life

Just kidding… but I am pretty proud of my online resume, which now shows up in the number 1 (or 2 depending on index) slot for the query: “world’s greatest resume” on google.

If only people actually searched for that…

worldsgreatestresume.com

I started a new project this weekend. I’m writing a novel. I wrote the first 10,000 words this weekend which means I have between 50-90,000 left to write. I’ll do it. It was a lot easier to get where I am than I anticipated, but I know the hardest parts are ahead. The book is a work of fiction about life and relationships. When I tell people some of the details the typical reaction is to ask me if I’m dying. No, I’m not dying. The main character is in a situation very similar to mine, with the exception that he is dying. I don’t want to get into to much more detail than that (I know, that’s not much to go on) but I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it later. Am I at all qualified for this? No. But then again I wasn’t qualified to start my first website either. Everyone has to start somewhere, for me it’s just a matter of fitting this into my schedule. Somewhere between work, looking for a job, trying to get back in shape, web stuff, and life, I need to write another 65,000(ish) words. Ideally, I’ll have the first draft finished by September 1, realistically it will be much later.

So…. I think I can start blogging again… at least for a while. It’s pretty exciting for me, because there have been a lot of things that have happened that I would have liked to blog about. Before I get back into it, here’s a quick rundown of what’s been going on with me:

1. I finished law school. I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier to end something.
2. I took a job, but it’s not permanent. I took it as a way to make some money while I look for a job.
3. I went to Hawaii with my girlfriend and had a great time.
4. I am 25 now.
5. I’m working on the next version of Lopico. Lots of new stuff coming if I can find the time.
6. I’ve done some other things with Lopico which you can read about here.
7. I now have what I call the “real daily JDA” - it’s a journal that I write one new website idea in everyday.
8. I have a bunch of new ideas for start-ups (see #7) that I plan to write about.
9. I’ve probably lost all of my readers.
10. I may have inadvertently discovered a business model for motask.
11. I’m a big twitter fan.
12. I don’t plan on writing daily. The less I blog the more work I get done on Lopico.
13. I’ve missed you. You can still tell me what to write about here.
14. I have a bunch of emails to write.
15. I have a new ipod (full size, no more mini) and have found a lot of great new bands, some of which I plan to write about.
16. My best friend from High School, who I used to meet with weekly to discuss web ideas, is in Afghanistan.
17. I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting. Law school has really been all I’ve had time for lately.

18. I plan on having more photos/images in the blog - this one is from a luau in Maui.

That’s about it - look for the real blogging to start again soon.

i’m not blogging anymore. but i may return to it. i wanted to do one last post, but it wasn’t until a meeting i had today that i really decided how to do it. i had a great meeting this morning with a local entrepreneur; i wish i did more of these. i’m going to have to if i stay in northeast ohio. if i stay in NEO i want to have an impact. i want to get involved. i want there to be a higher profile tech community. this will take some effort, but i’m willing to help the effort. there’s a lot of great talent in the area… but it’s an area that isn’t connected well. the way we work in NEO is wrong. the community owes it to itself to do more. it wouldn’t be hard to make this a blossoming area - it would just take openness to ideas and the right people to implement the ideas. when i see things about NEO for the most part i think ’stone age.’ NEO is a community with good ideas that lack implementation and bad ideas with implementation. it’s a community with the wrong leaders listening to the wrong things. what do i mean by that? we have numerous efforts to revitalize or fund technologies - but the effort is put in the wrong places. it’s a community where people say things that they heard without any substance behind them. for example, i used to work for a company that recently decided they’d like to consider blogging. how did this come about? someone high in the company said, ‘ i heard blogs are good for marketing, we should do that if we’re not.’ what a perfect illustration of NEO - late action with little substance or reasoning. so how is this problem fixed? action. the problem with communities (and politics) is that it is only those that act that get to determine what happens. if you sit back and watch and complain about bad ideas you’re not doing anything to advance the good ideas that you have. if anything you’re perpetuating the implementation of bad ideas. it’s not about having prominent figures and ideas it’s about the right figures and ideas. i believe i’m one of the people that should be more prominent in the community. my problem has been inaction. this has largely come from the fact that i’ve been in law school for the past three years and haven’t had much opportunity for anything other than law school… but if i stay in the area i’m going to do my best to change that. what’s confusing to me about the state of affairs in NEO is all the talk about how bad it is that NEO is loosing all of its young talent… yet their is little done to promote the efforts of the young that remain. so… what will it take for me to stay in the area? first let’s think of why i’d want to leave. there are a number of reasons: 1. Attitude. the attitude of the region is wrong. it’s self loathing and only serves to perpetuate its negative image. 2. Opportunity. i don’t know if i will be able to stay in the area. i’d like to, but the field i want to be involved in isn’t prominent enough in the area. that’s not to say that there aren’t great companies in the area… it’s just that they don’t get the attention they deserve, which in turn makes them less successful than they could be. 3. Age. i’d like to leave the area now, because i’m 25. there really won’t be a better time for me to try to pick up and leave. i recently ended a 4 year relationship, which left family as more or less my only tie to the area (ok there is a new girlfriend now… but that will work itself out). 4. Age. not only am i 25, but the region is old. old in the sense that i don’t feel like i can get the respect i feel i deserve because the area, despite its claims, doesn’t respect its youth. 5. weather. ok nothing can be done to change this, but it’s april and there’s snow on the ground. so what will it take for me to stay? opportunity for impact. is this available to me? i don’t know, and i don’t know if i’ll be here long enough to find out.

this has been sort of a stream of consciousness post, and if it was someone that i was helping with their blog i’d tell them that it was too long… but hey this is the end… i’m not worried about trying to drive traffic, i’m not worried about click-throughs to Lopico, i just want to write. of course, the whole point of the first part was to say that there are a lot of things i’m considering right now… and i’d like to blog them.. but i’m not going to. not until i figure out what’s next for Josh Amer will i blog again.

it’s an interesting time in the web, obviously that’s where i’d like to continue my career, it’s just a matter of opportunity. the web is great right now. web2.0 is just about over. web3.0 will never be (if we’re lucky). there will just be the continual connectivity and the full integration (content anywhere, structure irrelevant) that web2.0 has been hinting at. we’re about to reach the point in which we are connected at every point in every way from whichever source we choose. is that scary? is that exiting? will it be a good thing? i’m not sure yet. but i’m glad that i was a small part of it at least for awhile, and i hope i can be a bigger part of it for years to come.

thanks for reading. - JDA.

I set out to do start-up review week with 5 companies in mind and 5 days to do it. But, there just didn’t seem to be any interest, so I’m killing it, just as I will soon be killing this blog. I don’t have the time to write a struggling blog. When I could write daily I really enjoyed it… the chance that I may be able to do that again some day is what keeps this blog alive. Between what is arguably my most demanding semester of school ever (at least it’s my last), my pursuit of a career after school, and all of my other web projects (I think it was 9 last count) this blog just can’t get much attention. March may just be my last month of blogging.

side note: this morning I woke up thinking I could cut the code that serves up reviews on Lopico in half, I did that and then made a couple other changes - you can read about it here. It’s the first time in a while I’ve had a chance to do any programming on Lopico, and a reminder as to why last summer - when I didn’t have a “real” job and worked on Lopico for about 12-20 hours a day - was perhaps the best of my life.

This question occupies much of my time. What Next? I graduate law school in May and I’m spending a lot of time lately on my job search. I think the job search process is way too formal and not as indicative of performance as it should be.

I do not want to be a lawyer. I am willing to move anywhere in the world. I’m sort of a minimalist. I don’t really want to work for a large corporation. What would you do if you were me?

Today’s Friday, my new day off from posting about anything serious nerdy. Today, my Girlfriend’s dog, Lucy, turns 1. She is an adorable puggle (pug beagle mix) and a lot of fun but not exactly well behaved. We were going to have a party for her but then we’d be those people that throw parties for their dogs; I don’t know if I could deal with that.

Update: I’m not sure blogging about it is any less lame than having a party.

You may have noticed in that last post, written seconds ago, that I signed it Josh. No one really calls me J.D. except people I know from the web. It’s time to change that. I initially started the J.D. thing when I started Lopico as a way to keep my personal and professional lives separate, but now when I meet people they look for Josh Amer on the web and come up with nothing. So from now on it’s Josh or Joshua only please.

I almost started a new business today, but stopped myself. Instead I took a job. Part-time marketing very flexible, with a great company that I worked for before. I just need to focus. In all that I do. Right now I’m:

• In law school full time
• Running Lopico - though I do less than in previous years
• Running Motask - though I do very little
• Doing some search consulting
• Blogging
• Hopefully helping out with BarCampOhio
• Going back to work in an office
• Trying to find a job for next year
• and trying to live a normal life

It’s a lot to do (especially the whole law school thing) but it’s manageable as long as I focus.

I’m going to write a couple of posts in the near future about things that I do to stay on top of things, but for now let’s just go with one shameless plug:

Motask - simple mobile to-do lists. It really is a great tool for me. I add things to my to-do list on the go and then check them out when I’m at home or school and can do something about it. It’s not the most complex to-do list (in fact it’s probably the least) but that’s all I need - simplicity.

- Josh (who you may know as J.D. or possibly Joshua)

Last time I said that I had just passed post number 100, now I’m wondering if that’s enough. At least enough in the way that I currently blog. Honestly, blogging makes little sense to me in the traditional format of 1 person 1 blog. That’s simply not enough. It works for some but for some people working together with others will just work better. I enjoy this blog, but when I did SportsNoise I 1) had more fun 2) had more readers 3) had more fresh original content and 4) had a lot more comments and better conversations. By leveraging the power of 7-8 bloggers with 7-8 different networks I was able to pull more people into that blog; the conversations were better and the experience was better. So here are my proposals for my continuation of blogging:

1. Ditch jdamer.com and form a new blog with at least one other person.
2. Create a mega-feed of my blog plus other blogs
3. Get another writer or 2 for this blog (but then the name doesn’t really make sense)
4. Do more to reach out to my readers and let them blog on my blog
5. Same as number 1, but keep this for purely personal purposes
6. Join another blogger’s blog - anyone looking for a writer??
7. Status Quo

What happens next? I’m not sure, I’m just starting to think about tjis. Anyone that is interested in pursuing any of these ideas let me know.

- J.D. Amer

For the past two days I’ve been working on search integration for Lopico, and it’s good enough… in fact it could be up, but it’s not perfect. I’m having some design problems (ie of course) and there is at least one feature I’d like to add, so it will have to wait. It’s too easy to go with good enough. If Lopico is going to be as succesful as I’d like it to be, I can’t settle (like I used to) for good enough. Of course, I’m very serioulsy considering selling lopico - so who knows.