In just a short couple of hours I’ll be boarding a plane heading for Las Vegas and the Blog World Expo conference. This will be my second BWE and my 3rd conference in Vegas. I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone and meeting new folks.

We’ll be touching down at 5PM Vegas time and I can’t wait to get there and start mixing it up. I hope to get a chance to hit the mall once while I’m there. That place is huge!

Posts and updates likely via twitter while I’m going. Follow me @chrispian.

Warning: This post is long and mostly personal. I won’t blame you if you decide to go check Facebook instead.

This post is a long time coming. I really got the wind knocked out of me. Thing is, I didn’t even know it at the time. I’m stubborn like that. I’ve been working online full time for about 14 years. Either as a web developer, sysadmin, publisher, co-owner, development manager, blogger, consultant, pretty much anything and everything web related. Even before that I worked with computers, fixing, upgrading, networking, that whole deal. You may notice a trend. I love this stuff. I’m about to celebrate my 10 year anniversary with Aeryn, and we are also about to celebrate another anniversary: 5 years without cancer. See, Aeryn was diagnosed with Cancer almost 5 years ago. It took months to diagnose and then another several months of operations, treatments and the side effects. I worked through it all, and took off as often as I could to be with her. As medical bills mounted, family had already been helping out… I had to do something and so I sold all my personal sites. I didn’t make a dime. Every bit of it went to medical bills, but it got us out of debt and let me spend more time with her. Totally worth it and I’d do it again in a heart beat.

That’s where things really went wrong, and only recently have I started to get over this. Without my own sites, I got out of the practice of working on things daily. Sure, my skills kept sharp by doing it at work, where it’s also my full time day job. But at night, I just couldn’t get on the computer. I was afraid, no, terrified that if I left her side that, God forbid, I might come back and find her… I can’t even say it.

To make matters worse, my step mom was also battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I was donating Plasma once or twice a month. My mom died just a few years earlier and I was afraid I was about to lose my second mom too. And to add injury to the insult, I developed a mystery back problem. Tests, MRIs, Physical Therapy and lots of docs and no one could figure it out. They started treating me for pain, which meant regular steroid injections + oral steroids and pain pills. The steroid treatments gave me about a weeks worth of relief and it was sweet. The pain pills caused more problems than they helped so I gave up on those. I could barely move without severe pain, I’d say about an 7-8 out of 10 pain. Some days I had to walk with a cane and sitting at my computer all day was not going to happen. I couldn’t even sleep in my bed, I had to sleep on the couch, something about it really helped my back. This lasted over a year. One day, I woke up and it was finally gone. I’m not ashamed to say, I cried. Nothing ever felt so good.

To complicate matters worse, I wasn’t just taking care of me and Aeryn, but helping out my family. A couple of them, one with kids, was even living with me. It’s hard enough starting your own family, I did’t realize how much harder helping out others would make that. Not that I expected the helping to last as long as it did either. I’ve always felt a huge obligation, or maybe guilt and felt like I’ve always had to help out. I sometimes forget that if it’s hurting me, I’m not really helping anyone at all. Something I had to change, and now we’ve been living alone for almost a year, like we did the first few years of our marriage.

I tried to get back to my life several times, but I guess I wasn’t ready. I ended up failing, miserably. It seemed like every time I’d start, something bad would happen. It happened enough that I was pretty gun shy about trying again. I let people down and I didn’t communicate just how bad things were because frankly, I didn’t know myself. I stopped working out and stopped doing pretty much anything other than go to work. Even there I struggled. I was emotionally a wreck and mentally burned out. Only a few close friends might have known something was wrong. A couple years ago I went to my doctor and got on Paxil. And it worked, sorta. It helped me just not worry about all my problems. I could care less that work and bills were piling up. Or about much for that matter. It was a nice break, and one I think my mind needed. But it went on too long, and it didn’t help with the one thing I wanted it to the most, getting back to my normal life. Working out, creating cool things, interacting with friends and generally, enjoying life. So I consulted my doc, weened myself off them over several weeks as directed and I felt pretty good.

Then it was time for repairs. Lots of damage has been done. It’s taken almost a year to really understand what was wrong, what I was afraid of and except it and move on. Or, I should say, moving on. I’m still working through it, but I feel much more like myself. I’m getting creative and motivated again, and I just feel excited about life. There’s still plenty to stress about, but we’ll deal with it because we know it’ll pass. It has to, right? Everything does.

Now I’m starting over, in almost every way. All my sites are gone, or withered and faded away. But that’s also a good thing. I’m excited about a fresh start. I’ve been doing a little bit of WordPress consulting, like installs, plugin installs, theme installs, tweaks, etc. I so want to do the code/work on a huge multi-user blog. I’d like to do some more consulting. I love working with people in the online space. I’ve also been working on a project for my friend Patrick, which I’m way behind on. Luckily, I’ve been on a roll and I’m making up for lost time. I’m getting close to 40% done and I’m building up speed. And it’s pretty cool, I think and I can’t wait to see it in action.

Next up is trying to figure out where to go from here. I really want to put together a couple of nice sites, and I’m very interested in partnering up with people, doing some guest blogging and just networking and reconnecting with friends. That’s what I really love about doing all this anyway. I’m just stoked, and it’s been a while.

If you made it this far, thanks. I don’t usually do these kinds of posts, but I thought anyone who might be interested deserved to know, and if it helps someone else out there who might have gone through this sort of thing, even better. Thanks again.

-Chris

I updated to WordPress 2.7 last night and other than my own screw up uploading the files everything went pretty smoothly.

WordPress tried to change the admin screen a couple of versions ago but it just seemed like a design change for the sake of change. I’m actually pretty impressed with the updated admin area. It takes a few minutes to get used to coming from the previous versions, but it’s very well put together. The left nav needs… something. I can’t put my finger on it but when I do I’ll make sure to update this post.

The front end didn’t have all that many changes with threaded comments being the biggest in my mind. I’m not sure how I feel about threaded comments. On the one hand, it makes more sense to do it that way. On the other, I can’t stand reading threaded messages. Too fragmented. Luckily, they way it works is pretty easy to follow no matter which way you prefer so I’m sure I’ll get used to the idea. Then again, I’ve had the option for threaded display since before the web when I ran my own BBS so it’s not like I’m going to just accept threading off hand.

The one thing I’ve been looking for I can’t find. I had read or heard somewhere that WP-Cache or WP-SuperCache was going to become a standard part of WP. I need to look into that more though. In order for any CMS, WordPress included, to handle a high volume of traffic caching is essential.

I still have 2-3 sites to upgrade and I’m looking forward to having all my sites running this shiny new version of WordPress. Go upgrade and enjoy the new toys.

I’m pretty excited right now. My wife Aeryn has an idea for her first site. She’s often helped me out on mine and we’ve tried a few small ideas together but never built her own from idea to launch. She found a topic she wants to cover and I think it will do well. I’m looking forward to working with her on it. We’ll be using WordPress, naturally and I’ll do the template for it. It’s one of the two sites I’ll be part of launching for 2009.

One of the things we decided to do was try to capture the process for launching our sites so that whatever we learn we can share with everyone. I think we may use a WP to chronicle that journey but not publish it to the public. We’ll then take all that info and then release it as a free ebook, including the mistakes and mishaps along the way. Give people a real look at what it takes to get a site going. Maybe do some video diaries along the way, that sort of thing. We haven’t ironed out exactly how to do this part yet, but we have already decided it’ll be free for whoever wants it. I’m just excited to be working with my wife on this.

I’m about to!

I’m getting revved up for 2009. I don’t mean so called ‘New Years resolutions’, which typically fail miserably. I’m talking about a plan for 2009. I know everyone gets this way around the new year, myself included. But this isn’t the same. This is something I’ve been working towards for a few months now, doing research, planning and getting all setup for this change.

My plans aren’t huge. They aren’t epic, or world changing. My plan is about getting back to basics. Getting back to doing the things I love and making some money. In about two weeks I’ll be launching my first site and others will follow as time permits. Some of you may even remember a time when I ran somewhere in the range or 15 or 20 sites. Some of them quite large. I made a pretty good part time income from some of my sites and right when things were starting to get good, it all turned bad, and quick. Big, life changing family stuff that I won’t cover again, but it required all my energy. Now, I’m back at the beginning. Well, maybe not right at the beginning. While my sites will be new, I’ve got nearly 15 years experience and great friends in this business. It’s good just knowing I’m not alone.

I’m not in a rush. I’m going to start back into his with my first site, which will be Mobility Hacks, which I plan on soft launching in about 2 weeks (drop me a line if you want to guest post!). The official launch will be January 1, naturally. After that, I have a handful of sites – maybe 5 total for now – that I’ll start launching, slowly.

This also means more posts here as well as some of my old usual haunts as I start guest posting other places again, assuming they’ll have me back. Regardless, I’m about to start making a little noise again. And I’m excited. It’s been too long.

So, I think that’s enough meta for now though. Off to run some errands and then back to work.

What’s your plan (not resolutions) for 2009?

Over the last few years I’ve got to work with and finally meet Muhammad Saleem. He’s a seasoned veteran in the social networking scene and he was nice enough to give me a heads up on his latest project which launched this morning. Tip’d is “A community for financial news, ideas and tips” and works very much like Digg.com where users can vote up (tip it) or vote down (topple) stories the same way you can digg and bury stories at Digg.com. Unlike Digg, Tip’d is focused on stories related to finances, which I’ve recently become obsesses with personally. With all the turmoil in the economy I can’t help be keep my eyes glued to what’s happening and how it is going to effect me, my family and my work.

Digg clones typically don’t do all that great but over the last year or so I’ve seen some notable exceptions like Sphinn. I think Tip’d is going to be one of those sites that breaks away from the shadow of being just another social bookmarking site and be truly useful to the niche it serves. Compelling content, highly topical and expertly managed, Tip’d is poised to do well.

Yes, I was one of “those” people. I camped out at Bridgestreet at the Apple store starting ad midnight. We went and saw Hellboy 2 before hand and when we got out (around 2) there were 5 people in line ahead of us. A few other people came about 30-40 minutes later, then about every 30 minutes in increasing numbers. Most of them shocked not only find people already there, but plenty of people already there. By opening time there were well over 150+ people in line and that was before the lines got long with all the late comers. I got out the door first even though I was #5 in line. Like most people, in store activation didn’t work so they sent me on my way with a sexy, shiny white 16GB iPhone 3G. The crowd roared when I left and held it up! It was pretty lame and fun all at the same time. I loved it.

Now, after 2 weeks of using it I’ve got a few gripes, though over all I’m extremely happy with the phone.

1. Firmware 2.0 feels glitchy. I had my 2G iPhone for a year or so with no problems. There are various small bugs that make the 2.0 feel rushed. The main bug being the “lag” in the GUI for the phone. The keyboard lags badly and even switching, opening, moving, etc. often get bogged down and I have to wait.

2. The exterior looks slick but feels a little cheaper than the original iPhone. The screen seems to smudge more and hold the prints more. Minor issue, and just me being picky about the phone.

3. The “silent” button is cheap and it shows. I’m worried I’ll be one of the people who break it by switching it! Not only that, it’s too easy to accidentally switch to silent. Annoying.

4. Apps, especially those which access the GPS, randomly cause my iPhone to restart. I’m very concerned about this behavior and worry I may have to exchange my phone. Fun.

5. “No Sim Card” error. I believe this is due the change in the sim card tray. The old one was solid, while the new one is just a ‘frame’ of a tray. As a result the sim card seems to be a bit loose in there and I’ve had to re-seat my sim card a couple of times. Just to save a few cents in metal.

Overall, the phone looks great though I wish the materials matched the quality of the first. Some of it’s dead on, but it’s the details that really get me being picky. And lets face it, using a mac makes me a picky person ;)

I do love a lot of things about the phone too. The damn thing is a work of art. Great design. I love the White one because, well, that’s very mac to me too and if I’m owning a mac I want people to know that, right? I mean cool kids where Abercrombie and Fitch. Geeks wear macs.

Some of the things I like about the 3G:

1. GPS. I’ve been wanting a GPS for a while now and was holding off in hopes of the new iPhone. I’m a big fan of a general handheld that does just everything we need on a mobile level, like camera, video, mp3, wifi, 3g, etc. The GPS, while not as good as one you’d buy for your car is perfect for walking around a city or driving. You just need to be able to read maps. Something they used to teach us in school but I’m betting most kids can’t do today. Me included.

2. App store. I can’t stress enough how much I love this. Along the lines of a “global” like device, apps extend the usefulness of the phone. From Games to Productivity, practical tools and social networking apps. I love it. I’m waiting for an Amazon app, Google Analytics app, Paypal app, SSH app and a good wallpaper app, among a few others. I also have an idea for a couple myself.

3. 3G. Um, yes please. While it’s not my 8 meg cable modem it’s pretty zippy. I often can’t tell the difference in my wifi and the 3G. It’s excellent. I’ve got no complaints about the 3G speed. Very good stuff.

4. Speakers. It seems they did a better job on the speakers. I don’t know what tweaks they made but it seems to me at least that I can hear the audio on the phone much better.

5. 16 gigs. I never used up my 4gig 2G iPhone. I didn’t bother because I knew it was only 4 gigs and there wasn’t much I could do with that with my media consumption levels. With the 16 gig I can snag all my video podcasts and audio podcasts, books, mp3s, pictures, etc. and have access to them all the time.

6. They made a white one. I’m such a sucker!

I do have a few things I still would like to see in an iPhone:

1. Video camera. Come on, I know it records! There are free apps that will let you use the camera to record. Fix this oversight! Same goes for audio memos. srsly.

2. Add a flash and step up to 3.2 megapixels if possible. Many phones are starting to do this. Apple, you need to step!

3. Copy and paste. This has been beat to death, but it’s still annoying. ‘Nuff said.

4. SD expansion slot. My guess is that they won’t ever do this because then upgrading the storage capacity is in our hands instead of theirs. I can’t think of a good reason not to have this.

5. Contact beaming. Palm has been doing this forever. This phone could easily do it. Write that down.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things, but that’s what I have so far, 2 weeks in. While my problems are potentially serious ones, I’m happy with the phone. I’m sure they rushed a little and will probably have a fair share of defective units, just like with the X-Box and PS3′s. If mine is busted and not just a firmware problem they’ll fix it. I loved my first iPhone and this is everything it was plus a little extra. Would I buy it again? If I didn’t have an iPhone already, yes. If I wasn’t giving my old one to my wife, probably not right off. I think there are still a few issues to be worked out, but to be honest it was just plain fun to camp and be part of the madness surrounding an Apple product release. It’s pretty lame and very fanboyish, but I stood in line for Empire Strikes Back with my dad for 5 hours. Being a fan is just in my blood.

These steps were adapted from suggestions on the apple.com support forums and I take no credit for them. These steps were cobbled together for what worked for me.

1. Turn off 3G & WiFi
2. Make sure “Location Services” in General settings is ON.
3. Power down your phone
4. Go outside (GPS needs to ‘see’ the satellite)
5. Power back up
6. Go into Maps and click the locate button (Should happen pretty quick)
7. Turn ON 3G & WiFi (if you’re using WiFi)

Worked like a charm for me.

several months ago I relaunched this site. The original idea was to focus more on “work” related topics and grow my personal brand. I’ve failed miserably and I’m ok with that. I have a handful of topics that I’m passionate about and I plan on building sites around those ideas. Here on chrispian.com, the idea was to focus on web development and related topics. I just don’t like the idea of doing that on my personal domain. I’d rather have a site dedicated to to the idea which would open the door to guest posts and possibly even having other bloggers as regular contributors. So I think a slight shift in what the purpose of this site is needs to happen. So instead of putting a lot of pressure on myself to write here, I’ll relax that and write whenever the mood strikes me. It will still be about the my work, mostly, but it’ll also cover other things of interest. I’m going to shift the design around a little so that it can incorporate all the content I create on other sites, especially things like Twitter, Flickr and my other blogs.

I’ve got a couple of domains that I can do web dev specific stuff on. I’m in the process of shifting twitterhacks.com to mobilityhacks.com so I can cover broader topics there. I also own greenlivinghacks.com which I’ll be launching pretty soon along with a handful of other blogs. This are all written by me personally, but since they are broad topics and not tied to my name I can have guest bloggers as well as other regular contributors. That’s probably my favorite part about blogging is working with other people.

Another project I’m in talks to work on is huntsvillemetro.com with my friend Keith. It’s a site he did several years ago and really hasn’t had time to work on. He’s not really a programmer, but he’s great at design and ideas. So I think between the two of us we can create a really killer local portal which is something I’ve always wanted to do. Huntsville is a great city and I’d like to highlight all the cool things about it. We’ve got a couple people who are interested in writing about Huntsville and some really cool features that I think will be pretty fun to work on.

I’m in no rush to push my projects forward. Since I have a day job now it’s not so important to rush and get to the point where these things are making money. I love my job and hope to be working there for quite a long time. However, I’d still like to have my own projects moving forward and making some extra spending money just as a backup and hopefully one day become a very nice second income. I may not have mentioned this before, but my boss at work is also my mentor. He’s teaching me more about the business of running sites and we have a few projects that we’ll be doing as a joint venture. I can’t talk about those just yet, but I’m really excited by some of the ideas we’ve had. I’ll talk more about those once we have some of the details ironed out.

In the near future I’ll be posting more about some of my new projects and I’m very eager to work on a some sort of collaborative site of some kind. If anyone is interested in building a site with a handful of authors blogging please feel free to get in touch with me. I would really like to see something like that happen. I own webmastersweekly.com – we could work on some sort of weekly magazine or even something where there’s a new article every day from a different author. Or any other subject, I’d just like to do something that I’m not the sole person behind it. If you’ve got an idea and need a web developer type geek or just another writer, let me know!

I’m really excited about what’s been happing at work and with my own projects. It’s been a while since I’ve been this stoked about web development and it feels really good. I’m also looking forward to meeting more folks at some of the conventions this year and next year. I’ll post my conference schedule in a couple of days and hopefully I can meet more of you!

I’ve written a few pieces on managing email in the past and it’s something I love thinking about and discussing. Email is just so disruptive and too many people use it in ways that kill productivity. In case you didn’t know, I recently went back to work full time and one of the cool things we do at the office is that every so often everyone is assigned a teaching assignment. Everyone picks a topic and then gets to teach it for 15 or so minutes. Almost everyone keeps their email client open all day long and use email to send things that really didn’t need sending. As a general rule, every email you send generates two replies!

I volunteered to each first and my day is Monday. I’ve got pretty much everything together (I’ll share it here too) but I wanted to get some feedback. What are some of your favorite tricks for managing email? What’s working or not working in your office?