President's Day Week - Where's the Celebration?

It's Monday February 18th - President's Day and a Holiday for most all government workers, including schools, banks and of course, the bankrupt post office. In many places, the schools are closed for the entire week, and this is known in many of those communities as "snow week" - an opportunity to get away and ski for a week.

Now can American's tell me what the heck President's Day has to do with Skiing? I have no clue, but turning what should be one of the most important days to Americans into an excuse to go skiing and lose a week of schooling seems like we're headed in the wrong direction.

Now I'm not saying all good Americans need to stop and spend the day revisiting our 44 presidents, remembering who each of them were and what each did, or did not, do to advance our America. But, perhaps we should spend an hour - just 1 of the 24 of Presidents Day, doing exactly this. Just pick one of our presidents - I would recommend you start with George Washington, our first president who without whose leadership we might not even be an America today, and refresh ourselves on WikiPedia if nothing else, as to the many things he did to help get our America off to a great start.

If you are a father or mother, gather your children around you, regardless of their age, and talk about the president that you chose to read and learn more about. Ask each family member what they got from your reading about that presidents contribution to society - both good and not so good - and how they think it may have changed America. Next year, pick another president and repeat. It's a small thing to do to help pass on to the next generation the importance of each presidency and how important who they vote for really is. 

Valentines Day is Upon Us

Blogging - It is hard to develop the habit - which I think is even harder than, or at least equal to, writing good content. It's been six weeks since my last post on December 31, 2012. 

I just got over a two week bout with Bronchitis. I likely picked it up while at a great conference hosted by a new "friend" - Tim Burks, who I met last September 9th in Denver at the 360iDev conference. This was Tim's first conference that he put together with a friend, and I have to say that they did an "awesome" job. When the only thought of improvement I could come up with was that the name tags should have you name on both sides (so you don't have to constantly flip it around so people can see your name) - that's how great the single-track conference was.

My first app launched last September has been a financial flop so far, but my main goal was to learn how to do a lot of coding - using as many libraries as practical - so it was a "success" in that regard. I believe I have 3 problems I need to address to re-launch the app and make it more of a financial success.

1) Simplify the UI and UX

2) Determine a better "Discovery" set of methods

3) Some serious marketing effort

I've got a mostly total rewrite in process which addresses #1 and adds the missing feature of saving multiple "tip events" and some more features. Progress has been slow due to multiple  family issues that have struck the last six months and will continue to tap some of my bandwidth for some time. 

I'm talking to other IOS developers on #2 and #3 and am attending monthly events in the area to add to my list of new IOS Developer "friends" and am learning from them what works and what doesn't, but I still have a long way to go before I will be ready for the new launch, hopefully in the next six weeks - my goal.

Today I signed up for the April 18-20 CocoaConf in San Jose, CA. Looks like it will be an awesome learning experience.  More later.

Some Final Thoughts on the Last Day of 2012

(Ignore the year timestamp if it shows 2013 - SquareSpace bug - it is 2012)

It's a sunny day outside in the final 12 hours of 2012, after an exceptionally wet November and December, with most areas of Northern CA around 175% of normal rainfall vs 35% of normal at this same point in 2011.

Our family has had some tough challenges in 2012, continue to struggle with the toughest two - one health and the other 18 year old teenage rebellion, and like many around the world, has had some positive outcomes and some negative outcomes on those challenges, with the outcome of both still not 100% known.

Our Congress and President continue to play a game of "chicken" with our country's financial and political future, while its constituents impatiently wait for them to end their gamesmanship and lead, as we elected them to do. In many respects, our first Congress had much better leadership, even though in some cases they ignored, or at best broadly interpreted, the newly minted constitution in order to get their jobs done. 

In the past, many of us have made "resolutions" on this day for the coming year. For most of us, we forgot what they were almost as quickly as we voiced them, with most of those resolutions not being met. This year, I have decided to try a different track - making just one resolution - that to "stop" and "listen" more to those around me and keep my mouth shut noticeably more often. If one wants to learn more, one must "listen" more, as one who talks usually learns little if anything. Perhaps all of us should consider this as a resolution. Those around us would likely greatly appreciate it as they would either have more quiet time to their own thoughts or more time to express their own to us and those around us. We would benefit by learning more about those we are around and would likely form more friendships and find more loves, as "listeners" are more often appreciated than "talkers". If I can do this one resolution, it would be a big accomplishment for both me and those I am around. I suspect doing this will be hard as I am one who often finds it hard to endure silence when around others and will often "fill the void of silence" with my thoughts if no other quickly steps up. This year I will strive to "zip it" when I have not in the past and learn to "enjoy the silent voids" or let others "step up" and fill those voids themselves so that I can learn more about them and their thoughts.

What is your primary resolution?

Last Day of November - Some thoughts on Jobs - Grab Check&Tip App for $0.99 Today!

Hello Fans,

As I sit here in my home office on the last day of November, the rainy season for northern California is in full-swing, as the rain continues to fall in buckets. By Sunday, many SF Bay Areas cities are forecast to have rain total that will exceed the average rainfall for the entire year! I guess we don't have to worry about drought this summer.

Speaking of drought, there is a serious drought of "jobs" world-wide, with the unemployment level among the younger age groups exceeding 50% in multiple European countries. Here in the USA, hundreds line up for a handful of minimum wage, part-time, seasonal job openings at local stores. Multiple large USA businesses have already announced that they are "terminating" virtually all full-time positions within their companies in order to avoid having to buy these employees health insurance as "mandated" by "Obama-care". So now, millions of hard-working Americans who were living pay-check-to-paycheck will have their 40 hour week cut back to 29.5 hours in order for their employer to stay under the 30 hour per week "trigger" that would require by law that their employer provide health insurance for them. How many of us could survive losing 25% of our weekly income? These hard-working Americans will flood into the already overcrowded job market competing to add a 10 hour per week part-time job to their work schedule, and find few employers who will be interested, especially when there are many "100% unemployed" workers (who will work any hours offered), vs. the 75% employed person who needs a part-time job whose hours don't overlap those of their current employer - damn near impossible! Hey, I know our health care system is far from perfect, but when tens of thousands fly to the USA from countries with government mandated and managed health care to get their badly needed health care here, we must be doing something right. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water - this specific mandate in "Obama-care" pretty much did that. We have to find a better solution, but I'm afraid for all those who have received notice from their employers of "your full-time position is now 29.5 hours/week" - that ship has already sailed.

This is not a great way to end the family month of November. Here's to hoping those we have elected to office can find a way to work together to STOP spending more money than is paid in taxes each year and provide a safety net for ONLY the serious needed for a short period of time to get back on their feet and those physically or mentally unable to provide for themselves at all.