I Am Shane Becker

  1. Fraser Speirs on The Real Work

    The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

    The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table's order, designing the house and organising the party.

    Fraser Speirs

  2. Meet Stacey, She's My Girlfriend

    This is Stacey. She's great. We realized the other day that I don't have many good pictures of her/us (mainly just pictures of our dogs). My friend Ignacio was in town from Chile and took these snaps on his new camera at dinner. Stacey and I at dinner with Ignacio (and friends) in Venice, CA Me and Stacey at dinner with Ignacio (and friends) in Venice, CA Photos by Ignacio Galvez

  3. Goodbye, 2009. Hello, 2010.

    A couple days late, but here we go.

    Out with the old. I have this general feeling from lots of friends that 2009 was not a great year for them. I tend to agree. When I think about my past 12 months, I get a feeling of... meh. But when I try to articulate why it was so bad, I'm reminded of the really great stuff too. Here's some of the highlights.

    • I didn't have a job the whole year and still got by OK
    • I went to Chile for a month in February
    • I got rid of most of my possessions fitting everything I own into my van
    • I travelled the USA for four months
    • I saw old friends from Atlanta (and elsewhere) for the first time in several years
    • I made new friends all over the country and in other countries
    • I got a new laptop, 2 cameras and phone
    • I turned 30
    • My dog, Civ, turned 9
    • I got rid of all but 1 of my cameras
    • I continued The Resistance Army with Bookis
    • I started Less Than Three with Bookis and Tj
    • I met and started dating Stacey

    Not all bad. Actually pretty decent. But I still feel like I wasn't very happy or fulfilled. So that's this year's plan: bust ass, get lots done, feel good about myself.

    This is a more detailed list of goals, what some people call resolutions. (Originally published at ListYourList.)

    Let's call them Goals, because you're on your way once you set your goals.

    • Get out of debt
    • Get a job
    • Get a house
    • Build a wild edibles map app... or enlist someone else to
    • Build a dam wiki... or enlist someone else to
    • Sell 30 shirts / month
    • Publish 6 issues of a new online magazine
    • Get an activity stream aggregator / publisher working
    • Never burn another CD or DVD
    • Read at least one book / month
    • Get to TODO ZERO at least once
    • Stay put, don't travel so much

    Twenty Ten, The Year of Personal Jet-packs, my personal Year of Hustle. Get into it.