UPDATE (yes already): If I didn’t meet you this morning, leave a comment or follow me on twitter and if I did meet you, say hi.

Today was the ‘inaugural’ meeting of the CouveCoolKids and the start of what will hopefully be a regular meetup on the north side of the river. Always good to find a new spot in town and Coffee Villa hit the spot with everyone this morning. Upon first glance it appeared to be a fairly small space, a little exploration revealed a great meeting area in the back of the shop, decent amount of seating and plenty of standing/visitation space. They do seem to be involved on the major social networks, and already offer Foursquare specials to the mayor.

While I didnt get a chance to meet even half of the people there, I did get to reconnect with people and add to the ones I will keep in touch with. Seemed like a great group to get to know and look forward to meeting all involved.

There was some minor discussion around making this a regular thing, and I for one am looking forward to a meetup gaining traction on this side of the river.

Usernames vs IRL name ? Is there a difference? Is one better than the other? how do you prefer to be recognized? Do you put your twitter handle on a name badge, business card, etc?

I have been thinking about this for awhile, and wondering how you know people that you interact with online. Recently overheard someone say that they recognize twitter handles more than real names (and this was at a face to face social meeting). I have also had several people not immediately make the connection between myself and my sister, even though we both use our full last name in our twitter handles.

Personally I have created my online profiles around the use of “dswiese” for those that may not know Daniel is my actual first name while I go by Sean in real life. After a few introductions, people usually remember to ignore the first name initial.

So far Tweetie for iPhone and Mac is the only client I have that allows me to display a users real name. Would this option create a more personal social interaction if it was the default on all twitter clients ? Would this as a default encourage more new users into engagement?

While I know that this is one of the loneliest and most neglected blogs on the planet. I would like to point out a side project by a former (if brief) co-worker.

33Beers is a pocket sized notebook (scout book) for tasting notes of, well, beers. This is perfect if you tend to buy random bottles of beer, hit the various brewpubs here in Portland, or just want to remember what to buy next time your at the store.

The man behind the idea, Dave Seldon, gave a great session at Webvisions 2010 this year, and I think the biggest thing I took from it was his recollection of the idea when talking to Scout Books.

“It doesnt matter if your the first with the idea. It only matters if your the first to do it.”

This is a great reminder to anyone starting their own business, thinking about a new idea, or just looking to start a new positive habit in their personal life.

Check out Dave’s progress of his journey through a beer a day on facebook, and his brewing and beer blog at BS Brewing. If wine is more your speed, check out 33Wines.com

So I had the chance to attend a local conference here in Portland called Webvisions. The focus of the conference is to “explores the future of Web design, technology, user experience and business strategy”
Since this was my first opportunity to attend, and under the circumstances, I would be trying to twitter out as much of the information from the sessions I attended as possible.
This would also be my first real dive into live-tweeting sessions, while trying to listen and retain the useful bits for my own knowledge, but also to filter and tweet out pieces that could be useful for others that were not able to attend that particular session. With so many other people also doing the same thing, you expect to see some overlap in tweets, while also being able to just re-tweet others information.

Getting into the sessions, I will admit I was a little hesitant, as I don’t consider myself an expert, guru, coach or anything of the sort. It was a bit intimidating. However, that soon passed as I sarted to realize that everyone was there to do one thing, LEARN.

While I should have done a more comprehensive writeup closer to the end of the conference, I would have been able to breakdown each session for its individual values.
I will sum it all up to say, that I really enjoyed each session, retained something from each one, and also enjoyed the down time in between sessions and meeting others around the conference.

Quick shout outs to the ones that I remember meeting:

Betsy Richter
Joanna K
Stephanie Wagner
Amye Scavarda
Thom Schoenborn
Dave Seldon
Jeff Martens
Justin Kistner
Scott Porad
Julie Parrish http://twitter.com/hotcouponmama

And the ones I talked to but never got to meet

http://twitter.com/eyedesignstudio

http://twitter.com/unicornbeauty

http://twitter.com/bubbleessence

http://twitter.com/hudsonsean

so this is just a quick note to.. well me… ( as I think I am the only one reading, at least I hope so )
so things have been gaining some momentum in the last few weeks.
The freedom that being able to work for myself is defiantly getting the better of me, and the ability to set a schedule that allows me to still see my boys often is very appealing.
It does bring its own disadvantages though, as there is that insurance stuff, the paperwork, the managing of contractors, etc. While none of those in and of themselves are a big drawback the ability to mesh them all while ramping up a business is quite daunting.

However, I do think that advantages far outweigh the negatives. Ideally, I would love to find a part time gig that could cover the bills to the point that working for myself tips into the positive cash flow area.
I have set a few goals for myself to accomplish in the first half of the year. Among these are bringing current project clients onto a semi contracted retainer for consistent work, ramping up my self marketing to gain new clients, and better educate myself some more on traditional marketing needs in order to better incorporate those into the web marketing I have been doing.

I believe that is all for now

so this is the year that I said I would give myself to either bring freelancing to a full or part time gig. As things are going, I could realistically see it becoming a “full” part-time job by years end, and then working somewhere to help fill the gaps.

There are definitely a few steps that I need to take to even make the part time option.

1. evaluate local market
2. market myself
3. evaluate service offerings
4. determine areas of recurring revenue
5. take action

I hope to expand on these over the next few months and share a bit of how I come to whatever conclusion I end up at.

So I have an interview next week that I am prepping for and though I would drop a couple quick notes of the steps I go through.

1. check LinkedIN to see who I know there, or who knows someone there. Also look to see if there is a company page and who might have worked there in the past.
2. check my social networks (facebook, twitter, etc) to see who might have talked about it recently.
3. reach out for information about the company, and possibly people you might be talking to.
4. research any recent company news, press releases, etc
5. if possible, find out what technology they use in house and any recent developments they may have released.

heres to holding out for good news this week.

This will most likely be a rambling post that will cover almost the past years worth of things that I could have posted given the motivation.

Sometime in December it will be a full year since my last serious full time job (not counting a month in the middle somewhere there).  While it has been a struggle to keep on top of bills, stay sane, and in general stay motivated, there have of course been the bright spots.

Just after my last official day last December, my second son, Ben, was born the next week. While this meant more responsibilities and such long term, the short term timing was great.  I spent the first half of 2009 as a stay at home dad watching my two boys almost every day of the week!!  This was more than enough work to fill the lack of a job, as far as time goes, and also was quiet amazing to watch the boys develop their own interaction, and personalities with each other.

Outside of this part of my life, was the frustration and stress of an ongoing separation, the continual and increasingly frustrating job hunt, and the general depression that goes with not feeling the adequacy to provide for your family (both emotionally and financially).

This year of unemployment has had it bright spots, and that is what I am using to carry me through to whatever end this part of the journey may be.  I have had the opportunity to network (could do more) within the local Portland community.  The ability to attend @beerandblog, enjoy the chatter of Albina Press, and talk with others in some of the same scenarios has been a great boost when needed.

While this may be a bit early for an end of year retrospective, my posting frequency gives me some leway.

As this year draws to a close, I have reaffirmed my close circle of friends, worked to develop some structure to some consulting opportunities, and most importantly, learned to truly cherish the time I have with my boys and my Portland and extended friends and family.

This is yet another first post in a long series of reboots for my personal blog life.

Definitely more active over on twitter, sharing things on Facebook, and consolidating all online activity on FriendFeed.