On the introspective side of things, I think passion is what drives me. If forced to describe myself in as few words as possible, passionate would almost undoubtedly be the first word I would use. Ask yourself right now, what are you passionate about? Next, how do your passions align with what you do for a living? Tell me below in the comments. There are few advantages to being unemployed but of the few it is the chance to reevaluate priorities. One of the people I feel really talks about this well is Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is a pretty successful person and probably gets asked all the time how he did it. What most don’t understand is that Gary, like Pixar and myself, believes in pursuing your passions. My passion is to be a great designer, listen to great music, and to do big things. Things I haven’t even thought of yet.  I can just only hope that one day, preferably soon,  I will be fortunate enough to work in an environment that fosters such creativity and growth. So, hey Pixar! Are you listening? You should hire me.

Burke Shartsis

I know that my blog has been rather silent as of late. Life changes and new technology have put my interest more in micro-blogging. I have always wanted to have a personal feel and connection with my readers. As such, I felt compelled to blog frequently which in turn created poor content and less desire on my part to continue blogging.  I have thought about removing my blog from my site or possibly converting it to a tumble blog. Unfortunately, I have been to lazy  and/or don’t want to be reliant on a hosted service as my “main blog.” I am, however, active on twitter. I will likely integrate a twitter update to the site soon but until then you can fallow me here.

A note about twitter, its new technologies like this that change things in big way. The idea of micro-blogging is not new but twitter was very timely with its feature set in a way that has allowed it to just exploded.  It’s mobile, flexible, and extensible. If you want to be heard with the hottest technology on the internet right now, Twitter is where it is at. These types of paradigm shifts are fun to watch.  On that note, check out this great use of the twitter API called, Twitterfall. It alows you to see, in real time, what trends are spreading across twitter. In short, it’s fascinating.

Moving on, in my on going effort to become more employable I have been updating my site. Most notably is my portfolio. I have added new projects and reorganized things quite a bit.  But there have been other changes through out the site. I updated the blogs design to better match the rest of the site and such. In all, small things but its all adding up to make a noticeable difference. If you haven’t already, check out my portfolio and keep a close eye on it as I continue to update at least until I get a job again. I want to get some motion graphics experience so expect so see some after effects work popping up in the near future.

I recently updated to WordPress 2.7 - Coltrane. Yes, you read that right. WordPress is going jazzy. The automatic updated did its job flawlessly and I again can not speak highly enough about this WordPress plug-in which apparently is now integrated into Coltrane. Design wise, Coltrane is a big update for WordPress. They changed the back-end design in some big ways. It’s new and I’m adapting but it is very different with a much larger focus on dashboard flexablity and functionality.  This has been something they have been working towards for quite some time. Here is a little video talking about some of Coltrane’s new features and design.

Lastly, I thought I would leave you with this video. Check it out if for no other reason then for the closing one liner.  Oh and for my special lady who finds this, I love you.

Burke Shartsis