Thursday, August 28, 2008

Fear My Tears

Carrie from Jon Deal on Vimeo.

Our oldest daughter left for college. I gathered a bunch of old photos of her and strung them together.

She’s awesome.

It’s crazy how time flies. I swear, it feels like she was born about twenty minutes ago.

And yes, I did weep a lot while making this.


And if you dare make fun of my hair as seen here (or the popped collar at around the 3:00 mark), I will hunt you down and do bad things to you. Or, I’ll just find bad pics of you from your past and post them on the IntarWebs. Don’t push me, pal, I’m a man on the edge right now.

Jon scribbled this mess on 08/28/08 at 04:09 PM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ain’t No Pain Like This

I am still swamped and will be until later this week.

But I just have to say this:

Carrie (our oldest), just left for college.

I watched from the middle of the street as the van turned the corner.

And wept. Tears of sorrow and joy at the same time. It’s awful and wonderful and crazy-making.

More later. (I have a fair amount to say about this, as you can imagine.)

Jon scribbled this mess on 08/26/08 at 09:24 PM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I Kinda Suck as a Guest Poster

There are reasons why people don’t ask me to guest post on their blogs.

A) I send them my post and then forget to link to the guest post from my site. This is kinda unforgivable in the blog-ity world, which as well all know is fueled by links, Red Bull and longing.

B) I ask, “what should I write about?” and the guest posting requesting blogger says, “Just be yourself, it’ll be great!” which sends me into a spiral of self-doubt, shame and self-loathing such that I can only calm down after eating an entire tub of cookie dough ice cream, a whole package of Twizzlers, hours of aimless “procrasti-surfing” on Wikipedia, YouTube or Hulu and then puking for days. (I do this instead of regular therapy and it’s proven to be the least healthy and effective thing I’ve ever done in my life. I should stop doing that.)

C) People rarely ask me. (This is probably the largest reason, if I had to be honest with myself, I suppose.)

Anyway, I’m a bad blog citizen (and a bad husband and father and generally a bad person and oh hell, WHERE IS THE ICE CREAM? WE ARE OUT! I HAVE TO GO TO THE STORE, be right back), but I’m rectifying that now. Many of you are probably landing here at Ransom Note Typography HQ from here, where I spewed a little thing the other night. Brenda is a peach.

And though you will wonder why after you read it, you might also be interested in a post I scribbled in crayon over at my good (and patient) friend Loralee‘s site. It’s about BlogHer 08, so it’s about 1400 years old in “web time.” (i.e., last month). Loralee, over my not terribly strident objections has convinced me that I simply must go to BlogHer next year, which I’ll probably do. I’ll be one of the twelve guys in a crowd of 1000 women, wondering exactly what I’ve gotten myself into. And trying not to be “creepy bearded guy” and instead be “non-threatening, cuddly beard guy.”

I have a year or so to work on that.

Jon scribbled this mess on 08/20/08 at 10:09 AM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I Am Obama’s V.P. Candidate

Well, I should be.

Here are my qualifications:

In the run up to the General Election, I will bring the insanely valuable, effete, Prius loving, white, middle class male demographic out in droves.

I know how to cast tie breaking votes in the Senate.

I can cry on demand at state funerals for foreign dignitaries.

All the scandalous stuff I’ve ever done is detailed here on my site. (Except the thing about the puppies. That goes with me to my grave.)

The beard. I can go either way. Though most people agree, I look marginally better with a beard. But if you say, “Shave it, Jon-boy and come help me run the country!” I can get on board with that. No problem.

My wife is awesome. And we have photogenically cute and smart kids. (And I’d be very curious to see how the Secret Service would handle Ellis, she already has her Secret Service code name picked out: “Princess Poopy Pink Pants” (OK, I picked it that one, but she’d be down with “Princess"))

If Obama is elected and something should happen, I’m totally ready to shirk my duties like our current president. I promise to take even MORE vacations that GWB.

I’m pretty much bald and that brings GRAVITAS. Also shows that I am not beholden to the hair care industry. “I will accept no ‘product’ during this campaign.”

“Change we can believe in” is not just a slogan with me. I’ve had FOUR kids in diapers. I know all about Change.


Posting will be a little light for the next little while. I have some huge projects going on right now. Plus, our oldest, Carrie, leaves for college in exactly a week. So I have a lot of weeping sessions built into my schedule between now and then. You have to pace yourself with those. Too much crying at the beginning and you’ll get dehydrated.

Jon scribbled this mess on 08/19/08 at 11:30 AM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

Friday, August 15, 2008

Easy on the Email, Buddy

The following are the true bits and bytes from an email exchange between myself and Merlin Mann.*

Dear Merlin!

You are awesome! Thanks for your awesome twitter feed. And for your awesome videos with you and your wallet. I laugh so hard at those! Do more!

Man, you are just awesome!

Your fan!
—jon
P.S. You are *really* awesome!

A week or so later, I got this email.

Jon:

How did you get this email address? Never mind. Don’t answer that.

Thanks for your kind words, but please do not email me again.

—MM

Well, I simply had to email him back to tell him that I would never, ever abuse his courtesy or valuable time! Duh! What would you have done? I’m just being polite right back!

Dear Merlin!

Hey, no problemo, man!

I will never email you again.

But I do want to drop you another line and let you know how much I appreciate the rad podcast you do. It always makes me laugh! And the 5ives is great for a quick giggle. Oh! And your tumblog thing is really cool! How do you find all that stuff you post there? I start surfing around wikipedia and no matter what, I always seem to end up stuck on the Lanthanides page. Every. Time. What’s up with that?

And seriously, your 43 Folders site has really helped me get ahold of my life. I really get a lot of things done now! Though it is weird that all my jeans have the outline of a stack of 3"x5" cards on the back pocket. Side effect of the GTD lifestyle, baby! And it seems I owe A LOT of my productivity improvements to my switch to graph paper. Who knew that graph paper was the key to productivity?! Am I right? High five!

Anyway! No more email from me! Promise!

Your fan!
—jon

Two minutes later I got this back.

Jon:
I am now blacklisting not only your email address, your mail server and your IP, but also the entire netblock of your ISP.
If you email me again, I will hunt down you and your family, do unspeakable things to your genitalia with a pitchfork and then sell your progeny into slavery and use the profits to keep me supplied in Taco Bell and mixed nuts until I retire.
—MM

OK, in all seriousness, I want to introduce you to Merlin’s 43 Folders site. The other stuff he does (twitter, YLNT podcast, etc.) is fabulous and highly entertaining and well worth your time, but the 43 Folders stuff is downright useful. I’m not a huge GTD (Getting Things Done, originally from David Allen’s book and now pretty much a minor religion for some people) kind of fellow, but I have learned a lot from Merlin’s “life hacks” on 43F.

I come back to this article on writer’s block quite a bit. Not because I’ve suffered through writer’s block (knock on cement countertops), but because there are some great tips about creativity in there. And lately I’ve been very impressed with this series he did on attention and time management for creative people. Excellent stuff.

Something people like me with undiagnosed adult ADHD rather desperately need.

The thing I enjoy about Merlin’s 43F site is that he offers his “life hacks” as small things you can do that can improve your life. Personally, I don’t see it as some huge Franklin Planner monster, telling you to “change your whole life around to fit into our system” extravaganza. I know it’s mildly goofy to say, but it feels more like a friend saying, “Hey, this worked for me, try this.”

Anyway, in my ongoing quest of late to talk about things on the internet I enjoy, use or consume, I give you Merlin Mann, mostly of 43 Folders, but also of about 18,317 other domains.

Though I need to warn you, he’s got a real thing about email. If you are ever standing next to him, it’s best not to mention anything about email or he’ll start blathering on and on about “Inbox Zero,” how email maimed his first puppy and that a rogue Exchange mailserver will probably end up killing us all when the revolution comes. He starts to foam at the mouth a little and it’s kind of disconcerting to watch, truth be told.

And if you a PR person or trying to pitch him something, caveat emptor. Don’t bother.

OK, back to being serious again. I’m currently not a person drowning in email, but I know people who are and Merlin’s Inbox Zero stuff is very clever and useful. If you find yourself dreading opening your Mail app every morning, take a look!

*Not true in the slightest. There was no exchange of email, ever. I’ve never met Merlin. I make up stuff like this so people will laugh and end up liking and possibly tolerating me. Isn’t that clear by now?

Jon scribbled this mess on 08/15/08 at 12:02 AM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link
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