And what you control is so fundamental, so keystone to your inner peace, that it radiates outward and touches everything that you do. While your realm of immediate, direct control is limited, you are not in a silo. The light inside that you foster builds a grounding around you that spreads outward from person to experience, and back again, flourishing like a crop and nurturing all it touches.

Even more, the things in our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unobstructed, while those not in our control are weak, slavish, can be hindered, and are not our own.
–Epictetus, Enchiridion, 1.1-2

Your acceptance of what you control and what you don't brings insurmountable stability to your whole being. Build upon this strength, grab onto it and let it elevate you to new ways of being.

Shift your focus and channel your efforts, thoughts, and energy into the things you have control over - especially the way you think about and respond to changes outside your realm of control - only then will you be free.

Having an Associate of Arts degree (in Digital Art and Animation, no less), it kind of fits that my posts would be spruced up with imagery, y'know? After all, given that I've been predisposed to photography over the ages, one might think I have an endless supply to choose from. Well, I do. Some 50,000+ that I've taken, by rough estimation. But that doesn't make them relevant, let alone meaningful.

It's Contextual

If you're writing about a photoshoot, event, or location, for example, it's easy to select an image to highlight your post. If you have a product and are writing about a specific feature or component, you could include a screenshot of that. But what about when your post has no immediately obvious choice of imagery to include?

Let's look at what happens when you share an article from GitHub's engineering blog that doesn't feature a screenshot of a UI component.

Simple: they fall back to displaying an Octocat silhouette^* (which leads to another interesting - and much deeper - topic, and one that I have only just begun to explore: branding). Okay, I don't have a logo. Or brand. Not yet, anyway. Or do I? A simple "MB" graphic would be a better stand in than nothing.

What about generic imagery that isn't specific to your content, but an argument could be made that it's at least a little related? Sites such as Pixabay provide a wealth of quality, royalty free photos you can use. Take for example this wonderful composition by Dariusz Sankowski that would beautifully accent many an article.

I've thought about it, and have certainly seen it done plenty, but I lean toward the notion that having no image is better than something chosen just^** for the sake of. I think the key is to breathe life into your articles by bringing in a post image that is unique, but also adds value to your content, and that is something I am going to continue to explore in the coming months.

^* I love that after some twenty odd years I have finally mastered the spelling of that word.

^** Just is one of those words I'm trying to significantly reduce in my day to day writing.

While that can and will evolve as you learn and experience more about that person, your first impression often lingers, and, like the gut instinct you feel when faced with a complex decision, it's not something you'll easily shake. That's because human interaction is complex, and there is far more happening on a subconscious level that you don't register. As it turns out, visiting a Web site for the first time is very similar.

Though inorganic, a Web site, too, has many layers of complexities lurking beneath its surface, and it is these things by which users base their decision. There are the aesthetics, such as color, branding, and overall visual design. But the reigning champion is content: does what you offer tickle their interest?

Let's break it down, without melting down

The average time visitors spent on this site in the past 30 days is 00:00:27. That's 27 seconds. Twenty. Seven. Seconds.

What about my role-playing game focused site, Belay My Last? Six. Six seconds.

Don't get discouraged by how long your users aren't staying on your site.

Okay, that might seem pretty soul crushing, but what does it mean?

If you watched someone visit your site for the first time, what do you think they would be going through? How would that experience change based on how they arrived at your site? Someone going there from your Twitter profile may just be vetting you to see if you're serious about what you say you are, and for that it may only take but a few seconds. Contrast that with a reader arriving from an article on another site with a clear interest in what you have to say on a matter, and you can see how the personas can quickly drift apart. Still, though, they can be grouped under a few similar intents:

• Validation, or making sure you are who you say you are;
• Continued Interest, by finding you through a direct relation somewhere else; and
• Aimless Wandering, because sometimes we mindlessly surf and end up clicking on things with only the most passing curiosity.

Stay true to your message

In a time when seconds mean everything, you have to capture their attention at the onset. But is that actually enough? No, you need capture their interest, and one of the best ways to do that is to focus on what interests you.

So don't get hung up on the numbers. Go tell your story. Remember that your content is serving different audiences all the time. Trust that the people who will benefit from what you have to say will will take the time they need.

Stay the course. Your audience is listening.

So, do you always feel yourself falling behind on your projects? Establishing a schedule will help! Seriously, I have made such great strides by following even a very haphazard schedule, and it's only going to get better. What's more, it's really easy to get started with, and can be expanded upon over time.

Break the cycle to get something done

I began to combat this endless loop by creating a spreadsheet of interests. In it, I make note of whatever idea comes to mind, no matter how simple, ridiculous, or abstract it is. Then I mark down the date each time I worked toward that goal, as well as a few words (never more than a sentence) of what I accomplished, replacing the previous session's entry. This part was key, as I would often come back to something after months and not remember where I left off, and having this little reminder is enough to kick-start my progress the next time around. I replace the previous note because I don't want to get bogged down in a log for each project, choosing instead to focus on where it's at as it exists today, as well as what I need to do going forward.

Once I had that set up, I searched for a way to keep the "Last Worked On" column always sorted most recent first. Not finding a built-in means for doing so, I created a Google Sheets script to keep my column sorted. I then color coded the "last worked on" column to quickly show how fresh the project was: green for ones worked on in the past week, yellow the past month, red for anything older, and a red background callout for any that haven't been started.

In addition, I set up a rule to highlight the seven latest project names in green so I can easily get a sense for where my recent interest has lied. (Originally, the idea was to work on one thing every day to avoid burning out on any one particular project, but I often found myself wanting to keep the momentum on something over a couple of days, so now I stick with the color indicators to get a better overall feel.)

Okay, great. So I have this beautiful(-ish) spreadsheet that tells me everything I want to know about my projects, but what good is it if the work doesn't get done?

Enter scheduling and accountability.

If you stick to a schedule, progress will come

I have been using the Pomodoro technique on and off to make headway in my various projects, but that isn't always enough. With writing, for instance, I've found it all too easy to shrug off my daily goals because they "take too long", and always break out of a single 25 minute productivity session (at least when I'm creating content, as I find editing is easier to chunk into smaller segments).

So what to do? The way I am taking to get around this new hurdle is to schedule written content out in advance, and what's great is this can be applied to this blog, Belay My Last, and my novel.

For blogging, I am establishing a weekly cadence to get a post out every Wednesday, something my readers can count on with consistency. In the beginning, I might alternate it so this site and Belay My Last are on opposite weeks, with the goal of getting both to have weekly updates as I become more comfortable and find rhythm.

My noveling could receive a similar treatment. As I expand my content here, more and more posts gravitate toward writing. It could be that I create a bi-weekly or monthly newsletter, giving readers updates on the latest from my novels, provide sneak peeks and bonus chapters, and reward loyal fans with exclusive deals and free content. If I have stuff to talk about in between, that could appear as posts here. My only concern with that is I would like to continue writing about other things, such as costuming and development, but I will cross that bridge if and when the time comes. It could be they co-exist with my noveling posts just fine. Don't create problems you don't have, and all that.

Keep the train moving

It's okay to fall off the tracks. Heck, look at my projects sheet above: there are a ton of things in the red! Your interests will ebb and flow, but don't lose sight of what really drives you. It's okay if that shifts over time, but never stop doing. You can plan all you want, but chances are if you're never creating, you won't be satisfied with what you're doing. So get out there, and find your cadence.

Bonus!

As I was setting up my weekly repeating calendar reminder to publish every Wednesday (which I highly recommend doing), I realized my time-to-live for each post would be rapidly enhanced if I wrote up a snippet for sharing on social media ahead of time. I'm going to bake this into my routine so I don't have to think about it when it comes time to release my next post.

Even though I started out in past tense, I'd find myself gradually slipping into the present over the course of my writing. Then I'd have to edit it back to match the rest of the story, but that nagging feeling would always stay.

Breaking down the trend

I've had this conflict for almost four years now, but was motivated to dive into it further when my copy of Star Wars: Aftermath arrived. The story is written in present tense and an almost fragmented way. It reads like a conversation, as if Chuck Wendig was narrating the actions to you as they happened. And it works, though not everyone would agree.

Now, I'm not saying my novel needs short, choppy sentences. Interspersed, throughout my prose. But, the present tense was.. refreshing, not unlike how enjoyable the first person perspective in the Mercy Thompson and Kingkiller Chronicles series are.

This got me thinking, though: did Chuck Wendig go against the grain here? So I cracked open a handful of novels in my library and took a gander, and the results were only a little surprising. I looked at some of my favorites, from Harry Potter and The Forgotten Realms*, to Dune and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – and not a single one of them was in the present tense. Yes, Frank Herbert and J.K. Rowling and Douglas Adams and R.A. Salvator - even Edgar Allen Poe! - all elected to write in the past tense. But why?

Just because all of these respected and successful authors chose to do so, does not necessarily mean it's what's right for my book. In order to answer that, though, I need to look at why they might have chosen the past tense.

* That's not entirely accurate. In The Legend of Drizzt series, the main character has short monologues acting as interludes between parts, but the bulk of the story is in third person past tense.

Each one of them was telling a story, something each of us does every day in one form or another. When we do, we use the past tense, because it already happened. But what if we tell our story as it happens, treating it and the characters and world within as living, breathing entities instead of notes on a page long gone to time? Would it give our readers the illusion that the characters' fates weren't predetermined, versus reading something that was more like written history? Perhaps it would give readers more hope, let them give in and be attached to characters that are still alive, experiencing these things as they happen to them.

Plowing ahead

I decided to not get hung up on this aspect right now, and instead chose to continue moving forward with my story as it was: third person, past tense. I still feel third person is very much right for this tale; it wouldn't have the same effect if there wasn't an outside force providing additional flavor and reflection on Dirk's actions. But on the subject of tense? My mind keeps drifting toward the present, and it may be I need to address it again soon.

(As an aside, I'm not sure I have ever read a first person past tense story before. Interesting.)

Browsers and, to a lesser extent, networks are getting ever faster. In the arms race that is the web, we are able to offload more and more to the client for processing than ever before. This is amazing, and truly essential for us to continue forging paths ahead in creating rich, innovative experiences for users.

But if this is true, why is our development getting slower?

The State of Affairs

We create beautiful tools like Less, Sass and Uglify, some of which are geared toward saving us as developers time and sanity, while others save on network bandwidth, making our sites faster. But manually processing those components to be usable on the Web is tedious and slows us down.

In response, we created task runners such as Gulp and Grunt, leveraging the power of the command line to automatically do those things for us. These perform admirably (and some better than others, to be sure), but they add an intrinsic amount of overhead for both new and experienced developers.

And those are just the basics, powerful and heavily used though they may be. It doesn't even touch on working with large applications such as Jive, offloading them to virtual environments using Vagrant and the like, or compiling and deploying to cloud applications like Salesforce.com that don't have a concept of a local instance.

Processes and workflow

So we have some pain points identified. We look for ways to speed up the process and work around the choke points. Unfortunately, this oft results in us spending a lot of time "working on working" (i.e. putting effort against the meta of what we're doing).

It can seem like it is all in vain, that we could have completed the work by now - and with less resistance - if we did it the "conventional" way. However, if the nut can be cracked, it can dramatically enhance not just your, but our entire industry's workflow. And while a smooth workflow doesn't necessarily guarantee happy developers, a lot of friction well definitely lead to grumpy ones.

Tools that support the tech

Okay, that's great, but how do we actually achieve this bliss?

See what's out there

Maybe something addressing this exists, or maybe just partially. Can you improve upon it, or adapt it to a wider range of use cases? If so, fork it, build, publish, and refine the tool. Submit pull requests and foster a conversation with the project's maintainers and community.

If there are no discussions surrounding this tool, start one! Don't be turned away by a lack of existing engagement; maybe you will be the catalyst that sheds some light on the solution for others!

Roll your own

If nothing exists - or it isn't going to quite fit the bill - don't despair. Implementations don't always exist for your tool, workflow, or style. Maybe your particular ask hasn't been solved using your particular tools – yet.

Things often start strong. You reach for our favorite tool and get rolling along, feeling great and pumped to solve this problem. Then you hit a wall. You back up and try a different path, but it's another dead end. You shift again, but find another. So what happens when you get 75% of the way there and don't see a way around?

Do not let this deter you. Instead of stopping there, consider moving forward. Ask if a solution can feasibly exist; do some research to find out. Maybe ask on Stack Overflow or other communities to generate some ideas. Heck, you might just inspire somebody to post their own solution, saving you quite a bit of work!

Are you knowledgeable about the possibilities? If so, is it worth spending some time on to solve? Great, forge your path ahead. If you're not versed in the tech needed, are you interested in getting up to speed? Start with something super simple to get your feet a little wet, then dive in with your goal in hand.

Always moving forward

Building and learning are crucial to having a fulfilling career as a developer (and not to mention other professions as well). Step out and take a couple hours exploring opportunities. Document what you find, write about your experience, and share what you learned - even if it didn't turn out exactly as you intended.

But maybe you pulled it off! In fact, knowing you, I bet you did. Let people know you created something they might find useful. Submit it to package repositories like npm or Bower. Post on Twitter and #tag it so people can find it. Tell your co-workers. Answer questions on Q&A sites where this would be a good fit (just don't be a jerk and spam it - the goal here is to help others by sharing useful info).

Your project might just end up being used by hundreds or thousands (or more!) of devs to come. Our industry's constantly changing – you can be a part of that.

A few years ago I was introduced to CrossFit through the paleo community, but hadn't tried it. Some time last year I did an evaluation session with a place on the East Side, but didn't pick it up. (Notice a trend here?) Come Easter, we had our usual family get together and my cousin told me he's been going to the one right by my place, and loves it. I've seen people have tremendous results with the sport and want to improve my overall health and fitness, so back in June I joined CrossFit Muskego.

I don't usually post about my workouts anymore; I don't want to be that friend/family member/co-worker (you know the one) who talks ad nauseam about their physical feats each day. I don't take any offense to others who do so - I simply skip over what I'm not interested in - but it can get annoying.

That said, holy smokes, Friday I thought my arms had been replaced with pool noodles. As it was, I had to start writing this by pushing the keys one-by-one with the mechanical pencil in my mouth.*

* Slight exaggeration.

Then last night was the most challenging workout I have attempted (key word there). The feeling I got when Coach told me to call it hit me like a lead weight sinking in my gut. I physically could not support myself anymore. My arm kept locking up. I was dehydrated. And it was the first time I was unable to complete a workout.

All in all, it was the right call, but still disappointing. Coaches Mike and Matt were both incredibly helpful, supportive, and encouraging, though. I just need to be more aware of my water intake, keep pushing toward better sleep, and build my upper body strength.

Oh, and work on my snatches. That movement's hard to keep straight.

Though crushing, it's important to remember Dani's words: "So what if you didn't complete the workout? You are so far ahead of everyone that stayed at home and sat on the couch. At least you got out there. At least you tried. You did your best. And you'll go back and keep doing it."

I’ve said very little about my goals to very few people this year, and with reason: telling someone about your goals gives a sense of accomplishment and can cause you to make less real progress than if you hadn’t made the proclamation at all. So, inspired by that and My Goals (or Lack Thereof) for 2015, I enacted change – within myself and how I go about life. I resolved to start making progress on things and share my accomplishments instead of just the idea of them.

This isn’t v2.0, or a New Year’s resolution. This is an attitude shift – a change in my approach to life – and the next step toward filling it with what I love, and removing anything else. Happy now.

Over the past few years, my skills have stagnated. While I’m mostly talking about web development here, it’s also true with photography and other areas of my life, to a degree. I’m not bemoaning myself or anything like that, but, looking back, I stopped challenging myself and making projects fun. Even the most mundane assignment can be turned into a learning opportunity, a chance to try a new framework (AngularJS now, Knockout around this time last year), explore something new, or look at an old problem from a new angle (Get it? Angular? har har).

Some time a few years ago, I stopped doing those things. I stopped learning to the degree I used to, despite more and more things coming out each year – and, truth be told, perhaps it was overwhelming! My how has our craft changed. It didn’t happen overnight, but I certainly changed, I stopped having fun. Now, that’s a bit dramatic sounding. Of course I had fun, in both my career and life! But, as a whole, I wasn’t exploring like I used to, and the undying enthusiasm for which I was known had faded.

In reflection, perhaps I did more than I give myself credit for, but in looking back and seeing where I am and what I do now, I see an excellent opportunity to relearn how to have fun and explore new things to the degree I used to, to the degree I loved. Getting out and exploring more – both in my craft and my life as a whole – is, I think, going to be key to unlocking renewed vigor and happiness in my life. I have a list of things I want to tackle and explore (I know I keep using the word explore, but it wholly embodies the idea behind what I’m looking to achieve): acquire the skills to produce quality concept art; become conversationally fluent in French; take my development skills to the next level by learning object-oriented JavaScript, keeping up on current tools and trends, and exploring mobile and game development; renew my passion for photography by creating stunning photos and sharing them with the world, both online and in print; complete multiple costume pieces that I can display, wear, and enjoy; and publish my first book.

Those are just a few, but they’re recurring interests I have that, while I may dabble in, I don’t explore to the degree of which I’d like. By seeing some of these through I’ll be rewarded with the feeling of satisfaction that comes from accomplishing the goals I set out to do. So, here’s to relearning how to have fun!

Camping in and of itself wasn’t without it’s tough spots, either. This was bumpier than our trips normally go, and Mel was left to plan and pack by herself with no help from me while I was working, which is never pleasant. We forgot the board games at home, and the rain Saturday night meat we weren’t sitting around the fire for a while. We had pillows (two this time!) and tooth brushes set out, but we somehow managed to not grab them when we left – oops! – but we fashioned some pillows out of clean laundry. I’m just glad Mel was the one in charge, because if it were up to me I probably would have forgotten the tent, the car, and possibly myself. All in all it was still fun, though! We hiked before the rain, watched the storm when it rolled in, and ate plenty of s’mores, though, let’s be honest, you can never really have too many of those.

While in the Kettle Moraine, I was able to give Verizon a true test. Last time I was still with AT&T, and even checking the weather was a task that could take an hour before a data signal came through. With Verizon, though, we had a 1x connection the entire time. Now, I have no idea what that means, as I’m accustomed to GSM carriers, but I pulled a steady 0.56Mbits down and kept a steady, clear connection. Even a phone call home worked without a hitch and was plenty clear on both ends, with the signal strength for voice and text showing about the same on both carriers (I still have my iPhone 4 on AT&T since I didn’t port my number out yet).

Now, Mel and I were in the fence about switching to Android phones – Samsung Galaxy SIIIs, to be precise – but we’ve made up or minds. That, however, is a story for another day. (Spoiler alert: I wrote this post using one.)

Every time I get in that particular elevator, a brief moment passes as the doors close and I wonder if it’ll hold as it takes down to the second level where my car is parked. Having just been repaired, one might think it’d be oiled clean and ready to ride. Apparently the elevator didn’t get that memo.

As I hit the buttons and the doors slid closed, I stood off to my customary side and waiting for it to descend. The elevator starts its motion downward and gives a groan – ah, little has changed after all. But then the entire car shakes as the elevator lurches to a halt, jarring down then up mere inches from its start. From above I can hear the gears almost grinding as the cable pulls it back. A nervous glance as the floor indicator: still on 9. The elevator moves again, then gives another lurch. I step to the side and grab the railing. Another jarring motion and a protest from above. I scan the buttons, but suddenly none of them make sense. I hit 2 then 9, door close. No, those aren’t right. Another volt. Panic sets in. I find the alarm, which just appears to sound a bell while I hold it. Not what I want. Still on 9. More halting movement interspersed with that terrible, portending noise. I find the call button, hit it, then buzz the bell some more. I don’t expect that to accomplish anything, but it’s there, and I’m stuck.

Ringing. It’s the phone calling out. My finger hovers over the panel and a prayer forms on my lips. Moments later – what feels like forever, but must have been four rings on the line – a voice over the speaker, female. She says something, I don’t know what. More movement, more noise. I tell her what’s happening, my desperation thick in my voice. She asks if I’ve gotten off yet. I think to myself, what is she talking about? No, I’m still stuck and it’s still half-moving, I tell her.

Suddenly, silence. Then, movement, but this time smooth, and not followed by any noise beyond the gentle, steady hum of the car moving down the chute, and the blissful beep of each passing floor. 8, 7, 6. The car is moving. 5, 4, 3. Almost there. 2. The car eases to a stop. The woman says something about notifying someone emergency related, perhaps something about calling it off. Okay. She thanks me for calling it in and asks me to alert management. My legs are Jell-O. I hit door close instead of open and I’m teetering on the threshold wanting to finish the conversation. The doors stay open anyway. She hangs up, I walk out.

Next time, I take the stairs.

When I started this crazy (awesome) project, I didn’t know much going in, and I made a lot of mistakes that I can now avoid going forward. There are a lot of issues with the surface, areas where the Bondo is a little brittle, and shaping issues aplenty. On top of that I think it’s going to be a little smaller than I’d hoped.

I could definitely keep going and spend time fixing everything (well, except the size), but I’m wondering if I’d be better off starting fresh some time down the road. I’ve learned a ton from this that I can apply to new projects, and in that it was a success. I started two other pieces while I thought this over (a Boba Fett helmet and Captain America’s shield), both of which have gone so much better this time around.

I’m certainly not giving up – I’ll have a trooper bucket one day before too long – and it’d be a little sad not finishing this one, but I think moving on from this particular piece might be what’s best. What do you guys think? Have you considered restarting a project after you were already a ways in? It’s a tough call, but feels right to me right now.

Fast forward to this spring when the challenge ended. The winner ended up dropping over 70 pounds – holy crap! – and his wife came in being close to 50 pounds lighter! Unfortunately, I ended up right around where I started, with the last month or two really sliding downhill.

All is not lost, however. I started learning about the paleo lifestyle and read through most of The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. Shortly thereafter I discovered reddit, and, amidst all the cat photos and memes, I found r/paleo. (All these years I thought it was just another digg.com.) It’s also worth noting I just lost 20+ minutes by visiting the home page of reddit, twice. You’ve been warned.

I’m still uncertain on paleo as a whole, though. It sounds fantastic, but I’ve been really struggling to adopt it, though I have incorporated things here and there over the months. At the vest least, it’s gotten me to look at my carb intake a lot more (that’s not to say I’m always disciplined when it comes to avoiding the bad choices still) and to realize that fat is even more important in your diet than I once thought. I’ll keep making gradual progress and see if it’s something I want to incorporate fully into my life.

So, paleo principals in mind, today I started logging on Lose It! again. Seeing what I’m taking in on a daily basis was a huge boon when trying to curb my poor eating habits last fall, and by doing it again – coupled with riding my bike more frequently and doing some core training – there’s no reason I can’t get into the shape I want to be (which is slightly less round, thankyouverymuch) over the course of summer. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass logging a bunch of stuff – especially if it’s not as simple as scanning a barcode or two – but it’s even more of a pain in the ass being overweight and out of shape.

Yowza! I haven’t written here in three months. Realizations like this feel so cliché. “Ohh, I haven’t written in a while, but I really want to, but I still don’t do it. Boo hoo hooooo.” So shut up and write, you ninny, or stop complaining! No one cares that you say you’re going to do something. They care when you do it.

I’m showing marked improvement in that area this year, and aim to become even better. I’m starting to get things done, hunker down and focus, and see things through. Sure, I still have ideas coming a mile a minute sometimes, but I can’t hope to realize them all. Instead, I’ll focus on the ones that grab me and make them shine.

2012 is the year of me. What are you doing with yours?

Some other random thoughts I’ll elaborate on later:

• Diablo 3 beta was incredibly underwhelming
• My new Creative T40 speakers rock
• I started dual-posting to Instagram (search for Mike Branski) and Flickr, and will continue with regular photos each week to reboot my interest in photography