I will be on a much needed vacation after a vicious burn out cycle the last month. It reminds me how important it is to take a long break every year or else you just hit a emotional and physical wall of terribleness. Especially when working 24/7 on multiple projects. I have a box of Christmas presents I still haven’t sent out after 10 months because every moment of downtime I’m trying to recover from uptime (I’m going to try to work that into a web hosting joke one day).

Anyway, i’ll be on an island (St. Maartin) with no internet for 10 days!

While I’m gone please take the time to enjoy the following hilarious jokes: Best Chuck Norris Jokes, Top 50 Chuck Norris Facts, And more CN jokes…, and 100 funniest jokes of all time!

What a crazy expierience! First I thought it was just the washer being unbalanced, but then it kept getting louder and the house was just shaking like crazy! A few plastic things fell down but no damage that I could see, going to check further in a second.

I’m very glad it wasn’t an explosion, as at first thought it might be. I didn’t know they had earthquakes in this area though. More at CNN too, it was a 5.8 about 88 miles away.

I love Google, here are some interesting stats they give me on my behavior with their searches and web behavior.

My hourly search activity over all of last year:

As you can clearly see I’m not someone who is often up at 6am in the morning ready to go. In fact most of my searches from 5am to 8am are probably because I stayed up the entire night, or I’m in a different time zone :).

So which days am I most active in searching?

I wouldn’t have guessed it but my most active day is Wednesday, I have no idea why.

And what about monthly?

This is for 2010, I was on vacation in February so I’m impressed that I was able to still do so much searching. I’m guessing the spikes are when I am learning new stuff, or trying to figure something out. For example Dec spiked as I was figuring out how to use Google App Engine, some python, and also learning about my new home in DC. And the downward spike in March is because we had some major issues at work, and I was spending all of my time responding to things.

Pretty cool stuff, I wish Google would do a lot more here but they probably don’t want to scare everyone :).

So I got to Frankfurt Germany yesterday and made it to Europa Park by about 2pm. Yes, the work conference is at a theme park. And of course with it being Sunday there was no food easily accessible. So being super tired and jet lagged I crashed with no food. I slept around 10 hours and read for a while before departing for German breakfast…

So why do I love Germany so much? German breakfast is fucking awesome. And what is even more awesome, they literally were serving the same breakfast rolls I had when I was in high school on a trip to Berlin and my host mom served breakfast (which I love (they are so good)). Here is what I ate for breakfast:

Coffee (rare for me but jet lag)
1 Breakfast Roll
1 Wheat Breakfast Roll
1 Whole Wheat or something slice of German Bread
1 Piece Bacon
1 Piece Wurst
1 Piece Random Pig Something
1 Egg
1 Random thinly sliced pig something.
1 Another random thinly sliced pig something (also delicious)
1 piece Swiss cheese.
1 glob of 3 fruit jam.
1 glob of real butter.
2 pieces of Bree cheese.
Apricot Yogurt
Raisins
Fruit Salad that had MANGOs!!!!
And, 1 of the most delicious cinnamon bread hunks I’ve ever had.

I can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow, because there is even more to try.

So after I ate this awesome breakfast I accidentally invaded Poland, I just couldn’t help it, I had so much energy and I just accidentally took it over. Oh well. If anything the Versailles treaty should have limited the awesomeness of the German breakfast, no way would WW2 have started.

And later I ran 15 miles, longest yet! Awesome trails through this area and got to see a lot of the surrounding country side. And made it to some small town that had a cool church.

This chocolate was really good, I couldn’t turn it down. Someone is right, salty + sweet is good.

Oh and check out this cartoon, funniest thing I’ve seen this year.

Wow what a jam packed January! Work has been insanely busy and slowly our new business project is coming together. Just have to keep mumbling to myself that slow and steady wins the race :).

This last weekend I went to NY and had a blast with friends, although I’m feeling the effects as I spent the last 24 hours getting over a cold. I’m hoping to go again in the next few months and actually see a play and the insides of a few museums. Somehow managed to run 10 miles through central park which was great! I can’t wait to run outside again once spring comes!

Upcoming Travel
February – SuperConf in Miami
March – SXSW in Austin and WHD in Germany + Short Vacation
April – Paga Ultimate Tournament Italy + Short Vacation
May – Fayetteville for Jasmine’s Graduation.

Possibles
June – WHD Conf in Thailand
August – San Fran WordCamp and Fayetteville for a wedding.
November – PubCon Vegas
October – Octoberfest maybe?

So I decided to move to Washington DC and after a 3 day car ride that seemed to last forever I have arrived! Just needed a change up from Denver, plus I have a lot of friends here, and I obviously like to move around :).

More updates to follow, work has been super busy especially with a new startup we have been working on for a year that is beta launching in February 2011! Really excited!

I had a random thought today, I would like my tomb stone to read “Mildly Competent”.

I don’t often post book recommendations on the blog, in fact I’ve only written two full blog posts on books this year, the rest just get a small blurb on the big list. So keep that in mind as the title of this book I’m about to recommend should scare you away, the title is Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French.

So the title sounds a bit retarded but the book is absolutely amazing! I’ve visited France three or four times over the last couple years and I’ve been trying to learn more about french culture and history and this book is the answer, it is as if someone forced a book on french history, french politics, and french business outlook to have menage a trois and this book is the baby. The book is well written, well researched, and well laid out.

And a quick example, I’ve been involved with computers for a long time and I’ve never heard of the Minitel yet after a chapter of reading about it in this book I was stunned. This was basically a very successful precursor to the internet that launched in 1982, a mere year after I was born. This little networked device could do online dating, message boards, buy airline or train tickets, order stuff, porn, etc. Crazy that I’ve never heard of it.

So go buy this book if you want to learn how France works. It is great to learn more about another democracy that continually chooses a different path then the USA. And hopefully we can pull some ways to change our system out of the mistakes they have made, and the things they are doing very well.

And…

The other book I strongly recommended this year is War (Click Here to learn more about it). A documentary is also going to come out about the author and the soldiers he wrote about.

I just finished watching The Pacific and it was fantastic. It basically follows a bunch of marines over the Pacific campaign against Japan. Highly recommended and I learned two things for certain:

1. I am so glad I didn’t have to fight in the Pacific campaign.

2. I hope I never have to fight against the Japanese or anyone in a Pacific campaign or anything in southest Asia.

Great mini series, please go watch it if you love history. Sad/interesting ending as it goes over all the guys who served and where they ended up.

The last few months have been crazy busy but I managed to find time to go camping the last two weekends.

I’m not sure where we camped last weekend but it was next to a stream and pretty, I spent most of the day building a dam to try to show up the beavers next door. And the next day we climbed Grays and Torres (two 14,000 foot mountains). Which only reinforced my belief that air at sea level deserves an award. And I also got to setup my new tent for the first time, super comfortable even for a tall person.

And this weekend Joel, Laura, and I drove up to Crested Butte for a one day hat tournament. Crested Butte and surrounding area is the most beautiful I’ve seen in Colorado and so much nicer then Frisco/Breck/Etc. I couldn’t play the tournament as my ankle is still swollen but I did go for a nice 14 mile run/hike. And the next day we did another short hike, relaxed, and hung out with Chappe and Liz in Aspen at their new place (which is awesome). Great weekend and had a great time!

And I spent tonight setting up my new desk, it moves up and down so I can work standing up and sitting down. Pretty excited as it is a lot easier for me to get things done when I’m standing up.

Be sure to read this great article! Here is an excerpt:

Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number.

It’s a great article and the rest gets even better!

Here is my page on the 100 Personal Item’s Challenge and my progress. I’ll be curious to even see how much stuff I have!

Still super busy so can’t post much but I highly recommend this article on how to grow rich using a charter city idea. Very cool idea built on it’s success in history.

Well today is the World Cup final and hopefully tomorrow I’m going on a hike/drive out to Cape Point and then flying to Ireland on Tuesday and then Denver a few days later. The games have been amazing and Cape Town very friendly. South Africa has a lot of possibilities and an amazing population, but also a lot of challenges, hopefully they are able to overcome them! I’ll be rooting for them!

I went surfing for the first time last week which was awesome, it was way easier then snow boarding and caught my first wave in the first 2.5 hours (good instructor too). I fell on the other 50 waves but falling is almost as fun when the bottom is sandy. The waves picked up the second half of the day and after getting hammered a few times and after my feet went numb I switched to a boogie board. Fun day and going to try to spend an entire week learning to surf at some point soon (some place with warmer water). They had a very nice shark warning flag system too, really makes you feel safe… Also, wet suits are awesome and make you feel like a ninja.

Yesterday we went to the Cape Town aquarium which was awesome, I love aquariums. Then ate all you can eat sushi with some friends and watched the third place game. Good night!

And, I’m so glad Uruguay lost again, Suarez tried his best to drive and cheat and ruin the spirit of the game further against the German, I hope Karma’s cold grip haunts him the rest of his life.

I’m not really sure what independent art means? Isn’t all art independent or has it been taken over? But I do love this site and their work, check out Resist Today, it features the work of a small group of visual artist who sell prints, wallets, bags, shirts, pillows, etc. Just awesome awesome designs, here are a few:

Check out their products at Resist Today, I wish them luck!