DAVID DEAN MENZIES

by David Dean Menzies Part of the joy of living at the beach is, well, the beach. In our case, we live 15 minutes from the beach. Sometimes we drive an extra 10 minutes to find our favorite access point; depending on the day, it’s worth it. The only time I tend to question the drive is during peak season when tourists are around. Believe me when I say I love tourists who frequent “our” beach. The vast majority of them are nice people, in a great frame of mind, just happy to be with friends and family experiencing the natural wonders of our little slice of paradise. And let’s be honest – they bring in A TON of cash to support the local businesses that we frequent year round. One of the negative impacts of tourists is traffic. It’s not as bad as, say, the handful of visitors each year who do not respect the dunes – which basically hold the entirety of Topsail Island together – and others who don’t quite grasp the concept of carry-in, carry-out when it comes to trash. But the tra

Published on LinkedIn June 2, 2020 by David Dean Menzies To quote the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, "All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down." This continues to resonate today with the reliance—not preference, not proliferation, but pure reliance—on the internet for most every aspect of our daily lives. News, shopping, working, exercise, healthcare, keeping up with friends and family, blogging, anything and everything we touch at some point goes through our mobile devices or computer. Don’t believe me? Think about the last time you went one whole day without going online. As we all rely more and more on the online world for our information, the lines continue to blur between social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) and online shopping websites, news sites, and other content generators. Thanks to interoperability and cross-channel advertising, tracking cookies, geofencing, an