Well I made it through the first week working at DigiMedia and I gotta say, I loved it. It is a bit of a big change from freelancing from home but I was expecting that. I love having to go to work each day and being around other developers and designers and working on larger projects. I spent most of this week in Photoshop cranking out graphics. The rest of the time was spent finishing a WordPress project that was already started. Fixing errors, setting up some new plugins, and other things of that nature. I got a crash course on their Ad Manager which is just massive and look forward to messing with it more and ending up giving a quick class on WordPress to some retail people. Overall it was a pretty good week and I think I will enjoy working there. Another plus with the new job is having to learn Ruby. As you know, I’ve wanted to for awhile but client work always got in the way. However, with most of the work at DigiMedia being done in Ruby this gives me a chance to finally learn it. I have some books that I’m going through and several people I can turn to for help if needed.
Besides starting the new job this month we will also be moving in the coming weeks. We are still debating on a house or apartment, either way we plan to rent. Between me just starting the new job and Melissa planning to change from online classes at Uni of Phoenix Online to local classes here at Midwestern State University for nursing starting in January we just aren’t sure what would be better for us. Either way it will only be for 2-3 years.
I am also attempting to finish my redesign. I posted a screen of it on flickr awhile back and got lots of great feedback. I have started coding it to WordPress and just about done with the main page but still have several things to do. The problem is client work is on top of my list right now and taking up most of my evenings and weekends so I’m having to make time for my projects which right now there just isn’t enough of. I would like to have it done by the end of the month. As next month is full as well between getting settled into the new place and taking a mini-vacation to Kansas to see Melissa’s grandparents.
That is a very good question. I am in the process of looking at some new clients and have recently made a partnership with another freelancer who is a little over booked with clients so I will be taking some off his hands. I am still working on my projects with my latest web app just around the corner. I also have a new project in the works but not ready to say just yet. Most of my work days right now are doing client updates. It seems I can go weeks or months and no client needs updates or work done and then when I get in the process of new clients my current ones start sending loads of updates. The good thing about updates is that the day seems to go by pretty fast.
Spring is of course here and one can only hope that we don’t have a repeat of last year. I really don’t want to have to deal with massive flooding again this year (the picture above is from Wichita Falls, TX during the flooding last year. It was not taken by me and you can see more here). Last year was bad enough. It also cut our camping trips to only two for the season when we had planned more. In fact we already have two camping trips planned so far with the first being the first weekend in June for my birthday in Lawton, OK at Lake Lawtonka. The other being around the 4th of July here at Lake Arrowhead. We plan to get another one in but not sure when or where yet. Need to start going through our camping gear in the next couple of weeks as well.
Moving to Wichita Falls, TX has a huge plus over Lawton, OK and that was the MPEC (Kay Yeager and Memorial Auditorium). They don’t get much during a year but they do get a few big concerts and shows. In January you may remember that we took the kids to see Playhouse Disney Live! which was great. On Monday I will be going to see Sevendust, Saliva, Neverset, and Overscene at the KY. I originally hadn’t planned on going but I’ve been a huge fan of Sevendust for years and Saliva is a great band. It should be a great show and I’m looking forward to it.
On top of going to the Sevendust show on Monday the wife and I will be going to see Jeff Dunham on May 8 at the Memorial Auditorium for his Spark of Insanity tour. I have loved Jeff Dunham for awhile and both of his DVDs are great. It will be great to finally see him in person. That is really all that is going on right now. Still working on my redesign which as of today is about 75% complete so it should be up very soon.
It finally happened. We got married Friday December 7, 2007. You can view some pictures in my flickr gallery. It took place at the court house here in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was really small, like I wanted. It included her mom, step dad, dad, her friend Sarah and my Grandma. I thought I should have at least one member of my family there and since my Grandma is the only one I’m on talking terms with it wasn’t a hard choice. We ended up going to breakfast at IHOP and then out to lunch with the family to Cheddars (gotta love their ribs). Melissa’s mom brought a cake so we went back to our apartment to cut it. Before lunch however we were able to get her mom and step dad on Guitar Hero III on the 360 and both loved it. We got them hooked on our Wii early this year (they are looking for their own now) and now to GH3. In fact we were almost late meeting my Grandma for lunch due to GH3. Overall it was a great day.
I’ve spent most of the weekend doing client work and catching up on some shows (K-Ville, Journeyman and Life). Didn’t get as much done as I had planned but I never do on the weekends. I always try to work during the weekends but it never happens. Mostly because Melissa works and my kids are at home so its hard to not get distracted. I’ll have to make up the work Monday and Tuesday. I have 3 clients that I need to get done this next week and another client project that needs some progress. It would be nice to get a few things cleared up before Christmas and start the new year off right. Lots of plans for next year including finally video blogging more (we are looking at new cameras now) and a little lifecasting as I will have my new iMac and will be mobile on the laptop. We will see how things work out.
As you can tell I didn’t get through NaBloPoMo very well. Starting off late and never finished. I did better then I thought. I also haven’t done anymore videos. Mostly because I was just kinda testing things and our camera is messing up now. We hope to replace it in January though with a much nicer one (I’m still browsing, so send me suggestions). I’ve been busy with new clients and old clients the past few weeks and now have deadlines that are right around the corner and plenty to get done. I had a board meeting with the Soccer Club last week in which they voted to not pay me right away. I told them that my work would be on hold until I got paid half, so my check will be sent tomorrow. Good thing to. I just have tons more work on my plate now. I’ve got several clients that I need to switch over to WordPress. Not doing redesigns as most are new but need to move them to WordPress for them to update and not me. It will take a huge load off me. I have a few projects that I was hoping to work on this month but not sure if that will work out. Three of the projects are bigger and I’m really excited about them (no details just yet though). I had planned to do a rewrite of 2532|Gigs early this month as well but not sure if that will happen. I don’t want to see the project die as it has lots of users and plenty of things to be added and a great solid base to build upon. I might look for somebody to take over the project and just pass the site and script off to them. I wouldn’t mind staying on as a minor developer but just don’t have the time to really provide the support for bugs and new releases right now. I don’t want to drop it so I’m still debating. FieldStatus also never had a release although is ready. Its being used on a clients site and works great but not sure if I will release it. Might just release it ‘as-is’ and provide no support. I hate to do that but its better then nothing. Somebody might take the code and expand it into their own project so it could have some uses.
I haven’t spent as much time on my Xbox 360 as I had wanted. I just got it a week ago and have put in some hours but not much. I ended up buying the console, 2nd wireless controller, Vision Webcam, DVD Remote, ChatPad and Halo 3 Limited Edition. Why does everything come with a headset? I now have 4 headsets (the console, webcam, chatpad, and live kit came with one). Granted its kinda cool when you have several people on Halo 3 that they all get a headset but still its a little much. I have been getting some live play on Halo 3 in and pretty much getting owned. I was always better at RainbowSix 3 then Halo. Got Melissa to play on live with me as well (even bought her a gamertag so she isn’t on mine) and she is enjoying it and getting better. I haven’t got any other games yet and don’t plan to this month. I do plan to rent CoD4 and maybe Assassin’s Creed to check out. AC not being online kinda kills it for me as a buy. I am very recreational when playing and just love getting online to play quick matches. Sometimes it takes me months and months to finish single player games if I ever do. I’m attempting to get through solo on Halo 3 but so far only got to the 3rd lvl. I am looking forward to two games early next year. End War (lovin the trailer) and RS3: Vegas 2. I was going to buy RS3:Vegas but found out the 2nd is due out early 08, so plan to wait. Anybody else on Live look me up; gamertag: twofivethreetwo.
In other news me and Melissa will be getting married this coming Friday (the 7th). We have been together for Lets not go there cause I don’t wanna think about what will happen if I get how many years wrong. Basically since high school and we have a 4 year old son. So, more than 4 years. Anyways, we are getting married at the courthouse here in Wichita Falls, TX. Nothing major and really small. In fact so small that only my grandma will be there (mostly because we haven’t old anybody else really). She kinda wanted a ceremony however it would be so small. I am not in contact with my mom anymore and refuse to see her which in turn has caused my sisters to not be too happy with me so my side of the family would be out and most of her family doesn’t live here. So, we are simple people so something simple at the court house is perfect. We set the date a while back I just hadn’t posted about it until now.
We had our first snow of the season tonight. We ended up going to Cheddars for dinner and it had been raining most of the day. After eating (some very good ribs) we noticed that it had gotten a little colder and the rain had turned to flakes. It wasn’t a lot but enough to cover windows of parked cars and the ground a little. It melted pretty fast after it hit the ground but was still nice. A picture was posted in my flickr.
I’ve been off for 4 days now due to Thanksgiving which has been nice. I needed the down time as it looks like December won’t be a slow month for me after all. I have a redesign for a client that has to be done next week. I made progress before the holiday and hope to pick it back up Monday morning. I was also recently contacted by a company to do some php and design work for them and get started on it Monday. Not the money that I would have liked for the project, but enough to make it worth it. Plus I’m still on a tight deadline for the Team Management System for the soccer club. In fact I have a board meeting with the club on Thursday (I was voted into the board in September) and we will be voting on my money for this system and some new things. So, the month is going to start off busy and I hope it will calm down by Christmas as we will be spending the holidays in Kansas (love the 7+ hour drive).
On a side note; I’m going to get my Xbox360 next week. I’ve held off on getting it and got the Wii last year instead of the 360 as I wanted to have the system for my family as well. My 4 year old son has loved the Wii and so do we when we have family over (its great for holidays, etc). So, the Wii was a great investment but I do miss my Xbox gaming days and XboxLive. I was tossing up between Halo 3 and CoD4 to get right away, however I’m going with Halo 3 for now. I will be able to finally relax off my computer instead of sitting here daily.
Update
I ended up buying the Xbox 360, extra Wireless Controller, Halo 3 Limited Edition, Chatpad, Vision Cam, and DVD remote yesterday. Got it all hooked up last night and played a little Arcade and Forza 2 but no Halo 3 yet. I was also forced to buy an iPod Touch. I’ve had my 2nd Gen iPod Nano for awhile and it died last night. Not sure why, just won’t power up. The Touch is really nice (note that I’ve never held the iPhone). The downside is nobody told me the Touch doesn’t support 64bit Windows (which I use). So, I’m stuck using it on the laptop.
Anyways, we are getting married at the courthouse here in Wichita Falls, TX. Nothing major and really small. In fact so small that only my grandma will be there (mostly because we haven’t old anybody else really). She kinda wanted a ceremony however it would be so small. I am not in contact with my mom anymore and refuse to see her which in turn has caused my sisters to not be too happy with me so my side of the family would be out and most of her family doesn’t live here. So, we are simple people so something simple at the court house is perfect. We set the date a while back I just hadn’t posted about it until now.