View Larger Map

I’m still (and always will be) a huge fan of Florida Death Metal. However, Against Me is still a great band, and really proved to me their ability to stay grounded.

Watching the crowed at the show was probably as much fun as the show itself. It was all the die-hard fans jumping all over each other. I can’t explain the stink of body odor in that garage, but trust me, it was rough.

More importantly, I can’t describe how surreal it was to see a bunch of white kids, probably living with their parents in a suburb somewhere, all hanging out at a place that provides no security, in the middle of one of the supposedly more violent places in the state of Florida.

Great times

While there was definitely a lot of good talks during FOWA, a few really stood out for me: Jason Fried, Joel Spolsky, and Gary Vaynerchuck. Since I was recently laid off, I’ve been looking for some guidance in how I’m going to approach working independently. The take away from those three speakers was: Don’t learn from failure, but success, eliminate distractions when working on code, and ‘Care’.

Jason Fried, founder of 37 signals and one of the creators of Ruby on Rails, spoke without slides to aid him. He spoke about business and startup strategy. One of the more impressive things he said, was that he never failed. He furthered the point stating he’s “tired of people talking about learning from failure”.  Another quote: “Does that mean you gotta fail a million times to figure out what works?”.

I’m not going to fail.

Joel Spolsky‘s speech could have easily been taken as a pitch to hire new developers. The extent to which his company makes developers feel comfortable, and strides to stay out of their way, is awesome. He talked at length about how developers do the most amazing work when they’re “in the zone”. Interrupting them only serves to keep them out of that zone, and limit the production that can be realized by them.

I’m not going to let stupid shit interrupt me when I’m working.

Gary V‘s speech was definitely the most enthralling of the event. That guy is definitely one of the most incredible people I have ever met. His speech was actually pretty short, but he took a lot of Q/A to fill the space. One attendee asked Gary something about marketing strategy. Gary’s response: “You wan’t a frickin marketing strategy? CARE”. He went on to talk about the number of existing marketing strategies that only serve to make a one time purchase / sale, and how damaging that is to a brand.

Gary Vaynerchuk at FOWA Miami 09 from DamianVoltes.com on Vimeo.

I will care about what I make and what I do.

So that’s the take away for me. I’m not going to fail or let myself get interrupted, but I’m sure as hell going to care about what I’m doing. I’m incredibly excited about everything that’s possible right now.

It’s probably already been said, but I can’t thank the people at Carsonified enough for putting on this show. I had an awesome time, and I really appreciate the effort it must have taken to pull it off.

President Barack Obama’s first prime time Presidential news conference was tonight, and it went off with many a hitch. First, President Obama insisted upon the same fear-mongering that has dominated his first month in office. Second, sounding like a dictator from a third-world country he claims the conservatives who voice dissent represent ‘old habits’ that are ‘hard to break’. Then, when President Obama had clear chances to show a level of common ground with conservatives (or, just the American people) he failed.

The first, and most obvious part of President Obama’s speech was in reference to the ‘stimulus’ bill being debated in congress now. The debate is a facade. House and Senate Democrats will have enough votes to force the bill through congress. What’s really going on, is a war for the hearts and minds of the American people.

We the people, are rightfully skeptical about the justification for putting the next few generations of Americans under serious national debt and hyper-inflation for the sake of propping up socialist columns in government. President Obama mentioned being upset that “the same folks who presided over 8 years of doubling the national deficit” would question a bill that would likely quadrupale that amount. His repeated claims that there is no serious doubt about the validity about passing this stimulus bill is equally offensive. There are plenty of very smart economists who do not believe that this bill will help jumpstart the economy.

First of all, two wrongs dont make a right. Secondly, the doubling of national deficit was largely done to support a war on Islamic fundamentalists who, on top of murdering thousands of Americans, spurned a mild recession into a serious one in 2001. Certainly some of the money could have been spent better than it was. That does not mean however, that the people most responsible for that spending are now beholden to give your administration and it’s congressional allies a blank check for the ‘PORK SPENDING’ that you now feel entitled to.

The sense of panic being pushed on the American people is akin to a sales pitch to push an impulse buy in any store you can think of. By asking the people to not question the largest spending bill in history of the world, you are asking them to blindly follow what they cannot understand. If the people of this country are willing to follow without question now, to President Obama, then they certainly are capable of doing the same for someone whose intentions might be far more sinister. The people of this country are rightfully being skeptical, and asking tough questions. They deserve the best answers that their money can buy.There were other topics that managed to bring my blood to a boiling point over the conference as well.

A reporter for the Huffington Post asked … Wait a minute… THE HUFFINGTON POST? Since when is a socialist blog aggregation considered a reputable news outlet worthy of having access to the White House? The number of attrocities the Huffington Post is responsible for in it’s amazingly biased output of information is not countable. The fact that someone from that waste dispenser got a press pass is enough to make me lose nearly all respect for the administration. The fact that someone from that site was even allowed to ask a question? OMG, I need to calm down …

More horrible reporting, without an appropriate response: someone, from some news outlet, asked President Obama for his thoughts on the recent discovery that Alex Rodriguez has admitted to using steriods in 2003. I absolutely do not pay taxes to listen to my elected (or non-elected) government representatives talk about sports. Sports has no bearing on the well being of this country. Government’s only business is government, not entertainment. Next we’ll be asking for congressional hearings to find out if Paula Abdul is really on drugs.

The only real reporting for the night, was done by Fox News. Yes, you heard me right. Major Garret, of Fox News, asked President Obama about remarks that Vice President Joe Biden made. Vice President Biden made comments that “there’s a 30% chance that this might all fail”. Garret asked President Obama if he could elaborate on what Vice President Biden was referring to. President Obama broke into laughter upon hearing the question. His response “I have no idea what Joe was referring to”.

If the Vice President is going to make remarks like “there’s a 30% chance that this might all fail”, then I expect the President to know what the hell he’s talking about. Laughing it off like the crazies at Fox News are grasping at straws is offensive. Vice President Biden was President Obama’s pick. If he can’t handle the loose cannon now, then he should have never picked him in the first place.

Alas, even with so much to disagree on, there was one glimmer of hope in President Obama’s remarks tonight. When asked about the war in Afghanistan, and a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from the region, President Obama responded with some comforting remarks. “We cannot allow those safe havens (for Al Queda) to exit”. Thank you very much Mr. President. I hope, despite the incredible pressure you must be under from the people who helped get you elected, that you don’t forget that. Our economy can falter, and we will recover. If our defense falters, we might not.

We’ve shared space with Push for 18 months now. We love those folks. They’re an amazing bunch of people, who I’m pretty stoked to call friends now. Friendship aside however, it was time we had our own space, to *push* our own identity. Hopefully we’ll all still see each other at Lizzy’s. Our new office _is_ right there anyways …

All of the team spent a hell of a lot of time preparing the new office into something we could call home. When we got the space, it was setup for a construction company. I guess that’s a bit ironic for me, but it plain sucks for everyone else. So, we all worked our asses off to remove carpet, paint, clean, and do a million other things to make the office into something that begins to represent Hydra, the raddest digital agency in the world.

The whole process was a little cliche of the things you’d expect from working your balls off after a full day’s worth of regular work with co-workers. I have a bit more respect for everyone, and I definitely care a smidgeon more about everyone there. I know it sounds like a load of crap, but everyone really gave it their all, and I couldn’t be more proud of what all of us have been able to pull off. 

The move definitely had it’s perils though. I had to dodge insane traffic to pick up equipment I dropped in the middle of 50 during rush hour. We destroyed some walls we had to put back. More than a few nerves were a little frayed from the tremendous amount of work we had to do. 

I know I’m gonna get some shit for this: Regardless, of everyone who stands out in this whole process, Bobby Jones is definitely the man. Bobby is undoubtedly the best employer I’ve ever known. During the entire transition between offices, Bobby probably worked 80 to 100 hours on the new office. He poured himself into making the transition relatively smooth, and keeping the rest of us motivated while we helped realize his vision. The sort of stress he must have been under is impressive. What’s more impressive, is how calm and collected he remained throughout the affair. Ask Rob and Parker how many times Bobby took the late workers out to IHOP at 5:00am to feed the most dedicated of folks. I’ll probably follow up my ‘Folks that mean shit to me’ lineup with Bobby next (even if it does give me a brown nose).

Anyways, a mega-huge thanks to everyone at Hydra for working your asses off doing shit you didn’t know how to do, but did it anyways. I’m honored to call all of you my coworkers, and more honored to call all of you, my friends. I’ve worked with some of the toughest people in the world. I’d trade every one of them for you guys, you’re all the best.