My current and mostly normal obsessions

How often must something occupy your mind before it becomes an obsession? Two times? Ten times? Who designates this obsession threshold? My obsessions consist of a lot of strange things, most of which you probably care nothing about like Belgian waffles, stegosauruses and crafting the perfect sentence. But what about things normal people care about? What do you care about? Music, apps, books? Good. Read on my normal friends. Here are the latest and greatest things I can't stop thinking about. I'll save my stegosaurus and sentence-loving stories for another day.

Album

Yellow & Green by Baroness

Baroness Yellow & Green music

Yellow & Green is an oddly majestic metal album with a glimmer of indie rock. Think of the wistful vocals of Fleet Foxes and then pair it with infectious, schizophrenic sounds of metal. While distinctly different from Baroness' previous albums, it's one of the few two-disk albums out there worth the ambitious 75-minute listen. And then a few more listens after that because it's that damn infectious. With a melodic and smart guitar sound, writing while listening to this album is truly sublime. Fun fact: This band was the inspiration for Beer Baroness, a Tumblr documentation of my craft beer adventures.

App

Solar : Weather

Solar weather app

As a self-proclaimed weather fanatic (I blame my family's incessant Weather Channel watching), acquiring attractive new weather apps is a favorite pastime of mine. Freud would probably say my app collection is my way of compensating for unfulfilled sexual desires or something equally wild, but I just think it's fun. It's like a modern-day stamp collection awaiting me inside my iPhone! Solar has quickly become my go-to favorite weather app. It offers the ability to manipulate the vivid and radiant colored backgrounds with a drag of your finger and animates all forms of precipitation. At $1.99, this simplistic and magnificently designed app makes even an overcast day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania seem beautiful.

Web

BrainPickings.org

Brain Pickings website

I felt like I was living under a boulder when I first discovered BrainPickings.org. It is likely the most creative and inspirational compilation of ideas I've ever stumbled upon on the internet. The website touches on everything from music and literature to science and anthropology. Here you'll uncover Bertrand Russell's 10 commandments of teaching, explore David Ogilvy's 10 tips on writing and so much more. Maria Popova and the team of contributing writers at Brain Pickings always seem to trigger such rich thoughts. If you're not already reading the site, you should be.

Book

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

A quick adventurous read about code-breaking, data visualization, mobile ads and a touch of romance. This insta-geek classic, tells a story of an enigmatic bookstore and a cryptic code that spawns a quest for immortality. It reminds you of all the reasons you love the intimate, papery feel of a book between your fingers. Plus, the book's cover glows in the dark serving as a great guide to the kitchen in the dark of the night. What more could you want?

Love at first one-page site

Is love at first sight possible? The skeptic in me says it's probably not. But what about love at first site? My SEO-driven mind tells me no, but it seems my heart has fallen hard for one-page websites. Yes, I realize it's an ongoing design fad. But there are some really well-done scrollable one-page websites telling great stories. And I do love a good story.

Beauty of it all

The fun part is, with a beautiful design, many of these sites encourage exploration, making the page more engaging while teaching you something new at the same time. It sparks interest without giving away too much information that might confuse or intimidate the reader. You experience emotion, thrills, surprises - the same things resulting from a well-written novel.

Technicalities of one-page websites

While one-page websites are great promotional vehicles, it's probably not your best option if your main objective is SEO. Websites with multiple pages afford more opportunities to rank for different keywords as many pages are indexed rather than just one. It's also important to keep in mind a pretty site doesn't always mean visitors will convert. Consider your objectives, plan your site accordingly and test, test, test!

Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, here are some of my favorite one-page websites:

Wedding invitation folly

I'm a far cry from a romantic, but, I must say, engaged couples are telling incredible stories by way of a one-page website. The linear story of Jess and Russ sets the bar high. Their website encourages you to learn more about a  couple you've never even met with interesting artwork and a parallax scrolling effect. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see where the story took the three of us next. The best part is the art found on the site is designed with love by their friends.

Educational tale of fracking

Living in Pennsylvania, it's hard to escape all the discussion about the fracking in northern counties. When the topic comes up, I'm surprised to find how little people actually know about what is happening in their own state. You almost forget you're learning about the perils of hydraulic fracturing, when scrolling through this beautifully designed one-page website. It visually explains the basics of fracking, including the resources used and byproducts created by the controversial process. It certainly makes me contemplate all the angles of fracking.

Vehicular adventures around the world

While contemplating how an international company could tell a story about its product, I stumbled on this site for Cadillac ATS. By using beautiful imagery from four different locations, this landing page functions as a discovery portal and is a bit different compared to most other one-page websites. You can travel to each one of the interesting locations by clicking and then scrolling. Offering up videos and engaging statistics about the car's performance, the website tells of a worldwide trek made much more enjoyable in a Cadillac ATS.

A statistical approach

WordPress.com sent out personalized emails to blog owners detailing how their blogs performed in 2012. I'm sure you've guessed by now that it was all encapsulated in a one-page website. Each post on my blog is represented by a rocket powered by HTML5 and later made available as a jQuery plugin on GitHub. Pretty cool, right? MailChimp did something very similar to share its 2012 annual report.

Are you new to one-page websites or has your one-page love blossomed into a full-on romance too? Maybe you've even designed your own? I'd love to hear what you think!

So this is the new year

There were some awesome moments in 2012. And then there were the not-so-awesome moments in 2012. But one without the other would transform into a rather unbalanced life. Don't you think? I embrace all the moments of the year, accentuate the positive and try my best (although my best varies from day to day) to be a better person. As I reflect on the richness of 2012 and look toward the wild unknown of 2013, here are few things I aspire to do in the new year. I won't call them resolutions, per se, but more of my ever-evolving manifesto for life.

Travel to new places. I was blessed to have the opportunity to travel to so many wonderful places this year: Minnesota, Boston, Belgium, France and Germany. I can't help but wonder where will 2013 take me. Maybe Greece, Ireland, England, China or Vietnam? I'm looking forward to meeting up with my friend Cindy in her travels around the world.

Run at least two 5Ks. This year I ran my first 5K, and I had so much fun doing it. Rather than just saying I will run more this year, I am committed to run at least two 5Ks. For me, this is a better assurance that I stay in shape. Just to be clear, this does not mean I'll be joining a gym. It means more Bikram yoga classes, sprints on the F&M track and intrepid trail runs. Who's with me?

Get more sleep. I generally operate on five hours of sleep or less. It's unhealthy, I know. We'll blame insomnia and overabundance of horror movies. Because of my unhealthy sleeping habits, this forced me into other bad habits like drinking lots of caffeine, working at odd hours and zombie-like stupors. Here's to conquering insomnia and moving mountains.

Cook or bake something new every week. I have acquired a lot of cookbooks lately. My most recent favorite is Smitten Kitchen for its drool-worthy photography. The joy of being single and living alone means one meal or recipe can last for an entire week (or even longer if frozen). And then, when I can't stomach another bite of cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread, my co-workers offer excellent assistance.

Give more warm greetings and farewells to the people I love. I love receiving hugs from my friend Matt. They're the most sincere, squeeze-the-stuffing-out-of-you, glad-you-are-my-friend, bear hugs. Even my aunt Gigi does the best greetings. Her smile and arms wrap you up in her joy to see you. If I can muster up at least half of this happiness in my acknowledgement of others, I will be happy.

My wish for you in the new year is to fully embrace the things you love. Travel. Not matter how outlandish, achieve your dreams. Feel beautiful. Act with kindness and brighten the world around you. Find inspiration in unexpected places. I'm closing the year with some joy in my heart and dance in my shoes. Here's hoping you are too. Salud!

Sandy brings unity to Long Beach Island

It was like Waterworld, but much much worse (if you can imagine that). Image after image of devastation. The New York and New Jersey coasts were annihilated. But nothing compared to watching clips of Long Beach Island. After countless summers and long winter weekends on the island, half of my heart is buried in its sands. Paralyzed by the b-roll, I couldn't help but cry.

Maybe it had a bit to do with four canceled flights and my rattling displacement in North Carolina. Try watching nothing but decimated homes and interviews of people without a place to sleep. Even the Shack was destroyed. After that, pretty much anything would've made me weepy.

No dunes :(

The moment I could, I scrambled to donate money to Red Cross. Still feeling helpless and determined to DO something, I discovered a beach-wide community clean up effort. I rallied my dad and Katie, my co-worker, rounded up a few of her friends. Next thing I knew, we were raking yards full of pine needles, tearing down water-logged, moldy wood paneling and hugging strangers (well, I did some stranger-hugging at least).

Saturday's effort on Long Beach Island drew about 1,000 people and raised money for the firefighters of Beach Haven who haven't left the island since the storm hit. While my efforts might be only a small dent in a long road to recovery, it was great to see people come together and witness flickers of hope for an island that feels more like home than my real home.

Swelling up to the meet the ocean before the brunt of the storm hit, the surge from the bay seemed to cause the worst of the damage. North Beach took a hard hit and Holgate was still closed on Saturday. Other parts of the island with more substantial dune systems fared better, but a lot of people are still displaced and without power. And trust me, you don't even want to hear about the scary 30-foot pile of trash outside of the Acme.

LBI Barnegat Beach Walkway

The infrastructure of the New Jersey barrier islands needs some significant changes. Here's hoping Hurricane Sandy is a wakeup call.

Oh yeah. And long live the Shack.

Being grateful for the little moments

Envision the things you're most grateful for. Your mind instantly hurdles toward certain steadfast gratitudes, right? For me, it's easy to be bowled over with appreciation for my family, wonderful friends, my job and the enormous amount of love and support in my life. I'm already enveloped by the knee-jerk warm fuzzies as we speak.

But what about the often forgot little moments?

These sneaking moments get swallowed up by our more grandiose appreciations. The little moments of gratitude are the first things we discard on days when we can barely find anything to be grateful for. To counter some of these lower days, I actually have an erratic habit of jotting down the little moments I am most grateful for. Reading them over serves as panacea, crusading against feelings of anger, discouragement or sadness.

The little moments I'm most grateful for

I remember the moment my heart sang with delight when I stumbled on a man playing the saxophone in The Gallery at Market East in Philly. Or after my feeble attempts to teach my nephew to say "dog," the moment my brother told me Jace pointed to the Target dog and rapid-fire proclaimed "Dah! Dah!" Or even the moment I received an unsuspecting compliment from a stranger on a particularly bad day.

When you think about what you're most grateful for this year, force your mind to acknowledge the little moments too. What little moments are you most grateful for?

I just stalkified you on Spotify

If you stalk me on Spotify, you'll probably discover what I call my multiple musical personalities. My musical taste ranges from B.B. King to Common to Atreyu to Miles Davis to Bon Iver to - well, you get my point. The only thing you definitely won't find me listening to is country music. If there's anything worth doing, I probably created a playlist for it. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of playlists. Sadly, Spotify only syncs with one social network, Facebook. Not to be rude, but many of my Facebook friends do not have good taste in music. Or, at least, they don't publicly share their playlists via Spotify. I know, because I've stalked them. While I might not interact with some of these people at all in real life anymore, here are a few who have decent taste in music.

My favorite Spotify stalks

Mike and I shared a Geology class together at Kutztown. While our professor chatted away about tectonic plates, we exchanged awesome music. Mike even hosted a radio station at KU called "Never Mind the Mainstream." Hence the incredible indie music selection.

Alyssa and I worked together forever ago at Barnes & Noble. She's a pretty incredible person, but it's enough for me that she subscribes to a playlist entitled "Drive Soundtrack."

Faith is another previous co-worker, lover of beer and one serious DMB fan. I'm a huge fan of her "goodONE's" playlist. Give me more good ones, girl!

I once drank way too much of River Horse's Tripel Horse while at Brad's house. I won't get into the details, but he was such a good sport about it. Turns out he has wonderful taste in music. I'm not really surprised, though. His nickname is B-Rad after all.

I met Brett when I studied abroad in Spain during college. He only has one public playlist, "Fall is Here." No kidding! I wonder if he even gets to experience real seasons over in Minnesota?

It warms my heart to see my roommate from Spain also shares a love for Ozomatli. I always knew I liked Jess for more than her wanderlust! No really, she rules. I couldn't have traveled to Spain with a better person than her.

Want to add me to your my People list on Spotify? Feel free to either type spotify:user:winker87 into your search box or you can check out my public profile. I apologize now for all the Cat Power. And, if you don't already use Spotify, check out makes it so great. Refuse to use Spotify? Or maybe you're just interested in what I'm currently scrobbling? Find me on Last.fm instead.

Do you stalk on Spotify too? Share your playlists with me. Pretty please?

The kinetic art of "If"

Kinetic art. Marcel Duchamp created it with a bicycle wheel, a fork and a kitchen stool. His pal Alexander Calder constructed it with red painted sheet metal and some rods. Rudyard Kipling crafted it with a pen, paper and a repetitive conjunction. Then George Horne typographically animated it using these words:

"If—" by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

The words are full of resounding maxims that guide me through the doubts and questions of life - a motivational flame, if you will. The first time I listened to Horne's kinetic typography video narrated by Des Lynam it forced a chill through my body. Here's the very video of "If—", the Rudyard Kipling poem.

Typography: IF by Rudyard Kipling from George Horne on Vimeo.

I also recommend listening to Taylor Mali.

Anticipatory worrying vs. intelligent worrying

Excitement about the future is waning. Rather than projecting future advances in technology or imagining the next scientific discovery, people are predicting every circumstance that could lead to the end of the world. We just discovered a new monkey for goodness sake. How could the Mayan apocalypse more exciting than monkeys? This toxic anticipatory worrying can be debilitating and downright tiresome. You can't really just quit worrying cold turkey like smoking. But maybe you can start worrying better? Worrying can actually be a productive state, if managed correctly. Good or intelligent worrying allows for a constructive review of a problem. It's sort of like good stress. And yes, there is such a thing as good stress. Good worrying allows us to reflect on previous experiences and get ahead of whatever is causing you distress. Review the potential consequences of the situation - both good and bad. See how unlikely most of your potential consequences are? Note how to monitor them if they do arise. Now, stop worrying and move on to doing something else. Do anything. Just stop worrying.

Sill find it hard to manage your worrying or stress? Share your concerns with someone else. It usually helps me to get another perspective and just talk it out. Things like getting enough sleep, exercising and eating healthy also go a long way. No matter how much edamame or unprocessed food I eat or how many 5Ks I run, insomnia is my biggest crux. When all else fails, and I find myself wide awake at 3 a.m., there's nothing as quite comforting as a psychological study. Okay. It would be really comforting to fall sleep right now. But this recent study from SUNY Downstate Medical Center suggests excessive worrying correlates with high intelligence. Ignorance may be bliss, but at least my extreme state of worry (stress) means I'm smarter than the average bear. It sure beats worrying over why I'm worrying about not sleeping.

How to do you stop worrying? Better yet, have any tips for insomnia?

Image by Oy Photography

Recalibrating my creativity

When I was little, I loved the way brilliant colors would dance across a painting like a melodic song. Grandmom presented me with an easel for Christmas one year, and I became obsessed. I even proclaimed to my dad I wanted to become an illustrator when I grew up. He gently explained to me there wasn't much money in a career as an artist. Slightly deflated but generally undeterred, my six-year-old self pronounced I would become a writer instead. This was probably for the better as I would like to think I'm a better writer than artist. Know that I inwardly shivered at the thought of this embarrassing declaration. I'm actually melting into my couch as we speak. Embarrassment aside, being surrounded by such a blossoming arts community as Lancaster has recalibrated my love for art. If you've ever experienced the city come alive on a First Friday and meandered in and out of the galleries on Gallery Row, you might know the feeling. The walls of nearly every restaurant or bar downtown are adorned with local artwork. Even morning strolls through Lancaster Central Market are commanded by a vibrant buzz. While Lancaster may be considered a city, it still radiates the feeling of a tight-knit arts community. I particularly love that nearly everyone and everything is reachable on foot.

My reignited creative energy also has a bit to do with my talented friend Alax and her artistic passion. She has a contagious enthusiasm for life and art that makes it hard not being inspired around her. Even a simple visit to her apartment jump-starts my creativity. I've begun taking time out of my busy week to sketch and paint. I've even started to write again, something I've always loved but it got shoved in the trunk while my demanding career took a front seat.

Even if no one reads or cares what I have to say, it feels good to write. It's important to me. It functions somewhat like the physiological process of breathing. If you stop breathing, your oxygen level plummets and you die. Whenever I stop writing, my mind becomes cloudy and the buzzing thoughts, like the carbon dioxide, have no way to escape. It also serves as a panacea for stress, something that seems to have invaded my life more so than ever lately. So, I'm determined to devote more time to being creative and nurturing my right brain. If for no other reason than to maintain sanity.

Pearls of wisdom and other bizarre utterances

Pearls of wisdom are supposedly divine. They're insightful ideas, thoughtful advice or moral precept. Plus, Grandmom always wore her pearls while sipping a can of Coors. So there's that. While life continues to show me I have much more to learn, I'd like to think the following pearls of wisdom have done a decent job steering me along so far.

1. C'est la vie. Things happen. Sometimes you can control them and sometimes you can't. Accept the things you cannot change, eat a giant bowl of coffee ice cream and get on with the rest of your day. Wait, you don't eat ice cream for breakfast? I guess that's just me.
2. Whether it's big or small, always have something to look forward to. Maybe it's your upcoming trip to the beach. Or if you're me, you get equally as excited about drinking a fourth cup of coffee on a particularly slow Wednesday afternoon.
3. Spend your money on experiences. Forget material things. Visit Europe or maybe Australia. Take lots of pictures too. Trust me. You will not regret it.
4. Quit working all the time. Get out from behind your computer screen. Have fun. Stop tweeting about life and experience it every once in a while.
5. If it's too good to be true, think about it again. If it's still too good to be true, it probably is.
6. Be your truest self every day. Everyone has their own opinions. They probably even have an opinion on how you brush your hair. Or, in my case, my lack of brushing. At the end of the day, the only person you need to answer to is yourself. Always remember that.
7. Stop reading the comments section on news sites and blogs. It's especially disheartening to read if you have thin skin. Luckily, I don't, but it's still one of the saddest places on the Internet.
8. Your real friends are always there. In fact, they might just be eating bananas and milk sprinkled with cinnamon on your couch at this very moment. Sometimes between mouthfuls they tell you how badly you screwed up. Might not be pretty, but they always tell you what you don't want to hear.
9. Do what you love. Be passionate about it. Then go out and do it ten times better than everyone else.
10. Life is too short. Screw fear. Put yourself out there and go after the things you want. I mean, the zombie apocalypse is coming anyway, right? Just don't forget sunscreen. And maybe a rifle to fend off the zombies.
11. Hand-write thank you notes to people. It really goes a long way.
12. Talk to strangers. I once thought my mom was a certified nut job when she'd randomly talk to strangers in the grocery store about apples. But now I find myself doing it all the time. Must be in my genes? Most times the strangers are warning me not to slip on the spilled spaghetti sauce in aisle five. Never the less, I've managed to meet some pretty cool people who were once strangers to me.
13. Read books about things you know little about. How else do you learn about globalization or how Google thinks?
14. Not everybody will get your sense of humor. Mine is sort of dry and heavy on the sarcasm. Usually, people just think I'm insulting them or they stare blankly at me trying to decipher whether I'm joking or not. I try to keep people who get my humor around and avoid those who don't.
15. Things go much more smoothly when you're respectful and kind to others. This is just as applicable in the workplace as it is when you're serving community breakfast at the church down the street.
16. Cut yourself off from technology on occasion. At first it might feel a little like the dream where you walk around naked and nobody other than you seems to notice. Other people have this dream, right? Anyway, after you wander down to the park (preferably clothed) or delve into a new painting, it's really not so bad. In fact, it feels pretty damn liberating.
17. Have an opinion. Rather than bowing out of a conversation due to indifference, let people know what you think. It's quite refreshing.
18. Embrace your flaws. They're what make you who you are. I laugh off my clumsiness when possible. Otherwise, I'd probably cry at my innate ability to trip over or spill everything within a two foot radius.
19. Family and friends trump pretty much everything. If you are lucky enough to have such special people in your life, keep them close and remind them how much you care.
20. Harness the power of silence. Be comfortable with it. Enjoy it. Open your ears and your mind, but most of all stop being so noisy for a change.