I started poking about Steven Seppinni’s site today and saw some things that I liked, specifically this article: Economy Down-Entrepreneurship Up. It is very true; there is risk in everything, including having a job. However, we do need to remember that running a business is not an easy way out. Believe me. I have been doing this for 11 years (well, minus the break wearing a hard hat in the middle). When it’s good, it’s fantastic. It’s like nothing else in the world. It means picking up the kids from school and attending every play or ceremony. It means no commute (sometimes). It’s the joy of walking into your high-school reunion and when people ask “So, what do you do now?” you can answer “I own an international company.”

In the bad times, however… yeesh. It can mean going a week surviving on 3 hours of sleep a night just to get done what you think will bring you money. It can mean not having cash to buy groceries, so you end up using your Large Chain Store credit card to feed your children (who think it’s the best thing ever to eat macaroni and cheese, and Ichiban all the time, but you worry about fresh vegetables…). It can mean scrambling at the 11th hour to try and find just one. more. thing. to sell so that you can make rent. It can mean not making it to one of those school activities because you can’t afford the gas to make the trip. It also means no sick pay, nor benefits, nor unemployment benefits… so if you run out of work or if you’re sick for too long… tough. No corporation there to bail you out.

But oh… those up times. That insidious Hope that keeps us going; that sweet, sweet taste of triumph when you sell your first book/hour/course. The Dance of I Am Awesome when you land that new contract. The look on your little boy’s face when he looks back at you from the stage, holding his newly-earned Certificate For Being Awesome in Math… That is so worth a couple of weeks of Ichiban.

I am an Entrepreneur.

Rawr.

About an hour ago, Tweeter @yukarip asked where to go for the “best Wordpress themes” and @funkyplates said she should talk to me. Oh, no pressure at all ;) (but thanks!)

The short answer is “there is no best place.”

I can hear some people now: “Ya, but…”

Ya but nothing… It’s kind of like asking “Where’s the best place to eat out?” You know that people will follow it up with “What kind of food do you like?” and “How much do you want to pay?’ or “What time of day are you going?” even “How many people are going?” as well as “What part of town?”.

Truth is, you sometimes need to go to a dozen restaurants before you find your own, personal Cheers.

Before you can go searching for your own “best place to find Wordpress themes” you need to know many, many things about your site – and yourself – like:

• What colours do you want to use?
• Will you be having a lot of pages?
• Are you comfortable installing plug-ins or widgets if the theme requires it?
• Are you able to recognize an “almost what I want” theme and either tweak it yourself or get someone to fix it?
• Who is the audience?

The honest truth is, it’s probably best to spend an hour or five going through many, many, many different themes (and you’ll start to see duplicates on different sites). Download lots, install lots and go through all the previews using your own site. Most of them look really sexy before you download, but once you have your own things up, you either find it doesn’t fit well or you’re going to have to install 5 plug-ins or widgets to make it look like it did “on the box.”

What do I do? I simply go to Google and start my search with “free wordpress themes” or “free wordpress templates” and spend some time poking about there. Then I move on to places like Theme Forest or something quite robust like Headway (which I’m still playing with…).

To start, I’d go up and down the aisles, find a lot of free ones and do a lot of taste testing; how do you know you’re going like something until you nibble?

I love things that are innovative. My poor boyfriend has to put up with my info-junkie ways; far too many times during the day, while he is steadfastily working away I interject and inturrupt his thoughts with a very uncivilized “OMG! You need to see this! This is awesome! Brilliant!”

Now, my criteria for “brilliant” is probably akin to “amusing” or “possibly of note” to some people, but I like to give kudos where I believe kudos are due.

Mass mailing or “tree spam” isn’t something normally seen with glee; however, when I checked my mailbox this morning, there was this lovely die-cut brochure from Cobs Bread.

It has a scratch-’n-sniff square inside. How brilliant is that!! Our connection to fresh-baked goods is very much based in the olfactory realm. Good for you guys for doing this.

Also; damn you. Now I want cinnamon buns.

Interesting… a new study just came out talking about how brain work makes you eat more. I wonder if that could have a shift in how we see chubby people… “Hey, check out butt on that chick… she must have an amazing brain!”

A gal can hope…

Link to the article

(Update, Jun 24, 2009: if you are in Victoria, BC, you may be interested in the list of Victoria, BC Twitterers.)

OK. So we have heard the words “Twitter” and “tweeting” and “tweets” etc bantered about. What is this Twitter thing anyway? Some call it micro-blogging. A really smart friend of mine has called it “one to many Instant Messaging”.

I see Twitter as more of an office water cooler.

It sits over in the corner down the row from your cubicle (which, of course, is outfitted with cool gadgets from ThinkGeek.com and troll dolls). People gather there as they need a drink of water and start up random conversations, or join in existing ones. You see that Sally is there; you don’t necessarily agree with or see value in what Sally has to say, so you mentally filter her out. However, Brad is over there, and he has some good insights, so you perk up your ears and take note of what he is saying. Mary strides on over and starts talking; you like her too, she always finds cool stuff to do. You get to eavesdrop in on their thoughts and conversations, but they know this; this is the rule of the Watercooler. They want you to hear it.

Sometimes Scott gets too loud and starts bragging about his weekend exploits. Sometimes Sally does nothing but whine. But, sometimes you overhear a great nugget of information that sparks an A-HA! moment, then wander over there yourself to join in and get feedback.

Some people hang around all day, but somehow things still get done. You can’t see how Theresa does it because… wow…. 10 tweets an hour AND 3 blog posts??? Others just breeze by on their way to the copy machine, take stock of what’s being said, then toodle on off again. Curtis really is in tune with the project you’re working on, so you invite him back to your cubicle to brainstorm.

This is twitter for me. Nothing formal, one central place to go get a refreshing drink and it’s never the same group so the dynamics are fascinating to watch.

As long as they don’t start putting booze in what we’re drinking, it’s all gonna be just fine ;)