Brian Wetjen

It’s that time again – the time when everyone makes and then breaks their New Years resolutions. I’m continuously reminded of the things I’ve not followed through with in the past as I see more and more people publicly declare their intents on social media channels. Facebook profiles and Twitter statuses have been ripe with commitments sure to be broken.

But it sure sounds good and looks good to tell everyone what it is that you’re going to try and follow through on.

I think that’s a big part of the whole resolution thing. Tell people that you’re going to do something so that there’s some sort of outward pressure on you to follow through. The problem is, when it’s a resolution to do something for yourself (lose weight, go vegetarian, exercise more, watch less TV, etc.) then the third party doesn’t actually care beyond a slight curious interest at how it’s going. And that wanes quickly.

So this year I propose to anyone out there that you embrace the post-resolution. Make a commitment to yourself, but don’t tell anyone about it until AFTER you’ve accomplished it. Focus on the doing part of the resolution instead of the telling part. Show progress and follow-through. Actually make it happen.

I’ve got my list. I’m going to work on it. Once any of the things are done or to the point at which they signify an accomplishment, I’ll tell ya about it. Until then, though – it’s up to me to not disappoint myself and to follow through.

Enough talking. More doing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I was surprised when I heard the news of Steve Jobs’ death tonight and felt as if I’d heard a friend had died.

When I went to Apple’s site and saw the image below. I truly felt sad, and hit with emotion.

Steve, you’ve profoundly changed the world through your vision and creativity. And all along the way you’ve told us to do the same. And you’ve given us some tools to do it with and stories to inspire us.

Thank you. We’re gonna miss you.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been noticing a speed trap right down the block from our office. The fuzz sets up a motorcycle unit with a radar unit on it and snatches people as they drive down the 25mph street right outside our office downtown.

It’s a wide street, and most downtown streets are typically 30mph. But this one has residential units across from the other zones, so I’m guessing why it’s such a honeypot for catching speeders. Well, people going over 25. Not sure if I’d call that “speeding” per se.

So anyway. I got to thinking. First, I remembered an old story I heard about some college kids in the mountains who got caught in a speed trap. After being released, the story goes on to explain that they drove back up the road and set up a sign that said, “Caution – Speed Trap Ahead!” They also set up a ways past the speed trap with a sign that said, “Donations.”

Now, I don’t know if that story is true or not, but after seeing the speed trap down the street from us for a third time in the past month, this story popped into my head again. What if our office made a big sign and warned drivers? Is it illegal to do so? What would happen, besides saving some people a bunch of money, time and effort? It would likely piss the police off.

Then I had an extension of the idea that could possibly help alleviate some of the concerns over police retribution.

What if a charitable or helpful organization set up the sign, and also set up the “donation” station past the speed trap? The first sign could say something like, “WARNING! SPEED TRAP AHEAD!” with smaller text like, “From your friends at The Omaha Children’s Shelter.) (I’m making the organization’s name up.)

Then, down the road, there could be a similar sign that says, “NOT CAUGHT SPEEDING? DONATIONS ACCEPTED.” This sign could have a more official call-out as to who the organization is that’s helping out.

A whole strategic effort could be made by various charitable organizations to take advantage of police speed traps in order to warn drivers and then collect donations. I’m sure that local attorneys across the nation could help determine what is within the law as far as warning drivers of traffic enforcement actions. Where it wouldn’t work, or be too much of a risk, the effort could be avoided. Where it could work, the local organizations would have a low-cost way to get their message out and raise some additional funds at the same time. The added benefit would be that traffic would be slowed down and the message of driving an appropriate speed would still be reinforced.

There seems to be a growing trend of slapping together a bunch of related words and calling it an alternative to the classic Lorem Ipsum text. With the tweet I saw today from Jason Fried, I thought it would be a good opportunity to compile several of the Lorem Ipsum alternatives that I’ve seen into one list. So here you go.

• Classic Lorem Ipsum Text
• Hipster Ipsum
• Samuel L. Ipsum
• Bacon Ipsum
• Vegan Ipsum
• Veggie Ipsum
• Tuna Ipsum
• Gangsta Lorem Ipsum
• Zombie Ipsum
• T’Lipsum – A Yorkshire Lorem Ipsum Generator
• The Web 2.0 Lorem Ipsum Generator

Do you have any others? Leave them in the comments section.

I want a way to view/read Twitter like I can articles on Google Reader. Show me the latest updates from all the people I follow in a consolidated list with counts, and rank them from most recent Tweet. Then I can go in, review someone’s Tweets from the last time I checked them, and then mark them read and move on.

Easy enough?