This is Mingus. He’s my cat. When he was just a few weeks old, he flew onboard a Northwest Airlines cargo flight from Minneapolis to Boston, where my roommate Jawad picked him up at the airport and brought him to me.

He was a tiny baby.

Now he’s a giant. This is normal, since he’s a Ragdoll, one of the largest cat breeds. Although he could probably afford to lose a few pounds.

He’s super friendly, though territorial around other cats. He gets along well with my sister’s chihuahuas, since he could easily swat them down – he’s about twice their size.

Most of the time, he just loafs around the house. He likes to stare out the window, and he likes to play with a laser pointer. When he isn’t eating, he’s probably puking. Again, normal for ragdolls, since they have long hair. For some strange reason, he likes to lick plastic bags before and after puking (which is a nice way to alert me that I’ve got some cleaning to do). He also likes to wake me up at 3am when his food dish needs filling. He does this by punching me in the face. Literally.

I love cats, especially Minguses.

I’m sad to announce that I will be leaving the X PRIZE Foundation, but extremely pleased to say that I will be taking the role of Community Director, New Media, at Warner Bros. Records.

For some time now, I have been wanting to move back to pursuing my passion of music. This job, then, is something of a godsend: it combines my love of music with my background in online communities. I cannot express how exciting this possibility is, an opportunity to really dig in to changing the way that artists and fans interact.

I’d like to send a special personal thank you to everyone at the X PRIZE Foundation who has made my past year and a half amazing. You are the lifeblood of this organization, and without you, the wheels would fall off. Keep on fighting the good fight.

And a huge thank you to everyone who helped me along the way. You are not the shoulders of giants. You are rockets under my feet.

Rock and roll

An awful lot has been made about the importance of doing silly side projects. We have a bevy of great examples of “the little project that could,” many of which have become extremely successful: Twitter, Gmail, etc. And so I’d like to introduce you to a few of my stupid ideas. As we all know, the stupidest ideas are usually the most successful.

Minnesoterica

After one too many nights out discussing the essential merits of the Minnesota State Fair to the uninitiated, I decided there needed to be a place for anyone and everyone to share their bizarre, beautiful, and baffling stories about the great state of Minnesota. (For those who don’t know, that’s where I grew up.) The site is built on Ning, and open to the public. It hasn’t been populated with enough media or people yet, but it is growing.

Twirts

Twirts is simple idea: put your Twitter handle on your T-shirt. I found myself telling people my Twitter handle so much, that it just made sense to wear it around with me everywhere. Shirts start at $18.95 for American Apparel 100% cotton. Just put in your handle and go!

A few weeks ago, I visited Disneyland with my sister. If you know Lisa at all, you already know that she’s a Disney fan. But she’s not just any Disney fan: she’s a fanatic. Fortunately, this actually makes a trip to a Disney theme park an enjoyable activity. Whereas I typically scoff at the idea of these sorts of things, Lisa has a way of reminding me that, if even just for a day, you don’t always have to be an adult.

Then just yesterday I received the most recent copy of WIRED Magazine, guest edited by J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and the upcoming Star Trek movie. I had previously seen his incredible talk at TED, and was extremely impressed by the WIRED issue, which is designed much like the pulpy comics I used to read as a kid. Inside were tales of wonder and amusement (amazement?), and those hilarious and tricky puzzles that I would slave over in the back of my Boys Life Magazines (not to mention those eye-catching ads for mail-order instructions on how to build your own hovercraft).

I got to thinking about imagination, and the increasingly rare breed of person who dedicates their life to creating the elusive and unique emotion we call wonder. People like Walt Disney and J.J. Abrams are artists and thinkers, but most of all they are magicians, creating in their lives and their work the sense of disbelief and astonishment that we once felt as children, waking up to an entirely new world. As an adult, it is easy to feel that the world has been worn thin by the repetitive motions of daily existence, but these magic makers strive to recapture wonder, if even just for a brief period.

Please help me add to my list of magic makers, of wonder creators, of those who devote their lives to recapturing the joy of viewing the world through the candy-coated eyes of a child, of not understanding everything and not necessarily wanting to. Leave your thoughts in the comments.