Do you love what you do? (aka - Kowloon Bay revisited - - - can you believe it?)

Motivation:

"Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
~Herman Cain

Diary:

If you haven't had a chance to listen to the podcast, please go ahead and do so. Here are some corrections and thoughts:

I was so anxious to publish it that I think I rushed the last edits. There were some problems.
1) I indicated the wrong website for my blog (chazzvader.BLOGSPOT.com)
2) In my audio breaks, I annoyingly said "This is Chazz again, and ...... ". This was very unneeded, as it is irrelevant and it is obvious. I will not do this again.
3) What I did say to try to add to the interview audio wasn't as useful as I thought it would be. I could have just shut up and let the show be an homage unto itself. I think I will come up with more descriptive information to set the stage, so the audience understands the person better, and let the person then explain what it is that is inside their head.

What I did learn, is that it is nice to have a theme in mind before you start the interview recording, BUT be ready and willing to change the theme mid-stream. This is helpful especially when editing, as some things that are said, you may find linking in odd ways. There were a couple of things that Memphis said that I didn't expect, and some of them that I didn't even hear (such as the foreshadowing of the word "Tombstone" early on, and the connection of the music lyrics matched with what he was talking about.)

so all in all, I was pretty happy with the outcome, but little things that I chose are annoying me - I will clean this up in future podcasts.


On Monday, I was able to attend the Society of Technical Communication national conference and listened to Simon Singh, who was honored as the Honorary Fellow for 2007. Simon Singh is on the board of the Science Media Centre and is a former trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). He spoke at the conference about his documentary entitled Fermat's Last Theorem, which was a very popular show and a great example of using digital media to communicate highly scientific content that does affect numbers of people in a very personal way. Very good timing for me to see this information, as I am currently wondering if these podcasts will have a lasting affect in helping me find a way of communicating a message that may seem vague or wrapped in minutia, but doing it in a way that is fun and exciting to the listener.

At the STC conference, the issue was also brought up that the previous description for a Technical Writer was "Technical writers produce content for users," however, STC's Strategic Planning Committee would like to change this description to "Technical communicators manage content and relationships with users."

I wasn't too keen on this change (either way) at first, however I am starting to warm up to the proposed job description change:

Develop and design instructional and informational tools needed to assure safe, appropriate and effective use of science and technology, intellectual property, and manufactured products and services. Combines multimedia knowledge and strong communication skills with technical expertise to educate across the entire spectrum of users' abilities, technical experience, and visual and auditory capabilities.

So, to answer "What do you do for a living?" I can say with this description of a Senior Technical Writer, that I am doing what I love to do - which is to use media (in many forms - visual, written page - paper or web, art, video, audio, music, etc) to communicate knowledge and create relationship with an audience of content users.

One more thought about the STC conference. I shook hands with Tom Johnson, who is the Chapter President for the St. Petersberg Florida STC group, and is a blogger and a podcaster. His sites are I'd Rather be Writing and Tech Writer Voices . I subscribe to his podcasts and he does a really good job. I emailed him out of the blue one day about the equipment he uses and he sent back a thorough, detailed email about what he uses, what he would like to use, what other podcasters use, links to sites with podcast equipment, and pictures. Wow! I was impressed. We spoke for only a moment, but he was very encouraging and wanted to know what I was going to do with my podcast, and what equipment I was going to use. I was somewhat embarrassed to tell him, since I am just new to this, but he seemed interested, and I reallize now that although he has some experience, I bet he would like to know others who are doing it, even amateur, such as myself, to be able to form some community to bounce ideas off of. I will send him an email later with the links to my sites. Hopefully he will find this useful.


while in the shower today I thought of a good introductory statement about this podcast. It goes something like this:

What can you learn from a man who has lost 250lbs - (over half of his body weight) - in a planned weight-loss regiment? How about learning about forming habits, goals, and behavior? What if you could use routine and discipline to make your life easier, more fulfilling, and more rewarding? In this series, I will discuss with others the lessons learned while pursuing a goal. We will meet people who have made a conscious effort to change their actions and attitude about their daily actions, and witness what affect this has made in their lives.

In "The 360° Leader", John C. Maxwell points out that:

Your behavior determines your culture
Your attitude determines the atmosphere
Your values determine the decisions
Your investment determines the return
Your character determines the trust
Your work ethic determines the productivity
Your growth determines the potential

This series looks at how our actions are affecting our outcomes. Join me at "Chazz Vader's Intelligent Design"

That is sort of the rough draft. If you have any thoughts or advice, I am totally open to your suggestions.

Notes:

If you remember my previous posting about my Hong Kong Suits, you may be curious to know that I have moved them from the far closet to my bedroom. This is a big deal, because I am about 1 month away from wearing these clothes again. Actually this could be a problem, as I am still a long way from finished with my weight loss final goals, so these clothes will be too big for me when I get there.... Huh? That concept is going to have to sink in, because these were going to be my goal reward clothes. However, I still have some visible fat to lose. What a quandary...

The weather in MN is fluctuating, as it does in May. Cold one morning and Hot the next morning. I haven't turned on the AC yet, as it has gotten hot enough to do so, but I haven't committed to this temperature yet. The nice thing is that, while working around the house, I realized I was warm, but not uncomfortable - I was feeling the temperature, but was not sweating profusely due to it. I thought - "this is different" - just wanted to make note of it. I will see how far I can go without AC, just open the window and turn on a fan. I will record the day that I finally give in.

#Diet#

Been mixing my fruits in on suggestion of the clinic and advisors - they saw that I was eating only apples, oranges, and strawberries, and told me that I need to purchase a more varied mix of fruits. I saw a deal on muskmellon and have a scoop on a place to find good grapefruit. (that sounds like there is a secret underground fruit paparazzi)

#Exercise#

Continue to train - this week had two days off from the aerobic routine, due the the STC conference - however, spent most of these days walking around all day.

#Fine Art#

This Sunday I am doing a solo for offertory at church. Playing guitar and singing "When God Ran" . Hope this goes well.

#Geek#

After much struggle, hours of configuring, tweaking, and some delight and success, I have decided that while I neither like or dislike Windows Vista, I am going to revert back to Windows XP. Here is the deal: IF Windows Vista worked consistently and efficiently, I would love to keep it, but I am having too many problems:

• My Lexmark Printer doesn't have drivers - and while they are going to have drivers for it by next month, I want to be able to trust that I can print, scan, and copy using my printer.
  
• Outlook continues to plague me in Vista, and there has been little solution and too much time spent worrying about it.
• Ghost doesn't work - which I liked for automated backups.
• The PCTV (USB TV capture device) seems to work great on XP, but I couldn't get it to work on Vista
• Vista seems slow, and all of the fancy gadgets and beautiful graphics don't seem to be enough to keep me - I would choose function over design.
• I need to make sure my computer is efficient, and XP may not be the leanest operating system, but it seems to be super-fast compared to Vista. Vista has so many features and services, that unless you are prepared to bulk up on RAM and Video memory, you may be dissatisfied.
  
• I want to play video games from time to time, and try new and 'open source' applications, but Vista doesn't seem to be ready to play applications that aren't 'Vista-ready'

So, for these and many other reasons, I have decided that I am going to trade in the "Vista beauty" for "XP functionality", and I remember a quote that helps me to make this decision:

I have found that all ugly things are made
by those who strive to make something beautiful,
and that all beautiful things are made
by those who strive to make something useful.
- Oscar Wilde

I think in another 9 months, Vista (and the software and hardware that I use) will be ready for prime time and I will try to install it again at this time. Since I already own the product, I won't have to repurchase it. Until then, I will keep playing around with my applications and see how both Vista and Ubuntu evolve. This decision I believe will eliminate about 45 minutes of frustration (error resolution, etc) per day - which is worth the cost.

#Money#

Still saving for debt reduction - I have automated this with my savings account, so while I track it daily, it takes care of itself.
One of my accounts built up enough to justify moving it to a better investment - so I bought a 9month CD at INGdirect. I like INGdirect, because they have low minimum limits, so I can invest in CDs for very little money. Every little bit counts, and right now, I am just working with tiny amounts to build up my habits, not necessarily to actually get rich. If I can continue to build these habits, then I may get better and managing my finances - which is the point of all of these categories, so of course I am repeating myself. Enough said.

#Personal#

What was this for - oh yeah, just to make some personal social time and this was done at the STC conference. The women to men ratio was in my favor, as there are many young ladies who are writers by profession. Wonderful for me. I got a chance to chat with the ladies and see if I could get back my gift of gab. I need work as I was about as clumsy as monkey with no thumbs.


more later,

Chazz