Its not a lot of money. $12. It’s 2 cups of coffee or a few rides on the subway. It’s less than a pizza. But $12 can really change your life. It can buy you a notebook and a pencil. While those two items may not seem like the most exciting thing in the world it can in fact make quite the difference.

One day while cruising through Barns and Nobel the display for Moleskin notebooks caught my eye. I stood in front of it for a very long time admiring the very simple design and colorful labels. And really found it interesting on how many different kinds of notebooks there even were. So I picked up the pocket square version and a pack of pencils and went about my day.

The walk home I even started thinking about how I was going to use my new notebook. Even thinking I probably won’t. It will sit in my bag unused, neglected, until the day when I can’t find my iPhone cable, I’ll stumble into the pocket I left it in and throw it out. But I talked myself into actually using it, and I am very happy I did.

We all at some point or another have to take notes. Be at school or in the board room we all have to jot things down. Now most of us bring out the laptop or smart phone to take down the name of that restaurant, or jot down your weekly tasks. There are countless apps upon apps that allow you to catalog organize and file away all your notes. I myself am a HUGE fan of Evernote apps. They are the staple of everything in my life and I love them for it. I have files and folders for everything from ideas, to work notes, to interesting web sites and news stories. I am a firm believer in the digital world and spend 90% of my day looking at one screen or another. However there is still something to be said for the written word.

Memory

When you write things down it registers differently than when you type. I have really awful handwriting being a long time nerd I’ve always typed out everything. So when I do write I am much slower so to make it more legible. This slower pace make more of an imprint in my memory. Looking back at any of these pages I can tell you where I was when I wrote it and what I was doing. I can’t say the same for my digital notebook. Sort of a mini time capsule that preserves moments.

Discovery

Like I said before I have folders upon folders in my Evernote. When I’m looking for a specific thing I can pull it up at a moments notice on one of 5 devices. And thats great for specific things. But when I open my notebook there’s a sort of mystery to it. You stumble upon information as you flip though the pages and rediscover things you wrote. It’s as if your past self is trying to tell the present you something.

Focus

When you sit in front of a computer there are dozens of things going on at the same time in the background. Your music is playing, your email is beeping, some software is telling you it needs updating, and there’s this one icon on the bottom of the screen thats just bouncing up and down and you can’t figure out why. Your computer is your virtual portal to the world and there’s a lot of information constantly trying to get in which makes focusing on any one thing difficult. Not so much with a notebook. But if they ever did come out with a paper notebook that could tweet I’d probably buy one.

History

All of my notes are in the cloud tied to an account that can in a very few clicks be erased forever. Most of our lives are just a few hard drive failures from leaving nothing behind. We don’t write in caves anymore and people hundred of years from now aren’t going to pull up our email accounts to see what we were like. Its nice to have a physical object in our digital lives.

So the next time your at a office supply store, or book store. Pick up a notebook and write in it from time to time. Even if its just your doodles and a list of things to do and I assure you it will be money well spent.

I just got home from The Natural History Museum and saw a planetarium movie Journey to the Stars and now my brain hurts. Outer space is one of those things that if you really start to think you could have a complete mental break down trying to comprehend how big the universe is and how small we really are.

So we are a speck. A very tiny anomaly that just happened to be lucky enough to have the perfect storm of right place right time to create life.The universe is randomly formed and will randomly unravel. That’s right! the Sun has a time limit. Granted its a few billion years away. But the sun will consume earth and this planet we call home one day will not exist. Its not even a matter of “if” its a matter of “when”.

Now the mind melting part of all of this is how big space is. This year scientist found Kepler-22b which could potently be Earth 2. Now given the information I just gave you “that our planet is going to be one day destroyed by the sun” you might be thinking awesome well we found an Earth 2 we’re cool we can just go there one day. Perhaps but Kepler-22b is 600 lightyears away. Or 3,527,099,886,000,000 Miles away. 3 Quadrillion Miles I didn’t even know that was a real number!

I can go on and on about the thousand of questions I have and I can assure you I’m going to go download a few books right now about the universe. But I will probably end up sounding like a lunatic as I don’t even have the vocabulary for the amount of wonder that is currently running through my body.

Why do we spend so much time fighting over land, resources, or parking spots when there is an infinite amount of room off this planet? There are hundred of billions of galaxies out there but we don’t have anyway to get to them. And this year we shut down our space exploration program. WHY! We only a few thousand years ago started exploring this planet and that sense of exploration is not only exciting but leads to new life, new technologies and helps secure our future as a species.

The universe is unpredictable and it won’t be us that have to deal with the impending sun consuming the earth problem but I’d like to leave this life at least knowing that someone somewhere it taking a step toward making the USS Enterprise a real ship as space really is the final frontier.

I have about 5 other posts that are works in progress but something that has taken a front row seat in my brain theater has been the idea of change. It’s inevitable this we all know as a core life lesson that everything changes and in the business mind set you hear constantly that you have to move with change or be left behind. An idea that I totally agree with. Change is extremely important as it brings new or improved to the table. (Note that I put or in the middle there because people that say new AND improved drive me nuts.) But how far are you willing to go for change?

When I was a teenager I was very ( for the lack of a better term ) Punk Rock. I had the baggy ripped jeans, I went to metal shows, I skipped gym and hung out in the back with the kids who smoked cigarettes and was into art. Pretty much the definition of every teen movies alternative best friend.

Then around 17 I started working at Blockbuster Video. And for those who probably will never see the inside of a Blockbuster the uniform was a blue polo shirt, kaki pants and you had to wear your shirt tucked in and have a belt that didn’t have chains or metal studs in it. All things that were the exact opposite of what was in my wardrobe. But I loved the job. Having a place where I got to go get paid to talk to people about movies and score free rentals was awesome and at the time it was the best job I had. I really wanted to fit in there so I went to the mall and skipped the Hot Topic and went to Abercrombie and American Eagle and bought a whole new wardrobe of beige and other neutral colors. And I did everything I could to be the model Blockbuster Employee.

Customers loved me. I had a few regulars that would only come in to the store on days I was working because I knew what they would like and what they should skip. I became friends with the managers and even started hitting the gym that was part of the plaza where the store was. I felt good and time went on I started to hang out less with the kids behind the school I started wearing kaki pants on days I didn’t have to work, I began getting involved with school and working on what I thought was growing up.

Then before I left for college I stopped and took a look at how much a year had changed me. I wore button down shirts I was the skinniest I have ever been, all my pants cost more than I paid for my first car and I tossed in the adidas sneakers for dress shoes. When I looked in the mirror I felt like I was an adult but I didn’t feel like me.

There was a lot of stuff that I used to do that I missed doing. I wasn’t playing guitar as much. I had pretty much stopped drawing ( though I wasn’t very good I used to enjoy art. ) I missed hanging out in the coffee shops with my old friends talking about absolutely nothing for hours on end. I missed a lot of the old me. And suddenly the person that I saw wasn’t me but a shell that just looked like me. And that freaked me out.

I really worried that this path towards being a grown up meant that I was going to have to erase parts of myself that maybe I didn’t want to. So on my 18th birthday I walked into the closest tattoo parlor and got a wildly animated character tattooed on my back. Hours later I emerged bruised, bleeding and wrapped in cellophane. but I felt a little better. I felt like well at least if I do grow up and loose touch with parts of myself I would at least have this one permeant reminder that I once used to be wild. That I once was a creative person, and that I once had things and ideals that I really believed in.

Now after that I went to film school and found more like mined people and the fear of change went away. And for years I never really stressed about it. But I find myself in a similar mind set now being a part of the corporate world.

The longer I’m in the corporate world I feel like I’m watching those parts of creative process that I loved slowly fade away in my friends and co-workers. And more and more conversations become about demographics, and market shares. Not about creativity. And I see more and more people make those self compromises to create things that will sell not what they would enjoy and it makes me sad.

Change is inevitable. And as time goes on I imagine that there are a lot of things that will get pushed to the wayside of life. But take a moment and think about what it is that makes you, you. And create something that reminds you of the things you really value. I’m not saying it has to be as drastic as getting a tattoo. But something that reminds you “Hey I used to be this person and do these things.” Because we all need a little reminder from time to time.

Tonight was the season premier of the ultra successful the walking dead. And if youve been reading this page you might have noticed that zombies have a warm place in our heart. I have had many conversations with people about their zombie attack plans. Some are much more thought out than others. And I can openly admit that while I was looking for a bike I did at one point have the thought of well when the outbreak happens at least I have wheels that wont require gas.

But why? Why are we so obsessed with zombies? If you look at the main villains of the horror genre you have quite a list of characters. Vampires, werewolves, demons, serial killers, monsters, and zombies. Im sure there are a few that I am missing but these are the usual suspects.

Now if you take that list and drill it down even further you can group almost all of those in to two groups. Monsters and people. But zombies dont really fit in either group. Yes I know vampires and werewolves were people once to but a werewolf is a wolf when they are attacking and a vampire ( not the teens with out shirts. Im talking Bram Stokers here ) are almost demon like in apearence. So zombies already stand out a little as they sort of have theyre own catorgory. Humans we can stop and monsters dont exist. But what are zombies. Zombies are also generally faceless. Not literally but they are normally shown as a mob. A large group of otherwise strangers. And this I think is where you can really start to dive deep into our relationship With the undead.

If media is a reflection of our time and you can see social trends with in our own pop culture than zombies say quite a bit about us. A zombie is a mindless person that walks around aimlessly and only consumes. They are robotic in nature as they only do one thing ( eat ) and tirelessly work to achieve that goal. Ringing any bells here. We like zombies because technically we are zombies. Im of course not saying this in an insulting way. But think about it. Im sure most of you can tell me exactly what your work weeks are like every week. Or describe your morning routine which is probably the same thing youve done for years. How many Mondays have you walked though barely registering on your consciousness? We all are sort of slaves to routine and they are so embedded in our personalities that its basically muscle memory and we could make it to the office and do ( at least parts of our jobs) with our eyes closed.

Zombies also deal with our mortality and social issues as well. As humans we have a different level of thought that animals dont possess. We are aware of our mortality. And being curious by design we try to understand death. What happens to us when we die? This is the one question that we cant answer and that scares us. Zombies put a sort of softer light on death and allow us to talk about death in the third person. If you brought up say disease or genocide at your office I imagine you would not be to popular around the water cooler. But you say zombie outbreak and people will talk to you for hour.

Then you have the social side of zombies. There are wars being fought, economic crisis, and a technological over dependence all going on today. Zombies are people attacking us in hordes and if you look at any zombie film there is always that shot where hundreds of zombies are walking down the street similar to say an army. And when the outbreak hits critical mass suddenly money and your social network and email no longer matter. Survivors are all on equal ground and we are dropped back to the animal kingdom with survival of the fittest. We like to imagine the zombie outbreak or any sort of end of the world situation as we all wish we could just hit reset and be people. There isnt race, or poverty, or political stances when your face to face with a person trying to eat you.

So the next time you watch a zombie movie or catch the walking dead on tv, ask yourself what would I do if I were in that position. And while the likely hood of the dead coming back to life and attacking is slim. It cant hurt to at least of a plan and a bike.

Happy Halloween.

So your sitting on your couch watching TV. When all of a sudden you think to yourself I’m going to go get some orange juice. Not I need a drink or I’m thirsty. Orange Juice. Such a specific thing that your brain attaches it’s self to. Well your doctor will probably tell you thats your body’s way of telling you your short on vitamin C. Craving milk, low calcium. Meat, low on protein. Your body is pretty complex and knows exactly what it needs and has ways of telling you with out you even knowing your being told.

This year I’ve been interested in bicycles. I like most other kids learned how to ride a bike in my youth. And there was a kid down the street that I used to play with whom we would ride bikes in a circle on his dead end street. But that was really the extent of my cycling life. I grew up, got a car and haven’t even thought about bicycles in 20 years.

Fast forward to now. I live in New York City and no longer have any need for a car as mass transit and taxis are much more manageable and cost effective. And after dealing with parking, and traffic, and maintenance what was once my favorite thing became more of a hassle. So I gave the car to my father as his car was much older and living in the suburbs he uses it much more than I did in the city.

I don’t know why or how but I started noticing more and more bicycles on the streets this year. But I doubt that its because of more people on the road. I researched everything about owning a bike in New York. Traffic laws, bike paths, types of bicycles, ( road, hybrid, mountain ) brands, accessories, gear. I’ve read thousands of web pages and visited dozens of bike shops all around the city. But I couldn’t figure out why I was suddenly compelled to do so.

I justified it as well I should get healthy. My job involves a lot of computer work which isn’t the best for your health so being active would be good. And I could save money on cabs and subways by commuting to work on two wheels. I even started to think big picture that it’s the environmentally friendly thing that I could do so i’m doing my little part to save the planet. All of these reasons though weren’t the real reason why. And that’s Freedom.

When I owned a car my favorite thing to do was just to drive. Not that I had any destination in mind most of the time I wouldn’t even stop the car until I returned home. I would just drive around. And there was something so special about being able to do that. The freedom to go where ever the road takes you. The freedom get inside this quiet cocoon of metal and leather and just go. I always did my best thinking when I drove around and it just made me feel less stressed and more balanced when did it.

My body was telling me not to get a bicycle to get in shape. It was telling me it needed to hit the road again.

If you look at your hobbies they aren’t probably about the thing that your doing. But filling a need that your body is aware of but your mind may not be. Lot’s of people say they want to learn Italian as a language and while it may help on your two week vacation more than likely your not going to be speaking it day to day. But the language is the window into other things. The romance, the art, the lifestyle these are all things that are associated with. It’s also communication and communication leads to connection. So perhaps on some deeper level, you desire the ability to connect and maybe even long for a bit of romance.

Perhaps you knit not because you want to make a sweater, but you long for quiet. Play an instrument because you want attention. Or play video games because you seek adventure.

Whatever it may be the point is that your body is smarter than you. And sometimes you need to stop and listen to what it’s telling you. Because deep down it know what type of person it wants to be and if you listen to it you’ll learn a thing or two about yourself.

I just returned from vacation out in Colorado and had spent the long weekend unplugging from everything. I saw a whole bunch of mountains took hundreds of photos and came to an epiphany. NO ONE CARES!

Now I don’t mean this in a apathetic way but in that what ever you have going on in your life it may seem like the biggest most important thing in the world to you but the reality is that not many other people care. But that’s a good thing!

So I’m sitting in this restaurant overlooking Denver, CO. on their outdoor patio at sunset. And as it got darker more and more lights from the city started to turn on. It was then that I was able to quanitfy the feeling that I had the most of the trip. Small. All the mountains and empty spaces out in the Rockies made me feel small. Here I was in a place where no one knew who I was or what I did for a living. And that made me think about my job and the many hours I’ve spent working, or stressed out trying to make a deadline ultimately for something that 97% of the planet will never know about. The world just doesn’t care about me and that made me feel great!

It’s super easy to get wrapped up in the day to day of your life. We are surrounded by it. Your co-workers all talk about work, your family asks about your day, and your friends all listen to you while you complain. Top that off with social media. Your joke about your boss got quite a few likes on Facebook. Someone retweeted your hashtag and you got another follower now we feel really important.

But all those friends on Facebook and Twitter and Co-workers and Bosses added up are just a fraction of the world. And more than likely that thing your stressed out about really doesn’t matter. Perspective is really hard to get when you’re so immersed in it. Every once and a while go somewhere you’ve never been. Talk to people you normally wouldn’t and do something you normally wouldn’t do.

Break away from the things that you know and put everything back into perspective. not only will it re-ground you but it’s quite the adventure also.

They say that the first step is the hardest. But I am starting to wonder if that is really true. It’s easy to say your going to do something. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had meetings with people all with the common goal of doing a project. Like most things in the creative world these meetings often equate nothing more than some cheap take out and a space to vent about how un-happy the collected group is at their current employment.

While that technically isn’t the first step. ( the first actually create something ) I think both are easy enough to do. Once you have something. An actual product that people can look at. Then what do you do? You want it to grow and you want it to succeed. It is your baby and you want it to survive. But there is a saying “It takes a village to raise a child” What if your going it alone? When creating something from scratch you actually have two jobs. Create the baby, and build the village to support it.

This project started as a way to do the things that we wanted to do. And to do so with out any limitations. Professionally everyone who has contributed to this product has been told the “no” before. And when your trying to do something that you believe in “no” is the worst word on the face of the planet. And there are a lot of other really bad words, like moist. ( just sounds gross doesn’t it? ) So Eurekamatic was to be our place to be the people we wanted to be not the ones we are paid to be.

But its hard to take that hobby and make it your job. When you in fact have something that is already your full time job. Then balance all that out with the whole life aspect, friends, family ect. its really hard to find that time. But when you really are doing the right thing it gets buried in there deep in your brain and your really not able to do or think about much else. Eventually you live and breathe the idea. And passion is what takes you to the next level.

They say you never find a boyfriend/girlfriend if your out looking for them. The reason being is that your not 100% invested in your self. Your constantly comparing yourself to others in the room and trying to look different, sound different, be different so that others will like you. You find that real relationship when your not thinking about it. When your not worried what other people might think or do or say. When your just being the best you, you can be. And people see that and are attracted to it. And that is where the need to live and breathe a project comes in.

The closest real world artistic example I can think of is a band. It’s easy to say “Hey we should jam sometime” Then the next step is to write the songs. Difficult but not impossible. And now that you have songs you just have to play them like you mean them. Bands that make it sleep in the van’s and travel 12 months of the year and wake up everyday to do it all again. Because they love it. And eventually people start to notice.

But that’s where most people fall off. It’s easy to make excuses as to why to NOT do something. “I don’t have the right gear. If I had this camera I could do it but right now I can’t afford it. If I got a new computer it would be better. If I started sooner it would be easier.” and so on and so on. But in reality the Beatles where right. All you need is love. If you truly love your project. everything else will fall into place.

It will be rough. You will fall down. You will get hurt and you will get lost. Your friends might not understand your obsession and loved ones may even say that you can’t do it. But the reality the only thing that can stop you. is yourself. Because all you need is love.

I know there has been a lot of space talk on this site. I suppose with the space program on hiatus I find myself wanting to learn as much as I can about it. There is an amazing series by the Discovery channel called “When We Left Earth” It’s available on iTunes for $15 in HD $10 in SD. It’s a great mini history on the space program that’s really inspiring and just proves that when we put our minds to something people can do absolutely anything.

Click here to see in iTunes

I think you should first watch this video then read the rest of this post.