Testing WordPress for iPad…test post

This is a test, this could prove to be pretty sweet if it works well…

Breaking News: Podcast Pending – Title Undecided

Its been an interesting past few weeks, both at work and at home. At work it seems that with the year turning down toward the bottom half (aka end) of the year, everyone is coming to a rediculously unexpected realization of what they originally agreed to do and what they are no where near half done with. Its been one of those weeks this week where a manager of your manager speaks to her manager and finds out that her subordinate (your manager) and you may be on track to miss the boat on the things you’ve agreed to. All in all the english language provides one word that simplifies the whole explanation…hectic as hell.

Amidst all the professional chaos has been another swift kick in the balls (a metaphor, in reality my man junk is fine), a good friend from college has proven that it truly is possible to, whilst holding down a fortune 500 career, create and launch a freelance web development firm. Something myself, and this blog, have been discussing for years. But that’s not even the end of it, following my mostly jealous inquiry regarding the freelance firm, where I more less pose the questions “where the heck did this come from?” he provides a comforting laugh and offers me a spot with his upcoming podcasting site livefire.tv. He’s given me something I’ve always wanted, a slot in his weekly/monthly podcasting business complete with a clean slate and total creative control. It’s like I’ve died and landed my dream opportunity. Until reality sinks in of course.

I’ve now come to realize that aspiring to host a podcast and actually doing it are two GLOBALLY different things. I was given freedom of topic (for the most part) freedom of cast, and freedom of style and all I can think about is “don’t you screw this up you slacking bastard”. I’ve quickly gone from excited to mostly nervous overnight. In the end I realize that the whole product will only be what I make it and I’ll have plenty of time to learn the riggers of podcast hosting before I’m expected to produce a winner, but still, its one of this instances where you’re offered your chance and once you decide to take it, the thing you once wanted more than anything becomes the thing you fear most.

To sum it up, I think this post’s title speaks for itself but if anyone is having trouble figuring it out, I’m still undecided on a title for my podcast. In terms of a topic I am thinking I can provide a techy/geeky vibe to otherwise straightforward, results driven productivity concepts…consider it a geek’s rendition of This Week in Getting Things Done. To be 100% I couldn’t elaborate any more even if I wanted to, I’ve literally disclosed all I have so far on the topic.

Carrying around a great podcast title and/or a better topic or overall show idea? I’d love to hear from you. Either leave a comment or navagate back to the original site iVaughn.com and click on “Contact” and drop me a line there.

In any case, as always, thanks for reading and….have a good one.

-Vaughn

My very own “Pure Michigan” moment

So I’m spending the nice holiday weekend out at my Grandparents lake house on Gun Lake, near Middleville, MI. Gun Lake is pretty much one of the consensus top lakes in all of West Michigan, with its rather shallow depth the lake tends to warm up somewhat early in the season, and with the surrounding Yankee Springs State Park, Gun Lake was an easy back drop for my very own “Pure Michigan” moment.

Late last night, while listening to the waves and staring at the stars I was inspired to write a passage of prose that I considered worthy of a Tim Allen “Pure Michigan” commercial, the following was my result:

Nothing can compare to a late night by the lake. Staring up at a sky so clear you can see stars thousands of light-years away, as if they were right in front of your eyes. With the soft sound of waves lapping up against rocks and docks, jet skis and boat launches, its enough to make you forget where you are. Until you realize, your surrounded by Pure Michigan. Your trip begins at Michigan.org.

Let me know what you think. If I own a nicer camera I would have taken a picture of last night sunset to and created my own video. Perhaps I’ll give that a try tonight.

In any case, have a Happy 4th. Good Day.

-Vaughn

Yet Another Apology

So to those of you that actually enjoy reading this blog (Hi Dave), I’ve yet again promised changes and an increase in posting and I’ve yet again, failed to deliver. The truth is I’ve been a “real” adult officially for a year now and in that year I’ve been a bit lazy with life. It took me nearly 6 months from the day I decided I wanted to switch banks to when I finally did it (a 4 days process once I finally got off my butt). It spent the better part of 8 months browsing for a new car, finally buying one in 5 days once I got serious about it, and I know find myself facing and ambition I’ve had for all 12 months, and thats to build up my freelance business, start working some Elance jobs and get the independent web development side of my life actually moving. That ambition, I’m afraid, will be a bit more involved, and may not be complete in a week even once I get the ball rolling.

Recently a lot of things have begun to change it seems, I’m finally meeting some quality people down here in St Joseph, MI and as a result I’m building some quality relationships. It starts to feel a bit more like home every week. I can’t say that any of that has had much of an effect on how often I travel to Grand Rapids however, that is still where I feel the most at home, surrounded by some of the best people I’m sure I will ever meet. So its a slow process, but at least I have a process now.

So back the this website, the idea moving forward is simple really. I want to alter the homepage just slightly and attempt to build an intuitive separation between my personal web profile, and that of the freelance business. To do this I plan to restructure the entire site down to minimalist form. A single page site more less. With a distinctive section dedicated to Vaughn Johnson the man, and a dedicated section to iVaughn.com the web firm. The personal section will simply link to all my other profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Picasa, and Last.FM) while the business section will have links to various aspects of the firm (About, Past Work, Resume, Contact) each simply opening up in a JQuery Lightbox, should be simple to manage and use. Now all that;s left is to develop it. Considering I want to begin developing for others again, you’d think that wouldn’t be to tough a task. We shall see.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to come read these posts, as lame and seldom as they may be. I’ve got a grand scheme and I hope it takes shape soon. Take care.

-Vaughn

MacHeist Nano – MacJournal, giving it a go.

For me blogging is about an ideal. I’ve always pictured my ultimate routine incorporating in some way, the consistent creation of valuable and thought provoking content through the maintenance of a blog. I’ve always considered myself a capable writer, and would like to think I’m at least creative enough to create engaging content. The truth is however, that I see the world, and move through it for that matter, in a systematic way. Everything must have its function, and the more utility I can involve in my daily life, the more productive and blindly efficient I feel. I’ve told you that story, so I can tell you this one.

Right now.

I bought the newest release of MacHeist Nano Bundle for $19.95. The bundled included a number of items I’ve always at least thought I wanted or needed, few more so however, than MacJournal. See MacJournal is a journalling software (duh right?) but beyond that its a truly a blogging and content creation platform. In just a the few short minutes (roughly 38 at this very moment) that I’ve had this software installed I have linked up to my blog at iVaughn.com/blog and I have downloaded each and every previous entry. I have organized my tags, ordered my categories, and ever straightened some misspellings that my outdated browser based blogging tool ignored. To make a long story short I have been using Mac Journal for going on 45 minutes and I must say, I’m a fan. I look forward to incorporating a tool that is so dead simple and intuitive while still heavy on the feature set that can help me achieve my goals.

Oh, and one last thing. If you can read this post from iVaughn.com/blog than you can fully assume that the software’s “share with blog” function works just fine.

…until next time, Vaughn.