The Business of Starting Websites
Collis Ta’eed of Eden (which runs PSDTuts and Freelance Switch, both of which I subscribe) recently made a post on PSDTuts explaining why they have started charging for premium content. The post provides a great glimpse at what it takes to build and, if you’re lucky, run websites like these for fun and profit. Judging by what I read, I swear Collis and I could compare blogrolls and find a lot of common ground. If you’re into this kind of thing, read the article.
The Art of Manliness
A couple of weeks ago I came across the website that I think I’ve been looking for as long as I’ve been surfing the web. The Art of Manliness (artofmanliness.com) is a website that is, in its own words, “a blog dedicated to uncovering the lost art of being a man.” The website’s about page goes on to say:
Generation X and Y is a generation of Lost Boys. We live in a Never-Never-Land where boys stay boys and never become men. More and more males today are putting off college, family, and adult responsibilities in order to play video games and do keg stands. Don’t believe me that today’s man is lost? How about some numbers?
- 2/3 of men in the U.S. are overweight or obese.
- Men only make up 42 percent of U.S. college students.
- The average male carries around $2,369 in credit-card debt.
- Three out of ten drink too much
- A majority of males between the ages of 30 and 18 receive greater financial support from their parents and has more debt than previous generations.
- The average adult man plays video games 7.6 hours per week.
The Art of Manliness is dedicated to helping men uncover what manliness means in the 21st century. What skills and knowledge should a 21st Century man acquire? What traits should they develop?
In our search to uncover the lost art of manliness, we’ll look to the past to find examples of manliness in action. We’ll analyze the lives of great men who knew what it meant to “man up” and hopefully learn from them.
This site has it all covering topics like health, lifestyle, fashion and grooming, money and more. I’m a subscriber and if you’re a man under 40, chances are you should be too.
Helping Others: Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask
Since becoming the parent of three overnight, I have realized that, if I want to be a good father and husband, I must become an expert of sorts in the field of parenting. I must become Eric Granata, Professional Parent. This has caused me to look out for audio books and other resources that I can ingest during my work commute. One such book is Scream Free Parenting by Hal Edward Runkel.
Scream Free Parenting is less about how you can make your kids act the way you want them to and more about keeping yourself in check. How not to blow your top. I’m now on my second listening and I’ve decided that, while it is a parenting book, it could just as easily be a self improvement book. Take the following gem for example…One chapter of the book is called “Put Your Own Oxygen Mask On First.” This chapter takes a look at the familiar pre-flight ritual of having the flight attendant demonstrate the use of the oxygen masks in case of loss of cabin pressure. We all know that if we have small children, we make sure our own masks are on and working before assisting them and others. But have you ever really thought about why? We need oxygen to our brains to function properly. If we deny ourselves oxygen so that we can help someone else with their mask, we may end up malfunctioning. To put it grimly, we may end up suffocating before we are able to help anybody and then they may suffocate as well. Hearing that hit me hard and it’s application is far reaching. Think about it. If you are not taking care of your own needs first, be they physical, mental or spiritual, how can you expect to help others with theirs? How can you…
- Teach your kids to control their emotions if you don’t take the time to learn to control your own?
- Council a friend who is having marital problems if you’re not investing time in your own marriage.
- Help someone with a broken leg up the stairs if you’re too breathless because you have not taken the time to hit the gym?
- Help your kids with their homework if you don’t invest in your own brain’s health.
It seems unthinkable, almost unethical, to do something seemingly selfish like take time and resources from other activities (playing with your kids, keeping up the house, errands, etc.) so that you can have the time to invest in your own health and lifestyle (going to the gym, reading a book, going on a date with your spouse, etc.). However, time does not create itself. You have to make it and that involves cutting time from somewhere else. Take the time to put on your own “mask”. Your kids can hold their breath while they wait for you, and you will be better equipped to help them with their own “mask.”
How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20 – Forbes.com
Here’s an inspirational look at how a few young people managed to make some mad scratch before drinking age (USA). Most of these businesses rely on the internet and/or advertising revenue. All of them hit a niche and do it well.
How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20 – Forbes.com
I *Heart* Johhny Chung Lee
Today I stumbled across the work of Johnny Chung Lee. Specifically his work on the Nintendo Wii remote projects. This guy has done some amazing stuff with his Wii including finger tracking (think Minority Report), interactive white boards and head tracking. You have got to watch the video for head tracking and what it means for interface immersion. It blew my mind!
Johnny’s ability to take a technology that is already very cool and make it do things that the original developers may not have thought about is inspirational to say the least. While looking at his site I discovered that Johnny and I had ‘met’ before. His $14 Steadycam project is something I looked at years ago while studying video production.
5 Peculiar Instruments
There is a great posting over at mentalfloss.com that showcases 5 very interesting instruments and includes sound clips of each. Of particular interest to me was the mention of a study that says playing the didgeridoo can help with snoring and sleep apnea. I used to play didgeridoo all the time but my interests shifted. Hannah claims that I snore every now and then so I’ll have to pick it up again. I’m sure the kids will get a kick out of it. Check out the article at mentalfloss.com.
The Benefits of Failure
A few weeks ago I was quibbling to my dad about the failed state of a project I was working on. A couple days later he sent me the following email:
I was cleaning out my e-mail and ran across this short story that I think is great.
“Here’s a story I heard from Alexander Kjerulf, who was talking about David Bayles’s book Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
:
A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of the work they produced. All those on the right would be graded solely on their works’ quality.
His procedure was simple: On the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the quantity group; 50 pounds of pots rated an A, 40 pounds a B, and so on. Those being graded on quality, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an A.
At grading time, the works with the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
It seems that while the quantity group was busily churning out piles of work — and learning from their mistakes — the quality group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of clay.”
What a great lesson and an interesting look at the quantity vs. quality concept that more produces less quality and less produces higher quality.
So what is there to benefit from failing? I have decided that it is better to produce failed projects than none at all. At least that way I have the opportunity to learn from experience.
We Adopted!
My wife and I have adopted two beautiful children into our family. We’ve grown from a family of three to a family of five overnight (there goes my quest for mental fitness)! It has been two days since their arrival and things are going so well. That is not to say that things have been easy; bed time is a challenge and feeding the, in the morning is a marathon event but it is all so very great. If things have been slow around here, now you know why.
The kids, from left to right, are 1, 2 & 3 years-old. We adopted a sibling pair (we thought it would be good for them to be together). The perspective of the photo is a little off, causing it to look like they are all the same size. They are not by a long shot!
Brain Challenge Released for iPod
Gameloft has released Brain Challenge for iPods. Brain Challenge is a brain exercising game in the same category as the Nintendo DS franchise, Brain Age or Lumosity. The game makes a modest edition to your iPod’s game library at a little over 33mb.
I purchased the game over my lunch break and spent about 10 minutes with it before I had to get back to work. Upon first launch you are given the opportunity to play 5 mini-games to set your baseline for brain activity. I ranked in at 7% and I’d be interested in knowing where everyone else ranked initially. I rushed through the instructions and so the scales game through me for a loop. Fortunately there is a training mode that allows you to play through your unlocked games (more are unlocked as you improve) without hurting your overall score.
I look forward to pooping playing exercising with this piece of software more. I’ll also mention that recently I had been drooling over the Nintendo DS Lite and Brain Age so I am glad that this $5 solution has come my way.
You Call That Health Food?
Men’s Health has an enlightening article that profiles 12 different foods that many consider healthy. Unfortunately for me, I eat more than a few of these. Take pretzels for example:
Pretzels
The upside: One ounce has just 110 calories.
The downside: These twisted low-fat snacks have one of the highest glycemic indexes of any food. In fact, they rank above ice cream and jelly beans in their ability to raise blood sugar.
The healthy alternative: Cheese crisps — baked pieces of cheese that crunch like chips.
Woah! If those cheese crisps are anything like the cheese that bakes onto the cookie sheet when I’m making nachos, count me in with a side of ranch! Mmmm…healthy.
