In the spirit of writing with absolutely no idea what to write about, I would like you to write. It says here that I have 211 people that are subscribed to my blog. That tells me that I have a whole handful of people out there that don’t say a dang thing on this blog. This deeply saddens me :(
In person, I’d go out to coffee with you. I’d charm your socks off and talk about everything from putting linux on your iPod nano, highdiving from rocks into lakes, designing for the web, my love for No Doubt, Beck, Jeremy Camp, to my famous Han Solo impression. However, I don’t have you face to face. I don’t get that luxury. I have no way of asking you out to coffee except for asking you right here.
So, do it. Talk to me. Let me know about yourself and what you do. Let me know how you got here. Drop your site for some extra link love. Let me know your favorite sites. Talk to me. De-lurk.
You’ve got me. I thought I could hide out in my Bloglines interface, sneaking a peak at what you’re saying from afar but you’ve found me. Damn you Mister King! ;)
I can’t remember how I got here to be honest. You’ve just sat in my feed agregator for several months as I must have liked your website design and content. That tends to be the basic approach to qualify for RSS stardom in my books.
A little about myself – I’m a senior web developer at a gov’t organisation in the UK, slowly developing my skills on personal projects as the bosses are not at liberty to spend their time and money pushing forward with Web Standards. If non-profit gov’t organisations can’t, who can? I also spend my time listening to and DJing funky house music, as well as supporting my beloved football teams Derby County and England.
I’ve recently launched a rather successful website for the World Cup. It offers fixtures in all sorts of formats including Microformats, RSS and Calendar files. Go visit World Cup KickOff if you’re interested (currently down due to bandwidth issues).
Other than that, I’m married to my gorgeous wife Lizzy and our firstborn is due in November. Life’s just great!
Awesome. The UK eh. You thinking about moving to the US at all? What is your opinion of the US?
On the subject of music, drop me some names. I’d love to see what you love and buy some albums. I’m desperately in need of some new music. I’m in love with the whole techno/house/electronica scene, but I really do love tons of music, save country(but its growing on me…dang montana).
My wife’s name is Toni and we are expecting the end of July! Do you know what yours is? Ours is a boy…or at least thats what the ultrasound says. Do you have any names? Alright, enough questions for now.
I subscribe to your feed because you’re one of the (very few) talented web designers located in Helena (and apparently, most of Montana) and the only one that I’ve seen get any national recognition. That and we have a mutual acquaintance in Nick Thomas, who used to sit in the cubicle next to me here at NG. But mostly just because you do some pretty amazing work.
By day I’m a web developer in Helena working for Northrop Grumman. By night I work on web design on the side (no worries, NG knows and The Powers That Be agreed it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest based on the size and type of the projects I do). I’ve got a couple decent-sized project in the works and a couple small one-pagers going for friends.
I created the original Discovering Montana version of the state web site back in ‘99. Much to my chagrine we weren’t brought back in to do the standards-compliant version a few years ago that was recognized by Zeldman. By then I think everything at the state was being done in-house. Luckily they have people like Renan doing excellent work.
When I’m not working I’m out riding my motorcycle, weather permitting.
@John B: Hmmm. Renan. Sounds familiar. Do you know Jeff Wald? I currently work with him at Carroll College. I think he has mentioned the name Renan.
How is NG? Is it a good place to work? Can I ask that question online? I guess we’ll find out. What other web design projects have you done?
By the way, nice motorbike.
bwahaha, I too use Bloglines to get any juicy updates from Komodomedia.
I work for Montana Interactive, a private company that builds web apps for mt.gov. I’ve designed tons of apps and the mt.gov logo. Wee. Jeff Wald used to work right below us, I talked to him a few times. I suck at networking, so I just lurk.
I’m also building a website for my uncle’s plumbing business in Great Falls.
Exciting, I know.
Most of my time is spent administering the web & mail machines for RMS, my lil’ company that hosts websites & such for those in the Helena area. Someday I’ll even build a website to go around the damn logo.
Hey, this is me delurking.
I get your feed in thunderbird.
Any time your passing through Leicester, UK, drop me a line.
@Ridlo: Dude, the website would be a good idea. I seriously think you need one. The logo, as fab as it is in all of its grandeur needs more I feel. Maybe its just me, but I just think it needs something.
I just talked to Jeff about that logo. Turns out you two built it together. And if I know anything about the state, about 50 other people each contributed a pixel to it :) Too many cooks in the kitchen.
Anyhow, I guess we also have mutual friend in the folks over at DFI as well. Naw mean?
Yeah, I forgot they moved that logo around. I guess I should have said I had a *part* in it. Just wanted my 15 seconds of fame, I got 3.5 ;) But at least I got to use the ol’ Wacom table for something.
Say hi to Jeff for me, I hope he’s enjoying his digs at Carroll College.
Sorry to comment-whore, but yeah, DFI is a good group of people. The flash menu thing on the bottom of the inside pages (I’m assuming that’s your work) is totally swiss.
Rogie,
I’ve met Jeff Wald but I didn’t know he’d left the state. He and Renan were in the same office as far as I know. I got the impression Jeff was more of a backend/server-side guy and Renan was more of a frontend/client-side guy. Once I no longer had any state web design clients left (I think the last one was RMTD) I stopped going to the monthly state web developers meetings so I’m seriously out of touch nowadays. So you’re no longer at the state either?
NG is a decent enough place to work. I’m the only designer, masquerading as a developer, out of 100 or so employees. There’s a lot of what I’ll call “corporate overhead” but I don’t have to worry about my check bouncing (I think the Feds are still paying payments on the USS Ronald Reagan :). I’d still rather design web sites fulltime then application interfaces, but then I couldn’t legitimately do stuff on the side. My day job allows me to be choosy about the work I do after hours.
Right now, on the side, I’m working on a web site for the Women’s Leadership Network, a site for tours to New Zealand focused on weavers, a site/one-pager for a realtor friend of mine. I’ve got a few other things in the pipeline but these are currently occupying most of my time.
One of these days I’m going to have to work on my portfolio, and redesign my site so it’s more than a glorified Blogger template. ;)
I lurk, I lurk – from the shadows, longing to be free of this ghost ship. Or, via RSS and all that good stuff. Yep yep.
I’m just lurking here waiting for more CSS tutorials :-)
Sure Micael, whaddya want for a CSS tutorial?
I think you should make a CSS tutorial on how to make Arkanoid using only CSS, JS, and AJAX :)
Webmaster for a large University here in the UK. I say webmaster, but since we got a marketing department who know absolutely everything there is to know about design, coding standards and accessibility ;) I have no real web involvement anymore :( I do however spend an excessive amount of time supporting and fixing the omniscient marketing team’s little problems.
We are currently undergoing a major re-branding exercise for the web site, but being a web designer, I not involved with that (all out-sourced).
Hey Ho, winge over.
Keep up the good work and love the new look to the blog.
Arr, I be here capp’n
I think I found your site somehow when i was googleing around looking for design ideas. Found a link to your site saying it was juicy goodness, and sure nuff it twas very nice indeed. Glad to see somebody doing things right for a change…
Keep up the good work man!
I hail from middle America (Joplin Mo), working for a local ISP getting a small dev team up and going. Design twas my first love, but allas I found that to show your creativeness you have to know more than pixels and vectors…
I like pizza steve.
Great blog! It is very interesting and lively!
I found your website by googling for “rice diet”. (Totally unrelated to web design.) I am an American living in North Wales, UK. Mother of 3 boys ages 3, 2, and 3 months. I want to commend you on being so bold in proclaiming your love for God. That is not often seen. I am a Christian too and often find myself praying for boldness. Your website has been an encouragement to me. Thank you.
Congradulations on your new baby!
Aye yo! I’m de-lurking (you should copyright that, btw).
I’m Ryan, big fan. My site is ryanarrowsmith.com. It’s a hobby for me — not a professional at all. I’ve been a fan of the site for awhile now. The balance of functionality and design I find inspiring.
On the music front — if you haven’t heard of these folks, they are worth a listen: Ray Lamontagne, Marc Broussard, Frou Frou, Imogen Heap, Ricky Fante, Kendall Payne and the new Dixie Chicks CD is excellent.
Hope all is well with the tot-n-the-oven. Any day now?
@Ryan: Ya, August 3rd for the tot. I’m real giddy right now, really. Thanks for the music recommendations. I have heard Let Go by Frou Frou, which is awesome, but I’m checkin the rest out on iTunes right now.
Thanks for the kind comments Ryan. Sometimes, this site is a pain to continually contribute effort towards. Glad to see someone reads it ;)
Let go is probably one of my least fav Frou Frou tracks. Hope you are as impressed by the rest of the album as I was.
Congrats on the kid. That’a huge. Don’t screw it up too bad, k? ;)
Interesting…
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