centered

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Keep focused. Stay the course. If you have a feeling that what you're doing is right then don't look back. If you fail at it then great, you can always start again. There's never been one right way to do something. But now, more than ever, we are bombarded with choices. And I'm not even talking about the complicated ones, like will you marry me or buying a car, no I'm talking about the day-to-day choices we face. And herein lies the key to staying centered, are you ready for it, it's patience. Don't be moved by emotion or by trends, be moved by the Spirit of God. I heard it said today that God is always moving, but He's never in a hurry. That really speaks to me. I hope it does to you too.

keep it simple stupid

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I was going to write a really in depth post about why I'm unhappy with the way my blog is laid out. But then I thought, who cares? I don't need to talk about it, I just need to do it. It's the same with a lot of other areas in my life. If I could just shut up and put pen to paper (so to speak) I could be more productive.

New Friends On The Block

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newFriends This year was great. I got the chance to travel to California and St. Louis and even drove myself out to Wyoming for a weekend. BTW, 14 hours in the car will make you question your sanity. So here's a list of some great people I had the pleasure of meeting this year.

Aaron Irizarry

You're probably already familiar with Aaron if you're reading this, as I had been too via twitter. But this past summer I had the opportunity to fly out to Southern California and meet him face-to-face. Aaron is a family man and an all around "rad" guy. Even though I didn't get to see him as much as I would've liked, just visiting with him for a few hours at his house was awesome. We even sat down and recorded a video blog together.

Chris Wallace

Meeting Chris was like meeting a long lost brother that I never knew existed. Even though he's younger than me he doesn't act like it. Maybe it's his story of surviving cancer or the fact that having a wife and two kids is what drives him to succeed. Whatever it is, Chris has it, and I'm proud to know him. While I was out there in St. Louis we went to a Cardinals game and to take some pictures down at the graffiti wall. But probably my favorite part was just sitting down and talking with him. Check out Lift.

Firehost

Ok obviously Firehost isn't a real person, but I did get to meet two of the people behind Firehost, Chris Drake and Casey Barthels. I don't know if I can say enough good things about these guys. Humble, reliable, innovative, generous, the list could go on. But seriously, if it weren't for these guys I'd still be stuck on the phone with Media Temple having to put up with their poor customer service. Thanks Firehost.

Garth Humbert

Garth is one of those guys flying under the radar. You may not see him in the limelight but don't be fooled, this guy has some serious design chops. It was Garth who flew me out to California and opened his home to me for a short weekend this past summer. Upon arrival I thought we would spend more time in front of the computer, but it turned out to be a relaxing mini-vacation with a trip down to San Diego and to the Temecula Valley Wine country. That was one of my favorite weekends of this past year. Be sure and check out his new company May.

Matthew Simo

It was only the second WordPress meetup group I had been to and the group had grown from about 10 people to close to 50. So it came as a surprise when I found myself sitting next to a like-minded designer. Plus he wore a really cool hat. Since then we've hung out more and more, and you can usually find us up at The Flying Saucer on Monday nights sharing a pint or two and talking about life. Matt is currently working on a new version of his website and I know it will be featured on smashing magazine, at least five times.

That's what it's all about folks, making real connections with real people. If you would've asked me at the beginning of 2009 if I thought I would be traveling across the country to meet people I only knew online I might've said "cool" (seeing as how I did meet my wife online) but it certainly wasn't expected.

Now I'm excited to meet you in 2010. If you're going to be in Dallas, let me know. If you like good beer, good food and good design let's plan a trip one weekend. I want to get out there and meet those of you who I've been connecting with online.

Featured on Sketchnote Army

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anxiety I'm sure you've heard of Mike Rohde, and if not by name then more than likely by his SXSW Interactive 2009 Sketchnotes. They are truly beautiful and really freaking cool if you have an iPhone. I first found them a few months ago and was instantly inspired to do something similar.

Church Notes

Since my wife and I have been making an effort to go and fellowship on Sunday mornings at The Village I have been taking notes. But unlike Mike, who uses his moleskin, I enjoy my Field Notes as they are more compact and feel less intimidating. Also, I am the type of person who pays more attention when I'm drawing/doodling when someone else is talking. So while those next to me might be thinking I'm off in some la-la land, I'm actually in tune with the message. It's just my pen that's doing most of the looking, instead of my eyes.

You can view the growing set of my collection of Church Notes on Flickr.

Sketchnote Army

The site was started by none other than Mike Rohde. After a few brief direct messages with him on twitter he said his initial idea was to have a place to organize sketchnotes for SXSW. But looks to me like this site is becoming a much bigger community than that. And I'm excited to see it grow and get new ideas from others out there sketching their notes. Check them out at SketchnoteArmy.com.

Thank you Mike for your inspiration and adding my sketchnotes to the site.

Running Update

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I wanted to share how my recent barefoot running adventure in my Vibram FiveFingers is going and how I'm liking them. I also picked up some new headphones so I could listen to music while I run. On my playlist right now is Daft Punk, Justice, Ronald Jenkees and We Are Scientists.

Connect with me on DailyMile

If you're interested in learning more about barefoot running check out the book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I haven't read it yet, but I've only heard great things about it.