The results of a political placement test I took earlier tonight:

This sort of test is useful, especially for determining just how blindly you are following a particular political party/candidate in the states. I’m one to call foul on the process in general, but I suppose my leanings speak for themselves. I’m thinking doing this test every year or so would make for some interesting introspection, especially if one tracked exactly what responses one gave throughout the test.

If you choose to take the test as well, let me know how it comes out. And, more importantly, how the results reflect on where you placed yourself pre- taking it. I’m curious.

My cat had ran out when the door was open.

Lucky for me I was only figuring this out when Ashley came back from her classes, so it wasn’t as though she was going to freak out or anything (riiiiight).

For the next 5 hours or so, a lot of things seemed to happen all at once.

1. I didn’t get any work done for the rest of the day, pretty much. I spent most of the rest of the daylight hours (and a little bit of the night time) searching for Indie.
2. Ashley made the most of her time, mostly by sitting by the window, looking out, and being sad. Way to go.
3. Justin made up a few LOST CAT posters for me to slap up around the neighborhood. He even put a couple of them on white stakes for us to punch into the ground. I guess the front of my apartment just wasn’t white trash enough for Mr. Jones.
4. A couple of Indie’s belongings were placed out on the curb in order to help her find her way back. By the time night fell, it was her monkey (something she drags around all over the place) and a scarf of Ashley’s she likes to lay on, tied around the outside of the doorknob.
5. Finally, a call was placed to the local humane society, just to put a bug in their ear. Alas, the line was busy for over an hour, and we gave up on them. Time to adopt some newer technologies, maybe, humane society?

As the night came to a close, we were both finally able to get to sleep, with the mindset of getting up nice and early to go out looking for her again.

Around 3:30am the next morning (probably only a couple of hours before another search would have begun) a loud meowing sound came from the other side of the front door, and there stood Indie, hungry and tired.

Ashely gave her fresh food and water, and stayed up with her for a little while before collapsing again. Indie proceeded to sleep throughout the rest of the day (a little over 24 hours of napping, in total).

Oh, but there was one part of the day that she wasn’t able to sleep through. Her bath. See, something about being at ground level in an apartment complex gives a small animal the distinct smell of gasoline.

So Indie’s gift for for coming back to us after about 12 hours of being away? A nice bath, complete with humiliating pictures of her as a wet cat.

Turns out wet cat is also pretty hard to photograph well.

Turns out Ashley did a way better job getting a shot than me.

After a few hours of licking herself, she was ready to calm down. So we threw a towel in the dryer and wrapped her up in it. She liked that, and didn’t move for another few hours.

Yeah, I think she was pretty glad to be back.

Thanks to Justin, Dad, Hannah, and everyone else for the moral support!

More than probably anything, I have some big hopes for my career development. Among other things I’m sure I’ll come up with, here are a few things I’d like to achieve:

• While I’d consider myself extremely well versed with front end development (HTML/CSS/JS) and various content management systems, I’d like to develop my Rails skills, and put together my first public application that actually does something useful. 
• I’d like to begin to narrow down my options and figure out where I’d like to move in 2010 to pursue a better web development culture. (It shouldn’t really be a secret that the web dev culture in Fort Wayne is somewhat…limited.)
• I’d like to complete 100 billable projects on my own this year. I figure this comes to about two each week, which shouldn’t be too difficult.
• In 2007 I attended An Event Apart Chicago. It was a blast, and I was fortunate enough to be able to spend time with Matt Mullenweg while I was there. I’d like to head back over there this year, as well as take other business related trips.
• I want to finally put the final touches on an idea I’ve had for a subscription site…

But I don’t want this year to be all about work, either. If there’s one thing I learned last year (and I learned a good deal) it’s that I shouldn’t plan to work during all of my available time. It’s not as rewarding as you would think.

So, on a more personal front I’d love to be able to do these things:

• Regularly read fictional books, like the works of Ian Fleming, one of my all time favorite storytellers.
• Recording more personal videos is definitely on this list, but along with it I would like to complete one fictional video of some sort. I used to do a lot of video and video editing work, but I haven’t for a while because I sort of burnt myself out. Now, I would love to be able to work with some friends in the area on a fun personal project. Eyes open.
• The idea of a podcast has been swimming around in my head for a while, though I’m not sure of what form. I like the idea of putting one together to join with ThemePlayground, my blog about WordPress, but would also be satisfied with something devoted to my other interests like Lost.
• I want to record and display more of my life, through pictures, videos, and writing online.

I’m going to stop this before it becomes too formal. These things were all close enough to the top of my brain, that I think they are both true to my feelings and the most attainable I could come up with. Here’s to the new year!

I say that this apartment is one of the biggest changesthis year because, truth be told, I made a lot of big changes. In retrospect I would say that the apartment was probably the least of the big changes.

A slide design that I put together for the church I used to work for. (Link goes to my Flickr set of church marketing.)

I think it was back in 2005 that I pursued a position in marketing and design at a church in the Fort Wayne area. It was a really great position for me, and a really great team. I was able to redesign the website (a couple of times, heh) and re–create their entire marketing system. During this time, though, I spent a good deal of time developing websites here and there, and found myself leaning more and more in that direction, solely. It was toward the end of 2007 that I decided a move from church work and design to web development was the move that I needed to make. So, with 2008 on the way I looked at my options.

I was lucky enough to, right away in January, take a remote position with a company called Element Fusion. Working for their central office in Oklahoma City from the comfort of my desk at home was really great, and proved to me that I’m really not cut out for traditional office work at all. And in my time with them I was able to hone my skills, and really learn a lot about front end development.

This is a look at the design my portfolio maintained during 2008.

About midway through the year I struck out on my own as a full time freelance web developer, which is where I stand now. After not taking any clients for a while, it took a few weeks to get a solid list together, but before long I was going well enough to support myself. Some time I really need to put together a post detailing the things that I did those first few weeks back at full time freelancing…

In any case, there was one problem I ran into in the fall of ’08, and that was college. As of the fall I was beginning my junior year at Huntington University, a place I’ve written about in the past. While this topic deserves more time and explanation, the long and short of my decision was to forgo finishing my double degree at Huntington and instead spend all of my time on client work and developing myself for what my future career in web development will look like.

This brings us a little closer to today. I’m really happy with how the year has gone, and I’ve been satisfied with the difficult decisions that I’ve made. Launching out full time on my own was a big step, as was turning my back on school (for the time being). 

It's a goofy picture, but that's what makes it fun. Notice my short hair and old glasses!

I also couldn’t be happier with another big part of my life, Ashley, my girlfriend of just over 2 years now. Though I’m definitely happy to be away from Huntington (for a myriad of reasons) I’m grateful that my time there introduced me to her. She’s also pretty happy recently (though I can’t imagine her blogging about it) that she’s also left Huntington, opting instead to finish her degree at IPFW, another university local to Fort Wayne. 

Obligatory web involvement summary

What a boring headline, aye? Seeing as I’m pretty involved in the web, on it about every day, a lot of my life during ’08 was spent here. So what did I do? Well…

• I’’d like to say I spent a lot of time blogging about things I love, but I didn’t really. I was pretty busy. But I do hope to be able to spend more time on my blogs like ThemePlayground, PlatformPub, and Frontending this year. Oh, and just before the end of December I started up a new site (or two) which I hope to be able to talk about real soon.
• I went through a couple of months where I was on a really big YouTube kick. You can see a bit of it in the 20 odd videos I uploaded in a matter of weeks, most of which are personal video entries. Connecting with people that way was really exciting, and I want to incorporate it more into some of the things that I do. I just wish that YouTube’s interface wasn’t so gawdawful, and could adopt some of what makes Vimeo so tasty.
• I read a lot on Wikipedia and IMDB anymore, mostly because I think I may have acute insomnia, and also because I think it’s so damn interesting. I’ve also begun using Netflix and Gamefly for my regular movie and video game consumption. My thoughts regarding those probably deserve their own post as well.
• I’ve become a regular user of Evernote, which, along with my tiny desk scanner and iPhone for snapping photos of stuff, has moved pretty much all of my note taking (aside from moleskine jotting) into the cloud, as they call it.

Also…

Writing this post has (inevitably, I think) made me want to write a more forward looking post, casting a bit of a vision of what I want 2009 to look like, for me. I’ll post that later this week. In the meantime, thanks for caring about my life.

It’s a bit overwhelming to actually reflect on the last year of my life, since so many large things have changed. I have moved into my own apartment, a great little one room I posted pictures of last week, I’ve found (and left) a great job that I never thought I would have a chance at, and I’m looking at my future in a way that I never really have before. It’s actually hard to compare my 20th year with my 21st year.

After an internship at a think-tank last summer (where I discovered I am not one for regular office work) I went back to working design and communication work at a nearby church, while doing freelancing work on the side. By the end of the year I had landed an opportunity to work with a very cool company called Element Fusion, where I enjoyed working for the first part of this year. Now I’m back to freelancing, although now full time, and I’m very happy about that.

When I say freelancing, I mean that I make websites for awesome people. I try to write when I can, but oftentimes it’s just design and code.

Ah, the girl. I’m lucky enough to be celebrating two years with my girlfriend Ashley in just a few days. The picture above is one of my favorites from the set of photos our friend Trent took for us to celebrate our one year together. Since then I’ve visited her family a couple of more times, she has met more of mine, she has joined the flock on Twitter (for better or worse), and she actually hasn’t gotten tired of me yet. Go figure.

Ashley was wonderful enough to create what you see here (above) for my birthday this week. It was an apple cheesecake, and it was spectacular.

The other lady in my life, my cat Indie, is now about one and a half years old, and as cute as ever. She’s made herself at home in my apartment, especially enjoying her time on the top of the refrigerator, in the dryer, or now, lately, hiding in the entertainment center behind the cable box. She claims that it’s warm, but I just think she likes unplugging cables when Ashley’s trying to play Wii or watch TV.

Shot this with my iPhone at an awesome coffee house in Peoria, Illinois.

I feel like I’ve learned a lot, working full time for myself so far this year. There is still a lot that, while I think I do know it, I need to remind myself of more often. I’m doing much better at managing my time (read: managing distractions) and getting things done (read: one small thing at a time), although there is still a lot that I would really like to do. There is a site or two that I would like to try my hand at, and I love the idea of being a part of some sort of digital publication. Perhaps these things must wait.

When it comes to the distant horizon I find myself, this year, seeing things a bit different than last year. Last year I was happy to be a part of a church, at least in some way, and was fond of the idea of pursuing something church-like in the future. Right now it’s not really something I think about, nor something I find myself very passionate about. Last year I was realizing more and more that the web was going to be a large part of my life and how I would make a living. This year I realize it may hold all of the living that I want to make. And in the most general of terms (since this is, of course, a public blog that anyone could stumble upon and read) I find myself no longer afraid to question things that I once was afraid to, and more than ever willing to push myself beyond the comfort limits I used to have.

The picture above is me, taken a few hours ago by Ashley after checking out a local band (the Homeless J) playing at a local benefit. Notice the new specs I mentioned a few weeks ago, finally in, and a stylishly awkward in-between hair length that only the distant promise of beautiful long curly locks can deliver.

There are lots of things that come to mind when I reflect on the past year. I love my new desk, and I’m pretty psyched about the color orange surrounding me all the time. I also made the switch to the Mac this year, and picked up a new iPhone this summer to boot. I find my note taking habits and storage of information transformed by Evernote, and the way I process and get things done greatly helped with tools like Omnifocus. And if I’m sitting here in a year, or someplace half as cool, I’ll be pretty happy knowing that I must have gotten something right.

Happy birthday, me.

Update: for those interested, the burnt orange color in my office is a Sherwin Williams color: SW 6347 Chrysanthemum.

First of all, I have to thank my girlfriend and her parents (+ grandma) for helping me paint my apartment. I really hate painting, and they made the experience so much more enjoyable for me, since I only had to finish up the last few walls. Thanks, guys.

I grew up with nearly all of the walls in my home being white. So I can’t stand white walls. Every quiet wall in the apartment (anything I wasn’t excited about coloring) became a nice neutral tan color. The dining-room-turned-office (since I don’t dine) has a brilliant burnt orange color that really sets my desk off from the rest of the room. My bathroom is a bold green, and my bedroom is a soothing (and slightly feminine) baby blue.

The Painting Experience

Since everything is an experience anymore (note an implied gag reflex) I have to say that painting is one of those things that always turns out to be more anticlimactic than I would expect. I’ve only ever managed the painting of (notice again, I don’t like to paint) one other room of mine, and that was the office I established at my dad’s house a year or so ago. I believe, and Ashley can attest to this, that it took me about 15 seconds in Lowe’s to determine what paint scheme would be donning the walls. I did take a bit longer to decide what to do in my apartment, although I tend to take an only-so-serious approach to it all. I’d like to chalk it up to me being decisive, but I think it just has to do with my being exhausted by running too many different scenarios through my head.

I don’t think it’s visible in any of the pictures, but right above the bathroom door, to the left of my office, is a section of wall where the paint didn’t quite sink in. I’ve told myself “that shouldn’t be hard to touch up, just a matter of getting out the step ladder and a paint brush.” If I had to guess now, it will never happen and will just become one of the character points of my place.

Hanging Books

One of the more exciting parts of this whole painting project was the chance to finally hang up some of the invisible shelves I’ve been sitting on for some time. You can see them in the pictures of my office wall. The books sit sideways on a small metal hook and make it appear that the books are floating on the wall. I love this simple effect as it makes decoration out of something I already love (my paperbacks) and frees up some more room on my bookshelf in my room.

The shelves I’m talking about are on Amazon, and I would suggest considering them if you’re looking for a nice accent piece for an office. It is a bit of a chore finding a book wide enough to serve as the bottom book, and hardbacks are probably best there, but anything is technically workable.

Some Tips for Minor Home Renovation

I save these here for myself as well as anyone else silly enough to read my blog. A couple of these are purely my own taste, and might not work for everyone.

• Save all paint colors. I wish I would have done a better job of documenting all of the paint samples I spent time with from the beginning, but saving the ones I ended up using is the next best option. I use Evernote (a topic worth getting into some other time) so it was quick to snap a photo with my iSight and drag them into Evernote where they were named and saved away for whenever I may need them again. A simple search for “apartment + paint” will bring up the swatches and color code, should I ever need to revisit them again.
• Get it done all at once. I discovered that leaving things in disarray led me to panic pretty quickly. Focusing on finishing all of the paint, all at once, was really the only way for me to return to sanity. I don’t like to see things drag on, so once the paint cans came out they didn’t go away until everything was done. And we were able to finish 4 rooms and five colors in 48 hours. Not too bad.
• Piecemeal furnishings. I’m convinced now more than ever that the way I purchased the stuff for my apartment was the right way. I nabbed all of the essentials the first week: couch, desk, bed, bookshelf (my essentials, not yours). After that I picked up more as needed. Just this week I found the right lamp for my desk, which also happens to accent the orange of my office well. I may not have made the right choice if I had jumped the gun 6 weeks ago. I’m still looking for the right coffee table (far from an essential, for me), end table, and a floor lamp or two to fill out the rest of the space. Moving one piece at a time has made the whole process much more organic and fulfilling.
• When painting, stash the cat. We learned the hard way last year that keeping a cat around while painting can lead to, well, white paw prints on the carpet. This time the kitty was shuttled away to a resort that we affectionately call Grandpa’s house.

Speak of the devil, here she is nesting beautifully on my desk.

It feels good to get an update out here, since I’m sure anyone visiting was tired of looking at my terrible Hulk movie review headline. I hope to return to video blogging soon, as well as another medium or two before the year is out. More on that soon. Right now I’m trying to manage my life on all fronts and slowly take steps toward adding a bit more.

Thanks for reading.

Work Life

As far as my work life is concerned, in the past year I think I’ve taken some big steps toward defining what it is I want to do with my life. I discovered, via my internship over the summer, that I don’t like working in an office at all. So I’ll never be doing that again.

I think an even bigger happening this year, for me, has happened recently. I decided (finally) to start saying no to things which are good but not the best. This is a tough decision for me, and I can foresee more difficult decisions regarding this thought process in the near future, but I’m proud of my development so far.

Personal Life

I’ve seen some interesting changes in my personal life in the past year. But since I’m not big into sharing personal things like this, I’ll go ahead and defer this part of my reflection.

School

I’m still going with the same major as last year. Same majors I’ve wanted to study for years. If anything, I’m feeling more and more pulls toward other things nowadays, what with Indie taking off the way it is. But I’m sticking to school, and I’m proud of the work I’m doing.

End reflection

And, for the record, this is one of the first posts that I’ve written in some time that didn’t start with bullet points and a phrase. I just sort of wrote it. Maybe you can tell. Hopefully I’m not that bad.

Job #1: Owner/Creative Director at Aspiring Indie

My startup is doing very well. Check out the company blog to see more in detail. We’ve picked up a few more employees recently, and there is quite a bit of biz buzzing through right now. The best part is the number of churches that we are beginning to network with. That excites me quite a bit.

Job #2: Director of Marketing and Communications at Aboite Lutheran Church

Due to the loss of a couple friends at Aboite (one going to graduate school and one to a new church), my work there will expand a bit. But I’m excited about it. Right now I’m working on a new site design and promotions for a big weekend in August. Feedback always welcome.

Job #3: Intern at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center

Getting a bit much, isn’t it? This one’s forty hours each week, and I’m not actually able to talk about much of what I do there. Go figure. But I can tell you that the Innovation Center works with startups and entrepreneurs to get them on their feet, operating on their own, and winning money at business plan competitions. Their site isn’t that bad, nor is my newly updated bio on their intern page.

Blogging Gig #1: For Myself

I want to start blogging, strictly for myself, on a more regular basis. I haven’t done this enough yet this summer, but I figure my newly updated theme here should help. It couldn’t hurt.

Oh, you are at my personal blog right now. Just so you know.

Blogging Gig #2: Aspiring Indie Company Blog

Of course, any web-based or creative business has to have a company blog! Now, what do you put on the blog? Well, I can think of a thing or two…

Blogging Gig #3: Theme Playground

Yet another recent project (recent means in the past two or three months) I’ve started has been a website called ThemePlayground.com.

“Themes” refer to a particular element of a larger content management system called WordPress. WordPress is an amazing open-source (read: free) management system that has smoothed many rough edges of the web in the past few years. I have grown very fond of it. I use it for this blog, for the Aspiring Indie site, for many client projects…the list goes on.

Theme Playground is all about WordPress: hacking WordPress, WordPress tutorials, reviews (themes and plugins) and general updates from around the web regarding WordPress. It’s going pretty well so far.

Blogging Gig #4: Daily Blog Tips

I recently started contributing some posts over at Daily Blog Tips, in particular some posts about WordPress and how to best utilize it for individual blogs. It’s fun, and I like seeing how a large(er) group of people respond to my writing.

Technically writing to a group of thousands (like DBT serves) is akin to being published in a larger printed publication of some sort. I’m still trying to decide how to react to that one.

Extra Project: Cool Church Websites

A more recent acquisition on my part has become a website started by my friend Cory Miller and run somewhat jointly by the two of us right now. Basically this site showcases great church websites in a daily-blog-update fashion. It’s seen some great interest, and I would always be interested in hearing about more great website designs. Feel free to check it out and suggest any additions.

That may be everything right now. As you can imagine, there’s a lot to keep me busy. But certainly not least of these is my beautiful girlfriend Ashely Ashley Rae Hittinger. While I’m definitely a blogger I’m not much into releasing lots of personal info on the web this way. But know that I love her, and she blogs over there. Oh, and I designed that blog too. Yay me.

I’ve had issues with name-based personal domains in the past, but I figured I’d swallow it already and go with what seemed the easiest choice. And here we are. The old blog location will still be used, but as the official Aspiring Indie Company Blog. Exciting, right? Maybe just for me.