As someone who love to see other people succeed I hate this type of thing. I hope every one of us, including myself, will get a second chance when life doesn’t work out the way we intended or if we get too stuck in our ways to realize we are failing.

My friends from New York and San Francisco seem to have a very strong and active design community, and Greenville SC has it’s own bizzaro awesome thing going on with CoWork, but outside of that a lot of people expressed a lack of design community in their cities.

I spoke with a couple of guys from Atlanta about a few of our monthly meetups like  Function Pink and Refresh The Triangle and they told me that for the most part none of the designers in Atlanta ever get together, or even know each other. The funny part is that Atlanta is big and there must be designers there doing cool stuff.

Then last week’s 2012 AIGA studio open house tour further reinforced my hunch that we have a an awesome thing going on in the Triangle. People came out from all over the place, as far as Greensboro to hang out and chat design. It was pretty damn awesome to have that level of participation.

So I think this is great and all but I can’t help think that we could do more than get together and shoot the shit. The triangle has so many awesome and creative people, we should all collaborate more often and share what we are doing. I don’t see any reason why a bunch of us couldn’t get together to make a site like Life In Greenville for the triangle cities.

Maybe there are some of you  out there collaborating on exciting projects that I don’t know about. If you are reading this and saying “yes thats me” I would love to hear about it, so hit me up.

This is an amazing bridge in downtown Greenville that goes over a huge rocky waterfall. Beneath us on the rocks there was a marriage proposal that we witnessed while walking across the bridge. For more info on Greenville visit lifeingreenville.com

So much awesomeness went down last week at Grok that it’s kind of hard to process it all and figure out what to do next. There is absolutely no way I could fit everything into one post so I’m going to start by reflecting on some of my favorite moments from Grok and a few of the incredibly nice people I shared those moments with.

Jeff’s Passion

After one of my Grok sessions I was talking to Jeff Sheldon and admiring some of the awesome Ugmonk gear he generously donated to the raffle. At some point I pulled out my Ugmonk wallet and showed him how it looked after a few months of wear and tear. Jeff’s eyes lit up at the chance to talk about how my wallet would change over time and gain character.

It was really cool to share that moment with Jeff because I could see how passionate he was about his product and I think thats something we shouldn’t loose site of. Jeff, your passion inspired me in a really humble and humane way. Thank you for that.

Chris’s Ticket Problem

At the Grok after party Chris Shiflett and I shared some of the crappy experiences we’ve had trying to buy tickets. He recently got screwed out of seeing LCD Soundsystem and is dealing with some of the same ticket issues trying to set up the next Brooklyn Beta.

We’ve all been there before…mashing the refresh button in the browser anxiously trying to buy tickets to our favorite event, only to end up with nothing, or break the bank buying the tickets from Stub Hub.

The thing that sucks about this situation is that Chris really cares about giving people a chance to get Brooklyn Beta tickets, but the system is so damn broke that he’s struggling with a way to make it work.

It’s clear that the entire ticket system needs to be changed. I hope our industry can eventually come up with something that works better.

Chris, I thinks it’s incredible that you care about this so much, I just hope you don’t get too stressed out about it and get a chance to enjoy Brooklyn Beta when it comes around this year.

Larry Flying Glider Planes

Hanging out with Larry Legend was an absolute joy. We talked about all sorts of things from IOS to this crazy guy that ran into my office one day. One of the coolest things I heard over the entire Grok trip was Larry’s story about how he started flying glider planes when he was only 14!

Before I met Larry I didn’t really know what a glider plane was and sure as hell never knew anyone that flew one. Now I know that a glider can catch warm air and gain altitude while flying. Talk about awesome.

It was great to talk industry stuff and childhood experiences all in the same event. I hope we get to hang out again soon Larry.

Closing Thoughts

Grok is the most unique meetup I ever been to. There was something so incredibly human about the entire experience. It sure as hell didn’t feel like a conference, and I mean that in a good way.

Although I could not wait to get home and see my wife I was a bit sad when I left Greevnille. I want to be conscience about continuing to build upon the awesome relationships I started at Grok so that I don’t loose this inspiration I’m feeling right now.

A huge thanks to Matthew Smith and everyone at CoWork for making this thing happen. I hope you all realize how cool and unique of a thing you’ve created.

This week I will be heading to Greenville South Carolina for my first Grok experience. I’m a bit nervous because I don’t personally know anyone that will be there but anytime I put myself in a situation with talented people great things seem to follow.

The thing I’m most excited for at Grok is the chance to get together with other people who are passionate about what they do and just chat. I love hearing about what people are doing, what get’s them excited, and how they got to where they are in their personal and profesional life.

Grok will also be an excuse for me to experience more of of the South. Since moving to North Carolina I’ve been constantly traveling between Mass, CT and Washing DC, but I haven’t ventured anywhere south of NC. The only thing I know about Greenville is that in mid March the weather should be really freaking nice!

So Wednesday night I’m taking off after work and heading south for an exciting three days at Grok. If you are from the triangle and going to Grok hit me up on the Twitters so we can plan to meet up. If not, I’m sure we will run into each other at some point over the next few days.

To say I’m excited about the next few days of dorking out with other designers is an understatement. Right now I feel like a little kid before summer vacation. There will be a follow up when I get back.

Spize cafe on Fayetteville St has this sign outside on the sidewalk.The menu always starts with “Jesus is our savior” followed by an excerpt from the bible, followed by the food.
spizecafe.com

For the most part moving to North Carolina has been an easy transition. There are some differences between the North and South that throw me off a bit, like the lack of Friendly’s, the fact that no one cares about baseball, and sometimes when I go outside it feels like I stuck my head in an oven. But I understand these differences, accept them and I can live with them.

After two years of living here there is one giant difference between the North and South that I can’t seem to accept is the uber liberal use of religion in everyday life. It’s so liberal and so frequent that there is not avoiding it. Let me explain what I’m talking about.

At a craft fair last summer this women was about to buy something from Jess and when she went to pay she asked “do you love Jesus” before handing over the money. Jess said sure, or something to that extent. The lady paid and then went on her way.

Restaurants love this type of thing here and abuse it all the time. There is a McDonald’s near me with a sign out front that always says something along the lines of “Jesus loves you, Big Mac only 99 cents”! WTF is that about? That’s not spreading the word of god, it’s just strait disrespectful in so many ways.

I’m not a very religious person by any means but I know enough about christian theology to know that excerpts from the bible where not meant to be used as “friendly hellos” on advertisements. Maybe I give it to much weight, but this rubs me the wrong way for some reason and I don’t think I will ever get use to it.

If this type of thing bores you to tears here is a link to a never ending version of Epic Sax Guy.

This is my co-worker Chris Yow on the roof top of Busy Bee cafe. I highly recommend the fish tacos and tots.+ busybeeraleigh.com
@BUSYBEECAFE

Spring is in the air, I have been working at my new job for almost a month and Jess and I are starting to look for our first house/townhome. 2012 has been exciting so far to say the least and it’s not even March yet.

Professionally I’m having a blast designing my butt off at Fragment. About two hours into my first day I started a site design and haven’t stopped since. I’m excited about the work as well. So far we’ve done some adaptive client work and are starting to get into full on responsive, which I’m all kinds of fired up about.

One of the best parts about this year has been getting to experience more of downtown Raleigh. There are tons of awesome restaurants here that I never even knew about and others I had only heard of. A lot of these places are located within walking distance of my office which could be dangerous. So far I’ve held strong and haven’t eaten out too much. Only time will tell if I break.

Like I mentioned before, the house hunt is on for Jess and I. We are looking into townhomes in our current location of northwest Raleigh, old single family houses in the North Hills area, and possibly some place downtown like Oakwood. I think eventually the decision will come down to how much work we want to do with the house. Oh, and if I don’t freak out about the money…I’m Mr. cheapo pants.

I’m really excited for some of the design events I have comping up this year. The open house should be a great opportunity to meet some new people in my industry and catch up with friends I haven’t seen in months. Then, in a few weeks I will be heading to Greenville Grok for several days chat design with some incredibly amazing people. I’m a little nervous about Grok but also insanelyexcited. 2012, you so cray.