Canned is an iPhone app for sending pre-written text messages, and I use it every day. It’s one of those apps where you’re not quite sure if or how you would use it until you actually do and then it becomes indispensable. (Like Pastebot, for example.)
And now, the fine fellows at Sky Balloon Studio have just released a version of Canned for email. Only a buck in the App Store.
This morning, around 7:00 am, I was just sitting here in front of MarsEdit with the announcement written and ready to publish. And I just sat here. Too nervous to hit Publish. It was probably just a minute or less, but it felt like half the morning.
In some ways I thought today would never come. And for those few final moments before I published “Beginning” I had this uncanny feeling of sheer excitement coupled with total fear. I was giddy at the thought of letting you guys know about such a huge and exciting change. And simultaneously afraid at what trolls may come out of the woodwork to criticize my decision or poke fun at my (admittedly) bad
(https://shawnblanc.net/members/).
My wife, Anna, was this site’s very first reader back in July of 2007. She has proofread, edited, and given constructive feedback on every major article I’ve written — I never post those things without her feedback first (I figure if she likes it, and I like it, then it can’t be all that bad). Anna also helped me behind the scenes in the early days of this site by giving suggestions on questions I should ask certain interviewees — such as asking John Gruber what he eats for breakfast.
It was some time right after this past Christmas, just before the 2011 New Year, that Anna and I were having dinner at home and I pitched the idea to her about actually taking shawnblanc.net full time. I’ve tossed it out there before over the years, but it was always somewhat casual. But this time I meant it. And she meant it when she said she would be 100% behind me.
I brag about the readership of this site quite a bit. And I mean it when I write how amazing and talented you guys are. But, with all due respect my fellow nerds, this site would not be the site it is today without the support and encouragement I have received from my wife.
Thank you, Anna, for everything.
Also, I want to thank you guys, the readers. The support and positive feedback I received today has been absolutely phenomenal. Many of you have been helping spread the news on your website or via Twitter as well as writing in to say congratulations. Please keep it up, because so far sign ups are looking good.
It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet, so I really have no way to know if things are going really well or not. But I do know for sure that there is still a long way to go in order to make the memberships a viable enough source of income for me to keep the full-time aspect going for longer than the summer.
Those of you who have signed up already, thank you! If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?
For some reason unbeknownst to me, PayPal won’t let you build or customize the autoresponder emails that are sent when someone becomes a subscriber. Which means that the information about your perks as a member are given out on the final page stage of the subscription process. This includes the information on how to subscribe to the members-only broadcast, Shawn Today.
This was, by far, the most frustrating piece of the whole membership puzzle for me. There are many alternate options and workarounds, but I opted for what I felt would be the easiest for me to maintain and the easiest for you to access.
If you’ve signed up for a membership and accidentally missed this information during your subscription check-out, please email members@shawnblanc.net from your PayPal address and I’ll send you the info you need.
A little surprise for tomorrow: some extremely amazing and generous folks have donated a handful of prizes and gifts as bounty for a membership drive that will kick off tomorrow.
In short, between this morning and midnight on Sunday, March 20th, anyone and everyone who signs up for a membership will be eligible to win some amazing prizes. And these aren’t just hum-drum giveaways. They are top-notch, drool-worthy, items. But more info on that tomorrow morning.
This is a sentence I never thought I would publish: Beginning the first week in April I will be writing shawnblanc.net as my full-time gig.
When I began shawnblanc.net in July of 2007 it was with the intention of enjoying and exploring that place where creativity and computers come together — I am fascinated by that blend of the artful and the technical. And for almost four years now I’ve been exploring that place while writing this site on the side, as I’ve been able.
But writing on the side, as I’m able, is no longer enough for me.
I simply have to go full time. And so I’m jumping in head first. I’m actually doing it. And I can hardly believe I’m saying this.
After four years and hundreds of articles it all feels like the beginning. As if the hundreds of thousands of words that I’ve written here so far are simply the prologue. I cannot wait for what is next.
In many ways, shawnblanc.net will be the same as it has been. The focus and direction of this site is not changing.
But in some other ways shawnblanc.net will be different. Or, at least, I hope it will be different. I hope that the quality and the pace of the publishing will rise to a new level of excellence. I hope that the community here will be able to grow and connect more. And I hope to expand to new communication methods in addition to writing.
It is hard to put into words just exactly how excited I am about the days ahead. I’m equal parts giddy and petrified over here. There’s that feeling of: I’m actually going to do this! Um, wait. I’m actually going to do this!?
And so, in order to make this happen for longer than a few months, I need the support of you, the reader.
I am inviting you guys to join me on this journey, and help me take shawnblanc.net full time by becoming a member.
A membership subscription is just $3 a month — like a good cup of coffee — and includes some members-only perks. You can read all about the membership and watch a video I made by checking out the membership info page. But here’s the gist of the members-only perks:
Hopefully the value and enjoyment you already get from shawnblanc.net is worth $3 a month to you and these perks are just icing on the cake. But however you slice it, I would love to have your support as a subscribing member.
Surely shawnblanc.net has one the most amazing readerships out there. Because of you guys this site has been able to grow and mature into what it is today. And that is what is enabling me to take this leap and go full time.
And so now, I’m humbly asking, will you take this next step with me?
Seth Godin:
By trying to reach as many as we could, we were never intimate enough to generate conversations that mattered or ideas that spread…
Seth’s talking about the booth you set up at a trade shows, but I’m applying this advice to my own website. Because, in a way, isn’t your website like a booth at a global event called the Internet? You can try to be the biggest and the flashiest and be the talk of the show, or you can try to develop personal interactions with those who are willing to give you their time and attention.
Fruit is good for your brain and so is Fruit Memory HD for the iPad. This fun, well-designed, memory-matching app is a great huddle game built to play solo or in groups of up to 4 players.
An educational and entertaining memory game that is loved by people of all ages, Fruit Memory was built by the father of 3 toddlers, who grew tired of shuffling and dealing cards on the living room floor. With the added characters, sounds and great design, the Fruit Memory HD experience is well worth the $.99 in the iPad app store. Enjoy!
Many, many thanks to the amazing guys at Resen for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote Curator.
Curator is a web app built to simplify and speed up the process of creating presentation docs for your design mockups. You simply upload your designs (logos, webpages, cover artwork, photographs, whatever…) and Curator does the rest and then gives you a high-quality PDF.
I know that a lot of web designers don’t own InDesign or Illustrator in order to build their own presentation docs, or their time is better spent on other things. Curator handles both of those problems. You can upload your designs and build your presentation doc for free, and if you’re happy then it’s just $0.99 for the PDF download.
And speaking of snowboarding, remember this final run at the 2010 Olympics where Shaun already had the gold medal cinched and so his last run of the night was this awesome show-off run where he busted out the Double McTwist 1260 at the end? So electric.
I can’t find NBC’s official footage of the whole run. If you want to see a more professional version of the McTwist 1260, here’s a more official promo video done by Red Bull. But it’s not from that electric Olympic night.
God knows I love the mountains and snowboarding. Doing runs like this seems like a dream come true and a nightmare at the same time. The thrill of being up there and being on runs like that, combined with the sheer terror of flying down those runs makes my heart pound.
Ian Hines conducts a fantastic Interview. And his site, intrv.ws is steadily building some top-notch features. This month, you get to read about me, how I began shawnblanc.net, what I do every day, and other interesting tidbits. Thanks, Ian!
You’ve seen the latest episode of Put This On, right? Good. Now read Jim Ray’s post to find out what and where to buy all that awesome shaving gear. That’s what I’m doing.
I love that the place was intentionally architected to facilitate spontaneous, bumping-into-people-in-the-hallway type of meetings.
Gorgeous looking, widgetized stats board based on Panic’s cool status board. This would look great on a big screen in the Web Team’s office. (Via Jimray.)
Speaking of “Desk Envy”, remember Josh Farmer’s sweet Mac setup?
“I don’t even know what it means to have a handmade desk.”