On our second to last day in Ireland, my father and I negotiated the Ireland busing system, and purchased two tickets to Ardee,  a small village about an hour and a half north of Dublin. The bus would apparently stop a five minute walk outside of the main town – and another bus would be returning to the same location at 6pm. We nervously boarded the bus out of Dublin.

Ardee, Ireland was where my great, great, great grandfather John Malone lived before leaving for America. The namesake of the Malone family, my Father’s Mother’s family – and the eldest relative I have any knowledge of. And I know little more than that he came from Ardee. According to my father, he came to the States, fought in the Civil War and earned enough funds to have his wife join him. How much of that story is true, and how much are details from novels that got wrapped up in truth I have no idea – but in town we discovered two Malone’s – including a business with the name – so it’s safe to say that there’s some truth to the story.

In Ardee there are two 13th Century castles that greet you at either end of the main street. Walking up and examining those castles and the grounds surrounding them – I felt as if I were looking through a telescope into space, gazing at star light from a distant past. There is no doubt that John Malone – my Father’s Mother’s Father’s Father’s Father looked upon those very same walls – and walked those very same grounds. Beyond him though – I can see no further.

In fact, it’s funny how little we know about where we come from.  When a child is born, we often say “he has his mother’s nose” or “she looks just like her dad” – and that’s understandable.  The two parent represent the DNA mixture that produced this child.  Everything this child is, has come from them.  But that doesn’t really tell us much – seeing as how the child’s parents are results of the same process via their parents.  Suddenly you have four grandparents that are the DNA culprits behind this new-born.  However, right behind them are eight great-grandparents who might have something to do with this as well.

Sadly, this is where the “you know whose eyes those are” game wears off.  Humans simply don’t live to a point where we get many great-great-great anythings.  But if we did – and I could look all the way back to John Malone in Ardee, Ireland – there are 31 other individuals, including his wife (my great-great-great grandmother) where my DNA directly comes from.

I can account for two of those 32 great-great-great grandparents – and I know for a fact the Spies branch was not in Ardee, Ireland.  The rest are a mystery – as are their 64 parents who also hold the answers to my DNA riddle – albeit the waters are getting a bit muddied.

In fact, the only thing I really know about most of the people that came before me was that they were healthy enough, smart enough, and lucky enough to reach the age of procreation, and at least one of the children they created was capable of doing the same.  If any of them were unable to perform this task, I simply would never have existed.  Seriously though – what are the odds that around 1850, sixty-four unique individuals, in at least three different countries, would survive long enough to meet and produce children capable of doing the same so that I could carry those same genetic codes some century and a half later.  The numbers begin to grow exponentially beyond there.  If we say the average age of procreation for a male is 25 (and this would vary wildly in different cultures, but even so, I’m still seven years late), we can estimate that while America was declaring its independence in 1776, there were approximately 248 people walking around with all the ingredients that make up me.

As Louis XIV reigned supreme from the Palace at Versailles in the 1680’s, nearly 4000 individuals with a part of me walked the Earth.  And in 1492, as Columbus set foot in the Americas, over half a million of my direct ancestors, awaited his discovery. As did their million parents… and possibly two million grand-parents.

When those castles were put up in the 13th Century in Ardee Ireland, over 520 million individuals, and their billion-plus parents walked the Earth.

NOW WAIT A SECOND… were there even a billion people alive in the 13th Century?  No… no there weren’t.  So what happened?  Well… the lines cross.  Where, we have no idea, but no doubt they must – in fact they do for everyone.  They simply have to.  If you think it’s sticky in the 13th Century?  By 1100 there would be over 33 Billion ancestors walking the planet at the same moment if our family tree didn’t start reconnecting some of its limbs.  I’m not talking about kissing cousins – it’s quite possible many of these re-connections occurred without knowledge.  After a few centuries, the chances of finding a mate who DID NOT have shared DNA traits would be nearly impossible, especially when considering how little people traveled up until a century ago.

I recall my mother telling a story of how her parents were forbidden to marry, because one was Catholic and one was Protestant – a scenario played out many times for Irish immigrants in NY, some of which were from Northern Ireland, some from the southern region.  Rather than looking towards their parents for identity, had they only seen their true heritage, looked a few centuries more back – clearly their bloodlines ran parallel – clearly they already shared not so distant relatives.

Religious zealots of all persuasion would have you believe some God placed us here with intent – a perfect spot for a perfect species.  I for one find that to be a bit contrary to the facts.  I see a species poorly prepared for this environment, that has some how managed to survive and pass on its code and its knowledge to future generations, time and again.  On a planet that is 70% covered by water we can not breath within or in most cases drink – cut off by distance and the need for oxygen from all other planets – with less hearing capacity than a common hound and lacking the capacity to see the majority of the light spectrum – we seem an unlikely success story.  But I am just that.  As are you.  The DNA prize of countless humans who struggled to survive childhood, found a mate, and were able to produce at least one child capable of doing the same.

I have two wonderful parents who I love – and it’s great when I see a part of me in them.  But it’s also good to remember that I am not just of them – I am of the the same DNA as everyone else.  The same as you – the same as all those who have come before, and that next generation just beginning the journey.  And even this great species we call our own, is merely one branch of an even grander tree.  I guess the question becomes – what aren’t you like?  And if any of those million of connections had never occurred, would you still exist? How radically do you alter the distant future with every choice you make?

After a few hours and a handful of pubs, my father and I made our way out of the town center and back to the main road to wait for the bus.  As promised, at six o’clock it came around the corner and picked us up.  We boarded the bus and left the town of Ardee with far less trepidation than I imagine John Malone had when he set off for American a century and a half ago.  That decision, and the many before and after it are part of an endless list of reasons I exist in the first place.  I for one am glad he made the trip.

This episode is actually a composite of two design reviews we had over the past couple weeks. I love my clients – but sometimes you really just have to smile and keep your mouth shut.

For the heck of it, we’ve now recreated these conversations in this 4-minute animation.

I got upstairs to discover a copy of Avatar and Mad Men: Season 3, Disc 4.  Seeing as how the new season of Mad Men had started up – I was excited to catch-up.  The only problem was I couldn’t remember what in the world had happened on Disc 3, or even 2 for that matter.  “When was the last time I watched Mad Men?” I thought – as I recalled having a rather solid video-rental routine at one point.

I logged onto netflix.com – and checked my order history to find out.  It turned out the two videos I’d just sent back had originally arrived the first week of May.  A week later, my dear friend Kendra passed away.

Sometimes you don’t realize what you’re doing and what is happening until you recognize something is very out of place.  It appears my habits took a radical change that second week in May. I seem to recall that I was going to the gym every morning for five months prior.  I have been there four times since. The company was on a major up-swing in productivity and sales.  I’ve been apologizing WAY too much lately.

Weight loss… gone.
Financial stability… gone.
Structured life… very gone.

Now of course, it hasn’t been all bad.  In fact, it’s been quite good.  I can’t say I’m depressed – I got to go to Ireland with my Dad for two weeks on one of the great trips of my life.  But when you know the type of life you want to be living, and you suddenly discover you aren’t currently living it – it’s a jarring moment.  It’s not as if I’ve been laying on the couch growing a beard in the dark – quite the opposite.  This is probably a main reason I hadn’t realized just how far from the target I was. I was living in between – going through the motions and just sort of half existing.  Responsibilities seemingly lost meaning, and excuses seemed plentiful.  Never did I associate a starting point with any of this – the moment simply seemed as it was – that this is how I lived.

However – the first step is always the realization of what is occurring.  The Netflix incident opened my eyes and provided a moment of clarity – a glaring “this isn’t right” that made me wonder, how long has it been wrong? Suddenly other hints are starting to shine as I try to account for the past couple months.  Knowing the starting point helps clarify the mis-steps – but doesn’t always define a root cause. And certainly Kendra wouldn’t cut me much slack for a three month pity party – so no excuses there! There is some major clean-up ahead. However, the pathway back to where I want to be isn’t hard to find.  Occasionally tough to walk – and it’s understandable if personal tragedy slows down the pace. But time will not wait, and neither can I.

I miss you Kendra!

On the far end of the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland, out past the quaint little fishing village that is its namesake, are a series of stone bee-hive shaped dwellings in a circular formation, surrounded by a stone-wall and sitting on the side of a hillside overlooking Dingle Bay and further out over the Atlantic Ocean. Archeologists believe the structures were created as early as 2000BC, and were still in use until approximately 1200AD. The primitive structures are nothing more than piled rocks – no mortar or supports – just flat rocks in a round, piled slightly off-kilter so they come to a curved dome of sorts with just enough space at the top to allow some light into the space within. Crawling through the opening I found myself back in time – staring at a space that probably hadn’t changed much since the original proprietors decided to move on. No marble statues or painted portraits here – just a dirt floor, a small outcropping for a fire, and the uneasy feeling one gets when recognizing the roof above you is nothing but a pile of unsecured rocks held together by little more than gravity. Upon dipping your head out the entry and back into the light of day – you stare out at the silhouettes of the mountains on the far shore rising from the waters below – and your eyes touch the same sight those original residents must have encountered each day of their quiet, and I imagine, exhausting lives.

At one point there were 40,000 residents on the Dingle Peninsula, but when the soil could no longer provide, the famine arrived and the population either escaped or perished. Even today there are only about 10,000 folks who call this unique landscape home. Many of the original homes from that period remain. Abandoned, slowly fading monuments of a desperate time.

One can’t help but feel the passage of time everywhere in Ireland. The countryside is littered with old stone ruins, grave markings and endless stonewalls and hedgerows defining borders that have been passed down through the centuries. Newer buildings share the streets with 300 year-old pubs, and every town has some point of interest that sheds light on a forgotten era.

There is a voice inside that loves to feel that the current moment is the most important – and that your efforts and challenges are of immense consequence and importance. Look at the face of the average person on the street and they are most often in a stressful hurry – quite convinced of what they need or must accomplish – and doing their best to lay claim to whatever objects, property or individuals they feel belong to them. While far more relaxed than most, I too often find myself stressing about The Interactive Dept. – worrying about where the next project will come from – what the long-term course of our business will look like – how I can pay off the tax-man and sill manage to purchase a home some day. All the personal concerns of family and friendships, health and fitness, and even now, while riding a train to Dublin, where the next vacation might be.

Standing in that stone structure on the side of a rocky-outcrop on the Dingle Peninsula, you realize it really doesn’t matter at all. For thousands and thousands of years individuals like me in one way or another have walked this Earth, fretting their moment upon the stage, only to eventually pass on and fade from all memory like all those before them. Were the owners of these small rock dwellings good or bad? Winners or losers? Later on, some built massive castles with their wealth – others laid siege to those castles – and still others worked the land outside those castles for whomever temporarily pronounced themselves in charge. Good days, bad days – but all forgotten.

As my father and I travel on this trip, each day we try to remind ourselves we have nothing to do. We’ve intentionally planned no activities – just a few rough locations. Each morning we simply start walking and the day writes itself. Occasionally we find ourselves walking too fast, or rushing a delicious pint – and one of us will comment, “Hey, remember, we got nothing to do today.”

The sentiment, while simply a reminder of being on vacation at first has taken on larger meaning as the trip progresses. The constant reminders of just how long this game has been played, and just how short our glimpse of this amazing planet and experience is – provides solid proof that we as individuals on this planet have nothing to do ever. Everything is simply a choice – and success and failure merely an opinion of the moment.

In this modern workweek, history is easily forgotten as our time is often spent planning for the future, enthused for the next big thing, focused with the moment at hand. Multi-tasking has become the norm – and even vacations are often organized and coordinated with military precision. The thought of turning off your phone for a week seems like an impossibility. Detaching from technology and all the information it delivers brings fear that you’ll miss the boat – that opportunities will pass – that you will fail. A three-day weekend is acceptable now and again, but lets not get wild.

I whole-heartedly disagree, and recommend everyone begin to detach more. I would estimate I spend about 1-2 months a year doing little more than walking new cities or spending time with friends and family. If you can’t take three months (as I did in Spain), or two weeks as I’m doing now in Ireland, take one, or even a single day. Turn off the phone, shut-down the computer, ignore your “responsibilities” and enjoy the day without a plan of how you’ll control it. Not a Saturday – I’m talking about a Tuesday. Call out of work – lie and say you’re sick if you have to. Let the day take you. Walk out the front door and just start walking. Let the moment work its magic and accomplish nothing. Once you get a taste for it, as I have, you’ll find yourself wanting to accomplish nothing more and more. You’ll realize the world doesn’t fall apart in your absence, and after the ego comes to terms with this shocking truth, you’ll find yourself detaching more and more. You’ll realize doing nothing often feels even better than doing something – and that what at first might feel like a guilty pleasure is actually your mind saying “THANK YOU – I needed that.”

Many centuries from now, a father and son may come across your current dwelling. They might check-out your office – snap a few photos of your desk, ponder how you lived in such a way and what your days were like. They’ll be more curious about what art you made, what music you loved – then how stressful things were, or how you made the rent. Then, upon seeing a bus of senior citizens approaching, they’ll move on to the next monument, content that they have nothing to accomplish for the day.

Now I need to get back to doing nothing myself.

It’s been a rough couple weeks.

A close friend lost his sister in a car accident three weeks ago – and just when I was beginning to breath regularly again and not self-reflect the incident on my own reality and my own beloved family – I received a Facebook message from one of my closest friend’s girlfriend.

Greg. Please call me ASAP. Teyla was hit by a bus in Sydney yesterday. She is on life support at Royal Prince Albert Hospital in Sydney. I’m flying there tonight.

Teyla, whom I called Kendra (or Bendra most of the time) had been living in Australia the past three years or so, getting a Masters Degree in Nursing. She was the first friend I made in college – and the two of us along with my friend Mairin moved out to Oregon together in 2001. She was my partner in crime for living the life less ordinary – sharing my passion for non-stop traveling, meeting as many people as possible and doing all you can to make their lives (and thus your own) more fulfilling.

I immediately called Leah and received the awful news that Kendra was most likely not going to make it. It’s hard to express just how powerfully such news alters the moment – and changes your perspective on just about everything. I suddenly realized I was in Portland – and she was in Australia – and this small world became painfully enormous.

As the emotional dust began to settle in my mind – I began typing Kendra’s name into Facebook – and pulled up her profile. What I found there has been a source of comfort and insight the likes of which I never would have expected from a website. And that’s because Facebook and social media in general are more than just webpages and iPhone apps – they are becoming the virtual reflection of our relationships. What I found on Kendra’s profiles was the shared anguish of hundreds of people whose lives she’d touched. There were cousins, her sister, Leah, friends from college, co-workers, neighbors and all her new-found friends in Australia. What had been a profile she once controlled had become a shared vigil as we all hoped and prayed and wished for her recovery. It became a place to share news of what was happening to someone we loved who was so far away. As others discovered the tragic news from status updates of friends, the vigil grew.

When the sad day arrived that Kendra was taken off life-support, the vigil became a memorial, and more photos and heart-ache poured out upon its pages. People wrote good-bye messages to Kendra – but in reality they wrote those letters to everyone – sharing their unique moments and personal sorrow with the collective.

This was a stark comparison to my first experience with death and social media. In April of 2006 my good friend from growing-up, Lucas, lost his younger brother. Tim passed away in the evening – and news reached me several days later. I was completely devastated, but I credit that event with a complete shift in my life that led to a 30-day train trip across the US and Canada shortly thereafter, followed by the endless travel and the awakening that my experience, even if I lived it in full would be too short if I wasted a single moment. Events like these reminds you that the “average lifespan” is not a guarantee – nor enough time in its own right.

Some time later I pulled up Tim’s MySpace profile – and do so even to this day. As opposed to Kendra’s, Tim must have had comments locked, because it is frozen in time from the day he left. No good-byes or well-wishes from friends, just his life as it was the day he left. It acts as some sort of modern-day tombstone – a place I can return to and reflect on his young life – and all the talent and beauty he left behind. Unlike a tombstone it does not stand silent – instead it tells me of the songs and music and books he read – of the friends he had and the thoughts and opinions he shared. You never die on social media – according to MySpace Tim is 28 now – and part of me prefers that virtual illusion over the reality. I have no doubt that I will continue to return to Kendra’s profile as well, and leave comments as the years go by. It will be no substitute for the plans we had – but it can be a source of comfort when the inevitable presence of her absence is felt.

A day after Kendra’s passing I received two messages from individuals I had never met. They had known Kendra though and she had clearly told them about me – and through Facebook they decided to contact me to make sure I was doing okay. I was unbelievably touched. This is a direct result of the power of social media. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken the news to get out to me in Oregon from Australia without Facebook – and I most certainly wouldn’t have been consoled by an Aussie who never met me.

You are not alone – you never were in fact. More people love you then the mind is capable of recognizing – and any fears or personal defeats don’t have to be fought alone. Social media unlocks the promise of a community somehow lost over the last century. While advances in transportation and urbanization have allowed us to go further and live more dispersed lives – up until recently, it has seemingly only broken the social bonds of family and friendship. With Facebook and the social media revolution however, I believe the pendulum has begun to swing back. Both tragedy and personal triumphs can be shared. Rather than having a couple of friends that you do your best to stay in touch with, you can now be connected to an entire community of people, and easily keep up with the events in their lives, as they share in yours. While many folks worry about privacy concerns, I am convinced “privacy” is an out-dated concept, the result of isolation and fear of the potential harm strangers bring. The more we get used to sharing our lives with others online, the more we will realize how much in common we have – and the more we will begin to cooperate in the success of others – and collectively mourn our tragedies. New “communities” are forming – that will be larger and more connected than traditional communities ever were.

We need not fear social media. What we should be more concerned about is loosing the connections with those around us. Stay connected.

Last week I had two occurrences which made me contemplate the information revolution and how it might effect our lives in some unique ways.  Sometimes the technology comes at us so fast we forget that it hasn’t been with us for very long.  I can hardly imagine myself without a cell phone – but less than a decade ago I had never held one – let alone an iPhone on which I check my email while taking the Max into work.  So it’s equally challenging sometimes to imagine how radically different our lives will be a mere decade from now.

On Tuesday I was sitting in the corner of the Green Dragon pub having a pint with a friend when I decided to get up to use the restroom.  While heading to the men’s room, I happened to bump into an old colleague of mine who I hadn’t seen in probably four years.  We chatted for a few minutes, exchanged business cards and agreed to meet up for coffee soon. It was a great coincidence that our paths had crossed.

I’ve always been fascinated by the “bump-in”.  Not so much by the folks I bump into on occasion, but moreso by all the countless folks who must have been close – but I never noticed.  On any given day – how many friends are only a block away?  How often am I at an event in which someone I’d enjoy seeing is there – but I just never happen to realize it.

It seems to reason that in the near future – those sort of situations will be greatly assisted by software.  There are already sites like FourSquare where people check-in at various locations. Of course, there are also sites like Please Rob Me that take that data and use it against you (albeit in a funny manner).

While I don’t think I would be comfortable posting my whereabouts to everyone – I can certainly see myself allowing a select group of folks to know my location at certain times.  It could be useful in an office so co-workers know where you’re at in the building. Useful at concerts to find friends (expected or unexpected).  Suddenly you have a whole new insight at networking events – you can see the entire crowd indexed by your contact list.

As smartphones with GPS become more the standard – all types of information about WHERE you do, what you do will become available – and entirely new types of software will be developed to make use of all that data.  Just as police might now investigate phone records when a crime has been committed – in the near future I wouldn’t be surprised if GPS data of where a defendant was will become standard evidence in a trial.  By looking at entire collections of data – irrespective of the individuals – we will be able to learn volumes about how folks migrate around a city or community.  This information could greatly assist city planners, event organizers, or even transportation officials.

The second occurrence that struck me as funny occurred while riding the #70 bus in the morning.  I looked over at the passenger sitting across from me and noticed he had a name-tag hanging from his waist.  Anytime I see a name tag I’m immediately brought back to my mom’s teaching about kidnappers (whom to my young mind were all about – and ready to pounce at any moment).  Anytime I had a name-tag on, she cautioned – be extra careful that you know an individual, if they say your name. A solid lesson in fear – but wise words none the less.

And indeed, at one time, I suppose an unscrupulous type could approach an unsuspecting person and could possibly con them into believing they were an acquaintance – but for how long?  Today, however, a name can get me a lot further.  As I have no desire to lay out a full stalking of an unsuspecting fellow Tri-Met rider, I will reverse the cards and look up “Greg Spies, Portland” in Google.

Well hello.  Looks like I have some info.  In fact I have:

• My company name, what my business does and most of my clients
• My bio and entire resume from LinkedIn
• Names of fellow past co-workers from LinkedIn
• The college I attended and degree from LinkedIn
• All my Twitter posts, discussing numerous aspects of my job and life.
• Some of my friends and the groups/pages I’m a fan of on Facebook

And that’s just in the first 4 links.  With some effort I’m sure there is more (no, seriously, I’m sure there is more – I Google myself regularly… I admit it).

Now how long could someone keep a conversation going with me?  It’s a bit scary. However it’s also pretty interesting. Information is neutral – it’s what we do with it that counts.

Social media is going to expand beyond just sitting at your computer reading Facebook posts.  It will continue to infiltrate smart phones – and then eventually iPads and all the touch-screen devices that will follow.  Now if I’m in a Group on Facebook – that Group can exist in the non-virtual world as well.  If there is someone else in the coffeeshop who thinks that poodle with tinfoil on it’s head can get more fans than Glen Beck – the two of you could opt to chat about it over a latte.

I already choose as many do, to show that I’m online with Facebook.  I occasionally mention I’m going to an event or a bar.  It’s not a far leap for me to add a bit of GPS data from time to time to pinpoint my location when I’m out and about.  I would certainly GPS my photos so folks could see where they were taken.  I think as we begin to dip our toes into the hot waters of the information age, we will get used to sharing what at one time seemed personal.  Much of what folks share on Facebook and Twitter were moments we would have considered private a mere decade ago.  I have witnessed break-ups, engagements, babies, death and all the tiny details in between from hundreds of people who would be little more than strangers if we weren’t modern day friends of the information age.

Maybe privacy is the bi-product of a lonesome, isolated age – where a lack of communication forced us to suffer and celebrate in small, if not singular parties.  In this new age, we can be connected not only virtually with those around us as we are today – but also in person.  We can discover our old friend is only a few tables over – we can make a lunch decision by seeing where co-workers are at – and we can discover others nearby who share our interests.  Striking up a conversation with a stranger perhaps gets a bit easier when you have some topics to start with.

Or, as always, we can press the off switch and take a few hours to ourselves.  The key, as always, is moderation.

When I was a freshman in high school I began making a lot of observations and conjectures about what was actually going on here.  While most boys my age had girls on the mind – I became obsessed with the nature of reality. I had become a devout atheist in middle school, but being unsatisfied with silently disagreeing with those around me – I decided my time was better spent trying to figure out what was actually occurring – why I was here and why thing were the way they appeared.

A particular observation that haunted me occurred one evening at the little league field in my home town.  While I was a right-fielder in every sense of the sport when suited up – and thus have always disliked the game immensely – going to the little league field in Cornwall NY was just about the only fun thing in town – and many summer nights were spent at the complex walking between the various fields.  From certain spots you could witness multiple fields, and multiple games over the complex.  On one particular evening I began taking notice of the separation of time between seeing a batter make contact with the ball and the sound of the crack of the bat.  This was not a new phenomenon, and I knew that light traveled faster than sound. The only problem was that I had no idea what that meant – it was just an expression.  As I sat there, I realized that the time between the sight and the sound was different depending on which field I was looking at.  The further the baseball diamond, the greater the separation in sound.

Suddenly I imagined myself on an endless field.  I put the action of the batter a certain distance away and in my mind recreated the scenario I was witnessing at the complex – filling in the rough data I had regarding distance and the perceived difference in time.  I then began pushing the batter further and further away – to extreme distances not possible in the park – and began to discover larger gaps in time between action and sound.

I had just explored what is often referred to as a “thought experiment”. A famous example being Sir Issaac Newton’s thought experiment in which he imagined a cannon placed on the highest mountain on Earth.  If it shot a cannon ball at a certain speed it would go such a distance and then fall.  Faster speed, further distance.  At what speed would it have to reach to never fall?  Our modern day satellites fly at that speed – Newton was a bit ahead of his time.

In my mind I stood there on the endless plain – with the player still moving further and further away – the time between visual and auditory contact growing further and further apart. Suddenly I began racing away in the opposite direction.  I was now speeding away from the batter just as he was departing from me.  At first both the visual and sound could reach me – but the duration between seeing the swing and hearing it just grew longer and longer.  But as I reached greater speeds I eventually surpassed the speed the sound was traveling at, yet not quite the speed of the visual.  Now here my mind had to consider a few options.  Would all sound cease… as certainly the crack of the bat hitting the ball would now never reach me.  Was it possible I would begin to hear the previous swing?

As I continued to speed up I began to wonder how much faster were the visuals than the sound?  Could I accelerate to the speed of the visual – and if so what would happen?  And if I went beyond? That was about all my mind could ponder at that point – but it kept in the back of my mind for years.

In college I would discover that I hadn’t been pondering these thoughts alone – that others had come before me – and some of the questions I had been asking were answered. It turns out sound travels at a rather leisurely 1,125 feet/second.  What I could only think of as the visuals was actually light – and light travels at an outrageous speed of approximately 983,000,000 feet/second.  So it turns out the light was going about 874,000 times faster than the sound.  No wonder I could notice the change in such a short passage of time at the park.

I learned in college that Albert Einstein had discovered in 1905 that the visuals – light – and the speed at which they approach us as the observer, is the only true constant.  That time was relative.  That one’s experience is relative – and that the duration of the time between two events can be different for two separate observers. Your experience is different from mine.

While this of course took a few weeks to fully settle in – what was even more astounding than Einstein’s theory of special relativity and all the consequences it lay forth – was that this amazing realization was less than 100 year old.  That for all of human history man had lived on this Earth, unaware of such an amazing truth.  That most people still walk around unaware of this amazing fact.

What we label as science, is in fact, the truth.  What is so terrifying about that statement is that we know so little.  The big secret is that we have no idea why we are here, or what is going on.  For most of human history we have made measurements and observations of the world around us – only to discover as time went on that those observations were biased because we are not the focal point – we are not the scientist looking through the telescope – we are not outside the Petri dish.  We are part of the experiment – no matter how much we’d rather play observer. And for all the thousands of years humans have walked on this planet – the millions of minds that have had the capacity to think – we’ve hardly scratched the surface. We have had to fill the void of knowledge with an endless array of stories and myths and faiths, because a believable lie provides more comfort than the fear of the unknown.

But the unknown is a curious thing.  There is room to ponder…  And while deep reflection on complex thoughts might hurt the brain at first, that’s just the warming up of brain cells yet untouched.  There are wonderous things to contemplate.

How small or large can things be? I say infinitely.  At one point it was Atoms – then we found Proton and Neutrons.  Then “whoops” there are some quarks inside of there.  Now scientists postulate a concept called “String Theory” that takes us even smaller.  Wouldn’t it make more sense that you could go infinitely small and infinitely large – or perhaps even better, it loops at some point. Think about it.

Everything Repeats. I would argue that one’s capacity to notice variety is directly related to one’s scale in relation to the object. So things on my scale – people, dogs, buildings, trees – I can tell the difference between them.  Looking at the tree from afar I might think all the leaves are the same.  Upon closer observation I would find they are all unique – but obviously the plant cells are the same.  Under the microscope… no.  If this is the case – and the plant cells replicate with variation, and humans replicate with variation – and clearly planets replicate with variation – at what point would this replication with variation stop?  Why would it suddenly stop?  Would it not make as much sense to have multiple universes with variation?  Or multiple microscopic elements smaller than a quark with variation? Attempts to find a solid state – a final solution provide no real answers.  So you bring me to the big bang…. big deal – I’ll just ask you what was going on shortly before it.

The fact is, we’ll never know everything – but we live in a time where we know far more than ever before – and the more minds focused on answering bigger questions – the better. Never forget this is actually occurring – and that we don’t know why. Religion is a simple way out, but what fun is that? Science isn’t the job of scientists – it’s the truth about the nature of reality – and every intelligent person should have an interest in that. Last year for my birthday I purchased a gyroscope after watching a lecture regarding some of their unique properties.  The questions that bizarre device has provided me have been endless – but so has the fun in discovery. While friends that stopped by probably thought I was crazy – some things are too interesting to just let the “scientists” play with them.

Don’t just memorize the facts – contemplate the unknowns. Wonder why things are they way they appear – find out if your observations are even correct in the first place. When was the last time you did some science? Life is more fun when you realize it’s happening.

Be curious.

This week Apple announced their highly anticipated iPad – a revolutionary new device that creates an entirely new category someplace between the laptop and smart-phone. While the media and pundits may have been more focused on the name – my mind has been on fire the past three days thinking of nothing but the potential. I have never been more convinced that The Interactive Dept. and it’s partners of creative designers and developers – as well as photographers, videographers and writers, have a long and exciting career ahead of them. I have also never been more convinced that now is the time to work for yourself or with a small collective of creative types – because the publishing revolution has begun!

The title of this blog post comes from the title of a book by Bill Gates, written in 1995. I was a senior in high school at the time – and Bill Gates was the richest man in the world. It seemed unlikely that a dork such as this would be the richest man in the world, so a dork such as I was quite fascinated, and ran out to purchase this book the moment it hit the shelves. In it, Bill Gates explained his vision of the content revolution – of an internet that everyone participated in – video cameras and interactive touch-screens allowing for instant access to knowledge from anywhere and instantly.

“For more than 500 years, the bulk of human knowledge and information has been stored as paper documents. On the information highway, rich electronic documents will be able to do things no piece of paper can. The highway’s powerful database technology will allow them to be indexed and retrieved using interactive exploration. It will be extremely cheap and easy to distribute them. In short, these new digital documents will replace many printed paper ones because they will be able to help us in new ways.”

While a statement like this seems trite today – one has to remember that 15 years ago, the declaration that paper documents would be replaced was almost ridiculous.  Let’s recap technology for just a second:

1995 I use my parents IBM Aptiva Desktop with a 386processor, a 4800-baud modem and a dot-matrix printer and I go online for the first time with 5-hours of overpriced internet via AOL.
1996 I go to college and get a Gateway Desktop with a ginormous monitor, a bubble-jet color printer and a T-1 line
1997 I buy my first scanner – a giant flat-bed that takes up my whole desk.
1998 I buy my first digital camera.  Under 3-megapixel and a battery life of about 5 minutes it seemed.
2000 I purchase my first cell phone that just makes calls, sometimes…
2002 I get my first laptop – where I can take my computer with me. A giant, heavy Dell.
2007 I get my first smart-phone, the iPhone.
2008 I replace my broken iPhone with a new iPhone.

When Bill Gates declared I wouldn’t need paper anymore – if I had wanted to bring a map with directions on a drive, I had to go down to the basement of my house, fire up the Aptiva – connect via the phone line to Poughkeepsie ($0.35/minute at the time) – wait for Webcrawler to load up – find a mapping service via the search engine – and then try to print the map on my crappy dot-matrix printer. Today I would simply turn on my iPhone, pull up the map, and have it find me or any other location in the world and easily map the route. No need to print it either, as I can simply bookmark it and take it with me.  I haven’t had a printer setup in my apartment in 5 years. Bill was correct.

Along the way Bill obviously got side-tracked, because Microsoft certainly hasn’t been on the cutting edge of this revolution.  I like to think Bill’s philanthropic desires overshadowed his otherwise prophetic business mind – but regardless, it has been Apple that has carried the torch of this great evolution in information to our current moment.

It was Apple that changed the music industry forever – by allowing me to put every song I could have ever wanted to hear in a device I can carry along anywhere.  While Sony Executives were bragging about the endless bounds of their CD-Discman’s Skip-Protection capacity (”We’re up to two whole minutes of shaking!“) – Apple realized folks might wish to carry more than a single CD’s worth of music with them.  Oh – and while we’re at it – why not create a marketplace that makes the purchasing of music a gazillion times easier. I can now listen to music from bands who have never stepped into a corporate recording studio, whom I have never seen live.  The transaction, if any, can be conducted between us.

It was Apple that changed the telephone forever – by creating an entirely new interface and experience with a phone that for the first-time ever made having a cell phone truly useful. I could now listen (or not) to voice messages in the order I wanted to, with actual useful controls that didn’t require me to remember bizarre number combinations.  They created a phone that could be used for all the things you never imagined a phone could be used for.  And again they created a marketplace where I could easily purchase or download thousands and thousands of applications to make my life easier or more fun.

With the iPad – I truly believe Apple has created a device that will change the way we interact with tons of things we take for granted today – especially all those documents that still require paper.  For example, I still bring a notepad and pen into meetings. I don’t like the sound of typing or looking at my screen when I’m trying to discuss a project with my client so the laptop doesn’t work for me.  I would however take digital notes, or even record the audio of the meeting with a device like the iPad.   It would result in less scraps of paper around the office – I could immediately sync it with the clients files – and the ability to pull up samples of work or other websites right there in the meeting would be huge.

At home – I can finally see myself using an eReader.

I’m sorry Kindle fans, but when I look at one compared to the iPad, I think “how 90s.” I’m psyched that Amazon has had so much success, but the market for a solid eReader was WIDE-OPEN, and I think Apple has just taken over. Not only does the color screen allow for supplementary photography, video and audio – but once again they have created a solid marketplace for purchasing and downloading books from the comfort of your bed – and I’m particularly interested to see what happens to the publishing industry, as lessons from the music industry are learned, and new under-discovered writing talents begin creating their own marketplaces for selling their writings directly to the public. There is no art-form that requires so little to produce, but so much to share, as writing – and a solid eReader has been the last hurdle for unleashing the full potential of the publishing revolution.

Imagine students no longer having to lug around text-books. Think of a world where you can search for thoughts or ideas through endless epochs of written word, find something of interest, and begin reading it in its entirety – all while sitting on the train during the morning commute. Imagine a world where our need for paper is diminished, and our forests flourish.

The way scientists perform research, students study, academics write papers or even simply how a child writes a book report is going to change gradually but profoundly. Upon completion of a book, rather then a written page of “other books by the author” – those will be links – and those links will have links – and a new type of dewey-decimal system will develop of its own design based on our informational needs as knowledge is reorganized and rediscovered.

I look forward to playing video games in my hands – watching movies from my bed – and showing large and gorgeous photos and home movies to my parents.  I look forward to the next round of devices that will expand upon what Apple delivers.  I anticipate shared touch-screen applications in all sorts of places and locations we don’t experience them now. I look forward to seeing the ways we replace old technologies and concepts with touch-screen applications.

In this new world, a screen on the wall could be my light-switch, my music remote, my phone, my weather, my recipe, my security, my door bell or my art work. Apple has made the first step, with an earnest attempt to remove the keyboard and mouse. How will we develop products and interfaces that have no bounds?  That first digital camera I bought in 1998 looked like it still had film inside of it. They wanted it to feel like a camera still.  Now most digital cameras are slim and have redefined how a camera should look and work.  With the iPhone – the camera took on a whole new shape.  So many other devices still cling to their industrial heritage – but as the iPad begins to acquire their tasks, new applications and interfaces will be devised to create efficiencies that were impossible in a physical world.

Steve Jobs said in his speech this week that there will be a new gold-rush.  While I agree that there will be plenty to be made producing applications and tools for these devices – I disagree with the terminology of a Gold Rush.  Yes, there will be some wave of success at first – but this isn’t some new patch of territory that is going to be quickly discovered, claimed and cleared.  Rather – this is a new economic era.  For thousands of years, man has traded goods and services.  These primarily have been tactile items – foods, clothes, tools, etc.  Over time, things like education and knowledge became prized.  The arts flourished, and someone could be paid for their creativity.  However, there could only be so many books published, so many painting painted, so many students taught.  With the publishing revolution – that changes.  Suddenly there is an endless supply of a whole new world of products never before imagined.  I can design and build a game of my own imagination – produce it myself – sell it on the App Store – and make a full-time living having never left my home or created anything tactile.  The more our money chases virtual products of the imagination – the quicker our economy will have to evolve.

The solution to unemployment isn’t getting the old jobs back – it’s awakening to the new economy.  It’s acknowledging the publishing revolution has begun.  It’s educating the next generation of children not simply how to memorize, but to learn. I was lucky that Bill showed me the Road Ahead when I was 17. It shaped my path through college, it gave me focus in my 20s as I bounced from various start-ups.  It gave me the confidence to start The Interactive Dept – and it fills me with overwhelming excitement when I see a product that will transform the way we communicate and share ideas.

I have seen the road ahead – and it is beyond exciting.

As someone who spends a good deal of his time in front of a computer (that coincidentally is next to another smaller computer) I spend a lot of my time online.  While there are a whole variety of websites I might use on a semi-regular basis to manage my life, inspire my imagination, or simply pass the time while I’m waiting for a .zip file to download – there are a handful of sites that have become so valuable to me, that I can’t imagine going through a single day without them.  Similar to the way I ponder how anyone managed to find a particular location before GPS or at the very least MapQuest – I’m beginning to forget how on Earth I accomplished any tasks before I started using these website.

LogMeIn
www.logmein.com
cost: FREE

In a perfect world I would have one computer in a mystical realm of the internet, and at home and at work and everywhere in between, I would just have monitors and keyboards that could connect to my computer – and so all my files and applications would be available from any location, any time I needed them.  While that world is rapidly approaching – in our current moment I would often find myself getting home only to discover I had forgotten a file I needed back at the studio.  I have struggled with .Mac accounts, MobileMe accounts, and iDisk accounts – and nines times out of ten the file I needed was never where I needed it.

With LogMeIn I simply register my various computers (currently three of them) with my account – and once logged in, I can control the desktop of any of those machines through the web browser.  I close down applications I may have left running – I can post or email files that are only on one machine – I can even use software that I only have a single license for.  I’ve converted video files, for example, using my Mac Pro in the studio, from a web browser on my MacBook at home.

There is also a paid version of the website that has more features – like being able to drag files onto the browser to place on another machine – or creating a virtual network between all your machines online.  However – I’ve been fine with the free version.

FunctionFox – TimeFox
www.functionfox.com
cost: $35/month

Time is money as they say.  Never is that expression more true than when you run your own services business such as myself. While we typically quote a flat price for larger projects such as websites or branding packages – much of our time is actually spent making smaller updates to websites and applications we’ve created for clients in the past.

On any given day I might do work for 6 or 7 different clients.  Some of these might be multi-hour tasks, while others might take as little as 10 minutes.  However – over the course of a month those smaller tasks add up – and if you’re not counting them, you’ve just lost a good deal of revenue.

There are a lot of Time Tracking applications and websites out there and I’ve used a variety of them over the years.  But I haven’t found anything that works for my needs like Timefox.  It is purposely under-designed and under-featured, to handle the one thing I need it to do – record my time for various projects from numerous clients. It is then super easy to generate a variety of reports, so I can quickly determine what I need to invoice each of my clients – or how we are doing on a particular project based on initial estimates, and what time we’ve put in to date.

Plus – about a year ago my colleague Jessica and I were contacted by the CEO of the company, Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms because she was going to be in Portland and wanted to take a few of the long-time customers out to breakfast at The Heathman.  Now I’ve spent a lot of money on a lot of services over the years – and never received so much as a thank you – let alone a complimentary breakfast and some great conversation.  Take a tip from a Canadian company – that simple breakfast not only made me a customer for life – but also a part-time sales rep, as I now recommend FunctionFox even more than I did before.

Mint
www.mint.com
cost: FREE

While I can’t say I’ve been the best accountant for my ever growing small-business (and as of 2010 have handed most of those reigns over to a spectacular new CPA) I have always been good about keeping track of every expense and income the business made, using Quickbooks.  It is a pain sometimes to muscle my way through it, but since the very beginning I have known exactly what my business made and where that money went – and that knowledge was vital.

When it came to my personal life, however – that was another story.  The closest thing I had to records was my monthly statement from my bank – and when I went paperless a year ago – I all but lost any record of where my money was going.  I was like the federal government – only without the capacity to print more money. That’s where Mint.com stepped in.

Mint is like a very slimmed down version of Quickbooks (and as of late last year, is owned by the same company).  You attach your various personal checking and savings accounts, any credits cards or investments, car payments, etc. – and Mint.com does most of the rest.  I was able to quickly create a monthly budget by entering in the various recurring bills (rent, cell phone, netflix, etc.).  When those transactions occur – Mint.com updates my monthly budget so I know how much I’ve spent in the various areas of my life.  Once you’ve identified what type of an expense each transaction is (and it actually does a pretty good job guessing) – the next time you go back to that vendor, it fills in that information for you.

Best of all, Mint.com is free!

So now I can very easily determine how much I’ve spent on food, or utilities, or even beer.  It’s a lot easier to understand what you’ve been doing (or at least spending your money on) when your personal life is broken into a pie chart.  Other tools on the site help you to create strategies for working off debt, building a saving and more.

Smashing Magazine
www.smashingmagazine.com
cost: FREE

There are a lot of great websites out there to gain inspiration from in my field.  I’m lucky to be a part of an industry that is rapidly changing at every moment and in almost every facet.  New trends form in web design almost every day – and the trap of falling into your same style or layouts is always present. That’s why I start out almost every day checking out Smashing Magazine.

Not only does their Twitter feed drag me to their site several times a day – but anytime I find myself hung-up on a technique, or trying to find a simple design solution for an eNewsletter or campaign site – their lists of “Best Of”s always have something that solves my dilemma.  And no – I’m not just saying this because they featured our website for Aviation Gin on a blog post about websites for the alcohol beverage industry.

Some of my favorite posts have been:

25 Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity

50 Fresh Portfolio Sites For Your Inspiration

Web Design Trends for 2009

Expecting Rain
www.expectingrain.com
cost: FREE

This is probably the site I go to every day that would be the least useful to anyone else.  That is unless they happen to be a fanatical Bob Dylan fan.  Expecting Rain takes its name from a line in Dylan’s classic “Desolation Row” (Everybody is making love. Or else expecting rain.) The site is a collection of all Bob Dylan news stories and ramblings from across the internets.  On any given day, 15-20 links will appear, ranging from blog posts on obscure bootlegs to concert reviews from German press outlets.  It never ceases to amaze me that one man could have so much written about him on a daily basis – but apparently the world of Bob Dylan never stops.

The site also posts links to stories about Dylan collaborators, cover songs and great YouTube clips (which are usually removed from YouTube a few days later at the request of Columbia Records).  Certainly not for the casual fan – but for those with a bit of a Bob Dylan obsession – this site is a life saver.