My personal philosophy of awesomeness is pretty simple: Awesome is an adjective, but we really ought to treat it as a verb.

But living awesomeness isn’t quite the same thing as being happy, or being positive. Awesomeness requires something extra, a deeper engagement with universe as a whole which encompasses three core principles: curiosity, compassion, and humor.

Curiosity

Human beings are naturally curious, but more often than not social conventions stunt willingness to try new things or investigate the strange and wonderful. To be awesomely curious, we don’t need to cast off all social conventions but do need to recognize that rules are made to be broken.

Compassion

To be compassionate is to be adaptable. To adapt we must make space for the will and direction of others. If there’s no room for compromise, then there is no room for compassion. If there is no room for forgiveness, there is no room for compassion. If there is no sense of something other than yourself and your own view, there is no room for compassion.

Humor

First we must laugh at ourselves an then we must laugh at the universe. After all, if we, small mammals on a rock at the far end of the galaxy can muse on such grand and all encompassing topics as awesomeness, then the universe is truly a funny place.

Awesomeness

I don’t claim to be awesome all the time. Nor do I claim to live awesomeness every moment, but when I am stressed or working hard or just plain tired, I think about these principles of awesomeness…

… and then I take a nap or go for a walk. Or maybe just hang out with the guys in the picture above. 🙂

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[Update: I’ve just been made aware that I missed the 4th principle of awesomeness: Bacon! >Thanks, Carrie!]

Today, I started a new job.

This might come as a bit of surprise. After all, I was having such a good time making iPhone apps (which I intend to continue doing). Still, this is just one opportunity I just couldn’t pass up…

The job is with ThinkGeek, an amazing company I’ve admired for a long time. Since I’m not one to blog about work, I’ll just direct you over to my LinkedIn profile for a look-see. I’ll add that I’m very excited to join such an incredible group of people. I feel lucky and grateful.

Seriously, how could I not? I write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I write code. I claim King Moonracer as my personal hero. I love eCommerce and the web… It’s pretty much a dream job for me.

So, in short order, we’re selling our home, leaving the neighborhood we love, and moving away from family and friends… all the way to Washington, DC (Fairfax, VA to be more precise). Everything will be new and there will be challenges at every turn, but it’s also going to be an adventure.

I’m thankful for love and support of my wonderful wife and my incredible boys. I’m looking forward to continuing our story of the great “What’s Next” together. 🙂

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NB: Is it me or did I lay it on a bit thick here?

I’m really bad with cards… I mean really bad.

It isn’t that I forget about anniversaries or birthdays. I’m just really bad with cards.

Here is the card I made for my wife yesterday to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. Altogether we’ve been pals for 21 years and the sentiment expressed in this card couldn’t be more true.

Of course, what you don’t see is me actually making this card at 6AM on the morning of our anniversary. You don’t see me frantically searching through old photographs. You can’t hear me cursing because I can’t get Photoshop to print the damn thing right. You can’t watch me flipping out when she starts printing documents to our wireless printer and all my photo paper comes shooting out at 32ppm.

I’m really bad with cards, but I’m really lucky in love.

Happy Anniversary, Baby! 🙂

First, let me say that I love developing applications for the iPhone. What a fun platform! Next, I’d like to announce that my second app just launched! 🙂

WordFlipper is fast-paced word search game for the iPhone. It’s a little different than most iPhone word games because it uses the accelerometer (the thingie that detects motion) as an integral part of the game. I won’t go into all of the details here. I have a special page set up for WordFlipper where you can read all about the game and even watch me and my kids play with it. Drop on by for a look-see! (WordFlipper or grab WordFlipper from iTunes!).

My first app, WriteChain, is a handy tool for writers. You can learn more about it on my writing site How Not to Write (WriteChain). My latest app for the iPhone is a game called WordFlipper.

I’ve really enjoyed my development experience with the iPhone. I’m an old Mac developer from waay back, so it wasn’t a huge leap for me to get onto the platform. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to cooking up a few more apps.

In between the coding, I’ve managed to knock out a fair amount of writing (both online and off). I’ve also tried my hand at another new skill: interviewing. No, not the job sort. I’m talking about journalism (though I’m not sure I can call what I do journalism).

My interviews are running on one of my new websites: iPhonespaz (http://www.iphonespaz.com)… and like WordFlipper, it’s a little different from all of the other iPhone sites out there.

On iPhonespaz, we interview people who are crazy about their iPhones. We also write some wild app reviews. It’s been a fantastic experience. I’ve met a ton of great folks from Best-Selling Authors to big-time app developers. It’s a nice juxtaposition to writing code.

[A big shout out to my co-editor at iPhonespaz, Whitney Claire McKim. She rocks. 🙂 ]

I’m not sure where this iPhone adventure will take me, but I like where it’s headed. It feels a lot like web development did back in the mid-nineties. It’s fun and exciting!

Alex Fayle of Someday Syndrome fame interviewed me for his wonderful website. The interview just went live along with a companion post on How Not to Write, which describes in detail what I discovered by doing the interview.

Obviously, I loved doing the interview. It was a great exercise, but I wanted to share a little tidbit that I tacked onto the end of the discussion:

As a side note… People should take the time to answer questions like this seriously. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that the universe does not ask twice. What I mean by this is that when presented with the opportunity to ask for something or jump into something you desire, you should absolutely give it your all. The universe may not respond favorably, but it most assuredly does not ask a second time.

I honestly do not know where this stuff comes from sometimes. It just pops into my head. Later on, I read it and think, “Who wrote that?”

So, what has the universe asked you to do lately? Did you do it? Why not?