I love Christmas time. Unlike Halloween (which I also love!), Christmas has such a large build-up leading to the actual day, and so much more really partake in the festivities around the world. But what I really love are the decorations. I love walking down the street and seeing all of the cool things people have put up, or taking a drive down Candy Can Lane (which I haven’t done in years) and seeing all of the awesome creations people come up with, truly outdoing themselves year after year.

Given all of that, I was excited to pull out one of my parents’ spare Christmas trees and a bunch of lights that we’re going to put up this week. We had always used the same tree for 25 years, then they got a couple more that they or family got at ridiculously low prices after the holiday seasons over the recent years, so we lucked out being able to get one they aren’t using.

I’m a big fan of the multi-colored lights that blink and dance their way across the tree, but Melanie is more in favor of a “themed” tree, sticking to one or two colors of lights and decking it out to match. So, in the order of fairness (that doesn’t sound right, but I can’t remember the expression right now!), we’re doing a themed tree this year since last year we had multi-colored lights. ‘Tis the season for sharing!

Now I’m off to squeeze in a couple hundred words for NaNoWriMo before my 9:00 call. Be sure to come back for tomorrow’s post, Phone Numbers: The Death of an Era!

So what’d I do all month? Well, mostly I worked. And then I worked some more. Hey! It’s November and I’m still working. In fact, last night I released StageBloc’s brand new, fresh-from-the-oven theming engine! I even build a pharmacy locator tool for a client. But all of that work (no matter how cool it is!) made the month fly by.

Enter November, and I’m still busy with work, but I’ve added something else to my plate, and not for the first time, either: NaNoWriMo. Yes, I am doing National Novel Writing Month again! I attempted it two years ago, but I tackled what may have been a tough subject, and didn’t approach it with the right mindset – a.k.a., anything and everything goes, and what’s with the editing?

Then I tried it again the following January, and I faired much better – I clocked in over 20,000 words – but I still failed to see it through. I “took a break” from it last November, but committed myself to it again this year. Armed with No Plot? No Problem!, and some encouragement from fellow NaNoWriMo’ers, I’ve been making great progress. I started out the first day with a surplus word count, then was a little short the second day. And then I skipped days three, four, and five. I was in the middle of launching previously stated project for my client, and I simply did not squeeze in any writing.

I thought being behind 5,000 words spelled certain doom, but with it being so early in, it wasn’t a problem at all. I just resolved to top 2,000 words every day thereafter, and as of two days ago I was only one day behind! But then I didn’t write yesterday; I simply wasn’t feeling it, and so I focused on other things. Now I’m sitting down to write tonight and wouldn’t have minded at least a 500 word effort last night.

No worries, though! If I keep on-pace with 2,000+ words per day, I’ll sail past the 50,000 goal no sweat. Well, there may be sweat, but hey, some motivational statement about perspiration, right?

To be inspired is a beautiful thing. To never act on that inspiration (and see it through from time-to-time) is a waste of creative bliss.

The Idea

My first idea was to create a Kindle case. This must have come up over a year ago now, around the time I read The 4-Hour Workweek
(which I can’t recommend enough, by the way; I’m going to do a second read-through soon). I talked it over with some friends, refined the idea, and made some sketches on paper. I sat down a few times to create a concept in various programs – Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, Blender, Google SketchUp – but was always thwarted by my lack of a proficient knowledge of those applications. I thought about teaming up with someone who’s proficient with those skills, but I never went anywhere with it.

Okay, so moving beyond a proper schematic (gosh, I love that word) for now, how about looking at some manufacturers to see what that’d entail. Ho-boy! talk about a confusing jungle of things I’m completely clueless about. Some simple Google searches for manufacturers for terms like “cases” or “Kindle/iPad cases” later, and I’m no closer to having a clue what I’m doing. So, naturally, I continue with my current trend and stop working on it.

Now I have a few failed attempts to get this project off the ground. Great! Fast-forward to about six months ago when I had sushi with my friend and colleague Timmothy Merath. He tells me this is the year he’ll accomplish things. He’s going to make 2011 his year, and he encourages me to make my Kindle case a reality. He said he’d give me a month to get my idea together and put it up on Kickstarter. The idea both excited and petrified me. I guess the petrification won over, because I never got my act together.

The Reboot

Products that are conceptually simple but incredibly practical – to the point where you ask yourself, “Why hasn’t this been done before?” – make for an ideal muse. The biggest obstacle to making it happen is most-often, You. There are virtually countless cases out there, ranging in size from smartphones to tablets and more, and with varying degrees of functionality: wallets, extra keyboards, simple protection, stands, lights, and whathaveyou (another fun word).

So where can I go from here? Well, I can’t really do any less than I am now with regards to the project. With Amazon having just announced three new Kindles – one of them a tablet! – perhaps this would be the best time to rally behind my idea and push it forward. For real this time. The idea’s been floating around just shy of my full-attention for a while now.

So what’s stopping me?

The Unkown

The idea of making a physical product is quite intimidating. But does it have to be? With so many awful products being made, it can’t be that hard! Surely the process is doable, else we wouldn’t see products like these. Clearly there are plenty of successful companies making great products people want. Square36 did it with their yoga mat. Vincent Ko did it with his ingenious and very practical iFlip Wallet. Amir Khella made Keynotopia, not excuses.

These are all things I could do, but first I need to get over that mental block. I need to stop focusing on the hows and the what-ifs (although they should definitely be given consideration, just not so much that you never get around to making things happen) and simply do.

From Wikipedia:

Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Spotlight is a selection-based search system, which creates a virtual index of all items and files on the system. It is designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer, including documents, pictures, music, applications, and System Preferences.

Basically, Spotlight is a system-wide search engine that can find virtually anything on your Mac. It can search for applications, pull up documents, search your email, and even give you definitions for words. It’s like a travel agent. For your Mac. On crack.

How to get started

You can click the little magnifying glass in the upper right corner of your main display, or, my preferred way, simply hit Command + Space Bar from within any application. The icon will turn blue and a search box will appear. If you’ve previously searched for something recently, that result will still be displayed; otherwise, you’ll be presented with an empty search box. Simply start typing your query and Spotlight will search as you go. It defaults to highlighting the Top Hit; in other words, what it thinks you’re most likely to want relative to your search.

From there you can simply click what you’d like to view, or select an item with your keyboard using the up and down arrow keys, then hit Return to open it. You can also opt to view all of the results in Finder, where you can further refine your search and sort by different criteria.

Voilà, fast, useful, system-wide search right at your fingertips.

What’s nice is that Facebook encourages you to post an update. Why is this nice? It keeps content fresh and encourages interaction with not only your new fans, but those who have been there from the beginning, too! In fact, I wouldn’t have written this quick post talking about it, which I will in-turn post to Facebook, had I not received the email. It’s little details like this that make a big difference in the overall user experience.

If you liked this post, I suggest heading over to Little Big Details, where an awesome collection of great little usability enhancements that come with big results.

I think that’s a key term: search presence. Don’t get hung up on ranking specifically. So you show up at #1 for a general keyword search. So what? Is that really what your users (or potential users) are searching for? Think about why people would be coming to your site, and focus on those ideas. Blasting your users with empty content that’s full of keyword spam or irrelevant fluff will only hurt your site as a whole, and contribute to a loss of users. Yes, you may see your site rocket to the top for a little bit by doing these things, but it is deceptive and dishonest. Don’t be surprised when your site suddenly disappears from the search engines altogether, and you find out you’ve been blacklisted for trying to spoof the system.

Unfortunately, this happens all the time. Companies promise to get your site to the top of the rankings in short order, and with little-to-no work from you. How great is that? Just sign on the dotted line and you’re magically boosted to the top of the results! If it was that easy, everyone would be at the top. These things simply to not work as promised. What good is being at the top of the search results for a few days, only to disappear entirely after that? Not exactly a strategic business move!

The truth is, improved search engine ranking takes time, and it takes constant work. It can be weeks before a search engine even crawls your site again, so you can’t give up after one week just because you’re not seeing results. Again, it’s something you have to nurture over the life of your site. Keep the content flowing, and, more importantly, keep it relevant. Don’t spam the search engines with false content just to try and rank better; remember, your users see that very same content, and the search engines are smart. They will figure out you’re trying to deceive the rankings and you will be penalized.

There is no magic bullet solution. Don’t fall into that trap.

Part of me wants to say “Cancel netflix right right.” The other half slapped the first half. I don’t know what to do. I may go back to a disc only option. Streaming hasn’t had good movies in a very long time. Hell I only need star wars anyway
- Bradley Mackey

Now, $16 is hardly a lot of money for ‘unlimited’ streaming and one DVD rental at a time, considering you can go through 1-2 discs each week, in addition to whatever you watch instantly. Note, however, I say ‘unlimited’. Sure, you can watch as much as you want, but you have to choose from their ever-decreasing selection of meager offerings, and I’m not the only one to notice: many users are echoing the same sentiments in the Engadget comments, and even on Netflix’s official post regarding the price increase.

Fret not, faithful reader

Disappointing as it is, though, there are other options. Many people subscribe to and enjoy Hulu Plus, although there isn’t much on there that we’d enjoy right now. Others suggest Amazon Prime’s Instant Video streaming service. Either of these may work great for you (perhaps even both!), but what I think we’ll be moving toward is not another streaming service. Rather, I think the future – at least the more immediate one – lies with Redbox. Yes, instant streaming is definitely a beautiful thing, but until content creators become more willing to offer their work over a digital medium, the offerings are going to remain disappointingly slim.

Enter Redbox

Redbox gives you the ability to search for titles online, make reservations, pick them up at the location most convenient for you, and even return them at any other Redbox drop off – all for the stupid-low price of $1/night ($1.50 for Blue-rays). To top it off? You can now rent games, too. Will they have every title you want? Probably not. But with the à la carte pricing, you really can’t go wrong.

Bringin’ it on home

What are we going to do? Well, while we wait for streaming services such as Netflix to get better content offerings, we’ll be canceling our subscription and going with Redbox. The flexibility and freedom to pay for only the titles you want is a huge advantage over paying for a paltry selection of limited offerings. There is a little more risk, in that you can’t ‘preview’ a movie like you can with instant streaming, but I think that trade-off is worth it compared to the alternatives right now.

Funny, I got their email notifying me of the price change as I was writing this… Thanks for providing a quick link to change (read: cancel) my plan.

Identify the skill you want to improve

This one’s easy, or at least it should be. You need to figure out what it is you want to do. You don’t need to be ultra-specific (i.e., be the best close-up portrait photographer in the Midwest. Having a goal in mind is great, but I think it’s important to start a teensy bit more broad and narrow your scope (if you so chose) as you refine your skills.

Taking the first step

Let’s continue the photography example, as it’s both common and aligned with my own ambitions. Instead of picking something very niche, we’ll start with a more general idea: improving your photography skills. There are many ways to do this, but the single most important one, I think, is actually getting out there and shooting. You can only read so much about any topic – photography included – before you need to get out there and actually start doing.

I love to read and absorb information about something I’m excited about, but it’s only through actual application of that knowledge that you’ll really get the material and improve your skills. It’s one thing to read about how a particular two-light setup will look, but another thing entirely to get out there and actually see it on your model and observe how it changes with the slightest adjustments and variations. Basics come from reading; mastery comes from doing.

Making progress

Great, you’ve identified what you want to do. Not only that, you’ve gone out and started to do it! Good for you, but what happens next? So you’ve gotten out and shot a couple of portrait sessions, or you’ve written a few short stories, or tried a few new recipes. What happens now that you’ve gotten a, well, taste of things to come?

Is there something you particularly enjoyed during your creative sessions? Thinking about your next one, try to identify what would excite you the most: is it a pirate themed photo shoot with your closest friends; want to try your hand at an engagement shoot; or do you find more interest in expanding your one-on-one portrait skills? If there’s something a little more specific you’d like to experiment with, now’s the time to do it. Once you have your basic skills down, stepping into more specific areas of interest becomes a much smoother transition. Did you try something in particular? If so, how did you feel about it? If there’s something you liked, try to hone in on that and see where it takes you. If you didn’t like it, why not? Experiment with another technique or variation that you might enjoy more.

Putting it all together

Whew! You’re not just saying what you want to do; you’re actually out there doing it! Maybe you even found a specific path you wanted to follow. You’ve identified some things you like, and other things that didn’t pique your interest so much, and you can work on developing those skills further. Maybe you want to share what you’ve learned with others, or join a community of individuals with similar interests and expand your horizons. And it all started because you took those first steps towards doing something you love.

Now get out there and start doing.

Pretty dismal, eh?

Where was I? Oh, right: not making excuses. My lovely girlfriend gave me a “just because” gift today: a food processor! I’ve been talking about picking up one for some kitchen adventures, but just haven’t pulled the trigger. She came home and surprised me with one and solved the whole thing! I got her a present today, too: new wipers for the car. I’m pretty awesome, right?

Since I seem to have the attention span of a goldfish right now – which is better than you’d think, by the way. In fact, this pretty much sums it up:

The memory span has been proven not to be 3 sec, but up to 3 months. The attention span however for a fish is very short as they tend to get bored easy.

What were we talking about? Something about new topics, I think. So, since my girlfriend got me a food processor, and last year I bought a Kitchenaid stand up mixer (in Empire Red, thankyouverymuch), I thought it’d be fun to write about adventures in the kitchen as I explore new tools and recipes. This would have the added bonus of going hand-in-hand nicely with Melanie’s cookbook she’s compiling and give me more avenues to pursue and develop my photography.

Along semi-related thoughts, I’m in the beginning phases of preparing my first D&D adventure as a DM. Pretty sweet, right? I know. As I learn the ins and outs of running a delpaign, I can share my trials and tribulations here, offering tips, insight, and witty humor to entertain us all. The balance I’m trying to find is in crafting a rich game world for the players with engaging storylines, but not scripting so much that it plays out like a novel with only one concrete path. That will come with experience, I’m sure, and I have a feeling this will help me segue into writing a novel like I’ve always wanted.

Yikes, this post might be a little hard to follow. I definitely wasn’t focused tonight, but, by golly, at least I wrote.

Left Right Designs

A few notes about Left Right Designs… I started LRD in 2005 during a semester of college as a creative outlet for my digital work; at the time this was exclusively for my web work. I was posting my photography to a different site, which in turn was different than my blog. Over the years I came to realize I never updated any of them because I didn’t always know where to put something. So, I merged my photography and blog into one, and let LRD die out over time.

Naming Conflict

Coming back to now, I recently decided I wanted to start selling my creative works online, starting with my photography and eventually branching out into things like graphic designs, illustrations, posters, t-shirts, etc. This left me with a conundrum. While I was previously doing my photography and sporadic freelance web development under my personal name, having a Facebook profile and artist page titled “Mike Branski” seemed a little weird. I also didn’t want to come across as that guy that thinks so highly of himself that he feels he needs his own fan page. At the same time, I didn’t want to be spamming my friends with stuff about my works for sale if they really didn’t want to hear about it.  So, today, the day the domain was set to expire, I renewed LeftRightDesigns.com and set it to redirect to my Facebook page.

What Does This Mean?

Well, it simply means I’m going to try to walk that line between personal and business life, but, my creative works are greatly influenced by, and are a reflection of, who I am as a person, so there can never be a hard separation. I’m going to talk about my stuff for sale through my personal avenues, and you’re going to see my personality and aspects of my life come through my creative pieces. Indeed, this is how I believe it should be.  So there’s going to be some crossover, and that may annoy some people, but it is what it is, and now you know why.

It also means I’m going to become more decisive, so allow me to introduce to you Mike D. Branski. Instead of fretting about where I should post something (personal or Left Right Designs), sometimes I’ll post to both, giving them different spins by relating them to the audience who will be viewing each. Or I might just post to one or the other. But what I don’t want is to not post something at all, like I did for so many years.

Enter Left Right Designs by Mike Branski. Sit down, get comfy, and enjoy the show.