I only have two issues that keep me from starting now. One is that I don’t have the time or space to do any major projects. I have classes and homework to keep up on if I’m going to graduate in three years. (Yes, I’m going to be in college for five years total… stupid requirements.) The other issue is, I don’t have a steady address near a post office, and that is basically essential when running an online business where you need to send customers a product. If I lived at my parent’s house, that would be possible, since we live quite literally, two blocks from the post office. But I’m at college, where I change apartments once or twice each year, and tiny college apartments are not easy to work out of, trust me. Especially when you have to share that tiny apartment with a roommate.

Still, I love Etsy. I’ve found so many great things, made my first purchase, and met some great people as well. I love the seller’s attitudes on Etsy. They have a passion for what they do, and all things handmade, and love to support their community of artists and crafters. Hopefully I’ll be able to be a part of that someday as well. I mean, it’s making me contemplate dropping out of college. If that’s any indicator of my passion, I will have a shop someday! Haha!

New favorite website! Not that I really had a specific favorite before, but I think I have one now: sketch.odopod.com This site is SO much fun. You just sit there and sketch… whatever the hell you want. The canvas is your browser window (Want a smaller size? Shrink the window!), the brush your mouse or trackpad. Or in my case, this site made me bust out my Wacom Intuos Tablet and play for a few hours. :P

Things I love about this site, is the textured background. It has that grainy paper feel that just gives it that little bit of realism rather than the obviously generated, perfectly white computer screen you get most of the time. Another thing I love, is the texture of the colors. I can’t decide if it’s like marker or like chalk. But the properties of the utensil (whatever it’s supposed to be) are very intuitive, with slower motion bringing it to a smaller point for detail work, and the fattest width when you scribble quickly. The other thing I love is the limited palette. Whoever made the color choice, made it very interesting. The colors aren’t loud or vivid and they all work very well together. It gives every users work just a little bit of professionalism because it takes away any garishly bright colors your average 14 year old would first pick.

Overall, I love the Indie feel of this site. I just don’t know what it is about it other than the above mentioned that makes it so homey. Great job Odosketch creators! Check out my sketches!

Anyway, I’m writing this because I have Google Wave, and I love Google Wave, and I have free invites to Google Wave! Invites are how you can get GW, since it’s in beta right now. Sneaky, sneaky, Google…. Anywho, if you would like a GW invite, you can DM me on Twitter, or shoot me a comment below with the e-mail you’d like to use. Just be aware, that it may take a while. I waited 2 weeks after being invited to get in.

Also, it’s not amazingly fantastic just now. I mean, they don’t even have Settings page yet. That’s why it’s in beta testing. So if your patient and can wait for the full blown awesomeness, this is for you. If you’re looking for a full featured product wait a few more months or years. And in the words of Dr. Wave below, Happy Waving!!

So, I love NaNoWriMo. This is my 5th year participating in the madness. I began my sophomore year of high school when a friend told me about it over the summer. I idly blew it off. But then when she started getting excited for October to start when the NaNo forums open, I decided to check it out and I was hooked. I stayed up late that night, refreshing the NaNoWriMo home page on October 1st, 2005, the first available day for new sign-ups to start that year. And every October and November since have been filled with novel writing goodness.

The first two years I completed NaNo with two sci-fi novels in a series. The third year, I tried to continue the series, but I think they ran out of steam, and I was also swamped by my senior year of high school and college applications, etc. Similar story with my freshman year of college. I was simply too busy with the new load of homework and social life I was unused to. But this year I have more free time, a lighter class load, and my own apartment to escape and write in. I’m determined to finish this year with a new slightly sci-fi/adventure novel. Catch my synopsis under Novel Info on my NaNo Profile.

This year I started my free trial of Scrivener for Macs (which is recommended for large research papers and writing projects, even if you’re not doing NaNoWriMo). And there’s a special offer in the forums that gives you 50% off the purchase price if you win and would like to buy it after NaNo! Definitely a great motivator for me this year, because I love this program already and I’ve had it a week. Also, there is an offer from CreateSpace to give you one free printed proof of your book if you reach 50k. That’s right, you can hold a copy of your book, for FREE! I’m definitely doing that as well. (Keep in mind, these offers are only for registered NaNo users who reach 50k and validate it on the website.)

This year I donated $25 to The Office of Letters and Light that runs NaNoWriMo! $5 for every year I have participated. And if you’re a NaNo Participant on Twitter, be sure to add this Twibbon to your avatar! Made by me!!

Anywho, my all time favorite game on there you should know if you follow me on Twitter, is Blockles. Or, their version of Tetris. I love it! I can play for hours. I’m not fantastic at it, but it’s amusing nonetheless.

Look! I'm winning!

One thing I love about this site is the interactivity. You can play with other people and you get items that lets you scramble opponent’s screen, send them lines, take away your lines, etc. It’s an added element of fun for me.You have the option to start a game without items though, for you hard core rule abiding tetris players.

Some other awesome games OMGPOP has include, Hover Kart (Mario Racer), Letterblox (Scrabble), Jigsawce (puzzles), Draw My Thing (Pictionary), and Balloono! What’s better than moneys and water balloons?! They have several other fun games as well.

So go sign up and add me as a friend and we can play some Blockles or Balloono together!

EDIT: They removed the original Blockles due to litigation from Tetris, which I am very unhappy about. Unfortunately, I no longer use the site. I hope it returns someday. Until then, it’s boycott for me.

(By the way, I use Google Reader to get my feeds. If you have a gmail account or use Google Calendars, Google Docs, etc. you can set up Google Reader as well. I reccommend it if you don’t already have a feed reader.)

Friends

ErrorInSyntax.com – Blog site of my good friend, Nick. A little outdated right now, but if/when he updates it, the design is mine.

MikeRapin.com – Another friend of mine who is all over the internet. Seriously, just insert “mikerapin” into any social networking URL and you’ll find this dude.

Robrogan.com – This guy is in Barcelona right now, so if you’re taking Spanish or interested in culture or travel, watch this blog. And he’s also a friend of mine from college as the above two are.

WilChow.com – The power of the internet, more specifically Twitter, where I met this cool guy. We like to geek around about photography and webdesign n’ stuff. Both interests show in his website, so check it out!

Comics

Kawaii Not – Ultra cute, buu not so innocent comics.

Post Secret – Who doesn’t want to read someone else’s dirty secrets?

Questionable Content – This is a very popular webcomic. Needless to say, it’s popular for very good reasons. I only started reading it less than a year ago, but the few panels I read made me like it enough to go read the first 3 years of content in two weeks. There’s even a store that sells t-shirts that the characters have worn. Go read it!

The Bunny Comic – A hilariously random comic out of the UK sometimes with some sneaky social commentary. I’ve been reading this comic since 2004 if that says anything.

Art & Design

Brand New – Brand redesigns. If you’re into logo design, definitely follow this one. They give the before and after for many large corporate logo redesigns and the plus and minus on each.

Packagings of the World – Exactly what it says, package designs! Great practical use of graphic design as seem on the actual products. Some are so juicy, it really makes me want it until I realize it’s shampoo from Denmark.

Yanko Design – Really awesome and futuristic designs for practical products. Unfortunately, they are only concepts, but these are so awesome you wish some were real.

Photography

Amy Carroll Photography – A great wedding photographer that I admire, right out of Grand Rapids! She also does engagement and family portraits, and gets great wide eyed and sparkly shots out of kids that are just fantastic.

James Rubio Photography – Holy shit. Talk about gorgeous wedding photography. The sheer talent of this guy’s photos and the lighting has me drooling. Not to mention they’re all in Hawaii. Really makes me wanna get hitched in Hawaii and hire this guy. Anyone wanna elope for lulz? (Just kidding, seriously.)

The Big Picture – Amazing and gorgeous photographs of current worldwide events. Often time shocking things they don’t show in mainstream news.

Tech/Other

The Next Web – Really cool relevant articles on everything new on today’s web.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog – To catch up on all your Apple product needs, updates, and rumors.

WebUrbanist – I can’t really describe this too well other than it’s collections of really cool stuff.

But on the internet, the words and the ideas are still there… that’s what matters. People who have just met, say in a chat room, can just dive into deeper conversations getting to the core of our person faster and know who we really are. Because, honestly, it’s easier to open up when you don’t see someone’s facial expression. We can pretend we didn’t cringe when someone types that they’re 41 and when you thought they were 28, and you can keep talking. Point here being, we can set aside any visual prejudice and just have open, raw conversations with anyone. And I’ve found that the internet is the place where I have some of my richest conversations, that last the longest. Not in one sitting, but in talking over months and years.

And now for a hilarious quote from an acquaintance I saw leaving facebook… his reasons were, “Because the internet is the most fake and illegitimate form of meeting people and maintaining communications, I’ve ever encountered. I could just be doing better things with my time.” Sir, if you ever happen to read this, I have met a countless number of worthwhile people on the internet, and it has been my strongest tool of maintaining communications. Especially with my friends across the country from summer programs. One friend in particular I e-mailed daily for a year and a half, and we still e-mail each other now at least twice weekly. Another I’ve been in contact with for nearly four years now.

Saying that, I want to ask those people, who dismiss the internet as a “real” form of communication then,  if they don’t read books, or have never been effected by a poem, because that’s the same thing. It’s the use of words for communication. As my friend Wil (@javajunky) said in our online conversation about this, “Text can convey a lot. Literature would be nowhere if it weren’t true.”

I fell that dismissing online communication is pointless for that reason. And if these people only want a “full relationship,” face to face with “real people,” then they better stop using phones, reading the news, and watching TV too, because those all dilute the full on experience you get face to face with another person. So, good luck, hypocrites. I’d like to keep all of my online friends right here. And who knows, someday I may get to meet them “IRL” as well.

Meanwhile, I’ll be desperately clinging to my iPod touch for Tweetie, e-mail, and music. So I’ll still be quite available via Twitter, but a little quiet everywhere else. Tootles for now!

Update: Just kidding. I’m still here for a few more days. They don’t think anything is wrong. *annoyed* Ordering new fan replacements, just in case. *sigh*