My Upstart Life

It has been a whirlwind month for me. More than a month, really. Back on December 29th, I proposed to my love and she accepted, so I am now engaged to be married. Those who follow me on Twitter already knew that, but there you are. On the career front, I began a new job this past week. It is a bit of a culture shock because I went from a small, private university to a large, non-profit corporation. Aside from feeling like the smallest fish in the bowl, it has been an exciting week. ...

Ian W. Parker

The $300 Million Button

User interface design is one of my big interests. I do not talk about it much because I have so many pet peeves with interfaces. The irritation factor is high. However, once in a great while, somebody gets it right, and there are grand “A-ha!” moments to be shared by all. This time, the interface improvement involved a single button and a huge boost in company sales. [via Shawn Blanc, via Derek Powazek] ...

Ian W. Parker

Into The West

Annie Lennox sang a beautiful song called “Into the West” for Peter Jackson’s movie, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. What captured me about the song, aside from Lennox’s haunting vocal performance, was the perfect execution of lyrics, music, and cinema. Tolkien would have approved. I have been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works since I first discovered The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so many years ago. As authors go, Tolkien knew how to express his message within a fictional universe which was bolstered by his love for language and history. ...

Ian W. Parker

Ode to Joy

[via Open Culture] Beaker of The Muppets gives a stunning, and hilarious, rendition of Beethoven’s classic Symphony No. 9 ‘Choral’, popularly called Ode to Joy.

Ian W. Parker

Rephrase and improve your 'tude

I happened upon Pace and Kyeli’s site one day while surfing my usual web sites. Their site was a lucky find because they’ve written some excellent articles on better communication. I am always look to improve myself, so I purchased their book, The Usual Error, as soon as it was released. I’m now on my second reading of it. On Friday, Pace wrote a guest post for Alex Shalman titled “10 Ways to Improve Your Happiness by Changing Your Vocabulary”. Here’s a snippet. ...

Ian W. Parker

Why Meme?

So I picked a corny title for this post. Get your groans out now and read on. Sal tagged me with this over a week ago. He writes a fun blog about his life. Sal is a great story teller and has a knack for recreating scenes with his words. By nature, I am an introvert, so this meme is difficult for me. I thought about not participating, but they say it is more fun to go out of your comfort zone. ...

Ian W. Parker

The December Punch List

The holidays are a wonderful time of year. At least, I think so. I hope all of you are enjoying yours and preparing to have a fantastic time with friends and family over the next few weeks. Here’s a quick update on what’s upcoming and what to expect in the coming month. A tag meme has been passed my way from Sal over at Everyday Thoughts from Life. I’ll be posting mine up on Sunday evening, but until then you can read Sal’s response. Be sure to check out his site while you’re there. Sal is a fun person and his posts are quite enjoyable. In an effort to expand my credentials, I have decided to pursue a Red Hat Certified Engineer certification. This means that I will likely be talking a bit about Red Hat in the enterprise as well as random Linux topics as I refresh my administrative memory for their operating system. Thankfully, I’m using Linux daily so it’ll just be a flavor change as opposed to a full platform change. The Python refresher project continues. With the closing of the I Want Sandy service, I’d like to try to emulate some of the functionality using Python to accomplish it. If I can manage some workable tools, I’ll talk about them here, and host them if they are compelling enough. The site re-design pushes on. Expect more art changes, layout shifts, and general overall fun features being added/removed. As always, any feedback from you is most appreciated. I will, as always, post links and notes on items of interest that I find across the Internet. That’s the short list. I’ll add more as the projects grow and expand. In the meantime, I would like to get some feedback on whether I should offer a select group of posts via audio. Similar to the tech5 podcasts, the audio could be embedded at the end of the posts for those who would rather listen than read. ...

Ian W. Parker

27 Commonly Misused Words

Brian Clark wrote a good piece over on Copyblogger today. He covers some common misuses and pluralizations (yes, that is a word) of words. I fear I am guilty of making some of the mistakes mentioned. I shall try my hardest not to make any of those mistakes again. One of the worst offenders in my toolbox is “hopefully”. ###Hopefully This word is used incorrectly so much (including by me) it may be too late. But let’s make you smarter anyway. ...

Ian W. Parker

All About Google

[via Mashable] All about Googlehttp://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=google14qen-last-version-1228241181867301-9&stripped_title=all-about-google-presentation View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: google strategy)

Ian W. Parker

Talking and Squawking

[via Open Culture] A funny and endearing video of Einstein, the talking parrot, at TED conference 2006. I hope it makes you smile.

Ian W. Parker