I pre-announced it today on Twitter so I thought I’d do the same thing here just to make it a little more “official.”
I purchased the domain for Deck78 (or Deck 78 or deck78 … whatever) today and Deck78 is going to be the kindred spirit of Replosion, my prior failed adventure into owning a business (and may it live in peace).
More information will be coming in the future.
Also, an imaginary cookie to the people who can figure out the reference in the name.
I used the politically correct term in the title, but I’m going to call it pop (I’m from Minnesota) from this point forward.
I have to finally admit it. I’ve had an addiction to pop for the past few years. Actually, I think since I started college (in 2005), so that would put it at six years this Fall. That means I should give myself twelve to actually ditch it completely, right?
All kidding aside, I was pretty well hooked on the stuff. There were days when I would look forward to a taste of a good, well-carbonated Dr. Pepper like it would carry me through the rest of the day. I wouldn’t venture far from the office without having something in my hand to keep me going.
There probably isn’t much that looks less professional than a bottle of Mt. Dew at your lips as you are working on a computer issue.
I was a slave to the pop. As sugary sweet as it is, it is going to be difficult to stay away from it, but I think that my relationship with pop needs to change. It isn’t going to end because I’m a firm believe in “everything in moderation,” but the days of relying on that caffeine boost to get me through the week is going by the wayside and I will need to find another way to do it.
One thing I am doing is getting out and working out more regularly again. I’m going back to Couch to 5K to try and get myself back into shape again, which will go a long way to getting my energy up as my body increases its metabolism.
At the office, my big change is the introduction of iced tea as my drink of choice. I’m hoping that it will be the sweetness I crave without all of the ill effects. I also need to drink more water.
Luckily, I’m now on week 2 of not having any pop and the headaches are gone. Sadly, they are replaced with my body now working to cope with increased workouts, but I’m sure I’ll get there soon.
It feels good to break those chains.
This post is not meant to be an indictment against anyone else, but I need to post something about my own motivation while it is still fresh in my mind.
Money doesn’t motivate me. It is a nice by-product of what I do, but I will almost never do something for only money. There needs to be something more for me, or I will lost interest and give up on whatever I am doing and myself. It is too demoralizing to run after more money for the sake of more money. I can’t do it. You can ask my parents because I’m the kind of person who would neither hold onto money nor seek it out.
My motivation is derived from my creative need to always be thinking, to always be exploring to always be learning more and striving to be better and do something better than it was done before. It is the little things that make something better by being completely engrossed in a problem. The small efficiences that lead up to a huge gain in productivity. Always trying to new things to see if you can find something better.
It is not about not being content, but always striving for something more and better.
My motivation is my family whom I love dearly and would do anything for. It is waking up next to the love of my life (or the loves of my life if it was a hard night of sleep for the little man), the kisses as I walk out of the door and the hugs as I come back home after a day at work. The smiles, the laughing, the discussions and even the trials that it means to be a family.
My motivation comes from my faith in God and what his Son, Jesus, did for me. As a father myself, I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like to send your own son to be sacrificed for the saving of the world. It is the blessings that I receive this day and always have. It is the love that God has shown me that I know I don’t deserve because I trip and fall and stumble and fail and … you get the picture.
These things are what motivates me. These places are where I derive my motivation to do what I do every day. I thank God every day for what I have.
Over this trip, I was able to listen to some of the backlog of podcasts from 5by5, mainly the four episodes of Build and Analyze I had forgotten about from Dan Benjamin and Marco Arment. One of the topics that has been discussed over those past episodes has been that of self-hosted blogging platforms.
Marco was the lead developer of Tumblr and is currently the founder of Instapaper, a service I use daily. He’s been working on a project he calls Second Crack. It is, basically, a self-hosted blogging platform that transforms text files written in Markdown into blog posts. Cool stuff. Dan and Marco have talked quite a bit about the design ideas behind it, what Marco has been aiming for as far as post workflow, administrative workflow, how posts get where they are supposed to go, etc. and it is a lot of fun to hear about.
However, I want to write something myself because of it.
Also over the past few days, Andy Clarke has released 320 and up, a really cool inversion on what has traditionally been touted as responsive web design. What I mean by “cool inversion” is that instead of starting with the desktop and working your way down, you start with the stylesheet at the smallest device level (usually smart phone-sized) and work your way up to the desktop. The idea is to download only the needed assets and add stuff as you scale up.
It makes sense, it is cool, and I want to build something.
I’m also looking at forming an LLC again. I know, I just disbanded Replosion about a half-year ago, but things have changed (obviously) so I’m looking for names again.
All in all, a lot of work to do.
So here is what I am thinking at the moment:
That’s the idea, at least. There is a lot of moving parts to get out of the way, but http://bobmartens.net will once again be changing. WordPress is too much for what I want, Tumblr is not hosted by me (which is not what I want or need).
Now I need to actually ship something.
So it has been one week since we dropped our Mac Mini into someone else’s lap and picked up a used MacBook for my wife to use. I thought I’d post some quick thoughts on how things have done so far. Yes, it is a list, so bear with me.
That’s about it. More later!