1. New Rockable Press Tumblr Book

Last week, I submitted the draft for my latest book from Rockable Press. This one is going to detail the ins-and-outs of creating themes with Tumblr, from using post-types, all the way up to the Tumblr API. I’m told that, hopefully, it will be released in August.

2. TumblrToolbox.com

To coincide with the launch of the book, I’m also launching a non-Envato tutorial site, specifically for Tumblr development. It certainly won’t be as consistent as Nettuts+, for example, but you can expect to find at least two new awesome Tumblr tuts, in both written and video form every week.

I’ve already finished the design/coding of the site, and was able to work in some pretty cool stuff. Tumblr is a bit restrictive in the flexibility that it affords designers. As such, even things like creating featured posts becomes seemingly impossible. But, with a bit of JavaScript, I figured out how to do that, and a variety of other cool non-Tumblr-esque’ type stuff.

The website will launch the day that the book is released.

3. Wicked WordPress Themes

Just by coincidence, I have another book on WordPress coming out in August as well. Called “Wicked WordPress Themes,” from SitePoint, I, along with three other authors wrote two chapters for the book.

4. “The New Way of Creating WordPress Options Panels”

SitePoint asked me to write an article for their website, to coincide with the book’s release. I, just today actually, submitted an article on using the Settings API to create an options page for WordPress. Look for that article on their site in early August as well.

5. Envato Chicago

After two years of working with Envato, I’ll finally get to meet my co-workers and managers. The Australian team is flying to America for a US meet-up in Chicago, for the week. Super-exciting.

6. OOP With PHP: Video Series

I can’t say as much as I want to just yet — and it’s pretty big! But, I’ve begun creating an in depth, comprehensive video series on Object-Oriented-Programming with PHP for the launch.

But it’s true: I finally understand why people love this show so much. It’s addictive as hell.

Maybe it’s just a product of getting older, but, in the last few years, I’ve begun reconsidering a lot of things. We accept so many things at face value, without ever thinking twice. Have you ever really asked yourself, “Why do we eat meat? Why do we drink another animal’s milk?” The answer – at least for me – was a simple one: “Because that’s just the way things are.” Chances are, you eat meat because your parents do, and that’s all you’ve ever known…but that’s a terrible reason to do something. Mark Twain once said:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”

Milk is not for Adults

Did you know that we are the only species on the planet who drinks milk beyond infancy? Think about it: how strange that we drink milk from cows! What the hell? Cow’s milk has one purpose: to drastically and quickly increase a calf’s weight. So why are we drinking it as adults? I never asked myself this question until recently.

While we’re on the subject, what is even remotely enticing about eating processed decomposing murdered animal? Sure, it tastes good, but at what cost? Centuries ago, meat was a luxury. Today, it’s not uncommon to eat some form of meat three times a day! It’s no wonder why we’re so damn fat; our bodies simply weren’t made for this kind of consumption. We’re not lions…

• We don’t sit around all day digesting our meat
• We don’t have sharp fangs
• We can’t chase down our food
• In fact, our bodies are perfectly tuned for eating fruits and vegetables..so why don’t we?

While, granted, it’s my blog, and I can say what I want, this is a considerably sensitive issue. Much like politics and parenting, this discussion seems to bring out the worst in people. It’s only natural that, when something you’ve done your whole life is questioned, you should lash out and attack. I’m not asking you to quit eating meat — I have enough trouble doing so on my own! However, what’s more interesting to me is the fact that we genuinely don’t discuss it much.

It’s Evil

Hardcore vegans and meat-eaters could argue for years, while both making excellent points for their teams. But truthfully, I’m not concerned with how healthy or unhealthy vegetarianism is. My issue is with the horrible, horrible treatment of these farm animals. Videos like this one deeply effect me:

When I watch a video like that, every part of my body tells me that this is evil. Your first instinct might be to assume that these are isolated incidences. From what I’ve read unfortunately, this is far from the case. Further, let’s assume that the farmers aren’t beating the animals. The lifestyle that is forced upon them is still incredibly cruel.

I think, to a certain extent, it has to be this way. I can only imagine just how much meat our world consumes each day. How these farmers can possibly satiate our insane appetites is beyond me. As such, they probably have no choice but to force chickens to live their entire lives in darkness, and within inches of each other. Did you know that they pump chickens full of so many hormones, in order to pump up their breasts, that they can’t even walk three feet without falling over? And when they do fall, they fall into their own feces. Does that not make you cry? And, you know what? That growth hormone that the farmers inject into the animals…well you consume it as well with every bite (unless your food is organic…which it should be).

Participation

As I learned more about this, I kept coming back to the same question: “Why do I want to participate in this?” The answer I came to was a resounding “I don’t.” I haven’t touched it since.

Quitting

The biggest struggle for me during the first few months was peer pressure. It’s not an easy task to visit an in-law’s home for dinner, and inform them that you won’t be eating their prepared dinner. I can only imagine how obnoxious that comes across to them. Even more so, I’m afraid that it sometimes comes across as “I’m better than you…and I don’t eat such things.” I’d wager that many people view vegetarians this way. But the fact is, I’m not concerned with anyone else’s choices, other than my own, and perhaps my immediate family’s.

After the first few months, the meat cravings go away almost entirely, and, in fact, it honestly disgusts me at this point. That’s the goal, right? …To get to the point where you don’t have to crave and deny?

In Good Company

One of the things that really helped me to focus and push forward was finding out that some of the best minds in our history are/were vegetarian, including:

• Albert Einstein
• Isaac Newton
• Ben Franklin
• Paul McCartney
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Gandhi

If arguably the greatest thinker in our history chose to be a vegetarian…well that alone is enough for me to do the same.

If we can establish that that the industry is corrupt, and that animals live their existences in darkness and serve no other purpose than to be our food, why do you want to participate? I sure don’t.

I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of being a writer. Give me a subject that I’m not interested in, and I crash and burn. But if I enjoy the subject matter, and can have a bit of fun with it, I love writing. The act of sitting in a coffee shop – overpriced chocolately beverage in hand – and being creative is far too appealing to me. A couple years ago, I approached a site called Freelance Folder about possibly writing for them. They didn’t offer much compensation – only about $60 per article; but I enjoyed it, and was hoping to get my name out there. As with most blogs like this, I was only able to submit a couple of articles each month.

Because I was eager to write more and more, I contacted the founder of FreelanceFolder, Jon Phillips, often about a full-time writing position with his site. Unfortunately, at the time, no positions were currently available. Politely, I would always speak up and respond with something along the lines of, “Well, please do keep me in mind if something opens up.”

The Dude

One day, to my huge fortune, Jon emailed me. As I understood it, some dude named Cyan was in need of a weekly writer for a new web development blog called Nettuts. Jon is an accomplished developer/writer/musician himself, and was unfortunately unable to take the position. But thanks to my constant – and probably irritating pestering – he must have remembered that I was looking for a steady writing gig, and forwarded the email to me!

The Woman

Well as it turns out, this “Cyan” turned out to be a “she,” and a high-level contact at that (she and Collis founded Envato)! After a couple of polite emails, I was on my way to writing a weekly article for Nettuts+.

My First Three Articles for Nettuts+

1. 15 Resources to get you started with jQuery from Scratch
2. Solving 5 Common CSS Headaches
3. Learn PHP from Scratch: A Training Regimen

Long Story Short

To make a long story short, I just so happened to be in the right place at the right time, and was offered the Editor position of the site a few weeks later, ThemeForest a few months after that, and finally CodeCanyon – which is scheduled to launch sometime late this year.

Now What About Sylvester Stallone

I’ve been a fan of the Rocky series ever since I was a kid. Being the nerd that I am, this meant that it was only appropriate to watch the commentary to Rocky 1. At one point during the muted movie, he made reference to how his script was finally sold. He was actually auditioning for an acting role for a movie. After meeting with the producer/director/whomever, it was decided that he wasn’t really the right fit. As he made his way to the door and was just about to exit the room, he turned around and said, “I don’t know if this means anything…but I do a bit of writing too.” In response to that, the producer said something along the lines of, “Oh really? Let’s schedule a meeting to discuss it.”

As a result of that scheduled meeting, he sold the project, became as buff as I am, the movie was a huge success, and he obviously went on to be a superstar …all because of one last effort. If he had instead chosen to keep his mouth shut as he walked towards the door, it’s quite possible that his career may never have taken off. He says that, to this day, he encourages students to always speak up – because who knows, they might just say, “Come on back!”

Looking back: if I had never come across FreelanceFolder, probably in bed during some sleepless night… If I had never pestered Jon about my desire to write more… who knows what I’d be doing right now. So the moral of this story boys and girls is: speak up! The “squeaky wheel gets the oil” idiom might be a bit cheesy, and undesirable even; but it’s 100% true, nevertheless. How can they say “come on back” if you never speak up?