Alan’s Kiloblog

No big deal. You burn someone in New Orleans and everyone knows.

I’m supposed to write a mission statement. That is the crux of goal setting.

Let’s start with a list of things that I love.

• New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Meeting new people.
• Conversations.
• People that are passionate about practical ideas.
• Face to face communication.
• Democracy and the rule of law.

There are a lot of intangables, but I’ve loved my stay here in New Orleans. I’ve felt a lot of things about this place, but never too terribly anxious, never depressed. I’m not unhappy here. I’m so very happy to be living in the French Quarter and I never want to live anywhere that’s not along the Mississippi in New Orleans. This is my home.

What have I done that I’ve enjoyed? Programming, but for fun. Never was able to build something that got a lot of adoption, at least nothing that stayed under my control. Thus, I  do not feel I’ve succeeded as a programmer. In fact, I have failed as a programmer. It has been a long, long time programming, and I’m still nowhere with it. It has isolated me. It has made me edgy and depressive. It has been a miserable profession. I took to it so I could call myself a professional without having to attend school, I suppose.

I do enjoy it as a pursuit, but not as a profession. It doesn’t work that way. I can’t fathom contract programming. It is tedious. There is no growth. You give the work away.

Do I enjoy software? Kinda. A lot of it is very interesting.

I’ve seen patterns emerging in software, from the practice of software. Without the practice of software, will I still see the patterns?

I’ve seen the patterns, but I’ve not been able to act on them. This is due to a lack of influence. I want influence that I can use to serve the ideas that come to me, the seeds that are planted in me, that will germinate, etc.

Thus, I’m going to get into some field where I’m pushing technology and it’s use. I guess I’m going to be a talker. This is bad writing. Not an example of communication. A recordin. A bleat.

Currently, there were things that I became aware of as a result of Katrina. How do I advance my knowledge? How do I share these insights in an actionable format?

Do I start with an XML specification and work my way back? Do I write a manifesto? Do I interview citizens and ask how they used the media during Katrina? Where do I get the moeny for a Mirantz?

These are ideas that I like. I’ve created this vessel, Think New Orleans, and I need to fill it with content. I need to make it the forum that is public, that ties into the civic events.

Stream of consciousness before I head out to Magic Night at Oswald’s Speakeasy.

I am not in sales. I understand this now that I’ve read more about sales. When someone asks, I don’t say that I sell web sites. I say that I create web sites. I create really cool web sites that help you communicate with your customers. I create really cool web sites that are very interactive, and help you communicate with your constituents. It’s not sales, it’s creating, explaining, training, and making blogging effective.
Thinking about my mission. I’m moving away from programming, but I’ll have to finish what I started. I’ll simply have to find the time to find the money to find the time to finish it because it will not pay for itself. It’s almost all academic.

Lost my thoughts while this page was loading, by the way. Me hates the Wifi. Me hates it.

Every book I read about success says that you are supposed to have a clear goal. Here are the things that come to mind…

Okay, that’s a Kiloblog entry in itself.
There’s a blog entry about how I’m an explainer. There are blog entries that come out of my conversations with people in New Orleans, the explainations.

Assuming the purchase of a Torx T-6 to completly disassemble, and blow upon the entire circuit board does not bring it back around, what is my strategy for survival now that I no longer have my Mac?

Yesterday, at Mona Lisa, talking with Becky, I’m noting that when I got anxious and wanted to get busy, in the past I’d write code. It was meditative. It was calming. It made me feel like I was moving toward something.

I can’t really code. Only the most simple projects. I’m better about this now. I let it go.

I’m not going to be programming. I’m going to be assembling software. The time I spend will be on research, writing, and bringing people together.

In the mean time, I’m without the tools that I’m so familiar with. How am I supposed to stay on top of my blog when I don’t have NetNewsWire? All my music is in iTunes. All my photos are in iPhoto. There are many ammentities that are missing.

Furthermore, it’s rough to be bound to the apartment, when being out and about was an excellent way to attract business. It seems that I met most of the folks that I’m working with by sitting at the end of the counter at enVie, and pecking away at my Powerbook.

Now that the city has returned to work, I’m going to be working on election related things. The work that I am doing for Publius is not the sort of thing I can blog about here, or even at Blogometer. There are idea that I’ve developed regardin ThinkNOLA and disaster recovery, but I can’t wrap my head around the lingo that will allow me to convey the message. I’m not thinking long tail, web 2.0, ajax, etc. I’m thinking all, Hey Boo! Where y’at? You makin’ groceries?

Then there was my client meeting last night. Took place at D.B.A. After midnight there’s no place else that has Wi-Fi. A new blogger from New Orleans.

This is where I start to figure out my talking points, and start to bang on them with the Blogometer. What are they? At some point here, I wrote them down.

Deal is that I need to have some sort of Blogging R.O.I. There are pieces that I need to weave from the conversations in the Blogosphere. Hugh MacLeod is an excellent source of blogging insight, if I can get around all the F-Bombs.

Where are the Z-Listers that are formatting the message for an external market? That’s why we have Freshman Classes.

No more contract programming, because I won’t have time to do everything that I’m doing in the community. I’m in a good mood today because people are getting back into the elections, Mardi Gras has passed, and civic activity is more information oriented. The Mac continues to be very, very broken, but my information is trickling over to my server and my elderly PC laptop.

It didn’t occur to me how upsetting it was to have the Mac crash. Now it’s pretty clear that I’ve sought emotional stability in that desktop. It’s the one thing that came from Ann Arbor that perpetuated the order of Ann Arbor.

Do I miss Ann Arbor? Yikes!

Well, I’ve been melting down, and good. You might have noticed.

I’m not done with programming, I simply have to take a little break.