Thinking about writing a book

I've had this idea about writing a series of books. My Father actually put the seed in my head. His idea was very simplistic and made some sense, but of course I felt like I had no time for a new project.

My thoughts have been on what value could I offer in a book, and what would the topics be. My Fathers idea? "Write about what you know. You're a successful Father, raising children, working a job, running a business. You have a lot of experience and insight that could be shared." He's right I do. I have all of those things. But what value could they be to other "Fathers" or prospective "Fathers"?

A few days ago I was watching a television and noticed several shows had portrayed men in general, but focused on Fathers, that we weren't dependable, we were mean, couldn't love our children, and would most likely abandon our families for the "good life". The good life being a dead end job in a rat infested apartment on the wrong side of town and can't make child support payments.

There are far too many Fathers who go above and beyond for their families. Many who go un-noticed, un-thanked and completely selfless. This is the type of stories I want to write about. Positive male role models. I'm not talking about billionaire athletes or platinum musicians. I'm talking about real life every day hero's, Dad's, the ones who carry families on their backs, and do it with the love and gratitude every day. It's where they want to be and there is nothing more important than making sure his family has everything they need.

So hopefully I can get some ideas flowing. I hope to use my blog here to start. I could use comments, encouragement, stories, experiences. Share with me what makes you, the Dad, want to be a Dad.

Filed in: writing | father

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Follow up to rolling my own categories

I spent some time yesterday researching how others have implemented categories when using Blogger. Freshblog provided the best resources, for me anyway, on the subject. There were several choices and many other links to Blogger hacks.

So the scenario basically works like this. Because Blogger doesn't support categories, and I wanted to give my readers (um, the one guy who stops by every so often) a way to search for specific topics without having to read through all the archives. Setting out to find a solution brought me to Freshblog.

I first thought I could just add some categories as text at the bottom of each post then my site could be searched for key words. But, that was a lot of work. There were too many manual process that needed to take place. Still, even with the process I have now it takes a couple of manual steps to get categories but I like the outcome.

So today I thought, it would be nice to take the implementation of the blogger/del.icio.us hack and add it to wBloggar. Nice tool for publishing, and if I could add the categories feature in one process, it would be so much nicer. It should be pretty easy. All you would need is to add a couple of entries in the configuration for del.icio.us and a field on the entry form to add categories. Or better yet, just make them a drop down, queried from del.icio.us and your user name.

I might even consider building a tool just to try it out. Now I need to search for the Blogger API and give it a whirl.

Filed in: blogger | del.icio.us

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Rolling my own categories

Since blogger doesn't support Categories, I thought I would try something. At the end of each post I am going to attach a list of Categories. Maybe someone will find what I'm talking about with these little ditties.

Filed in: sitenews | blogger | weblog

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Moleskine and PDA, the perfect match

For months I have been experimenting with several organization systems such as GTD, HipsterPDA, Pocket PC and Outlook. I say experiment because that's what they are. I have liked a couple and have even gone so far as to create a Ductster (a HipsterPDA made out of duct tape.)

Today I ran across two different posts that I thought were worth mentioning. The first is at The Wanderings of a Wanton Wordsmith, a portable Post-It notebook. I am a pretty heavy user of post-it's. I like the ability to quickly take a note and then stick in my view. I even have a 3x5 card with a few post-it's in the file portion of my Moleskine. I also cam across this post at Rearden Metal.

I admit the one problem I have is the note taking portion. I want to take notes at work and not mix them with my personal notes. I guess what I need to do is get a separate Moleskine for my office. If I follow the process that Alastair Johnston came up with, using a Moleskine and a PDA to track all the information you need, I will be getting the best of both worlds. I think I will try that and see how it works. Off to Barnes and Noble to purchase a new Moleskine for my office.

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A poem by my daughter

"I Am..."

I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.
I wonder if the world will have peace.
I hear the animals roar in there homes.
I see the world full of beautiful trees.
I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.

I pretend that I'm a dance teacher, though I am not.
I feel happy when the audience claps at a dance competition.
I touch the wind blowing through my hair.
I worry that if I don't believe in myself, I won't succeed.
I cry when I see my grandma suffer walking.
I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.

I understand that you and I can't always have our ways.
I say you can do it if you have confidence in yourself.
I dream that one day I will fulfill my dreams.
I try to understand the hard things in life.
I hope that one day this will all come true.
I Am, a dancer who has lots of friends.

-- Ashley Allen

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