Here’s the short list:

Jaxon is nearly 15 months old now, he’s 34+ inches tall and is just about to walk on his own. He and I (and my gorgeous wife Amie) have gibberish conversations on a daily basis. It’s awesome!

I have had the amazing opportunity to work with the folks at Creative Fuel Studios, a part of Ignition Garage, on a few projects with many more to come. Seriously, if you’re thinking about doing something creative these are the folks you want behind you.

I wrote here about the polarizing effect death has on us, especially young death. A young man that was a part of the youth ministry at our church drowned on July 6th and I had the tremendous blessing of being involved with Cody’s Celebration of Life this last week, both in putting together a video montage of pictures from his life and in helping to plan the service with the family. If you’d like, please stop by the Facebook Group set up in honor of Cody, if just to take a moment out of your daily commotion, to reflect.

Along with these there’s the usual maniacal things often referred to as life. But, especially of late, I’ve grown weary of them and have found a glimmer of hope in a little book I’m going through right now. Getting Things Done is helping me get my life a little more organized, but, what’s more, it’s helping me get a lot more things DONE. I’m just through the first chapter, and already I’m seeing a dramatic increase in my productivity. Check it out, even if you don’t struggle in this area, because there’s always room for improvement!

There. I’m caught up. Kinda.

OH! This week I’ll be guest posting on Media Salt a couple times. Check out what Cleve and Eric have going and don’t forget to check out the other summer guest bloggers as well!

Be well!
~Nick

This is a repost of sorts. I originally talked about this here, but I’ve had enough questions regarding it as of late, I thought it merited a revisit.

I ♥ WordPress. It’s the platform I use to develop all my sites.

I switched from WordPress.com to WordPress.org a little over a year ago, and have loved it!

If you’re wondering what the difference is, check out this sweet infographic after the jump.

[Click on the image for the full size version.]

What platform are you using for your blog or site?

[HT: WPBeginner.com]

I’ve been so graciously given the opportunity to do some guest posting on one of the best faith-based, media-centric blogs around today- MEDIASALT.

For the next couple months myself and a few other folks are going to be guest posting on MEDIASALT.

My first post of four is up today, and I’d appreciate you taking the time to not just check it out, but check out MEDIASALT as a whole as well. Eric and Cleve are doing really great stuff, and I absolutely love their tagline for the site:

God isn’t bland. The Church shouldn’t be, either.

Word.

It was like 4 pages, and not too far off from this. Check it:

PWND!

Some thoughts after the jump…

So? I wonder who lost their job over this one! Designer? Layout editor? Copy editor?

And who had to get carpel tunnel putting all those blasted tiny stickers on?

This is something that I see more often than I should in today’s spell-check-as-you-go-world. I naturally look for these things; partly because my mom always had me proof-reading things for her restaurant and partly because I’m just wired like this.

But, even I’m not above the fray. I can’t tell you how many times here, or on these blogs I’ve missed my own basic mistakes. Granted- there aren’t potentially millions of dollars at stake here, but reputation is. From an editorial standpoint, if a writer has the reputation of having an “issue” with basic grammer or spelling then that makes me less likely to want to seriously consider their work in the future. (I KNOW that I’m not perfect in my grammer, sentence structure, spelling, et cetera so please holster your firesauce comment- for now.)

Since the majority (which is in itself a minority) of what I know is in blogging, I’ll just stick the topic at hand in that area of the writing world. Here are some things to consider the next time you go to hit that publish button.

An Extra Set of Eyes

Just having someone other than yourself read through your writing before you publish can save you from this type of malfeasance. I know this is true for myself because I tend to skim through my writing when I’m proofing it. Ask your spouse, a roommate, a friend, anyone really to read over something before you release it to the masses.

A Change of Scenery

In WordPress, as with most blogging platforms, you have the option to preview a post before you publish it.
DO THIS! It will not only give you an idea at how your spacing and sentence structure will look in the real world, but it will also give your own eyes a break from the back of the house screen you’ve just spent so much time on.

The Rule of Three

This is something that I use regularly. I don’t know if I can claim this, I haven’t Googled it, but here it is. Before I publish, I have to have done one of the following or a combination of all, totaling three:
• Read my potential post’s final draft three times. (I’m totally OCD about this. If I edit anything, I start over. To each his own level of OCD.)
• Have someone else read the potential post three times. (OCD rule doesn’t necessarily apply- it’s just not cool to ask your wife to read your nerdy-tech-blog-post three more times after you make an edit at 2 in the morning. True story.)
• Have three different people read the potential post. (This may not be practical, especially at 2 in the morning. But if you have peeps that will do it, take advantage!)
*Note- all of these are done IN PREVIEW!

When Good Enough Isn’t

The worst thing ever said in any area is “good enough”. And this is especially true in the land of the creatives- they’re the last words of a dying artist. I’ve seen way too many instances where projects that seriously have the potential to be awesomsauce end up stinking because it was “good enough”. Don’t let good enough syndrome effect you.

I came across a quote of something of that nature on twitter recently and it’s been floating around in my noggin ever since:

The moment you think that your work is good enough, it’s time to re-work it.

If you threw that out and are reading this- let me know! That’s just straight school knowledge!

**Total views in preview before the final publish of this post: 12 (Told ya I was OCD- that’s 36 read-throughs. My brain hurts.)

What about you? What are things you do to proof before you publish?

ChurchIT, an 8BIT Network site, has a post about “…Jailbreaking…Hacking in Ministry”.

The post is more of a question- it’s the comments that really separate the wheat from the chaff. I’d encourage you to head over and read them. I’ve, naturally, added my two cents.

This brought up a larger question for me when my friend Dennis Mansfield posted about our local paper requiring another blogger to request permission to link to their stories online.

It’s always been my understanding that citing your source when writing was not just good form but mandatory. As a blogger I do this regularly, because back-linking is key. (I’ve done it 4 times in this post alone.) However, there is a distinction between citing and linking. Maybe their (The Idaho Statesman) server’s couldn’t handle the traffic? Who knows.

Just my thoughts on a Tuesday.

[Image: Chronicas Media]