Author: Jordan

Classes started yesterday, and it’s about time. It’s been way too long since I was really in school, so I’m excited to finally be going back (and full-time at that!) Yesterday I had my graphic design class, and already started an abstract project using only typography. The teacher seems okay, but he talks too fucking much. He kept talking to one of the girls that was sitting in my row, and it just annoyed the shit out of me. I suppose it had a lot to do with the fact that she was using some guy to design her website and wasn’t going to pay him for it. She was like “Well, I’m going out to dinner with him, but I really don’t want to…” I almost chimed in and told her to get over herself, and if she’s going to screw him over, she’ll get hers back eventually. But I held my tongue, though that didn’t stop me from muttering “shut the fuck up” and having the kid next to me agree 😛

Today was my Microsoft Office class. It’ll be easy as pie. Nothing too interesting there, but there were a couple of cute guys in the class. Not like I talked to them though, since I wasn’t anywhere near them. Tomorrow I’ve got GD again, so hopefully it’ll be somewhat interesting. Then my favorite (hopefully) class is on Thursday. It’s my internet technologies class which will primarily be about hosting, servers, and all that other good stuff. I’m really hoping that I’ll be one of few (or the only) female in that class, just so I can boost my ego even further.

The only class I don’t have to go on campus for is my WWW Authoring class, which is strictly online. I’m slightly disappointed, since I’d love to be in a class for this (as if I really need to be taught this) but unfortunately it wasn’t available. I don’t think this class starts until October, though I’m really impatient. I’m going to email the department head and ask her if it’s possible to get started early on this class rather than wait another two months. I mean, why not, it’s based online anyway. 😀

Aside from class, I’ve been working on stuff for the new client I have with work. Their graphic designer just sent me his PSD today, but there were uhm, a few things I did NOT like, so I sent him a really long email on it (and to the client) so hopefully some things will be considered/looked into. I got in some hours today; Ended up working 9-1:30pm, and played around with subversion and Ruby On Rails during most of that, and then got a skeleton set up for the site.

Tomorrow is going to be busy. Work in the morning, then off to buy 4 new tires for my car, and get an oil change. Then off to school early to buy $330 worth of books, and then GD class from 7-10pm. Debating whether or not to go to sleep now, or when I can’t keep my eyes open.

This past week has been a complete struggle for me. No, scratch that, this entire month has. I’ve become such a hermit crab it’s disgusting. But I’ve decided that this is just hurting me too much, and that nothing is going to change. Why should I wait around for someone that doesn’t give a shit about me anymore, or rather that’s the impression that he gives me. I know it sucks, it really does, but this is my life, and I want to be happy.

So this weekend was pretty painful, more emotional than anything else, but just realizing the decision I was going to make. Tomorrow my classes start, and from Monday thru Thursday I’ll be trying to focus a lot of my attention on that.

I just hope that I can really stick to my guns and try to stay strong. I really just want to find someone to hang out with, make me happy again. I don’t care if it’s just a friend, that’s all I want right now.

Much intense attention to finishing and getting up the new design for Holdfire Network has surely paid off. I spent almost all of today fixing up last minute items with the website, testing it out to make sure it works, and then of course uploading it and setting it up for actual production. I had a few issues with .htaccess (namely 301 Redirects) and ended up changing the scheme so I’ll end up losing some PR for the pages, but quite frankly, PR isn’t going to do much with the site when it’s not like I’m doing this for SEO or advertisements based off of PR.

Anyway, feel free to check out the design and let me know what you think. Right now there ARE a few issues I have to resolve (when you’re viewing the dropdown menu, the bottom border does not go across 100%; dropdown menu doesn’t work in IE6, and the dropdown is off by some pixels in IE7) but if you do spot any errors whether it’s XHTML that I borked, spelling, grammar, broken links, or just something I should change… TELL ME!

I also finally added the affiliates program to the site as well. Each sale earns an affiliate 25% commission, and payment is through PayPal when their balance hits $25. I’m seriously excited for the new additions and the design. I truly hope that this will help to encourage new clients, because honestly, this is something I love doing and I really want this to get bigger.

Holdfire Billing is the only thing slightly out of whack at the moment. WHMCS is based entirely off of tables, so I’ve been trying to do some quick XHTML/CSS integration with it, and there are some things that are screwed up. Which explains why I’m still up at 3:30AM. I just want to get a few more things done, and then I am just going to pass out and sleep late.

Today I started a new project with a pretty big client. I’m going to be redesigning their entire site, and just adding my own ideas and flare into it. I had to meet up with the client at the North side of Chicago, but it wasn’t too bad. It’s actually a couple blocks north of where Mark works, so I was familiar with the route to take up there. Rush hour traffic was decent, though I hit a few snags where the highway was merging with other traffic. All in all the drive was close to an hour long.

The meeting with the client was well. We went over what the website is for, and also just discussed my ideas for the website. I’ve got a pretty decent idea of how I want it to look so I’m going to be putting together a skeleton for it right now. It’s going to be based off of Ruby on Rails. I kind of wish I kept up with RoR when I started playing around with it a few months ago. But it should be pretty easy, because I’ve been using CakePHP with the firm I work for, so I shouldn’t have too many problems.

Aside from the project, I haven’t been doing too much work other than my redesign for Holdfire–which happens to be going quite well. I really want to try to get it done before the client wants their site started which could either be tomorrow or Monday. I’d like to get started ASAP, but if they’ll need to wait until Monday, I’m not going to mind too much.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to. I did get to see Mark over the weekend, and that was definitely uplifting for me. It’s just a little sad because he ended up moving on Saturday night and instead of being 30 minutes away, he’s now an hour away. I guess it’s something I’ll eventually get used to. It’ll just suck because I won’t get to see him as much as before, since my fall semester classes start next week. They’re all night classes on Monday-Thursday. As far as things go between he and I, things look good, but it’s honestly hard to tell. I’m not going to press him anymore until he’s ready to say it to me on his own, but obviously I’d like for things to be the same as they were before he broke up with me. Regardless, hanging out with Sunday was just really nice. We watched movies, and laid around all day. I definitely hope for more days like that.

Earlier last month I ended up landing a job with a consulting firm in a city next to mine, and have been working for them as a contracted web designer. Needless to say, I’ve been in love with this job. For the first time in my life, I’m actually doing something that I love and actually want to do.

I’m not standing around helping customers with what computer best suits their needs, or selling them Geek Squad services. I’m not wasting my knowledge by ringing up mindless customers with their large Mocha with skim, lite whip, extra chocolate shavings. I am designing websites for businesses. And it feels fantastic.

Right now I’m just putting some last minute touches on my first solo design project for them. Just cleaning up some minor issues, and changing a few things to include some new additions that I got this morning. And you know where I’m doing this? All from home. I haven’t worked from home most of the days–there were some days that I went into the office and worked there. It’s nice because I’ll bring my laptop to the office, and it’s been nice and quiet, cool and dark in there. Perfect for getting a lot of work done.

I’m going up there later on to get my first paycheck, and it’ll be a nice one since I also got a bonus for being the sole designer for the site. Pretty fantastic, that’s for damned sure. Needless to say, I’ve been hit with more creativity because of this, so much that I’ve been working on new designs for Holdfire Network, MyWHMCS, and a quick one I put up for Project Cloverfield.com.

Enough chattering away, time to get finished on this site!