After a draining summer full of tight deadlines, late nights, eye twitches, and heatwaves it was so nice to take a trip back to the Pacific Northwest. Leah and I started our marriage in Portland, Oregon with a move on faith and hope over 5 years ago. It was a place that sparked a level of creativity that I had never reached before. This progressive city also forced me to evolve in all levels life. I conquered many fears, fell further in love, and broke through barriers I wasn’t able to see prior to my life there.

It has been 2 years since we have been out there and it was well worth the trip from Cincinnati. We reminisced with friends. Took the kids to Seattle for a weekend trip and putted around Hawthorne. The city brought another fresh perspective to life and my career. I’m ready to take things to the next level. Thanks PDX!

At TEDSalon in London, Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.

robo-rainbow from mudlevel on Vimeo.

John reminds us that success is not a one-way street, but a constant journey. He uses the story of his business’ rise and fall to illustrate a valuable lesson — when we stop trying, we fail.

The best tool for this is an aggregator (Aggregator refers to a web site or computer software that aggregates a specific type of information from multiple online sources:). There are many to choose from, I use Google Reader. I subscribe to hundreds of blogs for imagery/tech news/ branding etc. and google reader brings all the information right to me in one location so I can ingest large amounts of content in a short period of time. Occasionally an image or a article even a sentence jumps out in my daily readings and serves as present or future inspiration. You may ask yourself why this is any different than reading a book or thumbing through a magazine. The answer is simple- Its like having someone go through 200 magazines and throw out all the advertisements and articles your not interest in and condensing them all into one. Try it I think you’ll like it.