I recently quite my job to work and focus on my web and graphic design business CoPilot Media.  My partner and I were able to land a large contract here in Austin that has afforded us the opportunity to both quit our jobs and work full time on our business.  It’s been a huge blessing to be able to work from home and be my own boss.  But another post on all that another time.

Even though I have more free time to do the things I want to do rather than being stuck in traffic 8-10 hours a day, I have failed to keep up with my writing and updates.  And despite the fact that I used to have a good numbrer of followers, I’m sure I’m down to one or two that actually follow me or even care about what I post here.  On this 4th of July, I’m sitting here waiting for a few get together to start and thought I would come back and revisit what is or was my blog.

If you still follow or read, drop me a comment here.  I’d be curious as to who is still around here these days.

I love the fact that I can schedule recordings from the web and then have them either waiting for me when I get home and/or not have to worry about catching them when I get home.

The customer service that I have received when calling has also been amazing.  Other than some issues when I called before ordering the service, I haven’t had any issues to date.  They even installed my dish a few days earlier than when I had originally scheduled it.  I found some open spots later, changed the install time and date and they were here.  The installer was extremely friendly and helpful and was able to answer all of my questions.

As I have stated before, I am not a fan of Time Warner cable and this has been the best decision that I have made in awhile.  Now if I could just get internet from someone else besides them….

During the Q&A with Tim, there was lady that asked a question about content.  In her question she made mention that the internet, blogs, and other forms of posting content has become a bit overwhelming.  She added that even though she uses an RSS reader, she finds that so many people post simply to post, rather than having good content that becomes relevant to readers.  She wasn’t reffering to the family blogs, the blogs where people simply post pictures and updates for their friends and family and not so much for the general media.

Her comment has made me think a lot about why I post.  Why I feel the need to write or post material just to post.  I clearly don’t post for family and friends as I rarely give updates about what is going on in my life.  But rather, make posts about what I am thinking or feel.  And I have had thoughts at times that I “need” to post because I haven’t in awhile.  I know that content is king as they say and that is what brings people to a blog.  But I’m not going to post, just to post anymore.  I am done with that pressure.

So here to posting when I want and what I want.

One of the daily obstacals we face is meeting the design standards to ensure that our e-mails show up, or render, correctly on all the e-mail clients out there.  It’s no small undertaking and we are constantly haveing to keep up with new standards and clients that are making changes to their email platforms.  The web based e-mail systems like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! are just a few the programs that able to change their standards and rendering systems on the fly.  It’s has been constant headahe that we face day in and day out.

There is a group of people that have started the Email Standards Project, that are working to help set the standard for e-mails and e-mail clients.  It’s an uphill battle, but they are trying to connect directly with team members from the development teams of the web and client based programs as well as spread the word in the design community about these standards.

If you are a designer or work for one of the major clients, please be sure to visit the project to read more about their effots.

Some time ago I had quite a few readers that visited here.  I still get quite a few clicks into the blog as shown by my tracking stats, but even those have started to drop some.  I even had built up quite a few readers from other blogs and people around the globe from my postings here and there.  I figure it’s high time to get back into the blogging world and write about life, liberty, and the pursuit of… well stuff.   Plus being so busy would at least give me content to post about don’t you think?

So here is my promise to post more.  Maybe not everyday, but I’m going to shoot for at least one a week.

So I recently had the opportunity to help a friend here in Austin with a web project that she and her man to be were trying to put together for their upcoming wedding. Becky designed a website (which is fantastic) that showcases many of the amazing pictures that their wedding photographer took here in Austin and created a honeymoon registry where their friends and family can purchase a portion of their honeymoon. I had the opportunity to develop the site and do the design on the database that functions the registry portion of their site. All of us, Becky, Matt, and myself had such a fun time seeing the site come together and our ideas and hard work finally pay off. You should check it out at www.mattandbeckycampbell.com

I hope that this little website is a huge hit for them and that their friends and family will find this an enjoyable way to know what is going on in their lives and everything leading up to the wedding.

I thought at one point, it was a bad hard drive. Now, after new hard drive and trying to install Windows six times last night, I reazlied that it has to be something else.  I think it’s either the motherboard or something else that is causing the entire system to malfunction.  And it’s coming at one of the worst times ever.  We are slammed with work, both my side business and my full time job, and a lot of paperwork and accounting stuff to catch back up on.

I have to get this fixed soon. Oh and did I mention that I don’t really have the fundage to get a new one right now!  Sweet!

Recently back from a much needed vacation, I have posted some new pics in my photoblog.  It was an amazing time in Guanajuato, Mexico.  It was nice to be able to put on a fleece and enjoy some much cooler weather. We even missed the huricane. 

It’s been awhile since the ol’ photoblog got some attention but I finally got around to getting some new pics up.  I have it set to post a new pic a day rather than overloading the site with a bunch of new pics.  So you’ll have to come back to check out the other pics each day.

I will say that Hoover’s online (Dunn and Bradstreet) have some excellent collection services that I have started looking into to get the money that we are due.  Anyone else have difficult clients they have worked with?