Classic commercial. These are great energy bars if you can get them. You have to start them young!

We spent the last few weeks working on a new local innitiative that is specific to the Boulder, CO location. It will continue to get built out with more functionality but for the immediate the site will give people access to Boulder members, a directory listing of local businesses (on going so please submit new entries) and Boulder events. You can find the site at www.gaia.com/boulder.

This site is the initial entry into a local effort from us so there will be continual updates through out the coming weeks so please bear with us if you see any changes. As always, suggestions are wanted from the community. We worked hard on getting this release out for the community so now it is up to the community (and team) to help build it into a 'local market' online. Enjoy.

Click here for the best bike parking in the world

Usually at this time of year you dont see too much wildlife running around in Boulder apart from ground hogs and deer. Well this weekend, I had a nice surprise when I came around a bend onto to have a black bear about 50 yards down the trail. I expect the reason she/he didnt see/smell me, was as I was down wind from her/him. Needless to say, I had to stop and wait to see what the bear decided to do. It just kept ambling down the trail until it decided to go off into the brush towards a stream bed. This gave me enough time and nerve to run past and keep on my way.

South Boulder has lots of Black Bears so it is not too uncommon to see them. Check out the latest route if you decide you want to do a little 'bear hunting'.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/co/boulder/538150157

Some information about myself and my interaction/role here at Gaia.

Describe what you do at Gaia:
I am the Director of Web Development at Gaiam. I deal with all the web projects apart from Gaiam.com and oversee the development of all things Gaia. If there is web development to be done, my team in the end is the group that produces the results. In addition to the Gaia Development, I deal with all of the DRTV (Direct Response Television) websites. Read: infomercials websites. These are vastly different from the Gaia Community site but no less challenging.

What do you enjoy doing more (what are your greatest passions?):
For me anything that has to do with being outside and getting the blood flowing, I enjoy. Spending as much time as I do in front of the computer, the farther away I can get from it post work the better. My ideal day would be to get up, run 10 miles then get on my bike for another 75 miles, and finish it off with some bouldering up on Flagstaff. Ah, sounds so good, dont tempt me!

What's your favorite thing about our community?
I enjoy seeing all the vitality that is on the site. Hearing how passionate people are about their own specific actions is refreshing to hear. With all the new people coming into the community each day, it is great to see so much potential coming in and knowing this new potential is adding to an already aware group is cool to be involved with. Changing the world does seem possible.

What do you like about working here:
I enjoy seeing and working with people and ideas that are centric to what I believe in. The core group of people here at Gaia and Gaiam, are 100% behind the initiatives that they speak about and ultimately sell to the public.

Meet the rest of the Gaia Team

Last weekend was a great weather weekend. Sunday came with highs in the 60's (remember it is only January!) and after a nice team ride, I got out to run some in South Boulder. The running in South Boulder is some of the est around I feel. You have trails, open spaces, and very few people once you leave the main trails.
I went out to the Big Blue path and headed towards Eldorado again with a detour up skunk Canyon. I saw very few people once I had left Big Blue trail so it was very quiet. Just me and my breathing.
Here is a MapMyRun display. This is a 4 star run for sure.
Copy and paste the following MayMyRun URL to get a nice trail view of the run.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/co/boulder/367423201

Tomorrow will be a fantastic day and a turning of another leaf in the Zaadz/Gaia 'seed' pattern. We hope the community likes it.

Winter finally showed up in Boulder this past weekend as we got a nice amount of snow up at the house. With the snow brings the dusting off of the skate skis and the winer boots and the huffing and puffing of nordic skiing down at North Boulder Park and Eldora ski area. Once the snow shows up North Boulder Park turns into the official 'Get ready for the Olympics' park with people racing one another around the park. At times it certainly does feel like the gerbel on the treadmill but at least you are out in the clean cold air.

This weekend allowed for some great times out on the skis with my son as it is his first full season on his nordic skis and he seems to love it. Kids are tough to get into nordic skiing as it isnt the most 'fun' sport for a kid but with a name like Bjorn and the lung capacity of a kid, there shouldnt be much stopping him from feeling some 'nordic roots'. He had a ball this weekend and finished it off with a nice hot chocolate.

Forecast is showing more snow tonight and tomorrow, so better get some more wax on the skis and prepare for the Olympics!

Another week gone through. When you think back about what is accomplished, or missed, in a week of people's lives it is pretty stunning all the items that occur. We made some great move forwards on Gaia and the tools that are coming down the pipe for the community. Pretty powerful stuff to hand out to the people of the world to spread the word and enrgy.


Often times I think about about how the tools we are building would be of use to me in my life. This adds a bit of perspective to the work. We can all get caught up in the day to day grind of work but I dont seem to have that problem. I really enjoy going into work to see all the people who are truly trying to make a difference in their lives and the people on their respective online communities. That is so cool and powerful. More power to them I say.

So with that I can say that with the team at Zaadz and the  passion put into the tools, the community is going benefit greatly . I can't wait to show it off to the group.

Tomororw I am going to get out and enjoy some great weather and my bike. With winter closing in here in Colorado, you have to get out on the days that are still warm. And tomorrow it is gonna be in the 70's. So with that, I am off and looking forward to some 'Summer Dreaming'.

This is such a great video showing people that when faced with such adversity have struggled through to eek out oa living while helping the earth greatly through recycling. Really, in this video you see twhat whom we should be looking to for ideas. Why close our selves off from ideas at this point. The experts dont always know the answers.
This video centers around a group of people in Cairo that are left to deal with the garbage that is not put through the recyling process but dumped in their backyard, more or less. It really shows what is possible if we as a community were to fully grasp hold of what is possible to recycle.