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Taken with a Canon G9

From some notes scribbled at the pool:

The sound of ocean waves hits you the moment you open the door. Like a wash of relaxation and solitude you soon realize that you are indeed being bathed in not just sonics but lifewaves of a very different kind of energy.

You go to bed, partly from exhaustion, but mostly from the hypnosis of the visual and sonic landscape that you have been drenched in.

Your first day begins in a bath of pure happiness. It was the first time you awoke rested in years – years! You grasp for a clock, yet realize that they have been removed from the room. Your watch, resting in the bottom of your carry on bag reads 8. You are awake and rested at 8am. (What has gotten into me?)

–

Leaving wasn’t painful, as I knew that I would go home with the one I came to relax with: my new and wonderful wife.

I wrote this a month or so ago, and never published it.

We live in amazing times. Just amazing.

The internet has blessed us all with the power to communicate with each other. It took a while, but we finally realized that the internet doesn’t have to be all about cats and animated gifs. Even though, those are still two very popular topics.

Not just geeks are on the net anymore, either. I just learned, Kanye West has a blog… and it’s probably actually HIM blogging on it! Not to mention he has a Vimeo account (”suck on that Flickr,” says Vimeo founder j/k)! BTW, Kottke, who I rubbed the wrong way many years back, alerted me to all this, on his unimaginably popular blog.

After watching this video, how can you not love the internet?

We’ve finally learned that there is more to life than “me” and that the “we” is what makes the world go round.

The internet does have a heart. It enables us to do some really amazing things.

Recently, along with Coudal Partners, 37Signals, Metafilter, Happy Cog, Iconfactory, Core77, Daring Fireball, Emma, Business Brickyard, and skinnyCorp, I got to help kids benefit from your filthy gambling habit. My design studio eight6 donated $1000 to buy some books for kids, by matching your donations.

I’ve always been unnaturally excited to help others. Being able to do that through my work, is gratifying. eight6 is heavily focused on helping the world and it will always be a core part of who I am and what my company represents. It sounds “deep,” and kind of corny. But it’s pretty simple. We build and design things (usually websites), using design to clarify communication and in return, help make good things happen.

In the next few months I’m going to be launching a program to help loving geeks help the world become a better place, just by doing what they do. Sounds interesting? I think it is. It will be an experiment, but an interesting and, hopefully, a fruitful one.

Dean Allen, as he has always been, is my hero:

…and third, that by any means necessary, web-strategy, social-media, online-marketing webcocks – unaware as they are of how toxic their presence is in the arenas they cannot shut up about – must and shall be filtered out of view.

– Dean Allen

I almost fell off my chair, again, after reading that.

It holds, it embraces. It’s “deep.”

Stephen Henault is a cool dude and a great blogger that I randomly stumbled upon. Here’s what he recently wrote:

“The cup” is deep. Seriously. Could the argument not be made that “the cup” is the defining invention that has lead us to all the great stuff we have now?

It’s the concept of the cup I speak of. Put stuff inside – and save it for later – to be pulled out on demand. Sounds kind of like my iPhone, my Macbook, my DVR, Batteries, etc. etc.

I’m probably oversimplifying, but in drinking this cup of coffee I have a new found respect for the dude/or gal who came up with the concept of “the cup”.

Deep! Eh?

Everything is secondary to your health, is what my Dad tells me quite often. Isn’t it the truth though?

• Let me ramble, for the internet was made for this nonsense.
• Sorry for not writing as much as I did a long, long time ago… (reading my old weblog makes me laugh hysterically).
• I got a new apartment that has really tall ceilings and I’m almost positive my heating bill will be ridiculous and make me cry.
• In other news, PhotoStack will have video capabilities very soon. I can’t show it to you yet, but, it works pretty well right now if your server has ffmpeg installed.
• In some other really big news. Aw shoot, I can’t tell you. But Christmas time will be a great time for all and I promise to come bearing gifts of angle brackets and storage space.
• I’ve been trying to build a Garrard 401 turntable setup – slowly I’m gathering parts. I found the perfect tonearm, and when I sent it to get properly wired up, the post office just plain lost it. :(
• The new Holy Fuck album is good, so is the Daft Punk: Alive 2007 disk.
• A great art website I recently discovered is http://www.artbreak.com/ – some really amazing original art.
• I’m so excited for the new year – I’ve got some great things to share with you all.
• Money tip: He who reaches 1:1 first wins.
• My Dad is the best guy I know. Thanks for everything. Mom, you are the best woman I know – thanks for helping me move all that crap into my apartment this week. :)

Checkout this article on biodegradable plastic bags. Why don’t we have bio-degradable candybar wrappers (and more)?

David Armano on Saying More With Less

As if we all didn’t know it would come someday… Cingular is now, AT&T. Again.

It’s great. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s, the best stuff in the world. And it’s addicting.

I just saw a commercial for Disney Mobile. It surprised me quite a bit actually. The features and ease of use that they alluded to seem quite compelling. If their coverage was any good, and I had a family, it might seem like something to look in to – maybe.

It’s really interesting that Disney is starting their own mobile service provider, especially after the huge failure that was/is ESPN Mobile. I’m sure they are leasing towers/network infrastructure just like Helio and amp’d mobile. Quite a few mobile service piggybackers are popping up these days.

Will the niche wireless provider be the future for voice and messaging? Will we be seeing a Apple Mobile in the near future?

I’ve been posting lots of links and short entries — mostly in an attempt to ignore really writing something. So, instead, here we go.

I’ve been sick. I’ve been trying to ignore that too. Mostly because I’ve been really sick and in a highly unconventional way. I have MVP Syndrome (sometimes called dysautonomia).

It’s not fun… My day begins and ends with a rapid heart rate and odd arrhythmias (upon postural changes); interspersed with anxiety, panic attacks, a diabetic like hypoglycemic reaction to sugars, and a general lack-luster shine. Despite this sucking, it at least lends a hand at explaining my unexplained ailments during my teens.

I hate Paris Hilton. She’s a tramp. I mean, she did have me fooled. Really. All that money could fool anyone, though. But, when she started ripping on Lindsay Lohan, that just pissed us all off (at least it pissed me off). Did she even see Mean Girls? However, if Lindsay keeps this partying up, I’m gonna kick her ass.

So…

Web 2.oh.my.god.kill.me.now… Who in their right mind coined this term? I think I’m going to get business cards printed with “Noel 2.0″ on them. I’m just so sick of seeing “Top Web 2.0 Apps” lists on so many sites. It’s disgusting. End it, please.

Speaking of Web 2.0, I met Jeffrey Zeldman. For a kid who remembers reading “Taking Your Talent to the Web” I’ve had so much appreciation for this man. Jeffrey is the kindest guy I’ve ever met. After meeting him and being greeted with, not a handshake, but a great big bear hug, you realize why he’s so successful – he’s a sincere and extremely genuine man. I had a great time at An Event Apart – I highly suggest you go.

When you’re sick, you really appreciate the things you love and can’t live without. So much so that you make a list:

• Stephanie, my beautiful girlfriend of 5 years, you fill every day with beauty and hope and wonderful thoughts of the future. I will never be able to show you the kindness you’ve shown me.
• Mom, you show me kindness beyond comprehension.
• Dad, you’re everything I hope to be – thanks for saying “I love you.”
• Lee, you matter to me more than you’ll ever know.
• Erin, you really have cheered me up a lot lately.
• Daisy, Joy – thanks for licking me inappropriately at times… you care more than you should.
• Aunt Mim, Uncle Vince – far away, but never far from heart – thanks for calling and caring as much as you do.
• Aunt DeeDee, you are sweet like my Mom, thanks for being so caring – you don’t have to, but you do.
• Bri, Char, Marty, Brian, Rich, Lilly – Thanks for being so close and so fun, I love seeing you guys.
• Grandma, your vibrance and sheer happiness make me live my life that much more carefree.
• Emily, I’ve known you for 10 years – you’ve shown me just how wonderful life is.
• Tim, you’re always there and always insightful, you are a great friend.
• Dean, you’re insight has helped me out time and time again. You care too much for your own good.
• So many more people that I haven’t listed…

This is at which point I noticed – my list doesn’t involve anything but the ones I love around me… I’m so blessed. It’s sappy. I know. It is. But in this world of LCDs, angle brackets ,and PHP errors, you get lost. Appreciate the things you have – or more importantly the people you have.

What matters most to you?

Gladwell posted an interesting story on how his father threw out his furnace in favor of geothermal heating (and cooling).

It’s really interesting to know, that we have, below our very own feet, the power to heat and cool our homes for next to nothing. Yet, we still persist to fight wars and spend money on foreign oil. It’s maddening.

It was something in the air. Perhaps it was the arrogance, the stank of commercialism, or just the smell that is New York. After spending a few months short of two years in New York, I was tired of it. Two years of New York starts with excitement and ends in disgust; intermingled with small ridiculously expensive apartments.

It took a while to realize I had made a decision to end my plans in New York; for those of you who don’t know, I was going to The School of Visual Arts for Photography, retouching photographs professionally, and building my portfolio shooting model tests. I schleped a great deal of web design talent and plans to go to the big city. After all of this, I can’t tell you how much I miss the web, design, and code.

When the time came to really commit to altering my plans, it felt better than anything ever had before. You don’t realize how easy you can lie to yourself until you decide to stop.

I decided to move back to Detroit and continue with school. I planned on getting my MBA after art school, but I’m not going to be pursuing that more proactively, by getting my bachelor’s in business as well.

Everyone is surprised. Why would you leave such a great place? Hugh Macleod explains it best. Twice.

The answer is, there are so many answers. But again Hugh Macleod explains it best:

Nobody moves to New York just in order to survive…

…of course that’s what most of them end up doing…

In the midst of all these thoughts, I awoke one night to a heart that was beating somewhere around 200 bpm. It was jumping out of my chest. I was scared… I went to the ER. They kept me for not one or two, but four nights. Four nights in the hospital is four nights too long. It pretty much sealed the deal. Hospitals have a real way of knocking a little sense of reality in to you.

I think more than anything I learned what I really want in life. I realized that when you can have anything you want, anything, you figure out pretty fast what really matters: family, friends, and love.