day with a glass in hand and a laptop before him. Doug got the chance to catch up with Alder at Bin 38, a hopping wine bar in the Marina District of San Francisco, to discover his favorite places to wine out in the city. Here s a list of the places Alder mentioned: Bin 38 CAV Yield Nectar Wine Lounge California Wine Merchant Vino Venue

Mindy Roberts, author and publisher of TheMommyBlog.net, makes her second appearance in Life Outside the Box and tells Doug about some of her favorite kid-friendly places she likes to escape to in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sunset Magazine s Peter Fish shares details of one of his favorite escapes when he gets to live his life outside the box: Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Cody and the legendary Beartooth Highway. Want more? Watch our video about Grand Teton National Park.

M Gee Johnston Back in early January, we presented OpenRoad.TV at the Bay Area Travel Show in Santa Clara. Doug was a featured speaker and all of the OpenRoad.TV crew had a great time meeting and greeting folks attending the show. We promoted a Win a One-Day Road Trip with Doug McConnell contest and nearly a thousand people entered. As you will see in this video, the drawing was carefully monitored and the winners were drawn by a completely neutral and unimpeachable person……who conveniently works in the office downstairs……Shirley Stewart. The choice of roads to travel was left up to our winners: John and Jill Lakstigala. They chose to spend one (very rainy) day exploring some of Doug s favorite spots in Marin County.

Carl Bidleman Spending too much time in the office and at the computer was the very reason we started Life Outside the Box. And all too often, that problem persists. Last week, Doug and Stefan Ruenzel met up with Merlin Mann for an interview at San Francisco s Stern Grove. Once again, I couldn t get away from the office.  And it s too bad because I was looking forward to meeting Merlin. He is the editor and main force behind 43 Folders, a family of websites about stuff like personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better. Stuff I really need to know. He is also That Phone Guy, a very funny rebirth of Bob Newhart s buttoned down mind. I am a big fan of Merlin s work and I hope to learn enough from 43 Folders that I ll be able to get outside the box the next time he connects with OpenRoad.TV.

Carl Bidleman There s so much going on in this digital world that our entire crew feels as if we re often playing catch up. So we re grateful to have a newfound friend in Scott Beale of Laughing Squid who has taken us under his wing and patiently explains the mysteries of this new world to us. In this episode, Scott explains Twitter and how this inside the box service actually helps people connect face to face. (At Scott s urging, we now have an OpenRoad.TV Twitter account but unlike Scott, we have no followers as of yet. This sort of rejection brings back memories of junior high.) We also had the pleasure of meeting Thor Muller of Get Satisfaction and Eddie Codel of Geek Entertainment TV. And you ll find Joel Martin (according to Thor, South Park s version of the Soup Nazi) at The Butler and the Chef.

Carl Bidleman Scott Beale has been around San Francisco s digital media scene since the very beginning. He s very well-known as the curator and Primary Tentacle of Laughing Squid, an online journal of arts, technology and culture in San Francisco and beyond. Scott was good enough to give us an insider s tour of South Park, a vibrant San Francisco neighborhood once known as Multi-media Gulch with a surprising history that dates back over 100 years. In part 2 of our interview, Scott will introduce us to Twitter and experiment by trying to entice friends and colleagues to get outside the box and come tell us what they like about South Park. And here s the link to information about The Butler and the Chef Bistro.

Carl Bidleman John Battelle is a respected journalist, entrepreneur, professor and author of The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, and searchblog.com. He is also the founder of Federated Media, a company that represents and supports independent voices online, including, we re very pleased to say, OpenRoad.TV.  John has written a great deal about life inside the box but also knows how to live outside it, too.

Carl Bidleman Been at the computer too long? Need a little break? Take this 20-second vacation. Look, listen and imagine yourself at Pt. Reyes National Seashore. Then you can get back to work.