Bringing My Blog Into the 21st Century

I often laugh at other blogs missing common features like an RSS syndication. What, you expect me to have to remember to stop by to read your blog?

But then I made tweaks to my blog, and realized that TypePad has added a bunch of new features that I didn't know about. 

So now you can share my posts through social media along with other common features that I laughed at other blogs for lacking. This is while I didn't have them myself.

Enjoy the features while I think up compelling content to keep you coming back. Enjoy the 700+ posts I've written

My Writing Portfolio

Below are samples of my writing, in addition to more than 700 posts on this blog. If you would like to discuss hiring me for a writing project, please contact me. 

This is a software review that I submitted to Hakin9 Magazine in February 2007. I have no idea if it was published or not.

Active Shield 4 Review

What Is The Deal With The Current Cultural Obsession With Vampires?

I’m trying to figure out exactly what it is about Vampires right now. They’re everywhere. Every time I turn around, there’s a new show or movie about them.

They have long since come to my house. My wife and her sister have read all the Twilight novels. I’ve even seen the movies. I guess the best I can say is I didn’t not like them if that makes sense. I rolled my eyes a lot during the dialogue but the story wasn’t too bad. I think they seriously overplayed the “lovesick teen girl” angle though. I also have trouble comprehending why a 109 year old vampire would want to spend his immortality as a junior in high school.

I’m probably not aware of all of the movie and TV offerings dealing with vampires. I couldn’t keep track of them if I wanted to. I know there’s a show called “The Vampire Diaries” and an HBO series called “True Blood”. I tried to watch True Blood, but I can’t get into it. Like most HBO series, it seems to be based on the following premise:

The Return of Micro-MAN-ager

I joined the Navy right out of high school. I served from 1992-1998, from the ages of 18-24. Then I got out and got a “real job”. I’m glad I served, and I’d do it again, but I’m also glad I left active duty when I did. I have a lot of reasons for that.

The military seems geared toward micromanagers. I ran into a lot of micromanagers. I don’t know if it’s just the personalities that stay in the military long enough to make it into managerial positions, or if it’s just the culture. Maybe the military trains its managers to micromanage. Also, I’m willing to bet that the fact the military is made up of younger individuals with little experience plays a part too. I’m sure it’s a combination.

In any event, I resented the micromanagement. There’s a difference in being told WHAT to do and being told EXACTLY HOW, STEP BY STEP to do it, especially if it’s a task that you’re already familiar with.

Why Are Job Descriptions So Poorly Written?

This is something that has always baffled me. When companies need to hire somebody, don’t they want to hire an experienced and talented person? If so, why do they make it so darn hard to figure out what the job actually is?

I like to keep an eye on what opportunities are out there. I wish I’d lived in a time when an employee could expect to stay with one company for an entire career. I don’t. While I do appreciate the company I currently work for, I’m under no illusions that their relationship with me can’t end at any time and for any reason on their part. Loyalty is a wonderful quality, but should not be misplaced.

Where Do We Get The Idea That People Engaged in “Spiritual Work” Are On Another Plane?

On Saturday, Seth Godin posted an entry on his blog titled “Phoning It In.” First, I want to state that I agree with his conclusion that we need passion in our work. We shouldn’t be, as they say in show business, “Phoning our lines in”.

I want to address the start of the post:

I was talking to a religious leader, someone who runs a congregation. She made it clear to me that on many days, it's just a job. A job like any other, you show up, you go through the motions, you get paid.

I guess we find this disturbing because spiritual work should be real, not faked.

I’m curious about where the misconception came from that people engaged in “Spiritual work” exist on some higher plane. I notice that even fairly well-studied believers somehow see pastors and elders and deacons as somehow holier.

Why I Need the GTD Collection Phase

It happed seconds before writing this blog post. I thought of something that I should do. I turned to my Acer netbook, which already had a Chrome tab open to Gmail with Google tasks. I scanned my task list to see if that task was already listed, and forgot what I wanted to make sure I got done.

Personal productivity and effectiveness has been quite a journey to me. I've been writing about it as long as I've been blogging. Check out my Productivity category for my thoughts and experiences over the years. 

I started with the Franklin Planner in 1996 when I was involved in A-Multi Level Marketing group that started with an A. Franklin merged with Covey. In 2005, I found a copy of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, in my in-laws' house. I borrowed and read it. 

I haven't been successful in getting a productivity system completely off the ground, but I am getting better. What happened to me just now was a failure in my collection. I did solve it though. I followed my last few activities back until I hit the blog post that triggered the thought, and I was able to recover the idea and record it so it gets done later.

I'd say that the two biggest problems with my productivity system are

1) Failure to collect

2) Failure to do a weekly review

I think if I could just follow through on those two things, I'd be a lot more effective. I'd also find more holes in my system.

What about you? How well do you collect ideas for things that you should do?

Here are four of the best books I've ever read (and personally own) on time management and productivity.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Google Buzz Should Be Google Mana: “What Is It?”

Last week while I was snowed in, Google rolled out their new service, Buzz. I immediately enabled it and have been trying to figure out the point ever since.

At one point, I told Christina they should call it "Mana", because people look at it and ask "What is it?" For those of you who are not studied in the exodus, that's what mana means: "What is it?"

I think Buzz has a lot of promise, if I can figure out the point. What is it supposed to be? Is it a social network? Is it an aggregator? I don't know. 

Twitter was very easy to figure out. Twitter's heuristic (that is design philosophy) was "In 140 characters or less, what are you doing right now?" That's really easy to figure out and people found some very creative ways to use Twitter before the "Social Media/Web 2.0 Consultants" showed up.

To this point, I've centered my personal social media strategy around Twitter. I run almost everything through Twitter (you can follow me here.) Most other social networks (including Buzz) can pick up your Twitter feed. Mine goes to Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Buzz. I'm sure it goes to a few other places, but I've forgotten then.

Twitter is a nice place to get your thoughts out there, but discussing them on Twitter is a little cumbersome. I tend to discuss things on Facebook, which allows commenting on posts. I also have a lot of online friends who aren't on Twitter, but are on Facebook, so I interact with them on Facebook.

This has a little confusion. People on Facebook don't seem to understand the Retweet function, so I'll retweet somebody else's comment and people on Facebook think it's my original thought, even if it includes the via @otherperson that Twitterific adds. 

My Twitter feed gets automatically scooped to Buzz, which is good. I wonder why Buzz doesn't interact with Facebook.

Are you using Buzz? What do you think about it? 

Marketing Annoyances

I’m trying to create an entrepreneur’s mindset this year. I’m hoping to either find a way to supplement my income by freelancing or to escape cubicle work entirely. I’ve been studying how other people do things so that when I come up with a product or service idea, I don’t make the same mistakes. Here are some of the ways I hope I NEVER use to market to other people. I wish people would stop doing this to me.

Failure to note preferences

I have an account on Barnes & Noble.com. I also have a nook. I get several emails from B&N every week about their specials. That doesn’t bother me. I also get several emails from them every week about how great the nook is and why I should buy one. That does bother me for the following reason: I’VE ALREADY GOT ONE, YOU IDIOTS! How hard would it be to tailor your marketing emails to me based on my user account? Stop sending me product announcements for products I already have.

Last chance!

I’ll sign up for almost any free report or free ebook download. I’ll especially sign up for any of them that sound like they’ll help me meet my goals, like working for myself and not working in a cubicle anymore. However, most smart marketers will offer some information in a free report and try to get you to buy some of their informational products. Some also create "boot camps". If the info in the free report is useful, I’ll assume that the info product is as well. If I learn nothing new from the free material, I’ll assume there’s no reason to pay to learn what I already knew.

Last year, I registered for a "social media teleseminar". It sounded interesting, but didn’t include any information I didn’t already know. The person who put on the seminar was trying to get people to register for his social media bootcamp. I declined, partly because I can’t really afford to drop thousands of dollars on such things right now, even if the investment would pay off hundreds of times over.

Every time this social media bootcamp starts up, I start getting emails about it. OK, no problem; it doesn’t take me long to delete them. But they keep coming, almost one every time a seat sells out. "Act now! Only 25 seats remaining in social media bootcamp!" "Act now, only 24 seats remaining in social media bootcamp!"…"Act now! Only 13 seats remaining in social media bootcamp!" I know it’s supposed to create a sense of urgency and scarcity, but I find it annoying.

Another Internet marketer that I signed up to receive emails from literally sent THREE "This is absolutely your last chance ever for this offer" emails yesterday. Right. When I take the long term view, I don’t believe it. He’ll send another "This is your last chance email" out within the next 20 minutes. And another one 20 minutes after that. Then the next week, the same marketing program will be out at the same price for the last chance ever once again.

What’s holding you back?

Here’s another one I came across recently. I got yet ANOTHER email about a Multi-Level Marketing "opportunity". I sent out a tweet in annoyance that I have no interest in EVER doing MLM AGAIN. I got a contact about autoresponders. I clicked on the link and gave my name and email address and got the free information. OK, great idea, great price. If I had a product or service, I’d jump on the 30 day trial. But I keep getting email after email after email from the autoresponder asking what’s holding me back and reminding me about the 30 day free trial. Here’s what’s holding me back: I don’t yet have a product or service that I’m ready to "go live with". When I get one, I’ll sign up for the trial. Leave me alone until that point, before I decide NOT to use you when I’m ready.

Oh, come on, there’s a free estimate

This one isn’t Internet related. At least, I haven’t come across it on the Internet. My wife and I went to two Homeshows recently. At the homeshows, the businesses present try to drum up some new business from your needs. They’re obviously trained to overcome objections. At the first Homeshow, I spent so much time dealing with unwanted sales calls that I decided never to give my number out again ever. Don’t call me; I’ll call you. At the second Homeshow, some salespeople did pressure me into giving out my number. Then it got annoying.

I keep getting calls for them to come out. I keep telling them that I’m not ready to commit to doing anything right now. They keep up with the “Oh, just let us meet with you. It’s a free estimate and it’s good for a year”. Right, like I could commit to a $25,000 sunroom being done within a year. Not likely to happen.

I hate being rude, but I started ignoring the calls.

So here’s the big question:

I believe that commerce is moral and righteous. Business is a good thing. But can I expect to meet with success in business on the Internet without annoying the crap out of other people? I want to be a success, but I don’t want to be annoying.

Sorry For Acting Like A Jerk, I Had A Bad Day

Have you ever totally blown up with somebody for no good reason? Or have you ever had somebody blow up at you? Then, when (or if) an apology was offered, it was something like "I had a bad day". It's understandable. We all have bad days.

Today was my anniversary. 9 years! Wow. Our babysitting fell through. We ended up taking the kids out to dinner with us. Dinner sucked. We went to Charlie Brown's Steakhouse in Blackwood, NJ. We've enjoyed it numerous times in the past. Apparently, since the last time we were there, they reduced their menu options and raised their prices. I suspect quality may have been lowered as well.

Christina's dinner had something wrong with it. She had to send it back. Mine was so-so. Definitely not worth $14 at whatever inflation level my brain is stuck at. The kids wouldn't behave. Then we had to take them to karate, then to church for AWANA. Now it's late.

As I've gotten older, I came to realize that bad days never get better. I used to live in some mythical belief that once I hit the next milestone, the stress will go away and things will calm down. "Once the baby is sleeping through the night". "Once I finish my degree". "Once we get this bill paid off". Then I'll have time for whatever. Then I won't be stressed out and irritable all the time.

I think I'm finally getting the message that the stress and bad days just won't go away. They only get worse, and come more frequently. And they're no excuse for acting like an asshole. Pardon the language, but I wanted to make a point, if only for myself.