I’ve been tagged against my will by Jane and Jason in one of the latest memes: do you respect media snackers?

Well first, what the heck is a media snacker? Watch this short video to see:

Here’s the transcript for the video-phobes:

Media Snackers. What’s it all about? Well, you see the world has changed and it’s not turning back. Media snackers are young people. No longer is there a set menu of mass media delivered at specific times and to the masses. Print, radio, [and] television is now “push the red button and go interactive,” “text in your request,” or “let us tell you a story.” The internet and technology ownership has changed everything: digital TV, mobile phones, iPods, weblogs, instant messaging, [and] social networking. The media landscape has shifted from the linear to one of many layers consumed by creative and empowered individuals. Young people of the new WWW generation snuck in whenever, wherever, and on whatever they like. Crucially, their expectations have changed. Everything is multi: multi-screens, multi-channeled, multi-conversations, and multitasking. Totally connected groups are average sharers, creating as much as they can consume and using free sites to display it all. Whereas before when computers were only found in banks and offices, media snackers have access at home, in school, or in libraries — all for free. Remember visiting arcade centers to play games? Media snackers play at home and against the world. How about taping your favorite tunes off the radio? Media snackers simply download them from the web and carry their whole music collection with them. Previously, to have a mobile phone, you needed a large bank account. Media snackers just have pockets. Media snackers are young people.

As many of you know, my grandfather has been ill for awhile. Yesterday, on October 24, he succumbed to complications from lung cancer (though he never smoked). He was 84.

If I could talk about the wonderful man he was, even the paragraphs that follow would not capture the essence that was Grandpa David. He was, quite simply, a beautiful man inside and out. He was incredibly giving and made huge sacrifices for his community, his wife, his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-granddaughter who was born the week after he was admitted to the hospital for the last time. Here are just some of those contributions:

Before we get back to the daily grind, I owe thanks to a few more people than those I mentioned yesterday.

First, I got this awesome package in the mail courtesy of the Ask.com team today.

I love it! Thanks so much, Erik, Patrick, Gary, and Jennifer!

Second, I wanted to thank the guys who helped me score some schwag at SES San Jose. I only featured people in my last post, but look what was inside my suitcase once I got home! Can you believe I managed this? I really don’t.

The individual photos have a lot of Flickr notes on them in case you were wondering who was giving out what.

In other news, I’m fortunate to have joined the Gawker team writing for probably one of my favorite blogs of all time, Lifehacker. It’s an incredible privilege to be part of such a wonderful team. Thanks for taking me on board!

And finally, as you may know, three of my pals started a tech-oriented podcast and I’ve been a guest on two of the shows. If you are interested in tech and social media news, check out The Drill Down. You’ll find me in episodes 3 and 6, but the others are pretty good too.

(Note: It will soon become evident that I started this on the plane. However, it’s Wednesday and I finally wrapped it up.)

As I write this post on the plane, I am already beginning to miss SES San Jose 2007 (August 20-23), which was one of the most successful search conferences that I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. Not only was it educationally enriching, it was also an extremely successful and exciting networking event. And this flight, which actually is running early, was by far the easiest check-in and take-off in my entire life of traveling. Even though my seat is broken (the seat back flung backwards as soon as the plane lifted into the air), life is good.

During the day, life was all about business, and the intellectual stimulation began. Seventeen (!) sessions were liveblogged by yours truly, and Search Engine Roundtable covered a whopping 64 of the 74 sessions. The evenings were filled with a little more laid back fun, from an Ask.com dinner on Monday night to an incredibly awesome Google Dance on Tuesday and a pretty crazy WebmasterRadio bash on Wednesday night. I have to say that it was great. Thank you Barry.

David Dalka from Chicago tagged me in a relatively recent meme, and although I’ve already answered this question once before, I decided that I’d do David a favor and oblige.

It took me a good deal of time to find eight things that people don’t really know about me, but I think I have it…

1. When I was young, my mother always said I was going to be a lawyer. I guess I always had a disposition for playing devil’s advocate (or fighting for something I firmly believed in). I still do try to make strong arguments, but I’m not an attorney. The closest thing to that was being a private investigator post-college.
2. I used to read books. A lot. Then, at age 12, I got my own computer. Reading was put on the back burner for about 14 years. I only started picking up books again recently after a close friend suggested that I read some good books.