I hereby decree

 

We need to study sand. I have observed in sand a unique property. The simple act of walking along the sand on a beach was somehow cause enough to make the sand embed itself all over my person and all over my possessions. After walking across the beach (and really, only walking) there was sand in my hair, in my mouth, in my clothing, and all over all our stuff. I'm pretty sure it ended up in our car before we even opened the door to get in at the end of the day.

So please, science community I implore you. Research sand. There is something there we are missing, I am sure of it.

 

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Graduating and getting my first "real" job out of college has been a fun experience. I feel prepared for work and the challenges of the tasks at hand. I know how to research, learn, and use critical thinking to solve the problems presented to me. Good job, educational system, you have made me in to an employable product.

Other than that, though, I have no idea how to be a grown up. I am not an English scholar by any means, but I consider my grasp of the English language to be above average. That said, I have never been so confused as I have been recently thanks to apartment contracts, benefit sign up forms, and all sorts of other stuff you have to figure out in the real world. I have had a few experiences lately that, from my simple-minded point of view are completely ridiculous. Let me tell you them:

1) When calling around to different phone/internet/cable providers to find out about their services, because we had none, I would always ask if the person on the phone could also give me more information about their competitors. Their answer was almost always that I should look it up, on the internet.

2) In the San Francisco Bay area there are toll roads and bridges. (Not to be confused with a Troll bridge, where you have to answer are question.) Unfortunately, many of them are only toll roads in one direction. This has created awkward situations for me when, after driving TO somewhere I find that driving back I am required to pay a toll. Because they want to be sure to get their money, you have to pay with cash. No checks or cards allowed. When trying to explain that I had no idea this was a toll road and that how was I supposed to know and then change my course before it was too late, I am slapped with a fine. It is like some kind of trap for tourists.

3) When trying to fill out my forms for health insurance (and don't get me wrong, health insurance is a HUGE blessing and I am definitely not complaining), some plans require that you provide information about your primary care provider. How is someone, new to the area, supposed to dig up that kind of information BEFORE they know what insurance/plan they will have. It is like a giant Catch-22. You can't get insurance without a provider, you can't find a provider if you don't know your insurance. Very clever, insurance industry. Very clever indeed.

Anyway, I probably sound like a total noob, but lets face it, I am. So, I am going to turn on my voice chat and yell and scream and ask people how I change my weapon and then hit F10 a couple of times before I figure out that it closes the game. So, sorry for being an annoying ranter, but a little heads up before taking the plunge would have been nice. And unlike a video game, there is not really a manual for life. At least I am not aware of one.

 

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I hereby decree that you should all check out Daniel's awesome Companion Cube Sub Woofer Mod.

Digg it here.

 

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We made it! Time to dig for gold, star in a movie and run a successful technology company.

 

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Ha ha, today has been shameless self promotion day. I apologize, but not too much.

 

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I hereby decree that I am taking the plunge in to social networking like never before. I have decided to give it the old college try and see what it is really all about. Up until now I have usually been part of social networks for testing and keep in contact with old acquaintances, but I haven't been too involved. I am going to try and step it up a bit. Not too much, though. Don't want to burn out OR share too much.

 

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Look what I made! An Ask A Ninja Widget! I made this cause I am a fan of Ask A Ninja and I like widgets.

Some of you are probably asking, what is all this? Well, this is a widget (a compact web application/utility/thing) that plays the latest video from Ask A Ninja! Sweet! This is essentially the kind of thing I will be doing for Widgetbox just for money and not for free, like I do all the time now.

 

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Sweeeet!

 

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I hereby decree that everyone should read Why Being "Indie" is a Bunch of Bunk. It does a wonderful job of putting to words what has been a feeling of mine for a while. I do not think that being "Indie" is bad, but I agree with the articles main sentiment, that instead of buying your identity one should live it. From the article:

"Free yourself from being defined by what you buy or do not buy. Define yourself by the things you cannot purchase: values, ethics, and what you actually do. Let your actions speak louder than your ironic message tee. Want to be truly independent from mainstream society?

• Use your free time to serve people, not numb you[r] mind with entertainment.


• Be virtuous


• Be courteous


• Stop "finding yourself" and embrace commitment and responsibility


• Don't wear outdoorsy apparel, go camping


• Don't spend big bucks to look like you shop at a thrift store, actually shop at one


• Don't be ironic and sarcastic, be sincerely passionate


• Don't just buy clothes and cell phones that support a charity, become charitable


• Don't just buy a political bumper sticker, get involved in politics


• Stop being a boy and man up"

So, this is from the Art of Manliness blog and is therefor directed at men, but I think it has a more general application as well.

 

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I am excited to say that soon I will be joining Team Widgetbox. Over the past year or so I have had the opportunity to work closely (well, as close as one can over the Internet) with a handful of people at Widgetbox and I can say that they are wonderful people to work with. They have always been on top of things and extremely helpful. I can only hope that when I join them that I will be able to offer the same type of top-notched service.

Obviously, I have experience with the Widgetbox team. That said, before I went to their office to interview for the position I made sure to do some extra research. In doing so I came across an older blog post on the Widgetbox blog entitled "The Values of Widgetbox." Having had the aforementioned opportunity to work with them, as well as the awesome opportunity to meet quite a few of the people there in person, I can say that, at least from my perspective, they live up to their values. Lets take a look at them, one by one:

Treat others as we want to be treated
Ah, the golden rule. In my dealing with team Widgetbox, they have always been respectful, on time, and very helpful. There have been times when I had questions that, in retrospect, I probably could have figured out myself with a little more attention to the provided documentation, but they were fast to respond and seemed happy to help.

Open up new opportunities and frontiers
When we started WidgetNest we had a handful of clients and some previous work, and so we set out to try and make some money making custom widgets. We did okay. We kept getting new clients and lots of projects, but it was starting to take its toll. We were working harder than we should have been for not very much income. After a few moths of this, we were contacted by Widgetbox to become a part of their developer program. We agreed to use them as our main channel of distribution (an easy choice, since we were already doing so) and they agreed to pass us clients from time to time at, what we couldn't believe at the time, a very favorable rate. That "partnership" showed us that maybe we should value what we were doing more than we had been previously. From that time forward we upped our standards and consequently got better clients, more money, and had more fun along the way. Who would have thought that custom widget making would become a legitimate business.

Help outsiders and underdogs win
This one is very related to the last. The fact that they were willing to hire some relatively unknown kid from out of state to be a member of their team (I'm talking about me here) is definitely a testament to this.

Succeed when our community succeeds
The people at Widgetbox take care of their community. From things as simple as commenting on widgets they like to things like developer "webinars," they take time to connect with their users.

Enable fun through discovery
When I was in town for the interview, afterward I had a short walk to my hotel, but I was so mentally distracted by the whole experience that I missed my turn and got lost. Do not worry, I just missed it by a couple blocks. Anyway, I got to discover more of the city and had fun along the way! Also, the fish and chips were awesome. - Okay, so this isn't as related to Widgetbox as the other examples have been, but I felt like I was repeating myself and besides, I have so much fun doing this stuff that I would enjoy it with or without Widgetbox. (Unless any of them are reading this, in which case I would have SO MUCH MORE FUN with Widgetbox.)

Awesome. I repeat: I am excited to join their team.

 

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