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I’m in a Google GLASS Slump

Posted on by Jerad Hill

2014-04-17 10.42.12When I first received Google GLASS I was pretty excited about it. I loved using it, the only problem was that it was hard for me to use without prescription lenses. I have posted before about my journey through finding a way to use GLASS while needing prescription lenses to see at distance. Once Google made frames available for Google GLASS that could accept prescription lenses, I ordered them and had lenses made right away. You would think that I would have used Google GLASS every day since. The reality is quite opposite. My best guess is that I have used GLASS less than 5% of the time since I first had prescription lenses to see through.

People always ask me if I like Google GLASS or find it useful. I always respond with an optimistic answer suggesting that I have found ways in which it is useful to me. The issue is that GLASS is not useful most of the time. As I write this, GLASS is in it’s case, in the center console of my truck. It has sat there for the last 3 days. I had planned to wear GLASS during a dental procedure yesterday, that didn’t happen. I just have yet to desire to have GLASS on my face all day. Even when I wear GLASS, I take my regular glasses with me so I can switch back if I need to.

The best use case for Google GLASS is with those who have a more active work day. I spend about 7 of my 8 hour work day behind a computer. GLASS just becomes a distraction when I am trying to work. There is nothing to take photos of at my desk. I can’t listen to music with GLASS all day because the battery would go dead after a few hours. There is no reason to wear it at work. When I leave for lunch or to a meeting, I occasionally put on GLASS, depending on who I am going to meet with. It is a conversation piece and I like being viewed as someone who is on the bleeding edge of technology, because I often am.

I don’t like wearing it at home because my wife and kids often look at it rather than at me as if GLASS is doing something. Besides that, there is nothing going on that I would need GLASS for. I prefer most calls to go to voicemail after work hours. I don’t care as much about notifications or SMS after work either. I like to be there for my wife and kids. I do put on GLASS occasionally if I am going to do some sort of activity with my kids and I want to be able to easily take photos and video without pulling out my phone.

Photo and Video quality is not quite there either. I would like to be able to use the video from GLASS for more than just posting directly to social media. When I film things with my phone, I often end up using some of that footage in a project that I post later. Google GLASS only shoots in 720p and the quality of the footage is not that good. If I want useful footage, I’m better off using a GoPro camera.

I guess I feel like GLASS would be more useful if I led a more active lifestyle. I don’t make it to the gym often at all and lately my weekends have been filled with family events and little kid birthday parties. These things don’t make for interesting content for my social media followers.

Google GLASS was awesome to have when I was in the pits at Daytona 500 this year. When a lot is going on around you, Google GLASS is the best. It beats pulling out your phone and taking photos. I like the first person perspective Google GLASS gives you. It’s exactly what I was looking at. My problem is that it is not that often that I am looking at something interesting enough that I want to take photos with GLASS. When I was at NAB a couple of weeks ago, it was great. Capturing photos of what I was experiencing was a huge plus.

I have worked out with GLASS using fitness apps and trackers. That was a neat feature, but at the gym, it really draws attention to you. People don’t want to see a camera pointing in their direction while they work out. I normally take my glasses off altogether while I work out anyways.

GLASS does not yet replace the need to have your phone in front of you. Though you can have some notifications pushed to GLASS, you can’t simply leave your phone in your back pocket all day. You have to have it with you for the internet connection and ability to make/receive phone calls and text messages. You can’t use navigation on GLASS without your phone. GLASS is just another device you have to carry on you.

I have had people suggest that GLASS would be easier for me to get used to because I have worn glasses for the last 15 years of my life. I actually think that the opposite is true. I have always been a fan of thin framed glasses. I don’t like anything getting in the way of my view. I am not sure why. Perhaps I distract easily. Though I have gotten used to GLASS being in my line of sight, it is still a distraction and if I wear it for long periods of time while working on the computer, I get a headache.

I do believe that augmented reality is some form of the future. We can’t go on walking around with phones in our hands looking down from the world in front of us. GLASS gets our line of sight back up with the horizon. It allows us to get some notifications without going to our phones. I have also recently compared it to the smartwatch by Pebble. The Pebble Watch allows you to get notifications to your wrist so it’s out of the way until you get the notification. The prism that is in front of your right eye with Google GLASS is a bit of a distraction even when there is nothing to display. Though the watch had very limited functionality compared to GLASS, it held a batter charge for almost a full week. There really is no comparison between the two though, GLASS is in a different class as far as devices go.

I am still passionate about Google GLASS and enjoy wearing it. I need to find a way to make it more useful in the line of work I am in. I don’t want it to simply be something I wear to show people how technologically advanced I am. I want it to be useful and meaningful as a tool in my life that helps me stay connected to and share what is going on around me. Perhaps I just need to quit regular glasses cold turkey and not give myself the option to wear anything else. I will have to wear GLASS because that is all I will have with me.

Once again, time will tell as to what I will continue to use GLASS for.

The Social Consequences of Everything

Posted on by Jerad Hill

This video had me cracking up because it sums up the comments underneath just about everything I post on Facebook.

Remember the 90’s when everything seemed more carefree? Of course at that time my generation was just a bunch of teenagers, so what did we actually know anyway? Regardless, where we have gone in the last 10 or so years is downhill. We can’t have an opinion about anything without someone else ruining it. If you stand for anything these days you will most likely get put down by others. Nobody praises you for having an opinion anymore, you get attacked for it. We will soon be in a place where nobody will want to speak up about anything out of fear of being attacked for having an opinion on something. Of course we will still let Government and Celebrities have opinions because it is ok to follow their lead. Sharing a video on something Ellen says is our way of taking a stance on something these days.

This video makes me laugh, because it’s so true. We can’t do anything these days without upsetting someone. We feel like our take on things is so open minded and accepting but in reality it’s not. In actuality, everybody is over-sensitive and closed minded because they cannot accept that someone else has an opinion that differs from their own.

I have a challenge for you. Instead of getting upset about somebody else’s take on something, spend some time getting to understand why they think they way then do about that subject. Respect their opinion and once you have enough rapport with them, give them your opinion and why it’s important to you.

We are quickly becoming a country segregated by our opinions. I can easily see this becoming something akin to racism. I don’t want to see our nation become a place where we treat people differently because of their take on trivial things. People are never going to agree on everything. What makes us unique is our individuality. Take that away from us and what do we have left?

You may disagree with me on this but I think people today are way too emotional about everything and are too soft as people. They can’t handle someone that disagrees with them because they were raised having everything the way they wanted it. We live in an option overload society. Everything comes in a million different flavors or variations so we can have it our way. If a kid doesn’t like something, the parent gives them options until they are happy. This just results in a bunch of adults who can’t handle the real world because it doesn’t come in their flavor.

It’s time we stop being irresponsible.

What is your take on this? I gladly accept your opinions below.

Stuff That Makes Me Cry

Posted on by Jerad Hill
2012-01-26 17.37.26

Since having children, I have found that I am a much more emotional person. Prior to being a parent, I can’t remember the last time I cried or got very emotional about anything besides my wedding day (happiest day of my life btw). When stuff happens to your kids, it is a different kind of pain. The world puts a lot of hurt on each of us but when something is hard on your child, it is a different kind of pain that is hard to describe to people. If you have kids, hopefully you understand what I mean.

When my son Liam broke his leg at around 20 months old, 2 weeks before my wife gave birth to our second child, my whole world stopped. After his femur failed to set, all I could think about was that my little guy might not be able to walk normal and I assumed running would be something he could achieve after much therapy. Thankfully everything went well and though he had to learn how to walk again after the cast, he shows very little signs of ever having any issues. He outruns kids that are older than him. Nothing holds him back.

There were moments when I thought to myself, what if he lost his leg? What if it heals back wrong and he can’t run. There are many things you allow yourself to think and worry about. I am sure most of my issues with acid reflux come from the stress I allowed to affect me during that time.

2012-01-28 19.44.59

When my son came out of surgery in a hip spica cast and I died a little inside because I felt that I had failed to protect my son. It’s hard to find hope during a time that I let fear of the unknown get the best of me. I bottled it up so that nobody else would see how afraid I was, but I had never been more scared in my life.

2012-02-08-14.28.25

Thankfully my son was healed and does not seem to show any signs of issues from the break. It’s one of those things you just have to hand to God and trust that everything will go well. You ask as many questions as you can to the Doctors and do your research, but you trust that God has it all under control. When all you have is a horrible looking x-ray, all you can do is trust. Since he had his cast removed, he has not had another x-ray. Pictures help us understand, even if it’s an x-ray of your childs leg that looks like a snapped toothpick. I still find myself analyzing his leg as he walks or runs. Until he is an adult and is done growing, I will always worry about his leg.

Since becoming a parent, I have watched other parents lose a child to illness or tragedy. I thank God often for the healing my son has experienced knowing that none of us are promised a tomorrow.

It has been 2 years since my son broke his leg, so I thought this post would add some context to how I am currently feeling. Thanks for reading/understanding.

Parents, hug your kids. Tell them you love them. Don’t allow anything to take priority over your family.

2012-02-23 20.57.31

This photo was taken the day we got home from the hospital with second child.

How to disable STB on a Samsung Smart TV

Posted on by Jerad Hill

I have a Samsung Smart TV in my office. When I setup the TV initially I selected Comcast for Set Top Box (STB) because we have Comcast TV service. I should have skipped that because we don’t use it. I put an Apple TV in the HDMI 1 port and now every time I turn the TV on I get a window that pops up that says it could not connect to STB. I select Ok and then the message goes away. This is annoying to have to do every time you turn the TV on. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to get rid of that message until today, so I thought I would share that with you in case you are having the same issue. Essentially what the TV is doing is looking for the STB that you selected. Since you do not have it attached to HDMI 1, you get that error message.

Here is how you disable STB on a Samsung Smart TV.

  • Hit the Menu button on your TV remote. I used the original remote that came with my TV.
  • Then use the down arrow to get to System.
  • Use the right arrow to select System.
  • Use the down arrow and select Device Manager.
  • Select the Universal Remote Setup option.
  • There should be two options available, one of those options is probably your cable provider. On my TV, it said Comcast. For you, it could say Charter Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse depending on the service you selected when you originally set up your TV.
  • Select the Cable Provider Set Top Box (STB) option.
  • Select Delete (This will remove this STB from your TV)

Now your TV is STB free.

What to do when someone is impersonating as you online

Posted on by Jerad Hill

cat-impersonatorYesterday, a friend of mine found out that someone had created fake social media accounts using photos of her family which includes photos of her and her husband and her kids. This person seems to be trying to create her own identity based on the photos she has downloaded from my friends blog and public social media accounts. Though this is scary when you find out it has happened to you, social media fraud actually happens all of the time.

The internet is full of sociopaths. Because you can hide behind computers and smartphones, you can create whatever identity you want. All you need is photos. You can get photos from anywhere, because we all share them publicly. Even though all of the major social media websites have privacy settings which allow you protect who can view your content and who can not, people still seem to leave it wide open.

The problem with social media is that we want everybody to see what we are up to. If we block too many people, nobody will see us. Because we want to be seen or heard, we leave things wide open, or close to it.

Here are some things to think about and do when someone is impersonating as you online:

1. This happens to many people who post stuff online. People with nothing but time on their hands do stuff like this to be able to craft a life they wish they had. This means you are doing something right because you apparently are reflecting a life that people would want to mirror. It is what happens when you post a lot of content including photos, names and other information to the “open web.”

The only way to avoid this would be to stop posting your content in the public arena. If you blog, it’s highly likely that your content is open to the public. Be prepared to be scrutinized by the internet which includes the full gamut of people in our world.

2. When you come across profiles or sites that appear to be impersonating as you, you should flag everything you come across and report it to the websites that it is posted on. This most frequently happens on social media sites so this is actually easy. Just flag everything and eventually the fake accounts will be closed. Get your real friends to flag the photos and profiles as well. The more reporting that happens the better. Make sure you encourage your friends not to bully the person. You can to remain the victim here. You or your friends could end up causing more of a scene then the one impersonating you did.

For the time being, I would also suggest that you go private with all of your social media until the situation is cleared up. You can also harness the power of your social network of friends to go after this person. You can tag, reply, comment and do all sorts of things with that person’s username to make it hard for them to exist using it without a trail of content following these accounts that describes them as fake.

3. Are you in imminent danger or this impersonator? Most likely not. It is probably some bored person who wishes they had what you have. The “hot chicks” of the internet who post selfies all day long have this issue quite often. People create fake personas using their photos so they could be looked up to by others. It’s like the movie, “Can’t buy me love,” but without the payment and the fake relationship. Thousands of people deal with this each day. All you can do is flag the accounts and contact the social media sites using the appropriate methods outlined in their Terms of Service. As long as people continue to crave attention and affection from others, this will continue to be a problem for those who choose to post publicly about themselves and their life.

It’s time consuming and annoying, but it’s what happens when you post publicly to the web. To prevent this, you could simply post privately and only allow your friends to see it but then you would lose the ability to help people you don’t know with your words. There is a trade off.

Alternatively, you could choose to post your text content publically and share your photos privately. Facebook and Google+ allow you to decide who sees your content on a post by post basis. Twitter and Instagram take an all or nothing approach by giving you one option to make your content private. People can either see your content if you approve them, or they are blocked from seeing your content in it’s entirety.

4. You can also contact the person at the profiles and let them know that a police report has been filed and they are looking into tracking the IP address that has been posting this content. That should be enough to scare them into deleting the accounts themselves. Actually contacting the authorities might not do anything at all unless there was an imminent threat. Sure this is lying to them, but it could scare them enough to close the account and move on to the next person. Chances are that this is not the first time they have done this. You would be surprised how many false identities people have gone through.

Post to your blog and other “public” places online that you have filed a report and an investigation is going into tracking the following accounts, list usernames and even link to the accounts, and then mention that they will be running an IP Tracer on the uploaded content. Social networks know which IP address was used to post content and Internet Service Providers (ISP) know which customer of theirs was actually using that IP. Though it is near impossible to actually do an IP Trace without the appropriate access and warrants and what have you, it could be enough to scare the impersonator.

Look through the friends or followers that these fake accounts have. See if there are any weird trends that look like there might be other fake accounts using photos and posts from other people. Look at the friends of those accounts and see if there are any “normal” looking profiles who seem to be friends of all of these people. Perhaps you can pinpoint who is behind all of this. However, this will be hard to do and may even be a waste of your time.

I have had run-ins with impersonation online. My company DailyAppShow.Com was copied to the point where all text content, photos and videos were copied over to a new website. I had clients contacting me asking if we make a copy of our website. I have been blogging and posting content online since 1995 and I have had to flag some accounts here and there. It comes with being part of the internet.

Lastly: Don’t lose any sleep over this. Sure it may be hard to clean up but it’s not the end of the world. I highly doubt you or anyone included in this impersonation are at any risk. The internet is full of people with antisocial personality disorders.

People will also jump to conclusions because they most likely have not heard of this happening to someone they know before. I saw someone post on my friends Facebook page that it is most likely a child predator and the post made it sound like my friend should lock up her children and prepare for the Lifetime channel to do a movie about what is happening to her family. This is not the case. Though you should take extra precaution just in case, it is most likely just someone online trying to be someone they are not. Allowing this impersonator to upset you is allowing them to win. They are probably not doing this to hurt you directly, they just want to be someone they are not. Like I said, this happens all day every day on the internet.

Here are some links to help you with reporting impersonation violations:

Have you had an experience with having some form of your identity impersonated online?

Six years ago I started a blog which turned into a top podcast

Posted on by Jerad Hill

Daily App Show LogoI was an early adopter of the iPhone. I bought the first iPhone that Apple (AAPL: NASDAQ) made. I didn’t buy it on launch day, but I bought it a few weeks later. When Apple announced that it would allow developers to create apps that would run on their iPhone I was pretty excited. I knew that would open a lot of doors to bring technology to our hands and ultimately anywhere we go. When Apple announced that those apps would be sold in the same marketplace that music was being sold (iTunes), I knew that it would quickly become impossible to find good apps. Fast forward to today (2014) and I can say that was a spot on prediction. I am sure I tweeted about it at one point back then.

Daily App Show is a website and podcast that I started in early 2008 to help my friends find good apps. You had to download an app in order to try it. There was no other way to see what an app would do and to this day, unless you go to Youtube or the developers website, you still can’t. My plan was to review apps and put the videos up on Youtube for everybody to see. People could watch my videos on the app and hopefully that would help them decide if an app was worth their time. These days people will download an app even if it is $0.99 and try it. Back when the App Store launched, nobody wanted to risk it and a lot of people said that they doubt people would spend money on phone apps. So wrong they were!

DailyAppShow - Podcast - iTunes What's HotI started the website under the name, “The iPhone App Podcast.” The name has changed since then to Daily App Show. At that time, I did one video per day, hence the name. Now we post videos on several apps per day, tutorial videos, news, press releases and more. Daily App Show quickly became a source of revenue for me as I found ways for developers to get more exposure for their apps. As our audience grew, I continued to find new ways to get exposure for the videos we were creating. At one point, we were the #1 video podcast in two different technology categories in iTunes Podcasts. The technology categories are the most saturated podcast categories. Today, two of our podcast feeds hold a steady space in the What’s Hot section in iTunes.

Today, there are many websites doing what we do. There are even more Youtube channels. My goal with Daily App Show is still the same, “Create quality content that increases awareness for app developers.” Daily App Show has been able to achieve some pretty decent numbers. Here are just a few:

  • Youtube Channel: 8.1+ Million Channel Views, 11,300 Subscribers
  • Blip.TV Channel: 14.5+ Million Channel Views
  • AOL-ON Channel: 8.5+ Million Channel Views
  • iTunes Podcasts: 36+ Million Video Views

Daily App Show makes money but we put a lot of that money back into increasing exposure for the content we create. The DailyAppShow.Com website helps over 80,000 people each day find apps, learn how to use their device or answer a question they may have. We achieved this kind of traffic through content marketing. We have been creating content that people actually want since we started in 2008. That is the goal and will continue to be the goal of the site.

I am writing this just to showcase one of the projects that I started years ago that still to this day is performing well for me. I have set off to build many things, Daily App Show is one of those things that ended up working out. When you start something that helps people, and you do it well, it will grow. This “project” started out in the spare bedroom of my house and grew into something that helped me fund other projects and provide a comfortable life for my family.

If you are thinking about starting something, the best time to do it is now. If I had waited a few years to start this website, it would have been hard for it to grow. Since I started before anybody else was doing app reviews, I had a leg up on the competition.

Even with Daily App Show there has been a lot of trial and error. Trying to grow an audience and reach more people is hard. I have tried many things including a 24/7 live stream of our video content, which turned out to be a horrible idea. The key is to try things and measure their effect. Know when to kill the idea and move on to the next thing. Failing is ok; there is wisdom in it. Knowing when to kill something and move on is maturity, which takes time to achieve. Through all of my trials and errors I have learned a lot and that translates into knowledge I use to help consult other businesses.

In the coming months I will be releasing some free online courses that will help people start their online projects. I have been very passionate about this for a long time and have wanted to create some content for people who want to do what I did with Daily App Show.

Make sure to check back here or sign up for my infrequent newsletter.

Father & 7 Year Old Daughter Start Metal Band

Posted on by Jerad Hill

This is awesome. I hope to do fun things with my kids like this. This guy, who is obviously a musician with a love for metal put a fun song called “I want pancakes” up on SoundCloud that he created with his 7-year-old daughter. The lyrics are fun and the music is… well it’s brutal!

Here is what I like about this: A father is spending quality time building something with his child. She is learning about music, production, marketing and having an audience. What cool stuff to grow up already having exposure to. Right on Dad!

I love the Genre the music is listed under: Adorable Grindcore

“I want pancakes” Lyrics
I want pancakes
I want hot chocolate
I want cereal
I think that’s all I want
I want window
I want macaroni
I want pizza
Give them to me right now
There is a witch
I want to play a game, right now
I will never eat again but you will give me the ipod, I want to play a game
Ok I will play the game
No way, you are grounded
No I aint
Yes you are
hahaha
Quit your laughing
I don’t care, I will do what I want
No you won’t, if you do, you’re grounded forever.

You can purchase their album on Bandcamp: http://theironcouncil.bandcamp.com/album/werewolf
Check them out on Facebook. SockWeb

Your Kids Become You

Posted on by Jerad Hill

I find myself in discussions with so many people about parenting these days. Though I have only been a parent for a little over 3.5 years, I now have three kids and feel that I am somewhat knowledgeable on the subject. Though I have not experienced the full range of joys, emotions and hardships that come with parenting, I do know that my children will show many of the same characteristics that they see me express throughout their time under my care.

I came across this video a while back when it came out and it brought me to tears. I watched it again just a moment ago and it once again put tears in my eyes. I know that my kids will pick up some bad habits from me but what really makes me sad is that there are a lot of people out there that are raising kids just as messed up as they are. I am going to be honest and say that each and every one of us is messed up in one way or another. We all have bad habits and stuff that makes us imperfect. What hurts is when I see people act horribly to other people in front of their children. Youtube is full of videos of it happening and I see it just about every time I drive through my town or go anywhere there might be many people in one place. It breaks my heart.

I don’t know of one parent personally that does not want more for their child than they had growing up. This is why I have a hard time understanding why some people are so bad in front of their own children. They don’t seem to understand that their child is a sponge and will soak up as much as possible from their parent, the one who is suppose to love and care for them the most. Though this video is a bit more dramatic than you see in real life it paints a picture of what many kids will grow up to become.

My parents were not perfect. I realize that I carry some of their bad habits. I also have many of their good qualities as well. I was raised to listen to and respect people and because of this, and a lot of God’s grace, I have been around some great people in my life. I have also made a lot of bad decisions as well. Nobody is perfect and I am not saying that I or anybody else will ever achieve this “perfection” that books try to teach us or parenting blogs try to showcase. What we do need to try to do, is try. I don’t think that people try very hard these days. We live in a selfish society. We want what “we” want. People just get in the way and our kids definitely get in the way of us getting what we feel we deserve. That is the mentality of many. It’s not my mentality, though I am not going to lie and say I have not considered what I could be doing rather than dealing with three screaming kids. I made a choice.

I made a choice to love my children. I made a choice to raise them to the best of my ability. Even when I feel like I don’t have anything to give, I know that they need me and I need to find something to offer them. I can not leave their upbringing to anyone other than myself and my family. I must surround my children with the influences I want them to have so they can learn what it means to be a trustworthy person and have integrity. Today the world believes that it is the responsibility of the school system and other caretakers to raise our children. We put kids in daycare for 12 hours each day because we “need” to work. We live in a world where we have to work. This is wrong, but for many, there is no other choice. The result, is broken kids who don’t know who they belong to.

My kids will grow up knowing they belong to me and that their number one source of earthly love will come from their Mother and I. I will curb my anger, frustrations or bad habits so that they have the best chance of becoming better than I. I will show them what it means to be loved each day so that they too can love others. When I get mad, I will show compassion and hold back immediate judgement so that they will do the same to people. I will teach them to value, so that they do not value money and things over people and experiences.

It’s going to be hard, but it’s worth it. If we are not being an example to our children who will? I would rather my kids have nothing but love and a roof over their head than tons of toys but no parent at home.

I can go on forever about this but I will digress and just say this…

I have messed up many things in my life but I will do my best to give my kids the best I can be for them.

The Man in the Mirror

Posted on by Jerad Hill

The man in the mirror is my harshest critic. He is usually the first person to stare back into my eyes each day. Early in the morning, I am not always sure what he is thinking. I stare back at him and think about the things I need to achieve today. It is often that he will be the biggest obstacle I will face when I attempt to achieve what is important to me. He tells me that I look tired and defeated.

He isn’t the only one who judges. I look at him in the mirror and criticize his shape. I tell him that his body is failing him. I look into his eyes and tell him that he looks tired. When he wants to go to the gym, I talk him out of it. When we go out to eat, it’s me who over feeds him. When he wants to work hard, I tell him to take a nap. When my kids want to play, I make him sit on the couch.

Sometimes he and I do great things together, but it’s easy to forget those things and focus on the negative.

The man in the mirror is me.

It’s me who I have to get over. I am the one who has allowed myself to get in the way of who I want to be and who I know God wants me to be.

How to immediately be reminded of how great it is to be a parent

Posted on by Jerad Hill

Sometimes as parents we have days or in the case of today, just an evening, that makes you feel like you are going crazy.

I have three kids, all of which are 3.5 years and younger. My oldest is going through a stage where fear now seems real so he contemplates everything. I recognize this is just where his brain is developmentally. My middle child will be 2 on Thursday and besides piggybacking off of my oldest sons neediness, has decided he can’t go a moment without my wife’s or my attention. Then there is my 3 month old daughter, who is extremely chill and patient, except for when she needs to feed or sleep. When the evenings hit, which is when I am home, all three of their craziness levels seem to be at peak.

Let me just stop for a second to mention that I am well aware that my wife has situations like this unfold sometimes multiple times per day while I am at my office writing code and listening to music. I am no where near as resilient as my wife.

So, as my wife and I crawl into bed this evening she opens her laptop and we start looking through old photos and video clips of our oldest when he was the age of our youngest. Nothing reverses the stress and anxiety faster than watching our big boy smile and laugh at 3 months old.

Sometimes I feel bad for holding a camera or a phone up to capture what seems like every single thing my kids do but having these moments to reminisce on like we did this evening quickly reminded us of how much we love our kids. The short spurts of craziness may temporarily overwhelm us but we have countless reminders saved on our computers and phones to remind us of how lucky we are to be parenting three fantastic little children.

So I have three tips for you:

1. Take a lot of short video clips of your kids. With smartphones, this is easy. I love using Google GLASS to capture little 10 second video clips of my kids.

2. Back up these moments to your computer. Sync them using iTunes, iCloud, Dropbox or whatever you can get. Just make sure they are backed up. I would die a little inside if I didn’t have these precious moments available to play whenever I wanted.

3. Take time to watch them often. We have all of our photos play as a screensaver slideshow on our AppleTV. Whenever we have the tv on and a show ends or is paused, within 2 minutes the photos start scrolling by. Sometimes my wife and I just sit there and watch photos instead of watching another tv show. A couple of times we have sat there for an hour looking at them and laughing about those moments. It helps keep the memories fresh and our hearts full.

Pardon my writing. I thumbed this out on my Nexus 5.

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The Secrets To A Happy Marriage

Posted on by Jerad Hill

Anytime you put two people together in any situation, there will be ups and downs. It’s how you react to them and how you treat each other through the downs that allow you to have more ups. I saw the below infographic on Lifehacker and as I read through it, I felt proud and frustrated at the same time. So I thought I would break down each section of the infographic with my thoughts and experiences from my own life and marriage. Beware, there will be rants…

1. Happy Couple Ratio: Anybody with any level of intelligence knows that when you keep communications more positive, than they should stay that way. I don’t understand how people let themselves get so negative with their spouse. People are so selfish these days. I hear interactions that some people have with their spouses and I just want to slap them. You chose who you married. Nobody held a gun to your head. You made a choice. Treat that person the way you treated them when you were dating. Treat them the way you wanted to treat them because they were something special that you just had to have in your life. Hopefully this is why you married them in the first place. If you married because of financial reasons, then you were being selfish in the first place. I know so many selfish spouses who seem to only be nice to their wives so long as their own needs are being met. Men like that need to get punched in the face. I know that men are not the only ones who put themselves first but I do feel like we were the ones who did it first. In my experiences, selflessness comes easier to woman than it does men.

You need to communicate more with your spouse and keep it positive. I have three kids under the age of 4 at home. Sometimes they run my wife into the ground. It’s hard work raising three kids so close in age. Do I dare try to put my day on the same level as hers? No way! I know that my day can be tiring, but it’s not the same kind of tiring at all. I compliment my wife on the job she is doing and remind her of how amazing of a mother she is to my children.

We laugh and enjoy moments new and old as often as possible. All of the photos we take with our smartphones play through our Apple TV. At least a few times a week we just sit there and watch photos of our family scroll by. It’s a happy time that I would not trade for any show that could be playing on our TV.

2. In the Bedroom: Yes I agree that intimacy is important, but I don’t think it is “the key” to a happy marriage. It helps, but no amount of intimacy can make up for a selfish spouse or a spouse that does not appreciate the other.

3. Appreciating Each other: My wife and I love to share personal triumphs with each other. When I land a new client, I celebrate with her. When she creates something with her bare hands, I celebrate with her. When our kids hit a new milestone, we celebrate together. My wife knows that I take pride in my work and when I triumph, I get excited about it. That makes her excited, and it makes me feel good that she gets excited. When she creates something, or someone asks her to create something for them, I get excited because I know my wife enjoys it and is good at what she does. I like seeing her happy. That makes me happy. It’s as simple as that.

4. Sharing New Experiences: I love experiencing new things with my wife. I am a few years older than she is so there was some catching up to do, but now we experience new things together. We get away for a weekend and try new restaurants. Sometimes “new” doesn’t even have to enter the situation. We love going to Dewz, which is an upscale restaurant in Modesto. Most of the time, we order the same items, but it is an experience that we enjoy together. The TV shows that we get into are shows we both like, that way we can laugh together.

5. Marriage and Our Happiness: This part of the infographic I did not agree with. Sure everything is easier at the beginning because you have not experienced any difficulties together. This tells me that much of the world does not do a good job dealing with conflict together. My wife and I are not the best at conflict resolution but we respect each other enough to let things go. We don’t hold on to things and let them eat us away. I am sure there are countless things about me that my wife would have never imagined having to deal with when she got married one day, but she deals with them and most of the time I don’t even know it.

Having kids has definitely added stress to our lives but we both agree that our lives are vastly enriched because of our children. If you are less happy after having children it is because you are a selfish person. I would gladly adopt your child and let you go back to your selfish ways. If you did not intend on having children yet got yourself into a situation where you now have a child, you need to suck it up and stop being selfish. Your time of selfishness ended when that child entered the world. Hopefully you realized this when you got married. This does not mean that you can not have the things that you want to have. You just have to recognize the order in which things should happen.

My wife’s happiness is my #1 priority under the sun. When she hurts, I hurt. I know that my life would suck exponentially if she was not in it. Because I recognize this, I will always strive to make her happy. I may fail at it at times but she knows how imperfect I am. My kids come second to her. Yes they have needs that may seem more immediate. I do make sure to take care of those needs and I do not neglect my children. I always check in with my wife to make sure everything is good. I put aside things that I may want to rather be doing to be with her and make sure she is cared for. It is my job alone to care for her and to make sure she feels safe and loved. I took that job from her father the day I married her.

6. Why Get Married? I can honestly say that I come across more people that shouldn’t have gotten married than I do people who I am glad did get married. This is a sad fact. Those who I have been close enough to know enough about their situations I know for a fact that selfishness comes down to the root core of their problems.

7. Kids Impact on a Couple’s Happiness: Sure kids add a new dynamic to a relationship. I am not going to lie and say that it does not make it hard. My wife definitely snap at each other more often now than we did before we have kids, but I have much more satisfaction with my marriage to my wife now that we have kids then we did before. Before we had kids my wife and I had never created anything together. There was nothing that we did that had much of an impact on anything. Sure we took some fun trips and experienced a lot together (we were married a little over 2 years before having our first child), but none of that compares with bringing our children into this world. The Infographic below says that couples are unhappiest when their kids are in preschool and that their happiness levels do not return until after their kid graduates. That is sad and it sounds like a lot of people just can’t seem to let go of their own selfish ways and take joy in their families.

Let me tell you why my marital satisfaction has increased since we had children:

  1. I get to watch my wife mother my children. This is truly amazing. We made the decision together to make sure she could stay home and raise our children. I didn’t want my children to be raised in daycare. I feel like our nation is going to hurt big time because of the decision of parents to put kids in childcare rather than make sacrifices that would allow the mother to stay home.
  2. We are investing ourselves into something together that is greater than us. Though it is hard and some days are all about staying sane, we love investing our time into our children. My wife and I both want nothing more than to raise children that will grow up and be a responsible part of society. We both know that our greatest work in life here on earth are our children.
  3. We also remember to invest in ourselves. My wife and I both allow each other to occasionally take part in hobbies we enjoy. She loves to craft and create things with her hands. I love my work and racing. We don’t go overboard on our personal activities. Sometimes months go by without making a trip to the race track. Sometimes a month or so go by without my wife having time to touch her craft area. We both have set out priorities and make choices to put others first in our family before ourselves.

Is it easy? NO! It’s not easy, but if you think that easy is better than your parents raised you wrong. If you are going to be happy as a married person and happy with having children then your mindset needs to change. You need to be able to find joy in other people’s happiness.

I love taking my wife places and experiencing things with her. I love teaching my kids to do new things and watching them experience new things. God willing, my kids will not know what it’s like to grow up in a daycare. My kids will know what it’s like to grow up with their mothers love and direction. They will know what it’s like to have a hard working father. They will know that their mother could have done great things in the world as a professional of her choosing but decided to stay home and raise them because her love for them was greater than other worldly achievements (plus I remind my wife all of the time that she will still be young when our youngest reaches age 18).

The Michelangelo Effect: I agree that the happiest relationships come from those who bring out the “ideal” selves in each other. Everything about my wife makes me a better person and even though I believe that my wife is just an amazing person regardless, I am sure I do things that make her want to be a better person as well. My wife and I encourage each other to grow. I want her to become the person she wants to be and she wants me to achieve that as well.

Final Thoughts: It all comes down to respect. If you do not respect your spouse, you will be unhappy. You will never be able to put your selfish needs and desires aside if you do not respect them. I respected my wife enough not to live with her before we got married and I decided that when we got married that it was not going to be all about me anymore. My struggles did not need to become her struggles. If you think that your spouse is the selfish one, take a look in the mirror first. My guess is that you are probably more selfish than you think. Happiness is not science nor is it difficult to understand so long as you can make yourself the type of person who can put others before yourself.

Enjoy the Infographic.

Happy Marriages Infographic

Happify – Lifehacker

There Are Those Days As A Creative, I Want To Quit!

Posted on by Jerad Hill

The audio this video is set to has re-inspired me countless times when I find myself back in that “Gap” that Ira Glass explains so well as a place where our expectations for our work is not aligning with our taste. Though the Gap has closed to become more of a crack for me, on occasion I do find myself tripping over it.

I think that all creatives can relate. We are our own harshest critics.