Inspired Nonsense

Once a quarter, I take each team member to lunch to talk about "stuff". The discussion usually starts with work, but I always take the time to discuss career choices and growth in general. It sounds stuffy, but the conversation isn't about five year plans, or goals and objectives, its about digging. We do a little excavation, looking for that "one thing".

Now if you've seen City Slickers, you'll know I'm blatantly referencing Curly's response to Mitch's question about the meaning of life. I'm not sure you can boil the meaning of life into "one thing", but I do believe that you can trace your happiness in a career path to a singular defining theme.

There is a constant in the work we all choose to do, and that constant is what drives us to get up and go to work every day (and its not a paycheck, that's a cop-out). The trick is to do some honest soul searching and discover what that one constant is. For some its family, for others its making people laugh. For me, I enjoy creating things for other people to experience. The constant is always simple, and always strikes true as an answer to "Why do you do what you do?".

If you can discover that singular theme, then I would bet you can look back through your career path and clearly see how that theme ties together most of the job choices you've made. In my career you can see the choices from my degree as a film major, to creative services in radio, and ultimately web design/development, all tie into my constant: creating things for other people to experience and enjoy. More importantly, it can make the path forward a lot clearer.

Knowing that constant allows you to look at your career path with a broader lens. A broader view can allow you to see opportunities that may not be directly in front of you. It also allows you to look forward and see if your current job is still on your path, or if its time to move on. Always take a little time to question yourself:

• Are you still growing the knowledge or skill-set you need?
• Are you gaining the experience you need?
• Are you still happy?

Today's world is unforgiving to those who don't own their own career path, so take charge.

Find that one thing.

Image via Wikipedia

That was until a friend introduced me to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was fascinated by these graphic novels (not comics). The story was so strong and visuals were like nothing I'd seen before. Nearly twenty years later I can still see the depictions of Rafael and Shredder clearly.

Fast forward half a decade and I'm introduced to a quirky TV show about a teenage girl battling vampires (by my Mom!). I had seen the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie and was not impressed, so I was not expecting much. But halfway through the episode, the characters and the writing had me hooked. Buffy quickly became my "must see TV", and I watched every episode dutifully until the end of its seventh season.

Recently I've been catching up on the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight graphic novels, and similar to my experience with TMNT, I'm engrossed again by a strong story and stunning visuals.

I especially enjoy how Joss Whedon and the gang use this media to stretch beyond the confines of TV (e.g. Dawn becoming a giant ala Godzilla in Tokyo). The first few issues took some adjustment regarding pace and just getting to know the characters again, but by the second arc (No Future for You) I was back in the Buffyverse. I also really enjoy the four issue arcs that create more continuity than the TV series while keeping a good variety in character development vs story action.

If you were a fan of Buffy the series, Buffy the graphic novels are worth your time and money (available at Amazon). You'll laugh, you'll cry, but most of all you get to return to a great story and great characters in a new medium that will allow that story to endure beyond the television screen.

I've been using a notepad from Behance called the Action Pad for the past year or so, and I love this pad!

I tend to take notes as thoughts occur to me, and as such, my notes can often get jumbled between topics (as my mind wanders sometimes ;)). In the past I would use a simple notepad and use stars to denote action items. Eventually I moved the action items to the right hand side of the page, creating a separate column. When I started more UI wireframing and such, I moved my notes to graph paper. At that point I was pretty pleased with my setup, until I stumbled across the Action Pad.

Now, I don't subscribe to the Action Method, or any other method for that matter. But the formatting of the pad itself perfectly fits how I take notes:

• First of all, the Action Item boxes on the right-hand column are fantastic


• The small area at the bottom right is ideal for parking-lot items


• The small area on the top is great for random thoughts and ideas


• And the graph dots are much more versatile and nicer to use for wireframing or other drawing

In the end, I love this pad and am more than willing to pay the $8 per pad to use it. I highly recommend this, along with a Moleskine or some other notebook for personal or off-topic notes, as an ideal set of pads for your computer bag.

At the end of 1999 I was working an overnight job that a monkey could do. My most recent romantic flame-out was fresh, and a deer had run in front of my car on the way to said monkey job on Christmas Eve. All of these events inspired me to spend New Years Eve with some friends and a large bottle of Patron Anejo tequila.

The next day (after the fog had worn off) I made a decision, I was going to take charge of my life again. I started learning HTML and Photoshop in the spare 6-7 hours of my 8 hour overnight job. I also decided to pursue the woman who I had fallen for years earlier, but the timing was never right.

Now I stand at the cusp of 2010, married to that same beautiful woman for over seven years (we're expecting our second child in June). I'm also now the User Interface manager if an excellent team and am ready to embark on the next decade of my career in web.

So my goals for the next decade?

• Focus on the things that matter to me. Gaining this focus won't be the hard part, keeping it will be.


• Patience to see the opportunities already in front of me. Maintain the long view of my goals and persevere.


• Appreciate the good luck, relationships, and life I already have. I've spent much of the last few years lamenting what I'm not doing professionally and personally. High time to turn that around.

Professional goals for the next decade?

• Share more (blog, meetups, etc.). Focusing on my particular POV being inside big biz with a small web team and the tools/methods we use to succeed


• Attend one social web meetup/gathering each month. I learn so much more when attending events like these and getting to know fellow web professionals in Denver.


• Keep my eye on the prize. Always remembering my career is my own path. Always be checking the road signs to make sure you're still on that path!

And on a personal note, my new years resolution is to restrict my TV time to the weekends so I spend more time reading and with my family. This one will be particularly difficult as TV is how I chill out on any given day!

Okay, so I thought moving over to WordPress would force me to learn the system better. Only thing is, I really don't have a pressing need to learn it!

Movable Type is a fine publishing system, and now that I'm using TypePad at the office, it only makes sense to move at least my main blog back to MT. Plus, I already know how it works!

Now maybe its time to finish working on my new blog design. Hoping to have it done before 2010.