AIR Austin kickoff

September 26th, 2007 @ 9am : 1 comment : Socialize This
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I’ve joined a team. I know you say I join too many darned groups. Well I say ‘foo!’ to you. This one is sort of important. I’ve joined with a few others from Refresh Austin members to compete in building an Accessible web site for non-Profilt Organizations. This competition is hosted by Knowbility and is a great cause to provide developers the tools and knowledge to create these important sites.

The kickoff is Thursday evening. During the kickoff we meet the client and start discussing the desires of the client on the site. A word of note is the client sites are real functional site. Not just simple markup site for the sake of the competition. Many of the client sites from the past have included shopping carts, Flash, and other standard web site functionality.

The competition end next month when we gather for the competition day. During that 8 hours the various teams will work for implement the client site using the best accessibility technics and knowledge. So wish us well.

Falling down and down

September 23rd, 2007 @ 10pm : no comments : Socialize This
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It’s the end of a great day. This was the first day of Fall and Austin had some very mild weather. The humidity was low and I spent a few hours this morning on the deck. Sondra got into a tiff with the backyard neighbor over the bushes growing through the fence into his yard. Seems the bushed (vines) were coming through the fence slats. He didn’t like the way the looked so decided to just start chopping. Sondra quickly ran outside to advise him this will kill out plants. She took over the process of weeding the plants from our side of the fence. Glad it was so nice out. Did I help? Not much. I helped by staying out of her way.

So checking my posts I’ve somehow slipped through the summer without any posts. Last post appears to be June 3. Well there is a reason for this. I became so frustrated with my job at Mindshare I just spent all my free time hunting for ways to get out. Had some good leads for similar agencies. I pretty much decided if I were going to make a move I wanted to end up with more control on what I work on. It really burned me the company was moving into Microsoft technologies. It’s just not my preference this it not an comment on the technology.

So as of August 21, a little over a month ago, I became self employed. To pay the bills I’m currently working on various projects for Brian K from Low Fat Designs. It’s great work since it’s 99% WordPress related work. You know I love that. But more important I’ve traded the 8 to 5 drudge (not including commute time) into a low stress career where I call the shots, work when and where I want. I just want to hold out until the first of the year then reevaluate things to see if my level of income can sustain me.