02.10.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Feb 10 Wed (01 AM)
The past few days have been pretty hectic, hence the lack of entries. But it’s been good. I got way caught up on e-mail, got a couple of more projects started, including a ‘browser black list’ concept, a page about Simone that includes some of her kitten pictures, and some other stuff.
I’m feeling like there’s not a lot of time in the day, these days, though I’d like to get into work earlier, I can’t get out of bed early enough, likely ’cause I’m not going to bed early enough. Here it is 1:30 in the morning and I’m still working through e-mails, journals and web pages.
Strange thing happened today, that I talked about with Amy. It kinda freaked her out (it has to do with our relationship.) It’s a good thing, but I’m not ready to discuss it in the open yet.
Don’t you love the suspense?
PS, thanks for everyone’s feedback on the prototypes. I’m much obliged. They’re still available if you haven’t seen them.
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02.05.99
Posted in General
at 3 pm
Joy.
Sheer Joy.
I walked out of work today with a a great mood. For once it wasn’t a mood of ‘Thank god I’m out of there for two days, but more of a ‘I did some great work this week and now I’m readdy to relax a bit.’
I came out with three prototypes, which I’ll make available in a modified form tonight. They’re really a huge departure for me, but I’m really proud of them. These are only the splash menu from each of the prototypes that I did this week.
I want to have a fun weekend. I did a lot of good work this week and now I deserve a good couple of days as I see it.
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02.03.99
Posted in General
at 3 pm
I’ve just been having a tidal wave of creativity when it comes to the company website. It’s just been amazing. I’ve done two and working on a third prototype of this web page in just 3 days. By the end of the week, I’ll have the third done, and I’ll be working on a whole ‘nother site. I haven’t had this kind of visual design explosion for months. Certainly since before the Job From Hell™.
Speaking of which, I got the note for a certified leter for me at the post office, from that group. It’ll be interesting to see what it is. I get a real lump in my gut everytime I think of it.
But I’ve got to see this through. For my own validation, if nothing else. I just need to remind myself that going through with this whole lawsuit _is_ worth it on a personal, internal level.
My entries have been shorter than last week, but more focused. I really want to add the sites I’ve done to my portfolio, asap. I’ll need to get a copy of all the files in a bit. I wish there was some great way to put a web site in a portfolio…. maybe I’ll think of one.
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Posted in General
at 12 pm
Another day, another re-design. I got through the first few steps of the new version of the website at work. I really hope that this doesn’t drag on. I got my first taste of politics, and of having a manager who’s never been a manager before. I feel like Dan is wavering somewhere between wanting me to do really cool things, but still wanting the output to appeal to staid clients and to creative customers.
I said that he can make a strong statement in either the creative arena or the corporate arena. The third option, blending the two dilutes both.
‘…an actual designer…’ I’ve got to ask him about that line in the e-mail. It really hit me wrong.
Exhausted. I feel just exhausted.
And it turns out that the subscription forms at Bad-seed.org and the Cave Inn are both broken. 🙁 Not that Bad-seed.org is even responding… :p
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02.01.99
Posted in General
at 12 pm
First day of work. Things are looking good. I designed the first stab at the website for the division. It’s a bit Mardi Gras, whereas Dan wants ‘elegance’. We’ll see what happens. I may post a screen shot of the main graphic here, or toss it in my portfolio. It came out really well.
I was hoping that I would be able to show it to Amy tonight, but it doesn’t look like the domain has propgated enough. hopefully she’ll be able to see it before tomorrow when I have to completely re-build it.
Dan seems like a great guy, though he could use a bit more work on his sense of humour. I’m guessing that any guy who tries to go snowboarding ‘at least once a week’ knows how to loosen up a bit.
Tomorrow I should be a little less ‘on-edge’. I was hell-bent on getting this first part done as soon as possible. Sure it’s only 5 pages, but I really wanted to say ‘I did something at my new job today.’ when I got home. And I did.
My scripts have been going awry. Through various means my various journal scripts have been being run. The old ones at OMSI were run today. I’m guessing that Mark ran them, as he’s the only one who’d be interested in poking thorugh them. Unless it was Eric. But the IP number makes me think it was Mark. Just one more notice to Ross saying ‘You don’t work at OMSI anymore.’ It’s about time for my brain to chime in and add, ‘Now get over it.’
Guess I better let those employment agencies know that I’m not available anymore. 🙂 In know one of these times they’re actually going to be able to find me a job. I just won’t hold my breath.
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01.31.99
Posted in General
at 7 pm
Jan 31 Sun (03 PM)
Amy and I went out to Chang’s Mongolian Grill today for lunch, and one of the things we talked about was how nice it will be to go to work tomorrow.
It’ll be great to have my own desk again. It’ll be great to work at a workplace, rather than someone’s home. It’ll be great to have a really strong machine with a good OS. I’m really excited about what’s going to be going on.
I’m watching the Superbowl today for the Apple commercial. It should be coming up soon… Here we go..
That was great! I had already seen it but it was great seeing it again. ‘It was a bug… Dave.’ Bravo!
It’s a great commercial… but, Amy was wondering about whether it held people’s attention, and I wonder if people who haven’t seen 2001: A Space Odyssey will ‘get’ it.
Fox has done a great job with the graphics for this game. I really liked the whole roster board popping out of the endzone. That’s nicely done.
Maybe I’ll finish off the XSSI Library conversion today. It would be nice to get that out of the way so I can spend some time getting it and the Regex library into search engines soon.
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Posted in General
at 1 pm
Jan 31 Sun (05 PM)
Still making changes to the journal here. I re-arranged the time stamp on the left there, re-ordered the entries in the archive, and made the archive link at the bottom of the page go to the most recent archive week. It still needs some updates periodically through the year, but it seems to work pretty well.
Some more cute commercials during the game, but nothing too impressive. I’m becoming a special effects addict. Amy’s interest level obviously dropped off. She’s asleep on the futon. 🙂
Last week she sent off for a packet from the State Health department about how to stop smoking. I’m so proud of her for taking this step. The packet even had some information for me, as a supportive partner. I’ve got to find a bottle or vase or bank of some sort so she can put the otherwise spent money into. Oops, I maybe pushing a bit too much. That’s one thing they warn about in the packet. Let them go at their own pace. Gotta stick with that.
She’s made such great changes in her life in the last few years. I think this one will be one of the most difficult, and the most rewarding. I’m so proud of her, just for deciding to break the habit.
As opposed to breaking a Hobbit.
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01.29.99
Posted in General
at 11 pm
Just got done with a teacher workshop at OMSI. It was a lot of fun, though I was less prepared for this one, more so than any other workshop I’ve helped with. I wish I had a better grasp of the needs of the workshop and the teachers ahead of time, though to be honest, I didn’t put any work into the preparation at all. I even had an idea for an online forum that I could have demonstrated some collaboration technologies with, but I didn’t. I worked on e-mail a bit last night.
I’m still 35 messages deep, but I’m getting further and further along. Sorry if anyone reading this has mail that i haven’t replied to, but i’ve ben burried (like that’s anything new) and if I have to build a web page, or if I’ve got a lot to tell you, then I put off doing those mails for a while. that’s why I’ve got project oriented e-mails stretching back half a year still.
Amy’s picking me up in a few minutes, so i’ve got to run.
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Posted in General
at 1 pm
Well the prospects for the new job keep looking better. It’s a Pre-press house that is expanding into web and multimedia in a really strong move. They’ve got a good established client base, and those clients are now requesting that the company that has done their pre-press work also do their web publishing. It sounds like exactly the kind of set up I had imagined I would want to get into after New Interactive. Such a position would:
Be at an established company with existing clients
Have a small ‘division’ dedicated to web/multimedia projects
Have a high degree of autonomy
And that’s what I got. Good People, good work and good tools. I really can’t ask for much more! They do all their production on Macs and their web serving on UNIX boxes.
Though with the Apple seminar I went to today, I’m drooling at the thought of getting a few good G3 Macs with Apache on them. Sounds like Apple’s going to put a good GUI on Apache. That’s going to be fabulous.
So I’ve got just a few days of free-fall before getting back in the swing of things. Gotta finish Crime and Punishment! Hopefully once I get back into a job, my stress level will level out a bit…
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01.27.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Well I finally got done with the RegEx Library basics, and suddenly I’ve decided that the XSSI Library needs the same treatment. So I’m reimplementing the site, (only 20 or so pages) in the new setup. I designed some great stuff for the RegEx Library (I’m particularly proud of the background images and how they work together) and now I want to do the same thing for the XSSI site.
I’ve got to get a life. But really I want these to be good pieces of reference material that other people can look into. I’ll start more actively advertising and registering these site. Hell I’ll even put a link to them on my front page soon.
I’m finding way too many sites to read each day. The worst part is that each of the sites I read are simply collections of articles at even further sites to read. I must have spent a good hour reading articles in one fell swoop this morning, and then another hour throughout the day reading further.
This break from work has been strange for me. I seem to be doing nothing except working on web sites and reading. Oh sure I went to a number of interviews and did a bunch of work at OMSI, but I’ve been glued to this stupid thing, when I have the freedom to go out and do anything.
Of course, a lack of money may contribute to the situation.
This whole not having money thing is really getting to me. I mean we’re going to be okay. It looks like the new job’s first paycheck will come soon enough, but in essence, Amy and I have lived on about $1100 since the middle of November. I guess we’ve done really well. I picked up a few bucks in the last few weeks and Amy’s been doing a great job juggling expenses and bills.
But I still feel trapped. I don’t want to go out, I don’t even want to drive the car much because I’ll have to then buy more gas.
I’m sure glad we’ve got really cheap access to the net. That’s about my only lifesaver at this point.
Ah. (Duh)
You have just witnessed my first online ‘duh’. Consider yourself honored. 🙂
Freelance meeting tomorrow, lunch with Amy, and meeting up with Stacey to setup the – workshop assisting at OMSI on Friday; then an Apple seminar on Thursday. Good week coming up. And The Apple ad during the SuperBowl will be directly after the kickoff. It’s a bug, Dave…
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