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December 10, 2010

The Beginning of the End of 2010

It's Thursday night during a tough week in early December. The rainy winter has begun, but it's nowhere near as cold as it's been in Brooklyn or London. I haven't sat and written much since March, but it's been an amazing 2010.

Beginning the year with our time in India, and then moving our life to the Bay Area was a huge step. I have struggled with choosing the morning or doing improv Sunday Sessions as much as I committed to back in February, but the big victory in my life is that 2010 was the year that I actually chose a project.

Thanks to the ever lovely and powerful Christie George, a summer MBA intern and his amazing cousin, we finally moved LoudSauce from an idea that I talk about to an actual crowdfunded ad platform that funded a national TV ad and real posters on real bus shelters in San Francisco.

I've been told great advice for years about what it takes to actual create what you envision. But 2010 was the year that I finally chose to follow the advice of people like my friend Huned and the wise young startup leader Eric Ries: just build the closest thing to what you envision. Even fake parts of it if you have to. Go through the full cycle. Then listen, learn, adapt and repeat.

So as I look forward to the holidays, in a time where there is a lot of depression and transition in the air and in the weather, I feel privileged to be able to slow down with my parents, my brother and sister, and our broader family. I'm particularly looking forward to remembering the spirit of Christmas Eve and Jeko, and reconnecting with the 2009 Club to look forward into the always evolving next chapter.

Now off to sleep and back to work.

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March 1, 2010

A few weeks in, the daily choice

This morning begins the month of March, the third month of 2010 and the fourth week of being in the Bay Area. As usual, after a great first week of "choosing the morning," the second week was at about 50% follow through, and then the third (last week) I didn't even do any stretching, sit ups or push ups. There's always part of me that judges myself, and feels bad about it, like there's something wrong. The reality is that each night and morning are another new fresh opportunity.

So after a good weekend that included our first gathering of friends in our new home (with the couch moved into our main room), an amazing mixed party of happy people and great music and dancing with thePeople, and the first good quality Sunday Session, last night around 10:30 I decided to wake up at 6:30 this morning, and begin this week as I wanted to begin it.

Now, around 7:15, with a cup of tea and no internet connection, I'm thinking clearly about the weeks ahead. With a combination of ongoing conversations and interviews exploring digital opportunities for sustainability leadership, the week to complete our LoudSauce finalist pitch for next week's WeMedia conference, and the everpresent cost and benefit of daily social activities, I look forward to a week of productive creativity and focused conversation.

With thoughts of my sister's family in Chile, those in Haiti and New Orleans, and the rest of whose time is coming soon, I begin the work of communicating why LoudSauce is an important new social venture that transform advertising into a medium for good.

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February 8, 2010

"Choosing the Morning" in San Francisco

I woke up this morning at 6am to the sound of my Nokia N900 alarm, still searching for a sim card in this new old American land. While we were spending the last month in India between our most recent life in London and our new life in the Bay Area, we spent a week in a small coastal spot in the state of Kernataka called Gokarna.

While the rest of our month was filled with Mumbai chaotic excitement, motorcycles through Hampi boulders and temples, and family time in Kerala, our week in Gokarna was kind of like an extended New Years Day of resolutions and visions for 2010. We also spent time over four days practicing a morning ritual that will become a key part of our 2010 back in the United States.

When I reflected on the last few phases of my adult life since college, I saw that while I have been someone with strong vision and ideas for the future, my 7 years in Brooklyn and 3 years in London haven't seen much actual progress on putting finishing polish on any of ideas or creative work.

Especially during in my time at R/GA in London, I gave most of my waking energy to work and projects with clients and colleagues on the global Nokia Account. I don't regret the time I dedicated toward promoting the online & mobile launch event Rihanna Live for example, but at times it felt like I misplaced part of my soul at home.

There are words, music and images that I have been gathering on my journey over the last 10 years, stories that I feel compelled to share, applications that I want to create. And instead of pretending that I will work on these projects when I get home at night, with my head full of the inevitably chaotic day, I have decided that I will be keeping the clearest part of the day for myself and my priorities. I will be "choosing the morning."

So good morning to a great 2010 here in the Bay Area. Good afternoon to folks in London and good evening to those out in Mumbai and Singapore. I look forward to sharing some of these words and images and stories in the coming days and weeks and months. Now onto sit ups and push ups before breakfast.

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August 13, 2008

Home Grown Food for hire - I want this

From Springwise:

Your Backyard Farmer requires just a plot of land big enough to feed the mouths involved—10 by 10 square feet is about the minimum for an individual or a family of two—along with six hours of direct sunlight a day and an outdoor water source. In exchange, the farming team will provide clients with an organic vegetable farm right outside their door, customized to their family's size and dining choices.

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March 8, 2008

Testosterone in Four Acts

About one day a week, I spend my morning and evening bike commute to a from the office listening to one of the best all time radio shows, This American Life. If you haven't heard it, and are willing to put on during a Saturday or Sunday morning while doing laundry or cleaning up around the house, then subscribe to the podcast.

This past week, there was one that I thought deserved special mention, partly because I have a "sexuality" category on this blog but very little content to speak of.

From thislife.org:

Stories of people getting more testosterone and coming to regret it. And of people losing it and coming to appreciate life without it. The pros and cons of the hormone of desire.

Check out This American Life's "Testosterone"

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments ()