“What, he’s not dead?”

No I am not dead yet, despite popular beliefe. I am, in fact, very much alive. Anyway, here we go again. My last post was about how long it took me to put up a bloody post and how I was going to be up-dating more frequently. Well, that was back in November. I’ve gone most of the Winter without a single post, and let all of you (alright none of you) down. Well, I am sorry.

Moving On!

I have been busy, so I can at least pretend to have good reasons for being so silent and dead like. Work has had me running an e-mail campaign, maintaining a site, as well as designing another one. To say the least I have been quite active. On top of this I decided now was the perfect time to redo most of the flooring in my house. I never seem to have control over when I get the bug to do something. Go figure!

In other news!

I have begun working on the Kentriv redesign that I mentioned in that last post oh so long ago. I am not going to be giving any sort “Sneak Peaks” of the site during the process, but it is a bit of a homage to the original Kentriv. However, I can tell you that it will have some great new features including Twitter and Cork’d integration. I am also hoping to get a small podcast going (just ordered a simple condenser mic) as well as the occasional screencast tutorial. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully I can keep at it. The site will also be getting a bit of a scrubbing of sorts. I will be reworking my categories and probably dropping some of the older posts. The new site should launch (provided I stay on track and keep my self motivated) Some time during the begging of March. It should be some fun.

And Finally!

I am sad to mention that I will not be able to attend SXSW Interactive this year. Money is tight and the house renovations came first. I am however, going to try and make it to FOWA provided that Ryan Carson does host another one here in the states like he did last year.

That is all for me I am afraid.

As many of you are aware, a few months back I decided it was time to pursue a job outside of my own freelance work. Income just wasn’t coming in, and I felt that there was a lot more that I could learn by joining up with a company.

Well, it took me three months and a lot of foot work, but I am happy to announce that I finally secured a job, and a pretty good one at that!

I will be taking a Web Designer position at Cross Town Traders Inc., a very large retailer of women’s apparel. They are completely reworking their e-commerce devision, and about a year ago they brought in Eric King to head up the overhaul. Eric King was the Head of E-Commerce for Buy.com, so basically he really knows what he’s talking about.

On top of that, their head Web Designer, Chris LaClair is a very talented individual and I am bound to learn loads from him.

I am very excited about this position, as there is a lot of opportunity for growth and recognition in the industry. Eric plans to make the next generation clothing retail site, and when we succeed, it will be no small thing.

Also, I am coming in on the ground floor, and we are going to be at least tripling our staff over the next year. This means that if I prove my self, then I could be promoted into a managing position sooner than is the norm. Like I said, this is a really, really great opportunity for me.

I am going to try my best to get to South By Southwest Interactive this year. It is in Austin Texas, so it isn’t too far of a drive, and attending this conference would be a lot of fun.

South By Southwest is a huge, yearly conference and festival that includes Music, Film, and Interactive categories. It is a major event in all those industries, and a lot of big names come out for it.

Being a web designer, I am mainly interested in attending the Interactive part of the conference. There are going to be a lot of great panels to sit in on, and major individuals like Dave Shea, Molly E. Holzschlag, Jon Hicks, Ryan Carson, Elliot Jay Stocks, and Jeffrey Zeldman just to name a few are going to be there. To say the least, it is a great opportunity to further immerse my self in the industry, and to learn a ton of valuable lessons from more experienced people.

Hopefully I will be able to scrounge up the finances. It wont be cheep and I am hoping that I will be able to get it all together to attend.