Derron Simon

I saw this today and loved it:

1. It’s got attitude
2. I love sharks
3. There’s cursing all through it (and I still find that a bit titillating)

But mostly I love it as a metaphor for attitude.

Lets be clear, I’m not a shark. No one I know would call me a shark. I am un-shark-like in so many ways.

But if I were a shark, I’d be proud to be a shark. I would be totally bad-ass about being a shark.

So why not be totally bad-ass about what I actually am? Why not be a bad-ass COO, a bad-ass father, or a bad-ass friend? Why not remind everyone I’m a fucking shark?

Ready for it? Here comes the obligatory “Why I chose Octopress” post.

I love the concept of static web sites. Back in the mid-90s when I created web sites for a living I wrote two types of web pages: those whose URL ended in .html and those whose URL ended in .cgi. Every time I typed “emacs index.cgi” I knew I was opening myself (and my clients) up to potential security holes and reduced page performance versus static .html pages.

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This is the first of what I hope to be many posts describing my current favorite tools. For this post, I’ll focus on Evernote. Here goes:

For many years I wanted to like Evernote. The allure of the cross-platform, cloud-based, indexed, document-friendly organization tool was pretty powerful. But every attempt I made to incorporate it into my daily routine failed miserably. I was addicted to a long habit of paper notes and to do lists. There is something about the process of writing with a pen that fixes the words and ideas into my memory, and I missed that too much whenever I’d attempt to transition to an electronic system.

I finally found a solution that works for me!

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Somehow it seems appropriate to start my blog with a promise. Wil Wheaton, the eponymous author of wilwheaton.net, wrote often in his book Just A Geek of the sometimes overwhelming temptation to present only the positive aspects of one’s life to the world through one’s own blog. Elsewhere I’ve seen this called success theater, and I think it describes too many of our interactions, both online and IRL.

I can appreciate the desire to project a polished, sanitized version of ourselves to the world. It means having nothing to be embarrassed about, nothing to risk, nothing to lose.

That’s not the tone I choose for this blog. This blog will contain my unvarnished thoughts. It will focus on my interests. It will be genuine and authentic. It will be mine.

I hope you enjoy it.