SOME RANDOM DUDE

It has been around a week since I wrote that this blog was going through a redesign. Unfortunately, until then, I was most likely be writing about the its progress. Still, I thought it may be interesting for some to read snippets of where it is in the process.

At this moment, wireframes are around 80% complete - which sounds good - however, because of the 80/20 rule, that means that I am still a long way off. I have tried to scatter my work around so as to diminish the potential for tunnel-vision on some aspects of the design, so I took some time to begin on some necessary icons. Up to this point, the vast majority of traffic to this site funnels through two icon sets I made a while back. Ironically, those sets took all but 2-3 hours to make whereas this set is taking much longer.

Here’s a preview of some icons:

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This post will have been the 8th blog entry in two months. To put that into perspective, in the month of March 2007 this blog had 34 posts alone. Frankly, this is not surprising - updates have slowly trickled downward for the past 3 or 4 months now. There are a few reasons for this - which I can get into in a later post. However, it has been clear that the current model of how I have blogging up to this point on Some Random Dude is not sustainable, nor is it smart. The effort/reward ratio is just not high enough - and while I was willing and able to a year ago, I am no longer.

The thing that has gotten to me the most is the amount of manual labor it takes to publish frequently. I would post 3 or 4 times a week and the traffic would frankly not reflect what I think it should have. Make no mistake, I am not in the camp that believes traffic is the sole measure of success and value - however, it is important. About one year ago, I started setting goals for what I would like to achieve with this blog - goals that I concluded would only be possible with a relatively high frequency of postings. That notion then put me into the pattern of regular weekly posts which became more of a chore than it should have been. I do not think that there’s no coincidence between the fact that some of my most popular posts were written before I started posting weekly content. In retrospect, I sold-out quality for quantity and I am kicking myself now for that.
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I have been holding off posting this for a while for a few reasons, but considering how lack-luster the frequency of posts have been on this blog, I thought it may be a good thing to write about. While my blogging has gone down, I have found I have been publishing in short format much more frequently. My Twitter account is updated pretty frequently thanks to some good tools. I found that the short I-only-want-to-spend-10-to-15-seconds-to-post-something format is something I can handle even when I am busy as hell. Why? Because it is completely valid to write “Busy as hell” as a Twitter post.

This very reason is why I got interested in Tumblr. I feel as though Tumblr can be just like Twitter except with the additional media aspects. Luckily, Tumblr has a couple nice tools for posting as well. I find that Tumblr is the best balance of ease/speed and features that I have found up to this point. As free time diminishes, I see Tumblr (or a Tumblr-esque format) becoming a bigger part of my daily postings as time goes by.

Up to this point, my Tumblr is pretty low-brow and is all over the place in terms of content. Additionally, the site is still rockin’ the default style (which I hope to change soon). However, if you can forgive the above shortcomings, I think you may find it entertaining.

somerandomdude.tumblr.com

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After looking around at this blog for a while, I really got the impression that it had been stuck in a rut for a while. So, after a bit of pondering, I thought it may be fun to push a micro-viral poster project. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember the 1 iPod project I did a couple years ago. The whole idea was to create a downloadable and easily printable poster for the public to distribute in any way they saw fit. I thought it would be fun to do something along those lines for the presidential primary...

If you have not done so already, please download one of the posters. Feel free to modify as you see fit - that goes for Clinton supporters as well. I am much more interested in seeing how people use these posters and how they are distributed than anything else. If you do participate in this project and put these posters up somewhere, make sure to contact me. Also, if you like this idea, make sure to email your friends the link and submit it to your favorite social bookmarking sites. I would be so cool to see this get to the front page of Digg and/or Reddit.

Remember, do not be a jerk with this. That is not what this project is about.

Download the Printable Posters

• Color (PDF)
• Black and White (PDF)

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I really fail to understand how long it took me to start using Google Reader, but it is frankly changing how I consume content/information online. In the week or so I have used it, the amount of articles I have digested has taken off exponentially. I previously had a hard time regularly checking my favorite blogs as the process was cumbersome and plagued with too many steps. As usual, Google nailed the process and made something which previously was a pain into something I thoroughly enjoy.

I have noticed that I already have been commenting on my favorite blogs more frequently (which still is not enough) as well as getting ideas for new content on this blog. It is truly amazing what a good tool can do to impact your daily life.blog, blogs, everyday life, features, feeds, google, google reader, rss, syndication, thank you google tools