Chadwick Johnson

Momentum

2010-08-02T09:48:00.000-06:00

Don't be idle. Keep getting better!

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
--Will Rogers

Short Cast Removed!

2010-04-27T12:48:00.001-06:00

After five weeks, I finally got my cast removed. My wrist feels cold and naked, sore and stiff, and looks like it has been on a no-carb diet. I found this video which is very representative of my experience getting my cast removed. That is not my arm, but the cast looks exactly the same, and the process was exactly the same. Just imagine you watching on from my eyes. Enjoy.

Now I just have to wear a wrist guard for a while and return for x-rays in six weeks. Over the next few weeks, I will be gently stretching my wrist so I can really use it once again. I am excited that I can now scratch when it itches. I can wash my arm and take a shower tonight without wrapping plastic around my arm. It is amazing the things we take for granted.

Tax Refunds Are Nice

2010-04-09T12:07:00.002-06:00

Every year, I dread doing my taxes. It's not so much that it is a difficult task, but there are so many other things I would rather be doing. Just about every year I get a tax refund, and I think it is great! I know, I could be earning interest on that money, and I'm just giving that to the government. I would much rather have some money coming back to me than having to fork it out each tax season. Ramit Sethi wrote a great post about why you should be happy to get a tax refund, not guilty, so go check it out. To me, it just feels better to get money back.

So if you do happen to get a tax refund, what will you do with it? You have plenty of options. If you have any debt, paying it down is probably your best option. You could invest your return, or you could donate it to a good cause. You could buy someone a nice gift or buy yourself something that you've been wanting. Me? I think I will knock off some of my mortgage principle, which will save me a ton more in interest later.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

A Broken Wrist is a Pain!

2010-03-30T10:32:00.005-06:00

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, and you just have to deal with it the best you can. I had an accident while snowboarding in Durango just a little over a week ago. I fell, landed wrong, and ended up with a broken wrist. Despite what one may think, it is very difficult to snowboard the rest of the way down a mountain when you have a broken wrist. Thanks to the help of my wife and friends, I was able to slowly make my way to the bottom of the run. Once there, I was assisted by the medical crew and carried away on a toboggan, first up one part of the mountain behind a snowmobile and then down another section of the mountain behind a medic skier to the base of the mountain where the urgent care was located. The staff at the urgent care (part of Mercy Regional Medical Center), including the medic that skied me there, were amazing. I couldn't have asked for a more friendly and helpful bunch of people. They took great care of me.

A broken wrist has a pretty big impact on you life when the majority of your job relies on you typing. I thought for sure that I would be out of work for several weeks or seriously slowed down due to the cast and pain, but it seems to have worked out alright this time. The injury was minor enough that I could still use my fingers so long as I didn't use a lot of pressure. The hard part was convincing the cast and keyboard to line up so that I could effectively use my fingers to type. I ended up buying a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (sounds like an infomercial). The contour of the keyboard is perfect for how my hand naturally sits in the cast. I am in luck! With a little bit of practice, I have managed to type just under my normal speed. Every now and then I have to stop and elevate my arm due to swelling. So what did I learn from all this? If you're going to snowboard, wear your safety gear, especially a helmet and wrist guards. Otherwise, you may end up worse off than me. Have fun and be safe!

Your Voices

2010-02-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

This is a call to all those out there who are intentionally silent or just don't know better.

It is surprising just how many people do not understand what a blog is or how easy it is to start one. It is not surprising, however, the number of blogs popping up everywhere. You can start a blog for free, using any number of tools: Blogger, WordPress, Tumbler, LiveJournal, and the list goes on. They each have their limitations and benefits at the free level, but for starting out, most of them will easily do the job.

Ok, so about this Blog thing. What exactly is a blog? The short answer goes something like this: it's a place for you to speak to the world. I know that is pretty broad. Think of it as your personal newspaper column, your very own magazine, or maybe your public diary. It really is anything you want it to be. On your blog, you can share your thoughts, your knowledge, and your ideas. You can speak your opinions or share your faith. You can share pictures, website links, music, software code, recipes, videos, or whatever else you can think of. The neat thing is you don't have to answer to a boss. Your blog posts can be daily, weekly, monthly, or anything in-between. They can be short one-liners or book length(although I would discourage extremely lengthy blog posts). Think of all the things you could be sharing with the world.

So what are the benefits of blogging? The greatest benefit is networking. By blogging, you attract people with similar interests. You build a community of people who want to talk about the things you are interested in. You get ideas from other people. You contribute to the knowledge of others. Simply put, you make your mark on the world. After a while, blogging can even become an earning opportunity. If you have a product to sell, a blog would be a good way to promote your product through community involvement. Or, you can sell advertisement space on your blog. Either way, it takes some time to get to that point.

I'll discuss more about blogs in later posts, but in the mean time, get out there and get started blogging. Please share your experiences below in the comments.

REWORK by 37signals

2010-02-01T12:08:00.003-07:00

I have thoroughly enjoyed, on multiple occasions, reading Getting Real by 37signals as well as following their blog, Signal vs. Noise. Their simplistic views on business and life in general are easy to understand and just plain make sense. I am certain that their new book, REWORK, will match and exceed the simplicity and usefulness of their other works.

If you haven't already, go reserve your copy today!

UPDATE: I haven't been deserving enough to receive an advanced copy of REWORK, but Tim Ferriss has, so go check out his writeup and excerpts from the book.

Tough Decisions

2010-01-13T07:05:00.001-07:00

Today, more than ever, we are faced with challenges that severely alter the directions of our lives. There are a lot of temptations in this world. If we don't make the right decisions, then we are stuck with the consequences of our actions. For many of our mistakes, we can get over them and move on, but there are some which we must live with for the rest of our lives. Our decisions affect everything in our lives: relationships, jobs, finances, faith, health, and more. Don't make your decisions in haste. Choose wisely. Ask yourself a few questions:

Does it conflict with my beliefs?
If so, most likely it is not the right thing to do.
Would I be ashamed to tell my family, friends, boss, children, or church about this?
If so, chances are it is not the right decision.
Is what I'm doing right now getting me closer to where I want to be in the future?
If not, then you may be wasting your time on pointless things that are getting you nowhere.

These three questions cover a lot of ground in helping make decisions. Hopefully they will help narrow down the tough decisions and eliminate the bad decisions. Good luck, and feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

Daily Challenges for Self Improvement

2009-09-29T11:30:00.000-06:00

Many times we become comfortable in our daily routines. Like many others, I have a goal of constantly improving myself in all aspects of my life. In order to improve yourself, you have to challenge yourself daily. I have realized that our ordinary daily routines can sometimes stand in the way. It doesn't have to work that way!

If you want to constantly improve yourself, you must challenge yourself daily, whether it be large or small. Make it part of your daily routine. As your day ends, decided what your next day's challenge will be, and hold yourself to it. If it is a habit that you would like to develop, set a reminder to remind you each day. For your larger challenges, schedule time to plan, and break the challenge up into smaller stages if possible. If your challenge is small, JUST DO IT! Most of all, if you have difficulty motivating yourself to start or complete a challenge, write it down on your list of goals, and tell your friends and family that you are going to do it. Not only will it put you on the spot, but it will give others a chance to help you or even join you in your challenge. If you want even more motivation, give yourself a deadline and tell everyone about that as well. It's amazing what peer pressure does for your motivation.

So what kinds of things can you challenge yourself with? Well, think of all of your goals. Write them down, and choose one or two at a time. Do you want to exercise daily, wake up earlier, eat healthier, or learn a new language? Do you want to improve your relationship with your wife, your children, or with Jesus? Do you want to start a new habit or break an old habit? Daily challenges will get you started in the right direction.

In future posts, I will talk more about my past and future challenges. Hopefully, you can learn from my past experiences, and you can help hold me to my future challenges. Until then, get started on your daily challenges! At the least, pick a small challenge an run with it. Have fun with it, and please share your progress and ideas below in the comments.

Gmail Outage: What Can We Learn From This

2009-09-01T13:00:00.000-06:00

It is interesting how much we take for granted, especially when using all of our online tools. We simply expect them to be running smoothly at all times. We depend on these online tools. When something like today's Gmail outage comes along, we don't know what to do with ourselves. Will we ever learn? This has happened before, only seven months ago. If you don't have a backup plan, then now is the time to start planning for the next big outage. That brings me to the bigger lesson.

The unexpected can occur in all aspects of life. Your job, home, relationship, health, and even worse. Do you have a backup plan for anything? Let me know how you've planned for the unexpected in your life?

Dude We're There at Rails Rumble 2009

2009-08-25T08:08:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, there is no room for perfection. I think this is true for most first iteration web applications. This past weekend, I got together with three other Ruby on Rails developers to take a shot at the annual Rails Rumble competition. It was an experience that I shall never forget.

The idea behind the Rails Rumble is to develop a web application from the ground up in only 48 hours straight using the Ruby on Rails framework. Only the planning stages can be done before the start of the competition, such as deciding what the application is going to consist of and who is going to do what, but no digital assets of any kind are allowed. In the weeks leading up to the Rails Rumble, our team came up with quite a few ideas for the Rumble. Some were our own, and others were ideas solicited from our family, friends, and co-workers. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to create that feeling of excitement that makes the development process so much more fun. Only a day or two before the competition, we on an idea that we would pursue. That idea is now called Dude We're There.

Dude We're There is an online travel tool that simply connects you with nearby friends and events during your travel. Have you ever gone on a vacation or a business trip and learned only days after returning that you missed a good friend who was in the area at the same time. Maye you missed a cool event that was only a few miles down the road while you were there? Well, we are here to help. Although we can't take you back in time to meet up with that friend and attend that sweet event, we can help you avoid the same mistakes in the future. Here's what you do. Log in, invite your friends, enter your future destinations and the dates, and we will tell you which friends will be in the area and what events will be happening around you while your are there. It's that simple!

The initial feature set was a little less than we had hoped for. For example, you can't easily see friends near you while you're NOT on travel. Also, you can't import destinations from your calendar, which is somewhat important. And, we do not yet give you the option of email notifications. However, you can import your Google or Yahoo contacts to make it easier on inviting your friends. Aside from the features, we need to rethink the design and lay off the "dude" references quite a bit. So, while there is much work to be done, it is well underway to being a very useful app.

After the weekend, we ended up with quite a few lessons learned. This was, after all, our first Rails Rumble. Here are a few:

First lesson: It is imperative that you either pick an idea and start planning well before the start of the competition, or that you pick an idea that is so dead simple (and useful) that you could code it in your sleep and concentrate on the design and user interface.

Second lesson: Staying awake as long a possible to get as much done as possible will reflect negatively on your work if you are not accustomed to staying up that late. The better option would be to just go to sleep and wake up refreshed and with a clear mind.

Third lesson: Make sure that all developers are on a level playing field when it comes to Ruby version, etc. This especially matters if you're freezing certain gems in your application.

Fourth lesson: Don't just assume that a plug-in or gem has no bugs in it. We ran into a problem with GeoKit that took a bit of time to fix, which brings me to my next lesson.

Fifth Lesson: Do everything you have to do to prevent yourself from stalling on the unimportant. If it's not important, make a note of it and MOVE ON!! This is really a life lesson, but this is not a life post, so I won't get into that here.

Overall, the weekend went well. We got a lot done, and we learned a lot. Most of it boiled down to planning ahead. Hopefully, someone will learn from our lessons... us included. So start thinking up ideas now for next year, and keep your ear open for random clues to ideas out in the real world.

Top 5 Reasons to Keep Track of Yourself with Google Alerts

2009-08-07T13:03:00.000-06:00

If you have any kind of web presence, it is extremely important to keep track of yourself. Google offers a great tool called Google Alerts, where you can enter a search term and be notified when Google runs across (or rather crawls) those terms. Enter you name, nickname, business name, website, and dog's name, and see who's talking about you (or your dog).

By the way, tracking yourself is only one of the many things you should track using Alerts.

Top 5 Reasons to Keep Track of Yourself with Google Alerts:

1. It's fun to see how popular you are (or are not).
2. You should thank others for their compliments.
3. You should have a chance to defend yourself (or your dog).
4. You should know who your sneezers are.
5. Because it's free and easy!

What other good reasons can you think of to track yourself using Alerts?

Increase Productivity with Speed Reading

2009-08-04T08:15:00.000-06:00

One of the biggest time wasters that many of us struggle with is reading. For myself, reading is a large part of my job and life. I read technical books and articles to find solutions to the problems I'm working on or to keep up with recent technologies and ideas. I read software code to find bugs, learn new and better ways of writing applications, or to familiarize myself with an application in order to add more code. I also read books and blogs to learn more about my interests, to better myself, and to keep up with the things going on in the world around me. Therefor, by increasing my reading speed, I take a great step to maximizing productivity and enjoyment. Does your situation sound similar?

Think about this. If you read an average of three hours per day, and you double your reading speed, how much extra time will you have each week? Over TEN extra hours per week! The average work day is only 8-9 hours. That is quite a gain. Now think about how much time you would save if you increased your reading speed MORE than double. Well, it is possible.

If you are truly interested in increasing your reading speed, whether it be for saving time or simply reading more books for enjoyment, Tim Ferris has recently released an article, Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes, where he explains the method he uses to help others achieve great gains in their reading speeds. Personally, I had to try it. C'mon, it's free! And the most you can lose is 20 minutes of your time.

I took 20 minutes and gave a good-faith effort to follow his instructions verbatim. My base rate was calculated at 210 words/minute, which I thought was surprisingly low. It's actually within the 200-300 WPM that he calls average for the US. After the hand full of practice exercises, which took me just under 20 minutes, I calculated my reading speed at 420 WPM, exactly double my original calculation. That's pretty impressive.

Understand, however, that you will only maintain your reading speed if you continue practicing your speed reading techniques and reading regularly. Eventually, it will become a habit.

Let me know your experience with speed reading.

The Hardest Part: Getting Started

2009-08-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

"The hardest part is getting starting. " We've all heard it many times before. No matter what you're getting into, whether it be a new business or job, a new sport or hobby, or even blogging, getting started is the hardest part. I have a very strong belief that this is a mental barrier, as are many other barriers.

On that note, I will be starting my new blog here. It will be the voice of Chadwick Johnson. ChadwickJ.com will be my stage for spreading ideas that I believe are worth spreading. I will help others to improve their lives and the lives of others, and show everyone that life can be enjoyed and used for good at the same time. I will discuss a great number of different things, from general ideas to specific subjects that may only interest a hand full of individuals. My interests will be revealed through my many blog posts, but some of them include business, entertainment, food, lifestyle design, music, religion, travel, web design, and web development. Yes, those are just a few of my many interests. As I add more posts, you can find out more about my interests by using the tag list on the side. I am a life learner, and plan to share with You much of what I have learned and experienced.

The platform that I initially chose for my blog is Google's Blogger. I am a big fan of Google, which I will go into more detail later, but the main reason I chose Blogger was because it was quick and simple, and my number one excuse for not starting a blog before was "I don't have the time." Problem solved. Don't waste time rolling my own. Get it done.

So, here it is. I hope you enjoy what you read, and use it to improve your life and others.