It’s 2011. Go Do It.

You’ve never seen anyone try it, but you think it just might work. Go do it.

You know it’ll probably take a lot of work, but think it would probably be worth doing. Go do it.

You have a strong feeling someone would be happy if you eventually got around to doing it. Go do it.

You saw her do it. You saw him do it. You don’t know why you were never given a chance. Go do it.

You almost tried it once, but then, on second thought, they were probably right. It wouldn’t have worked. Go do it.

You were raised to be X, Y, or Z, but to this day you think… I wonder if what if I could be Q? Go do it.

You were taught that black is dark, white is light, and colors make people happy. Go do it.

You know that when no one is watching, you feel great stylin’ your own form of dance. Go do it.

You don’t know how to do X, but always loved watching others do it. Go do it.

You’re no expert, but you know something about it. Go do it.

You wonder, why does everyone keep doing it wrong? Go do it.

You never did it because it really wouldn’t be great for everyone else. Go do it.

You’ve long known how to tell off your misguided politician. Go do it.

Still here? You know you’re going to do it, just as soon as…………………. Go do it.

PS: Less abstract for those who need to be told directly.. try these:

• You have a camera. Go take some pictures. Don’t come home until you’ve printed them at least 5×7
• You have an instrument. Make it sing something. Anything.
• You have a bike. Go ride it somewhere. Now.
• You have a funny hat. Go wear it in public. Today.
• You have a terrible singing voice. Go sing a song. Loud. Nobody cares.
• You have a blog. Go write about 2010, or 2011, and when you get to 3 paragraphs, hit publish.
• You have a short story you’ll write someday. Go outline it.
• You know what would make a good kid’s book. Go draft it.

Happy New Year. Please make it matter. Pass this web page to someone who needs to hear it.

Update: now working on Silverstripe SEO

I just read a blog post about Twitter. It suggests that Twitter may go away someday, and we need to be prepared for that. Huh? If you read the post and the comments, it’s almost like some people think Twitter is what made them awesome, and some people think their own websites are way better than Twitter and should be the focus of attention, not Twitter. Huh?

Really now. Which one rocks, you? or Twitter?

Many people have blogs I will never visit (again). A little of their voice in my life is tolerable, but not a lot. I simply can’t stand that much of them. In many cases I’ve proven this in real life. I can say hello and maybe tolerate standing in a group with them at a meeting, but the one-on-one conversation just doesn’t work. Anything beyond superficial becomes grating. Yeah, I know…it’s me, not them. But guess what… twitter has been very good to those people, giving them a chance to stick around. And since I can “follow” them on twitter, effectively limiting them to 140 characters at a time in a stream of other tweets competing for my attention, I barely even notice they are there. Their tweets are rarely any better than their blog posts. Twitter rocks for me that way.

Some other people have awesome blogs and some write awesome articles. I read those and appreciate links to them when I come across them (often in Twitter). In that way, twitter rocks again, for both of us. Increased awareness of your awesomeness. Period.

No one should have to say publicly that their blog is better than twitter. The people will decide. And if you find yourself going to Twitter not because you like it but because you have to “be on Twitter” in order to get attention.. well… I hate to be the (only) one to tell you, but it’s not Twitter. It’s you.

The US Government says it will spend big money to build “high speed rail” connecting cities in Ohio, California, Florida, and possibly other states. In the fine print we see that “high speed rail” means a maximum of 200mph (only in one part of California) and more typically, not much faster than Amtrak travels now.Nothing like the “high speed rail” in Europe and Japan, by the way.

I hate to think that this is another stimulus to big corporations. We’ll be buying new rail cars and hiring shovel leaners of course, which is all good, but will enough of the money actually stimulate the local economies in the areas served? That doesn’t happen until the projects are finished. The initial boon will go to the real estate holders, developers, and those connected enough with the Oblama administration (that’s not a typo) to get the sweet contracts.

My vote is that Amtrak immediately get a tiny fraction of the stimulus pot to create something new called a “Creative Class”. Amtrak already provides trays and power outlets, so laptop use is possible during your ride. What we need now is high quality wireless Internet during the ride, and seating that encourages co-working.

I live in a small city with a “captured economy”. It’s beautiful here, but difficult to find work. Despite having a relatively high concentration of writers, artists, and web technologists, the city doesn’t have corporate residents willing to hire them. The Internet makes telecommuting a reality, of course, which is why they are able to live here, but some face to face is always important. Most of us fly out frequently to meet with clients, customers, and associates. Seattle is 2 hours away by rail, 1.5 hours minimum by car, but only a 25 minute flight.

Put a coworking car on Amtrak between cities and watch as we co-work on the train, happy to spend 2 hours on “slow speed rail”. I bet it would stimulate the economy, and do so in a green way.