Federal Election 

Well I seem to be making a bit of a shift of attention.  I’m now completely done throwing parties, going back to school, and yes, I am doing community service!  If you know me, you probably know that I don’t go for many things that aren’t profitable, and volunteer work certainly falls into that category.  But as I said, things have started to shift.

I’ve stopped caring so much about money itself.

Wow it’s weird to say that.  But it’s true.  Now I’m focusing on something much more important.  Quality of life.

So, is making $120k, but having no time to yourself, your friends, your family better than making $80, but having all the time in the world to do things that you want to do?  Nope.  I can vouch for that.

But when I first came across this time, I really didn’t know what to do with it.  It had been about 5 years since I had any free time.  I’m not even exaggerating.  Check the history on my blog at www.cian.ca.

So I started blowing it, with what was really the easiest and first thing to come across my way.  Partying, throwing parties, and all that that encompasses.  Then throwing parties started to feel like a job.  Way too much like a job.  This was supposed to be fun time right?  What’s my problem?  I’m constantly driven to maximize profit in everything I do, it just does not let me rest, even during downtime.

Then it broke.

A few things here and there have started to draw my attention.  Things that I normally ignore, and pass by.  Things like supporting a first time political candidate in the federal election.  Really, he just needed a simple site that he can get his message out with.  For someone like me that’s about 4 hours of work, for someone like him it’s either $1000’s of dollars or having a site that really does not work.  Check it out it’s pretty simple, but effective.  I set up a campaign tracker on thepoint.com to allow people to securely join his campaign, no management needed.  Using WordPress has made the entire experience just quick and easy.  No programming needed, just a little CSS, install some plugins, add some code from other sites, and it’s done.

The cool part was I actually enjoyed doing it.  Its been a long time since I’ve sat down and just played with a website, and I can tell you the technology that has come out in the past 2 years has changed everything.  Content syndication seems to be the big thing these days.  With the standardization of XML feeds (I won’t even mention what SOAP can do…) I can now publish in one place and it’s taken to livejournal, cian.ca, facebook, twitter, spotjots, etc.

I actually just found a plugin in WordPress that will take comments people make on my facebook, and import them BACK into the WordPress blog!

What sort of neat syndication technology have you come across lately?