Let's Ride - Fred Faulkner's Blog About the Road Called Life

Cameron Moll tells us what he was doing 7 years ago.  Here’s what I was up to 7 years ago.  The year was 1999:

1. Entering my junior year at Bradley.
2. Building Web sites in tables with a hacked version of Dreamweaver not knowing at all what CSS was.
3. Dating my now wife.
4. Trying to figure out how to beat my roommate in Quake and Unreal Tournament.
5. Taking advantage of the Napster revolution (I’ve stopped since then).
6. Driving my first car, a 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix
7. Starting to wonder what I was going to do with my soon to be Marketing degree.

To give an update, here are 7 things I’m doing today:

1. Still unpacking from moving into my new house.
2. Building Web sites with CSS and Web Standards
3. Commuting 3 hours a day to and from work.
4. Driving my second car, a 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo z34
5. Married to my then girlfriend
6. Still learning a ton about the Web, business, marketing, and how they all work together.
7. Webmaster for the largest volunteer professional organization in the world.

Posted by Frederick L. Faulkner IV at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Like many other marketing plans that are developed everyday, I find myself coming to the crossroads in my career where I need to get a better grasp on what I want to ultimately do in life. You are asked as a little kid by your grandparents, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My answers were a police officer, an engineer, and a lawyer. I have since realized that I don't like the idea of getting shot at, so the police officer option is out. I don't handle math all that great, so the engineer was not going to play out in the cards I was dealt. I now work in in the legal industry and for a non-profit. I don't want to be a lawyer, but I find that the legal industry is a great place to be in. I went to school to be a marketer, and I have had to develop a business and marketing plan or two for senior projects. As things have started to shift at work with other employees coming and going, I believe it is time for me to develop my own marketing plan, to give me some direction to what I want to do, where I want to go, and what steps I need to take to get there.

Continue reading "Developing A Personal Business & Marketing Plan" »

Posted by Frederick L. Faulkner IV at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It hit me the other day when I heard the new Jessica Simpson song on the radio, Take My Breath Away--a remake of the love song from Top Gun (one of my favorite movies of all time) originally recorded by Berlin--that I'm getting old. I saw Top Gun for the first time when I was in grade school. I used to be in shock when I was younger, jamming to a new song on the radio and my mom would come into my room singing the same lyrics. I would look at her in shock and say "MOM!! What are you doing?!" She would tell me that the song I was singing to was a remake of one she used to listen to when she grew up or was in college. I couldn't believe it. Nine times out of ten I liked the original even better and that's one of the reasons I love Classic Rock (Zepplin, Aerosmith, The Doors, etc.). So I hear this new remake on the radio and it hits me, I'm getting old, if being twenty-six is old. I'm sure there is a set of the population that would disagree with me and call me the young pup of the world. Regardless, I know I'm getting old when I start to hear songs I grew up with are getting remade by current artists.

Posted by Frederick L. Faulkner IV at 07:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is my college freshman roommate's beautiful newborn. It is hard to believe that "Hey I'm AJ" is a father, but I could never be happier for the guy. While we roomed together only for freshman year at Bradley, he was one of the best roommates I could have had. You see AJ was from the local area of Peoria, IL and I was very hesitant about going to college, especially that first day when we got down there. AJ seemed to make every worry I had about moving away from home disappear in a nanosecond after we finally met. His warm reception and outlook on life was amazing. I couldn't help but look up to him, and not just literally as he is a whopping 6'5"!

Regardless, when I found out that he and his wife (whom he met freshman year as I did my wife) were going to have a baby I was estatic. AJ has his life in order and Jacqueline is now the light in his eye. He is an inspiration to me and I can't wait (well yes I can) to be that proud papa someday.

Posted by Frederick L. Faulkner IV at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I attended a Managing Projects and Priorities seminar yesterday. In my annual evaluation my superior recommended that I learn how to manage my projects better. I admit, I might not be the best at this yet. I am in a very "reactive" job. I have a skill set that not a lot of others have, let alone in my department (I do web developement and handle a lot of e-communications because we format e-mail promotions and messages in HTML) that when someone needs something done "now" on the Web, I have to jump and ask "how high?" So sometimes focussing on "my" projects gets put on the back burner.

I also tend to go through spurts of what my wife calls "Adult ADD." She sometimes claims I would fit right in with her sixth graders when I go off on random bursts of "childishness." Not so much at work. My Work ADD is more like "hmmm...I wonder what the headlines of the Chicago Tribune are today?" or "What is the stock market doing?" when I only have four shares of stock to my name. Not like my portfolio is going to be shattered if the market has a bad day. I guess I tend to tangent off because sometimes my work isn't all that interesting. I build Web pages. Nothing too special. I am confined to a certain construct that isnt very interesting, let alone flexible to do interesting things. I also inherited the site which is built of Server Side Includes. Now, for those who don't know what SSI's are, it allow you to update one file and have it cascade over many other pages. Such as a navigation, or header of your Web page. While this makes site management easy, it is a pain when it comes to making sure your site is "Printer Friendly." Regardless, there are days when the motivation just isn't there. Probably because I know that I don't want to be a Web developer my entire life.

Continue reading "Organizing Work/Life" »

Posted by Frederick L. Faulkner IV at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are cars, and there are drivers. Well this isn't a VW commericial, but it is the new skin of my Web site. I started with a bunch of ideas for a new look and feel. I did some surfing, soul searching, and finally came up with this. I love cars. I want to own many in my lifetime. Life is like the road you drive. You will be dealt a new senario upon each turn, stop, and hill. So as they say, Let's Ride.

Posted by Frederick L. Faulkner IV at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)