All posts in “me”

I’ve been insanely busy as of late. Being pulled in 1,000 different directions and doing my very best to manage it all. I knew when it all ramped up that there would be a breaking point. Today was that day. Here we are at 8:30 in the evening and I’m sitting here, going over the past couple weeks, trying to figure out what went wrong, when it started to go wrong and how I can fix it going forward.

I’m an owner. If something is wrong and I had even a finger in the pot I’ll own it. Always will. Even if it has nothing to do with me. I’m going to be the one stepping up and taking the bullet. Probably not the best game plan ever but it’s just the kind of person I am. I’d rather get it out of the way and start the discussion on what I’m doing to fix it.

To me, it makes no sense to dwell on the past. If something isn’t working I adjust, refocus and hit the ground running. It doesn’t make sense to me to beat the dead horse. It’s already dead so why keep on going on about it. The more constructive way and decision is to turn around and go the other way. The better way.

I think I’ve got to make the conscious decision to cut people out of my life who constantly seek to bring me down and hack away at me. I mean seriously, who are we as human beings to look at someone else and talk down to them? Demand unreasonable and out of this world things from them? Just overall be a complete asshole to them? You’ve got no business in my life and I’ve just about enough of it.

That being said, as of right now I’m turning over this new leaf. If you’re going to be a positive and honest influence in my life you’re good to go. If you’re planning on being a constant thorn in my side you’ll find yourself being the one broke down on the side of the road without me there to help you out.

On a lighter note, I’m going to meditate for the first time in a long time tonight in the hopes that it helps me wake up in the morning with a clear head, ready to greet the day.

I walked in, shook some hands, had a few small conversations and took my seat. I then began to do one of my favorite things: people watch. Where am I? I could be anywhere right? A conference, a wedding, a party, anything. I’m at a funeral. Well, I’m not at it now but this post became a draft in my head while I was there. As I sat in the middle of the room with members of my family I could see almost everything around me and noticed specific things starting to happen. There were three types of people here:

1. The Loyalists – they tend to keep with their closest friends, relatives, things they believe in. They’re extremely loyal and vocal about what they like and don’t like.
2. The Floaters – this type of person tends to drift between groups. Never landing in one place for very long before heading to a new group or thing.
3. The Loners – these are the people or things that just don’t fit in. Or the people or things that tend to be ignored or avoided.

I then started thinking of whether or not these types of people existed in the world other than just at physical arenas. And the answer was an astounding yes.

The Loyalist

You’re super passionate about everything. Vocal, too. If you don’t like something you’ll be sure to let the world know. If you love something you’ll also let the world know and tell everyone who will listen about why you love it. You’ll also support your favorite companies until they close their doors or screw up somehow. Even when company XYZ screws up you’re will to hang tight and see what might happen.

The Floater

You’d rather rent than own. You’re a bit more indecisive than a loyalist and never really are able to lay roots or have an allegiance with any particular company. You use a product until something newer and shiner comes along and then drop the old like a bad habit. This is your way of life and it tends to permeate everything around you.

The Loner

You’ve got a bit of a negative vibe that is a tad bit infectious and turns most people off. You’re also the one people tend to avoid like the plague. It’s not your B.O. I promise. It could be a number of reason but more often than not it’s because everything is all about you. That Me, Me, Me attitude isn’t appreciated by anyone but you still rock it like a terrible type. You can’t carry a conversation for more than a couple minutes without turning it into something to do with you. Apply this to software and it’s that nagging little bitch of a program that won’t ever go away even though you’ve uninstalled it twice already.

So. What kind of person are you? Any good tales about people or something that falls into these categories?

Everyone has opinions. You as a human being are entitled to them. You’re also allowed to go off on your rants as well as raves. Be angry with something and talk about it. Be happy with something and talk about it. Go ahead push all that shit right in my face and spread it around.

Raves

I’d like to think that I surround myself with people that like the same things, etc. Therefore when someone tells me they are just absolutely LOVING something that they’re using I want to know what it is and why they love it so much. Normally these people have no problem telling me why they love the thing they’re using. That kind of happy horseshit is the stuff I don’t mind hearing about. Seriously, tell me you love something and then tell me why you love it. We’ll have a great conversation about it and half the time I’ll end up buying it in the near future.

Rants

I have them all the time I normally resort to my good friend Dave to listen to me and be the voice of reason. He also does the same with me. The one thing we both make sure the other does is explain why we feel the way we feel. This system we have is superb. Why you ask? Because we’re keeping each other accountable for our feelings, emotions and opinions. An answer of “because that’s the way I feel” is never ever acceptable. We also tend to bounce fixes to our rant back and forth off each other. This is the point in our conversations where things get really geeky, fun and great things tend to happen. Whether we think of a new project we want to attack or just fueling each other for a blog post (like this).

If you’re going to go off on a rant please make sure you also do the following:

1. Have reasons to back up your feelings
2. be willing to listen to the person or people you’re ranting to. They might have questions or another point of view.
3. Have suggestions on how you might fix the thing you have an issue with if you were the developer/creator of the product. In other words put yourself in the creators shoes and see how it feels for a bit.

Once you’ve done those things I’ve got no issue with listening to you and maybe giving you my insight on your issue.

Opinions

We all have them. This sometimes can be unfortunate. Especially when it comes to technology. There are people out there who pick up or sign up for a product and use it for 5mins or an hour and then feel like they need to spread their opinion all over the place. No good opinion of any kind of technology can be made within that time frame. I’ll debate that until pigs fly. I will concede the following things though:

1. UI Design – noticeable right away and we’re able to make deductions about it as soon as a page loads.
2. Page Load Time – if it’s slow it’s slow. That’s noticeable right away as well.
3. UX – you get a taste of this right away. If some tech or a site is tough to use you’ll know right away. This doesn’t include things that legitimately have a learning curve.

Products have a return period for a reason. Buy it, use it for a bit and if you don’t like it return it. The same goes for sites and other tech you don’t necessarily need to buy. Sign up, use it for a bit and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. What is a bit you ask? In my case I’d say at the very least it’s a 24 hour period. This could be more depending on whether or not a product requires you to have a solid base of friends also using the product to get the full effect.

Don’t. I repeat, Don’t use a product for 5mins to an hour, decide you hate it and then go post on your social networks you hate XYZ thing. Most people who do this also make the cardinal sin of not saying why they hate it and not giving suggestions on how to fix the things they didn’t like. If you’re not willing to go the extra mile when writing a bad review/opinion and explain why you don’t like certain things then in my mind you’ve got no right to express your opinion at all. Keep it to yourself and move on quietly.

However, if you’ve gone through my list of three things and your bad opinion or review doesn’t fall within them and you’ve used the product for a substantial amount of time worthy of your opinion then by all means go for it and tell me why you didn’t like something. It’ll foster a great conversation between the passionate users and yourself and who knows you might actually end up giving the product a try again.

The bottom line is make sure that before you post a rant or opinion about something you are also putting reasons why you don’t like it and a few suggestions on how you might fix the things you don’t like.

This post was originally going to be an angry blog post and a complete rant on what the hell was going through my head at the moment. It has since changed for the better I think.

To me there is nothing better than a smooth, sexy typeface to accompany your site, print project, etc. Perfectly kerned and styled, easy to read and a wonder to my eyes. That’s what I want and that’s what I look for. The problem being a lot of people go 90% of the way with their projects and neglect type and it makes me a sad panda.

I’ve made a checklist of things I go through when working with type and I figured I’d share with everyone.

1. is it readable?
2. is it available on typekit? TK is my type render engine of choice. There are others out there but I like TK.
3. if it’s not available on TK is there a close alternate?
4. allow type to rule design. Certain Type is good for certain things. Don’t ever forget that.
5. say no to comic sans. I actually had a client request it once (story for another time)
6. before publishing is everything perfected?
7. am I smiling? If I’m not smiling and something is bugging me it’s not ready to be published
8. do my closest, most honest friends love it on first view?
9. when using multiple type face do they flow with eachother?
10. never be totally 100% satisfied. Once that happens you become complacent.

That’s my checklist that I go through when working on projects involving any kind of type. I suppose you could extend it to anything really. Hope it helps!