iVaughn.com :: The Blog

So it’s hard to imagine there existing a product so ingeniously designed that a 21 year old like myself can feel the childish joy of Christmas at the adult age of 21, but ladies and gentlemen my new Apple iPod Touch appears to be just that product!

I am hooked! I’ve got countless friends and roomates who have been using their iPhone religiously since it’s debut, and I never really understood all the fuss. I mean deep down I’m kind of a Windows Mobile guy, I’ve owned a smartphone for about the last 3 years, and I’ve always loved it but I cannot lie, this iPod has me sold on Apple’s ability to revolutionize mobile computing.

Look forward to many more great posts to come as I continue to weave this incredible device into my daily life.7

I cannot tell a lie, I’ve been a bit lazy both since my last post and since my last exam of Fall Semester. It has been a well needed, and arguably a well deserved break, one that I must admit, I am enjoying. I did however come into this three week break with some plans. Plans, for iVaughn.com.

In my last post I informed my miniscual audience of the recent development project I have undertake on iVaughn.com’s behalf. My first itteration of the site, version .5 as I like to refere to it, was little more than a single HTML table with som background coloring and numerous internal style sheets. My new design features efficient usage of PHP includes, an attached style sheet and a bevy of other unique and innovative features.

In the next two weeks, as I continue to enjoy good food, good people, and the good’ol holidays, I plan to further the development of the iVaughn.com redisign. For those of you however, with patience issues, I am including a link to the sneak preview. I must convey that this is little more than an unreleased Beta version, and that the following url is subject to change and/or removal at any time.

http://www.iVaughn.com/indexEditing.php

Thanks,
-Vaughn

As of late last week, I have removed the pre-existing iVaughn.com site and replaced with an informational splash page alluding to an eventual redesign. The overall theme of the redesign can be imagined through the presence of the large Blue iVaughn.com banner on the splash page. I am entering winter break and am faced with three weeks of vacation time over which I am pressuring myself with the task of completing the redesign in it’s entirety. I very much appreciate the patience of any and all visitors. And my I assure everyone that you will be disappointed by the new look.

[Deep Breath....Exhale]

Okay, so I’ve kind of got some good news…ITS OVER! The semester that has been tormenting me for the past 4 months has finally drawn to a close. Lets be honest however, it didn’t go quietly. This past was perhaps the one thing that I am never going to miss about College,  FINALS! I busted my ass for four straight days in an attempt to finally learn what I should have been learning all along, and let me tell you, on more than one occasion, it didnt go well. But enough about school, I mean after all, it is over for the next three weeks right?

So, as its possible that everyone and anyone who reads this might notice a little change, I have been developing a redesign of the entire iVaughn.com online experience. I finally managed (with the help and inspiration of a friend) to get Wordpress installed locally on my host, no wordpress subdomain for me, hells no I got the pages, plugins and everything up and running now. Over the course of the next three weeks, while I meander around absent of oppurtunity and therefore completely absent of obligation, I plan to futher develop the iVaughn.com existence.

Keep and eye out, its coming!

I recently overhead on TWIT a few months ago that as an alternative to the blogging lifestyle he had been enjoying for quite some time, millionaire technology entrepreneur Jason Calacanis had begun an email list. A list to whom he composes roughly 1500 word emails simiar in content and context to the blog entrys he was previously known for. Well lets jus say I had no choice but to sign up, my internal geek had already filled out the sign-up form before had even had a chance to read it.

Well needless to say, I’ve been getting emails on a semi-regular basis (maybe monthly to semi-monthly) however none have hit home or been as rivetting as his most recent The 120% Solutions.

This email seemed so in-depth and yet personal that I had no choice but to indulge my desire to reply and the following was my effort to do just that. (Note: It may be prudent to read the email prior to reading my response to get good understanding of context.)

Mr. Calacanis

I know I’ve got to be one of only about 17,000 replies you’ve received regarding this astonishingly well thought-out and developed email. I myself, a (soon to be graduating) information technology college student am looking out at the big bad world of reality with a sense of sheer terror.

I’ve worked hard, taken plenty of classes and am looking to accomplish a feat that is growing all to uncommon in today’s college society, graduate in four years like you’re supposed to! But all has left me virtually jobless, completing maybe 10 hours of freelance web development work a month and getting paid net 45 (which btw is long enough to forget you even did the work and all of the sudden wonder where the money mysteriously came from), as well as literally broke and in debt up to my eyeballs (thank goodness I’m tall or I’d be in over my head). The question I would like to pose to you, is what sort of advice and or criticism might you have for a young guy like me. I see the economy is disarray, I see my bank account in deep red, I see my dreams of technology fortune slipping into the distance and I feel the weight of reality falling on my shoulders.

I’m a little unsure what the odds are I might ever receive a response to this reply, I simply wanted to share my thoughts in hopes that it might spur thought for a future email addressed to the stressing college student who once thought it couldn’t get worse that an all-nighter in the library during finals week and now realizes that they may be the best is EVER gets for a while to come. I’m not going to lie, I’m scared, I’m nervous and I’m completely un-financially capable of financing a graduate degree in engineering (yep, I took note of that) so I’m also in need of an alternative solution.

I sincerely thank you for your time in the event that you read this and would simply like to add that if you ever find yourself on TWIT(My favorite

podcast) and accidently say the words “Hi Vaughn, I just wanted to prove that I DID read your email” I wouldn’t mind one bit

-Vaughn Johnson-

www.iVaughn.com

Okay, so I had a stroke of brilliance earlier this evening and have managed to amass a total square pixelage(just made that word up) of 4,370,720. Check it out!

Hey all, (Why I feel the need to address anyone when I know no one reads this thing, I’ll never know)

I’m actually doing it, I’m friggen blogging! Its not as hard as I imagined it would be. I read all these frequent blogs on all sorts of topics and I think to myself, I a)cant even write all that well, who would read my shit, and b)the only important news I read comes from other blogs so I’d just be repeating what that guy already said. So I’ve since ditched the dream of iVaughn.com becoming the next Lifehacker or ArsTechnica and have re-focused my blog on a more valiant and obtainable goal, to a attract so goddamn readers! So, here goes nothing.

Site Map As an aspiring IT Professional and avid computer software user, I’ve grown acutely aware of the many nuances and caveats that need to be kept in mind at all times while planning a life through a peice of software, take for instance MS Money Plus. I use it religiously, to plan my bills, track my account transactions and balances, manage my budget and forecast my future cash flows, but what happens when you simply read the number that MS Money spits out and never consider how it might have obtained it? All sorts of shit, that’s what. Needless to say I’ve come to the realization that I need a job, after noticing that my projected year ending (2008) balance of $1500 was greatly skewed by Money’s unique ability to take an average of all the monthly income I’ve generated over the past 9 months and assume that I am still capable of generating that today. So, for the sake of argument, lets assume that I cannot, as the past 9 months of income were the result of a lucrative on-campus job which I gave up to participate in an even more lucrative summer internship, neither of which mind you, do I still have today. In any case I realigned the estimates with what I considered most reasonable and saw the bottom line result plummet to just above $350.

I have since contacted the local campus bookstore about a graphic design job for arounf 12 to 20 hours a week, and roughly $7.90 an hour. Not nearly as lucritive as my previous employments but income none the less, I will keep all posted and I look forward to any wayward web surfers stumbling upon my site and commenting.

Thanks.

So I’ve got to write a paper, needless to say I’m not sycked. Its not a short one, 10 to 15 pages, and its not a simple one, select an emerging technology and write about how it either is, or could be a competative advantage. I’ve chosen the cloud, cloud computing that is, on the premis that the ermerging technological innovations surrounding it will undoubedly affect the way many current companies do business as well as the business models of many current and future startups. More on the book I bought, Nicholas Carr’s new one, The Big Switch, to help me achive this miricle of paper, in a later post as I hope to being posting at a much higher rate. No joke! I’ve made it an Outlook Task, its so totally official, before long it will be as much a part of my weekly routine as sex, alcohol, TWIT, MacBreak Weekly, and Buzz Out Loud…I’m just kidding, alcohol isn’t ALWAYS weekly, only when I can afford it

Now while I highly doubt I’m anywhere near the front of the line among others who have either said or published this before, I still think there is plenty of small significance to my story that makes this post worth writing. I’ve been a college student for over 3 strong years now, I’ve listened to the lectures, and attended the workshops (well okay, so I’ve attened some of them), but it seems strangely obvious to me that no lecturure or workshop leader could possibley instill in you the ability to write well, without inspiring you to first try. Its not what anyone can say aloud, that bolsters the imagination to generate elequent prose that flows from the lips and resinates somewhere deep within the cranium cortex (the term, that I just made up three seconds ago, for the deepest part of the brain where words become inspiration and shoot that envigoratingly tingly feeling throughtout your body), but instead what anyone, and I litterally mean anyone, can write with nothing more than monent of deep thought, a quill and a piece of parchment, or even an iPhone these days, who knows.

The point to this post is to point out a realization I all to recently discovered about my writing style and ability. It stems from the everyday books, articles, and posts that I read on a daily basis. There are an astonishly few who are born with the ability to write, and write well, the rest of us must learn through the power of inspiration and the desire to do so.

In my endless attempt to become more active blogger and more influential contributor to the new, more social Web 2.0, I have done my best to stick to a fairly strict schedule of reading and participating in other, more famous, blogs, such as Lifehacker, Endgadget and Digg.

I came across a Lifehacker post this morning in my GoogleReader feed that highlighted the CEO of a publishing company, Michael S. Hyatt. Mr. Hyatt explained the tactics, processes and mindsets that he uses to both create and maintain what he refers to as “A Life Plan”. I must say this is one of the longest posts I have taken the time to ready fully in quite some time. It has inspired me to attempt a similar feat. While I am still but a wee young’un at a ripe ol’age of 21. I can see great profitability in creating a life plan. I find myself in constant battle with the internal me that wishes for only the best eventual outcome, no matter how treacherous the current road may be, and the more external me that wants what I want, when I want it, living in the moment, in the now, with little regard for the future.

As I have complained in other blog entries, I have a hard time finding time to post my thoughts, ideas, and stories. I hope I can turn a few things around in my life, take back some things that I realize mean less, and invest more of myself in the things that mean the most.

I look forward the future and all it’s grandeur possibilities. I also look forward to the eventual development of a “Life Plan” of my own.

-Vaughn-