1. What is your definition of happiness?


2. Are you there yet? Do you fit that description?

So today, I'm going to take just a moment and answer those questions.

What is my definition of happiness?

My life has changed a lot over the last few months which has given me the opportunity to think about this question more than most people. I'm not sure I can completely quantify it in a simple statement, but here goes:

"Happiness for me is living my life on my own terms."

Now, let me elaborate a bit. I have recently begun taking on some side jobs and I've been really fortunate in that I have received more interest than I expected. I have actually had to turn down a few clients because I simply don't have the time for them. In particular, I've been able to pick and choose the clients that I really want to work with. Taking on these side jobs has also allowed me the flexibility to work where I want, when I want. For example: I'm beginning to rediscover my love for coffee shops since I can stay for a few hours and actually get paid for it.

One point I want to stress here though: living life on my own terms is not about doing what I want, when I want, how I want.

In the past, I've had the freedom to make choices, to make commitments, and to live life how I wanted. Sometimes, those past choices conflict with what I want to do right now. Happiness isn't about always getting what you want; that would be ludicrous! It's about having the freedom to make your own choices, and follow through with them. There will always be trade-offs, but the ability to choose those things which will bring you more happiness in the long run is one of the greatest of freedoms.

Lastly, living life on my own terms is about being able to work towards my ultimate goal. It's okay if I'm not exactly where I want to be, as long as I am able to do things that get me closer to it. I love to learn and to grow, so I'm honestly not sure if I'll ever be where I want, but I am happy knowing that I am working towards it.

This brings me to the second question.

Am I there yet? Do I fit that description?

The last year has really helped me shift my attitude. I now know that I can achieve what I want. I know that eventually, I will own my own business and be able to work from wherever my wife and I decide to be. I know that if I don't reach my goals, it's my own fault; and that sometimes that's okay.

Humans are an interesting race; the world changes so quickly around us, and in general, we accept that change, yet we're not ready to really change ourselves. Change our priorities. Change our views of what we want out of life.

Now, I'm not one for being wishy-washy or not having some long-term goals, but too often, I find myself clinging to something that I don't actually care about anymore! An unfinished book that I know the ending to. A project that won't change the world, but I feel like I have to finish. A blog that I want to read, even though I'd rather be writing and building up my own.

So, in the last year, I've begun to try a new technique (and pardon the use of a phrase that is bouncing around the blogosphere): do more of what I love, and less of what I don't.

If there is something that is weighing me down...and I don't have to do it, I don't! I let it slide, and I focus on the stuff that I do want to do. The stuff that I really enjoy. The stuff that makes me jump inside and come alive!

It's been fun, and a bit surreal, to feel this transition.

So, am I there yet? Am I where I want to be?

NEVER!

But I am getting closer and closer each day; and for me, that is what brings happiness.

Don't mind the math...I was concerned about the environment and reusing paper...or something like that.

Anyway, this has been a fantastic experience! From start to finish, I really enjoyed getting back into drawing and getting a bit out of my comfort zone. It's also pretty cool to be included amongst some really great artists in the book!

Below is my original drawing, and I sent him a very slightly revised version that faded nicely into a white background.

I was fairly pleased with myself, and thought I had done a decent job! Then, last night, Matt sent out an e-mail to say thank you, and provide us with a preview copy of the book. The other art work was so good! My dreams of becoming a true artist were dashed!

Okay...so not really. I don't even really have dreams of becoming an artist, but I did realize that my work wasn't as great as it could have been, and I felt compelled to spend a bit more time with it.

I sat down and started cleaning up some edges in Photoshop, and began coloring all of the different pieces. I figured this process would take me an hour or so, and then I'd move on with my day. I was only half-wrong; it took about two hours, but it was a fun two hours :-)

So, below I give you the final product!

I am really grateful to Matt for putting together such an awesome project and allowing us to be a part of it! His work is top-notch, and the book is an excellent read! The art is wonderful, and the text is comical and yet so true.

So please take a moment to go experience this awesome creation and to say thanks for reminding us of the little things that make us happy!

Right now is a very exciting time for me!

I'm starting to embrace a more primal lifestyle all around. From food and health, to how I view the world around me, I'm trying to bring out the primate in myself.

I'm also working on redesigning my blog via "live updates" meaning that what you see is the current state. I'm working on the redesign, though, because I'm getting ready to launch a new site (and eventually a series of sites) and I want them to look similar enough that users don't feel lost when switching between the two.

But I'm most excited about this: I had a fantastic software product idea on Tuesday morning around 2:45 am when I couldn't sleep. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that you should be getting the primal picture by reading this very primal post. It should be coming very soon.

I'm super excited to get the ball rolling with this! But I need your help!

The Problem: I'm going to use LaunchRock to get some feedback about interest and get some super early beta testers to help me launch via a very iterative process. Unfortunately, LaunchRock is still in beta too!

The Solution: I need you to click this link to help me get a beta invite. That's really it! Just click it and help me out!

If you're interested in creating your own launch page, then signing up for a beta invite will also help me out. If you do, leave a comment, and I'll help you get started in whatever way I can!

Thanks for the help guys and gals!

Primate-in-Training
Topher

The latest US labor statistics show that nearly 14,000,000 Americans are currently unemployed and looking for jobs. If we assume that 25% are actively looking for jobs, and doing roughly 1.5 interviews per week, that means that there are roughly 5,250,000 interviews in any given week.

Have you ever had an interview that didn't go quite as you expected?

This past Wednesday, I had an interview that felt doomed from the start. Like a lone Chihuahua pitted against an army of German Shepherds; I didn't do as well as I had hoped.

But even with the sadness and disappointment that comes from such a massive lack of performance, I still had a great time and enjoyed the overall trip. And I even learned a few lessons along the way.

How Did it Start

I was contacted by a company in regards to a very Javascript-heavy position. I have only been working with Javascript for about 5 months and the work has been mostly high-level use of a Javascript framework.

I informed the recruiter of this, but he gave me the opportunity to speak with one of his engineers to evaluate my performance. Apparently, I did a decent enough job that the recruiter contacted me again to setup an in-person interview; which meant a trip out to their headquarters in California.

I was a bit hesitant since I felt that the position wasn't in-line with my current focus, but he assured me that evaluating my abilities was in their best interests and that they would be happy to fly me out for the interview. Due to some projects at my current job, we scheduled the trip for a few weeks out and I began making preparations.

Unfortunately, those preparations did not include doing any research into the fundamentals of Javascript; an area in which I am sorely lacking. This was to be my downfall.

Lesson Learned: Make preparations for the position you are being offered.

What Went Wrong

During the few weeks before my interview, I concentrated heavily on my current job to ensure that everything would be ready for the multiple-product launch in the middle of August. I didn't have time to think, much less research anything outside of the scope of my current projects.

But the projects finished, and I found myself with something I didn't realize how much I had missed: time.

It was at this point that I should have begun preparing for the interview. Learning about the company, researching Javascript fundamentals, and strengthening my understanding all around so that I could blow the interviewers away with my "mad skilz".

But I didn't.

Instead, I spent time with my wife, played a bunch of video games, hung out with friends and began the work necessary to start my own business. All things that distracted me from what should have been my goal of getting the job.

Lesson Learned: You have to actually work towards your goal! Go figure…

Looking Back

But as I reflect back on the whole experience, I have to be honest with myself. I was never truly excited about working for the company in the capacity that they were evaluating.

I didn't really want the job, and that apparently showed through due to my lack of preparations and my lack of excitement. I should have done better to meet their expectations.

Lesson Learned: It's not worth it for anybody if you aren't truly excited about the opportunity.

A Life Worth Living

So where do I go from here?

Well, unlike the multitude of unfortunate Americans in the statistic above, I am still blessed with a job that I enjoy and co-workers that drive me to success. So I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon.

Regardless, I want to live a life worth living. What exactly does this mean?

It means that I want to experience new things and share my findings with the world. It means that I want to make more time for the things in life that are most important to me such as my family, my friends and my church. It means living an extraordinary life, and helping others to do the same.

I'm not quite sure what the future holds, but I know what I want to accomplish, and it's time I drive myself to make that happen.

Lesson Learned: Set your goals, and only do things that help you accomplish them; everything else is a distraction.

Take Action Now

Remember, if you're not happy with your life, it's up to you to shift your goals, shift your mindset and shift your life.

I would highly recommend reading Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand by Peter Arnell and subscribing to (and browsing the archives of) the following blogs. They have all helped me on my journey to live a life worth living.

• NerdFitness - Level Up Your Life Each and Every Day
• Blog of Impossible Things - The Impossible is Always Possible
• Heroic Destiny - The Intentional Pursuit of Your Best Life
• Three New Leaves (3NL) - Simplify. Change. Smile.

How can I help you live an extraordinary life? Let me know in the comments below, or shoot me a message and start the most important conversation of your life.

Have you ever started a project, then looked back months or even years later to realize that you hadn't ever finished that project?

I fear that has been the fate of this blog.

I started with such good and noble intentions of multiple posts per week; engaging content; awesome pictures; and anything else that would make this site outstanding.

Then life hit me like a Mack truck travelling 100 miles per hour.

So what do you do?

Keep on Trucking

If there's one thing that I've learned from Nerd Fitness, it's to never give up. Always level up your life a little bit each day.

Even though my blog has fallen by the wayside, I've been advancing my skills in coding, management, and business by what I would consider leaps and bounds. I've been learning so much, and attempting to be useful to others in ways I haven't had much time to do (such as open source projects).

Due to some of these attempts, I've apparently been noticed...

I'm ecstatic to announce that I will be travelling to California next week for an interview at a fairly large company (no not that one)! I'm not sure what will come of it, but I'm extremely excited for the potential, and very grateful for the opportunity.

Level Up Each Day

So, in the spirit of new beginnings, I'm going to do my best to start posting more regularly to my blog. Look for tons of pictures next week! I can't wait to see San Francisco!

I intend to create a separate blog for my coding-related posts, so this blog will focus mainly on my own personal experiences and life lessons.

I hope that you will join me on my journey, and I hope that I can make a positive impact on your life.

So I'll leave you with the following question: How can I do it? How can I make a positive impact upon your life?

Leave a comment below!

P.S. If any of you are in the San Francisco area, I'd love to meet up with you next week! Just use my contact form to shoot me an e-mail and I'll get back to you ASAP!

Work Work

After my fairly large screw up at work, I've been putting in a lot more hours in an attempt to fix the mess and make things right. So I haven't had as much time to focus on other activities. Work has been really interesting and I'm looking forward to where we are headed. I predict good things in our future.

Marnie has also been working a lot recently. Her most steady employer (she is a substitute) just hired her every day for the entire month of April, so she's been busy as well.

Zug Zug

My sister is currently days from popping out her first child and my second nephew. I am totally excited and can't wait to see him! We'll probably head up there the weekend after he is born (assuming he isn't born on the weekend) since Marnie and I both have full time jobs. But rest assured, we'll get our butts up there to spend some time with him.

If you've been following my weight-loss at all, then I'm sad to inform you that I jumped back up a bit this last month. I currently have about 7-8 pounds to lose to get back to my lowest weight (240 lbs) and about one week to do it. I'm planning on joining in the The Greatest Contest in the History of the World which starts on April 11th and I'd like to start at what I was before this past month. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I don't think I'll have a problem getting out to exercise.

That's all I have for now, but I have a few things up my sleeve that should be coming soon, so keep an eye out!

Imagine for a moment, your perfect self. Do you have it in mind? Good. Hold it there.

Right now, across the Internet, people are reflecting on 2010 and setting new goals for 2011. Goals that will push them to become their perfect self. But at least half of them are doing it wrong. You can't just set goals. You have to execute them.

Goals without action are simply desires. Things that you'd like to happen. Things that will never happen unless you do something about them.

Now, bring your perfect self back to the front of your mind. You got it? Good.

That. That right there in the front of your mind. I'm going to show you how to be that. I'm going to show you how to execute your goals so that you can define YOUR future.

Step 1: Define

The first thing you need to realize, is that you have to clearly define goals if you want them to happen. You need to say exactly what it is you want to accomplish. But more than that, you have to define how you are going to get there. What tasks can I do that will get me closer to my goal. How often do I have to do these tasks? And how many of those tasks do I need to complete before I'm done.

Look at guys like Joel Runyon, Lachlan Cotter and Steve Kamb. They sat down and figured out exactly WHAT their goals were and HOW they wanted to achieve them.

Follow in their footsteps and follow these guidelines:

1. Write down your exact goal. You don't want to lose weight: you want to lose 30 pounds by June.
2. Figure out a plan of attack. 30 pounds divided by 5 months is 6 pounds per month. So figure out how you will lose 6 pounds per month on average.

   Note: If you don't know where to start, I would highly recommend reading through Matt Madeiro's book Simpler. It's an excellent resource for those looking to simplify their life. Best of all, its free!

3. Every day, do something that pushes you toward your goal. If you're not working towards it, you'll never get there.
4. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, track your progress! If you don't know where you are, you'll never figure out how to get where you're going.

Step 2: YOUR

The problem with goals is that they usually miss the point. Seriously. Goals are typically expressed as a form of external validation. They're requirements or criteria you set as permission to feel successful. A goal says "when this condition exists, then I will be successful; when I am successful, then I can feel fulfilled." Totally backwards.

- Lachlan Cotter

Lach makes an excellent point in his latest post. YOUR goals should be yours and yours alone. Sure, it's great to join in on similar goals with others. But if it's not YOUR goal, you'll never actually WANT to do it.

People like to follow the crowd, especially around this time of the year. They want to lose weight. Stop smoking. Quit their job. And the list goes on and on.

The problem is, these goals are generally not theirs. They are the "standard" goals that everyone else is doing. "Yeah, John quit smoking, so I should too." Sound familiar?

Now, I'm not advocating that you shouldn't quit smoking, all I'm saying is that you have the wrong reason. YOU should want to quit smoking because it's something YOU have decided to do. Don't let anyone else influence your goals.

If you think about the goal, and then you think, "So and so would approve", pick a different goal.

Step 3: Future

There's a funny thing about goals: they haven't happened yet. They are things that will happen in the future. But there's another great thing about goals:

They don't care where you've been only where you're going!

My past has been dicey at best. I was a loser. A nerd. I've said some of the stupidest things you could possibly imagine.

But the past is for historians. I'd rather focus on the future. The things that I can change. The things that I will change. How I will make an impact and make this world better.

If you continually dwell on the past, you won't have time to think about the future. The future is where you are going and where you want to be, so dwell on that. Focusing on your mistakes will only lead you to making them again. Learn from them, but don't focus on them.

My Future

I've accomplished quite a bit over the last year. I've reached some goals I didn't even know I had set. But I've never been one to set goals. I just let life happen around me and it's turned out pretty well. In some cases, better than if I had planned it out myself (my wife for example).

But I'm tired of just letting my life happen around me. I want to make my life what I want it to be. I want to be thin and in shape. I want to have enough money to travel around the world with my wife and see cool places and do cool things. I want to make outstanding software, not just good software. I want to start my own business and start making some passive income. I want to change people's lives for the better by my actions and my words.

So here is my future for 2011. This is what I will accomplish:

• Start my own business and make $1000 from it.
• Learn how to play 10 songs on the piano.
• Make my blog (or another one) useful to others, not just me. I want to share my knowledge and have it help people. I want to make the world a better place.
• Lose 50 pounds and be able to do 15 muscle-ups in a row.
• Affect at least one person, and make their life better in a significant way.

So there you have it. That's my future.

What is your future? What will you do in 2011 that you've always wanted to do? Leave a comment below and let me know.

The Lie

On October 15th, 2010, I shared with the world a vision. A vision to which I am deeply attached. And with that vision, I shared a plan. A plan to move my vision from dream to reality.

But that reality didn't happen.

Instead, my dream stayed a dream. Still just a vision in my head. A plan without an action. The definition of uselessness.

The Truth

So what happened?

The truth is, I am a terrible project manager. My time estimations are generally orders of magnitude less than viable. It's not that I don't believe that I can do the impossible. It's that I can't guess how long it will take me.

The social integration that I'm working on has taken far longer than I anticipated. Not necessarily difficult, but more time consuming.

But that's not an excuse. I could have accomplished this if I truly wished.

But I didn't. I don't want that kind of life.

I enjoy working on side projects, but I also enjoy spending time with family. And I've had a lot of time to spend with family recently. I'm a newlywed who loves his wife. I want to see her. I want to be with her when I can. And let's not forget about Thanksgiving. I got to see some of my family I haven't seen since the wedding.

So, the truth is this: I made a conscious decision (or many actually) to do things other than this project. Spending time with family; working on other projects; working on my blog. These were all things that I decided should take a higher priority.

The New Plan

Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.

-Zig Ziglar

So what's the plan?

Surely, I'm not just going to give up. Of course not! And stop calling me Shirley!

Life without failure is a life without risk. I'd rather take the risks and fall occasionally.

Even though I haven't even technically started LevelMyLife, I've been working on other projects that push me towards that goal. Particularly with the social integration portion.

So, moving forward, I'm going to finish the smaller projects that push me toward my goal. Progress is certain, even though time is fleeting. Expect many new things and announcements in the near future.

Once I've launched some of these other projects, I'll have a clearer picture of how long it will take me to finish LevelMyLife. At that point, I'll post an update to let everyone know. Just remember this: LevelMyLife is still my vision. It is still my overarching goal, and I will not give up on it. Though adversity may alter my path, I will prevail. I shall meet my goal.

The Takeaway

What have I learned from this experience?

For starters, I should allow myself more than two months to start and finish a major project; especially around the holidays. There just isn't enough time.

But I think more than that, I've learned that failure is okay. We all make mistakes. How we handle them is what determines who we are. Our character. I want to show a strong character.

So this is me picking myself back up and dusting myself off. Next time I return, I'll be stronger for this. Just wait and see.

So how do you handle failure and what have you failed at recently?

Then it hits you like a dump truck running over an old lady with a walker. You're writing content that nobody cares about! Including you!

That's where I am today. The Fangiotophia Blog has been in existence for almost 8 years now and I still don't know what I want to talk about. I don't know what excites me.

The reason? I never sat down to think about it. That was my mistake. My crucial failure in all of this. And one I intend to correct.

Cast Your Vote

This post isn't to tell you what I'll be writing about. I don't even really know myself yet. This post is simply to let you know that changes are coming. Expect them. I hope you'll embrace them. But whatever you do, let me know your thoughts.

I'm eager to hear what people have to say. What do you think I should write about? Leave a comment below, or shoot me an e-mail.

I have recently been working with the excellent Raphaël JavaScript graphics library in order to make some elegant charts for my company's flagship product, Pharos 360. It's been a bit of a rough time trying to get everything working exactly how I want, but I've managed, and I think they are starting to look pretty slick, if I do say so myself.

Argument #1

But one thing has been bothering me throughout the whole process: the initialization animations that I am running happen as soon as the element loads (since I'm using AJAX) which means that the page itself may not be loaded yet. This means that there are other animations happening at the same time that mine are running. For instance, the browser's progress bar, the browser's title changing, elements on the page finding their sizes, etc.

These other animations steal away from the experience provided by my chart animations. I want people to focus on the dynamism offered by these charts so that they will know that they are interactive and can be...played with. So, my initial thought was to simply delay the animations by a second or two to ensure that they ran once we had the user's full attention.

Argument #2

But as I focused on, and thought more about, my previous scenario, I realized that there may be other times in animation when a delay would be useful. For instance, when changing object direction, a short delay can help it feel more natural. Click on the boxes below and see which one you prefer (the boxes will reset to their original positions after a few seconds so you can run them again).

If you couldn't tell, the one of the left has no delay, whereas the one on the right has a 100ms delay. Not very long, but in my opinion, it makes the whole animation smoother.

Best Implementation

Now, I realize that the true solution to Argument #1 is to use jQuery or some other library to ensure that the animations fire on page load and make sure that I synchronize them using the animateWith() method that Raphaël provides, but it would still be nice to delay that animation for a second or two so that the user's mind will be stable and ready to comprehend and experience the animation.

And if you're wondering how I did the animations above, I use the window.setTimeout() method to delay each portion of the animation by the proper amount. I could potentially do this for the charts that I'm creating, but it would require my variables to be global as the setTimeout() method has no context, or I'd have to do some funny stuff with closures (which I would wind up wrapping in a function called delay() anyway, so why not have that built into the library).

If you're interested in the code used to generate the animations above, just view the source of this post and look at the JavaScript that starts with var paper1;.

Closing Thoughts

All of the animation frameworks that I have used in the past have some sort of animation delaying functionality, and whilst I don't think adding functionality to a library simply because other libraries have it is a valid argument, I think this particular instance warrants the addition; and I don't think it would be incredibly difficult.

Another nice addition would be the ability to easily chain together animations so that they happen one after the other instead of simultaneously. If this were currently possible, then an easy implementation of delay would be to just call chainedAnimate() with an empty animation and pass through the requested duration.

Thoughts, questions or arguments? Post a comment below and I'll respond promptly.