Ah, if only more leaders were strong enough to consider a point of view that may not jibe with their own. Not just political leaders, all of them.

I have worked for persons who didn't like the idea of debate in the workplace, even when it was conducted in the interest of delivering a smarter and better result. After a while my existence at these organizations became absolutely pointless and I quickly lost interest in the work and ultimately employment. Not because I feel the need to fight each and every little battle. It's just that we don't live long enough on this Earth to go through life jumping off bridges or drinking instant grape beverage each and every time we're asked to do so.

My mentor in college, Jim Avery, once told me, "If two people think alike all the time, one of them is redundant." From the many pieces of advice I received in college that line will always remain in active memory (the other piece of advice: "Get out of Alaska as soon as you can." Well, I'm almost ten years Alaska-sober now and haven't touched an ulu in fifteen). The more you live and work around people who rarely present a different viewpoint, the softer your brain gets, the more complacent you become, and before you know it Wilford Bradley is the only one who makes any sense in the world.

This morning a man was trampled to death by consumers racing to buy items priced considerably lower than their normal cost. The same mob ran over a pregnant woman who then lost her unborn child to the violent frenzy. Frugal shoppers—people who are commonly referred to as being smart and wise with their money—killed a human being in their lust to obtain lifeless items priced to entice the highest to the lowest income. Two hundred people, ran past and on top of a fellow human beings who could not move, who could not breathe, who lost their lives. They killed two humans in their pursuit to obtain something that they otherwise would likely not be able to afford.

Executives from Wall Street, financial institutions, and the federal government have all been assigned varied degrees of responsibility for the failure in the American economy but somehow one very red-handed and dangerous culprit has been left out: Consumers. The same people who would knock down a pregnant women to the curb for a few hundred bucks. The same people who will trample the life out of fellow human being so they can have something previously unavailable to them are just as responsible for the condition of our economy.

It's convenient to point to the people who sit at the top and place all the blame on them but it's the face in the mirror that will ensure this FUBAR situation will happen again and again and again because laws and rules, no matter from how high they are handed down, can never hold back that level of kill-to-own kind of greed.

I hope those who are responsible, all two-hundred of them, are charged with double homicide and sentenced accordingly. This event is so sick and it is so, so wrong, but I doubt nothing will happen. My guess is that this story will focus on how the store owners allowed this to happen rather than why these people were so infatuated with obtaining a flat panel television that they could not notice a dying man or a pregnant woman in peril. We'll feel bad for them and go on as if nothing happened and go back to buying things no one really needs or wants.

Also: Avoid death, shop online.

Keith, I didn't know that you hung out with Sean Pean. Huh.

Ardent Obama supporters need to learn quickly that if there is to be "hope" and "change" it's going to have to come from their actions just as much as it does from the president elect. And that starts with being open to listen to others who may not think a like. The "for me or against me" mentality stinks just as much coming from left leaning persons as it does from those who are bent to the right.

Alec Baldwin—I know, I know, bear with me here—had a very good point on this matter:

Obama is likely to turn out to be a better President than Bush (with Shrub's approval ratings of late who couldn't, but it's a tad too early to say that with absolute certainty) but that doesn't mean we're not allowed to call into question his administration's policies. Especially the important ones.

Change.org
Last April, we were contracted to help redesign Change.org to be a better, more engaging place for people to stay informed on social issues and get involved with causes and related non-profits. The new site features a complete makeover, including a design system that enables the cause spaces to hold up on their own. Through this project we have had the fortune of developing a strong friendship with Ben Rattray (CEO) and we've already started the next phase of design and development work that will make Change.org stronger, smarter, and more effective. While Stephen did almost all of the heavy lifting for this project we had the absolute pleasure of working with Meagan Fisher, who crafted the look and feel of ten of the causes included in the launch.

Red 5 Studios
Airbag has been at Red 5's side going on four years now. We were there to help formulate ideas and deliverables for the much talked about Golden Ticket Campaign and then moved forward by creating a new site that represents and facilitates the company's growth in people, creativity and innovation. The new site features artwork from their amazing in-house design department and a better publishing system with the capacity to display content in multiple languages. Ethan and Ryan deserve a lot of credit on this project as they did a lot of the work to get the site to where it is today. Mr Irelan built the site using Radiant—at the client's request—and a fair amount of custom development work.

School of Visual Arts: Interaction
Star of An Event Apart: San Francisco, Liz Danzico chose Team Airbag to help create the website for the new and exciting interactive program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. When I heard there was a need for print work, I suggested hiring Heads of State and then we could use their work as the art direction for the website. I've always wanted to work with/near those guys and this turned out to be a great opportunity and I'm happy with the results. Once again, Ethan and I collaborated on the design, while he and Ryan developed and shipped the site.

Clinician1
It's not every day that you're asked to architect, design, develop and deploy a small social community. So we jumped at the chance to create Clinician1 from the ground up. Stephen, Drew, Ethan, and Ryan worked together to create a new community space for Nurse Practitioners. We were having so much fun that we invited Brian Warren to join the party and help Ryan with the heavy lifting on the site's construction. The finished product looks a tad different from what we came up with but all-in-all it was a great project to add to the book and another first for Team Airbag.

Welton Investment Corporation
While we can not and will not take any credit for the design work, we will jump up and down when asked, "who built this handsome site?" Welton has been a really good client and since helping them develop and deploy their new site, we have already made several new additions under the hood. Ryan continues to do most of the heavy lifting while getting Stephen to lend a hand from time to time.

Peels Prairie Provinces
Wicked Worn is well represented here. Seems like just yesterday when we handed over the design and templates to the good folks at the University of Alberta. I love that we were given free reign to create the look and feel for this online collection of historical work. The worn look runs through our veins and it was great to go nuts and have almost all of our efforts approved with flying colors. Unfortunately this project was over too quickly and I hope we get to work with our friends up north again. As Drew is from Canada and he often missed his homeland I gave him the honor of pushing pixels. Nice job, eh? Once again we tapped into the Airbag Brotherhood of Web Workers Local 415 and brought Tim Murtaugh in to make web standards like with the HTML and CSS.

W3C
Yep. We did this thing. Well, it's not up yet but just keep reading. Debuted during Ethan's much praised presentation at An Event Apart: Boston, Airbag designed a completely new website for the W3C. It's smart, clean, blue, different. Needless to say we're very eager to see this work go live (hopefully in tact) as it will be a shiny, yellowish, new beacon of hope for the future of the Internet. Ethan took this one and ran with it right form the start and from time to time the rest of the Airbag Design Strike Team chimed in to offer support and backup, Yo Joe Style.

That's it for now, there will be more later. In the meantime we currently have openings for projects starting in late '08 to early '09. If you're smart and looking for other smart people to make your Internet dreams come true then give us a jingle.

"Orange County," I would reply.

"Oh, where the choppers are made!" I'll swear to Congress that's what they said each time. Three-different-people, on three-different-occasions.

"No," I shot back which produced a very puzzled look on their face.

"But they're in Orange County..." they stated, looking as if they were starting to piece facts together for their cross examination. Before they could finish laying out a chain of logic, I would cut-in and tell them that Orange County Choppers operates in upstate New York, not lower California.

This confused each inquisitors even more while they silently mouthed the words "orange" and "county."

"That I know of," I continued while they seemingly rang their index finger in the air, across an invisible globe, "there are three Orange Counties in the United States. One is in California, another in New York, and the third is located in Florida."

"Oh..." and the conversation would end after they added something about not knowing our country had so many Orange Counties and that they always assumed it was in southern California. To end the vocal water boarding I finished with a short monologue on the fact that in more than a handful of episodes of American Chopper, snow makes a big, big appearance. And that for that kind of weather to happen in Southern California is likely a meteorological impossibility in (Although earlier this decade we had a freak rain storm that produced a lot of hail in Santa Ana. The quantity and ferocity allowed for the frozen precipitation to collect on the ground and if you looked at it from the SkyChopper 5 Live-Feed, it looked like snow. This was enough for the inner-city youth to lie on the ground in front a local 7-11 to make what the reporter lady called "snow angels". I called it "sadness").

Anyway, lets repeat the lesson learned here. The popular dysfunctional family that makes hot rod motor bikes on television does so from their facilities located somewhere between Yonkers and Buffalo, not between San Diego and where OJ killed those people.

Please pass this information along to your friends, family, co-workers, and maybe that awkward guy on the train. Last thing we need during these times of crisis is for our fellow citizens to be confused about where the best choppers on the planet are born.

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Of course this doesn't happen for every RFP received in the Fall but I bet I've described more than half the RFPs floating around from late September to early November. The whole situation is a bit awkward, frustrating yet rewarding in that everyone could use more practice with interviewing for a job.

This is all to say that if you have a project of any size and you're seriously ready to get started now is the time to get that job on the boards. To help with your endeavor, Cameron Moll has given Airbag readers a 30% discount off listings of any kind over at Authentic Jobs. To receive this discount use promotion code AIRBAG31 at the time of checkout. As always each job posted is backed by a money-back guarantee:

Offer expires at the end of the month.

Now, if you're really looking for an All Star Team of Giant Talent and Small Egos then by all means please tell us about your project. We love working with good, smart people.

Such a person walked up to Dan, introduced himself and began a conversation with a question. Pretty standard conference party chit chat soon turned into hard core questions pertaining to development, validation, and strict adherence to both. Given the company I was in I figured these topics were standard faire—though trying to discuss such matters at 10PM in a art gallery turned into quasi-cool flat party doesn't provide a best setting. Still, Dan, being the very decent citizen he is, kept his focus on the visitor and did his best to engage him in a manner befit his reputation for being a really nice guy.

Hard of hearing in a crowded place I'm not sure exactly what was said but the guy became irate and his discourse took a harsh tone. The conversation turned into accusations. Apparently this person was upset that Mr. Bulletproof did not take strict adherence to web standards as seriously as he should. And (pardon me if I don't have this exactly word-for-word) that considering his position and influence he was preaching the gospel too askew for the greater good of the world.

It was at this point that Dorny put his drink down, stealthily slipped in-between the two and masterfully inserted himself as the primary target. A minute later Dan quietly backed away from the trio, looking like he had just been through a minor traffic accident. It wasn't long after that Luke and his new friend were onto another topic less stressful and animated (knowing Dorny that means they were talking about beer, 1960's European Poster design, Volkswagens, or all three).

There are a few lessons to be learned from this observed encounter.

A "perfectionist" and a "purist" are not the same person. The perfectionist seeks to do everything to the best of their ability against standards that are often set higher than average. The purist, on the other hand, seeks to adhere to some set of rules that are written for conditions in a world wherein Tom Cruise is taller and a lot less creepy, and every morning the box of Trix is full and fresh without all those lame crumb particles at the bottom of the box.

In the time that I have known him Dan is a perfectionist. This is partially why he has attained his rank and stature within our community (it also helps that he's a fantastic designer, author, and presenter). More importantly, this attribute is why clients pay him money to create work for them. They know that while he will earnestly try to craft things using methods that are pure and as by-the-book as possible, he won't seek a strict path that will end up causing delays or over run a project budget.

Clients, supervisors, vice presidents, and so forth—they don't want the purist. Purists freak them out. While they might make for interesting subjects on the Discovery Channel, purists aren't the best fit in the business world. Purity costs money and dedication to a path that often leads to even more unwanted or unnecessary expenditures.

Duct Tape is a business tool. It's not one that anyone wants to use but it's there for when perfection has run it's course and it's time to move on to other pursuits. Purity has no duct tape—only devotion.

Lastly, when you want to talk to someone who you admire for one reason or another it's probably best not to verbally attack them for problems that aren't their fault. If you want to be religious go to church.

Not wanting to get into a tailspin of worry and fright I have found the best source of calm to be the bank. I use two banks and have been to both in the last five days to make deposits.

One in particular, a commercial bank, is nothing but calm and relaxed. I keep looking for signs of panic but have seen none. Either everyone is eating the right brownies or they really aren't worried to the point of over turning desks, starting small fires with shredded paper, and hoarding the candy jars. In fact I get the sense that they would love nothing other than to see the troubled institutions collapse so they can point and say, "Ha, ha, subprime is for suckwads". Of course these folks are far from the boardroom but their sense of calm has certainly been a nice oasis from the world-ending panic that has become pervasive across anything that can broadcast a signal or hold ink.

This morning Ryan sent me a link to a post Seth Godin wrote a few days ago that puts current events in a completely different frame of mind.

I think this morning I'm going to relax a bit and take the road less traveled by. It takes ten minutes longer to get to work but the path runs right through the Laguna Canyon and some of the prettiest country in Southern California. And then I'm going to sit down at my desk and revise plans for taking over the Interactive world.

Personally I like to throw in a dash of humor at the expense of the Amish or Arkansas but novelty muffins is a great substitute.

The whole RFP process is awkward. Frankly, agencies like Airbag would be better off if we provided an intuitive way for potential clients to outline a scope of work.

Sure, there are studios out there with a requirements document that clients can download, fill out, and send back via email. But after years of reading through these forms, I can tell you that they're often confusing, and rarely completed in the detail requested. What follows is a clumsy ballet of follow-up emails, phone calls, voice mail, faxes, and sometimes people in brown uniforms delivering packages.

When trying to think through this problem, I realized it'd be great if potential Airbag clients could send us a concise, descriptive business letter, instead of the usual dashed-off email or the twenty pages-long write-up of various business rules.

After drafting said letter, I took it to the boys and together we created a simple application that starts off by asking a few questions, and ends with a well-crafted business request. We've created something that should help future clients provide just enough information about their needs that doesn't require any second-guessing. It's a fun, great way to put clients' minds at ease—at the time when they're traditionally the most overwhelmed.

For now, it's called the Airbag Work Requisition Form and I'd invite you to check it out—especially the cool video Ryan put together. With the help of future clients we're going to kick the tires on this thing, and see if it really helps improve communication between clients and agencies.

I mean when the candidate is from Wasilla, Alaska why should this come as a surprise really?

My apologies to all. I thought I was speaking up for common sense and decency...and apparently I spoke too soon?

Time for this Hulk to go smash into a stiff drink and hope that his head will stop shaking in disbelief sometime today.

Not that Obama or any of his campaign people are going to read this but I'd like him to know that this kind of behavior—from the very core of his base—is not better than the last eight years, it's not better than the last two-hundred and thiry-two years.

REDACTION Apparently I ragged way too early this morning when, in hindsight, what I should have done was wait a few hours for a weird situation to get even more so.