Getting over the hump
"Stress and anxiety comes from the unknowns. Having a way to put them into perspective I think greatly helps you alleviate some of the unnecessary worry and get past the hump."
Featured
Plant-based eating and eating what you want
"...if you want to feel better now, feel better later, and live longer, then plant-based nutrition is the way to go."
This thing called Marketing
"I've been spending the last six months or so writing content for my startup, Blocks Edit, fine tuning the website to clearly communicate what the product does, how it does it, and who it's for, along with regularly writing blog posts to further promote the ideas behind it. And during this period, I learned what marketing really means."
Startup products and community
"Lifting my head up from work to hear other people talk about their startup journeys while sharing mine helps me be more mindful of the ups and downs of running a business, appreciating the things that work well and making the stuff that doesn't feel less frustrating."
The ideal way to edit content in your email template
"It ultimately allows you to put together content in a way that feels more natural and come out with the best quality email each time."
Horror movies
"Since around 2009, during the month of October, I would decide to watch a handful of horror movies that I would preselect from a list that I kept adding to."
Introducing Blocks Edit
"Blocks Edit is now live and ready for you to improve how you send out marketing campaigns."
Lifehacks
"Detective stories are about solving a mystery, which comes from our inherent need to figure out and resolve things."
The shift in politics and media
"This election is showing us how the Republicans and Democrats continue to make sure they are the only choices for president as traditional media continues to decline to media on the web."
Let's vote for sanity
"It turns out that libertarian ideas are very much for everyone. Whether you consider yourself Democrat or Republican."
The FBI vs Apple and our civil liberties
"You may have heard about the FBI demanding that Apple crack into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California shooters. Apple has refused because they feel that it is a huge security risk to their customers."
The virtues of being lazy
"Laziness is viewed as a negative characteristic. It's something I've always struggled with myself since whenever I felt lazy, I would feel guilty and often force myself to try and do something about it."
A look at my past publishing things on the web
"Growing up, I've always enjoyed making things."
My first major writing work, out in the world
"I recently released the Hacktivity graphic novel, including the paperback edition. It represented a year and a half's work in its final form."
The state of Indie Aisle
"When I originally came up with Indie Aisle over four years ago, it's original goal was to make it easy for independent authors to publish their books digitally online."
Doing the work itself is the result
"...I still find the work involved interesting."
What a bad interface can do
"I lost all my Google Docs files unknowingly with a few simple steps."
Programming made for humans
"Writing less code and using an interface to program on the web."
Why ebooks took so long
"ebooks are becoming more common today, quickly turning into a new standard for reading books. It's pretty interesting how long the idea of an ebook has actually been around, since even before the mainstream Internet."
Introducing Indie Aisle
"I originally had the idea for Indie Aisle when I noticed that there were people I knew who wanted to do something creative from starting a band to having their own online comic, but didn't know how to get their work seen by other people."
On Web Standards and rounded corners
"While general web practices make sense, the need for having formal standards seems unnecessary. Website-building technologies have in a lot of ways standardized themselves because of individual developers deciding what is appropriate to use."
Evolution of storytelling and technology
"Since the beginning of humanity, storytelling and our ability to learn is what has set us apart from other species."
All
Getting over the hump
"Stress and anxiety comes from the unknowns. Having a way to put them into perspective I think greatly helps you alleviate some of the unnecessary worry and get past the hump."
How airport security should work
"I showed up an hour and a half early to the airport, because you know, the security theater one has to go through. And this time, it sucked even more than usual."
Email is back: on the state of coding email marketing templates
"Slide deck and notes from my talk on email marketing for web developers."
Plant-based eating and eating what you want
"...if you want to feel better now, feel better later, and live longer, then plant-based nutrition is the way to go."
Email's untapped potential for agencies and freelancers
"There is a resurgence in email marketing and an increased demand for marketers, copywriters, designers, and developers."
Efficiency and quality are both possible with some design thinking
"...design thinking is essentially both creative and analytical thinking working together holistically."
Email marketing's possibilities are a mindset we choose
"An email client is our canvas, HTML and CSS are our paints and the tools we use for our content act as our paintbrush."
Buttons and switches
"The way the buttons and switches affected these virtual worlds, made me look at my interactions with objects of the real world differently, or, more carefully."
Myst meditation
"The Myst video game series is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year."
From marketing to sales
"Just how marketing is a way to present ideas, sales is essentially trading those ideas with each other and goes hand in hand with marketing."
Analyzing your email marketing workflow
"Break things down, understand each job, find specialized tools, connect them all together around your assets."
Now you're thinking with blocks – the modular mindset
"I'm going to guide you through using the power of thinking about email templates modularly, or in 'blocks'."
Notes on marketing
"...some of my notes on marketing-related presentations I’ve attended this past month."
This thing called Marketing
"I've been spending the last six months or so writing content for my startup, Blocks Edit, fine tuning the website to clearly communicate what the product does, how it does it, and who it's for, along with regularly writing blog posts to further promote the ideas behind it. And during this period, I learned what marketing really means."
Startup products and community
"Lifting my head up from work to hear other people talk about their startup journeys while sharing mine helps me be more mindful of the ups and downs of running a business, appreciating the things that work well and making the stuff that doesn't feel less frustrating."
The ideal way to edit content in your email template
"It ultimately allows you to put together content in a way that feels more natural and come out with the best quality email each time."
How to spend less time in the email production trenches
"It may be time to revaluate your production process and spend less time in the trenches."
Horror movies
"Since around 2009, during the month of October, I would decide to watch a handful of horror movies that I would preselect from a list that I kept adding to."
Introducing Blocks Edit
"Blocks Edit is now live and ready for you to improve how you send out marketing campaigns."
RIP Flash
"Recently, Adobe officially announced it is discontinuing support for its Flash browser plugin by 2020."
Lifehacks
"Detective stories are about solving a mystery, which comes from our inherent need to figure out and resolve things."
How we change
"Every once in a while I decide to rewatch certain movies that come to mind. Usually the ones that have stuck with me and which seem to come up because they relate to a particular mood I'm in."
The Transform app
"A client project that I’ve been working on for a year and four months now has finally launched this week. Transform with Chris and Heidi, an iPhone and Android app."
The shift in politics and media
"This election is showing us how the Republicans and Democrats continue to make sure they are the only choices for president as traditional media continues to decline to media on the web."
Being an Apple fan
"I'm an Apple user because I want technology to fade into the background of what I'm doing."
Letting motivators lead the way
"Practicing the process of understanding my motivators has helped me figure out the things I should focus my attention on."
Music discovery
"A couple of months ago I found three burned CDs in a box somewhere labeled ‘Mix 2005’. I apparently made them over ten years ago at a time when I listened to music on a portable CD player that played MP3s."
Let's vote for sanity
"It turns out that libertarian ideas are very much for everyone. Whether you consider yourself Democrat or Republican."
How the sausage gets made
"It’s always interesting to see how something is done. I’ve tried to be conscious of this and show how I make my comics."
The FBI vs Apple and our civil liberties
"You may have heard about the FBI demanding that Apple crack into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California shooters. Apple has refused because they feel that it is a huge security risk to their customers."
Designing interfaces and writing comics
"...the process for writing is very similar to the process for interface design."
Past, present and future
"This year, fans of Back to the Future celebrated the year of the future based on a date in the second film in the series."
The virtues of being lazy
"Laziness is viewed as a negative characteristic. It's something I've always struggled with myself since whenever I felt lazy, I would feel guilty and often force myself to try and do something about it."
A website, a comic and a video game
"Avagate, Lifehacks #2, Keeper and the Soldier."
My Soylent experience
"You may have heard of Soylent by now: the meal hack for geeks. If you haven’t, it’s basically a meal replacement drink designed to give you the nutrition your body needs while making it easy to prepare and consume."
The whole experience matters
"...by having control of the total experience of how your work gets in the hands of your readers, you form a deeper connection with them and create a story for your story."
Chores
"Teller, of Penn and Teller fame has been known to say that the things you're most passionate about you do when all the chores are done."
A look at my past publishing things on the web
"Growing up, I've always enjoyed making things."
Facebook algorithms and the problem with majority rule
"...recently, Facebook started automating the filtering of posts which is really annoying because no one really knows exactly how the filters work."
New kind of ebook reading experience
"One thing that makes Indie Aisle unique is the reading experience. It's designed to make it easy for your readers to start reading right away and give them options for reading the way they are most comfortable with."
Connecting online and In Real Life
"One of the best ways I've found to get it out to people so far has been to take the hardback book to sell at comic book conventions."
My first major writing work, out in the world
"I recently released the Hacktivity graphic novel, including the paperback edition. It represented a year and a half's work in its final form."
Change for change's sake
"It can be easy getting lost in what we should change in our lives for our goals and miss what we already have for them."
The state of Indie Aisle
"When I originally came up with Indie Aisle over four years ago, it's original goal was to make it easy for independent authors to publish their books digitally online."
Doing the work itself is the result
"...I still find the work involved interesting."
Time to put in the log in blog
"I've blogged on an off in the past, but it was always about thoughts and ideas in the form of short sections. I seem to have missed the point of the logging part of blogging..."
What a bad interface can do
"I lost all my Google Docs files unknowingly with a few simple steps."
The new Microsoft CEO: me
"My qualifications as the new Microsoft Chief Executive are as good as any."
Learning by copying
"Taking apart someone else's work as practice."
Programming made for humans
"Writing less code and using an interface to program on the web."
What makes a good ebook
"Besides a great story of course, what's involved in producing a good ebook? Here's what I think the right components are and how we built Indie Aisle around them."
Re-Wired: Issues 4-6
"Wired Magazine has all of its sections archived online since its very first issue."
Marketing a web app
"The only way to really know if someone is using your product, this making it successful, is if they are happily paying for it!"
Independent authors and their fans in an expanding ebook market
"The ebook market is expanding. How can indie authors continue to adapt? And what happens to fans of their work with all the devices available?"
Why ebooks took so long
"ebooks are becoming more common today, quickly turning into a new standard for reading books. It's pretty interesting how long the idea of an ebook has actually been around, since even before the mainstream Internet."
Demos: digital art for computers
"Demos were audio-visual presentations that ran in real-time on a computer. They started as a way to show off computer performance, but quickly became an art form, mixing graphics, music and coding mastery into unique compositions."
Re-Wired: Issues 1-3
"I've been a Wired magazine subscriber for a few years now and I figured they would be a great source for learning about how the world viewed early personal computing and the internet in its early stages."
No more hardware tinkering
"In recent years, the buzz around hardware components has shifted to entire system upgrades. Hardware has become so much cheaper that it's just more convenient to get a new box or laptop every 2-3 years."
Persistence and consistency, tips from pro self-published authors
"The overall theme that stuck out during the panel is that the only way to make a living as an author is to be consistent in your work and persistent in your efforts."
Of control and ownership
"Self-publishing or traditional publishing is not a goal. The goal is to get a great story out to the world."
The Content Management System that wasn't
"...what started out to be a simple tool quickly turned into something rather complex and may have been too ambitious in the end."
My switch from Android to iPhone
"A few months I made a list of what I wanted in a new phone as my two-year contract with my Droid was almost up."
The publishing empire of one
"There's no doubt ebooks are changing the way we enjoy our books, so of course publishing, the process by which an author gets their work to their readers, is completely changing as well."
Indie creators taking over Phoenix Comicon 2011
"Indie Aisle attended it’s first convention this past weekend, the Phoenix Comicon."
Developing a web app
"My side project, Indie Aisle has been online for a few months now and as I did with designing the web app, I'd like to share my thoughts about the development process."
Wrong default web cursor
"This past year, I've tried an experiment on the site. I've replaced the 'text select' cursor that shows when mousing over text on a website with the default arrow cursor."
Find an audience, one person at a time
"We've all heard about viral videos that spread online. The concept of being viral is just passing on something from one person to the next, branching out to a potentially large audience."
Designing an online app
"Indie Aisle is a project I've been working on and off for a couple of years now. This past year however, I really got going with it, spending most of my available time outside of client work."
Being indie means figuring out your own process
"As we all know being a successful writer means more than just writing. People have to also be made aware of your work."
State of publishing in an interactive world
"I attended this year's South by Southwest Interactive and was surprised to find quite a few panels about publishing content online from people who have done it successfully."
iPad and the trend towards reading digitally
"...devices like the Kindle and the iPad make ereading more accessible for people in a similar way that the iPod made downloadable music more accessible to a wider audience."
Introducing Indie Aisle
"I originally had the idea for Indie Aisle when I noticed that there were people I knew who wanted to do something creative from starting a band to having their own online comic, but didn't know how to get their work seen by other people."
Tech trends shaping habits and social interaction
"Two kinds of technologies have in recent months changed my daily habits and how I interact with people: web-based apps and smartphones."
On Web Standards and rounded corners
"While general web practices make sense, the need for having formal standards seems unnecessary. Website-building technologies have in a lot of ways standardized themselves because of individual developers deciding what is appropriate to use."
Farewell Windows Mobile, hello Android
"It's no surprise, that like a lot of people, I've been becoming more and more of a Google fan this past year..."
Evolution of storytelling and technology
"Since the beginning of humanity, storytelling and our ability to learn is what has set us apart from other species."
New Xbox Experience (NXE) interface
"What started out as a few downloadable games and videos has exploded into an extensive marketplace of game content, films (including access to Netflix titles) and television programs."
Sam and Max, video game or interactive tv show?
"Sam and Max is the first successful episode-based video game series."
What you should know about the GTD method
"I found that as I was getting my thoughts out of my head and into my system, I was able to accomplish things in a logical way that lead to better focus of my upcoming goals."
Subscription-based media
"I ended up subscribing to Netflix during the writing of this post."
Why Microsoft loses customers
"The way Microsoft is really losing customers though is by disappointing them."
Xbox 360 interface
"The new Xbox is not only a gaming system, but a full entertainment experience. And with all that's been thrown into it, the interface certainly required making the features easy to find and simple to use."