BlogMailr
By brewmaster | May 22, 2007
When doing some research for a presentation on Web 2.0, I came across BlogMailr, a service that allows you to blog through email. Though most blog platforms allow this service, I’m intrigued by this company that’s offering both free personal and paid commercial blogging-by-mail accounts.
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What coffee says about your man
By brewmaster | May 13, 2007
Wow, this is a scary one…
FYI, Dollar Joe is:
Latte - The latte guy tends to be a bit softer, like a milky latte. He’s a bit of a romantic and is probably still friends with his first girlfriend from high school.
What coffee says about your man - Queensland - BrisbaneTimes
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Blogging by Blackberry
By brewmaster | May 10, 2007
Amazingly, or maybe not so, bloging to a WordPress blog with the ‘Berry is really easy - no plugin required. Now THAT’S cool.
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On Habits and Rituals
By brewmaster | May 2, 2007
Like most humans, I’m a creature of habit. I like routine. I like variety too, but routine is the foundation of what you’re able to accomplish every day. The great accomplishments in life come from good habits practiced regularly - the incremental accumulation of success.
There are times when circumstance forces changes in your habits and rituals and for the most part, that’s good. Four years ago my wife, 1 year old son and I moved across the country to find new challenges. My wife went to work for a big company here, and I continued working on my dream, a freelance web-based worklife that included writing and website publishing. I began new habits, new haunts and new projects. Over the next couple years, at the time, it looked like I was doing a lot of wheel spinning. That was my wife’s opinion, and I must admit for the most part, mine.
But we were both wrong. So wrong. I was immersing myself in what the web was becoming - blogs, social networking and design. I was frustrated with myself because I wasn’t seeing a lot of income, just experience. It seemed like whenever I found a door to open, the room it revealed was far bigger than I could conceive. So big for me to truly, completely get my mind around, I couldn’t possibly explain it to her. So, defeated, I went back to the corporate world I’d spent the past 20 years in, we hired a nanny and I went back to "work."
The good news was that the working world I went back to was a world slowly waking up to the realities of the future I had immersed myself in for those two years. I, happily and luckily had gone on a two-year unpaid sabbatical that would help me develop the very skills I needed to continue to succeed in my industry. In my company (a big one), I’m a guru in social networks, Web 2.0, blogging and creating compelling online content - the very heart of what our company wants to become purveyors of. So, from this vantage point, I was a genius. Two years ago, I was another out-of-work slob screwing around on the computer all day. I didn’t have a clue about how to make a living on the web then. I sure as hell do now, though.
And what brought this little epiphany up today? A simple revisiting of one of my old haunts. I used to hit a bagel store (sometimes) and the next-door Seattle’s Best coffee bar (always), with my iBook in tow, unconnected to the web, but running good old Adobe GoLive. The Seattle’s Best is sadly gone, but the bagel store is here, and on my way to my corporate world workday, I decided to stop by and have a bagel sandwich and see what kind of EVDO signal I could get.
Sitting here drinking iced tea and doing a little blogging, the above story materialized in my head. A little perspective discovered.
The bagel was outstanding, the signal not bad. I’ll be back.
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10 Golden Lessons from Jobs
By brewmaster | May 2, 2007
Steve Jobs changed my life. It changed on that day in 1998 when I finally gave in to the huge on-the-building billboard showing Pablo Picasso telling me to "Think Different" (I walked by it in downtown Chicago every day) and bought my first Mac. Life changed. A different path.
Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple to bail it out, and though that first Mac was a beige one designed by a company he wasn’t at the helm of, it was still MUCH better than PCs of the day, and most importantly, it brought me into the world that Jobs was in the process of taking over. Sure, there have been times when I wasn’t completely won over by Jobs, but he’s my computer hero, no doubt.
Ririan Project - 10 Golden Lessons From Steve Jobs
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The Show No Mo
By brewmaster | May 1, 2007
Well, he did it for a whole year. The Show with ZeFrank wrapped production on March 17, 2007, exactly one year after beginning. It’s a wonderful body of work. One year out of a tremendously talented and funny guy’s life.
Thanks, Ze!
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Wating with Baited Breath
By brewmaster | April 30, 2007
I wish I knew what that meant. “Baited Breath,” I mean.
Anyway…Awaiting the deconstruction of the latest episode of The Sopranos from Tim Goodman at SFGate.com. In my opinion, it’s the best rundown and analytical look at the show on the net. Goodman analyzes every nuance of the show, which as anyone who has spent any time studying Sopranos creator David Chase knows, is important and intended. Sure, some small looks, lines or events are roads that lead nowhere, but they undoubtedly planned that way as red herrings.
It’s not up yet. I wait.
***Update***
Oh. Yea. It’s “Bated” breath. And I guess I could have checked on the interwebs to find out what it meant before just posing that I didn’t know.
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What do you do to further your cause?
By brewmaster | April 29, 2007
My wife sleeps. A lot. It recharges her batteries (she says) but I think it’s a genetic thing, because her father does the same thing. I use the time to work on my blogs, or “clear the mechanism” with some WWII Multi-player stuff. Sleeping more than the 7 hours or so I need (I don’t use alarm clocks) just seems wasteful. I love the occasional afternoon nap, but I’d rather be cogitating.
But yet my stuff is seen as “a waste of time” and “hiding in my cave,” which by the way, isn’t a cave, but a high-ceilinged open office with room for all (just no TV). So should I let her have any of the money that comes from MY wasteful activities? 
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Make your own theme with the Wordpress theme generator - Lifehacker
By brewmaster | April 29, 2007
I love WordPress Themes. I love working on them, I love looking for new ones for blogs I’m working on. But, I haven’t put the time into really digging in and figuring out how to (quickly) design my own. My html-fu is pretty good, and I’m no noob with CSS, but it takes me time. If you need a quick and dirty (but clean and elegant!) WP Theme, here’s where you can get exactly what you want.
Design away!
Make your own theme with the Wordpress theme generator | via Lifehacker
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Oh Yea, and Your Coffee Sucks, Too
By brewmaster | April 27, 2007
A Grande Latte for over $5.
Arggggh.
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