Take it Easy

I nearly pushed the red button, this morning.

Yah. It was that bad. My reaction to some poor shmuck's opinion nearly sent me off the edge. I wrote a lengthy rant about it complete with expert use of profanity. As I edited and re-edited the rant, like sharpening a blade on a fine stone, I began to realize that I am insane.

Or, at least I was for a few minutes.

Now that I'm back, I just wanted to remind myself, in front of the class, to obey the 10-second rule. Which on the web should be converted to say 1-hour rule.

Wait an hour after sharpening the blade, aiming the missiles or whatever, before unleashing hell. I think it will help us all.

Sniff Sniff: Musings, Mucus and Meaningful Influence

Weather or not you're prone to influence from weather, I'd bet a ripe tomato you're no match for a bucket of snot.

My sinuses are packed like a Polish sausage. Coffee the only medicine available. I'm on a 10-minute hiatus from UX Dev, in a thankful and thoughtful mood and wanted to share.

In late 2009, Phil Coffman posted a link to a site who quickly became one of my favorite writers and online people. His name is Joshua Longbrake. I first landed on his December 15th post where he describes the contrast between cheese-eating liberties in different contexts. I laughed like a horse!

'Nother influencial happening is a new book I'm reading by Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales titled, "Me, Myself, & Bob". I've devoured half of it already. Can't get enough. I'll have more to say on it in the coming weeks.

Keep a Clean Nose in Content-Creation

This is a very negative post. If you feel happy, you may not be inclined to read on. I prefer that you don't actually. I wouldn't want to be held responsible for spoiling a contented person's day. Being that, at the moment, I am not a contented person, I will continue.

Having spent more than a decade clicking through the veritable sludge produced by adrevenue vampires and masterminds of mediocrity for over a decade, I consider myself credentialed enough to publish my own authoritative opinion on the matter of blogging. I'm a big fan of getting to the point. So, here goes.

How Not To Blog

The way it's done by most folks out there is the way not to blog. Symptoms of stupidity in practice include, but are not limitted to:

• Putting the reader second to anything at all. SEO, Traffic, Buzz, whatever. If your content isn't edifying someone, it's cluttering the world for the sake of funding your idiot behavior which in turn feeds on itself. I vote against you.
• Vapid rants inspiring your buddies, cronnies or clan to echo your own, one-point sermon of woe
• Cut-and-paste from other sites for the sake of feigning content creation on your own site. Think of the endless crap-stack of Web design galleries and you've picked up the right scent trail.
• Agressive display of anti-whatever-it-is-ness (again) for the sake of traffic

How To Blog

These fellas are to be commended in that they actually provide intelligent content with appealing presentation. It's as though they believe that packaging their message is a way to build credibility on top of creating great, original, thought-provoking content ala subversive magazine articles.

• Trent Walton
• Jason Santa Maria
• 'Nother dude, I'm trying to find in my pile of bookmarks (forthcoming)

How To Deal

So, what am I doing besides stinking up the room with my own vapid rant or attempting to perfume my pig pen? To be clear, I am recommending a boycott of worthless content. For starters, I urge the following actions upon your person:

• Don't revisit worthless sites. The traffic stats will only encourage them.
• Clicking on ads thereupon serves a similar purpose.

In short, I say in your own life's endeavors, keep a clean nose in content-creation. If you need to earn cash, do it with integrity. Build something, teach someone, help in one way or another. You will inevitably be credited for the good you do in the world. Whether or not that meets your finanicial needs entirely is another issue. Which, while we're at it, begs the question of greed. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

2010

Change in the Wind

For me, Twenty-Ten is all new, complete with a new workplace and career path. I've dropped 2009 and subsequently the full-time employment I had with a small Austin company like a torn sock and moved into a new direction as a UX Dev consultant with the goal of working independently under the moniker of consultic.us.

As part of my newly productive and fun(er) life, I've migrated dannyhotea.com to the MODx platform. I've been infatuated with it since my work for Dell.com's Global Site Design Design Library site. Did I stutter?

Projects on Radar

Writing out a publicly viewable list of my ideas is a first for me. In that regard, you might say I've been unsociable up until now.

Pee Shoe

This will be a series of short, autobiographical essays starting with my earliest memories and working through mid-adolescence. My son, Ethan, inspired this one. When he was younger, I would tell him improvisational stories, series of stories, every night. One was about a rabbit named Zoozoo. Another was about a lizard named Lenny the Lump. I even made up a one-off prose-poem called The Grubby Little Boy once to motivate him to take a bath. Not sure if that helped his bathing moralle, but what the stories did do was prove his love for narrative and my love for writing and creating stories.

consultic.us

This will be my new consulting business. Phase one is to operate independently from other agencies or businesses, doing Web UX Dev & Design work nationwide. Phase two is under wraps until further notice.

Flatgut.com

This is where I journal my learnings and earnings in effort to become and remain healthier and more attractive. Men, in general, are hideous and repulsive at face value. The hairy bodies, the love handles, the gut. My ambition is to become as much of a glistening diety by age 35 as I possibly can.

Short Do-List

• More fun!
• Writing
• Photography for fun and personal journalism
• Get back on the skateboard
• More outdoors & less chair-and-screen-time
• Nurture friendships deliberately and regularly

Stop-Doing List

• Twitter is at the top of the list for 2010. No more Twits for me, friends. Facebook may be next. I'm not sure. I just removed it from my iPhone, so it's getting close to the chopping block.
• Sensless TV-watching
• Unplanned learning or information collection en-masse
• Unscheduled to-do's of any sort

Money is Not Enough

Besides work, I've determined to live for something. My kids are my life. Time with them, teaching and learning from them, is on the radar. Time to nurture my marriage of (nearly) thirteen years to the ever lovely Kristen (Kauffman) Hotea is high on the priority list, as well. Then there's organizing the garage and spending more time outdoors. Forget jogging for cardio, skateboarding is where it's at!

God bless and keep you, this year. I wish you the best life possible. That's what I'm going for.