“The two most addictive things in the world are heroin and a steady paycheck.” - Scott Belsky

Last weekend I attended the Big Omaha conference, held at the Kaneko space in downtown Omaha. Derek and I had kicked around the idea of going for a while, and after we saw the lineup of speakers, we both knew we couldn’t miss it.

Now, a lot of people have asked me how it was, and the only words that cover it for me are: life-changing. It was truly one of the most exciting, inspiring and just fun times of my life. I left there feeling refreshed, and ready to take on the world. I am looking at the future, and I literally shake with excitement at the possibilities that lie ahead.

Alright, enough with the inspirational cheesiness. Seriously, this was the best run conference I’ve ever attended. The speaker lineup was incredible, the space was amazing, the food and snacks were plentiful, the parties and free drinks were awesome and Omaha is simply a cool town. The Magnolia Hotel was a great place to stay, very historical but also very modern at the same time. Their breakfast buffet and free beer and wine hour rocked.

So, about those speakers. Every single one of them was amazing, but a few stood out for me. David Hauser from Grasshopper started things off on Friday. I loved his message about authenticity and being real, because I believe that is one of the most important things in any business. I also loved their videos, and his stressing of the importance of company culture.

The next speaker that stood out for me was Scott Harrison of charity: water. This man has an incredible story of how he came to found his company, and I would have been surprised if there was anyone in the room who wasn’t touched by his talk. This was the speech that had me asking myself “what the fuck am I doing with my life? how do I want to be remembered someday?”. Truly, truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I hope to shake his hand someday in the future and thank him for helping change my life.

Gary Vaynerchuk was another great speaker. He also has a great story about taking his family business from a small company and building it into a media empire today. He is a really cool guy, and seems like somebody I would love to get a beer with and just shoot the shit. Very oversized personality, but also seems like a really humble and appreciative guy. I loved his ideas on doing anything you can to get business, “I’ll fucking watch your kids if you want”.

Jason Fried from 37 Signals is already a favorite blogger of mine, and his speech did not disappoint. He is a somewhat divisive guy, however I can’t help but agree with his thoughts on drawing a line in the sand and making all your decisions easier by standing for something and saying “no”. Great speaker with a lot of great ideas.

The last speaker who really wowed me was Tony Hsieh of Zappos. That company simply astonishes me, and I love their commitment to customer service, and to happiness. He was the most polished speaker of the weekend, but no less genuine or real than anybody else. I look forward to reading his book.

So, that’s my recap of Big Omaha 2010. I imagine it is a weekend I will point back to for a long time. I’m so glad Derek went along, and that he listened to my crazy excitement the whole way back, haha. I am already counting down till next years event.

i’ve sort of got a pattern going here, where i don’t post for a few months, then write a post with a lot of litte updates about things that have happened in the meantime…seems to be working, so i will continue it here

• Put in flooring in our townhouse - Nicole and I have wanted to get rid of the carpet at our house for a long time. We finally decided it was time, so we enlisted some help (my stepmom and grandpa) and I took a week off of work to get started. We laid down some nice Pergo in our bedroom, and our living room downstairs. After that week, Tim and Chad came over and helped me put in some tile-ish laminate in our kitchen and bathroom downstairs. Tim has been coming over every week or so, and we finally have the downstairs completely done. I’m going to try and get some more help this summer, and finish off our upstairs, which is a loft, hallway, and our little office/Nicole’s room. Can’t wait to be done, it sucks having all the shit piled up in the garage.
• Broomball spring season is over. It was a completely different experience this year, since we played both full-ice and half-ice. It was pretty amazing to see how much better we’ve all gotten, and to actually know what the hell we were doing out there. Full-ice is pretty nuts, its pretty much just flat-out running up and down the ice for the whole game. We had a good year, we were second in the full-ice standings during the regular season, and won the full-ice tournament at the end of the year, which was awesome. In half-ice, we were fourth during the season and got fourth in the tournament, so that seemed about right. It was a great year, we got some new people started in half-ice (maybe just Todd?), and i’m already looking forward to the fall season (I know Nicole isn’t, haha).
• I had a birthday, Nicole had a birthday. They were both fun, did a lot of stuff with friends and family, got and gave good presents, all-around good times.
• I went to Bockfest for the first time this year. Its an annual festival held at the Schell brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota. They open up their grounds, and serve beer and food all day. It was a ridiculously crazy time, since we were drunk pretty much the entire weekend. Friday night, we met Josh at his house, and crashed/trashed the local bars, and then came back to his house wasted, stripped down to our underwear, and passed out. Saturday was the actual day of Bockfest, so I was good and hungover for it, but I manged to enjoy myself and have some good beer. Saturday night we went out in New Ulm, and I finally felt better around 9pm, so we toured the bars in New Ulm. I was surprised by the number and variety of bars there, and we had another great night that ended with us walking through the McDonalds drive-in at 1:30am, and with people running around and burning each other’s body hair off (which i avoided). I was really happy to come home Sunday, just to sleep finally. Still, it was a great time, and I can’t wait to go back next year.

i bought a new cell phone a couple of weeks ago, since it is a new year, and i like new things…nicole was due for an upgrade according to t-mobile, so she got my sidekick 3 and i got a blackberry curve…these are insignificant details, just wait for the story…if you have ever been to the t-mobile store in valley west, or just about any cell phone store for that matter, you know its always an interesting experience with a wide variety of people…

i was perusing the phones, looking at the curve for the 4,367th time to decide if i really wanted it (no joke, nicole counted), when i suddenly got surrounded by little kids…they were all grabbing at phones, smashing buttons, creating general mayhem, you know, being kids…i just keep looking at the curve, ignoring them for the most part, when i hear a woman back at the counter yell “hey, nokia, quit messing with that and get over here!!!”…ok, wtf…my head spun around thinking somebody has lost it and is reprimanding their cell phone, but i look down and see a little girl go tearing across the room…i immediately start giggling and get all excited to tell nicole about the little girl named nokia at the CELL PHONE store…

if i ever have a kid, i think i’m gonna name him motorola…or maybe my next dog

Last night was the first meeting of the Beginning Drawing class I’m taking this fall at the Des Moines Art Center. I’ve really liked to draw since I was a kid, and most of the people in my family are talented artists (especially my brother Eric).

I normally like to draw with graphite pencils, since this is how most of us learned how to draw back in elementary school, and it is always the medium I’ve felt most comfortable in. When Nicole had to take Illustration classes in college, I was always amazed at how cool charcoal drawings turned out, and I’ve always wanted to try them out. When I saw this class was being offered, I decided to jump at the chance to get some formal training, and to try charcoal out for myself. It is also really nice to just have 2 hours a week dedicated to drawing, and only drawing. Not drawing while I’m watching TV, or just telling myself “I’ll draw something tomorrow”.

The first class went really well. The teacher was very good, and really helpful and insightful about our drawings. Our first assignment was to do a self-portrait of ourselves, and we could do it in any medium we wanted. I chose to try charcoal, just to get out of my comfort zone, and because I was really excited to try it out :). I think it turned out pretty well, especially for my first day of class, and my first try at charcoal.

I am so excited about this class, and I already can’t wait until next Wednesday to go back and keep drawing! Fun stuff…