Over the years, I’ve come to the conviction that how we wake up is important. I think it can set the tone for the day. Wake up harshly, and your day starts off on the wrong foot. Wake up gently, and you’re off to a good start. One day a couple years ago I did a Google search for “waking up gently.” I found a Web site selling so called “Zen alarm clocks.” The idea behind these clocks is to take your time waking up. To savor and enjoy that state between sleep and wakefulness. The clock gets you started waking up with just one gong. Then you get a chance to doze some more, for, say, 10 minutes. Then there’s another gong. Another chance to doze some more, but only for 5 minutes. Another gong. Then just 2.5 minutes to the next one. And so forth. If you don’t get up before, in the end it will go “gong, gong, gong” continuously. It’s a logarithmic zen approach to getting out of bed.

Zen alarm clock

Anyone in my bed hated the Zen alarm clock.

Admittedly, there were some problems with it. Foremost, the little built-in hammer that hits the bowl to produce the gong sound makes a whirring, winding sound every time it goes into action. The sound is noticeable enough to distract from the Zen-like experience of the gong. One might even call it counterproductive. I soon found myself sensing a twinge of aggravation before each gong. Talk about starting the day off on the wrong foot.

I stopped using the Zen clock.

Until the iPhone came long.

Imagine my delight when I saw a “Suzu - wake me up gently” iPhone / iPod application. It takes the same logarithmic Gong-based approach to waking you up. But it’s better. First, of course, because there’s no whirring hammer distracting you from the gong. Then, one can choose the exact volume of the gong. Next, you can specify the time interval between the initial, singular gong, and the final “gong gong gong gong gong.”

I’m happily back to my Zen-like wake-up experiences.

photo credit: mikebaird

I took my first standup paddle surfing lesson yesterday here in South Beach. No, that’s not me in the photo above. “You got to let your mind peace out,” my instructor Girard repeated, as I kept falling into the water. “Just feel the ocean.”

Eventually, I did feel the ocean, somewhat, and had some good runs. Or whatever you call it when you don’t fall into the water.

It felt a bit like learning how to ride a bycicle. It’ll be easy once I know how to do it.

I’ve created a new Web service. It’s called SimplyAnnual.com. David Nobu says this sounds very much like “simply anal.” That name wouldn’t be too far off the mark. SimplyAnnual in some ways reflects my strong, some would say compulsive, desire to remember anniversaries. A related compulsion is my desire to be punctual, which, I’m afraid, can verge on the neurotic as well. But I digress.

SimplyAnnual is a simple way of scheduling annual reminders. And only that. No weekly reminders. No one-time reminders. Only annual reminders. SimplyAnnual will send you an email once a day (if there is a reminder for that day). You can tell it the time of day you want to get those emails. You can also tell SimplyAnnual to send you an email once a week. That email will look ahead a number of days (you can specify the number). The weekly email will list all the reminders that will come up in the specified look-ahead time frame. Oh yes, all those emails can be sent to multiple email addresses if needed.

But that’s it.

Writing code and creating a Web-based application for me is a weekend diversion. Others do pottery. I like to write code. I don’t expect this to make money. It’s free anyway.

Below are the screen shots that make up pretty much all that SimplyAnnual is. Did I say it’s simple?

So there.

Screen 1 (what you see after signing up or logging in):

Screen 2 (displayed after selecting a date and clicking the “next” button on screen 1):

Screen 3 (displayed if you click “edit these settings” on screen 1):

Tim Berners Lee announces W3F from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

Above is the speech Tim-Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, gave at our Knight Foundation dinner at the Newseum in Washington D.C. last week. He was the keynote speaker. Knight gave him $5 million for his next big thing, the World Wide Web Foundation.

Alberto Ibarguen and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, originally uploaded by Knight Foundation.

Last night, we (Knight Foundation) had a big party at the Newseum in Washington DC. Keynote speaker was Sir TIm Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. He announced the formation of the World Wide Web Foundation (to help bride the digital divide, and advance Web science). And we announced a $5 million grant to help him get the foundation started. It was quite a fabulous evening. I blasted out the press release the exact second Alberto Ibargüen, CEO of Knight, made the grant announcement. Many in the audience got the email, seemingly coming from my personal account, seconds later. I love technology.

Google strangeness, originally uploaded by marcfest.

Googling “vice president of communications” displays Knight’s release about my appointment on top. Maybe it’s some kind of creepy Google personalization (”we know it’s you, so we rank you first”). Or maybe it’s because of other pages mentioning my name. I’m sure this will be short-lived. I’ll keep this screenshot for my grandchildren

To see if the search results are the same on your computer click here.

Bryan, Marc, at Books and Books, originally uploaded by marcfest.

I have a new tradition with my friend Bryan. Every time we meet (usually for lunch, on a weekend), I’m making sure someone will take a snapshot of us. Just trying to catch those moments…

This morning at sunrise, we had terrific waves and almost no wind. Quite unusual. I’ve posted the video below on my sunrise video blog at www.aftersunrise.com:

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It occurred to me how every year, here in South Florida, we’re playing Russian Roulette. The bullets fly in slow motion. And they are swirling low pressure systems called hurricanes. Call it “Hurricane Roulette.” Take Gustav and Hanna shown in the satellite movie above. I feel for the people in the Louisiana Gulf coast. Talk about adding a blow on a bruise. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t be too bad. And then, who knows where Hanna will go. Miami might be right in its slow-motion path.

We sometimes tell one another: “This is the price we pay for living in paradise.”