La Tortura-Shakira feat. Alejandro Sanz
Wake Me Up When September Ends– Green Day
What Hurts The Most– Rascal Flatts
Your Wildest Dreams– The Moody Blues
Isn’t Life Strange– The Moody Blues
No Time– The Guess Who
Time Of The Season– The Zombies
Zombie– The Cranberries
Should I Stay or Should I Go– The Clash
In the End– Linkin Park
Insomnia– Faithless
A Country Boy Can Survive– Hank Williams Jr.
I Will Find You– Clannad
Faithfully– Glee Version
The Bad Touch– The Bloodhound Gang
Archives for September 2010
Your Blog is Your Online Resume
Ten thousand years ago the editor of a college newspaper sat back and listened to a professor lecture a room full of students about how to market themselves to publications that were searching for writers. Since it was the ice age she didn’t talk about Photoshop, PowerPoint or any of the myriad tools that we now have access to.
Back then the tale she told was to be diligent in cutting our your clips so that they could be displayed in a professional manner. You wanted your portfolio to look beautiful because sometimes your potential employer would spend more time looking at it then reading the articles contained within.
I always thought that was ridiculous and stupid. Because if I was the one doing the hiring I would be more interested in the quality of their writing then how well they could package it. I was young, dumb and naive. At that time I really believed that the working world was filled with people who would go to work and do their jobs because that is what they got paid for.
It never occurred to me that all the political crap we went through during our school year would be there. It never occurred to me that group projects would still be difficult because the load wasn’t shared fairly across the board. But you live and learn and if you want to prosper here in cyberspace than maybe of those same lessons are applicable.
We could argue that your blog is your online resume, especially if you are someone who wants to earn a living as a writer and or use their blog to generate additional income. And if experience has taught me anything it is that though content may be king, you better have a user friendly blog.
User friendly meaning that it is not filled with crap that causes pages to freeze or is hard to read. User friendly meaning that it is easy to find your contact information, an “about you page” and a friendly commenting system.
There is nothing wrong with a commenting system that requires approval of all comments before they go live. However I would argue against using a registration system as those few extra steps often lead to the reader pointing and clicking their way to greener pastures.
So while I want to say that people shouldn’t judge your work on anything but substance the reality is that like it or not, presentation plays a role. It is part of why my blog irritates me- I don’t like the presentation. It is not the clean professional look I prefer, but I am working on it.
What do you think?
Children and Changes
The first weekend of the Fall is coming to a close. In a few hours the kids will be showered, shaved and shipped off to sleep. Ok, there will not be any shaving but that won’t last forever. I know this because yesterday my son was an infant who slept upon my shoulder and now he is a fourth grader who will be a teen tomorrow.
He and his sister are playing together now. They are just across the room playing some kind of board game and for the moment they couldn’t be happier. But like the weather in Seattle this change in a moment. One gesture, one word or the dog can set off a series of screams. These two have a love/hate relationship that isn’t that different from the one I had with my own sisters.
It makes me proud to see them grow like this. They have a bond that will not be broken and I rest comfortably that they will always look out for each other. Doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to stress the importance of family and why they need to look out for each other.
There are changes looming just around the bend. I don’t have to look hard to see storm clouds on the horizon. No psychic is needed to recognize the signs, although I wouldn’t complain if I had a crystal ball to use to see the future. But the storm clouds I see obscure my vision and the fog that already surrounds me presents more immediate challenges.
Some of the challenges that have been presented to me have gotten old and I have reached a point where I require resolution. There are Rules For Life that I am working on. Steps to be taken and things to be done because Happiness Requires Action. These are not empty words or promises to me. I said what I mean and I mean what I said.
Being a child means that sometimes you are forced to accept changes that you might not always like. In that respect it isn’t much different from being an adult, except you don’t have the life experience to carry you through. Although one could argue that might be a good thing.
As their father I am frustrated that I cannot do more to prepare them for some of these things. But that is one of the challenges of having your vision obscured by the unknown. It is possible that some of these things will not cause the sort of uproar I am concerned about. Things could go far more smoothly, but they might not. Fear of the unknown plays a role here, that is for sure.
So I am working hard on trying to do what I can to protect them from these things. And part of that means not saying anything until the moment is at hand. They don’t need a ton of details- just enough to get through those moments. The most important thing is to give them a feeling of strength and security.
Time will tell…
Dad Blogs, Happiness And Blog Templates
A preview of posts about dad blogs, template and happiness. Click on the link and check it out.
Happiness Requires Action
The secret to happiness is contained within this post. That is not hyperbole or a marketing trick. With this one post I am going to put Tony Robbins and his cohorts out of business. With one post I am going to destroy the mental health industry because I am going to provide you with the secret to being happy.
Happiness requires action
That is it. Boil it down and that is the root of being happy- action. Ok, that is not going to be enough to kill Sir Tony and company. His business isn’t going to be impacted by this nor do I have to worry about a group of angry social workers/therapists putting out a contract on me.
So what does that statement mean. Is it a silly slogan that will one day sell millions of t-shirts. Is it an off the cuff remark that I am trying to make sound powerful and significant? Well, it could be all or none of those things, but I like to believe that it is meaningful and something that works. I can even tie it into blogging.
I blog because I like to record thoughts, memories, ideas and experiences about my life. This place is a repository of stories about my kids. It is a warehouse and living chronicle of their lives and mine. It is where I air out my head and ask hard questions of myself, like what makes me happy.
Have you ever thought about it? Have you ever asked yourself what makes you happy, ever thought about what brings you joy? I don’t think a lot of people do it, but I could be wrong. But it is something that I think about with regularity. It started about 7 or 8 years or so ago.
I woke up and realized that I wasn’t living the life that I wanted to live. Woke up and started asking why I wasn’t and what it was that I wanted to do. And I have spent a good part of the time since then trying to make the changes that will provide me with the life that I want.
You might wonder why it has taken so long. You might ask yourself if I have just been spinning my wheels or wondering if I haven’t taken action. It is fair to say that I don’t like change and am slow to adopt it. Fair to say that it has been an evolutionary process and that I haven’t figured it all out overnight. And also fair to say that I have taken major steps in making some of these changes.
So, I may not be where I want but I have a plan and I am working steadily upon it. Happiness requires action and I am taking it.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
Dancing at the Movies – Music Video
via youtube.com
Bet you can’t find me in there.