Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Just Follow the Starter Car

Everything is doable. And by that, I mean every self project that gets given up because there wasn't enough time, every skill that is never learned because there wasn't a good environment, every fanciful wish that isn't fulfilled because it seems too hard to do, was entirely possible. I'm not talking about making bread out of sand, I'm talking about the kind of thing that goes on everyday, everywhere, to everyone. Simple things that don't happen.

This is where I document tackling that problem. Most people are far more inherently talented at doing what they want to than they seem to think, and for the longest time I felt the same way. I'll talk more on what changed the way I think at a later date, but for now, I'll just choose a project and start on it, and make a progress post each day, because it's not the mile markers that people give up on, or the goal. It's the apparently ordinary days in between and the moments where you wonder if it will really matter all that much if you just skip practicing this one day, or do the next step a few days later. That's when we quit.

So really this is just me accomplishing things and telling you how I did it.

Project # 1

To be simple and get myself on track, the first project is going to be this blog--getting it up and running is definitely something I need to work on. I'm horrible at keeping up with things, or so I tell myself, so posting everyday might itself be a difficulty. On the other hand, I do manage to log into gmail everyday, as well as check a dozen other places. Every day, without fail. So in all likelihood I'm merely deluding myself and will do quite fine as long as I put my mind to it.

Objectives

1. Post. Post every day about what I've done, preferably with pictures and explanations of each step.
2. Customize the blog into something recognizable. Clean it up, format it, give it a picture and a heading, create sections for links and info.
3. Work on writing. This can be worked on every day with the required post, but it is a must. Nobody wants to read a blog that drones on without being entertaining. People want to look at something interesting, and if my blog isn't, they won't look. Fact. So work on the writing, stop rambling in tangents, learn to edit not just grammar and punctuation but also thoughts and flow and subject.
4. Learn my way around the interface. There's all sorts of options and formatting here. I can choose Compose or HTML,  and there's this whole section on the side about Post Settings. I need to learn how I would use each thing I see here and why, and I have a feeling that if I really want to take control that's just scratching the surface.
5. Figure out a consistent format for my posts. For example, I've decided that my "project" posts will have a few different sections to them--a lead-in from my last project, an explanation section, an objectives section, at least one optional objective, a goal, and an end-note. That whole format was just come up with on the spot, as I was typing "5," and it might be subject to change. Regardless, I should have a starting point and consistency. I need a format for each kind of post, beginning, middle, ender, inbetween, status, poll, whatever I can think of.

Optional Objective:

1. Set up AdSense or something similar. I'd like to do this, but I'm putting it as optional because just slapping an ad on willy-nilly is almost silly and content really should come first. I'm not likely to get many people visiting for a long while, assuming I even reach the point of mild interest.

Goal:

Have and be able to properly a fully functional blog that survives a week and doesn't look like it's a piece of crap.

Smooth Sailing Around The First Turn

So that's the end of my first post here. I do want this to be an interactive blog as soon as people are actually reading it, so any questions or feedback is good. Later on, I'll even have the readers determine the projects out of a bank or even just at random from posts. For now, though, I'll just stick with this. Seeya tomorrow, and I will try to think of a good posting time.