Life really does come full circle sometimes. It’s interesting that I spent my formative years observing my parents as professional educators – and now I find myself in the same place. Some people have told me I was destined to be an educator. I don't know if that's true. But even though everything in my extremely busy life indicates I don’t have the luxury of surplus time right now, I felt the need to jump at an opportunity that recently came my way.

Having started all willy-nilly with Pinterest like Joe-Joe the idiot circus boy, I put absolutely no thought into what I was doing while kicking the tires. Now that PT is hotter than Canadian Maple syrup at a swingers party I can tell you what I did wrong.

Now that we've covered the basic methods of identifying topics, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. This can be tough work, but I don’t mind getting a little messy. I’m like the Mike Rowe of trend hunting – but without the contract to pimp Ford trucks. Maybe you have a gut feeling about something that might be a trend. Before you unleash your mind-dazzling observations on the community, put a little more thought into exactly WHY you think it is a trend. There's a very fine line between a genuine trend and the herd mentality of mass adoption.

Look at the fantastic group of Type-A brainiacs you gathered around that table to brainstorm the next great Web-based, mobile or tablet application. You have a list of goals, functionality and UI/UX ideas. However, I bet that nowhere on the list is anything about how advertisers will use the tool. But I bet you DID think about how brands will use the tool – didn’t ya?

I'm very excited. I woke up to find this morning that my webinar, that I presented yesterday, made the cover of slideshare! We've admittedly created a nice body of good content here. I'd highly recommend you sift through the decks of your specific interests, give em' a look and give me your feedback! Enjoy!

I know, I know, I know – I'm making your brain hurt. But not only is there a lot of stuff coming online in 2012, I also anticipate a big push into a lot of new technologies and behaviors. So without further ado, here's my final list of what to look for in the new year:

Hi. My name is Justice, and I'm FOMO. This means I have a "fear of missing out." This affliction causes me to be “cool hunting” at all times as I try to stay on top of what's breaking in creativity. Think of it like petting the cat in “Dune” to get the serum that will maintain my life. Stupid. Dear Lord, did I really just type that?

Here's a deck I put together for a little Instagram show-and-tell at work:

One of the many things I love about the smartphone app instagram is that it treats everyone with an open playing field. Yes, there are first-timers and seasoned professionals all in the mix. The beauty of that is we're all in the same collective simply feeding off one another. Bound by a little square format and handful of filters. What comes from that is some incredibly inspirational photography for me to witness...

If you're into digital photography, you own and iphone and enjoying social networking you MUST create and account on instagram. This free application allows user to photo, filter, title, tag and upload photos. Additionally, it allows users to comment and discuss the photos. Since its enception it's been a very open community, so it's not suprise when it creators established an open API for developers to create add-ons and functionality for instagram users...