Canadian Derek: I’d rather see the world.

Derek and I met our junior year of college in Europe. He was on exchange from Vancouver studying Economics at the Sorbonne; I was getting a minor in French Studies as part of my IR/Global Economics degree. We bonded over the invisible hand, monetary policy and our love of Leonidas chocolate.

One weekend, a bunch of us trained it to nearby Antwerp. I knew Derek was well traveled, so I asked to see his passport after the train conductor punched our tickets. It looked something like this:

What I saw: pages and pages and pages of stamps from countries like Pakistan, Croatia, Madagascar, Brazil, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Singapore and Finland.

What I felt: ridiculously, insanely, speechlessly jealous.

What he said: “Whenever I have an extra $500, I’d rather see the world than spend it on something stupid – like video games.”

What I realized: I need to seize every opportunity I have to travel, because otherwise I’ll hate myself.

Canadian Derek, you should know that you’re the main reason I now have a love affair with travel. And thanks to what you shared with me during that 45 minute train ride, I’m fortunate enough to have visited, experienced and learned from places like Morocco, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Aruba, and yes – even Canada.

My kids, future grandkids and I – we all owe you. BIG, BIG, BIG TIME.

Fitness Instructor Sara: Save yourself 100 calories.

It’s the end of Thanksgiving, and most of us are probably either a) in a tryptophan coma, or b) planning out our Black Friday routes. And though the pie is already long gone, my husband’s co-worker Sara (who’s also a fitness instructor at a gym in Oswego) gave us this piece of advice before indulging in our gluttony today:

“Don’t eat the pie crust on the edge. You can eat the bottom. But break off that edge piece and you’ll save yourself 100 calories, at LEAST.”

We did it. And we did it so well, we rewarded ourselves with a second helping of whipped cream. It is about choices, after all.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Ryan: Get linked.

Ryan Evans (@ryanevans) is the owner of Rand Media Group, an online marketing firm. Ryan ordered three dozen cupcakes; I delivered them so we could have a nice chat on his doorstep.

Fast forward 36 hours and we both ended up at the same coffee shop in Lincoln Park. And because both of us had work we wanted to procrastinate work for ourselves, we started talking business. Well, I let him do most of the talking, because I had all of the learning to do.

He ran through some of the basics of SEO and search engine ad placement. And although what he was sharing with me was really basic to anyone who has ever owned a web-based business, it was brand new to me. The stickiest?

“Get as many links to your site as possible.”

Links to your website boost its credibility among the algorithms Google uses to determine which sites are good and which sites are crap.  Good sites with high rankings get higher placement and more visits. Which, duh, lead to more sales.

I can’t wait to figure out how we’ll implement this strategy in 2010. It’ll be interesting to track and measure our efforts.

Thanks, Ryan, for sharing all two hours worth of conversation and information with me. I really do owe you more than just cupcakes.