Posted by Ryan
June 8, 2007
Meet Dorothy the Chicken. Dorothy is going to be dinner tonight.
Actually, I’m kidding. This chicken’s purpose in life is to lay eggs. Oh, and chase people around hoping to get some bread. Oh, and follow the other chickens around because that’s what chickens do. Hey look! She ran over there, I better run over there too! I don’t wanna miss anything!!!11 Chickens are kinda fun to watch. I took this picture today. This chicken does not have a name and is not going to be dinner tonight. It is highly possible that an egg she laid may become part of dinner. Unless, the egg she laid today was eaten by another chicken.
No, this isn’t one of those “I have nothing to write about” blog posts (OK it is). For the last few weeks I’ve been feeling less and less inspired to do things like shower and more and more inspired to read, write, and otherwise just waste time. Goodbye work ethic, hello browsing the internet! Hello chickens! Hello! There’s some flowers! I better take a picture!
So I figured I needed to find a way to inspire myself to do all those important things like showering, sleeping, and brushing my teeth. And I found the perfect thing! A chicken! There’s nothing quite like a chicken to arouse within the human soul all the deeply personal feelings required to eat more donuts. Chickens are the new inspiration. Forget inspirational seminars, books, games, and midnight donut runs (“runs” as in, running to the store for donuts)! All you need is a chicken to inspire you! Feel free to print out a copy of this chicken and carry it with you wherever you go. Keep it in your wallet and whip it out whenever you’re feeling uninspired! Anytime you… oh… hello!
… I see some grass outside. I better go take some pictures of it! Be back later.
Posted by Ryan
December 31, 2005
Last year I posted my resolutions for 2005. I said I’d post mid-year about them. Well, I didn’t. So here it is.
I had resolved to… and how I did:
Improve my writing style
Not so much. Lost interest in it early on in the year.
Improve my work ethic
This I was able to improve, although not as much as I’d orginally hoped. I do feel though that when I focus my efforts I can get a lot done. I find it easier than before to apply myself to work. That’s good. I still have a long way to go though.
Wake up early
hahahaha. There was a time when I did pretty good with this. I actually did it for a while. I like it a lot. I went to bed early, got up early, worked hard and I got a lot of work done. I usually got more work done by noon than if I’d slept in until noon and worked until 3 AM. So why don’t I still do that? Well… I’m lazy? haha No really, I was doing good until I went to the Denver Lindy Exchange and stayed up until 5-6 AM every night for the entire weekend. In general, the swing dancing every weekend really messes things up. I don’t stay out that late every weekend of course, but late enough to mess things up.
Okay okay I have no excuses.
Compliment people more
Improved a little bit, but not like I’d planned.
Finish and release huge web project (currently only in planning stages)
ha. Didn’t ever start. New jobs got in the way.
Learn how to write complex Firefox and Thunderbird extensions
Nope.
Move out of my parent’s house (shhh! don’t tell my mom!)
Nope.
To be determined
This goal means that I am to keep an open mind to new opportunities that come my way, even if they could mess up my current goals for ryanware.com and other projects. Each new opportunity must be weighed against my current projects and goals before jumping either way. To not keep an open mind towards new opportunties could prove to hold me back, instead of helping me advance. So I will try to keep an open mind to new opportunities that come my way.
This is really the only goal of mine that I actually applied. New job opportunities presented themselves throughout the year, and I took them. As you can see from reading how I did on the other goals, the things such as my writing style, web projects, and mozilla extensions took back burner. For now.
2005 was a good year. I have no regrets or complaints. For 2006 I’m not going to bother with resolutions that I know will end up like 2005’s. Suffice it to say that I’m going to strive to improve myself in every way and help others out along the way. I’d like to get involved with service organizations and travel to foreign places (or around here) and help out.
I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year!
Posted by Ryan
February 1, 2005
Do you work better when you have expectations to meet? I don’t. My work ethic is great when I have my own project that I can work on whenever I want to work on it without pressure. I love adding features that I want to add when I want to add them. I’ll work like crazy under these circumstances, working in 20 hour long blocks of time. Give me an expectation or deadline and I’ll stop working. I’ll browse blogs, forums, or anything to avoid working. I’ll go drive around town pointlessly. I’ll go sit in a parking lot waiting for a friend to get off work just to hang out. I’ll go buy food. I’ll shop for electronics. The exception to this is when it’s a “real job” where I have to go in and work on their computer on a time clock. I still work better without all the deadlines and expectations, and I won’t waste my employers money browsing the internet, but I still won’t work as hard.
However, if I am given a deadline or expectation and I somehow manage to get my heart into it I’ll work just as hard. The hard part is getting into that mindset. That place in my mind. Zen. Happy places. The Zone. Whatever you want to call it.
I think I was just born to be self-employed.
