Mornin’ beautiful

I Am A Terrible Person.
I’ve done a terrible job maintaining this blog. Hopefully, I can improve that during the new year.

Recap.
I’ve completed the Fall semester of my senior year at Carolina, and I’m back home (in Maine) for a couple weeks. I’ve had a FANTASTIC time sleeping and sitting on the couch, bored. It’s my first opportunity to “idle” since, shit, last Christmas!

The Future.
I’ll be in NYC Dec 31-Jan 6 for job interviews and to hang out. Several of my friends are apprehensive to graduate but I’m damn excited to do it. As Jerry Della Famina once said, “Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.” And I totally believe it. Originally, I had planned to take some time off after graduation. You know, putter around Europe and do whatever recent college-grads do there. But, following a brief examination of my finances, I concluded that I can’t afford Europe, yet. With that said, f I had simply thought back to the last time I had an income–about three years ago–I could have spared myself the effort of loading Quicken.

Plan B.
Plan B is: move to NYC upon graduation in May and jump into a job. Perhaps, I’ll take a few weeks off in 6 months or a year to travel. And to that end, I’ve revised my portfolio.

My Portfolio.
I’ve refurbished my portfolio–I added a few projects from my summer internship at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and an integrated campaign for Virgin Mobile that I created during an advertising class.

This weekend, ten of us (interns) travelled to Estes, Colorado to explore Rocky Mountain Park. We hiked 3.6 miles (round-trip) to Gem Lake (8830ft elevation).

I had always wondered what it would be like to hike a scenic area with a dozen photo-inclined individuals. Well, it turns out to be a perpetual photo shoot–here was my contribution to the photo pool.

Here are a couple previews.

Nick and I arrived in Boulder on Monday afternoon and set camp in the apartment of my friend, Kris. We departed for Fort Collins on Tuesday, a city approximately 45 minutes away from Boulder, and hung out with our high school buddy, Lucas, until Thursday. This morning, Nick returned to the East coast–It only took three hours to fly from Denver to New Jersey… that’s one hour for every DAY it took for us to drive out here, damn. FYI, the drive to Boulder cost approximately $367 in gas. Mother Earth, I truly apologize.

We spent most of the week exploring Colorado’s beautiful landscape — here are some photos from our treks up Horsetooth Rock (peak is located at approx. 7,000ft tall) and Rocky National Park.

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This evening I move into the 5-br home that I’m sharing with four other Crispin interns. Tommy and Fabian, two of my roommates, arrive tonight. Our internship begins on Monday.

Tomorrow, I depart for Boulder, Colorado to assume my summer internship at Crispin Porter + Bogusky as an Interactive Creative. The driving distance is approximately 2,163 miles, and if I were to drive non-stop it would take approximately 33 hours. My childhood friend Nick will accompany me on the journey to ensure I don’t end up in Texas.

Map of our route.

Our travel itinerary:

Friday
- Drive: Mid-coast Maine –> Worcester, MA
- Road time: Approx. 4 hours
- Spend night in Worcester at Nick’s apartment

Saturday
- Drive: Worcester, MA –> Cleveland, OH
- Road time: Approx. 9 hours, 34 mins
- Spend night in Cleveland at mom’s friend’s home

Sunday
- Drive: Cleveland, OH –> Omaha, NE
- Road time: Approx. 12 hours, 17 mins
- Spend night in Howard Johnson motel

Monday
- Drive: Omaha, NE –> Boulder, CO
- Road time: Approx. 7 hours, 36 mins

I’ll remain in Boulder until August 15th, at which point I will drive to North Carolina in order to complete my senior year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Final week of classes, last Ad Club meeting and it’s time to move on. No, I’m not a senior, just a junior in remission.

The CP+B Boulder interns are finally in touch. Forty-four interns between Boulder and Miami; approximately 22 interns in either location. Students and recent graduates from across the country — areas in which I’ve never even visited. It ’tis a summer to look forward to.

Ra Ra Riot, the killah band of my old high school friend Allie. Check ‘em out.

AIM conversation this evening

* = intentional omission for privacy

rme****: whos this
rme****: i said
rme****: whos this
Me: you’re the one writing to me, hah.
Me: you’re not on my buddy list.
rme****: ok
Me: i have no clue who you are.
rme****: ok
rme****: who is this
Me: ben fisher. who is this.
rme****: ryan ****
rme****: do you go 2 school
rme****: ..
Me: i’m writing a paper — can’t talk, sorry.
rme****: your a computer
rme****: stupid computer

On Wednesday, I attended a presentation by Ben Casnocha. He’s a 19-year-old serial entrepreneur who’s best described by a blurb on Amazon.com promoting his upcoming book (yes, book):

Ben started his first company at age 12. By the time he was 16, he was nominated for Inc. Magazine’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” and was chairman of his second company, Comcate.

During Ben’s visit, he discussed his philosophy toward entrepreneurship. Ben identified three commonalities among effective entrepreneurs and offered recommendations on how to pursue them. The qualities are as follows:

1. Consider entrepreneurship a “life idea” and a commitment

Several traits:
• Screwing around (experimentation with ideas); exploration.
• Juggling several projects and pursuing the ones that show promise.
• A good listener.
• Short, medium and long-term goals.
• Expertise (well, at least emitting the “expert” effect)

2. Seek self-improvement and personal growth

A few areas:
• Mental
• Physical
• Spiritual

Tactics to improve oneself
• Travel somewhere
• Handwritten gratitude notes: Let someone know how much they mean to you and what you appreciate about them
• Form an advisory board: Individuals that you can seek out for advice
• Read books
• Exercise & sleep: Ben challenges the popular misconception that success must come at the price of one’s own health

3. Start now, act always

• Curb the paranoia and share your ideas: Few truly “original” ideas exist. The execution of an idea that typically dictates its success, not the idea in and of itself. The probability of failure is very high with a venture. You should share your ideas and consider their comments/suggestions. It may reduce your probability of failure.
• Laugh at yourself
• Have a bias toward action: Act now or forward hold your peace

Ben’s presentation was truly insightful. He articulated ideas and qualities that I’ve always embraced but couldn’t put into words. I can hardly believe he’s only 19 years old.

When you have a free moment, check out his blog.

Much to my surprise and delight, Citero was recently praised in the blogosphere for his live Hip Hop performance at the UNC Ad Symposium last February. From what I can tell, Pro Hip Hop Marketing & Business News or Access Musik saw the YouTube video and made a post that was picked up by several Hip Hop news feeds. Google “Chris Citero” yourself.

Listen to his tracks. FYI, he just released “Rat Race.”

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