As a Christmas gift last year, I received a 6 months subscription to Netflix. It’s perhaps the best thing ever. (I could end the post right here and feel good about it, but simple praise is not the real reason I’m writing).

I utilize the Netflix online streaming probably even more than I do DVDs by mail. It’s great, a huge library of online movies I can stream whenever I want. Well, two nights ago I went to throw on a movie and found that their streaming service was down. I was a bit disappointed, but Hulu filled my movie-watching void for that night.

What really makes Netflix special to me is the e-mail that I received this morning. It was a simple letter of apology attached to a 2% credit on my next bill. In a few short paragraphs they said, “I’m sorry we screwed up, let us compensate you for the loss in service.”

It’s not much, I know, but equate this to when your cable TV is out for a day or two (which has happened to me more often than I think it should, thank you Time Warner.) Does the cable company ever make an effort to apologize? Would they ever adjust your bill for loss of service? Simple answer: No.

Thank you, Netflix.

So, I got this crazy idea back in late March that for the summer I was going to do something fun, exciting, risky, scary, and cool all at once. That was, get a motorcycle. Most would agree the motorcycle does not exactly fit my personality. I’m typically quiet, reserved, and cautious. Nevertheless, I do have an adventurous side that yearns for excitement, he talked me into it.

When this idea first popped into my head, I had never been on a bike before, I had no idea how to ride, and the even thought of zipping down the road at 50+ mph had my stomach churning. It was not something that I had be waiting to do for a long time, the thought never crossed my mind in the past.

Long story short, I am proud of myself. When I came to the conclusion that riding a motorcycle would fulfill my criteria (fun, exciting, cool, risky, scary), I just did it. I got my temps, took and passed the Motorcycle Ohio course, purchased a bike, licensed the bike (and myself) and started riding to work, all within 6 weeks. I didn’t waste any time debating it, talking about it, thinking about it, musing over it, etc. I made the choice and then sprang right into action.

To often, I see people talk about some brilliant idea for the longest time and never take it anywhere. I’ve seen this in business on an occasional project where one will dote on an issue that is not all that important anyway thus hurting progress and blowing up timeline and budget. Sure, some critical thinking is essential, a little more can be beneficial as well, but after that, the quicker you can get to an action point, the better.

Luckily, the guys that I work with at dynamIt have a knack for finding that great balance between thought and action.

My advice: Do work. Get shit done.

One of the more interesting bits in the history of mathematics is Zeno’s Paradox. Zeno’s Paradox goes a long way in demonstrating the infinitude of the real numbers.

It can be stated as follows: In order to walk from one end of the room to another, I must first cover half of the distance and walk to middle of the room, but before I can walk to the middle of the room, I must cover half of the distance to the middle and walk one-quarter of the room, but before I walk one-quarter of the room, I must walk half that and walk 1/8 of the room, and so on.

As I can divide by two ad infinitum, I must execute an infinite number of tasks in order to walk across the room, thus it is not possible.

Furthermore, because the set { …, 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 } has no first term, I am not even able to begin the task of walking the length of the room.

Now, what we can extrapolate from this is pretty cool. Zeno shows that between 0 and 1 there are infinitely many numbers. But 0 and 1 were arbitrary end points. Suppose, we wish to go from 1/4 to 1/2, we must first find ourselves at 3/8. Hence, we can use this same construction and show that there are infinitely many real numbers between 1/4 and 1/2. In fact, between any two number (no matter which numbers we choose) there are infinitely many numbers that fall between them.

I was reminded of Zeno this evening as I was browsing MIT OpenCourseWare. I found a course that I am going to teach myself, in fact, the two text are on their way from Amazon. The title of the course is Paradoxes & Infinity, and Zeno’s Paradox is the first topic discussed.

The lecturer gets the course off to a fun start by presenting the perfect hangover cure (PDF), theoretically speaking. It is based on Zeno’s Paradox, and much like how you can never get from one end of your room to the other, this mathematician explains how you never need to feel the effects of a hangover.

I’ll drink to that.

I cannot sleep at all right now. It’s probably because I am so excited about tomorrow. Tomorrow marks another dynamIt Holiday Dinner, the 4th annual. And to me, it is the best night of the year.

Donning our finest suits, each member of the dynamIt team and a date attend the Holiday Party held each year at the original Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse in Upper Arlington.

It is always a wonderful evening. Great food, great drink, great conversation, but most of all great company…who could ask for more?

Wow. This week was crazy, and strangely enough, it had nothing to do with the holidays.

Let’s recap: Sunday night I did not sleep a bit, and after telling my parents Monday morning that I needed our family doctor’s number because I was up all night with bad chest pain, they were insistent that I go to the emergency room. Is there a better way to start off the week than a trip to the hospital?

Tuesday was fun, had an 8am downtown, then I stopped by one of our strategic partners in Dublin for a quick checkup and ended up sticking around for three additional new biz meetings and not leaving until well after 5pm. Hence that night from 7 until 2am I had to actually do my day’s work.

Wednesday was ok, but Thursday was back to me jumping in and out of meetings all day, and again another long night of work which concluded with my falling asleep while sitting up at my computer.

Then there was Saturday. On Saturday, I had my high school reunion, which I attended. It started at 5pm at a bar across the street from our new office, so the VIP party at the office started at 4. I somehow found my way back home close to 4am. I’ll let your imagination fill in the twelve hours in between.

So, I did not get much sleep at all this week, but that is ok. I will always trade sleep for excitement and my week was exciting. Yeah, every once in a while it is good to slow down, but if you sit idle for too long it is inevitable that you will get bored. Yes. I am thankful for weeks like these, they can be tough but they are also what makes life awesome.

As the new year approaches I imagine people are discussing their plans for new year’s resolutions. I think to myself, the concept of the new year’s resolution is interesting. It is a good idea, but it’s also a really faulty one. The base premise of improving oneself is wonderful, but why wait for a new year to start considering how you should change?

On the contrary, I believe we should always have that move towards perfection in mind. To me it is a very natural inclination to think how I can be better. How can I improve the quality of myself and my life? This thought should never really leave, we should not need an annual reminder that it is time to improve.

The biggest lifestyle changes that I have seen in recent years have come sporadically. I am just fine with that. Back in April 2007, I began lifting weights regularly, which I still do today. In December of 2007, I started making it a priority to keep up-to-date with web/tech news, a habit that I’ve kept. In May of 2008, I got back into playing volleyball (which, given its frequency, you may argue is actually now a bad habit). In fact, about a month ago I came up with another good one, and I am working on it this moment.

Did I wait around for something to spark these changes? No, that would be silly. Instead, I saw room for improvement, decided that I wanted it, and committed to the change. To me, it does not matter that there was no real reason or catalyst for these changes beyond my own desire for perfection. And, if you have to wait for the new year to roll around before you even consider how you might improve yourself, you’re frankly not ready for change.

Being a Florida State football fan my whole life, I have come to expect the worst when I hear of players’ off-the-field news, but this year has been a bit different. Sure there has been a few suspensions for unsavory activity, but the most news has surrounded starting safety Myron Rolle. Myron is one of the nation’s best at his position, as an excellent defensive leader he had started every game in his three year career at Florida State until last Saturday.

Myron missed nearly the entire first half of Saturday’s game against Maryland due to an off-the-field issue. I know what you are thinking: did he skip class? did he break team rules? did he get arrested? No. Myron could not make the opening kickoff because he was busy interviewing for the Rhodes Scholarship. In fact, he was not just busy interviewing, he was busy winning the scholarship. Yes, early in the evening last Saturday Myron Rolle was named a 2009 Rhodes Scholar. One of only 32 students across the country to win this prestigious award this year.

What an amazing feat, what an amazing person! While most student-athletes find it difficult to balance their academic and athletic duties, Myron is busy excelling both on the field and in the classroom. Though he is an incredibly talented individual, thers is no doubt a tremendous amount of hard work and effort was put forth. If more individuals shared similar aspirations, who knows what they could accomplish.

If you stop and think about it, you realize that this accomplishment is truly unexpected from a man in Myron’s position. You too often hear stories of college football players who never amount to much or are constantly in trouble because of character issues. Too common are players getting into trouble or being arrested anymore. It just makes Myron’s story all the more refreshing.

On a similar note, I would really like to salute his Florida State teammates. When Myron arrived at the Maryland game late in the first half and walked out of the locker room ready to take his place in the secondary, it suddenly, for a short period, did not matter that a football game was going on. Every player on the sideline came right up to him and gave him a celebratory hug or pat on the shoulder pads. We are talking about a group of collegiate football players, most of which probably have no idea what the Rhodes Scholarship is all about. However, they recognize that it is a major accomplishment, one that is incredibly important to Myron and to their school.

The Seminoles played a great game of football, especially the defense. They recorded nearly a half dozen sacks, they forced four turnovers, held their opponent to just 3 points all night. Myron Rolle had very little to do with the effort, but his team knew that he was the hero of the night. To me, the coolest gesture came as the final seconds ticked off the clock when two Seminole players gave Myron Rolle the traditional Gatorade shower.

In my opinion, it was an all-around great night for college sports.

Late last Thursday, I did something that I had never done, I went to the midnight showing of a newly released movie. As much as I enjoy movies I do not often attend theaters. But, when it is a new Bond flick that is out, I have to see it.

I was first introduced to the character of James Bond by my dad when I was young. I recall being skeptical of my dad’s recommendation and did not watch until he bet me $10 that I would like it. I took the bet, and two hours later I was ten dollars poorer.

Since then, I have grown to be quite the Bond fanatic. To me, James Bond is the most appealing character in all of literature. I even dare say that every man wishes he were James Bond at some point in his life. The cars, the gadgets, the girls, the locations, the adventures, who would not want to live the life of James Bond, even if for just a short while.

So, back to Thrusday, how would Quantum of Solace stack up to the rest? After Casino Royale, it was clear that Bond was back. The plot was compelling, the action was excellent, it did a great job making up for the travesty that was Die Another Day. But, would the new movie continue this Daniel-Craig-is-a-badass trend?

Answer: Yes. Quantum of Solace picked up right where Casino Royale left off (literally, as it was the first ever direct sequel in the Bond series) presenting more of the same great thrill. It was action-packed, suspenseful and intriguing, qualities shared by all Bond movies. If you like James Bond, you will not be disappointed by Quantum of Solace.

My Favorites:

• Favorite Bond movie: Goldfinger (with Live and Let Die and Dr. No close behind)
• Favorite James Bond: Sean Connery (no contest, but I do really like portrayal of Bond by both Roger Moore and Daniel Craig as well)
• Favorite villain: Ernst Stavro Blofeld
• Favorite henchman: Oddjob (part of me wishes I owned a steel-brimmed bowler hat)
• Favorite Bond girls: Domino in Thunderball and Honey Rider in Dr. No (impossible to choose just one)
• Favorite Bond allies: Quarrel in Dr. No and Dr. Goodhead in Moonraker (though I am a big fan of the many appearances of both Felix Leiter and Q)
• Favorite car: Aston Martin DBS (Casino Royale)
• Favorite gadget: Bond’s briefcase in From Russia with Love (I may have tried to make one myself)

At dynamIt, we moved into The Design Center at Marconi Square down in the Arena District about two months ago. It is a very intriguing building, so I spent a couple hours and did some amateur research on the history of our building. The building was originally built back in the 1890’s. It has seen multiple additions over the last century, but dynamIt’s office is in the original part of the building. In 1891 the building opened as the paint factory for the Dean & Barry Paint Company of Columbus, Ohio. The building saw to the manufacturing of paint and paint products. For nearly a century the building served that very purpose until the company was sold in 1985. From there the building sat virtually empty used only for some auxiliary warehousing, after all there was really nothing around it. Then came the creation of the Arena District and the once seemingly unusable building became a trendy office spot.

So I got to thinking, how cool would it be to go back in time 50 years and walk the streets of Columbus as they were in the late 1950’s? Well, that might not the best idea for me at dynamIt as leaving the office would mean stepping into the backyard of the state penitentiary, but you get the idea. Imagine seeing the sites and the landmarks of the past and hanging out at the popular spots of the time. Think how fascinating it would be to walk around and see how progress has taken over and molded the city.

Then it hit me, 50 years from now, we will be able to do just that. A certain company we all know and love has very detailed photographs of nearly every street in Columbus. I am talking of course about Google. With Google Maps Street View anyone can walk the streets of Columbus in 2008. You do not have to physically be in Columbus to do so. Thus, there is no need to be in 2008 either. All Google needs to do it hold onto this data for the next 50 years and then we will have the ability to travel back in time.

Lately, I’ve been busier at work than ever before. Many would call this a good problem to have for an entrepreneur, but all I can focus on right now are the drawbacks.

Sure my stress level is higher, I get less sleep and feel less rested, I have fewer hours to relax, I have fewer hours to engage in the other fun things in my life. But, there is one thing I miss more than all of these. That is, I feel like I no longer have time to think.

Thinking may be my favorite way to pass the time. It comes in many formats. It may be working through some interesting math problems or completing an intellectual puzzle. Perhaps it’s coming up with new ideas, dreams, plans, goals, etc. and thinking them through. Maybe it is simply reflecting on the day while strategizing for tomorrow.

At any rate, I miss it. My plan for the next month is to control my time better and possibly free up some time to think.