Not as dirty as it sounds, I promise.

I made a gydget for my blog. Click ‘grab it’ to put it on yours!

If you haven’t joined yet, you should.

www.twitter.com

You can sign up to follow my tweets - www.twitter.com/justincole

I’m hoping to have a bit of down time tomorrow to do an update before a panel I’m speaking on. Yay!

Feel Like Myself Again by Brendan Benson

Because hard luck is all that I had
And I felt stuck in the mud
I was a sad and sorry case
But I turned about face
And I feel great
I’m gonna run and I won’t brake
For nothing, no one, just wait
Til I feel like myself again
Til I feel like myself again
Til I feel like myself again

Seasonal depression, stress, debt, lack of excitement (or inability to be excited), lack of exercise and getting chubby, the constant battle between the idealist and realist within me, feeling uninspired, spending every waking moment in front of my computer at work, fear of what might come out and what it might mean or do…I can’t really pinpoint what it was that made me throw my hands up in the air one day and stop blogging. It was so many months ago, I can’t even begin to remember.

All I know is after getting back from SXSW Interactive in Austin yesterday, I am unbelievably inspired. Renewed.

The people. The brilliant people. The fun people. The technology. The feeling of being alive and on the precipice of the it and seeing the future of our collective tomorrow. It was what I needed.

There is lots to tell about the conference - and about the past few months. I’ll be working to get it all out on here in the next few days.

I’m back - re-inspired and free of whatever was holding me back.

While I didn’t get to shake his hand like some of my other coworkers (!@*#!) I did stand about 3 feet away from him and got to hear him speak. By him, of course, I am referring to President William Jefferson Clinton. I have now heard both the Clinton’s speak

AND I did manage to shake the hand of and get a picture with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I was absolutely delighted to say the least. She’s #3 in line!

Click on any of the pictures above to see all of them from the set.

The reception was for the Robert T. Matsui Foundation.

The Robert T. Matsui Foundation for Public Service (“The Foundation”) is a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting careers in public service for recent college and law school graduates. Interned by the Government as a third generation United States citizen merely for being a Japanese American, Robert T. Matsui overcame the interment and was elected to Congress in 1978, after having served as Vice Mayor of Sacramento and on the Sacramento City Council. Mr. Matsui served as a distinguished Member of Congress for 26 years until his death on New Years Day 2005.

Public service in not valued as much as it should be in our society - this foundation hopes to fix that. A great cause.

After the event I got home and watched my latest Netflix DVD - “Bobby”. Bad idea. Being from Massachusetts I love the Kennedy family dearly. And while I knew what was coming in the movie, I didn’t know it would be so hard to watch.

I miss the Kennedy message of hope in politics.

Probably one of the best concerts I’ve ever gone to. And I’ve been to MANY, MANY concerts. It was the incredibly close seating, the fact that I knew every song they sang, the fact that Adam Levine could father my children any day of the week, and well, I love Maroon 5 which made the concert incredibly perfect.

You can see all the pics by clicking on the one below:

I have a bunch of video and will upload them all when I get a second. Here is one for now…

I can’t stop clapping to myself. It was amazing.

Oh…and…I may be seeing President Clinton speak tomorrow.

Hello, best week ever?!

While I’ve been horrible at text based updates and/or providing context to a flurry of images as of late, no one can say I’ve been lax at posting pictures!

And they’re worth a thousand words, right? haha

Eric and I went biking out to Bethesda in Maryland on Saturday and I got a few good pics from that:

And Saturday night Shauna and I went to 17th Street Cafe, JRs, Chi-Cha Lounge (or maybe just stood in line for a hot minute and left), Nellie’s Sports Bar, my coworker’s birthday party at her house, back to Nellie’s Sports Bar, to Ben’s Chili Bowl, and then home. It was mostly walking and lessly drinking…

Tomorrow - Maroon 5 at the MCI Center. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

I’m still updating…

Click here to see pics from Jess and Lara’s birthday shindig at Local 16 -

My friend Chris visited from London - click here to see those pics -

Also, I uploaded some more video.

Here’s video from my ex’s birthday in Provincetown last summer (2006). I didn’t even know this existed until the other day when I found the tape in my video camera -

Here is some video from my trip across the country - this is of Matt and I at Niagra Falls (2006)-

And more video I didn’t remember taking until I stumbled across it the other day. Here is a very nice German guy named Peter I met while in Barcelona (2003). We still talk now and again-

Here is video of a plane flying overhead at Reagan National Airport (2007). It’s from my bike ride the other day. I’m amazed at how close the planes get to the ground!!

I’ve still go more coming, but that is it for now.

Just so you all know, you can view all my videos here and a calendar version of all my pictures here.

Slowly, but surely, I am starting various updating projects. I have been working so much over the past few months I haven’t kept up with email, my blog, video and picture uploading, the works…

Here are some of the recent pics I have uploaded to Flickr. Each of the pics are from an individual set of pictures. Clicking on each one of the pictures will bring you to that set.

My bike trip around D.C.:

Karaoke with Karl and Jess:

Stephanie’s birthday and the 2007 Mt. Vernon Wine Tasting:

And pics from my 40+ mile ride up to Mt. Vernon:

I FINALLY got back to the gym today. The first time since this. Therefore, I am BEAT. I am continuing the updates and will have much more tomorrow!

In my ongoing effort to spend more time doing things that are meaningful to me, I decided to join a group of friends who decided to bike to Mt. Vernon. We left my house at a little past noon and I got back here after 5pm.

The signs said it was 18 miles from D.C. to Mt. Vernon, but given it’s at least 2-3 miles from my house to that point on the map I’d say I rode over 40 miles today.

My longest bike ride in history. And given the fact I haven’t exercised beyond going to and from work on my bike in about 2 months, I know I’m going to feel it tomorrow.

I have so many things floating around in my head I can’t wait to get out there (or here), but I am struggling to stay awake typing this.

Here’s to tomorrow!

I needed a change. And I needed to brush up on my CSS, HTML, and PHP.

All that led to this - my new blog redesign!

It’s a complete reinstall of the backend database along with a brand new theme with some great new features.

However, I am exhausted and not going into all the details now. If you see anything strange and/or some things not working, please let me know - justin@meetjustin.com.

And make sure to vote!

Too funny.

h/t to Kar

Sorry Aretha.

Well, maybe if you want to know if he loves you, you can tell from his kiss. But if you want to know if he even bats for your team you can apparently tell from his walk.

Or so says MSNBC:

A swing of the hips or a swaggered shoulder is enough for many casual observers to identify a man’s sexual orientation, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Observers were only able to accurately guess the sexual orientation of men; with women, their guesses didn’t exceed chance.

This cracked me up:

As the lesbians walked, they slightly moved their shoulders back and forth — Johnson calls it a less exaggerated version of an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type swagger.

I can just hear it now…(read with an Austrian accent): “Yar, I am on the PGA tour and I will terminate you.”

hahahahaha

I am going to saunter away now before a lesbian kicks my butt.