Nav
Categories
- Apple/Mac
- Business/Leadership
- Dating
- Fitness
- Food
- Gaming
- Movies
- Music/Band
- PC
- Personal
- PHP/Mysql
- SEO
- Travel
- Video Editing
- Web Design/CSS
Subscribe
Buddies
The web's state of being.
Touring began for me about 2 years ago. Roughly around then I had expressed a ton of interest in taking Pluh.com in an entirely different direction. I had this idea - which is a great idea - that would hypothetically be the next myspace or facebook or whatever. I did some web maintenance work earlier today and started to think about my massive Pluh.com rebuild. I came to the conclusion that another facebook or myspace isn't want people need or even want. Why?
Because it's already there. It's already something that's grown into a supergiant. I originally believed that having a supergiant of a website is what I wanted as a web developer. Visions of advertising dollars coming in danced through my head. I can't imagine what kind of headache that would also entail. Servers upon servers of maintenance, having to regulate time to run a company of that magnitude, etc. That wasn't what got me rethinking my Pluh.com plans though. What got me moving was with my new idea, the real personality, the customization, and the charm of what I had originally envisioned would be gone. It'll be a massive application where people are herded around like cattle via mouseclicks and keyboard strokes. It kind of goes against why I do what I do.
I think the web is going into a different direction now, something beyond the scope of clicking around and poking friends. I'm not just a developer - I'm also an entertainer, and that's something I often lose sight of.
I think my original vision needs to be breathed back to life, but with a stronger foundation. People want to be entertained, not herded, and that's something I plan on implementing again. I have to start back at the drawing board, try some different stuff, etc.
I won't toss aside my other ideas though. Who knows, I may find a better use for them.
Multisubjectland!
I've been working on the new Pluh.com here and there when I find time on this here tour. I used to try and work on it in a shaky van with stupid band jerks, but gave up on that when I contantly hit wrong keys during coding or precise graphics editing ended up being like performing sugery while skydiving. So what is the new Pluh.com about? Not so much I can divuldge yet due to a somewhat original concept that I can't wait to roll out. There have been many times I've had to go back and clean up old code that this new framework I'm developing will be super easy to update, add features, etc.
Pluh.com has always been a fun-yet-frustrating battle. Just when I think I've got it figured out, I hit a wall or something else comes up. The editor-driven setup doesn't work because it's all volunteer based. How on earth can one keep a staff of voluteers motivated to update a website every day? It's possible, but change is constantly moving that they often get pulled away into something else, like... LIFE for example. Kids, marriage, jobs, whatever. Nothing wrong with any of those of course.
So a whole new approach has been adopted on my end.
Crap, I gotta run. Show in New Port Richey, Florida tonight. Oh yeah!
More touring, and big plans.
Got a question that came in. I get 'em sometimes and I respond directly, but this makes me look oh-so-good.
Name: fats mcfats
Subject: in-genious?
Question: how in the fuck do you switch from PS to EC. i mean fuck id think it gets confusing to me but you pull them shits off lkike its nothing...is it a natural talent or an in-genious way of having pure luck and fury my man....either way they both jam the fuck off my asshole and whatnot....by the way, your vvoie is amazing, bro...thats what got me into the stick in the first place...noit just BEER which owns everything...anyway i make no sense man peace
Well, thanks for the compliments. Switching isn't exactly something I try to think about I guess. It's more or less just "Hey Rawrb, we need to record this shit!" And there I am. There was about 6 or 7 years of experience behind those recordings, so it didn't happen overnight. Rawr.
Tour is getting better this time 'round - it started off a bit slow but picked up after Oklahoma. Shocking! Sorry Okieland, but you guys need some love in your music scene. Or, maybe it's something else? Who knows. Next time we're coming through there you will all know about it somehow.
I also have big plans outside of the band. It's a personal endeavor that I decided to pursue after I attended my grandfather's funeral. When death becomes a part of one's life, I think it's natural to want to make sure you live life to the fullest. So here I go, and them thar chips will fall where they may.
Stupid rock and hard place.
I've been involved in web development for roughly 10 years now. I recall my very first venture into that crazy newfangled technology known as the internet and "web pages." Angelfire! That was where I had my first website. Then I moved to Geocities, then... uhm, I think I got my own domain? Can't remember much.
Anyway, up until 3 or 4 years ago I had considered web development a hobby. It comes very easily to me, and I find it to be very enjoyable. I had no idea how valuable the skill was up until I went to work for a smaller company a couple of years ago. I was stunned at how much my boss was charging clients for what I considered simple. Then it occured to me - it's not SIMPLE to them. They're paying for a service they don't want to bother with.
That made a ton of sense. For instance, why would *I* try and fix a messed up cluster of pipes underneath my sink and in my wall when I cold pay someone to do it? Not only that, they're good at it, experienced, and will do a far better job than I could with my severe lack of knowledge. The exact same thing applies to web development. Why would someone with very little interest in web dev want to bother with it when they could pay someone to build their site, to their specifications, and do it right the first time?
Then I started to appreciate my skill and experience so much more.
So the message I wanted to clarify here is: Web development, especially in the professional realm, is NOT something that's just slapped together. There's a science behind it. If someone offers to build you a website, and they do a good job, pay them handsomely. You get an awesome website, they get paid, everybody wins.
That's how it should be.
*sigh*
No more favors. From now on I charge full price to everyone. Don't like it? Go buy some templates and slap something together. You get what you pay for.
Taking out the trash.
I've been home for a few weeks now from touring. I'm usually the busiest when we're not touring due to all the stuff that piles up. Preparing for the next tour takes precedence, then comes new merch designs. We got our store back up, which is really good, but more options are needed. We're also looking into accepting credit and debit cards at shows. Once I get a few more time sensitive stuff wrapped up, I'm gonna tackle that one.
Posters, done. Flyers, done. Website revisions, mostly done. The rest are just sprinkles on the e-cupcake that is Psychostick.com.
*long pause*
I miss writing. E-cupcake. That's just awesome.
*even longer pause*
Now I gotta get all philosphical.
Sometimes the answers come just as quickly as the questions. Seems that all the weird little concerns that I had since I've been home have been pretty much solved or simply dismissed. Now there's another phase I've moved into, which is more of an attempt to take a much closer look at my thoughts and where I'm going. I'm not about to go into specifics, but I simply must mention how grateful I am to having the friends that I have. It's nice knowing that no matter what happens with me, or how dumb I get, they've got my back.
"Don't worry about the future. It'll get here soon enough." - Albert Einstein
One interesting outlook is how far away "normal" life seems to be. How easy would it be to go back to that? It's easy to get a job with a fixed income. EASY. Compared to co-running this band, it's about as easy as breathing. The reassuring thing is that I'm never alone in this massive endeavor, especially since the really hard part has long since past. If I fell, I would be picked right back up. Even if this band things falls apart for whatever reason, I will be able to take any idea and turn it into something huge. It's freaking awesome knowing that.
Is being comfortable and "safe" worth risking your happiness over? You can have your cake and eat it too. Whomever said you can't needs a face-punching.
As I "take out the trash," I'll probably be blogging about it. Of course, blogging has a funny way of not being rhetorical, or just simply one-sided. I get a bit misunderstood... but I can understand how.
"Hey, I read your blog. You okay?"
Yes yes yes, I'm just fine.
A few closing thoughts:
- Buffy is such a stupid show, but I really enjoy it.
- Where the HELL is Dragon Quest IV DS? It's already TRANSLATED.
- Warcraft 3 = Sex
- Most DVD menu templates are lame.
- Stevie Wonder is a badass.
- Tech N9ne is amazing.
- I'm pretty sure age is just a number.
- Jagermeister loves us.
That's all.
Accountability and you!
Wow, what a tour. I didn't blog once at all on this crazy "Holy Crap We're Touring" tour. Our wireless card just broke down, so... I dunno. Lots of things need fixing when I get back home.
You can view various incidents with our trailer if you want to see how much crap we dealt with. The trailer went through 3 tires, 1 wheel, one axle, and one trailer jack. JUST during this tour. Of course, most of those incidents our manager was driving, so he received a lot of shit.
"Captain Jack-knife 180 Negativeface Roadripper" became his name. Thanks to Jimmy for taking initiative on that one.
We also lost a staff member. By "lost" I mean "let go." I ain't mentioning names or particular incidents, but I will talk about the whole professionalism aspect, which was up and down.
For starters, it's always better to talk to people on the phone about things like this rather than send an e-mail. Sounds like common sense, but we justified it rather stupidly. That was dumb on our part, regardless of how some of my friends argue the point. My defense for it was, this staff member was the type of person that was horrible at taking critisizm of any kind. They'd get real defensive and blame outside incidents even though the job wasn't getting done.
That trait is a BAD one. Accountability (which is the abililty to take responsibility for one's actions without excuse) is so important when you're running a business. Hell, even when you're working under someone. Just life in general.
Let's say, for example, you're working a job that assembles reports for your department. Your sole purpose is to gather statistics and reports and present them to your manager. One day you're in a rush, and you leave the reports sitting on your boss's desk.
When the reports are due, your boss asks you, "Where are your reports? They're late."
You respond, "Oh, I left them on your desk."
He responds, "I never did receive them."
You could easily try to make more excuses. Your boss could have misplaced them, thrown them away, blah blah blah. At this point it doesn't matter - your job isn't getting done. What matters is that you need to get those reports in his hand.
Best response: "I'll re-print them and put them in your hand. Give me a few minutes."
No excuses, no whining, no putting the blame on someone or something else. You took responsibility and fixed the problem.
Excuses and finger-pointing are lame. The people you work for don't care about any of that crap - they care about the job not getting done. They're not paying you to try and weasel your way out of a situation.
Just imagine - someone is working for you and you NEED them to do their part, otherwise your whole business is staggering. So this person starts to fail in many areas, and the excuses start flowing in.
"They haven't called me back yet."
"The copier is out of ink."
"My computer is really slow."
"I wasn't feeling good that day."
"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."
What do you do? Your business is suffering! Eventually you have to step in and either fire and replace this person or take everything on yourself.
Of course, along with the excuses can come those who get really defensive when you critique them constructively. These types will have a much harder time succeeding in their field. Why? Think about this - how hard is it to approach someone and help them if their defense is always up.
Let's observe the obvious here: People who are like what I just mentioned are not easy to work with. If you're aspiring for success, it's far greater to keep them far and away from your business or even your personal life. What's another obvious aspect? You will never be able to change them. It's just as futile as trying to change a significant other to meet your standards. People you can't change, but you can change your situation for the better.
The tour goes well!
Everything is going so crazy awesome that I haven't really had any time to do anything outside of touring. Shaky van syndrome and shows every day = lack of everything.
I especially love it when I keep getting asked for video clips and stuff while I'm on the road. Yeah, where and how am I supposed to do that? I'm on a LAPTOP. I have an external drive, but jeez, ripping video takes time. They're just gonna have to wait.
There's a lot more being asked of me too that I'm just astonished they think I can do these things. It's the lack of them knowing what the road is like, which is tough to convey to those.
It's like this. You know what it's like when you've been traveling all day, like on a plane of a bus, right? How tiring that is? Multiply that by eight, then go nuts on a stage, then do it 30 to 60 times in a row. That's what it's like.
But it's fun as hell. Strange how that works, no?
Spambots are breaking through my image verification. *sigh* I'd like to violently rip out the innards of those who write spambots. I hope I never meet one. Rather, they should hope to never meet me. :)
*pant pant punch*
Jeez, the last couple of weeks my freelance work has picked up and I've just wrapped two projects, and am about to start a simple one. Then next week I'll finally be able to focus on Psychostick stuff full time, like those videos I boasted about below. Hah... yeah. We shot the footage and I just ripped all of it, but haven't done anything with it yet due to me putting the energy needed into finishing these last couple of freelance jobs.
I'm hoping this tour will have a stupendous amount of success so that I don't have to do as much freelance work. That'd be nice!
Ok, gotta finish this stuff. Lots to talk about, so I'll be back latawr!
Video is good. So good.
My buddy Murph and I talked for over an hour last night about videos. Not specifically for Psychostick, but we brewed a lot of ideas on how to promote the band using some hilarious video shorts. Obviously ideas have never been a problem (well, maybe not that obvious to you), but planning, organization, management, etc. has always been a problem. A few years back Murph would fly down to visit us and we'd have all these ideas, but no planning in place, so nothing ever got done.
We wanted to make a parody RPG. We got about 10% done with it.
We wanted to shoot tons of awesome video shorts along these lines. Never happened.
"I'm surprised we actually finished the dumb song," Murph says.
I do believe that's been the only completed project that any of the Pluh.com staff actually 100% completed, aside from actual reviews. Of course we don't blame ourselves; our lack of planning and organization was the main issue. Now that we recognize and have a bit more overall maturity, I have absolute faith we'll get more created.
Of course, one thing I won't do now is annouce the project publically before it's underway or even completed. That way people looking forward to it won't get pissed if we have to delay it or it never gets done.
Now to start planning...
Pluh.net - An opportunity I didn't see.
With all this web dev going on one of my clients has to switch hosts because her current host won't set her up with permissions she needs to upload images though a php script. Yeah, I don't get it. So I offered to host her. Then I realized I'm not even using Pluh.net for anything worthwhile. Idea! I know this is more common than salt in a bowl of potato chips (awesome analogy), but why not offer hosting to those who want? My server never EVER goes down and I know my setup very well.
I are smart.
So if you want to be hosted, contact me here for now. My rates aren't online yet, but once I get some stuff figured out I'll pop it up there. Hurrawr!