Dino Baskovic Can’t Lose

Weatherproofing my writing

Photo by Tim Samoff

My mind is swirling with ideas lately, moreso than normal.  I go to bed dreaming up all manner of hair-brained schema, theorems and mousetraps.  And, when my conscious least suspects, the ultimate escape-from-reality plan.  Should any of you find yourselves wanting to part with a prototype RAH-66 Comanche and a gorilla that can mix drinks, then Skype me.  No questions asked.

I am toying with writing my first book, submitting to The Rapidian -- a new hyperlocal in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- and testing a new online strategy for myself.  Yes, that whole personal branding thing that I'm trying to give its fair shake.  In short, sharpening the proverbial blade that will reach far beyond blogging.  Killing two birds with one stone, I want to get those lost manuscripts locked up in my noggin and put them onto paper.  Make that a Kindle.

Getting published has been a big deal for me ever since I was faculty at Lawrence Tech near Detroit.  Not like it was "publish or perish" for us lowly adjuncts but I nonetheless felt a wee bit of pressure.  I taught web design for eight years and felt it necessary on occasion to edit a textbook, do some interviews, score a byline or two.  Looks good on a CV and gets me on stage once in a blue moon. 

I figured a better fit would be to write for web design-related sites such as SitePoint and WebMonkey that I naturally plugged in my syllabus.  Proving grounds for technical articles, POV pieces on best practices and code examples.  I'll be damned if I ever got around to any of that.

So when this hit my inbox earlier today, I was thrilled that SitePoint remembered I still had an account:

Showcase your Expertise to the World!

SitePoint strives to be at the forefront of new ideas, emerging challenges, and cutting-edge technology on the Web. We are always looking to partner with writers to bring these messages to the web development community.

If you’ve got an idea for an article or a book we’d love to hear from you!

"Perfect," I thought.  I'm not the command-line hero I once was, but it would be nice to get back in the game.  All well and said until I further read:

If you’re able to write an article about any of the following topics, we’d love to hear from you!

Client-side Topics

• CSS frameworks (CSS-based, or CSS-generating)
• modern CSS techniques & practices
• CSS3
• CSS/HTML/JavaScript for mobile devices (especially iPhone)
• HTML5
• HTML Email
• microformats
• RDFa
• Raphael
• Google Closure

Server-side Topics

• PHP frameworks (CakePHP, CodeIgniter, symfony, ...)
• content management systems (Wordpress, Django, Joomla, Expression Engine, ...)
• ecommerce frameworks (Magento, Shopify, ...)
• Ruby on Rails (tutorials, scalability, Case Studies)
• identity (OAuth, Facebook connect, OpenID, Twitter, ...)
• nginx web server (especially use with PHP)
• web hosting (configuration, tools, reselling, ...)

Web Design Topics

• Photoshop tips
• web design trends
• practical web design tutorials
• web fonts and typography
• design tips for developers

Business Topics

• web site case studies
• shopping cart options
• customer management
• managing transactions
• pricing on the web
• landing page design
• website/retail integration

Eeck. These days, I can speak to a third of these topics with any degree of authority. Though I taught this kind of stuff in my sleep, I don't keep up with the latest coding techniques as I once did.  I'm too busy waging backroom battles to be fully immersed in the dark arts of design and development.  And maybe that's okay.  I still know enough to be dangerous and have the common sense to sub the rest.  One of the few perks of middle management and if it frees me to write, so be it.

So maybe SitePoint's no longer the best fit for me.  Nor is WebMonkey, though I still need that gorilla.  I bet I can find something to write about.  It might be business, but it may be bacon.  Or bologna.  Even baloney. 

Either way, drop me a line if you have some insights and Skype hasn't yet deactivated your unused credits.  I can't promise every piece I write will be riveting, but it's better than letting my works get rusty.

Tags » blogging education higher education journalism personal brand publishing writing

• 13 February 2010
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