I am still working toward my fitness goal, but an re-injury of my lower back and a nasty cold have hampered that a bit.  Still, a loss of 20 lbs is encouraging!

Canon EOS 300D

I’ve also started learning a lot more about digital photography and workflow.  I was able to secure a Canon Rebel 300D along with an Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens and Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 lens.  Right now I’m focusing (pun intended) on wildlife photography, but I’m also experimenting with high dynamic range (HDR) for landscapes.  All will be posted when I have a little more time.

Now that I have several nice photos of Jasper, including some head-butting mountain sheep, I have been trying to set up a good gallery.  That’s why the gallery is looking a bit goofed up right now.

That’s all I have time for now…

20090421

Over the last decade and a half, I have spent a lot of time building my career.  Outside of that, I have not really set any goals or even regularly taken vacation.  That, in part, is why I have put on the weight.

So, what exactly is The Year of Me.  Well, it is just what it sounds like… I am going to focus a lot on doing things to make me healthier and more rounded as a person.  To this end, I am placing this list of goals that I want to achieve this year.

• Lose 45 lbs by the end of September, 2009
• Learn to run after losing 30 lbs (got to watch the knees)
• Read more, watch TV less
• Become an early riser
• Do more back country hiking to improve health and my photography skills
• Write more to “nurture passions” and encourage learning.

Of course this list is a living document so I will revisit and update as I add more goals.

The last item, writing more, was inspired by something I read over at Life Optimizer.  It suggested nurturing your passions is a good way to improve yourself.  Not only do you learn more, but you can synthesize fresh ideas from your passions.

One way of nurturing these passions is to blog about them.  Not just one blog… many blogs.  The article lists several reasons why you should have multiple blogs:

• It pushes you to keep learning
• It pushes you to comprehend the knowledge you obtain so you can express it better
• It pushes you to find new ideas to write about
• It reminds you that you need to improve yourself

The article goes on to say that you should select a few passions to start with and then start reading regularly on those subjects.  Write on those subjects (doesn’t need to be perfect or professional) but try to write thoughtful articles.

I think this fits great into The Year of Me.  Not only have I started blogging more on this site, but I have spun off two additional subdomains:

• http://codex.bradrowley.net: This site is all about information technology.  With over 16 years in the industry, I have learned many things.  I will write on different subjects in the IT industry, sometimes with my own take on things.
• http://recipes.bradrowley.net: I do love to cook, I do love to learn and I do love to learn to cook.  This site will be used to share recipes as well as the odd article and/or video on cooking techniques.   Don’t forget, I’m currently on a diet, so the recipes might be few and far between for a while!

Of course, http://www.bradrowley.net is the catch-all for everything else.  Digital photography and geocoding, hiking, geocaching, mapping, video editing… anything is fair game.

So, there you have it… The Year of Me.  I will summarize what I have accomplished at the end of the year.  I will also blog more on some the things I am doing to make The Year of Me a great year for growth.

Photo by MacJewell, used under Creative Commons License

I took some simple steps to prepare for my “speaking engagement”.

• I thoroughly researched my subject matter and wrote several pages of text.
• I read my document several times before transcribing all my speaking notes to cards.
• I rehearsed several times in front of the mirror until I could deliver my speech within the time allocated to me.

All this prior preparation left me feeling confident that I could deliver, and did I ever!  I actually enjoyed my speaking and my only wish was that I had more time.

What was really unique about this opportunity to speak was the format:  think speed dating.  Almost 40 presenters and 300 attendees took part in this event, speaking on many diverse topics… 8 minutes at a time!  A ding of the bell and the audience would change tables.  As a member of the committee that worked to put this event together, I was privy to audience feedback.  Many people, including the die-hard pessimists, enjoyed this event.

Why was this event so enjoyable?  No PowerPoint.  Over and over again this comment was made.

So, why do people detest PowerPoint so much?  Well, believe it or not, there has been some research regarding this.  Forget for the minute that some of the PowerPoint slide styles are just plain ugly.  The big culprits in this are (1) the way PowerPoint is used and (2) the way people learn.

PowerPoint comes with many standard page templates.  These templates are used to excess, and unfortunately many people try to fit too much information into them.  They also use these pages as both handout and speaking notes.  In essense what happens is PowerPoint is used to deliver the message or content and the “speaker” merely regurgitates what is on the screen.  This is a surefire way to bore your audience.

For a good presentation, you need to capture the audience’s attention by using your passion to deliver the message.  If you are using PowerPoint to assist you, have the slides support or intensify what you are saying.  This helps people to engage and remember your message because you have a strong auditory message being reinforced with pertinant images or multimedia.

Garr Reynolds is an Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University where he teaches Marketing, Global Marketing and Multimedia Presentation Design.  He has some really great ideas on presentation delivery.  You should check out his presentation pages, as he has some great ideas to share.  His Presentation Zen web site is dedicated to great presentation design.  

If you’d like some great examples of how good presentations should be done, search YouTube for Steve Jobs.  Many presentation professionals refer to his presentation styles as “the right stuff”.