It’s 7am. Your lackluster enthusiasm to start the day summersaults into what I call “turbo mode” after the first two cups of morning coffee… followed by a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs with spinach, whole-wheat toast and orange juice.

The day starts off strong—you knock out projects with super speed—nothing can stand in your way, until… 11am hits, and you’re hungry again. What do you do? You’re swamped with work and have several afternoon meetings. Do you stay and push through, or do you take the time out of your day to eat lunch?

For those of you who are not familiar with Sponsored Stories, it is one of Facebook’s latest and most effective media products for advertisers. In short, sponsored stories are ads that are automatically created based upon the latest wall post of a Facebook Page.

We get asked quite a bit to explain what the difference is between vector files and raster files, primarily when dealing with logo files. To put it as simply as possible, a vector file can be scaled to whatever size you want while a raster file can’t. A vector file is made up of a series of lines and connecting points, all based on mathematical equations that tell those lines and points how to keep their shape when scaled up or down. A raster file is based on pixels, or a bunch of little squares, each with it’s own bit of information.

Have you been trying to figure out how to monetize your brand’s Facebook page? Developing an integrated branding campaign with social-currency is not only difficult, it hasn’t really been done all that well yet—American Express is looking to change that with their new ‘Link, Like, Love’ campaign. AmEx has developed a simple Facebook application [that to my knowledge does not share information with Facebook] that links your AmEx card with your Facebook user profile. This will allow AmEx to serve up offers from participating American Express merchants, tailored to your Facebook ‘likes’.

This is most of the commencement speech I gave to the Art Institute of Portland class of 2009. I hope that as some of the graduates from my alma madder approach their big day tomorrow, that they can find some inspiration from my experiences. More importantly, I hope it helps you fully realize your own dreams. Maybe it will help you all land a job in a Portland design agency.

From the archives of 2009.

To the class of 2009, congratulations on your achievement. Proud parents and families, thank you for letting me be a part of your special occasion.