1. Make enough money to pay off some college debt, at least put a small dent in the total.
2. Save some money if I don’t spend too much paying off college debt.
3. Totally immerse myself in a completely new culture.
4. Activate my secret plan that I wouldn’t dare tell my parents about.

I didn’t lay out too many specifics. I just wanted to get my feet on solid ground and start thinking about the rest of my life seriously because I figured that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re all grown up.

What’s this secret plan?

Well, it’s nothing monumental. I hope I didn’t build it up too much.

I still haven’t told my family and friends, only hinted around the idea a bit. So, Mom, Dad, in case you’re actually reading my blog…

I’m going to work online.

What I mean by this is that I’m not going to take a day job right when I come home. I’ll be attempting, I hope successfully, to make a living by working on the Web.

The secret plan has been to establish myself in some corner of the Web, actually the WordPress corner. Mostly, it was to build up an online presence. I feel like I’ve done that well enough in the past year.

I’m usually pretty upfront about what my plans are with friends and family, but a conversation I had with my dad almost two years ago made me seriously think about what it is that I want out of life and how I must go about achieving whatever it may be. I was a bit less mature and a bit more naive at the time, but I knew I needed to take a spin in the real world before getting any crazy ideas (i.e. working online).

I wanted to feel like I’ve established myself somewhat before any of my family or friends would take me seriously, before I could take myself seriously.

So, you want specifics, right?

Well, I’m not going to lay out all my plans in this one post for you. I just wanted to kind of make everything official — it’s a personal motivation technique. If I’m telling the world, I’m much more likely to see my plans through.

I will say that Theme Hybrid will be my top priority. That’s not going to change. Business has been going well enough there for me to feel comfortable with this announcement.

I have a couple of other projects lined up too. Announcements on those will come in due time.

The plan was to start the new year with my major career decision. I wanted to stay in Korea until December, but as I recently announced, that’s not going to happen. So, I’m adjusting the plan. That’s life.

I’m both excited and nervous, but I also feel like I’ve been blessed with good timing (I’ll talk about what I mean by “timing” later).

In a couple of days, I’ll be embarking upon a new journey — one that I hope you’ll stick around to help me through.

Or, rather, it’s been a few of those days. I’m sure you’ve all had a stretch of days in which you’ve just felt like giving up, or a few days that you didn’t feel like blogging or dealing with other people at all. You just want to snuggle up with a good book or a bowl of ice cream and your latest torrent downloads of The Office.

I’ve had a few of those days lately. After releasing the Visionary theme last week, I felt a great release of pressure after putting the thing together. Then, I was suddenly hit with close to 100 comments (I’m sure it will hit that number soon enough), a lot of support questions, and theme stealers. On top of that, there’s regular life. You know, that thing you occasionally take part in outside of the online world. I vaguely remember it.

I was exhausted after a week of support, working on three paid design jobs, and my teaching job here in South Korea. Then, I got sick. Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net recently talked about having a contingency plan for those times when life gets in the way of your online duties. Needless to say, I’m sorely unprepared for blogging emergencies. I’m already so backed up with projects that it’s hard to keep up with them.

What happens when you need to take a break? Simply take a break.

What are some of the things you can do to get away?

• Watch a movie:
  I’m one of the biggest movie buffs of all the people I know. However, since I’ve been in Korea, I’ve watched only a few movies or TV shows. So, I’ve watched 300, Knocked Up, and Freedom Writers in the last few days. Of course, I didn’t really think things through when I decided on what part of my movie collection to bring overseas with me. Nevertheless, it was nice to enjoy a few movies again.
• Take a stroll:
  There’s a nice park area near where I live that’s just beautiful. Over the weekend, I took a stroll just to take a few pictures and enjoy the autumn air.
• Write something for yourself:
  Take out the trusty ol’ pen and pad and jot some thoughts down. I keep a journal offline to relieve stress and write my thoughts down. Be yourself. Completely. No one’s reading this, so take some time to let your thoughts flow.
• Go out and do something you enjoy:
  I wish I could’ve done this, but I was a little too under the weather to go out and play. The most important thing is to remove yourself from behind the screen. Enjoy something away from the online world.

What about my blog?

I promise you, your blog will be there when you return. Your readers will understand if you need to take a few days off. Everyone needs to regroup once in a while. You can always write a few posts ahead of time if you fear losing readers. Lorelle has a good article on writing future posts.

Struggling to keep content continuously online is a…it’s a struggle. If you keep working at a pace of 8 hours a day developing your blog, then you will become exhausted, maybe even feel fed up with the entire process.

Remember why you blog:

Over the past few months, I’ve struggled with finding a direction for my blog, but I’ve finally found a few narrow topics that suit me well. Ask yourself, “Why do I love to blog?” If you can’t answer this, then maybe you need to reevaluate some of your blogging goals. If you don’t love it, well, that’s a whole other problem in itself.

I love to blog because it’s a part of who I am. It’s how I identify with a lot of the world. I also enjoy working with WordPress and feel the need to offer what I’ve learned back to that community.

My exhaustion has come from many sources. At my “real” job, we recently had mid-term essays and level-up tests for the students. I’ve been working my butt off developing my online presence in the last couple of months. Getting sick doesn’t help either. Basically, I’ve been overworked. At some point, you’ve just got to sit back and relax a little. Live a little.

Then, come back and remember why you put yourself through the struggles of blogging. When you take a break, you’ll realize (I hope) that you truly miss this remarkable tool, this part of the identity of people worldwide — blogging.

Final thoughts:

Take a break if you’re feeling pressure. I’ve tried to keep my posting consistency up, but have taken a step back from some of the other online projects I’ve been working on. It definitely relieved a little stress.

I’ve always been told to “never put off ’til tomorrow what you can do today.” That’s not always the best philosophy. Sometimes, you should put a few things off and enjoy today.

Building your online reputation is a lot of work (some of you may not worry about such things). Be sure to give yourself small breaks every day too. Get up and enjoy a meal at a restaurant. Spend time with your friends and family. If you’re constantly working on your blog, then it will eventually feel like work. For those of us with jobs outside of blogging, this could potentially put us in a situation where we’re working 80-hour weeks. I’m sure that’s not healthy. I haven’t read any scientific evidence on this though. So, don’t just take my word for it.

What are some of the things you enjoy doing outside of blogging? How do you balance online and offline life?

These are seven must-have add-ons for Firefox. There may be some different varitations of these add-ons, but I’ve come to enjoy the Internet again because of these tools. I’m browsing happier, blogging happier, and designing happier.

FireFTP

No self-respecting blogger or designer would be without a decent FTP program. FireFTP was easy to set up, it quickly transfers your programs, and runs right in a browser tab/window. I may never go to another program again. I like the interface. It’s simple to use and it gets the job done. And, it has a cool logo. That’s reason enough to download it.

HTML Validator

Forget online validators. They’re too much hassle. HTML Tidy lets you validate as soon as you change the code. Plus, you can see if any blog or site on the Internet is validated. This has been invaluable when theme designing. I no longer have to check my code through an online validator if something goes wrong.

StumbleUpon Toolbar

StumbleUpon has become one of the most popular social bookmarking sites. I get a large portion of my traffic through this service and believe that this can be used as effectively as Digg or Reddit as a great source of traffic. Easily add those great articles you write and let someone stumble upon it today and tomorrow and sometime next week.

Brief

There are a lot of different options when it comes to feed readers. It’s no different when it comes to Firefox add-on feed readers either. I’ve tried out a few, but have come to love Brief for its simplicity. There aren’t a lot of options. It’s a straightforward reader. Bloggers definitely need to keep up with what’s going on around the Web and the sites in their niche.

AdSense Notifier

Do you visit Google AdSense five minutes or so? Stop worrying about how much money you’re making. Now, you can take a quick glance down at your bottom toolbar and see that extra 2-cents you made in the last hour. Then, you can get back to working on the things that matter, like actual content for your blog.

del.icio.us Bookmarks

If you don’t have a del.icio.us account, then you need to stop reading this article and get one now. A great bookmarking system is essential for all bloggers and designers. This tool lets you quickly add bookmarks to your del.icio.us account. There is an integrated sidebar for your browser that lets you browse your bookmarks on the fly.

Download Statusbar

I seem to always be downloading something new. Whether it be a plugin or piece of javascript that seems cool. The Download Statusbar keeps those downloads in a convenient spot on the bottom of the browser window, showing the download progresss also. You don’t have to immediately deal with the file once it downloads, but you won’t forget about it because it’ll be in your statusbar.

There you have it. Seven invaluable Firefox add-ons for blogging and designing. What Firefox add-ons do you use to make your blogging and/or designing experience happier? I’m always looking for new tools to work with.

This thing has more options than anything I’ve ever seen. It even lets you add a logo over the video. I particularly like the floating controls it offers. Plus, everything can be overwritten for each video you post to your blog.

I was actually looking for a good video player for my site the other day when I posted The Milk Challenge, which has now been updated to use this plugin. So, go check that out for an example.

The plugin is perfect for me. The next thing I’ll do with it is convert all my crappy films to the flash format and use this player to show them from my site.

After that, I will add it to my next news/magazine WordPress theme.

The main reason I wanted to use a video plugin was because I want to host my own videos. Why would I want to do that when there are so many different ways to host videos off-site and embed them into my blog posts? Sure, it uses more bandwidth if someone plays it from my site, but that’s not my concern. I want full creative control over what is displayed and how it’s displayed. Plus, what if the site that hosts my video shuts down (that’s a big “what if” with YouTube), but if it does happen, I’ll have to find another place to host my video — that’s such a hassle.

Mostly, I want control. I’ll probably still upload any videos I happen to make to YouTube, but I want to have control over what’s on my site.

I like to have everything on my site. That’s why I took down my Flickr feed and am in the process of putting together a photoblog. There are always some limits when using a third-party to host videos, photos, or other files because you have to agree to their terms of service, are limited by how much you can upload, and what extra features you can add.

What do you think? Would you rather host your own videos or go through a third-party? Would you rather have more creative control or are you perfectly content without outside services?

Visit Thursday Thirteen to see others’ lists.

This week I wanted to list my favorite movies. That was kind of hard considering that I watch a lot of movies. My DVD collection is quite large. So, I sat down in front of my DVD racks and started looking for the best titles. This is the list that I came up with (in alphabetical order because I couldn’t pick favorites).

1. Blow
   I just like the feel of this movie. Drug dealing. Women. Of course, everything goes awry, and poor Johnny Depp doesn’t get to live the good life forever.
2. Citizen Kane
   The first time I watched this was in my Contemporary American Literature class last Spring. Since then, it hasn’t come off my top list of movies, and probably never will. It is arguably one of the greatest films in history, and has influenced countless directors and their work in the last 65 years.
3. Closer
   Clive Owen makes almost any movie good. And there’s something strangely passionate and erotic about this film, yet at the same time, there’s something sad. It’s hard to explain. If nothing else, after watching this, you’ll know how to not act in a relationship.
4. Cool Hand Luke
   At one point in my life I didn’t think “old” movies could be funny. Paul Newman and the rest of the cast changed my mind quick in this one. However, it is probably the best anti-hero movie you will ever see.
5. Cruel Intentions
   I would like to say that this film changed my life. I was in my mid-teens when this first came out. I actually thought that it was “okay” for a guy to write in a journal after watching it. Now, I’m keeping my journal online. It probably helped shaped me into the writer I am today by keeping a journal.
6. The Godfather Part I & Part II
   I merged Parts I & II together to save room on my list. Mostly, I just like the gangster stuff. But, there’s a real sad story here, and one that should be watched.
7. Goodfellas
   I almost didn’t put this on the list because I already had The Godfather on here. But, I thought about Ray Liotta’s line at the beginning of the movie, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster,” and I had to put it on here. I’m just fascinated with gangster movies.
8. Good Will Hunting
   One of my friends told me once, “If you want to get motivated, then just watch this movie.” As Will Hunting drives off in the end, it brings about a sort of hope for us all. No matter where we are in life now, there’s something better if we just go for it.
9. I Heart Huckabees
   I had to put a comedy on my list, and this movie fits perfectly. It’s just funny, and that’s all that it needs to be. Well, and it might make you think about reality and life and other things.
10. Moulin Rouge
    Yes, I must also put a musical on the list. I actually never liked musicals before Moulin Rouge came along. It changed my perspective on the entire genre. And who knew Nicole Kidman could sing like that? But the real treat is hearing Ewan McGregor.
11. Mulholland Drive
    No movie list would be complete without a David Lynch film. I don’t even know where to begin describing how surreal this movie is. You can’t watch it just once either. You can be watching it for the fifth or sixth time and still finding more pieces of the puzzle.
12. Ray
    Jamie Foxx really became a great actor during this movie. I think he finally found the role that will be considered his defining moment in his film career. It is a wonderful story, and it was well acted.
13. Saved!
    Don’t laugh. I know it’s a bit corny, but it’s my special movie. Everyone has a favorite movie to impress people and a favorite movie that they don’t tell anyone about. Citizen Kane is my impress people movie, and Saved! is my don’t tell people about movie.

Honorable Mentions (since I can’t stop naming great movies)

1. Rebel Without A Cause
2. Scarface
3. Heat
4. Hud

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