nick5hoe.com

A family friend of mine just posted the above for their Facebook status.

Here is my response and encouragement to them, as well as all of us today:

I agree, and a saying, albeit most likely cliche, comes to mind:
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
For the Shoemakers (yes all 30+ of us) we no longer give gifts as a large group when we gather for Christmas Eve. Instead we’ve taken to a white elephant mug exchange. Find the most audacious mug you can (in your cupboard, @ the thrift store, et cetera) and bring it!
It was so much fun this evening playing Name That Tune Christmas Edition and seeing who would get the zaniest mug.
All that to say- we are with ya!

There ya have it. The UN-IMPORTANT parts of Christmas will continue until people make the change in THEIR OWN LIVES.

For me- this change has been somewhat forced, but welcomed none-the-less. As some of you may know, recently the decision was made to venture out on my own, and- honestly- I haven’t found much for income. Amie and I decided on the 22nd that we wouldn’t be able to “do Christmas” this year.

On the 23rd my bro-in-law text me and told me to keep the $100 in proceeds from my recent selling of some of his skate decks to Pangaea Boards.

So we will “have Christmas” exchange gifts this year after all. And you know what- this Christmas will have, and has already, meant more than any other.

Merry Christmas!

~NickShoe

Um. Yeah. Uh-mazing.
Church in a parking lot. I really don’t have anything to add. Carlos says it all.

~NickShoe

Amie just came in and asked me if I had heard the Brittany Murphy had died.

I hadn’t. I Googled it. I went to my Twitter home page and saw the trend. I clicked back over to the People article. Wow.

I went back to the trending topic. I was amazed. 406 tweets had gone out with ‘RIP Brittany Murphy’ in them in the time it took me to read the People article. Wow.

And my mind shot back to when MJ died this summer- how it shut Twitter (and the rest of the internet) down. How it essentially knocked the Iran elections off the Twitter trending block. Wow.

And then I thought about them. The ones Too Small to Ignore. The 197 children that have died since I started writing this post.* WOW.

For the next week a Compassion banner will be at the top on the site. I really want to encourage you to diligently consider sponsoring a child in need.

~NickShoe

*Source: Compassion Hunger Facts (PDF download link)

You might be saying to yourself, but wait- don’t you already have a site?

Yes.

Then why this new one?

I have my own business now- and I thought it was time to get my own real website- not just a decent blog.

And with that, NickShoe.org begins.

~NickShoe

Ok- so I’ve been busy!

On with the shininess!

Ode to Wordpress
By NickShoe

Wordpress, oh Wordpress…
You push me to success.
I do not fear your code,
I embrace what others may loathe.

Easy as a button,
It’s almost like doin’ nothin’.
~Fin~

THAT’S RIGHT! WORDPRESS is being featured this week- why? BECAUSE IT’S MY FREAKIN’ BLOG, THAT’S WHY!

And because it’s so great! For example, check out my portfolio site that I put up BEFORE 10AM this morning! While it’s not even near finished, the basics are there- and that’s the important part.

Wordpress truly is plug and play. And when teamed with Dreamhost things really get cooking.

There are TWO options when it comes to Wordpress. Wordpress.com is free, but there are limits to free. Wordpress.org breaks the glass ceiling of blogging- something I really like!

Here’s the run-down:
What ➲ Wordpress
Cost ➲ FREE! (for Wordpress.com hosting; to sign up a site on Wordpress.org’s platform, you need to get some hosting and domain registration. I recommend Dreamhost because I use it!)
Where to get it ➲ Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org
Shininess ➲ 4.75 out of 5
My Recommendation ➲ Absofreakinlutely!
Got a Shiny Object for SHiNY FRiDAY!? Let me know about it!!
~NickShoe

A few years ago Starbucks started going after what they referred to as The Third Place. Rather, they started creating them. The idea was that people went home and work- and they should go to Starbucks as well, hence the third place. OK- so that’s basically it. (If you want more on third place and all that, check out Dave Gibbons and his thoughts about creating not just a third place, but a third culture.)

Since then people have bit, hard. So much that if businesses- see also “casual dining”- don’t have WiFi they can count themselves behind at best.
We are now able to check in on our favorite bloggers, get updates on our teams and even tell people where the news is happening, from everywhere.

So I found it interesting, when I checked the map on my Sitemeter account today, one of the locations that someone visited from.

Check it:

I’ve heard of strange places to “surf the web”, but really?!
What about you- what’s the strangest location you’ve ever “gone online”?
~NickShoe

OK- so I missed a couple weeks. Last week- no excuse. Week before, I blame Carlos Whittaker and Holiday Hotness. But enough with the blame.

IT’S SHINY FRIDAY!

There was a lot of stuff that happened this week in the world of Social Media. (Incidentally, I’ve added that category over there ➲.)
So it was a toss up between Google Chrome for Mac and the Hoot Suite app for iPhone (iTunes link). And since I pimped an iPhone app last time, and since Hoot Suite just came out yesterday, I went with Google Chrome for Mac.

I had been using Firefox as my default browser, and had heard the musings of Chrome by Windows users. So when it was released this week I downloaded it. Granted- it’s beta, but so far I’ve been impressed.

Features that I’ve found especially useful are those like the “Inspect Element” option when you secondary click on a particular part of a page. This is great for me as I hone my skills in web design, to see how a particular part of a page is coded out. Whereas before, it was trying to find the specific spot in the entire page source.

Another feature that is just cool is the “Search-from-the-address-bar-feature”. I know it sounds big, but it really is simple. You can either enter a url in the url bar or just type key words or whatever you’re searching for. It virtually eliminates those annoying “non-existant” pages that come up with a search punched into an url field.

I’m on the fence about the password-keychain feature, but I haven’t really dove into it that much to pass too much judgement on it. Here’s the run-down:
What ➲ Google Chrome for Mac
Cost ➲ FREE!
Where to get it ➲ Google
Shininess ➲ 4 out of 5
My Recommendation ➲ A must have for every Mac user. (unless you’re an unfortunate soul that thinks Safari still has it)

Got a Shiny Object for SHiNY FRiDAY!? Let me know about it!
~NickShoe

And this is why…

I do hope that you didn’t just watch that entire thing like I did, hoping it would get better… and hoping…. and waiting… and… ..
It’s a video put out by Microsoft to encourage people to have Windows 7 Release Parties. My favorite line? Anytime someone says “I can’t believe how easy….” ROFLMAO!
IF you did watch the whole thing, thanks for making me feel like not-such-an-idiot.

~NickShoe
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Mucho love-o to @wylietopia for passing this sweet info on.

I don’t know how Nate Heagy of Fear Salesman set this up, but it is pure genius.

And it is unique. Not outrageous.

Outrageous would be a stunt like the hoax Balloon Boy’s parents attempted in hopes of getting some more reality tv time. It was stupid, it was incredibly inconsiderate, but mostly it was illegal.

If you’re out here in this world where Twitter breaks major news stories and Facebook determines job offers, do what you can to make yourself unique. But don’t be outrageous.

~NickShoe

Can you believe that the 21st Century is about to turn 10? Double digits! Woot woot!
In case you missed it, here it is in 7 minutes.

Well? Did they miss anything?
Do share…
~NickShoe