It wasn’t very long ago that it took a trip to the state library or a Blockbuster to read a days-old Wall Street Journal or rent a movie. The time and energy we expended to complete just one of those transactions way exceeded the pleasure we could get out of the paper or movie, especially ones starring Ben Stiller.

Today, here is my typical routine: I rise, download the day’s free Wall Street Journal podcast through iTunes, transfer it to my iPod, and listen to it through my car radio on the way to work. On weekends, we choose a late release movie, download it through AppleTV and watch it a few minutes later. On the treadmill, I’ll listen to tech podcasts or a book on business trends from iTunes or Audible.com, though I have to slow the treadmill to a crawl since I am constitutionally incapable of walking and chewing on ideas at the same time.

This kind of frictionless Web 2.0 experience is moving into other areas of our lives, not least of all preserving memories and promoting a business with images.

There’s long been Flickr and Photobucket and now Smugmug to share and present pictures. But video is where we’re increasingly headed in the Web world.

One beta project that’s getting significant buzz is Animoto.com, a site where you can magically generate a professional-looking video with your pictures.

Upload at least 10 shots and Animoto produces a moving slideshow of your images, set to music of your choosing, all in about 15 minutes. Here’s my sample, but take a look at the demos on the site because some of them are stunning.

No commercial use of the videos is currently allowed, according to the site’s terms of service. But I can see business applications that would put you in control of the final product in the same way that desktop publishing shifted the paradigm.

Like every other site, Animoto has a social networking feature that allows you and your friends to share links for your videos.

So try it out and post your links here ’cause I just know you are way more creative than I am. Plus, you can probably walk and chew at the same time.

I have a friend whose strategy for Mother’s Day dinner reservations reminds me of those folks at the movie theaters who peel off every piece of clothing from their bodies to score seats for their friends.

As Mother’s Day nears, my friend calls multiple restaurants and reserves a table at all of them. A couple of days before the date, he makes a decision on where to go and cancels the rest of his reservations. No doubt he would say in his defense that he at least cancels; the truly gluttonous wouldn’t even bother.

I bring this up because Hawaii is efficient to the extreme when it comes to making reservations for Mother’s Day. If you wait another week to reserve a spot for May 11, chances are you’ll end up at Jack in the Box.

As a general rule of thumb, you want to book dinner with your Mom several decades in advance. Reservations for dinner on Father’s Day can wait until lunchtime — although, if you plan to eat anywhere that serves red meat or beer, call at least a day ahead.

If you need help choosing a place to eat, check out our best restaurants guide. Then when you are ready to make a reservation, visit OpenTable.com. I’ve used this helpful site to secure tables for family and business meals and haven’t been disappointed. The site offers reservations at about 50 Hawaii restaurants, roughly half on Oahu. You can search for a table by date, time and size of your party.

If you are worried about being disinherited, the site indicates you still have options for Mother’s Day. But my favorite restaurant is already booked from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. I’ll need to figure out how to drop this information in casual conversation with my spouse. Feed me some lines. The best one wins a prize.

Or tell me what your strategy is for securing reservations on holidays. (Note to the guy with the fake Jack Lord voice: they’re on to you.)

As a reflection of the exalted standing of editors around our newsroom, I recently inherited a badly scratched, first-generation Flip Video camera from our photo department that had been carried around for months by one of our intrepid shooters.

It had lost its fresh-out-of-the-box luster, and heaven only knows where it’s been, but I wanted it.

This is the video camera that has been the subject of considerable techie buzz since it was released last year. Consumers are reported to be buying these little puppies like hot malasadas at Leonard’s. They are cheap, deliver decent video and are a snap to use when transferring video to a computer for editing.

At $118 on Amazon and $149 for the Ultra version which we’ve also seen at Sam’s Club, it’s priced right for a second video camera. Or, a first vidcam for a kid or even a quick recording of a lecture or business meeting. There are no cables; when you are ready to transfer your video, simply pop out an attached USB connector and import the footage.

Best of all, this camera runs on two AA batteries. No more running out of charge. Just slide in extra batteries and go — perfect when you’re on that long, picturesque trip to the Australian outback with no electrical plug handy, much less water to drink.

On a recent Maui trip, we left the bigger video camera whimpering at home and toted along the Flip Video instead. The video it delivered was pretty decent. See for yourself.

Even while bouncing on a horse in the hills of Lahaina, the camera delivered relatively good images. You do have to brace it well against your body when shooting, although camera shake seemed inevitable atop a horse. This early Flip version doesn’t have a hole for a tripod, by the way, but the Ultra version does.
Let me warn you that this is not the video camera you want to use when shooting your son’s wedding. It does badly in low light and has neither a flash attachment or jack for an external mike. When recording a lot of movement, the video tends to dither.

On the other hand, you wouldn’t lose a large investment if you suddenly happen to come into possession of a brand new video camera — say, for example, if your photo department were to give you a sophisticated, high-definition camcorder with built-in stabilizer. I’m just saying.

Your turn: did you record memories during your spring vacation? Which video camera would you recommend?

It’s decidedly ungeeklike to prefer paper over PDAs.  I’m pretty sure that the geek squad will break down your door and drag you away if you are a declared geek who is unveiled as a closet paper lover.

So, hey, come on down and haul me to the dungeons as I’ve developed an abiding fondness for the latest revision of PocketMod, a little Web application that creates small, portable booklets for organizing your chaotic life.

You create the booklet by clicking and dragging the kinds of pages that you want into your PocketMod and printing it out. Apply a bit of fancy folding akin to origami and, voila! You have a portable, recyclable planner that slips into your pocket or purse.

The pages you choose can be daily, week or monthly calendars; lists for shopping, tasks or contacts; a food diary; mini reads from Time or Wired magazine (or a custom RSS feed); and games like Sudoku.

I especially like a page called Franklin’s virtues based on Benjamin Franklin’s attempt to live by 13 virtues, among them temperance and patience. I know I could never check off all of these virtues seven days a week. Even one day for any single virtue would be a stretch. Nevertheless, this list is a good thing to carry around as a daily reminder, particularly after one has, for example, yelled at a customer on the phone. (You know who you are, and I deeply apologize. But my mother has nothing to do with the site redesign.)

Take the PocketMod for a spin and let me know what you think. Have you been sticking by your New Year’s resolution to stay organized?