It’s true. We are indeed moving to Austin, TX. In mid-June.
Special thanks to @waynekijanowski for helping me ‘shop this image over the weekend.
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So…
Ch-ch-changes
In mere weeks I will have finished my graduate thesis (entitled Our Foreign Selves: Mapping Transnational Media in a Real-Time World), been hooded, and hold a freshly minted Master of Arts in Media Studies. With that expensive piece of paper comes something even more valuable to me: Time.
Naturally, I am already looking at how to fill said newly gained time. One thing I am considering is launching a current events commentary site that deals with media issues and representation. It’ll attempt to have little-to-no political bias and a whole lot of calling out of the absurd and dangerous. In a way, it would be my little addition to ongoing media literacy awareness.
I am toying with the idea of creating a supplementary podcast that deals with similar issues from different angles.
Also maybe a food blog.
And a travel site.
And do more web development.
Thoughts? Concerns? Opinions? Please give me feedback.
The Futuristic Strength
Over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting about my top 5 StrengthsFinder Strengths: Futuristic, Strategic, Responsibility, Restorative, and Competition.
My number one StrengthsFinder strength is Futuristic, and is my personal favourite of my Top 5. According to the Signature Themes report, I have a knack for seeing what is coming in any given situation I am constantly interested in what’s coming next:
As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions.
Finding Refreshment
I think it’s safe to say that I’m not really what you would call a normal person. I feel most refreshed when I have new projects and new work to do. Sure, I like vacations and trips as much as anyone else, but at my core, I am energized the most by things happening.
A few people have asked why I joined RecoVend as creative director on top of my full-time job, grad school, and work with Dept. 3. It’s a lot, no doubt, and during this first push to get RecoVend.com looking nice, I had a lot of late nights coding, and early morning finishing schoolwork. But I think what it comes down to is that I needed something that excites me.
The vision that Kyle and Jason have put together for the service is pretty visionary, and though in its current infancy RecoVend isn’t full-featured and perhaps not yet revolutionary, where we’re going certainly is. We were already pushed on to the next round of the BetaSpring weighing, and we’re working hard to push substantial updates out quickly.
How Refreshment Helps
I had a tough week before this Thanksgiving break. Just a lot of stuff going on on top of the RecoVend push. But the late nights/early mornings didn’t make me upset or frustrated or bored even. Actually the opposite – those days made me feel more energized mentally to get in and push through what I had to do at work so I could get back to finishing up RecoVend.
This semester has also marked the last real classes I have to take at The New School for my MA and next semester will be spent on my thesis and what is involved around that. Working on RecoVend makes me feel all the more urgent to get done what I need to this semester (which is pretty substantial).
Constant change, constant goals, persistent deadlines. All of these motivate me. Loose ideas, constant spur-of-the-moment demands, lack of vision, and disrespect do not. I want to work on great things, make progress, and change the ways people think and work. I want to make a difference on a large scale. I want to see results and have the time and resources to do things right.
These things drive me. Finding new opportunities to do these sorts of things is refreshing. And so, even though I am tired now, I feel completely accomplished. I sleep well at night (when I get to sleep) and, for the most part, thing seem to be looking up.
I’m excited to see what these next few months bring.
I’m Joining RecoVend
This year at #heweb11 I was finally able to meet Kyle Judah in person. We shared the best BBQ in Texas with Michael Staton one night in Austin and talked about startups, the tech industry, how amazing the brisket was, and RecoVend – the new service Kyle was starting with Jason Woodward.
Kyle and I had some adventures with the likes of @sethodell, @mallorywood, and a couple of the Inigral guys and formed a quick bond.
When I got back from the conference, Kyle and Jason approached me to see if I would be interested in joining RecoVend as Creative Director. I’m excited to announce that I accepted and will be helping make this awesome service look as beautiful as it is brilliant. At the start, I’ll be helping out in a part-time capacity, working to hit some early goals while maintaining my current work at Trinity International University.
If you work in the education sector and haven’t signed up at RecoVend, head on over, register, and help us build the best resource possible for researching education products and services!
(I promise it will start looking amazing very soon.)
Turning 27
Tomorrow I turn 27 years old. And there’s nothing witty or wise for me to say. This is a year where I’ve just plugged along and that makes the changing of years void of any sort of creative words.
This past year I’ve built a ton of websites with Dept. 3 for clients like Eliza Dushku, Vita Chambers, Denison Witmer, and Anthem Films. I’ve been playing a lot more bass and I’ve made a lot of progress on my master’s. And I bought my first new car.
I launched 8 websites in six months, redesigned my own blog…
This year was spent on the web, wasn’t it? Pretty much all I did this year was create the web, or write about it. The results? Well, a lot to go in the portfolio and on my résumé and wrists that ache, a lot.
I’m not sure what my 27th year will be like. I know I’ll finish my MA. But beyond that, I think the year is wide open.
When this work project is over…
… I will
Do some more freelance
Finally rollout the next update to notsocommonplace.com
Add a couple of things to this site
Work on my thesis
Take a mini-vacation
–
I’m also taking suggestions.
Post-graduate Ideas
I’ve been starting to look at possibilities for post graduate research. I still have a good bit of time before I finish my Master’s (over a year), but I’m a planner. And so is my wife.
I really want to do my doctorate in the UK and think I have found a perfect programme at the University of Sussex. I need to do a bit more looking into the programme and see if it is right for me. But I really like the prospects. The uni offers a DPhil and have a lot of faculty working in media and cultural fields. Seems perfect.
Part of this exploration is to help me focus on what my final thesis will be for my MA. I have a couple of interesting ideas that I may follow, but knowing where I want to be for my doctorate will help me develop a strong framework for study.
If there’s one thing I know about myself is that I need boundaries to get things done. Whether that is in the form of deadlines or ideology — I need some structure if I am going to accomplish my goals.
The thought of moving to the UK in a few years is super exciting… Not to mention the thought of contributing actively and, hopefully, greatly to my field.
Coming Soon.
I’ve been working on something that I like a lot. It’s a redesign of this of this blog and I’m hoping to have it done by Easter. I am coding the thing in HTML5 and throwing in a bunch of CSS3 styling and effects. So far the buildout has been going pretty well. I am learning a lot, using a bunch of new WordPress 2.9 functions, getting into HTML5 and unlearning old XHTML habits. Or at least trying to.
The new design will have a lot more focus on my portfolio, pushing toward getting some freelance projects moving. Not that I really have time right now with the new job and grad school – but I will need something at some point.
So anyway. Here’s a sneak peek.
Big Money, No Whammies!
The movers are here, packing up our stuff. We’re supposed to finalize a lease tonight or tomorrow. The first place we wanted fell through. We are hoping beyond hope and praying hard that this one will work out. We need it to.
Puppy is going to stay with Audra for a few days while we take care of things. I can’t wait to be in our warm hotel room in Bannockburn tonight. Watching LOST. And relaxing a little. There have been a few hitches with this moving process, but I’m trying not to worry about stuff too much.
Tomorrow we’re doing stuff at Trinity; Thursday we’ll be moving in (as long as things go well); Friday we’ll be driving to Champaign to pick up Cors; Saturday we’ll have Jessica’s parents visiting.
It’s been a long couple of weeks.
Dear Chicago…
This week is the week. Well, I hope it’s the week. We’ve run into a few snags in this moving process. We did find a place that we’re okay with living in for the next year. It’s only a 15 minute commute to school, pretty up-to-date, has a fireplace and a garage.
The only problem is that we are still waiting to hear if the lease has gone through. We are supposed to have the movers here on Tuesday, but without a confirmation from the landlords, we don’t know if there’s a place to have our things delivered to. Hopefully we will hear tomorrow.
I’ve got a few things to take care of beyond the normal changing of address. For one, we’re in a Dish Network contract and I need to know if we’ll be able to have a dish installed at our new place. We’ll have to see what Dish will do for us if we have to terminate early. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.
Sounds like Jessica’s parents may come up on Saturday to help us unpack. I’m thinking IKEA for bookcases and Giordano’s for some pizza (they’ve never experienced Chicago-style stuffed pizza). In any case, there is a lot to do this week with finishing up work, meeting movers, moving, going to an inauguration, and getting all settled. I start my new job at Trinity a week from Monday.
Moving On (Ain’t So Bad)
Well, my friends. Something I have vaguely alluded to on several different occasions has finally come to pass. As of yesterday I have accepted a position at Trinity International University starting later this month. The official title is Web Marketing Manager, and the work is much more along the lines of what I want to do than my current job.
Jess and I have been praying hard for things to work out (as many of our friends and family members have been) and it has been pretty incredible to see how God’s timing has played out. In about two weeks we will be moving our things from the St Louis Metro-East to the North Chicago area — assuming everything goes to plan.
As you can imagine there is a lot to be done before that move, so things might be a bit quiet around here, though I am going to try and keep up with the writing so I have a record of this move.
It’s a little bit sad to be leaving so many great people here in Greenville, but Jessica and I have, for a long time actually, felt stagnant here. This move is something that is invigorating and hopeful for us. Expect great things! We both are.
Those of you that knew about this, thank you for your prayers, thoughts and support while we were going through this. It means the world to us.
travel
I am traveling. Big day coming up and hopefully some news to come in a few days.
Grad School Registration, Check
I registered for classes last night. And it feeeeeeels good.
I’m taking two required seminar courses and a design course that I am excited about. Color theory, typography, layout… it’s going to be great.
Can’t wait to start! Apparently orientation videos will be online on Monday and the processes to add me to Blackboard will also run. And allegedly I have no textbooks? That can’t be right.
I’ll have to check that out again later…
I …
…was just accepted into the Master of Arts in Media Studies program at The New School!
I’m pretty freaking excited about it.
I start the program in January and it’s all online–unless we move to New York, but I don’t see a ton of chance in that happening unless I get a new, well-paying job there.
Super excited!!! I am possibly co-teaching a New Media marketing online class next May term.
Busy times.