Rick Tuttle, Papasoft

I plan to attend BarCamp Miami 2009 and WordCamp Miami 2009 on February 22, 2009 at the Adrienne Arsht Center. This will be my first BarCamp and I’m excited to see what it’s all about.  I’ve wanted to become a part of Refresh Miami but can never make the events since they are always on Wednesday nights (how about another night sometimes folks?).

Not sure whether I’ll present something about iPhone web development or just stick with WordPress. I hope to use a current project as a case study.

I got tagged with this meme by Paul Stokes. I think it is probably the first one I’ve ever done online. (more…)

A mentor is a trusted advisor. Not necessarily a technical teacher but one who will walk beside you and give you advice and direction throughout your life and career. A mentor is going where you want to go and a person in whose steps you would want to follow.

You may have different mentors for different areas of your life. You may look to your parents or a relative as an example of how to live. A teacher or a supervisor may become a mentor. One thing is necessary in a mentor: good character. You want someone who will give you an honest assessment and help to teach you right from wrong.

The godly offer good counsel; they teach right from wrong. They have made God’s law their own, so they will never slip from his path.
- Psalm 37:30-31 (NLT)

You won’t (or shouldn’t) just walk up and ask somebody to be your mentor. The right person will simply become a mentor to you as you build a relationship by asking questions and getting to know that person and their life. Watch how that person lives and interacts with others.

Are you a follower of Jesus? If you are, then the right mentor for you is someone who is following Jesus and has followed him for some time.

We use the word “mentor” because Mentor was an advisor of Telemachus in Homer’s Odyssey. However, the perfect example of one we should follow is Jesus the Messiah. Your mentor should be able to say, “Follow me as I follow Jesus.”

Maybe we should change the name. You need a “little Jesus”, not a “mentor”.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
- Proverbs 12:15 (TLB)

:p

Since I started Papasoft I have learned some new skills that I had not anticipated.  One in particular is in the area of Flash development.  I had used Swish in the past to do some easy Flash work but some recent projects required that I bite the bullet and learn how to program in Flash.

I found some good online tutorials at kirupa.com that gave me some concrete examples to follow and I went to town.  Throw in a little ActionScript programming and now I can be pretty dangerous in Flash.

Along the way I’ve also picked up some skills in sound recording, editing and podcasting.  And on a personal note, one other thing that this old dog is learning to do is play the piano.  I’ve been taking lessons once a week for a few months now.  It helps that I play the guitar, know quite a bit of music theory already and I have a good ear.  I wish I would have done it a long time ago but that is neither here nor there.

If you think that life has passed you by and it’s too late to learn something then let this be an encouragement to you: It’s never too late to learn.

One of the Tuttle family’s annual holiday traditions is to watch Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. We don’t own a copy and last year we checked out the DVD from the library. However, this year we got stuck on a long waiting list. The principle of frugality almost overruled the holiday tradition this year until I got the bright idea to see if it was up on Google videos.

It turns out that the It’s a Wonderful Life in its entirety is up on Goolge Videos.  It appears that the movie is in the public domain and the copyright has expired (someone please educate me if I am in the wrong).

We sat down and watched our favorite holiday classic and cried our eyes out as usual. Thanks Google.