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I recently had to pack up the bulk of my personal stuff from storage at my internet fabric store’s warehouse.

I moved it all to the Sugar Shack, where I’m living, working and otherwise spending 2/3 of my time these days (it’s a great little microcosm), with the help of some my roomies from there, one of my biz partners Josh, and my closest confidant, Tristan. In the process I tweaked my back the worst I’ve ever done…getting too soft these days, way too much time on the computer, but that’s another post entirely.

So today while one of my roomies Ryan Wartena had another powwow with his Watts Up America buddies, I figured I’d get around to sorting through the mess that is my life in storage below the floor upon which I’m writing from.

Having made the migration from Sugar’s formal dining room to its warehouse (really just a glorified garage with loft space upstairs), I quickly set to work on the bare essentials of my new office: desk, chair, shelves, computer, soundsystem, and power. And let me say just how great it feels to be seated again in my own sacred space, which is really what this is largely about for me.

Check out these pics out to see what I mean. Here’s one in case you don’t:

Anyway, as I said in my Twitter post, now I’ve just got to get about 400+ lbs of books upstairs, sort and shelve. And the finishing nicknack touches. Then the art, lighting, window shade… Okay, so far from done. But it’s a great start at bringing the level of focus, detail and order to my life that I need, especially these days since I’m doing way too much still.

*Note: I’ve had the little soundsystem you see above since I was 13, talk about conservation, heh?

It’s been a busy past few weeks as I had my pilot solar powered web server configured.

It’s been a wee bit of an undertaking since quite candidly, I’d never really bothered to learn Unix and its use through the command line shell. So I’ve been scouring through several books, forums and picking several friend’s brains to get past this learning curve.

After an initial failed attempt to get Plesk installed on Debian, I switched to CentOS and then branched off into researching DNS configurations, settings, etc.

Simultaneously, I started a web hosting plan comparison (while waiting for my unlimited domain Plesk license to arrive) to start zeroing in on the services and pricing that Green Gurus would be offering.

I didn’t find many clear tutorials online or in my books (everyone always assumes you already have some foundation that I apparently still don’t :), so I called upon another one of those friends/contacts, this time Zak Brown (an Orangekid contact) and sat down with him for two hours downtown at my shared warehouse (with The Do LaB).

Thankfully, he gave me a pretty detailed overview of DNS configurations and then some help buttoning up the solar server.

Now I’m noodling around with some test domains, trying to solidify the tutorial…unfortunately it takes awhile for most things to sink into my dense, Capricorn head.

Thankfully, I’m diving back in manana with another, long-time OK friend…Steven Dalton, so it should all finally start sticking.

I was reminded by Adam Wiggins today that the annual Startup School is fast approaching.

I submitted my application this evening for the event here.

Looking forward to this and several other dot-com, marketing and startup events this spring.

Today I got confirmed for work on another event in what’s turning out to be an even busier summer of festivals than last year.

I’ll be working a job with The Do LaB for an event in Portugal this summer, so I’ll finally have a chance of seeing my sister who’s lived in Spain since 1999 (incidentally, the first time I ventured out here to Cali); we’ll also be working on some of the usual jobs this spring: Coachella and then a few weeks out from that, Lightning In A Bottle.

Then in addition to the summer Portugal trip we’ll be hitting up the 3rd annual Virgin Music Festival (great fun, our 2nd year and a great production job by Mitch Kirsch).

Then, well maybe a breather from travel and work before Burning Man or maybe I’ll just dive back into my own work, of which there’s never a short supply.

Anyway, looking forward to the camping, the team work thing, nature, travel, and all that wonderful jazz. Many pictures and stories to come as these events unfold…

Lately I’ve been consciously observing my behavior, especially with regards to its closely linked relationship to entrepreneurialship, more specifically, to my businesses: DistinctiveFabric.com, GreenGurus.net and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (others in the works too).

Not only is my behavior effected by moods as a Capricorn, but also by the ebb and flow of business within my companies.

I have been working more recently to regain my center as business can really monopolize one’s energies, if you let them. While administering some comments I was especially struck by this with one of my more recent posts, which came about after an intense bout of the flu and the collapse of my fabric company’s sale (quite the ups and downs with that in itself).

Now all this past week I’ve been kicking ass and making S**T happen. It’s interesting to note that when you’re on an up-swing, you’re really working in harmony, your chi/ki is rushing through you, demanding release. Hours will slip by as you work tirelessly, without food and little to no breaks.

Then all of the sudden you crash, realizing your last meal was like 6, 7 or more hours ago. So when you finally get to eating, you devour it like you’ve been starved a week in the desert. All the while (eating) you tell yourself: “Gotta’ take better care of myself, from now on…”. I’m sure you know this story well or will soon, if you’re just now exploring this kind of focus in your work.

Anyway, just thinking about how it’s nice to find that middle ground, that one-point…once you do life is just beautiful again.

From my Green Gurus consulting company’s blog today:
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Green Gurus is on the prowl for some new tech-driven team members.

Our team is comprised of a wide-range of talents from sustainable energy systems designers, feature film miniature and mechanical engineers, sustainable architects, Second Life programmers, and a host of other skills. Our projects range from multi-thousand person events, to on-air consulting, to feature films, to eCommerce, to manufacturing, and much, much more.

We’re well connected and very active in the Los Angeles underground modern tribal scene (cliche yes, but it fits the part), utilizing a vast range of science, technologies and metaphysics.

Here are our current task priorities:

1. Our site: GreenGurus.net

We’ve got to nail down a site design fitting of our name and team’s skills. We’ll have a much better conversion rate in closing new clients if we get this locked down.

2. Our keyword domains

We’ve got around 500 domains, most of them green-themed: We’re looking into monetizing a bunch, selling some and building out others.

3. Green eCommerce platform

One of our other companies, Distinctivefabric.com has an extensive, proprietary code base that we’re looking to overhaul into a green eCommerce platform and then license and/or sell.

4. Solar powered web hosting

We’re working towards our own solar powered data center chain, but until we’ve raised the money to put that together, we’ll be running on a dedicated server through AISO.net, configuration with them happening right now, should be up and running within the next week.

If any of these projects appeal to you and you think you’d like to explore a potential partnership with us to help manifest any of these items, then please let us know. We’re only able to pay through profit-sharing, performance-based pay and/or sweat equity right now. Assuming we get our site up to snuff, we can really start creating some exciting and meaningful compensation opportunities.

We continue to receive steadily increasing inquiries, have got some great natural page ranking on Google, especially under “green consulting” search terms, our team member’s individual projects and companies continue to complement our own here, and much more.

You are adept in any of these programs/languages/CMS:

PHP, MySQL, Python, Perl, Ruby, RoR, Ajax, Java/JavaScript, XML/XHTML, Drupal/Joomla/etc., WordPress (including installs), Apache/Debian, Photoshop/The Gimp, Illustrator, Quark, InDesign, AutoCad, Maya, Flash, ActionScripting, API interfacing, version control systems, Unix, ProTools, Logic, Ableton Live, and any other language or science you’re competent with in producing results.

You have experience from school and/or on-the-job training, can provide live and close to or fully completed projects online, have a working/proficient understanding of iterative, agile and atomic coding techniques/philosophies, and are otherwise a bad-ass online.

Preferably: you work in open source, off a Mac or Linux box, but have some working understanding of PC to get around should the need arise; live within the US, ideally w/in CA > Los Angeles…if not, possibilities still exist. Telecommunicating okay.

Please submit any relative content, links, resumes, or other media format…just be creative, inventive, entrepreneurial, and socially/eco-conscious in your approach to contacting us.

This flu season has been a really intense one for many, many people.

I came down with it the day after Lucent L’amour, during breakdown I started to feel a tickle in the back of my throat, other than that I thought nothing of it. The next day I could barely get out of bed and so it was for the next 7 days: super weak, feverish, swollen glands, phlegm, horrible cough, etc.

The 8th day I still had a pretty awful cough (and still do) and a really weird disorientation that’s still with me. It comes up multiple times throughout the day, especially when I try and deal with any work related tasks.

What I realized while sick is just how complicated my life has become. I think now, my body/self is revolting against me with just about anything I have going. It’s like how when you’re sick and you lose your taste for everything, only I’ve lost taste for nearly everything in my life; it’s quite disconcerting really.

All I want to do now is simplify.

I think about moving back to my hometown, where life is much simpler and rural. I’m so done and over this whole city living thing. I think about old friends and all my family. I think about there being more Nature then artificiality. And, I think about returning to my roots in outdoor adventures, with Rivertribe.

I’ve just become really discouraged about making all this a reality now that the sale of my fabric company has fallen through and I’m stuck with attorney fees and other liabilities. I was so ready to move on from that company and had so much lined up with the cash I would have walked away with. Owning your own company has its fair share of pros and cons.

Sometimes I just want to quit at playing boss and go work for someone else again. The only problem there is that I don’t think I’d remember how to humble myself to be told what to do and when to do it.

I’m really hopeful that my thirties will bring a whole new wave of change and that my outlook on life improves with age.

I recently made my support of Ron Paul official by submitting my endorsement of him and his campaign.

Yesterday it was posted to the business category and today one of my Google Alerts notified me of its addition there.

This got me to thinking about when I actually first came to hear of him, which I honestly don’t recall: either late 2006 sometime or early 2007. The surest I can be however, for an exact date, would have been from when I read Adam Wiggins’ post about Ron Paul For President. As a trusted friend and business partner (and me a voter newbie), I quickly took head of his comments there and started looking into Dr. Paul’s platform, views and yes, Web 2.0 presence.

Anyway, needless to say I was duly impressed with much of what he stands for. And as noted previously, don’t agree with all his views, but do truly believe he’s the best suited for the role of president in the 2008, United States presidential election.

And while some people would argue that he’s not been focused enough on our nations sustainability, I’d now have to disagree.

As this was one of my previous issues, I contemplated for quite awhile as to whether I could in good conscience, vote for him in light of my continued immersion into sustainability. And obviously the answer is yes but as to the why, let me explain.

First of all, his unshakable view on a limited government should be a no-brainer.

From what I understand and can tell, the innumerable corporate lobbyists in and around Capitol Hill are largely to blame for most of what’s occurred over the last, oh I don’t know…nearly the last century in policy-making/editing/hacking to suit their manufacturing, outsourcing and a slew of other needs that have undermined much of the little good that’s been done to protect the environment.

So it seems like a great step in the right direction to minimize the federal government’s control, thereby allowing the state governments to forge ahead with the demands they’ve placed on them (fed gov), to initiate stricter car emissions and other guidelines for the various manufacturing industries.

Not only that but a return to sound, fiscal responsibility is very much representative of sustainability: conservative spending, deficit reduction, troop withdrawals, limited international military maneuvers/bases/etc., and so much more that will initiate a top-to-bottom reduction of consumption that spans energy use (water, power, fuel, etc.), to a major transportation reduction (further reducing emissions), to reduced product consumption: office supplies, electronics, food, related entertainment, etc., and all the related packaging.

A sustainable future is not just about driving a hybrid, recycling and wearing the latest eco-fashions, but a complete and total rethinking/rebranding/renewing of thought within and throughout our society, again from top-to-bottom. Every corner of this nation, every nook-and-cranny, every little crucial minutia of our life cycle’s must be rethought and retooled.

Ron Paul may not have (yet) won an Oscar or thrown a green festival, but he has served longer than most, for a set of beliefs founded at a time of true sustainability and simplicity, where men and women knew how to live with less.

It’s simply amazing how quickly the flow of time passes by. The days continue to slip by in 2’s and 3’s…

Most of this past weekend was spent focused on my girlfriend’s birthday. We went out to dinner this past Friday night at a romantic little spot called Tagine, in Beverly Hills (ouch - see my Yelp review); then back out again to The Edison with all her friends and sister for a more lively celebration on Saturday night.

I spent a few chunks of time here and there throughout both Saturday and Sunday working on various web tasks: profile updating, blogging, networking, etc. I even finally activated some temporary hosting for the Sugar Shack, scrolled through all the latest WordPress themes and finally settled on one, followed by some theme tweaking, then finally the first post.

Sunday was a mix-bag of activities: usual morning web stuff (post on these oh-so very fascinating boring details coming soon) and it was back to Sugar for miscellaneous, routine acts (cat feeding and roomie relations), followed by a bit of lunch over Harry Potter 5, then our weekly meeting.

Monday was just a sheer wall of work from start to finish, as was today. Though today was especially fun (productively speaking) because I finished up the installation of a proper blog for The Do LaB’s Green Team (of which I play a part in), under the new moniker, the Greenlight.

And oh yes: Yesterday evening I was officially sworn in for my seat on the Mid-City Neighborhood Council (MINC); it was a little over a 2 hour affair and a nice change from recent weeks intense pace of entrepreneurial endeavors.

Looking forward to wrapping up the pending sale of one of my previous ventures and moving on with greater focus and passion in other areas of my life.

Stay tuned for more on this as time and legalities permit.

(oops, almost forgot: Finally got my last final grade from my fall semester at SMC: straight A’s…a most pleasant suprise!)

2007 was an amazing year of growth and change, on many levels; also, this year’s end saw my one and only Golden Birthday:

(Check out the rest of my birthday pics from at the Edison)

The year started out with a 3-week visit home after my mom broke her arm, shortly after New Years 2007. I spent almost 2-weeks at home with her to help out with her rehab, got her set up with a new Mac, and generally just spent a lot of quality time catching up with her and some of the other family members.

I then bounced down to Florida for a week-long visit with my Dad, step-mom and some old friends from the River: Tim and Doug.

Then it was back to Cali to return to work on Dianovo, but I just couldn’t get back into it or much of any other work: I was uber home-sick and caught up in the slow-pace that the East Coast so often is. So I decided to pack up my things and move back east, but first stopping back over in LA again to dump said stuff in storage and prepare my other business for my departure. But not surprisingly, I got caught back up with my friends and loved ones in LA and decided to push off my departure for a few months.

I hopped back on board hardcore with The Do LaB, for an amazing few months of work on Coachella, then Lightning In A Bottle, the Beverly Hills White Party, and then it was into summer with a 2.5 week long trip to Guatemala. My time there gave me a lot of opportunity to reflect upon what was important to me and what I wanted to pursue personally and professionally. So when I returned to LA in early June, I began in more earnest, to work on both my romantic relationship and professional path.

I continued working with The Do LaB, resumed work on Green Gurus and continued work on my relationship. Then in mid-summer I went back east again (and therein lies a constant theme for me and home) to help head up the Green Spot construction of The Do LaB’s lumi pods and towers at the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore, followed up by another visit home.

While at home again, I heavily re-visited my passion for the outdoors as it related to my old job at Hidden River Adventures and my future plans for Rivertribe, but realized it still wasn’t time for that pursuit; I still needed something more from my investments living out West. So after some much needed time re-connecting to the river with some great kayaking trips, I headed back to LA.

One of my investments or more aptly, reasons for moving out west, was school. So the first thing I did was re-enroll in school at SMC for the fall semester. Then I headed up another gig for The Do LaB at the Future Ape festival, followed by one last get-away before the start of the school: this time back to Santa Cruz to watch my old house and base of operations for Dianovo.

Then it was a head-first dive back into school for an intense 3.5 month-long semester in computer science, design and programming; an intense and seemingly appropriate step with regards to my romantic interests; followed by a long-awaited move into the Sugar Shack, then my foray into local politics, the loss of my oldest friend Charlie, and continued work on Green Gurus.

I also worked on the last few gigs for the year with The Do LaB, at the Global Mala Project and a random job for Goldenvoice. Also during the last half of my semester, I started counseling for the first time in years, to help kind of clear some of the noise in my head from everything that year, followed by a renewed start in work on my longest running romantic relationship, through couples counseling (which has been a great decision).

Another big event of the year was my first surgery, in which I finally went in and had a lumptectomy performed to have an overly uncomfortable and ample-sized cyst removed from directly beneath my left nipple; the surgery was flawless and there was very little pain involved afterwards, thanks to the great job performed by my doctor.

While there have been countless other events and random bits of interest from this year, nothing is more noteworthy than the pending sale of my first internet venture. The sale was posted back over the summer and negotiations have been taking place on and off for the last few months with several different parties. Now it looks very close to happening, perhaps within the first month of this new year, so I have been doing a lot of work to prepare for this possibility, both for the business itself and my own well-being; it’s definitely one of the biggest, most life-changing steps I’ve had to prepare for in a long time. But I definitely believe it’s time to make this change and what better time then at the start of the new year?

So as this year starts to unfold and all the previous year’s seeds start to yield their fruits, I look forward to the work in store: for my companies, myself, my family, friends, and the world. I am going to make this my best year ever and I hope you are able to do the same!

Much love and blessings for everyone’s prosperity, health and happiness.