A return from a long absence
After two months of neglect, it’s time for an update.
BePrivy has been hoppin’, and I’ve been learning how to better time-manage multiple projects, how much work I can take on at any time, etc. It’s definitely a challenge, but that’s what makes it so much fun. The company continues to land web projects regardless of the fact it started life as an email marketing firm, but I’m not complaining. In a couple of weeks I’ll start work on a complete overhaul of the site and reintroduce web design/development as a service offering alongside email marketing, just to make it official. I can’t get seem to move away from it (although the email marketing side is growing just as fast), and besides, why would I want to leave now that we’re so close to IE7?
This site is due for a major overhaul as well. Everything about it grates on my nerves, from the fact that I never quite got around to fixing all the IE bugs (and the incredibly lame hacks I used to get halfway there), the giant headlines that make writing a post seem like an insurmountable hurdle, and the overwhelming amount of nearly illegible green links in that tagcloud.
I recently launched a ecommerce side project called The King, where I sell the best keyboard tray, ever. (Come on, I like the tagline.) The design has gotten some positive attention and brought a few new potential clients my way, which I’m always happy about. I utilized Shopify, which is a new ecommerce backend platform that aims to make it as easy as ever for anybody to put up a site and start selling. While it wasn’t quite as simple as their copy suggests (especially if you want a custom look), it shows a ton of promise. Tobi and the community over in their forums have been great and I look forward to using Shopify on future projects. If your wrists are in need of some relief (or you just want to get that keyboard & mouse off your desk), I promise you’ll be satisfied with The King.
Next week I’ll be attending WebVisions here in Portland, and I’m quite excited. The last conference I went to was SXSWi 2005 and I had a blast, although I was a bit too shy to get the most out of it. This time around I plan on being much more forward with introducing myself and trying to make some new friends in the web community. I’ll also be at 1 Eye Festival, which is an incredible showcase of motion graphics artists at the Hollywood Theater next Thursday night.
Our tiny (but growing!) community group, Portland Web Innovators, is having a pre-WebVisions meeting next Wednesday night. We’re still trying to figure out the venue We’re meeting at The Rose & Raindrop, please RSVP on Upcoming so we can estimate attendance. If you’re in the Portland area, drop by and have a drink. I’ve been working (really slowly, sorry pdxwi’ers!) on the design for our new website — we had hoped to have it up by WebVisions (and who knows, maybe we will) but I pretty much dropped the ball on getting everything done in time. Gotta pay the bills first…
On a sad note, Brittany decided to put LoftLust on an indefinite hiatus. Her career has been growing by leaps and bounds and as a result, she just doesn’t have the time to put into it that it requires. We’ve tossed around ideas on how to transform it into something that works with her current life’s situation but haven’t come up with a winner yet. If you’ve got any ideas, let her know in the comments.
Finally, on a really personal note, I finally got my act together and started exercising on a regular basis and eating better. I’ve fought the lifestyle change tooth and nail, all while watching my midsection swell like a balloon. Now, much to my surprise, I’m really enjoying it. At one point in my younger years I was actually athletic (like, with endurance and everything!) and I’m looking forward to returning to some version of that once again, even if it’s only a shadow of my former self. I’ve got a ton more energy now that I’m working out every morning without fail; eating healthier takes a bit more willpower as I’m definitely a fan of crappy food, but I’m pretty proud of how I’ve been so far. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up.
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hey jaacob, nice website with the tray king. if i may make a comment though: i feel like the low lighting on the photographs make me feel like i’m missing something - i would personally need to see more detail to understand what i’m buying.
let us know how it goes with that!
julien: thanks for the comment. i’ve been fighting with the “atmospheric” look of the main photo for a while — on some screens, it’s how i want it, on others it’s a bit too dark, as you describe.
i’m in the process of putting together some videos that show exactly how it works that are “properly” lit and should help.
since the king is only a fun side project, i’m willing to sacrifice that on some monitors, it may appear slightly dark, only because when it appears too light, it totally ruins the design.
as well, on the installation instructions, you can see an image that shows all the pieces you receive, so hopefully that will be enough for now to satisfy potential buyers.