I’ve been anxious to share this great news with you for a while. Many of you already know that myself and 12 of my friends dedicate our free time to organizing the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party (in two years, we’ve raised over $25,000 for Operation Breakthrough). After last year’s party, my friends and I have realized that throwing just 1 benefit party wasn’t enough. We wanted to do more. We knew we could do it.

Fast-forward to now.

We’ve started the Breakthrough Crew, a volunteer group with the objectives of increasing awareness about Operation Breakthrough and furthering its mission through service opportunities. We’ve created a website, www.kcbreakthroughcrew.org + a logo for the Breakthrough Crew, check it out:

What exactly does that mean? This group’s mission is to put together fun, meaningful events and activities that will help directly benefit OB or raise awareness about their cause. For example, everything from donation campaigns, fundraisers, to happy hours and online campaigns and memes.

So, to kick things off, the Breakthrough Crew launched our first campaign called Operation: Spring Cleaning. We realized this time of year many people begin Spring cleaning around the house, and instead of throwing stuff away- we want people to consider donating to OB. Gently used clothing, shoes, books, and toys are items that children and adults at Operation Breakthrough can use. And we’ve partnered with Standard Style boutique and Tower Tavern to serve as drop-off locations, who are also offering discounts for donations.

Find out all the details on how you can help on our website or help spread the word on Facebook. You can also print this flier and hang it wherever you’d like.
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I was so excited to learn how to snowboard this year! It was a big-darn-deal to me, I even blogged about it here’s my 3 favorite photos from the trip I posted to flickr.

Most normal people write their goals at the beginning of the year. I didn’t do that this year. I forgot.

I accept, and take full responsibility for the lack of direction I’ve provided my own self.

There. I said it. Shame on me.

In my defense, I’ve put thought towards my 2010 goals prior to writing this blog post, and this personal homework of mine is long overdue.

So, you might be wondering- it’s March 1st already, why am I bothering to do this now?

I realized last year when writing my goals for 2009, it’s important to sit down and go through this process. I’ll admit, it’s sorta weird at first. But like every great project, setting goals and objectives is the first step in planning to succeed. We become who we believe we are. And if we don’t know what to believe we are, you’re just going through the motions (life’s too short to do that).

PS, I wish I could have tracked my own traffic to my 2009 goals blog post- because I visited it often throughout the year …just to see how I was doing. Most of the time, I was furthering each goal throughout the entire year.

*(this list is in no particular order)

*10 things I want to achieve in the year, 2010:

1.) Improve upon my knowledge and experience as a web consultant and digital strategist (w/emphasis on social media).

2.) Spend more time being helpful through my blog publishing (ramseymohsen.com). Develop an active community that interacts and contributes.

3.) Do: 1 random act of kindness each week.
4.) Shoot: 1 creative photo each week.

5.) Mature as freelance video blogger. Try new things with it and increase the professional execution of my work to a new level.

6.) Ask lots of questions when in the presence of brilliant people, then share it with others.

7.) Spend more time with my family.

8.) Plan and organize an even better Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

9.) Improve upon my photog skills from others (like Rebecca) and continue to experiment and learn my own.

10.) Continue to discover my personal passions in life (and share them with others).

Here are my three words to describe my goals for 2010 (an exercise explained by Chris):
1.) Alignment
2.) Build
3.) Jump

So how about you? How’s your start on 2010? Make a comment. Are you on your way to set yourself up to achieve the things you want in 2010? Have you put thought to what you’re trying to achieve in 2010?

I say bring it 2010 …i’m going to knock it out of the park.

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(photo credit: Robin)

…inspiration can strike us in the strangest ways (like looking down at a sweetheart, sitting on your desk.).

This one happened to catch my attention, at work, when I was eating some leftover candy from Valentine’s Day. I believe you can never be to busy to search for inspiration.

Your elementary teachers and mom & dad had it right when they told you, “have the right attitude.” Adding to that, I say; have the right attitude about inspiration.

Inspiration can’t be episodic. Find a way to be inspired frequently.
Read books, blogs, listen to speeches, podcasts, TV programs of people that truly motivate you.  Surround yourself with friends that motivate you. That moment of inspiration you get when your neurons “spark” you to do something or take action is what life is all about. Whatever it is that ignites that, do it.

You can never be to busy to search for inspiration. Make sure you are not only inspired, but frequently. It can’t be every other month, strive to make it daily or at least weekly. Make post-it notes, put quotes on your bathroom mirror, send yourself reminders, setup alerts — you must foster the right environment. I personally have a fear of mediocrity and you should too.

Each dose of inspiration fades, but once you figure out how to continual reignite that spark — it’s addictive… in a GREAT way.

So that’s my take… what’s yours? How do you get motivated?
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Each day I find myself with at least one message in my inbox asking “What tool do you use?” or “What website do you use for X”. So I think this blog post will give you an idea of what I use / equipment I’m digging right now. My plan is that this will be a “living” blog post that I’ll update as things shift (which likely will be quite often). I started this blog post in July of 2009. It’ll also make it easy for me to point people to when they ask questions

Tools and Websites I Like:

YouTube – main channel in which I post all my video blogs
Vimeo – secondary place in which I redundantly post some of my video blogs, HD quality here is much better than it is on YouTube
Wordpress.org – blog software I use
Gmail – my primary personal email
TweetDeck – the app I use at home for Twitter, I use the crap out of the filters functions
HootSuite – the app I use at home for Twitter, I love the filters + future tweet functions
Tweetie – the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
HootSuite – the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
Flickr – I upload and post all my photos here
Netvibes – this is my preferred RSS reader when I’m at a computer
Google Reader (mobile) – this is what I use on iPhone to read RSS
Delicious – I bookmark everything I find interesting here
VerticalResponse – my email marketing software
Adobe Elements – my photo imaging editor
Adobe Premier – my preferred video editing software (this may change very soon)
Final Cut Express – my video editing software I use for my video blogs
GelaSkins – I’ve got one of these on all my stuff. I’m really into the art community @website
Grooveshark – the ‘google’ of music searching. I use this to quickly preview songs.
FlipMinoHD – this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon HF21 – this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon 40D – this is the DSLR camera I use to take my photos
Canon S90 – this is the point and shoot I use
Canon SD750 – this is the point and shoot I use
Mac Pro (desktop tower) – this is my computer I use at home

What’s on my screen during any given work day:

I open and close many websites and a few applications in the given day. Here are typically what you would find open if you were to walk up to my computer during the day. You might be surprised to find that I don’t keep either a Twitter, Facebook, or Gmail open at all times it’s true, I prefer to “dive-in and out” during the day when appropriate.

Outlook – work email
iTunes – music player
Textpad – I work in this religiously, it’s like my workspace to stub out anything (e.g. short-term lists, copy-paste storage, virtual post-it)
Firefox – my preferred web browser software

Some of you will find this blog post interesting- some of you will not. I’m hoping for some it will turn your head to maybe something you’re not familiar with to check out. If you’re looking for more- check out the inkkc.com “My Essentials” feature I was featured in 2008 this year.
(photo credit = beautyinmetal)
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this world is beautiful.

I came across a short video of the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, it’s the 2nd largest aquarium in the sea. Watch the video (make sure the HD is on if your computer can handle it, the clarity is stunning).

When you’re watching, I couldn’t help but think and appreciate the beautiful “other” world that exists on our planet, the sea. This video is incredible because it captures the amazing diversity of all these species all coexisting …in this one giant fish tank.

Yes, everyone is in full swing of the fast paced start to the new year (i’m guilty), but occasionally we need to make time to slow down, step back and appreciate the beauty all around us.

[record scratch]

I know, I know cheezy stuff …but perhaps I was brainwashed by James Cameron after watching Avatar in 3D, but I mean it. Make sure you’re not moving to fast to lose sight of the beauty right in front of you. Or in this case, right below us.

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Tonight, I am emotionally bloated.

So, naturally, as a blogger at heart, I figure the best way to relieve myself is to write and share 2 things with you that have jarred my mental senses.

During the holiday break- I was able to knock-out several items from my official “things I’ve been meaning to do but life is too crazy to do it now so I’ll just get to it later” list (i’m not lying, this is a real list, I have an inbox folder + a dedicated Google Doc for this). On the list was 1 Movie and 1 YouTube video to see. After watching both, I was swiftly hit over the head with the same message, “remember this dude- you can learn from it.” Hence, this blog post is my release to share with you what I learned from both…

1.) “The Movie”
I watched the movie “Up in the Air”, starring George Clooney. Without ruining the movie, I can tell you it’s a story about a man who spends most of his time traveling in airplanes and basks in detachment. He has no close ties to other people, including his family, holds few possessions and makes good money. Movie synopsis aside, it had some powerful underlying life lessons. There were two easy takeaways from the flick I interpreted:

• Your family is a big darn deal- don’t ever forget that- put them first no matter how crazy your life gets.




• Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans (John Lennon). Don’t let it slip by because you’re trying to “organize it” perfectly.

As good as those two are, my favorite souvenir from the movie can be summarized by a recent quote my friend Sam blogged:

• “Everyone needs something to do, something to look forward to and something to love.*”

You might have missed it while reading it, but I placed an “*asterisk” at the end of the quote because I think it requires some elaboration. While all those things are true, I would add this must be genuine and come from your heart. I also acknowledge, this might require some soul searching, experiments, risks and failing [gasp, yes- I said it]. All which take persistence, patience and time.

2.) “The YouTube video”
Ask any geek, anything that comes from the mouth of the living-prophet-on-earth a.k.a. Steve Jobs is almost always brilliant (or at least in our minds it is). Recently, I watched YouTube video of a commencement speech Steve Jobs gave at Standford University back in 2005 (written transcript here). His delivery wasn’t exactly polished, but the message was definitely received. He shares 3 very intimate stories about his own personal life that paints the message, “…pursue your dreams and see the opportunities even when life seems to set you back.”

It’s a 15-minute speech. Watch it. When you have time on your lunch break or you can play it in the background while you’re doing other things. It’s worth your time. There is one quote that resonated above all others:

“Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Watching and listening to the Steve Jobs YouTube video + “Up in the Air” the movie certainly got the juices flowing for my learning’s from 2009 and thinking about my goals for 2010. Both great motivational food for the soul and a potent dose of inspiration. (big thank to Lynds for the title of the bpost)
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In 2008, the dream, vision and “what if”, became a reality. Not only did we launch the 4th Annual to a full fledged benefit- but we exceeded every goal and expectation we set when we planned the party. Looking back- it was grueling at times, but incredibly fulfilling seeing the outcome and the result. Over $7,000 was raised for Operation Breakthrough in 2008.

Here is the story behind the party (if you don’t know):

The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party began in 2005, as a small holiday gathering hosted by a group of friends (me +2 roommates). While cleaning up in 2007, we decided to turn all of our hard work in to good for others, and raise money for a charity.

A steering committee of 15 volunteers made time to plan this party. We aren’t affiliated with any one organization – we’re just a group of friends who want to give back to our community.

Our goal is to make a positive impact by donating as much money and toys to Operation Breakthrough as possible. Our vision for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party is to make it the biggest and best annual holiday fundraiser in Kansas City!

Fast forward to 2009 and the planning of the 5th Annual, our second year of being a “real-deal” benefit party. Rather than being intimidated about topping last year’s party- we went full force with ensuring that 2009 was bigger and better. Careful planning to upgrade the party were outlined and executed. The original steering committee was back for the second year and we were more motivated than before. It was incredible to see the us find our stride again- but this year, we found it was far more effective to play to the strengths of each committee member to get stuff done.

Long nights, hard work and careful planning paid off …again. We set the goal of $10,000 and we raised over $16,000 to give back to Operation Breakthrough! Again, in our wildest dreams (and our Excel spreadsheet that had our estimated financial goals) we never even thought it was possible that we could raise this much.

I mentioned this before in a blog post last year- but in planning this party, I have found there’s a lot of people out there that sincerely want to do good in this world- they just don’t have the right opportunity to do it. We, as a group of friends, have made it our mission to do good by planning this party and empower others to have an opportunity to not only do good, but carry the message about Operation Breakthrough.

This party is OUR mark in the world in being the difference.

I have learned so much more than just how to throw a party. These experiences and lessons learned, have truly made us all better people. I still get chills thinking about how a small house party has evolved into something much bigger. We are making a direct impact in the community, right here, in a city we’re all proud of, Kansas City.

I get excited even at just the mere thoughts of what we are capable of accomplishing in the future. While this is our “5th Annual”, it’s still very much only the beginning. The best still has yet to come for The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Stay tuned for 2010. After all, this party is Kansas City’s biggest, wildest, sweateriest bash of the season!
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I read every blog comment, email, Twitter replies, smoke signals etc. and DM you send me. I can also confidently say- I almost always respond to all of them. A lot of you sent messages yesterday. Some positive and some negative. To all, thank you.

There shouldn’t be any doubt I will continue to stick to what I enjoy doing- which is creating content the way I want to, the way I do it. That doesn’t mean I won’t evolve things or tweak and refine- but you won’t be seeing drastically different things here.
–

Each day I find myself with at least one message in my inbox asking “What tool do you use?” or “What website do you use for X”. So I think this blog post will give you an idea of what I use / equipment I’m digging right now. My plan is that this will be a “living” blog post that I’ll update as things shift (which likely will be quite often). It’ll also make it easy to point people to when they ask questions

Tools and Websites I Like:

YouTube – main channel in which I post all my video blogs
Vimeo – secondary place in which I redundantly post some of my video blogs, HD quality here is much better than it is on YouTube
Wordpress.org – blog software I use
Gmail – my primary personal email
TweetDeck – the app I use at home for Twitter, I use the crap out of the filters functions
HootSuite – the app I use at home for Twitter, I love the filters + future tweet functions
Tweetie – the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
HootSuite – the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
Flickr – I upload and post all my photos here
Netvibes – this is my preferred RSS reader when I’m at a computer
Google Reader (mobile) – this is what I use on iPhone to read RSS
Delicious – I bookmark everything I find interesting here
VerticalResponse – my email marketing software
Adobe Elements – my photo imaging editor
Adobe Premier – my preferred video editing software (this may change very soon)
Final Cut Express – my video editing software I use for my video blogs
GelaSkins – I’ve got one of these on all my stuff. I’m really into the art community @website
Grooveshark – the ‘google’ of music searching. I use this to quickly preview songs.
FlipMinoHD – this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon HF21 – this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon 40D – this is the DSLR camera I use to take my photos
Canon SD750 – this is the point and shoot I use
Mac Pro (desktop tower) – this is my computer I use at home

What’s on my screen during any given work day:

I open and close many websites and a few applications in the given day. Here are typically what you would find open if you were to walk up to my computer during the day. You might be surprised to find that I don’t keep either a Twitter, Facebook, or Gmail open at all times it’s true, I prefer to “dive-in and out” during the day when appropriate.

Outlook – work email
iTunes – music player
Textpad – I work in this religiously, it’s like my workspace to stub out anything (e.g. short-term lists, copy-paste storage, virtual post-it)
Firefox – my preferred web browser software

Some of you will find this blog post interesting- some of you will not. I’m hoping for some it will turn your head to maybe something you’re not familiar with to check out. If you’re looking for more- check out the inkkc.com “My Essentials” feature I was featured in 2008 this year.
(photo credit = beautyinmetal)
–

My new roommates and I are FAR from even being brilliant chefs above average cooks, but we decided, what the heck — why not throw something together for Easter dinner. Each of us took portion of the meal to cook for dinner. I foolishly decided to take the main course; a baked ham. For those of you who know me well (or just ask my parents) the kitchen isn’t anything I’m too familiar with …in fact I’m pretty much clueless when it comes to cooking food period.

Needless to say, dinner turned out great! The ham was del-cious. I snapped a few pics of dinner and you can view them on my flickr account or watch a slideshow.

Check out my new lenses!  I got the 50mm and the 17-40mm Canon lenses for my 40D! I’m pretty stoked to start shooting with these. At first I was really timid about getting out and shooting — now I’ve just embraced the attitude to get out there and go after it.  It’s the only way I’ll get better.

This week I’ve been traveling — I spent the last two days at Timberland shoes HQ working on EarthKeepers, a website project I’m managing due to launch later this year. It’s actually been really fun learning about Timberland and the environmental focus they’ve taken.

FYI: the term “EarthKeeper” just means someone who cares about the environment. Earthkeepers are people doing small things, like recycling, biking instead of driving and using energy-efficient light bulbs. And it also describes people who do BIG super cool things like replanting eroded areas or retrofitting their engines to run on bio fuel.

Timberland certainly doesn’t have all the answers– they know this. But they realize it’s important share stories of how others are helping the planet and how you can too. Timberland has some great stories of its own.

I really am excited in the coming months to share with you the website (once it launches) that will be the destination for EarthKeepers (p.s. I’ve learned a ton regarding the environment, more than I’d ever imagine I’d be interested in) …so stay tuned!
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VACA! This past weekend my friends and I traveled to the wonderful city of Breckenridge, Colorado. I haven’t taken a vacation in what feels like FOREVER, so it was great just setting out on a journey that didn’t have any agenda!

You’ll notice I snapped a TON of pictures on this trip. You can view, download or watch a slideshow of the full set of pictures from the trip on my Flickr account. The photos in this album are taken with my Canon 40D or Canon SD750. I’m still learning a lot in terms of basic photog skills, I’ve still got a lot of practice I need to do. Any critique is welcome (good or bad!).

I’ve been skiing ever since I was a little kid (thanks Mom & Dad!) — so I really enjoy it. I’m now at a crossroads, I’m good enough at skiing that I could take lessons to get really good at moguls and the really really hard stuff OR I could start from the beginning with snowboarding. I think next time I’m going to try snowboarding…

Hhhhhhappy Valentine’s Day everyone! In my opinion, it’s one of those holidays in which it’s all about expectations. Meaning, it’s much more healthy for your concious if you lower your expectations so that you’re either pleasantly surprised or you are not to bummed out.

Anyways, I thought I’d share my favorite Valentine’s card that I came across from a hilarious website, someecards.com. Their stuff is HIL-arious and I often wonder what it’s like to sit at the table when these guys are coming up with these one-liners. It’d be interesting to see how employees at a company like this are inspired and/or share ideas.