Jougen

I’ve neglected the site for almost two weeks now, but that’s going to change as of today. I figured that it would be smarter to take care of previous tasks that I had first so I could spend more time at Jougen. I have a lot of things to talk about, so over the next few days things I’ve had on my mind & in the draft section will make their way to the front page.

Until then feel free to catch me on Twitter or even email me if you’d like. I’m always looking for good conversation & inspiration for things to write.

Later folks.

Earlier this week as I sat here staring at my Twitter feed, Todd Jordan sent a tweet asking everyone if they wanted to receive a postcard with a personal note from him. I decided to give him my address so he could send me one, which he has stated on his blog that he’ll send them out next week. It didn’t dawn on me until just now, but a simple act like this is an amazing thing. If someone can take the time out of their busy schedule to write people a postcard with a few words of encouragement on it, the act goes a long way.

Networking with people should be more than swapping business cards. Engaging discussions, getting to know them & allowing them to be a personality rather than just another email address should be a number one priority. With the direction social networking is taking us, it allows us to be more personable with the people we meet, causing us to build better relationships while expanding your social circle. What I’m trying to get at is this; if you take the time to get to know someone, the reward is far greater than what you’d get from the occasional conversation here & there.

As much as I used to despise the idea of social networking, I must admit now that I’m glad I got into it. Because the amount of ideas and great conversations I’ve shared with people these last few weeks have made it all worth it.

I think later on this month, I’ll make an attempt to reach out & send postcards to the people in my circle as well. A little goes a long way when it comes to showing that you’re willing to invest time in people & it’s well worth it.

Later folks

Have you ever found yourself at a loss for words when it comes to writing in your blog? I get like that sometimes, because I think that I strive to write something “perfect” so if I don’t feel like it’s going to be flawless then I end up not writing at all. If you feel like how I do at times, then I’ll say that you shouldn’t stress yourself over trying to write a masterpiece. I feel that my best material are the ones that come naturally where I’m not looking over it afterwards for mistakes. If you let your thoughts come through freely without trying to filter them, you’ll not only have more fun writing but your writing will keep its personality.

Why do I say this? I started looking at some draft posts that i’ve made over the course of the week and realized that I haven’t finished them yet because I was trying to force it. Writing this has been no problem for me so far because I’ve just let the topic flow freely without trying to stunt myself with reaching for something that’s not there. This is the main reason people suffer from writers block, too. I don’t even really like to use the term “writers block” actually, I prefer to call it “thought constipation”. As weird as the term sounds, it fits the situation perfectly, I think. Your mind shifts into neutral because you’re trying to pull things from it and suddenly you lose everything you had before.

Before you go to work on your next entry, take these steps:

• Take a deep breath
• Turn on your favorite songs (make a writing playlist beforehand)
• Have your drink of choice on hand
• Wear something comfortable

And most importantly:

• Just relax

Oh by the way, I haven’t forgotten about that big post I said I was going to write, i’m still working on it.

Later folks.

I have something brewing for tomorrow, so I decided not to post anything major tonight. If you’re wondering, it’s going to be a piece in response to an article I read on centernetworks today. It’ll be very interesting, I promise.

Also, I tweaked the CSS, so now you’ll be able to see links apart from normal text. This should end the confusion on things I link in posts now.

And on that note, I leave you all with this thought:

How would you feel if your favorite web series suddenly ended?

Later folks.

A couple days ago, I spoke about how I wanted Sprint to get a move on with the announcement of the Blackberry Curve, so I could get a new phone already. Well today they granted my wish and officially announced it’s release. Here is the press release if anyone is interested in reading about it:

Sprints Blackberry Curve press release

Blackberry Curve fact sheet

I’m psyched about it not only because it means that i’ll be getting a new phone soon, but because I can now stay more connected to everything when i’m not near a computer. While my Treo could do most of the things that the Curve does, it seems like the Curve will be better suited for my needs - namely email. While the Treo had does have an email program, it doesn’t work how I thought it would, especially with Gmail. Instead of downloading what is in the inbox, it takes everything from your account and puts it into one folder. I always found myself sifting through things I sent weeks ago as well as messages that I had already archived. I’ve read where they have various programs available for the Treo that do what the Curve does for your email, but IMO something like that should have been there out-of-box.

Another plus is the fact that I won’t really have to spend extra money on the BIS service because it’s included in those new “simply everything” plans that Sprint has now. I know if I would’ve had to pay that extra $30 for the BIS capabilities, then I wouldn’t have bothered getting the phone & just stuck with my Treo until something else that I liked came out, I’m cheap like that.

Last night I installed a plugin called Zemanta, that I’m actually finding to be kind of useful. What it does is install a sidebar in the writing area of Wordpress, so while you’re typing up a blog it suggests articles & pictures that relate to your topic. The time I spent writing about how I wanted the Curve, it would display images like the Sprint logo as well as articles about the phone, which I thought was neat. I’m thinking that it’ll help as time goes on when I’m stuck trying to write about things.

Apparently it also links keywords as well, interesting.

I’ve spent most of the weekend messing around with Wordpress and I must say that I really like it so far. It’s more sleek than 2.3 which makes it easier to find things and heightens the experience. Kudos to all the people who worked on it, because it’s a nice piece of software.

I need to fix the CSS so links show up & don’t appear as normal text.

April is finally here, so that means Spring should be here soon which also means that I won’t have to wear a jacket when I step out the house anymore. It also means today was April fools day, which seemed to be choc full of happenings this year. I think one of the better ones was the Steve Jobs interview that Mahalo Daily did. Here’s a link to that if anyone missed it.

Steve Jobs interview @ Mahalo Daily

What were your favorite April Fools stuff from today? I’d like to see if i’ve missed anything that was really worth laughing at.

One last thing, if you don’t already know Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile sent Engadget legal papers demanding they stop using the color magenta on their mobile site. No joke. Here’s a link to the article with the letter.

Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile demands Engadget Mobile discontinue using the color magenta

Big business never ceases to amaze me.

Later folks.