There are many ideas being presented today.  I’ll try to highlight a few and also add some personal thoughts.

The youth of today are important.  It’s important to provide them the tools they need to express themselves, or else they’ll find other ways.  To kick off the show with some of today’s creative youth was awesome.

Content is no longer one sided.  One point hinted out early on is that content is no longer the domain of one group.  Today’s web users are just as excited to create content as they are to consume it.  You need to plan for that fact.

It’s important to not just build great websites or ads, but to also know how your customers think and behave.  I know that I would like sites to be smarter about me.  I’m tired having to re-explain myself to each website/company.

The next point is that full version Flash is coming everywhere: desktops, netbooks, smartphones and TVs.  The biggest problem was RAM usage.  It’s a true dilemma for Adobe and device manufactures.  I, as a techie, realize that devices and computers aren’t equal in power and ram.  However, my mom doesn’t understand that.  Most of the public just assume that a machine is a machine.

Touch, gestures, accelerometer, etc. are important to the future of User Interfaces.  This was obvious before the keynote.  Apple’s iPhone has proved that people love this new way to interact with devices. As an owner of an iPod touch, I have to admit that the first time I tried gestures, I fell in love.  My 3 year-old understands gestures with no training or explaining.  Using a mouse is not intuitive at all, so the sooner we can get rid of it, the better.

Enterprise applications are tired of being second rate apps.  Up until recently, enterprise applications have been boring as all heck.  The important thing was the numbers, more so than the experience.  As Web 2.0 interactivity has become part of people’s everyday lives, so has the need to duplicate this richness in the enterprise.  Employees in an enterprise are just people who cruise the web at home.  This is a long-overdue trend that I’m glad to see transpiring.  Rich is good and it’s about time we begin to leverage concepts from the real world into the enterprise.

In yesterday’s post, I talked about finding your niche.  Today, I share more about my niche and my plans to get back into it.

I used to run Silvafug, the Silicon Valley Flex Users Group.  During my tenure, the group accomplished a lot. (Heck even without me, the group is still doing a lot.) However, one goal eluded me, despite having a great need to be attained.  I think it’s time to revisit that goal.  What is it?

Helping Flex developers bridge the gap from beginner-to-mid and/or mid-to-advance level.

It’s an ambitious goal, but hey, why aim small, right?  I sorta started down the path with a “hit” series of mine, “Graduating from Hack to Architected Development” (available on 360|Whisperings and Adobe’s Flex Developer Center)  Adobe said that was one of their most successful pieces at the time, though I’m sure many have surpassed it now.

One of many shining moments in regards to this series was at MAX Chicago.  We were walking down one of the many long hallways.  Coming towards us was Joe Berkovitz, Steven Webster, and some others. One person (Sorry, I’ve forgotten your name) in the group asked me, “Hey, Tom.  When are you going to publish your next article in the series?  I can’t wait for it so I can finally understand Cairngorm.”  I looked at him then at Steven “I wrote Cairngorm” Webster then back at him.  ”I’ll try to wrap it up soon.” Internally, I wondered why he just didn’t ask Steven.  The answer was because Steven’s role was to create Caingorm for people to use.  His role was not to explain how you graduate to it.  That, you see, was my role.

To help accomplish this goal, I’ll have *a lot* of work to do.  In my mind I’m already mapping them all out.  Here they are in no particular order:

• Blog more about coding tips and tricks –  Reviewing my blog traffic proves one thing. My code posts generate more traffic overtime than any other kind of posts I do. This means that I’ll probably get to finish up my series on Flex game making I started back in the day.
• Write more articles – Craig Goodman and his team are the ones responsible for the Adobe Developer Connection as well as the Edge Newsletter. The reach found on these two properties is simply AMAZING. While this li’l old blog of mine gets decent traffic (for my taste), it’s but a spec of dust in comparison to the traffic those Adobe web properties get. More eyes mean I help more people learn.
• Write tech novellas – Sometime during my stay in the Silicon Valley, I realized that print lacked something. What it missed was a simple way to sell a sub-100 page “tech novella” – Something that was a bit longer than a blog post, but shorter than a book. John and I started 360|Whisperings specifically to produce content like that. It’s time to whip up some Flex Tech Novellas!
• Create tutorials – One thing I’ve always wanted to do “right” was tutorials. Though, I’m not talking simple screen captures and/or blog posts. I’ve done those and they work, but they’re not as effective as a tutorial could be. I’ve been thinking about how to make a more effective type of tutorial for quite sometime. I’m hoping they’ll be a new, effective twist on learning.
• Jump into the Flex Consulting world (Hire me!) – I was gonna make this leap before Workday, but their opportunity was just too good. I knew that working there would guarantee any other project would be cake. So far, it’s proven to be true. LOL If you’re looking for a good Flex developer, feel free to hit me up. The projects will be the basis for things I teach. I won’t use code from the project, but rather extract the concepts that developers clearly need to learn. Plus, something has to pay the bills while I’m building all this stuff.
• Bridge-Gap Training – This one will probably take the longest. What I would like to do is create a curriculum to be used in a highly specialized training program.  People will be able to choose the level that they are at, then purchase a fast track training program to help them bridge the gap to the next level.  Or companies can use it to help their entire team grown. I would teach it and/or license the training to other training firms.

As you can imagine, these things are going to take a lot of time, effort and energy.  While in Silicon Valley, my life was spread thin between work, home, Silvafug and 360|Conferences.  I”ll still need to work to make money and gain knowledge to share.  I’m keeping my family, and luckily they’re keeping me.  I no longer have a User Group and while I thought about starting one here in the sticks of AZ, I haven’t yet.  That leaves 360|Conferences.

360|Conferences announces the Farewell Tom Tour

After thinking it over, I realize that it’s time I move on. John is a great friend of mine. It’s been a pleasure spending 3 years working with him on our little business. However, it’s clear to me that 360|Conferences is becoming more and more John’s dream than it is mine. Heck, John loves conferences so much he’s does other ones outside of 360|Conferences. I certainly do not, nor do I have any desire to do so.

Over on the 360|Conferences blog, you’ll find a post on my imminent departure after the next 360|Flex show. On the 360|Flex blog, you’ll see the “Find Tom’s Replacement” post. While it is sorta tongue in cheek, it’s actually quite serious. 360|Flex is too good to die. John’s still devoted 100% to it, but he’s gonna need some help. Personally, I think 360|Conferences would be better off merging with another company. John and I know how to build community and how to put on a killer show. A company with a bigger vision of the conference/training landscape would be smart to buy into this great series of conferences, because people LOVE (yes, with capital letters) 360|Flex and 360|iDev.  I’ve spent 3 years working on this baby, so selling my part of the biz will hurt, but hopefully someone with more passion can step it and help it grow even more.

The one clear thing is I need to be doing more of the teaching and training rather than facilitating a place where others can do it. In other words, I want to join in on the fun versus sitting back and watching the speakers/trainers have it all!  Wish me luck.

I’m amazed by people who have a singular passion. In addition, I’m in awe with those that have many passions, but the will power to focus on just one to the point of major success.  I fit in neither of those two categories.

My curse is I work hard to be just “good enough” in one passion, then move on to another.  By “good enough”, I mean good enough for me.  I’ll take a rare indulgence here (take a picture, it’ll last longer) and say that my “good enough” is better than some people’s “best”.  I take this odd (for me) stance for a good reason, and it’s not just to stroke my ego.

Mankind has a strange habit of staying with something that is comfortable, regardless of passion or happiness.  I know people (myself included) who stayed at a job because it was easy and comfortable, long after the passion and happiness were gone.  These people are giving their “best” but without passion or happiness.  Therefore, when I enter the same space with passion and happiness, I can attain more in a shorter time merely because the passion will help push me further.

I’ve had some down time recently to think.  In addition, I’m nearing my birthday which is my annual “life check-in” point.  I’ve got to thinking about what I’m doing and where I’m going.  What I found was that, somehow, I got lost along the way.

See, I started this conference called 360Flex with two friends of mine, John Wilker and Ted Patrick.  John will be the first to tell you that Ted and I wanted the conference to be free, unconference style.  John said no, that we needed to charge something so Ted and I agreed.  360|Conferences was born because we needed a bank account to hold the money from the show.  We called it 360|Conferences so we could then have future shows with the 360|- moniker, such as 360|iDev.  Shortly after the first show, we fired Ted cuz he worked for Adobe (conflict of interest).

That part of the story is known and well told. However, there’s a part that doesn’t get told as much.  Sadly, in hindsight, it was probably the biggest reason why I wanted to organize the conference in the first place.  See, at the first 360|Flex I did part of the 101 training (along with others) and a session on Cairngorm (which suffered due to having to run the show).

Our collective goal for the first 360|Flex was singular: to get the Flex community together to learn from one another.  This is where semantics (and a little bit of success) can send your mind for a loop though.  For about 3 years now, I’ve helped run 360|Conferences with that same goal in mind: getting the community together to learn from one another.  I’m sure everyone will agree that the goal is evident, and thus reached.  Secretly though, something didn’t seem right.

I didn’t realize this until recently.  See, if we look back at my motives for the first show, it wasn’t money and definitely wasn’t to revolutionize conferences.  We had a business though, 360|Conferences. In order to keep 360|Flex going, in order to grow the company, my public facing output turned less from coding and more into conference planning, etc.  Slowly, but surely, I moved away from the very thing that motivated me to do 360|Flex in the first place: directly helping people learn how to grow their Flex skills via the programming I did at my “day job”.

Sure, I did some amazing coding at eBay and Workday, but no one knew.  I also did some cool stuff with Rapid Ninja this summer, but again, it was all done behind the scenes.  For the past 3 years, when I wasn’t coding I was working on the 360|Conferences business or hanging with my family.  This meant that I hardly wrote about coding much (except for The Edge here and there).  I also definitely didn’t help people learn, since my training at Silvafug meetings even took a back seat.

Sad thing is that was my niche.  I was good at taking what I learned during the day (coding awesome Flex projects) and translating that into trainings, articles and sessions to help other people learn.  It felt good to do that.  Really good, as in “That’s what I’m meant to do” good.  After much thought and prayer (you can read more about that here), I was lucky enough to have that fact brought to light.

Now that I remember it, what next?  Stay tuned and I’ll let you know tomorrow.  Til’ then, remember: Find something that makes your extremely happy. When you find it, it’ll eventually start to tangent. When it does, take a moment to pause and think about things.  Make sure what you’re doing is in line with what was making you happy.  If it really doesn’t, course correct and get back on track.

There’s one lesson I hope you learn from this:  Picking a niche doesn’t help you find happiness; Instead, happiness helps you find your niche.

Fair readers of this blog may recall my Tic-Tac-Toe posts from awhile back.  The gist of the posts was this: I wanted to learn game dev, so I built a Tic-Tac-Toe game in Flex.  The plan was to start with really poorly written mxml files and then gradually improve them to more advanced AS3 files.  You can play the finished game here.  Now it was a lot of hardcoded logic, poor design, etc, but the point was to get something working pronto.

I pulled that game up the other day because my son and I like to play Tic-Tac-Toe on paper.  After a few minutes of playing online, my 5-year old threw down the gauntlet, “Dad, can I play this on the iPod [touch]?”  Never to be one to step away from a challenge, I said, “Not this one.  I’ll have to make a new one just for the iPod.”  To which he replied, “Okay, let me know when it’s done.”

That’s the thing about kids.  They don’t know, nor do they care, about how hard something is.  They just want to know when the final product is done, whether that be a baby brother or an iPod Touch game.

I’m about halfway thru Dave and Jeff’s iPhone Dev book after finishing Mark’s Objective-C book.  Therefore, I was jonesing for my own project as it was, so my son’s request just gave me the excuse to give it a go.

Well, it took ’til Monday night, but behold!

As you can see, I’ve got a working version of the app.  Since I knew I wouldn’t be submitting this to the app store, I spruced up the gameboard a bit.  My son is just starting to read, so he can recognize keywords like his name, “love” and “dad”.

The code was almost a literal port, i.e. the hideous flex code was matched by equally hideous Objective-C code.  What’s interesting is that with my flex code, I kept it basic except for the use of States.  In my Objective-C code, I kept it basic except for the use of Categories (instead of sub-classing).

All in all, I’m happy with the project.  Here’s some quick questions and answers:

Was it tough porting the app from the Flex SDK to the iPhone SDK?

The start was a bit rough as I was trying to literally port with states and all.   The hardest part for me to grasp was separating my model into it’s own class.  I didn’t do that in the Flex version and so was trying to add game properties to my game’s ViewController in Objective-C.  That didn’t work out so hot to say the least. LOL

Is Objective-C programming really that different?  How does Xcode compare to Flex Flash Builder?

By the end, i was feeling my Objective-C mojo.  I saw where I could optimize things and did tweak a few files after I had a working version on my iPod Touch.  Objective-C is certainly a different beast.  Functional Testing *needs* to be done on the device.  It’s so much nicer and just *feels* right.

Xcode is a dream IDE to use though.  No offense meant to my Flash Builder homiez.  However, I’m sure Apple has a whole army dedicated to making Xcode, so it’s not a fair comparison.  Plus, I’ve barely touched the surface as far as Xcode’s features.

Is the iPhone version more complex than the Flex version?

Yeah, by default it is because Objective-C is a real low-level language versus ActionScript3 which mimics one.  You have memory allocation, etc.  Also, the way the SDK works, you must have an Model-View-Controller architecture from the get go.

However, I can really see the power of Categories and how that would solve a lot of inheritance issues in Flex.  As my son would say, I felt “tricky-tricky” for using such an advanced concept in my humble first little app.  It just made so much sense though, since my Flex version subclassed Button to create GamePiece.  I had to do something similiar to truly create a port. Therefore, I created a “GamePiece” category on top UIButton, which works great, especially since sub-classing UIButton is sort of a big no-no.

Am I done with Flex now and gonna turn traitor?

Heck, no.  Objective-C is nice and all, but I’m definitely not as versatile there as I am in Flex.  Plus, each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses.  I will continue delving deeper into the Objective-C waters though.  I haven’t done any low level programming in awhile, so it’s definitely refreshing to have that much power!  :)

A Funny Side Story

Monday, I went back to my machine.  I noticed that my XIB for the iPhone game had regressed.  (You can think of a XIB file as the design view for your app except you don’t have access to the underlying code.)  I was thinking Xcode wigged out or something.  After fussing for a few minutes, I decided to just rebuild the XIB file (i.e. all the visuals you see in the screen shot above).

At some later point, my son walked up and saw me working on the app.  ”Oh Dad, yesterday, I was playing Tic-Tac-Toe on your ‘puter.  I saw the new Tic-Tac-Toe game and I started to make the lines and pieces disappear!”  It wasn’t an Xcode project, but more of a “5 yr-old making magic” problem.  LOL

I always like when people blog about our shows while they’re going on.  Therefore, I felt it was only fair that I do the same for WWDC, since I’m an attendee with no responsibilities.

Today was the keynote, but everyone and their grandma will blog about that.  Instead, I’ll blog about some of the other cool stuff going down today.

First off, you can really make out with some great stuff at WWDC!  Here’s a picture of what I’ve received so far…and it’s just Monday.

My Free WWDC Stuff

As you can see in the picture, I made out like a bandit today.  Thus far, I’ve received a Nokia 5800, Jawbone Prime, 2 rubber ducks (bath toys for my boys!), 4 shirts (FastMac, Apple, Zagg, Symbian) and a Snow Leopard Preview DVD.  Life is definitely good.

The other thing I really enjoyed today was the Symbian hackathon.  The event itself was a little rough, but I put on events so I’ve got a critical eye.  Plus, the organizer only started 2 weeks ago, so it’s not like she had time to really do massive planning!  Hopefully, they’ll be joining us at InsideMobile so we can do this hackathon thing right!  The two biggest freebies in the pic, the Nokia 5800 and the Jawbone Prime, were courtesy of Laura, Maurice and their team over at Symbian.

The ironic thing is that I built my first Flashlite App at the Symbian hackathon during WWDC!  I have to admit, I was a little wary going in, but I definitely had fun.  John even got in on the dev action, helping me debug my FlashLite stuff.  It ’s a cool little app that was conceived, produced and delivered all during the hackathon.  I can’t wait for Symbian to come to InsideMobile where some of our speakers can help teach FlashLite for them and others can disover the joys of mobile development.

P.S. That sweet pic of my free stuff is courtesy of my new Nokia 5800!  Thanks again, Symbian!

6 Things That Have Impacted My Life Greatly

I’ve been holding off writing this post, because I wanted to make sure it was true.  I didn’t want to give a false start on my new found gadget relationship.  I have to admit though, I’m thoroughly smitten with my Kindle 2.

Before you eBook haters/book lovers dismiss this, hear me out.  I was once among your numbers.  I have hundreds of books.  I love them, hardbacks and 1st editions.  Signed…meh.   But gimme a nicely bound, small press edition of one of my favorite authors and I’m in heaven.  I even have some books in bulk, because I wear them out by reading them too much.  I’ve proven my case.  I’m one of you, and there will always be a place in my heart for the printed book.  However, I must come clean.  The majority of my book purchases will now be on the Kindle.

Let me explain to you why the kindle is great.  I’m not going to do a feature-by-feature run down.  I’m not going to do a side-by-side comparison to real books.  I’m just going to let you know my experiences and you can deem whether or not it makes sense for you to buy one.

1. You get lost in the kindle - This was the one thing that I thought would be the breaker.  I love losing myself in the pages of a good book.  Losing yourself in that way on a computer screen is impossible.  You have the menubar of the OS, IM windows, browser chrome, etc.  Plus, 72 dpi just can’t deliver text as pure and crisp as a printed page.  The Kindle 2 doesn’t suffer from any of that.  It’s so much like the real page that on several (yes, several) occasions, I licked my fingertips in anticipation of turning the page.  Yeah, it really is that crisp and clear.
2. No more worries about creasing the binding  or scuffing the dust jacket – One thing I love about books is the beautiful binding.  That’s why I don’t like paperback books.  It *pains* me to put a crease in the binding.  (I think it’s the comic book fan in me that screams in pain over creasing paper.  LOL)  That’s why I love hard cover books, no binding to crease.  They do have cover jackets though, which I have to lay aside lest I put a crease, smudge or tear in them.
3. No more losing your place – One thing each book of mine has is a bookmark.  Sometimes, it’s cute pictures of my godsons, but normally it’s the receipt, a sticky or a piece of the nearest scrap paper.  I open the book, stick the bookmark in the back and get to reading.  I usually put it in front of the last page versus after, as that tends to stay in place better.  However, when I have to chase a kid or go help my wife real quick, I don’t have time to put the bookmark in place.  Not to mention sometimes the kids take the bookmark out.  Now, there’s no worries.  Even if I decide to read another book, when I next click on the first book, the Kindle 2 will remember my last known location automatically.
4. You HAVE to hold a book, but not a Kindle – By this, I mean that for the most part if you have a book and let go of it, it closes.  I love to read on the couch.  It’s by far my favorite reading spot.  I’ve become the master of using cushions as padding to hold the book’s weight while my fingers just turn pages.  There are places where that’s not possible though.  I’ll give you two locations: my desk and the gym.  Have you ever tried to manually type some sample code from a programming book?  You can’t without help, because the monstrous number of pages causes one side to close on the other.  I usually have to have a small dumbbell near my desk, just to prevent the book from closing.  It’s frustrating as all heck.  I used to love reading at the gym too, but that was limited to the recumbent bike.  Now that I run on a treadmill, I can’t read.  I’d love to read the paper or a book, but the sweat of my hands and small shelf on the treadmill prevent it.  Not anymore!  The Kindle 2 fits perfectly in any of those locations and it never-ever shuts on me.
5. Magazines and newspapers are accessible again – With the exception of Harvard Business Review, I’m not allowed to have magazines anymore.  They pile up on my desk, then bookshelves until my wife gets mad and throws them out.  As for the paper, I occasionally make time to read an article or two on Sunday.  Other than that, I don’t have time.  The one spot I do have time to read both types of periodicals though is the gym.  Like I said above, before the Kindle 2, that wasn’t an option.  I’m happy to report that I read the New York Times this morning while running my 3 miles.  It was great for 2 reasons: First, I love reading the NYT but hate newspaper ink.  Second, it made my 3 mile run go soo much faster than having to put up with a silent version of SportsCenter or Charmed.
6. The Classics (and other books) are FREE! – Yes, that’s right.  Since most of the classics have been in public domain for quite awhile, anyone can eBind them up in Kindle format.  Also, there are a ton of sites that just give away free books for the Kindle.  I’ve been meaning to stock up on the classics now that my boys are getting old enough to read to and understand the storylines.  I’ll save a ton of money due to this little perk.  Money that I can spend on other books to support living writers.

There’s my list.  Like I said, I didn’t touch on features of the Kindle 2 since so many other blog posts do that.  This is more to share my experiences with reading on the Kindle 2.

If you like what you read and decide to give the Kindle 2 a spin, use my referral link.  This way I can feed my eBook habit and not get in trouble with the Mrs.

Update: The Kindle also saved my startup – Read more here.

I know articles like this are bad news.  People losing jobs is not good for their psyche or for the economy.  Or is it?

I’m an odd egg, I get that.  I see life in a slightly skewed way.  The result of this is that I love experiencing everything: the good, the bad and the ugly.  I have contigency plans.  Should I ever get to the point where I have no job or any leads at all in the tech field, I’m looking forward to trying my hand at selling cars and flipping burgers.

In regards to selling cars, I have a list of ideas I’d use to help me be a great salesman.  I even went to 3 dealerships one day to do research.  The experience was so bad at all 3 (low end, mid and high) that I wrote down all the things that I would do to make the experience better.

For burger flipping, I’ve always wanted to work at In-N-Out.  I realize that I’d be the oldest employee, but I’d have a blast.  Last I checked, working your way up through the ranks was the only way to open up your own In-N-Out.  Plus, managers make a hefty salary and have wonderful benefits.

Let’s get back to the issue at hand though.  Others, they don’t have plans like me.  They’d prefer to not sell cars or flip burgers, but rather keep on doing what they did.  I’m all for that.  I say send out the resumes, make the calls, etc.  Make finding a new job your full time job.  However, in the down time, do what you want to do with your life.

So many people spend their lives doing something they enjoy with their lives, but they don’t do the projects they like.  Someone may build homes for a living, but really would like to build awesome backyard playsets.  A car painter may do traditional flat tones, but really has ideas for a wild new fade.  Yet others, may do one thing for a living that they thoroughly enjoy (tech related) but secretly want to become the world’s next great chef.

My point is that I understand you need to make money.  Trust me, this past month I’ve learned that just as much as anyone.  However, don’t forget that bad times are often an opportunity in disguise.  My philosophy is “Do what you love and someone will love you for it.”  Whether that turns into riches, I can’t promise.  Making someone happy by doing something you love though is priceless.  It may just be the lift you need in a rather bleak and sad time.

Back to the article above, I can’t help but feel a few of those people are gonna go off and do something on their own.  One of them may start a new company and build a game that me or my kids will love dearly.  It’s ideas of that variety that make America great, even during the bad times.

Too many want to climb to the top by stepping over people versus being pushed to the top by a group of friends.

I wrote that statement awhile back to explain my philosophy on leadership, particularly in business.  Sadly, the world of business has become too much about greed.  Too many CEOs and other business “leaders” look out for only one person, themselves.  It would seem that amassing ever larger fortunes are more important than looking out for those who are supposedly in their care.

A lot of this is because leaders these days have forgotten what it means to serve.  A leadership role does not command respect by default.  Though, many in CxO level positions seem to think that.  Heck, I’ve seen that mentality manifested down to the very first level of management.  Respect, at all levels of the workplace, is something that must be earned.  Many think that intimidation or bureaucratic process will help them achieve this respect, but that just backfires.  They may feel they have respect, but don’t realize that people laugh and talk smack about them behind their backs.

I worked for four person operations all the way up to some of the biggest corporations in the 15 years I’ve been in the workforce.  In all that time, there were few managers that I admired.  One that I remember clearly though is Joy Nakamura.  She was never technically my manager.  I was an outside consultant that was building an app for her department.  She was a good manager though.  She would bring in food to feed her department, homemade food, nothing store bought.  She did this on her own time and dime.  She wasn’t high up the management chain, so it wasn’t like she was making a ton of extra money.  I asked her why she did it.  Her answer was matter of fact, yet profound.  “I do it because it makes them happy.”  It wasn’t “Because it earns their trust” or some other similar reason.  She did it because it made them happy.  She realized that part of her job was to make sure her employees were happy.

I once saw Dave Neeleman, former CEO of JetBlue, give a presentation on business.  He spoke about service, saying it was the only way to be happy.  Money, in any amount, would not bring happiness.  He said everyone should do 4 to 6 hours of service a week.  He didn’t clarify if that meant in the workplace or not, but I don’t think he needed to.  Another thing he talked about was how when he flew on a JetBlue flight, he’d walk the aisles, handing out snacks and asking for feedback.  He wasn’t “above” doing any job that someone else in the company did, especially ones that allowed him to directly serve his customers.

In my conference business, John and I wear many hats (actually, we wear every hat LOL).  The one thing that I think most conference planners get away from the fastest is the registration line.  I’m sure many others have “more important” things to do: checking on the keynote speaker, double checking the catering menu for lunch, powdering their nose, I dunno.  All I know is that I’ve yet to go to any conference where the planner/host is manning the registration desk (except the early Mashup Camps).  That’s sad and wrong.  John and I (with help sometimes from our wives and friends) man the reg desk.  In fact, we never leave the desk throughout the show except when we’re on stage for the keynote.   Nothing is more important to our business than our customers.  We do months of planning for a show and we only see our customers for 4 days.  You better believe that nothing is more important than shaking their hands and welcoming them or being there to answer any question or concern they have.  It helps them realize that we care for them, not only as our customers but also as friends.

One thing that I do enjoy about the conference business is the potential to serve.  Whether it be running to deliver water bottles to speakers, running out to get food for attendees, helping a sponsor hang a sign, etc, there is a ton of opportunities to serve.  One of my proudest moments of serving was in Seattle.  I was at the reg desk, checking up to insure our “Welcome Baskets” were going to be delivered on time.  Next to me was a young father attempting to check in.  The front desk was asking him for a credit card for incidentals.  He said, “The room’s already paid for.  Why do you need a card?”  The answer was, “We just need it for incidentals.  It won’t be charged unless you have incidentals.”  He assured, “Well, I don’t have a credit card and I won’t be accruing any charges.”  The hotel wasn’t having it.  I saw the poor young father go back to his wife, who was trying to calm their crying baby.  The wife was very upset.  Soon, the hotel was calling his employer, as they were the ones that paid for the hotel room.  I asked myself, “Really?  How many businesses are open on Sunday?”  Of course, no one answered, so the hotel asked him to call his manager at home.  By this time, I had enough.  I told the employee helping me, “Can I just cover his incidentals until tomorrow?  Then he can call his manager during business hours and work this out?”  She agreed to do so and soon the family was on their way.  Hotels have rules, I understand.  However, it’s sad how many employees, in the hospitality space even, aren’t aware of how they can serve.  They saw that the family was there for 3 nights.  They saw and heard the same crying baby.  They saw the same tired faces on the parents, i.e. their customers.  Yet, they only thought of their rules versus an opportunity to serve. Come Monday morning, the young father called his office, got the info and was “settled” shortly after business hours started.

If I’m lucky enough to ever have employees, I will try my hardest to serve them just as much as I serve the customers.  If you’re there everyday, spending time with your employees, working side-by-side with them, serving them in as much capacity as you can, the business will be stronger.  If the people at the top set the example of service, it’s only obvious that everyone in the company will follow suit.

What do you think?

If you want my spirtitual take on the matter, you can find that post here.

This one will be short. Over the years, bloggers have received grief about not being professional enough. This grief has come from big news agencies. I’ll agree, at times, bloggers do have a more lax feel to their posts. They may not have editors like news firms have, but their passion more than makes up for it.

HOWEVER, big news agencies are now losing credence in my mind these days. The drivel that is coming from them is frustrating.  I’m not talking about content either.  I’m talking about grammar.  It’s the one area where “professional” journalism is supposed to shine.  Sadly, more and more, it is not.  Here are three examples from the Reuters News Agency:

#1 Berkshire net sinks; Buffett says economy in shambles:

“Though the path has not been smooth, our economic system has worked extraordinarily well over time,” [Buffet] said. “It has unleashed human potential as no other system has, and it will continue to do so. America’s best days lie ahead.

Berkshire generates about half its results from insurance, including auto insurer Geico Corp, but operates more than 70 businesses that offer such things as carpeting, ice cream, paint, real estate services and underwear.

I found it pretty strange that Buffet was explaining what Berkshire did in a letter to Berkshire shareholders.  He wasn’t though.  It was just poor writing (and even poorer editing) that allowed the paragraph to end without a closing quotation mark.

Though that small minor item pales in comparison to other offense.

#2  HSBC looks to raise $18 billion:

British banking giant HSBC will try to raise $18 billion to quell investor concerns as a worsening global economy punished famed investor Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway with a 96 percent plunge in profits.

That run-on sentence turned paragraph is the start of the article.  How the writer (or again, his editor) thought that was a great intro, I’ll never understand.

#3 Same article as above:

I can’t do a quote of this offense as it is the entire first page.  I think that would push me over fair-use law, and Reuters would then sue me.  However, go to the article and look at the paragraphs.  The first 13 paragraphs of the article are 1 sentence paragraphs.  Some shouldn’t be, but they are.  And paragraph 9 doesn’t count because the quote has the period, which I’m sure the writer would have removed if he could.

That is just disgusting.  Has the economy gotten so bad that Reuters can’t afford periods anymore?

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a blogging platform fanboy.  I don’t think  news agencies need to die.  What I DO think, though, is that companies like Reuters need to hire “professionals” and proofreaders to maintain their stature.  You can’t knock the fledgling journalists of the blogosphere and then put out crap like that.  Sorry.

Note: This post is best enjoyed with a set of headphones, a warm drink in your hand and nothing distracting going on for a good half hour.  If you’re not in those conditions, I suggest bookmarking this for later and reading it when those conditions are met.

With all the talk about how the internet is breaking the music industry’s stranglehold, I realized that I wasn’t using the internet to it’s full advantage.  To be honest, I don’t really buy much music these days period.  There are only 4 major label artists I buy religiously: Paul Simon, Dido, Coldplay and Beck.  I also buy most Prince stuff, as he self publishes now on the ‘net (but uses major labels for distribution).

However, more so than those above, I’ve found myself listening more to 2 male artists that are not signed on to major labels and 1 female that self-published her first album and is now on Sub-Pop with her second album.

I love songs that weave intricate stories that takes several listens to fully get.  I like thinking that the song is one thing then hearing a line and realizing it’s another and repeating that process over and over until the story is clear. Being a writer and a poet I’m impressed when people can tell a great story, much less one in rhyme and under a few minutes. Hence , the reason why I buy the Paul Simon and Dido.

The other thing I like is just raw emotion in songs.  I’m a pretty sensitive guy. (Did I just say that?)  I’ve been the proverbial “nice guy” all my life so that meant a lot of getting stepped on emotionally in high school and college.  Therefore, I’m sure that screwed me up somehow as I’m now drawn to the deeper almost darker side of human emotions.   Darker in the sense of the emotional pain we aren’t really allowed to show vs mass murderer dark.  One popular song that illustrates this and that you might have in your collection is “An Elderly Woman Behind the Counter of a Small Town” by Pearl Jam.  (Buy it on iTunes if you don’t have it).  I listen to an acoustic version of that song and I’ll admit, I often cry if I let the music “take me away”.

Much like writers think readers are delusional in what they “see” in the work, I’m sure I fit the bill for musicians and their music (especially “February Skies” below).  Art is like that though, personal and open to interpretation.  Now that you know more about me than you cared to know, let me talk about the music.  Knowing the stuff above will help you understand why these have been in heavy rotation the past several days.

Anthony McNeal

Make no mistake, most of Anthony’s songs are raw and natural.  I’ll often track down bootleg CDs of the demos for albums I like.  There’s something magical about the simplicity of the songwriter and his instrument that gets lost in heavy production.  I wish the recordings were just a tad better on these, but otherwise, they’re good stuff.

1. Breathe in my sadness – This is the song that I heard on http://slicethepie.com From there I went and tracked down other pieces of his.  Here’s a taste of the lyrics:
    
   “You will never know how much I feel.
   You took my soul, you took my heart.
   I wish I could start all over again.
   I wish I could forget you now.”
    
   I tell my wife over and over, “I wish you met me when I was romantic.”  By that I mean what Anthony captures so well in the line, “You took my soul, you took my heart.”  Every girl I “loved” in my life took a little bit of my heart and sometimes, those pieces don’t grow back.
    
2. I’m over you:  A song doesn’t get more heartfelt and honest than this.  From the opening proclamation:
    
   “I’m over you.
   It’s been a long time
   and I haven’t thought of you in awhile.”
    
   The story behind the song is bittersweet.  I won’t ruin it by delving into it, but it’s definitely one of the most beautiful lyrics I’ve heard in awhile.
    
3. Banished from your love:  The vocals on this track are great especially when he sings these two lines the first time:
    
   “You’re beautiful.
   I’d sell my soul for you.”
    
   At times, I think I’d give away all my talents and all my abilities, just so I can write music and sing something like those two lines.  Someday, when the Mrs. and I live alone in our rocking chairs, I’m gonna buy a guitar or piano and write love songs for her.  I hope I can sing them as sweetly as Anthony sings those two lines.
    
4. Stupid Girl: If you’ve ever sat alone having a smoke and sucking down drinks in self-pity over unrequitted love, then this will hit home.  And if you never experienced that yourself, Anthony will take you there and let you know what it’s like.
    
   “The glass is empty; my heart is full.
   I’m just another drunk coming apart over some stupid girl.”
    
   I haven’t had a drink in over 5 years and I haven’t had my heart broken in much longer, but this song takes me back to a time and place I’m glad I’m no longer at.  Still though, it offers a bit of comfort to know that I wasn’t alone.

Matt Morrell

Where as part of Anthony’s charm is the raw, unpolishedness of his music, Matt is the opposite.  It’s rare to find a “new” artist that can produce themselves well.  Being the songwriter, it’s tough to pull yourself away and be objective enough to let the music become what it can be vs what you think it should be.  Matt seems to do just fine.  The best part about Matt and his music is that he found me.  I twittered about Paul Simon awhile back and that came across Matt’s search.  He followed me on Twitter, and I’m sure glad he did.  His music will be in permanent rotation from now on and I can’t wait to tell everyone, “Yeah, I knew him before he was huge and famous!” 

1. I Can’t Let You Get Away – This is a fun song with catchy lyrics.
    
   “And I like it when you call me out.
   And I like your eyes on sunny days.
   I like the ratio of our mouths
   You know I cannot forget the taste.”
    
   After one listen, this song will seem old and familiar like your favorite couch or restaurant.  You’ll find yourself humming it afterward and will wonder how it got lodged so fast in your internal jukebox.
    
2. Evette – The simple, innocent sounding acoustic guitar contrasts with the harsh, grim lyrics that begin with:
    
   “Detectives came from CSI
   to investigate the homicide”
    
   It then goes on to tell the backstory of Evette.  It’s a great little ditty.
    
3. February Skies – I’ll admit.  I LOVE this song.  It is one of the greatest I’ve heard in a really long time. Sometimes a song just finds a place in your heart that you know was destined just for it.  Being a California boy, I’ve never experienced a true winter February like the kind described in this song. But I think these lines capture it perfect:
    
   “I haven’t left my room in a few days,
   I feel numb to the movement of time.”
    
   Now that I have a copy of Matt’s self-published CD, I can see that it’s Dean Fitzgerald playing the electric guitar and Roger Sollenberger playing acoustic guitar.  Roger’s consistent throughout the song, playing harmony.  Dean’s electric just sort of flirts with the song, almost like a backup singer that just sorta throws a noise out there to be heard and let every one know she’s there. In my head, the acoustic plays the role of the guy in the story as he’s sort of the constant throughout the whole song vs the electric representing the girl who is more spoken about vs doing any speaking.

   My favorite part starts 2:18 into the song.  The guy (the acoustic) goes sort of quiet while the girl (the electric) gets to tell her part of the story (the song).  While she tells her part, it starts out sort of quiet and sweet.  By 2:50, they’re both sort of on equal footing, singing together.  By 3:14, she’s laying into him and he starts to get a little louder to compete.   By 3:44, there’s about 7 seconds and what I’d picture to be the peak of the fight.  Then an almost echo of the fight lingers as the electric goes real soft for a bit then the acoustic plays solo on the fade out.

Sera Cahoone

I’m no country music fan, but I love rodeos.  It’s a strange dichotomy, I know.  I blame country music artists more so than my musical tastes.  I say this because now that I’ve found Sera Cahoone, I now know what good country sounds like vs. that mainstream crap they play on the radio.  If there is more of this kind of country music, sign me up and call me a fan.

1. Baker Lake – From the opening notes of the pedal steel guitar, you now this song is gonna take you on a journey.  The lyrics just hint about what the song about:
    
   “There’s a light in your eyes that’s burning slow
   The look on your face has been that way for days oh I don’t know why.”
    
   I have my idea on what the song is about, but I won’t taint your mind with my silly notions.  This song’s too good to ruin and deserves to be made personal by each listener.
    
2. Only As The Day Is Long – The drum beats in the background just like life beats you down at times.  The opening lines give you a hint about the main character:
    
   “Slipped on my shoes and made myself look somewhat right
   Cause I can’t be at home tonight”
    
   Immediately you want to know what’s going on with this poor girl and Sera only hints at it with lines like:
    
   “Lightning strikes me only in waves
   And I know that I’m safe for now
   But I know the rest is on it’s way.”
    
3. You’re Not Broken – As soon as the music starts, a wave of comfort over comes you.  It just has a soothing feeling like the shoulder of an old friend.  The strings sort of sing the pain of the person she’s talking about in the story.  The person she obviously loves and is trying to soothe, even though she knows she’s powerless in her attempts to help.  She lays it out in the lyrics:
    
   “You’ve been trying for so long it seems, breaking your back again.
   Oh your tired arms and your tired hands.”
   and
   “You’re just over there aching and there’s just nothing I can do.”

Well that’s all I’ve found in the past month or so.  In my free time, I’ll keep looking for some more music to share.

In the meantime, if you have some good music you’ve found on the net, drop it in the comments.  I’d love to see what you found.