Happy 10 Weeks, Bean!

Dear Lou,

I am sorry that my initial reaction to your magical announcement was not one of unrestrained joy. Please forgive me for my fleeting negative focus. I wish that your baby brings everyone that it touches nothing but hope and peace. As the weeks have gone by, I have been filled with so many emotions, both joyous and sorrowful. There are so many questions that only sweet time can answer. Know that I love you, and that my heart is filled with overwhelming love for The Bean before I even hear it’s heartbeat. I am honored and proud to be a part of such a powerful beginning. Anything and everything I can provide, I do willingly and with love.

Always,

Cola

Here I am!

What have I been up to? Where’s my head at? Hmm…. How do I even begin?

Things at work have been pretty intense over the last few weeks. You may have heard about our new/old CEO. I won’t bore you with the details, but changes are brewing all the way down the line. Everyone in the company is looking forward to the passion that the new/old guy brings to the table. I feel like we’re all getting ready for Grandma to visit: lots of preparation, but with excited anticipation.

Also on the work front, I’ve been showing houses for Lissa’s company. They compensate me well, but more than that, I feel like I’m really doing something productive with my time. I get a rush when I take an application and a thrill when that application is approved! Sometimes, the potential tenants are frustrating; sometimes, they stand me up or LIE. All in all, the experience has been very rewarding.

Outside of work, I am wrapping up my latest theatre adventure. I am doing another show for Stagecrafters, “Killjoy.” We open next Thursday. As we started rehearsal in December, I feel like I’ve been working on this show forever. The people in it have been professional and crazy, like all good theatre folk. I can’t wait for next week!

In between all of these big commitments, I still try to find time to fit in movie nights and lunch dates. Ben and I started a new “us” in The Sims, and we’re trying to decide what to give up for Lent. I vote for eating out. We both eat out alot for lunch these days. If anybody has any better ideas, let me know!

New website

I just finished a website last week that was quite unique. I got hooked up with somebody through work last weekend that had a website in need of some very quick updates. The site is http://www.forourschools.org, a place to learn about issues affecting education and our children, and how you can help come election time. This year, Issue 10 is the big one around here, and they needed some updates to reflect this. The existing site wasn’t bad, but definitely needed some polish.

We had the day off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I set out to completely finish the site in one day. When it was all said and done, I had spent a mere seven hours designing, developing, and deploying the website. Several days later I added functionality so that users could donate to the campaign via PayPal. I’d like to thank Jan and Lynn for their responsiveness when dealing with my questions, and I wish them all the best in their campaign. (At some point I’m also going to be building them some back-end administration tools so they can update the site themselves.)

Enjoy [http://www.forourschools.org]

Cloverfield

Cloverfield has been one of the most hyped movies in some time. Last summer, a teaser trailer played before Transformers that left many wondering what the movie was about. It soon came out that it was a monster movie. The movie had a very creative viral marketing scheme, and this of course built the hype to enormous levels.

The big question when something is hyped as much as Cloverfield was (and still is), is does it live up to the hype? I must say that it definitely does. Jason and I went and saw it on the second night of showing, and it was quite an experience. Experience is an important word, because that’s precisely what it is. It is unlike any movie you’ve seen. Some people immediately screamed “It’s Godzilla meets Blair Witch!” Well, yes, it has elements in common with those movies. It’s a monster movie. And it was supposedly filmed with a handycam. But that’s where the similarities end. This movie has a point; Blair Witch was a pointless waste of time. It was not even remotely scary, because there was no payoff.

Back to the experience. It was totally immersive. The initial attack by the monster was pretty creepy – they did a good job building up to it. It should also be noted that the monster was not the focal point of the movie. It really only had about six or seven minutes of screen time. The rest concentrated on the small group of friends trying to get out of NYC alive. It’s one helluva ride, and a movie that everybody should see once. Due to the uniqueness, it’s not something you’d want to see multiple times, because you know how it’s going to pan out. By the way, Jason, apparently we should’ve stayed until the end of the credits (possible spoilers).

I highly highly highly recommend going and seeing it. And soon.

Quick Update

So I’ve been busy recently, and I apologize to all my rabid fans out there for not posting in a while. Just kidding, you’re not rabid :) I’m hopefully going to be launching no fewer than three new websites pretty darn soon, and I’m super-excited.

First up is Concordia Lutheran Church & School. The church where Rusty and I got married is in need of a new web presence, and work is nearly complete. I’m hoping the site will be live in a couple weeks or so.

Next is BeAVendor.com – a site for Jason and James’ place of employment, which is heavily e-commerce based. That is also nearly finished and will be launching soon.

Next, we have a super-awesome project some guys at work and I are putting together called Grubly. It’s a social networking site to find, rate and review Cincinnati restaurants. It’s still in the planning stage, so it’ll be a little while before it’s done – but it’ll be worth the wait.

Finally, I’m also almost finished with my own portfolio website, which is waaaaay overdue. The pic above is a little sneak-peek of the visual design of the site.

Whew. So yeah, I’ve been busy :) Hopefully over the next few weeks you’ll be seeing several posts about site launches from me. Until then, take care faithful readers.