5/24/05 :: listing some items on ebay to clear out some stuff i don't need. only a few jackets listed so far.
probably a half dozen more odds and ends to come.
5/18/05 :: we have our first house guests planned since moving to seattle. ed and kate are coming to visit in june.
i'm looking forward to it because a) they're good people b) i'll get to go out and see some sights with them that i've put off
checking out until i had visitors from out of town. should be fun.
4/16/05 :: not that i've been getting to put a lot of time into it, but i've been slowly enhancing and trying to finish up
corporatetrash.com. on the main page now there are "latest" and "most viewed" listings on the right hand
side. also you can now click all the way down to the individual definition and see who submitted it (if they wanted their info displayed) and you
can see how many times it's been viewed, when it was submitted, when it was last edited, etc. so, i'll hopefully get in a few hours here and there
and keep you posted on my progress.
3/22/05 :: i ended up not selling my cube and iBook for various reasons. mostly i couldn't part with my cube. i'm attached to a hunk of metal and plastic.
pathetic? maybe. it's still mine though. not sure how long i'll hold onto it, but for now it's not going anywhere. we shall see. i have to stop
relying on it as a work/leisure and gaming machine. i think i'm finally going to break down and get an xbox for my gaming fix. i still might get rid of heidi's iMac though and get
her something more current. that machine's a bit long in the tooth, but she still likes it so maybe we'll just keep it around until it dies.
2/2/05 :: the latest powerbook upgrades were announced and the price dropped plus amazon is offering a $150 rebate on the
machine so I'm selling my cube and my nearly new 20" apple cinema display to raise the money to buy one. i might also be selling my iBook
soon and swapping out heidi's iMac for a newer machine. we'll see. so visit my auctions link below if you're interested or know someone who might be.
1/7/05 :: my contract got extended at cingular (at&t wireless) so i'm here through the end of march barring anything unforeseen coming
up. i was pretty bored here for quite awhile. there was a good bit of anxiety because i hadn't been getting any really challenging projects and hadn't
been working on the actual live site much, only support type internal sites. well, that finally changed recently and i got my feet wet as they say and i feel
a bit better. still not my dream job, but i can deal for a bit longer. we'll just see what happens after march 31st.
i finally got some new wheels. after selling my saab when i moved out here, i hadn't bought another car. i probably would have sooner if i didn't have a
way too convenient bus pretty much door to door from home to work. it hasn't really been bad. the only annoying things are chatty bus drivers that i have
nothing in common with, and that my route is highly secondary so buses only run about once per hour during the times i commute. so if you miss one you're waiting
for the next. so, my new steed is a '73 Ford Mustang. out with the old, in with the not so new. more to the right...
11/7/04 :: i've been working on a new freelance project in addition to my new job. my pet project
has been put aside for now (boy do i ever want to get that done) until this project is finished.
i can't really divulge what that is yet. i'll post that link above when the site goes live (hopefully within a week of posting this).
i then hope to take a bit of a rest outside of my regular job at at&t wireless (now basically
cingular) and see a bit more of seattle and the surrounding area. so far essentially
all i've been doing is working... constantly. i'd like to say it's coming to an end and then all i'll have to worry about is my day job, but that never happens. a new freelance
project always comes along or who knows what.
7/25/04 :: still plugging away at my pet project. i'm heading toward the maximum allowable vacation hours i can accumulate at work, so i hope to take a week
off at the beginning of august. during that week i hope to complete it.
also, i finally have plans for a redesign for this site. it's probably been a couple years now and is due for a change - a major one. i'll have a similar color scheme, but
totally new design. once my pet project is up and running, and my freelance client obligations are taken care of completely, i'll start work on that.
naturalpath-online.com is up for a redesign / redevelopment and cheromichel.com is going to get some more dynamic content and is going to be optimized for slower machines, which is needed.
6/13/04 :: selling my stereo and car...
not much else going on right now. got a new surround sound setup and am in the process of buying a new car. out with the old, in with the new.
4/20/04 :: redesign of the natural path has begun. i'm only as far as look and feel right now. i should have
some photoshop comps to the client shortly. when those are finalized i hope to post them and then begin build out. i'm hoping to get some sample content from them soon to
finalize my design ideas. look for updates soon.
3/17/04 :: cheromichel was a site of the day at designersdepot.com.
it's now listed in their directory of cool designs. very nice.
art of dance is now fully sporting my design. i did the photoshop comps and html build out, while darrell (one of the owners)
did the build out and functionality of the site itself. i should be doing print materials for them soon and will post when completed.
2/27/04 :: initial comp done & accepted (non-functional image) for artofdancemadison.com.
should be beginning build out this weekend. i'll post again when site is redesigned.
2/20/04 :: rsvpnycity.com original design restored. rsvpnycity changed their site and people have been asking about it because they liked
my design, so i restored the site running off my own server. also it's good to keep around for my resume. enjoy.
i've also restored the town of richfield site to its former glory on my own server since they have taken over their site internally as well.
2/15/04 :: cure for cancers logo accepted
2/2/04 :: working on a logo for "cure for cancers" and working on a new design for the art of dance web site. will
be posting soon with progress.
12/13/03 :: not much new going on at the moment. i've actually been turning down a lot of freelance work in exchange for some free time of my own. been working too hard the
last 3 1/2 years and could use a break. not sure how long this will last. i hope to start filling that free time with creating new artwork, and some other creative outlets that have fallen
by the wayside in favor of web design.
oh, i have been updating my live journal again however.
11/5/03 :: new items added to the business card and logo sections.
11/4/03 :: i failed to mention in yesterday's post about a young band, nauseating love, from england that's using one of
my drawings for their album art. kind of cool, even though it will have low distribution.
11/3/03 :: the advanced appraisal services site is almost complete - just some tweaking and bug fixes to work out. 99% of the
site is password protected, so not much to see there without a login. i also did some logo and business
card work for my friend darrell's new dance studio.
8/9/03 :: a new site, saterinc.com is live. it's the first full blown dynamic site i've done on my own without any assistance from
darrell. the owner has full control over his web catalog and a lot of the content. he's able to login to an admin tool and administer the majority of his site on his own.
7/28/03 :: cheromichel.com is finally live. i wouldn't say it's 100% finished, but the meat is there and it's
functioning almost how i want it. mostly i want to do some enhancements here and there to make it even that much better. hopefully those get done soon so i finally leave it alone.
7/18/03 :: i had to post a link to the general lee jump. initially i had forgotten about it and thought perhaps the window of opportunity for maximum entertainment had closed,
but i just had to share. enjoy, here it is.
5/6/03 :: not too much new. i should have the saterinc.com redesign live very soon as well as cheromichel.com. i'll make sure to post when they are done.
resume and links updated.
3/25/03 :: new poll below. my livejournal has been updated as well.
3/23/03 :: 'recent work' to the right updated with development links. resume updated slightly. working on trimming it down.
services page also updated.
3/22/03 :: new apartment photos for 210 added from pizza night with brion and stacey shortly after we had moved.
3/21/03 :: links page updated. new apartment pics coming this weekend i hope.
3/9/03 :: not much -- links page updated and my livejournal.
3/6/03 :: finally updated the front page of this site and posted to my livejournal. i'm going to make an active
effort to keep things updated. i just have been short on time having taken a job a little over a month ago on very short notice and have been trying to finish up some freelance projects.
1/26/03 :: contact page updated as well as my resume. hoping to have more info up on the progress of sater inc's site
and cheromichel.com after the weekend.
12/17/02 :: new survey below. old surveys now archived.
12/16/02 :: i've added a link at the bottom right to my live journal. since i have made this site more of a showcase
of my freelance work, art, and general skills, i have abandoned traditional blog in exchange for updates. well, i couldn't stand it any longer. i just had too much venting and generally
funny things to share. make sure to see how i stack up against justin timberlake (that link alone should get me about 1000 hits when it starts
showing up on search engines). enjoy.
12/12/02 :: i haven't updated much lately on the site, just some odds and ends that aren't very noticable. i'm currently working on three new websites. my hope is to have
two done or at least mostly done by the holidays. that's in about two weeks though so i need to get in gear. i'll post here when i have more to show.
11/30/02 :: my about/bio page has been updated (added pics of heidi and me and
mona and heidi). yes, i'd add some of you too stacey, i just need to see if i can find some to scan in. other than that i've updated the
links page a couple times here and there and i've been working on teaching myself XML and XSL. this is my experiment
(can only be viewed in internet explorer 6 for now). it will be viewable in other browsers when I have hashed out the server side transform using PHP. just haven't gotten around to dealing
with that yet. it might not look fancy, but it's much more work than it appears. in other news, i have a handful of projects in the works and i should have some new finished links for you
soon. i've also added a mockup at the right and should have another one soon.
11/14/02 :: links page updated with several new items. also obviously the front page has been updated. more soon.
10/31/02 :: about / bio page trimmed down. website is now cleaned up for Netscape 4.x users and can therefore now be viewed with Netscape 4.x
browsers.
10/17/02 :: new mockup added to the right column. resume updated. my resume is due for a solid overhaul
within the next week or so. it's just gotten out of hand.
10/15/02 :: added the "why not" area across the page. links page updated.
10/3/02 :: little bits and pieces updated and general site cleanup.
9/23/02 :: nothing really huge new. just some link updates and whatnot. i'm working on a "what's new" archive for this column, but i might just decide to dump
stuff at the bottom of the page.
9/17/02 :: links page once again updated. contest update -- I'm currently ranked
number 9 out of 36 entries. please go and vote, i'll be forever grateful. i started mid-month so i'm disadvantaged.
9/12/02 :: links page updated again! continuing to share some of my favorite goodies
9/11/02 :: please vote for my site at designers depot.com. you can go to the
contest page and do so. i would greatly appreciate it. it's for the month of September so get there soon. You do have to
become a member, but it's not painful and there are a lot of cool sites to look at. Also checkout rsvp nycity.com listed on the
cool designs page!
9/10/02 :: links page massively updated and more on the way. portfolio and all pages on the site revamped to open
in this window. no more new windows opening for links. about/bio page also updated today.
9/7/02 :: i finally have my new server. i spent the time to find an affordable host with good features. i hope i've found it. i can finally put up the polls i wanted
to. the first one is over on the right side. please vote on what you think of the new site design. i've also added a link under recent work for
rsvptonite.com. it's a work in progress. it will be the portal for all the rsvp sites that rsvpnycity.com
is expanding to. right now it's just for LA linking back to NY. i also have updated my portfolio section with much more print work. check it out. hope you
enjoy it.
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11/11/2007 :: it's been an interesting few months
well, it's been a few months since i quit my job. freelance work has been adequate up until this month. i knew it would be coming so i've decided to fill the void i need to consider a contract and/or a pet project. when i say pet project i
really mean a profit producing website. i had a good idea i've been developing, but it's a very technical website requiring some Flash work that i don't think has been done before - at least not on a popular site. and it will also require some
music licensing, so that project is going to wait.
so the project i'm going ahead with right now should allow me to reuse some code from corporatetrash.com and the only real technical issue is having to write a
web spider of sorts. overall i'm looking forward to working on it. design has started and domain names have been purchased so stay tuned. i hope to have one of these live by the end of the year for a January launch at the latest.
in the mean time i'll still need to do client work and entertain any good contract offers. we'll see what happens.
8/15/2007 :: wow
my last day at hawkeye was last friday august 10th. it's only been a few days of freedom and so far i haven't been able to really enjoy it.
i updated my resume on monster.com a couple mondays ago. since then it's been non-stop emails and voicemail. i really wanted to take a full 2-3 weeks "off" but so far it's not been much of a vacation.
my time has been spent returning calls, going to meetings and appointments, and working on my house. i wish i was enjoying my time away from a daily job, but so far i'm not. i need to turn this around and have a good time
while it lasts.
i need to string a few days together of no computer and no phone. just sit outside and read a book and enjoy the lovely summer weather. i think that's the ticket.
6/24/2007 :: i'm back!
(not that i ever went anywhere)
i've been busy with my new house and to be quite honest i've been in a web funk for quite awhile now. don't get me wrong, i'm still online all the time and i've become a full on rss feed
addict, but as far as the creation side of things go, i've been completely stagnant.
well, i'm on the job search again and i need to spruce up this joint. i'd love to get the site redesigned, but hey, one thing at a time. for now i've given it a slight facelift, my
resume has been updated, and my portfolio trimmed down and cleaned up. hopefully a site redesign comes soon.
8/28/2006 :: site outage
sorry for the outage for the last couple days. i got moved to a new server that doesn't support PHP, so i had to convert the site to Coldfusion. with the new house and whatnot, it took me a
a couple days to get to it.
i promise to post more when i have time - the site is probably going to go in a new direction soon anyway.
lately i've just been busy with work and the new house and just life. that's good though right? better than being bored and sitting around, at least that's what i keep telling myself.
anyway, if you see anything out of place or any broken links please let me know by sending an email. thanks.
5/30/2006 :: catching up
for a change i actually have a fair bit going on in my life and i haven't been posting about it, so here we go.
at the end of february / beginning of march we (Heidi and yours truly) went to Puerto Vallarta for Amy and Tim's wedding. Amy is a good friend of Heidi's, and Tim is of course her new husband.
we had a great time and i assume we'll be back again when we have the chance. i have some photos if you're interested.
i'm just a few days away from being a homeowner. i moved to the Seattle area from Milwaukee just over a year and a half ago. i've been watching the housing market here since July or August of last year.
i finally was in a position to buy and decided to go for it before i was priced out of the market here. after quite a bit of searching and SIX offers later, i finally got a house. everything is done except for the
actual closing before the end of the month, so by the end of May I will be a homeowner. the house is in
Pacific, WA about 30 minutes from Seattle if traffic is clear and you don't drive like a grandma.
only hitch is the previous owners can't move until their new house is built which is estimated to be completed mid to late July. they'll be renting from me until then.
i posted some photos of the place as it is now with the seller's stuff in it.
June 1st through the 6th Heidi and I are going to be in New Hampshire and then Boston to see two sets of friends. i'm looking forward to it since i've not been in that part of the country before.
last weekend we went to a wedding in Port Townsend, WA which was a bit of a drive, but not too bad.
first really long drive i've taken in my old Mustang since i bought it over a year ago. no problems. first time i had been to the peninsula. weather wasn't great, but it was a decent drive.
you'll notice i got rid of the large google ads in the right hand gutter and replaced them with a much smaller grouping. in the freed space below i've added an rss feed of stories i've been
digging on digg.com.
i'm really in limbo with where to take this site. obviously it's a personal interest and portfolio type site. since i've gotten away from doing freelance work, i feel like i need to do
something else with it. i'll be thinking about it and perhaps coming up with a new design and content structure sometime in the near(ish) future. first and foremost i need to finish
corporatetrash.com which i was about to work on before i decided i really needed to update this site. hopefully i'll still have the motivation yet today to get some work done on that site.
that's all for now. later.
3/24/2006 :: yikes
somehow i've managed to not update my website for several months again. i hope to get a new post up this weekend. stay tuned...
12/29/05 :: who actually died in Hurricane Katrina?
sadly i'm not even remotely surprised that this story hasn't shown up
in the RSS feeds i get from major news sources. i had to go digging for it. since the Katrina news coverage we've found out that about 95% of what
was reported was made up and completely false. i guess it should be no surprise that, in the media and political frenzy, the deaths of blacks
in the hurricane would be grossly overstated.
the hurricane coverage is the most i've watch tv news probably since the attacks on 9/11. now i fully remember why i avoid it like the plague.
it's an absolutely useless form of media now that the lies they tell are corrected. too bad they don't do it themselves so the people who watched their
coverage would know how full of it they truly are. some people who have no alternative news reporting sources like the internet, sit there thinking that
everything that was spoon fed to them was real. i know i bought it for a few days/weeks. at least i now just feel like a fool, instead of someone who's
still stuck believing what they heard and think it's the truth.
12/27/05 :: i can't get enough opacity
just what i need is another distraction. i'm already in the process of watching every episode of Top Gear since 1989, conveniently listed at
finalgear.com. i'm on episode 11 of the 1990 season. and when i'm done with all of them up until the
present, i'll start on episodes of Fifth Gear. both are british car programs. there's an american version right now of Top Gear that airs on Speed
Channel, but i don't think they've done any new episodes really since 2004. anyway, it's funny to see what was british car technology 15 years ago.
Fifth Gear also airs on speed channel, but i've pretty much seen all the reruns they have to offer. i'm looking forward to going back further with that
program as well.
but that's not the point of this post. the point was that opacity.us is awesome. i'm addicted and i see myself
going back time and time again. the site is primarily photos of 'urban ruins' - places usually 50+ years old and long since abandoned. pretty
good stuff. click '[ enter site ]' on the main page to get to the good bits. i hope you have a lot of time to do nothing but browse the site, because
if you're at all interested you can easily waste a day or two (or more) looking through it all.
12/23/05 :: Barber's Closet menu
here's the Barber's Closet menu i promised yesterday. it's a bit of a monster at 7.5MB, but it's
also a 40 page menu and i've increased the page sizes from the original (3.3MB) to be more
readable. if this proves to be a popular download i might take the time to OCR this thing and post it in html format on my site.
let me know if you've enjoyed this. feel free to right click and
save either copy to your computer - this might actually work better for viewing anyway as PDF browser plug-ins are usually pigs.
12/22/05 :: MIA
i'll be the first to admit that I haven't been doing much web stuff outside of work. truth is for the last few months i've been more interested
in Tivo, Netflix and Xbox than doing freelance or personal work outside of my daily job. the last 5-6 years have just been a lot of hours and
sacrifices and i just wanted, even if for only a few months, to enjoy myself outside of work rather than beat myself up about the work i should
be doing every waking minute. well, guilt is finally catching up with me. i am, i guess you could say, settled into my job i started back in April,
so I think it's time to get back to my web life outside of work.
i'm not going to hit it too hard, but i do need to take care of a few things for some clients and friends who have been infinitely patient with me while i
took a much needed break from constantly churning out web work. sure, i've had some little things i've done during this time, but no new big projects
and i've been putting off some stuff months now.
so, to get the ball rolling i will be posting the menu for the Barber's Closet which i procured from someone else online per the direction of heidi's
cousin jeff. the person i got it from posted about having it in PDF format, but not posted anywhere online. jeff read this, and since i'm a web
geek figured i'd be the best person to go after it.
i emailed this guy (i'm not mentioning his name at this point since i'm unsure if he cares to have credit here) about it, and several months later he
randomly got back to me and emailed me the PDF of scanned menu pages. i took the liberty to clean up the pages and i'll be hosting the menu on my site soon
in a revised PDF format. i had thought about hosting pages individually embedded in html, but i figured the PDF route would be easiest. hopefully that's up
later today or over the christmas weekend.
for those of you who didn't live in madison in the 90's, the Barber's Closet was a bar in the basement of Hotel
Washington which burned down. a lot of people had a special fondness for the place so the menu is a bit of happy nostalgia i suppose.
in other news, i'll be updating coporatetrash.com with a dozen or so new vomit entries. thanks to
stacey for recently posting several good ones i had overlooked and contributing to the site while i've been too lazy to write definitions for my own new
entries. also, sometime today or this coming weekend i will have an RSS feed for the new vomit
entries on coporatetrash.com so users can get the latest via their favorite RSS reader. future
plans are to then provide a simple code snippet that others can drop into their own site pages to display the latest and/or top ten viewed pieces of vomit
as listed on the home page of corporate trash right now. then beyond that a Dashboard Widget for Mac OS 10.4 and above.
i'm hoping this recent work will inspire me to continue on finishing up the site and then staying on top of it with new content and promotions such as a
monthly newsletter email, t-shirts, mugs, etc and offers from retailers that have great anti-office/corporate culture goodies. so much to do there.
once that site is up to where i want it, i then will return focus to redesigning this very site. the new design i think will be outstanding and i frankly
can't wait to do it even though i know it's going to be a handful. i plan on moving the site to coldfusion and using some of the cool things i learned on
saterinc.com, smtg.com, and
corporatetrash.com and offering up all the bells and whistles such as RSS feeds,
better navigation, searching and automation. so keep coming back, because i'm finally off my ass!
7/11/05 :: arizona + july = hot
Heidi and i just returned from the Phoenix area for our
friend Brion's wedding (to his new bride, Molly). the whole experience was pretty good. obviously the biggest downfall was that it
was consistently 106 degrees every day. granted it gets hotter there, but coming from a currently high 60's to low 70's mild
northwest climate,
to one 40 degrees warmer and 100% sun the whole day, it's a bit of a change. satan's oven is the best i can describe it.
anyway, the wedding was quite nice and we used the 3+ days there as our own mini vacation. we didn't do a whole lot in
terms of seeing the sights and that sort of thing, but we did meet up with friends, hang by the pool, drink, eat, etc., and just
generally enjoyed ourselves as best we could. overall, no complaints, and now i know what arizona is like in july and it's pretty
much what i had imagined - hot as hell.
the previous weekend i attended the Northwest Historics vintage car races. i enjoyed it quite a bit. this is the first event like
this i've been to and i fully expect to go to more - at the very least i'll be back to this one next year. while there were a ton
of very cool cars from past and present sitting around to be looked at, i most enjoyed the staging area where guys were working on,
and prepping their cars, and then of course there were the races themselves. i arrived while the first race was going - the
noise and speed put my arm hairs on end. granted the novelty
wears off after a race or two, but i can see this same sensation happening every time i go to one of these. i just loved the
experience. i've posted some photos that i took at the event.
(opens in a new window)
i also took some updated photos of my car on Independence Day.
(opens in a new window)
5/18/05 :: i can't write - what i've found recently is that after 16-17 years of formal education (kindergarten
through four years of college) i'm incapable of writing any more. i used to have nice penmanship when i was in grade school. part of
that i attribute to attending catholic school where good penmanship is next to godliness. anyway, i used to be
able stroke it with the best of them. now, i can't write for shit. sure, i can, but to do a decent job i have to write
pretty slowly - if i do so, it isn't half bad. note taking though and scrawling down this and that, not so much. i used to be able
to just write without thinking about it. i find now that i have to concentrate to write anything useful. whereas now on a keyboard
i can type away like a mad man and be watching television. sure, i've seen far far worse, but it just struck me the other day how
much i suck.
of course i have to blame it on something and i pick my computer use. i'm on a computer a minimum of 8 hours per day and sometimes
(especially in the recent past) up to 16 hours or more. i'm not a legendary typist either, but i can hold my own at about 60-65wpm.
in the immortal words of a temp agency chick once testing my typing ability, "that isn't bad for a dude." truer words were never
spoken. anyway, in high school i could only type probably 25-30wpm because i hardly used a computer and i didn't care. i thought i
was going to be an artist, what the hell would i need to type for? ha!
anyway, writing for me has become like algebra, trigonometry, calculus, etc., i've essentially lost it. and what was the point of
cursive writing? why do they bother teaching you? i can't remember the last time i wrote something in cursive, certainly not in the
last decade and i'm only 30.
do they still teach cursive in school? i've become so detached from the educational
system i really have no idea. i assume they would, but i would also assume that a schools primary focus would be to teach the
essentials of reading, writing, and arithmetic, not how to feel special, how to never offend anyone ever (even if the offensive
terms only offend some tiny percentage of guilt ridden idiotic white people and not the people that the statement is actually
directed at), how everyone is really the same just with different skin colors, but how we are also all so diverse, and that some
how randomly introducing other cultures into a mass american/world culture in the name of diversity is somehow not homogenizing
all the cultures being stirred together and
in fact weakening the very cultures we are trying to learn about and "embrace"...
brain hurt? mine does just thinking about how backwards things have become. anyway, penmanship, cursive, i have no use for it.
buying spree update...
i've been a busy boy. i knocked some serious items off my list in the last thirty days.
-
Xbox (plus Xbox live, two wireless controllers and a half dozen games i have my eye on)
-
iPod Photo (haven't decided on 30, 40, or 60GB size)
-
car stereo for my mustang (probably Alpine AI-Net capable receiver to work with the iPod and a basic speaker/sub setup)
- gas grill for the deck
- new queen size bed (haven't decided what brand/type i want yet)
- reupholster/repair my vintage couch
hopefully a new bed within a month. as for the couch, not sure when that'll happen...
4/16/05 :: so far so good, plus Tivo! - so, two weeks into my new job and i have to say i'm liking it. it's been one of the fastest two weeks of work for me in my life. frankly that's a
good thing. no matter how much you could ever like/love a job it's still work and a normal person's concept of work is that it's a necessary evil. you go there to do your job and if you're a decent human
being you do it as well as you can. the goal being to make work go by as quickly as possible, achieve and do what you can, and then get the hell out of there anticipating a good evening or weekend. that's
pretty much where i stand. i do as good of a job as i possibly can taking into consideration time constraints and limitations that come with every project and then i go home to enjoy my life as much as i
can. i feel like i'm in a good place now. i've been busy from day one, but not slammed. just consistently busy, which is what i like. regardless, i'm just not going to let work or a job eat away at me when
i'm not there. i'm done with that.
while this doesn't spell an absolute end to my freelance career, it has been a welcome change over the last couple months to only have light freelance work coming in and a 40 hour work week. i had some times
over the last few years where i got pretty burned out doing the job plus freelance thing. i don't want to go back to that. however, i always have the creative/money bug and it's sometimes hard to turn down
a good project. it's nice now however having the option to turn down freelance work. it used to be i was desperate for the money.
to coincide with my new found leisure time, i finally bought a series 2 Tivo. it was a long time coming. my problem has always been while i'm a chic techie geek, history has shown i've rarely had the bankroll
to keep up with what i knew about and what i really wanted. while that's still somewhat the case (still paying off college and self-employment debt from the past), i'm able to slowly knock items off my
wishlist in between paying debt. a guy has to live a little anyway. so, target had 40 hour Tivos for $50 after rebate. that was finally cheap enough that i couldn't resist. sure, i had seen 80 hour tivos
for $100 after rebate, but for some reason i jumped at this. my thought process being "40 hours is plenty of storage" and it probably is, we shall see. anyway, i'm loving it.
next on my list is probably an Xbox which has also been a long time coming. i've been talking about buying one for a couple years now. while it's really not an expensive thing, i've always had (and still do)
too many things vying for my entertainment dollar and leisure time. an Xbox was and is an unnecessary item. i have a computer i can play games on, i have a slew of dvds and Tivo programs to
watch, yet i still wish i had an Xbox. that very well could happen here soon.
other items on my list coming up soon, not necessarily in order of possible purchase:
- Xbox (plus Xbox live, two wireless controllers and a half dozen games i have my eye on)
- iPod Photo (haven't decided on 30, 40, or 60GB size)
- car stereo for my mustang (probably Alpine AI-Net capable receiver to work with the iPod and a basic speaker/sub setup)
- gas grill for the deck
- new queen size bed (haven't decided what brand/type i want yet)
- reupholster/repair my vintage couch
well, that's enough blathering on for now.
3/22/05 :: new job - yep, no mustang pics again. moving on to more important business...
i found a new job. my contract at cingular did get offered to be extended through june, but i got offered this new job which
is permanent, pays well, and has much more potential.
it's in kent which is near seattle, but a bit more of a drive for me. on the upside the traffic going in that direction
is pretty light from my current apartment.
the place is hawkeye cohesion. i start april 4th and my last day here is march 30th.
so, i'll have a four day weekend before starting my new job.
honestly i would have probably liked a week off, but eh, i'll have plenty of vacation time in about six months with my new gig
and i can chill out then.
anyway, it will be a welcome change not having to worry if my contract is going to renew every few months. it's less money, but
in the end i'm better off. i have good benefits and
vacation/sick time and goodies like that. this time i actually plan on using my vacation time unlike my last job where i had a
ton leftover unused.
more to come soon...
1/24/05 :: i'm a liar - no mustang pics yet. it was overcast/rainy this weekend and even though i washed the exterior of my new
ride, i didn't take any pics. the only time it's been sunny lately is mid day at work. convenient huh? well,
this is one of the seller's pics, but
it essentially looks exactly like this. same rims and tires and all. haven't made any visual changes to this point.
1/24/05 :: mac mini - if you're not a macintosh devotee then you might have missed the announcement of the
apple mac mini. it's a full blown computer (although a fairly lowend one especially for a mac) and
it's only 6.5" by 6.5" by 2". yep, it's tiny. i have a
cube circa 1999/2000, and it's small but nowhere near as tiny as
this. while many people will buy them as their first mac or their only machine because they don't need massive computing power, still more will likely
buy them as secondary machines to put into their entertainment center or act as some sort of dedicated server.
that's why i want one. my cube, heavily upgraded, should still out perform a mac mini, but for the money it's still a damn good value. also the
size and form factor are perfect for some sort of rack system. companies offering to take your mac mini and pop it into a rack system in their
facilities with a super fast connection are popping up now. you buy a mini, send it off to whoever is housing it and they plug it into their
hosting center and you have access to your very own machine which you can configure however you want and you have a big fat data pipeline in and
out of it. sounds cool to me.
that said, i have a coworker who's doing just that. he's providing this sort of setup right now. the site is mostly complete. he's putting the
finishing touches on the order form/process, but most of it's there now at macminiservers.com. if
you're a regular visitor you know i rarely promote companies or services here, but i work with this guy and i'm all for more mac OS X based
hosting options. so check it out if this sort of thing appeals to you.
1/24/05 :: guys, get a clue - what's this? three posts in one day? am i ill? no, i just think this last bit is very important.
i have no real strong animosity toward valentine's day. i think it's stupid to make a big deal out of it. i'd rather surprise my girl with gifts,
flowers or a nice dinner some other time of the year when she's not expecting it, rather than when i'm told to in mid february, by whom exactly i'm not sure.
i did the valentine's day
thing way back in my past, but it was always stupid, cheesy and unoriginal. i'm not telling you not to do anything for valentine's day since i know
a lot of women won't appreciate that, i'm just saying why don't you start taking action this year to slowly erase this bullshit holiday from your
yearly drudgery. hell man you just had christmas, and probably a birthday to deal with, why the hell do you need to be slammed again?
me and heidi generally exchange gifts or have a nice meal and maybe a movie in at home and enjoy being together. going out on valentine's day is an
exercise that i choose not to participate in. what a nightmare. i'm all for going out to celebrate being together, but i can do it on a day that's
not a holiday and probably have it be much more special.
some of you may have already figured out there has to be some underlying reason for me to waste time on this. there is. i'm going to try as hard as i
can to not just fire off a series of vulgarities, but i HATE, can't stand, would love to erase from the face of the earth jewelry stores and their god
awful satanic radio commercials. every city/area has them and they are consistently infuriating.
i didn't listen to the radio much in milwaukee. i'd listen to steve czaben on lazer in the mornings pretty routinely
on the way to work and then perhaps some talk radio in the afternoon and that was about it. however, even with that limited exposure i'd still have to
hear probably a half dozen of those damn whiny massively irritating kessler jewelers ads. i wanted to fire bomb each and everyone of their stores. of
course valentine's and christmas buying seasons are the worst, but they'll shill diamonds any time of the year. "the fourth of the july (like
they'd actually call it independence day) is fast approaching. make sure to get your loved one a fireworks pendent. each stone is hand selected by
our very super special diamond cutters directly from some country you could give a shit about otherwise. because we care and we're extra special
diamond whores. get yours now so the woman you marginally enjoy being with won't ditch your ass for someone else."
seattle also has similar ads. i can't think of the name of the local offender here, but the dominating ads here are nearly as annoying. i listen to a lot more
music on the radio here (107.7 the end) and while the ad concentration is much lower, i still hear at least one almost every morning (when i'm probably in my
least of good moods) and they never fail to make me just a little bit more annoyed that i have to get up early and go to work and all that.
consequently the guys i've known who've bought the most jewelry and did the most ass-kissing outlined in these little ad gems are routinely the ones
getting dumped and shafted anyway. giving jewelry to someone you've been with for a long time and who appreciates it and really doesn't care if you
got it for her or not anyway, is the person you should be buying jewelry for. if you're buying jewelry because it's expected or she'll leave you if you
don't, you've already f-ed up along the way. don't be an idiot.
1/7/05 :: new year, new wheels - i finally scored some new wheels. after much debate and back and forth, new versus old,
front wheel drive versus rear drive, manual versus auto, sunroof versus convertible, and the list goes on, i finally bought a car and it's the
last thing i thought i would have picked and not on my list at all.
i bought a '73 mustang (yep that's the seller's photos of my new
ride). it's the last year of the mustang before the mustang II came out. i won't bore you with the details, but if you don't
know the story, the mustang of course was hugely popular in the late 60's
as a compact or small car, the birth of the pony car. well, styling
changes obviously happen, and with the 70's starting cars began fattening up even more than they already had in the 60's, even the small mustang.
this only lasted a few years though because of
gas shortages, and the damn dirty hippy green movement. so we were no longer wanting our cars to just drink gas and we had to have cleaner
burning engines. every year after '70 the mustang's power output dropped even in the high end fast mustangs. mine has a pathetic 302 V8 in it
originally with a two barrel carburetor - plan on fixing that, but the rest of the story...
in '73 ford also offered a V6 for the mustang and i believe the 302 was the smallest V8 offered that year. however even the larger engines
were putting out relatively low horsepower. it was going to get worse though. just when '73 might have been the saddest year for the mustang
in terms of performance, ford launched the mustang II in '74 (the year of my birth actually,
so my car is one year older than i am - probably
more since it was likely manufactured in '72). the mustang II was a FOUR CYLINDER. it was now all show and no go as they say (and frankly it
ain't that pretty). even the most sluggish econoboxes of today would kick its ass in a street race (hell a lot of them would beat my V8 as it
stands right now). mustang lovers generally hang their heads in shame when the four cylinder mustang II's are brought up. but strangely there
is a following of mustang lovers that enjoy the car. hell, people did buy pontiac aztecs after all, so any car can have a following. the
mustang II was largely based on the ford pinto. i shouldn't have to say any more.
i'm probably slightly off on my history since this is all from memory. so feel free to correct me, just don't be a jag about it, and i'll be happy
to post any corrections. it should be at least reasonably accurate. i'm not an automobile historian by any stretch.
my car's only upgrades are a ford four barrel intake manifold and a holley four barrel carb. i'll probably put on headers and a proper dual exhaust
since right now, in stock form, it has a two into one system with only one tail pipe the length of the car. eventually my other additions i hope to make
are new heads and probably a more aggressive cam. then it should be at least a reasonably quick car. i don't want to make huge alterations to the car
i plan on leaving it mostly stock. i just want a bit more juice under the hood, improving upon the stock 302, and getting rid of some of its
emissions-standards-power-choking equipment shouldn't hurt the value. the only other thing i want to do is replace the old carpet, lower the car an
inch or two, new rims and tires and a modern stereo. it still has the original AM unit in it. later with the cam and heads i'll perhaps do some work
on stiffening up and improving the suspension. anyway, i look forward to it.
more on the car saga soon. i'll post pics after i pick it up next week and give you the story of how i found it and why i bought it. i know,
i know, how can i leave you in suspense like this? it's like when your favorite soap opera star is finally going to get it on with whoever he's
been lusting after for three straight seasons and then they cut to commercial and won't give you the goods until monday. well, really you find
out what happens on wednesday because they surely won't resolve something like that in one episode when they can milk it for weeks on end and your
dumb ass will watch it... um, anyway, you'll hear the rest next post guaranteed, not three posts from now.
11/24/04 :: another year closer to retirement - today i'm 30. when i was a kid i never thought i'd hear myself say those
words. 30 seemed old. it probably is to anyone under 20, and it certainly would have been a few hundred years ago or hell even a
century ago. i don't have a big complex about it, but i look around and see all the people that are 30 or younger and look at what they've done
with their lives.
for a lot of people in sports for example, 30 has someone thinking about how they are an eight year veteran and probably only have a few good
years ahead of them before they retire. that has to be both depressing and uplifting to know once you're retired you'll still have a
significant portion of your life left to live. sure many go on to do all sorts of other things after sports, but still it would be nice to
have made all the money i'll ever need for the rest of my life at 30. also i can imagine it's tough finishing what you've likely
worked very hard for and only because you're basically no longer physically able.
i have a lot of goals for myself. i'm not normally a u-rah rah rah go get'em goal guy, but secretly i have my own requirements for what makes
me feel successful. one of the biggest was by the age of 30 i wanted to be on my way to owning what i live in. whether that's a house or a
condo or a boat or whatever, that's what i want(ed). so i basically have a whole year left to try to acheive that. is it possible? sure, as
long as i can remain contracted or full time employed and sprinkle some freelance on there as well. my style usually is to plod along getting
work done at a consistent pace and when it comes down to deadline, busting my ass and getting whatever it is completed. so, i'm confident,
not 100% sure i can pull it off, but i have a good shot at it if i keep going as i have been.
another goal, set while i was in college, is that i wanted to be making six figures. well, that hasn't happened and yes, i have a year left
and no, i probably won't hit that one, but it was a fairly naive goal to begin with. if i worked my normal job and put in a lot of over time or
had a second job i could come close potentially, but unless something weird happens in the next year that one isn't happening. either way, i
can't complain. i'm happy with what i'm making now and it's certainly enough to acheive my first goal anyway.
i have been thinking recently if my age had any bearing on me just up and running to seattle. i've never longed to live here or had living here
as part of my master plan. i just knew there probably wasn't much more left for me in milwaukee in the way of opportunity, advancement, and
general happiness. it's the place i learned my current craft and where i made new friends and rejoined old and i miss it a tiny bit. i think
i've already touched on what i don't miss in my previous post, but i mostly just miss some friends and coworkers. i feel a little secluded
out here for now not having had the opportunity to really go out and do much or meet people other than at work.
i do have heidi however. i'm extremely lucky (thank you stacey for reminding me - and well, heidi reminds me a lot too). heidi has picked up
and moved for me twice basically. once from
madison to milwaukee, but this time all the way to seattle. she lived here before so it was less of an unknown, but still, she came
2,000 miles to be with me in my quest to be happier and make our lives a little better. the forever constant variable
is work. i work all the time. i can't help myself. in college the first couple years i didn't work. i had worked from age 14-18 at least
20 hours a week and then full time in the summers and that was in addition to school and sports, etc. the first couple years of college were a
welcome break. i needed money the last two years and again i was back to working all the time. when i got out of college i made no money
and admittedly i didn't work as hard as i could and i was doing absolutely nothing that i really wanted to do. the last
4-5 years that all changed and i flipped a switch and began working my ass off.
hopefully soon i can turn that switch off and find a place to work where i don't feel the need to do freelance. that's what i really want.
it would be refreshing to have a 40-45 hour work week with no freelance projects. whether or not it's
soon, i do have a feeling it will be a very good year.
11/7/04 :: so far so good - things here are good. i think i started mentally losing it this week, but other than that...
i've just been working too much. actually i'm not doing a hell of a lot at work right now and that's part of the problem. it's maddening to sit at your desk with little to nothing
to do knowing you have so much to work on outside of work - just normal life things in addition to a freelance project i need to get done. so i sit there dutifully at my
desk doing what's asked of me as the work slowly trickles in. then i come home and work on freelance. rinse, repeat. sure, a couple weeks ago i was pretty slammed and put in a couple
60 hour weeks, but for the most part it's been quiet, slow, and lame - for me anyway.
my contract has been extended through the end of the year. while i'm happy to have guaranteed money through december 31st i can't say i'm loving my job. even when i have
work to do i'm bored 95% of the time. when it's busy, i have a lot to do, and i can just put on my headphones and bang through it, it's great. when there are massive
lulls i get incredibly bored. it's bad when you're getting paid more money than you could imagine and you're still so bored that you'd rather go home and not get paid. that's saying
something.
however, it's not really that bad in terms of the usual torture that is work. i'm finally being paid what i've been working toward. i'm pleased that i don't feel like i'm being
short-changed any more, but it's still not even remotely rewarding and has only been somewhat challenging at times because, well, i've been away from atg dynamo work for so long.
i'm picking up what i need to, and it isn't rocket science, but honestly i'd rather be doing design/development for a smaller company working with coldfusion. that's what i've been
using for my freelance projects and frankly i love it. so, if you're out there looking for a coldfusion developer around the first of the year with outstanding design skills on
top of good coldfusion/mysql skills, and an actual desire to do that sort of work, i'm your guy.
it remains to be seen if my contract will go past december 31st. at this point i just don't really know. i'll be sure to post here with updates. hopefully those updates start coming
more often with more interesting content. with the music scene here and the surrounding landscape i hope to get out and start doing some cool things as soon as i have the time to.
some bands that i love have been, and will be, coming to seattle so i hope to soak up as many of those shows as i can. come spring i hope to get in some quality road tripping too, but
i have to get a car first. i've been bussing it for the last couple months. it's fine, but i'd kill for an iPod most days to cover the drone of the bus and other people talking.
i have gotten in a lot more reading, both books and magazines, however. it's been a nice change of pace and sometimes a very bad one, but i still plan on getting a car when it's
convenient. i would have had one by now if someone would have rented my old apartment. paying full rent on that place plus full rent here hasn't been a joy. with luck in the next
couple months i'll have enough for either a down payment on a new ride (looking at either a 2005 MINI Cooper S (hardtop with sunroof or a convertible) or a 2005 Mustang). that's my
shortlist for now. i've had so many old cars i'd love to have a brand new one again. in all likelihood it will probably be a MINI of some flavor.
right now we're living in bellevue with a six month lease. we're here mostly because i started out staying here temporarily for an
easy commute to redmond. with very little time, little knowledge of the area, and limited transportation, it was the
best thing to do at the time. i don't dislike it at all, it's just sort of boring. it's nice, just no character or much going on. i
have to say it is quite convenient though and we're perfectly happy with it for now. the plan is to move to the green lake area
or something like that. heidi got a job in that area and i've driven around there and it looks like a fine place to live. my
assumption would be that we're probably going to move there within 6-12 months. we'll see what happens.
9/13/04 :: what to write? - things are going pretty well here in seattle. actually i haven't ventured much outside of the bellevue/redmond area (living in bellevue,
working in redmond) since i have yet to buy a new car. i sold my old saab convertible back in milwaukee. fortunately there's a bus line here that pretty much takes me
door to door from "home" to work and back again. i'm in a temporary place right now until i go out and find a permanent apartment. i found this place in bellevue called
the pacific inn. it's sort of a hotel/apartment highbred place. very interesting. while it isn't cheap for what i get, it's
better than paying about double to the extended stay america i started out in. i get my studio cleaned weekly and everything is included (internet/cable/utilities). it's a monthly or
weekly lease place so it's very flexible. if you ever need to come to seattle temporarily i recommend it.
i hope to find a new apartment one of the next two weekends and then move everything out the last weekend/week in september. at that time heidi will finally be coming out here as well.
we're likely going to live on the north side of seattle. probably the ballard or green lake area, but that's not certain. i need to see what's available on short notice so we may have
to settle. i also need to buy a new car. i've been putting both things off waiting for the money to start rolling in. since this was all on short notice i've had to scramble to put
money together for this move. it's working out though, i just have to continue to be patient.
as for my new job, it's pretty good. i'm finally getting more comfortable knowing a bit more of what's around work (places to eat, stores, etc.) and what's around where i'm living.
i'm getting used to the development environment and culture at at&t wireless, and i will say it's an improvement over where i was. it hasn't taken long for me to get back into
the ATG/JHTML development mode after not seeing it at all for over two years. it's coming back to me. i will say i don't miss ASP.NET one bit.
so, my apartment in milwaukee is available for sublet/rent. i'm hoping i can get someone in there for an october 1 start. if you or someone you know is looking to live in downtown
milwaukee in a sweet loft checkout my craigslist posting.
as i noted, i haven't been out of my living/work area much, but i have taken some photos. i've been a bit lazy about cleaning them up and put them into something better
than a directory index, but you'll have to deal for now. these are mostly from my windows. one.
two.
enjoy. more to follow...
8/18/04 :: big news - i'm moving. not across town or out of state, nope i'm talking across the country. i was
offered and accepted a job in seattle, washington. my last day at work is today wednesday august 18th. i leave on a flight for
seattle on thursday morning. i start work friday. this has all happened very quickly and on short notice. it's one of those things
where they made me an offer i couldn't refuse.
i honestly don't hate milwaukee. i'm just sick of some of the things here that people hold dear. i used to like harley davidsons
in an aesthetic sense. they're retro, have history, and were semi-exclusive. not when you live in milwaukee, seems everyone has or
wants one. hey, that's fine, but they are annoying as all hell especially when you drive a convertible and live downtown.
they also used to stand for something and that something is simply lost now. 99% of them now seem to be ridden by yuppies and corporate managers instead
of the outlaws and true bikers that made them what they are. now they are more a status symbol and a lame attempt to be cool by old
people in my opinion. they've lost any originality they may have once had. shame really.
then there are the festivals. milwaukee, the city of festivals. yep, we have tons. know what? they suck. yeah, even summerfest.
they're all loaded with second, third, and fourth rate music acts, overpriced food, beer, and everything else. each fest is just
a mirror of all the other ones no matter what their theme or ethnic connection is they have all the same food vendors gouging all
the same participants. you can only do so much walking around, baking in the sun, drinking shitty beer, listening to shitty music,
and looking at ugly fat people while emptying your wallet.
so, in the end there's very little for me here other than a handful of good friends, some good memories with them, family a couple
hours away and the place that allowed me to gain experience in my current profession as a designer. i moved to milwaukee for a life
change of sorts and that's exactly what i got. i opened a small design company with a friend and i keep running into new experiences
doing design and i believe seattle will just be the next level in those experiences.
so as sappy as it sounds milwaukee is a place where i really did change my life. it's too bad i spent a good portion of my time
with lean funds while building my skills and experience. i would have liked to enjoy even more corner bars, restaurants i never got to,
and spent more time with the people i've met here. in my 4+ years here i got a good taste of milwaukee, and i didn't want to spit it
out right away because it seemed fine. i think i'm actually going to miss quite a lot about this place. there's a lot of milwaukee
that seems to have never changed since it was built and there's just some good old school things to find in places you didn't expect.
i like that. i also like progressing, making more money, and seeing new things and places.
i feel i'm tapped out in milwaukee. my job, while i made some good friends there too, wasn't going anywhere. i was starting to poke
around in the job listings and trying to figure out my next move and then the seattle offer came along. i couldn't say "no". since
then it's been a lot of anxiety, financial planning, logistical worries, etc. i think i have it under control. i'd like to say i'm
winging it, but things are coming together too well for me to really claim that. i'm just staying a day or two ahead of the really
hard parts. i guess that's really the only way i can describe it. i had little to no preparation for this so i scrambled to book a
flight, find a hotel, and start planning the final move out there. i'm planning to come back mid to late september to get my stuff and
bring heidi back with me.
the funniest thing is i've never been to seattle. however, heidi lived there for 4 years, my friend stacey lived there for several
years, a coworker lived there and several others have visited the city. i've heard very little negative about it. i'm pretty
confident it will be just fine.
7/28/04 :: vacation - well, i'm nearing the cap for allowable accumulated vacation hours at work so i'm taking next
week off to make a dent. i hope over the course of next week to get that pet project done i keep mentioning, start on the redesign
of this site, update cheromichel.com, finalize photoshop comps for naturalpath.com redesign, and find the time to relax by reading
and/or watching some movies and getting some outdoor time. it should be a jam-packed week. i'm really looking forward to it
though.
what else? not much really. i never sold my car. i decided to keep the one i have and since it's in great shape for its age, to
just continue maintaining it well and make some cosmetic improvements. after shopping around for cars, by keeping mine and improving
it, i'll still come out ahead all things considered.
i'm still hoping to make a mt. rushmore road trip with heidi. neither of us have been there in our lives and heidi informs me
she's also never been on a real road trip in her adult life. so, it should be fun. right now it's just a bit too hot to take the
trip in the convertible. early fall looks like a good time to me. the scenery should be nice as well as the temperature.
should be a nice cheesy week long vacation.
looking forward to it all.
4/20/04 :: spring is in the air -
first i'm going to come clean, i haven't been doing much web design work for clients and work at trisept is the same as usual. i
have been doing a lot of work to find a new web host however. while my current host has been very
very inexpensive and adequate, with the introduction of a new site i'm designing (more on that below), it's going to be important that i have
as little down time as possible and little to no technical problems. i hope to start moving to the new host later this week and potentially
move most of my sites to it this weekend.
yeah, so, what's this project you speak of? well, i'm not sure i really wish to disclose that yet, but it's a site i'm
designing/developing for myself with the intent of it being a money making site as well as a hobby sort of thing. if it fills both voids i'll
be pleased. i've come to realize that while i enjoy designing web sites, and i've always been happy with my clients, i really enjoy doing design
for myself. however, with a full time job and client sites to work on, that happens very little. so i needed some motivation. i found a subject
that i thought i could have fun with, that other people would enjoy and have a laugh over, and a site that i thought might generate a little bit
of money so that i'd want to continue to put work into it.
so as of a couple weeks ago, pretty much on a whim, this new project was started. i had hoped it would be done at the end of this
month (at least the core site), but that doesn't look likely since i have some client work to do. however, i'd at least like it up in the month of
May and really fully functional with all the little bells and whistles mid to late summer.
2/15/04 :: trisept solutions - some of you have been wondering what i've been doing for the last year at my full time job. well, i haven't really
posted anything here in regard to it since most of what i do these days there is either internal, conceptual, or technical type assistance on our brand sites. i need to check to make sure
i have permission to post some stuff. however, i've started compiling a sampling of what i've done that is already public and is open for me to share. i'll be posting this to my portfolio
page permanently soon, this is all i think i can share at this point...
trisept supplier center :: this is one of the first things i did at trisept. it was basically me and a programmer on the project.
i did the design and form validation and he did the backend work. there are a ton of internal pages, mostly forms, that had to be built for users to input hotel information. the updated
information is then used for hotel information across most of our external brand sites. pretty important i should think. i'll post some screen shots of the logged in views as soon as i can.
side note...
i recently bought a really cool
clock radio
that i thought would have an alarm (but didn't) off of ebay. i guess it just never occurred to be from both looking at it on amazon.com and on ebay that it didn't. the main reason for
me getting it was the alarm function. anyway, i'll have to resell this since i really have no practical use for yet another radio. if you know anyone who might be interested
let me know, otherwise it will be going back up on the ebay auction block.
2/2/04 :: 2004 - figured i should get an update in for the new year. like i posted previously, i'm laying pretty low on the freelance front. lately
though i've been getting restless again. need to get back into the freelance swing or start doing some painting or something.
lately i've been obsessed with cars - car shows, models, real cars, etc. this leads me to thinking about drawing/painting cars - perhaps some that really exist(ed) or preferably some
that never did. i really dig old school racers and the 50's & 60's is my favorite era. cars then were fast and beginning to get advanced, but most weren't computerized yet and
consisted of a gearbox, engine, carbs, etc. a lot of cars today simply don't appeal to me because i could never build or work on one without an MIT degree. i can't afford either so
there's probably no need to discuss further.
anyway, maybe that's what i'll start doing - melding my artistic skills and desires with my unhealthy (time-wasting) fascination with race & street cars - probably what i should
have been doing all along. i've also been itching for a good racing game or two. project gotham racing 2 for Xbox looks good,
but i don't have an Xbox so that's out. unfortunately not much is out for the mac in the way of driving games, but i do dig
this. i want one to play
F1 championship season 2000 even though it's not exactly what i want. perhaps something soon will
come to my platform of choice and i can race my little heart out for not a lot of money.
in the meantime, i'll post any drawings that i do, should that happen.
12/13/03 ::oh the holidays are upon us - i'll admit i haven't started a thing for christmas yet. i'm technically a catholic so i'm going to reference christmas.
for the political correctness freaks out there you'll have to bear with me and deal.
 anyway, i haven't really bought
any presents or done anything yet. i've thought about what i might buy people, but haven't really made any purchases. i hate thinking about what i have yet to do before christmas.
why haven't i done anything? well, one of heidi's coworkers was selling her weider crossbow (something i'd been considering buying) so
i decided i needed to pick it up. they aren't cheap (although way less than a comparable bowflex) and saving any money on it was a good thing. so
i got what i consider a good deal and had to spring for it. that tapped me out and delayed my shopping.
so now i have to get into a workout routine to take advantage of the new exercise equipment. i haven't yet, but i plan on starting this weekend when i have more time to learn
what i can do with it. 65 exercises are possible and i obviously need to narrow down what i want to do.
since adding it to the household i need to clear a few things out that were hidden behind the futon that was occupying that space, including the futon itself. so i'll be putting
some things up for sale on ebay. first on the block is my old 7100/80av mac (holy crap, it already sold!). soon to follow are some shirts that are too big for me. i need
to get rid of the futon and don't care to deal with trying to sell it (since I paid $50 for it four years ago it's not a big deal) so it's going at the end of the hall by the garbage
pickup and if anyone wants it, it's all theirs. yeah, i'm in that holidays giving spirit.
11/3/03 :: where have i been? - some of you have been a little irritated that i haven't updated my site recently. well, it took three
months, but i finally did something about it. as always, i promise to improve.
since my last posting i've put a new top on my convertible, new glasses, been to vegas (in 3.5+ years of dating heidi, our first long distance trip together), and just got a
processor upgrade for my Cube. oh yeah, and i've been writing way too much damn code...
i've been primarily busy finishing up the advanced appraisal site. essentially their employees and external loan officers can create and edit orders. the system tracks and
manages the whole process. this is my second major dynamic site, again coded primarily in coldfusion with a mysql database similar to sater's site.
i also did some logo design for a friend of mine, darrell. he just started a ballroom dance studio in downtown madison. the place is called "art
of dance". the logo i put together is part of the header of the site. darrell put up an interim site until i can get around to producing something else for them. i think it serves
the purpose and looks quite good actually, especially when you compare it to all the other dance sites i've seen - wow. i'll post here when i have something to show for my design of the site.
for now, enjoy the updates. and if i haven't as of this posting, i will be updating my live journal soon. i also just renewed registration of the domain name swankboy.com with plans to make
that a blog site instead of live journal. we'll see when that happens...
8/9/03 :: busy, busy busy - let me tell you, i have plenty to do. i just got cheromichel.com done and
saterinc.com done. i thought i'd have a break for awhile, but i'm taking on another new freelance project. the site is for an
appraiser and it's an internal application for the company to use. i essentially have two weeks to complete it. while tight, it's doable and the guy i'm doing it for
is well organized and has thought the thing out well. leaves me to just concentrate on getting the app to work as he wants. it's going to be another development focused
project, but it will be a nice change from what i do at my day job. i'm enjoying the coldfusion development work more and more. i learn something new constantly
and i feel fundamentally sound and have moved into more complex application building.
so, dan, what about your personal life? well, heidi and me are still quite happy in our apartment and are looking forward to a couple trips. with the travel perks of my job we are
planning on going to las vegas at the end of october and hopefully we'll be going to cancun or somewhere similar around christmas. that's the plan anyway. i'm also going to be
starting a poker night at my house with some coworkers. i'm looking forward to that and heidi is looking forward to having a designated night each week to go rip it up with the
girls out of the house.
things are good, although busy. i look forward to one of these days having free time - a luxury i haven't enjoyed for some time now.
6/26/03 :: good news! good news! i'm off to atlanta / buckhead / covington with keith (sorry man, only pic i have).
the main reason for this trip is the general lee jump saturday in covington, georgia where they taped a hell of a lot of the dukes of
hazzard. yeehaw! it's also a good reason to get the hell out of dodge for an extended weekend and checkout a part of the country i haven't been to.
how did this come about? i believe i was looking for sound bites from the dukes of hazzard and stumbled upon the general lee jump with keith. shortly after we decided we had
to go. and here we are several months later on the eve of this monumental trip. see, it's the 25th anniversary of the show (yeah, it started in '78). there is stuff going on for several
days, but we're mostly interested in the jump. i don't know what it is about a 4,000 pound orange car flying through the air, but i'm so there. apparently they are also
going to try and set the world record for celebrity vehicles in one place, we shall see.
so what's in it for you? well, we found out we have internet access in our room and we have free broadband access in the hotel, so... since we are
going to be capturing the whole trip in detail with my digital camera (thanks yet again darrell), we decided to bring the trip to you near live from georgia. so
we hope to post several times images from the trip care of keith's laptop.
this is our very loose agenda:
- thursday arrive in atlanta at about 2pm. grab our rental car and go to the hotel in buckhead and get settled.
- thursday night we're going to go see the braves vs. phillies (i think it's philly anyway - it's too late at night for me to bother looking to confirm) and then, time permitting,
out to booze it up a bit afterwards.
- friday - who the hell knows yet. probably go to downtown atlanta and see what there is to see. probably something coca-cola and/or cnn related, because that's all i'm hearing about.
- saturday - general lee / dukes parade, general jump, etc. probably going out that night as well
- sunday - not sure yet. probably going to get a little bit out of the city. looking at some things at the moment to do.
basically we have a few things planned and we're chancing the rest. pretty much what we both agree is best. some of you might be saying, "both?
i thought three of you were going?" well as of right now the notorious One Time has backed out last minute due to budgetary constraints (or so he says) so
right now it's me and keith and we're fine with that.
anyway, since i have limited time i've decided to just post the pics to a yahoo album. so check for updates often!
mail comments to me if you'd like. i'll try to check my mail when i do photo updates.
5/6/03 :: no, i'm not dead, i'm just webbed-out. i needed a little break from this site considering the time i have been putting in on my freelance projects not to
mention my regular job. i'm looking forward to hopefully having some much needed time to devote to other things besides a computer and the internet.
that said, the saterinc.com redesign and cheromichel.com new design should be completed very soon. i can't thank todd and cheryl enough for their patience. hopefully i'll also be updating
my livejournal soon too. i have had so many things i wanted to post there, but just never got around to.
i'll try to keep the site updated more often, it just gets difficult and i know it affects how people use my site since i see the usership drop off. i definitely want people coming back
often to see what's up. when i get the two projects noted above done i hope to start putting out some traditional artwork - painting and drawings most likely. i hope to sell some online
and perhaps around milwaukee/madison. i'll be sure to post here when i have something worthwhile to show.
3/6/03 :: what have i been up to you might ask? well, i've been busy working at trisept and finishing up freelance projects. i haven't had much time for anything else sadly.
i'd like to post some new work here, but projects seem to be lagging or stalled. most of the work i have done as of late has been for the sater website and updates to the town of richfield
website. when i have some final product to put up i'll do so. at the very least i should be adding to my resume and adding some links as well that have been piling up to
go on that page. don't give up, keep checking in and some new stuff will show up eventually.
i also have some pics of my new apartment and i hope to have those up soon. they were taken with my friend brion's camera when he and stacey were over for pizza a couple weeks ago. we're
still enjoying the new place. we like the size and since much of it was redone before we moved in it is considerably nicer. i'll get to those pics sometime this week i hope.
1/26/03 :: well, i finally was offered, and accepted a full time position that i wanted. i'm now working full time and salaried at
trisept solutions. they are a company working under the mark travel corporation umbrella. they (we)
do mainly travel related sites.
now, i've been to a few places, but am hardly the world traveler. well, that could change. i'll get substantial discounts on travel, so friends and neighbors start lining up now. i'm
looking forward to it myself after having been contracted/self-employed for most of my working life outside of college and high school with little or no vacation time and seldom
paid vacation. so now on top of having paid vacation, i'll be able to travel for cheap. sounds like a good formula that i could get used to.
1/17/03 :: i'm finally in my new apartment, well mostly. i'm tired and slightly beaten, but most everything has been moved one apartment over to #210. i'm loving it so
far. considerably bigger and just a better layout overall. there are actually voids with no furniture where before it was getting more and more difficult to find a place to put
anything.
unfortunately, having moved, my dsl will most likely be going down on monday for 1-2 weeks until it's switched over to the new place. you'd think in this day and age with computers
and automation it would take a matter of hours or at most a day. nope. incredible, but not surprising considering how difficult it has become to get just about anything done.
i thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier? it has in many ways, but when it comes to companies utilizing it to improve customer satisfaction it seems to fall short just
about every time and that's being extremely positive. what i really think of technology's implementation by most companies wouldn't be appropriate for posting here.
12/12/02 :: well, it's been another month. i'm still plugging away on designs in progress and trying to stay motivated and busy. i have a good chunk of work to do, it's
just a matter of really getting into it. i have a good start on a couple of projects and i need to get the momentum going if i want to finish them by month's end.
i'm still not into my new apartment. i was hoping i would be by now, but the middle of the month was the target and we're not quite there yet. i'm looking forward to gaining
a better work space and getting more organized. of course that means a new computer desk, shelving and a cabinet, but that's what it takes. better than a bunch of papers sitting on the
top of the giant box for my computer monitor like things are now.
so essentially i'm keeping busy and counting down the days until the holidays. it's not like i get paid vacation or something or have these glorious plans, i just don't mind once and a
while getting out of my place for an extended period of time, seeing my family (even if they are crazy), and eating like a complete pig.
i hope to be getting a digital camera soon (it's about time). i hope to liven things up with frequent picture posts. not of myself necessarily, but most likely random stuff. i see so
many good photo ops and i never have a camera with me.
sorry for the lame-o™ post, but that's how i'm feeling... lame. i hope i repost this at a later date.
11/14/02 :: what's going on this month? well, for one i'm moving! yeah, it's going to be a big one... to next door. yep, i'm moving from
apartment 209 to 210. it's 400 square feet bigger and has a window that opens to the south. why is that significant? well, because i currently don't have
any windows that actually open in my apartment. it's better than it sounds, but still doesn't allow for truly fresh air and that's gotten old. in addition, they are redoing the entire
kitchen and doing some other upgrades to 210. it's more expensive than my current place, but well worth it in my opinion. the only downside is i'm still waiting to find out when we can
really move in. we're waiting on the cabinets for the kitchen and then they have to be installed and whatnot. should be sometime between the 1st and 15th of december though.
in somewhat related news i also found heated parking underground in downtown milwaukee. sweet! i currently have covered, secure parking, but not heated. i'm looking forward to it. that
starts january 1st and it's $30 cheaper than my current parking for the first month and then $10 per month cheaper than what i'm paying now for future months. i can deal with that. nice.
anyway, as for freelance and this site, both are continuing to evolve. i'm looking forward to a couple projects i'll be starting here shortly. i'll post links as soon as they are completed.
that's all for now. i'll keep you posted on new life and site changes. have a good november and don't forget my birthday.*
*ahem, november 24th.
10/1/02 :: well, it is month two of the new design. i had some hiccups with my hosting company, but hopefully those are behind me. if you come to visit and the site is
down at all please send me a note. if it continues i'll have to move hosts again.
what's going on this month? well on october 5th my friends william and diane are getting married in england. i wish i could be there, but i just can't swing the expense right
now. william is originally from croydon and diane is from the u.s. they live here, but decided to marry in england. sounds like a good idea to me. anyway, just wanted to wish
them luck and give them congratulations.
october also means halloween. for some reason it has always been a holiday i enjoy. for the last three years i've gone as pee-wee herman ('99
halloween pics) and i plan on doing so again this year. it's easy, the costume has more than paid for itself, and it's a hit everywhere i go. not only that, but i have not
run into another pee-wee ever.
i hope new pics are taken this year. i'll post them if i have some after halloween.
9/1/02 :: welcome to the new version of danielseliger.com. it's been awhile since this site has seen a facelift and even then not ALL of the site was redone.
this is a total redo. it has been a long process, but i'm happy with the results.
if you feel a little bit of nostalgia i did have a link here, but i have since taken the old site down completely - i just don't want search engines indexing it and taking people there.
the site has taken on a more "professional" flavor, but i hope to still get much of my personality across in its creation. i don't know if i'll continue the blogger
on this site. we'll see.
the site is now even more of a showcase of my skills and how they can be had. i have had a "personal" site now for a few years and it's time i move on.
i still haven't decided what i'll do with swankboy.com. as of now it still sits as it was in the beginning with
only a small popup window announcing it's dissolution.
enjoy the site. please give me feedback if you have comments and don't forget to take the poll to
the right >>
i had considered including a guest book on this new site, but for now i'm holding off. most people just seem to find guest books (or mine anyway) as a place to exercise new
obscenities and make pathetic attempts to embarrass me. for now it's off, but if i receive enough input i may put one up. for now you can leave private comments after you've
voted in the poll to the right. enjoy.
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