I woke up this morning at 3:15am, after getting about 45 minutes of sleep. The night before I got three hours of sleep after drawing a self-portrait for Drawing 2. According to all standard reasoning, I should be completely asleep, not able to move, and ready to stay in bed all day.

So why am I so productive today?

I woke up, answered the call from my pre-arranged cabbie, and then got picked up at 3:45. I made it to my gate at the Savannah airport with about 20 minutes to spare, right after I bought a Venti sized Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frapuccino. (which is bigger than any drink I ever got before)

I got on my plane and had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with @USCBsandsharks both before and after our simultaneous in-flight naps. *Side-note: she got way more sleep than I did. I got like ten minutes...*

When I arrived at my half-way destination of Charlotte (where I am as I write) I sat right down next to the ONLY plug in sight and got to work on my laptop. I posted a DailyBooth photo, edited a video, uploaded said video, chatted with a LOT of people on my Twitter, and then closed up shop and got some breakfast. Now I'm sitting here munching on yogurt with granola, a muffin, and an egg-and-cheese bagel sandwich. Writing this blog post. I'm even being productive during my sacred meal time.

So the real question I keep coming back to is this: Why in the world am I always productive when I'm traveling? It really confuses me. It makes me want to sleep even more than before, because just thinking about the things that I've been doing is exhausting. And yet, I keep on trucking.

Is it because I want to "look cool" with my MacBook Pro out and in-use? Is it because I can finally escape to a place where I can work, without distractions that normally come with my dorm, or my house at home, or anywhere else I try to get work done? Or is it just the minty caffeine in the huge Frapuccino I had? (the last one is doubtful, since I snoozed on the plane right after downing the whole thing...)

Have you ever found yourself overly-productive and active for no reason and wondered what was making all of the glorious progress happen, and so efficiently at that? Let me know... Otherwise I might not stop and just stay here in Charlotte International Airport working away!

Day two was the meat-and-potatoes day of Geekend. Six timeslots, two or three presentations during each. Yes, admittedly, I missed the first session because I was sleeping (bad Ben!) but the ones that followed were mind-blowingly good. Some of them got me thinking to the point of wanting to launch a new venture... More on that down the road.

Building Whuffie: Reputation and The Future of the Social Web
This presentation talked about concepts and ideas that blew me away and made possibilities open up in my mind that I had never considered or conceived before. Truly awesome. Done by @kplawver

Why the @#$! Aren't You Blogging
I found myself nodding my head in agreement more in this session than any other because it talked about things that I've been experienced with for the last three years or so. The interesting part, for me, was talking with both @doycave and @filljoyner afterwards and getting their perspectives on things I'm doing right now. Outside input is always a good thing! Thanks for the great presentation, you two.

I'm My Own Boss! Now What?
Jen and Frank gave an amazing presentation on how they started their own company and joint venture, and what they realied along the way down the road towards success. Their "Tale of Two Products" was really worth considering, since there's the one hand with one project which has had so much effort put into it, and yet still isn't launched, and then the other case where they made a tiny product within a short time span and it launched with a lot of hype.

Digital Trends Among Digital Natives
Not so much a "here's what and how to do something" presentatio, but more along the lines of presenting facts and figures. All in all, though, @sloanekelley presented some incredibly stimulating statistics that I had never stopped to wonder about or question. Really incredible stuff, and I hope to talk with her more about it down the road.

How To Be A Great Interrogator Designer: What They Don't Teach You In Design School
This panel-style presentation had the four speakers, Andrew, Cari, Ariel & Janna, talking about the things that you need to think about when entering the design field and how you should approach clients to sustain not only your own business, but also a living. I got to talk with Janna after about some opportunities in the future and it should be interesting to (hopefully!) work with her here at SCAD.

Saturday Keynote: Major Nelson
Larry Hryb, more commonly known as Major Nelson (his Xbox Gamer ID) gave a really fun presentation that centered around the job that he does at Xbox and Microsoft and how he does it. I talked with him later and had a really nice photo taken with him, which I'll insert below. The thing that struck me, and I told him this, was that he wasn't ust spouting off facts and figures from some pre-made Microsoft sheet of PR. He was a real, relatable, personable guy who greeted everyone well and had no problem talking with all sorts of people. He also twisted my arm a bit toward getting an Xbox system... What can I say, he's just that nice. Hah!


All in all, a fun day of events that will be great to expand upon tomorrow at the Unconference, lead by Kevin Lawver. I'm heading out to the Geekend Block Party (a whole section of Montgomery Street is blocked off with fun stuff!) so I'll be posting more about tomorrow... well, tomorrow!

Thanks for reading! :)

Hello all!

I'm going to be liveblogging the Friday keynote of Geekend here at http://obviouslybenhughes.com
Follow along below!

The Keynote opens with the creators of Geekend talking about the way the conference came to be, and the people who were supportive of the endeavor.

Sloane Kelly talks to us all about the vision they had for this conference.

The Keynote speaker Aaron Draplin is giving us a presentation (Adobe PDF) about his adventures and the ways that he came from Michigan to become a Graphic Artist. Starts with awesome type-based slides which are incredibly funny.

In an unexpected turn, he mentions that David Carson was supposed to be the speaker, but he isn't here (of course) "So F*** 'em."

Talking about Growing up in Michigan, then in Oregon, and now talking about different projects that he worked on when he "didn't know" he was a graphic Designer, "because no one ever told me"

Moved to California and got his first real job as a designer while living in Laguna Beach, then was "rescued" back to Oregon, "back home again".

Now talking about "What I do"
"A lot of the guys that I sat with on a chairlift are now making things and heading up companies..."

"Working within very tiny budgets, what could we make?" "We were just about showing our friends and the ways these kids wore their hats and jackets." "99 out of 100 won't do what the pros do" (in ads) "but they will be" (lounging around, being normal, relatable to the real life people who are seeing the ads)

When he started Snowboard Magazine with friends he was trying to relate it to the 99 percent of people, the ones who wont be doing the insane tricks and such.

Tips for the ways he designs: don't "muck" with the photo. leave it alone. let the beautiful girl just be naturally beautiful, don't lay type over her face, just show the products and don't make it overly complicated

"So here I was working with my friends, on stuff that wasn't that big, and then going out and selling this stuff to the big box store."

Now were getting to the stuff I do that didn't make one penny, and I just love to work. I work a lot. This is my favorite project of the summer months: Richmond Fontaine type/jacket/disk CD design project, and he did it because he's been in love with their music for a really long time.

One of my favorite things is making logos. Making identities. Some of them are 5-grand, but some of them are nothing. (Writer's note: it's nice to see that he doesn't mind doing projects for people who might not be able to get them done well, and that the big-name brands and the small ones all get the same amount of awesomeness in their designs)

"That was a job. I wasn't really in to it, and the reason it's next to the logo for M&L (couple who got married) is because I just wasn't as "in" to it as much." (talking about his Nike Air Max 360 logo)

Favorite Logo: Cobra Dogs
Funnest Logo: Redwing Farms (Logo done for John Hughes, without him ever knowing that it was anyone other than "Mr. John", until after the job was finished)
Biggest Logo: The Stimulus Package and TIGER logos

********My laptop's battery died then, and the guy working the event wouldn't let me plug in my power cord. Gawsh.********

All in all it was a really informative, well thought out, provocative Keynote that made me think about he design that I do and how I want to change my point of view.

Oh, and here's Aaron Draplin himself lifting me up for a photo op. Yep.

Good night everyone. See you all at the conference tomorrow!