Domestic Geek

Yesterday, my co-worker told me about a Graphic Design Seminar that they were having at my old school, Platt College, that he had to attend that evening. They had several graphic design professionals give presentations to the students about life as a designer and what to expect when they leave school. He said I should drop by, that I might enjoy it, so I did. I wasn't going to go at first. One, I don't go there anymore. Two, I was really tired. Three, I have an ass-ton of work I need to do to get this freelance thing off the ground. Traffic forced me to take the Dam Road over Cherry Creek home and since I was on Parker Road anyway, I went ahead and stopped in. I figured the worst thing that could happen is they could say I couldn't go, right? I am so glad I did! I really enjoyed listening to the guys from FL2. They're a high-end interactive agency (Web, Flash, etc.). After hearing them, I've got all sorts of motivation to get my web skills back and get a job someplace like that. It was also good to see many of my old instructors and a couple of old classmates. I really need to keep those contacts up. I've constantly kicked myself for letting a lot of my earlier relationships wither. They also had food (another plus since I haven't had much lately!). So, my desire to code for the web is back in full force. Now I just need to get my skills back!

Every day it is becoming clearer that this is not the work place I want to be at long-term. I'm already bored (after three months) with the type of design I'm doing. I also doubt very much that the owner is going to be willing to pay what I think my talents are worth. I've only recently come to realize that I know a lot of stuff. Between my technical, design, web and educational skill, I've got a lot to offer an employer. Three degrees. Common sense. Grammatical skills. Strong work ethic. Grasps new skills quickly. Self-learner. I'm glad I'm finally realizing that I'm a valuable asset with a strong skill base.

I know my place in this world has still yet to be found. I'm not going to waste another 15 years trying to find it.

Here's the latest Joy of Tech comic to make you giggle and brighten your day:

I saw this over at my friend's site, Wondering Why, as well as many other sites on the net:

Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.

September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). There are 111 days remaining. The terms "September 11", "11th September", and "9/11" have been widely used in the Western media as a shorthand for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon in the United States of America.

Three events:
1944 - World War II: the first allied troops of the US Army cross the western border of Nazi Germany. The RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.
1970 - The Ford Pinto is introduced.
2001 - The September 11 attacks destroy the World Trade Center in New York City, part of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and crash a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 are killed.

Two Birthdays:
1967 - Harry Connick, Jr., American singer
1981 - Dylan Klebold, American mass murderer (d. 1999)

One Death:
2003 - John Ritter, American actor (b. 1948)

Wow, that was hard to pick out just a few things. I can't believe that in addition to the 9/11 Terrorists attacks, I also share a birthday with Columbine gunman Dylan Klebold. Lucky me. I had to pick the Ford Pinto one since that was my very first car.

When I have some money, I want to buy myself this "I Design" shirt from iBusyBodies (a CafePress store).

Why can't I come up with a great gimmick like that? They're stick figures, dang it!

I always tell myself that the American public wouldn't waste money on that, yet here I am wanting one. The American public WILL waste their money on that, especially if it is some gift-giving time like Christmas.

OK, Brain, come up with something gimmicky like that!

So, in the utter depression that I felt after being done with school that I hadn't learned a whole lot more about web than I did going into it, coupled with the fact that there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a "Web Designer" anymore (you have to be a programmer, database developer, Flash expert, etc), I gave up on it. Anybody who has been here in the last year knows that all I've done is changed my banner for the season. While trying to get my freelance/portfolio site online, I've become woefully aware of how much of my former skill is gone. Unfortunately, coding is not like riding a bicycle...it doesn't just come back. I'm having to relearn everything. I can't even write simple CSS anymore without looking up everything. *sigh* Use it or lose it, baby.

So, I'm starting to collect links again. I guess I should start my design blog back up one of these days. For now, I'll just have to collect them here.

Layout Gala: 40 CSS site layout templates
Code Snippets: a repository for web code-will have to check that out when I have time to see if anything is useful