Flickr - Empty Billboard - westm

As you can tell from the tumbleweeds around here I’ve been incommunicado for some time now.  People usually say "life gets in the way", but that’s not the case for me.  It feels like I’ve run out of steam and all my words have just disappeared.  Instead of being frustrated it has been a relief because, in all honesty, I haven’t had much to say.  With no energy and no words I landed square inside the doldrums. 

Resistance reared its ugly head in many forms as well from late night revelry in Ybor City to "just one more episode of this Law & Order: SVU marathon."  Coupled with a heavy and ever increasing workload I’ve had plenty of excuses to slack off which is much easier to justify when there’s no fuel for the fire.  Consumption didn’t work (turned into distraction), change in focus didn’t work (turned into multi-tasking quicksand) and staring at the blank page didn’t work (turned into frustration).  At this point all roads led to the same miserable spot.

Despite this swirling mess of inertia I stuck to the few creative commitments I had.  I hammered out a long overdue post for RetroHack.  My Monday meetings with my new writing partner Mike Elrod continued as scheduled.   I jotted down spurts of words whenever a fleeting moment of inspiration struck.  All of these activities, minor in themselves, slowly built back the momentum I had been sorely missing. 

Now I have writing goals for September that are ambitious yet feel achievable, new stories to develop both offline and online, websites to build into digital homesteads and even creative partnerships which are already fruitful.  I’ve proven to myself that the old adage of "just keep at it" really does work.  It may not have been churning out 1000 words a day, but continuing with any creative pursuit has chipped away at the wall like a prisoner with a spoon. 

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RetroHack: Knuckle Bump Edition

by Gabriel Novo on July 7, 2010 · 0 comments

in Nerd

domo_thumb[1]Over at RetroHack, my partner-in-crime Ed is celebrating a great blogging milestone.  He has been published and PAID for a guest post.  With all the tips you see online about writing guest posts for free to generate traffic, here’s Señor Fisher making money from his blood, sweat and ink.  Congratulations buddy, may your words be seen far and wide.

Also, one of Ed’s incredibly useful articles is especially relevant these days.  RIM (aka the makers of Blackberry) have continued to screw the pooch with their latest OS update.  Still not learning from the first time around they’ve shoved Blackberry Messenger down everyone’s throat yet again.  For those on you incensed by this please make your way over to howto://delete BlackBerry Messenger from BlackBerry OS 5.0 for sweet, sweet release.

As always, RetroHack is filled with nerdy goodness and snarky humor.  Make sure to follow him on Twitter for bite-sized techie tidbits.

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WordPress Plugins Spotlight: Comments

by Gabriel Novo on June 22, 2010 · 3 comments

in Wordpress

Flickr_plugs_sockets_by_engelene

When I come across a sharp new blog I often wonder what kind of plugins they’re running under the hood.  I’ve always believed seeing a slick plugin on a live site is a million times better than any review you could read on WordPress.  When I first started out, I shared the plugins used in Cuban Nomad and followed it up a couple of months later with more cool plugins I had discovered.  This time instead of a bucket list of everything under the sun, I wanted to focus on a specific aspect of my blog and the plugins used to enhance it.

Ease of Use

Commenting isn’t always a straightforward activity.  There are forms to fill out or logins to enter and then you have to decide what you’re going to say.  For newbies just the thought of trying to format the comment can trigger panic attacks.  What if you screw up and your comment is forever engraved with broken code?  Are they all gonna laugh at you? 

That’s a lot of stress for a newcomer looking to add their two cents.  If you want people to participate then you have to make it as easy as possible.  For me that meant leaving comments open to just name and email.  Yes, anonymous trolls can jump in and cause trouble, but why should I punish my readers for someone else’s anti-social behavior?  Here are the some other ways I’ve tried to make it painless to participate.

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Thoughts From A Weekend

June 14, 2010 Personal

If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, you probably heard about my interesting weekend in Ybor City.  Goths in surgical masks, a pit bull sitting at the bar, and one-eye bathroom attendants are just some of the highlights of my adventures in Ybor nightlife.  The transformation from tumbleweed town earlier in the week to hordes [...]

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Trying To Find My Path

June 8, 2010 Personal

I’ve been constantly struggling between the Techie and the Creative in my life.  The Techie pays the bills and has been my bread & butter for years, but is honestly a little burned out these days.  The Creative took a backburner when Techie hit high gear, but is trying to make a reappearance in my [...]

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The Me Manifesto

May 30, 2010 Personal

I am a Gemini and thus definition has never been good for me.  It feels restrictive, limiting and claustrophobic.  The proverbial daydreamer, I’m prone to dream big and dream small, but always look for more in life.  I thrive in chaos like few others can, the whirlwind of constant change makes me giggle like a [...]

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The Best Anti-Heroes on Television

May 24, 2010 Television

What is it about anti-heroes that draws us to them? Is it that they play by their own rules, or that they fly in the face of social norms? Maybe it’s simply that living in darker times, we identify more readily, even if only on a subconscious level, with those who are flawed, much as [...]

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Fox Television: Serial Show Killer

May 21, 2010 Popular Articles

Fox television is a strange little network.  For some reason they keep landing cutting edge shows with incredibly tight writing.  Comedies, Dramas, Animation, all sorts of shows that pushed the barriers of modern entertainment. After acquiring these jewels, they proceeded to play three card Monty with the time slot thus preventing any sort of fan [...]

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Observations of a Borders bookshelf

May 17, 2010 Rant

Disclaimer: I worked for both Borders and Barnes & Nobles WAY BACK in the day.  I like them both and even though they’re chains, having any bookstore is better than none at all.  This is not a recollection of my memories from that time, but a commentary on the current state of bookstores.  This weekend [...]

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Move or Die

May 12, 2010 Personal

The shark is a remarkable animal having evolved over millennia into the sleek ocean predator we both fear and admire.  Singular in purpose these fantastic creatures suffer from one major design flaw, if they stop moving they drown.  Driven by this biological drawback sharks endlessly prowl the waters, condemned to a life devoid of rest. [...]

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