I Am Nick Armstrong - Web and Gen-Y Strategist, Web Designer, and Digital Gunslinger, and Creator of Psychotic Resumes and WTF Marketing

Nick Armstrong at Ignite Fort Collins – Digital Gunslingers!

By Nick Armstrong | Published: June 4, 2009

I am so damn happy I was invited to be part of Ignite Fort Collins #1. Here’s the video of my talk, please rate it and let me know what you think!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJLgaAsT4tU

My talk at the very first Ignite Fort Collins ever was about social media marketing and how to market yourself or your business the right way with social media! Here are the videos of the other presenters. I look forward to participating, somehow, in Ignite Fort Collins #2 in August.

Here are the slides, as posted on my Slideshare page:

Digital Frontiers – Nick Armstrong’s Ignite Fort Collins #1 Talk

View more OpenOffice presentations from NickArmstrong.

Posted in Digital Gunslinging | Tagged Digital Gunslinger, Digital Media Marketing, Ignite Fort Collins, Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments

Unemployment Recap – I guess I’m a lifeguard.

By Nick Armstrong | Published: June 1, 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about the people I look up to… and the two most important today are Bill Cosby and Captain James T. Kirk.

James T. Kirk does not believe in the no-win scenario… and for the last 23 years of my life, neither have I. No situation has been so desperate that there was no way out of it. I learned by watching Star Trek at a young age that you can always win, but it all depends on your definition of winning.

Bill Cosby said that anything you can laugh about, you can get through. That has also been one of my guiding principles. Which is why I wanted to share with you my job search results.

When you file for unemployment, you are *required* to create a job-searcher profile with the local unemployment services office. Mine shows my skill as a computer programmer, marketing, and audio engineering. The ONE and ONLY job they found which matches my profile?

Lifeguard.

Jobs Matching Your Profile April’s numbers for the state of Colorado put us at near 8% unemployment. Nation-wide, we’re almost at 9% unemployment.

I’ve heard somewhere that perseverance is one step away from desperation. I haven’t gotten to desperation mode yet. You’ll know if I do.

Last week I made the decision to pull out my IRA so that I could pay the bills. This wasn’t an easy decision, but I had planned on having more time than I do now. It seemed like the logical thing to do, considering that unemployment doesn’t seem to be working very well for me.

I had been trying for a week to contact the unemployment office after re-opening my existing claim from this time last year. After two weeks of busy signals and a two-hour hold, I finally got through. They told me that my claim had to be updated, which could take anywhere between 5-10 weeks before I get paid. What’s worse, since my claim is almost a year old, the money I was entitled to goes away in July. More than that, if I’m still unemployed in July I will have to file a new claim, which will take an additional 5-10 weeks from when I file it and be for an uncertain amount.

I’m not going to wait around for that. I will not sit by with my hands open waiting for a payout. My plan is to make an honest living before June ends.

I’m going to find a position in my career or build up my own business before this becomes a bigger problem.

If all else fails, I guess I could always go into life-guarding.

Posted in Personal | Tagged Department of Labor, Unemployment | Leave a comment

A Job vs A Career

By Nick Armstrong | Published: May 28, 2009

I recently wrote on Psychotic Resumes about deciding between going broke while waiting to do what you love (a career) or doing something you hate for money (a job).

I received a slew of comments from the Brazen Careerist crowd. Most revolving around, “Look, it’s okay to ’slum’ to pay the bills.” I don’t think so.

I have, for the last two years, been perpetually stuck in the cycle I like to call, “This time it’ll be different.” This time, I said to myself – each and every time I started on a new programming job – it’ll be different. Last time, I had too many bosses. Last time, I didn’t get the support I needed. Last time, I hated the constant 50-hour work weeks and crazy, constant stress. Last time, I just wasn’t good enough to keep up as fast as they (and the economy!) needed me to. (edit: 6/1/09 – added “constant”)

I look at that list of reasons and think, “Oh my god, how do I tell an interviewer these things without sounding like an excuse-filled lame duck?” My only defense is the truth. I have never lied to a potential employer to get a job. I put my 5 biggest weaknesses on the About page of my blog. I talk about life, love, money, and everything else on Twitter… I get boisterous and loud, I am never reserved. I always speak my mind. I’ve never had a problem owning a mistake. If I’m one thing, it’s unflappably honest. So when I say marketing is my passion, I really mean it.

I have been so tempted to find a job – any job, just to make the fear go away. There are nights I can’t even sleep from the thought of missing rent, missing a car payment, all these medical bills from my appendectomy. The thought of having to leave Yoda (my cat) behind because dad is allergic, if I ever had to move home with mom and dad. I have to remind myself that I have the tools to solve these problems. It’s only really hopeless if I let it become hopeless.

I’m not some Jim Dandy with no skills. I’m the gorram man. I aim to win. It’s not ego. I won because I was able to give 100% – I didn’t stop until I was the best. I really cared about the things I was doing. (ps – gorram is a Firefly reference – it’s a swear word.)

And I remember how I feel about a month into every programming job I’ve ever had. The nagging anxiety that I have a week to learn a brand new language, the depression of not being so busy I can’t even have lunch with Leslie, the frustration of getting home and being so tired and worn out from the day that I can’t bring myself to work on my personal projects. I can’t do that. I can’t be like that anymore. I’ve never felt that way doing my personal projects – doing my own marketing. I know that if I were doing what I loved to do, I wouldn’t feel like a failure.

You can’t do your best, give 100%, when you don’t like what you’re doing. It took me two years to realize that.

I’m not going to settle anymore. I’m not a failure. I’m not a loser. I’m not a slacker. I’m… a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.

Those jobs I had, they would have been great for someone else. There were problems, sure – mine and theirs. There were great people and great things to do. They weren’t the right great people for me. They weren’t my great things to do. The next position I take – the next task I perform for money, will be the first step on my real career. The thing I’ve always wanted to do.

I can’t go back, because it would mean certain failure. I can only move forward.

Posted in Personal | Tagged Brazen Careerist, Careers, Firefly, Jobs, Psychotic Resumes, Web Programming | 2 Comments

Spoilers: You’ve Got Your Vulcan in my Romulus… 3 Consequences of the new Star Trek Movie

By Nick Armstrong | Published: May 17, 2009

***Spoiler Warning***

I went to go see the new Star Trek movie – twice. Once on a regular screen and once on an IMAX screen – and I loved it both times. As a Trekkie, I was definitely satisfied – but as a hobbiest Star Trek writer, I was a little disturbed.

My #1 hobby is writing Star Trek audio drama, so I was left with questions about the consequences of the new Star Trek movie on the older canon. One of the golden rules of writing for Star Trek has always been to put your toys away when you’re done playing. That is, you need to write a “close-loop” episode (or season, series, etc.) that effectively puts the Star Trek universe back where it was before you started writing. Anything you break needs to be fixed (First Contact), anything you create kinda disappears (Insurrection), and anyone major you kill needs to somehow find a way back (Search for Spock).

It looks like J.J. Abrams has -temporarily- suspended this rule.

*** Spoilers Begin Here ***

Consequence #1 – Things Will Break, People Will Die, and We’re Okay With That

Every somewhat versed Trekkie had a moment of acknowledgment when the major characters started discussing the Alternate Reality hypothesis. Spock’s “Whatever course our lives might have taken before…” line. That was J.J. Abrams telling us that this was *his* universe. The candy buttons, single, centered view screen, and cold brushed steel of the other timeline don’t exist here.

You might have noticed there’s also a black hole where Vulcan used to be. Not only is that a major tourism killer, but the fact that J.J.’s writers either didn’t care to – or haven’t yet decided to – set things right and repair Vulcan or the timeline means that the old rules just don’t apply anymore. Major players can be taken out. If they were able to destroy Vulcan without a second thought, imagine what perils this could mean for our favorite characters.

Consequence #2 – Back Home, Spock is Gone!

I’m of the opinion that the warm and fuzzy canon we’ve come to know and love still exists as a parallel universe to the one J.J. Abrams created. There are plenty of supporting examples for this (TNG: Parallels) and I don’t think J.J. Abrams’s intent was to “kill off” existing canon. As a functional way to bring back The Original Series cast as well as tell new and compelling stories without having the ending already known, the Alternate Universe thing was a great way to do it.

In fact, the major pieces supporting my theory that things can live hunky-dory side-by-side is that Spock made absolutely no attempt to correct the timeline. Generally when someone breaks the timeline, Starfleet Officers take it upon themselves to set it right at any cost. He never mentioned fixing the timeline to Kirk, he didn’t travel back with him to help (young) Spock re-capture the future Vulcan ship with the Red Matter, or any other lengths we’ve seen Starfleet Officers go to to set things right. Picard with the Borg in First Contact, Kirk and Spock with McCoy in the TOS episode Guardian of Forever, and so on. That Spock failed to do anything to set it right in this case seems a little mysterious – unless there’s some secret dynamics of Red Matter that we’re not aware of – or perhaps more character driven – that Spock could not bear the thought of a universe – even a parallel universe – without Vulcan.

But for the folks back home, in the old universe, Spock is friggin’ gone. Which also means…

Consequence #3 – Back Home, Romulus is Destroyed!

The reason Nero went on his killing spree – Spock failed to save Romulus from the supernova. So now we’re short a Spock and the Romulan Empire is without a homeworld. Do you need a moment for that to sink in? I know I did. Romulus, in our nice, fuzzy and familiar timeline, is destroyed.

As a writer, I have to live with that – unless I want to create my own Alternate Universe. I kinda did with Dimensions – I put the story in the Mirror Universe, set in a period that we’ve know nothing about. Even so, if my characters ever make it back home, they’re living in a universe where Romulus is doomed.

Star Trek: Remixed

This is all an assumption. We could posit that Spock (the old one) wasn’t actually from our warm and fuzzy familiar canon universe, but yet another alternate universe – and the same for Nero. For all we know, in the warm and fuzzy familiar canon universe, Spock could have saved Romulus and Nero went on happily as a married miner.

As a long-time Trekkie and Trek writer, though – I feel like maybe warm and fuzzy isn’t where Trek should be anymore. My fiction is definitely darker for a reason – I don’t think Warm and Fuzzy is where the world is at anymore. People can’t identify with that. Let’s take some risks. Let’s blow up some planets and do some things that aren’t so safe with our favorites. If we miss ‘em, we’ve got the warm and fuzzy universe on our DVDs and VHS tapes, but now we also have this new playground to play on… and a few more fans who’ll want to play too!