Hey! What happened? A new life, that's what...

This blog has gone a couple of months without an update. Far too long...

Much has changed since the last post.

Much of my life and lifestyle has gone through major change since the end of June. All good things, but I've been so busy that the blog has been neglected.

I am truly passionate about the topic of Internet business models, and business on the Internet. I am also convinced of the value of posting my thoughts and expertise for my own archival. Lastly, I am also aware that many other people get value from reading it.

So, I intend on being more active on this forum from now on. Here's a brief rundown of the last 3 months.

My son, Vitali Giggy was born on June 23, 2006. He is a joy and a blessing. I am truly enamoured of him, and hope I can be a good dad.

I moved my family from the bright lights and palm trees of Hollywood back to the mountains and fresh air of Colorado. Back to my family and friends. Back to a little peace and a lot of good folks. I did this for my son.

I just can't see raising a family in a place where there are 12 foot fences around the elementary schools (those are to keep certain people OUT, not to keep the kids in.) There are a hundred other reasons, but that one single thing is a result of all the others.

I started a full time Internet consultancy. I do Internet programming and marketing. And, my team does it damn well. In this world of off-shoring and cost-cutting, there is a place for high quality and accountability. I intend to fulfill that need.

I work from a home office in the foothills above Fort Collins. Out of my office window I have an expansive view of Horesetooth resevoir, the river that feeds it, and the red hills that plunge into it. This is a place of enormous creativity and productivity. Fort Collins was recently named by CNN/Money Magazine as the number one place in the United States to live. I couldn't agree more!

Hopefully this new life will lead to wonderful opportunities to learn more about business on the Internet. Every time I wake up, I'm grateful for my family, my environment, and what lays ahead. So, whatever it may bring - Here's to the future!

Travis

Keep Learning. Always keep learning.

First off, I have to apologize.  I haven't been posting very much to my blog lately.  In the past I just posted about stuff that I knew about.  Only the facts.  I've been keeping very busy learning new things lately, so I haven't had much to write about.  I'm on a crash course of marketing and copywriting.  Of these things I know very little.  But they're intriguing subjects, and the basis for making the kind of money that would allow me to paint a custom color on my Ferrari.  So, I thought I'd switch it up a little bit and write about something that I think I know, instead of something that I definitely know...

The secret to life.  That one thing to live by, and be happy with forever.  KEEP LEARNING.  Never stop learning.  Don't think you know it all, because it makes you bored.  Boredom is the mortal enemy of creativity.

Just the other day, for the first time in my life, I discovered an honest-to-god bug in Internet Explorer.  When you're serving web pages from an IIS server farm using a load balancer (like many large web sites do), IE 6 will drop cookies when you jump from one server in the farm to another.  It doesn't matter if the cookies are server side or client side cookies, and the expiration date doesn't matter either.  Then, after I found the bug, I discovered the solution to it.  You must bypass the default behavior of cookies and manualy set the exact domain you'll be accessing them from.  I spent 6 hours on the phone with Microsoft, and they verified it.

People were very proud of me, I solved a major company problem, and accomplished something that not very many people ever will.  You know what joy I gained from discovering that bug?  Not much.  It's just what I'm expected to do.  I've gotten a big head, think I know it all, and gotten bored with programming.

When I'm learning new stuff, I'm excited.  I'm engaged.  When I'm doing the same thing for the 1,000th time, it's just the opposite.  I guarantee you're the same.  So, the moral of the story is still this: KEEP LEARNING.  Stay interested, or even the big things aren't much fun.

My high tech version of getting things done (GTD) - Part 2 of 2

Part 2 of 2 - My high tech implementation of Getting Things Done

I've been Getting Things done for about three months. I feel more motivated and organized than ever. I'm getting more done in less time, and feeling less stressed about it. This is part 2 of my GTD rant. The first part covered my motivation and fallout of Getting Things Done. You can find part 1 here.

This post is about my personal implementation of GTD. It's a high tech version of the system, with all components (except physical item inbox and filing) being done online and through gadgets. It's not perfect - I have a few small items that I'd like to change at some point. But it's useful and maintainable enough for my every day life.

The beauty of GTD is that it's more of an organization philosophy than a set of tools, or products. I tried other organization methods in the past, with differing levels of success - all failing sooner than later due to the effort required to maintain them. My most notorious and expensive effort was Franklin Covey's set of materials. In my personal opinion, it's too rigid for daily use. It's Covey's way, or the highway. Use his binders - or his software - his way, consistently, and you'll be successful. If you can't accept those parameters, then you'll fail to some degree. GTD, on the other hand, can be customized to each individual. As long as you make it easy to keep updated - you'll be successful.

I'm a loyal RememberTheMilk (RTM) subscriber. The program has allowed me to implement GTD very creatively. They've built a system flexible enough that it can be customized to almost any need. I've created many separate folders, each holding different tasks and calendar items. I've created multiple notification avenues so I always know what's going on.

My RememberTheMilk folders are set up to reflect not "what" categories my items fit into, but rather "where" I'll be when they need done. This way, I can quickly review any items that need to be done while I'm at a place to accomplish such tasks. My folders include items like "Calendar", "Calls to Make", "At Home - Computer", "At Computer - Programming", "Wife - Agenda", "Errands - Household", the requisite "Waiting for", and on and on. I have a lot of folders, but they're all very specific, so when I'm about to go somewhere, or sit down at a particular time/place, I know exactly where to look for the tasks that need to be accomplished at that time. I've gotten into the habit of looking at the appropriate folder before I go anywhere...

When inputting data to RTM, I use several methods. Their program is very flexible, and I'm a big fan. They provide a favorites link that is a permanent button on both my IE and firefox browser toolbars.

Clicking the button pops up a small window where an items can be quickly entered into the proper folder. I also often send an email to my RTM account. They provide a personalized email address which will automatically put the item in your inbox, setting due dates, and including the email text as a note attached to the task. From the inbox you can later categorize it to the proper folder.

When I'm away from a computer (which really isn't that often, so this isn't a huge issue for me), I either send an email to my RTM inbox from my phone, or jot the item down on a scrap of paper. When I get home, everything in my pockets goes into my physical inbox, so items are never overlooked.

I subscribe to the RTM iCal feed through Outlook (with a third party extension called Remote Calendars) to put the calendar items in Outlook. I use Outlook to sync the calendar items onto my Audiovox SMT 5600 Smartphone. I have a fantastic calendar program installed called Papryus that syncs well with Outlook. Papyrus is written by SBSH Software.

I use RTM's atom feeds to download my tasks into individual buckets on my smart phone. I have an outstanding RSS program called Newsbreak by Iliumsoft. These guys really have gone beyond the call of duty on customer support. I've had some issues... all addressed and solved in a timely manner. Before I discovered Bloglines, I used to read ALL of my feeds on my phone with Newsbreak.

Having each bucket in a separate RSS feed makes it simple for me to look at what I'm supposed to be doing. Wherever I'm at, I glance at the appropriate folder - say "Errands - Grocery Store" or "Calls to Make" - and I can immediately see my items.

My offline physical item organization has been as important as my online task/calendar arrangement. Important papers and bills and such would sit on my desk for weeks until they got paid attention to. I would just reach right over something that needed my attention to my keyboard. Only by reading the Getting Things Done book did I realize the importantance of having an inbox, and the freedom you gain by emptying it often. My purpose isn't to re-hash the book - so if you don't understand what an inbox is, then go read it yourself!

My filing system is right next to my desk, and gets used - and used - and used. I have a bunch of manilla folders in the top drawer, and a labeler sitting underneath my inbox. I use them both often.

I'm sure my setup will evolve over time. I'm still tweaking it here and there - but that's the beauty of the system! It can be tweaked. You can modify and alter it to fit your needs. I'm planning on re-reading the book soon to implement the finer points of the system. I think the devil is in the details here. I want to make sure that this feeling of complete organization and productivity is here to stay. That's what I'm getting out of GTD, and I think if I can, then anybody can...

Online or off - I recommend you start Getting Things Done.

My high tech version of getting things done (GTD) - Part 1 of 2

Part 1 of 2 – Why I started Getting Things Done

Three months ago I read David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). It’s a cliche, but I can honestly say that it has changed my life. I’m more productive than ever. I’m more motivated than ever. I’m making more money. I’m spending more quality time with loved ones.

For a long time, my version of organization was lists. Lists worked well enough, but when they got to be 100 items long, and needed to be re-written every day to keep current, it took too much to maintain it. They got neglected, and were useless. The key to a successful organization method is to reliably put everything you need to do in a place that you review consistently. In order to reliably enter your tasks into one place, it needs to be easy and maintainable. In order to review it consistently, it needs to be organized.

I used to have a little bit to do, and I’d keep my to-do list in my head. Then I took on a little more responsibility, and forgot a few things. I started writing to-do lists on a sheet of paper, and it was a nice way to keep my tasks in front of me. I added a little more responsibility and I relied greatly on my to-do lists. Lapses in maintaining the list were met by painful reprocussions, so I learned to keep them pretty reliably.

Another chunk of responsibility, and my lists grew large. I needed to re-write them every day to check off old items and add new items and keep them current. If I didn’t, some tasks would fall by the wayside. Also, the most ‘in my face’ task would always get accomplished first, but not necessarily the most important.

A list is not a good way to keep a calendar. Ask my wife. I kept my calendar via proxy through my wife – ok, she kept my calendar.

A bit more responsiblity, and lists are not practical. The items cannot be grouped together, you can’t get an idea of priority, it’s impossible to keep up.

I also decided about this time that I hated carrying around a big 3 ring binder notebook to keep my lists with me. So I started experimenting with digital versions of my lists. I bought a Microsoft SmartPhone – the Audiovox SMT5600 to be exact. I purchased Papyrus calendar software by SBSH to go on it in hopes of keeping my tasks and calendar synced with Outlook. I really liked the software, but I couldn’t use it reliably. Data entry on the phone is slow. Data entry into Outlook sucks. Plus I use more than one computer (and no exchange server). So, I never really had a reliable method of entering everything into the program.

Being stuck in this netherworld between paper and software, I got very disorganized. I forgot tasks, appointments, deadlines, phone calls, etc… The more I fell behind, the more the stress built.

Then I read a couple of posts about GTD, and decided I needed to give it a shot. After all, how many people are trained in organization? I know my parents didn’t show me how to file, organize bills, keep appointments, stay efficient. I know my college didn’t offer it as an elective – not that I would have taken it anyway.

I’ve been getting things done for about 3 months now, and I can say that it’s changed my life. I customized it to my own needs, and I’m more productive than ever. It's easy for me to maintain, and I can rely on it no matter where I am. I don’t miss appointments or deadlines. My wife doesn’t have to nag me about responsibilities because I’m all over it. I have a sneaking suspicion that my credit score is rising. Plus, to top it off, I’m making more money, my stress levels are lower, and somehow my motivation has stayed at a consistently high level.

I’ve always been a motivated person, but it tended to go through peaks and valleys – diving into a valley after a high period. Like I used up all my emotional energy, and needed to recharge before doing it again. Being completely organized and efficient has kept it at a higher level for a longer period of time than I’ve ever experienced before. An example would be that I wake up at approximately 5am every day without an alarm clock with only 6 hours of sleep. Every morning I roll over, look at the clock, stretch and roll out of bed – ready to attack the day.

I’ve added David Allen as a man that I’d to thank one day. And yes, that is in my “someday” folder. If you’re feeling like there are not enough hours in the day, feeling stress because you’ve got too much to do, or feeling like your professional responsibilities are interfering with your social needs, then I can empathize with you. I know what you’re going through. The answer is not to sleep less, work more, or try harder. The answer is to get completely organized – start Getting Things Done.

More Academy Awards Pics

Me and the fam went down to Hollywood and Highland today to take a few more pics of the festivities. They've really gone all out this year! Very glamorous. Plus, I found the secret star bar - then I got tackled by security and thrown in the alley and beaten to a pulp. If it wasn't for my wife and 6 year old daughter, I might not have made it through... luckily, I got a few pics before my brutal assault...



How do you really know when you're in Hollywood? Plus, how do you really know when the oscars are about here? Well, the huge Academy Awards sign, in front of the huge Hollywood sign are good clues...

Hollywood and Highland is always a good place for an Elvis spotting, but Kiss and Tinkerbell aren't everyday appearances!

They build this big bridge over the street for all the cameras to sit on. There must be a very good view of the red carpet from up there.

Pics of the entrance to the red carpet. The movie stars get out of their limos (or their Prius) and walk into this tent before they start down the red carpet.

Various pics of the red carpet, from a nice vantage point in the Hollywood and Highland complex.

This is the entrance to the Kodak Theatre.

Here's a little extra leftover red carpet. I'm not really sure why I took this picture, and my daughter told me to leave it out of the post, but I'm sick - can't help myself.


This is the picture I took just before I was viciously tackled and beaten within a breath of my life. I'm barely able to type right now due to the pain, and I might need a little drink myself......

Hollywood prepares for the Oscars

Hollywood Blvd is shut down. The major equipment is out. They're preparing the red carpet for the Hollywood royalty.

For people that live here the lead-up to this event is pretty much a pain in the ass. The traffic around Hollywood is never as bad as it is during the Oscars.

They've really only just begin to break out the heavy equipment. You can see from this picture that they bring in a lot of equipment for this event. Lots of trucks moving in and out all day long.

Here they're hanging some sort of speakers or camera equipment above the Kodak Theatre entrance. I'm not sure what it could do there... but they must know what they're doing! They always have these wide-angle type shots of the beautiful people strolling down the red carpet, so that's probably what it is. It's hard to see in this picture, but they also put up a clear plastic roof in that area, in case it rains. I can only assume that they'll be prepared to cover the entire red carpet with the clear plastic if the weather turns bad.

This is where the stars stroll down the red carpet - right down the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. They get dropped off on the corner of Highland Ave and Hollywood Blvd, go through a big white tent, and take a stroll down the red carpet, and enter the Kodak Theatre for the award ceremony.

It's my understanding, from people that know these things, that once inside the Kodak Theatre, the stars do not actually sit up front and watch very much of the show. The place to be - the real ticket to the Oscars - is at the bar! They actually have fillers sit in the stars seats when they're not there. They escort the stars to their seats next to the stage right before their award is announced, so they can get up and accept the award and head back to the bar!

Here's a basic layout of the whole deal from Google Earth. A "secret" star bar couldn't really exist if I revealed to everyone where it was, so that arrow is for show only. Actually, I don't even know if there is a secret star bar... but I like to envision myself perched atop a secret bar stool having a couple of drinks and a couple of laughs with Keira Knightly and George Clooney.

I might try to get a few more pics right before the event when the red carpet is laid out. I'm also going to try to get a couple of pics of the circus surrounding the event while it's happening - there are police, fire trucks, swat teams, and bomb squads lined up down Hollywood Blvd. They don't show that part on TV!

TG

Preparing for the Oscars

Hollywood Blvd is a ghost town. Very strange... where are the sirens? where are the honking horns? I'll tell ya - they're all a few blocks over on Sunset and Santa Monica, because Hollywood Blvd. is already pretty much shut down to set up for the Oscars. I'll try to get a couple of pics of the setup later today.

You know you have too much money when...

You know you have too much money when you offer $1,000,000 to have Donald Trump put a rubber glove over his head and blow it up on national television...

 

Welcome to Mr. Cuban's world: http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000097073558/

 

Big Love movie premier

Movie premiere of the movie Big Love at the Mann Chinese. I had never heard of this movie until just today...

The Mann side of Hollywood Blvd is shut down to passers by because of this premiere... just two days before they shut it down for a week to set up for the Oscars.

I'll try to get some good pics of the Oscar setup - it's usually pretty interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of this award show.

Signed Denver Broncos football

Legal Bloggers (Blawgers)

Last weekend I was in Chicago for the Lexthink Legal Blawgers convention.  It was a very interesting conference in a couple of different ways.

 

Firstly, it was 90% lawyers with blogs, so these were very smart people.  Secondly, for the most part they had no clue about how to make money with their blogs.  They do it for the passion of it.  They write about legal topics because that's where their interest lies.

 

Their biggest problem is that they avoid putting simple advertising like adsense on their blog because they don't want to be perceived as being associated with any of the advertisements that come up.  They also have some fears of fee splitting.  Everyone wants to be able to justify the time they're putting into their blog, but nobody wants to use the traditional methods of monetizing a site.

 

They have great content.  They have good pagerank.  They have zero dollars!  I tried in vain to suggest ways they can monetize their time investment, but I don't think I got through to very many of them.  It's not for a lack of intelligence, because these were very smart people, but rather a lack of Internet and SEO knowledge.

 

Here's the key.  Put up a separate site to make money on.  Whether it's an affiliate site, membership site, ebook, or retail site - doesn't matter, you just need to sell something.  Then, point keyword loaded links to it from your well trafficked, well respected blog.  Start another blog, and point links from that one as well...  publish a few articles, with links.  That's basically what SEO is all about these days anyway.

 

Then, you have the capability to make money with your integrity intact, without running ads, and without worrying about fee splitting.  Plus, you can rationalize all the time you put into your blog(s) as SEO for your $$ site.

 

Anyway - Chicago is great!  I walked around for a while downtown with my friend Candice and explored a beautiful city.  I'll definitely be back there again...

 

TG

--

>> There are only 10 kinds of people in the world - those that know binary and those that don't.

Smokey and Max

Here's a picture of my two dogs... if you've ever met my dogs, you know the irony of the devil and angel costumes... Smokey is the lab, and maximus is the maltese.

Blog One

This is the first post to travis.giggy.com. Hopefully there will be many more. I hope to stay up-to-date with the things that I'm most interested in. SEO, internet marketing, e-business, technology, programming, to name a few.

I'll post when I can, when I should - this is a journal for myself to keep track of the cool tools and tricks that I occasionally find to help me with my job. I may also post a rant now and then when I gain some insight to what works for e-biz. Also, Hollywood can be interesting at times so I may post a picture or two of the happenings around where I live.

Here's to learning lots about this wacky web...

TG