Reviews Archive:
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Over the past week, I’ve been hiding out and reading a new book I bought. For some reason, I could not put the book down until I finally finished it up. So what book was it?
The book was Linchpin by Seth Godin. Seth is not only one of my favorite authors, but he is also one of my role models. The guy is a genius in so many ways and I’ve been a follower of his blog since college.
Whenever he comes out with a new book, I tend to make it a priority to give it a read. After finishing this one up, all I can say is “wow.”
Despite that a lot of the content was not new to me, the book still managed to open my mind in many ways. It’s much different from some of his other books and focuses on being, rather than doing.
Here’s my Linchpin review including some details about the book and what I thought of it.
The System Is Broken
In his book, Godin talks about our current work system and how it is broken. Many tasks that used to be done by white-collar employees can now be done for free, by groups of people or by machines thanks to advancements in technology. A great example of this is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
The idea of just showing up for work and putting in your time no longer works. Unfortunately, most schools teach people how to do this with perfection. When it came to working in an office, I used to be amazing at “just showing up.”
MacJournal Review
Over the past few months, I have been using MacJournal on a daily basis. If you missed it, I specifically mentioned the application in my post The Art of Journal Writing.
I decided that I love this application so much that I wanted to do a complete review of it and give you a few reasons as to why I continue to use it.
By no means is this a sponsored review, I simply like the product and enjoy sharing tools that I personally find useful.
So here is an even closer look at what MacJournal is capable of and why I highly recommend giving it a shot if you are a Mac user.
It Is Simple
Let me start by saying that this program has plenty of features, yet it still remains simple to use. I have never been a fan of applications that are far more powerful than I need. The more bells and whistles an application has, the more clutter I have to fight through to actually do what I want with it.
The way MacJournal works is very similar to how an email client works. It reminds me of Apple Mail in my ways.
Vibram Five Fingers: 4 Months Later
Just over four months ago, I wrote a detailed review of the Vibram Five Finger shoes I purchased. I must say, the post ended up being a lot more popular than I anticipated. As soon as people started finding it via Google and YouTube, I started receiving questions and feedback about them. It’s amazing how many people are interested in these wacky looking shoes!
Mexican Coke vs American Coke
One of the many things I’ve discovered here in Austin is Mexican Coke. Prior to moving here, I wouldn’t of had the slightest clue as to what it is. Now I can’t get enough of the stuff.
So I’ve decided to have a battle between regular Coke and Mexican Coke. Here we go:
Round 1: Appearance
As the old saying goes, “appearance is everything.” Even when we’re talking about something as simple as cola. Lets take a closer look at the two different bottles and see which one wins:
Vibram Five Fingers: Not Your Average Shoe
What in the hell are those? That’s what most people seem to think (and say) when they see the Vibram Five Fingers. So I decided it was time to grab a pair and see what they are all about. As it turns out, they are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn in my entire life.
Quick Introduction
If you’ve never seen these before, they are a unique shoe made by Vibram. Vibram is most known for making the soles of popular hiking shoes. The reason they are so unique is because they feature five toe sections and fit much like a glove.
Headway Theme Overview
Headway, a new premium WordPress theme, is unlike any other themes out there. It utilizes some awesome features such as a layout editor and leaf system.
I just finished creating a brief overview of the Headway theme to help a few people understand how it works and wanted to share it with everyone:
If you’re interested in Headway, you can visit their website here.
10 Movies I’ve Seen This Month
Over the last few weeks I’ve been watching a lot of movies. I guess you can blame it on the 100+ degree weather. Or perhaps due to the fact my girlfriend and I both work from home.
Here’s a bunch of reviews of some of the movies I’ve watched over the last month:
500 Days of Summer
The main reason we went to see this move is because it was playing at the Alamo Drafthouse. If you’ve never heard of it, it is a movie theater that serves food and alcohol. I figured it was better to watch a random movie with beer than to go see a different one at a normal movie theater.
A Look At The 2010 Ford Taurus
If you missed by post a few days ago, I talked about a Ford Tweetup that I co-hosted last night. Ford had a few people from their social media team there as well as the 2010 Ford Taurus.
I must say, it’s one heck of an improvement over the Ford Taurus I remember. I remember the one that looked like a turtle on the outside. Here’s my review of the new 2010 Ford Taurus:
The Exterior
The first thing I noticed was the look of the Ford Taurus. It’s…
Sunday Brunch in Austin
Since last night was a rough night in the drinking department, my girlfriend and I decided to hit up an Austin brunch this morning. Luckily, we live right down the road from Threadgills, which happens to be one of the coolest restaurants/bars I’ve ever been to.
They have live music outside most weekends and serve delicious southern cooked food. Every Sunday, they have a brunch buffet from 10 am – 1pm and it’s delicious.
Here’s my review of the brunch and why I recommend giving it a shot:…
Woopra: Analytics On Steroids
One of the things I took away from WordCamp Dallas/Fort Worth was a Woopra account. Prior to the event, I had never heard of the analytics service. However, I am now fascinated by it and can’t stop playing around with it.
What Makes Woopra Any Different Than Google Analytics?
The answer is real-time stats. I can literally see who is on my website anytime I feel like it. I can also see what page they are viewing, where they originally came from, and all the brower/operating system stats I could want.
If that isn’t enough, I can even send a chat request to anyone currently visiting my site and have a real IM style conversation. It’s amazing!
It sure beats looking at delayed stats…
