If you happened to catch my recent Facebook or LinkedIn update you may have noticed I have a new job. Less than two weeks ago I started working for Burns Marketing and Communications. I am starting to get the hang of things and I am finally able to take a breath and make a quick blog post. Not to diminish the great places and talented people I have worked with in the past, but Burns Marketing is an amazing place. I am not easily impressed, but I find myself being stunned by the talent of the new people I will be surrounded with.

For a shy guy like me, joining a large team has been a bit exhausting. In addition to the regular stress of starting a new job, trying to forge new relationships with twenty-nine new people is a big task. How do you connect with people when you only have a few minutes a day to interact? How do you earn the trust of your teammates as quickly as possible? How do you shake off the jitters and start creating quality work? Is it creepy to follow people you just met on the various social media sites? How do you carve out a place for yourself when the territory is claimed by people better than you? All these kinds of questions will fall into place on their own in time. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this new adventure ahead of me. When I described my new job to a friend recently I said something like this:

“In the past when brainstorming for a project I would say, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do [insert crazy/brilliant idea here].” Now I am going to be in a position where those kind of ideas don’t (always) end up on the cutting room floor. The new challenge is going to be figuring out how to finish a project when the client is saying yes instead of no.

So wish me luck as I start the new job. I still have a handful of side projects in the works that I look forward to sharing in the near future. At the top of that list is my second iTunes app that will hopefully be approved this month or in early February. Stay tuned for more details on that, and thank you to everyone who has congratulated me and offered support with my new job. It’s much appreciated.

Seth Godin is encouraging people to post lists of things that we shipped in the last year. The idea is that we have a tendency to kill ideas, procrastinate, and make excuses. The result is that we don’t complete things. Our projects don’t ship. He explains it better than I do, so if you aren’t familiar with his riff, jump to the end of this post and watch his video. I feel like I learned quite a bit in 2010 and can’t wait to keep it going next year. Here are the things I am proud to have shipped last year:

1. My first app was accepted into iTunes: Free Chess Clock.

2. I released a few more WordPress Plugins:
Google Fonts WordPress Plugin
Browser Specific CSS
Chess Game Viewer Plugin
Chess Puzzle Widget

3. I completed my 10 month documentary of the Windsor Town Hall building

4. I had my design work shown in Art Show: Pre-Consumer Artifacts at the University of Northern Colorado.

5. Completed the rebrand of Red Rocket Web Specialists.

Here’s Seth Godin talking about the lizard brain and how to defeat it by shipping:

Have you ever met one of those people who can remember exactly what they were doing on a particular month in a particular year? I am lucky to remember what I had for dinner last night, so I am amazed by people with memories for events and dates. I have been reflecting on the last ten years and find myself struggling to remember where I was. To help me remember I started sketching out the years and it is kind of interesting to see how much my life has changed and what has remained constant.

As I look back over the years the thing that stands out are a handful of friends who have influenced my life significantly. I don’t make friends very easily, and I don’t think I realized how lucky I was to spend time with these people. So here is my 2000-2009 timeline. I am sure I forgot plenty of events and facts, so I might have to come back to this later as I remember things. Here it goes:

2000
Lived in: Seward, Nebraska
Worked for: Concordia University, local gas station
Drove: 88 Toyota Pickup
Favorite possession: Specialized mountain bike
Most influential friend: Jason Simanek
Art shows:
Midstates Graphic Design Competition, Concorida University
5th Plains States Undergraduate Exhibition, Emporia State University
Nebraska Annual Student Art Competition, Wayne State
Watched: Cast Away
Was listening to: Beastie Boys

Big events:
Living off campus
Summer painting class with Professor Bockelman
Dating Betsy Hanft
Playing doubles with Brady Gurganious

2001
Lived in: Nebraska and Colorado
Worked for: Costco, Front Range Community College, Focus on the Family
Drove: 88 Toyota Pickup
Art Show: Painting/Prints by Adrian Hanft, Senior Exhibition, Concorida University
Most influential friend: Paul Maurawski
Favorite possession: Power Mac G4
Watched: The Royal Tenenbaums
Was listening to: Oh, Inverted World, by The Shins

Big events:
Senior Art Show
Kicked off tennis team
Graduation from Concordia University
Got married to Betsy
Moved to Colorado

2002
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: Nelnet
Drove: 88 Toyota Pickup
Favorite possession: Nikon Coolpix 5000
Most influential friend: Gary Meyer
Watched: Spider-man
Was listening to: The Creek Drank the Cradle, by Iron and Wine

Big events:
Got a job at Nelnet
Betsy pregnant
Moved back to Nebraska

2003
Lived in: Nebraska
Worked for: HuebnerPetersen
Drove: 2001 Toyota Tacoma
Favorite possession: iPod 3G
Watched: Lost in Translation
Was listening to: Beulah

Big events:
Rian is born
Got a job at HuebnerPetersen
Moved to Grand Island

2004
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: HuebnerPetersen
Drove: 2001 Toyota Tacoma
Art Show: Recent Works on Paper, three person group show, Hastings University, Hastings, Nebraska
Favorite possession: Our house
Most influential friend: Bennett Holzworth
Watched: Kill Bill 2
Was listening to: Black Keys

Big events:
Award of Excellence, website design, AIGA Nebraska Annual Design Competition
Started Be A Design Group
Moved back to Colorado
Bought our first house

2005
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: HuebnerPetersen
Drove: 1996 Toyota Tercel
Favorite possession: Sony Turntable
Most influential friend: Travis Gray
Watched: Batman Begins
Was listening to: Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, by Eels

Big events:
Official Bloggers for the 2005 HOW Conference
Interviewed on Design Matters:
Be A Design Group website featured on HowDesign.com’s “HOW’s Top Ten Sites”
Found Photography photo blog launched
Lego Camera on Digg

2006
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: HuebnerPetersen
Drove: 1996 Toyota Tercel
Favorite possession: Sennheiser HD580 headphones
Watched: Battlestar Gallactica
Was listening to: Rodrigo y Gabriela, by Rodrigo y Gabriela

Big events:
Best of Flickr, The Blink of an Eye Flickr Photo Contest and New York Exhibition
Launched Adrian3 blog
Timelapse Construction Movie on YouTube
Betsy in car accident

2007
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: HuebnerPetersen
Drove: 1996 Toyota Tercel
Art Shows:
Weld County Annual Fine Art Exhibit
Modern Portraits of Christ, Hastings University
Most influential friend: David Fotherby
Favorite possession: MacBook Pro
Watched: Mad Men
Was listening to: The Shepherd’s Dog, by Iron & Wine

Big events:
Art Show sharing gallery with Robbie Conal

2008
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: HuebnerPetersen
Drove: 1996 Toyota Tercel
Favorite possession: iPhone
Most influential friend: Tony Splittgerber
Watched: Dexter
Was listening to: Orakular Spectacular, by MGMT

Big events:
The end of Be A Design Group
Font Burner Launches
Disney Cruise
I turned 30

2009
Lived in: Colorado
Worked for: Red Rocket Media Group
Drove: Still driving the 1996 Toyota Tercel
Favorite possession: Panasonic Lumix LX3
Most influential friend: Chadd Bryant
Watched: Twin Peaks
Was listening to: Song Up In Her Head, by Sarah Jarosz

Big events:
Left HuebnerPetersen after 5 years
My sister got married
I wrote 4 WordPress plugins
Started new job at Red Rocket Media Group

2010
I have high hopes for the coming years. Blessings to you in the new year and beyond.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday my dad helped me with some electrical work in our basement where I work. I was able to recover 10 extension cords and a couple power strips that covered my walls and ceiling like spider webs. Safety benefits aside, it feels really good to have simplified my workspace so much. I love having a well planned space to work in and anything I can do to simplify my surroundings is really rewarding.

Shawn Blanc has an ongoing blog series about “Sweet Mac Setups” and I am honored to be featured this week. I have also posted the images used in the article on Flickr adding notes pointing out the highlights of the images. My home setup can be viewed here, and my setup at work can be viewed here.

Friday was my 31st birthday and I am recovering from a long weekend of celebration. My friends at work took me out to lunch at my favorite barbecue restaurant Friday afternoon. That evening I had a quiet evening at home with Betsy and Rian. We ordered pizza and opened some gifts. Saturday was the “official” party and I had a bunch of people over for a ping pong tournament. Sunday we drove to Denver to celebrate an early Thanksgiving/birthday meal with extended family. It was great fun and I can’t help but feel blessed to have such loving family and friends.

Whenever you make a birthday post on your blog you feel like you have to say something profound about getting older. Since 31 is such an uneventful age, forgive me for not having the secret to life in this post. However, I am going to use my birthday as an excuse to do a little naval gazing. Apologies in advance.

If I had to comment on a characteristic of my personality that I have noticed lately it would be how competitive I am. I have always been competitive but lately it seems especially hard to not want to win at everything I do. It doesn’t matter if it is ping pong, chess, basketball, graphic design, or a weight loss competition. I will put everything I have into trying to beat you at it. I am even competitive when the only person to compete with is myself. For example, when I run I am disappointed if my time isn’t a personal best every time. I am so competitive, that I don’t want you to just think of me as being a competitive person, I want you to think I am the most competitive person you have ever met. And I am not sure why.

As I try to consider what makes me the way I am, I think it has something to do with how I handle failure. My mom tells stories about how stubborn I was as a child. Being strong willed is a trait that hasn’t left me over the years. I like to think of this as a positive attribute, and it has served me well. Perhaps a better word to describe me would be “determined,” When I don’t win I will try again, and again, until I achieve my goal.

If I have achieved any degree of skill, it has been earned from failure. I have always been a mediocre basketball player. Today I can hold my own because years of blocked shots and turnovers have taught me what not to do. I have lost more games of chess than I care to admit – probably in the thousands. Playing ping pong with me is like playing against a wall – because I have logged so many hours of racket sports.

Unfortunately, being extremely competitive often goes hand-in-hand with being a jerk. And that’s where things get tough. Allow me to end this post with an apology to anyone I have annoyed with my constant determination. As I said at the beginning of this post, I am blessed with family and friends. Thank you for putting up with me! Oh, and if you think it is annoying now, wait until I turn 40 and really have something to prove.

People are always asking me, “Adrian, what does your basement look like?” Ok, nobody has actually asked me that, and nobody has probably even wondered that, but just for fun took a couple pictures of my basement studio/office/gameroom. And thanks to Flickr, these are labeled with captions that just might bore you to tears. Click on the photos below to get all the fascinating details…

Oh, and for what it’s worth, these were taken with my new Panasonic Lumix LX3 camera at the 24mm side of an amazing Leica lens. So far I am really loving this amazing little camera.

First of all, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday and thought of me this week. I have great friends and family, and I am touched by your kindness. Thank you!

So, I turned 30 this week and I would be lying if I told you that it isn’t a little traumatic. I know it’s not that old, but it is a milestone, and it has caused me to take inventory of my life and measure myself against the goals I have for myself. What am I proud of? What do I regret? Who do I love? How did I get here? What’s next? I suppose this is normal, and I feel good about my life and who I am.

With all the soul searching I didn’t have any big moment of clarity and there wasn’t any big revelation. And maybe that’s the lesson. Life is just one endless search to figure out who you are. The arbitrary importance that we put on certain ages (10, 13, 16, 21, 30, 40, 50, etc) are meaningless points on timeline. The important thing is that you do the best you can and take time every once in a while to reflect on what it means to be you.

I read a story a while back about the death of the author who wrote “100 Things to Do Before You Die.” He died at 47, but he lived his life to the fullest. This and other similar stories have made me want to write a list of things that I want to do in my lifetime. Some are relatively easy and others would be amazing achievements. The important thing is having goals and dreams. I plan on updating it as I go, but here is the first draft:

Write a novel
Learn to play the guitar, write a song, and record an album
Write a check for $1,000,000
Write a screenplay
Direct a motion picture
Build and mass-produce a camera that I design
Jump out of an airplane
Be debt free
Design my house
Save someone’s life
Own a Warhol painting
Shake hands with the President
Have an exhibit of my photography
Publish a book of my photography
Teach a college class
Have my name or work mentioned in Wired
Run a marathon

If you are in a similar reflective mood, I encourage you to make your own list. It feels good to have dreams and ambitions even if you die before they are all checked off. So now that I am 30, it feels pretty good. Life keeps getting better and I can’t wait to see what my 30′s bring me!

If you are a Simpson’s fan and you haven’t heard about the Simpsonize Me website you might want to check it out. You upload a photo of yourself and it draws you as you would appear on the Simpsons. You can see my result to the right. I also created Betsy and Rian if you were curious. Fun stuff, and another good viral marketing campaign. Since Crispen Porter does the Burger King stuff I am betting they had a hand in the production.

On another subject, has anyone seen the Simpson movie? I haven’t heard a thing about it. Is it any good?

A friend from work recommended a book to me called “Please Understand Me II” about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. If you have ever taken the test you were most likely fascinated by the insight it gives into your personality. If you haven’t taken the test you can do it online. Anyway, the book is really fascinating and I recommend it if you are interested in that kind of thing. If you were wondering, I am a INTJ.

I = introverted and reserved
N = intuitive and introspective
T = thinking and tough-minded
J = judging and scheduling

A couple tidbits about the INTJ:

1. Difficulties are highly stimulating to INTJ’s who love responding to a problems that require a creative solution.

2. When planning, the INTJ is completely open-minded and will entertain any idea holding promise of utility.

3. Only ideas that make sense to them are adopted: those that don’t are disgarded regardless of who the author is.

4. INTJ’s aren’t distracted by slogans, buzzwords, celebrity, credentials and measure everything against what can add practical value to a project.

5. They can become single-minded at times and can drive others as hard as they drive themselves. This can result in an impression that the INTJ is demanding and difficult to satisfy.

6. INTJ’s are certain that both internal and external consistency are indispensable in a well-run orgainization.

7. INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion “Does it work?” to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms.

Tag, I’m it. Courtesy of Dave.

Four jobs I have had:
1. Produce clerk
2. Gas station attendant
3. Inventory auditor
4. Graphic designer

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Fight Club
2. Star Wars Trilogy
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. Dumb and Dumber

Four places I have lived:
1. Wentzville, Missouri
2. Cullman, Alabama
3. Grand Island, Nebraska
4. Evans, Colorado

Four places I have vacationed:
1. Estes Park, Colorado
2. Chicago, Illinois
3. Arches National Park, Utah
4. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. London broil
2. Tam’s Noodles with Savory Beef and Shrimp
3. Macaroni and cheese
4. Chocolate chip cookies and milk

Four sites I visit (almost) daily:
1. Seth Godin’s blog
2. Make
3. Digg
4. Flickr

Four TV shows I love:
1. Battlestar Galactica
2. The Office (the American version)
3. The Simpson’s
4. MacGyver

Four Places I’d Rather Be Right Now:
1. College
2. Outside taking photos
3. On a mountain riding my bike
4. The local record store

Four bloggers I am passing the torch to:
1. Kadavy
2. Polyfro
3. Frank
4. Bennett and the rest of the group