This page contains the resources that I have found useful in my personal and professional life. Admittedly, it is an eclectic list. It contains everything from quotes and books that I like to software and web development tools.

If you don’t want to scroll through the entire list, you can click on one of the links below and go filter the resources with that specific tag.

I will update this list as I discover new resources. If you have a resource you think I should add, please email me.

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You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”

— Arthur Plotnik
Editor and author (b. 1937)

Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you’re stalling. You don’t wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.”

— Seth Godin
Random Rules for Ideas Worth Spreading

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

— Kent M. Keith, Speaker and Writer
Often attributed to Mother Teresa
because she posted them on her wall

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston Churchill (1874–1965)

ReadItLater is a plugin for FireFox, iPhone, and other browsers. It enables you to mark a page to read later. This avoids having to keep a bunch of tabs open in your browser, hoping to come back to them later. I have been wanting something like this for a long time!

Is participation in social media a good investment? How do you know? CEOs, boards of directors, and executives are all asking this question. Here’s proof:

This is what the eBook of the future may look like. This is the coolest one I have seen so far! Could it be that this is what Apple has in mind? If this type of content can happen in magazines, it will also happen in books:

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

— Lord of the Rings
“Fellowship of the Rings”

This is a segment from the The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. It is a fascinating segment that deals with the current book price wars, eBooks, and how people are consuming content today. Unlike the two-minute sound bytes you normally get in the mainstream media, this is almost twelve minutes. As a result, the piece explores the subject in more depth.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.”

— Greek Proverb
Quoted in Mentor Like Jesus
by Regi Campbell

The acquisition of Christian books is necessary for those who can use them; for the very sight of them renders us less inclined to sin and incites us to believe more firmly in righteousness.”

— St. Epiphanius
Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers
Templegate Publishers

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”

—Oscar Wilde

Unfermented grape juice is a bland and pleasant drink, especially on a warm afternoon mixed half-and-half with ginger ale. It is a ghastly symbol of the life blood of Jesus Christ, especially when served in individual antiseptic, thimble-sized glasses.

“Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. It makes the timid brave and the reserved amorous. It loosens the tongue and breaks the ice, especially when served in a loving cup. It kills germs. As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one.”

— Frederick Buechner
Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC

I read approximately 200-plus blogs a day. It takes less than 20 minutes. How? Simple. I use Google Reader. Using this simple tool, I subscribe to blogs I find interesting. When one of these blogs has a new post, the content instantly appears in Google Reader through the magic of RSS (“real simple syndication”).

You don’t have to understand RSS or the underlying technology to take advantage of it. Simply set up a free Google Reader account and start adding your favorite blogs. Here’s a short video to get you started.

Please note: I don’t read every new post that appears in Google Reader, but I scan through them all and read the ones that catch my eye. This is how I keep up with 200-plus blogs a day.

I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”

— Peter DeVries

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

— Stephen King

. . . the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot.”

— Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Shadow of the Wind

This video is a a great introduction to social media. It moves quickly, so you may want to watch it a few times. I have actually embedded in my slide presentation for Social Media 101.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXKI506w-E[/youtube]

The best thing a leader can bring to their team is their energy.”

— Bill Hybels
As quoted by Andy Stanley

I have read a great deal about SEO, but it all seems so theoretical. This is the first article I have read that deals exclusively with WordPress blogs. It is also extremely practical. The editorial staff of WPBeginner walk you through the exact steps you need to take to make your blog more SEO-friendly. If you have a WordPress blog, this is must-reading.