Categories
Kung Fu Life Media

Easy Glass Buttons and the Greatness of Your Life

Way back in 2005 I wrote this blog post about how to create easy glass buttons in Adobe Illustrator. I remember this post being popular and still to this day it turns up as one of the top hits on Google search. I did this search Incognito just now, but curious if you see the same results or if the result is machine learned from my habits.

Go ahead, search, and click on the green button and see if it leads you to my post.

What I love about this post is that I was a relatively young 35-year old man who still had dreams about doing something big with technology and I strive to always retain that wonder. Now, almost 15 years later, I didn't do anything big by the standards I set for myself at that time, but I did make a living for my family, raised four gorgeous children, loved a beautiful wife, made some amazing friends, learned a lot of cool Kung Fu, and still manage to stay up to 3am bumping into walls wearing a new VR headset I have no idea how to use.

As I turn the corner on 50, I try to look at the young man who wrote that post and I try and see what made him tick. What I've come to realize is that it's not always the size or impact of your accomplishment and more about the journey. That's not to say I don't harbor disappointment at not doing more, or regret at not working harder. What I strive for is not to be so enveloped by disappointment that I throw my hands up, giving up and becoming a bitter old man. To this day, I still cling to that feeling I had when I was 35... that the best is yet to come. I hope I always feel that way, regardless of the quantifiable greatness of anything I do or don't do.

Categories
Life Productivity Writing

Establishing my groove

Last weekend I attended the annual Writer's Digest conference in NYC. The event served as an informal deadline for me, to get my revisions done so I could pitch my story to agents of the science fiction genre during the conference's Pitch Slam event.

So I did that and it was great. I had a number of agents show interest in my story so I began to send out queries. One step closer to rejection letters!

The book is on the long side at 104k words. I'll be spending the next month or two waiting for more beta reader and agent feedback and ruminating on tweaks that I can make. Like every writer, I hope the feedback isn't disastrous--necessitating major work--but that's something I need to anticipate and accept. When it's time to roll up my sleeves and get the work done, then that's what I'll do. That aside, I'll be researching more agents to query. I'll start fleshing out my ideas for follow on books. I'll keep writing.

I need to establish my groove.