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My last 5 years

So my sabbatical is officially over from the world of social media. That being said I have had plenty of time to reflect on what was important to me and now that I'm back I can use the 'tools' available to me, to push them further and make them bigger.

A few years ago my friend Akasha and I started a queer & queer friendly cycling group in NYC. The concept was simple, we were gays that loved cycling and most of the groups in the city were more for the sport and less for the socializing parts of cycling in groups. I found this ridiculously sad so after a brainstorming evening involving many vodka sodas, Fixed queers was born. We started small doing group rides to Coney Island to watch fireworks and velo bar crawls. It grew over two years to larger events including a 'This Is Not TD Bank's 5 Borough Bike Ride, 5 Borough Bike Ride' and raising a good deal of money for AIDS Walk New York. Since then I have moved to Berlin and I was surprised that a few of the people still held events without me. Now that I've taken Manhattan it's time to take Berlin.

To find out more about this project you can here and here.

Another thing that has been interesting for me is that for the first time in my life I am living alone, it is very liberating coming from such an expensive ridiculously rad city to a considerably cheaper equally rad city. But with all new apartments comes the issue of furnishing them.... needless to say I've been very determined to stay on the cheap/free side of things and have found most of the things I've needed on the streets of Berlin or via eBay Kleinanzeigen zu Verschenken section (think craigslist in the free section but german) and have 'hacked' them into useable objects. My new found hobby has spawned the idea to start a new Up/Recycling project with a basis of what I like to call Ethical Transparency. The mission of my new project is to cut out the middle man, known as the smartphone, and be completely upfront with the cost of each object I make, the cost of materials to make it useable, my hourly rate and how long it took (with documentation and possibly video), resulting in affordable one of a kind objects that you can pay anywhere from the minimum to double the cost based on your mood and financial situation. Oh and if people don't have money to pay they will also be able to barter or trade me more things to hack. Why you ask? Well it's simple, I'm really tired of the world of 3.5 times cost profit crap for mass produced garbage. This form of economy is sick and the amount of a person's success should be what you put forth not how much money you make.

You can find out more about this project here and here.

Thanks to everyone who has been there to support me in all my crazy ideas and I hope I haven't disappointed so far because I have more down the pipeline. Your support keeps me motivated to push harder and make more happen. I am eternally in all of your debts.

I love each and every one of you.