This is yet another post on why paying attention to the small things is important to a lot of users, not just me.

I’m new to Plurk. I’ve only just started using it in the past couple of months and I love it. I love how much more dynamic it is than Twitter. Although the replies interface at Plurk is still a little clunky. Overall Plurk is doing it right. The other day I signed on to Plurk and they were undergoing some routine maintenance and I was greeted to this message by the awesome little Plurk Creatures. Needless to say this made my night. Dare I say that page was cute. It made me want to buy all those Plurk Creatures as either vinyl or plush toys (hint hint).

Anyways, they are a prime example of what I mean when I say “pay attention to the small stuff”. They could have put up a simple message but instead chose to take their branding all the way through to their messages of maintenance. This is a win in my book and yet another example for companies who find themselves poorly executing the easy stuff.

I’ve got pet peeves. For me it’s the attention to detail that’s important. For companies that I love and support this peeve is even worse. I think me holding a company to that I blog about and support to a higher standard is essential. It’s often these little things that will make me lose faith in a company and their product.

One such company that is pressing my pet peeve button right now is Lijit. Let me preface this by saying that I love Lijit and won’t ever stop using them so there’s really no worry there. So what’s the problem then? Remember when I said little things? Well yeah, this is really little.

I’ve confirmed my integration with Facebook at least 10 times if not more at this point. I’m not doing it again. I tweeted about it the other day and got this response, I think I responded with “meh, not a big deal”. Which is right. It’s not a huge deal. But I’m quite sure I wouldn’t be tweeting about it if I wasn’t having an issue. Now, it could be a Facebook thing or a Lijit thing. I’m not sure as I’m not privvy to what goes on in the backend and that’s ok. I’ve even closed the box and it still reappears. Should I just take away my Facebook account from my networks in my Lijit account? I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Why? Because Lijit is about your network and search and removing a piece from my network might inhibit things a bit.

The Lijit folks have bent over backwards for us at Battlemouth and I don’t want to count that out at all. It’s something the staff over there won’t ever forget and without Lijit we’d be far less popular than we are I am sure. We credit some of our success to Lijit, that’s for sure. My only gripe is their support. It’s definitely not as in depth and punctual as Intense Debate’s is and I’d encourage them to read my post here.

Needless to say I still love the Lijit-ers and won’t stop using their product. Like I said it’s a pet peeve of mine to be bugged by the little things and this is one of those things.

I’ve read Into the Wild three times this summer. The book never ceases to amaze me. Even now as I listen to the soundtrack and hear the haunting voice that is Eddie Vedder I get chills. I’m brought back to this brisk winter day when a few good friends of mine and I went to see Into the Wild together. We all left that movie inspired, changed if you will. We went to lunch and then drove up to Nederland to this amazing Coffee Shoppe that is actually a train car from the 1800’s. We got to talking about how great it would be to go off the grid for a year and just be ourselves, adventure, learn new things, meet great new people and most of all leave all of our worries behind.

In a way I’ve started to do that. I left Boulder, went back home to Rhode Island, got my life back on track (I’m busier than I have been in a long time). It’s tough letting go of somethings but I’ve managed so far. There are those that I’ll always remember and always tell stories about and there are those that won’t be but wisps in my memories. And that’s ok. I think Into the Wild teaches us a lot. Take the book to heart. If you’ve only ever seen the movie detach yourself from your computer and read the book.

From here on out I’m not looking back on my past. I’m looking forward. To new opportunities, to projects I’ve dedicated myself to, to my own personal goals. The days of trying to impress everyone and not impress me are over. I’ve often been the one to put everyone else first and that needs to come to an end. I need to be able to put myself first otherwise me helping others won’t be as effective. I’m extremely thankful for the people in my life right now, without them I would not be anywhere. As corny as it sounds my tiny little twitter community seems to be pretty tight knit and we seem to watch out for each other best interests which is a great thing. I’ve had so many people messaging me on facebook and twitter about swimming, it’s great. The best messages are the ones saying that I’ve encouraged them to get back in the water or start exercising. This my friends is a good thing. I thrive off of those kind of comments and messages.

So here I am. I’ve been on my own journey and it’s only going to get better from here. What about you? What kind of journey are you on?