Damian Niolet

GENERAL INFO:

Name: Damian Niolet
Internet ID: dniolet
Age: 33
Occupation: Budding Entrepreneur
Education: 3 AA Degrees in Various Areas
BS - International Politics
ME - Entrepreneurship
Something about me: I'm decidedly smarter than Rambo, but not as good with a knife.
Something about Rambo: He doesn't like shirts.

GREETINGS!

Most blogs you come across start out with:

- I am this

- and this

- and this

- I like that

- and that

- and that

That's not how I operate. I prefer to let my actions speak for me. Here, my actions can only be represented by the works I produce. Something of mine brought you here - a conversation, a post, or something I made - so look around because you're likely to find something else of interest. Just head a little farther down this sidebar to see the type of stuff you can expect. I'll tell you upfront that what you won't find here is gratuitously obscene nonsense, hate mongering, or narrow-mindedness; there's plenty of other blogs for those things. My blog is about productivity, creativity, open-mindedness, passion, love (most of the time), a little humor, visions for a better world, and revolution. It takes many a quality and skill to be able to produce all of these. I'd like to think I have a few of them - thinking, writing, drawing, inventing, selflessness, fearlessness, compassion, respect. My moto? "Blog the change you wish to see in the world." If you don't think my posts resulting from my quest to be too obtuse and/or irrelevant, follow me. And feel free to share what you find, so long as whatever it is, is not altered. Lastly, I would love to hear from you, so ask me a question or leave comments wherever you see the option to do so.

MY MINI-BIO:

I grew up in an artsy family, only to realize I had a left side to my brain as well. After spending several years in the military exercising the left side of my brain, I've decided I like using both sides equally. Now, I am working to start up a few companies (because I also found that I do not like working for "the man") in industries I'm passionate about revolutionizing - Computers/Software/Personal Information Management (PIM), gift baskets, and comic books. But my striving is hardly only about starting those companies to make a living for myself. They represent my ideals for a better world. You will learn about them the farther down this sidebar you go. Here, on the front page of this blog, I'll be posting the reoccurring themes that orbit my life as I pursue my goals and visions, but what is most important here are the ideals being expressed through the posts and the works you'll find, not me. I speak of myself only to infuse a bit more credence in the ideals because the ideals very likely would be lost to most people otherwise. There is no purpose for an ideal/thought/deed other than to connect one person to another, I just want to be the middleman. (If interested, here are the links to my longer bio pages:

My Slightly Longer Than My Mini-Bio Bio,

My Slightly Less as Long as My Medium-sized Bio Bio,

My Medium-sized Bio,

My Slightly Longer Than My Medium-sized Bio Bio,

My Slightly Less as Long as My Long Bio Bio

and last, but certainly not least,

My Long Bio

WHY THE LONG TITLE?

I wouldn't have even bothered titling this blog because, as I said, I prefer to let my actions speak for me, but actions can't really be indexed by Google, so I have to put something. It's a long title, I know. It would be longer so that I show up in plenty of searches except that this theme or tumblr won't allow it. These are the things I feel sum me up best and would fit in the title box. First, I am an atrociously slow reader; therefore, I am very selective in what I read; and then, even what I do choose to read is often read only in delectable morsels. I can count the number of books I've read. But some how or another I've managed to stay pretty abreast of matters intellectual, at least, I like to think so. That's important to note because the stuff I post on here will virtually always come off as being marvelously brilliant and inspired, but might be common sense to the masses who are actually well read. This fact can be equally sobering and heartening because while my thoughts may not be anything new under the sun, I at least did manage to come to them through my own devices. You can probably see why I consider myself "Artsylitical" after having read My Mini-Bio. But to amplify the meaning I should say that being "Artsylitical" is all about the singular act of BOTH creative thinking and thinking creatively in their truest forms. The difference? Creative thinking begins formless and is honed by logic. Thinking creatively begins formed and is dispersed by illogic. If you can do both at the same time, you're "Artsylitical." As far as my being an "Aspiring Aspirer" is concerned: I don't much care for definitions, categorizations, pigeon-holes, etc., especially when it comes to my identity. Again, actions = me. Why this is so preferable is because I wouldn't want to explain who I am and then have to corroborate what I say with action. Besides that, I can't profess to be anything. I can only profess to be aspiring to be something. For instance, I'll never call myself an expert because one can never know everything about any one thing; there's no gauge to determine when you've learned all there is to learn about anything, unless you count a sense of superiority over others' levels of learnedness, which certainly is not my style. Instead, one can only aspire to be an expert in something. But I'm not even ready to profess to being an aspiring something because even then I would be professing to have achieved determining, to an extent, who I am. So, I take another step back and aspire to aspire to be something. I'd probably go another step back if it were allowed grammatically. In a nutshell: I am, partially, who I have been up to this point based on trending in my actions, and invariably, who I am aspiring to become divided by who I will actually become. But in both cases, I cannot claim to be an expert.

PURPOSES FOR THIS BLOG:

1) There's something about posting to a blog that's affirming. I will use this blog as a way of affirming my efforts, my thoughts, my feelings, my passions, etc. and more important, the ideals that grow out of them. If these personal affirmations seem jumbled to you at times, you should see the notes that spawned them. Maybe someday I'll open up my Evernote notebooks.

2) I believe that the ideals underpinning much of what you find on this blog should be distributed far and wide. That requires interested people. It is my hope that this blog garners interest from the masses, which would be demonstrated through reblogging and sharing what is found. At the same time, the work that goes into what is found here requires time and funds. As such, this is a place for people to come and encourage me on, either with words or donations. You can leave comments most anywhere and a donation button is at the bottom of this sidebar. It may seem presumptuous of me to ask for funds, but perhaps you have yet to see the full scope of my visions. Please, read on.

3) Lastly, besides time and funds, promulgating the ideals inherent in this blog, starting up my companies, changing the world, requires help. This blog will serve as a place where others can learn about my visions for a better world and decide whether they would like to join me. I could really use some partners. I know I have yet to really showcase the importance of my visions, so you are probably skeptical at this point, but once you get down to the information about the companies I wish to startup, greater clarity will likely follow.

POSTS BY TOPICS:

WCU ME Program / Entrepreneurship I am currently enrolled in Western Carolina University's Master's of Entrepreneurship Program. Here you will find my thoughts, most of which will likely be laced with dubious proclamations of unwaveringly sound opinions, on the course, the subject matters we study, etc.

Religion & Philosophy I believe that who we are is heavily dependent on how we answer the big questions in life, the ones that begin with "Why . . ." You can find how I answer those questions in my "My Beliefs" page, but here you will find my take on how others answer those questions.

Psychology & Sociology I have always had an interest in reading people, understanding why they do what they do, especially myself. By extension, I am also interested in how societies form, how they can thrive best, and how I can be an integral part. Here you will find some of my personal theories and, of course, my unabashedly egomaniacal opinions on it all. I should mention a couple works of mine related to this topic. First is the Human Needs Paradigm and it's companion the Human Response Matrix. Those two theories were articulated in a slide presentation called "What Drives You?" If my "My Beliefs" page answers the "Whys" of life, those works answer the "Hows." I believe these theories to be life changing once understood and taken to heart. I am working to get them reviewed by professionals for wide distribution, but in the meantime I am allowing them to circulate on the web as much as possible. Eventually, the theories will be incorporated in to a book, which relates how I believe the world could be a better off. That book will be the basis for many of the companies I intend to startup. This will all take time, of course.

Government & Politics Up until this last year, I managed to avoid delving into these topics extensively. I say "managed" because it was a purposeful effort, partly because I've never felt that the general public, myself in particular, has ever been informed enough to be able to take firm stances on any topic thereunder, and partly because I've felt like my vote/opinion never really mattered. Now I realize that the general public, myself in particular, definitely isn't well-informed enough to take a stance on any topic thereunder, and that it's not my vote/opinion that doesn't matter so much as the system itself that doesn't matter. What matters is people, not the systems that attempt to manage people. It is this notion that I think needs to be disseminated more profusely when embroiled discussions ensue. As such, I can no longer purposefully avoid the topics, but when I study them or speak to them, it is always with a simultaneously detached stoicism and bleeding heart approach. Maybe that makes me a liberal or maybe that makes me a conscientious and caring human being, I don't really care to figure it out because again, I don't like categories. But if you'd like to, this area is where you'll want to start.

Fiction Writing The life I grew up in necessitated a certain degree of distraction. But for me, experiencing works of fiction was never about the feeling of losing myself in a fictitious world; instead, it had everything to do with playing God. I didn't want to just lose myself in someone else's drama. I wanted to create lives where the drama was manageable, sensible, and was sure to result in stronger characters because the real life drama around me was quite the opposite. Fiction writing is about creating worlds of coalesced truth in an entropic universe of uncertainty. This is a good place to highlight another work of mine. Maybe this comes from the same place, but besides a need to create aestheticism where there is none, I am also imbued with a certain degree of curiosity. I could never be satisfied with experiencing fictitious works unless I also saw the man behind the curtain and further learned how to be the man behind the curtain. To me, the untold story is just as important, if not more so than the told story. This way of thinking has led me to thoroughly evaluate fiction as it is commonly understood and classified, resulting in new elements of fiction and my own methodology for writing fiction, one that focuses on the untold story. These concepts are encapsulated in an infographic, but will likely one day turn into a book. Essentially, I believe that a new element of fiction, like genre or perspective, needs to be firmly established. I call that element the "Degree of Scale." Next, the essence of my fiction writing methodology is the separation of Story Crafting and Storytelling. Most writers do both at the same time. They write the chronological history of the characters while they are writing the told story of that history. This too often results in poorly written fiction. These are just some of my views on the fiction and fiction writing and the sort of thing you can expect to find here.

Comic Book Stuff I grew up on comic books, but like most every fan, the love affair faded. I have strong opinions on why comics fail us so, and how to make them better, which you can find on The Official Exemplary Comics Blog, although you'll need the password to enter. I wouldn't want snooping Marvelites repotting back to the Generalissimo. Request the password and I will consider it. I would be remiss in my duties if I did not mention how influential Scott McCloud has been on my views regarding comics. I was reading his books so often that I was afraid they'd become worn out. He signed them, so I did not want that to happen. To prevent it, I made a Scott McCloud Cheat Sheet. See for yourself. Anyway, at this tag link you'll find my rants and raves (mostly rants) regarding aspects of the comic book industry today.

Film & TV I grew up wanting to be a film maker; that desire, though having been stifled for many years, is ever present. Here you will find my musings on the craft and reviews on the attempts made by others. Basically, you'll find my personal, biased, and amateurish opinions on films & TV shows.

Computing Devices & Software Because of the sheer utility of computers, to me, they are indispensable. But I absolutely hate them. Why? Because just one little misplaced bit can completely destroy years worth of work, as opposed to hand written notebooks, the destruction of which would require a far greater catalyst, like floods or fires. Anyway, I'm not a computer guru by any stretch of the imagination, but that won't stop me from having opinions. In particular on the usability side. Here you will find my take on the various products on the market, a great deal of which has culminated in my starting up PIMier Inc., a future leader in Personal Information management (PIM) as experienced on computing devices. PIMier Inc.'s Official Blog is where you can find how that process is going, but again, you'll need a password.

Words of Wisdom From time to time I may actually spit out a kernel of wisdom between the "talking with my mouth full" like ramblings that so populate this blog.

Words of Wisdumb I don't ever want to take myself or life too seriously. Here you will find spurts of nonsensical erudition that will hopefully make you laugh.

OTHER SOCIAL NETWORK OUTLETS:

There are a lot of social networks out there, aren't there!? So many you almost need a map. Oh, well . . . what do you know. I happen to have one right here. Eventually there will be a version 2 of this as it is invaluable for keeping track of all the connections, not strictly for my personal accounts, but for company accounts as well.

DeviantArt I use DeviantArt for my art portfolio. It is not indicative of the work I have done over the years nor of that which I am capable of, but it will get there.

Visual.ly I love infographics. I'll hang infographics on DeviantArt as well, but if you go here, you'll see how the pros do it. I am not a pro, yet.

Scrbd I use Scrbd for my writing portfolio. As of now, it only contains the many essays I wrote during my undergraduate studies. As I progress through WCU's Master's Program, I'll upload some of that works as well.

Ezine Articles I'm not sure how often I'll use this service, but I'm including it because I suspect that when I want articles I've written to be vetted a bit more carefully, this is a good place to start.

YouTube I'm sure you can figure out what I use this one for, though I have yet to post anything. Among other things, version 2.0 of "What Drives You?" may be up there soon.

Vimeo Because Vimeo seems to be less of a meat market, I will likely also be posting videos there.

Facebook I use this social media outlet purely for connecting with friends. If you would like to be friends, Facebook is the place to go.

Google+ I haven't really gotten into Google+, but there it is. If I ever use it, I'll probably use it like I do Facebook.

twitter I haven't really found a purpose for twitter other than to redirected people here. But if you want to connect with me on twitter, that's where to find me.

MySpace I also haven't really found a purpose for MySpace, other than to be an aggregator from just about all my social media outlets. But if you want to friend me there, feel free. I actually have none yet, so who's going to be the first?! Don't all jump at once!

LinkedIn I use LinkedIn to connect with associates. If you would like to network, Linkedin is what you want.

PartnerUp If I can ever get my PartnerUp account to work again, I'll also have that outlet for networking as well.

KickStarter I probably will eventually make use of this service, though I'd like to believe that my endeavors are of a high enough caliber that I can circumvent it.

StumbleUpon I like sharing ideas and this is a great way to do so. Feel free to share anything with me there if that's your service of choice.

MeetUp I'm interested in using this outlet for socializing . . . wait for it . . . in person. But only if you are in Hawaii because that's where I'm living these days. You can probably figure out from this blog what type of groups I'd be interested in joining.

MapMyFitness I really abhor exercise, but I know how important it is. I do enjoy sports however, particularly basketball, racquetball, and beach volleyball, but not exercise. This site makes it a little more tolerable. Join me and we can root each other on.

OFFICIAL PROJECT PAGES:

PIMier Inc. (password required) I have had what might be an "unhealthy" infatuation with Personal Information Management (PIM) forever, having always been on the lookout for a PIM system that would finally grant me a sense of control over my life. I have tried just about every possible system imaginable and found all of them to be sorely lacking. I finally made up my mind to do something about it in 2011. PIMier Inc. is the result. PIMier Inc. will be an internet software development company that specializes in PIM. PIMier Inc. is poised to revolutionize the the manner in which people interact with computers and more important the way computers interact with people, especially in terms of managing the abundance of information that both process daily. PIMier Inc. will begin business by bringing PIM-pal.com, a free online PIM application, to market. Anticipating incredible success with and demand for more products, PIMier Inc. will be more than willing to oblige by then revealing PIMier.com, the paid enterprise version of PIM-pal.com, and which will work seamlessly with PIM-pal.com, allowing peoples' personal and work lives to meld, finally. Later, after much continued success, PIMier Inc. will aim to produce its own brand of hardware, especially mobile devices, on which will run PIMier Inc.'s very own OS, the core of which is the system people came to know and love on PIM-pal.com and PIMier.com. The days of the stagnant desktop are numbered. The unchecked accumulation of wasted time will soon come to an end. People will find that they have so much free time, thanks to PIMier Inc.'s products, that they don't have enough hobbies.

Care Mail Inc. (password required) My mother actually sparked this endeavor. She invented an item that had incredible potential. I took that idea and expanded on it and believe that it now has incredible potential to be one of the most revolutionary products of the century. The industry said product would revolutionize is the gift basket industry. For who knows how long, we've been sending these gift baskets to each other, never knowing what to do with the stupid wicker basket after the stuff in it has been removed. For some reason each new gift is a new basket, rather than reusing them. Let's just do away with the baskets all together. Let's put the gift items, inside another gift item that can also be used, instead of a useless basket. The Beatles sang, "All you need is love," and sometimes you need it shipped to you. Care Mail Inc. will be the middle man. Exactly what the product is, is sensitive information, but let's just say it involves hugs and handshakes. ;)

Exemplary Media Inc. (password required) Exemplary Media Inc is the product of my desire to change the world for the better. What better way to do so than by speaking to people through that which they surround themselves with most often - entertainment media. ExemplaryMedia Inc is a media company that grew out of the notion that somewhere around the 60's, marketing campaigns in America began to target people's vices rather than higher virtues. It was at this same time that civics began to no longer be taught in schools because civics promoted harder won character traits like temperance. The era that FDR had left us demanded that generations of consumers, free of any any sense of consequence, breed even more consumptive consumers. Most of our entertainment has thus become void of substance and instead been infused with sensationalism. Exemplary Media Inc. will turn these tides by bringing to market uplifting media products, from comic books to TV shows. I am focusing my efforts in regards to this endeavor on Exemplary Comics, which will explode onto the scene with the release of the Sci-Fi Modern Epic "Made in Hyper-City," a project my brother and I have ben working on since 1998. You can see an overview here.

You can obtain the passwords by requesting them, but you must prove yourself worthy. WCU ME classmates are worthy by default, just ask.

THE REMAINS:

Despite as much as I've incorporated into this blog, you are missing out on a great deal. There are so many more things I've got going on right now. This is just what's on the front burner. For instance, I hope to one day learn to sing, play guitar and piano, and be in a band with my brother. I'd give you the band name, but I don't want it stolen. It isn't being used by anyone of note as of yet. Eventually, I might find the time for the back burner stuff, if I don't catch on fire first. ;)

DONATIONS:

If my work has helped you in any way, if it has inspired you, given you material for a paper, or changed your life, please donate a little something to show your appreciation. If you believe in me, the work that I am doing, and the goals that I'm striving for, donate a little something to show your support. Every little bit helps. And thank you!