Here’s a shout out to my dad who turns 50 today. I hope I will have acomplished as much as he has when I’m 50. 2 kids out of the house, 1 VP job, 4 classic cars, 1 five car garage, and a new habit – car racing. Mid-life doesn’t sound too bad. Happy birthday dad. I miss you! Here was his gift. A logo for his new habit:

I just have networking so on my mind. The Chicago UPA meeting last night was interesting. I walked into a crowd of Usability people and learned about the history of the UPA, of which we are starting a Chicago Chapter. I might event join the organization.

I’m struck by networking right now both from a personal quest, and because we’re working on a project at TMP that is closely related. I’m not a networker. I don’t know how to “work a crowd” in a professional/meaningful way. I walk into a room of strangers – of people whose sole interest similar to mine is what we do for a living. I figured I’d be the guy who would go and just sit in a chair and eat the sucky finger food that was to serve as my dinner.

But, something happened. “Jerry” from GM Locomotive came up to me and started a chat on usability in trains. So, now I know a train guy. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw Brain Joosse from Technotribe. I knew Brian because a coworker referred me to him after my dotcom bombed. Brian interviewed me to freelance with his little virtual multimedia – web company. Come to find out he is living the dream of working from home in a virtual company. I could have talked to him for a few hours. But this is the essence of networking. I don’t even need to read a book that I’ve been meaning to get to written by a client of our dotbomb.

And isn’t a blog a great form of networking? Uh, yeah. In a totally non-threatening way, you can read someone’s history of thought, and who they know, and what they like, and what they link to. Anyone of these things can spark a connection with someone much more naturally than any message board, or even real personal contact. Personal contact is flawed in that you can’t review someone’s history based on what they are talking about at the moment. Think of how many Starbuck clerks would actually offer a mutually beneficial relationship, if only you knew that once they had lived in Western New York, and rooted for the Bills. Read others’ blogs. It’s Blogworking baby!

I’m heading to the inaugural meeting of the Chicago UPA tonight. I’m all for making websites usable, and networking with other Usabiligeeks. I’m thinking there probably won’t be much learning going on. More like “What do we want to name the group?” Oh well. Everything starts small.

GotFreshmen?–Yeah, last night was our first Quest meeting. 12 Freshmen and their parents all in our house. We even roasted marshmallows and hot dogs in our fireplace. I’m loving being able to make an impression on these “kids”…

YouAreAnAnimal— Come to find out, Interaction Designers are sexy beasts. Mark got married this weekend. I don’t even know Wendy, cause I’ve only met Mark in person once. But, he’s the second of our fine TMP trio to be hitched. Is Walt next?

BloggerForHire?–It’s pretty interesting that there may be room in this world for Professional Bloggers. This site makes it pretty clear that BlogMonster is right around the corner. I have some serious questions about the professionalization of something that was supposed to be empowering to the everyday writer. Part of the fun of blogging is fooling yourself into thinking that a.) someone is reading your stuff, b.) you are writing in a “professional” enough style to make your opinions seem to matter, c.) you might someday be recognized by people in some community or other as the author of Magnetic Poetry. As soon as there are “Pros” doing this, it kinda takes the fun out of it. Suddenly news stories about blogging or “professional blogs” about blogging will begin to refer only to themselves. Only professional blogs will be blogs of interest.

I wonder if that is the nature of things though. In the beginning of the web, people could express themselves through web pages, and even the suckiest sites were getting lots of love. As the medium matured, the only sites that got any play were the ones that were done by professionals, or came off as “professional”. I think, in a way, that is what drew me to becoming a web professional. I wanted to be able to express myself in the medium in a way that would still warrant other people’s attention. It remains to be seen, as I’m only a few months into this blogging thing, if I will wish to hone my skills enough to at least come off as “professional”. I’m curious to see how this thing becomes a part of my life…

SpeakingofOutstanding–My parents got to go to the Bills v. Bears game at Ralph Wilson Stadium. I got to spend the day nowhere near a tv or radio, but came home to the pleasant surprise of a Bills victory over the local Bears. Once again my flag was defaced, this time taken out of the falg pole holder and thrown on the ground. I can take it. Bring it on, oh fantom Bills Flag defacer. BRING IT ON!

Tricia and I spent a day away from baby to be with our “new kids”. 40 Freshmen on an hour bus ride to a teambuilding camp in the middle of nowhere. The girls were talking at about 150 lph¹ and the boys were throwing everything from food at each other to walnuts at trees. All in all it was fun. I can’t wait til they come over next weekend with their parents. Then we might have to start talking about God Stuff. Eeeewwww.

¹ Likes Per Hour. Example: “It’s like Jennifer and I are like going to the bathroom, and she was like eewww your hair is gross, and I was like, Jen we’re in the woods, duh…”

AndMakeMistakesToo–I forgot to mention another thing I learned from IDEO. Making mistakes early and often should be everyone’s mantra. Clients don’t know what they want until they see it. So accept this. Draw out your ideas early. Get them on the table. Help everyone visualize. Developers, please don’t complain about making changes. That’s part of this whole process. Enjoy change!

What the hell happened to me this morning? I’m on a workout kick. I get up with my friend, and the best youth minister in the world, Jim, every Monday, Wednesady and Friday at 5am to workout. That requires me to get up at 4:30am. We did our Friday “Max-outs” – where we test our progress by doing the most we can do on a bunch of exercises. Well I was pretty thirsty, and brilliant me doesn’t have a water bottle. Long story short, after the workout was over, I nearly passed out in my car. I gutted it out and made it home. Where I literally crashed. Shaking, out of breath, nauseous, I couldn’t even unlock the door to go inside. I had to ring the doorbell. My wonderful wifey took care of me while I couldn’t even tell her that no, I wasn’t having a heart attack, I just worked out too hard without water. I drank six full glasses in 10 minutes. I felt worse than a drunk with the room spinning. I’m better now, but I think I learned a little about my body today, and I think I’m going to go water bottle shopping.