Among my contemporaries, there seems to reside a belief that it is hard to make a good thing happen; good ideas exist by the bucketful, but the initiative to turn those ideas into something graspable exists in far smaller quantities. This is why most people hover over coffee tables with good friends and talk about doing good things… then promptly forget about it. The ideas are there, the passion is there, but the initiative…well, the initiative takes a little bit of its own initiative.

Assuming the initiative is found, the next step calls for action, which then calls, more often than not, for money — which there isn’t very much of, it seems (and which, incidentally enough, may be very root of the initial lack of initiative). Here’s where CrowdFunder comes in. Currently in beta, CrowdFunder is the creation of Dave Rogers and Joe Pezzillo, two Colorado entrepreneurs who wanted to help people help themselves and their communities. Read on to see how one little site may soon be re-writing the rules for big changes.

Joshspear.com: What are your personal backgrounds?

Joe Pezzillo: Dave was a publisher of The Onion in Colorado for a decade until Onion, Inc. bought them out. I worked at the secret Apple lab here in Boulder back in the 90’s, and started one of the first and most popular Internet radio companies during Web 1.0. We both spent most of the last year with IV bags of espresso plugged into our arms as we worked on another startup that never made it over the verge of greatness… READ MORE…

In general, I am not into Rachel Ray. I like Giada because she’s pretty to look at, Emeril because he’s feisty, and Paula because she makes me feel good about eating butter straight out of the tub. Rachel just giggles and says e.v.o.o. too much (which bugs me, because the point of abbreviating something like that is to abstain from saying the elongated phrase — which she does anyway, right after saying e.v.o.o.). However, yesterday my fingers were too sore from, uh, typing? — to change the channel, which is why I let Rachel teach me how to make candy sushi. Watching her smush all that sugar into bite-sized pieces had the odd effect of reminding me that Halloween is next week, which then reminded me that I still don’t know what kind of whore I’m going to be this year. A Nurse whore? A Nerd whore? The Sheriff of Ho-Town (again)?

Today, we had two options: Talk about mimobots just by talking about new computer software, we decided to roll with Halloween. Here’s how it’s going to work: Tell us about your costume. We’ll give you points for creativity, presentation, and the amount of spandex used, and then (assuming you get the most points) we’ll give you a King or Queen mimobot. You won’t get points for telling me what to be, but hey, do it and I might just poke you on Facebook. Easier than making sushi… right?

This morning’s coffee ritual led me to 45° Angles and Momentary Awe. Both are the work of designer/photographer Catalin Marin. While it’s a little tough to find any personal info on Catalin, the work is all presented first and foremost. Projects on 45° Angles seem to fall primarily in the web realm, but Catalin’s photographic work is seriously impressive as well.

Most of that work seems to reside at Momentary Awe, a site that breaks down Catalin’s photography geographically. And there’s a LOT of beautiful images to peruse there. I’m particularly curious what the NYC photos were shot with; they definitely don’t look digital. Momentary Awe also features a travel blog that corresponds to Catalin’s travels and outlines some of the photos on the other site. Definitely take a few minutes with this morning’s cup to travel the world at Momentary Awe — it’s a vacation in and of itself.

Max Lamb makes his furniture in nice ways. When I say “nice,” I don’t necessarily mean by way of hammer and nail (even though hammering and nailing are, by nature, quite nice). What I mean to infer by such word choice is that the young designer’s “zest for nature, outdoor activities, and creativity” are nicely exemplified in his work, and what I mean by that is… how many furniture designers do you know that pour pewter into beach sand and wait for it to turn into a chair? A craftsman in the truest sense of the word, Max uses the world around him to both pull inspiration from and collaborate with, resulting in pieces that are as elementary as they are infinitive. The stool pictured is the resulting piece from Max’s shoreline experiment; more examples of his elemental work are here.

Andy Mueller, who we wrote about yesterday in a post featuring the Art Dump design group, somehow finds time outside his diverse responsibilities at Girl Skateboards to run The Quiet Life, a creative collective (of only three) that maintains a standard of quality over quantity in its projects by sticking with a limited amount of releases a year for 2K by Gingham, Upper Playground and its own in-house ventures. The Quiet Life is now celebrating its 10 years of existence with a tee series designed by 10 invited artists you know and love, like Todd St. John, Evan Hecox, Ben Loiz, Katsuo Design and Andy Jenkins. While you’re at the online shop, look for the anniversary hoodies ’cause they might take your fancy. All orders will be shipped with a special zine until they run out.

When it comes to shoes, it seems sometimes there’s a clear dividing line. There are Adidas people. There are flip-flops-only people. Crocs people. There are, probably the most ubiquitous among us, Nike people. And then there are Puma people. Puma has a substantial following in other countries, and as much as they’re sometimes overlooked by those caught up in Nike hype here, Puma lovers do have a safe place to get together to talk exclusively about Baskets and Clydes. It’s at a site called PumaTalk, with forums where members post about various subjects only a Puma head would appreciate, such as which colorway is better on a First Round or whether the pink laces on some user’s new Yo! MTV Raps shoe is lame or game and there’s even an unabashedly dorky photoblog, consisting of shots of people wearing Puma gear. If you’re a Puma orphan, we’ve found you your new home and family.

As the weather grows colder, you may be less inclined to go green, instead opting to ratchet up the settings on your furnace over donning long underwear and wrapping yourself in down comforters. It’s a lot easier to remain eco-friendly if your pad possesses a fireplace; if you can heat your home the way mother nature intended why not show the old lady some extra respect by putting away that axe and preserving her resources by not chopping up your entire backyard.

So now you’re probably wondering, “Well what am I supposed to make a fire with, I don’t own any controversial books?” We’re one step ahead of you, or more specifically the folks at Pine Mountain Brands are. They’ve created eco-friendly fuel for your fireplace in the form of logs made from both used coffee grounds and sawdust, respectively.

Java-Log is the first and only firelog made with recycled spent coffee grounds. Both logs are combined with 100% natural vegetable wax allowing for up to 80% less emissions and making them completely renewable. The environment thanks you in advance for your patronage, and so do your potentially severed limbs.