A few years ago, a friend and I started something called The Regina Streets Magazine. We are no longer publishing that magazine, but we learned a huge amount in the process of publishing it. So, we have decided to rebuild reginastreets.ca, this time with a collection of all the stuff we learned. We hope this will be useful to anyone out there who is interested in publishing their own street magazine!

Forgive me for writing something so dorky, but I noticed this and had to post. This page can be reached via hluska.ca/?p=404 and, being a geek, ’404′ has special meaning to me. So, I guess that you just found a page that couldn’t be found…errrr, or something like that.
Since this is my error code page, I thought it would be fun if I gave you a bit of an update (so as to explain my serious lack of activity). My new gig is going extraordinarily well – I just finished my first newsletter and am loving every single moment of it. In a personal note, the publishing bug hit me hard and I’m starting another magazine, plus (possibly) another publication about indie music in Regina. I’ll keep you updated…

I am rather averse to promoting myself and prefer to spend my days promoting others. However, I was quite touched by the response this article got and wanted to drawn some attention to it (and the blog it was published on). My friend Darren helped start a project called “Then Life Happens“. The only way I can describe the project (and do it justice) is to say that it is exactly what I want to accomplish with End Magazine – it is a collection of positive, uplifting ideas that cannot help but make you feel a little more human.

A number of weeks ago, I read an article on Then Life Happens that shook me to my core. Years of fighting for the homeless had left me feeling…blah. There had been too many fights, too many hurt feelings, and too many problems, so I stopped writing about my friends. But, this particular article revved me up and literally forced me to write a guest post. That guest post was released last Tuesday and, I figure it is time to link to it.

Two surprises came out of writing this article. First, I am surprised by the fact that I am rejuvenated – writing that article was strangely cathartic and…I feel the urge to jump back into activism in a particularly wild and crazy way. Second, I was surprised to realize that Canadian Dimension magazine may be right and I could actually be a progressive thinker. I have always thought that everyone sees the good in everyone, but based on feedback I have received, that trait possibly makes me a progressive libertarian!

Thanks a million, Darren. Being published on TLH was an incredible honour!

On the quest for an image, I checked out Flickr and found this gem by Scott Mills. Titled ‘Barracade’, I think this angle is extremely interesting.

Confession time – I have never seen “The King’s Speech” and I highly doubt that I ever will. You see, as a child, I was a stutterer and to this day I cringe when I hear people stutter or stammer. The feeling of having a word get stuck as it passes over your tongue is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The sense of shame, combined with the claustrophobic feeling stuttering causes is absolutely horrible.

The worst part of stuttering is the social ostracism that results. As a child, I picked up many wonderful nicknames. “Retarded little baby” was one of the most common barbs fired my direction. “Faggot” was another incredibly popular one. I think the last one shows a whole lot about the intelligence of bullies. I can’t for the life of me imagine how stuttering made the bright bulbs think I was gay. For the love of the gene pool, don’t reproduce bullies!

(keep reading…)

While checking out Hacker News, I came across an article by the founders of a company called Grinnit. Titled “Five Takeaways from Folding a Startup“, this article was seriously thought provoking and got me thinking about my own failed startup. I have been carrying the ghost of my own failed startup around for three years now and I think this gives me a great opportunity to exorcise it.

I went back to University in my late 20s after a fairly long hiatus away. When I returned, I realized that several things had changed. First, I was usually one of the oldest people in every class. This meant that my peers were usually the professionals who were taking classes to upgrade their skills or for pure recreation. Second, because of my age, I found it easier to make friends with grad students and professors instead of undergrads. Third, I realized that I was a little too old to be on student loans – the experience of incredible poverty (after having worked full-time for several years) was a huge shock to my system.

(keep reading…)

I’m sure that some of you (especially some of you who I don’t get to see very often) are wondering what I have been up to. On March 1, I gave ten weeks of notice to Netsecure – at the time I was extremely burned out and absolutely nothing was capable of making me happy. Basically, I needed a change, but I was lulled into the “wake up, go to Netsecure, hang out, work out collect a paycheque” routine. Sometimes when you really badly need a change, you have to do something drastic to make that change

May 13 was my (tearful) last day at Netsecure. Daniel McCann and crew went out of their way to give me a last day to remember – they brought in some of my former employees and we spent the afternoon playing paintball. Unbelievable way to close out an unbelievable chapter of my life. When I write my memoirs, the Smartswipe years are getting top billing.

So, what have I been doing since? First, it is likely worth noting that my ‘sabbatical’ has not been very relaxing. You see, I agreed to do a couple of short term consulting gigs after I left Netsecure. Those couple of short term consulting gigs turned into more gigs and, basically, I turned into a freelancer. This wasn’t my intention – my original plan was to leave Canada for a little while, travel and settle….???

Either way, my time away from the work world has been absolutely amazing and I think I am almost ready to go and get a real gig. While I could support myself indefinitely doing freelance work, I genuinely miss having coworkers. Showing up to work at Netsecure was always exciting because I knew I was going to get to hang out with my best friends. Working alone in my home office just is not quite as satisfying.

Part of my sabbatical has been a fairly intense digital detox. I never got into LinkedIn (it is lame), but I used to be a Facebook power user. At this point, I have not logged into my Facebook account in several months. Frankly, I have never felt better and I am seriously contemplating deleting my Facebook account. Twitter and I will always be tight – I am a geek with ADHD, Twitter is like my crack!

My life has changed dramatically over the last month and I am glad to be where I am. Huge respect to all of you and thanks for reading this!

Happy 64th birthday to my Mom, who is the best teacher I ever had.

Sorry for letting my last blog turn into such a disgrace – what was supposed to be a focused blog about content, usability and user experience turned into a meandering mess. Towards the end, my topics covered a wide range including punk music, activism, economics, hip hop and jazz. That wasn’t very respectful to any of you.

Hluska.ca v4.0 is going to be polished, targeted and focused. That is my promise! Thanks for sticking by me :-)