EcoLifeSTL.com is a Green-lifestyle portal focused on promoting sustainability and environmental awareness in the St. Louis community. Our aim is to bring the green-lifestyle message to both the average consumer – new to eco commitment and wanting to learn, and to aid and connect those actively pursuing a sustainable lifestyle. As a gathering place for green-minded individuals, companies and organizations, we facilitate connection, education and cooperation in St. Louis’ eco-lifestyle.

EcoLife is Emmis St. Louis’ first truly web-only brand (the general focus usually being radio stations and their online brand-extensions). The Emmis team perceived that while the Green movement is alive in the StL, and there are many small sites addressing various sustainable businesses and topics, there wasn’t a hub – a natural starting place for the St. Louisan looking to go Green. So that’s what we set out to create.

From conception to site launch was a scant couple of months. The aggressive schedule and nature of the product (content-oriented as opposed to promotion-oriented, as our radio station websites are) made EcoLifeSTL a challenge. However, I’m really proud of the way the site came together. As a hands-on creative director, I designed all visual elements of the brand – logo, color scheme, website design and all promotional materials.

My mission was to create a logo and website that communicated a friendly, organic tone, and that differentiated itself from other green-related brands. So many of the non-regional sites devoted to eco-matters feel cold, cookie-cutter or corporate – the antithesis of what our brand needed to convey.

Did it work? Our clients and visitors seem to think so. But what about you?  EcoLifeSTL.com

Like this, but digital.

What’s the big deal with spam?

I’m referring to the unwanted email, mind you, not the highly dubious canned meat product (it deserves an entire column to itself).

Sure, spam clogs up our inboxes. Yes, we waste many minutes of precious surfing time deleting undesired messages and appending mail filters. And, technically speaking, this electronic junk mail absorbs precious bandwidth and slows the entire internet down. But what about the positive side of spam?

Everyday, I’m gratified to open my email and discover 15-35 unsolicited expressions of hope and reassurance. My future sure looks brighter now that I can eliminate my credit card debt, increase my ability to please my lady and start a great career working from home. Those email subject lines inform me that I can get brand name software cheap, cleanse my colon and receive a complimentary gift, all without leaving my keyboard. Now that’s a pep talk!

The encouragement doesn’t stop there. Can I roll with the big boys in an imitation Rolex watch? Sure! Test out a new laptop, and then keep it for my troubles? Why not? Finally get my degree, from an online university that no one’s ever heard of? Spam says, “Heck, yeah! Just click here, and all your wildest dreams will come true.”

These digital rays of sunshine help to offset the outpouring of negativity I receive electronically from friends, family and co-workers. Nary a day goes by that I’m not informed that my cell phone number is about to be sold to telemarketers, or that a looming stock market crash threatens my investment portfolio (when did I get one of those?). Beware, they say, the Me_Tarzan_You_Gates virus is going to erase my hard drive and install “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” as my operating system!

This friendly fire is bringing me down. I’m sure the tone-deaf, ankle-less, goat shepherding boy in Abawanda could benefit from the 1/227th of a cent raised for every person to whom I forward that dreadful message of woe. But now I’m too depressed even to probe my address book for other loved ones to drag into despair.

It’s much more uplifting to read this email from a nice man in Zimbabwe whose wealthy uncle, the Baron, has just passed on. He’d like to share half the inheritance if I agree to funnel the money into the States using my private bank account. Isn’t that swell of him?

I read these awkwardly phrased, horribly spelled cries for attention aloud each day like a self-help mantra. I can have thicker, fuller hair. I can afford off-brand health insurance. I can find love in my zipcode.

And I can savor the satisfaction of clicking “delete” and sending each and every piece of electronic junk mail to its digital doom.

It just feels so good!

I used to hate Hugh Grant in every movie he appeared in. Then he was a part of the fabulous ensemble cast of ‘Love Actually’ and his suckage rating went way down. Today we saw him with Drew Barrymore in ‘Music and Lyrics’, which was a helluva lot of fun. Drew is as cute as I’ve ever seen her (and that’s pretty darn cute) and Grant’s character is likable, funny and altogether someone you’d be pleased to know. It’s a light movie with a ton of laughs and personalities you actually believe in and want to root for. Check it out.

New Hotness

We got the new hotness in a work. About 8 months back I put in a request for phatty-boom-blatty HD camera and editing system, with little hope of it happening. Found out right before we left for NYC that we got it. Received all the pieces and set it up on Friday. We’re talking tricked out Mac Pro system with a freakin’ huge monitor, a really nice video camera and the Final Cut Pro editing suite. It’s all so sexy!

I’ve never gotten around to really blogging about the NYC trip, out of pure exhaustion, and it’s not likely that I will. So I’ll try to share a few photos here and there. You know, for continuity.

Gene at the New York City Comicon

NYC sandwich shop with an awesome name.

Signature of Brian K. Vaughn, writer of Y: The Last Man, new story editor on Lost and number one super guy.

Animated Batman bank, purchased at the con. Nine dollars and 99 cents of awesomeness. (For some reason, you can't see his mouth in the photo...)

Today, after over a year of saving and oddball freelance jobs, I finally acquired a new computer. I call her Serenity, and she’s a MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo, all white, sleek and lightweight.

This is a pretty big jump from my Mac Mini, which is 4 processors back (G4-G5-Core Duo-Core 2 Duo) and feeling the strain of heavy programs like Photoshop CS2, Flash 8 and Dreamweaver 8 (and I tend to run these and other programs all at the same time).

The thing, though, is that I bought this machine primarily for writing. Some time ago, I started clearing the spare room first used for video games and random storage to create a writing room. I wanted a separate space from the office, where the Mini is and where we do all of our general computer stuff, plus my freelance design. It’s also where I practice and record music, my (seldom used) drawing table is in there, and a ton of books, files and other who’sits and what’sits live there, too. It’s a cluttered space, and I wanted to escape that to some degree to write. Plus, having the second machine in it’s own space allows Wendy and I to both get online and do our stuff at the same time, instead of hovering over the other, waiting for them to log off.

To a degree, I’ve been waiting on this machine to really dig into my writing projects. Which, of course, was an excuse to procrastinate. I’ve not been completely idle, though. Over the past year and a half, I’ve filled a dense, gridlined book with my tiny, hasty print, detailing story ideas, comic scripts, full scenes, character descriptions, scraps of song lyrics and even, uncharacteristically, a poem or two. Only the script to a comic project with my buddy Gene, Good Intentions, has made it’s way to the computer screen.

In January, I’m going underground. When I’m not at work, I’ll be writing and working on my (long overdue) music demo. I’m burning some vacation time and taking a week off, to concentrate on my creative projects. The rest of the month, my evenings will be devoted to advancing those projects. I’m reserving one night a week for my girl, and one for being social. If all goes according to plan (when does that ever happen?), the rest of the time I’ll be a hermit. Hopefully I’ll make some real headway, and it will give me an honest idea of what it’s like to pursue that kind of creative life.

Some of you might be thinking, “he’s kind of a hermit anyway”. And that’s true at times. I guard my private time fiercely, mostly because my busy lifestyle has always been an obstacle to my creative life. I’m learning, though, that I need to be my own Ganesha and clear away those obstacles, and excuses. When I’m creative and productive, I’m a way happier guy, and generally more social.

So, January, me and Serenity get to know each other. But first, Christmas and the hallowed Armadian tradition, New Year’s Eve shindig! Happy (insert appropriate religious / social / Hallmark holiday here)!