I’ve deciding to just start and see what becomes of the random key taps now filling the air. Right now I’m listening to Ben Folds - Rockin the Suburbs and thinking about what to do with myself now that I’m married.
I don’t live with a bunch of guys in a DoubleWide trailer and when I come home - it isn’t to a party or amazing amounts of testosterone style games to prove that death is further from our future than vegetables are from our frozen pizzas.
I don’t have random people stopping over to see what’s new or going to be happening later that night. I’m now a married man and I’m now supposed to envy those that have such freedom and childishly try to find my own outlets for craziness but under an older and more mature umbrella.
I’m supposed to think about more than just myself and realize that I have things to take care of and running around like a caveman’s first reaction to civilization isn’t so much allowed.
Life is confusing when you get married. Something changes and you’re not quite sure on the person you should be and the things you should keep or lay to rest. Of course, it’s enjoyable but in the back of your mind, you feel a little different. You never would have guess that one day filled with hundreds of guests, cake and the simple words “I do” changes your life and the way you think about it.
It’s an interesting transformation and I guess it feels similar to a doctor’s waiting room. You have things to do (i.e. read magazines and look at people) but you’re still waiting for that special moment when the door opens and you’re name is called.
In the words of Ben Fold - “Everybody knows - it’s hard to grow up. And everybody know it’s weird to be here, and the years go on and we’re still fighting and you try…, and try… and one day - you’ll find a way.”
posted on September 24, 2003| 10:11 PM EST
I meant to link to pictures of our recent trip to Acapulco, Mexico but I just plain forgot. So check them out and see what fun we had - honestly, it was a blast.
posted on September 19, 2003| 1:46 PM EST
I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like on my site and updates are becoming obviously, very far and few between.
These past couple months have been filled with quite a bit and any thought toward personal projects have just pushed off for some rainy day.
At work, I’m developing various business verticals that are supposed to make the Sentinel quite a bit of money. The first one is an auto solution - somewhat similiar to Yahoo.com’s Auto Solution (minus a couple things). We’ve teamed up with a company in Ohio called Celebro that offers some backend auto solution. Right now I’m sifting through all their documentation and code to produce something workable.
On top of that, we just got contracted to take over the Tulip Time website. We’re hoping to go live with that in a couple months. I’m not sure if I’ll be designing the site yet but I’m currently doing some intense research on ecommerce solutions for the site. I think we’re going to use the Miva platform and hope that it’s everything we need and more (crossing-fingers).
Business & Web Standards
Other than the things listed above, I’ve been heavly discussing the business cases for web standards with a primary focus on the online-journalism biz. Parts of the conversation have been
posted for others to see what’s going on (
Note: I’m quoted in the 4th paragraph & the 2nd to last paragraph) Most of the conversation has been taking place with a rather large group on
poynter.org.
With that - A recent article by Jeffrey Veen of Adaptive Path makes a case for converting to standards compliant, semantically expressive site production.
Although these are just a couple quick (out of the many) points for converting to standard development - it’s a good read.
“Does designing to Web standards give organizations a return on investment? Does the transition to XHTML and CSS make financial sense? The answer to those questions is yes.”
Other Personal Things
As you can see I have quite a bit going on. Outside of work, I’ve picked up some new client
freelance gigs and will be working hard this month to get those done as well.
However - things are going good and I’m making it through it all with a clear mind. It’s nice to be busy and to learn new things. The only sad part about it all is the time it takes me away from working on my personal website. It needs some work and I hope to some day give it a good cleaning.
posted on | 1:37 PM EST
After a solid week of sitting on Mexico’s beaches, culturing ourselves with various styles of eating and trying to speak to people that don’t know English - Jodi and I are finally back from Acapulco.
We stayed at the Sea Garden Hotel which was a nice 2 miles away from the airport.
More than 200 acres of tropical paradise surrounded by lakes, waterfalls and the most beautiful gardens. Conveniently located only 5 minutes away from Acapulcoís International Airport. The only one with over one half mile of sandy beach.
Over 20 acres of lakes and a private system of boats and canals as well as a railroad for access and enjoymentÖand much more.
The trip was amazing and we loved the experience of being in Mexico. A little later I’ll try to have some pictures (maybe some video) and more about what we all did. We’re glad to be back though.
posted on September 14, 2003| 12:05 PM EST
Below are a couple pictures that were taken by various friends and family. Hopefully soon I’ll have a bunch more up from the hired photographer that was there.
posted on September 3, 2003| 11:25 AM EST
