“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
How not to do social media: a comedy in four acts
There are few workers I feel sympathy for as much as waiters and waitresses. It's often a thankless and very difficult job. Because of idiotic loopholes in the laws, a restaurant can still pay a waiter or waitress much less than minimum wage, expecting that the server will make up the difference through tips.
For myself, I rarely tip less than 20% because I know how tough a server's job can be. To me, it's just a social contract. So you can imagine my utter dismay when reading about a pastor who made a horrible comment on an Applebees receipt containing an 18% gratuity added for a party of 8 or more: "I give God 10%, why should you get 18%?"
The case of the mysterious squeaking noise
Oh, this is just too rich not to share! I've been hearing this intermittent, almost indescribable squeaking noise at my computer all morning. It's been driving me bonkers. At first I thought it was my nose, actually, since I'm a bit stuffed up and it honestly seemed to be coming from that direction. You know, when you're stuffed up and it starts to clear, sometimes you hear a little squeak? I blew my nose twice but kept hearing the noise, very intermittently.
So then I started going through all the other things the mysterious noise might be. Animal? I have two cats, so it's very doubtful that I have mice. I actually got up and went into the living room to make sure Reepicheep, my dwarf hamster, was still safely snoozing in his cage. He poked his head out of his little hut but went right back to sleep, since I didn't have a treat for him.
On the subject of feline bathing, bacon products, and tongue salons
Sometimes I wake up from an otherwise perfectly sound sleep with the oddest ideas. Take this morning, for example. I lay there in the dark at just before 3 a.m. wondering just why I had awoken. I was just about to drift off back into blissful slumber, when I heard it.
SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP...
My orange tabby, Marari, was rather noisily taking an early morning bath right next to my head. I don't know what trouble he got himself into in the middle of the night that he felt required some extreme cleaning, but he was really going at it.
SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLEP SCHLUP lick lick lick SCHLUP...
At first, still halfway asleep, I thought the noise presaged the wet, hairy, unwelcome arrival of a hairball upon the clean sheets I had just put on the bed the night before. My two cats are quite healthy, but they seem to have a terrible allergic reaction when it comes to two things: 1. clean bedding, and 2. clean laundry. I don't know what it is about clean laundry that seems to necessitate an immediate purge of the feline stomach of unwanted hair they have ingested while bathing, but it has happened enough times to make me suspicious.
Yes, I'm afraid that more than once, I have been awakened from a sound sleep by the awful HURRRRP HURRRRRP that signals another hairy, steaming present is about to be bestowed upon the world.
That isn't the kind of thought one can have and stay half asleep, so of course I instantly sat up in bed and turned the light on.
You're Doing It Wong Part 2: Consistency Breeds Consistency
In part 1 of this series, we talked about how the one rule for successful content is 'What do you genuinely enjoy making?' In other words, don't try to be something that you're not. Create content that you're passionate about, and you will find people who share that passion.
Today I want to expand on that idea a little more and reveal another secret that Freddie Wong has also hit upon. It is both the single hardest and the single easiest thing about building a website through rich content, and yet it is something that eludes probably 95% of all websites that are setting out to do what you're doing.
You're Doing It Wong Part 1: The One Rule for Content
Filmmaker Freddie Wong is one of those Internet success stories that really make you sit up and take notice. Manager of Los Angeles-based media production company Overcrank Media, Freddie made a name for himself producing extremely creative short action films, many of which went viral (one of my favorites that always makes me laugh is Fire Hands).
Recently, after exceeding over one million subscribers in one year on his YouTube channel, Freddie wrote an excellent article sharing some of the secrets he learned in his meteoric rise. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be expanding some of his fantastic points in greater detail. The first concept I want to talk about today is, I think, the best answer I've ever seen to the questions, "What should I write about? What type of content should I post to my website?"
Design as Business Ideology
Tim Brown, President and CEO of Ideo, is quoted as saying this in a recent Fast Company article:
"Teams in business will be thinking about problems as design problems and tackling them like designers. Good design is the output of good design thinking, and companies will be looking to apply design thinking in many places where it hasn't been applied before. These are the methods and approaches that designers use to solve problems, such as understanding and anticipating user needs, prototyping to evolve ideas, and using storytelling to bring ideas to life....
Almost thirty years in the making, the river Beautiful will be published as a premium hardcover, a value softcover, and a very special online multimedia experience.
Select a chapter below to view exclusive content from the upcoming collection of new and selected works by Jason Christopher Hackwith.
original prose, poetry, lyrics, illustrations and typography
