In the segment I watched, the banking industry representative painted the picture that the banks were “protecting” consumers by now not allowing debit charges to go thru if the funds were not available in the account. Maybe it’s just me but, isn’t that what they should have been doing all along? I think what set me off was how they framed it as they were protecting consumers. Does anyone really believe this crap?

Sure, I’m incredibly sad and obviously I’m going to miss not being able to pick up the phone and talk. I’ll miss not seeing him and being able to bounce ideas off him but, at the end of the day he’s left me with wonderful memories. I’d rather enjoy these memories right now than cry over his passing. Maybe I’ll do that at some point but, right now it just seems more appropriate to laugh at the good times.

I’m more cognizant of people who I interact with who say they don’t have the time to commit – I say bullshit. I’ve been there. I’ve made every excuse known to man to avoid working out and although I’ve been sporadic over the past two years in my regimen, I’m totally committed to taking better care of myself physically and mentally. The two go together like two peas-in-a-pod.

Hitting the 40 year old mark has made me very aware I’m not able to do the things I was capable of doing in the gym when I was 25. However, I don’t need to. I’m not looking to be the biggest guy on the block. I’m more interested in looking good on the beach, and having the energy to do the things I want to do. I believe in another 6 months I’ll be in the best shape of my life.

I don’t have a lot of time to finish this quick post but, I do want to take the time to encourage everyone to make the commitment to exercise. Do something for yourself – it doesn’t need to be what I’ve chosen… but make a commitment to yourself to read that book you’ve been putting off, or to set a goal and push yourself. I’ve got a lot of goals I want to attain this year and I’m remembering the importance of pushing myself and I love it! The key is to set attainable goals. You want to push yourself but, you also want to feel like the goal you’ve set is attainalbe. There is no reason to set a goal so unrealistically high that you can’t possibly attain it. It’ll discourage you and prevent you from continuing to set goals. It’s a fine line – sometimes it’s best to have a partner, someone who can hold you accountable. Accountability is a wonderful thing – mostly

Get on it. No time like the present to get after your goals. I know I’m done procrastinating.

Look at Amazon – their whole model for the Kindle was essentially blown up today. I like Amazon, I think they’re a very smart, well run company. They’ve done ebusiness better than anyone to this point. I’ve purchased two Kindle’s but, unless they come up with something more amazing than what Apple debuted today, I won’t be renewing any current subscriptions with them and I’m pretty certain I’ll be picking up an iPad at the first opportunity.

Barnes and Noble really missed the boat on this – by a wide margin. What they’ve done is copied Amazon’s model. They didn’t really do anything to improve the device or experience in any game changing way. Apple did and beat them at their own game. And BN couldn’t even execute their strategy very well. The whole debacle reeks of a bad keystone cop movie – without the actual movie, popcorn, or laughs.

What Apple has done just seems so absolutely obvious after seeing it debuted today. But, that’s what Steve Jobs does. The man just can’t seem to play the game by the rules as they’ve alway been. He goes and changes the game to play by his rules and we all seem to benefit. I know I sound like a fanboy and I make no apologies for that. I live for this stuff. I love electronics and gadgets and there is nothing more fun than sexy, fun gadgets that improve how I consume content.

What I’m really interested in seeing is the impact this device will have on the education market. And I’m not just talking about kids walking around using Mac’s because they’re cool. While they are cool, I don’t think we’d continue to see the market share gains the Mac platform is seeing if there wasn’t more to it than that. Make no mistake, there is more to it than that. This topic has been covered by people smarter than me so I’ll simply say that more times than not, the marriage of hardware and software has not only benefited the people that use the devices day after day – it’s also had a direct benefit for Apple as a company – just look at their stock price.

Getting back to the education market – it’s like it was tailor made for education. Think about the ability to download textbooks, google for answers, and improve the experience while doing it.

Ok, maybe I lied in the beginning of this article – I think this is going to change the way you and I consume content. Maybe not in the “game changer” type fasion but, I can see people consuming more content with these types of devices. It doesn’t hurt that it’s sexy too!

Before that happens, I’d like to give some credit where credit is due! My good friend and Wordpress hacker, Keith Solomon is responsible for things working properly. He’s an incredibly gifted Wordpress developer and I would encourage you to contact him if you’re looking for work done on your Wordpress install.

Like all themes I tend to run, I don’t start from scratch (although, I suspect this will change moving forward). This theme is heavily modified – I used the wpcandy theme created by Michael Castilla. It’s a great theme with a lot of effort behind it. I just wanted to put my stamp on it and make it my own – which I would encourage you to do as well.

With this latest iteration, I’ve tried to focus more on framing the content while still retaining some of the major elements of the previous design. For whatever reason, I never really cared for the last design. It was a more minimalistic type design which I tend to prefer. Having said that, I’m not a good minimal-type designer. I’m more of a clean, sweat the small details kind of guy. I like what I like and you need to stay true to what you do well and not try to pound a square peg into a round hole because someone else can do it – effortlessly. I can’t, I admit it, I’ve accepted it and I’m working within that limitation.

One of the key areas I’ve not touched (yet) but, will get a lot of attention in the coming days is the archive page. I have some really stellar ideas on how I’d like to see that display and I’m excited to start exploring that page more – I doubt I’ll get to it within the next three days as this weekend is about making sure most things validate, it’s standards compliant, and most of the major, details related elements are presentable. I threw it up not yet complete to kind of pressure myself to get it done. The other reason is, well… I didn’t think the five regular visitors to this site would really mind all too much.

Once all the details are done and presentable, I’ll probably start on switching out the typography. While it reads fine, I’m going for a more elegant but, not over done style. I’ve not tried out any of the hosted typography platforms yet and I’m undecided if I will. From what I’m hearing, there are still issues to work out platform-wise with them and I’m not looking to make readers suffer the performance hit that this site is likely to incur as a result. If anyone has recommendations or wants to share their experience, please leave a comment or, feel free to send me an email. I’d love to hear more from people on this exciting movement on the web.

The only other part of this design I’d like to have a little fun with is displaying an artists’ photos in the rotating image section on the homepage. The Wordpress community has some incredibly talented people and I thought it would be a great way to keep the design fresh while also benefiting an artist or two. If you’re interested in having some of your work displayed in the rotating image script on the hompage, send me an email.

In the coming days I also plan to move hosting providers. I’ve not settled on a provider yet. If anyone can recommend a reliable host that offers great, reliable, fast hosting – please leave a recommendation in the comments or send me an email. I’m not at all happy with my current provider and I’m looking to make a change, sooner rather than later.

One plugin that stands above the crowd (at least for me) is Gravity Forms. It makes creating forms a snap. I sent a question to their support email and received a response inside of 5 minutes. No idea if that’s the norm but I was impressed.

Speaking of being impressed… creating a form only took me a matter of minutes. I’ve been playing around with it and I’m truly blown away by just how simple it is to use.

Do yourself a favor… if you work with wordpress and create a lot of forms, you’ll really want to check out Gravity Forms. It’s a real time saver.

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new design. I’ve never really finished this one – it just never felt like it fit me.

My hope for everyone is that you’re spending the holiday season with friends and family and you’re taking time to enjoy the peace and quiet. I’m looking forward to the extended time off. I can’t wait for the New Year. This past year has been a good one for a lot of reasons and I’m hoping to continue the trend and get on a roll.

From my family to yours, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a wonderful New Year!

The results have been nothing short of amazing. My wife recently commented about how less stressed I appear. I sure feel that way. It’s been a tremendous month since I made the decision to live my life the way I want to.

When something like this happens, there doesn’t need to be a villian. Life is too short to be miserable because of a work environment. The people of Dutchland, Inc., my former employer is filled with good, decent people. It just wasn’t the ideal situation for me. Since leaving, I’ve secured a great position where I’m working with some crazy smart people. The environment is great – I’m learning a lot and I’m getting back to my roots.

I’ve learned a lot of life lessons this past month and it’s been a wonderful experience. With the holiday season fast approaching, I’m excited to see what the New Year will bring. The winds of change are blowing and I’m incredibly excited by what they’ll blow my way.

There are several area’s I’d think need to be addressed – none overly complex or crazy. I’ve just been pressed for time more so than I would like as of late. The intention is to style a contact form (using the contact7) plugin and clean up the comments section a bit too. If you have more free time than I do or would like to contribute to the project, feel free to shoot me an email. You can view the project here: http://code.google.com/p/cleanchase/

Special thanks goes to Keith Solomon who I’ve dubbed a “wordpress mad scientist and hacker”. He’s always going thru my code and correcting mistakes and otherwise annoying me by telling me how I could do things more efficiently.

I hope you enjoy the theme. If there is a feature you’d like to see added to the theme, drop me a note. If you decide to use the theme, let me know that as well.

The idea was to go with something simple – focus on the writing and make it easier to follow the content. Since the emphasis is on this being a personal site, I thought it best to try and capture some of what I like visually. Hopefully, I’ll be able to focus more on this site this week and finish it up. I’d also like to detail what sites have inspired me visually.

I don’t consider myself a designer yet, I have an deep-seated interest in it. Nor do I consider myself a writer yet, again I have an interest in it. I’m hoping to focus on and develop these skills via this site. A self indulgence I’m really looking forward to.

Today, none of those things are going to happen because today is about football. (and a little bit of yard work too).