Nobis, Internets, Life, and Humor

It takes some big ego to start up a personal blog. Really. Twice as much to name it after yourself. Most blogs I’ve read don’t make it past 5 posts; regardless of their agenda. Not only is it a big commitment, but it’s banking on you being interesting enough to hold the attention of random people on the Internet. There’s a lot of competition these days (citing: this, this, this, and that). Like much of any idea, it takes more than a passing thought, it takes the will to build something, and that’s something that most people lack.

I’ve been told that Albert Einstein owned 7 black suits, and only 7 black suits as his full wardrobe (the infinite wisdom of Google seems to back that up). More importantly, when asked about it, Einstein would say that he couldn’t afford to devote his mind to anything beyond what he was set on in that moment.. not even that bit extra it took on what to wear that day. To me that says quite a lot. That we all have ADD. That society’s perception of the word brilliance is really pretty much synonymous with focus. And that this blog is probably distracting me from something right now.

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.

-Lao Tzu

I told myself that I wouldn’t write another blog about my spontaneous 14 day adventure up the west coast, but I caved. Seattle’s definitely my new favorite city. In ten days in Los Angeles, I conversed with maybe 3-4 mostly unfriendly people a day (people I already knew there excluded).. in my first night in Seattle, I met probably dozens of super-intelligent, gratuitously nice people, which kept on all week. Not to mention some of the best seafood, beers, and scenery that I’ve found traveling to date.

It’s also true that technology is everywhere in Seattle; among the most interesting / awesome people I was able to meet was the creative director / family for Zaaz.com on the rooftop pool of the Stadium Silver Cloud. For someone that spends most days looking at websites, the Zaaz AI is one of the best ideas I’ve seen, with wit that rival Bill’s IRC bots.

About 10 days ago a decision was made to send someone from our company to Los Angeles to take care of a variety of things, which is where I’ve been for about 9 days (in case you’d been wondering).

Nobis now has one more employee, a much more built-out footprint, and I’d like to say some great new connections (as well as affirming as many existing ones as possible while I was here, running through Mzima HQ looking well over the top of One Wilshire and Multipoint). And much as expected it’s been a pretty awesome time running around LA’s comedy clubs, wandering through random film sets, and eating at crazy outdoor rooftop sushi restaurants.

Next week is Seattle, before venturing home (hey it’s <$100 ticket on Virgin from LAX, who could pass that up?). I’m pretty psyched about that, because I’m about the only one I know that loves rain. Provided no crazy problems, you’ll see me back in the corn fields again before the end of next week.

I hadn’t followed much good from Improv Everywhere really since their amazing Best Buy caper, but I have to say, they’ve been on lately. It looks like their random public freezes have become an absolute phenomenon. And taking a jumbotron, ex-NBC sportscaster, and the Goodyear Blimp to a little league game is a pretty freaking brilliant use of a day in my eyes.

A subtle but important change happened to the one of our websites this past week that I’ve been getting asked about a lot. The most plain, but arguably, most important website we own finally had its brand image made, only a year late. The design itself is another credit to Gary’s awesome work, the design itself tied in a mass of concepts I’d wanted to see the Nobis personality to convey… and a little bit by my fascination with ancient technology.

A lot of people have said- why not just make one of the more powerful companies like Ubiquity or DarkStar the parent? That’s definitely the way a lot of people do things, and would more importantly of been a lot less work. The problem comes in where the markets that Nobis caters to are just too way spread out. Targeting both a Fortune 500 and a kid that spends too much time playing World of Warcraft just doesn’t work in our eyes. But that didn’t mean there weren’t things we needed our base to show. The idea of the obscured sundial (and yes if you are one of the 1 in 5 that doesn’t see it, or one of the 1 in 10 I’ve talked to that somehow doesn’t even know what a sundial is or would look like, that’s what it is) has been just about my favorite icon long before this, and ties in a lot of ideas, but more important than this and any aesthetic appeal, is that it stays open to a lot of positive/relevant interpretation, as a good brand should.

Like all of the people that work with me know, the thing I’m really crazy about is SEO. It’s kind of my thing in the company. Really, with the world constantly moving to the Internet, what better piece of knowledge is there than understanding how the search engines work?

After seeing Google’s Director of Development Kevin Willer speak at ISU a few weeks ago with Chad, I’ve been on even more of a focus on Google that usual. One thing that’s really struck my attention this past week was Stuntdubl’s fantastic post recently on Google Hot Trends and Eliot Spitzer searches. How something this cool has existed for so long without me knowing I have no idea. More dorky / interesting to me than even the hot trends tool, is just looking at the public information they have on searches in general with Google Trends.

First, it seems natural to check the natural pulse of the Internet to look at how much searching has been done overall. We’ll call this our control.

Fantastic. Now you can use this information to find out things that matter. Like, when did it really become cool to rick roll a crowded place with one of those juke boxes that lets you download songs? The answer is actually quite a while ago now..

Or, how about the demand for glittery “Hot Stuff” graphics and other myspace-related Internet pollutants.

You get the idea- give it a try.

In other news, EdibleHost.com, one of the bastard step grandkids of the Nobis company list; now has a really fantastic plugin for instantly checking out domain names in FireFox.or IE7. Go ahead and click on this to get it on your search list; and the next time you have a great .com idea, don’t just forget about it and write it off, find out if you could make it happen.

I’m back from my fact finding mission to New York and New Jersey. Here’s what I’ve got:

- The Potomic River is great seasoning on the brilliant scent of Newark
- There’s nothing like a smooth Shlitz (not to be confused with Schmitts)
- Barry White is best sung on street corners
- The path train = pro wrestling
- Someone should start rebuilding the world trade center.
- Spicy orange curry Thai soup is wonderful

Pic unrelated.

I’ll admit to following Clint’s lead on this one, and in keeping a naturally dorky blog entertaining, I’m starting up my own monthly blog on what’s in my Winamp.

Shpongle- Tales of the Inexpressible

I love Shpongle.. but I’ve yet to hear any combination of really dense electronic music mixed with classical/acoustic instruments that I don’t love. I’ve never heard anything like these guys though- it’s completely goofy and ultra-happy in ways I’ve not heard attempted by anything other than Celtic Cross.. which is basically the same group. Simon Posford and Raja Ram’s electronic work fits fantastically with classical guitar, flute, and a totally random mix of cello and English/Hindi-speaking vocalists. As eccentric an album as it may be, it will grow on you. I can’t listen to anything Shpongle has done and be in a bad mood.

You’ve been rick rolled!