NUNCHUCK SKILLS, BOWHUNTING SKILLS, EMAIL FEED SKILLS...

Hi all. I've had the request to make my blog feed available via email, like when I was on Xanga. Thanks to the joys of Feedblitz, you can scroll down to the bottom of the left bar and enter your email to get words from the Swan DIRECTLY to your inbox. Do it and all your dreams will come true.

MAKE YOUR HUMAN BOSS LAUGH

I wasn't planning on blogging tonight, since I'd stayed up reorganizing my RSS feeds back into Sage, but then I found this off one of the most challenging and insightful blogs I read, Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog. I'm sure I'll write more about his work and how I admire it in the future, but I couldn't pass up this tie-in to my recent "Your Boss Is A Human" post. Enjoy!

My favorite quotes:

• "Just because your boss doesn’t tell jokes doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t have a sense of humor. She may be a carrier of humor, rather than a creator or initiator of humor."


• "Sarcastic humor is the result of frustration and tension. It works against you."


• "Humor targeted at you is almost always safe material. And stories coming from your own experiences will be original and fun to listen to. People like others who don’t take themselves too seriously."
  

Technorati Tags: funny boss human work

PROOF THAT I'M STILL IN 3RD GRADE

So I'm working on this web page list of events. Each one has dates, a title, place, contact information and the like. I get down to one and the contact's name is Barbara Long. Her email is something like blong@whateverheremailaddresswas.com. And I can't help but think...


BLONGGGGG!!!! Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Yep, you just THINK I've grown up.


Technorati Tags: funny email

PERFORMANCING ISN'T A WORD

My good friend Jeremy asked me how I liked using Performancing for blog posts, since he'd tried it a while ago and found it a tad lacking. I can tell you now that I do like it, but that's a qualified positive review. Let's see if I can lay it all out there for you:

Pros

• Save as Note Feature - save your content to an offline "note" that's easily accessible within the Performancing extension. I have no clue how this works or where it saves everything, but it seems to work quite well.
• Auto Tags - Post tags to Technorati and Del.icio.us automatically with your post. Also has a nice "bookmarks" window to post pages to your del.icio.us account, which I'm using for my posts now. You can find them at del.icio.us/stoplookingswan.
  
• Auto Ping - send your post to Ping-O-Matic, PingoAT, or a custom server
• Categories - if you're using WordPress or Movable Type, those are there for you.

Cons

• There's a small communication problem between Performancing and Blogger's ATOM API. More accurately, there's a problem with Blogger holding up their end of the bargain. There is a workaround, but it requires you to go back and add titles to your posts, and you can't view titles of your previous posts in "History". No biggie for me, and they say they're going to fix it as soon as Blogger gets their butts in gear.
• There might be just too many features here for the "casual blogger." If you just want a simple post method, I'd say use BlogThis. Interestingly enough, BlogThis has no problems posting titles to Blogger - probably because they don't allow as many features as Performancing.
• The online help for Performancing isn't incredible in my opinion - it's done in a blog format, and I'd prefer something more cohesive. It's searchable, and I found the posted workaround for my Blogger problem, but I think it could be better.

I'll let you know more about it as I get more familiar with the extension, but I can say now it's got TONS of potential. Performancing's slogan is "helping bloggers succeed", and I can say they're doing that.

Technorati Tags: performancing blogging blogger

YOUR BOSS IS A HUMAN

It's hard to admit, isn't it?  Your work situation could be fantastic, but let's face it - your direct supervisor is your most immediate connection to "The Man", and nobody likes "The Man."  Your boss is the only one that is available to hear your official corporate gripes.  Your boss ultimately evaluates your performance and has a direct influence on how much you get paid.  Most of the negative things you feel about your job are most likely not your boss' fault, but they have teh unfortunate position of being the only operator on the telephone line, as it were.

I've started a new job recently, and to date I've heard two questions from bosses that I've never heard before.  Questions that powerfully affected me and my view on my job.

1. "What factors or things are getting in the way of you being successful at your job?"
2. A sincerely asked "How are you doing?"

Amazing.  Bosses that assume I'm so phenomenal that if there's anything keeping me from doing a phenomenal job, it must be external to me.  Whether it's a corporate morass of red tape or I'm just having an off day, the assumption is that I'm an incredible worker, and can achieve some kind of GTD Nirvana.

Which brings me to my question for you, dear reader.  What would happen if you asked these questions of YOUR boss?  What would happen if you started caring about the performance of someone not below, but above you?  How much power could we give our employer, our company, and even ourselves if we asked these questions of those that supervise us?  Try it out on your boss - at very least, they'll find it refreshing.  More likely, you'll find that the more you're concerned with the performance of others, the better your performance will appear to be, because you'll be better aligned with the goals your boss wants to reach - the goals your boss will be evaluating you by.

We're all human in this world, and walking into a cubicle doesn't change that.  No matter how quickly we fall into buzzword-speak, we need to get real with the fact that we all face the same kinds of problems.  We also all have the same ultimate solution, but that's a different post.


Technorati Tags: boss work GTD

THE ESSENTIALS LIST

Yes, it really is essential. I'm just starting out with Performancing, but it looks pretty fun. And DevBoi is incredible - works offline!
Essential List on Firefox Extensions for Webmaster - lifehack.org

NEW FUNNY

Found my latest favorite joke. Ironically, it came when I was feeling particularly scatterbrained...
On attention and lightbulbs | 43 Folders:

Q: How many people with ADD does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: HEY! Let’s ride bikes!!!"