Edward Caissie

practicing habitual skills

Posted on August 30, 2010 at 11:00 pm by Edward Caissie

WPCandy Interview
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I was the subject of an interesting interview by Ryan Imel of WPCandy.com tonight that mostly focused on the WordPress Theme Review team and its work.

I say interesting as it was done via Skype with video. I use Skype often for many things such as instant messaging and VoIP calls but I had never actually put to use a web-cam. Setting my newness jitters aside as I had agreed to the interview a few days earlier and while I stumbled about with a few settings, Ryan patiently waited. A few minutes later he “pinged” me and we began …

We chatted for about 30 minutes. I talked a bit about myself but mostly I wanted to focus on what the WordPress Theme Review team is doing and this was made easy by the questions Ryan posed as this was his goal as well. I’ll not go into any more details as this interview was Ryan’s idea and I believe his upcoming post with the footage will be very interesting. Look for it soon on WPCandy.com

I am often very self-critical so I believe I could have been better prepared and spoken more eloquently. Ultimately I wanted to make sure everyone of the team members were given credit for all the hard work they have done and continue to do …

… for the Team!

If I have missed anyone, my sincerest apologies … just drop me a note and I will update this post.

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Posted on August 29, 2010 at 8:32 am by Edward Caissie

10 Minutes
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Start writing … and do not stop for ten minutes. This was a suggestion by a friend on how to generate content for a blog. It’s not a bad idea as it can be used as a stream of consciousness exercise. As long as you keep typing the content will keep growing. Although you may not have any serious masterworks of prose it does provide a good base to start from and with judicious edits it is a great post idea.

The whole concept in my opinion is to not really think about what you are writing in as much as make sure you are. A practice to create a habit, a habit to create a skill, a skill to replace a practice.

The opportunity to delve into your own creativeness simply occurs on its own as the thoughts start to flow freely and easily. A great idea or an insightful bon mots are just some of the potential you can, and will, discover.

There will always be more that can be written and there are never-ending streams of ideas to put to digital paper at least in the case of a blog. This method works just as well with the “old school” tools known as pen and paper, too. I believe with living in this digital age the environmental benefits of not using a resource that can better be used elsewhere is a good idea. I’m writing this on my iPhone, as is common for my Sunday posts, and it actually saves me edit time afterward with its auto-correct functionality … stop writing.

Thanks to Alex Frakking for suggesting this idea at the last WordPress Toronto Meetup gathering on August 21, 2010 … just another of the many benefits of the group.

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Posted on August 28, 2010 at 8:43 pm by Edward Caissie

Communication
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Communication is a key to finding what can be unlocked by an idea. Learning how to make the key is almost as important as knowing what lock it fits. Once you have opened a mind to the potential of an idea you are much more able to present it in an understandable fashion.

Consider your audience before you begin. They are the mold you use to make your key. It is much easier open the door to understanding when you hold the key to unlock it in your hand. Once they are open to accepting an idea, you can easily lead them down a path of knowledge and understanding as you are now able to present the information in a manner they are willing to understand.

Communication is not the conveying of an idea; it is the action of creating an atmosphere of interest in the idea.

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Posted on August 24, 2010 at 5:10 pm by Edward Caissie

Stand Up
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Sometimes you simply have to stand up and get noticed; take the lead by setting a positive example; and, always strive for improvement.

Recognition goes a long way in gaining support for a goal or idea. Gather together positively influenced support for your plan and others will see there are benefits to its completion.

Deliver on your schedule and meet the known, and sometimes unexpected, results with proof positive the methods you use are the most correct going forward.

Once you have proven your worth and shown you are capable, continue to make gains by improving on what got you to there in the first place. Resting on your laurels does not make for better, it just leaves everything the same as it was before.

Stand up, take the lead, and improve.

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Posted on August 23, 2010 at 11:38 pm by Edward Caissie

Give
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Reach out before the hand of need is extended to look back and see the outstretched hands of support.

There is no need to wait for someone to ask for help before offering it. Sometimes its just a simple gesture or small kindness but that is often all it takes to give a person the encouragement to continue. If you give of yourself freely, you may be rewarded in kind. If you find yourself in need, look to those you have helped before and see them in turn reaching out to give you aid.

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Posted on August 21, 2010 at 5:41 pm by Edward Caissie

WordPress Toronto August 2010 Meetup
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Traveling home on the TTC Subway after the latest gathering of the WPToronto Meetup group, I am putting some thoughts into the next Meetup currently scheduled for Sept. 18, 2010.

The turnout was quite good with a peak attendance of 15 people. This was another summer workshop session with no agenda or scheduled topics for discussion.

Once again there were many new faces and several returning members as well. We solved some issues, shed light on others, and added insights to ideas being formulated … or in others words a very successful Meetup in my opinion.

Although the concept of more than one monthly meeting is still left up in the air and we did not sort out a major speaker or idea to have for the September Meetup, I believe the group in general would benefit from short presentations on a regular basis.

Andy McIlwain put forward the idea of discussing how to generate content for a blog taking into consideration the general audience that would be visiting and reading it.

I am suggesting as a possible follow-up presentation of what can done afterward, such as using plugins to measure the traffic being generated by what content.

Alex Frakking suggested the premise of a short introduction period followed by some social interactions and then the presentations would be a good general agenda.

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Posted on August 20, 2010 at 9:21 am by Edward Caissie

Mallory-Everest Ideas
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I have often used Hillary-Everest as a term for describing an idea that may or may not have any redeeming quality or usefulness. After a bit of research, I have found I mistakenly coined the term based on George Mallory‘s famous quote:

Because it’s there.

… although this quote by Sir Edmund Hillary would still support my term:

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

I use Hillary-Everest to describe ideas that are more proof of concept than a requirement and I may still use it out of habit; but, it seems a Mallory-Everest idea may be just as, or possibly more, descriptive.

Which would you use?

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Posted on August 19, 2010 at 8:30 am by Edward Caissie

Site Renovation
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I have found myself with a small window of downtime between projects and have decided to take this opportunity to do a little site renovation … and maybe do some work on my other sites, too.

First off, I have reversed the columns on this site. It’s more a Hillary-Everest idea than anything else; I wanted to see what it would look like … I may switch back. Given that I am using my own personal child theme “Cais” of my Shades theme I am only following the advice I give to all people wanting to change around the theme they are using. I have written about this at BuyNowShop.com, follow this link to read the article from July 2009.

As a child theme, I have also changed the column widths and moved the sidebar search function into the widget area of the theme … although that may not be easily discerned as I am also using a collection of widgets in the sidebar to provide a working example of the BNS Chess.com Badge widget I created.

I will likely tweak and tune this child theme more … feel free to leave your comments on the new look.

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Posted on August 17, 2010 at 5:13 pm by Edward Caissie

Everything Has a Price
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Everything has a price. Perhaps it can be equated in terms of currency but in most cases the real trade-off or cost is measured in time.

Who can help me now?
What day will it be ready?
Where is it?
When can I have it?
Why is this so difficult?

You may pay for premium services and get help immediately in some cases. If you want to receive something sooner you can go get it yourself. You may need to travel to a place you do not want to go to, but you will achieve your goals sooner if you do. Almost everything gets easier with knowledge and practice … and time.

Of course you can simply throw money at a problem and maybe it will go away, but it will still take time, even if only a moment, to replace those funds.

Everything has a price, it’s just a matter of time.

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Posted on August 15, 2010 at 8:34 am by Edward Caissie

Inspirational Stress Relief
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Sometimes the best intentions are overridden by better intentions. I am not one to practice “retail therapy” but my wife can present a convincing argument when she wants to. I set my work schedule aside to spend some quality time with my wife … and spend some money, too.

It was a very long week and stress levels were building so we, or better said she, decided to get ourselves ready and after some additional online research we headed out to get her a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet to be used in her new theme creation venture. We’ve been looking at these tablets for a while and the large model seemed the best fit.

I also registered a couple of new domain names that may be used for these ideas:

My wife also insisted I get a new monitor as I have not been overly happy with the one I’ve had for some time now. It required too many video setting adjustments when I am truly a proponent of the plug-n-play models of hardware. We looked at a few models and chose the NEC MultiSync EA231WMi Even though I was not happy with my Acer AL2016W, I did add it as a second monitor for my desktop PC.

I may not have accomplished as much work as I wanted to get done yesterday and I admit to being a willing participant; but, we did accomplish something of great value: inspirational stress relief via retail therapy.

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