drupal

Apress has posted the Theming chapter to our Drupal book as the free sample chapter. Get it, read it, and start making Drupal sites that don't look like Drupal sites. Oh, and they also have the Table of Contents and Foreward by Dries Buytaert for download as well.

I got home this weekend to find a box from Apress waiting for me. My author copies of Pro Drupal Development had arrived! Up until this point almost everything about the book had been virtual, which usually consisted of email, word processing documents and illustrations. Was this really going to happen?

I've been nervous about the book coming out. What will it look like? Will it do more harm than good? Will this create more Drupal developers?

Inside that box from Apress was 10 shiny copies of the book. I could finally physically touch the thing John and I had been working on for the last year or so. After flipping through the book and seeing how it's all laid out, I discovered a new appreciation for the illustrations, screenshots and code snippets. My nervousness has subsided. It's beautiful and captivating and I'm proud to have it out there. This is my reference book for Drupal and I hope you too have the same feeling. I tell ya, Forms API never looked so good!

You can find out more about the book here.

CNet is running a story about GoodStorm, a site built on Drupal and the open source ecommerce package I authored. Very impressive indeed! Way to go Team GoodStorm.

I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing right now. I'm at work in my underwear, pillow marks on my face and am eating breakfast while posting a blog entry. Yup. I'm a work-at-home freelancer now.

There's nothing about my university job I didn't like. My peers were great to work with and had a real collaborative spirit. I had a kick-ass office that allowed my inner-introvert to hide and crank out Drupal code. And of course the job security and benefits would make any family man sleep soundly at night. So why the job change?

Last weekend Cori and I jumped in the car and saw our friend Stuart once again rock the inner chambers of the Omaha Healing Arts Center. If you've never seen Stuart play, besides performing he'll purposefully and obviously try to connect with you during the show. He doesn't stare up at the ceiling or close his eyes when he plays. He looks at the audience. He looks at you.

During the performance all I could think about was here's a dude who's living the way he wants to live: intentionally and aligned with the Bodhisattva vows. It blows me away when I think of the courage it takes to sometimes perform in a bar full of drunk people and sing songs of mysticism and love. That's some serious Buddha nuts.

Which leads me back to my resignation from the university. Sure my job has the tangible perks but I want to be closer to the Mystery. I want my heart to be as happy as the rest of me was at the day job.

So, here I go. Into less comfortable territory but with more conviction then I've had before. Let's see what unfolds, shall we?