Periodicdesign

Yeah, it’s been quiet for a while. Actually, it’s been too quiet. I’m currently in the middle of redesigning my site and decided to add a feature I got working on my development box. It actually only took about 10 minutes to get this up and running, so I figured I would go ahead and lock it in for data aggregation purposes. It’s in my sidebar, but may migrate as I do more updates and additions. I figure if I do one of these a day and rebuild one page a day, it will only take me a few weeks to get all of my changes. With that said, here’s to more free time and a finished site.

This will amuse for hours…well, maybe not hours, but a really long time. If he gets stuck, just click and drag with your mouse. You can throw him around like a rag doll. Many thanks to Sean Coon.

Well, I haven’t posted in nearly a month. I was starting to pick up my postings, but time always gets the better of me. I figured I would go ahead and just run a dump of the past few weeks with highlights of the weekend.

To begin, school has been super hectic so far. I just finished the halfway point with my final Bachelor’s class at NVCC. Yeah, it’s English 251 (World Literature), but it’s still a lot of reading and writing. I could currently give anyone a dissertation and/or rundown of the likenesses of civilization and the wilderness with considerations on the adverse affects of both on mankind and how such romanticism in the realm of the wilderness effects writings of the time. I could also feed you all cubes of Tofu until you vomit. Each would be equally engaging I’m sure. To date, my grade in the class is a 100%, which is great considering that during college I was a slacker when it came to my general study courses. I was always attentive and received high marks in my major courses (of course, who doesn’t), but my GPA in those pesky mundane courses such as English, Math, Social Sciences and the like, always seemed to be uninteresting to me. I was a huge fan of Sociology and History, but outside of those courses, the east side of Shepherd University’s campus was very unappealing. Other than that, I was granted an extension and only have five papers (250 word minimum) and two exams to complete, and then freedom! I look forward to partying hard upon the completion of my undergraduate degree. Then it is on to more appealing things such as a graduate program somewhere. I’m still deciding on all of that.

Speaking of graduate programs, I met some nice folks from the University of Baltimore, while attending User Experience Week at the end of August. Kevin and Larry are both U of B individuals, just on different levels. Kevin is the Webmaster for their web site and Larry is currently enrolled in their Master’s of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture program. I have been weighing my opportunities in the professional world and wondering what, if any, steps I should take next. I have had a move to California in my mind for the past six months or so and as feasible as it may sound, a move to California may have to take a back seat with the potential of scholastic improvement. There is much to ponder on this front as this fall unfolds. My current focus is to finish my Bachelor’s, party hard for a few weekends and then start focusing on my next moves some time in late November.

The new house is coming along nicely. We are unpacked for the most part and settled in. My only complaint to date is that although the house is always clean, we may have to setup a chore list. Things are getting done, but individuals are slacking from time to time. My roommate Helen is contemplating moving to Orlando, Florida. She has an offer with her current employer to have all expenses paid and move to the land of oranges to take on a new marketing position. There isn’t much worry on the end of the household in regards to our financial situation if she would move. Upon taking the position, rent would be covered by her employer for the remainder of the lease. Although this puts me a little at ease, I’m not sure how well Keegan will handle this situation if she leaves. He and I have been having many talks in the past few days and I’ve been trying to give him some constructive criticism and advice on the events that may unfold. I’m not a shrink by any means, but I don’t want my friends to think a situation is as bad as it seems. Sometimes what may seem bad is actually a blessing in disguise. As far as the situation is concerned, I’ll go more into detail as events unfold in the coming month(s).

Travel plans for the fall are as follows:

• 9/30 - 10/2 (Tentative): Flying to Charleston, West Virginia to see an old college friend, Tara.
• 10/20 - 10/23 (Tentative): Flying to Chicago, Illinois with my roommate Keegan to visit friends and family.
• 10/29: Driving to Shepherdstown, West Virginia with Keegan for Shepherd University‘s Homecoming.
• 11/9-11/13 (Tentative): Drive/ride with Katie across the country. I will be helping her move to California.

Travel plans have been placed in tentative mode for the time being. I just unloaded my UAW-GM 500 NASCAR tickets last night to some friends. Since my parents and I aren’t on speaking terms right now, it seemed like the best solution for the current situation. Since canceling those plans, I’ve been scurrying trying to plan other things to do.

Outside of all that, I’ve just been enjoying life and this past weekend was no exception. Saturday I road my bike to Frederick, Maryland for my friend Meredith’s house warming party, which was a blast by the way and then Sunday afternoon, Kyle and I road the bike’s up to see Meredith and Mike for a little lounge time/post house warming chat. While we were out shopping, Kyle and I ran into my old co-worker Brian and his friend Will. It was good seeing Brian again. We talked a little about music (I was shopping for some new Trance – by the way Brian, awesome box set!), work and the usual. Life was good on both ends, which was good to hear.

That’s all I really have for now. I’ll have some other dumps over the next few days to write about. Ta ta for now!

I’ve been very busy with school, work and many other social activities over the past month. In fact, so much so, that I found I needed a little creative outlet to have some fun with in order to keep my sanity. Over the past few years, I have been actively honing my craft in illustration and love the art of t-shirt design. While this new design is simple, I find it kind of cool in its simplicity and truly is the beginning to some other designs I have yet to work on, but hope to get out in the near future. You will find two designs so far, but I’m planning at least one more and maybe two.

The button was found on Michal Migurski’s site via a link from Thomas Vander Wal’s blog posting on the same button. I liked this button so much that I wanted to see it on a shirt. Maybe it’s the geek in me, but I thought a t-shirt design was in order to display this button to the world. I shot an email over to Mike and proposed using his button for a t-shirt design. All he asked in return was his name on the shirt and reference to his site. I also broke out of the initial asking and made mugs to go along with the shirts. I figured most people who would buy the shirts would also like a coffee/tea mug on their desk.

The swag in question can be found at my storefront on CafePress. Along with the RSS swag, I have some sport bike swag for any rider enthusiasts out there. I will begin to add more over the next few weeks and as time permits before and after the aforementioned window.

We had our annual contract specific picnic last Friday and boy was it fun. There was so much food to eat and plenty of events to keep all of us busy. There was a Ballon Toss to get the picnic rolling (which eventually tunred into a free-for-all “Peg Senior Management” Event), then followed by Horseshoes, Golf, Volleyball and I believe Badminton as well.

The event to end all events was the pie eating contest. Jeff and Dan were the only two people brave enough to step up and take the challenge. I had initially thought about stepping up myself, but I had stuffed myself on all the other good eats at the picnic. I still managed to snag some decent pictures on my cell phone before the day was over.