As I sit here typing my twelfth entry for the Month of Writing, the sun has disappeared over the horizon, the remnants of its light slowly going away for the night. The weather is rather pleasant, pleasant enough I can sit out on my parent's deck with my laptop. I listen to the birds and insects of the neighborhood, as a cat sleeps nearby. Nothing much is going on, but I can't complain.
Far too often, I am like Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. As Yoda might say, I am too often looking towards the future, rather than what I am doing in the present. Sure, I am not training to be a Jedi Knight, so craving a little adventure is acceptable. However, it is still a good lesson to keep in mind.
My generation is one defined by an intense desire for instant gratification. Seeing as we grew up on microwaved foods, can purchase and download music directly to our iPods, and can order everything from pizzas to pianos with a few clicks of some buttons, it isn't hard to see why. Even worse for me, I am probably more impatient than most.
It certainly doesn't help my efforts at self-improvement, or in trying to start a business. Both endeavors require patience and time for things to succeed. I get far too easily discouraged when things don't go right immediately, and this often tends to lead to failure. It isn't something I can really hope to eradicate from my being, only improve upon and deal with as I continue through life.
Taking the time to stop and enjoy some of the little things in life certainly helps. It can help you become more patient, and also put things into better perspective. Sure, the big events of your life are memorable, but the bulk of your life is made up by the little things. It may be a cliche, but it is still very true.
Coming Tomorrow*: I bitch about the little things, such as all the damn mosquito bites from typing blog posts outside at dusk.
* Not Really
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Improve Thyself
The desire for self-improvement is a cornerstone of human civilization. Most religions are built around some form of it. Benjamin Franklin was obsessed with it, even if he wasn't exactly the most adherent to the maxims of Poor Richard. Rows of books in book stores are devoted to the subject, most with "can't fail" plans. And ever the perennial optimist, I strive to improve myself.
Unfortunately, I can't say that I am successful in my self-improvement. Whether it is being more fearless, improving my health, or improving my work ethic, I just can't seem to quite get there. Sure, I have a success here and there, but far too often I give it up, only to try again later. I suppose there is some value in continuing to try, but sometimes I'm not sure.
Some of these efforts are merely to make me a wiser and more worldly person. In this I tend to have most of my success, as I have certainly succeded in reading much more over the past few years than I had in the past. I've also caught up on many films I had wanted to watch, and I am richer for the experience. Over the past several months I have read several histories and biographies, and gathered a deeper knowledge of the subjects at hand. Although I haven't achieved as much as I would have liked, I still feel I have benefitted greatly.
But other efforts are crucial if I am to continue to have a rich life well into the future. Anyone who knows me knows I am very overweight. Although its never too late to change, I will likely suffer serious medical issues if I don't start making some changes. It is an unfortunate weakness of mine, and the most crucical self improvement I need to make.
I'd like to say that i've finally turned a corner, and that this time I will truly commit myself to turning it around. However, that would be self-delusional, and I could do without the deception. I suppose I will make the necessary changes because they are needed, but at this moment I can't be sure. I'll just need to take it one day at a time.
Stay Tuned...
Unfortunately, I can't say that I am successful in my self-improvement. Whether it is being more fearless, improving my health, or improving my work ethic, I just can't seem to quite get there. Sure, I have a success here and there, but far too often I give it up, only to try again later. I suppose there is some value in continuing to try, but sometimes I'm not sure.
Some of these efforts are merely to make me a wiser and more worldly person. In this I tend to have most of my success, as I have certainly succeded in reading much more over the past few years than I had in the past. I've also caught up on many films I had wanted to watch, and I am richer for the experience. Over the past several months I have read several histories and biographies, and gathered a deeper knowledge of the subjects at hand. Although I haven't achieved as much as I would have liked, I still feel I have benefitted greatly.
But other efforts are crucial if I am to continue to have a rich life well into the future. Anyone who knows me knows I am very overweight. Although its never too late to change, I will likely suffer serious medical issues if I don't start making some changes. It is an unfortunate weakness of mine, and the most crucical self improvement I need to make.
I'd like to say that i've finally turned a corner, and that this time I will truly commit myself to turning it around. However, that would be self-delusional, and I could do without the deception. I suppose I will make the necessary changes because they are needed, but at this moment I can't be sure. I'll just need to take it one day at a time.
Stay Tuned...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
How dare that Commercial Isn't Targeted Towards Me
I recognize I am different from most people. Although sometimes I can tend to mistakenly view myself as representational, I understand that many of my likes and dislikes don't quite mesh with those around me. I also understand that the vast majority of commercials don't really target me.
However, that understanding didn't come about overnight. Before I went to college, I rarely thought about the target audience of commercials. Once I started marketing classes, however, I became better attuned to the ideas of targeted marketing. Instead of viewing commercials as being out of touch, I realized that more likely the commercials were just targeting someone else, and I was just an innocent bystander.
I must admit that some ads certainly are targeted to me, or at least to people who are somewhat like me. A good example of these select ads are the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads", although Master Hobo Chronicler John Hodgman could probably sell adult diapers if he wished it to be so. I suppose certain restaurant ads get me as well, with the exception of that horrible pit known as Applebees. Ads for Movies and television shows that I am already looking forward to can sometimes generate additional interest, so I suppose i am in the target audience for those commercials. But other than that, I can't say most ads are targeted towards me.
Of course sometimes I question whether or not ads are targeted properly. For example, I understand showing ads for old people scooters and medical alert bracelets on The History Channel. The target age of that channel is about 69, so it makes sense. What doesn't make sense, however, is when the same commercials are aired during an episode of Venture Brothers. I suppose some old people might accidentally get stuck on Cartoon Network, but those that do are asleep or not your typical senior citizen. I'm guessing those are value added throw-ins for companies who buy ads during Larry King Live and the latest drama being shown on TNT.
Anyway, the days of massive ad buys with broad audiences are gone, or at least limited to things such as the Super Bowl. In this era of cable networks, internet fueled sub-niches of geekery and obsession, and readily available microbrews and diverse foodshops, every target audience has gotten smaller. I suppose someday it might be possible to have target audiences of one. And on that day, advertising may finally really get to me.
However, that understanding didn't come about overnight. Before I went to college, I rarely thought about the target audience of commercials. Once I started marketing classes, however, I became better attuned to the ideas of targeted marketing. Instead of viewing commercials as being out of touch, I realized that more likely the commercials were just targeting someone else, and I was just an innocent bystander.
I must admit that some ads certainly are targeted to me, or at least to people who are somewhat like me. A good example of these select ads are the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads", although Master Hobo Chronicler John Hodgman could probably sell adult diapers if he wished it to be so. I suppose certain restaurant ads get me as well, with the exception of that horrible pit known as Applebees. Ads for Movies and television shows that I am already looking forward to can sometimes generate additional interest, so I suppose i am in the target audience for those commercials. But other than that, I can't say most ads are targeted towards me.
Of course sometimes I question whether or not ads are targeted properly. For example, I understand showing ads for old people scooters and medical alert bracelets on The History Channel. The target age of that channel is about 69, so it makes sense. What doesn't make sense, however, is when the same commercials are aired during an episode of Venture Brothers. I suppose some old people might accidentally get stuck on Cartoon Network, but those that do are asleep or not your typical senior citizen. I'm guessing those are value added throw-ins for companies who buy ads during Larry King Live and the latest drama being shown on TNT.
Anyway, the days of massive ad buys with broad audiences are gone, or at least limited to things such as the Super Bowl. In this era of cable networks, internet fueled sub-niches of geekery and obsession, and readily available microbrews and diverse foodshops, every target audience has gotten smaller. I suppose someday it might be possible to have target audiences of one. And on that day, advertising may finally really get to me.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
When All Else Fails, Just Write
Well, here I am, eight days into the Month of Writing, and I have nothing to write about. Oh sure, I have ideas, but they are either not developed enough yet, or are better suited for another day. I suppose I should have prepared for this contigency, but no one has ever accused me of being that organized.
However, even without a specific idea, I still push forward, hoping to find something interesting from this exercise. The very fact that I continue this endeavor has some value, even if it is of little interest to anybody but myself. It allows me to take a deep look at how I structure my writing, and gives me a chance to better establish my writing voice. At the very least, it might convince me to be prepared with real topics in the future.
I suppose I could have just phoned it in with an countdown list or a miscellaneous musings post. However, I felt that those would betray the purpose of the Month of Writing, and really wouldn't count. Besides, many other sites on the internet do lists far better than I could, and I really don't want to become the next Larry King. I guess I could have done my next entry on the Presidents, but that is technically a large countdown list.
Instead, you will just have to live with my short post on writing about having nothing to write. I'm sure I'll look back on this post with embarrassment at the end of this month, confident that this is the nadir of my output. At least until I start with the gimmicky weddings and the cute moppets that appear out of nowhere. Oh wait, that's for Month of Writing, January 2010.
However, even without a specific idea, I still push forward, hoping to find something interesting from this exercise. The very fact that I continue this endeavor has some value, even if it is of little interest to anybody but myself. It allows me to take a deep look at how I structure my writing, and gives me a chance to better establish my writing voice. At the very least, it might convince me to be prepared with real topics in the future.
I suppose I could have just phoned it in with an countdown list or a miscellaneous musings post. However, I felt that those would betray the purpose of the Month of Writing, and really wouldn't count. Besides, many other sites on the internet do lists far better than I could, and I really don't want to become the next Larry King. I guess I could have done my next entry on the Presidents, but that is technically a large countdown list.
Instead, you will just have to live with my short post on writing about having nothing to write. I'm sure I'll look back on this post with embarrassment at the end of this month, confident that this is the nadir of my output. At least until I start with the gimmicky weddings and the cute moppets that appear out of nowhere. Oh wait, that's for Month of Writing, January 2010.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A New Era in PHP: 5.3 is released
Showing how on top of things I really am, PHP 5.3 was released, and I didn't bother to find out until a week after the fact. It appears to have several features which I will need to check out. Some of them sound nice, and appear to be long-awaited additions, but not coming from a programmer background before I delved into PHP, I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of some of the new features.
Although I consider myself an expert on PHP, and have the documentation to prove it, it wasn't an overnight accumulation of knowledge. When I started way back in 2000, I didn't know a control structure from a comment. Over the next few years I gained a fair amount of knowledge about syntax and the core functions. I learned the hard way why you should indent code, and I developed a modicum of understanding about how loops work. I was able to do very complicated things with very almost the basic level of PHP. Although the modules and scripts worked, they were rather difficult to smooth out bugs, were flagrantly repetitive, and I'm sure far from efficient.
Granted, I started out in the wild days of PHP 3. Sure, once PHP4 came out, I felt that things had greatly improved. Having no concept of what the hell exactly Object Oriented Programming was, the massive improvements from 4 to 5 were lost upon me, even though I began working on PHP 5 shortly after it was released. Despite a whole powerful part of PHP 5 being foreign to me, I felt pretty confident in my abilities by the summer of 2006.
The past three years have been a roller coaster of confidence in my abilities, and a sense of mastering my craft, followed by troughs of discouragement as I rediscover how little I really know about what I do for a living. This cycle of discouragement and achievement grows even larger when we put the larger context of MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) into the equation. And even when the language behind it is well known to me, systems such as Drupal have also led me to feel like I am once again back in kindergarten.
Still, I am much more confident in my abilities as a PHP developer. I think I get the knack of MVC (Model-View-Controller), Singletons, and the other mainstays of OOP. Thanks to some extensive import scripts I've had to build recently, I feel a lot better about my MySQL skills. Need Ajax work? Bring. It. On. I'm confident I've wrapped my head around the logic of programming, so I am even confident I could take on another language if necessary.
However, I'm sure as I explore PHP 5.3, there will be things that just are beyond my comprehension at this moment. Not so much the technical aspect, but how exactly I can use the new features to my advantage. Far too often I am guilty of horrible inertia when a new toolbox full of things to work with are put in front of me. In short order, I start figuring out how to use certains things out of that toolbox, but it still is quite daunting at the beginning. I suppose it is better to have too many tools than not enough.
Although I consider myself an expert on PHP, and have the documentation to prove it, it wasn't an overnight accumulation of knowledge. When I started way back in 2000, I didn't know a control structure from a comment. Over the next few years I gained a fair amount of knowledge about syntax and the core functions. I learned the hard way why you should indent code, and I developed a modicum of understanding about how loops work. I was able to do very complicated things with very almost the basic level of PHP. Although the modules and scripts worked, they were rather difficult to smooth out bugs, were flagrantly repetitive, and I'm sure far from efficient.
Granted, I started out in the wild days of PHP 3. Sure, once PHP4 came out, I felt that things had greatly improved. Having no concept of what the hell exactly Object Oriented Programming was, the massive improvements from 4 to 5 were lost upon me, even though I began working on PHP 5 shortly after it was released. Despite a whole powerful part of PHP 5 being foreign to me, I felt pretty confident in my abilities by the summer of 2006.
The past three years have been a roller coaster of confidence in my abilities, and a sense of mastering my craft, followed by troughs of discouragement as I rediscover how little I really know about what I do for a living. This cycle of discouragement and achievement grows even larger when we put the larger context of MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) into the equation. And even when the language behind it is well known to me, systems such as Drupal have also led me to feel like I am once again back in kindergarten.
Still, I am much more confident in my abilities as a PHP developer. I think I get the knack of MVC (Model-View-Controller), Singletons, and the other mainstays of OOP. Thanks to some extensive import scripts I've had to build recently, I feel a lot better about my MySQL skills. Need Ajax work? Bring. It. On. I'm confident I've wrapped my head around the logic of programming, so I am even confident I could take on another language if necessary.
However, I'm sure as I explore PHP 5.3, there will be things that just are beyond my comprehension at this moment. Not so much the technical aspect, but how exactly I can use the new features to my advantage. Far too often I am guilty of horrible inertia when a new toolbox full of things to work with are put in front of me. In short order, I start figuring out how to use certains things out of that toolbox, but it still is quite daunting at the beginning. I suppose it is better to have too many tools than not enough.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Immediacy and its Effect on this Blog
If the Internet has done one thing, it has sped up the relevancy cycle in regards to topics. Some things, suc as debates about favorite movies, political issues, and sports teams will always be relevant. Others, however, are deemed irrelevant after just days, or sometimes even hours.
One reason why I don't tend to get my thoughts about new movies up on this blog is my tendency to not immediately write them down. By the time I think about writing a review, it seems too irrelevant, especially if the next week of releases is already out. Sure, the movies can still be topics well after they have been released, but not really as reviews. I know it seems confusing, but there is a difference, a sort of immediacy that is lost with reviews made well after the fact.
That is one reason why I haven't posted reviews of some of the recent movies I've seen. Although I didn't get reviews up for the movies, I'm sure I'll write about Up (because its that good) and Transformers 2 (because its that bad). However, these thoughts will be in a different form than a review, which is a much more immediate type of post.
Although not related to movie reviews, one example of my thoughts on relevancy is a topic I considered for this post. I had thought of writing about fanboys. However, there are plenty of places people can read about this dreadful internet phenomenon. What more do I really have to add, other than to offer my tired opinion that they are pathetic and close-minded. Maybe a well thought out post on fanboys might have been relevant in 2002, but today it is tired and played out.
One reason why I don't tend to get my thoughts about new movies up on this blog is my tendency to not immediately write them down. By the time I think about writing a review, it seems too irrelevant, especially if the next week of releases is already out. Sure, the movies can still be topics well after they have been released, but not really as reviews. I know it seems confusing, but there is a difference, a sort of immediacy that is lost with reviews made well after the fact.
That is one reason why I haven't posted reviews of some of the recent movies I've seen. Although I didn't get reviews up for the movies, I'm sure I'll write about Up (because its that good) and Transformers 2 (because its that bad). However, these thoughts will be in a different form than a review, which is a much more immediate type of post.
Although not related to movie reviews, one example of my thoughts on relevancy is a topic I considered for this post. I had thought of writing about fanboys. However, there are plenty of places people can read about this dreadful internet phenomenon. What more do I really have to add, other than to offer my tired opinion that they are pathetic and close-minded. Maybe a well thought out post on fanboys might have been relevant in 2002, but today it is tired and played out.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Month of Writing: 31 Posts in 31 Days
Welcome one and all, to my latest experiment on my great blogpire. In order to find my writing voice, and just to see if I can stay committed to something, I am going to write one blog post a day during the month of July, the result being 31 total posts.
This experiment will have a few ground rules. First off, the one post a day is one post total, and not 1 each on the four blogs I (in theory) maintain. This limit is in place because I really haven't shown an ability to keep up with the one post a day goal before. Other more economically beneficial commitments must be kept, and I want to do the best job possible with these posts, so I need to keep the goal somewhat realistic.
Second, each post won't just be a link and a quick blurb. Each post will be at least three paragraphs long. I intend to keep the posts to the point and as entertaining as possible. I've gotten rather rusty in the writing game, being out of it for a while. By July 31, I hope my work will be an improvement over the earliest pieces.
Finally, each post will be on the appropriate blog. If it is political, historical, or another serious topic of that nature, it will go on August Prairie. If it is related to movies, sports, games, web development, or just general ruminations, it will go on Quo Vadimus. Travel stories will go on Prairie Traveler Guide, and Vermilion County related posts will go up on the Vermilion Expat. If you wish to see a list of the posted stories in a central location, I have a page here. Each blog will have a link to the 31 Days of Writing page.
Please keep checking back every day. I hope to have the next story up by 5:00 (although tomorrow's post won't be up until later in the evening). And don't hesitate to offer feedback, as comments will be open for business on every post.
One down, 30 to go. Let it begin!
This experiment will have a few ground rules. First off, the one post a day is one post total, and not 1 each on the four blogs I (in theory) maintain. This limit is in place because I really haven't shown an ability to keep up with the one post a day goal before. Other more economically beneficial commitments must be kept, and I want to do the best job possible with these posts, so I need to keep the goal somewhat realistic.
Second, each post won't just be a link and a quick blurb. Each post will be at least three paragraphs long. I intend to keep the posts to the point and as entertaining as possible. I've gotten rather rusty in the writing game, being out of it for a while. By July 31, I hope my work will be an improvement over the earliest pieces.
Finally, each post will be on the appropriate blog. If it is political, historical, or another serious topic of that nature, it will go on August Prairie. If it is related to movies, sports, games, web development, or just general ruminations, it will go on Quo Vadimus. Travel stories will go on Prairie Traveler Guide, and Vermilion County related posts will go up on the Vermilion Expat. If you wish to see a list of the posted stories in a central location, I have a page here. Each blog will have a link to the 31 Days of Writing page.
Please keep checking back every day. I hope to have the next story up by 5:00 (although tomorrow's post won't be up until later in the evening). And don't hesitate to offer feedback, as comments will be open for business on every post.
One down, 30 to go. Let it begin!
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