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professional

BusinessWeek and a Free Lunch

Art WellsI was recently written about on businessweek.com. In the main article, my situation is introduced as exceptional.

The next day, I went to a Lunch 2.0 and met a lot of very enthusiastic, successful and positive people.

My success always feels so tentative. I honestly don’t know if I will have any work in April. In February, that’s how I felt about March. In January, that’s how I felt about February.

I’m learning to take credit for my success, but I think I’m doing about enough of that now. I’ve been very, very lucky. I’ve worked hard, to be sure, but I’m very, very lucky.

Categories
business divination interpretation professional streetfinds

Scent In The Air

My allergies tell me it’s officially Spring, even if the calendar doesn’t. I’ve got some great creative professional opportunities coming up, stalling, turning around, running away, then coming back. I’m trying to keep patient, but not too much so.

I saw this when I was wondering if I had chosen the right profession, and if it could keep me properly challenged. It reminded me that inviting creativity isn’t the role of my profession. I’m responsible to remain creative. I remembered working in factories and having my head full of ideas all day and writing all night.

My professional choices don’t give me creative opportunities; Every moment does, if I’m creative enough.

Categories
professional technology

Google Buzz, Augmented Reality and E-Commerce

Years ago (more than three years at least) I guessed that Google would be moving into the augmented reality game and make it an e-commerce tool. I was in the 3D-for-e-commerce biz so it was hopefully thinking at best, but I kept seeing signs that this was the direction they were heading. When Google bought SketchUp, I knew I was onto something, though still only steps ahead of the hopeful thinking.

As Google’s 3D warehouse started to focus on city architecture, as Google started to send out QR code stickers to businesses, as Street View, Goggles and Navigation is added to Android, as rumors fly of Street View going into store interiors, even as they jumped ahead with the well-killed Lively, my guess can now be played up all like knew what I was talking about. The way Buzz just debuted with huge potential, I suspect that Google is looking for social media to accelerate the adoption of their future tools. They will have an at least adequate response to Foursquare and Twitter, even if it never gets to their level of adoption or interface. Grouped with Navigation, Maps, Calendar, Street View and eventual Google Earth, 3D Warehouse and Goggles, these products may become a complete and popular integration of e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar retail. Wave too will have a great place as online conversations and social interactions become more and more location-based.

I’m now convinced that Google will buy Layar, or release a better-than-Layar product within the next calendar year. Within two years they will have an Android powered device that will be ad-driven and insanely cheap, if not free, that will have all these products together. I think I might be ready for that. Will you?

Categories
business professional

Without A Plan

annual It’s been a year since I’ve been traditionally employed. Right when I everyone was saying that the worst thing you could do is to quit your job and try to start a business, that’s what I did.

After ten years building up a multi-million dollar website from the ground up, I was confronted with “reorganization”. My employer was forcing nearly everyone with more than a few years experience out. I was given a job way outside my skill set (Windows desktop/server support) and my compensation was slashed. After several weeks of abrasions, sleepless nights, and watching the leadership drill more holes to let the bilge drain, I took the opportunity to go freelance, swimming away from the wreck with no land in sight.

A year later, sleep is welcomed (though I may be too busy to sleep at time). My income has increased to the point that I’ve recovered from the time I spent building business. I no longer bring home the frustrations of watching destruction. I no longer have to fight to do work well. This has been amazing good fortune, though I’m willing to take a lot of credit.

I’m still surprised that the world seems filled with positive, nearly enchanted, people doing good work and investing passion in whatever needs to be done. That my work can be respected so readily, and that quality is valued all around. I never knew what kind of hole I had sunk into. I’m frightened that had my employer not taken that dive, I would have never floated off. I’d still be there, head down, hoping for things to be better this year.

I kept looking for a plan to leave, years ago even when things started going bad. I kept hoping I could find an easy transition that would protect against all the foreseeable dangers. I never knew I wouldn’t need that, at all.

Categories
creativity professional programming writing

Inspiration All Around

wcpdx I’m attending Wordcamp Portland and am surrounded by sparks of inspiration. The buzz and the tools and the cause are filling my mind with flashing todo items and means to do them.

First on my list is to blog more of course. When this entry is two months old and I haven’t added anything, I’ll feel horrible, but for now, dammit, I want to start writing more. Also, I need to return to the several plug-ins I’ve written, and release them into the wild. At least one of them contains some methods and techniques and fulfills the purpose of the gallery presentation here, and then some and it’s a shame I’ve kept it to myself and unfinished.

Categories
family professional programming technology

Pruning and Weaving

willow-wovenMy son and I worked on the willow hut yesterday. Today I worked on some inherited spaghetti code.

The winter die-off was woven in with new growth. It was difficult to find which part should be snapped off, which brought to the light, which woven back to hold the thing together. I snipped and pulled and made a mess of it. For a while it even lost much of its shape.

Now the ceiling is higher, though the walls are thinner. The door is a bit too tall and the back wall is still too thin, but this summer promises strong growth.

Categories
family personal professional

A Measure of Success

measurementFlora put this above the door down to the basement, where my office is. This pretty much says it all.

We broke even in March financially, and in its first week, April looks good. I’ve got a part-time job with customerforce along with a few new gigs, and some huge possibilities.

After being in such an ill place professionally, I wish it didn’t take global financial strife to get me to a better place, but it seems that it did. Yay!

Added “Create A Decent WordPress them for your own blog” to the todo list.

Categories
nshrine personal professional twitter

On My Toes

precariousI’ve been exploring a lot professional opportunities lately. None of them are firm. None of them are yet a path.

I walk around on tippy toes, trying to find a foot size spot of earth for the first step.

In other news, I completed a twitter bot for nshrine. Twitter users can place candles by messaging @nshrine. See the twitter bot help page for more information. Enjoy.