The 2010 20K: Day 46 - The Dry Spell

So as you can tell, not much has been up as of late! Not that everything's come to a dead halt, but too much in the pipeline without enough progress :)

Since last post, which seems like it was ages ago, there've been talks about

• Designing websites
• Making logos
• Tutoring in Excel
• Drawing commissions

And what am I doing? Sitting here trying to get my groove back. Yeow! That's not good at all, is it? I need to get back in gear so I can handle this business!

Also, the last post seemed to suffer from a bit of poll fail since I forgot to allow for people to answer the poll online. So here it is again, and I hope you'll give me an answer :)

Wish me luck and send some good vibes!

2010 20K Running Total = $192.14

Thanks,

--case p.

Posted via email from Doomz's posterous

HUMOUR: TTC Cover Letter

LAWWWWLLLLLL!!! This is by far the best thing I've read ALL DAY.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/toronto/8795246.html

--case p.

Posted via email from Random Doomz

Adventures in DoomzLand

Hope everyone's been well! Today seems to have zipped right by - Daylight Savings Time + hanging out with friends after church + a strong feeling of lethargy = Sunday basically having slipped between my fingers :)

What's been up over on this side of the screen? A few things...

Help Form the New doomsdayblaze.com

After several years of relative obscurity and just working away at life, I'm pretty much ready again to make a go at running my own website and providing content for the masses on a regular basis. There's a lot of ideas I've had milling around in my head, and it's definitely time that I start getting them out to friends, family and the new people I could be introducing to my special brand of entertainment on a daily basis :) With that said, I'm hitting a bit of a block and would really appreciate some help - I'm trying to figure out what text I can put on the first page to reintroduce myself, and nothing meaningful enough has come to mind.

Then, an idea hit me - what if I did an interview? My blog readers could be the interviewers, and I'd be the interviewee! It'd be great! So are you all up to the task? Can you help ask me questions that I can answer and post up so that there's some content to start with? It will all be anonymous on the site and the entire thing will likely be moved over to the "About" page as an FAQ, but I'd like to have something good to start with :) You even have the option to ask anonymously, so feel free to ask even the craziest of questions. Please note that I will remove anything that I think is too offensive, insane, whatever.

Here're the links to ask me questions, and I hope you'll help! Thanks in advance!

http://doomz.tumblr.com/ask

http://www.formspring.me/doomsdayblaze

Foursquare

How fun is this? Foursquare's been dominating my life as of late, with the ability to run around town, keep track of what I've been up to and check out recommendations from other people - Foursquare is all sorts of awesome! Also, it's all sorts of stalkerish, but obviously, one should always be choosy with how much information they're putting out there to the world. Back to my point, though - Foursquare's a pretty cool idea. Harkening back to the idea that word of mouth is the best form of advertisement, I think there are a few things that make it stand apart from numerous other ways you could go about spreading the word about a tool:

• An ever-growing list of places that offer deals for people who use Foursquare on a regular basis: http://foursquare.com/businesses/
• The fact that you go around collecting points and badges for your efforts: http://foursquare.com/learn_more
• The fact that it connects to Facebook and Twitter, probably annoying the heck out of my friends and family - especially if they don't really care about wherever in the world I am at any specific point...

Feel free to befriend, especially if you're in the Toronto area - some weekends no plans are made, and meeting up at a good resto to have random adventures is always cool in my books: http://foursquare.com/user/doomsdayblaze

WTFUQUA?!

Went to see Brooklyn's Finest with my boy RamDeezy. Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes. Four actors who've done their own considerably epic films in their history - but this? This was a train wreck. I love a good cop/crime drama. I don't know what it is, but I think that it's the stories of characters who are so unlike me, from another area of life - they really draw me in.

This movie did not.

Between unbelievable scenes that were utterly ridiculous, cruddy acting from supporting characters and dialogue that I could've written in my sleep, there's only one thing I can say.

Dear director Antoine Fuqua - WTFUQUA did you just make me watch?!

The only good part is that Ram and I got free passes out of the entire ordeal, due to the fact that the first time we went, we'd only made it through the previews due to the popcorn machine in the concession area going on fire, but hey, whatever.

So in conclusion, yes yes y'all, I'm still alive. More coming soon!

Thanks for the support/help/assistance/read,

--case p.

Posted via email from Doomz Now and Forever

The 2010 20K: Day 45 - Even More Job Tips

I can feel it - the PHP flowing through my fingers as my templates come to fruition - it's good times over here in Caseyville as "the plan" starts to show a bit more of its true colours! I'm really glad that I have coding gurus like Kev and R.T. who can help steer me right when I make rookie moves like not declaring values in an array or forgetting to close a brace when declaring some properities in CSS. But I'm better for it, and things are progressing because of the helping hands, so thank you guys!

As usual, the t.o.night paper has plenty of good tips on landing that job you want, for all my seekers out there. Et pour vous who're currently employed, please note that it's never a bad idea to keep your skills honed and make sure that you're always marketable - you never know what nasty surprises could be around the corner!

References and how to answer "What is your greatest weakness?":

Standing out in phone interviews and setting "SMART" career goals:

Otherwise, just working in the lab. Though, earlier this week, my dreams of making my dream MacBook Pro system actually affordable were shattered by an old friend who informed me that I was completely incorrect in thinking that the student discount for Mac systems is at 10%. In fact, and I'm sure thast everybody but me knew this - they take a fixed amount off of the full price for a system - about $100 or so. Factor in how much the upper level systems are and include tax, and BAM! That's about 3% at best. So, Stevie boy, I can wait. You're forcing me to be patient, and I don't like it, but for the sake of me buying a computer and not throwing a fit of rage when I find out a newer, faster model has come out the next month, I'm going to wait. I may as well get the other components I'm looking for while my discount's still valid, though...

I hope the posting less frequently, but posts with a point system is helping you guys out there - I want to make sure I'm giving you info that's both relevant and useful in your lives. But I guess the best way to really figure this out... is with a poll!

Righto, the bed's a-callin'. Drop me a line! Let me know what's on your mind!

The 2010 20K Running Total = $192.14 (as the dust's a-setllin' on the number)

Later all,

--case p.

Posted via email from Doomz's posterous

Sketchdump 03-08-2010

So this is what you're getting for today - a sketchdump :) Lots of logo, site and graphing work going on over here - I'll make sure to share whenever anything gets DONE. I was going to do a quick one related to the Tim Hortons Roll Up the Rim to Win contest, but after reading David McCandless' blog Information is Beautiful, I've been rethinking my approach to infographics. You'll still see something, but it'll probably be far more imaginative than what I'd originally envisioned :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy another little glimpse into my world. The PHP. It calls my name!

--case p.

Posted via email from Doomz Now and Forever

The costs of doing business

A certain poll informs me that one of the things my readers would like to see is more interesting stories...

...so ask and ye shall receive - I've got one for you.

Sometimes a business deal just doesn't go how you think it will. I'm posting this because I anticipate that there may be some stories sent around that paint a situation in hues that may not be entirely accurate. If the parties involved happen to come across this, I hope this will provide a better understanding of what went down.

So, a month ago, Rami and I were hipped to a potential opportunity - a restaurant that wasn't doing all that well and could use a boost in order to get it up and going again. Sounded interesting. The owner was giving himself two months to get it up and running, or else he was going to call it a wrap. Hm, challenging.

So, after getting the details from a mutual friend, Ram and I went to the restaurant to pay a visit and get a feel for the place. It was interesting - roomier than I'd expected and in a prime location. The food's prices were low and it offered a good variety of lunch items. A good mix of factors for a successful venture if handled correctly!

So we chatted with the owner, briefly going over what it is that Team R&C could do for his business and how we could go about helping him get where he wanted to be. He introduced us to his chef, we exchanged digits, all seemed well. We even sent out an email that night to thank him for meeting us and to say we were looking forward to discussing things further with him at a later time.

This is when things took a turn for the worse, though we wouldn't know it at the time.

HIS BAD: He didn't reply to our email.

That's fine, I guess - but after spending the time to send out a courtesy email, if you were actually interested in pursuing a business opportunity with someone, you'd likely try to keep the channels of communication open, no?

OUR BAD: Taking too long to get in touch with him,

To give us a little credit, we'd originally stated that we'd get back to him in two weeks - which we did. It was on Family Day, however - a statutory holiday up in these parts - and didn't realize that his shop would be closed, as most restaurants are open every day except on Christmas. Also, there was no voicemail so that we could let him know that we'd tried to reach him and would get back to him later. Past there, our paths wouldn't manage to cross again until this week.

In the time that had passes, Ram and I had generated a plethora of ideas that could be customized accordingly to whatever amount of money was available to him for marketing and promotion. I think I remember us working about 4-5 hours straight just blue sky braimstorming and getting all of the ideas down into a document that we'd be able to provide if the client was genuinely interested in moving forward.

HIS BAD: His reaction to the situation at hand.

Since both members of Team R&C weren't able to both be present to contact the client through a conference call, I decided to touch base last night to see how he was doing and whether or not he was interested. After reminding him who I was, he was a little miffed that he hadn't heard from us in a bit and to pitch him whatever it was that we'd come up with. I informed him that it would be better if we could discuss further with him the next day - either I would come in or we could give him a call together to sort it all out, to which he rather curtly agreed.

When we called today, he was pretty dismissive. Perhaps it was the way we worded it or perhaps he had already made his mind up, but when we brought up the ideas of wanting to sit down with him to go over the business and how it operated to make sure that we were giving him the best possible solution and that we'd prepared ideas at different costs, he somehow interpreted it as that we were unwilling to share our ideas unless he put some money on the table first. He quickly dismissed us and hung up, obviously wanting nothing to have to do with the entire ordeal. I don't know if he was having a bad day, or if his money was even tighter than I'd speculated, but it was a quick end to a brief discussion.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• If someone wants to cut to the chase without wanting to sit down and have a decent conversation over things, they're likely far past the point where they want to deal with any niceties and you're already facing opposition. You can't MAKE someone listen to you if they're making an active effort NOT to.
• Keep your content from falling into the wrong hands. You worked hard on it, it's yours. This could easily have turned into a situation where content was provided prior to a contract being signed, an idea gets used without consent, and then it turns into a battle of the client's word vs the consultant's, and that's a sticky and possibly expensive legal situation that no one wants to get involved in.
• Never see a defeat in one area as the be all and end all of a situation. For every 10... every 100 people who shoot you down, that's experience. That's content that you're developing that with further work and diligence can be used in another situation. You did your research. You've seen what doesn't work. That only means that you're one step closer to finding something that does.

All in all, I'm not pleased that it turned out the way that it did and I'm happy to shoulder some of the responsibility for it all, but no matter how it turned out, it's off of my plate, and I'll just move forward as I always do - one task at a time.

The 2010 20K Running Total: $192.14

--case p.

Posted via email from Doomz's posterous

The 2010 20K: Day 43 - February Wrap-Up

Alright, so let's start this entry with a shout-out to Sharon for keeping me accountable on the 2010 20K by asking frequently if I'll be posting an entry on any given day. Rain or shine, she's always checking up on me to make sure that I'm not losing my edge :) Much appreciated!

So another month down, some more dollars made, but still a long way to go. The 2010 20K is an idea spawned from a random plan made near the end of 2009 - it can be said that without proper planning, a plan is doomed to fail. If I went with that perspective, I wouldn't keep at the 2010 20K like I have. You may not always see it in blog posts, but there's always something going on behind the scenes. With two months and $192.14 down, there's just over $1,980 to be made monthly over the next ten months in order to hit my goal. That's a lot different from the $1,667 I'd originally stated on January 1st - almost as if I need to pack in almost an extra week of work into the remaining months. The slower I make progress, the harder the journey will be - I totally accept that.

Some of the stumbling blocks I've been finding include:

• My aversion to the cold - I'm a real wuss when it comes to the cold to the point where I haven't even cut my hair in five months (or more) just to keep my head warm. The sooner the spring comes along, the better. Eventually, it's either I adapt (and yes, I've lived in Canada my whole life, so you'd think I should've got this covered already), or I hold out until I'm ready to have the world face more Casey, more of the time :P
• Keeping too busy - I've touched on this before - work, friends, girlfriend, commuting - all important factors of my life. They take up a lot of time, and while money isn't everything, it really doesn't leave too much time outside of work to make extra dollars. However, I'm not above juggling as much as necessary to do so, and as the days go on, it seems that this is a skill I'm going to need to figure out how to master :)

For example, I didn't really find enough time to enter the Toronto Star Short Story Contest - I did start fleshing out my ideas in order to really get the stories down...

...but just didn't find the time to get everything done. Maybe I should blame the Olympics on this one, but really, it's all on me :)

With that said, February definitely wasn't a total bust. I have been learning new things, working on different projects and trying to just keep improving and developing things for what I anticipate to be a massive upswing in 2010 20K activity as the months continue on. Things I've been up to include:

Time management - an area in which I'm sorely lacking. Too many deadlines have been missed this year (so far) due to not being able to find the time to get things done. It's unfortunate, because I think there are several decent ideas I have for contests, side jobs, etc., but it's really a question of how much I can realistically manage with my current workload taken into consideration.

Web design and architecture - we're in a day an age where having a solid set of web skills can ONLY be seen as an asset. Companies need better websites to communicate information to be public; individuals seek to better express themselves and what they do - and often, the standard templates from cookie-cutter sites just don't... well, cut it. At the moment, I'm learning more for my own purposes and sites, but eventually I'd love to get good enough to offer services to and collaborate with others. Currently I'm refreshing and refining my skills and understanding of PHP, but I'd love to eventually get into AJAX, jQuery and ActionScript (unless, you know, Flash dies off or something due to CSS3/HTML5...)

Wordpress - okay, Kev? In some ways I think I was better off designing my websites with Notepad++ and a self-compiled reference book - it was easier to figure out how all the pieces out when I do it from scratch. However, I'm still trying it out, though some developer friends are whispering Drupal in my ear...

Networking - Still chatting away with anyone who cares to listen! Some client projects have fallen by the wayside, others I need to aggressively chase after and yet others are developing more and more as the days pass! I've still got the fingers crossed and the brain cells humming while I keep working away at the hush-hush projects (so that I can finally announce them and you can all be impressed)!

The week has flown by so far. Not insomuch that it's been overwhelmingly busy, but just that the first few days seem to have gone by in the blink of an eye. I've had a blog post sitting on the burner since the weekend - I just never seemed to getting around to wrapping it up so I could post it. Now I have, and I hope that there will be far more quality posts to come in the next while!

So guys, it's late and I need to hit up the sack, because I'm hammering away at my day-to-day workload like a jackhammer, granted that I have enough energy to do so :)

The 2010 20K Running Total = $192.14

Thank you and keep reading!

--case p.

Posted via email from Doomz's posterous