I’ve learned a lot from these little detox sessions, like massive productivity boosts and creativity soars, so it’s time for a new one. I’ve got a big month ahead of me with a store opening soon, plenty of awesome client work and more, so I’m gonna mess with my habits again.

This time, I’m going to remove myself from Twitter, Dribbble and Facebook, but ONLY from two way communication. Yup, I’ll still do status updates and post an occasional shot on Dribbble, but no reading of comments and replies. I will ONLY contribute to the web, but not consume. In this way, I can focus solely on creativity. It’ll be interesting to rebound a Dribbble shot with my own thoughts vs listening to the thoughts of others. It’ll be interesting not looking at the like counter or the popular page to see how well something I posted is doing. It’ll be interesting to voice my thoughts on Twitter without knowing it is heard. Maybe a tweet will affect millions or maybe not at all. Basically, it’ll be like yelling into emptiness. Maybe it will teach me something about something. Maybe.

King out. Seeya next month.

How is it Hurting?

I feel like not being involved with the social web hurts Komodo. Twitter actually helps my visibility quite a bit and I didn’t realize it. I am always wanting to post something on Twitter to give people more real time access to what I am doing or looking at. I really like sharing good finds with friends on the internet and at this time, I feel like I have no voice. I have no way to blurt out in an instant (not a post) what I’m checking out or what is important to me at the moment.

Following is a Big Deal

My following is a big deal. People who like what I do help propel me forward in my business. As a self employed individual, it is even more important. With only a blog to voice articles I write and things that I do, I feel impaired.

Is Social Detox Bad?

It’s actually not all that bad. Productivity is up big time. Creativity is up too. However, we have such a large world right now that it is so important to stay visible. I guess that I could write it all off as this though: if I create and contribute excellent enough content to the web, I need not use Twitter, Dribbble, etc. to promote it. Excellent products and content should promote themselves. So, I am left with a dilemma.

Do I continue social detox?

I’ve got a totally different take on this one, and it doesn’t negate what has been said by Kyle and Gary Vee, but offers another perspective on it. What I hear in their message is this:

If you don’t love your job, stop moaning about it and get out there and make efforts to be doing the thing you love. However, don’t just be stupid and jump…but find what you love and take the calculated risk to do so, not allowing life’s stupid distractions to get in your way (like xbox, gaming, tv, movies, free-range chicken herding, whatever).

…and I agree. Pursue, find and do that thing you love!

Locational Happiness

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people talk about locational unhappiness. Let me explain. Fred’s got a dead end job, but he always talks about how as soon as he get’s that next big job as a freelance designer, he’ll be happy. Horace and Mabel are having marriage problems, but instead of addressing the real issue, they constantly cling on to the hope of their vacation, or how everything is going to be better once they leave this dusty little town. Once they move back to Texas or New York, or Italy or wherever, there, they finally will be happy.

I’ve seen this all the time with not just locational moves but in acquiring things. Jen and Nathan are having serious marital problems, but instead of facing the issue and talking about it, however painful that may be, they buy a puppy…later some four-wheelers, later gym memberships and dance lessons. It seems to always be about covering up the pain or the problem with a bit more happiness from some other source, be it a move to a new town or a new pet.

My wife and I have talked about leaving Montana for years now. I actually thought at one point that if I moved to San Diego, life would be better, right? Wrong. We’ve found joy here and that’s because joy didn’t exist in a job title or a location. Joy doesn’t exist just a day away, tomorrow, when you finally get that job, when you move. Joy can be here now. You can thrive now.

It’s in YOU

Unhappiness is part of a problem in you. If you aren’t happy at your current job, it’s not necessarily because you aren’t doing the thing you are meant to do, or at least that’s how I see it. It’s indicative of a much bigger thing that merely slapping on a new career won’t change. Do you want to be the sort of person that can find joy in whatever you are doing? If you are helping an old woman across the street, working in a soup line, or having a beer with the buddies, are you just as joyful?

I’ve worked some crazy jobs. I’ve worked in dish pits, scrubbing dishes til 2am. I’ve worked as a Taxidermist’s apprentice, shaving rotting flesh off of old animal hides in a small back room. I’ve worked two feet away from people on a small desk, with an old, busted up computer, running windows. I’ve delivered pizzas and hauled rocks. I loved it all and was so joyful doing it — ask anybody. You have no idea the amount of fun you can have with a coworker washing dishes or in a lineup of 4 people making pizzas. I honestly feel alive when I am serving others, even to the point where I have given up design work at times to wait tables, because I love serving people. But, I loved shaving old deer hides too.

Don’t wait. Embrace Joy Now.

The answer is not in adding to your life. It’s in contentment and possessing the joy within you for any moment, any thing. Sure, there are things in this life that I believe people are truly more passionate about and when they are doing that thing, their joy will skyrocket — and do pursue that, but I just want to say to you, yes you. Don’t wait and postpone your joy. Your joy is now, wherever you are at. Be the kind of person that thrives in any situation.

That is the kind of happiness that will make this world a better place.

Productivity

First, productivity has been high. I’m not chained to my Droid (yes, I don’t have an iPhone). I turned off all Twitter and Facebook notifications so I’m finding myself to be more prompt to reply to e-mails as well. I’m sure my wife thanks me for this as I constantly annoy her with my need to check my email and Twitter.

Back to Basics

When I first entered the internet age, I was very disconnected from the social web. I had a blog and that was about it. I miss those days. I found myself blogging often and loving it. I was always thinking about ideas and problem solving for my industry.

Since micro blogging, I’ve lost my first love of writing, although I’m no pro. I’ve also stopped contributing as much to my industry, but rather, turned to incessant chatter on Twitter.

What led to any web popularity that I may have all stemmed as a result of me pulling inward, and following my instincts to create. I didn’t need CSS galleries or other people’s work to make something unique. I just followed what I felt inside. I truly feel that what has made me good, not great, but good at what I do was spent as a result of separating myself from others, not following.

I feel creativity returning to me. Let’s see what happens.

About the Title

So apparently I’ve made no connection to the title of this post. In all honesty, this post was going to be about a sentence long, but has since grown. I wanted to tell you about the best thing that has happened today. Here are some highlights of today:

• My best friend telling me that he misses me and loves me.
• Starting to read blogs and learning again. I haven’t read a post in ages.
• My son asked me if I thought he was beautiful. Yes, he is.

On Remembering

As a kid I used to remember everything vividly. Now, I remember things as lumps of emotions or feelings. I feel like the diversity of the things that I did as a kid helped to create defined memories. As of now, I feel like my life blurs from one day to the next due to the fact that I am doing activities that are so similar: work, make dinner, put the kids to bed, tv, work, bed, and so on.

I need to change this cycle. I want defined memories and I want to remember last year as more than a blur. I’m heavily thinking about trying a four day work week leading to a three day work week. I’m thinking about trying something totally new each day. Whatever I do, I need to break this cycle.

This article was written unedited and will remain so. All typos were intentional. No animals or mustachioed men were harmed during the writing of this post.

It’s time. I’m doing it. I will be joining the self-employed as of the new year. That’s right, Komodo Media is opening it’s doors for full-time design work as of now. Mark your calendars because world domination begins now.

What does this mean for Komodo Media?

First of all, things around here are gonna change. What does that mean? Well dude, I’m glad you asked. First of all, I’ll be joining the ranks of many other individuals in creating meaningful content for the web with one post a week in Project 52 (by the way, follow Anton Peck now for this great idea). That’s right. That means more posts, more tutorials and more random hilarity for you.

Sweet beloved ptarmigans, am I gonna lose the jungle?

Yes, Komodo Media is in for a redesign. The jungles will be going. Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned my love for jungles or toucans for that matter, but things will change. You’ve all seen a little bit of what is in the works for Komodo Media, but you’ve not seen what that really means or what that looks like.

What else is coming this year?

In addition to more posts and a new face, Komodo Media will begin selling rad t-shirts and hats (send your ideas to me), icon sets and more. Maybe you’ll see a totally nerdy, yet awesome web application put out by Komodo this year.

Will you be available for work?

Totally. So for all you clients that have tried to contact me regarding design work and I have been unavailable, things are different now — Papa’s got a brand new bag.

Happy New Year.

The web needs you. It needs your thoughts, your feelings, your skills and your position on life and your personal creativity, not a clone. The web doesn’t need another designer site that looks like every other designer site. The web doesn’t need another site with CSS badges, valid xhtml badges, get firefox stamps, apple fanboyness and more if it’s not you. Yes, I believe in making sites accessible. I believe in being excellent in what you do, but you don’t have to conform.

I want to encourage you. For years people have told me that my style or what I do would not hack it in the “corporate” world and that is just not true. People admire originality. People respect when others just be themselves. I have noticed that the most important thing is that you represent your dreams and your ideals with the most excellence that you can muster.

What does this mean in the web design and blogging world? Don’t conform. Don’t be average. Be you and be you to your fullest. Pour as much excellence into your site design and articlees as you can. So its a rogue idea? Who cares! Throw yourself into your project or article with as much reckless abandon as you can fathom. So you have a cool idea. Shoot for it!

There’s one thing I’ve learned about the design industry. There is something about design and visual work that draws people to critique it. It’s almost like because most people have vision and can see, they are instantly a design critic. Instantly they talk about what they don’t like about your site, your work, your art. Does this happen for programmers? Not necessarily. Not all people can form an opinion on the effectiveness of code. Because of this reason, it is so important that you take critique with a grain of salt.

Don’t listen to negativity. Be humble and take honest real critiques, but be yourself. You have something to offer. You have something within you that the world hasn’t seen yet. You can bring something to the table that doesn’t conform with everything else out there. The web needs you to bring your skills to the table. The web needs your creativity. The web needs you and not a clone.

These are the feelings that I feel about myself regarding design style and representing my faith. There are so many times when I feel like I need to conform to the populous. In many of my decisions in design and blogging, I have been on the fence, but it is so important that I represent myself and what I bring to the table as well. I want the same from others. We need to represent our own voice and respect the voice of others.

All I can think after reading that is let’s save us before saving them. In a world where many are dying needlessly as well as freely killing human life before it gets the choice, why are we putting effort into saving the Walrus?

I love animals and always have. I used to memorize all of the animals the book and all of their latin names. I want animals to be around for our children and grandchildren. This has nothing to do with me being a blood-hungry savage that wants animal life destroyed. I just think our priorities are wrong. That being said, I appreciate some have a voice for the animals. Lets do our part to have a voice for the humans.

Being lukewarm is a strange thing. At times, I want to follow my instincts, my flesh and do whatever my body tells me to do. If I do, I am no greater than an animal and my decisions are no more moral. However, I lack the closeness to God that confirms in my soul that yes, there is a God and I am seeking him…I am in his will. Being lukewarm is agonizing and I can’t stand it.

But now, my soul hungers for more. I yearn to know the God that I have just barely started to truly love even more. I desire to push the boundaries of “religiousness” and move into fullness of life in Christ. I don’t care if people think I’m a freak. I see this book called the Bible and I have to ask myself. Is it really the truth that it talks about? After all, I can’t justify my faith upon another’s beliefs, I must seek God on my own. If the Bible is not truth, well then maybe I am left with doing a few good deeds for nothing, except the good that it may have caused others.

My friends say, “Rogie you are a purist”, “Rogie, I love God too”, “Rogie, you are a Bible thumper”, “Rogie, let it go, you are searching too hard”. The problem is, they don’t know either. They have shared no profound experience or firmly grounded faith to share with me, so I press on. I press on to know Jesus Christ even more than I have ever known. I must push to feel God, to see God work. I can’t help but ask myself, If I believe in an omnipotent God and this God is real, then what is it that seperates me from seeing his power, miracles and healing? I believe the answer is me. It’s my fault.

I am exactly what I want to be, regardless of my words. My faith is exactly where I want it. My acts of kindness, even if I want to do more, is precisely at the level that I have conciously placed it. I am what I am today because thats what I have decided.

I am tired of talk. I am tired of hearing myself say that I will change, that I will do more, that I will be kinder or help my fellow human more, that I will tell the Gospel of Christ and how it has changed my life to more people, etc. However cliche, talk is cheap and I believe the same is true to God. Talk is cheap to God. Judgement is cheap. Actions are what matters, and I believe that salvation is not by works, but by faith, however faith is not faith without the fruit of it, which is good works.

So long, I have been afraid, or better yet, I have been ashamed of telling my faith. I think my ashamedness was for a good reason too. I didn’t believe it truly inside until lately, when I look back and see how God has changed my life for the good. Now, I feel God’s spirit. I feel it within his believers and I love it. I am growing to a point where I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

I have never been the kind to impose my beliefs on others, but if you are reading this, realize that friends do not hold back what they believe to be true, even if it causes you upset. Also, realize that the world is full of misunderstandings, generalities, blanket-statments, and stereotypes. I almost didn’t follow Christianity because of a stereotype. I am glad I didn’t take that stereotype as truth and decided to follow on my own.

• NOT drink coffee
• Work out
• Say hi to anyone I pass, regardless of whether I know them
• Spend more time hugging my wife and my baby to come
• Visit my wife during lunch
• Hug somebody just for the fun of it
• Spend less time worrying about the number of hours spent at work, and focus more on what I am building
• Be excited about work, just like I used to be excited about building legos as a child
• Give compliments to those who need them
• Uplift those that need it
• Get out of my cubicle more and breathe in the fresh air and enjoy my day
• Call a friend I haven’t called in awhile
• Listen to music I never listen to…all day long
• Do a somersault in the grass
• Go on a walk with a friend
• Break somebody away from their cubicle
• Laugh heartily
• Pray more
• Blog about something totally fun and random

Today will be different.