Once the stand was setup, they had plenty of customers coming along to buy the Lemonade. However, it being an illegal activity, a dozen or so Police officers showed up to end the ruckus caused by the activists. As you watch the video, notice that, despite a heavy Police presence, all the customers just continued to buy Lemonade, even after being told not to by Officers.

My question is this: If there is a bill, law, or regulation in existence, and the only people that care about it not being followed are the lawmakers and law enforcers, does it really need to exist? Theft is something that both law makers and citizens agree needs to be illegal. Selling lemonade outside on a hot day without a permit? Nobody cares about that except the law makers and law enforcers. I guarantee you people didn’t walk buy and say “Oh man, I sure would love a lemonade, but I doubt they have a permit, so I better not buy it”.

Utah recently enacted a stupid law called the Zion Curtain, and, just like petty regulations, nobody except lawmakers care about it. There was also a man in Orem that had been selling pumpkins from his garden for 20 years and this year was threatened to be “shut down” because he didn’t have the proper permit and licensing, snitched on by an over-zealous neighbor. Do you think he lost customers because some realized he probably didn’t have a permit and opted out of buying his pumpkins over the 20 years? I really, really doubt that.

To end, I really have to ask, if the only people that care about the enforcement of regulations and laws are the law makers, why on earth is the bill passed in the first place?

Recently I learned about Responsive Web Design and have been itching to build and or retrofit a current site of mine to utilize that technique. What exactly is that technique? Well, you build your sites to be much more fluid.

For years now my general practice in designing a website was to make it a fixed-width layout, typically 960 pixels wide. This allowed the site to fit perfectly in 1024×768 screens, and still look just fine as they got bigger. However, this also meant horizontal scrolling for smaller (800×600) screens. Thankfully, not many folks are stuck with such small screens.

Also, if I built the site good enough, iPhones, iPads etc would display the site just fine, albeit smaller (zoomed out) on the screens. This is an acceptable enough practice as well. However, mobile is taking over, quickly. For the past few years websites have answered by building  mobile-specific version of their website to be served up instead of the desktop version, depending on what accessed the website. While it’s a good solution, it’s also a time consuming double-designing solution.

The new answer is to make your site responsive, use a more fluid percentage based structure and then shrink the site until it breaks. At that breaking point you add a new rule to the CSS (via Media Query) and fix the design. Then, you shrink it again until it breaks and create a new fix. (Another approach is going opposite, or, design smaller and then make it bigger).

Anyway, I’ve retrofitted unculturedswine.net to now have a responsive design that grows and shrinks no matter what screen you’re using to view it. iPhone, iPad, Android, Desktop, Laptop etc this site is now built to scale and stretch. Very exciting, I know.

As he drove all over the valley he noticed something that I find very telling about success and those who find it. In the more affluent neighborhoods he’d see dozens of people out running and jogging on the streets early in the morning. They were generally in great physical shape, and were obviously doing well in their business endeavors.

On the other hand, when he was driving around other neighborhoods the streets were bare of runners. Only a few were out and about before work getting in exercise. I’m sure countless were rolling around in bed wanting to get up and go exercise (we all want to, right?), but only a small few were actually out doing it.

Am I saying that depending on what neighborhood you live in will dictate how willing you are to exercise? No, not at all. There are lazy people and hard working people in every neighborhood around the world. What I believe the missing trait between the joggers and the wishful joggers is, is discipline. There was just more to be found in certain neighborhoods.

Discipline is choosing the right instead of choosing the easy. Discipline is defining a set of standards you will live by at all times, in all places, and in all things. At it’s core, discipline means being a disciple of a better life; one who adheres to obedience of a higher law above that of the natural and carnal. One who is in control.

Recently I chose to quit the normal 40 hour workforce and join the ranks of the independent. I am very blessed to live in a place that rewards people who chose a lifestyle like mine. One thing I am focusing on more and more every day is my personal discipline to this endeavor. Now that I don’t have to clock-in at a regular job, do you think the temptation to sleep in is high? You betcha! Do you think stupid afternoon court room drama shows call to me when I’m stuck in a rut? Yep! Do you think I’m going to be successful if I give in to every whim I want to do? Nope!

If I plan to succeed at working for myself, at improving my skills as a web designer, at offering the best product to my clients and meeting my deadlines, successfully scoring raving fans to my portfolio I need to be disciplined. I need to set a daily schedule and stick to it. I need to establish rules and not break them. I need to learn to be accountable to me.

I guarantee if you polled successful business people, professional athletes, top salesmen, etc you’d discover a defining trait they’ll all have is excellent personal discipline. Maybe not in all facets of life, but I guarantee that what they succeed in they have incredible discipline in.

My question to you is what are you establishing yourself as being disciplined in? Are you improving your life, or throwing away opportunities to a better future? The great thing about what we live in now is, the world will reward those with discipline, regardless of which course you choose.

Shortly after starting my new career path I ended up winning a free pass to the awesome ValioCon in Carlsbad, CA. Ever since it was announced earlier this year I’d been wanting to go, but funds were short and I wasn’t able to acquire a ticket. However, a short Twitter contest that I happen to be around for changed all that and Alicia and I took a short, unexpected trip to Southern California for a great web conference.

Since returning I’ve been involved with a few projects, some of which are long-term and others are short term. I’ll have some of them on the portfolio site here pretty soon.

Past that life is going equally great. Our first year of marriage is coming to a close in a few short months and it’s been an amazing year; I look forward to a lifetime ahead with Alicia.

Since declaring my work freedom I’ve managed to fill up my workload removing any worry of whether or not I can make this work. I’ve got several great projects to work on, I’m setting up some personal goals, and really feeling good and enjoying this new chapter in my life. Life is getting better every day and I just want to say Thank You.

I’ve interviewed at a handful of places, thought about going freelance etc etc. Last week I got an email out of the blue from a company in Dubai that wanted to hire me and relocate us there for a 2 year deal. That was crazy! And it’s still on the table, honestly, although today I think we are going to stay. I’ve lined up a few long-term freelance projects and will be departing the land of the employed and going to work for myself.

No more reporting in to somebody else, no more wondering if I’ll get time off for a vacation, or worrying about taking an extra long lunch just because. Nope, that’s all gone – I am, once again, my own boss. And I’m super excited about it.

This doesn’t mean I am suddenly going to live a super party lifestyle, rather, I’ll just have more control over my time. I’ll still need to keep myself busy during the day, and honestly step up the personal discipline to make sure I stay as productive as I can and maintain a nice balance in my slightly-freer lifestyle. But this gives me time to really take over my mornings. To wake up early, exercise, do some reading and just start my day off doing several productive things before settling down for some work. This is how I want my life to be, and I hope that I can make it work this time around.

This was lit with a single flash off to the front-left, and then adjusted in Aperture to make the colors pop a little bit more. We had a lot of fun, and ended up doing some crazy light painting before it got too dark to see.