I may not write much here anymore, especially with my rampant Twitter addiction for the past 18 months or so, but I always like to take some time to think about New Years, resolutions and the like. I’m feeling good about what 2010 has to offer so far. I’d like to make the following resolutions to either forget or genuinely make myself a better person:

First and rightfully so, I’d like to focus more on reading and writing. I currently have a nice selection of books on my desk at home that I’m reading through and fully intend to continue soaking up the written word. Conversely, I also would like to focus more on writing more, as intended with starting Clovis Pulse. The site has started off slow, but ideas between myself, David, and Crysti are continuing to brew and we plan on doing some fun stuff in the next year with the site. I also have many journals I’ve been given throughout the years and think it would be fun to pick up a pen every once and a while, even if it’s just to write something as simple as a haiku. Words inspire me to produce more words.

Fitness and nutrition will also be a priority in 2010. Almost three years ago, I was in the best shape of my life, eating right, and exercising heaps. I want to get back on that wagon, as I miss running. A big focus for 2010 is going to be regaining energy lost from laziness and eating poorly. That’s right, I’m talking about more vegetables, granola, and cooking my own meals. I plan on using Traineo.com to help me organize and motivate this effort.

Finally, 2009 was the year I started my own freelancing business. I was tasked with helping the Clovis Police Department develop a new website, along with a few other projects. In 2010, I aim to buckle down even more with a variety of clients, with my biggest goal being to help people develop websites and social networking awareness, and also to build and focus on my web design portfolio. The biggest challenge is juggling the two hats of print designer and web designer. I look forward to studying and practicing new skills, as well as sharpening old ones, in order to continue to pursue my second professional passion.

Cheers, to a happy and healthy Twenty-Ten!

My wife and I were cooking dinner for our family last night and doing our usual exchange of, “So, how was your day?” I began telling my wife about running into a friend of mine who has his hands in many little startup companies and is really embodying the entrepreneur’s spirit. She shook her head, smiled, and gave a bit of a chuckle, implying that my friend has bitten off more than he could chew.

And then it occurred to me: doing business and coming up with (and executing) new ideas is a lot like archery. Now I haven’t picked up a bow in many years, but hear me out. Let’s say you have a quiver of arrows on your back, and in your lifetime you only take one arrow and shoot it down range, fully expecting a bulls eye. Slim chance unless you’re an expert archer and marksman. What’s wrong with being the type of archer who is grabbing multiple arrows and taking lots of different shots, sometimes at different targets? Which archer is going to have a better shot at the bulls eye. That bulls eye could be the next big thing.

Whether you apply this to business or even spending time doing something new with your family, I think we should shoot many arrows. Many will be a hit, some will be a complete bust, but at least you had the courage to try.

[This post is also published on SoulFoodRevolution.com, where I am going to begin doing a semi-regular guest column.]

I love a good overcast day, the gloomier the better. Why? There’s something about a gray sky that gets me up and moving, ready for anything, and ready for work. What about you? Take the poll below and let me know in the comments what kind of weather helps you be productive. I can make an educated guess that most of you would rather lounge on the couch with a book or movie during a rainy or snowy day!

The joys of freelancing are starting to bloom, as March is going to be a very busy month for me. I have a trip to Roswell planned to begin laying the groundwork for a major redesign for one of my clients. In addition, we also are aiming to launch a redesigned website for the Clovis Police Department this Spring, with loads of training to be done onsite and content to push!

Another project on my plate will be designing and launching Mitch Gray’s new website, SoulFoodRevolution.com. Mitch has some great ideas to help promote his books and seminars, and I’m excited to help him develop a site that will be rich in video content. Stay tuned for that one for sure.

If the rest of 2009 has me as busy as the first month, future posts are endangered here on Scottdot.

Freelancing has officially begun, with three clients currently on board for web design services. It should be lots of fun, but also pretty involved, as the biggest project is a more ambitious website for the Clovis Police Department.

This month I’ve also been doing a lot of miscellaneous work for the Curry County Centennial, making use of a logo I designed in mid-2008. I put together a DVD with many historic photos of Clovis and Curry County, and I’m debating putting a version of this on YouTube. I really think it needs to be seen by more people, but sadly the photos are not my own to do as I please with them. I’ll be posting a better downloadable version of the logo in February.

So what’s on the horizon for the rest of the year? I’ve met a few local people on Twitter who are involved in web design and developement, and I’m thinking about starting a local web group. Another excuse to get coffee and “talk shop!” On that note, I’m also hoping to get the ball rolling on LEMUG soon, and perhaps a Spring launch would be more realistic.

Whether we like it or not, another year has flew past us, leaving us in the dust of all that happened, all we wish that happened, and all that we may have regrets about. I for one don’t regret anything too seriously from 2008, but only hope 2009 is more rewarding.

With that being said, I’m caving and compiling a short list of resolutions:

• Read more
• Keep camera at my side
• Take more photos (see above)
• Accomplish one major home improvement task each month
• Rekindling my love for drawing/sketching
• Make healthier eating decisions
• Strive to control clutter while reducing urges for material possessions

I don’t want to go too overboard, but that seems like a good start! Happy New Year everyone!

Rather than make resolutions for 2009, I decided to take a look back at things I could have done better or more of in 2008. Here’s what I have come up with:

• Keeping my backyard picked up
• Not giving my dogs enough attention (remember this?)
• I started two books (at least) that I did not finish
• Cooking a meal for my family at least once a week
• Spending too much money on Virtual Console and WiiWare games for the Nintendo Wii
• Spending hours watching bad reality shows on VH1 when I could have been more productive
• Not letting my wife pick more movies on Netflix
• I should have blogged a lot more

What do you wish you could have done better or more of in 2008? Let me know in the comments! I’m still debating if I should post a list of New Years resolutions for 2009, but if I were, it would probably look something like Kevin Rose’s list.

Perhaps it’s the former customer service agent in me coming out, but I got pretty fired up this morning and had to send a polite-yet-nasty email:

In the past year, we have done a lot of business [COMPANY NAME REMOVED]. I wanted to write this morning and share with you my frustrations of your customer support agents. I strongly believe they do not represent your company’s best interests, as they always answer the phone sounding very uninterested in any problems that we may have. Their answers are short and attitudes are curt. This is not an isolated incident based on a call placed this morning, but a trend I notice when I have to call and speak to your agents on the phone. It makes me dread picking up the phone to call you, imagining the next person to answer who sounds like they’re having a bad day at work and is genuinely disinterested in helping me with my issue. 

Ironically enough, we were speaking about this very thing this morning before we had the need to call. Please do whatever you can to insure your customer support agents are willing to help the life of your business–your customers. They should match your other five-star services to a tee instead of tarnishing your reputation.

There’s nothing that bugs me more in business than seeing customers get treated poorly. I’ll hop off the soapbox now, time to enjoy the weekend!

Today, I helped America elect a great man to lead our country through some of its toughest times. I helped America elect its first African American president. Thank you, to the rest of America for helping restore my faith in our sometimes troubled country, but I feel like we still have many tough times ahead of us.

I hope that our whole country can stand behind our new president when he is inducted in January. We all–black, white, young, old, rich, poor–have worked far too hard to turn our backs now. Look how far we’ve come.

Thank you, America. It’s a great day to be alive!

My favorite teacher of all time was a kind, sweet lady named Nancy McBride. She had a love for science and Dr. Pepper, but also taught me the importance of journaling and creative writing. My classmates and I would fill dozens of Steno notepads with our thoughts, dreams, and documentation of our travels. For whatever reason as I grew older, this was an ability I never lost but would always stray away from.

Recently, I have been dabbling in various blogging tools and content management systems and have come to the following conclusion: I will use WordPress for my own creativity and save Joomla for more professional sites that I will develop. With all due respect to WordPress and its development community, it’s a tool that makes me excited for writing again, the way I felt when I was 11 years old. Joomla, on the other hand, has the intricacies of Business 101 (laugh it up) from my Freshman year at ENMU. I love the extensibility of Joomla, but it does nothing to inspire me!

Now that I have established my views on blogging software and CMS solutions, I find myself thirsty for a nice cold Dr. Pepper. Here’s to being a more creative writer and hopefully a more active blogger! Cheers, Mrs. McBride!