The Duck's Nest: online home of mizducky

Back in the Mesa College

2010-01-28T20:12:43-08:00

Back in the Mesa College saddle again. First week of classes - Flash class online, Japanese 102 in the evenings.

Some self-affirmations, my way

2010-01-07T14:20:46-08:00

I often feel a little uncomfortable with the affirmation thing--and I don't think it's because there's some deep-down-inside part of me that believes I don't deserve success or happiness or abundance or whatever. I think it has more to do with the types of happiness and success I've seen mentioned in a number of affirmation lists I've run into. I actually saw an affirmation on the net the other day that read "I climb the corporate ladder with ease." Ugh. No. My personal vision of success does not include any corporate ladders. Nor does it include six-figure incomes or a large beautiful house (cue that Talking Heads song here) or any other such overly materialistic tchatchkes.

Further, I think it's unrealistic to expect that one will never have upsets and crises in one's life. Shit happens, and often enough on a totally random basis, so there's no point in asking "Why me?" when the answer is "Well, why not you?" This kind of stuff is capable of happening to anybody.

But I do want and need some affirmations in my life, because there are indeed some things that I feel lacking, and I do believe in inviting the universe to provide the opportunities to get those things.

I deserve a serene, secure, and fulfilling life.

I do not have to be perfect, by anyone's yardstick (including my own) in order to merit a serene, secure, and fulfilling life. For all human beings are imperfect by their very nature, and I am fully human. But I also have more than enough positive qualities to merit the life I desire. I may not be perfect, as the old joke goes, but parts of me really are excellent.

I have a lot to offer the world.

When trouble comes my way, as it will inevitably do, I have the strength, resources, and allies to meet those crises and surmount them. The universe never hands me anything I'm not capable of handling.

The existence of crises in my life is not a reflection on my qualities as a human being. Crises come to everyone sooner or later.

I am in the right place. I am doing what I need to do. I am putting in the footwork, one foot in front of the other.

I am open to what the universe is trying to show me. I am teachable. As someone once said, luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation. I am doing what I need to do to be prepared when opportunity knocks. And opportunity will knock. It is always knocking. Maybe not in the guise I might be expecting, but I'm open to recognizing opportunity in whatever form she chooses to take.

Someone else once said that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. I am making up my mind to be happy today.

Oh yeah--and one last one: "She who laughs, lasts."

"Why a duck" part trois? -- whyaduckwebdesign.com registered!

2010-01-05T14:21:07-08:00

So once I discovered that my first choice in domain names for my little fledgling web design venture (fledgling! get it? get it? oh, I quack myself up!) was already taken, and doing a lot of studying up on the pros and cons of various domain name strategies, plus some SEO-type searches on likely keywords to include in domain names, I put the whole thing on the back burner for a couple of weeks, so I could come back and look at it with fresh eyes.

And what I finally decided: it may be a blessing in disguise that whyaduck.com is not available, because while that name would get lots of hits, not so many would be searches for web design. SEO Rule #1: if you want people to find you, use words that say what you do. So I finally decided that rule trumped the "beware of excessively long website names" rule, because right now people wouldn't know my little startup from a hole in the wall, and would be searching on "web design" ... but I also want to differentiate myself from all the other web design outfits out there, so including "whyaduck" is still cool. And once people do start to know who I am, remembering "whyaduck" plus "webdesign" is not all that difficult.

And I found a really cool, and totally public domain, graphic to incorporate into my website's design, and even as a logo. Little webbed ducky footprints! (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, who got them from the US government of all places--I believe they were from some federal wildlife site back in the day.) The minute I saw these little duck feet, I realized they had a great balance of cuteness and clean design--they will look really classy on a business card. I can even make a little Flash animation of them walking across a page. And every time I look at them they make me smile--which is a great way to feel about a project.

So--next step: building some stuff in Dreamweaver and Flash. More updates as I have 'em.

"Why a duck" part deux: domain taken!

2009-12-21T20:56:13-08:00

I suppose it was naive of me to suppose that somebody had not already taken whyaduck.com. Apparently it was once a very popular Marx Brothers website. Now the site is dormant, but somebody's camping on the domain name and apparently wants $10,000 for it. Oh well ...

But all is not lost. It appears that the names "whyaduckweb," "whyaduckwebworks," and "thatswhyaduck" are not taken. Comments regarding preferences for these alternatives will be happily taken. Right now I'm personally leaning towards "thatswhyaduck."

School's out, so now: "Why a duck?"

2009-12-21T20:00:34-08:00

I have made it through the final throes of my first semester at Mesa, and so far things are looking good. I don't have my official grade from my intro-level Japanese course yet, but my sensei assured me I would pass--which is a relief, because that course was definitely kicking my butt.

But perhaps more importantly for immediate economic prospects, I completely and totally aced my multimedia web design course, and am now re-equipped with the latest state-of-the-art tools and techniques for modern web design.(I had been down this road before, several years ago when hand-coding in HTML was the state of the art; of course the art, as happens in high tech, has moved on several light-years since then.)

In any case, I'm going to start buffing up the resume to see about landing some better part-time work, and building the ol' portfolio to see if I can land some freelance assignments. And part of doing the latter would be to design a website to advertise myself (and also show off my design sensibility).

But here's the thing--my design sensibility, and also my whole philosophy of life, includes a decided streak of rebelliousness against the kind of mainstream corporate vibe I see embodied by so many designed websites out there. I can certainly do that look, no problem; but the question is, do I wanna?

Or maybe a more pragmatic question is, am I willing to live with the possible consequences of NOT doing that look? Because I suspect a certain demographic of customer needs that look in order to feel comfortable in entrusting their business to a vendor. So if I go with the no less professionally-designed but more whimsical look I'm contemplating, I might be turning off that business.

On the other hand, I might just be turning on the kind of customer who shares my allergy to over-corporateness, and who might appreciate a more hang-loose attitude in design as well as in business relations. I do have a gut feeling that there's a huge amount of competition for the corporate-vibe demographic. I also have a gut feeling there's rather less competition for the alternative demographic.

So--especially since all this is going to cost at first is a domain registration and several hours of sweat-equity, I think I'll go with my whimsical approach and see how it flies.

What is that approach, you may be wondering? Well, it's ... just ducky.

For some years now, I've had a running mental joke about my up-to-now fictitious enterprise named "Whyaduck." The inspiration, of course, is from that classic Marx Bros. routine from the movie The Cocoanuts, in which Groucho and Chico are checking out a map, and Groucho points out a viaduct, and Chico "mishears" him and responds: "Why a duck?" This leads to existential silliness about why not a chicken or a horse or what have you that would have your average philosophy major rolling on the floor. Well, it had me doing so, at any rate.

So ever since then, due to my longstanding "Ducky" nickname, I have laughingly called my "business" things like "Whyaduck Unlimited" or "Whyaduck Productions" or other random things. I even had a little logo--this cartoon fluffy duck with glasses I used to use as my signature logo when I drew cartoons in college. Oh, and I had a slogan: "That's Why A Duck!"

Now, though, I'm thinking of going for reals with it--registering the domain name whyaduck.com and creating a business site for Whyaduck Webworks. "We know web design like the back of our foot! That's Why A Duck!"

Is it really too silly a duck to fly in this crappy business climate? Or would it actually attract attention for being so different from the flock of look-alike cookie-cutter uninspired web business concepts? I dunno--and maybe someone might comment on this post and give me a really good reason for not doing it this way, a reason I hadn't thought of. But right now, the idea is really making me smile, and maybe that's the best recommendation it could possibly have. Stay tuned for further developments.

Budget holiday recipe: simple sweet potato/apple casserole with hint of maple syrup

2009-11-25T14:45:51-08:00

via www.examiner.com

Just finished making this dish--and now the super-simple recipe is up on Examiner.com--just click the above link. Enjoy!

When the going gets tough the tough get burritos?

2009-11-19T12:58:43-08:00

Coming down to the wire here on end-of-semester stuff, and as the workload of final projects and exam study begins to rise, other areas of life begin to get a bit sketchier. Thus I present today's lunch offering, courtesy of the school cafeteria - its questionable looks and precarious pedestal may be a metaphor for my mental state as I gear up for a test this very afternoon.

Budget recipe: whole chicken in crock pot, easy and versatile

2009-11-07T12:24:15-08:00

via www.examiner.com

My latest salvo on Examiner.com -- not so much a recipe but an easily-adaptable template for chicken-in-a-pot, crock pot style.Click the link above for the full run-down.

Just bought: Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art (Shizuo Tsuji)

2009-11-06T09:10:08-08:00

So I bought a new-to-me cookbook--thanks to Amazon's habit of including indie sellers of used books, I got the 1980 edition at a price lower than the shipping charge. But this puppy would be worth it at full list price--Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji is a massive tome, aimed at introducing authentic Japanese cuisine to an English-speaking audience the way Julia Child introduced authentic French cuisine to the same audience. Those who know a little about Japanese philosophy will realize that the "simple" in the title is in no way an implication that "simple" will equate to "easy;" the entire first half of the book is given over to teaching techniques, with repreentative recipes given as examples. The second half moves on to a more traditional cookbook format with scores of recipes, covering all the elements of a traditional Japanese meal. As the author himself points out, and the renowned food writer MFK Fisher reiterates in her guest preface, fewer and fewer modern Japanese have the time to do these no-shortcuts preparations, or even to educate themselves about the history and culture of their cuisine. But at least culinary missionaries such as Tsuji-san had taken it upon themselves to capture snapshots of this essential chunk of culture for preservation and perpetuation.

Cheap fast filling food

2009-11-02T23:45:53-08:00

The text originally meant to go with the previous food photo, forwarded from my Google Mail account. Thanks for bearing with me, folks, while I continue to try to iron out issues with my ability to post from my phone ....

On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 7:10 PM, <8584141966@vzwpix.com> wrote:

I had just finished my banking at the Chase on Balboa near Genessee, but discovered my exit route blocked by some king-hell big accident, so I ducked back in the shopping center and paid a visit to a fave cheap greasy-spoon takeout joint: Fortune Cookie Express. With a name like that you know we ain't talkin' authentic cuisine. But the servings are generous and the price is right. The pictured meal set me back 5 bucks and change.