nothing to say

So I tried to just jump in and fiddle with some PHP code, but it is not in my nature to be that casual about development. Little by little I have tweaked my environment, so that now I am close to my comfort zone.

As previously mentioned, I installed Komodo and have my project now fully configured, including integration with Subversion, which is a “one click” install for hosting at Dreamhost.

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I went to bed quite happy with my progress last night. I added a blog entry to my professional blog on task management (ironic, huh) and made some substantial inroads on the web application:

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So I had a free time bonanza last night and squandered it. I made a teeny bit of progress – installed MySQL, php, and Komodo, but then got sucked down the black hole of researching unimportant technical details for my application idea.

No code. No content. No progress.

I recently had a windfall and sold a domain name I wasn’t using. I buy domain names with the best of intentions, but most typically they just sit there unloved. In researching for the sale, I stumbled across sedo and parked the rest of my domain orphanage.

Parking is that annoying activity where you fill a domain with ads so if someone accidentally types your site name, you interest them in something you are advertising. It’s like taking a wrong turn reading a book and ending up in the yellow pages. Sedo does all the work so you can aggravate people with little or no effort (oh yeah, and maybe make some money).

One of my random domains “hughesmail.com” gets some activity and I am now obsessed with the income it is producing. So far it is on track to four times the annual cost of owning it – roughly $3.50/month. Next step – find 5000 more that are as “lucrative”. I check it daily to see if I have earned a few more cents, intelligently trimming my progress window down to 17 minutes a day.

I am sure what the world needs is one more online journal of the sorry attempts of yet another internet wannabe.

Turns out, I have roughly 18 minutes a day free before bed after my time working way too many hours as a enterprise architect + engagement manager + principal trying to help lead my company to the promised land and my family time spent with my wife and kids, so I figured I’d launch some internet sites and see what happens.

Why?

Don’t really know. Seems exciting? I have traditionally been a serial idea guy – it’s pretty cool because you get to think up cool things and never follow through. Not terribly profitable, though.

A combination of thing have recently ignited my creative juices, plus one of my colleagues keeps heckling that “ideas are cheap”. Some other catalysts:

• I read The 4-Hour Work Week. Sounds good to me.
• Multiple colleagues have been discussing similar inclinations. Must be something in the air.
• I started reading blogs and am most fascinated by the ones regarding making money online.
• I just turned 40. If not now then when.
• I think this internet thing may be more than a fad – there may be money to be made by taking advantage of it. (How excellent that I chose “teva sandals” to be the time I was ahead of the crowd.)

So here is what I am doing now with those 18 spare minutes:

• Writing here. I added Adsense as well. Time well spent since I am the only one who reads this and I am not allowed to click them.
• Adding content to my professional blog. No profit here, I just enjoy it. Plus wouldn’t cry if I were to create some buzz for Systems Flow and I.
• Setting up a site to showcase all the technical tinkering I do. Hoping people think I am a genius and flood it by the thousands.
• Configuring google analytics so I can be obsessed about the 8 people who visit my sites (and I think I may be 6 of them.)
• Futzing around with php for a simple web application idea I have. I am going to keep it on the down low (that’s street lingo for “secret”) for now in case somebody stumbles across this.

My biggest challenge is going to be fighting the evil couch. At about the time the 18 minutes frees up, I would rather snuggle with my wife and watch sitcoms.

The goal, of course is that by using the 18 minutes wisely now, I can have more than 18 minutes on the couch later.

Inspirational, huh.